Sunday, May 31, 2015

Deschutes Not The Stoic

The Deschutes Brewery is in Bend, Oregon. This 12.1% ABV beer is a Belgian-styled Quad brewed with pomegranate molasses with 15% aged in oak wine barrels and 15% aged in oak rye whiskey barrels.

The beer pours a medium dark brown with trends to garnet. There is a short and thin head of off-white to light tan foam. The aroma is like the ingredient list, malty, caramel, pears, plums, pomegranate, wine, and rye whiskey notes swim around each other. The taste hits all the notes of the aromas, well balanced and melded together. This is so nice, malty, fruity, with the best parts of wine and rye, warming, drinking sweet, yet tangy, with the oak unobtrusive, but keeping the sweetness from being cloying. The beer drinks full, but not heavy, with a tingling moderate carbonation. Deschutes successfully and deliciously puts together beers with ingredient lists that would fail at the hands of many other breweries.


Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout

This imperial stout is from the Oskar Blues Brewery of Longmont, Colorado (they also now have a North Carolina brewery). The name of the beer appears to refer to its ABV which is 10.5%.

The beer pours black with a tall, thick, foamy head of brown. The aroma is dark roasted malts, mostly chocolate and char, with a bit of black licorice. The taste follows the aromas, lots of chocolate, cocoa, char, with a bit of anise in the finish. The beer drinks smooth and creamy, with a tingle of carbonation. The finish is dry and moderately bitter. The beer is warming, but never boozy. This is a very well done imperial stout.


Castle Danger George Hunter Stout

This 8.0% ABV stout is from the Castle Danger Brewery of Two Harbors, Minnesota. So who is George Hunter you ask? The can says he was the great-great grandfather of their founder.  George Hunter immigrated from Belfast and owned and operated the Iron Range Brewing Company in Tower, Minnesota from the late 1880's until Prohibition. 

The beer pours pure black in color. There is over an inch of thick, creamy, foamy, light tan head. The aroma is dark roasted malts, semi-sweet, chocolate, creamy, with light char. The taste follows the path of the aromas, adding in a mineral and dark fruit tang. The beer drinks smooth with moderate carbonation. It drinks lighter than you would think for 8.0% ABV.


Saturday, May 30, 2015

Nebraska Brewing Company Black Betty Imperial Stout

This is an 11.% ABV imperial stout aged for six months in fresh whiskey barrels. It is from the Nebraska Brewing Company of La Vista, Nebraska. They are also a sponsor of the large Great Nebraska Beer Fest each August, a fest definitely worth attending.

The beer pours with an absolute blackness. There is a tall, thick, foamy, tan head. The aroma is coconut, whiskey, whiskey tang, oak wood, and dark roasted malt with some chocolate. The taste follows the aromas, with whiskey, oak and hops actually at the front, tangy, even some pine coming through, and the dark roasted malt notes coming in second. This is not what I expected, but it is really tasty. The beer drinks smooth, with its alcohol mostly hidden, although there is a light warming effect. 


Founders Black Rye

This is a dry hopped dark ale brewed with rye from Founders Brewing of Grand Rapids, Michigan. It has 7.5% ABV and 78 IBU's. 

The beer pours black in appearance. There is about an inch of thick, somewhat creamy tan head. The aroma has a tangy fruitiness over dark roasted malt. It is hard to pull out individual notes, but there is a nice blend of hoppy fruit and roasted malt. The taste is exactly like the aromas, again, a very nice meld of the two opposing parts of this. The beer drinks smooth and easy, with a dry and moderately bitter finish. It is hard to describe this beer other than an exquisitely balanced and really well done Cascadian ale.


Squatters Wellied Irish Style Stout

This 4.0% ABV Irish style stout is from Squatters Beers. They are part of the Utah Brewers Cooperative out of Salt Lake City, Utah. 

The beer pours black in color. There is about an inch of thick, foamy, nearly creamy head, tan in color. The aroma has a tangy mineral note, char, very light coffee and dark chocolate. The taste puts the char first, amps up the chocolate, still light coffee, with the mineral note becoming a smaller presence. The beer drinks easy, with light carbonation, and a mild, charred bitterness on the finish. It is just a tad bit watery for its flavor profile.



Sunday, May 24, 2015

Deschutes Mirror Mirror 2014 Reserve

The Deschutes Brewery is in Bend, Oregon and they have been brewing since 1988. This is the 2014 Mirror Mirror release, an 11.2% ABV barleywine with 50% aged in wine barrels (Pinot Noir, Tempranillo, and Malbec).

The beer pours a cloudy medium brown in color. There is a short and thin off-white head. The aroma is sweet barley, caramel, toffee, raisins, fruit and fruity tang, like candied oranges with just a hint of pine. The sweet and tang of the wine also comes through. The taste follows the aromas, a big, malty, sweet, yet tangy barleywine, full of caramels and fruits. The wood of the barrels adds an astringency to the finish. There is also some heat and spice on the finish. The beer drinks smooth, soft, and round. This is one very nice barley wine!  The Malbec comes through the most in the wine notes.


Shiner 106 Birthday Beer Chocolate Stout

A beer for their 106th year (for some reason there was no 105 release), this 5.0% ABV chocolate stout is from the Spoetzel Brewery in Shiner, Texas, maker of Shiner beers.

The beer pours black with an inch of light beige foamy head. The aroma is like a very moist dark chocolate cake with a touch of dark rum in it. The taste follows the aromas, lots of chocolate, but in a chocolate cake way, touch of sweetness and alcohol. The beer drinks smooth, light, but not too watery considering the considerable flavors. There is no bitterness on the finish. 


Deschutes The Abyss 2014 Reserve

The Deschutes Brewery is in Bend, Oregon and they have been brewing since 1988. This is an 11.1% ABV Imperial Stout brewed with black strap molasses, licorice, cherry bark and vanilla. Six percent of it is aged in oak bourbon barrels, eleven percent in plain oak barrels, and another eleven percent in oak wine barrels. The bottle says it is best AFTER (not before) November 10, 2015.   When I tried the 2013 Abyss, I liked it better before, so let's give this one a try too.

The beer pours as black as, well, black strap molasses. There is nearly an inch of light brown foam. The aroma is like the ingredient list, dark and rich molasses, cherry, red wine, with a light woodiness, and a light spicy note of black licorice on the end. The taste is very dark roasted malt, char, light licorice, with the cherry and wine being less evident than in the aroma. The finish is dry, with a moderate bitterness. The beer is warming without being boozy. This is really nice, but I liked the 2013 version better.  I wish more of the cherry and wine that are in the aroma came through in the flavor. 


Fulton The Expat Rye Saison

This saison style beer made with rye is from the Fulton Brewing Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ten percent of the profits of this beer go into the Ful10 fund that provides micro loans to entrepreneurs. The beer has 5.7% ABV and 30 IBU's.

The beer pours a gleaming burnt orange and amber. There is a half inch of white to off-white head that fizzles quickly down. The aroma is slightly sweet flowers, yeast, and bread dough. The taste is yeast esters, flowers, with a toasted rye malty note. There are sweet notes, but the finish is fairly dry, with a moderately strong floral bitterness. The beer drinks smooth with a lightly tingling carbonation. If you like floral saisons, this one is for you. 


Castle Danger Danger Ale

This 6.5% ABV ale is from the Castle Danger Brewery of Two Harbors, Minnesota. According to the can it doesn't fit into any defined style of beer.

The beer pours dark amber, copper, and orange in color. There is a short and thin head of off-white foam. The aroma is malty, caramel, lightly fruity with berries and plums. The taste follows the aromas, mostly malty, caramel and toasted notes hitting first, then a bit of fruit, with a rye-like note as well. The beer drinks smooth, with mild carbonation. It is semi-dry, with light bitterness. This one doesn’t do much for me.


Saturday, May 23, 2015

Abita Bourbon Street Imperial Stout

This 10.0% ABV Imperial Stout is from the Abita Brewing Company of Abita Springs, Louisiana.  It is aged in bourbon barrels.

The beer pours black in color. There is nearly an inch of creamy head, dark tan to light brown in color. The aroma is sweet dark roasted malt, like highly sweetened mocha coffee. There are also bourbon notes, along with dark brown sugar. The taste is a highly sweetened coffee drink, with lots of cream, into which you poured a shot of bourbon. Some maple notes come in as it warms. Despite all the sweet notes, it never veers into cloying, and stays well grounded. The beer drinks smooth, but could use some more body for all its flavors.


Ommegang Game of Thrones Three-Eyed Raven Dark Saison Ale

This 7.2% ABV dark saison is from the Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York. Ommegang is part of the Duvel family, and is essentially a Belgian brewery plopped down in New York State. It is one of their special releases tied to the HBO television series Game of Thrones. This is, I believe, the fifth release in their Game of Thrones series.


The beer pours extremely dark brown to black in appearance. There is a tall, raggedly foamy head, tattered by large bubble spaces, and light tan in color. The aroma is yeasty, floral, with some sweet roasted malts. The taste follows the aromas, but puts the malts up a notch, more roasted, more sweet, but with the sweetness counterbalanced by the dry floral notes. The beer drinks smooth, medium-bodied, with the fine, effervescent carbonation of a bottle conditioned beer. There is nothing wrong with this beer, but I wouldn't call it my style.




Exile Beatnik Sour

This is a 5.6% ABV Berliner style weisse beer from the Exile Brewing Company of Des Moines, Iowa. 

The beer pours a hazy pale yellow. There is a relatively short head of white foam. The aroma is sour, in a rhubarb sort of way, with some toasted wheat underneath. The taste is a mind-blowing, lip-puckering sour, again, with a rhubarb note. The sour is followed immediately by a wave of toasted wheat. The sour and the wheat then go back and forth in the aftertaste. The beer finishes dry, and drinks crisp and refreshing. The body is a bit light for all the flavor, giving a bit of a watery effect, but this is a small criticism compared to an otherwise interesting sour beer.


Nebraska Brewing Fathead Barley Wine (Whiskey Barrel Aged)

This is a 12.1% ABV and 33 IBU barleywine that is aged for six months in fresh whiskey barrels. It is from the Nebraska Brewing Company of La Vista, Nebraska. They are also a sponsor of the large Great Nebraska Beer Fest each August, a fest definitely worth attending.

The beer pours a somewhat cloudy medium to dark brown and burnt orange. There is a short and relatively thin head of light tan foam. The aroma is woody, oak, spicy, fruity, berries, cherries, whiskey, pine, and sweet malts. The taste is an amalgam of all the aroma notes, but less hot and spicy, more smooth, and rounded.  There are plenty of sweet notes, but the finish is mostly dry. The pine notes and the oak combine to give a retsina note to this beer. The beer drinks with warming alcohol, but no hot booziness. This is an interesting barrel-aged barleywine, and it makes a worthwhile sipper.


Squatters Takeout Rye IPA

This 6.25% ABV India Pale Ale is from Squatters Beers. They are part of the Utah Brewers Cooperative out of Salt Lake City, Utah.  The bottle photo shows two curlers, apparently waiting to see if their shot takes out the other teams curling stone. The bottles says it is for those who like "knocking rocks."

The beer pours a deep amber and dark copper in color. There is a tall, very thick, foamy head of off-white to very light tan. The aroma is spicy rye and fruity hops. The taste is of toasted bread, caramel, with fruity, tangy hops. It tastes great, but is hard to pull out any individual fruit notes. The beer drinks very smooth and finishes dry. The bitterness is light for an IPA. This is solid and very enjoyable.


Budweiser Select

Select is a 4.3% ABV and 99 calorie "Premium" light beer from Budweiser. Do I remember correctly that when this was first released they had Jay-Z doing ads?  


The beer pours golden yellow with over an inch of pure white foamy head. The head is relatively thick for the style, but still not long lasting. The aroma is musty and dusty grain, touch of straw, and a bit of wet cardboard. The taste follows the aromas and is mild. The finish is dry with no real bitterness. It has a stinging carbonation. Mostly inoffensive, but not really anything going on here.



The King's English IPA

This 6.0% ABV India Pale Ale is made by Greene King in England. I found it at Trader Joe's.

The beer pours a deep copper and amber. There is about an inch of thick, foamy off-white head. The aroma is malty, yet fruity, caramel, toffee, strawberries, and citrus. The taste hits the same notes as the aromas, rich malts, fruity tang, with a thirst quenching moderate bitterness on the finish. It is medium-bodied, refreshingly carbonated, yet not too strongly. This is one really nice English IPA!


Sunday, May 17, 2015

North Coast Barrel-Aged Old Rasputin XVII

This is an 12.1% ABV Russian imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels from the North Coast Brewing Company of Fort Bragg, California. There is one batch each year, the number indicating the number of years since the first batch was done.

The beer pours as black as used motor oil.  There is about an inch of foamy, thick, light brown head that leaves curtains of sticky lacing on the glass. The aroma is vanilla, bourbon, dark brown sugars, chocolate, and wood. The taste follows the path started in the aromas, lots of dark sugars, browned and just shy of scorched, vanilla, bourbon, mild chocolate, dark roasted malts, with the dry astringency of the oak. The body is too thin for what the beer is doing. This is nice, but not nearly as good as XIV or XV were (I missed out on XVI).


Lucette Slow Hand Stout

The Lucette Brewing Company is from Menominie, Wisconsin. Apparently, Lucette was Paul Bunyan's sweetheart (never knew that). This 5.2% ABV stout has label art that evokes late night skinny dipping.

The beer pours black in color. There is an inch of thick and somewhat creamy light tan head. The aroma is mild dark roasted malts, with light char, and some chocolate. The taste follows the aromas, hitting all the same notes, more char in the flavor than in the aroma. The beer drinks smooth, creamy, easy, with a moderate bitterness and a dry finish. This is a nice, easy drinking stout.  It is flavorful, but not a sipper; a good session stout.


Bent Paddle Cold Press Black

This 6.0% ABV beer from the Bent Paddle Brewing Company of Duluth, Minnesota combines their Black Ale with the Duluth Coffee Company's cold press coffee. 

The beer pours black in color, with some very dark brown around the edges if held to the light. There is an inch of creamy, thick, fine beige head. The aroma is fresh roasted coffee, chocolate, dark roasted malt, with a creaminess even in the aroma. The taste follows the aromas note for note, drinking very rich and creamy, with loads of coffee, dark roast, and chocolate flavors. The beer drinks smooth, but easy, with a soft tingling of carbonation , and a dry and moderately bitter finish. This makes for a good coffee beer.


Shiner Ruby Redbird

Shiner beers come from the Spoetzel Brewery in Shiner, Texas (pop. 2,070). This beer started as a summer seasonal, but is now available year round. It is made with Texas Ruby Red grapefruit and ginger and is 4.01% ABV.

The beer pours dark golden to light brown with a ruby undertone.  It is highly effervescent and has a half-inch of head that dissipates quickly and leaves light lacing on the glass.  The aroma is fresh, clean, spicy, ginger, tangy citrus, lots of grapefruit and malt.  The taste is ginger and grapefruit with a crisply dry and lightly bitter finish with a nutty, caramel malt behind.  The aftertaste is tangy citrus and ginger.  Very refreshing, and as much like a crisp, dry soda as a beer.


Saturday, May 16, 2015

August Schell Dawn of Aurora

This is an 8.0% ABV Starkbier Berlin style wheat ale from the August Schell Brewing Company of New Ulm, Minnesota.  Schell's was established in 1860 and I believe they are the second oldest family owned brewery in the United States, behind Yuengeling. A "starkbier" is the German term for a "strong" beer, and this is definitely strong for a sour.

This beer is the fifth release in their Noble Star Collection of Berliner weisse style beers that they are making. The first release was Star of the North (unfortunately I missed that one),  the second was the Framboise du Nord made with raspberries, the third was North Country Brunette, a marzen Berliner weisse; and the fourth was Black Forest Cherry.   These releases are made in the brewery's original 1936 cypress wood lagering tanks. The bottles are hand filled and bottle-conditioned. They are refurbishing more of the cypress tanks and will be expanding this program, which is great news as they have been awesome beers.



The beer pours a dark golden in color. There is a relatively short head of white foam that settles away quickly. The beer is well carbonated, but not in a fizzy way. The aroma is sour and tart, tangy and fruit, over toasted wheat. The taste follows the aromas, there is fruity tartness, plain old outright sour, toasted wheat, and a hint of smokiness. Strawberries start to come through as it warms. The individual flavors meld into a complete whole. The beer drinks crisply refreshing, enhanced by its tartness, with an effervescent carbonation. The finish is dry, with a woody astringency. By God, this is good, what a sour beer!


Saturday, May 2, 2015

North Coast Old Stock Ale Cellar Reserve 2013

This 14.1% ABV beer takes the Old Ale from the North Coast Brewing Company of Fort Bragg, California, and ages it in bourbon barrels.  This is the 2013 vintage.

The beer pours a cloudy dark brown. There is more fizzing carbonation and head than I expected. The beige head bubbles down fairly quickly. The aroma is dark dried fruits, raisins, figs, dates, moist leaves of aged tobacco, sherry, port, whiskey, while sitting on a leather couch. This beer is an English gentelman’s man cave from the 1920’s. Brown sugar, and a bit of vanilla and old damp barrel creep in. The taste is round and warm, dark sugars, bourbon, tobacco, dark fruits. The finish is spicy and dry. There is warming booze from lips to stomach. It has a fine, effervescent carbonation that adds to the smoothness. This is a delightful sipper.


Backpocket BrrrFest Barrel Aged Winterfest Ale

This 7.0% ABV is a winter ale aged in bourbon barrels. It was for the 2015 BrrrFest.  It comes from the Backpocket Brewing Company of Coralville, Iowa.  This "Corridor Collaboration" is a release from their Lab Series, where they get a little more adventurous and try out some new styles.  If you are ever in the Coralville/Iowa City area, or just driving by on I-80, this place is definitely worth a stop.

The beer pours a very dark brown with a tint of ruby when held to the light. There is a half inch of light tan head that goes down quickly to a rag-tap thin and spotty head. The aroma is tangy, fruity, whiskey, cherries, light vanilla. The taste is cherries, brown sugar, whiskey, with light oak and vanilla. There is sweetness and tanginess in the taste, along with a dry and lightly bitter finish. There is a very soft and fine carbonation, with the beer drinking smooth. I wish the beer underneath had a little more weight and heft, but the overall effect is good, with very nice barrel notes.