Life & Limb - Batch 2

Considering that I've mentioned it in my "Best of" posts for the past 2 years running, I feel like I've been remiss in never actually reviewing Life & Limb on here. For those of you not familiar with the beer, Life & Limb is a collaboration between Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada that was originally brewed in 2009. It uses maple and birch syrup to add a unique flavor to an American Strong Ale.

The beer sits dark and nearly opaque in the glass, with a tan head that has almost a whipped-marshmallow appearance for thickness. The dense bubbles sit a finger thick and dissipate slowly, leaving a constant coating of foam on the beer. If held up to the light, you can just see a trace of brown around the edges.

The scent of maple syrup comes through prominently in the nose, combined with caramel, a touch of alcohol, and some light floral touches. Overall it's a dense and strong smell that overpowers other aromas.

The first sip highlights the woody and sweet flavor of the syrup, with a mild bitterness following up in the back. Some toasted/roast and a very light chocolate flavor make an appearance in the back and aftertaste as well. I feel like there are some dark fruit flavors like plum in there as well, but they are more muted. This beer has an earthy, wooden, and organic taste to it. There is some alcohol flavor just around the edges of the tongue, but they are well hidden for sure.

There's some definite substance to the beer as well, with a medium-thick body, and a moderate-high level of carbonation. It's got a creamy feel to it as well, so the carbonation seems more pleasant to me. I noted just a bit of warmth going down as well.

Overall, I'm still very impressed with this offering from Dogfish and Sierra Nevada. It's extremely flavorful, and the alcohol is well hidden for 10.2 %. Although the sweetness and syrup flavors are able to come through, even prominently, the beer is still fairly well balanced and not at all cloying. Although I'm sure it will not appear on this year's "Best of" list (there's too many epic quality beers this year), it's still a well done beer and easily worth having.

-Adam

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA: Revisited

A few years ago, I reviewed Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA here. It wasn't my first time having this beer, and my taste for the hoppier brews was just developing at that point. Recently a friend of mine came over with a 6-pack of this popular brew, and ended up leaving a bottle behind in my fridge. Now that my taste buds have developed even further, I wanted to see how my perception of the beer stacks up, especially considering the vast range of amazing beers I've had this year alone. That said, I'm also not going to try to be overly harsh to this brew as it is a beer available daily for a reasonable price and across a wide distribution range. This bottle is fairly fresh, having been bottled last month and left refrigerated for most of the time since then.

The first thing I noticed is that it doesn't smell all that hoppy to me now. I'm getting roast malt, bread, and caramel scents more than anything else. Perhaps there are some wood/spice smells, but I'm definitely not getting the citric qualities I noted a few years ago.

My first sip revealed a mild sweetness up front, followed by just a touch of citrus. In the back of the mouth I experienced a pleasantly substantial bitterness with a more peppery quality to it than I had expected. Considering that I have a copy of the recipe for 60 Minute found in Extreme Brewing, I don't see how this taste comes from the ingredients listed. Maybe I should try brewing it myself sometime.

I'll spare you all the boring details of mouthfeel and such, these remain largely unchanged from my previous review. What I will say is that even though I have had offerings from other breweries that I vastly prefer (see Evolution Lot 3 or Southern Tier 2XIPA), even brews that are just as easily had for about the same price, I still see a place for 60 Minute. There's a sense of balance to this beer that can be hard to match. It certainly isn't the overly malty, syrupy beer that some people make every Dogfish offering out to be. The flavor profile is pretty drastically different from your standard IPA, and I can easily see some people choosing it over some of the more citrus flavored offerings out there. At it certainly beats the pants of Sam Adam's Latitude 48 IPA.

- Adam

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout

If you're a beer geek, you've probably had or at least heard of Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Stout. This is one of the quintessential barrel aged beers, with strong vanilla and oak flavors permeating the beer. For the purposes of this review, I'll skip a lot of the similarities and focus on the differences. I'm tasting them side by side for reference. To be fair to the coffee variant, it is a bit older at this point, so I expect that the coffee flavors and smells have gone down a bit.

The beers seem identical in appearance, both black with no head. The coffee variant has a sharper, more pungent aroma. The smell at this point doesn't really seem like coffee, but just a heavier smell overall. If I really concentrate I can tell that it's coffee, but it's a weak scent at best.

The taste is a bit more distinct. While the standard version is dominated by warmth and vanilla, the coffee has more of a black chocolate and well, coffee flavor. It's not as sweet, which makes it slightly better balanced to my palate. The vanilla still comes through, but it's more muted and smoother. The heat of the beer doesn't stand out as much either.

The beers are about identical in the mouth. Other than the warmth in the standard version that doesn't show up in the coffee variant, they are the same. Both are full bodied, have light carbonation, and leave a smooth coating in the mouth.

As a whole, I definitely prefer the coffee version. It makes me wonder if the vanilla version could be as good as even the standard version as well, since I feel like the sweetness would be even more pronounced. It may unbalance the beer even more. In any case, the coffee version was well worth picking up (or in my case trading for), and I'll be sure to get it again if they do continue making it.

- Adam

Caldera IPA

It was a dark and stormy day off of work. At least that's how this glass started. I usually visit my parents on Fridays, and was just getting ready to leave their house today when the sky opened and began to pour down rain. This was the variety of storm that has you soaked even within the 20 foot dash from their door to my car, and of course I had to check on my newly planted Fuggles hops out in their back yard. Which was, consequently, currently taking the form of a lake. So when I had taken care of everything and finally managed to get home and inside, I thought what better way to leave the nastiness of the storm behind than with a fresh glass of IPA.

Caldera is a brewery from Oregon, which has just recently gotten distribution into Maryland. When I stopped by the liquor store yesterday I was in the mood for something flavorful but still appropriate for warmer weather, and an IPA fits that bill for sure. As a result, I have a fresh 6-pack of Caldera IPA cans.

Upon pouring, the beer supports a 1 finger rocky head. It's copper body remains crystal clear, a product of the filtration Caldera does on all its beers. The head dissipates within minutes to leave a mottled coating of thin bubbles floating on top. Around the top, a ring of foam clings to the glass.

The initial smell for me at least evokes memories of a dense forest. At first the hop and malt qualities mix to create a woody and leafy aroma. As the foam dissipated, this went away, being replaced by the more standard citric fruit scents often found in an American IPA. Grapefruit dominates with just a bit of toffee underneath.

The first sip has tangy citrus fruit flavors in abundance, a bit of toasted bread, and a substantial bitterness in the back of the mouth. This bitterness clings to the back of the throat for minutes after the beer has already made its way to the stomach. A light sweetness compliments the bitterness of the beer, making it palatable even if it is substantially skewed towards the bitter side. There is a little harshness to it, but that is somewhat expected in a west-coast IPA from my experience.

In the mouth, the brew is moderately carbonated and medium-light bodied. It's a bit dry, but quite smooth in going down. I'm a little surprised that it doesn't feel at all oily in the mouth considering the substantial hop content.

All in all, this is a great flavorful IPA that is bitter enough to satisfy all but the most substantial hop cravings. It still remains quite drinkable though, since I wouldn't mind having multiples of these in the same night. I enjoyed the beer thoroughly, although at $12.99 per 6/pack I imagine it won't make it into the regular rotation of hoppy beers for me, since Loose Cannon, 2XIPA, and Lot 3 can all be had for less. Still, it was worth picking up for sure, and has a more substantial bitterness than the others mentioned so if that's what you're looking for, this is the beer to get.

- Adam

Homebrew project: Tap Handles

Homebrewing has been a passion of mine for a few years now, as those of you who have read this blog before probably know already. I have a DIY nature, so I'm frequently coming up with some sort of thing to make whether it be beer, equipment, an electric guitar, or even a microphone. I love being able to look back on something and say that I created that. It doesn't hurt that you end up spending a heck of a lot less money in most cases when you make something yourself, and that means more money for buying beer.

When I first put my kegerator together, my wife took advantage of the chalkboard paint I coated the door with and drew on the tree from the Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada collaboration, Life and Limb. It stands to reason then that I wanted some matching tap handles, and what better to use than some old,

messed up tree branches? The process was pretty straight forward. I headed over to my parent's house and found quite a lot of dead branches in the wooded area behind their yard. I was specifically looking for branches without bark on them, were a comfortable thickness, and that looked interestingly damaged. I then took them back, cut them down, sanded them lightly an

d drilled holes for the taps to screw into. Using a thread tapping set my dad has, I was able to add the threads directly to the wood, although I'm still considering buying some metal ferrules to install. I then burned our fake brewery name, "Phrygian" into the handles, added some stain, and coated them with polyurethane. I think they turned out great.

Brasserie de Blaugies Saison d'Epeautre

Wow, it's been entirely too long since I made a post. Sorry for that. Anyway, every once in a while I like to get a beer that Julia wants. Both of us are big fans of the saison style, so it tends to be what she picks out. This time she chose Saison d'Epeautre, a belgian saison brewed with spelt. I'm not terribly familiar with it, but apparently it's a type of grain that's a wheat and wild grass hybrid. To me that just screams saison, so I'm excited for a taste of it.

The cork exploded out of the bottle with excessive force when I opened it. Hopefully it didn't dent my ceiling when it hit it, so be forewarned if you pick up a bottle. Immediately on opening I was greeted with a wave of grassy funk. Unsurprisingly, the beer grew a substantial pillowy white head floating on top of its staw-colored body. This beer really has a sort of bitter grass aroma that you only find in a Belgian saison, but with a little sweetness that comes through around the edges.

The first taste was strangely clean. A touch of grass, and some wheat. If this is what spelt tastes like consider me very intrigued. In the back of the mouth is a not quite peppery mild spice sensation. There isn't a lot of the funk, horse blanket, or similar flavors that I was expecting from the aroma. In fact this beer is extremely mild and clean. Perhaps there are some delicate fruit flavors, like peach or apricot, but they are hard to pick out.

In the mouth the beer is light bodied, and very highly carbonated. It's also quite dry. There is a little feeling of warmth in the throat, but I feel like it's more from the prickly carbonation than from the alcohol content.

All in all, this was an interesting brew. It's extremely drinkable and refreshing despite its lack of the expected saison flavors. It's hard to determine if there's any brett influence in this beer although I can only assume there is. I probably will not come back to this beer again, but it was worth a try, and more importantly makes me want to look into spelt. The intensity of the grassy funk aroma must come from that since it doesn't come through nearly as much in the flavor.

- Adam

Three Floyds Robert the Bruce

After a long day of working through editing a song I'm mixing at work, my ears are tired, my head is in a fog, and I've probably gone at least slightly insane from listening to the same musical phrases over and over again. I don't do editing this in-depth normally, but this project really calls for it. Needless to say, my reward for a particularly long and annoying day is treating myself to a rather special beer. This is one of the beers I received from a guy in Indiana as part of a Beer It Forward on Beer Advocate.

Not being much of a history buff, I know Robert the Bruce mostly as that slightly wimpy future king of Scotland from Braveheart. This offering from Three Floyds is expectedly a Scottish Ale, and promises to be malt-forward, sweet, and fairly easy to drink.

As one could imagine, the aroma is decidedly malty, with very present caramel and fruit scents. At first I believe I detected caramel, apple, raisin, bread, possibly fig, and a mix of other less distinguishable additions blending together to make a complex and fairly forward blend. It has a deep brown color with hints of ruby around the glass, and a thin off-white head of about one finger that dissipated to a dusting within minutes.

The flavors of the beer match the nose. A round sweetness is present up front, developing into a smooth caramel explosion. In the back of the mouth the fruit flavors become more pronounced, with a slightly apple-like finish. There's a decent amount of substance to the beer as well, with the flavors coming through strongly. The hops are mostly muted, with just a touch of bitterness in the back of the mouth that you almost have to concentrate on to detect. The malt flavors linger for minutes after swallowing as well, allowing you to continue enjoying the brew between sips.

The beer is well carbonated, with just a slightly forward prickling sensation, and a body that's on the heavier side of medium. It coats the mouth thoroughly, and leaves just a touch of warmth as it goes down.

This beer really hit the spot for me today, and allowed me to unwind as I drank it. Something about the blend of malty flavors and smoothness just made it easy to relax. As I continued through the glass, I felt like I was noticing a bit of an alcohol flavor right when swallowing that could have been hidden a bit better, but overall it was very easy to drink. I don't know that this is something I would want most days, but it was certainly worth having once.

- Adam

DuClaw Black Lightning

DuClaw is another relatively local brewery that I enjoy somewhat regularly. Their Misery wheat wine was one of my favorite offerings, but I also enjoyed Black Jack and Serum. When I saw that they now have some more offerings available in 6-packs, I jumped at the chance to try them. Black Lighting is labeled as a Black Ale, which really doesn't say all that much. I interpreted that to be along the lines of a Black IPA, but with a Pale Ale as the base instead.

Upon pouring, I was greeted with the scent of caramel, toffee, and roast. There doesn't seem to be a ton of hop quality to the aroma, but still there seems to be some balancel. Maybe a little bit of citrus poked through, but I was having a hard time picking it out. The beer is black with a dense coffee-foam like head, a tan color, and it clings stubbornly to the side of the glass.

The first sip provided a light and smooth roast taste, along with a more substantial bitter backbone than I expected given the rather malty smell. It's almost as if they took a creamy stout and just dialed all the flavors back a bit. It's almost delicate in that respect, and although it would be disappointing if I was looking for a big stout, in this case it seems pleasant. There's a touch of caramel around the sides of the mouth as well. My garlic-laden pasta dinner brought out some dark chocolate flavors, although maybe that's also just the beer.

The beer has a moderately light body and a somewhat airy feel in the mouth. It's fairly well balanced between dry and wet, not really leaning towards one side or another. There's a little bit of coating as well, but not too much.

Overall this beer is pretty well balanced, and enjoyable for what it is. It's not the best thing that I've ever had, even from DuClaw, but it goes down easily. The only thing that really strikes me about it though is that since it basically tastes like a weak stout, I have a hard time finding the real target for this beer. Normally these "black ale" variations have a decidedly hoppy character, but that's mostly missing in this beer other than the peppery bitterness. It certainly was worth the money for the 6-pack, but I can't see myself seeking this one out again.

- Adam

Double Posting

Today it's time for an unusual event - a double posting. Since these are both beers that it's not terribly likely that I'll get again, I wanted to make sure I got these up. To keep this short I'll just jump into it, but today we have Half Acre Daisy Cutter and Three Floyds Dreadnaught.

Daisy Cutter is a pale ale, a style I normally don't care for all that much as most examples I've seen tend to have very little hop quality. However this one was pretty highly rated, so I wanted to see what it was all about.

The aroma was very similar to pellet hops that I've encountered in home brewing. There was a bunch of citrus, grass, flowers, and spice. I didn't actually get any noticeable malt quality.

It appeared a somewhat cloudy golden color with a thin, white head. As I progressed through the glass, I noticed a ton of lacing.

At first I tasted a bit of caramel and bread. It's a pretty delicate sweetish flavor that is pleasantly drinkable. This is followed up by substantial citrus hop flavor with some pepper. The bitterness lingers a while as well.

It's got a light body in the mouth, combined with a moderate-high carbonation level. It's clean and moderately dry as well.

Overall, this was a very good pale ale. Considering that I normally don't like the style much, I really enjoyed this beer. I'd say this is probably one of the best pale ales I've had yet.

Dreadnaught on the other hand is a Double/Imperial IPA. The aroma is a dense mix of hops,

with citrus and resin. I also thought it was a little woody.

Its appearance is a bit darker than Daisy Cutter, but still within the realm of golden, and again has some haze to it. There is less head though, only a dusting of bubbles that seem to be mor

e off-white.

There's a little sweetness right up front, evoking a memory of honey. I thought I also got a little pine. In the back of the mouth there's a strong bitterness that seems pleasant and fitting for the style. There was some citrus in the middle, but for me at least it seemed obscured by the mix of sweet and bitter. There's just a ton of hops packed into this beer. It's kind of like a mix between an East Coast and West Coast IPA.

The beer has a moderate body, combined with a fairly high level of carbonation. I noticed some stickiness from the resins in my mouth as well. There was also just a little warmth in the throat as it went down.

I enjoyed this DIPA quite a bit. There's just so much hop flavor going on in this beer. In fact, there's a level of bitterness that doesn't really make it into that many beers, even when loaded down with hops. I wouldn't say I prefer it to Hopslam which is fortunate for me since Hopslam is a lot easier to get around here. Still I wouldn't ever turn this beer down.

- Adam

Williamsburg AleWerks Coffeehouse Stout

Every once in a while you just get a craving for a particular style of beer. This longing hit me today in the form of a coffee stout. To tell the truth, what I really wanted was Spring House Planet Bean, but since I had to work earlier today I didn't have the time or inclination to take an hour and a half drive into PA for a single beer. So instead I decided to satiate my desire with a more easily attainable beer that I haven't tried before. My trip over to State Line Liquors yielded the Williamsburg AleWerks Cofeehouse Stout.

To my knowledge I have not tried anything from Williamsburg previously. They're somewhat local I suppose, being from Virginia. However, they don't have a very wide range of offerings. I imagine they are Virginia's equivalent of Twin Lakes brewing for those of us from Delaware - a relatively small brewery with a focus more on the history of beer than the current trends in the craft beer industry.

The beer pours about as dark as one could imagine. It's straight black, with no trace of light coming through even on the sides. A vigorous pour left about a 1 finger head with somewhat poor retention. I felt like I really had to try to get any head to develop on this one.

The aroma at first has a sort of tart roast to it, a decidedly coffee bean oriented smell. It's a bit faint, but it evokes the feeling one would get walking into a coffee shop. Underneath is a hint of smoke, and a touch of caramel sweetness. I do wish the aroma was a bit stronger, as you really have to stick your nose in the glass to get a whiff of this beer. However, everything that does come through is quite pleasant.

At first sip it seems a bit light but pleasant, with a mild vanilla flavor complementing the weak roast. As it's swallowed, it seems to be missing any hint of bitterness though. While it isn't cloying at all, it tastes more like coffee would if you somehow extracted any hint of bitterness, dumped a bunch of cream in, and didn't have much roast at all. Their website has this beer listed as a milk/sweet stout, which seems more appropriate, but that is not how this beer seems to be marketed at all. I went into it expecting a whole different set of flavors. As it warms up a bit I get a little bit more of a coffee roast flavor, but it's still strongly lacking in bitterness.

In the mouth this beer is moderate-light bodied, and has a low but present level of carbonation. The lactose in it leaves a thick coating in the mouth and a slick feeling. Other than that, there's not a lot to the mouthfeel... no warmth, not a ton of substance.

I have to say that I am a little disappointed in this beer. It's not bad, it's not cloying or overly sweet, it's just not what I expected given how it was labeled. If you're being introduced to coffee stouts for the first time or find them to be too bitter or over the top usually, this is probably right up your alley. However, if you're like me and want a coffee stout that's big, bold, and has a little bit of a kick to it, pass this one by.

- Adam

Night of Big Stouts

Dan and I have been collecting/trading beers for a little while now, but haven't had a lot of opportunity to open many of the bigger beers we've gotten in a way that seemed "fitting". We got to talking, and decided that a major tasting night was in order, bringing together some huge stouts and giving us the opportunity to decide if trading for these beers was really worth it.

The lineup included some pretty heavy hitters, and consisted of Jester King Black Metal, Big Black Voodoo Daddy, Three Floyds Dark Lord (2009), Green Flash Silva Stout, Surly Darkness (2010), and Deschutes The Abyss (2010). Dark Lord, Darkness, and Abyss especially have achieved a legendary status among serious beer drinkers, so this was an exciting night. Many thanks go to Jay (beerthursdays) for providing the Darkness and Silva Stout as well.

I didn't have the opportunity to really take notes on all the beers, but I wanted to jot down a few thoughts for future reference.

Black Metal - This beer was surprisingly easy to drink and smooth considering its 10.4% ABV. There were some decent vanilla notes, and we thought this tasted like it might have even been barrel aged. I have another bottle so I'll see how this one ages, but it was darn tasty fresh.

Big Black Voodoo Daddy - more of a classic Imperial Stout. The bitterness was more present on this one than the Black Metal. Lots of chocolate flavors and coffee.

Dark Lord - This one surprised me a bit. I didn't like it nearly as much as I thought I would. Dan and Jay said that 2009 was their least favorite of the years they've had, so I may look to try a different year sometime. However this one was overly sweet, thick, and boozy.

Silva Stout - Very good barrel aged stout. This one had strong notes of bourbon, which mostly dominated all the other flavors. Very enjoyable if you like the taste of bourbon barrel beers.

The Abyss - All the huge, roasty flavors were right up front with this one. What made it really stand out from the rest though was the presence of anise, which provided a black licorice flavor. This one was by far my favorite of the night.

Darkness - I was actually a little disappointed in this one as well. Dan and I both noted some oxidized flavors and aromas that got in the way of really enjoying the beer. I'd be nervous letting this one sit to age, because if it is oxidation those flavors should just get stronger.

All in all though, it was a great night for us. Now I have a much better idea of what I'll be looking to get in the future, and I'm able to say that I've tried these giants among beers.

- Adam

Ballast Point Sculpin IPA

Ballast Point has a fairly intriguing history for a homebrewer like myself. Initially one of the founders, Jack White was a homebrewer, who started his career in beer by opening a homebrew supply shop, mainly because he didn't have a place to buy ingredients and supplies and saw the need for a store that sold those things in his area. Through this store, he met another brewer, and together they started Ballast Point Brewing Company. Of their standard released, Sculpin is the only one I've tried, but they also offer beers like Victory at Sea, and Sea Monster (which I picked up a bottle of recently.) Sculpin is considered one of the quintessential West Coast style IPAs along with Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Stone's IPA, , and of course Green Flash's West Coast IPA. Typically, a West Coast IPA is all about hops and strongly bitter, with every stage of the beer being about the hop quality. This ranges from the initial sip to the lingering flavor, pretty much everything can be expected to have a strong hop character - almost always from the citrusy "C" hops. In comparison, the East Coast IPA can allow malty flavors through, and often focuses more on late hop additions without necessarily having all the bitterness, and broaden to use other hop varieties. So with all that said, on to the beer.

My bottle poured a hazy, slightly red-tinged straw color. It had a one finger pillowy white head, very loosely packed and rocky. Within minutes it had dissipated to a thin coating on top of the beer.

As soon as I started pouring the beer, I said "hello grapefruit" because the citrus hop character grabs the nose immediately. There's also other fruity aromas in there like peach and banana, and maybe a touch of pine. What's decidedly missing though is any sense of malt character to to the smell. Right away this beer wants you to know you're about to get hops, and lots of it.

At the tip of the tongue there's a touch of fruit, but this immediately gives way to a strong bitter backbone. The bitterness hangs around by itself after everything else about the beer has left your memory. There is no malt character at all to this beer though, even at the very front. I thought for a second that I could taste a touch of bread, but I think that was my imagination. I did notice though that after a couple sips, I started to get a metallic flavor in my mouth a little.

The beer has a very light body, feeling almost insubstantial in the mouth. Carbonation is pretty high and almost seems to get in the way a bit. Hop resins completely coat the mouth as well, leaving a slick and slippery feeling.

All in all, it's good, but very different from what I'm used to. There doesn't seem to be a lot of subtlety or balance here, it's just hops all the way through. That isn't necessarily a bad thing though. This could really hit the spot when there's a hop craving, but for the most part I'd rather have at least some malt quality. Maybe it's just a regional thing though. Still very much worth having

- Adam

Cigar City Jai Alai

This isn't the first Cigar City beer I've had, or even the first time I've had Jai Alai, but I know that I haven't reviewed one of their beers on here before, so it's long overdue. Cigar City is located in Tampa, Florida and get their name from the fact that the first brewery in Florida was started by cigar industrialists. As an homage to those pioneer brewers, they also named a few of their beers with the cigar theme. For instance, there's the Maduro Oatmeal Brown, and their Humidor beers. Jai Alai, along with the Maduro Oatmeal Brown are their only year-round offerings, which is a little unusual for a brewery, but their seasonal beers definitely make up for it. Their distribution stretches sporadically along the east coast, but their claim to fame mostly comes from their once a year releases of Marshall Zhukov's Imperial Stout and it's variations.

The beer pours a hazy copper with a one finger off-white head. There's a fairly substantial amount of lacing left in the glass even though the head dissipated to a thin dusting on top after a few minutes.

The aroma initially has a strong citrus hop character up front, but it does seem like the malt comes through as well. A lightly toasted bread scent wafts through the thick resins to blend and provide a certain level of sweetness.

The first sip of the beer has a distinct biscuit quality to it, giving way to some hop resin flavors. After swallowing a decently bitter aftertaste swells up in the mouth. The citrus comes through somewhere in the middle, striking a balance between the bitter and the sweet. It's somewhat of a creamy citrus quality, like an orange creamsicle rather than a tart and sharp citrus flavor. The flavors are robust, although the bitterness is a little sharp.

In the mouth, the beer has a medium body, with a high level of carbonation. In the mouth it has a decent amount of coating from the resins. It's refreshing and a little malty rather than dry.

Overall it's a very good IPA. While not the best I've had, the flavors are a little different from the usual IPA. It's bready, a little sweet, and has a substantial bitterness in the back. I suspect it's not really fresh, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. I know I've had this beer before and remember it being extremely good, but it was also on draft. Either way, it's certainly worth a try.

- Adam

Stillwater/Mikkeller Two Gypsies - Our Side

Even though Stillwater and Mikkeller are in different countries, they have one thing in common - they don't have a home. Both breweries consider themselves "gypsy brewers", as they travel around borrowing and renting equipment from different breweries to produce their beers. Having had beers from both breweries, I was particularly interested in this one.

The beer pours initially with a substantial billowing white head. Light, fluffy, and with large bubbles. It has a dark golden hue, and is somewhat cloudy. The head sticks around for a little while, but dissipates to an 1/8th of a finger thick that hangs around for a long time. Through the glass there is some nice lacing as well. As the beer warms up, some of the haze disappears.

The aroma had a decided funk quality to it right away, with wild grassy and hay notes. Sweetness follows underneath, with an apple-like sense to it. It's almost a little woody as well, if I close my eyes I can picture standing in an area of dense overgrowth. There's a mix of flowers and dirt, although I somewhat miss the horse-blanket that sometimes accompanies wild yeast.

The first sip has a slight sweetness up front, with some decidedly funky notes and a substantial bitterness in the back. There's a bit of grass, and some citrus hop flavor as well. Lots of classic saison flavors come through as well, with a dominating Brettanomyces character. The bitterness and hay flavors linger in the mouth, leaving the flavors of this beer with you for minutes after swallowing. As it warmed up, I also noticed a little bit of a cider-like apple flavor. The presence of the hops in the flavor is probably the most unique thing about this beer, even if they mostly just boost the already classic saison flavors.

The beer is pretty strongly carbonated, which is a little much for me but not unusual for the style. The prickly bubbles tend to overwhelm my palate making it feel like I'm missing out on flavors. Surprisingly I felt that there was a bit of warmth from the alcohol in the throat, even though this beer is 7.5% and I've had much stronger ones with no trace of the alcohol.

Overall, I felt that this was a classic saison. It's easily drinkable but has some nice funk to it. The fruit flavors and sweetness add a decent balance without being cloying. This collaboration is well done, although I don't see that it brings much new to the table. The added hop quality is somewhat unique, but it doesn't change much about the style. Maybe it's just that the added bitterness seems subdued to me after so many hoppy American styles that I've had recently. Either way, this beer was still delicious and worth trying.

- Adam

Oskar Blues Ten Fidy

Good beer doesn't come in cans, or so many craft beer drinkers have thought for years. While it's true that a TON of bad beer comes in cans, it is possible to get a good beer in a can. In fact, in some respects a can is a better container than a bottle. For one thing, light can't get through to skunk the beer. It doesn't break like glass does, so it's easier and safer to take some places, and it's easily crushable so it takes up less room after consuming. However, there's something elegant and classic to a glass bottle that makes a beer feel "right". This can be less of a concern at times, but more importantly for many companies, the equipment needed to bottle is much cheaper than what it takes for canning. In fact in some cases it's possible to bottle by hand, whereas you need a large production line to make canning worthwhile, and it takes a much larger scale to make the cost offset of the materials from canning beneficial. Oskar Blues is one of the few craft breweries so far that has made the jump over to canning, but assuredly one of the most famous.

The beer pours thick, black, and viscous, with a thin brown head that dissipates almost immediately. It almost seemed to come out in slow motion, and clung to the glass on it's way towards the bottom. It seems almost impossible for light to travel through this beer, quickly being lost in it's murky depths.

Even more noticeable than the black opaque nature of the beer though is the strong aroma that comes immediately upon opening the beer. There's a strong roast quality with underlying cherry and alcohol. Touches of dark chocolate, caramel and coffee float along as well, providing a denseness to the smell.

The first sip offers roast, vanilla, and toffee with a light smooth sweetness at the tip of the tongue. However it is swallowed the flavor develops to more coffee, bitter, and burnt flavors that combine with the sweetness to offer balance. After swallowing, roast, toasted marshmallow, and bitterness linger on the tongue for a very long time. It's as if the beer is so thick that it coats the taste buds, and won't let go. As the beer warms, new flavors develop. I began to notice more caramel and sweetness up front, along with a touch of fruity flavor. It's possibly a little syrupy as well. However, the bitterness raises as well, with the coffee flavors becoming more prominent.

This is most assuredly a heavy bodied beer. Along with it's fairly low level of carbonation, this provides a viscous sensation in the mouth. While the alcohol may not be readily apparent in the taste, being masked by the rather strong flavors, it is noticeable after swallowing as it quickly warms the throat.

Overall, this beer is thoroughly enjoyable, but absolutely a sipper. I could not imagine trying to get through more than one of these in a single night. Unlike the Clipper City Russian Imperial Stout I tried earlier this week, this is a classic example of what one expects from the style. It's thick, strongly flavored, and strong in every sense of the word. So there you have it. Great beer, and from a can.

- Adam

Clipper City Peg Leg

I haven't made it any secret how I feel about Clipper City as a brewery. They are one of the local breweries that I consider to be among the top nationwide, especially when it comes to consistent quality of their offerings. Although they might not all be the best renditions of a particular style that I've ever had, they always are flavorful and good. I picked up a 6-pack of Peg Leg to give to a guy in California who is a fan of Imperial Stouts. I don't think that I had ever tried it before, but it was pretty highly rated, and I trust Clipper City.

The smell of the beer is not weak, but not exactly strong. There's a healthy dose of roasted malts, coffee and chocolate, and a sweetness that evokes a fruity sense, possibly of cherry or fig. There's not much else beyond that in complexity, but possibly a touch of alcohol.

The first taste of the beer offers a toasted bread quality, backed up by a mild caramel sweetness. Shortly after the roast kicks in full gear, with a present but not overbearing bitterness. Beyond this is a dash of chocolate, and a smooth overall silkiness. The aftertaste had a lingering smokiness to it as well. I felt that it could possibly have used some coffee flavor as well, and a bit more bitterness, but even though it was a bit on the sweet side for the style it was far from cloying. Don't expect this one to be a crazy over-the-top Russian Imperial Stout.

In the mouth the beer has a medium body, not as thick as many in the style. There's a moderate level of carbonation to match. There's a slick coating in the mouth as well, combined with just a touch of warmth in the throat. It's on the wet side a bit as well.

Overall, it's an enjoyable beer, although not the intense RIS that some brewers tend to make. I would consider this an every day Imperial Stout. I wouldn't place this at the top of Clipper City's offerings. Honestly, this probably belongs more at the high end of a regular stout rather than an Imperial. It would make a decent introduction to the style, or be great when you want a flavorful stout that doesn't fill you up too much. It also goes great with food for that reason. If you go into the glass expecting that rather than a boozy, bitter, thick stout, you won't be disappointed.

- Adam

Bell's Two Hearted Ale

I'm going to be rounding out my recent IPA kick with a pretty major offering from the folks over at Bell's brewery in Michigan, Two Hearted Ale. I picked up a 6-pack of this while we were on vacation in Virginia, since Bell's doesn't get distribution in Maryland or Delaware just yet. I've had this one before, but knew I enjoyed it thoroughly. Bell's is probably more well known for Hopslam though, a major hop bomb that's sought after by hop heads nation wide.

The first thing I noticed upon pouring was the pungent and sharp leafy aroma from the hops. As it sat the resin broke up a bit, making room for a sweeter grapefruit scent. While there may be some malt smell as well, I didn't really pick it up, instead the beer was drowning in intense hoppiness.

In the glass the beer takes on a golden color with a touch of reddish hue, and supports a thin white head. Being bottle conditioned, I may have poured a bit of sediment into the glass, and ended up with a bit of haziness in my otherwise clear beer.

Grapefruit assaults the tongue on the first sip, then makes way for a substantial bitterness at the back of the mouth. There's a light bread aftertaste on the sides of the tongue that lingers along with the hop bitterness for a few minutes. The beer is most assuredly balanced towards the hoppy and bitter side, which is certainly not unwelcome. It does however lack some of the intensity of Hopslam, which assaults the palate thoroughly with its hoppy nature. That isn't to say that it's lacking in flavor, but rather that it is more of an every day beer.

It certainly doesn't lack for carbonation, actually having a somewhat light body with constant tiny bubbles. The hop resins leave a stickiness in the mouth as well, quickly coating the tongue. The beer goes down easily though, with just a touch of warmth on the tongue and in the chest.

There really isn't much left to say, I love this beer. It's flavorful but not overwhelming, and has a great blend of hop flavors and aroma. The only criticism I can come up with is that there's the slightest touch of either metallic or phenolic taste, barely enough to notice. While sometimes this can be a welcome addition to the mix of flavors, in this case I didn't feel that it added anything. Still, this was a very minor issue for me, and for a standard IPA this is one of the best I've had. I imagine this beer is even better fresh, I don't know how old it is, but I know that it's at least from January. All things considered, it has held up rather well.

Clipper City Loose Cannon

I'm just getting back from a trip to Virginia with my wife and some friends. It was a good time filled with memorable events, but it also gave me the opportunity to try some different beers and pick up some new things that I normally wouldn't get in Delaware. However, today's review has nothing to do with those. Even though the trip was enjoyable, it feels good to be home, and as such I'm relaxing for the evening with another favorite local standby, Clipper City's Loose Cannon. This beer is an IIPA, and one of my favorite offerings from the brewery.

Initially the beer has a grapefruit character mixed with a vinous quality. It's a thick and full hoppy smell if that makes much sense. As it sits it becomes more leafy and open, allowing a bit of bready malt to come though as well. As expected, the hops dominate the nose, so there's not much room for anything else.

The first taste offers a bit of mild citrus flavor, followed by a gripping bitterness as it's swallowed. Although there does seem to be some caramel and bready flavors in there, again it's really the hops that dominate the mouth. It's a pleasantly sharp flavor, but be careful because it will just about ruin your palate if you're going to try anything else in close succession.

The beer is medium bodied, and not very heavily carbonated. I actually prefer this in my beers, although I know others do not. I find that it can distract from the flavors if the beer is highly carbonated. This beer evokes somewhat of a cask feel, perhaps like it would have been on a ship transported from England back when IPAs were first created.

Overall this is another excellent offering from Clipper City. I've been consistently impressed with their Heavy Seas series, in fact I don't think there has been one that I didn't like yet. This is definitely one of the under-appreciated breweries of the East Coast, pick it up for sure if you can.

- Adam

Evolution Lot No. 3 IPA

For those of you that are not familiar, Evolution is a craft brewery from southern Delaware, who are quickly gaining a reputation within the craft beer community. I've toured the brewery twice, and their Rise Up! Stout easily makes it worth the trip every time. Recently they've begun some experimental beers with their Menagerie series, and from talk from the brewers, they have barrel aged, sour, and buggy beers on the way as well. While their normal beers are good, these future brews promise to be something extra special, and should be worth the effort to obtain. Unfortunately that generally means being at the brewery for the release, which for some reason tends to fall mid-week during work hours.

Upon pouring, Lot 3 is a clear copperish golden color, with a small dusting of white head on top. This head doesn't last long, and soon there is only wisps of bubbles floating on the top of the glass.

The aroma is a mixture of bready malt and a mixture of citrus and spicy hops. It's a sharp smell, with the hops cutting through, lending a leafy goodness to the mixture. Still, there is a balance of sweetness in the aroma, rounding it out nicely.

At first taste, one experiences a touch of orange peel, a bit of toasted bread, and then a strong peppery bitterness from the hops in the back of the mouth. This spiced sensation lingers for quite a while in the back half of the mouth, while the sweeter qualities dissipate almost immediately. Despite being almost 7% ABV, there's no alcohol flavor or warmth to it.

The beer is well carbonated, prickly without being overdone. It feels medium bodied, and leaves a build-up of stickiness in the back of the mouth. It does seem to have a certain dryness to it as well.

While it's not quite a standby for me, this is a beer I've gotten for myself before, and one I'm certainly planning on having again. Certainly when I want a peppery IPA, it would be among my first choices. Although the flavor leans strongly to the hoppy side, it still has good balance, and the flavors work together well. It's absolutely worth a try if you happen to be in the area.

- Adam

Red Poppy

It's been an interesting day so far. Dan and I have taken a trip to a case distributor to pick up some beer we can't normally get in the area, we stopped by a brew pub, and now we're back at Dan's enjoying on of his recent acquisitions, a bottle of Lost Abbey Red Poppy Ale.

Red Poppy is a Flanders Oud Bruin, a darker sour style originating in the Flanders area of Belgium. It becomes readily apparent upon the first whiff of this beer, as it has a strong aroma characteristic of a sour beer, with a mix of vinegar, lactic acid, and some fruitiness that I thought was apple and cherry. There's some oak as well, and a little sweetness to it that I don't recall smelling in many sour beers.

At first, the classic sour flavors come though as well, with a strong tartness and just a touch of vinegar, supported by a bit of cherry. There's some oak flavor as well, but I feel like this mostly comes through as a smoothness in it. Although some sours are loaded with so much flavor that they can be overwhelming, this seems somehow more drinkable, and the flavors are blended well. There doesn't seem to be any real hop flavor or aroma to the beer, as should be expected, instead it seems the sweetness is balanced by the sour qualities. It's very enjoyable if you like sour beers.

In the mouth the beer has a medium or medium-light body, but is extremely dry. It's well carbonated, and leaves almost a gritty sensation in the mouth while seemingly sucking away moisture.

I was a bit surprised as well at how relatively low the alcohol content in the beer was. I expected it to be upwards of 8 or 9%, but it's actually 5.5% Perhaps that explains why it is so easy to drink. I think someday I'd like to take a shot at something similar to this, since Red Poppy is fairly expensive and hard to come by, and I would like to have a lot more of it.

- Adam

Some quick thoughts and a Cantillon Classic Gueuze

I've got a busy couple of weekends coming up (and one past) with beer tastings, and I wanted to get a few posts in during this time. Tomorrow night marks the 1st Anniversary of BeerThursdays, which promises to be truly epic with rare and aged beers being pulled from a few people's cellars. The following weekend I'll be hosting my second tasting (and only 8 months after the first one!) which will be coming mostly out of my own cellar, so keep an eye out for posts from me and Adam on some special beers in the near future.

And now on to the gueuze! It's safe to say I've been on a bit of a Lambic bender lately, so I picked up two bottles of this on my last trip to State Line knowing that it can disappear quickly, and I would want to age at least one. As I was listening to this week's Sunday Session from The Brewing Network, one of the hosts got talking about his love of gueuze, and how, in America, we usually get a smaller pour (8oz or so) because of the price of good Lambic beers here. It was really how he stated his point that got to me; that in Belgium you can go into a bar and have a "big glass of gueuze" like you would expect to have any other beer here. Fast-forward through a day and a half of "big glass of gueuze" running through my mind and I'm standing in my kitchen staring down a 375ml of Cantillon Classic Gueuze. This shall be my big glass of gueuze.

Poured into my Duvel Tulip, it sat, a hazy pale gold with bits of orange. A one finger white head quickly faded to a ring with a thin coating over the middle of the glass thanks to the etching in the bottom. The smell is sour and earthy with a grassy finish. There's also an really acidic smell that seems to fade as its allowed to breathe.

The first sip is tart, but balanced. The malt presence is a nice counter to the acidic sourness that dominates the finish. It seems less carbonated than I expected, but the carbonation that's there is sharp and helps to ease your palette into the complex flavors ahead. The earthiness of the aroma is back as I get further into the glass, bringing the grass with it. The balance stays throughout the glass, with each sip bringing malt, sour and slight hop character (Czech Saaz?) into alignment.

The swallow is delightfully dry; making it tremendously drinkable. More drinkable than any sour I've had, certainly more than the ultra tart beers of brewers like Russian River. I love those beers, and they have been a treat every time I open a bottle, but they are sippers. Gueuze is for having a pint with dinner, and I delight in that.

If this is the sort of thing I can expect to drink large quantities of on a regular basis in Belgium, I may move there and never come back. I hope I've effectively got everyone thinking about a "big glass of gueuze," and dare you not to go pour yourself one.

- Dan

Big glass of gueuze.

Clipper City Black Cannon

Black Cannon is part of the Heavy Seas line of Clipper City beers, a brewery which has established itself among my local favorites. Although they tend to not put out a lot of over the top beers, what they do offer is generally a good, flavorful example of the style that's well done and balanced. Black Cannon specifically is a Black IPA, sometimes called an IBA, and is one of the currently more trendy styles out there. As would be expected, the beer pours a very dark brown, nearly black, and supports a small light tan head with moderately low retention.

The first thing that I noticed upon pouring was a distinct hoppy presence, more reminiscent of the fresh hops that I often use in homebrewing than the more common aromas found in a finished beer. There's a poignant citrus quality to it, leading me to believe that it may be Amarillo or one of the West Coast "C" hops.

A touch of biscuit malt hits the tongue initially, with just a hint of acrid roast up front, followed by a strong mix of hop and roast bitterness in the back of the mouth. I felt like there might have been just a touch of a medicinal flavor as well that I couldn't quite put my finger on. While decidedly not a sweet beer, it felt only slightly more balanced to the hoppy side to me. One thing I will say is that the "black" flavors (roast, coffee, chocolate, etc.) don't come through all that strongly in this beer. If you were drinking this beer without seeing it, you might not even realize that it's not just a Pale Ale or IPA. That's not to say that those flavors don't exist in the beer, just that they are fairly subtle.

It's a little sticky in the mouth, while initially feeling fairly light to medium bodied and a bit dry, after swallowing it leaves an oiliness. Still, from the flavor and lack of heat, I never would have guessed that this beer was over 7% ABV. While it may not be the best Black IPA I've had, it has a strong and robust flavor while remaining fairly drinkable. I could see myself putting a couple of these away in a single night. In fact, something about it reminds me of my own homebrewed Pale Ale, a beer I can drink all night long without getting tired of it. While Black Cannon might not be in the upper echelons of Black IPAs, it's certainly a decent session offering if you want to try the style out.

- Adam

Championship Results

We recently were invited to enter the Master's Championship of Amateur Brewing based on our gold medal at the Happy Holidays 2010 competition in St. Louis for our New World Stout. This competition hosted winners in each category from select national competitions, sort of a "best of the best" event. We were pleasantly surprised to be eligible to enter, especially since this beer was not planned as a competition beer at all. What I mean by that is that we didn't even try to follow the BJCP category guidelines, which are the standard to which each beer in a competition is judged. This is done to take much of the subjectivity of tasting out of the judging process. Because it was the closest match in color, gravity, and flavor profile, we entered this beer in category 13E - American Stout. However, we were not completely within the style as we used English hop and malt varieties to make up our beer. Hence the name New World Stout, a beer with English hop and malt character, but American style boldness.

As I said, we did not actually place in the competition, however upon receiving our score sheets I noticed that we were awarded an Honorable Mention. This was thrilling for us because it means that out of the 30 or so other stouts we were competing with, all gold medalists, ours was still considered to be among the very best. In fact, upon reading the feedback that we were given, I found that the judges did not have anything negative to say about the beer other than they would have liked a more "American" hop aroma and flavor profile. This makes sense because we did not use a single American hop in the beer. One of the judges even commented that he would drink our stout any day of the week.

Although it is a little disappointing that we did not technically place in this competition, it's a comfort to know that our beer was so well received and that it's really only the specificity of the style guidelines that kept us from placing. They went so far as to say the whole beer was well made with no off-flavors or problems, just simply lacking the citrus quality of American hops. If we ever choose to brew this beer again specifically for competitions, we can simply replace the hops we used with American varieties, and I'm sure we'll have a winner. I doubt we will ever do that though, we brew our beer for flavor and this beer is pretty much exactly what we want it to be. Good work New World Stout, you've done us proud.

- Adam

major beer tasting night

Last night I went to a beer tasting with Dan, held at a friend's house. We went through a ton of stuff, so while the memory is still fresh I wanted to say a few things about each of the beers we had.

We started off with a bottle each of Bell's Hopslam, a beer I've had a few times before and really enjoyed. It's a big IIPA with tons of hop character and a decent amount of bitterness. Later in the night I had this in a blind tasting with 3 other hoppy beers, and it didn't rank as well for me as I thought it would, but copious amounts of alcohol may have played a factor in that.

Next we divided up a can of Surly Abrasive Ale. This is another IIPA, and one that I had not had before. This one had citrus character in the extreme, and was quite tasty. I would definitely try it again.

We followed up Abrasive with a bottle of Hopus from Brasserie Lefebvre SA. I'm not sure how you are supposed to pronounce that "bvre" part, but sufficed to say it's from Belgium. In fact this is a Belgian IPA, a kind of odd style in which they put their own Belgian spin on the definitive American style. I thought this one was a bit sweet, without very much hop character at all. However I'm fairly sure this bottle was not fresh, so I won't judge it too harshly.

We moved on to a bottle of Russian River Redemption, a Belgian Pale Ale. This was a good lighter beer to break up the night a bit. It had a decent lemon and grassy flavor with just a bit of tartness.

We went the polar opposite direction at this point, opening a bomber of Victory Dark Intrigue. This is a bourbon-barrel aged version of Storm King, so it tastes about like you would expect. A very good stout base with the normal bourbon-barrel qualities.

We had a Terrapin Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout next. This was an excellent coffee stout with huge roast flavor. I think the bottle we had was from 2009, but it held up extremely well.

Following the Terrapin was BrewDog's Paradox Islay Batch 9 - Ardberg. Supposedly an American Double/Imperial Stout, we got lots of smoky flavors along with a medicinal smell and taste that none of us found at all appealing. We ended up dumping it because it was so bad, I'm assuming there had to have been an infection or something because there's no way anyone would enjoy drinking that.

We got the taste out of our mouths with Oude Boon Geuze. Despite its age and relatively low ABV, because of all the bugs in the beer it turned out well. Nice tart flavors, and explosive carbonation. The carbonation was a little much for me, but that was my only complaint.

Next up we had a Troegs Scratch #39. This is one of I believe 4 IPAs that Troegs is coming out with in the Scratch series. Each one uses a different hop profile in an attempt to refine a recipe that meets popular demand. I mentioned when drinking it that it must have been Simcoe in the beer because it smelled kind of "catty" (to put it politely), which it turns out is correct. It definitely wasn't my favorite hop profile, so I hope they don't settle on that recipe.

We had Hair of the Dog Fred after that, a Barleywine with big malty character and a good hop balance. I'm having trouble remembering the flavors in this one, but I do remember that it was good.

Our host broke out a bottle of Surly Coffee Bender next, a coffee brown ale. This is a spin that I hadn't had before, as normally coffee tends to be added to stouts. I really enjoyed it though, and with a relatively low ABV it would be a regular drinker if I could get my hands on it.

We then had our blind tasting of 4 IPAs. Our host gave us each 4 numbered glasses in order, and we tasted each and ranked them based on how we liked them. When the beers were revealed it turns out that I had ranked Founders Centennial IPA as the top beer, followed by Troegs Nugget Nectar, then Bell's Hopslam, and finally New England's Gandhi-Bot. I would like to try each of them again, but at the time I think I based my decision on how smooth the hop character in the beer was, and how bitter each was. I thought the Hopslam was more bitter than I liked at the time, and felt the Gandhi-Bot was even more bitter and lacking other hop character. Of course, this result again should be tempered by the amount of beer consumed at this point.

We cleansed our pallets a bit with a bottle of Sam Adams Infinium. I had not heard great things about this beer, but was still curious to try it for myself. It was dry, highly carbonated, and fruity. None of us really enjoyed the flavors, and ended up dumping it.

Dan and I finished off the night with a bottle of Portsmouth "BC Stout". I thought it stood for Black Chocolate, but apparently it's Black Cat. This beer was extremely good, with roasty and chocolate flavors in abundance. I would love to have this again some time.

- Adam

Ballast Point Victory At Sea Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter

Besides Sculpin, I haven't had anything from Ballast Point. However, if you start throwing out words like "coffee" and "vanilla" and "imperial" my mouth just starts watering. Because of this, the Coffee Vanilla version of Victory At Sea sounded absolutely delicious. Some people will say that lately craft breweries have been throwing in extra ingredients just to make a normal brew stand out a little more. While there may be some truth to this, the idea of a coffee vanilla porter really works well for me since the flavors tend to blend well together.

Upon pouring the beer, I noticed a nice aroma of vanilla, with roast underneath. This carries through in the flavor as well, with a surprising amount of residual sweetness. The bitterness from the coffee doesn't come through in the same way that it does in a lot of coffee beers, instead it has a smooth quality to it. Although this makes it seem as if the coffee isn't as present in the beer as it could be, I found it to be well balanced and subtle. This isn't to say that there isn't a fair amount of bitterness to the brew, it actually has a strong hop presence to it. And despite the 10% ABV, the alcohol does not come through in the flavor at all, with just a bit of warmth in the throat.

Even though the flavors were a little unusual for a beer, I found that they blended well and provided balance to each other. The vanilla may have been a bit forward, but I like it in this beer. If you have an opportunity to pick up this beer, absolutely try it out.

- Adam

Photo-journal: Parti-gyle brewing

On New Year's Eve, Dan and I decided to try something a little different. We wanted to make a big Russian Imperial Stout with coffee, but that wasn't quite crazy enough. For this big brew day, we decided to do 2 split 5-gallon batches, as a parti-gyle brew. The idea of a parti-gyle is that you start with a huge grain bill, and all the first runnings become a single batch. You then sparge the grains, and these second runnings make up a lower gravity batch. We went really big with our batches, starting with a whopping 32 and a quarter lbs of grain, well above what a single 10 gallon mash tun could handle. In order to do this brew, we had to use both Dan's and my mash tuns, and both of our pots. It sounds good in theory, but we had to be very careful to split the grains and water evenly, as well as maintain the same temperature in both tuns to ensure good, predictable results. We used 10 gallons of water to mash the Imperial Stout, and got 6 gallons out after grain absorption. We then sparged with another 6 gallons of water for our smaller batch, a Brown Ale with coffee. After a few days of waiting for fermentation to start, it went crazy and needed a blow-off tube put in to keep from popping the airlock. Anyway, all that should give you an idea of what's going on below, now on to the photo-journaling.

- Adam

Competition Results Update

Well, everything is in from our second competition experience. As those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know, I have a tenuous relationship with the BJCP style guidelines at best, so for the most part I don't have much to do with competitions. As kind of a fluke, I put together a recipe for a stout trying to emulate what my original perception of the Rogue XS RIS, and came up with what turned out to be at the higher end (in gravity and IBUs) of an American Stout. We wanted to try to get some feedback on our Imperial Brown Ale again, and the fact that the prize for Best of Show was a 15 gallon stainless steel conical fermentor didn't hurt either. We decided to go ahead and enter the Brown along with the Stout I had put together, and just see what happened. You can read my original post with more details here.

We got some valuable feedback on both beers. The Stout ended up scoring a 44 out of 50 and taking first place in the style, with most of the comments being on how strongly roasty and bitter it was. One of the judges attributed this to the grain bill, while the other thought the bitterness came from the hops. I imagine it's a combination of both, since the hopping in this beer was really designed to add bitterness and accentuate the earthy flavors in the grain bill. Neither of them mentioned the smokiness that I had hoped to derive from the smoked malt I added, but it is very subtle in both the taste and aroma. As mentioned in my other post, this beer is moving on to the Master's Championship of Amateur Brewing, so I'll be sending out 3 bottles to that competition this week.

The Imperial Brown did not fare nearly as well, scoring a 29.5 out of 50 this time. In the previous competition it had scored a 33. Unlike at the National Homebrewer's Competition, we did get some valuable feedback on the beer itself, and didn't just get slammed for being out of style. Specifically we were told that there was too much alcohol heat, the malt wasn't balanced too well with the hop bitterness, and that the body may have been a little too thin. Our next step is to evaluate the beer based on this feedback, and to see if we like the beer the way it is, or if we think the suggestions will make an improvement. I imagine we'll take some of it and leave some of it, as our goal isn't to brew to style, but to brew the delicious beer that we want. The mouthfeel portion especially does seem to have merit to me, so the next time we do this batch we may try to up that a bit.

Either way, it is nice to get both recognition for something we did well, and feedback on how to improve what we did not. I considered this to be a much better experience than our first competition, and although most of our beers at this point wouldn't fit well in this kind of structure, I'll definitely be looking for ways in the future that we can get this kind of input on our beers from knowledgeable and experienced people.

- Adam

Le Saint-Bock Brasserie Artisanale Enigma

Every once in a while, you get a beer that just doesn't do it for you. I picked up this bottle at Capone's because I saw it had an A+ rating on Beer Advocate, and it was already aged. The bottle I picked up was labeled from 2008, although according to the label it was bottled 10/5/09. I was pretty excited about this beer, since it was so highly rated and cost $8 for a little stubby bottle.

When I poured it, it was a deep ruby brown, with no head to speak of. The smell was intriguing, with hints of vanilla and oak, along with tons of dark fruit. A bit of maple pokes through as well. There was a bit of strange tartness in the aroma as well that is hard to place, and an overall boozy feel to it.

It was when I first sipped the beer that everything fell apart. Initially it was fine, with some dark fruit flavors on the tip of the tongue, but as soon as it hits the middle of the tongue it just goes south. There's a sudden explosion of soda-syrup sweetness, combined with prune juice, maple syrup, and vanilla. The taste lingers on the tongue sickeningly, as the alcohol warmth takes over in the throat. There's no hop presence to speak of, and absolutely nothing to provide any balance to the beer. Caramel, maple, toffee, fruit, and other sweet flavors run unchecked through this beer, providing for me the very definition of the term "cloying."

This beer is lacking in the mouth as well, the substantial sweetness somehow still giving way to a thin feeling body, and a carbonation level that again is reminiscent of soda. The high presence of sugar and alcohol somehow sucks the moisture right out of my mouth, leaving it feeling dry despite the fact that this should be a fairly wet beer.

It's an enigma for sure, but definitely not the good kind. I feel almost like this is unfermented (and unhopped) wort from the taste, although the heavy alcohol presence makes it obvious that it is not. I would say that it either needs to be consumed younger or sit longer, but younger and the alcohol heat would make it unbearable, and as it sits the sweetness would seem to come out even more. I can only make two recommendations. First, to the brewer, all the flavors in this beer are normally pleasant, and I loved the complexity, but the sweetness is just too much. This beer needs balance, and the hopping rates have to be boosted even if just on the bittering side. Second, to the consumer I would say avoid this batch at least, if not the beer entirely. It was sickeningly sweet, more so than even soda. It's really a shame, as both Dan and I could only get through a few sips before pouring this one down the drain. So much for that $8 bottle.

-Adam