The Disgruntled Chemist

Beer Blogging - Steelhead White Dog Pale Ale

2008-06-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

I just went across the street and got my new Stone growler filled at Steelhead Brewing Co.. There was some disagreement about whether they were allowed to fill the thing, since it wasn't a Steelhead growler, but eventually they went ahead and gave me 2 liters of beer for $7.50. I went in there intending to get my favorite Steelhead beer, their Bombay Bomber IPA, but the worldwide hop shortage has hit them hard and that brew isn't available. Their recommended second choice: White Dog Pale Ale. Let's see how it is 20 minutes after being poured from the keg.

The pour: poured from the growler into a little half-liter stein, the beer develops a large, white, foamy head. The beer itself is a dark golden color, and it's very cloudy.

The aroma: there's a big, bready punch right out front, with floral hops underneath that. It smells like a pretty standard white ale.

The taste: The first thing I notice about the taste is that it's sort of watery. That might be because there's very little carbonation, which may be an artifact of getting the growler filled. The same bready malts are there, and again they get noticed first. The floral hops taste about the same as they smell, but their flavor is not nearly as full as I would like.

The rating: 5/10. It's certainly not unpleasant, but if I had to pick one word to describe this beer, it would have to be gutless. There's just nothing about it that distinguishes itself. I'm wishing I'd gotten something else; actually, I'm really wishing that the hop shortage didn't exist so that I was reviewing the Bombay Bomber right now.

Beer Blogging - Stone 11th Anniversary Ale

2008-06-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

This is an exciting moment: I just opened the 2 L growler of Stone 11^th Anniversary Ale that I bought last Saturday at the Stone Brewery. I had a 4 oz. taster glass of this at the end of our tour (which you really should take), and it was so good that I had to buy a whole bunch more of it. Plus, I got this awesome growler:

The pour: this is a deep black ale that reveals some red and brown when held up to a light. There's a tan, foamy head on top that fades to lace on the glass and the top of the beer within a couple of minutes. I poured it into a Belgian goblet glass because I remember it having a complex aroma that I think will be important to the taste.

The aroma: very complex, in fact. It manages to be fruity and smoky at the same time, which is interesting. The smoky comes from roasted barley, while the fruits are fairly light (pineapple, mango, lemon). There's also a hint of pine.

The taste: actually a lot like it smells. The roasted barley presents itself right out front, followed by a bitter lemon zest flavor. There's a nice progression from those flavors into the sweet, fruity ones. Again, the light fruits dominate here, but there are also darker, deeper fruit flavors (maybe raisins or plums; I can't quite place it). The aftertaste gets back to smoky, with a taste that's a lot like the last sip of a double espresso that had a bunch of sugar in it. I can't taste any alcohol (ABV: 8.7%), and there's a good amount of carbonation that keeps the mouthfeel from being too thick. What it all adds up to is an incredibly drinkable beer that really proves how good the folks at Stone are at their craft.

The rating: 10/10. I'm drinking this on a sunny day in Southern California (85° F), and I have to say, this makes for a great summer beer. Despite its color and big flavors, it's strangely refreshing in addition to being very tasty. Stone hit a home run with this one, and I really hope they're not planning for this to be a one-off (although I suspect they are). I would absolutely buy a case of this if they released it again.

Beer Blogging - Stone Brewery Tour

2008-06-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I went down to Escondido and took a tour of the Stone brewery with frequent commenter Todd, his wife, and some people they know. It was a great tour, and if you have the chance to go I highly recommend it.

We got there an hour or so before the tour started, so we decided to get a beer and drink it in their outdoor beer garden (which is a really nice set-up). I ordered a beer that I'd never had before, the Stone Smoked Porter with Chipotle Pepper. As far as I could tell, it was just their Smoked Porter with chipotle pepper or pepper juice added at some point. The effect was really nice. I got it in a pint glass that was almost wineglass shaped, and it came with a quarter inch of fine brown head on it. The beer itself was almost totally opaque, showing hints of dark amber around the edges when held up to the sun. The smell was roasted malt and hints of hot pepper, and the taste was pretty much the same: it started out smoky and then some hops presented themselves at the last minute. After a few sips, a very pleasant heat built up in the back of my mouth. Overall it was a very nice beer; I'd rate it an 8/10 and if I ever see it in a store I'm buying it right away.

We took the (free) 4 PM tour of the brewery, which was very interesting. Our tour guide (Matt? I've already forgotten) was a fun guy and seemed well informed. The tour took about 45 minutes, which was just about right. After the tour, we got (free) 4-oz. taster glasses of several Stone brews. The rundown in order:

1. Stone Pale Ale: one of Stone's better beers, this is a very well balanced American-style pale ale. Good amount of malt, even better amount of hops. Tasty stuff, and very drinkable.

2. Stone Smoked Porter: I beer blogged this one here. It's pretty good as porters go, and it's also quite drinkable.

3. Stone IPA: a pretty good IPA, more well balanced than their Ruination IPA (which is really, really hoppy and also really, really good). It's malty for an IPA, and that makes it much easier to handle than a lot of IPAs.

4. Stone Arrogant Bastard: Stone's flagship beer (even though the Pale Ale was the first one they made). It's tagline is "you won't like this beer" (sometimes they substitute "you're not worthy"), and there's a reason for that: this is an aggressive beer. It doesn't have a readily identifiable style, but our tour guide said it started out as a red ale and grew from there. Anyway, it's very good, but the flavors really do punch you in the mouth, and it's not for the timid.

5. Stone 11^th Anniversary Ale: most people on the tour only got four samples, but this one was a reward that Todd and I got for being willing to ask questions on the tour. Actually, I think our guide was just making up excuses to give out more free beer, and for that I consider him a god among men. The beer is a dark ale, ~~almost too dark to be properly called an ale~~.

[Toast reminds us that an ale is just a beer made with top fermenting yeast. What I was thinking when I wrote this is that the beer tasted more like one of Stone's porters than one of their ales;of course, porters are in the ale family. Thanks, Toast!]

The quantity of roasted barley that went into this beer must have been enormous. It does have the amount of hops that you'd expect from an ale, and the combination is a good one. I bought a 2 L growler of this beer (they were filling them this weekend only), so a more detailed review is forthcoming.

The moral of the story is this: I heartily recommend that you go and take this tour, stay for dinner in the very nice restaurant if you have time (which we didn't), and definitely buy some beer in the store to enjoy later.

Beer Blogging - Deschutes Hop Henge Imperial IPA

2008-06-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

Let's do another one! Next out of the beer fridge is Hop Henge Imperial IPA from Deschutes Brewery up in Oregon. Deschutes is a great brewery and I've never had a bad beer from them, so I've got high hopes for this one:

The pour: a very nice golden color and a large, white head.

The aroma: it smells a lot like floral hops. There's maybe a little bit of sweet malt and citrus as well.

The taste: very good. I wasn't familiar with the term "Imperial IPA", so I looked it up. Turns out it basically means the same thing as "Double IPA", meaning that it's in the same class as, for example, Stone's Ruination IPA. Brewers who set out to make a double IPA often succumb to the temptation to make what is basically hop soda, lacking any refinement or subtlety. Deschutes hasn't done that, in my opinion. Of course, the first flavor that you encounter when you sip this beer is the floral hops, but there's more to it than that. After the floral hops fade, there's a very sweet malty taste (the combination with the floral hops makes it taste almost like honeysuckle), followed by a bitter citrus rind flavor that sneaks underneath the malt, making for an interesting, enjoyable aftertaste.

The rating: 8/10 for a very good beer. This is a well-crafted double IPA that doesn't succumb to the stereotype of the west coast American craft brewer, pushing hops into his brew kettle with a bulldozer while adding malt with a teaspoon. If you think IPAs have too bitter of an aftertaste, give this one a try (if you can find it) - the sweetness in the aftertaste is really the best characteristic of this beer.

Beer Blogging - Stone Imperial Russian Stout

2008-06-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm drinking a bottle of a limited release beer from Stone Brewing, their Imperial Russian Stout. This is a bottle from their limited Spring 2008 release. I bet it's going to be good.

The pour: this beer pours into a pint glass thick and viscous, like particularly well-used motor oil. There's a large, brown, foamy head. Held up to the light, it's totally black.

The aroma: this is a delicious smelling beer. Seriously, it smells wonderful, and very complex. There's chocolate, black licorice, espresso, roasted malt and a bit of ethanol (10.8% ABV).

The taste: it tastes a lot like it smells, which is to say that it's very complex. Imperial stouts are usually roasted and fruity, with high alcohol contents, and this one is no exception. The fruits are accounted for by the anise and also some black currant and dark cherry (which I didn't notice in the aroma). The roasted flavor comes from some thoroughly roasted malt and also hints of espresso and chocolate. I don't taste as much ethanol as I smelled. Despite how it looked pouring out of the bottle, the mouthfeel isn't as thick as you might think (although it's thick as beers go).

The rating: 9/10 for an excellent example of an Imperial Russian Stout. I'm drinking it as a pre-dinner snack, but it would go very well with deserts like chocolate or fruit, or possibly with a particularly rich meal. If you're a fan of Imperial Stouts, this one is really good. If you don't like rich fruits and strong flavors in your beers, though, you probably should stay away from this one.

Beer Blogging - AleSmith X Extra Pale Ale

2008-06-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm drinking AleSmith X Extra Pale Ale from AleSmith Brewing Co. in San Diego. I've seen AleSmith's stuff around before, but I've never actually bought any. I picked this one up the other day at a BevMo in Lake Forest.

The pour: poured into a pint glass, this beer develops a huge head with some fairly large bubbles. Despite those bubbles, the top of the head looks almost creamy. The beer itself is a light golden color, and it's a little bit cloudy because there's yeast in the bottle. There are some very fine bubbles coming up through the center of the beer even after ~10 minutes in the glass.

The aroma: smells like hops, specifically floral hops. There's a little bit of grapefruit in there too. There's no malt to speak of, and no ethanol either (the ABV value is not on the bottle).

The taste: there's not much malt here either, in keeping with the designation on the bottle that this is an extra pale ale. AleSmith seems to have avoided the temptation to shovel hops into their brew kettle by the ton, unlike some breweries that try to make American pale ales. There's some bready malt right in the front, and then the hops take over (but not too much). Again, the hops are mostly floral, with slight citrus accents. The aftertaste is very nice, with a light maltiness that fades just when you're ready to take the next sip. A lot of beers sold in 22 oz. bombers like this are so rich that you wouldn't dream of drinking more than one; this beer is extremely drinkable.

The rating: 9/10. I really like this beer, even if I'd call it a regular old American Pale Ale rather than an Extra Pale Ale (the styles are so similar that the difference isn't worth arguing about). If you like hops but think that IPAs are too bitter and strong, this beer would be right up your alley. I'm assuming that AleSmith isn't available nationally, but if you're in California you should pick up a bottle.

Beer Blogging - Red Hook Long Hammer IPA

2008-05-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

Since that last beer was a little disappointing, I'm going to try another one from the ol' beer fridge. Next up is Red Hook's Long Hammer IPA.

The pour: a clear golden color with a big, fluffy white head. It pretty much looks like your standard IPA.

The aroma: surprisingly light, considering all that head. You'd think there would be a ton of aroma coming off this beer. What I can pick up smells like I expect from an IPA: just floral hops and no malt. There's no citrus to speak of.

The taste: It pretty much tastes like your standard IPA, too. That's certainly not meant to be a criticism of this beer; it's a good example of a simple little India Pale Ale. The dominant flavor, of course, is hops - not the wallop of grapefruit and orange peel you'll sometimes get in those double/triple IPAs, but a nice, mellow floral taste. It finishes off with a little bitterness and a little malt, but not too much of either. The bitterness lasts the longest, but it's not so strong that it gets in the way of the next sip. There's no hint of alcohol (6.5% ABV) and a moderate amount of carbonation.

The rating: 8/10 for possibly the least intimidating IPA I've ever had. A lot of people are turned off from this style because the hops are too bitter or harsh for them. This beer won't do that to you. The drinkability is very high for an IPA. If you don't like IPAs, you might actually like this beer. Give it a try before you write the style off altogether.

Beer Blogging - Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale

2008-05-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

So, how has everyone's Memorial Day been? Hopefully you took a moment to remember why the holiday exists. Hopefully you also ate a steak the size of your head like I did earlier. Now it's basketball time, and it's also delicious (hopefully) beer time. I'm drinking a 22 oz. bomber of Rogue's Morimoto Soba Ale.

The pour: the beer is a cloudy golden color, with lots of bubbles in the bottom of the glass. There's a large, white, fluffy head that's in ho hurry to dissolve.

The aroma: it's both hoppy and nutty. I would say the dominant aroma is hops, with bready and nutty smells underneath that.

The taste: Not at all like it smells. When I first poured it and smelled it, I was expecting a bready version of a pale ale, but that's not at all what I have here. It's more like a lager with some sharp, roasted flavors added in. The flavor starts out like a lager, by which I mean that there's not much strong flavor at all, just a sourdough maltiness. After that comes a sharp hop bite and the toasty flavor of roasted soba (buckwheat). There's a lot of carbonation, and I don't know whether or not to blame that, but the beer tastes kind of watered down (something I've never dreamed of saying about a Rogue beer).

The rating: 5/10. A decidedly mediocre offering from a generally outstanding brewer. The watered down taste kills it - I can see the flavors being good, but there needs to be more of everything. That being said, I can see this beer pairing decently well with delicately flavored sushi or a light Japanese udon soup. Anything more than that, the flavors of the food would dominate this beer. I don't think I'll buy this again - it's just not that interesting.

Beer Blogging - New Belgium Springboard Ale

2008-05-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

It's a crisp spring day here in Southern California, and as such I decided to drink a spring seasonal beer. Specifically, I have here a glass of Springboard Ale from New Belgium Brewery.

According to the description on the side of the bottle, Springboard Ale "combines oats, ancient Chinese herbs and Mt. Hood hops to maintain a balanced equilibrium for such an exhilarating ale. This cloudy blonde has a spirited threshold, and a creamy body, followed by a refreshingly dry finish." The front of the label says that it's a blend of 98% ale brewed with Wormwood, Lycium and Schisandra, and 2% ale aged in oak barrels. Let's see if all that verbiage adds up to a tasty beverage.

The pour: well, it certainly is a cloudy blonde. There's a big head that comes up as I finish pouring, and then just as quickly fades away to lace. I must have poured it too quickly, because there's a layer of yeast left in the bottom of the bottle.

The aroma: it's almost fruity, actually, which I didn't expect from the description on the label. The main aroma seems to be lemon, but not a hoppy lemon peel. There's no malt to speak of. It certainly smells like a seasonal brewed for springtime.

The taste: They nailed the description of the body - it is very creamy. There's almost no carbonation, which is kind of strange in a beer with this delicate of a flavor. The first flavor to hit you is a very light malt, not the strong toasted biscuit that I've come to expect from New Belgium beers. After that is the creamy section of the beer, which has that lemon flavor and also some very light hops. The aftertaste is almost tangy, which I think comes from the herbs but I can't be sure. Overall this beer is very different from anything I've ever had from New Belgium. That's not a bad thing; it's always good to see that a brewer is trying new things.

The rating: 7/10. The flavors, once you can pick them out (they're very faint), work well together. The reason that it didn't get a higher rating is this: when a seasonal has a light, almost fruity flavor like this, I'm looking for it to be refreshing, a warm day kind of beer. This one almost gets there, but the aftertaste detracts from that a bit and the drinkability suffers as a result. I think the Chinese herbs take away from my enjoyment of the beer. Your mileage may vary, of course, and I'd say it's worth buying a 6-pack and trying it.

Beer Blogging - Stone Vertical Epic #7

2008-05-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

This beer is part of Stone's Vertical Epic series. If you're not familiar with the idea, I'll let them tell you about it:

As with any good epic, herein lies the promise of larger-than-life experiences, heroics and twists & turns as the adventure unfolds. These bottle-conditioned ales are specifically designed to be aged until sometime after December 12th, 2012. Provided you can wait that long. At that time, enjoy them in a "vertical" tasting. Each one unique to it's year of release. Each with its own "twist & turn" in the plotline. Each one released one year, one month and one day from the previous year's edition.

To my everlasting shame, I had never heard of this before last month. The first beer in the Vertical Epic series was released six years ago, on Feb. 2, 2002. The bottle I have here was released on July 7, 2007. I found it in a very small liquor store along a highway outside of Anza Borrego State Park in San Diego County. I was eating at a Mexican restaurant that didn't serve beer, so I went next door to the liquor store to buy a 6-pack. I came out with the 6-pack and this:

Since this is designed to be opened four and a half years from now, I feel sort of bad about drinking it tonight. If I find more, I will certainly buy it (along with any others in the series I can find). I'm not confident, though, since I'll be leaving the west coast in a two months. It seems kind of silly to age a single bottle of beer for 4 years. If I can do even half the series I will wait, but for now I'm going to enjoy this one. Let's see what we've got.

The pour: a thick, white, fluffy head springs up right away and disappears almost as quickly. The beer itself has a very nice golden honey color.

The aroma: it smells like a strong Belgian ale, with lots of malt. The aromas are apple, banana and honey, and a little bit of biscuit.

The taste: it tastes like a strong Belgian ale as well. That same honey flavor is prominent, as is the banana. I'm starting to doubt whether I smelled apple at all, because I can't taste any. As it warms up a little, I can taste a bit of coriander and maybe a little bubblegum. The bottle tells me that the brewer added orange peel, lemon peel and grapefruit peel, and all three come through (well, the taste of citrus peel generally does) during the aftertaste, as well as a decent wallop of ginger. There's a ton of carbonation (made naturally in the bottle), which is actually a pretty good complement to the flavors. I can taste some alcohol, but not a lot (the bottle says 8.4%). Overall there is a very nice progression from sweet out front to spices in the aftertaste. Those guys at Stone really know how to put a beer together.

Maybe it would be better after some more aging (it's had 9 months in the bottle, but was meant to sit for 5 years), but I couldn't wait. They do have some very detailed homebrewing recipes for all these beers at this website; maybe I'll make it when I move and get some homebrewing supplies, and let it age for a while.

The rating: 7/10. It's a decent Belgian ale right now. If you see some and you have more patience than me, pick some up and let it sit for a while. I'll bet it gets better.

Beer Blogging - Maredsous Triple

2008-04-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged this one before! It's Maredsous - 10 - Triple, and I already know it's going to be good. I'm drinking this along with my dinner, a warm salad with beef that was slow cooked in chianti and garlic. Let's get drinkin'!

The pour: it's a very nice red-gold color, and it's fairly clear so you can see all the bubbles in the bottom of the glass. There's a huge, fluffy head that leaves lace all around the glass as it recedes.

The aroma: it's malty! There are hints of apple and honey, and no sign of hops anywhere. That's to be expected for a Belgian ale, especially a triple. These beers wouldn't be called "balanced", as such, except in that they can have malt flavors which complement each other.

The taste: similarly malty. Really malty. I can taste honey, apple, and pear. There's almost too much carbonation; the mouthfeel is almost like champagne. I think that if there was a little less carbonation, the flavors might be too strong, so I'm not going to complain. This beer has 10% ABV, but you would never know it from the smell or taste. I like that in a beer - it holds its alcohol well. The only place where it might come out is the aftertaste, but even then it's just a warmth in the back of your throat, not an actual taste. Overall it's a very good beer, but you have to be willing to put up with more carbonation than you usually get in a beer.

The rating: 8/10. I've had this beer before and I think it had less carbonation, so that might not be a constant for all bottles of Maredsous Triple. I have to say that the Maredsous Double (with the "8" on the label instead of the "10") is a much better beer. If you like Belgian Triples this one's not a bad one, but if you're looking at a bottle of this on a shelf there's probably a bottle of Ommegang Three Philosophers right near by. Get that one instead.

UPDATE: Shit. I did do it already! For fuck's sake, it's the second result on a Google search for Maredsous Triple! It just wasn't in my beer blogging archive for some reason. Last time I gave it a 9/10, probably because that bottle was less carbonated. Let's split the difference and call it an 8.5/10.

That rating brings the average of all my beer ratings up to 6.799 out of 10; that's the average of 82 ratings. Wow, I've blogged about a fair amount of beers!

Beer Blogging - Moylan;s Moylander Double IPA

2008-03-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

It's finally baseball season! Right now I'm watching the Angels' season opener; they're trailing the Twins 3-2 in the top of the 8th. Let's drink some beer.

The pour: Golden red with a lot of fine bubbles that result in a white, thin head. It's a pretty looking beer.

The aroma: It smells like an IPA. Lots of floral, fruity hops. I can smell orange, grapefruit, and a little sweetness (honey maybe).

The taste: Much more going on here than there was in the aroma. The first thing that hits your tongue is that sweetness that it's still hard to define, but I'll say it's honey. The label says this beer has "double hops and double malt", but if they put a lot of malt in here I can't find it. Next is the floral hops and the orange, but that transitions quickly into the last flavor/aftertaste. The finish is very bitter, with hints of grapefruit, and you have to wait a second before you can take another sip. There's zero hint of alcohol (8.5% by volume), and a good amount of carbonation. Overall, this beer isn't that well put together. They were going for an IPA with more flavor when they made this a double IPA, but all they did was drown the malt in a sea of hops. I'm not a shrinking violet by any means when it comes to hops, but I do appreciate a little balance - there's such a thing as going overboard. The overall effort wasn't that successful, and even the beautiful pour can't salvage it.

The rating: 4/10. The label is covered in medals that this beer presumably won at different beer tasting festivals, but I can't for the life of me see how. It does have live yeast in it, so maybe it's too old or not old enough or something. Still, I can't see recommending it because it's such a one-trick pony. There are probably 10 better, more interesting IPAs (Lagunitas Maximus, for one) brewed within 50 miles of where this one is made (Novato, CA). Buy one of those.

Beer Blogging - Bear Republic Big Bear Black Stout

2008-03-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

I have another excellent beer to drink tonight, from Bear Republic brewery in Northern California. It's their Big Bear Black Stout. Let's see what we've got here...

The Pour: This is a deep black beer. Holding it up to the light, I see absolutely nothing coming through. Even with Guinness, you see a little ruby around the edges of the glass, but not with this one. The head is a deep tan, with lots of large bubbles. It's almost creamy looking on top, and it's certainly not in any hurry to dissipate.

The Aroma: It smells strongly of roasted malt. There might be a little bit of floral hops under there as well, which is pretty common in beers from northern California.

The Taste: There is some serious roasted malt happening here. The first thing you taste is that roasted malt, which tastes like espresso and chocolate. That's followed by just a hint of floral hops, which don't taste out of place as they would in some other dark beers. The aftertaste is a little bit sour with hints of caramel malt and vanilla. The vanilla sticks around longer than anything else and provides a very nice finish to every sip. There's not too much carbonation, just enough to keep things interesting.

The Rating: 9/10. If you like stouts, this one is an exemplary specimen. You might not be able to find it outside of California, but if you happen to be in the area and you like stouts you have a moral obligation to buy a bottle.

Beer Blogging - Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout

2008-03-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

This one looks good. It's a beer I picked up at a great local liquor store: Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout, brewed with Colombian coffee. I've never had a bad beer from Lagunitas, so let's see if the streak continues.

The Pour: A dark beer with a tan, foamy head. About like you'd expect from a stout or a porter. It looks pretty good.

The Aroma: I know it's a stout, but it smells like an ale. Well, an ale that was brewed with coffee, that is. There are hops and malt together in the aroma, which is weird for a stout. There is also the unmistakable smell of espresso. That's good - I like espresso.

The Taste: If it weren't for the coffee, I don't think this beer would taste much like a stout at all. Then again, maybe that's the idea - they made an ale, and the coffee turned it into a stout. If so, mission accomplished. It's actually a really well balanced beer; there's a big hit of hops out front, and then a malty coffee finish. There's not as much carbonation as the head would suggest, and no hint of the 8.3% ABV. This is a nice, well put-together beer. Of course, when I see Lagunitas on the label I expect a finely crafted beer, and this one didn't disappoint.

The Rating: 8/10. Don't be scared by that "stout" on the label, this one drinks a lot more like a dark ale. There are some hops, but even if you don't like hoppy beers this one will probably be OK for you. If you see it, I highly recommend buying one.

Beer Blogging - Snakebite

2008-03-17T21:24:00.001-07:00

OK, last one for the night: the Snakebite, which is Guinness floated over pear cider (Wyder's in this case).

The Pour: This one is poured just like the Black & Tan, but it looks a lot cooler when it's done because of the contrast in colors between the Wyder's Pear Cider and the Guinness Draft. It's also a lot harder to pour without having the layers mix. You really have to go slow; I find it helps to fill the spoon with Guinness first and slowly pour it over the cider, creating a layer of cider before you pour the whole mass of Guinness on top. The result looks pretty nice:

The Aroma: Unlike for the Black & Tan, you can smell the pear cider in this one. It smells like a sweet Guinness, basically.

The Taste: Also unlike the Black & Tan, you can taste the pear cider from the first sip. That's because of the mixing that happens right away, but also because the pear cider is so sugary, it almost overwhelms the Guinness. As the drink warms up, it starts to taste more like Guinness.

The Rating: 7/10. The mix of sweet pear cider and smoky Guinness is actually very appealing. I'd recommend it.

Beer Blogging - Miner's Lung

2008-03-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

This is only sort of beer blogging, since there's also vodka in this thing. Specifically, the recipe for the Miner's Lung is:

Pour 3 shots of vodka into a pint glass
Fill with Guinness

That's it. Here are the ingredients:

And here's the vodka in the pint glass.

The final product:

The Pour: Pour 3 shots of vodka into a pint glass, and then fill it with Guinness Draught. A full bottle (11.2 fl oz., for Guinness Draught) should just fit into the pint glass. The final product looks just like Guinness, with maybe a little smaller head.

The Aroma: You can really smell the vodka. I was thinking that the Guinness might hide it, but no, not so much. The smell of alcohol pretty much drowns out everything else, which makes sense because if you do the math, you find that this is essentially a pint of Guinness with 13% ABV.

The Taste: It's the strangest thing. I know what Guinness tastes like, and I'm expecting to taste Guinness, but upon my first sip I can't taste Guinness in this pint glass. After a few more sips, I can tell what's going on here: the first thing you taste is vodka, and the aftertaste is vodka, but in the middle there's some nice Guinness flavor. It's an interesting drinking experience, to be sure.

The Rating: 5/10. It's definitely not for everyone, and I don't think I will ever make it again. I guess if you had some top shelf vodka (with less of a distinctive taste than Smirnoff), it would probably taste more like Guinness. Maybe I'll try that some day if I ever buy good vodka. Anyway, I can't say I recommend a Miner's Lung, as such. Try it if you want.

Beer Blogging - Black & Tan

2008-03-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to make some drinks with Guinness in honor of St. Patrick's day (and, more importantly, Tart's birthday). First up is a classic, the Black & Tan, which for the uninitiated is Guinness Draught floating on Bass Pale Ale.

The Pour: Making your own black & tan at home is easier than you think, and you don't need to buy one of these things. First, fill the pint glass half-full with Bass (or Harp, to make a Half & Half). Then take a cheap metal spoon and bend it at the neck so that the bowl of the spoon is 90° to the handle. Put the bottom of the spoon a couple inches above the Bass and pour the Guinness (use Guinness Draught, not Stout) into the spoon slowly. Because the Guinness is more viscous than the Bass, it won't mix (at least not right away), but instead just sit on top.

The Aroma: It smells like Guinness, which is to say that it smells a lot like roasted malt. The heavy top layer of Guinness effectively prevents any of the hops from the Bass from getting up to the top of the glass.

The Taste: The first several sips start out just like Guinness, which I beer blogged here. A brief restatement: the first sip of a Guinness draught should absolutely be taken before the head starts to dissipate, because it is delicious. It's almost like the first sip of a cappuccino, because of the fine bubbles that build up due to the draught widget (a little plastic thing filled with nitrogen, used to replicate the N₂/CO₂ tap used for Guinness in bars). The beer itself is light and roasted, and the flavor gets fuller as the beer warms up.

Once the layers mix (which takes a few minutes if you're drinking slow, which you should be), the drink totally changes. Every sip gives you the full Guinness flavor, mixed with light flowery hops from the Bass. You can't taste all the flavor of the Bass, but what comes through complements the Guinness very nicely and actually lightens up the roasted flavor a little bit.

The Rating: 8/10. Don't get it in a bar, just make it yourself. It's easy to pour, and since you can't fit two bottles of beer into one glass you have a great excuse to have two drinks. Once you can taste two beers at the same time, it's a really nice drink with a flavor that will probably appeal even to people who don't like Guinness.

Beer Blogging - Anchor Brewing Liberty Ale

2008-03-03T20:03:00.000-08:00

What's an evening without beer? I can use this one, because Hillary Clinton is on The Daily Show right now, and she's kind of annoying me. I turn on this show to watch interviews and comedy, not campaign commercials. Let's drink some beer.

Pour: the beer has a clear, golden color and a fluffy white head that sticks around for quite a while. It looks like there's quite a bit of carbonation.

Aroma: I'm a little stuffed up right now, so I might not be getting everything here. There are definitely hops present, smelling like pink grapefruit. There's also some very faint malt.

Taste: it tastes a lot different than it smells (which may be a function of my congestion). This is one of those beers that tastes as good out of a keg as it does out of the bottle; I know this because I just had this one out of my girlfriend's brother-in-law's keg a couple weeks ago. For all that the hops dominate the aroma they really stay out of the way in the flavor, giving the malts room to assert themselves and leading to a surprisingly complex beer. The first taste you get is honey, followed by a toasty malt for a really nice effect. The hops show up after that, and they don't taste as grapefruity as they smelled. They're more floral.

Rating: 8/10. It's not Anchor Steam, but it's a very well put together beer in the American Ale style. I am a big fan; if you like Fat Tire but wish it had some more hops, this beer would be right up your alley. Go get some.

Beer Blogging - Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale

2008-03-02T18:48:00.000-08:00

Beer beer beer. Specifically, Ricardo's Red Rocket Ale from Bear Republic Brewing. Here's what it has to say about itself: "Red Rocket Ale is a bastardized Scottish style red ale packed with distinctive flavors and an aggressive hop character rivaled by none. This unfiltered, bottle-conditioned, amber colored ale breaks all style molds". That certainly does sound promising.

The pour: a dark red ale with an enormous, fluffy tan head. Seriously, the head on this thing was imposing. I probably could have floated a dime on it, had I been so inclined and had a dime handy. The head went down over the course of about 5 minutes, leaving lots of lace on the sides of the glass.

The aroma: mmmm, hoppy. Lots of floral hops are the main thing, and there are some sweet malts lurking underneath. There are a lot more hops than I was expecting, actually, which is a good thing. I like hops.

The taste: a lot like the smell, actually. This is an exceptionally well-balanced beer; I'm actually having a little trouble picking out when each flavor transitions into the next. There is definitely a delineation, in that the first part of the beer is the Scottish red ale part, and the second part of the beer adds the hops. You don't notice the switch when it's happening, though, which is kind of cool. This beer would be too hoppy, except for the hints of malt that pop up throughout. They're sweet, they're caramel-tasting, and they take the edge off of the grapefruit and lemon peel of the hops. The effect is really great. I'm a big fan of this beer, and I'm very sad that I'm only now trying it for the first time.

The rating: 9/10. If you like Scotch ales (like McEwans, for example), and you like IPAs, this beer is custom-made just for you. It's sort of the best of both worlds. This is a well-put-together beer. You should buy some as soon as possible.

Beer Blogging - He'Brew Genesis Ale

2008-02-27T21:53:00.000-08:00

Here's another beer that I bought this morning after seeing it for the first time in Southern California. It's He'Brew Genesis Ale, from a brewery in Saratoga, NY. Its tagline is "the chosen beer", so I had to choose it.

Pour: the beer has a very appealing golden brown color with hints of red when held up to light. The head is white and fluffy and dissipates into lace fairly quickly. It looks like there's not a ton of carbonation here.

Aroma: there is a distinctive smell of hops over the top of a bready malt. It's a pretty simple aroma, typical of a brown ale.

Taste: it's kind of like a more interesting version of Newcastle. I say that because it's exactly the same as Newcastle (sweet and malty with a very light hop character), until it finishes off with a nice, almost smoky aftertaste. Basically, this is a well-put together brown ale with enough distinguishing characteristics to keep it interesting.

Rating: 7/10. If it had slightly more aggressive hops, I might give it an 8 or even an 9. But it doesn't, so I won't. But I'll buy it again if I see it, because it's very drinkable and just tasty enough. If you like Newcastle, you will definitely like this beer, and it's about the same price. You should buy it.

Beer Blogging - Flying Horse Royal Lager Beer

2008-02-27T20:39:00.000-08:00

I just got home from playing (poorly) in a basketball game, and I need to drink my sorrows away. Plus, I bought a new bottle of a beer that I've never seen before. It's called Flying Horse Royal Lager Beer, all the way from India. Let's give it a shot:

Pour: it looks exactly like a lager. It's a nice light gold color, with a very short-lived white head. The bubbles coming from the bottom of the glass persist for more than 10 minutes.

Aroma: smells a lot like a lager. There's a slight sourdough smell, and I could have sworn I smelled some hops at first. They weren't there in my second sniff, though, so maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part.

Taste: pretty good, for a lager, which (for me) means that the flavors are understated, while still being complex. The first taste is a somewhat sharp sourness, which is followed by some bready taste. That combination might have accounted for the sourdough aroma. Toward the end there's a hint of hops and a little bit of sweetness that almost tastes like honey. All that carbonation gives the beer a very nice mouthfeel. I don't usually say this about a lager, but this is a good beer.

Rating: 7/10. It doesn't have the strong flavors I usually associate with a very good beer, but it's well put together. If you like lighter beers and you see this one, I recommend picking one up.

Beer Blogging - Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA

2008-02-24T19:25:00.000-08:00

This beer is a regular on tap at the UCI campus pub, and I'm a big fan. I decided to pick up a 22-oz. bottle from my liquor store to see if it tastes as good when it's not coming from a keg. Let's see.

The pour looks the same as the stuff on tap: a slightly cloudy golden color with a fluffy white head. The head disappears within about 30 seconds, leaving a thick layer of lace on top of the beer. The aroma smells like a pretty standard IPA, with citrusy hops floating on top of just a hint of malt. Overall the aroma isn't as strong as I expected.

The taste is, frankly, really good. Even though this is an IPA with 7% ABV, it's not hard to drink at all. There's not nearly as much bitterness as you'd expect, for example. What bitterness there is presents itself right out front, in the form of a grapefruit flavor. The malts come next, with some bready taste and maybe a little sweetness. Caramel, maybe? I guess somebody with more of a sweet tooth would appreciate that part a little more. There's really not much alcohol taste to speak of. The mouthfeel is pretty good; it might benefit from a little more carbonation, but that's just a personal preference. The grapefruit comes back for the aftertaste, and sticks around for a good long while.

Overall, this is a very well-balanced beer. The hops aren't so strong that they totally drown out the ~~hops~~ malt [that didn't exactly make sense, did it?], which can be a problem with some IPAs (especially some of the ones from Northern California). I would rate this beer a 9/10, adding that if you like IPAs and you see a bottle of this beer you must buy one. It's just as good from the bottle as it is on tap, too, which cannot be said about all beers.

Beer Blogging - Samuel Adams Old Fezziwig Ale

2008-02-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

This beer comes from the Sam Adams Winter variety case that my girlfriend got me for Christmas. That's right, she got me a case of beer for Christmas. Is she a great girlfriend, or what?

The pour: poured into a pint glass, there's almost no head to speak of. A very thin tan foam was there for a second, but it disappeared quickly. A predictable corollary is that the aroma isn't very strong. What there is smells malty, with a little hint of ginger and some hops. Smells good.

The taste: much bolder than the aroma would suggest, and more complex too. When I first took this beer out of the fridge, it was a little too warm for all the flavors to assert themselves. After a few minutes warming up, however, I can really taste everything. The first flavor is malt, mostly molasses and caramel. That fades nicely into a blend of winter spices, mostly ginger but with a hint of orange as well. The aftertaste is warm and malty; it's just the kind of aftertaste you want in a winter brew. This is a nicely put together beer.

The rating: 8/10. This is a good beer for a cold winter night. Just make sure it's not too cold when you drink it, or you'll miss the best parts.

Beer Blogging - Samuel Adams White Ale

2008-02-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

I haven't beer blogged in a few weeks, and I have some good beers in my beer fridge right now, so let's get beer bloggin'. First up for the evening, Samuel Adams White Ale.

This is their spring seasonal, so I don't exactly know why it was in my local Albertsons this weekend, but I'll take it. It was pretty warm here today, so it kind of feels like spring. I think it counts.

The pour: poured into a pint glass, the beer developed a huge head, very white and fluffy. The body looks a lot like a typical Belgian white ale, with a light golden color and a bit of haze.

The aroma: it also smells like your typical Belgian white ale, with strong smells of orange peel and coriander. There's also a hint of malt, but the coriander kind of washes it out.

The taste: well, it's 3 for 3, since it also tastes like your typical Belgian white ale. There's quite a bit of carbonation right up front, which kind of washes out the flavor and makes the first impression almost watery. It also keeps the full flavor progression from coming through. The first flavor that wanders out of the fog of carbonation is the coriander, which is not as strong as you'd think it would be. I don't taste the orange peel at all; after the coriander a little malt and a little hops show up. The hops stick around through the aftertaste, with maybe some of that orange peel showing up. If it's there, it's certainly not asserting itself.

The rating: 6/10. For a brewery that has advertisements focusing on how much quality control goes into all their beers, Samuel Adams is frustratingly hit-or-miss on their seasonals. Their Winter Lager, for example, is quite good. Others are lacking. This one is kind of the middle of the road. If you like Belgian white ales, don't bother, as you'll just be disappointed. If you like lighter beers and aren't a fan of a lot of hops or strong, sweet malts, you might want to give this one a try. It's very drinkable, so if you get a hot snap this spring you might want to pick some up to enjoy on your porch.

Beer Blogging - Trader Joe's Dunkelweizen

2008-01-03T19:50:00.001-08:00

After that abortion of taste, I need something good, and I'm hoping this is it:

It's a new beer from Trader Joe's house brand, Josephsbrau: a Dunkelweisen, or amber unfiltered wheat beer. At least, I think it's new; yesterday was the first time I ever saw it in my local Trader Joe's so I picked up a 6-pack.

Poured into a hefeweizen glass, the beer develops a thick tan head that sticks around for quite a while. The color, as you would expect from the name, is a deep, cloudy amber. The aroma is intensely malty, with some floral hops underneath.

The taste is a lot like the smell, except that the malt is a little thinner than I expected and the floral hops are more present. The beginning of the beer has a light hop taste and a bit of bubblegum as well. The darker malts come in after that, before fading into a floral aftertaste. The biggest disappointment here is the mouthfeel: there's almost no carbonation there. Maybe that's only the case in light of the extremely carbonated beverage I tried before this one, but I don't think so. I think it's just not that carbonated after being poured into the glass.

The overall effect is pretty good though, and the aftertaste is a strong finish: there's the floral hops, and when those fade there's a very pleasant caramel malt. What holds the beer back, flavor-wise, is that thinness. It makes the beer almost watery, which is a big no-no in a wheat beer. It feels weird to call a beer with so many different flavors "watery", but that's the distinct impression I'm getting, possibly because of the very little carbonation. For that, I have to rate it a 6/10; it would be a seven or an eight if the flavors were a little stronger all around. Still, it's not a bad beer, and the light flavor makes it very drinkable. If you like malty beers but not strong, sugary flavors, you could do worse than to pick up a 6-pack.

Beer Blogging - Red Death Budweiser and Clamato

2008-01-03T19:21:00.001-08:00

Because, apparently, I really hate myself. Let's drink some clam:

That glass there is filled with Budweiser Chelada, which is a mixture of Budweiser, Clamato (warning: Clamato is kind of a disgusting idea if you're not familiar with it), salt and lime. The can says that it's "Budweiser beer with natural flavors and certified color". No explanation is given as to what "certified color" actually means. I bought this tallboy for a couple bucks at my local Albertson's the other day as kind of a novelty, so I better blog about it, right?

It pours into the glass looking exactly like strawberry soda, right down to the huge pink head and excessive carbonation. I don't know why, but that's kind of unsettling. The aroma smells like salty Budweiser, but after a second sniff I picked up some tomato and a faint, threatening whiff of clam. Here we go...

That is not good. I just took a very small sip, the smallest possible bit that I could ingest to get the flavor. I think it was a mistake. The flavor progression goes like this: CO₂ (from the incredible amount of carbonation, even after that huge head), Budweiser, lime, salt, tomato, CLAM. For a second I had some hope that the clam flavor wouldn't show up, but then it did. With a vengeance.

Many beers will have aftertastes that get better or more complex after you swallow. The Budweiser Chelada is like that, except it's the exact opposite of that. Now, I'm not a wimp about flavors. I never do chasers with shots. But there was a moment there where I would have consumed anything to get the progressively more awful aftertaste of this beer out of my mouth.

For unfathomable reasons, I took a second sip, which was exactly the same as the first sip. That's enough of that. Because it's what I do, I guess I have to rate the beer. It gets a 0/10, the first perfectly awful rating ever on this here blog. DO NOT BUY THIS BEER. Don't even pick up the can, just to be safe. I can't imagine why anyone would enjoy this concoction, but whoever they are they're probably terrible people.

Beer Blogging - Sweetwater Brewing Georgia Brown Ale

2007-12-24T18:48:00.000-08:00

Continuing with the Southern theme, my next beer of the evening also comes from Sweetwater Brewing in Atlanta. This one is the Georgia Brown Ale, which is described on the side of the bottle as being "an easy drinkin' back porch brown ale [that] is as smooth as a Bill Clinton apology". Yes, really.

Now that's what a brown ale should look like. Superficially, it looks a lot like Newcastle does in a glass: medium-dark brown color, a rich amber when held up to the light, and a thin brown head. The aroma is not all that interesting, just a bit of sourdough over a bit of malt. The malt smells a bit like caramel, but I can't tell for sure.

Considering the relatively thin smell, the taste is a nice surprise. It starts out a little watery in the front of the mouth, but then really develops nicely as it moves toward the back. There's a big dollop of sweet malt that tastes like caramel or maybe toffee. There are some light hops and a molasses sweetness in the aftertaste. It's not blowing me away, but then brown ales rarely do.

Overall, I'll give this one a 6/10 (rating scale explained here). There's nothing wrong with it, exactly, and it's interesting in its own way. It's also very drinkable - nice smooth mouthfeel, with just enough carbonation to keep it from being flat. There's just something missing, something that belongs in that first watery instant when the beer hits your tongue. Maybe if they added anything it would stop being a brown ale. I dunno. If you're burned out on hoppy beers and want some light malt that's not too sweet, or if you're a fan of Newcastle, pick up a 6-pack of Georgia Brown and you won't be sorry. Since I'm not a big brown ale fan, this one would have had to be really special to get rated a 7 or higher, but that's just me.

Beer Blogging - Sweetwater Brewing 420 Extra Pale Ale

2007-12-24T17:51:00.000-08:00

While I'm down here in the sticks, I figured I'd buy some beers that I've never seen in Southern California, and then I'd drink them. To that end, here's a glass of 420 Extra Pale Ale from Sweetwater Brewing Company down in Atlanta.

This beer is described on the bottle as "a crisp pale ale accentuated by a stimulating hop character, handcrafted with selected malts and Pacific Northwest hops". We'll see about that.

Pouring it into a glass, I see that it has a very nice clear amber color. The head was white and thin, and dissolved quickly into a little bit of foam on top of the beer. The aroma was fairly malty for an extra pale ale, with the hops lurking underneath.

The taste: mmm, hoppy! They weren't kidding about that stimulating hop character. The flavor of this beer is like the aroma, except exactly the opposite. The hops come right out front and hit you in the mouth, followed by some sweet, light malt. The aftertaste has more hops, pretty much the same as the ones at the beginning. I don't know if this is so much a re-emergence of the hops as it is just the malt falling away. The hops never really leave, and overall they give the beer a nice bite. In contrast to the Abita Turbodog, there's a good, carbonated mouthfeel going on here, and you can actually taste a bit of alcohol (again, damn Southern brewers didn't put an ABV value on the bottle).

I'll rate this one a solid 8/10. The malt and hops are very well balanced; that is, you can really taste the malt. This is a good example of the style. If you're in the Atlanta area, I highly recommend picking some up.

Beer Blogging - Abita Turbodog Ale

2007-12-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

It's time for some ~~Christmas Eve~~ Winter Holiday Festival Eve beer blogging! First up: Turbodog Ale, from Abita Brewing in Abita Springs, Louisiana. I got this in a Publix grocery store here in Tennessee; they don't sell it (as far as I know) in Southern California. Let's see what we've got here.

I had one of these last night out of the bottle, and I didn't think it would be nearly this dark. It poured with a big, solid-looking head that decreased in size but shows no signs of disappearing. The aroma (which is much stronger in the glass) was a surprise, too. The label describes the beer as a dark brown ale brewed with three kinds of malt and dry-hopped with Willamette hops, but the main smell is a very strong sourdough. Underneath that is the malt, and maybe a very faint suggestion of floral hops. Interesting - I wonder if it tastes very different out of the glass, too?

I think it does. This is a complex beer, to be sure, and you can tell it was dry-hopped. In fact, it might be a little too complex. The flavors are all crashing into each other; I think the problem is too many different kinds of malt. The bottle says they use pale, crystal and chocolate malts. I think they need to pick two (probably throwing out the chocolate would be best).

The taste is hard to describe, but if I had to guess something I'd say that it starts off with a harsh floral hop flavor and finishes with chocolate malt, which persists into the aftertaste (along with some of that sourdough). Between the hops and the malts is a weird blank space that tastes almost watery, quite a trick in a beer with so much going on. There's no hint of alcohol, so I have no idea how much is in there because they don't seem to print ABV values on the labels of beers sold in Tennessee. [UPDATE: The website's Turbodog page says it's "a bit stronger" than their other beers, which I'm guessing means ~6.5%]

One interesting thing: the head disappeared after a few minutes, and with it went the aroma. Seriously, once the head is gone there's no smell coming off this beer. Strange. There's also kind of a lousy mouthfeel, because the beer blew it's carbonation wad in building up that thick head. A porter or a stout is allowed to feel this flat, but an ale should not. The overall effect is profoundly uninteresting.

The rating: 4/10. I think it's actually better out of the bottle, which is not a positive thing. I can't think of any reason I'd recommend this beer, so it's not recommended for anyone who's got access to anything better.

Beer Blogging - Maredsous Triple

2007-10-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't beer blogged in a while, mostly because grad school is keeping me busier than usual this month. Right now I'm sitting here staring at a draft of a paper I'm writing, wondering (a) how I'm going to finish it and (b) why I'm working on this instead of my dissertation. My solution: beer! Specifically, a Belgian beer. More specifically, Maredsous Triple, which looks a lot like this:

This beer is part of a 6-pack of these 750 mL bottles that was a birthday gift from my dad (along with an incredible bottle of scotch). Is that a wonderful gift, or what?

After pouring, I'd say that Maredsous Triple looks like your typical Belgian abbey ale. It's a nice golden color, not totally clear but not cloudy like a hefeweizen. There's a huge foamy head that bubbled up despite my best efforts to pour slowly, and after a minute it faded, leaving lace on the sides of the glass. The aroma is very malty, with some fruity notes.

The taste is simply delicious. Belgian triples are very strong beers, both in terms of flavor and alcohol content. This particular beer has 10% alcohol, making it basically like a bottle of wine, alcohol-wise. The taste, like the aroma, is mostly malty. There's a taste of apple and maybe a little of pear, and some honey behind that. The hops are mostly non-existent, which is actually good in a beer like this. Bitter citrus or floral flavors wouldn't fit in with the overall taste of the beer. As for the aftertaste, it's mostly that apple flavor sticking around, with a little bit of hops sneaking in. It's long but not too long, so there's a lot of temptation to drink this beer really fast. I'm resisting, though, because it's very tasty and I want to enjoy it.

I'd give this beer a rating of 9/10. If you like Belgian triples, this is an excellent example of the style that I would highly recommend. If you like other malty beers (like barleywines, for example), you should definitely give this one a shot if you can find it at your local purveyors of booze.

Beer Blogging - Kennebunkport Pumpkin Ale

2007-09-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin beer is back! Tonight I'm drinking a pumpkin ale from Kennebunkport brewing company in Portland, ME.

And no, I'm not beer blogging from the office at 10 AM. I wrote the post last night, but my laptop wouldn't post it (that thing might as well be a paperweight at this point), so I had to upload the picture and post this from my work computer. Really!

The pour: nice golden color, with a pretty good amount of (quickly-disappearing) white foam on top. It looks like there's a fair amount of carbonation, too: a layer of bubbles is just sitting down on the bottom of the glass. Sniffing the air over the head is like sniffing a pumpkin pie. There's pumpkin, and some spice, and maybe a little bit of hops. Mostly pumpkin.

The taste: well, it's pumpkin, but it's not too much pumpkin. Too much flavoring is a problem with flavored beers in general, especially with blueberry beers. In this one, the pumpkin spice flavor works with the ale (tastes like a typical America amber ale), instead of drowning it out. Right out front there's pumpkin spice, but that fades away pretty quick into the body of the amber ale. The ale doesn't feature a lot of malt, and there's a decent hop character. Finally, the pumpkin makes a comeback in the aftertaste, which is a cool effect that's mildly surprising on the first sip.

Rating: 7/10. It's a decent pumpkin beer, and if you like the style you won't be disappointed in this one. I picked the six pack up at Trader Joe's for about six bucks, so it's a good value.

Beer Blogging - Samuel Adams Boston Lager

2007-09-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

More football, more talk writing, and now more beer. Next up is Samuel Adams Boston Lager, their flagship beer. I like this one, and I can't believe I haven't blogged about it before this. Here we go:

The pour: this beer has a great color that I usually don't notice, since I usually just drink it out of the bottle. It's a deep, rich gold that looks very cool when held up to the light. The head is very big, with large, white bubbles. It's also pretty persistent. The boston lager has an excellent aroma, and if you've seen that commercial about the amount of hops they put in, you know why. Usually, lagers don't have a very rich smell, but this one certainly does - lots of hops with some good, sweet malt behind them.

The taste: Hoppy, hoppy, hoppy. Way more hops than your typical boring lager. The flavor starts off with a little bit of malt, but really nothing to speak of. The hops are a little citrusy (hint of lemon peel) without being bitter, which is good because bitterness wouldn't fit with this taste. There's some malt in the aftertaste, which serves to nicely balance the hops and keep this beer from turning into a full-fledged pale ale. I don't know if you'd call this beer a lager, but it is very well put together.

The rating: 7/10. A very solid, very drinkable beer. It's tasty while still staying refreshing, and it works equally well on warm days (like today) and colder days. You should go get some.

Beer Blogging - Samuel Adams Octoberfest

2007-09-16T12:18:00.000-07:00

Today's looking like a pretty good day. I'm watching some football, writing a talk I have to give next week, and my beer fridge looks like this:

I think it's time for some beer blogging! First up: Samuel Adams Octoberfest. Yep, it's that time of year again, and I am very happy about that fact.

The pour: The head is fairly large and tan, and it sticks around for a few minutes before fading away into some light foam. This beer has a very pleasing color, kind of a deep amber mixed with some orange. As for the aroma, it promises very good things to come. Octoberfest beers are usually like a malty, dark lager, but this one has a nice strong hop aroma to it. There's also malt, and it smells very sweet (like a light molasses, maybe). It smells like a good, complex beer.

The taste: Mmm. It tastes like a good, complex beer too. The malt is right out front, and it's not as sweet as the aroma led me to expect; I would almost call it understated. The flavor is a little bit fruity, but I can't really put my finger on what it tastes like specifically. The hops follow the malt, but they're also pretty light and they get drowned out in short order by more fruity malt, as you'd expect from an Octoberfest beer. Overall it's a very refreshing Octoberfest, since there's a lot of malt but it's not too cloying.

The rating: since it's a solid example of the style, Sam Adams Octoberfest gets a 8/10. Since Sam Adams is usually all about putting a strong hop flavor into beers that don't traditionally have lots of hops, I'd have liked to taste the hops a little longer. Other than that, it's well done. I'd recommend it if you like Octoberfest beers, or if you like sweeter beers (like Marzens) in general.

Beer Blogging - Lagunitas Maximus IPA

2007-09-04T19:27:00.000-07:00

It was a long, loud day in the lab today (goddamn construction), so now it's time for a big freakin' beer. That beer is Lagunitas' Maximus India Pale Ale.

The vitals: this bottle is 1 pint 6 oz. of a 7.5% alcohol India Pale Ale. For the serious beer geeks out there, this beer has an IBU of 72.41 and an original gravity of 1.08. Let's look at the more subjective qualities.

The head: it's very big and fluffy, with a light brown color. The head faded away to some lace on top of the beer in about 20 seconds.

The aroma: citrusy, as you would expect. There are hints of orange peel and lemon, and a strong smell of grapefruit. Not a lot of malt here; it definitely smells like an IPA.

The taste: a lot like it smells, really. With an IBU rating this high (max is about 100) I'd expect it to be a lot more bitter, but it's really quite smooth and not overpowering at all. That strong grapefruit taste is right out front, with a little bit of the orange peel behind that (but not enough to make it really bitter). The malt follows behind the citrus, but it's not really an important part of the beer's flavor. If they could find a way to get a little bit of a biscuity malt aftertaste in here (maybe they should call the New Belgium Brewery), this might be the perfect IPA. As it is, it's damn close.

The rating: I think this might be the most drinkable IPA I've had; certainly it's the most refreshing one I've had in a while. I was a little nervous about drinking a huge bottle of India Pale Ale on an 80° night, but this stuff really works as a warm-weather beer. The only thing keeping this from a perfect score is the fact that an IPA really should have some malt to it; it doesn't mean it's worse than, say, the Ruination IPA from Stone, just that it's not as classic an example of the style. The Maximus IPA gets a 9/10; I highly recommend it for IPA fans and for beer drinkers who like a citrus taste in their beer but can't get into really bitter beers.

Beer Blogging - Corona Familiar

2007-08-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Holy damn it's been a long time since I did this. Tonight's beer is a huge (940 mL) bottle of Corona Familiar that I bought in a supermarket in the north end of Rosarito Beach during a camping trip to Baja California.

The pour: it actually looks a fair amount like Corona, but a little darker. It poured into the mug with a lot of carbonation and a pretty sizable head. The head decreased over the course of about a minute, leaving a thin layer of foam on top of the mug. The aroma reminds me of one of the more flavorful American lager, like maybe MGD.

The taste: It also kind of tastes similar to MGD. If I had to reference it to Mexican beers, I'd place it somewhere between Corona and Negra Modelo (more towards the Negra Modelo side). It's more flavorful than regular Corona, for sure. Upon doing some Googling just now, though, it looks like it's exactly the same thing, just served in a much larger (family-size) bottle. Importantly, the bottle is made of amber glass. I think that's what makes this beer taste different from (better than, really) all the other Coronas I've had (those in the clear bottles). This one doesn't need a lime to taste good. UPDATE: It occurs to me that people might not know what Corona tastes like without the lime and the skunkiness. Well, Corona in a brown bottle is malty with just about no trace of hops. It pretty much tastes like a standard lager, without any of the sourness you sometimes get in American lagers. It's a decent style when done right (even if I personally prefer more hops).

The rating: 7/10. Corona would actually be a pretty damn good beer if it didn't come in the clear bottles; this beer is a good example of what Mexican lagers can achieve. Recommended for people who like American lagers, or for people who like Corona but wish it had a little more flavor.

Blind Beer Challenge

2007-05-14T09:36:00.000-07:00

This is a report of a blind taste test that I did with todd (from the comments) and a couple of other UCI grad students over a meal of pizza (from Ameci's) and wings (homemade by me) on Saturday afternoon. Everything in plain text was written at the time; my comments this morning are in italics. The pictures are still on my roommate's camera, and I will get them from him sometime soon.

3 beers enter. One beer wins.

Here's the deal: I have three pewter mugs full of beer. One has Budweiser from a 24 ounce tallboy, one has Mother Lager from Magic Hat Brewing in Vermont, and one has Warsteiner. I'm going to drink them one-by-one and see which one is the best. The three mugs will be known as the Coors mug (left), the Brussels mug (center) and the German mug (far right, from some bar in Germany) [this will make more sense when I get the pictures off my roommate's camera. Until then, use your imagination]. Coors mug first:

The aroma is bready and a little sour. As for the taste, I don't like it, frankly. There's a certain amount of skunkiness, that sourness again, and a little bit of malt. No hops to speak of, and no aftertaste either. I am not a fan.

Next up is the Brussels mug. The aroma is almost sweet, and maybe a little floral if I look for it. Not much to it; I can't find any hops. The taste is much smoother than the beer in the Coors mug; it's definitely not coming out and punching me in the mouth the same way. There is a bit of sweet, light malt out front and a very little bit of hops behind, but there's just not a lot going on, and compared to the beer in the Coors mug that's a very good thing. No aftertaste here either.

Finally, we come to the German mug. It smells a lot like the first one, with that same little bit of sourness. The flavor is not as strong as the one in the Coors mug but it tastes similar, and definitely has more total flavor than the one in the Brussels mug. The sour taste isn't as prominent, but there is the malt out front and the lack of aftertaste. There's a little bit of hops, but not so I can really tell what they're supposed to taste like. Overall decent, but I'm not digging the flavor too much.

Rankings: Brussels mug, German mug, Coors mug.

Identities, best one on the left: Bud, Magic Hat Mother Lager, Warsteiner

[picture goes here]
Insert your own outraged gasp here.

So the Bud won. If I have to take one lesson away from this blind taste test, it's ~~that I should never listen to my commenters~~ that I just shouldn't drink lagers (and I usually don't), but if I'm going to I shouldn't waste my money - I should just have a Bud. Your mileage may vary.

As a scientist, I have to try and explain such an unexpected result. I can come up with three possible explanations:

1. I simply do not like lagers. True, I gave the Mother Lager a rating of 7 a while ago, but I also classified it as 'watery'. Lack of lager flavor may be a good thing for me, considering that I ranked the beers here in order of descending amount of flavor.

2. The fact that I gorged myself on wine, rum and cigars the night before may have destroyed my affection for booze. I think I can discount this one, because I drank (and enjoyed) a Stone Pale Ale immediately after the blind taste test.

3. I am not a good judge of what makes a good beer, and I should stop beer blogging.

You can leave your theories and mockery in the comments.

Beer Blogging - Cerveza Sol

2007-05-08T21:32:00.000-07:00

I just got back from my softball game (we lost because we can't hit worth a damn), and it's really hot in Southern California right now (75 °F at 9:30 at night?), so I need a refreshing beer. Maybe a lager...something Mexican...hmmmm.

Looks refreshing all right; basically, it looks exactly like Corona, maybe a very little bit darker. Smells like Corona too - just like your basic lager, with maybe a little extra hops and a little sweeter. Nothing special. There's really no head to be seen; a little bit showed up when I first poured it, but in the time it took to pick up my camera it had disappeared.

Now for the taste. I have to say that looks can be deceiving, because this tastes nothing like Corona. First of all, it's far tastier without the help of lime (of which I had none in the fridge). Corona without lime is not worth drinking, but this beer is surprisingly flavorful. It starts out with a sweetness that's almost fruity, and finishes with a little bit of bitterness (more bitterness would help, but I wasn't expecting much, so it was a nice surprise). The overall impression is pretty drinkable, especially on a hot night like tonight. It's certainly nothing special, but it's a well-put-together beer.

Rating: 6/10. Sol is a good beer to drink a few of on a warm summer night. If you're looking for something that's complex or flavorful, get an actual German lager. But if you like Corona or the American macrobrews, this one might be for you (especially if you don't have limes handy).

Beer Blogging - Miller High Life

2007-05-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend is off to a great start. I went to the Angels game last night (they beat the White Sox, 5-1), played some softball with friends this morning, and now I'm eating a wonderful sandwich for lunch on a beautiful, sunny, warm day. I need to start out with a lighter beer today. Let's see what's in the fridge...

When did I buy that? I don't really remember. But hey, what the hell? I've never had it before, so it's time to try the Champagne of Beers.

Poured into a glass, I have to say that it does kind of look like champagne, actually, if a little darker - looks like a typical lager, with that light golden color. There sure are a lot of bubbles. It actually smells pretty decent, with a light bready aroma that could have a little more character. It's not as bad as, say, Budweiser or MGD, though, so there's that.

From the smell, I was expecting something with at least a little bit of guts. This is not the case upon tasting, however. Miller High Life is a watery, thin beer. The very first thing you notice upon sipping this beer is, well, that it's wet. Really, no flavor comes across at first. After a second I started to taste the bready malt that came through in the aroma, followed by some very weak hop bitterness. This beer is not about flavor, it's about being as bland and inoffensive as possible. This is not the Champagne of Beers.

Rating: 4/10. If you don't like beer, this is the beer for you.

Wow, I can see why they compare it to champagne, at least in one way: I am burping like a champ from all this carbonation. Something to keep in mind if you're going to be drinking this.

Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat

2007-04-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Next!

On a warm night like tonight, I needed something a little lighter to follow that stout, and here it is: Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, one of the few Sam Adams beers I've never tried before. As you can see from the picture, this beer has a golden color and a huge white head that actually came up above the top of the pint glass but faded away within a couple of minutes. It's clear, which isn't something I was expecting in a beer with the word 'wheat' on the label. The smell is, as one might expect, strongly of cherries, but I think I can also smell some sweet malt in there. Whatever it is, the cherries overwhelm it easily.

This beer actually doesn't taste as much like cherries as the aroma led me to expect. They're there, of course, but they're not the dominant flavor. It's a very light beer, without a lot of sweetness or bitterness - a very summery beer, I guess you'd say. I'd compare the magnitude of the flavor to something like a lager, but without any bready flavors. Right up front you taste cherries, along with some very light malt. Once the cherries fade away, the malt sticks around, resulting in a somewhat watery effect. The aftertaste gets a little bready malt flavor and a little cherry flavor, but it doesn't last long. There's no hint of alcohol, and I'd guess that the beer doesn't have more than 4% ABV (until I decided to look at the label just now and it said 5.35%. So much for me).

Rating: 6/10. Nothing special. If you're looking for something to drink on a warm summer evening and you like fruit in your beer, you might like this one. If you're a big fan of wheat beers, you will probably be disappointed. Otherwise, a tepid recommendation.

Beer Blogging - Samuel Adams Cream Stout

2007-04-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

I don't have a fun, clever opening for this post. I had a long week capped off by a rough night last night, and I really need to have about 8 beers tonight. The process begins...now!

This beer poured into the glass very dark, with a big, creamy brown head that stuck around for about five minutes. When held up to the light there are some hints of red and mahogany, but mostly it's just black. The aroma actually smells creamy, which is interesting and not unwelcome. There are scents of roasted malt, vanilla, caramel and maybe espresso. Promising.

With the first sip I realized that this beer is surprisingly hopped for a stout, but I'm getting ahead of myself. It starts out like a typical stout, not too carbonated and thick in the mouth. The flavor starts out with dark chocolate and roasted malt and finishes with some surprisingly light-tasting floral hops. The aftertaste moves on to the caramel and espresso flavors. None of the flavors really reaches out and punches you in the mouth; for a beer this dark and roasted smelling, it actually borders on thin. Still, it's a good beer, and it's very drinkable - the lack of any strong flavors make this one a good candidate for drinking multiple bottles at a sitting.

You know, if you're into that sort of thing.

Rating: 8/10. A very well put together beer, recommended for fans of any sort of dark beers, and for people who normally find stouts overwhelming.

Beer Blogging - Stone Smoked Porter

2007-04-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

OK, this is the last one tonight, I swear. I'm finishing my night off with a bottle that's been in my fridge for a while because (a) I've had it before and (b) I could have sworn I already blogged about it. That beer is Stone Smoked Porter:

Well, it sure does look like a porter. It poured into the glass very dark and thick, and there was no head to speak of, just a little foam around the edge of the glass. Holding it up to the light showed...well, not much. It's really black, with a little bit of red-brown around the edges. There's a strong odor of roasted malt along with some hints of coffee and molasses.

The first taste reveals some surprising sweetness; the malt is not at all as roasted as you'd expect. There's also a little more carbonation than you usually get in a porter, which is interesting considering the almost total lack of head. If I had to put a name to the sweetness, I guess I'd say dark chocolate, brown sugar, and either vanilla or caramel. It makes for an interesting and surprisingly sweet combination.

The "smoked" in the name comes from the next layer of flavors. After the sweetness dies down, flavors of coffee and smoky roasted malt show up. There's actually not a lot of aftertaste, but what there is tastes like dark chocolate. There's no hint of alcohol in the taste, and very little hops either. Despite all the strong flavors, this beer is fairly easy to drink, and it's not nearly as overpowering as some (OK, most) of Stone's other offerings.

Rating: 7/10. Recommended for fans of just about any kind of dark beer. I think it would be especially agreeable to people who like chocolate stouts, Guinness, and any other beers with coffee or chocolate flavors. If you can get Stone beers where you live, you should try this one (and all the rest, as a matter of fact).

Beer Blogging - Victory Storm King Imperial Stout

2007-04-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

Making up for lost time, here - hopefully people don't hate it when this blog becomes almost exclusively about beer. Anyway, I just opened another beer from Victory Brewing, the Storm King Imperial Stout.

I'm trying to think of all the imperial stouts I've had in the past, and the list is pretty short. I can think of Old Rasputin and maybe one from Rogue, but that's it, which is strange because I like the style. Anyway, the Storm King is a really black beer, and viscous - coming out of the bottle it looked more like used motor oil than beer. There was a thin brown head at first, but that went away quickly leaving only a ring around the edge of the glass. The aroma is a very interesting mix of sweet malt, coffee and bitter hops, suggesting a nice, complex beer.

And the taste definitely measures up. It starts off with molasses and roasted malt, and underneath that is the orange peel taste of the hops (which aren't as present in the taste as they are in the smell). The overall effect is sweet, but not too sweet, with just a little bit of bitterness. This taste blends nicely into the aftertaste, which has hints of espresso and dark chocolate and sticks around well into the next sip. There's a good amount of carbonation, which keeps the flavors from being too cloying, and a very slight hint of the 9.1% ABV.

Rating: 7/10. If the hops didn't hide in the molasses flavor so much the rating would be a little higher. Regardless, you'll like this beer if you like stouts, porters, and any other kinds of beer that get their flavor from roasted malts.

Beer Blogging - Victory Hop Devil India Pale Ale

2007-04-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

After that lager I need something a little more bitter, and I think I've got just the thing: the Hop Devil IPA from Victory Brewing.

Mmmmm, IPA. As you can see from the picture above, this beer looks just like a typical IPA: orange-golden in color, a little cloudy, and a big tan head. It smells like a typical IPA, too, with a big wallop of citrus and floral hops flooding into my nose when I get anywhere near the glass. Promising indeed.

Maybe it's just the contrast with the lager I just had, but this beer packs a lot of flavor. As you might expect, the defining characteristic is the hops, which provide both floral and citrus flavors. The taste starts out with the citrus hops, with flavors of lemon peel and grapefruit predominating. After the bitter hops come some surprisingly light floral hops and some sweet, bready malt. The aftertaste goes back to the grapefruit and lemon rind, and some alcohol (6.7% ABV) also peeks its head in here. It's a nice progression of flavors, complex without being overwhelming.

Rating: 8/10. If you like IPAs, you will like this beer. It's hoppy, to be sure, but it's not just hoppy, and there's enough variety within the hops to make it very interesting. If you're not into bitter beers, though, you should not buy this one, because you will not like it. Oh, and even thought Victory is located in Pennsylvania, I bought this 6-pack just down the street at my local Beverages & More, so I assume that you can get it most places in the country. Go pick some up!

Beer Blogging - Magic Hat Mother Lager

2007-04-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a while, huh? This will be my first post in over a week, and my first beer blogging post in almost 3. No reason, really - I've just been busy with work. But now it's Sunday, the NBA playoffs are on TV, and it's time for some beer. The first one will be Magic Hat's Mother Lager, another one of the beers I bought in New York back in February. Like most of the beers I've seen from Magic Hat, it's got some very cool label art (click to embiggen):

I'm normally not a huge fan of lagers (the stronger the better, in my opinion), so we'll see how this one goes. The first thing I noticed when I poured it into the glass was that there's not a lot of color to this beer - it's a very pale yellow color that you can't really see in that picture because my camera is a piece of crap. There also wasn't a lot of head to speak of, just a little bit of white foam on top of the beer. The aroma was bready, indicating the presence of malt but not sweetness. There is also a little bit of hops in the smell, but not so that you'd notice if you weren't trying.

The taste is a lot like the smell with this beer. It's very light on the flavor, coming dangerously close to the dreaded "watery" designation without quite getting there. I could see this being a good beer to drink on a nice warm summer day. What flavor there is is bready but not toasted, with very little malty sweetness. There are some floral hops that come through at the end, but the aftertaste doesn't stick around a lot so you don't really experience them to any extent. The carbonation sticks around pretty well to the end of the glass without being overwhelming. Overall this is a very drinkable beer, if a little less complex than I usually like.

Rating: 7/10. This is a good example of the style; I'd recommend it for people who like lighter stuff (blondes, lagers, etc.). If you're normally a fan of amber ales and darker, this beer probably won't do it for you. If you're going to be drinking Magic Hat, get the Fat Angel; you'll enjoy it more.

Beer Blogging - Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine

2007-04-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

I found this bottle in my local corner liquor store while I was buying a couple six packs to have while watching the NCAA national championship basketball game. It's a Stone brew that I'd never seen before, let alone tried, and I love barley wine style ales. So I had to get this:

This is the limited early 2007 release of Stone's Old Guardian Barley Wine Style Ale. According to the back, the ingredients are "a whole buncha barley, tons o' hops, water & yeast".

This looks like a classic barley wine in the glass: deep amber in color with a fluffy tan/white head that doesn't stay around very long. The aroma is almost pure sweetness, with maybe a little bit of hops. No alcohol to speak of, even though the label promises an impressively precise 11.26%. Smells tasty.

And it is. Wow, the aroma didn't even hint at what this beer had in store. Of course, my sense of smell is kind of limited, so that could be the problem here, but I think the beer just tastes different (better) than it smells. It's complicated, and I'm not sure I can describe all of what's going on here, but I will try. The initial flavor is mostly sweet, a malty taste in a beer that has no malt. The flavor isn't purely malty, though; it's hard to describe the flavor of barley + yeast if you've never had a barley wine. It's kind of a sharp, almost bitter sweetness, if that makes any sense. That sweetness is followed up by, in order, floral hops, alcohol and malty flavors. I would never have known this beer had more than 11% ABV if I hadn't read the label...that is, until I'd had half the bottle. Overall it's a delicious, if demanding, beer experience.

Rating: 7/10. Recommended for barley wine fans only - if you don't like beers with really strong flavors, you won't enjoy this beer. That pretty much goes for all the Stone beers, actually.

Beer Blogging - Magic Hat Fat Angel Ale

2007-04-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm having another one of the beers I got when I was visiting Tart in New York City. This time it's Fat Angel Ale from the fine Vermonters at Magic Hat Brewing.

The label describes this as "a paler kind of ale", so I'm expecting something hoppy but not overpowering. The color is pretty nice, a light amber that borders on gold when held up to the light. The head is foamy and white, and dissolves to some nice lace on the sides of the glass. Both citrus hops and sweet malt are present in the aroma, but neither one too strongly. Interestingly, there's also a hint of green apple in the aroma.

This is a nice, smooth pale ale, right in line with what the label promises. There's a nice balance of malt and hops, pretty much consistent with the aroma with maybe a little more hops (floral, not citrus) toward the end. I can't taste any of the green apple, though. No hint at all of the 5% ABV. This is an extremely drinkable beer, and I could see drinking several of them at once very easily.

Rating: 8/10. Recommended for fans of pale ales who are in the mood for something a little lighter, and for fans of non-bitter beers who are feeling adventurous. This would be a good introduction to the style.

Beer Blogging - St. Rogue Red Ale

2007-03-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

Man, today was a long day. We had a bunch of community members and other assorted interested parties coming through the lab taking tours, making sure their (and your) tax dollars are being spent wisely. Joke's on them - they didn't get to see us sitting around and drinking after they left!

I bring it up because my role in all this was basically to talk for an hour and a half straight about what it is we do in our lab. This has made me thirsty and tired, and nothing goes with thirsty and tired like delicious beer. Specifically, this beer:

This is a 22 ounce bomber of St. Rogue Red Ale, from Rogue Ales. This bottle was dedicated by the brewers "to Fukutsuru, a Japanese Waygu bull whose offspring produce the premium grade American Kobe beef that is served with St. Rogue Red." They note that "in his final days, Fuku was given the opportunity to 'socialize' with some fine, young cows. Instead, he chose to take a nap. [They] dedicate this beer to Fuku - a rogue to the very end."

That's sweet. Now, on to the beer. It poured a very dark reddish copper color, with a big foamy head that lasted for a couple minutes. It smells very malty with a note of the signature Rogue hops underneath. There's really no hint of the 5.2% alcohol, but that's not too surprising. The first thing you taste is roasted malt and maybe some toffee, but that doesn't really stick around long. This is a dry hopped ale, and it shows after the malt character dies down. The hops certainly aren't as strong as they normally are in a Rogue beer, but that's because this is supposed to be an Amber ale. For an Amber, it's pretty hoppy and not very malty, but the overall effect really works well. The aftertaste is pretty faithful to the flavor of the beer, with a little more sweet malt.

Rating: 7/10. This is a very drinkable beer. Recommended for people who think IPAs and pale ales have a little too much bite, or for people who are fans of both amber ales and pale ales.

Beer Blogging - Trader Joe's 2006 Vintage Ale

2007-03-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

Hey, what a surprise: I'm blogging about beer again. Tonight I'm eating the leftovers of an amazing dinner I had last night (lamb slow-roasted with various vegetables and served over ribbon noodles), and since I couldn't have it with a really expensive bottle of wine like last night, I decided to break out a tasty beer. Enter: Trader Joe's 2006 Vintage Ale. It's brewed by Unibroue, makers of La Fin Du Monde and other very fine ales.

The bottle describes this as 750 mL (the size of a typical wine bottle) of a Dark Ale with 9% alcohol by volume. Upon pouring it into one of my favorite beer glasses, I can confirm that it is indeed dark; it's a very deep brown that borders on black. The only way to tell that it's brown is to hold it up to the light. It poured with a large brown head full of very large bubbles, and after a couple minutes there's still an eighth of an inch of head on top. The aroma is very malty, all molasses and brown sugar, and I swear I smelled a little Coke in there too.

After my first sip of this beer, I let out an audible "woah". After my second sip, I've decided that I won't be just tasting this beer, I'll be experiencing it. There's a lot going on here. I don't even know how to describe it - the closest I can come is a combination of champagne and dark ale. There's an awful lot of carbonation, but it's not a bad thing at all, maybe because of all the sweetness. There's a complex, layered flavor happening: on top is that molasses-y sweetness, and underneath that is something that tastes a lot like apple cider or maybe a really dry champagne. There's also a hint of pear, but not really any taste of that "Coke" flavor I smelled in the aroma.

There's a very slight hint of the 9% alcohol, but nothing much. It's going really well with this lamb, too - if you're going to get this, you should really drink it with some sort of rich meat.

Rating: 7/10. Recommended for people who don't mind a little carbonation in their beer, and those who like sweet dark Belgian ales. If you've had some beers from Unibroue before, you might be a little disappointed in this one, but if you approach it as just another beer you will probably enjoy it.

Beer Blogging - Rogue Ales Mocha Porter

2007-03-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

Apparently, this blog is becoming all beer, all the time. Not that I really have a problem with this...but some of you might be annoyed. Sorry about that.

Anyway, here's a beer that's been in the fridge for a long time, just waiting to be blogged about: the Mocha Porter from Rogue Ales.

As you would expect, this is a very dark beer with a nice tan head. The head sticks around for a minute before fading away and leaving some lace on the sides of the glass. It smells about how you'd expect, too: like something named a mocha porter. There are dark roasted hops and some dark chocolate present in the aroma, although the coffee doesn't really present itself.

The taste is a different matter: you can definitely tell there's coffee in there. The mocha flavor comes first, in the form of espresso and dark chocolate flavors. Next is a roasted flavor from the roasted malt; there is very little (if any) hop taste, which is understandable for a porter but kind of weird for something that came out of a bottle with "ROGUE" on it. The aftertaste brings a resurgence of the espresso flavor, which is bitter without being as harsh as espresso usually is (especially if it comes in a Starbucks cup).

Rating: 7/10. Recommended for fans of porters and chocolate stouts.

Beer Blogging - Smithwick's Irish Ale

2007-03-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

Sticking with the Irish beer theme of the last post, I just opened a bottle of Smithwick's Irish Ale, made by the same people who brew Guinness.

I don't know why, but I expected this beer to be a lot lighter in color than it is. This Irish ale poured with a deep amber color and a big, fluffy white head that dissipated (leaving a lot of lace behind) within two minutes. The aroma almost reminds me of a lager; it's a little sour and there's a lot of sweet malt. It actually surprised me at first with how sweet it was.

The taste: well, it tastes a lot like it smells. The initial taste is an almost coppery sweetness, which is followed by the rest of the flavor. The sour note is even more pronounced, which kind of gets in the way of the malts until the very end of the flavor. When the malts do show up, they taste like caramel and maybe butterscotch. The hops are not pronounced at all. For a second I didn't think there was any aftertaste, but then I got a random flash of butterscotch on the back of my tongue. That was kind of cool.

Rating: 5/10. Meh - if it wasn't so sour it'd be a lot better. It's possible that I just got a bad six-pack, so I'll probably try it again just to be sure. This rating is subject to change. Oh, and it's recommended for fans of lagers, especially the big American lagers, who wants something with just slightly more interesting flavors.

Beer Blogging - Guinness Draught

2007-03-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, here I sit pretty much bound to my couch. The NCAA tournament games don't start for an hour and a half. What to do?

Wait, what's this?

Mmmmm...

I'm sure most people reading this blog have at least tried Guinness, on St. Patrick's Day if nothing else. It's kind of a love-it-or-hate-it beer, I've found. Personally I can drink the stuff by the pitcher (the alcohol content is only about 4%), but some people will spit it out.

Pouring a Guinness is a treat. If you order a Guinness at a bar and they serve it to you in less than about a minute and a half, the bartender doesn't know what he's doing. If you watch a pint get poured, you can see that the beer seems to "settle"; the settling is actually carbonation from the outside of the head moving down as bubbles in the center of the beer move quickly into the head (in other words, it's convection). Whatever the explanation, it's fun to watch. The light brown head that you end up with is about a quarter inch thick, it lasts forever, and it's wonderfully creamy. You do not want to wait for the head to dissipate before you start drinking.

The smell of a Guinness is actually pretty rich. You can really smell the roasted hops, and you also get a hint of the slight coffee flavor that the beer has. Guinness Draught is pretty much black in the glass, but if you hold it up to a very bright light you can see a hint of red (which you can kind of see on the bottom of the glass in the picture above).

Now on to the drinking. Taking a sip of Guinness early in the glass is a pleasure. The first thing you get is that aforementioned creamy head, which has a much lighter flavor than the rest of the beer: hints of coffee and maybe milk chocolate, but not much of a roasted taste. Mixed with the main body of the beer, it's quite a treat. As for that body of the beer, I like to drink it a little warm to really bring out the flavors. Most bars, in my estimation, serve it far too cold.

That might be just me, though. Anyway, this beer's got some ass to it - drinking a pitcher is a lot like eating a big hamburger. The first taste you get is a surprisingly light roasted flavor, which increases in intensity as the beer warms up. After the roasted flavor, you get a strong coffee note, without really noticing the milk chocolate that peeks out in the head. The aftertaste sticks around for a while, with the roasted malt taste predominating.

Rating: 8/10. Guinness is not my favorite stout ever, but it's very, very tasty and incredibly drinkable. I don't see ever getting tired of the taste of this beer. It's recommended for anyone who likes dark beers, but if you like dark beers you've probably already had it. I will say that for you lager drinkers, this beer is a lot closer to a lager (in flavor intensity, not flavor) than any craft brewed stout I've ever had. You should try it.

Hey, look what I found! Here's me after a tour of the Guinness brewery in Dublin:

Man, that was a cool tour. Drinking two pints of Guinness in a bar overlooking the city of Dublin at ten in the morning was pretty nice, too.

Beer Blogging - 2° Below

2007-03-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

Here we go again! This UCLA vs. Weber St. game is pretty ugly at this point - UCLA is the clearly superior team, both in basketball skills and in athleticism. I really wish CBS would show us the Duke/VCU game (50-52 Duke with 15 minutes left), but knowing how bad they are about putting on the best football game available, I don't hold out much hope for them switching. In other news, more beer!

This is New Belgium's winter seasonal offering, 2° Below. It's a dry hopped winter ale that's almost frozen during brewing, according to the label, to give it some sort of unique flavor. The color is similar to an IPA, and the head is big and fluffy. It actually smells nothing like the typical dry-hopped ale; the aroma is mostly sweet malt, with a little bit of toasted malt and almost no hops.

The taste is similarly strange for a dry-hopped beer, but that's not a bad thing at all. This beer is reminiscent of New Belgium's most famous offering, Fat Tire - the predominant flavor is of toasted malts, but this beer is a little lighter than Fat Tire. You can taste some hops in the very beginning of the flavor and in the aftertaste; they're bitter but not strong at all. There's very little hint of the 6.6% alcohol content. The aftertaste is very long-lasting and tastes a lot like the beer itself - toasted malt with a little bit of hops. Tasty.

Rating: 7/10. A very drinkable winter ale, lighter than the typical winter beer. Recommended for people who like Belgian-style ales. Also, I get the feeling that fans of pumpkin beers (and other spiced seasonal beers) would like this one.

Beer Blogging - Brooklyn Brown Ale

2007-03-15T16:51:00.000-07:00

Finally, we get a game! Actually, we've gotten two: the Duke/Virginia Commonwealth game came on before the others, so we got that for about ten minutes, and now we're watching UCLA work up to their inevitable domination of Weber State. As I watch, I'm drinking another beer I bought in New York City: Brooklyn Brand Brown Ale.

This brown ale is darker than the most common brown ale, Newcastle, that you often see. It pours with a pretty big head, but it's not very thick and it goes away pretty quickly. The aroma, surprisingly, has some hops to it, but mostly it smells like roasted malt.

This beer tastes surprisingly dark; what I mean by that is that it tastes almost more like a porter than a brown ale. The predominant malt flavor here is roasted, but there's also a little bit of chocolatey sweetness. I can't really taste any hops, because the beer finishes off with a rich, roasted flavor that I have a feeling is drowning out any bitterness that might be present. There's a fair amount of carbonation (unlike a porter), and no hint of the 5.6% alcohol. This is a decent brown ale, but there's nothing too special about it. Let's just say that, since I can get Newcastle out here, I'm not heartbroken about not being able to get this one.

Rating: 5/10. Recommended for people in New York and surrounding areas who like brown ales and porters.

Beer Blogging - Magic Hat H.I.P.A.

2007-03-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

Since CBS insists on not showing me the only NCAA tournament game that's being played right now (instead of Vanderbilt nearly doubling up George Washington at 7:34 of the second half, I get Judge Judy), I'm gonna drink some more. Next up: Magic Hat H.I.P.A.

I got this one on the recommendation of Toast when I was back in New York; I actually had it when I was back there and I really enjoyed it, but it was one of many beers I had that night, so I don't exactly remember it. I'll be approaching this glass with a fresh outlook.

The pour: there's a little head, but it disappears into lace on top of the beer very quickly. The color is a light amber, pretty typical for an IPA. Also typical for an IPA is the aroma: lots and lots of hops. I smell a lot of grapefruit, and also some lighter floral hops. There's also a tiny bit of malt smell. No hint of alcohol (the beer has 6.8% ABV).

The taste: delicious. That grapefruit is back right away, right out in front of the flavor. The bitter hops come next, accompanied by something that tastes kind of like citrus rind. There's really no malt in the flavor to speak of, and maybe just a little in the aftertaste. The beer is really just about hops, but despite that the flavor almost feels light. I could drink it pretty quickly, at any rate, which may be due just as much to the relatively light carbonation as it is to the absence of overpowering flavors.

Rating: 8/10. If you like IPAs and you have access to this beer, you've probably already tried it. If you haven't, what the hell are you waiting for?

Beer Blogging - Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale

2007-03-15T14:35:00.000-07:00

I left work early today to come watch the NCAA tournament (well, I'll be looking up papers too, but mostly it's about basketball), so I thought I'd have a beer or four. First up: Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale. Ahh, the San Diego red trolley. I've ridden it down to Mexico (well, to the border) for many a drunken evening. Oh, the memories.

This beer is very appealing to pour. It's a nice, reddish amber color, and there's just the right amount of carbonation. The head is light and fluffy and not persistent at all - it gets out of the way quickly. The aroma is really malty, with just a hint of floral hops - it smells pretty interesting for a red ale. Edit: I looked it up, and this is actually supposed to be an "American red ale", whatever that is. They also say it has 5.8% ABV, which seems about right.

The taste follows the smell pretty faithfully in this beer: it's mostly about the caramel malt, which is nice and sweet without being cloying. There's maybe a little taste of vanilla as well. The hops are barely there at all - they try to come in during the aftertaste, but even if you're trying to taste them it's hard to do with all that malt. Really, this beer almost tastes more like a bock than a red ale, but it's a little lighter than the typical bock. It definitely doesn't follow the style of a red ale [edit: or an amber ale, for that matter. It's very drinkable - I can see having several of these on a warm, sunny day (like today, in fact). According to the brewer (see link above), I'm supposed to be tasting toffee, raisins and currants; I suppose I can see the toffee, but I'm not getting anything like raisins or currants from this. Maybe the malty sweetness is just drowning it out. They're certainly right about it being "quaffable", though.

Rating: 6/10. Recommended for people who like sweeter beers.

Beer Blogging - Blind Faith

2007-03-10T16:02:00.000-08:00

It's time for some beer blogging! This afternoon I'm sitting down with a beer from Magic Hat that I picked up before I left New York City. I bought four different kinds of Magic Hat; today I'm trying their Blind Faith India Pale Ale.

The defining characteristic of an IPA is that it's made with a lot of hops, but the aroma of Blind Faith still surprised me with how hoppy it was. I can smell both floral and bitter hops in there. It pours with a fairly large head that dissipates over the course of about a minute, and the color is an almost reddish gold.

First impression: that is a tasty beer. There's a strong, almost citrus-y hop flavor right out front that pretty much dominates while the beer is in the mouth. There's a very little bit of sweet malt there, but you've really got to look for it. The aftertaste is great: it starts out with bitter hops and finishes after a good long while with an almost bready malt. This beer is not short on flavor. There's a good amount of carbonation to it as well.

Rating: 8/10. A very solid, very drinkable IPA that packs a lot of hop flavor without beating you over the head with it. I can see why Toast likes it so much, even though a search through his beer blogging archive shows that he's never reviewed it. What's up with that, Toast?

Beer Blogging - Karl Strauss Amber Lager

2007-03-07T19:28:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here grading some lab reports, and if I deserve a beer for any reason, that's it. I just cracked open a Karl Strauss Amber Lager - let's see what we've got.

Pouring this one into a glass confirms that it is, in fact, an amber lager. There's a deep amber color, and sitting on top of that is a persistent, foamy white head. As for the aroma, it's pretty much a typical lager, with a lot more floral hops present. That's promising.

Karl Strauss' Amber Lager is an extremely drinkable lager. Picture a Sam Adams lager, with a flavor that's simultaneously a little lighter and a little more complex - it's bordering on tasting like a Belgian style ale, actually. There's a bready, malty taste right out front, and that's followed by those floral hops (which are much more understated than they were in the aroma). There's a slightly bitter hop aftertaste, but the flavor is mostly about malt. Like I said, it's very drinkable, even if it's a little light for my taste.

Rating: 7/10. A very servicable lager that might be a good alternative for people who are getting a little tired of the standard American macrobrews, or who like Sam Adams but want something a little lighter. I don't know how available it is outside of southern California, though.

Beer Blogging - Green Flash Extra Pale Ale

2007-02-18T18:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday night, everyone. Tonight I have a beer that a friend of mine gave me: the Extra Pale Ale from Green Flash Brewing, down in San Diego. The beer's name refers to a phenomenon that you can see especially well in San Diego: as the sun sets over the Pacific, just as it dips below the horizon, you can see a flash of green light. It's not local to San Diego; I've seen it in Barbados as well.

Science alert: the green flash effect is caused by the refraction of light by the atmosphere; atmospheric inversions enhance the effect by causing something like the mirages on hot pavement. Basically, the green light bounces around for a while and doesn't get dispersed as easily as the other colors, so it can make it to your eyes. It's best observed from near sea level; standing on a beach at sunset is the perfect spot, but even then atmospheric conditions need to be correct for it to be seen.

Anyway, it's a beautiful phenomenon, so hopefully this will be a beautiful-tasting beer. It poured into the glass with a huge, foamy head that took a minute to disappear; the beer itself is a light gold color. It certainly smells like an extra pale ale, all hops in the nose. There's some citrus smell, but mostly it's a floral hop aroma.

The taste mirrors the smell pretty well. Right out front is a sort of bready malt taste, but it's really subtle. Right after that the hops come in, and it's that same mix of floral and citrus (but way heavier on the floral). After the hops, the malt actually makes a little comeback that combines with the hops to give a long-lasting aftertaste. I wasn't expecting that, but it was a really cool effect. Kind of like the green flash itself, actually! Overall, I'd say this beer is a nice example of the Extra Pale Ale class, and if you find yourself in San Diego and see it you should definitely pick some up. I'm hoping I can find it again.

Rating: 8/10

Beer Blogging - New Belgium Fat Tire Ale

2007-02-16T20:22:00.000-08:00

One more beer blogging post for the night sounds good. To finish up, I think I'll do a beer that, frankly, I cannot believe I haven't reviewed before: Fat Tire Amber Ale from New Belgium Brewery.

Fat Tire is a Belgian style amber ale, which you might be able to guess from the name of the brewery and the name of the beer. Fat Tire has a great color: it's a dark amber, almost red, with a fluffy, light tan head that fades away within a minute. The smell is very bready, like a toasted biscuit type flavor. There's no hint of the alcohol (5.2% ABV) in the aroma, nor is there much in the way of hops.

The founders of New Belgium brewery really did their homework on this one - it's a terrific example of the Belgian ale style. It's a really, really smooth beer, very drinkable. The flavors are understated, but they all complement each other nicely. The flavor starts out with a toasted malt flavor, moves on to a very light floral hop taste, and finishes off with kind of a nutty aftertaste. It's a delicious progression. I highly recommend this beer for people who drink the standard American beers and want a little more flavor, or those who like Belgian ales and want to try another example of the genre, or anyone who enjoys a good glass of beer.

One recommendation I'd make is to drink Fat Tire out of a proper beer glass like the one in the picture above, rather than from a standard pint glass or [heaven forbid] the bottle. The smell of Fat Tire is integral to the drinking experience; with the wrong type of glass you could miss out on that.

Rating: 10/10

Beer Blogging - New Belgium 1554

2007-02-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

For my second beer blogging post this evening, I decided to drink a beer that I picked up this morning: 1554, from the New Belgium Brewery (the makers of the wonderful Fat Tire).

New Belgium describes this as an Enlightenment Black Ale; it certainly poured into the glass black, with a foamy white head that disappeared pretty quickly into a bit of lace. The smell is a nice mix of roasted and sweet malts, with maybe a little chocolate mixed in. There's also a little bit of alcohol in the smell, which is surprising for a beer with only 5.6% ABV.

The first sip of this beer was a nice surprise. I was prepared for something that was either bitter or too sweet; instead, I got something right in the middle. The initial taste is nice and light, but just sweet enough. The aftertaste isn't as good as it could be, but there is a hint of chocolate that's not as bitter as you'd expect in a dark ale. That alcohol that made its presence known in the aroma is nowhere to be found in the flavor, which is good - the flavor would definitely be out of place.

My glass of 1554 actually got better as it got a little warmer. When I first started drinking it, it was definitely a little too cold; all of the flavors were reduced, and in this beer, that's a bad thing. As the beer got warmer, towards the last few ounces, the chocolate flavor got much more pronounced (but still not bitter), and the aftertaste stuck around longer.

This is a very, very drinkable black ale. My only complaint would be that the flavors aren't as pronounced as they could be when it's cold; you should let this beer warm up a little in the glass before you start in on it. I'd recommend it for people who like a little darker or sweeter beers, but don't like the strong, sweet flavors. This would be a good compromise for you.

Rating: 7/10

Beer Blogging - Stockyard Oatmeal Stout

2007-02-16T15:52:00.000-08:00

Well, it's the end of a long week for everyone in the office here; it also happens to be 4 PM and our boss happens to be clear across the country (Massachusetts, I think). So we're having beer, because why the hell not? I went to Trader Joe's this afternoon after lunch and bought a beer I've never tried before: the Oatmeal Stout from Stockyard Brewing Co., in Chicago.

I don't have a pint glass here, so I'll be drinking it out of the bottle. Hmmm, I should really start keeping a pint glass in my desk....

Focus! OK, so smelling at the top of the bottle confirms that this is, in fact, a stout. There's a strong roasted odor, but there's also a distinct sweetness - brown sugar, maybe, or maple syrup.

It's weird, but there's almost none of that sweetness in the taste until the very last bit of the aftertaste (which lasts quite a long time, by the way). Right out front there's actually a little bitterness, before the roasted malt and oatmeal flavors come in. It's not a hoppy bitterness, though, more of a dark chocolate bitterness. I'm not a fan of dark chocolate, so I wasn't crazy about that being the first taste, but your mileage may vary. The roasted oats and malt aren't much to write home about, either - they're a presence through the middle of the taste, but they don't really jump out at you. The beer is fairly carbonated for a stout, so that could be throwing me off too.

I could see this being a very drinkable stout if you drank it really cold, but when served a little warmer (as is the case for me), the flavors all get a little more pronounced. In this beer's case, that's not really a good thing.

Rating: 5/10. Meh.

Beer Blogging - Black Toad Ale, Old Thumper Ale, Phuket Lager

2007-01-15T18:07:00.000-08:00

I haven't done any beer blogging for a while, so tonight I've got a few new beers to write about. This post might get kind of long.

Anyway, the first beer I have is Black Toad Ale, purchased down at my local Trader Joe's.

Wow, it sure is black, isn't it? There's not much head to speak of; there was maybe a quarter inch of tan foam at first, but it disappeared pretty quickly. The aroma is pure roasted malt, with a molasses undertone, promising a sweet, rich beer.

Despite the smell, the beer isn't actually all that rich. The flavor follows the aroma, with notes of molasses and roasted hops, but it's almost watery with very little carbonation. It's not a bad taste, but it's thinner than I was thinking it would be. There's a little bit of spiced flavor during the aftertaste, but mostly it's just sweet, which I wouldn't expect from a dark ale. Also, there's no bitterness at all anywhere in the beer; for something that says "ale" on the bottle, it's surprisingly like a porter. If you like porters but want a little lighter flavor, this one is for you.

Rating: 6/10

The next beer that I have to write about is Old Thumper Extra Special Ale from Ringwood Brewery. I also bought this one at Trader Joe's, and the best by date on the bottle is March of this year.

Old Thumper poured into the glass with a big, foamy white head that took about 45 seconds to dissolve into a thin layer of foam on top of the glass. The color is a deep amber, and the smell is of floral and citrus hops. There's also a bit of a bready smell.

This beer has a much more complex flavor than the one up above. The floral hops are actually kind of hard to find; they don't show up until the very end, because they're almost hidden by a very strong toasted biscuit flavor. I can't taste any of the citrus at all in the flavor. I don't know if it's from the glass or what, but I taste a little bit of soapy flavor at the very beginning. I have to suspect that's from the glass, but I can't be sure. Whatever it is, it goes away pretty quickly and doesn't taste too bad; the rest of the beer's flavors come through loud and clear.

I'd recommend this beer for people who are fans of Belgian ales and English ales; I'd say that this one falls right in the middle of the two. Rating: 7/10

The third beer I'll be trying tonight is Phuket Lager, all the way from Thailand (by way of Trader Joe's):

Well, it looks like a lager all right. It's a little darker than most American lagers; I suppose it looks a lot like Miller Genuine Draft. There's a bit of foamy head that goes away pretty quickly, leaving a very thin layer on top of the glass. The smell is a lot like a lager; it smells like hops and a bit of alcohol. Not a lot of malt in this one.

I'll say right away that I'm not a huge fan of lagers; I drink them on occasion, but I don't usually go out and buy them. My roommate picked up this six-pack.

Phuket gave me a pleasant surprise - it's a lot more interesting than any American lager I've ever tasted even though it smelled quite similar. There's an interesting tangy flavor that's almost fruity right out in front, to go along with the hops (which are kind of understated). The aftertaste leaves something to be desired, but there's that little fruity note again to keep things a little bit interesting. Overall, not a bad beer even considering that I'm not usually a fan of the style.

Rating: 6/10

Update, 8:00 PM: And I'm still going. I found a bottle of Quilmes Lager, an ~~Argentinian~~ Argentine beer, in the back of the fridge, so I decided to drink it since I've reviewed so few lagers in my beer blogging installments.

Quilmes pours into the glass even lighter than Phuket Lager; this looks a lot more like your typical American lager. Smells like it too. There's not much aroma to speak of, and what is there smells of wheat and (very faintly) hops.

So I took a drink, and my comment to my roommates was, "this beer has no flavor!" Seriously, there's just nothing to it. My roommate Rob assures me that if you drink it warm it's a very unpleasant experience; I'm not sure what he was thinking when he did that, but I'm drinking it cold. What flavor there is closely mirrors the aroma, which leads to a profoundly uninteresting drinking experience. It's kind of like if you blended a slice of bread, added a whole bunch of water, and bottled it. I am not impressed, and this is my 4^th beer of the night. If anything, I should be feeling generous.

Rating: 3/10. Drink it if you like Budweiser, otherwise don't bother.

Beer Blogging - Hoegaarden

2007-01-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

Hey, two beer blogging posts in one day! The NFL playoffs must be on or something. Anyway, tonight I'm drinking a beer that I've had many times in the past, but never wrote about for some reason: Hoegaarden.

Hoegaarden is an unfiltered Belgian witbier that has been brewed since 1445. It pours into the glass a very, very light golden color that is almost actually white. There's a big fluffy head that dies down to nothing within a minute. Surprisingly, this is not a great smelling beer - it smells almost like a lager, Heineken maybe. There's a little sourness and a little malt, but nothing remarkable.

The taste is something else, however, something much better. The malt in this beer has the toasted flavor that's typical of Belgian ales, but it's far lighter (since this isn't actually an ale). That comes out at the beginning, followed closely by a very faint hop taste and the flavor of orange peels and coriander. The sourness in the aroma also comes through right at the end, but it's not a bad sourness. Overall, it's a lighter, very refreshing beer that actually has some flavor and character to it.

Rating: 8/10. Recommended for people who like hefeweizens but aren't crazy about the fruity flavors.

Beer Blogging - Boont Amber Ale

2007-01-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

Beer blogging returns! This afternoon, while I watch the first quarter of the Chiefs - Colts playoff game (prediction: Chiefs 24 - Colts 21), I'll be drinking Boont Amber Ale from the Anderson Valley Brewing Company up in Mendocino (a small city that makes a lot of excellent beers):

When I poured it into a pint glass, this beer looked like the ideal amber ale: nice dark golden color, big fluffy head, and some signs of carbonation. The head took a couple of minutes to disappear, and when it did a very pleasant odor took up residence at the top of the glass. It's hoppy, but not too hoppy, and you can smell a nice amount of toasted malt there as well.

Upon tasting, there's a lot of toasted biscuit flavor right out front, which explains the aroma. The hops aren't doing much at all in this beer, which ordinarily would be bad for an amber ale. I'm not really minding it in this one, though, since the malt is so mellow and toasted. The aftertaste is has some light floral hops, and another taste that reminds me a lot of the olives at the end of a martini; if that sounds disgusting in a beer, I assure you that it's a very nice aftertaste for this beer. Overall, the flavor is rich but mellow, which I think is just right in a beer that doesn't have a strong hop character.

Rating: 8/10. Recommended for people who like Belgian ales.

Beer Blogging - White Hawk IPA

2006-12-10T18:26:00.000-08:00

I'm just sitting down with some delicious food, and I thought that I might as well drink a delicious beverage along with it. Specifically, this delicious beverage:

That's the White Hawk Original IPA from Mendocino Brewing up in Northern CA. Apparently, they brew it with the goal of replicating the first IPA recipe.

The White Hawk IPA pours into the glass a light golden color, with some cloudiness and a small white head that disappears in maybe 30 seconds. The aroma is mostly citrus; I smell orange and maybe some lemon peel. There's no malt in the smell at all.

Upon tasting the beer, my tongue agrees with my nose: there is barely any malt in this beer. Personally, I'm a fan of such things, because I enjoy a hoppy beer more than I enjoy a sweet one in most cases. But if you don't like hops, this beer would pretty much just knock you on your ass. The initial taste is (of course) hoppy, but not nearly as citrus intensive as the aroma would suggest. There's a nice bitterness through the middle, and that gives way to a (very) little bit of malty sweetness at the end, as well as a little taste of alcohol (the beer has 7% ABV). The bitterness dominates the aftertaste.

Rating: 7/10. This is a decent IPA, and I'm certainly not sad about buying it (at my local Trader Joe's, if you're interested). The White Hawk IPA follows the IPA recipe very well - lots of hops, followed by a little malt, and a high alcohol content. It's definitely worth picking up a six-pack if you're a fan of the style, but I wouldn't say that it's extraordinary.

I made a thing

2006-12-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

It's a thing that shows you all my beer blogging posts: the beer blogging archive.

That picture is in the sidebar now (actually, it's kind of dominating the sidebar now, but that's OK because beer is important), and clicking on it will take you to a list of all the beer blogging posts I've done. There's some good stuff in there, so go check it out and expand your alcoholic horizons.

It's beer! Hooray, beer!

2006-12-09T14:11:00.000-08:00

This morning, I bought (among other beers) a six-pack of Rogue Dead Guy Ale, a German-style Maibock made with Rogue's special PacMan yeast.

As you can see, this beer has a very deep golden color and a small, foamy head. The head disappears to just about nothing within a couple minutes, leaving some nice lace on the sides of the glass. The aroma is nice and malty, with maybe some floral hints.

This is a really good tasting beer, not my favorite from Rogue but right up there. As you would expect from a Maibock-style ale, it's sweet without being cloying, with a pleasant malt flavor right off the bat. The malt tastes a little more roasted than you'd expect from a beer of this color, but otherwise it tastes a lot like it smells. The hops come through in the aftertaste, and provide a very nice contrast to the initial sweetness. The hops aren't as bitter as they usually are in Rogue beers, probably because they use a different variety for the Dead Guy Ale. The alcohol content is 6.6%, but it's sneaky - it's not on the label, and you can barely taste it.

Rating: 8/10. Recommended for anyone who's a fan of lighter, sweeter beers. This is a very good ale, and you should really go pick up a six-pack right now. What are you waiting for?

Beer Blogging Archive

2006-12-08T11:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my beer blogging archive! Linked below are all the beer review posts that I've done, with the most recent at the top. I'll also put a link to this post in the sidebar; just click the logo above to come to this post. If you want to see another blogger's take on some different (and also some of the same) beers, go see Toast's beer blogging archive. The dude really knows his beer, and he won't steer you wrong. Well, except when he and I disagree, that is.

The average rating for these beers is 610.5/890 = 6.86/10, in case you were curious.

A bit about my rating system:

0-4 - I am annoyed that I paid money for this beer. Definitely not worth buying again.

5-6 - Not an unpleasant beer, but probably not something that I would buy again. A tepid recommendation at best.

7-9 - Beers that I enjoyed to varying degrees and that I feel are worth buying again.

10 - Even I, the most opinionated bastard ever, can't think of a way to improve this beer. You should really go out and buy some.

Now, the beers:

Deschutes Hop Henge Imperial IPA - Rating = 8/10

Stone Imperial Russian Stout - Rating = 9/10

AleSmith X Extra Pale Ale - Rating = 9/10

Red Hook Long Hammer IPA - Rating = 8/10

Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale - Rating = 5/10

New Belgium Springboard Ale - Rating = 7/10

Stone Vertical Epic 070707 - Rating = 7/10

Maredsous Triple: post 1, post 2 - Average Rating = 8.5/10

Moylan's Moylander Double IPA - Rating = 4/10

Bear Republic Big Bear Black Stout - Rating = 9/10

Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout - Rating = 8/10

Snakebite - Guinness Draught & Wyder's Pear Cider - Rating = 7/10

Miner's Lung - Guinness Draught & Smirnoff Vodka - Rating = 5/10

Black and Tan - Guinness Draught & Bass Pale Ale - Rating = 8/10

Anchor Brewing Liberty Ale - Rating = 8/10

Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale - Rating = 9/10

He'Brew Genesis Ale - Rating = 7/10

Flying Horse Royal Lager Beer - Rating = 7/10

Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA - Rating = 9/10

Samuel Adams Old Fezziwig Ale - Rating = 8/10

Samuel Adams White Ale - Rating = 6/10

Trader Joe's Dunkelweizen - Rating = 6/10

Budweiser Chelada - Rating = 0/10

Sweetwater Brewing Georgia Brown Ale - Rating = 6/10

Sweetwater Brewing 420 Extra Pale Ale - Rating = 8/10

Abita Brewing Turbodog Ale - Rating = 4/10

Bayhawk Ales California Pale Ale - Rating = 8/10

Lagunitas Maximus IPA - Rating = 9/10

Corona Familiar - Rating = 7/10

Cerveza Sol - Rating = 6/10

Miller High Life - Rating = 4/10

Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat - Rating = 6/10

Samuel Adams Cream Stout - Rating = 8/10

Stone Smoked Porter - Rating = 7/10

Victory Storm King Imperial Stout - Rating = 7/10

Victory Hop Devil India Pale Ale - Rating = 8/10

Magic Hat Mother Lager - Rating = 7/10

Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine - Rating = 7/10

Magic Hat Fat Angel Ale - Rating = 8/10

Rogue Ales St. Rogue Red Ale - Rating = 7/10

Trader Joe's 2006 Vintage Ale - Rating = 7/10

Rogue Ales Mocha Porter - Rating = 7/10

Smithwick's Irish Ale - Rating = 5/10

Guinness Draught - Rating = 8/10

New Belgium 2° Below - Rating = 7/10

Brooklyn Brand Brown Ale - Rating = 5/10

Magic Hat H.I.P.A. - Rating = 8/10

Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale - Rating = 6/10

Magic Hat Blind Faith IPA - Rating = 8/10

Karl Strauss Amber Lager - Rating = 7/10

Green Flash Extra Pale Ale - Rating = 8/10

New Belgium Brewery Fat Tire Amber Ale - Rating = 10/10

New Belgium Brewery 1554 - Rating = 7/10

Stockyard Oatmeal Stout - Rating = 5/10

Quilmes Lager - Rating = 3/10

Phuket Lager - Rating = 6/10

Ringwood Brewery Old Thumper Ale - Rating = 7/10

Black Toad Ale - Rating = 6/10

Hoegaarden - Rating = 8/10

Anderson Valley Brewing Boont Amber Ale - Rating = 8/10

San Miguel Dark Lager - Rating = 7/10

Mendocino Brewing White Hawk IPA - Rating = 7/10

Rogue Dead Guy Ale - Rating = 8/10

Rogue Ales Shakespeare Stout - Rating = 9/10

Reaper Ale Sleighor Double IPA - Rating = 9/10

Santa's Butt Winter Porter - Rating = 5/10

Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter - Rating = 7/10

Full Sail Brewing Sunspot IPA - Rating = 8/10

Trader Joe's Winterfest Dark Double Bock Lager - Rating = 7/10

Samuel Adams Winter Lager - Rating = 8/10

Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale - Rating = 7/10

Olde English "800" Malt Liquor - Rating = 1/10

Bison Brewing Organic Belgian Ale - Rating = 8/10

Full Sail Brewing Equinox ESB - Rating = 8/10

Rogue Ales Chocolate Stout - Rating = 8/10

Rogue Ales Brutal Bitter - Rating = 10/10

Lost Coast Brewing Great White Ale - Rating = 6/10

Samuel Adams Hefeweizen - Rating = 6/10

Samuel Adams Brown Ale - Rating = 6/10

Samuel Adams Black Lager - Rating = 7/10

Mendocino Brewing Red Tail Ale - Rating = 6/10

Echigo - Rating = 4/10

Köstritzer Schwarzbier - Rating = 9/10

Bornem Triple Ale - Rating = 6/10

La Fin Du Monde - Rating = 9/10

Avery Brewing's The Reverend - Rating = 6/10

Chimay Premiére - Rating = 7/10

Stone's Ruination IPA - Rating = 10/10

Spaten Optimator - Rating = 9/10

Bornem Double - I didn't rate that one for some reason

That's right, I'm still drinking

2006-12-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

And I'm still writing about it just in case the beers I buy are good. My final beer of today will be one that I'm really excited about: the Sleighor Double IPA from Reaper Ale Brewing, down the road from me in Vista, CA.

You should really click the picture above and take a look at the label art; it's a pretty cool one. Also, the label poses a question of the drinker: "Do you dare?" I do, Reaper Ale. I do.

This beer poured into the glass with a deep golden color and lots of carbonation. A big, fluffy head was produced that stuck around for quite a while before dissolving into some substantial lace. The aroma is a pleasant combination of grapefruit and flowers, promising lots of hoppy flavor to come.

Drinking this beer is an adventure, because the flavor goes through three distinct phases before you get a chance to swallow it. The first flavor you get is mild and flowery and almost sweet. There's not a lot of that, though, because the second flavor asserts itself almost immediately, and it tastes like the beer is punching you in the tongue with a fist made of hops. It's bitter, but man is it good! As you start getting used to the bitterness, you start to taste the third phase of flavor, which is a grapefruit/orange/general citrus that mixes very well with the bitterness. A slight taste of alcohol (surprisingly little, considering the 9.1% alcohol content) comes through here also. That grapefruit flavor sticks around as the aftertaste.

Rating: 9/10. If you're a fan of IPAs and you can find it in a store near you, you need to try this beer.

Still More Beer Blogging!

2006-12-03T13:31:00.000-08:00

That's right, I'm still going. It's Sunday, football is on the TV, and I'm ignoring everything else in my life except the beer in front of me. Life is good.

So if you pay attention to strange news stories, you may have heard about the strange case of Santa's Butt Winter Porter. Short story: it's been banned by the Maine state liquor agency because, since it has Santa on the label, it might be attractive to kids. It's also possible that they object to the word "butt", which refers to the barrel (called a butt by brewers) on which Santa sits in the label art but has a more obvious connotation.

Whatever the reason, this ruling is really stupid. In what store can a young kid pick up a beer, open it and drink enough of it to be dangerous without an adult seeing it? Anyway, when I saw a bottle of this in my local liquor store, I knew I had to have it. And this afternoon, I decided I had to drink it.

The pour promises a rich, flavorful beer. It's a deep brown as it comes out of the bottle; if you hold it up to the light you can maybe see some amber, but it pretty much just looks really dark. There's not much head to speak of. The aroma is roasted and spicy, as expected for a winter porter.

The first thing that surprised me about drinking this beer was that I only got the smallest hint of carbonation. It almost feels flat in the mouth, a feeling that's compounded by the slightly sweet first impression. I think what mostly surprised me is that it doesn't really drink like a porter. It kind of reminds me of a black lager or a really dark winter lager. The aftertaste sticks around for a long time, and tastes like a mildly spiced ale more than anything else. It's kind of confusing me, but the Santa's Butt Winter Porter is interesting and enjoyable. It's very mild for a porter, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Rating: 5/10. Recommended for fans of darker lagers and non-bitter ales, even if you normally wouldn't buy a porter. I don't know if I'd go out of my way to buy this one again, but it's an OK beer and the label kicks ass.

Extra Special Bonus Beer Blogging

2006-12-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, another beer blogging post! This morning, I went to the greatest liquor store there is, and came home with a whole bunch of interesting beers that I can't wait to drink. This afternoon, I will be drinking The Famous Taddy Porter, from Samuel Smith's Old Brewery at Tadcaster.

Befitting a porter, this beer is as black as night when poured into a pint glass, with a nice foamy head. The smell is nice and complex: you can smell some bitterness, but the aroma is mostly of sweet, lightly roasted malt. From the smell, you expect a sweet beer that's not too overbearing.

And the first taste bears that out. This is a very malty beer, to the exclusion of that hop smell - I barely taste any hops at all. That's not necessarily bad, though. The Famous Taddy Porter is a surprisingly creamy beer that goes down very easily, so bitterness might be out of place. The aftertaste is more sweetness, and any bitterness there is comes in the form of a hint of dark chocolate and maybe some coffee. The overall effect is very pleasant and quite drinkable.

Rating: 7/10. Recommended for fans of chocolate stouts who are put off by strongly roasted porters.

Beer Blogging

2006-12-01T18:46:00.000-08:00

In celebration of a long week of lab-related failure, I bring you a sure success: another beer blogging post. This one is a review of Full Sail Brewing's Sunspot IPA.

The Sunspot IPA pours into the glass with a big, frothy head that disappears slowly. It's a deep, golden-red color - a good sign for an IPA. What's unusual for an IPA is that it's cloudy; that can only mean lots of flavor. The smell is citrus-y, with a little hint of bitterness, but not much.

The first taste is, in a word, delicious. There's a little hint of hops on the front end, and as you go to swallow you get a big wallop of grapefruit in the back of your mouth. The grapefruit taste sticks around for a little while after swallowing. I can also taste a little bit of flowery perfume, but mostly the citrus dominates. The Sunspot IPA definitely isn't as bitter as some IPAs I've had, but there is some bitterness there. Overall this is a very well crafted beer, highly recommended for people who like beers with citrus (but not really fruity) flavor and some bitterness as well.

Rating: 8/10

UPDATE: I like beer, so I'm still drinking it. Specifically, I'm drinking this:

That is Trader Joe's Winterfest beer. Yes, Trader Joe's has their own line of beers (actually brewed by microbrewer Gordon Biersch), and they're often pretty decent. This one is described as a "Dark, Double Bock Lager", and it is in fact dark when poured into the glass; very little head is present.

The aroma is strong, but fairly simple. It's basically just malty. Despite the dark color, this beer is actually pretty sweet when you first taste it. There's a very slight hint of chocolate; it's not dark chocolate like you usually get in a stout, but almost more like semisweet chocolate. Most of the sweetness is more like molasses and maybe caramel, and it's that flavor that sticks around into the aftertaste. You barely even taste the large amount of alcohol (7.5% abv).

If you have a Trader Joe's near you, I'd recommend picking up some of this while you can, since it's seasonal and it won't be around for long. Recommended for people who like sweet beers that sneak up on you with their high alcohol content.

Rating: 7/10

Beer Blogging

2006-11-26T15:18:00.000-08:00

In celebration of the Bills' close win this morning, I will have some beer. Not that I need an excuse, but, you know, Go Bills! Anyway, today I'll be drinking Sam Adams' Winter Lager.

This beer poured into the glass with a dark amber color and a decent-looking head that disappeared to nothing pretty quickly. There's not a ton of smell to it; it smells pretty much like an ordinary lager. The taste, however, is different from the regular Sam Adams Lager in a very pleasing way. It's very full-bodied, like the regular lager, but it has an almost buttery sweetness that you taste right away. That sounds odd, but it really works well with this beer. There's a slight hoppy bitterness and maybe some spice at the end, but the semi-sweet malt is the main characteristic here. That's a little strange for a winter lager - usually they have a lot more spice to them. The beer is so well crafted, though, that I really don't miss that flavor. Overall, I'd say this beer is an excellent variation on the base Sam Adams Lager. If you're a fan of regular Sam Adams and of slightly sweeter beers, this is a must-buy.

Rating: 8/10

Beer Blogging

2006-11-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

Well, it's fall, and that means there are pumpkins around. That also means that the pumpkin ales have magically reappeared in my local liquor establishments, and I couldn't be happier. Tonight, with my super classy dinner of ramen noodles and assorted chopped vegetables, I'll be drinking Buffalo Bill's Brewing's pumpkin ale.

This is a clear, amber beer that pours up with just a little bit of foamy head, that disappears to just about nothing. The smell promises good things to come; it smells like a cross between a pumpkin pie and an amber ale. It smells like it's got more spices than a pumpkin pie, but otherwise it's remarkably similar.

Upon first taste, this pumpkin ale tastes like any other amber ale. But once it's been in the mouth for a second, the pumpkin and spices really start to assert themselves. In my experience, beers flavored with fruits or vegetables can go one of two ways: either they can be far too sweet and syrupy (true of blueberry wheat beers, mostly), or they can blend in with the other beer flavors and complement them. This beer does the latter. The pumpkin flavor reminds me of a pumpkin pie mix with only a fraction of the sugar. That's good, because sweetness would be out of place with this beer.

Rating: 7/10. Recommended for people who like pumpkin flavor and amber ales. If you don't like the beer flavor, the pumpkin flavor won't make up for it unless you really like pumpkin.

Beer Malt Liquor Blogging

2006-11-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

Some of the physics and chemistry graduate students here at UCI have something of a tradition. For big political events (election returns, State of the Union addresses), we get together, eat shitty food and drink really shitty malt liquor. Last year, among other beverages, we sampled Schlitz, Steel Reserve, Mickey's and Icehouse. Tonight, I'm drinking Olde English "800".

Do not drink this beverage. Seriously, just don't. There are two distinct tastes in play here. When the OE is cold, it's simply bad malt liquor. Kind of a skunky taste, not too bad but certainly nothing I'd call good. Since this stuff has 7.5% alcohol by volume, you might think that drinking a bit of it would lessen the negative aspects.

But you would be wrong. You'd be wrong because warm OE is a special kind of hell. Skunky, yes, like the cold stuff, but there's more. Even very slightly warm Olde English "800" tastes like a hobo's armpit. Plus, this shit is filling, so at the end of the bottle you're full and drinking something that tastes like an old sock. Perhaps obviously, this is not a drinking experience to be desired. I bought this 40 tonight because I had never tried OE 800 before; after tonight, I'm quite confident that I never will again.

Rating: 1/10. Recommended for people who hate themselves and want to be unhappy.

Still, not even shitty malt liquor could dull my enthusiasm tonight. Go Dems!

Beer Blogging

2006-11-04T17:40:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that this post is in honor of maurinsky, whose birthday it is today. She wanted people to "make a big fucking deal about my birthday. Have some cake, send me presents, open a present yourself, blow out some candles, and get another day older". So I did - my present to myself was beer. No cake, though. Maurinsky, I wouldn't know what to send you as a present...what would you like?

Tonight I'll be trying the Organic Belgian Ale from those hippies at Bison Brewing up in Berkeley. It's a Belgian Tripple style ale brewed with coriander, according to the label. Let's see what it has to offer.

This beer pours into the glass with a nice, foamy white head and a clear golden body. It's an appealing looking beer, right out of the bottle. That's a good sign. I always pour my beer at first so that the head recedes a couple inches below the rim of the glass, so that I can check out the smell - you gotta really stick your nose in the glass (I learned that from my dad and his inspections of wine). I'm not the best judge of this right now, being as I am in the midst of a vicious head cold, but I definitely get hints of citrus and, unsurprisingly, coriander. There's also a bready smell, which is to be expected from a Belgian ale.

The first taste gives a strong, bitter hoppy impression, with a citrus flavor along for the ride. After that, you get a little bit of a sweet, honey flavor, but the bitterness sticks around for quite a while. The aftertaste, surprisingly, is of honey; as soon as the liquid is gone, the hop flavor goes along with it. It's an unexpected and quite pleasant contrast, and really makes you want to take that next sip. There is some alcohol to be tasted, but the other flavors really hide it well.

This is a pretty good beer. I'd recommend it to people who like Belgian style ales, as well as people who are fans of bitter beers. This one doesn't have the bitterness of an IPA or an ESB, but it has that kind of complex flavor. You won't get bored with it, that's for sure. Rating: 8/10.

Beer Blogging

2006-10-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

To warm up for the combination Halloween/Oktoberfest party I'll be going to this evening, I thought I'd do another installation of beer blogging. Last night I went to Beverages & More and picked up (among other things) two 22-oz. bombers from Full Sail Brewing. Tonight, I'll be sampling one out of their Brewmaster's Reserve, the Equinox Extra Special Bitter.

Befitting its name, the flavor of the Equinox ESB is dominated by bitterness, but it's not unpleasantly bitter at all. There's no taste of malt sweetness to speak of; the beer's entire flavor is dictated by the hops. Since the Full Sail brewery is in Oregon, I'd guess that these are Cascade hops, of which I am a huge fan. The main flavor that I get initially is lemon rind (a bitter lemon taste), but that doesn't last too long before it gets replaced by a more generic citrus flavor. Since it only has 5.7% alcohol by volume, you can't really taste any alcohol, which contributes to the smooth taste of the Equinox, despite its bitter flavors.

Rating: 8/10. If you like sweet beers, this one has absolutely nothing to offer you. It's about hops, hops, hops. But if you're a fan of pale ales, IPAs or ESBs, you will enjoy this beer.

If you're going to drink before noon

2006-10-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

I highly recommend drinking what I'm drinking right now:

In a large coffee mug:
1 tablespoon sugar
1 shot tequila
fill with strong coffee

That shit is delicious. Right now I'm just calling it a "Mexican coffee", but other suggestions for how to refer to this concoction are welcomed.

Hooray for Sundays!

Beer Blogging

2006-10-12T18:52:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm, beer.

Tonight I'll be drinking Rogue Chocolate Stout, made by Rogue Ales out of Newport, Oregon.

Now that's a beautiful dark beer. Pouring it reminded me of nothing so much as pouring out motor oil; it's thick, just like a stout should be. The first thing you get when you taste it is the roasted hop flavor, and maybe a bit of bitter hop flavor and some oatmeal. The roasted and bitter flavors stick around, joined by a sweet dark chocolate note. There's not a ton of aftertaste to speak of, which is a little surprising in a beer like this, but that doesn't detract from the overall experience. Aftertaste is more important in bitter beers (IPAs, ESBs) than it is in a dark beer, in my opinion. Here you get a hint of hops, a hint of chocolate, and that's it.

Rating: 8/10. Recommended for anyone who likes dark, flavorful beers, even if you don't normally like chocolate stouts. This is a really good specimen, and if you're going to like one, this will be it.

Alcohol-containing substance blogging

2006-08-31T21:31:00.000-07:00

Ugh.

Tonight: NyQuil. The flavor is theoretically cherry, but to me it tastes and smells like liquid illness. It's a psychological thing - whenever I was a kid taking NyQuil, it meant that I was really sick and unhappy. I can't even smell it now without feeling worse. Right now, though, anything that makes me pass out is OK with me.

Rating: 1/10 (taste), 10/10 (sedative powers). Recommended for people who, like me, feel like absolute shit right now.

Back to Beer Blogging

2006-08-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'll be enjoying a very flavorful beer: the Brutal Bitter from Rogue Ales in Newport, Oregon.

No false advertising here, that's for sure. This is a bitter, bitter beer. It kind of tastes like an IPA, but even more bitter at the end. The citrus flavor that's common to IPAs is there; this one tastes like grapefruit mostly, but there's also a sweet hint of honey. As you can see from the picture, this beer is a very nice reddish color, but also a bit cloudy. The bottle says there's some wheat in it, so that makes sense. There's no alcohol content stated on the bottle, but I'd guess it's in the 7% range. Anyway, this is an absolutely wonderful beer if you're a fan of IPAs, pale ales, ESBs or any other bitter beer that I didn't mention. It's not cheap (six bucks for the 22-ounce bottle), but it's absolutely worth it. Plus, it's a cool bottle that will look good in my collection.

Rating: 10/10. A must buy for anyone who likes bitter beers.

Bonus extra beer blogging: Great White from Lost Coast, in Eureka, CA.

I've had this one before, but we happen to have some in the beer fridge (yes, we have a dedicated beer fridge) and I want one, so here we go.

I've only ever had this beer out of the bottle; taking this picture was the first time I've ever poured it into a glass. The bottle calls it a "light, unfiltered beer", but I don't see any cloudiness at all. It does look like there's a bit of yeast on the bottom of the bottle, but mostly this looks like a lager in the glass. Anyway, on to the taste.

This is a very smooth, lightly flavored beer. It could be because I just had something called "Brutal Bitter", but I'm just not getting a lot of flavor. There's a little bit of citrus flavor; the bottle also says I should be tasting coriander but I can't tell. Sticking my nose in the glass gives me a scent I can only describe as bubblegum, maybe with a bit of that citrus flavor. There's also a nice smooth aftertaste that's a little wheaty. This is a good summer beer, but not the typical unfiltered ale.

Rating: 6/10. Recommended for fans of lighter, more refreshing beers like lagers. This has a little more flavor; I'd recommend Great White if you like Mexican or American beers and want to try something a little more interesting.

Tags: beer, Rogue Brutal Bitter, Lost Coast Great White

Bloggery

2006-08-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

99,999 visitors since I started this blog in November 2004. Not only is that far more people than I ever expected to have read this thing, it's about triple the readership that this crap actually deserves. True, many of those hundred thousand visits were from people searching for "diet coke and mentos" or "Dr. Frank's No Pain Spray" (which is probably how visitor 99,999 came here) or from angry right-wingers who wanted to let me know that I suck and should die, but I know there are several people out there who make a habit out of coming by this little blog.

To you I say thank you very much, and I'm humbled that you read what I spurt onto this website.

By way of thanks, go get your mind blown. That link is better than acid and hookers mixed together, I promise.

Sunday Beer Blogging

2006-08-06T22:47:00.000-07:00

You see what I did there? I made it sound like this is actually a weekly feature, that happens every Sunday. As though I have the discipline to actually stick to a schedule for anything. Well, I did do this last Tuesday...maybe this will be the beginning of a trend where I actually blog about beer once a week!

But I doubt it.

Anyway, this morning I was in a Ralph's supermarket at about 9 AM, walking through the beer section (as is my wont), and I saw something called a "Samuel Adams Mix Pack". This is a six pack in a little box that has two each of their Hefeweizen, Brown Ale, and Black Lager. Well, I've had the Black Lager before and kind of liked it, and I'd never tried the other two. After a long day of failure in the lab, I'm ready to sit back and enjoy all three. Here we go!

First up is the Hefeweizen:

This beer (poured into a hefeweizen glass) produced a huge head that dissolved after a minute or so, leaving a very nice lace. There's not a lot of carbonation left after all that, but it doesn't really hurt the beer too much. The beer is very cloudy in the glass.

As you bring the glass to your mouth, you get a hint of fruit, but the aroma isn't very strong overall, and it certainly doesn't have the strong hint of banana that I usually associate with this type of beer. The beer itself is the same - very light for a wheat beer, but that's not entirely a bad thing. This is a hefweizen that allows you to taste the fruit flavors on the aftertaste, and doesn't clobber you over the head with the taste of wheat; I guess some would say that doesn't make it a real hefeweizen. If you're looking for a more traditional, "real" hefeweizen, get something like Ayinger (whose glass I'm using here). Overall rating: 6/10.

Next we come to the Brown Ale; I've decided to go lightest to darkest tonight.

The brown ale poured with almost no head and a dark brown color. Again, not too strong of an odor, but what is there smells deep and roasted. The flavor isn't very strong at all, making this a drinkable beer in the tradition of other Sam Adams brews. The initial taste is pretty malty; the aftertaste is that roasted flavor with a hint of chocolate, and it lasts for a good long time. I'd call it a more interesting version of the ubiquitous Boston Lager. If you like the lager but want a little more flavor, this beer is for you. Overall rating: 6/10.

Finally we have the Black Lager. I've actually had this one before, which is why I saved it for last.

The beer pours with a nice thick head, and it's very dark - just looking at it it's black, but when held up to the light it's got an interesting reddish hue. It has a roasted aroma, similar to the Brown Ale but more so. The taste is almost like a stout; that roasted flavor is noticable at first (along with a bit of brown sugar), but fades away quickly to a smooth aftertaste. The flavor never really asserts itself, which is atypical for this style of beer. I like a black lager to be fairly strong.

As for a recommendation, well...if you're a fan of lighter styles and have never tried a schwartzbier, this might be the one to start with. If you're a fan of black lagers, go buy a Köstritzer. Sam Adams Black Lager is a good beer, but as a black lager it leaves a little something to be desired. Overall rating: 7/10.

In the final analysis, I'd call this six-pack a push. Their hefeweizen wasn't really a hefeweizen and their black lager wasn't really a black lager (other than in color). Neither brew lived up to what I've come to expect from their respective styles, although both were tasty. The brown ale was actually more flavorful than more famous brown ales (read: Newcastle), so that was a pleasant surprise. I'm all about lots of flavor in my beers. All three varieties were good beers, but the hefeweizen and black lager weren't as good as they could have been. Oh, well. Köstritzer has been brewed in Germany for more than 400 years and Ayinger hefeweizen has been around since the late 1800's, while the Boston Beer Co. opened its doors in 1984. I guess I can cut them a little slack.

Tags: beer, Sam Adams Hefeweizen, Sam Adams Brown Ale, Sam Adams Black Lager

The Triumphant Return of Beer Blogging

2006-08-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

As it does every month or so, beer blogging is making its triumphant return with Mendocino Brewing Company's Red Tail Ale.

It's a red ale, obviously, and the first thing you notice after pouring it is the color - a nice deep red. There's a huge head, but the beer doesn't lose all its carbonation, and still has a good mouthfeel as you drink it. There's a nice balance between the malt sweetness and the hoppy bitterness; the fruity taste of the malt hits you first. Usually, if a beer has some sweetness to it you can taste a specific fruit flavor, but I don't get that from this beer. All I can say is that there is some malt involved. The hops come next, with a good amount of bitterness - enough to give an aftertaste, but not enough to drown out the sweetness completely.

Overall, this is a refreshing beer with a little bit of flavor to it. It's more interesting than a lager, but not nearly as complex as a typical red ale. In other words, it's great for an evening when it's 80 and muggy in Southern California, especially if you're like me and don't normally enjoy beers that don't have a lot of flavor. Rating: 6/10

Extra special bonus beer: Echigo, made by a microbrewery in Japan.

Ever had an Asahi? How about a Sapporo? Maybe Kirin? Then you've had an Echigo. Much like beers from El Salvador, all Japanese beers taste the same. It's kind of a watery, light-bodied lager. Not bad, but nothing exciting. I mostly bought it because the label was all in Japanese and looked kind of cool. I wouldn't buy it again, because Asahi is the same thing and costs a heck of a lot less. Rating: 4/10.

Tags: beer, Red Tail Ale, Echigo Beer

Hey, Remember Beer Blogging?

2006-05-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

You know, that thing I used to do? Well, it's back! Tonight I'm having something called Köstritzer Schwarzbier, which describes itself as "Germany's Black Lager" and has been made since the year 1543 according to the label.

As you can see, this really is a black beer. When I poured it, there was a thick, foamy head that disappeared within a couple of minutes. The first sip made me think of Guinness; actually, I would describe this beer as a milder, more carbonated version of Guinness. It has the same strong roasted flavor, but none of the coffee note. This beer is about roasted hops, and that's it.

Considering the bitter flavor, I'm surprised how refreshing the beer is. The bitterness doesn't stick around for long; the aftertaste is flavorful and smooth. In short, this is a really good black lager, way better than (for example) the one that Sam Adams makes. I would recommend Köstritzer for anybody who likes dark beers.

Rating: 9/10

Tag: beer

The triumphant return of beer blogging

2006-04-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I did a beer blogging post, mostly because I've been so damn busy that I haven't been drinking beer. This is not a good situation, which I will attempt to remedy tonight by drinking a beer that's been in the beer fridge for a while: Bornem Triple.

This beer is a Belgian triple, meaning that the brewer added three times the normal amount of malt to the brew. This can result in several kinds of flavor, but it usually leads to a very strong taste. The first thing I noticed with this beer is that it's sweet, but not the same kind of cloying sweetness that turned me off of The Reverend quadrupel. There are also hints of apple and lemon that fade away to a slightly hoppy aftertaste - not bitter or strong, just kind of sharp. There's no hint of the 9% ABV.

Overall, it's one of the least interesting triples that I've had (and I've had a few). It's not too sweet to taste all the flavors, which is good, but it's also not too complex. Part of that could be the carbonation interfering with the taste of the beer, but whatever the reason, I'm not overwhelmed. If you're going to have a Bornem beer, have the Double.

Rating: 6/10. Meh.

Tags: beer, Bornem

Beer Blogging

2006-03-12T14:11:00.000-08:00

The quadrupel is a style of Belgian ale that is rarely brewed, and in fact I've never had one before. In terms of flavor, they're more like a wine than a beer, and supposedly the flavors can mature with time if you age them correctly.

But I want it now! And so, I just opened this bottle of Avery Brewing's The Reverend, a Belgian-style quadrupel ale brewed in Boulder, CO.

If I showed you that picture and told you that this beer has 10% alcohol by volume, you'd probably expect a strong, bitter flavor with a strong sense of all that alcohol. Well, not so much. The Reverend gets almost no bitterness from its Styrian Goldings hops; the main component of the taste is a strong sweetness. The malt from this beer is imported from Belgium, and you can taste it for about 30 seconds after you swallow. The taste of alcohol is there, but you really have to look for it as soon as the beer hits your tongue. Overall, I'd say that this beer has the color and flavor of sweet molasses, with a hint of cherry.

My complaint with The Reverend is that it's too sweet; the complexity for which this style of ale is renowned gets drowned out by all that sweetness. It's got a lot of flavor, which is admirable, but it's all the same flavor. When I spend nine bucks on a one pint six ounce beer, I'm looking for a little more than I'm tasting here. I'll definitely pick up more quadrupels in the future, but I don't know if I'll buy this one again. I think that this was probably a good introduction to the genre; maybe it'll make me appreciate a more finely crafted quadrupel when I try one.

Rating: 6/10. It's good, but it's not nearly what I expected from a quadrupel. Maybe next time.

Beer Blogging Returns

2006-03-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

This blog has spent too long focusing on the unimportant things: race, religion and politics. Well, it's time to get back to what matters: beer. Tonight, I'll be drinking a beer that's been sitting around for a while, looking for a good excuse to be enjoyed. Thursday sounds like a good excuse!

I give you the Chimay Premiére Trappist Ale, brewed in an abbey in Belgium.

Presentation is important for a beer, and that brings me to the first cool thing about Chimay Premiére. Besides coming in an enormous bottle (750 mL, the size of a bottle of wine), it has a cork:

Once you get the cork off, the fun starts. The back of the bottle describes this beer as having a "pleasant sharpness and light hint of bitterness", and the beer doesn't disappoint. It's unfiltered and there's a ton of yeast, which means the beer ferments in the bottle. That gives it a very rich taste and an alcohol content that's probably higher than the 7% on the label. The bitterness is slight, but it really asserts itself in the aftertaste. The beer does have some sweetness, but there's only a very slight hint of it when it initially hits your mouth; other than that, this beer is all about bold flavor. And that's not a bad thing at all. I'd recommend this beer if you like beers with strong flavors in general.

Rating: 7/10

Beer Blogging

2006-02-18T17:31:00.000-08:00

Today we have the Ruination IPA from Stone Brewing Co. (the brewers of the more famous Arrogant Bastard Ale).

This is an India Pale Ale, which means it should be bitter and have a strong flavor, and it lives up to this goal for sure. From the back of the bottle:

Stone Ruination IPA. So called because of the immediate ruinous effect on your palate. The moment after the first swallow, all other food and drink items suddenly become substantially more bland than they were just seconds before. By the time you develop a taste for this beer, you may find that you are permenantly ruined from being able to enjoy lesser brews.

At the first sip, this beer kicks you right in the mouth. Hops, hops and more hops. After you get past the initial bitterness, though, there's more: a light malty flavor, and a surprisingly refreshing aftertaste, dry but not too dry. This beer has 7.7% ABV, but it hides it very well - you get very little hint of all that alcohol. You can tell that somebody put a lot of time into crafting the Ruination IPA.

I would recommend this beer, but only if you already really like hoppy beers in general and IPAs in particular. If not, you'll probably get lost in all the bitterness, and it won't be that pleasant of a drinking experience. And nobody wants that.

Rating: 10/10

Beer Blogging

2006-02-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

I like beer.

A lot. In fact, I have a beer bottle collection numbering literally in the hundreds, each bottle different. There are bottles on my walls and cupboards from Morocco, Belgium, Ethiopia, and multiple other countries around the world.

Anyway, since I drink so much beer, I've decided to start reviewing some beers that I drink, in the tradition of Toast and because of the suggestion of Commandante Agi. I thought I'd start out with a great one, the Optimator from Spaten.

This is a serious beer; actually, according to the bottle this is a malt liquor. It doesn't at all have a traditional malt liquor taste or color, though. Most malt liquors are, for lack of a better word, cheap-tasting, as though the brewers tried to cram as much malt and yeast into the mix as possible to jack up the alcohol content, and forgot about creating flavor altogether.

This beer has a nice, solid head that dissipates after a couple minutes, as it should. It's neither exceedingly malty (it has a roasted, not sweet, malt flavor) nor hoppy, which gives it a complex flavor without any one element really dominating. You can definitely taste the hops, though, which you would expect from a beer this dark. The aftertaste is not too strong, but it lasts for a while. The Optimator has 7.2% alcohol by volume, which is fairly strong, but you can't really taste the alcohol while you drink it. This beer goes down smooth.

Spaten Optimator is highly recommended for anyone who's a fan of dark, flavorful beers. If you're a fan of lighter beers and don't like the bitterness of dark beers, this would be a good one to start on, since there is not too much bitterness. It's there, but it's nicely balanced out by the maltiness of the beer.

Rating: 9/10