nicoleandgreg.net » Beer Reviews

Asahi Super Dry

greg — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:21:13 +0000

Is Super Dry going to be super fly?

Hell no.

This beer is bad. Just not good enough to even make effort to write about… but here ya go.

Appearance

Bright and clear. The cold beer frosts over the glass to cloud what I knew to be a rather clear, and even colored beer. The head was generous at the onset – rising to two inches from a brisk pour. The bubbles are nonstop.

Smell

ugh. This is bad. slightly medicine quality. Sour grass.

Taste

Oh… oh wow. this is bad. The artificial sweetness is overwhelming. Corn flavor with a hint of grass.

Mouthfeel

Thin. Tightly bubbled. Pleasant effervescence

Drinkability

Light enough that it could be enjoyed with some complex Japanese food. By someone else. Not me.

Bottomline

Bad. Not enough to even write about.

D-

Peter Straub’s Special Dark Beer

greg — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:07:16 +0000

I like this beer.

I just wanted to admit it out front first. Maybe set a precedent of declaring my allegance up front. That being said, it is by no means a perfect beer. I wouldn’t be spoiling a great movie ending by telling you the plot here — this beer has its serious shortcomings. Lack of decernable aroma being chief amoung them. So there. I said it. I like this beer and I think it sucks. Well, parts of it do.

Operating out of quiant St. Marys, PA… Straub brewing (www.straubbeer.com) is a real throwback to the way things were down. Back then. Known far and wide for their “no sugars, no salts, no preservatives”process and I like that. Makes me feel like it might closer to what was traditional German beer.

Appearance

Pours cold into a pint glass — appears to be a slightly cloudy pale amber. Not really a “dark” amber per se… but I suppose next to the standard Straub on tap — its ‘dark’ … with just one quote. A reddish tint blows lightly. Off-white, almost dirty dishwash water, white head is intact yet never reaches past ¼” in height. Surprising to see the head hold steady.

Smell

Faint at best. Really the weakest area of all. Slightly soapy but hard to pin down.

Taste

This is the part where things get… interesting. Tasty beer without a nose? Is that possible? Special Dark leads off with a not-so-subtle caramel sweetness that seems overpowering if it weren’t for its breifness. There and gone. The light toast of malts comes through to cut into the sweet. Only enough to register then it too leaves. In a hurry. And thus the next part… even weirder.

Mouthfeel

Medium at best but so fleeting that it barely registers. It does leave a short lived sweetness that overpowers as well as sooths at first — but then it dries out to nothing. No memory. No last effects. Thats weird too.

Drinkability

THIS is the real name of the game here. I can drink this beer all day long. Not a pounding hectic pace — but respectble, good natured fun. This is what makes the Peter Straub Special Dark is so special to me. That taste is there beer after beer. Sure, the 4.1 APV is certainly there to keep yourself in check. Just a great, easy going session beer.

Bottomline

I will admit it. I like this beer. I like drinking it. I like drinking this beer when I am just sitting around, safe and sound. Just a great table beer, to spend hours around a campfire. Its cheap and the wife likes it.

B+

Sam Adams Boston Lager

greg — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:32:59 +0000

Samuel Adams Boston Lager

Lagers are fast becoming my default beer as of late. Still like the stouts and hops… but on a daily, i’m trying to see beer. Nothing complicated. Lager. Old School. So i get talked into cheating on Yuengling, and trying a 6-pack of Boston Lager. Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Sam Adams, from Boston, comes out of the Boston Beer company. Nice website (www.samadams.com). Fresh enough to look current without going out on a limb. Still looking for a twitter stream to follow. Hard to believe they would be late to the 2.0 communication stream. Facebook though.

Poured into a Yuengling pint glass. Nice and cold out the fridge.

beeropedia has a really nice description:

Samuel Adams Boston Lager is brewed using two row Pale and Caramel Malt as well as the German Noble hop varieties of Hallertau Mittelfruh and Tettnang Tettnanger. It is brewed using a decoction mash and undergoes a secondary fermentation called Krausening, both of which impart a lingering, complexly sweet finish. Samuel Adams Boston Lager is also dry hopped using the Hallertau Mittelfruh hops for an enhanced hop signature in the aroma and finish. It takes about five weeks to brew. This long conditioning period gives Boston Lager a complexity and smoothness that have become its hallmark.

Appearance

Nice enough. A bright copper that glows nicely under light. A light carbonation streams bubbles up nice. A doughy, slightly dirty, way off white head is fluffy. Mismatched bubble sizes dot the landscape of the head. The head falls eventually. Although to its credit, the head manages to nag on longer than expected. The fall is not graceful. The lacing that remains just from the drop is staggering. Looks untidy.

its just not as dark as i expected. sort of shiny.

Smell

Hard to get at first. Might have been due to the couch loaf i floated. whew! stinky. In any event, I did end up getting quite a nose full. whoops. hand slipped. But the aroma that came through was clear. Slightly bready and a hint of… ghetto car wash citrus Tree. That all too perfect, sleazy orange scent. But a malt undertone peaks through to cut the artificial sweetness.

Taste

Steak. Red meat beef. That’s a meal. Everything else is fluffy, secondary and limited. So too, when it comes to beer – taste is the thing. If I’m grabbing a six pack for the night. Poof. I want it to taste good. For me, lagers give me that flavor without the weight to make it terribly heavy. This beer comes a little underneath my expectations. I’ve been riding a Yuengling kick since visiting them last year. I admit it. So I’m judging this beer against that specific beer. Fair or not. It is what it is… I’ll freely own up to it.

This beer is balanced. No question. It is the first thing that I even realize first. But it seems somehow fake. Too perfect. Beer after beer tasted exactly the same. Four beers in and it tastes the exact same… that is weird to me. I always seem to want a beer to change as I get through it, its follow up beer. So when the Boston Lager comes across the plate the same way each beer is off putting. Or is it?

Way fuller than the rest of the widely available competitors. Its certainly on the same level as Yuengling here … in that regard.

Mouthfeel

Its light. Crisp enough to be playful. Its fuller than a light beer for sure. It never over stays its welcome long enough to become unrepeatable. The distance is reached with ease. And Kody kitty likes it too.

Drinkability

Not overly filling. Certainly holds true to itself. Beer after beer. The entire measure was six and the distance is equal. Easily done. The drinkability is there without question. Which really brings us back to the beginning of things. Doesn’t it?

Bottomline

This beer keeps to its even keel the entire ride. I guess I expected some imperfections. Consistent taste delivery, beer after beer. All in all it tastes good. In that background kind of way. Nothing loud, but certainly not the type of taste that is lost on you. I can dig that.

B-

Dogfish Head Fort

greg — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:41:03 +0000

This was a beer I bought for Nicole. She really likes the Lindemans Framboise so this is right up her alley. We’ve enjoyed this beer on one other occasion at a wonderful restaurant with some friends. Dogfish Head is fast becoming one of my favorite breweries. So I’m looking forward to sitting down and really spending some quality time with this fruit beer. At 18% ABV, I am interested in seeing how the sweet fruit palys with the heat of the alcohol.

And here’s an interesting little blurb from beeradvocate.com…

The World’s Strongest Fruit Beer with over a ton of Oregon and Delaware raspberries that were dosed in, slowly, over a two month primary fermentation. This process produced lots of complex fruit aromas and flavors without being too sweet.

Appearance – Poured into pint glasses for both myself and nicole. Its odd. As raspberry beer, I think the natural assumption is that it would have a color reflective of the red raspberries. It is a mostly amber color with a slight reddish tint. Under light, it has a faint cloudyness. The carbonation appears minimal. The head dropped quickly and remains as only a thin halo. The lacing seems to rock side to side when the glass is manipulated.

Smell - Whew. Definite fruit notes, but they do not dominate. The alcohol is certainly apparent. Personally, I found it hard to denote any malt or hop spice.

Taste - You would think a ton of raspberries would be liable to impart a more pronounced flavor. The malt sweetness tag teams with the well balanced fruit elements.

Mouthfeel - There is an obvious alcohol bite that tends to shock, but the carbonation imparts a nice crispness. Bubbles slightly.

Drinkability - It is a beer which is not to be taken lightly. Very high APV limits how much one could reasonably drink. But for the most part, the heat of the alcohol and the carbonation marries well with the fruit forward nature of this beer. Overall, it is easy to drink once the shock of the alcohol passes.

bottomline - Nicole says “Fruity, strong… I like it.” wow… thanks for showing up princess.

I do like it but I don’t think I’d rave about it. I know Nicole really likes the taste of this beer, but she admits that it is one that one drink only occasionally. I prefer to mix this with a Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. That combination is quite delicious.

B-

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

greg — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:43:09 +0000

Twenty One percent. Yes, a beer with21% ABV. This is the most serious beer I’m willing to drink. The Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, brewed in Milton, DE is an American Double / Imperial IPA.

Appearance - Poured into a goblet, the beer is thick looking. The color is a cloudy soft golden orange. The off-white has little retention, and falls after a minute or two. The lacing is slight.

Smell - Massive sting of alcohol hits you at first. Its not at all what you’d expect from a beer. Citrus notes are present. The extra top hopping leaves a wonderful floral aroma that does manage to cut through the static. Also, there is a more than fair amount of sweetness here. Cane sugar sweet. That may be my one dislike here…

Taste - Ooh! Takes a minute to get used to the almost overbearing sting of all 21%. But after that… the taste is quite complex here. Citrus, like maybe grapefruit. It has a taste similar to unfiltered, very young Gewuerztraminer wine.

It does seem to be on the very far end of most Imperial IPAs. The added daily dry hopping that lasts a full month does give it a tremendous sense of floral notes, both in taste and flavor. But there is no sense of the the extreme dryness that really heavily hopped beers often empart. Your nose can’t help but get involved here. The end result is a warming of your entire mouth.

Mouthfeel - The initial shock of 21% brings an unusual heat. The carbonation is just right. Very full in the mouth, but doesn’t coat in a slick way. Coats yes – but not negatively. There is a nice citrus aftertaste that seems to stay put longer than most Imperials.

Drinkability - Sipper for sure. The heat off the alcohol alone keeps you from slamming it down. I gotta point out one thing here. This beer gets better and better as you drink it. I think some of that comes from the shock wearing off and you get down to the meat of it.

Bottomline - Did I mention the 21%? Not sure if I got to that yet. Man, this is another beer that I wait all year for… and it does not disappoint. The “wayyy higher than everyone else” ABV is a little out of my comfort range, but it is still very tasty. At $12 a bottle, it isn’t a beer that I have often. When I do, its worth every penny. Ok, I might be a little drunk now. Final grade…

A-

Ok. i’m pretty drunk now.

Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout

greg — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:00:04 +0000

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. Damn, this is a beer I wait all year to drink. Brewed in where else… but Brooklyn, New York by the Brooklyn Brewery. As usual with Russian Imperial Stouts, this one is a little on the kick your ass side, 10.6% ABV. This is one of my favorite styles of beer…

“Inspired by brewers back in the 1800′s to win over the Russian Czar, this is the king of stouts, boasting high alcohol by volumes and plenty of malt character. Low to moderate levels of carbonation with huge roasted, chocolate and burnt malt flavours. Often dry. Suggestions of dark fruit and flavors of higher alcohols are quite evident. Hop character can vary from none, to balanced to aggressive.”¹

Appearance – Into a pint glass and poured heavy, I got a thick 1″ head. Super dark coffee colored beer is topped by a dark beige, fluffy head. The retention is there, but the head does drop slowly to ¼”. The best part, the lacing is coating the side of the glass. The bubbles are well-defined and tight.

Smell - Great googly-moogly. Smells of dark bitter chocolate like 85%. Coffee underneath. Very sweet caramels in there as well. The aroma fills my nose – getting stronger as the glass nears. Much like the Mendocino Special Imperial IPA.

Taste - Toasty, roasty good. Super chocolate flavor sits high in the saddle for the whole ride. The roasted malts make this a delicious beer.

Mouthfeel - Creamy and full bodied, this beer fills the mouth and washes over the tongue. The alcohol lingers after the beer is gone – a little sting to say “hi, I was just here.” The carbonation is very slight. That would be one thing I’d change… or at least be curious about. This beer is so good that I hesitate to question its creator.

Drinkability - Very smooth. If you weren’t aware, this beer could get you in a lot of trouble if you’re not paying attention. My first few samples of the beer were large, then I realized that I might want to pace myself.

Bottomline – Mmm mmm good. This beer is worth the wait every year. Get it the week its released and be amazed.

A-

Dominion Oak Barrel Stout

greg — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:05:12 +0000

“Oak Aged Stout Fermented with Vanilla Beans” ok, so that sounds good. This stout is legendary. I’ve heard people rave; read tremendous reviews on beeradvocate.com… so I figured I owed it to myself to see what the fuss was all about… Old Dominion Brewing, Co. from Ashburn, VA is an American Stout is worth every accolade afforded it. At only 5.2% ABV, this is your new winter beer du jour.

Appearance - Poured into a pint glass. The color is black, instantly reminded me of cola. The head is a dark tannish. Came in at a ½” then dropped. No retention. Just a wisp of head remains. Hugs the walls of the glass and most doesn’t leave the surface of the beer. There are strands which seem to climb up the glass.

Smell - Mmmmm. Nice. Vanilla and Roasted Malts dominate. Coffee and cocoa underneath. Wood maybe. Sweet but in a really understated way. Very enjoyable.

Taste - Wow! I love it. Its caught a complex blend of coffee, roasted malt and chocolate. No one more than the rest. It doesn’t leave much aftertaste, although I find myself wishing it did. I am a little confused when I can’t really get much oak or smoke.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied, but nothing of substance. This is one area that I think it falls a little short compared to other stouts. It leaves as quickly as it arrived.

Drinkability - Pretty darn good. In fact, it totally kicks assThe low alcohol helps but the stout doesn’t feel heavy to me.

Bottomline – Wow, this is one I’ll be recommended to a lot of people for a long time. This is a pleasure to drink. If only their website was as pretty as this beer tastes.

A-

Stoudts Triple

greg — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:45:37 +0000

Stoudts Brewing Company is a Pennsylvania brewery that I’m hoping to one day visit. I’ve heard a lot of good things and I’m excited to try my first Stoudt’s. Brewed in Adamstown, PA… this tripel is parenthetically described as a “Belgian Abbey-Style Ale”. 9.0% ABV.

Appearance - Cloudy and golden, this bubbles seem to be suspended in middle a solid. The fluffy white drops to just a slight lace that manages to stick around.

Smell - Floral and citrus notes dominate. Orange peelFaint spices underneath – maybe clove and something else. I like it. Smells like a good triple. This is a very nice smelling beer. Makes me smile.

Taste - Hey. A slight hop bitter but just a little toasty malts there. Sweet seems t0 overtake everything else. The alcohol sometimes gets to be a little much but overall its not too shabby. Banana in there. But way behind the citrus taste that dominates.

Mouthfeel – Lightly carbonated and a little chewy at first. Took some getting used to… Light enough to be really drinkable. This could get you in trouble very quickly.

Drinkability – For a whooping 9.0%, this beer is very drinkable. You are aware that the ABV is there but it doesn’t burn as you might expect. Doesn’t linger too long.

Bottomline – Interesting beer. Not bad but not super impressive. I can’t seem to make up my mind on this one. May have to re-review this one later. Maybe put it head to head with some true Tripel heavyweights. But it smells good.

B-

The not quite 12 Beers of Christmas

greg — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:47:07 +0000

Here we go. Decided to spend some hard earned money on myself in light of the holiday gift giving process draining me of most of my money. For someone who doesn’t really love the season – I still manage to spend more money then I intend. I ended up putting a fun gift basket fun of wine together for Nicole that included recipes to go along with each bottle.

I’ll be getting those recipes up pretty soon. Might be interesting to post the recipes prior to actually trying them. I’ve got a lot of work to do around how those posts will look.

For now – I’m concentrating on trying to refine the review process a little bit. May start looking deeper into not just the beer but the design of the label as well. There are some incredible artists out there putting together really engaging visuals for labels.

There were some surprising disappointments in this group and some OUTSTANDING finds.

But for now, here’s the “Not Quite 12 Beers of Christmas”:

Read. Disagree? Respond.

Great Lakes Christmas Ale

greg — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:16:36 +0000

I purchased an entire case on a whim. I went into my local distributor for a case of Yuengling and came out with this one too. I’ve been drinking this for a few weeks now. It has taken me several weeks to get through that case. No help from the wife on this one. The Great Lakes Brewing Company, from Cleveland Ohio, makes this Winter Warmer as a seasonal offering. 7.50% ABV.

Appearance - A loping, aggressive pour into a pint glass provides a thick, well retained head. The color is sort of a nice, dirty white. Fluffy, it clings to the edges of the glass as it fades down to a ¼” where it stays for some time. Impressive. The beer itself is a cloudy light reddish cooper. Raw Sienna.

Smell - Toasty malts ride over top of slight hops and caramel. Spices ride shotgun. Typical winter spices here. Cinnamon and clove. Thickly sweet as well. Honey.

Taste -Complex. A little on the thin side but there is so much going on that I do like it. Caramel flavors dominate with very little hops to balance out the sweetness.

Mouthfeel - Feels full in the mouth for an instant yet doesn’t coat in a negative way. The sensation is slightly slimey. Certainly smoother than most heavily spiced beers.

Drinkability - The higher alcohol content is not a problem. It does go down easy. I’m down to less than a six-pack. I don’t think I’ve ever had more than one in a night. That should about say it all.

Bottomline - Learned a valuable lesson here. Never buy an entire case you know nothing about. Looking back, I can’t even remember what it was that prompted my impulse purchase. Oh well. It does taste all right I suppose – it just isn’t amazingly drinkable in a “one and done” kind of way. Not the worst thing I’ve had to drink tonight. Overall,

C+