Slacking Sopor Sucks it up and Sips on Some Stone Suds

Ok... A long time ago I said I was going to do beer reviews on Wednesdays. And, well, frankly I've been slacking off majorly (and I admit that Smitty's spectacular prose is intimidating). I could have grabbed one of my notebooks and of posted one of hundreds of reviews (many of which are already posted on Beeradvocate.com) but I feel that I owe it to the huge readership here to at least come up with some new material! And, this WONDERFUL weather (that's not sarcasm, I'm Scottish...) has given me the urge to break into the cellar and open up some of my goodies and review them.

Today I picked Stone's 11th Anniversary Ale. This beer is 1 year old this month. It's listed on BA as a Strong Ale, which can be kind of a catch-all for something strong, and normally malty (a little more info can be found here).

This one is dark, darker than I was expecting. It looks like root beer, both when it pours and in the glass. I found a picture on flickr to help illustrate. I got three fingers worth of foamy, thick tan head that left chunky layers of lacing all the way down the glass. The head never fully went away either, leaving an eighth-inch of foam all the way down the glass. In the glass I can see some deep ruby highlights, but this brews pretty dark.

The smell is all hops, slightly fruity but mostly resinous, and strong. A foreshadow, a mere hint of what's about to come...

Wow, this is a bitter beer, in more ways than one. This is the definition of "west-coast" brewing in a bottle, over the top in every single way. The hop profile of this brew is HUGE. It starts the second the brew touches your tongue, potently bitter with a strong greasy resinous flare. In all honesty, it gets to be a little too much when it adds some honestly soapy and medicinal qualities to the mix. This beer takes balance, slaps it upside the head, drop-kicks it to the floor, kicks out the third story window and then jumps out to land and it's broken corpse. You've got to really be ready for a hop barrage to be ready for this beer. I like me some hops, but honestly this beer is too much for me, this is perhaps one of the first beers I've had that is more powerfully hoppy than chewing on some high alpha-acid hops like Columbus. The bitterness really sticks around for a long time. I think I found the malt flavor in this beer... somewhere deep down in there is a hint of roasty/burnt malt. And riding above the hop flood there are some hints of hot, fusel alcohols. Unfortunately the lasting flavor is soapy, slightly resinous, and not completely pleasant.

The body surprised me. I expected something thick, and to be honest rather sweet. This was not thick at all, in fact it was fairly thin. This made for a fairly "dry" beer too, though I have a hard time calling a beer this hoppy dry (the hop flavor lends it's own "wetness", not sweetness but it still defeats dry if you ask me).

I don't know about this one... It's a good beer, don't get me wrong. But to be honest I would not go out of my way for this one again, it was just a bit too over the top hoppy (this from a guy who like Devil Dancer). I would like to see something come of this recipe... perhaps cut the IBU in half, maybe make it about 6% abv and make it kind of an American Schwarz-ale (I've been really liking the Schwarzbiers of late).

If you can still find this one, and are about to die of hop withdrawal... this beer could easilly give you a hop overdose and kill you. Beware!

Read more...

Lager for HopHeads: Third Coast Beer

Smitty is obviously a bit, um, preoccupied at the moment, so I'm jumping in with my first post in a long time, a Friday Beer Review. It won't be as good as one of Smitty's reviews, I'm sure, but it'll have to do for today!

It's starting to get warm out again, so my beer purchasing habits are changing. I've picked up a six-pack of Bell's Third Coast Beer. Depending on who you ask, this is either a Golden Lager or a Golden Ale; personally I was under the impression that this was a lager, but I'm not so sure anymore. What this beer definitely is is a wonderfully refreshing hoppy beer.

It pours pale gold, very effervescent with a bubbly coarse pure white head. Towers of bubbles rise from the bottom and sides of the glass. This is still bottle conditioned, so it's suggestable to decant it, but even so you'll end up with some chunky sediment floating around.

The smell starts out all dry c-hops, Cascade and Centennial and the like, with just the slightest hint of a dry malt backbone. A one-dimensional smell perhaps, but that's not a bad thing here. Only once this has warmed is there any sweetness to the smell, and it's a light malt note... I can only describe it as like the center of a malted milk ball, or exactly like malt extract if you've tasted some pure dry malt extract.

First thing you taste is a strong bitterness, not too strong but perhaps not what you're expecting at first. I'm guessing Cascade or Centennial hops, but I could be way off. The malt tones in this beer are dry and delicate. staying pretty toasty even after getting warmer. The aftertaste is very dry, clean, and crisp. This is like the ultimate lawn-mower beer for hopheads (Though the last thing one should do is drink this, or any hop-forward beer for that matter, from the bottle, if it can be avoided).

At only 4.8% abv, combined with the wonderful hop forward flavor profile, and a truly refreshing overall flavor and body, this is one great brew. I don't know how well it fits into any of the style guidelines, and I don't really care. Bell's has done a spectacular job with a style that is difficult to brew with consistency and accuracy, and I don't think I've been disappointed by brew yet, at least if I was disappointed it was because of the retailer, not the brewery. This beer is a great addition to a hot summer day, and I'm looking forward to a few more tonight!

On a related note, Bell's Lager of the Lakes is another masterfully created thirst-quenching brew that is in some ways similar to this. Lager of the lakes however has a much more balanced profile with a stronger malt flavor. I highly recommend them both.

Read more...

Humpday Simplicity

Well in somewhat typical Hump Day fashion, today sucked. I have no garage, and those of us in Mid Michigan had some fun weather last night. At 10 PM it was 45 degrees and thundershowering, by midnight it had fallen to 20 degrees and when I checked the temp first thing in the morning, it was 6. So our car was frozen shut. Great. So I walked to work, thank god it's only 5 blocks! The rest of the day was filled with pointless meetings, stupid clients, and micro-managing bureaucratic bullshit preventing me from being able to do my job. Pretty typical, eh?

So when I got home, the Gal and I decided it would be a simple night, no cooking. So we ordered up a nice simple pizza: barbecue pork. And I couldn't think of an better beer to go with my pizza than a nice simple IPA, tonight it's Mad Hatter from New Holland Brewing Company.


I'm sure some of you have had this, it's not rare by any means. What it is, is Good. Just a plain simple IPA, nothing fancy, but damned tasty and spot on for the style. I'm a big fan of Mad Hatter. it's pretty common in my fridge, especially in the summer.

It's a clear golden-amber brew with a sticky and sturdy two-finger thick off white head. This beer is clearly being filtered now, as it used to have plenty of sediment in the bottle that used to muck it up a bit, but now it's crystal clear. No complaints really, I don't mind the filtering for the most part, I just don't mind cloudy beer either. The head is marvelous, moderately rocky, leaves lots of lacing, and takes forever to get down to a film.

The aroma is all grapefruit rind and grass, strongly hoppy but not going to ruin your sense of smell for a week.

A light toasty and slightly sweet malt is overtaken by a rush of the same hops from the nose, all citrus peel and grass, joined by some herbal and floral notes, oregano almost and jasmine, that come in late as more of an aroma.

Not too much to say about the body, except for my only concern with filtering. The body doesn't seem to be *quite* as full as it did pre-filter. Oh well, not enough of a difference to put me off.

One of my three favorite IPAs this one is, and all from Michigan (Two-Hearted Ale and Crooked Tree are the other two in case anybody cares to know), this beer was the perfect beginning to the end of a previously crappy day.

Read more...

Friday Beer Review

Well finally it's going to happen. I've been stymied at every turn by flaky cable modems, busy work schedules and holidays (which are extended a bit for me since my birthday is Jan-5th). After all this time, though, I'm finally going to get the beer review I've had written for nearly three weeks up.

Though it's a little less timely now, I was inspired by the latest issue of BeerAdvocate magazine. This latest issue was all about "Top 25". Top 25 Beers, Top 25 Beer Bars, Top 25 Belgian Beers... etc. So I decided to find something from one of the top 25 lists and review that, until I realized that in my little backwoods backwards hick town, finding one of the 25 best beers from anywhere would be damned hard... but I was wrong. I stumbled upon a gem: Aventinus, the #4 German Beer.

Aventinus is a Weizenbock, one of two styles that I casually group together into "Dark Wheat Beer". The other style is Dunkel Weizen, which is more technically a "Dark" wheat beer, as WeizenBock is a "Strong" wheat beer. Either way, these styles are fairly similar in that they are dark colored beers made from predominately wheat malt, with very light Noble Hops for bittering, and fermented using a Weizen yeast, the yeast that gives us the funky clove and banana flavors. This is a style of beer that is made mostly in Germany, I've not had too many American examples, and I wasn't overly impressed with them. Only three more of these two styles made it into the "Top 25 German Beers" list; #6 Plank Bavarian Heller Weizenbock, #11 Weihenstephaner Heffeweissebeer Dunkel (my spell check is going nuts at this point) and lastly #25 Weihenstephaner Vitus. I've had the first two, and they're pretty good, but they can't hold a candle to Aventinus!! So on to the Nitty Gritty:

Aventinus pours like a Belgian, kind of frizzy and frothy. Middlish dark creamy colored head recedes slowly and leaves a thick covering of foam and a good thick ring. (I have pictures, but I'm at work so I'm trying to be fast) Light shows through deep amber edges with a dark, ruby-brown middle. Beautiful stuff, makes me thirsty all over again just thinking of it (/Sopor pours another cup of green tea to hold off the urge to run home for beer... doesn't work very well/)

My nose was kind of stuffy when I was drinking this, but I could smell hints of banana over a base of musky wheat and dark fruit, prunes and figs.

Aventinus is absolutely incredible, marvelously rich and complex. Up front is dark fruit like plums, and Mission figs. The stinging of the fizzy CO2 gives way to cloves and banana esters overlaying a deep dark whole wheat bread flavor that nothing else on earth can replicate. The interplay between the spicy clove and sweet banana esters and the rich musky wheat bread is masterfully balanced and very delicate. It makes me want more and more. I know the hops are there, I can just taste their balancing bitterness in the delicate lingering aftertaste.

The body is smooth, almost slick but not at all thick, very pleasant on the tongue and broken up by the lively, but not too strong carbonation.

An incredible beer Aventinus is. By all rites the best beer of it's style, and the fourth best beer from Germany. A 1 pint 6.9 fluid ounce bottle can be had for around $3-5, and I think that's a HELL of a deal.

Since I don't have pictures, I'll give you one hint to help locate this at your local beer mecca. It's in a brown bottle with purple label and gold or silver (can't remember now) writing. At the local beer mecca that many of you frequent, it should be in one of the first three coolers on the back wall. Maybe even the fourth, but pretty close to all the big bottles on the left.

Read more...

Hump Day is reason enough for a couple of brews and a relaxin' night at home with the Lady doing nothing important. Today absolutely sucked ass as far as work went, so all the more reason. So I'm sticking to something easy and sessionable, Michigan Brewing Company's Nut Brown Ale.

MBC recently started dating their bottles with a best by date (good think it's not "Best Buy" date!), which I think is great! If theres one thing I hate, it's comin' home with a sixer of something tasty only to find that it's stale and lifeless, and it does nothing for the improvement of beer. This beer happens to be marked good until 3/8/08, so I know it's fresh! On top of this, Michigan Brewing Company has been brewing it's beer on a Biodiesel powered Steam Generator since early October. With a drink by date of 3/8/08, this beer was very likely brewed in late October or so, so it's very likely that this was brewed with Biodiesel!

It pours with the color of root beer, and develops a tan cascading head making you think this is thicker than it really is. A thick ring and thin lace sticks around for the whole beer, and leaves splotchy lacing on the side of the glass. The beer is clear, I think MBC has started filtering some of their beer recently, and light shows through a rich dark mahogany colored brew. Really impressive looking brew, it makes my mouth water.

The first thing I smell is sweet crystal malts, with roasted nuts and a hint of... pepper? It's not really like pepper, but I have a hard time locking it down. Honestly I have to say that I assume it's the hops that I'm smelling, but as the hop aroma is appropriately subdued, I can't really tell!

At first I actually taste a hint of herbal hops, very light and it quickly gives way to a spectacular malt profile. I like my beers on the dry side normally, and this is my kind of brown ale. It starts with a lightly sweet crystal malt, like caramel, that leads into dry toasty malt laden with roasted nut and a flavor like Grape Nuts. Absolutely one of the best tasting Brown Ales I've had.

This is definitely a session ale, just begging to be drank. It's got a light body with delicate stinging carbonation making it go down smooth. 5% ABV means that having a few isn't going to put you down for the night.

Michigan Brewing Company makes some great beer. I wouldn't say that anything they make is the best of it's class, but what they do make is consistently good and right to style. Especially their darker ales such as the Bavarian Dark that is apparently mighty popular among those who paid cover.


With a good mug of MBC Nut Brown by my keyboard, the night is better already! Time for another...

Read more...

Hump Day, need more coffee!

I work in IT. IT is hell. So when I've been working 10 days straight on one problem and have yet to even see the light at the end of the tunnel (yea you politics guys probably think that's nothin') ... there's one thing on my mind for the majority of the day: Coffee.

It starts at 6am when I wake up and make the coffee, and it ends sometime after 11pm when I finish my last Espresso Love.



Espresso Love from the Arbor Brewing Company is a "Breakfast Stout", which is by no means a strict style guideline from the BJCP. What it is is a casual grouping of stouts that include coffee and oatmeal in the recipe. Some even take it a step further and add chocolate, like Founders Breakfast Stout. A quick search of BeerAdvocate.com shows 22 beers using the word Breakfast, 48 using Espresso, 85 using Coffee, so this isn't a new fad but definitely hasn't caught full steam yet. Personally I think a good Porter or Stout can only benefit from a bit of coffee!

Espresso Love is their standard Oatmeal Stout plus locally roasted and ground Espresso. And what a WONDERFUL combination it is! The Love pours dark, like black espresso with cola colored edges. Large rocky head is formed, most likely due to a vigorous pour, and is the color of a strong mocha. The head recedes slowly leaving no lace and no film to speak of (I gotta stop putting my beer glasses through the dishwasher! But I'm lazy...)

The aroma on this brew is absolutely amazing. Only other stout I've had that could come close was Bell's Rye Stout. This is an awesome combination of strong espresso and hints of caramel and chocolate. Like walking into a Starbucks, this could totally wake me up out of a dead stupor in a whiff.

And the taste does not disappoint. It's truly great. It's a very full flavored stout starting with some dark fruit like plums then molasses and chocolate, all quickly swept aside by strong coffee and roasty malt. Dark Chocolate and coffee are prevalent flavors, really a winner on these cold 'Winter' days.

Oatmeal Stouts are known for their thick, creamy body. Oatmeal lends the majority of this to the style due to their increased amount of unfermentable proteins over barley. This beer is a GREAT example of that; it has a creamy mouthfeel to make all other stouts jealous. Actually, the only other one that I've tried that got close was Bell's Rye Stout. Really got to try this one to know though!

At 6.5% ABV, it's a bit heavier than your average beer, but not so strong that it totally knocks your socks off. Almost dangerously easy to drink, I think that this one will have a special spot on my fridge all Winter! Cheers!

Read more...