Beers in Review: Pale Ales

For this week's written blog entries, I have a quartet of pale ales to write about. We'll cover the first two right now.

After checking my notes, I realized I reviewed this beer in December. It's quite a bit sooner than I would want to repeat a beer, but as a year-round release, I'm fairly confident it's from a different production batch, so let's do it. Lagunitas Brewing Company's Daytime Fractional IPA is a high quality sessionable IPA. It pours a pretty clear gold color and has a pretty low body. Big, bold citrus flavors are very strong on the palate, along with some dank and piney hop flavors. Overall, it is very well-balanced, bright, crisp, and easily drinkable.

I also had Founders Brewing Company's seasonal fruity IPA, Azacca. Having medium body and pouring a red-gold, similar to a dark ruby red grapefruit, this pretty color sets the tone for the flavor of the beer. It is quite crisp and features flavors of fruits and tropical fruits, including passion fruit and papaya. I feel like there was also some mango and maybe peach there, as well, but there was less of the two latter than the two former. The tropical fruits are well-balanced against a mild amount of hoppy bitterness. This is a really neat beer with a really neat flavor profile--it's not a profile you see often in a lot of readily available IPAs. The last one with such a strong tropical profile was the Sierra Nevada Tropical IPA.

Later this week, more pales from a couple of lesser-known breweries. Also, expect the first of the week's two video reviews tomorrow!

Beer spa!

I'm presuming spa days are fun. As a guy, I've never done one. Mashable, however, recently reported on a Sisters, Oregon spa involving some of beer's key ingredients in their treatments.

Live many spas across this nation, Hop in the Spa offers many standard spa treatments: Swedish massage, hot stones, various ancient healing treatments. They are also offering treatments such as "microbrew soaks" and utilizing ingredients like barley, herbs, and hops and "hop-infused oils". The idea is that microbrews are made from materials that include vitamins and minerals like iron, selenium, magnesium, B1, B3, and more, and that these vitamins and minerals "will help with insomnia, anxiety, stress and help calm the nervous system down." Per an interview with Mashable, Hop in the Spa plans a future beer garden so customers can relax with a pint after treatments, and to sell branded products via their website.

You check out the "Services" tab in the link above for a full rundown of their beer-related and non beer-related services.

H/t: mashable.com and Sarah Spiegelman Richter

Beers in Review: A pair of pales

A pale ale and an IPA on tap for today's reviews. Let's do it!

Natty Greene Brewing Company's Southern Pale Ale, their only year-round pale ale (also have 2 seasonal IPAs) pours a gold color and has a medium body. Interesting blend of hop flavors, initially showing off bright citrus flavor before leading into a hint of piney hops as well. Not too complex, but a very solid flavor profile coming out of this pale ale. It is pretty crisp to drink and has a pretty clean finish.

Next up is Eight Point IPA from Devils Backbone Brewing Company. A similar light gold or rich hay color with a light-to-medium body, the flavor is bold, hitting you with rich piney hops, along with some dank hints and maybe a something a little bit herbal or peppery. Despite the strong flavors, there is only a moderate amount of bitterness that tends to occur towards the end of the sip. The overall result is a beer that is surprisingly NOT overpowering, as some hop-powered beers can be. That hop bitterness hangs around the palate and the throat for a little bit after drinking.

Coming this weekend, two words: Beer spa!

Video Review: Westbrook 5th Anniversary

In today's video review, it's Westbrook Brewing Company's 5th Anniversary Chocolate Raspberry Imperial Stout. Enjoy!

Beers in Review: Abita, Highland, Stone

There are some very interesting beers coming up on the blog this week, via both the written and visual mediums. Let's get to it!

A local watering hole I visited on Saturday looked to have an Abita Brewing Company tap takeover this past week. I don't know if that stemmed from Mardi Gras earlier in the month or what, but the Abita Amber was still on tap, so I decided that would be a good opener. Pretty straight forward with good flavor for an amber ale. I detected a bit of a grainy note early on, but this quickly resolved into maltiness. There were also some very mild sweet and caramel notes throughout. Pretty crisp and, again, fairly straight forward overall.

Next up is Highland Brewing Company's St. Terese's Pale Ale. It's a little milder, hop-wise, compared to their Kashmir and the seasonal Devil's Britches IPAs. Mild dank hops were present throughout when taking a sip. Eventually, the malts come forward a bit, and there are some fruity or sweet notes towards the end, making a decent balance as you take a sip. Maybe something grainy or toasty there, as well, but it's very faint.

The final beer for this entry is Xocoveza, originally another collaboration by Stone Brewing, along with their Homebrew Competition winner Chris Banker and Mexico's Cerveceria Insurgente in late 2014. Xocoveza (which is fun to say, but a pain to type) proved so popular that Stone brought it back late last year. It's popularity is well-founded--this was an incredibly complex beer. A Mocha Stout, I found Xocoveza on Nitrogen locally. The result was a beer that poured pitch black with a creamy head. The mix was beautiful. The aromas were incredibly powerful coming off of this stout: a bit of cocoa, lots of coffee, and the coffee note played heavily in the flavor, where it came off as a very dark roast, almost to the point of burnt bitterness. It toed this line very carefully, but was partially saved by quite sweet vanilla and especially chocolate notes. When combined with the super-fine foamy head caused by the Nitrogen, the end result was this almost drinking like a milkshake! Very tasty with tons of flavor.

Coming up in this week's video review: Westbrook's 5th Anniversary Stout! Coming early this week!

Beers in Review: Including a Triple Collaboration

Returning to the realm of the written word (expect the next video review early next week), we'll open with a live tasting of Natty Greene Brewing Company's Red Nose Winter Ale. Having a red ale base, it pours an almost iced tea-like color and a pretty heavy body. The first impression is that of malty sweetness, and gradually, a number of other flavors blend into that sweetness. I'm getting some citrus hints, and a little of what I call the "fall/winter spice blend"--maybe a bit of nutmeg or cinnamon, something in that vein. It's not very strong, which is fine with me. There is a non-hoppy bite at the end from something--I can't quite identify the flavor, but doesn't really feel out of place.

Next up is a triple collaboration from Stone Brewing, Ecliptic Brewing, and Wicked Weed Brewing. Points Unknown IPA is labelled as a "double IPA blended with a barrel-aged Belgian-style Tripel". I typically don't want to quote bottles or websites, but given this beer's complexity, I feel they explaining it best:

“The Tripel was transferred into barrels that originally housed red wine before finding a second life as vessels for aging tequila. Four months later, that beer was excavated, then blended at one-fourth to three-fourths ratio with the freshly brewed double IPA to create...a blend of the traditional and the new, presenting a variety of diverse flavors that coalesce into something more unique than any one beer”

The beer poured cloudy and apricot-colored, and contained a mild hop bitterness. Coming in a 9.5% ABV, and with the use of wine/tequila barrels, boozy notes were pretty prominent, along with even some straight-up alcohol flavors. In addition, lots of fruit and red wine notes were present. I had a 22oz bottle of this, and really enjoyed about the first half, but the second half of the bottle became a bit of chore to drink. That's just me.

As one last note, I also had a draft of Sam Adams' Cold Snap winter seasonal, but I think there might have been something wrong with the keg or the system. I might just need to stop trying to judge drafts from this particular local watering hole. I will try to give it one more chance before the spring beers come in, but we'll see.

Video Review: Ballast Point Sculpin and Grapefruit Sculpin

So, I have decided to take this three-month old blog and this face made for radio, and WE'RE GOING BIG TIME!

By "big time", I mean YouTube. I am proud to present my inaugural PRB video review on YouTube, featuring a side-by-side of Ballast Point's Sculpin IPA and Grapefruit Sculpin IPA.

So, hopefully you all will give me some time to 1) develop an internet personality, 2) figure out optimal video recording methods, and 3) LEARN HOW TO TALK WITH MY ENTIRE MOUTH!

It's a work in progress. I welcome constructive criticism.

The idea right now is one or two video reviews plus two to three written entries (reviews and news) each week.

Thanks for humoring me, everyone!

UPDATE: So, I figured out how to get my OTHER webcam into my movie-making software, so I hope the next video will be of better quality, both audibly and visually. Thanks for your patience!

Beers in Review: I'm not dead edition

Hi! How are you? I'm great. I was out and about across this great country of ours, and am ready to get back to the bloggery. I considered writing an editorial about Peyton Manning's blatant shilling for Budweiser post-SB50 (turns out he owns some distributors or something), but that's really become old news. So, let's just get into some beers, shall we?

We start with Uinta Brewing Company's Golden Spike Hefeweizen, which poured a deep orange and was cloudy (not unusual for Hefes to be unfiltered and cloudy). Most notable was the graininess; lots of bready and crackery notes going on, along some citrusy sweetness. Banana notes were also present. Overall, it hits a lot of the standard hefeweizen notes. It was maybe a little more grainy than I like my hefes, but that's a personal preference as much as anything.

A brewery that almost never disappoints (a trend that hopefully continues after their acquisition by Constellation Brands) is San Diego's Ballast Point Brewing Company. As expected, even something as "basic" as their Longfin Lager is better than most or all of the rest. Longfin pours a pale gold with little body but plenty going on, flavor-wise. Strong grainy and biscuity notes that mix with a hint of hops. There is also a bit of sweetness that points to its traditional German-inspired style. This is a beer that is crisp, clean, and easy to drink.

Finally, Duclaw Brewing Company's Dirty Little Freak. Labelled by the brewery as a "Coconut Caramel Chocolate Brown Ale", this beer pretty simply puts a hammer to that nail. It pours a moderate-to-dark brown but is translucent. Again, the flavors are pretty well spot-on coming from the brewers. Aroma-wise, the smells probably rate in strength chocolate-caramel-coconut. Flavor-wise, the chocolate notes are quite evident, with hints of coconut. The caramel tends to come through more at the end or in the aftertaste. The bottle also says it was brewed with vanilla beans, giving the whole thing an overall ice cream sundae type of flavor. They seemed to nail what they were going for, but it's a bit too sweet for my taste.

Beers in Review: Left Hand, Sierra Nevada, and OMB

I have three good beers to discuss today, and I don't have much of an intro in me right now, so let's just get to it.

Left Hand Brewing Company makes one of my favorite stouts on the market, their Milk Stout. This stout is available in Nitro (think Guinness-style tiny bubbles), but this bottle was not nitrogenated. Still, as expected, the Milk Stout brings a hint of creaminess, along with a nice maltiness. I also found mild roastiness, along with cocoa and maybe a bit of coffee as well. This stout had a medium body and was very smooth. A really enjoyable stout.

Next up was a great surprise from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Sierra Nevada has started branching out of late, and started this some time ago under their beer fan-driven Beer Camp series. Last week, I tried a "Tropical IPA" from that series. Having a low-medium body, the first impression of this beer was straight up fruit bomb. Tropical fruits dominated the front of this beer, eventually giving way to a moderate amount of hoppiness that was especially evident in the aftertaste. A good amount of hop bitterness throughout rounds out this beer's flavor profile. Sierra Nevada has been diversifying their line-up of late (even going into Goze territory recently), but even this early-year seasonal was a bit of a stunner.

Finally, an entry from Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, their amber ale/Altbier, called Copper. Copper had a lightish body, but a good amount of flavor. There was plenty of malt, some nuttiness to me, maybe something grainy or grassy (or maybe something else?). I also detect hints of caramelly sweetness (especially in the finish and aftertaste) and bitterness. Surprisingly complex for an amber.

Beers in Review: PRB FINALLY Sells Out A Bit!

When I founded this blog, the idea was to give my amateur thoughts on all the craft beers I could get my hands on. I assumed at some point something mainstream would end up here on PRB (and, really, some craft beer snobs would argue I've already reviewed mainstream beers, given Goose Island is now Budweiser's little brother), but I honestly figured it would take more than 3 months. That being said...

As a former Pennsylvanian, Yuengling Lager has a special place in my heart. Even all the way back in college, my fraternity brothers could attest that when I wasn't downing apple cider and Seagram's 7 (what the hell was I thinking?), I still felt too good to regularly down PBR, Keystone, and the other cheapest swill available. In lieu of the 40oz bottles of said products, I'd grab the liters of Yuengling instead. Even in college, before the craft beer boom, I tried to be a little bit of a beer snob.

So...Yuengling Lager. Like most macros, the profile for this beer is very much straight forward. Pouring a gold-orange color, and having a medium body, it's basic but pretty tasty for a lager. Plenty of grain flavors and aromas, and maybe a little bit of accompanying sweetness. Something biscuity or bready in there, as well. Personally, I always find Yuengling to fall in an ideal point on the flavor vs. price spectrum. Some crafts have gone down in price to be very affordable, but you'll never find them for $16/case. Basically, I'll always have a soft spot for "Lager".

As I mentioned in one of the Beer Festival blog entries, I had just discovered Catawba Brewing Company. Just prior to the festival, I had their Farmer Ted's Cream Ale. Listed as a cream ale, this seems to be their basic or gateway beer for the pale lager drinkers of the world. Nothing at all wrong with that. It pours a pale, straw-like yellow, and has a light, bready flavor. I also found it to have a mildly sweet aftertaste. Frankly, I felt that it was maybe a little too carbonated--I would think it was intended to be a little smoother--but that may have been the fault of the draft system of my local watering hole. A solid basic beer.

This is already getting a little longer than I'd like, so let's close with a live review. I have in front of me New Holland Brewing Company's Cabin Fever Brown Ale. It pours a nice moderately dark brown color, of course, and has a medium-heavy body. A Winter seasonal, Cabin Fever has nice cocoa notes, and probably plays a little rougher than most--the ABV is 6.5%, but feels like it would be a little higher than that, maybe in the low-mid 7s. Malty and strong, it might not be the usual winter beer, but it is hearty enough to hold up.

Site News: So, coming mid-February, I plan on taking my face-made-for-radio to the visual medium, and starting Pourly Reviewed Beer video reviews. Reviews will typically be one beer at a time, and plan on having the beer in front of me to deliver live impressions. Videos will be posted both here and on YouTube. Look for these starting with a special side-by-side tasting the week of February 15th (if all goes well).

Coming Wednesday: a Left Hand's highly-regarded Milk Stout, a true surprise from Sierra Nevada, and something from OMB.  Cheers!

Beers in Review: Miscellaneous Trio

After the WBF posts, I have a bit of a backlog of beers from pre-festival.

In one of the festival posts, I professed my love for NoDa Brewing Company's Jam Session Pale Ale (which I'd mistakenly called an IPA). Earlier in the week, I had their winter seasonal, called Cold Crash. It pours a reddish-bronze hue, and has a moderate to full body. I caught a hint of a nutty aroma, and a good amount of dark fruit flavors along with some malty hints and maybe a bit of hops. Pretty tasty beer. I've generally enjoyed the beers of NoDa.

Another solid brewery, I find, is Lonerider Brewing Company, and their Sweet Josie is a top-flight Brown Ale, in my opinion. Pouring a deep, dark brown, this full-bodied Brown has a ton of flavors going on: nutty flavors, caramel, cola, sweet chocolate. Really, really tasty. This Brown stands out in a category that can be a little stagnant.

Finally, a collaboration between Tradesman Brewing Company and the World of Beer bar chain. Called Boil Advisory (as a fundraiser for Columbia's disastrous flooding late last year), it was a very dark brown to nearly pitch black--to the point that I needed to basically look at it directly through the afternoon sun to get any color through it. Pretty complex flavors throughout this Black IPA, as a coffee hint combines with the hops to make the beer quite bitter to start. From there, it resolves to assorted sweetness (some cocoa, a bit of fruit) and some hints of spice.

Recovered and Reflected: WBF Highlights, Part 2

As promised yesterday, let's knock out a couple of Pourly Reviewed Ciders before my final beer reflections.

Really, I went to the cider section of the World Beer Festival to break up the beer tastings and try to save my palate a bit. Varying levels of success on that.

In the cider section, my goal was to go outside the box of the typical hard apple cider. I started with McKensie's Beverages and their Black Cherry Cider. It was very tasty, sweet but not killer sweet, and the black cherry was very much up my alley. Really delicious. Second was Bold Rock Hard Cider's IPA, which stands for India Pressed Cider. It lived up to the IPA initials, pairing an early apple sweetness with a hint of that hop bitterness normally reserved for pale ales. Most of the hops were in the back end of the sip, and made for a solid overall taste of the cider.

Back into beers, I had never heard of Charleston's Freehouse Brewery until seeing them at the festival. Their Green Door IPA relies on organic barley and hops. Overall, the result was a mild but solidly drinkable IPA.

Staying with IPAs, I had Thomas Creek Brewery's Trifecta IPA, which features plenty of crisp citrus hop flavors. I haven't seen this beer much around until very recently--this is one I need to explore further.

Finally, Hi-Wire Brewing had their new Spring seasonal, a hoppy Belgian called Death Defying Spring Ale. It was something different, as the hops blended well with the traditional fruity Belgian sweetness. Another beer I hope to enjoy again soon.

Recovery and Reflection: World Beer Fest Highlights, Part 1

Well, here we are again. I am recovered from Saturday's boozy experience and Sunday's football insanity to return to the blogosphere.

Columbia's version of the World Beer Festival was held on Saturday. I could never remember everything I had, and I have notes on many beers, but I just want to give some highlights from my drinking experiences.

First, I think NoDa Brewing's Jam Session IPA might be my favorite IPA right now, and is up there on my favorite beer list (or at least, favorite regularly-available beer list). It's loaded with grapefruit flavor and aroma that blends well with the hop bitterness. It has big bold flavors, but didn't really seem to be much of a palate wrecker to me.

Swamp Cabbage Brewing had their Anniversary Ale on hand. It had a nice malt sweetness with mild hop and fruit flavors. Very nice.

Prior to and at the festival, I tried out Catawba Brewing Company from Morganton, NC after just recently starting to see them around Columbia. I had the Farmer Ted's Cream Ale (which seems to be the base beer to appeal to the pale lager drinkers of the world) at a local bar and the White Zombie White Ale at the festival. They both had fairly similar characteristics--a lot of grain and generally mild flavors. This was expected in the Cream Ale, but I'd have liked a little more out of the White Zombie. Still, I'll give them another try if/when I see them around here.

One of the first beers I had was D9 Brewing Company's Black Ice Imperial Black Ale. Aged in various sorts of barrels, including Canadian whiskey barrels, this ale had lots of booze and boozy sweetness (it checks in at 10% ABV), along with some coffee notes and maybe a hint of chocolate, though that may have just blended in with the booze.

This seems like a good stopping point for today. Tomorrow, I'll comment on a few other beers I had, along with some interesting ciders, if you'll indulge me on some Pourly Reviewed Ciders. Cheers.

Columbia Craft Beer Week, Day 6: Hunter-Gatherer, plus programming notes

I have a two beers for you to close out my contribution to Columbia Craft Beer Week (more on that shortly), from Hunter-Gatherer Brewery. We start with the Wheat beer. It pours a pale straw-gold, and is light overall with the most notable flavors being lots of grain and crackery or bready notes. There was also a mild sweetness and a hint of citrus towards the end of the sip. It was pretty tasty for a wheat beer.

Second was the ESB, which poured a reddish-brown or copper with a low-medium body and lead off with a nice malty backbone. This led to some dark fruit-type flavors and mild sweetness as the taste progressed. Very drinkable, a nice ESB, if that's your thing.

Now, while CCBW formally ends tomorrow, the final event is the 8th annual Columbia World Beer Festival, where I will be drinking as many 2 oz. pours as I possibly can. Notable beers will be described on the blog's Twitter page: www.twitter.com/pourlyreviewed. I'm sure there will be several. But I wouldn't expect any further blog entries until early next week, unless I'm feeling especially chipper on Sunday, somehow.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Columbia Craft Beer Week, Day 5: Conquest Coffee IPA

We have another offering from Conquest Brewing Company, in the form of their Coffee IPA. It pours a gold-orange color--frankly, I expected something darker, considering this is a beer brewed with coffee. Aroma-wise, I was getting a lot of hops. Flavor-wise, I was pleased to find a much better balance. The coffee is certainly present, but not overpowering, and blends well with citrusy hop flavors. A hint of sweetness finishes off the sip.

Columbia Craft Beer Week, Day 4: River Rat My Morning Stout

Hello, friends.

For Day 4 of CCBW, we return to River Rat Brewing and their My Morning Stout. It pours virtually pitch black, but also has a surprisingly light-in-color head, just a very, very light tan. A lot of typical but well-executed stout flavors in this beer--notes of almost spicy cocoa along with hints of coffee and vanilla (both especially in the finish). These blend together along with a mild sweetness (possibly generated by the vanilla?). The finish is fairly smooth. Another quality beer from the folks at River Rat.

Columbia Craft Beer Week, Day 3: Swamp Cabbage Bald Cypress Porter LIVE

Day 3, and a sampling of a third of Columbia's breweries. Today we feature the Bald Cypress Porter from Swamp Cabbage Brewing Company. The porter poured pitch black with a very small amount of tan head. The very first impression on the sip was a cola-like flavor. That lingers for a bit, then resolves into something a little more dark fruity, then into a more typical cocoa flavor. There is also some kind of smoky bite at the very end, almost like a mesquite, or something like that. It's not off-putting at all, but a bit of a unique flavor.

Untappd begins strategic merger, able to go "to the next level"

Like many craft beer enthusiasts, I use the mobile app Untappd to track the beers I've had over the last few years. When you're reaching into the hundreds of beers (and surely thousands, in some people's cases), it's nice to have something keeping track of which beers you've had. Untappd is an app that looks good, is pretty well designed and, most importantly, is very stable--crashes of the app are incredibly rare, at least they have been on my series of iPhones. So, imagine my surprise to learn that the app has been a 5+ year a part-time labor of love for two gentlemen, Tim Mather and Greg Avola.

Now, these gentlemen have the opportunity to transition into full-time work on Untappd, by merging with Next Glass, which appears to be a drink recipe and analytic app. The merger will not only allow Mather and Avola to work on Untappd full-time, but will allow for the hiring of additional staff, which will help increase feature development speed and means the app "will get new updates, cool features, and even more badges, faster."

Congratulations to the guys at Untappd. I've been a fan and user of the app for years, and hope this results in many great changes in the future!

Link: Full statement from Untappd

Columbia Craft Beer Week, Day 2: Conquest Der Alte Fritz

We continue the reviews for Columbia Craft Beer Week with the one local brewery I have yet to mention in this blog: Conquest Brewing Company and what they call their "dark rye brown". Der Alte Fritz is probably my preferred choice from Conquest. It pours a solid brown and has a light-to-medium body. It's a pretty standard brown ale, with lots of malt flavor and and a mild amount of sweetness, but also featuring a hint of pepper and some other spiciness coming out of the rye. The malt elements tend to be much more prevalent than the rye components, but it makes for a tasty beer.

Columbia Craft Beer Week, Day 1: River Rat Winter Warmer LIVE

Here in Columbia, today marks the first day of Columbia Craft Beer Week, one of two craft beer celebrations held in Columbia each year. This week features assorted events like tap takeovers, beer dinners, and special releases from many of the city's restaurants, pubs, and breweries. The week culminates with the World Beer Festival next Saturday at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

My own little contribution to CCBW will be a review of a different Columbia-brewed beer everyday through Friday. We begin today with River Rat's Winter Warmer. Pouring a clear reddish-gold, and having a pretty full body, this beer has just a hint of sweetness. It utilizes cinnamon and "sweet orange peel" as part of its recipe. Both come through, especially the cinnamon as part of that usual winter-ish spice profile. But neither is overpowering, and blend well with the malt profile that comes through later in the taste. Overall, a very nice beer.