Beer reviews, news, commentary, and more from a guy who just likes to drink beer!
Hello, everyone! I'm back from vacation! The latest YouTube video just scratches the surface of upcoming content coming out of this vacation. Check out the video for more, including programming notes for the next few weeks:
Cheers!
I wanted to get one last post up before I head out on vacation. More on that both below AND in the video. But please check out this Mandarina IPA (which works out because it is, apparently, IPA Day) from Highland Brewing Company:
On Friday, I'm headed to the Jersey shore for a week, so posting will be minimal, as I won't have my laptop and WiFi may be sporadic. I will be checking out plenty of local/regional beers, including Cape May Brewing Company, and hope to make a video or two to accompany my drinking experiences. If WiFi permits, I will upload something to YouTube during the week. Otherwise, I'll have lots to talk about when I get back next weekend. Cheers, everybody! See ya when I see ya!
Some pretty terrific beers in today's rundown. Let's get running!
First up is Palmetto Brewing Company's Island Wit, which pours a very pale yellow. While officially listed as a "pale wheat ale", the wheat characteristics play through much more than the pale ale side--I wasn't getting a lot of personality out of the hop profile. In fact, the beer was very light overall, with some mild grain notes, as well as some coriander and other spices. I also detected a mild Belgian yeast-style sweet characteristic--very mild, but certainly present. This beer will play very well in the summer with its quite mild overall characteristics.
Next is Queen Bohemian Lager from the England-based RnR Brew. Inspired by the legendary rock band and their hit "Bohemian Rhapsody", this beer is listed as a lager but is actually a Pilsner. It pours a nice gold color, and hits all the Pilsner notes pretty well. Crisp and pretty clean with a biting carbonation (though not much in terms of head--agitation is need to bring out that carbonation), the flavor notes are straight forward: crackery and peppery, with maybe a faint apricot note. Nothing extraordinary in this beer, but it is a solid execution of the Pilsner style.
Next is a beer mentioned in a recent Six-Pack of News: Stone Brewing's 2016 version of their W00tstout, developed by Greg Koch (Stone Co-Founder & CEO), Drew Curtis (creator of news aggregation and commentary site fark.com), and Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation, web series TableTop). The beer pours pitch black, and clocks in at a massive 13% ABV. Rich chocolate are integrated into powerful boozy notes. There are also some dark fruit notes, and maybe some black licorice, as well. This is a super tasty and very strong Imperial Stout.
Finally, a beer from Columbia's newest brewers, Bierkeller Columbia. As you might guess from the name, they are trying to do beers in more traditional German styles. Their Braunbier pours a deep reddish-brown with ruby highlights. I'm big on malt brown and red ales, so this was right up my alley, with a mighty toasted malt backbone that nearly invokes the malted milk ball flavor. This sensation is aided by moderate cocoa notes. There also are some faint bready notes. This is a terrific beer from Columbia's newest brewers! My congratulations to Bierkeller Columbia!
Coming soon, a post intended for last night that was derailed by a massive thunderstorm and power outage, a brand-new Beers in Review.
But first, enjoy this video review from Frog Level Brewing!
Two posts in one day! Crazy!
Folks, this is one of my absolute favorite beers. I'm shocked I hadn't reviewed it already, but it wasn't on my list, so I corrected that in no time! Check out Highland Brewing Company's Gaelic Ale!
Hello, again, everyone. There will be a video review later this afternoon. But first, a quick jump into a couple of beers from the West Coast of the U.S.A.
Leading off is a beer from San Diego-headquartered Green Flash Brewing Company's Hop Odyssey series. The Styrian Golding Single Hop Pale Ale uses only the hop of the same name, Styrian Golding. Styrian Golding is an aromatic hop grown in Slovenia and Austria, and based on my research, is not used a lot in American beers. The beer pours a slightly hazy golden color, and is pretty well carbonated. The beer opens with bright citrus notes, and lots of earthiness. There was a building hop bitterness as I drank, and that bitterness lingered briefly after drinking, but quickly went away. The unique hop ingredient made for a somewhat different flavor profile than I am used to.
Next is Space Dust IPA from Elysian Brewing Company. The beer pours a rich, dark gold color that is perfectly see-through. A generally mild flavor profile brings some dank hop notes along with a hint of orange and possibly other citrus. Also present is a mild to moderate hop bitterness that ramps up as it warms. Pretty much a spot-on IPA.
I have a little free time tonight, so as promised, I have three beers to review, all from New Holland Brewing.
We start with a couple of reserves from the local World of Beer's New Holland tap takeover on Saturday night. The Incorrigible Reserve is a sour ale infused with blueberries and blackberries. Pouring a pretty red gold color, this ale was quite sour, to the point that it almost overpowered the berries used in the process. They were evident early on in the sip, but the back end was so sour that it reminded me of a sour apple Jolly Rancher: just a hint of sweetness, but the sour note is very strong. The saltiness was fairly tempered initially, but ramped up as the beer warmed. Like all sours, this is an acquired taste, maybe moreso than some. The strong notes also tend to make a limit of drinking just one of these in a night.
Dragon's Milk is a well-regarded Imperial Stout that I had never had before. It is widely available. It's just that I tended to gloss over it. When I saw the Dragon's Milk Reserve aged in oak with raspberries and lemons on tap, I knew I had to dive into this stout. The beer is pitch black with a big, delicious chocolate brownie note with a delightful sweet berry note throughout and as an aftertaste. There is also an undertone of brightness provided by the lemon hiding in these powerful flavors. Checking in at a powerful 11% ABV, the expected booziness is surprisingly difficult to detect, possibly hiding in the berry notes a bit. I could feel the booze on my breath a little bit, but again, it was surprisingly muted. This was a damn good beer, and I'll need to grab a bottle of regular Dragon's Milk--I expect I've been missing out.
Finally, something I had at home, their White Hatter Belgian-style White Pale Ale. It pours a slightly hazy gold, or peach skin color (more the yellower part, less the redder part). As the style listing might indicate, this ale brings a lot of different flavors. I initially get a lot of Belgian sweet notes that quickly resolves to a significant citrus hop bite. Even the bite goes away fairly quickly, leaving a nice, big orange note for the entire back half that I really enjoyed. The hop bite DOES come back a bit when swallowing, but again goes away fairly quickly, leaving a relatively clean finish.
Hello, everyone.
Just to keep you all in the loop, I will be doing a good amount of travelling over the next few weeks, both business and pleasure. As a result, site posts will be erratic through the first week of August. I plan on taking maximum advantage of the times that I can post, and that will likely include a Beers in Review post from tonight's night out. Keep up to date on postings at either https://www.twitter.com/pourlyreviewed or https://www.facebook.com/PourlyReviewedBeer/
See you guys soon!
So, once again, I am all caught up on past beers I've had, so I can't do a Beers in Review until the weekend. As a replacement, please enjoy this video review on Harpoon Brewery's UFO Big Squeeze:
More beers to come this weekend! See ya then!
I just did the Six-Pack yesterday, but this is too big to ignore.
The U.S. Department of Justice has approved the merger of the world's two largest beer companies. Anhueser-Busch InBev (aka Budweiser, among others) and SABMiller (which includes the Coors and Miller families of beer among its brands) have cleared this final global regulatory hurdle this afternoon, as confirmed by A-B InBev. Now, like the approvals from the European Union, South Africa, and others, this DOJ approval will likely include stipulations. A-B InBev has already had to make plans to divest itself of most of SABMiller's European holdings, and this is expected to continue in the U.S., where SAB Miller will likely have to spin MillerCoors off to MolsonCoors (MillerCoors was an existing joint venture of the two beer companies).
The result will be A-B InBev controlling 29% of the world's beer supply, and the macrogiant gaining an increased foothold and level of access into Africa, SABMiller was originally a South African company, and Asia.
In additional news, MillerCoors bought a majority stake in Athens, GA craft brewery Terrapin Beer Company, up from their previous 21% stake, which was still low enough to call Terrapin a "craft brewery". Between the mega-merger and Goose Island's recent problems, it's hard for me to be super-optimistic about Terrapin's future.
We lead off with an always-engaging topic: Game of Thrones. Apparently, Brewery Ommegang joined the throngs of Thronies disappointed by the recent news of a late and shortened Season 7 of the hit HBO fantasy series, and decided to cope by moving up the next beer in their until-now-annual Game of Thrones series. Valar Dohaeris Belgian-Style Tripel will be available starting on October 10th, and will be joined by what could be considered its returning brother, Valar Morghulis Dubbel Ale. I reviewed this year's start-of-season offering, Seven Kingdoms Ale, and you expect to see Valar Dohaeris on this site later this year.
Staying in the realm of the nerdy, San Diego Comic-Con is mere days away, and Stone Brewing will be preceding the annual convention with HopCon 4.0, their 4th annual beer festival celebrating beers created by nerds, actors, comedians, and nerdy actors and comedians. The concept started with Stone's initial collaboration with former Star Trek: The Next Generation star Wil Wheaton and fark.com founder Drew Curtis 4 years ago, known as Stone Farking W00tstout, which has now become an annual release. This year's HopCon will feature W00tstout variants and other unique beers created by nerdy personalities, with Wheaton and Curtis joined by comedienne and tv host Aisha Tyler (Whose Line is It Anyway?), actresses/Team Unicorn members Alison Haislip and Rileah Vanderbilt, tv/internet personality Alex Albrecht, comedian Jonah Ray (upcoming Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot), and NASA/JPL engineer Bobak "Mohawk Guy" Ferdowsi.
Goose Island Beer was one of A-B InBev's first acquisitions under the High End banner. I generally tried to remain positive about Goose Island, insisting that as long as they were left alone and had no problems, that I would remain positive about their beer line-up, despite the potential for interference from their macro overlords. Well, Goose Island just issued their second recall of their well-regarded Bourbon County Brand Stout from 2015 due to several batches being infected with lactobacillus bacteria. Goose Island is pursuing the root cause, making process changes to ensure future batches are not infected, and issuing refunds for bad bottles. One batch of Proprietor's Bourbon County Stout was also infected.
Vinepair released a list of the 10 most popular new craft beers released in 2015. The list is based on supermarket sales. The result is a list that is as much influenced by distribution as it is by beer quality, though I have no real qualms with anything on this list.
Netherlands-based KLM airlines has collaborated with Heineken to develop a special keg system that will work at typical airplane altitudes. Standard kegs are not practical at 30,000 feet, because the air pressure differential would result in pint glasses full of foam. Heineken has developed modified air pressure kegs that will work at up to 36,000 feet and have been adapted to fit in an airplane. As a result, KLM will begin serving in-flight draft beer starting next month.
Finally, the 35th annual Great American Beer Festival will be held October 6-8, 2016. GABF is the largest ticketed beer festival in the U.S., with over 750 attending breweries in 2015, and their prestigious GABF Competition will award medals in over 90 categories covering about 150 beer styles. In 2015, over 6600 beers entered the competition.
As promised, here is one hell of a beer from Stone Brewing. Now, as you'll be able to tell by this video, this beer through me off a bit. It is a testament to how incredibly complex this IPA is. Truly, an amazing drinking experience.
I've been a bit under the weather this week, hence no video review during this week. I'm on the upswing, so expect a video tomorrow. It'll be a special one from Stone.
But that's later. For now, I have a few more beers from last weekend's Craft and Draft 2nd birthday, starting with Birds Fly South Strawberry IPA. Pouring a straw-gold color, this beer brings a mild fruity note, along with some grainy notes. Overall, the beer is quite mild, with a little hop bitterness that opens up slightly as it warms up. Really, this beer played to me more like a fruit-infused blonde than an IPA.
Next up is Overly Friendly IPA from Holy City Brewing Company. And man, this one has no problem checking the "IPA" box. Overly Friendly is a massive hop bomb, with 7 different hops used in the making of this beer. The result is an incredibly complex flavor profile led by citrus and pine hop notes. Orange really comes through strongly, and the hop bitterness really carries through the entire sip, and even lingering after the fact. Massively hoppy, but so so good.
Finally, from Catawba Brewing Company, is their Tangerine Wheat, which reportedly was created for Catawba's female business partners and had just been kegged a couple of days before the Craft and Draft party. As expected, the Tangerine Wheat pours a cloudy dark orange. It's generally pretty mild, as I find most of Catawba's beers tend to be, but this beer is crisp and citrusy with a clean finish. Generally enjoyable.
In last week's Six-Pack of News, I noted a Vinepair article where columnist Will Gordon made up his ideal draft beer tap list for his hypothetical bar. It seemed like a fun little exercise, so I'm going to do the same: curate a diverse 16-tap beer line-up. A few points:
1) My goal is to find a nice blend of both local (to the Carolinas) beers AND beers with more widespread distribution.
2) Some of the taps are pre-selected, style-wise, while some are more open. I made some changes to a couple categories compared to Will's list. This was simply to suit my tastes a little better.
3) This reflects a fairly realistic list for a list I could put together here in the Carolinas. While I'd love to have Firestone Walker or Russian River or some other craft legend on my wall, that wouldn't be realistic.
Let's get started.
Tap 1, House IPA: Ballast Point Sculpin IPA-one of the best in the market right now. If I stock this, I might, from time to time, want to use one of my wild cards or rotating IPA slots for one of the flavored Sculpin IPAs, but we'll refrain from that for the purposes of this exercise.
Tap 2, House Pale Ale: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale-this is in part a nostalgic choice, as Sierra Nevada is the first craft beer I ever had.
Tap 3, House Porter: Holy City Pluff Mud Porter-both of my dark beers are going to be local, simply because they are among the best I've had.
Tap 4, House Stout: Duck Rabbit Milk Stout-see above. Guinness would be the easy answer for this one, but there are so many better choices.
Tap 5, House Cheap Beer: Narragansett Lager-this seems to be the new cheap beer, gradually overtaking PBR.
Tap 6, House Pilsner/Lager: Yuengling Lager-a sentimental choice, admittedly.
Tap 7, House Blue Moon Alternative: Harpoon UFO White-in the summer, this would probably become an appropriate summer seasonal like Sam Adams Summer Ale. I had a crazy idea for this one, but I stayed true to something Blue Moon-ish.
Tap 8, House Session Beer: Harp Lager-really, this was my toughest category, as I wanted something of worth and to avoid the macro-brewed pale lagers. Checks in at 4.2% ABV, which works for something sessionable.
Tap 9, House Amber/Red/Brown Ale: Highland Gaelic Ale-admittedly, I swapped out another category for this one for the sole purpose of giving this beer a steady slot on this list
Tap 10, Rotating Pale Ale or IPA: Stone IPA-an incredibly highly-regarded IPA. As this is a rotating tap, some other possibilities would include Founders Centennial IPA, Bell's Two-Hearted Ale, and Westbrook One Claw Rye Pale Ale.
Tap 11, Rotating IPA or Double/Triple/Imperial IPA: Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA-not really my thing, but I admit it's a great beer. See above for other possibilities.
Tap 12, Rotating Local: River Rat Hazelnut Brown-staying in Columbia for a personal favorite.
Tap 13, Rotating Local: Foothills Torch Pilsner-this is an in-state beer, and I needed a Pilsner. Other locals might include others from Holy City, River Rat, Swamp Cabbage, Coast, and more.
Tap 14, Rotating High-Distribution Craft Legend: Bell's Oberon Ale-though this is a seasonal beer, so others might include Sierra Nevada's Torpedo IPA, some selections from New Belgium, Founders KBS, and others.
Tap 15, Rotating Wild Card: Founders Rubaeus-so as to have a fruit beer on the menu, as well. As a rotation, other options include Sweetwater Blue and one or more ciders, like Bold Rock IPA (India Pressed Apples).
Tap 16, Wild Card: Westbrook White Thai-the one I almost put in for Blue Moon alternative because it is technically a wheat beer. But I got it in. This was supposed to be a "rotating wild card" slot, but I would keep this up permanently.
I'll admit, this was a little harder to curate than I expected. Things like the rotating locals were hard to pick just one. Thanks for checking this out!
I have a new video review from one of my favorite breweries: Westbrook Brewing Company, and their One Claw Rye Pale Ale.
I'll go ahead an say I tried my new camera set-up today for the first time. I'm not crazy about it. The audio is less than ideal, and I need to find a way to move it forward. Or just switch to the old camera, which was perfectly fine. Point is, I'm working on it. For now, enjoy the video.
We start off today's reviews with Sea to Sea Lager from Green Flash Brewing Company. It pours a pale gold, and features bready and crackery notes with just a hint of malty sweetness. I also got a slight amount of bitterness, and something soap-like. It's a pretty crisp beer, and is generally more flavorful than your standard lager. It makes for a decent summer beer.
Next up is Off Color Brewing's Sparkles Find Some Trouble Gose (a name that made me quite glad that I could simply order it as "number 4"). This gose pours a ruby red grapefruit, and has a ton going on. I'm not big on smell, but I could immediately detect some majorly funky aromas. Upon sipping, my first impression was more Belgian ale than gose, but this changed as my palate adapted. There are tons of light fruity and floral notes, as well as a bit of citrus acidity. The funky note translates into the taste, especially as it warms. I found some of the key gose components, sourness and saltiness, both to be pretty mild overall. Some surprises in this gose, but pretty enjoyable, overall.
Finally for today, the first of several beers from Saturday afternoon/evening's Craft and Draft bottle shop 2nd birthday party. It was a great party, with multiple unique beer offerings, live music, food trucks. This was a Craft and Draft collaboration with Thomas Creek Brewery, resulting in the Slapricot Session Ale. Complexities in the mouthfeel were notable, blending fruity juicyness with an effervescent carbonation. There was plenty of apricot flavor, but the ale wasn't too sweet. Combined with the mouthfeel, I got more an impression of a mild fruity Italian soda instead of a beer. A mild funky note also slyly creeped into this session ale, as well.
This one, guys. This one's pretty special. This is a great beer. Check it out:
Petrus Oud Bruin by Brouwerij De Brabandere/Petrus Sour Beers.
If anyone local sees this in a timely manner, I will be at Craft and Draft's 2nd birthday party tomorrow (7/9) afternoon! See you there?
Man, with the Independence Day holiday on Monday, it fees like this week is flying by! I managed to pull together a handful of news stories of interest from the last week or so, so let's get going!
Will McCameron, owner of Brewery 85 in Greenville, SC, wrote a column on Brew Studs criticizing A-B InBev's summer-long "America" theme, pointing out that while some production is still done in the United States, the company is headquartered in Belgium and run by Brazilians, both of whom are decidedly NOT American. The column also caught traction in the local South Carolina press.
Runner's World reports on a Japanese Olympic marathon runner who won a 4-kilometer Fourth of July race in Boulder, Colorado, where she has been training for the Rio Olympics. Her prize? Her weight in beer from Avery Brewing. While she's been passing some of it around, she cannot partake in her prize until AFTER the Olympics.
I do enjoy IPAs, now, but I'm SURE I'm not psychotic. At least, I'm pretty sure.
Goeuro.com listed the average price for a beer in 70 international locations, and put them into a handy chart to find where beer is the cheapest. Or most expensive, I guess. Further down the page are some breakdowns of beer financials in European cities.
Finally, a columnist from Vinepair (thanks, Mom!) listed his ideal bar draft list, coming up with the perfect 16-tap line-up for his imaginary bar. This sounds like something I might do this weekend. Stay tuned!
Finally, local Columbia, SC taproom Craft and Draft is celebrating their 2nd birthday with a big party this coming Saturday. Congratulations, guys, and see you there!
It was a holiday weekend, which of course led to numerous drinking opportunities, and a fresh set of beers to review. Let's dive in!
We start with the Coulter IPA from Cismontane Brewing Company, which pours a deep gold color and has very little head when poured. Strong citrus and pine hops notes are the first things to hit my palate when I take a sip, along with a strong but overpowering bitterness. It's fruity with, to me, a juicy mouthfeel. There is a slight bit of booziness (the beer checks in at 7.2% ABV), and the beer finishes quite clean, given how powerful all the flavors are.
Next up is Unknown Brewing Company's Bound for Carolina Imperial Brown Ale. The ale had a light cola color, and amazing powerful flavors, including tons of cocoa and chocolate, dark fruits, and cola. I also got some brownie or chocolate cake notes and a toasted note that crossed with the brownie to taste like the burnt or better-done edges of the brownie pan. Despite a fairly high ABV of 8.7%, there was no booziness to detect--it likely blended well into the numerous sweeter flavor notes. I also want to say that despite these numerous sweet flavors, it wasn't too sweet. It was close, but Unknown did a really nice job hitting the apex of tolerance, at least for my palate.
Next is Red Banshee by Fort Collins Brewery. Pouring a reddish-copper color, Red Banshee has straight forward flavors, including chocolate malts and hints of cola and possibly sweet caramel or some other sugary substance. Very malty, which is right up my alley.
Finally, from Founders Brewing Company, I had the Mango Magnifico con Calor, a part of Founders' experimental Backstage Series. A fruit beer (mango, obviously) brewed with habanero peppers, the result is a beer that is quite sweet, and can push that edge into overpowering. Fortunately, the mangoes have a cozy relationship with the peppers, each tempering the other just enough that neither the sweetness nor the spiciness kills the beer. There is a spice note that starts out as slight and grows perfectly, never going overboard, as so many pepper-infused beers do. Clocking in at 10%, there is also a slight booziness, especially as it warms, but most of that booziness blends into the sweet mango notes. This is a fantastic offering from Founders.