Beers in Review: Odds and Ends

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5 beers up for review today, including a couple of homebrews from a family friend. Let's get to it!

We start off with River Falls Red Ale from Thomas Creek Brewery. Their award-winning flagship ale pours a nice copper color, and is medium-bodied. It features a solid malt backbone with dark fruit flavor notes, along with some nice additional caramel and toffee notes. As I said, I am big on malt-forward beers, and this is one of my favorites. A really tasty red ale.

Next up is Firestone Walker Brewing Company's summer seasonal session IPA, called Easy Jack. It's a nice gold color, and opens delightfully grapefruity with a mild hop presence. Citrus notes dominate, with orange joining the initial grapefruit notes. It is an IPA that's pretty smooth, with a pretty clean finish. With a great citrus flavor, and checking in at just 4.5% ABV, this beer nails the definition of "sessionable".

Schlafly Beer's/The Saint Louis Brewery's summer seasonal American IPA pours a nice, hazy golden color. It has a complex flavor profile, leading off with spicy and hoppy notes. This gives way to assorted special citrus notes, including sweet orange candies and orange rind. There is an initially mild hop bitterness, which ramps up big time as it warms. A really nice AIPA.

Finally, two home-brewed beers made by a friend of the family, called Coyote Cool Brewing. The first was supposed to be a Double IPA, though it poured a brownish-copper color. This beer really seems to be more of a brown ale, featuring a nice maltiness and cocoa notes. There was also a minor red wine note, along with some kind of candy. I really enjoyed this beer--it's absolutely delicious. But it was not a Double IPA.

The second offering was a Black IPA with Cocoa Nibs. Pouring a pitch black, this beer had a really good malt/hop balance, with mild bitterness and mild unsweetened cocoa notes towards the back. In talking with the homebrewer, he acknowledged that he wanted more cocoa out of it, and I agree. But I really enjoyed the balance in this beer. I feel like Black IPAs can be tough to nail, but this was a really solid first effort.

Video Review: Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Family Values Imperial Brown Ale

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Hello, everyone. Today, we have the second installment from Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp Across America series, this time trying the Family Values Imperial Brown. It's a collaboration with August Schell Brewing Company, Dark Horse Brewing Company, Half Acre Beer Company, Perennial Artisan Ales, and Sun King Brewing. Check it out!

 

Check back tomorrow for more Beers in Review, including some clean-up from before vacation and maybe a couple more from DURING vacation. See you then!

Video Review: Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Pat-Rye-Ot

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As promised over the weekend, I will be video reviewing the six beers of Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp Across America collaboration pack. Here is the first offering, a collaboration with Dogfish Head, Devils Backbone, Trillium, Stoudts, and Lawson's Finest Liquids, called Pat-Rye-Ot.

Expect the next review in the series on Saturday. See you then!

Beers in Review: A Love Letter to Cape May Brewing Company

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This particular blog has been around for nearly a year now, but before Pourly Reviewed Beer got off the ground, it was called Inside the Keg, and at this point, I can't even remember if I did any work for it. Regardless, the real big take-off was going to be the 2015 version of this particular entry: my (and my family's) 3rd annual visit to Cape May Brewing Company. This brewery and their tasting room is located in warehouse spaces at southern New Jersey's Cape May Airport, and has been producing beer since 2011.

After a self-guided tour (required by state law) at their taphouse, customers enter a tasting room serving up usually 12-15 different beers along with house-made root beer and ginger ale. As I mentioned in Sunday's video, I find they don't make a bad beer--much of their line-up is really solid, with a few stand-outs. One such stand-out is their summer cranberry shandy, known as The Bog, as well as one other beer I'll review later.

I had the opportunity to try several of their beers at this year's stop, starting with another of their seasonals, a Belgian-style Witbier called Summer Catch. Pouring a hazy, pale yellow, this nails the crisp, clean summer beer category. Citrus notes with a hint of grain provide a nice flavor profile for this light summer offering.

Next up was something unique, a Sour IPA called Corrosion. It poured yellow and very hazy, and wasn't quite as extreme as I was expecting for the style. I feel like the sourness was well-cut by the hop profile, which provided bright orange and grapefruit notes. The flavors overall were relatively mild, but the beer was very well-balanced, and one I'd recommend to craft beer drinkers, even if they are not big on sours.

Next up was one of Cape May's flagship beers, their namesake Cape May IPA. The beer has a nice orange-gold hue to it, and brings decently-powered citrus hop notes, along with a hint of earthiness or spiciness. Some dark fruit notes also come along later in the drinking experience.

Their Honey Porter was one of my favorites, with this offering being offered under Nitro. A very dark brown color with a silky smooth texture in the mouth, the Honey Porter featured the expected sweet notes that were very much present, but not overpowering. I think the honey additions blended with the standard Porter notes to generate some delightful cocoa notes. A really delicious porter.

The final beer I had I tried on a whim, and proved to be the most enjoyable of the bunch. I don't normally jump at fruity beers, but an apple-based wheat that checks in at around 8% ABV drew my interest. Quite simply, Apple Bomb lives up to its name in a big way. It brings tons of balanced sweet-tart apple flavor with some bready malt hints for depth of flavor. The tartness does nudge up a bit towards the end of the drinking experience. An absolutely delicious beer that CAN be dangerous, because in no way can you detect the 8% alcohol (if I recall, the brewery limits customers to 2 pints of this and their other high-alcohol beers). Apple Bomb was easily the highlight of this year's visit to the brewery.

Three years of visits to Cape May Brewing Company, and I have yet to have a disappointing beer. Keep up the great work, guys!

Beers in Review: Beers from Philadelphia and Jersey

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As promised, let's get into the myriad of beers I had while on vacation. This particular entry will deal with three Philadelphia-/New Jersey-based breweries. We'll start with the one-offs.

First up is Sol Reaper Pale Ale from Demented Brewing Company. It pours a fairly clean golden color, and the ale brings a moderate hop bite with a bit of citrus and even some light dank hop notes. There is also a nice spicy note at the end that tends to linger after the drinking experience.

Next, from Tuckahoe Brewing Company, is Colubris dry-hopped amber ale, and they nailed the style. It pours a pretty red-gold color. I was impressed by the well-balanced malt and hop presences. Flavors included nice piney hop notes, and a really delightful and bright orange note. As a guy who can appreciate more malty beers, this beer's balance really hit a nice chord with me.

As I mentioned in yesterday's video, Yards Brewing Company provided a bit of mixed bag while I was up north. I first had a bottle of their long-time standard Philadelphia Pale Ale. They refer to it as "sessionable", so I wasn't expecting anything too bold or strong in this beer, but I found it still quite mild overall, perhaps TOO mild for my liking. Pouring a pale yellow color, I found it quite aromatic, but was surprised by grainy flavor notes, along with some mild spice notes. There was a very mild--nearly non-existent--hop presence. Frankly, this particular beer was a bit of a disappointment, though given the beer's reputation, and the quality of the beers that followed, I would certainly give this Pale Ale another try.

Next from Yards was General Washington's Tavern Porter. This Tavern series is Yards' attempt to create modern beers while trying to closely replicate the recipes of ales created by our country's Founding Fathers. In this case, the result is a beer that is a moderately dark brown, lighter than cola, and lighter than I expected. Despite being lighter than expected, this porter did not lack for taste. It features a nice, well-balanced sweetness, with strong notes of cocoa and molasses. It is a malty and rich beer, and it really is tasty and quite excellent.

Finally, at the complete opposite end of the beer spectrum is a tart fruit ale called Pynk. It pours a light red to pinkish color, and features sour and sweet cherries and raspberries. My palate brought this all together--most notably the sour cherries, I think--and came up with cranberry-like flavor notes. Indeed, it was quite sweet, making it taste almost like a cranberry soda. Pynk was crisp and clean, and so incredibly tasty.

Video Review: Highland Mandarina IPA

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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!

Beers in Review: Including a new local brew

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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!

Beers in Review: A pair from the West Coast

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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.

Beers in Review: New Holland Trio

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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.

Programming Note

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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!

Breaking News: DOJ Approves Mega-Merger

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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.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 7

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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.

Beers in Review: Feeling better

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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.

My Ideal Draft Beer Tap Line-up

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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!