Beers in Review: Triple Play

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With my seemingly endless blog posts about Wicked Weed and AB-InBev, I seem to have pushed nearly everything else aside. But now, the big news has passed, and we can start getting back to normal. My BiR list is so backed-up that today I will bring you not two, but THREE entries! Let's dive in!

First up is a collaboration between Charlotte's Unknown Brewing Company and Greenville, SC's Birds Fly South Ale Project. 10-Minute Vacation is a lager (4.3% ABV) flavored with Muscadine grapes and dry-hopped with Mosaic and Equinox hops. The pale yellow lager with a light-to-medium body brings a mild sweetness coming from the grapes that ramps up as the lager warms. The grapes and the sweetness from them really serve to smooth out a great deal of what would be pretty considerable grainy notes and hop bite. Both of these things do still exist, but are knocked down in intensity, with the grains being found earlier in the drinking experience, while the hop bite comes through at the very end.

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery is famous for its 60-, 90-, and 120-minute IPAs, and makes a number of other quality brews, but Raison D'Extra is something else. A ramped-up version of their Raison D'Etre Belgian-style Dark Ale, D'Extra comes in at a massive 16-18% ABV! I had the opportunity to try the 2014 version recently, and the booze notes, while present, are surprisingly downplayed in a mid-teens ABV beer. Pouring a cloudy icea tea color, D'Extra is dominated by raisins, cherries, plums, and other dark fruits. There is a fair amount of sweetness, along with some tobacco notes, and some other spiciness (perhaps cinnamon?). I got a small sample (4 oz.) of this beer, and it was really good, but I wouldn't want too much more than that sample glass. I could see it becoming overwhelming.

Finally, I went back to one of my old favorites, Highland Brewing Company, and St. Terese's Pale Ale. It pours a clear golden color, has a medium-to-heavy body, and comes in at 5.1% ABV. Lots of different hop flavor notes are present in this Pale Ale, including lots of citrus, some grassy or leafy notes, and a bit of pine. There is also a slight sweetness and some bready malt notes, along with the slightest hop bite. I found this to be a really enjoyable pale ale, as I've come to expect from Highland.

Video Review: An IPA That's Right Up My Alley

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Hello, friends. It's been a while. I get into the "why" in the video, but needless to say, I will try to keep the multi-day gaps between content to a minimum. Additionally, I remain committed to three videos per week, which means THIS is the first of three reviews between now and Sunday!

Today, I check out an IPA from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery that should be in my wheelhouse! Find out whether or not it was here:

Merry Christmas, and a brief review

Good morning, everyone, and Merry Christmas! I'm spending some time in Pennsylvania with the family, and based on pure curiosity, we tried out Dogfish Head Craft Brewery's Beer for Breakfast Stout, which is brewed with spices, coffee, maple syrup, and SCRAPPLE. Scrapple is a Pennsylvania and New Jersey "delicacy" where, basically, the leftovers of the pig are rendered down and formed into a loaf, sliced like bread, cooked/fried, and served. It's one of those things that sounds awful but tastes awesome.

Anyway, despite some reservations, our opinion of the beer was generally positive. I didn't have enough to do a proper review, but I found that the beer had lots of coffee notes up front, and was generally a little sweeter than I like. Probably, based on that sweetness, one 12-oz. bottle would be more than enough. Still, it was better than most of us expected, and was fairly well enjoyed.

I'll be back tomorrow (Monday 12/26) with another Beers in Review, along with more to come mid-week. See you then, and enjoy the day!

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: Two beers with a whole lot going on

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A couple of beers still unwritten about from the weekend. First is Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace saison. It is named after a rare Japanese hop strain of the same name that was recently reintroduced to the hop supply thanks to farmers in Washington state. It pours a deep golden color, has a pretty light body, and has a pretty unique flavor profile. It contains a lot of fruity sweetness that blends with lemongrass notes, signs of that Sorachi Ace hop. Add to it some citrus notes, most notably lemon, and you have a complex saison that is very much worth drinking.

Our second beer is Dogfish Head Craft Brewery's Sixty-One, a hybrid ale combining their famous 60-Minute IPA with the "must" (pressed grape seeds and stems--thanks, Dad!) from Syrah red wine grapes. The wine influence is evident from the pour, as it is a ruby red to lightish red wine color. I wasn't getting a ton of aroma from my glass--certainly some red wine-like notes. The flavors were very balanced with toasty malts and hops combined with slight wine notes that were less evident in the sip came through more in the aftertaste. Overall, another very complex beer.