Beer reviews, news, commentary, and more from a guy who just likes to drink beer!
In today's video review, I bring you one beast of a beer from Stone Brewing. It is the terrific 2016 edition of Lukcy Basartd, the blend of Arrogant Bastard, Double Bastard, and Oaked Arrogant Bastard. If my enthusiasm doesn't show through on the video, it's because I was putting all my energy into trying to break down everything going on in that glass. But this is a mighty beer, and it is excellent. Let me tell you more here:
For today's video, I am posting Sunday's livestream, where I did some testing of upgraded A/V equipment, reviewed Stone Brewing's Xocoveza stout, and talked about the short-to-medium-term future of the site.
I also cut out about 6 1/2 minutes of the A/V testing for your convenience, but there are time stamp cues in the description for the various parts of the video. Check it all out here:
Come check out my livestream as I test some A/V equipment AND try Stone's Xocoveza stout! See you there!
I begin this BiR post with a beer that had loads of potential, only for it to be unrealized. Among the many unique series of beers offered by Escondido, California's Stone Brewing is their Mixtape series, one-off batches created by blending of various Stone beers, an otherwise rare practice at Stone. I recently had Volume 14: The Gatekeeper, which seems to have been a release for the World of Beer chain, though there is some availability elsewhere. Gatekeeper is a blend of the 2015 and 2016 versions of the Imperial Russian Stout along with the Stone IPA. The result is a brown-to-copper colored beer that has almost no harmony. The Stouts and the IPA are seemingly at odds with each other throughout the drinking experience, as the separate entities and their hop/malt mix make no attempt to blend together or work as one beer. I found the hop bite to be on the harsh side. There were nice flavor notes hidden in the chaos, including some dark semi-sweet chocolate notes, as well as a little bit of fruit (in addition to the three beers, this blend also included figs, plums, and Hallertau Blanc hops, which should yield tropical fruit notes). There was also perhaps a slight cola note floating around there, as well, though it may have just been my interpreting the sweeter notes of the beer. The beer isn't really boozy at all, despite an ABV of 7.9%. This beer was not bad, and got sweeter, fruitier, smoother, and generally more enjoyable when it warmed up a bit. But this feels like two good-to-great beers that just didn't get along, and missed out on every ounce of potential the glass held. Not drinkable, but this beer was a disappointment.
Up next is J. Wakefield Brewing and their 24th Street Brown Ale, named for the street on which the brewery resides in Miami, Florida. There isn't much information to be found out there about this beer (get on that, J. Wakefield!), but it drinks as a straight-forward, on-the-mark Brown Ale. Coming in at 6.8% ABV, the beer pours a hazy chocolate brown, which is kind of pretty, if you've seen enough hazy dark beers (otherwise, it just looks like mud). The fairly standard but very tasty flavor profile includes lots of chocolate, as well as a fair amount of caramel maltiness, some coffee notes and nuttiness. I also enjoyed the creamy, smooth mouthfeel. J. Wakefield hit the nail on the head with this brown.
Before I can get into THIS weekend, I have some beers from LAST weekend burning a hole in my iPhone. Let's do it.
We start with a unique twist on Westbrook Brewing Company's Gose, their Key Lime Pie Gose. Now, I am a fan of the standard Gose, but this Key Lime Pie variation was not for me. It pours a hazy lemon color, and as expected, is very sour and moderately salty with very little sweetness. Now, all of this is pretty well in line with the standard Gose--perhaps I was just expecting a little more sweetness from a variant like this. Admittedly, Key Lime Pie is usually not sweet, per se, but there is a sweetness to be found in the pie. This Key Lime Pie Gose has no such sweetness. Instead, the Key Lime Pie factor brings a ton of citrusy, puckering bite, and an incredibly dry finish. Both of these factors were overwhelming for me, and greatly harmed my potential enjoyment of the beer. I have no doubt this profile is exactly what Westbrook was shooting for. I think this is just a situation where the standard Westbrook Gose is an acquired taste, and the Key Lime Pie Gose is even more so.
Also from Westbrook is a sessionable variant of their insanely popular Mexican Cake Imperial Stout--a beer that disappears almost as soon as it hits the shelves across the state. Mexican Cupcake comes in at a MUCH more manageable alcohol level (4.2% ABV vs. 10.5% for Mexican Cake). The stout pours a very dark brown, as expected, and is quite mild overall. The flavor profile leads with an unsweetened cocoa note, along with some spices (like cinnamon) and roastiness. But I think, considering this is an off-shoot of the bold Mexican Cake, I expected a more potent drinking experience. Nothing about this beer was bad, but it left me wanting more out of it. The beer even utilizes multiple varieties of hot peppers, yet there is almost no heat initially, and it only comes out a tiny bit as the beer warms. But again, it was another mild note.
Next up, from Stone Brewing, is a re-release of their 6th Anniversary Porter. The official beer type varies a bit, but this is, without a doubt, a smoked porter. Pouring nearly pitch black, this beer took me on quite a journey. There are very nice sweet notes of dark fruit, including berries, chocolate, and just a hint each of coffee and booze. Then there is the smoky note, which took me on quite the roller coaster. My initial impressions of the beer were very positive, then, for a while, the smoke became overpowering to me--to the point that I ALMOST dumped the beer. Just as I was about the dump it, the smoke backed off again, giving all the delightfully sweet notes I first enjoyed. Then, the last few ounces were again taxing to drink due to the smokiness. This is an impressive beer, but I don't know if it's one I want to have again.
Finally, a Scotch ale from Granite Falls Brewing Company, called 1716 Castle Stormer. I had this immediately after the Stone 6th Anniversary, and this was a much...smoother ride. It pours a dark brown to cola-ish color, and was very sweet, almost sickly sweet, but just barely stayed on the good side of that line. Flavors included toffee and dark fruit notes, along with some nice maltiness on the back end. It was also very smooth overall. I don't normally go for super-sweet beers, but I think after the smoky experience of the Stone, I found this beer delightful.
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!
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.
In the latest video review (two this week!), a really neat beer from Stone, under the Stochasticity series. Learn all about it below:
Coming this weekend: More from Asheville, including the best of Highland Brewery, and hopefully another video review (though, I don't know what, yet).
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!
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.
I'm struggling to stay caught up, so I'm going to fly through a bunch of beers from Labor Day weekend.
Anchor Steam: a nice malt/fruit flavor, and pretty clean
Widmer Upheaval IPA: dank aroma, with some dark fruit notes--it's listed as an "American" IPA, but it's pretty hoppy, if so
River Rat Broad River Red: nice malt sweetness, pretty clean finish
Stone IPA: surprisingly mild citrusy hop profile with some sweetness in the middle
Finch's Pale Ale: somewhat mild flavor; the hops are evident but not super-flavorful, pretty clean