Video Review: Stone Lukcy Basartd

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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:

Beers in Review: Lost and Mad

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In today's BiR, I'll be discussing a Flemish Red from a small California-based brewery, as well as TWO years' varieties of a Christmas beer from a Hershey, PA brewery.

Starting, though, with Lost Abbey, a contract Belgian/Abbey-style brewery that works with San Marcos, California's Port Brewing Company. I had Red Poppy, a Flanders-style Red Ale that is based in their Brown ale that is then aged in oak barrels with sour cherries. The cherries come through as the primary piece of the flavor profile, which also includes just a bit of funkiness at the very end of the drinking experience. Red Poppy comes heavily carbonated, resulting in an effervescent mouthfeel. To me, this was an enjoyable Flanders Red, though not the best I've had.

While in Pennsylvania over the holidays, I had the opportunity to revisit Troegs Independent Brewing for the first time in a few year. For this review, I'll be discussing their Christmas seasonal Mad Elf, which they had in both the current 2016 and year-old 2015 varieties in their tasting room.

The 2016 Mad Elf is a mighty ale brewed with honey and cherries, and it has a massive 11% ABV. Many standard fall and winter spices, including cinnamon, clove, and all spice, are used in this beer along with the honey and cherries, and there's even a little bit of cocoa used in the recipe. You'll find all of those flavors in an intense, boozy, spicy ale that pours a ruby-to-copper color. It is truly a terrific ale, though that boozy note can get a bit overwhelming.

In the 2015 Mad Elf, that boozy note has been cut down significantly (though kicks back up a bit as it warms), turning this into a magnificent tasting experience. The 2015 still brings plenty of cherries, but the cocoa that was used but not that present in the 2016 really comes forward. The fall and winter spices are still present, especially the clove and all spice notes. But that spiciness has also cut down a significant amount. In fact, as great as the 2016 vintage is, the overall mellowness of the 2015 made for a much greater drinking experience for me. I expect that if you are used to a lot of high-gravity, high alcohol beers, the 2016 will be just as terrific.

Both are truly great offerings from Troegs.

Video Review-Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold

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Without a doubt, one of the greatest breweries I've had the pleasure of visiting is Cleveland's Great Lakes Brewing Company. Sadly, they don't yet distribute to South Carolina, but my parents had some, and I was able to wrestle away a bottle of their flagship lager, Dortmunder Gold--my mother wouldn't part with the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. Anyway, here's my review of Dort:

 

Coming Saturday, another long-form commentary, this time on the new alcohol laws that have just taken effect in my old home state of Pennsylvania. See you then!

More from Collusion Tap Works

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In last week's Beers in Review post, I talked about a few of the beers I tried at Collusion Tap Works, a relatively new brewery in York, Pennsylvania. I have a handful more to discuss in varying levels of detail before reviewing what I thought was really the best beer of the visit.

I will note that over the course of the roughly couple of hours spent at Collusion, I tried virtually every style of beer, and sampled at least half of their two-dozen offerings. As a result, palate fatigue set in during the back half of this visit, and it came through in my impressions of a couple of the beers.

As an example, I chiefly point to their Alley Session IPA, which, at the time, I described as "just okay"-a descriptor that indicated I didn't note anything wrong with the beer, but I wasn't getting a whole lot out of it. That being said, this came after having multiple normal/non-session IPAs of varying varieties, among other styles of beer. To me, this screams "palate fatigue", so this session IPA is one I would need to give further consideration before judging. The same could be said for What Gose Around. Both of these beers need to be moved to the front of the line on the next visit to Collusion. One sample I had was Bumfuzzle, which is an English Dark Mild beer. To me, it kind of tasted like a cross of ESB and coffee. I didn't have too much, so I can't make much more of a judgment, but it seemed like a nice session option (4.2% ABV) for the stout/porter crowd.

Another which came late in the drinking session (because they initially thought they had run out) was one of two wheat IPAs made in honor of the movie Rogue One. All I could pull out of Light Side were some citrusy hop notes and a mild hop bitterness. I was disappointed I got this one so late, because its twin was one of the first beers I had there, and it was easily my favorite.

Dark Side is a BLACK wheat IPA, and we'll get to the the execution of that combination of words shortly. The beer poured a deep, deep brown, and was 7.5% ABV. The IPA had very little bitterness overall, but did a notable job of threading the needle of the compound style. The start of the tasting experience was grassy and grainy, while the end was citrusy. I also got spicy and herbal notes throughout the experience. The folks at Collusion did a worthwhile job combining the black (body, some of the more subtle flavor notes), wheat (nice grassy, grainy opening), and the IPA (citrus notes) with all three being fairly well-balanced, and no muddled cross flavors. Unfortunately, this seemed to be a limited release. But I found Dark Side to be their best-executed beer. I look forward to trying many more offerings from Collusion Tap Works.

Video Review-Rusty Rail Rail Spike IPA-Dig the Difference!

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In today's video review, I check out the core IPA from Rusty Rail Brewing Company. Check it out!

 

As a side note, I spent some time yesterday making my first video review for February, in anticipation of my observance of Booze Free February. While there will be some scaleback in video reviews for the month (I plan on 2 a week instead of 3), I intend to maintain a fairly constant level of content, even if that includes more news and possibly something like the longer-form piece I did Saturday.

Beers in Review: Collusion Tap Works Trio

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As I've mentioned multiple times, I had the opportunity to check out a couple of breweries over the Christmas holiday, including Collusion Tap Works out of York, Pennsylvania. The brewery opened its doors earlier this year in a recently-renovated section of York, and has a nice though fairly typical tap/tasting room set-up: industrially-styled bar area with tables adjacent to the production area, with a small sales area for various apparel, sauces, and a few other items, and a small in-progress food set-up.

The most impressive aspect of Collusion's operation is the sheer quantity of beers they are making. The tap room has 24 taps, each holding a different offering, and we (my parents and I) overheard on the day we visited, a Monday, that they wanted to roll out 6 new beers by Friday. We had the opportunity to try roughly a dozen of their offerings, and with the exception of one non-traditional style, all were drinkable, at minimum, and most were good-to-great.

Enough prefacing. I want to get into some of their beers, starting with that non-traditional one I mentioned above. The beer's name is Kuytie Pie, and that name is a pun which includes the beer style: a kuyt (which you may also see spelled "kuit" or "koyt"). A kuyt is a Dutch-based grainy beer going back to the 15th century. It is somewhat similar to the gruit, in that it has little-to-no hop presence. (For reference, I found this kuyt to be less odd that the single gruit I had earlier this year.) Getting back to the beer itself, it poured a slightly hazy pale gold, and was quite light overall, including in ABV (4.8%). As mentioned before, it was grainy, with a corn note being most prominent to me. This graininess, with just a hint of hop, lead off the tasting experience, while the middle was so mild that I equated it to seltzer water or club soda. That corn note came to me in the back of the drinking experience. It's a mild beer, overall, and while I appreciate trying a new style, I didn't feel the need to try this again or go out pursuing kuyts on a regular basis. The most apt descriptor I found for this beer was "completely inoffensive".

Next up is a fruit-based IPA called Fuzzy Scrumpit. This is officially called a white peach pink guava IPA, and pours a very hazy yellow color. The ale is tangy, invoking plenty of the fruit in the flavor profile. I found a tartness throughout, along with a mild hop bite at the very end, and a little bit of a funky note back there, too. A mild tartness rounded out this solid IPA loaded with tropical fruits.

Finally, Dole, which is an Imperial cherry Berlinerweisse that pours a peachy-gold color. Coming in at 10% ABV, the flavor notes are fairly straight-forward, most notably tart cherry (of course) and lemonade. The beer is fairly dry overall, which, with some of the fruitier notes, helps evoke a feeling of sparkling wine or champange. I enjoyed this, but it was fairly late in the visit, so some palate fatigue was starting to set in. If it's a regular offering, this is one I'd want to check out again early on in a visit.

I still have a couple of Collusion beers to discuss in detail, including the best of my visit, and a few that I'll just talk about briefly. That will be coming later this week.

As a programming note, tomorrow I will be releasing the livestream from Sunday night as the Tuesday video. It does include a beer review of Stone Brewing's excellent Xocoveza stout, but I will discuss more detail about the video when it is released tomorrow. See you then!

Video Review: Westbrook 6th Anniversary (plus a programming note)

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I'm bringing the weekend video review early-I find it tends to be on Sundays. We'll get to the "why" on that in a moment.

First, check out the excellent anniversary offering from Westbrook Brewing Company:

In terms of tomorrow, 1/8/17, I will be doing a livestream to do some audio and video testing of my long-ignored HD camera and my new microphone that I've been using for about a week now. To keep everyone involved, I plan on reviewing Stone Brewing's Xocoveza Stout, discussing some of my lackluster video reviews from earlier in the week, and what will be coming up on the overall review front here at PRB. That will all be tomorrow night, around 8pm Eastern. Maybe a tad later. Check out Twitter and/or Facebook for up-to-date information on this livestream. Hope to see you then!

Beers in Review: First of the North

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We'll be getting to the first of the beers I had over the holiday, one from Philadelphia, shortly. But first, I have one more pre-holiday beer to review.

This one is the winter seasonal from Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, Missouri, called Snow and Tell. A Scotch Ale at 6.3% ABV and 28 IBU, this ale utilizes smoked malt (more on that in a moment) and is predictably malt forward. The ale itself is a deep ruby red color and has a heavy body. It is malty (as expected) and quite sweet, with toffee and caramel notes being the most prominent, with maybe a bit of dark fruit. It's not boozy at all, which can be frequent in this style, but not surprising here, given the relatively low ABV. Rounding out the drinking experience is just a hint of smoke, which is generating a final burnt sugar note in the flavor profile.

Next up is unique style coming out of Philadelphia, PA. St. Benjamin Brewing Company--as in, Benjamin Franklin--crosses a traditionally basic cream ale with an IPA to create Inca India-style Cream Ale. Fairly sessionable and perhaps at the high end of the Cream Ale range at 5.4% ABV, this ale is pretty light and smooth overall. There are mild citrus and hops, and is really an overall mild-mannered ale; to this point, there's not much bitterness, despite a claim of 50 IBU. The finish is fairly clean and crisp, matching the citrusy hop notes from earlier. The notes are fairly basic and mild in this ale, but I found it fairly enjoyable, overall.

Beers in Review: 2016 Finale

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Hello, friends! As indicated yesterday, I'm back from Christmas family time, which included a whole lot of high quality beer! I will be talking about that in a video this weekend, and writing about for probably the next couple of weeks, but I still have a few pre-Christmas reviews on which to catch up. So let's look at a couple of them now!

First up is the 14th Anniversary Ale from Terrapin Beer Company in Athens, Georgia. In addition to the anniversary celebration, this Tart Belgian Red is also Terrapin's "100th brew crafted in house". This ale utilizes U.S. Goldings hops and a multitude of malts, especially Crystal malts that generate this ale's pretty reddish-copper color. Coming in a 7.5% ABV, flavors include a great deal of tart cherry, along with berries and dark fruit. I also detected wine and wine barrels, as well as fruit rinds--perhaps peach, among others?--that bring a unique bitter note into the fold. A bit of funkiness is also present later in the drinking experience. Despite some lackluster reviews, I found this to be a nice beer, though I tend to be bigger on Flemish Reds and the like.

Next up is Grains of Truth Harvest Ale, a Biere de Garde from Brewery Ommegang. With an ABV of 5.8%, this ale is intended to utilize grains (barley, oats, wheat, rye) to honor the practice of farming and the harvest. The outcome is supposed to be balanced, smooth, and creamy. Grains of Truth nails the mouthfeel traits, but otherwise mainly holds a lot of typical Belgian traits. It pours a nice gold-to-orange color, and flavor notes include green/white grapes, apricot, and bit of banana and peach. Bubblegum is also pretty prevalent (I feel like this is a flavor quality I've just started to pick up in the last few months), along with a bit of funk and some spices, including black pepper and cloves. This was a terrifically deep beer, though if I had read the description that talks about things like "balance" before drinking, I would have been greatly surprised and possibly disappointed. Excellent beer, though.

Beers in Review: Greetings from PRB Northern Command!

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Hello, everyone! I hope you had a terrific Christmas or wonderful ongoing Hanukkah, or just got to enjoy some chill time with your family! I am working through a number of local beers here in Pennsylvania, and will have lots of reviews and more when I get back to South Carolina.

However, I still have some beers from before Christmas to review, so let's dive right in!

Buried among the seemingly endless (and having just drove it, I can attest to this) series of national parks and forests that make up the Appalachian mountain chain through the southeastern United States is tiny Banner Elk, NC. Flat Top Brewing Company can be found in this small town near the NC-TN border, and they pride themselves on using "fresh Appalachian mountain spring water", one of the advantages to being among the seemingly endless parks and forests. But for some reason, I've turned into a travelogue writer. Let's get to the beer.

Ryed Along Black Rye IPA is a nearly pitch black beer, as expected, that is 6.7% ABV and 70 IBU. To me, this beer expresses the "black" portion of the style, as in stout or porter, rather than the IPA part. Coffee joins up with a whole lot of sweet chocolate notes, approaching the point of being cloyingly sweet. There are lots of fruity notes as well, cherries and berries, specifically. All of these sweet notes come together to make me feel like there is a boozy sweet note. But at just 6.7% ABV, I think my brain is just reinterpreting a lot of the flavor notes. Decent beer, though the sweetness would likely prevent me from enjoying more than one at a sitting.

As I said in the finale of my Christmas beer video series, I did have one last Christmasy beer, though this one officially runs into the New Year, because it is called a Winter Ale. Goose Island Beer Company's winter offering pours a deep brown to copper color. The beer utilizes a massive malt line-up, including 2-Row, Caramel-60, Dark Chocolate, and other malts to create a nice flavor profile, including a nice malty sweetness to go along with the standard fall/winter spices such as all spice and nutmeg and a little bit of dark fruit. There are sweet notes, but at 5.3% ABV, it isn't boozy at all. Virtually no bitterness (25 IBU), either. Though not ground-breaking, I found this Winter Ale to be a solid representation of style.