Beers in Review: Milking River Rat's 3rd Birthday!

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Happy April, everyone! Today's review post on River Rat Brewery's 3rd Birthday Party will tend to focus more on River Rat's core beers and lighter offerings, compared to Wednesday's post, which had several of River Rat's higher gravity and higher ABV beers.

In case you missed Wednesday's set of Beers in Review, you can find that post here. In addition, if you missed the event recap video, you can find it here!

In the recap, I gave a review of the 2016 edition of the Moncks Corner Abbey Dubbel Ale. Immediately after, I had the 2015 version of the Abbey Ale. It pours a bronze-to-orange color, is listed at 7.2% ABV, though this aged version seemed heartier than that, as I detected a ramped-up boozy note and boozy sweetness compared to the 2016. I also got a lot more dark fruit sweetness, especially raisin, and these combined with the Belgian candy and some sweet malty notes to give a feeling of fruitcake to the Abbey Ale.

With that Abbey Ale, I  took a hard left turn to their core 803 IPA. Also fairly high in ABV (7.3%), this light gold-colored beer brings plenty of grassy and especially piney hop notes that combine with a mildly sweet note. There is also a little bit of orange and orange rind in there. This IPA had a medium-light body, and the prickly carbonation stood out in the mouthfeel.

I started ramping down a bit with a few fruitier beers, starting with the Pineapple Pale Ale, which poured a very light gold color, and was very easy drinking, especially considering my palate was nearing the end of its usefulness. This pale ale had very nice pineapple notes with no sourness or acidity and very little sweetness. Overall, it tended to be more on the mild side, and in a normal drinking environment, I might want more out of this. But given the situation, I was fine with a milder beer.

Finally, I tried the Blackberry Saison, which was a hazy, ruddy gold color. This Saison featured plenty of funk aroma, which carried into the taste. There were also some pepper notes and a little bit of berry, as well. Frankly, at this point, my palate was starting to tap out, so I might want to give this one another go, if River Rat ever offers it again.

I also had the Twisted Lemon Wheat, but my palate wasn't up to giving impressions on it.

So, that wraps it up. I gave River Rat plenty of love in the event recap, so I'll just say it was awesome to have so many, and such a varied selection, of River Rat beers. This included a number of their offerings that I hadn't tried before. A very good event by River Rat.

Beers in Review: Notables from River Rat's 3rd Birthday

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A couple of weeks ago, I covered the 3rd Birthday Party for River Rat Brewery here in Columbia. If you missed it, you can find that video about the entire event here.  I have a whole lot of beers from that event to review, so you will be seeing them over a couple of BiR entries this week. For a few reasons (all same brewery, 5 beers per review instead of 2-3, etc.), the individual beer reviews will be slightly shorter than normal.  But River Rat had a number of special and rare beers to go with their excellent core line-up, so let's check them out!

I started off with the Sour Cherry Sucker Punch, and I told the full story of why in the video, but basically, don't let the word "Sour" fool you. This is a massive beer! It brings every bit of 12% ABV to the party, along with subtle cherry notes and a very mild sourness. Pouring a pretty reddish-copper color, Sucker Punch carries both a fruity sweetness as well as the expected boozy sweetness. If you can handle the alcohol it brings to the table, Sucker Punch can be highly enjoyable.

Next up was the 2016 edition of their Winter Warmer, which wasn't awful, but was easily my least favorite beer for the whole day. I think a fair amount of that can be owed to my mild aversion to the spicy seasonal beers that dominate the fall and winter months. Pouring a deep-brown ruby color, and clocking in at just 6% ABV, Winter Warmer brings cinnamon and a few other spices of the season, with the overall taste reminding me of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal (which is funny, since I believe they also have a beer that mirrors that cereal). It's mildly sweet, and really was fairly mild overall. I think a bit of a bolder beer could have been in order. Especially something intended for colder winter months.

Last year, River Rat collaborated with Tampa, Florida's Cigar City Brewing for an Imperial Stout (what I've now discovered they're calling a "Sweet Potato Pie Imperial Stout) called And I Shut My Mouth. A boozy sweetness dominates the flavor profile, which is not too surprising, given the reported 9.6% ABV (courtesy Beer Advocate) and the relatively mild-in-flavor nature of the supposed feature ingredient. While I wasn't looking for it at the time, I can't recall finding much of a sweet potato note in the beer. It did have some cocoa notes, along with maybe a bit of cola. Overall, I found it to be a tasty beer.

My last full entry for this review is the Barrel-Aged Imperial Milk Stout. This Milk Stout was aged in bourbon barrels for six months before release earlier this year. Also sporting a massive 12% ABV, this stout pours a very dark cola color--it was very nearly see-through, but just too dark to get there. Between the barrel treatment and the style, this had a terrific mouthfeel, just absolutely smooth. It featured chocolate and overall sweet notes, along with a surprisingly low boozy feeling, considering the ABV. Another really nice offering. I do feel I should note that subsequently had their core stout, called My Morning Stout, but only got a few minor notes--cola, smokiness--likely due to the beer that had proceeded it. This was an error on my part.

After pushing through a fairly powerful line-up of beers, I took a bit of a palate break before moving more towards River Rat's core beers and lighter beers. You can read all about them this weekend. See you then!

Video Review: Lousy Website, Not Lousy Beer

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Today's beer comes from contract brewer Bottletree Beer Company, meaning they have hired another brewery (Thomas Creek, in this case) to brew their beer. Contract brewing isn't an uncommon practice--I've reviewed several contract brewed beers for this blog. Anyway, check out my thoughts on this Blonde from Bottletree. Also, I kept my practice of posting the brewer's website, but don't bother with it. It's pretty underwhelming. I guess they're putting all their energy into the beer.

Video Review: Featuring Another Oddball Reference

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3/25/17: Apologies for the delay. It started with upload issues with YouTube on Thursday, followed by my own personal failure to complete the published process Friday. Expect the next video review ON TIME on Sunday!    -Justin

 

Not-so-hot on the heels of Wednesday's Muppet Show reference, can you find today's oddball reference in this video review of Flower Child IPA from Cambridge Brewing Company? See if you can!

Beers in Review: Rulebreaker!

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I am opening up this edition of BiR by breaking my own rule. Typically, I try to repeat beer reviews as rarely as possible. If I AM going to re-review a beer, my rule is to wait six months, to ensure that I am getting a new batch of that beer and not reviewing two beers made in the same lot. I am breaking that rule today by reviewing a beer I reviewed just two months ago, the 6th Anniversary Hazelnut Chocolate Imperial Stout from Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina's excellent Westbrook Brewing Company.

After previously enjoying a bottle with my family at Christmas, and doing a video review of a 2nd bottle on January 7th, I had the opportunity to have it ON DRAFT recently. The differing format, along with the fact that it's just a freaking tasty beer, made me decide to break my reviewing rule. Anyway, enough background. Let's talk beer.

The 6th Anniversary Imperial Stout pours very dark to near black, as expected, and brings every bit of the 10% ABV on the nose, though it is a bit milder in the actual taste. The stout is brewed with the listed hazelnuts and cocoa nibs, along with vanilla beans. The flavor notes reflect these ingredients, with the vanilla coming in on the mild side, but a fairly powerful brownie batter feeling coming out of the cocoa and nuts. As I said, a mild but still quite present booze note is also there, as well as plenty of sweetness, both from the booze and from the brewing ingredients. I think I liked the 5th Anniversary Imperial Stout a hair better, but only because of the ingredients used (Chocolate Raspberry vs. Hazelnut Chocolate). Still, this is an excellent stout.

Next up is a beer that I struggled to describe a little bit, because I don't believe I've ever had one of the key ingredients. San Diego's Ballast Point Brewing Company is a brewery that has popped up time and again on this review blog, including some notable video reviews. Recently, I tried Red Velvet, which they call a "golden Oatmeal Stout with beets, chocolate, and natural flavors". It is also served in a bottle under nitrogen, similar to Guinness. Now, to my knowledge, I've never had beets before, so this affected my review of this beer. Coming in at 5.5% ABV and 35 IBU, the beer is very pretty, pouring ruby red with a light pink head. There is a powerful and enjoyable unsweetened or semi-sweet chocolate aroma, which also comes through a bit in the taste. The stout is very smooth-drinking owing to the nitrogen, and has a medium-heavy body--surprising to me, given the beer's color. You get a bit of that nitrogenated beer flavor, along with a mild vegetable quality that I assume is the beets. Overall, this beer just fell flat for me. It's not undrinkable, but I would have liked the flavor notes, especially the semi-sweet chocolate, to be punched up a bit. It's also very much NOT a traditional stout, so just be prepared for that. Not bad, but I've had far better from Ballast Point.

Beers in Review: Making their PRB Debut...

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...is the farmhouse brewers Blackberry Farm Brewery from Walland, Tennessee! I had their Noble Cuvee Dry Hop 2017, a take on their base Saison that includes dry-hopped Czech Saaz hops. Coming in at 6.25% ABV and 25 IBU, this Saison pours a fairly clear pale gold color. It features a slight Belgian/Saison yeast sweetness, along with a nice herbal note and perhaps a bit of apricot. There was also a little bit of funkiness in there, too, and the beer featured a carbonated, effervescent mouthfeel and a dry finish. An enjoyable Saison, though I found the more Belgian aspects of it to be a little bit muted in favor of what could be called more traditional flavor notes. Still, really nice.

Finally today, a bourbon barrel-aged Pale Ale from Louisiana's Abita Brewing Company called Old Fashioned Pale Ale. Clocking in at 9.25% ABV and just 22 IBU, this Pale Ale is brewed with orange peel, cherries, and aromatic bitters, all elements of the classic Old Fashioned drink which was popular decades ago and resurfaced thanks to the television show "Mad Men". In fact, in this beer, I got a great deal of the "Old Fashioned" portion and almost none of the "Pale Ale" portion. This is perfectly, but you need to prepare yourself, because what you get is probably not what you're expecting. The beer pours a solid amber color, and the fruit sensations are very prominent, and include the maraschino cherries used in the brewing process, along with raisins and grapes, the latter of which blended with a cane sugar to evoke a grape lollipop sensation. Again, the beer is quite sweet, though not overpowering with some fruitcake vanilla notes and an early bit of booziness that ramps up as the beer warms up. I find Abita to be hit-and-miss, but I really enjoyed this offering. Just know it's not a traditional Pale Ale.

PRB Video: River Rat Brewery's 3rd Birthday Party!

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As promised, I am glad to bring you a recap and some highlights from the 3rd birthday party of River Rat Brewery here in Columbia!

Before we get to the video, I must apologize for the two cardinal sins I committed in this video. The first is a production sin: filming vertically with my phone. I think this is the first live event for which I've actually done video, so I am learning, and will not make this mistake again. Promise. The second mistake is about midway through the video, when I refer to a beer as a "double" instead of a Dubbel. My bad.

As mentioned in the video, I tried many River Rat beers at the event, and they will be making their way to some Beers in Review posts in the not-too-distant future!

Enjoy the video! (You better--it was a pain in the butt to make!)

Details of PRB Coverage of River Rat Brewery's 3rd Birthday

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As previously mentioned, Columbia's River Rat Brewery will be celebrating their 3rd birthday tomorrow. I will be covering the festivities for PRB, as well as checking out several of the notable beers River Rat will have on tap for the celebration. Here's how you can find out all about it:

-I will be livetweeting the event on the PRB Twitter feed.

-I will be posting the beers I try live on the Untappd app, also available via PC.

-Either Sunday's or Tuesday's video will be dedicated to coverage of the event.

-Beers from the event will be included in Beers in Review posts over the next couple of weeks.

-Videos from the event will be posted, available for Patrons via Patreon.

I hope to see some of you at River Rat tomorrow! Cheers!

Video Review: Catching Up With Everyone Else

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In today's video review, I check out the much-reviewed Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Tropical Torpedo. It seems like every BeerTuber on the planet checked this beer out during my personal Booze-Free February, so I finally get caught up with everyone else. Check out my thoughts on the beer, as well as notes on upcoming goings-on here at PRB.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 21: Bud Light Weighing Heavily on A-B InBev

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It really seems like a lot of the "news" on the various beer news sites right now is nothing more than glorified or enhanced press releases for breweries' various new or returning offerings. I want to stay away from that in these news aggregation posts, as it is an easy out that can lead to ignorance of REAL beer news. Maybe beer release posts could become their own thing in the future. We'll see. Anyway, let's get to the beer news!

In one of the early Six-Packs of News, I noted Stone Brewery's efforts to build a hotel that is set to open in 2018. Well, Scottish brewers BrewDog have expanded their plans to open a brewery Columbus, Ohio to include a crowdfunding campaign to open up a beer hotel with ALL of the beer amenities. Craftbeer.com has all the awesome details, which includes IPA hot tubs and the ultimate shower beer set-up!

Also from craftbeer.com, a major newspaper printing error calls the indy cred of Maui Brewing Company in to question.

The folks at Vinepair sure like their lists, and today is no exception, as they help out the craft beer novices and neophytes of the world with the 7-Step Method to Tasting Beer.

Bryan Roth at Good Beer Hunting recently published an excellent profile on Asheville, North Carolina's Highland Brewing Company.

Intermittently in these Six-Packs, we've discussed financials from various breweries, as well from the craft beer segment of the beer industry AND the beer industry as a whole. Well, A-B InBev reported their 4th quarter and fiscal year 2016 numbers, and reported "mid-single digit" declines in Budweiser and Bud Light sales. Despite this, Budweiser as a core brand did increase global revenue by just under 3%, and other brands like Stella Artois, Michelob Ultra, and the High End beer group reported strong growth. Brewbound has all the details.

Finally, in local news, Columbia's own River Rat Brewery will be celebrating its 3rd birthday THIS SATURDAY! Congratulations, River Rat! I plan on checking out their birthday party and covering it for the website, so stay tuned this weekend and next week! (Free Times)