Innis & Gunn Rum Cask

The smell of this one is interesting. A hint of smokiness, probably from whatever casks they aged it in. Smells a bit like a barleywine.

It has a strange hint of spices to it, none of which I can really pinpoint. I suspect that the flavor comes from a combination of just hops, barley, malt and flavors from the casks. This is the first time I've had a drink and really been able to tell that it was aged in oak. It's funny, I don't drink rum. But I love the flavor of it. Usually in desserts and breads. This beer has that kind of taste to it. If it weren't for that, it would just be a fairly light barleywine style beer. But the strange combination of flavors really adds something to it. Maybe not something I'd drink all the time, but an interesting flavor that's definitely worth trying, and possibly something I'd buy every now and then.

Anchor Porter

It comes in a short, stout bottle that looks like it might be difficult to fit into a six pack carton, but it does. Very nutty smell. It's much less bitter than most porters that I've had. In fact, there's almost a hint of sweetness to it. What little hops taste it has is mostly in the aftertaste.

The aftertaste is actually more interesting than the primary taste, I think. There's a hint of bitterness and hops in the aftertaste that you don't really get from the primary taste. It's almost as if the porter part of this beer is partly confined to the aftertaste.

Smuttynose Brewing Company's Old Brown Dog Ale

Very earthy smell. The taste is similarly earthy, much like the taste of the Conway Irish Red I reviewed a while back, but with a background of a brown ale rather than a red.

It has that weird combination of feeling a little watery, while still tasting like a good, solid, flavorful beer.

Redbridge Gluten-free sorghum beer

There comes a time when a man is looking at the 'make your own six pack' display and he says to himself, "Holy shit. I've never actually had a gluten-free sorghum beer. And I call myself a beer snob."

... so yeah. That's the whole story.

It doesn't have a particularly strong smell, but what little is there smells just like any other beer. It smells almost a little bit molasses-ish.

As far as taste goes, it's a little bland by my standards, there isn't much in the way of malt or hops flavor to it. But it's not watery or thin. Most of the subtlety is in the scent rather than the flavor.

Not a lot I can say about this one. I can't imagine I'd have any reason to try it more often, it was really just curiosity that drove me this time.

Apologies for my absence: again

My life has had a bit of an upset over the last few months. To the point of being pretty topsy-turvy. I don't want to get into too much detail for the reader, since the traditional bartender/therapist role is usually played by the person suggesting drinks, not the other way around.


But I am back. I have an internet connection at my fingertips, a beer in my hand, and a rather cheesy movie playing in the background that doesn't require my entire attention. So a review or two is to follow.

Tröegs Craft Brewery's "Troegenator Doublebock"

Yes, I do think the one I tried yesterday was skunked, hence the odd scent and flavor. Because this doublebock actually doesn't have the weird taste that many bocks have. It's a little plain, flavorwise. And it's a little rough around the edges. But it's a decent strong beer. Probably not one I'm going to buy again, but knowing that this company makes decent beer means that I'm probably going to buy another one of the Dream Weavers to try again.

This is a strong one, fairly dark tasting for a bock and it weighs in at 8.2% alcohol.

I have to say though, the face that I had trouble telling the difference between a beer with an odd flavor vs. a slightly skunked beer does say a lot about some of the beers I've had in the past before I started reviewing.

Tröegs Craft Brewery's "Dream Weaver unfiltered wheat beer"

Oddly enough, I bought this because it's getting hot outside and I figured this would be a nice cold wheat beer for a hot day, and I also bought their double bock.

When I first smelled and tasted this one, I had to double check to make sure I hadn't grabbed the wrong one. It smelled like a bock. It tasted like a bock. Now I'm really curious to know what their bock tastes like.

Now that I've drunk a little farther, I'm wondering if that smell/flavor is actually more like a bock, or maybe the bottle is just a little skunked. Huh. Not a good sign if I have to debate which one it is. It does have more than just a bit of a spicy/tingly taste to it, which normally would be very good. But with a slightly skunky taste to it, not so much.

I may have just gotten a bad bottle, so I might buy another next time I'm out just to check on that. But for now I'm not that impressed. The spices get a big thumbs up, the beer base itself not so much.

Flying Dog's 'Snake Dog IPA'

Jungly hops smell at first. Not as powerful as the Loose Cannon, but not too far behind.

It tastes much darker than an IPA normally does. I kind of want to pour it out just to see what color it actually is. As far as the taste goes, it almost seems like a milder version of the Black Cannon. If the Black Cannon beer tasted like a jungle, this one tastes more like a north american deciduous forest, with a few sprigs of pine here and there. It doesn't quite have the earthy flavor that I described in my Black Cannon review, but there is definitely a bit of nature trapped in this bottle. Bitter, but tasty as hell. There's a reason I keep comparing it to the two 'cannon' IPAs from Heavy Seas brewing company. It's almost like a midway point between the two. It has the darker flavor of the Black Cannon, while still remaining an actual pale ale.

The bitterness in this one is cumulative. It builds up as you drink it, as if the aftertaste from each swig never really goes completely away. I don't know if I could drink more than one or two of these.

Like the other Flying Dog bottles, it's got the weird artwork. A strange chimera paces across the bottle. Its secondary head looks dazed and confused, and its tail appears to have some kind of strange rattle or perhaps a caterpillar on the end instead of the traditional chimera snake headed tail. The face in the front stares blankly ahead.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into a few extra lines and circles, and the 'face' in the front is simply a backwards bending gigantic snake neck that leads to the creature's actual head, which loops around its body to peer out from its side. And the strange end to its tail might just by stylized tail fluff.

Sam Adams Black Lager

From the smell, I'm guessing this is another one of those where I'll take a sip and say "This is a very nice chocolate stout. Weird that it's not a stout." Strong chocolaty scent on this one.

But on the first sip I was proven wrong. Unlike the 'Edmund Fitzgerald porter' that I mentioned a while back, this one is very much a lager first and a dark chocolaty beer second. I'm not usually a huge lager fan, but if there were more like this one out there I might change my tune.

The aftertaste and smell are still very dark and chocolaty, even a third of the way into the bottle. It's almost deceptive, every time I raise the bottle up to take a swig I get that scent and expect a chocolate stout. And instead get a nice dark lager, with a strong chocolate and dark beer aftertaste. There's a hint of spiciness on the tongue as you hold it in your mouth, and it continues to tingle for a moment afterward. I don't think I would have noticed the caramel malt taste on my own, but after reading it on the label I'm picking it up a bit. The chocolate malt overpowers it quite a bit though, so I'm not sure how much of that is my own suggestibility vs. my taste buds.

This one's definitely a swing and a hit from Sam Adams, as so many of their beers have been for me in the past.

Great Lakes brewing company - Commodore Perry IPA short review

It has that nice, interesting hoppyness that most of the IPAs I've written about have. Not quite the overpower jungle scent of the Loose Cannon, but a very similar scent.

The taste is much milder than the scent. The bitterness and taste of the hops is certainly present, but not overpowering. This one's also a bit stronger as far as alcohol content goes than I expected, 7.5%.

This one isn't particularly complex, but it is pretty damn good. If you're a hop lover and you want an interesting set of hops, this is a good one to try. But there isn't much else to it.

Xingu black beer - short review

I'd never heard of this one, so I figured I'd try it. It's imported from Brazil, but beyond that the label says very little. In fact, the label has very little. It looks like they're going for a kind of 'ooh, look at me. I'm totally enigmatic.' look for the beer.

The smell is a very nondescript one. Smells like a dark ale, nothing in particular beyond that. Hints of the usual chocolaty and other flavors that tend to crop up in darker beers.

It's got all the weight and flavor of a good dark beer, but it's lacking the kind of oomph that most of the stronger darker beers have. Not bad, but I don't think I'll be buying any six packs of it anytime soon.

Flying Dog's 'Road Dog Porter' - Good beer, no shit

I normally don't feel the need to sniff a beer too often, but for some reason with a name like 'flying dog', I felt the need to sniff the bottle's bunghole a couple of times until I got familiar with the scent.

Oddly enough, it had a different scent each time. The first whiff, all I got was a nice brown beer scent. If it didn't say Porter on the label, I wouldn't have known. The second whiff I got a bit of hops and other things. It wasn't until the third sniff that I thought, "Oh yes, that is a porter all right."

I took a sip. It went down easy. Too easy. I'd been hoping to get a good taste before it went down, but it's like this beer had a mind of its own. It's like this thing has a mind of its own. "Hold on one damn minute!" I said. "I can't review you if you won't hold still." The bottle puckered up with me while I tried to down another swig. Now that I've gotten a feel for how this beer behaves, I think I'm starting to tame it. The flavors are starting to settle down for a little bit in my mouth before they run further into me, kamikaze style. It's not your typical dark, deep, bitter porter. This one's milder in those respects, but more flavorful. It takes a little while for the flavors to kick in though, so this is one that you might want to nurse for a while. But the longer you nurse it, the more bitter it gets. It's like the hops slowly coat your mouth while you're distracted by the beer running down your throat.

Most porters that I've tried are either chocolate stouts wearing porter clothing, or a cold, dark, strong beer that'll fill you up and keep you warm on a cold winter's night. This one is neither, although I suspect it can pull off the second role if it wants to. It's a tricky little brew. Versatile. Creative. I don't trust it.

But I like it.

I'm really not sure what I expected out of this one. I've heard good things about this company, but I've never tried this one before and anything else I've had by them was so long ago that I can barely remember it.

The artwork on this thing is weird. Not like 'I'm trying to be quirky and gimmicky' weird, no, it's more like 'I'm trying to combine the grittiness of 80s schlock cinema with the trippiness of 60s and 70s schlock avant garde and throw in a dash of 90s grunge while we're at it'. This bottle art is an approximation of four decades worth of drug use, and it's made now in the 2010s. A part of me wonders when the illustration was done, and if it was done in the 90s, or if it predicted the 90s grunge movement.

I suspect they were trying to be quirky and gimmicky too. But that's why they hired the artist they did. Ralph Steadman is the artist, and he's best known for doing illustrations for Hunter S. Thompson. And that was a man who knew his mind-altering substances.

But all labels aside, this is good beer. No shit. Not the best porter I've ever had, but the best one I've had that wasn't trying too hard to be dark and strong.

Southern Tier brewing company's 'Phin & Matt's Extraordinary Ale'

This is another one of those 'more hops is better' type small brews. It advertises three kinds of hops and three kinds of malts. The smell is pretty much straight hops.

The taste is quite different from the typical 'more hops is better' beers though. This is the kind of thing that I like. The hops are there to balance out the rest of the beer. The malts add an interesting set of flavors, none of them strong enough to overpower the other two. I'm not even sure what kinds, but I suspect that each of the malts has been toasted differently to help add different flavors to each. The hops are present, but they don't add much power to the taste until the aftertaste. I can't differentiate between the three different kinds of hops, I'm not THAT much of a dedicated snob.

Yet.

But whatever flavors they impart, like the malts none of the flavors overpower the others.

This is a good small brew. They're not trying too hard to be the hoppiest or the strongest, they're just trying to make a good, well balanced beer. And they succeeded. I give this one a definite thumbs up, and it may just convert a hop over-enthusiast into someone who can appreciate a beer that has a lot of hops, but uses them to balance the flavor rather than overpower it.

Stone Levitation ale

Like I'd expect from Stone, there's a huge smell of hops when I first opened the bottle.Oddly enough, you can only taste the hops in the aftertaste, and they taste a bit different than they smell.

It's surprisingly dull for a beer that's by a company that prides itself on making strong and interesting beers. Oh, it's still more interesting than the stereotypical american beer. But that's not saying a whole lot.

I think this company depends on hops a little too much, and while I've only tried a couple of their brews I have to say that so far I haven't noticed much variety in the hops so far. Some companies who like their hops come up with different combinations for every style they make, making it so that each beer is distinct, different, and enjoyable in their own ways. I'll reserve judgment until I try a few more of Stone's styles, but for now I'm getting the impression that they may be a one-trick pony. It's a pretty good trick, but it's still just one.

Dos Equis

I don't always try beers that have a celebrity spokesperson. But when I do, it's Dos Equis.

It's smells like the nice crisp cold beers that are good for a summer day. Not surprising considering the fact that most days in Mexico are hot summer days. There's a hint of spice in the scent. The taste is a combination of lager and the cold mild and light beer that it smells like. I'd definitely recommend this one for a hot day, and it's got the oomph of a lighter lager (without being watered down).

It's not the crispest I've had, but it's good. I think I'd still prefer a nice wheat ale on a hot day, but this is a good backup if that's unavailable.

Great Lakes brewing company - Conway's Irish Ale

This one has a flavor that's completely new to me. It says that it has a 'toasty' flavor, and I agree with the label on this point. Rather than being smoky or chocolately like many other beers, it has an interesting toasty flavor that's difficult to describe.

I was expecting a typical, somewhat boring but quite tasty irish red. This is very different from that. It has a very earthy aftertaste, and somewhere in the back of my mind it makes me think that I'm drinking a brown beer rather than a red. Quite strange.

The 'toasty' flavor fades a bit as you drink it, and the earthiness comes to the front. Now it's starting to taste more like a 'normal' red, but with that earthy taste. The label describes it as being a 'meat and potatoes' kind of beer, and I can see why. Once again, this company has impressed me. I can't say that I really like this one, but I do find it flavorful, interesting, and indeed I think that it would go well with meat and potatoes.

Smuttynose Brewing Company's 'Star Island Single'

I've seen various beers by this company at several stores, and I kept meaning to try it if only because I owe a portion of my existence to the island chain that this company is named after. Specifically the island that this beer is named after. My grandparents got married at a little church on Star Island. I don't want to go into too many details about the steps that followed that led to me existing because... well... ew. But Star Island was certainly a rather important node in the path that the universe took between the Big Bang and the somewhat smaller one that led to my eventual conception.

This beer is labeled as a 'Session ale brewed with spice'. It does have a nicely spiced scent to it, but the flavor is actually a bit blander than I expected. It's also got a kind of odd dichotomy to it: the flavor and feel of it is that of a heavier beer, and yet it's actually fairly light and crisp and almost a little bit watered down by my standards.

I can't really say that this one is as good as some of the others I've tried lately. It's certainly not bad, but not great either. It does have a nice flavor to it, although not as spicy as I expected. So far this hasn't turned me on or off to this company, so I'll probably try something else by them in the near future.

It does go down very easily, and it is a nice crisp cold beer that would be good on a warm day, but it also has the feel of weight to it that would be good on a cold day. It's kind of a multi-purpose beer. Not great at any one thing, but decent overall.

Southern Tier brewing company's Porter

Chocolate. That's all I smelled when I opened the bottle.

The taste is like liquid smoke. I can't even begin to describe it. It's almost like a smoked porter, but they forgot to add the porter. I really don't know how to describe this beer.

There's that tongue-tingling spiciness to it when you hold it in your mouth long enough. But that's the only time.

Once it airs out a bit and I've drunk about a quarter of the bottle, the chocolate smell goes away and is replaced by the smell of beer. The smokiness starts to go away too. Maybe it really is a smoked porter, but the smoke rose to the top.

It advertises itself as a 'dark, robust porter'. It certainly is dark, there's a hint of darkness at the end of every sip. But I'm not sure I'd call it robust. It's far too subtle to be called robust. I'd call this one downright fascinating. I've never had a beer like it. It certainly makes me want to try more by this company.

Great Lakes brewing company - Dortmunder Gold

I was curious about this one, since I can't stand most of the watered-down American versions of german/eastern european beers. It's almost gotten to the point that 'pilsner' has started to become a dirty word to me. But I've had this company's porter, and it was certainly nothing like the watered-down crap that floods the market. It advertises itself as being made from 'all natural' ingredients (not a difficult thing to do with beer, honestly.)

The smell surprised me a little. It was much more yeasty and strong than I expected. There's more than just a hint of hops there. The first swallow was interesting. Plain, but delicious. It was much thicker than I expected too. Maybe I've just gotten too used to having watered-down American versions of german beers, but I may have been misinformed about what a light colored lager really is.

It's very malty once it's in your mouth, and I have to pause to resist the urge to add in a 'that's what she said' into my review here. It's got a lot of weight to it, but not much strong flavor. If you want a beer that's not light, but isn't particularly strongly flavored like most of the darker ones that I generally drink, I think this is a fairly good choice. I don't think this one is going to quite make it to my favorites list, but it's definitely one that I would put in my fridge every now and then.

Harpoon Celtic Ale - Irish style red

At first I had a hint of a horrible rotten-eggs sulfurous smell when I opened the bottle. But once the gas I'd just passed went away, I could actually smell the beer and it was quite nice. Not a particularly strong scent, but quite nice.

The beer itself has a spiciness to it that I couldn't quite identify. The kind that prickles on your tongue, but doesn't seem to have any serious flavor to it on its own. The base flavor is that of a nice irish red, nothing too fancy. I often find most irish reds to be good, but a bit boring. This one compensates for that with that nice spiciness. It's still a relatively plain, very unassuming irish red. But definitely one of the better ones that I've had.

The last Christmas beer: Rogue Santa's Private Reserve

This one I found at my local Wegmans. For those of you in the northeast, I don't need to introduce the store to you. To those of us who aren't from this area, it's kinda the antithesis of Wal-Mart in these parts. 24 hour grocery stores that actually try to carry stuff beyond the bland mass produced crap one usually finds on stores these days.

The initial smell of this one is a very distinct hoppy ale scent. Not too dissimilar from the Loose Cannon IPA by Heavy Seas Brewing Company that I've mentioned numerous times, but the hops don't smell quite as diverse and strong. The ale base smells slightly darker and has more of a caramel scent to it than the Loose Cannon, but of course it isn't nearly as dark as the Black Cannon variant. I can't smell any spices to speak of, I think most of the flavor is going to come from the hops and the beer itself.

The taste is damn near indescribable. The hops are almost nonexistant for the initial taste, but they come back very strongly in the aftertaste. The taste itself is almost pure malt, but it's not sweet or strong because the moment you start to catch that taste, it's more than balanced out by the strong hops.

Personally, I would have made this one with slightly less hops, so that they balance out the malt rather than overbalance it. But this is Rogue, and their style leans more towards hoppy, so I can't say I didn't expect it. And everyone has their own taste. That's what makes microbrews so interesting. The malty/caramel flavor does make for a good winter/christmas drink. But I'd only recommend this for a serious hop lover. Even I find the hops a bit strong, and that's saying a lot.

Another late christmas beer - Gouden Carolus Noel

This one was starting to get a little old, but the label claims that it's one that will improve with age. It does have a bit of an odd taste to it, but it's that strange almost bock taste that some belgian beers have.

There's a hint of some strange kind of spice in there, almost anise-like. But I don't think it is anise, because I usually (*&%ing HATE anise. The original taste gives way eventually to a slightly more yeasty flavor over the course of the beer.

A very pleasant beer, also fairly strong at 10% alcohol. But despite the slight anise flavor to it, I found myself wishing I'd bought more than one once I finished this one.

Grozet - Gooseberry & wheat ale

This was another close-to-out-of-date one that I grabbed off the bargain bin at my local beer store. The wheat ale part is not too remarkable, a bit heavier of a drink than most wheat ales I've had. The gooseberry adds a little hint of extra flavor, but not a whole lot. And I'm not sure exactly what they used for the gooseberry flavor, but it also has a tiny hint of the cough syrupy taste that the Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier has. Although that went away fairly quickly, so it may have just been an aroma that dissipated fairly quickly.

Not a bad drink for cold weather, probably something I'd want to drink in the fall or early winter. And since we just had a bit of a cold late-winter snap here (and I was just outside in it), it seems appropriate tonight.

A few months late: Scaldis Noel

Because of some stubborn foil around the top, I had to pour this into a glass rather than drink it from the bottle. This is a caramel colored beer, barely translucent with light carbonation, like watered down cola. It's not as fresh as it could be, since it's meant to be drunk around christmas. But I saw it on sale at my local beer store, so I grabbed a bottle out of curiosity. It's got an interesting combination of styles and flavors. A hint of bock, a lot of abbey style ale, and a hint of a much deeper set of flavors that an amateur like me has a bit of trouble describing. It comes in a small bottle, just over 8 ounces instead of the usual 11. But this might be to make up for the fact that it has a whopping 12 percent alcohol. Like so many others that I've reviewed, you'd never guess that it's that strong.

I've had a few beers at or near this strength, most recently the 'Double Wench' by Middle Ages Brewing Company. But none were this smooth and pleasant. All of the ones this strong that I've tried had either very strong taste (Like the double wench) or were of the sweet, tart dessert beer variety. This one is neither, a complex and yet light belgian style beer. It is a little bit on the sweet side, which makes me wonder where some of these flavors are coming from if this beer doesn't have much in the way of hops or other bittering agents to balance out the malts.

Sam Adams contest pack - Blackened Hops and Great Lakes Brewing Company - Edmund Fitzgerald porter.

Tried the Great Lakes Brewing Company's 'Edmund Fitzgerald porter' at a friend's house tonight, and I have to say that it was one of the best chocolate stouts I've tried in a while. Except that it was a porter. It had that nice, deep, roasted malt scent to it, with a flavor of dark roasted malt and chocolate. It was somewhat plain, but damn good. I like a good porter, and this is one. I like a good chocolate stout, and except for the stout part, this is one of those too.

The main reason why I chose that one was because, as I mentioned, I was at a friend's house. I knew I'd have to drive home six hours later or so, so I chose the one that had the lowest alcohol content out of the collection he had there. At 5.8% alcohol, it's not particularly strong. But that's good, because it was tasty enough that I would normally want to have a couple of them.

Several hours later as I'm sitting her typing this, I'm at home and have just cracked open the third variety from the Sam Adams contest pack, Blackened Hops by Rodney Kibzey of Illinois. (although the picture of him on the front of the bottle made me wonder when my old roommate changed his name, moved to Illinois and started brewing beer) The scent is about what I expected from the description. Strong, dark beer with a load of hops. There seems to be a bit less of a variety to the hops than most of the 'extra hoppy' type drinks I've had lately.

The first sip is initially bitter, although it goes away quickly. The flavor isn't particularly complex, but it's good. By the third or fourth sip, I wasn't noticing the bitterness at all, except in the hoppy aftertaste.

I don't think this is the best of the three in the pack, but it certainly helps round out the variety well. One crisp, abbey ale with extra hops, one dark ale with extra hops, and one light ale with a hint of honey and lavender to add flavor instead of extra hops. I do almost wonder what's going to happen with micro and homebrew when the hops singularity is reached. Will there be a beer that will drain the rest of the world of hops, and we'll be forced to drink beer made only of grain and malt? Only time will tell.

Sam Adams contest pack - Friar Hop Ale and Honey B's Lavender Ale

I noticed an interesting Sam Adams 6 pack at the store recently: apparently they held a homebrew contest and actually distributed the top 3 winning brews. So I'm trying two of the three (it's late and I need to wake up in the morning, otherwise I'd try one of all three), starting with the Friar Hop Ale by Richard Roper of Georgia.

Since the last few beers I've had have been of the ultra-hoppy variety, I was in the mood for something a little different. But I didn't have any other abbey style ales handy, so I figured I'd start with this one and hope the abbey style of it helped offset the hops. The scent is once again similar to the Loose Cannon IPA or the Arrogant Bastard that I just had. Hops, hops, and a hint of hops on top of that. Actually it's not quite as hoppy as either of the two I just mentioned, but it's still a very similar scent. There's also a hint of a nice crisp ale scent behind that.

The hops fade very quickly in your mouth, leaving mostly the ale taste. They reappear with the aftertaste, which makes me think that most of the hoppy taste actually comes from the hoppy scent triggering your taste buds. It claims to have spices, although I really can't taste them. I do feel a bit of a tongue tingle, but I'm not sure whether that's just carbonation or not. Still, a very nice combination of a cold, crisp abbey style ale with a strong scent and taste of hops. Not an everyday drink for me, I prefer most of the strength of the taste to come from the beer itself, and I like it best when the hops are an accent or a balance. But when I want something different, this is certainly a good choice. Mr Roper, if you're reading this, you've done a damn good job. You've found a good balance between the crisp cold ale and the very hoppy homebrew.

It's got a surprisingly strong 9% alcohol, not something I'd expect in a small bottle or in such a light abbey style ale. Perhaps the oomph of the beer itself is somewhat masked by the hops, or perhaps the ale itself is just that smooth that you don't notice the alcohol content. It's one of the few beers this strong that I've had that can be sipped or drunk.


My next is the Honey B's Lavender Ale by Caitlin Declerco, named as such because it was brewed with honey and lavender. It's got quite an interesting scent, a hint of hops and lavender. This one's got a lot less oomph than the Friar Hop Ale, but a lot more of an interesting flavor. Oddly enough, it seems almost watery (at least compared to the Friar Hop Ale, although certainly not compared to the stereotypical mainstream crap that beer snobs like me tend to make fun of), and yet the flavor more than balances that out.

I tend to like most things that have honey in them (as evidenced by the fact that I'm an amateur mead brewer) and this is no exception. However, that love of honey is limited by the fact that most people don't know how to use it properly, or worse yet, just make a shitty beverage and try to depend on it to compensate for that. Ms. Declerco is an exception to that, and I appreciate her work greatly.

In hindsight I kinda wish I had tried this one first, since it's only got 5.5% alcohol, and since I started this review late at night when I was already fairly tired, the 9% of the previous one is starting to get to me. But even though my senses are a bit dulled, they're certainly enjoying this nice combination of a cold, crisp, very light ale with a hint of honey and a strong scent of lavender.

And to compensate for the girliness of the sentence I just uttered, I just released the carbonation of the beer in the most manly way possible. I.E., a gigantic belch.

This right here is why I like Sam Adams. They're willing to seek out beers like this and let the rest of us try them. And their own beers are pretty good too. Except maybe the blackberry witbeir, Even Sam Adams misses the mark now and then. If you're a blackberry fan like me, you might want to go for the Long Trail blackberry wheat instead. It tastes like blackberry beer, not cough syrup beer.

Arrogant Bastard Ale

I've had it once before, but it was so long ago that I didn't really remember what it was like. So I decided to try it again.

The scent of hops is very strong when you first open it. The choice of hops seems to be fairly similar to the Loose Cannonball IPA I tried a while ago. The beer itself, of course, is very different. Not as light or crisp as the Loose Cannonball, not as aromatic or strong in the hops department, but it seems like they decided not to balance out the hops so as to allow the bitterness to take hold.

However, despite the fact that it is quite bitter, the bitterness isn't overwhelming or bad, like I've had in a few other beers.

The alcohol content is 7.2%, although you can't taste or feel the alcohol at all. This one goes down smooth despite the bitterness. Or maybe even because of it. All in all, I find this one to be very well crafted, although the premise and blurb on the back are a little silly. But there's nothing wrong with a beer that has a sense of humor, and isn't afraid to make fun of both its audience and the people who aren't in its audience at the same time.

Shipyard Brewing Co's "Pugsley's Signature Series" Barley Wine style ale

The last beer I had from this line was an Imperial Porter, if I recall correctly. It was very good. This one isn't quite as good, in my opinion. I like dry drinks much more than the average person, but this one has an aftertaste that even I find to be a little bitter. Still, it goes down very easy for a beer with 8.5% alcohol, and other than the strong aftertaste is fairly pleasant. Not particularly remarkable, it has a nice barley wine taste with a hint of some of the darker chocolaty flavors one finds in many darker beers these days.

Oddly enough, my only other complaint is about the packaging. Go figure. This is one of those beers that comes in the bigger bottle with the foil around the top. Last time it was fine, but this time there seems to be a bit of a mishap with whatever adhesive they used. It got all over the cap and around the edge. Made it a little difficult to get the foil off, and I feel like I can only drink from one side of the bottle because the adhesive is stuck right around the lip on the other side. And the cap was stuck on in such a way that even though this is a twist-off bottle, it wouldn't twist off. But the last bottle I had in this line was fine, so I'm guessing that was just a lone glitch in the last part of the assembly line.

If I had to choose which of the two from this line that I've tried to recommend, I'd probably recommend the other. But this one is one that I'm willing to finish off tonight while I'm working and writing. I was curious enough to google other reviews of this and the Imperial Porter while I was typing this, and I saw that beer advocate seems to agree with me. This one is in the B- to B-ish grade range, still good but not great. Whereas the Imperial Porter is in the B+ or A-ish range.

Apologies for my absence

I've spent the last few weeks being very sick, to the point where I couldn't even drink beer.

A sad state of affairs to be sure, but I'm back in the saddle tonight.

Two scottish beers

Today I was in the mood for a scottish beer. Not sure why, but I just was. So I picked up a couple.

The first is The Orkney Brewery's 'Skull Splitter'. The mellow, fruity, malty flavor belies the strong beer scent I got when I first opened the bottle. It advertises itself as having a 'deceptively light character', and I can see why. It almost seemed somewhat sweet at first, although the aftertaste is bitter enough to offset that very quickly. It's got strength, but subtlety. Not half bad. Don't know if I'd buy it again, but certainly not bad.

It's got a surprisingly high 8.5% alcohol level, although you can't tell by tasting it.

The second is a little drink called 'Wee Beast' from the Isle of Skye Brewery. Like the Skull Splitter, it has fairly strong scent of beer when opened, with little else there. The first taste gives you a hint of a scotch ale, with a bit of darkness that quickly goes away as you drink it. It's another subtly strong one, 7% alcohol and a larger than average bottle. But it goes down smooth enough that, like the Skull Splitter, you can't tell that there's more than an average amount of alcohol in it.

There isn't much to say about this one. Pleasant, certainly. If I'm in the mood for a smooth scottish ale, I'd probably buy this one again.

Heavy Seas 'Black Cannon' Black IPA.

Yes, you read that right. A black IPA.

For those of you who don't know what an IPA is, it stands for India Pale Ale.

A black pale ale.

The previous IPA I tried from this company, their 'Loose Cannon', was quite interesting. So much strange hops and spices that it tasted almost more like green tea than beer. Quite odd.

When I opened this one up, it smelled about the same as the 'Loose Cannon' did. Same almost tea-ish hint. The first sip just about knocked my socks off. With the background taste of dark beer as opposed to light, the tea-ish flavor really took off. I tasted a plant/earthy flavor that I've never tasted in a beer of any kind before. This tastes less like tea, and more like how freshly cut aromatic plants smell. It's pleasant. Strong, but still pleasant. Quite strange. I like the flavor with the backdrop of black beer much better than the backdrop of the pale ale.

After every swallow, I get the aftertaste of... well, jungle. Life. Almost a hint of lemongrass in there, or something like it. This is a strange taste, but one that's grown on me fairly fast. It's funny, I didn't particularly like the 'Loose Cannon', but I'm finding that I like this better. In hindsight, I'm not sure if it's so much that this flavor goes better with the darker beer as it is that I'm just developing a taste for this strange flavor. I can see someone taking one sip and saying, "That's horrible, I'm never having this again." I can also see someone buying six-pack after six-pack and drinking it for weeks.

I can't imagine that very many people will like this beer. I do, but my tastes run to the strange and dark. And so do my tastes in beer.

Regardless of personal taste, it is definitely a good beer. Strange. But good.

In my opinion, this is the mark of a good brewing company. A company that doesn't necessarily care how many people like the beer, they only care that someone will enjoy the product they are producing. This may not be the mark of a fantastic business to invest in, but it is the kind of business I'd want to be involved with. This is a good illustration of that age-old worn-out 'made with love' adage. This beer is made by someone who wants to make something interesting that someone will enjoy. And even if I fell into the category of people who took one sip and couldn't stand it, I'd still respect that.

So far I've only found two brewing companies about which I can honestly say that everything I've tried from them is both interesting and good. Not necessarily to everyone's taste, but interesting and good. Those would be this company, Heavy Seas, and the Middle Ages Brewing Company. Both companies have made a few simple brews, but they still manage to make them interesting and good. I wasn't particularly a fan of the 'Loose Cannon' IPA from this company, and I wasn't a huge fan of the winter brew from Middle Ages. But they were both still good and interesting. Just not particularly to my taste.

Heavy Seas 'Siren Noire' Imperial Chocolate Stout

Whoa. Most chocolate stouts have a hint of chocolaty scent when you open the bottle. This one has more than a hint. I couldn't smell beer. I could only smell chocolate. I gave it a moment to kind of air out a bit and smelled it again... still, just chocolate.

This one has one of the strangest mouthfeels I've ever gotten from a beer before. It feels like it coats your mouth in a thin layer of cocoa as it's going down. It's quite strange. The taste itself isn't very strong, nor is there a strong aftertaste. It's got the typical darkness and flavor of a stout, and the overwhelming scent of chocolate, with a washing of chocolate as you swallow.

Once I got a small part of the bottle down, I could start to actually smell beer over the chocolate. I wouldn't list this as my favorite chocolate and/or imperial stout, but it's certainly worth experiencing. And good enough that I may buy it again. I'm really starting to like this company, I have yet to find a beer by them that I didn't consider to be at least good, if not very good. Although I did just buy one that I may try another night that just strikes me as downright strange. They made a variant of their 'Loose Cannon' IPA that is a bit of an oxymoron.