Three Heads Bromigo

I had never heard of Three Heads Brewing Company when I saw Bromigo on tap.  Finding a beer I have never seen naturally made me want to try it.  I never expected to find what is without a doubt the best beer I've had to date.  Bromigo is a smoked maple amber, and my experience with both smoked ales and maple amber ales have both left me with a slight distaste for the styles, and I figured that a beer that encompasses both styles would leave me with a further disliking of smoked and maple flavored beers.  However, I was completely blown away by this beer.  The smoke and maple flavors are mild, but the beer still has quite a bit of sweetness to it.  This smokey sweetness was complimented by even more sweetness coming from being served to me in a pint glass rimmed with brown sugar and cinnamon.  The only downside to this beer is that the brown sugar, cinnamon mix left the glass very sticky, but since I was at a bbq restaurant, there was no shortage of wet-naps.  It should be considered a sin if someone tries this beer and doesn't like it.

5/5

Beer Number 3

I brewed my third batch of beer last night.  This time I'm making an American pale ale but I tweeked the recipe a bit, so we'll see how it turns out.

Holiday Beer Recipes

The holiday season is coming to a close within the week, and with that means making preparations for next year!  I decided that to help people out I would post links to holiday beer recipes now so that there is plenty of time to perfect them by next winter.

http://beerrecipes.org/showrecipe.php?recipeid=565
http://www.brew-dudes.com/holiday-ale-recipe/111
http://homebrewandchemistry.blogspot.com/2007/11/winter-ale.html
http://hopville.com/recipe/154895/christmas-winter-specialty-spiced-beer-recipes/the-slow-escape
http://beerrecipes.org/showrecipe.php?recipeid=465

I hope everyone enjoys the holidays!

Irish Beer

As of last night I am officially returning to the Emerald Island!  There are a ton of beers that I am looking forward to having again, and reviewing for you guys, including the new Smithwick's Pale Ale!  February cannot come soon enough and I can't wait to be back in the company of old friends in a shady pub.  In the meantime though, I will keep everyone updated on my brewing and sampling.

Stoudt's Scarlet Lady E.S.B.

My experience with E.S.B.s is fairly limited, but so far I am quite impressed with the style.  When I tried Scarlet Lady, the first thing I noticed was the similarity in flavor to an Irish red.  The after taste is when i detected a hint of the E.S.B.'s bitterness.  It was not too bitter, and the smoothness of the initial taste transitioned well into the bitter.  Based on how much I enjoyed this beer, I may be doing many more E.S.B. reviews.

4/5

Saranac Black Forest

Black Forest is a German style black lager and has the light crisp feel of a lager, but has rich caramel and chocolate flavors that one would normally find in a porter or stout, without being as bitter. This is a great beer for people who tend to be scared of dark beers to start out on.  It will get you accustomed to the rich flavors of dark beers while holding off on the bitterness and heavy feel.  The next step from this beer should be Saranac's Caramel Porter, which just tastes like candy.

4/5

Wychwood Hobgoblin Dark

When I ordered Hobgoblin Dark, I was originally going to get Fiddler's Elbow, another Wychwood beer, but unfortunately the bar was sold out of it.  So I decided to go with Hobgoblin Dark instead, and I am very glad that I did.  This beer is slightly bitter with a smooth creamy feel and a slightly nutty aftertaste.  It was strange at first and I almost gave up on it, but after the first few sips I really started to enjoy it.  The only problem that I have with this beer is that it did take some getting used to, and people who don't normally drink beer would probably set it down before it started to get good.

3/5

Cooperstown Old Slugger Pale Ale

On my most recent visit to New Paltz, I stopped into my favorite pub, Bacchus, and picked up their menu of over 400 beers.  As I perused the large selection, I realized that I had never had anything from the Cooperstown Brewery, which I found strange since they are relatively local.  I went with the pale ale because as beers go, pale ales are pretty simple and in my experience, a good bet that they'll be good.  I was not disappointed with the Old Slugger.  I was a little surprised however.  The amber color and smooth rich taste was more similar to a red ale, and there was a slight hint of fruit that reminded me of a Belgian triple.  While I have not experienced these in a pale ale before, the slight hoppy flavor that is normal for pale ales was still there.  Overall this is a well rounded beer and very drinkable.

4/5

Estrella Damm

I am not usually a lager person, but while having dinner at Pizzeria Uno, I saw on their menu Estrella Damm.  With all of the beers that I have tried, I'm pretty sure that up until this point I had never had a beer from Spain.  This Catalan pilsner tasted much like Budweiser, if Bud was made with quality ingredients.  It is not overly carbonated, which tends to be my problem with lagers.  While the initial taste was nothing overly spectacular, the aftertaste was slightly salty, a flavor not seen too often in beers.  While I am still mainly an ale guy, this beer would definitely be an option for me if I saw it on tap somewhere.

3/5

Unibroue Don de Dieu

I have reviewed a Unibroue beer before, and Don de Dieu is very similar to La Fin du Monde.  Don de Dieu is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale and has a mild banana flavor to it.  It is very well balanced and surprisingly drinkable for such a strong beer.  I have absolutely nothing remotely bad to say about this beer, and I have to say congratulations to the brewers at Unibroue for having two of their beers get perfect scores with me.

5/5

Sixpoint Otis Oatmeal Stout

Oatmeal Stouts are one of my favorite styles, however Sixpoint's take on the beer was not one of my favorites.  By no means is it a bad beer, but the oatmeal stouts that I like are smooth and rich.  Otis has a medium bitter flavor, but the bitterness lasts for a long time.  To me it tasted more like an Imperial Stout.  This is one of the cases where I have been disappointed because I was expecting something else.  Perhaps if I find it on tap again I can boost the score because I will know what to expect.

3/5

Samuel Adams Griffin's Bow

I was very excited to find the new Sam Adams small batch line in my area, and I decided that the first one I would try would be Griffin's Bow.  It seemed to have everything going for it: oak aged and being not only a blonde ale, but a barleywine as well!  My first sip left me very disappointed.  This beer is way to complex.  The amount of flavors crammed into it made it highly undrinkable.  They add sweet flavors of honeysuckle and burnt sugar with the citrus flavors of pineapple and grapefruit, and for some reason throw some toffee in there too.  On top of the overpoweringly strange flavor, the aftertaste left a weird cottony feeling in the back of the throat.  Griffin's Bow has made it onto the very short list of beers that I would never buy again in my life.  But it gets at least one point for not making me want to violently vomit it back up.

1/5

Harpoon Docesna Czech Hop Harvest Ale

Docesna is part of Harpoon's 100 Barrel Series, a line of beer that has never disappointed me.  This is a very simple, yet extremely well done ale.  It has a rich feel and a slightly bitter flavor that leads into a very smooth aftertaste.  There is not too much to say about this beer besides try it.  Harpoon has proved with this beer that less is more!

4/5