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6 April 2010
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commercial beer, tasting

Seattle Trip Beer Reviews

I’ve got a bunch of beer reviews from my trip to Seattle last year I never wrote up for http://www.koehlerbeer.com, so I figure I’ll put them up now in one big post. I have no recollection of drinking some of these beers, and my notes aren’t always great since I was making them on my iPhone in the dark while drinking. I’m just going to copy down what I wrote and leave it up to history to decide what I was thinking. Special thanks to Stuart and Naked City for making all this possible. Sorry for not posting nearer the actual event.

Full Sail Session Premium Lager

Golden color with a light head. Aroma of berry concentrate, perhaps cranberries and apples. Opens with a lot of carbonation, followed by an apple/berry flavor. Light finish. Very fruity.

Russian River Consecration

Deep black color, appears red and purple in the light. Thin head around the edges. Smells of sour cherries and sweetness. Very sour on the front of the tongue and the lips, but has a soft body and finishes dry.

Russian River Pliny the Elder

<I didn’t write down anything because I fawned over the pint the whole time. It was great.>

Redhook Long Hammer IPA

Tan/orange. Lots of foamy and persistent head. Very carbonated. Floral aroma with perhaps some light malt or corn aroma that is not pleasant. Floral hop flavor up front, not particularly bitter, a mildly bitter mid-taste and a barely bitter finish. Perhaps some corny aftertaste. Not great.

Kona Wailua Wheat

Yellow. Aroma of sweet tropical fruit. Flavor of passion fruit. Strange.

Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

<Again I didn’t actually write anything down. I rather enjoyed this beer.>

Hales Cream Ale

Orange/tan with a hint of amber color in the right light. Served on nitrogen at the brewery with a large creamy head. Lightly sweet aroma, with a hint of wheat. Creamy, lingering light sweetness. Slightly spicy or bitter at the tip of the tongue with a very clean aftertaste.

Russian River Blind Pig IPA

Caramel color with spicy/floral hop aroma. Biting bitterness. A grassy hop flavor, especially in the aftertaste. Flatter hop flavor that Pliny the Elder and a way more bitter aftertaste. Harsher bitterness. <This is not what I expected from reading reviews. Perhaps my palette was done for the evening.>

21st Amendment Hell of High Watermelon Wheat

Hazy yellow straw color. Aroma is fruity and sweet with a hint of watermelon. Flavor is entirely sweet tangy watermelon. A bright watermelon flavor that tastes like watermelon candy. More watermelon the aftertaste. Only lightly carbonated, contributing to the smooth watermelon. Interesting, but not something I’d want to drink regularly.

Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA

Amber red color with ample head. Aroma of citrus and C hops. Lots of citrus-y, C hop taste. Vegetal aftertaste.

Schooner Exact Union <This doesn’t appear to actually be the name of a beer they make, so I really don’t know what it was apart from my comments.>

Tan honey color. Smells like salted, cured fish. Flavor is very salty, lightly bitter, and a little funky like old fish at a fish market. Also, salt.

Port Brewing Hop 15

Hazy and tan. Persistent head. Floral and fruity hop aroma of dried apricots and peaches. Yeasty bread aroma. Creamy. Bitter creamy hops followed by bitter creamy and acidic/peppery alcohol. Alcoholic aftertaste with an acidic finish.

14 August 2009
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commercial beer, tasting

Deschutes Black Butte Porter

Black Butte Porter

Sorry for the crappy photo. It’s hard to take good photos in dimly lit bars.

Black Butte Porter was a dark black color with hints of red and gold when held to the light. The beer may have been somewhat lighter in color as suggested by the colors that presented when back lit, but in the low lighting it was decidedly dark black. It had a thin head that persistently clung to the sides of the glass. The aroma was of chocolate and sweet fruit, perhaps figs. I didn’t find the aroma to be as toasty or burned as I expected. The chocolate aroma was rather smooth and blended nicely and easily with the sweet fruity aroma.

The drink opened with a light bodied chocolate flavor, lighter even than the aroma suggested. Chocolate was quickly followed by carbonation as the associated bitterness, complemented by hops. This sensation quickly passed and was again followed by more chocolate. I found the chocolate flavor to be a decidedly light, milky chocolate rather than dark or heavily roasted chocolate. The body remained light and drinkable despite the creamy chocolate flavor. The flavor had final hints of roasted malt and roasted chocolate while the sweet chocolate remained; the flavors lingered. A very drinkable porter I’d like to have again.

31 July 2009
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commercial beer, tasting

New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale in Cans

Fat Tire in Cans

Fat Tire in Cans

I stopped at the grocery store last night to pick up some snacks for my son’s preschool and made my usual pass down the beer aisle. It’s usually disappointing, but I noticed they were now selling Fat Tire in cans. I’m not a big fan of Fat Tire or amber ales in general really, but I had to support craft beer in cans, so I bought a 12 pack.

I decided to drink it from the can. Sacrilege I know, but it was late and I figured I’d try it. I know lots of people are going to be drinking it from the can anyway.

Fat Tire’s aroma was slightly sweet and malty with just a hint of biscuit, but generally very light for an amber ale and much lighter than I remembered. Maybe the can was interfering too much with the aroma or maybe I have a bad memory – probably both. The flavor was very light up front, almost like a light lager surprisingly, followed by some toasted malt, a moment of chocolate, and a finish of very light caramel, perhaps even a bit vegetal or pilsner-like. The beer is mildly hopped, but in a smooth way that dissipates before the finish of the drink. I prefer a crisper bitterness – which is one of the reasons I’m not usually a fan of amber ales – they too often have soft hops. I’d say Fat Tire is just OK.

31 July 2009
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commercial beer, tasting

Iron City Beer Premium Lager

Iron City Beer

Iron City Beer

Jonathan and I went to Monaca, PA recently to visit the relatives. He had a great time sitting in firetrucks and looking at firefighting equipment with his Great-Grandpa and I had a great time drinking some Iron City Beer. In case it wasn’t obvious, Monaca is relatively near Pittsburgh. Uncle Alex had come IC in the fridge, so I had to give it a try.

IC is a gold or deep yellow color that is darker than your average straw colored mainstream lager. Since I wanted to drink it from the can like God and the Steelers intended, I only poured a little of it into a glass for color, aroma, and some tasting. It smells like adjuncts, probably corn and little bit of sweetness. It tasted the same way, with the sweetness in the finish. I was surprised by the light carbonation compared to the over carbonation of most  mainstream lagers. It helped the slightly sweet corn flavor come through more clearly. I preferred the lower carbonation, but otherwise I think it’s an ‘acquired’ taste. I’ll leave the IC for trips to Pittsburgh. Go Steelers!

18 June 2008
3 Comments
commercial beer, tasting

Harpoon UFO Hefeweizen

Harpoon UFO Hefeweizen pours a hazy yellow with a creamy persistent head. The aroma is of bananas and cream, sweetness like a banana candy or syrup, and a mild lemony citrus smell. The palate opens with light creamy banana, and follows immediately with a mild citrusy lemon flavor. Where the banana is dominant in the aroma, the lemony malt dominates the flavor. The beer is well carbonated, which contributes to its mouth feel. A mild tartness completes the palate.

I’m not a big fan of wheat beers. UFO is no exception, though I find it to be milder and thus more tolerable than other hefeweizens. I just don’t like the banana or lemon flavors.

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18 June 2008
1 Comment
commercial beer, tasting

Flying Dog Garde Dog

We had another round of Friday beer at work.

Garde Dog poured an orangish tan with ample head and very visible carbonation. Grape dominated the aroma, with a background of berries and straw/grain husks. The flavor opens with grapes, an almost wine like taste, followed by a belgian-like carbonation and finishes with a light malty sweetness. Definitely not what I expected from biere de garde and certainly not what I expected based on the label. I liked it. Check out Flying Dog online.

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18 June 2008
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commercial beer, tasting

Fort Collins Brewery: Pomegranate Wheat, Z Lager, Rocky Mountain IPA

I made another self-made sampler pack from Frugal MacDoogal from Fort Collins Brewery. They have had Fort Collins beer for a while now, but I just got around to trying them out. We tasted these the same day we tasted the beer from Great Divide Brewing. As you can tell from the slowly degrading quality of the bottle pictures, the amount of beer we drank up to this point may have impacted our ability to accurately judge the beer. Alison was officially drunk.

Major Tom’s Pomegranate Wheat pours a pale yellow with a light head and heavy, audible carbonation. The aroma is yeasty and smells lightly of berries. The palate opens with ample carbonation on the tongue followed by a soapy flavor, some tartness, and a light tang in the aftertaste. Not great.

Z Lager pours and reddish/tan color with a clear aroma of grain husks, smoked beech wood, and kalamata olives. I can distinctly smell the beech wood. The flavor opens with toasted malt, then merges bitter and beech wood smoke together in the middle of the palate, and ends with that same kalamata olive flavor from the aroma. Geoff first identified the kalamata olive aroma in this beer, and once he said that, I could clearly smell and taste olives. I actually didn’t dislike this beer, which is what I anticipated from myself after having recently tried smoked beer for the first time. I think I enjoyed the lighter character of the beech wood smoke over the darker smoke flavor of the O’Fallon smoked porter I tried. Perhaps I just tolerate smoke better in a lager than in a porter. I’d like to try this again sometime as a full pint.

Rocky Mountain IPA pours an orange/copper color with an ample head and plenty of hop aroma. Citrusy C hop aroma clearly present with grapefruit dominant followed by tangerine. The palate is moderately bitter for an IPA, not excessive, and the finish is mostly dry with just a hint of sweetness. The dryness of the finish is much like a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Bitterness builds in the aftertaste. This is a good example of a standard American IPA, no complaints. This was clearly the best of the tasting session of Fort Collins and Great Divide beers.

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18 June 2008
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commercial beer, process

Hop Shortage Ideas

With the ongoing hop shortage people are looking for other ways to bitter their beer.  Here’s an interesting idea from the East Germans as documented in the New York Times back in 1991.

“They convinced us that to be competitive, we had to brew under the German beer purity law,” Mr. Funk said. “And they created marketing and advertising concepts for our products. Before unity we used to put cattle bile in our beer to give it the bitter flavor of hops, which we couldn’t always get.” The brewery now spends $533,333 annually on advertising, compared with $6,666 under Communism.

Cattle bile does sound bitter.

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9 June 2008
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commercial beer, tasting

Great Divide Brewing: Samurai Ale, Wild Raspberry Ale, Denver Pale Ale

I was at Frugal MacDoogal’s last week and picked up a self-made sampler from Great Divide Brewing Company. I hadn’t seen Great Divide beers for sale in Nashville before, so I thought I would give them a try. I ended up with a couple of bottles of Samurai Ale, Wild Raspberry Ale, and Denver Pale Ale.

Geoff, Alison, and Charlotte came over and we had a tasting session. It’s way easier to taste beer with a group of people. You don’t have to drink the entire bottle, so you can taste a far greater variety of beer. I’m also willing to try things I might not otherwise try since I don’t have to drink the entire thing. It’s nice to discuss the beers; it makes it much easier to develop an opinion when you can talk about what you are tasting and smelling.

Samurai Ale poured a very pale, hazy yellow with a minimal head and plenty of fizzy carbonation. The aroma is lightly grainy, but there is only a slight aroma at all despite all those bubbles. The drink opens with a slight, clean sweetness, but generally resembles water. A slight fruity flavor develops and the drink ends with some bitterness. I assume the clean/watery body is a result of the rice used in brewing the beer. It has that distinctly Budweiser feel. I’d say this tastes a lot like a slightly hoppier Budweiser despite being an ale. Not very exciting.

Wild Raspberry Ale poured a reddish-purple and looked remarkably like a glass of iced tea. The beer smelled like raspberry candy, sweet and fruity. The flavor is exactly like raspberry syrup but with far less sweetness and with a light body; I’d say it tastes something like raspberry Kool-Aid. Stephanie thought it tasted like raspberry cough medicine with a lighter body. I think I’ve had too many things flavored with raspberries (candy, medicine, whatever) to really enjoy a beer flavored with them. Pass.

Denver Pale Ale pours an orange, tan color with a moderate head. The aroma smells like canned vegetables, which I understand to be DMS (Dimethyl Sulfide), a common off flavor/aroma in beer. I’ve always wondered about DMS, but I smelled it clearly in this beer. I think it smelled mostly like canned green beans. I got zero hop aroma. Maybe there was something wrong with the bottles I bought, as I find lots of discussion of hop aroma and no discussion of DMS on RateBeer. The beer opens with hop bitterness followed by a light malt body and finishes with bitterness in the back of the mouth. Basically, something was wrong with this beer; it tasted like a pale ale from a bad brew pub. I’d try it again to make sure I didn’t get a bad bottle, but I also think that there are enough american pale ale’s out there that all basically taste the same, and this one was not one of the better ones.

So overall I was definitely not impressed by Great Divide. I’m glad I didn’t have to drink a whole pint of any of these beers and wouldn’t really buy them again. Like I said, I might try the DPA again to verify my first impressions, but I think that I am done with these beers.

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6 June 2008
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commercial beer, tasting

Schlafly Summer Kölsch Ale

I just bought some Schlafly Summer Kölsch for a Friday afternoon of hanging around at work.  We’ve been trying to enjoy ourselves a little more at the office and relax for a change. I figured I might as well try some new beers while someone else is buying.

I also tend to write way to much in these beer reviews. I’m going to try to keep it under control from here on out, if I don’t I think I’ll stop writing reviews because they take too long.

Summer Kölsch pours a pale golden color with an average head. The aroma is sweet like orange blossom honey and smells a bit like freshly picked grapes. The flavor is light, lemony malt. The bitterness is light but more than I expected for a kölsch, but I haven’t had one in Köln in 5 years, so I’m not sure how good my memory is. The body is light and the carbonation is fine bubbles and tingles the tongue. This is definitely an easy drinking summer beer.

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