July 31, 2010
NOTES: Draft @ Proof in DC
STYLE: Tripel
ABV: 11%
APPEARANCE: Slightly hazy gold with orange edges
HEAD: Thin, white head…dissolves fairly quickly
LACING: Very nice. Lingers high up the glass in sheets.
NOSE: Exceptionally complex and exceptionally well-balanced. Massive variety of fruit aromas…orange, lemon, banana, pineapples and peaches. Big hints of vanilla and spice. A warm, tingling whiff of peppery bourbon. All of those notes are held together by a big, fresh-baked biscuit backdrop with a generous aroma of yeast.
TASTE: Everything is more subtle in the taste. Less fruit. Less yeast. Less spice and booze. It’s citrus up front, sweet pale malt and vanilla in the middle, and a touch of drying bitterness in the finish. For all the bold notes in the nose, the flavor is actually quite delicate and refined.
MOUTHFEEL: Medium-bodied, but bright and effervescent. Tingles like champagne.
DRINKABILITY: For an 11% tripel, the Curieux is remarkably drinkable. The alcohol is present in the finish, but so well-incorporated that you would have no idea how strong this sucker is. Subtle flavors and a captivating nose add to the drinkability.
RATING: 3.5 Hops
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Tasting Notes | Tagged: Allagash, Curieux, Tripel, Washington DC | 
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Posted by Barley McHops
July 30, 2010
NOTES: Draft @ Monk’s Cafe in Philly
STYLE: Saison
ABV: 6.5%
APPEARANCE: Glowing gold with a bit of haziness
HEAD: Frothy, bright white, big bubbles which rapidly disappear
LACING: Excellent. Coats the whole glass.
NOSE: Pure Saison. Sweet candi sugar. Banana esters. Yeast rolls. And mild funky, farmhouse aromas.
TASTE: Sweet, bready malt up front which gives way to a round, fruity middle. The finish is slightly bitter and musty.
MOUTHFEEL: Pervasive carbonation keeps this light on the tongue and in the mouth. Surprisingly light actually.
DRINKABILITY: Very refreshing and bubbly. Wish it had a touch more hops to balance out the sweetness, but it’s an interesting Saison from a great brewery. I had one each night in Philly.
RATING: 3 Hops
Comments Off | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Carnevale, Lost Abbey, Monk's Cafe, Saison | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
July 30, 2010
Well, that didn’t take long. I was hoping we wouldn’t be talking too much more about BrewDog’s The End of History, their ostentatious 55% ABV brew that came out recently. This will be a quick post, but I think should teach us all a lesson. Recognize when you’re in a pissing contest, and exit immediately.
Announced on July 22, The End of History has already sold out. And believe it or not, It’s already been topped. Just yesterday, a Dutch brewery named ‘t Koelschip (The Refrigerated Ship) claims to have produced a 120 proof beer (so 60% ABV) called “Start the Future.” My dutch is a little rusty, but I think by reading the website it’ll cost around 20 euros.
So it appears that “The End of History” was a flash in the pan, rather than a bold new standard. It seems like most around here won’t be disappointed, especially since Start the Future apparently isn’t in a rodent-themed package.
Well Aleheads, have at it. What does this mean? Will BrewDog fire back? Does anyone Care?
7 Comments | WTF | Permalink
Posted by Professor pH Lager
July 29, 2010
NOTES: Draft @ Monk’s Cafe
STYLE: Tripel
ABV: 8.4%
APPEARANCE: Cloudy orange-gold
HEAD: Pure white, loosely frothy head, fades in a respectable amount of time
LACING: Minimal
NOSE: Very nice, but very problematic nose. If this were a Biere de Garde, like Jolly Pumpkin’s Oro de Calabaza, I’d give it high marks. It has the classic Biere de Garde spice and funky mustiness. But as a Tripel, it should have big, fruity esters and a noticeable yeast aroma and it just doesn’t. Definitely not representative of the style.
TASTE: In keeping with the nose, the taste is mostly citric acidity, astringency, and lots of clove, coriander, and other spices. Some bitterness from the booze in the finish and plenty of pale malt sweetness in the middle. None of the banana/fruit flavors you expect from a Tripel.
MOUTHFEEL: Lighter than medium-bodied. Should be fuller than it is. OK carbonation, but not enough to create a real effervescent effect.
DRINKABILITY: Not great. I thought it was an interesting brew, but it does a disservice to the style and isn’t particularly well-balanced. Lots of good ideas in this one, but it just didn’t come together.
RATING: 2.5 Hops
Comments Off | Tasting Notes | Tagged: La Rulles, Monk's Cafe, Tripel | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
July 29, 2010
Pabst sucks. And so do you, stupid hipster.
Let’s be honest. This isn’t the type of blog where you’d expect to read about Pabst. Most aleheads aren’t hipsters. We don’t ride fixed-chain bicycles. None of us have ironic mustaches. We don’t wear wifebeaters. We don’t live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And we sure as hell don’t drink Pabst Blue Ribbon. Over the past several years, Pabst has gone from trashy beer to the trashy hipster drink of choice. But it turns out there’s more than meets the eye to Pabst.
With all the recent hubbub about BrewDog, we had some interesting discussion about the brewing industry, what it needs, and what it doesn’t need. Of course, the Aleheads consensus is that more craft beer is good for everyone. Pabst (believe it or not) agrees with us. They’ve recently announced a craft brew exclusively made and marketed in China, of all places. They’re calling it China’s first craft brew, and it sells for around $42 a bottle. Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | Alehouses, Beer Culture, Brews in the News | Permalink
Posted by Professor pH Lager
July 28, 2010
The advent of “The End of History,” BrewDog’s ostentatious roadkill-themed 55% ABV brew has brought with it a lot of commentary and controversy. It’s certainly generated a lot of, well let’s say spirited, discussion on this site and we’ve seen it in various places around the web as well.
Brother Barley mentioned in a recent post that although it’s growing by leaps and bounds, the craft brew industry/movement is still relatively fragile. I agree with this to a large extent – the brewing industry (at least in our country) is still dominated by a very small number of monstrous companies who by and large produce garbage beer. On one hand, I really think that BrewDog has jumped the shark, coming out with a ridiculously overpriced product in a down economy. To top it off, it’s inside a stuffed rodent! At $750, this alehead will be steering clear. As I’ve said previously, one of my favorite things about being an alehead is how accessible top brews are from a cost standpoint. My view on BrewDog is that they’re like religious extremists – beer jihadists, if you will – the vocal minority whose views are far outside the norms of the craft brewing community. They tend to say and do things that are so extreme that even proponents of the movement like us think they’re nuts. Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | Ale Factories, Alehouses, Beer Culture, Beer Marketing, Brews in the News, WTF | Permalink
Posted by Professor pH Lager
July 28, 2010
NOTES: Draft @ Brick Store Pub in Hotlanta
STYLE: Belgian Pale Ale
ABV: 6.5%
APPEARANCE: Hazy orange
HEAD: Thick, pillowy white head with very good retention
LACING: Thorough and unflagging
NOSE: Fruit, spice and everything nice. Oranges and apricots, coriander and clove, and a healthy dose of funky Brettanomyces yeast aroma.
TASTE: Slightly sour citrus fruits up front with a heady mix of sweet, pale malt and big, peppery spices in the middle. The finish is drying, slightly bitter, and mouth-puckering. The funk from the Brett is subtle, but present throughout the sip.
MOUTHFEEL: Nice effervescence cuts through a medium-to-light body
DRINKABILITY: Highly drinkable and refreshing. Not overwhelming at all, but plenty of complexity and character to make it worth revisiting. Another solid effort from Jolly Pumpkin.
RATING: 3 Hops
Comments Off | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Belgian Pale Ale, Jolly Pumpkin, Luciernaga | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
July 28, 2010
My dear, sweet Brother Barley recently opined that Brew Dog has gone the way of the Fonz vis a vis “The End of History” – a 55% ABV monster tucked into taxidermied roadkill. The Professor readily agreed. Angry words were exchanged. Fists were thrown. A good cry was had by all. In the jury room of Aleheads opinion, therefore, your Baron shall undertake the role of Bob Cummings.
Read the rest of this entry »
12 Comments | Brews in the News, WTF | Tagged: Alinea, Brew Dog, Extreme Brewing, Fukuyama, Grant Achatz, Jeffersonianism, Punk IPA, The End of History, Twelve Angry Men, Utopias | Permalink
Posted by Sudsy von Brüe
July 27, 2010
NOTES: Draft @ Eulogy Belgian Tavern in Philly
STYLE: Russian Imperial Stout
ABV: 9.5%
APPEARANCE: Imagine you’re tied up in a burlap sack, thrown into a wooden box, and locked in a cast-iron crate. Then you have 10,000 pounds of concrete poured on top of you. Once the concrete hardens, the entire structure is lifted out by crane and dropped into the Mariana Trench where it sinks 7 miles deep before settling on the ocean floor. Can you picture how dark it is in there? The Ten FIDY is darker.
HEAD: Dark, mahogany-colored head is about one-finger thick, but lasts forever. VERY tightly knit bubbles.
LACING: Perfect. Coats every inch of the glass.
NOSE: Rich and redolent, this little baby packs a punch. Huge roasted malt profile with massive doses of 100% cacao chocolate and dark roasted coffee. A big burst of pine-resiny hops completes the picture.
TASTE: The Ten FIDY is so rich…so malty…so chocolatey…there’s no way it could have enough hops to balance out the enormously dense malt backbone, right? Wrong. Oskar Blues packs the brew with enough hops to choke a moose and then some. 98 IBUs on this bad boy. The malt and hops somehow play off each other perfectly even though each is amped up to 11…maybe even 12. I don’t think you could pack much more flavor than this into a brew.
MOUTHFEEL: I’m not going to lie to you…this is about as thick a beer as has ever been conceived by man. Lush, impossibly full-bodied, and creamy. It’s well-carbonated so it doesn’t sit in your stomach like lead, but this is definitely one dark beer that confirms the often erroneous stereotype that dark beers are heavy.
DRINKABILITY: Very low, but for all the right reasons. So much aroma…so much flavor…a high-ABV…and a massively full mouthfeel. Add all those up and you’d be hard-pressed to put down more than a couple of these. But drinkability does not necessarily a good beer make. And the Ten FIDY isn’t just good…it’s amazing.
RATING: 4 Hops
5 Comments | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Eulogy Belgian Tavern, Oskar Blues, Russian Imperial Stout, Ten FIDY | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
July 26, 2010
Left Hand just changed the Milk Stout packaging. Love the trippy new label...
NOTES: Bottle @ McHops Monastery
STYLE: Milk Stout
ABV: 5.2%
APPEARANCE: Looks solid black, but upon closer inspection there are some lovely chestnut highlights on the edges of the glass.
HEAD: Off-white, fairly prodigious, but bubbles away somewhat rapidly
LACING: Decent, but unremarkable.
NOSE: Super subtle nose. Cocoa powder, some lactose sweetness, and a faint aroma of raisins and prunes.
TASTE: Nothing complicated. Just sweet and smooth, with mellow chocolate and roasted malt flavors taking center stage. A slightly sour, lactic tinge in the finish.
MOUTHFEEL: Medium bodied with nice carbonation.
DRINKABILITY: A look back at my review makes it sound like this is a fairly bland beer. I’ll admit it didn’t blow me away, but it’s exceptionally drinkable and as close to a session brew as you can get with a sweet, milk stout. I actually really liked it. I think Left Hand did justice to the style and made a very well-crafted, if somewhat one-note brew. I should point out that having grown up on Guinness, I have a soft spot for straightforward stouts.
RATING: 3 Hops
2 Comments | Tasting Notes | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
July 25, 2010
As I sit here brewing up a double IPA of my own, with nothing better to do but play on my iPhone, I figure I may as well post about the beer I’m drinking. No need to extoll the virtues of Founders Brewing. Look through the pages on Aleheads and you’ll see that they f’ing rule. What I have here is their Triple IPA, whatever the he’ll that means. For 112 IBU’s, the nose doesn’t present a ton of hops. Malty sweetness and plenty of booze though. Taste on the otherhand is where my face caved in on itself. If I had to speak, it would be from a puckered up void where my lips used to meet. So hoppy that it doesn’t taste hoppy anymore, as if that makes any sense. Drinkability depends on if you want to taste anything ever again, or if you like blacking out and waking up under the dining room table. One is plenty here, but I could be convinced to put down another if I had it.
With a beer like this it’s tough to rate because I know very few people will enjoy it like I did. 3.5 hops from me – I think whatever they were going for it worked. Now I better get back to my boil before my brew conquers the stovetop.
3 Comments | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Devil Dancer, Founders, triple ipa | Permalink
Posted by Ripped Van Drinkale
July 25, 2010
NOTES: Beer Engine @ J. Clyde in Birmingham
STYLE: Belgian IPA
ABV: 7.2%
APPEARANCE: Pale, cloudy yellow
HEAD: Bright white, sudsy, frothy, and fades quickly
LACING: Big chunks of lace cling hither and yon on the glass
NOSE: The cask-conditioning greatly subdued the hop forward aroma which actually leaves the brew smelling more like a Saison than a Belgian IPA. There’s still a good amount of floral aroma and a hit of lemon zest, but they’re much more muted than expected. Instead the funky farmhouse nose from the yeast and a the sweet, clean aroma of pilsner malts are the major players.
TASTE: Same as the nose…the hop bitterness you expect from a Belgian IPA has been greatly reduced in the cask. Instead, it’s a muddled, but very pleasant blend of sweet, pale malts, grassy pilsner flavor, mustiness, a touch of pepper and spice, and a little citrus in the finish.
MOUTHFEEL: Frothy and light-bodied, unusual, but not unwelcome for the style.
DRINKABILITY: Quite high. The cask probably dampened a lot of the best parts of the Belgica, but it left a highly drinkable, very refreshing brew.
RATING: 3 Hops
Comments Off | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Belgian IPA, Belgica, Cask, Great Divide, J. Clyde | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
July 24, 2010
NOTES: Bottle @ McHops Monastery
STYLE: Saison
ABV: 7.3%
APPEARANCE: Hazy, pale gold
HEAD: White, very generous, but very fast-fading
LACING: Unimpressive…just splotches around the rim of the glass
NOSE: Clean, grassy, wheat aroma with lots and lots of aggressive spice (white pepper and cloves). Plus plenty of lemon zest and a teeny-tiny hint of yeast funk.
TASTE: A wee bit sour and citric before mellowing out to a tasty, but unremarkable sweet malt backbone. Finish is dry with a refreshing, but subdued bitterness.
MOUTHFEEL: Good carbonation, but it drinks a little light and overly foamy.
DRINKABILITY: Average. Great Divide is a phenomenal brewery, but this isn’t my favorite by them. To be fair, I’m rarely blown away by Saisons.
RATING: 2.5 Hops
Comments Off | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Colette, Great Divide, Saison | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
July 23, 2010
NOTES: Bottle @ McHops Monastery
STYLE: Porter
ABV: 5.8%
APPEARANCE: Dark, dark, dark mahogany brown
HEAD: Tan, thin, and fast-fading
LACING: Light and wispy. Just streaks, really.
NOSE: No hops in the nose. It seems to be a very subtle blend of dark chocolate, espresso beans, and whole, roasted oats. Pleasant, if a bit mild.
TASTE: The flavor is as subtle as the nose. Toasted oats and almonds, a hint of chocolate and coffee, and a mild, fairly clean finish. You don’t see a lot of oatmeal porters out there…oatmeal tends to be paired with sturdier stouts. But I like this style quite a bit.
MOUTHFEEL: Silky and actually a bit thin-bodied.
DRINKABILITY: Very high for a porter. It’s not heavy in the slightest. This is a smooth, session beer with just enough character to keep you coming back for more.
RATING: 3 Hops
1 Comment | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Highland, Oatmeal Porter, Porter | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
July 22, 2010
We at Aleheads have talked about the button-pushing brewers at BrewDog a number of times. Mostly it’s in reference to their on-going battle with Schorschbrau over which brewery can create the highest-ABV brew in the world.
Well, it appears as if the Scottish ale factory has not only created a new “strongest” beer, they’ve also come up with one of the worst marketing gimmicks in history. The beer, called End of History, is being bottled in the carcasses of dead animals. Read the rest of this entry »
10 Comments | WTF | Tagged: BrewDog, End of History | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
July 22, 2010
NOTES: Draft @ J. Clyde in Birmingham
STYLE: Belgian Strong Pale Ale
ABV: 9%
APPEARANCE: Dark, hazy gold
HEAD: White, poofy, fades slowly
LACING: Nice, substantial rings of lace
NOSE: Avery’s got the Belgian part right. This smells just like a native brew from the land of sprouts and chocolates. Sweet candi sugar, whiffs of fruit (peaches and apricots), and loads of spice (clove and cinnamon).
TASTE: It’s quite sweet from the candi sugar and the big, stone-fruit flavors. But that sweetness is well-tempered by a fair amount of subtle hop bitterness and an excellent alcohol burn in the finish. The spice from the nose is muted in the flavor and there isn’t as much yeast funkiness as you often find in the style.
MOUTHFEEL: A little chewy. A little syrupy. Somewhere between medium and full.
DRINKABILITY: Just OK…the Salvation is a touch cloying, but it has some beautiful, well-balanced flavors. Two would probably do me for the evening though.
RATING: 3 Hops
Comments Off | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Avery, Belgian Strong Pale Ale, J. Clyde, Salvation | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
July 21, 2010
NOTES: Draft @ Mafiaoza’s in Birmingham
STYLE: Brown Ale
ABV: 5.8%
APPEARANCE: Actually more of a dark crimson than a true brown ale
HEAD: Massive off-white head that dissolves slowly
LACING: Streaky but stolid
NOSE: Mostly mild, heavily roasted dark malt, but there’s a backdrop of “cola” and some nice floral hops. A little more complex than your standard brown ale.
TASTE: Nice balance of sweet caramel and cola acidity. Some hop bitterness comes through in the middle but disappears well before the clean, smooth finish.
MOUTHFEEL: Silky smooth and medium-bodied.
DRINKABILITY: Very high. A true session brew with just enough complexity and character to make it memorable. There are better Brown Ales out there, but I would have no hesitation ordering a few pints of Ellie’s. Plus, the bottled version has a dog on the label. I love dogs.
RATING: 3 Hops
Comments Off | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Avery, Brown Ale, Ellie's, session beer | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
July 21, 2010
If I know anything about Maine, which I don’t, I know that only two distinct groups of people are to be found there:
1. Tourists
- First the true out-of-state variety (Massholes and their ilk) packing honey and kids into Volvos for weeks of lobster-shucking and/or leaf-peeping, leaving but a trail of ravaged corn cobs and gnawed crustacean claws in their wake; look for blueberry-stained mugs that stare vacantly homeward as they migrate I-95 SW each September.
- Summer resident “Downeasters”, the powerful and affluent legacy of Maine’s elite from Rockefeller and Vanderbilt to Bush, L’il Bush and Obama. These are rare birds indeed, and not likely to be found beyond their gilded cages.
- Any Maine resident whose ancestry in the state dates back less than 3 generations. Sorry folks, you and your progeny will have to tough out a few winters more.
2. True Maine residents, AKA Mainahs, Mainiacs, et al.
The no-nonsense working-class heritage and aesthetic found in Belfast Bay’s excellent McGovern’s Oatmeal Stout lies firmly with the latter.
Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | Ale Factories, Homebrewing | Tagged: Belfast Bay Brewing, Maine, Oatmeal Stout | Permalink
Posted by Slouch Sixpack
July 21, 2010
Huzzah for those progressive legislators in…South Carolina? What?!
Last week, Mark Sanford took a break from hiking the Appalachian Trail to sign into law a bill that lifted South Carolina’s existing ban on on-site beer tastings and sales at breweries. You see, like my current home state of Alabama, South Carolina allowed tastings and sales at wineries, but not breweries. Why the discrepancy? I’m guessing it’s because wine is seen as the drink of choice for the white elite and beer is the drink “of the people” (aka: poor folks). Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | Beer Culture | Tagged: Beer laws, Breweries, South Carolina, Tastings | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
NOTES: Draft @ Proof in DC
