A Microbrew Review Blog

Lagunitas Brewing Company Brown Shugga' Ale - A Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:49:00 +0000

Lagunitas Brewing Company Brown Shugga' Ale

by Microbrew Review

This economy's been tough on all of us. Everyone's looking to save money and for the best deal possible. That holds true in today's world of the beer and microbrew enthusiast as well. Well imagine my surprise when I discovered a $1.00 a bottle selection in one of the beer coolers at my local Six 'n Save. I was like a kid in a candy shop. Given, the selection was fairly slim but I did spy a few good microbreweries to try and I picked up a bottle of Lagunitas Brewing Company's Brown Shugga' Ale in my mix a six tonight.

Freshly and nicely preserved from its cross-country track all the way from the brewery in Petaluma, California, this ale poured a cloudy fiery red almost soda pop orange into my glass with a creamy one finger head. Carbonation was good but the ale never completely cleared and remained somewhat foggy and hazy throughout the sampling.

Aroma was extremely malty with deadly strength levels of burning alcohol wafting up into my nostrils. This smelled like one potent microbrew and in drinking it, I would not be proven wrong.

This craft beer is sugary sweet alright, almost to a fault, but not quite. I like bitter IPA's and this is certainly not one but Brown Shugga' held my interest in that is was heavy and chewy enough to taste like a man's beer. Alot of malt and a bit of toffee and yes, just a touch of brown cane sugar in the flavor. Far off in the background was just a bit of that Christmas sugar cookie kind of flavor.

The beer was a real sticky mouthful but finished strong on the palate with a mild but unobtrusive sweet aftertaste. No hops at all here so if that's what you are looking for, you're not going to find it in Lagunitas Brewing Brown Shugga'.

One item I will also point out is the beer bottle label. It looks like it's printed on aged parchment. Plain and to the point. It's got an entertaining little quip in real small print that reads: "We believe this Special Ale is something unique. Feeding brown cane sugar to otherwise cultured brewery yeast is a'kin to feeding raw shark to your gerbil. It is unlikely to ever occur in nature without human intervention. And it looks weird besides. But is has happened, and now it's too late". Entertaining and a little quirky. I love reading the small print on these Lagunitas Brewing beer labels. These guys make great microbrews and craft beers and know how to have fun with it as well.

If you see any Lagunitas beer in your local ale shop or tavern, take a chance and try it out. I've yet to have any bad experience with Lagunitas Brewing Company offerings and their Brown Shugga' Sweet Release Ale is just another notch on my microbrew drinking gun. I loved this ale and I think there's a good chance you probably will too. Try it if you get a shot but be cautious as the alcohol by volume rating for Brown Shugga' is about 9.5% and is not for the meek beer drinker. Cheers!

Are you a beer lover? Did you enjoy reading this microbrew beer review? If you love beer and craft beers & microbrews in particular, you'll find many more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related meanderings at the
===>Beer Blog Reviews
or =====>Microbrew and Craft Ales.

Enjoy, and always remember to drink responsibly!

Lagunitas Brewing Company
California breweries
microbreweries
microbrew reviews
microbrew
craft beer
beer blog

Green Flash Brewing Hop Head Beer Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:41:00 +0000

Green Flash Brewing Hop Head Beer Review

by Microbrew Review

Tonight the wife wanted to go to bingo. Being a smart negotiator, I happily agreed to hang out at home with the kids while she went off to gamble, but only if she picked me up a few microbrews to sample and review. Okay, she'd have gone anyway whether I wanted her to or not, but she complied and I've got 4 new beers in the fridge to try out. The first I picked out was a microbrew from Green Flash Brewing Company called "Hop Head".

Hop Head is a Red India Pale Ale brewed by San Diego's famous microbrewery Green Flash Brewing. I've had at least one beer from Green Flash that I liked before so I was anxious to try Hop Head Red IPA to say the least.

Pouring the ale into my Dogfish Head pub glass, this beer poured a rich and thick looking ruby red. Very clear and fairly good level of carbonation with bubbles small yet somewhat plentiful.

Holy head !! The foamy head on this beer rose a good 3 1/2 fingers tall and stuck around a good 4-5 minutes before subsiding to a 1/4" head that never really disappeared throughout my sampling session.

The beer aroma was wonderfully strong and hoppy. Very piney with a background hint of sour fruit, not grapefruit but strangely more like a blueberry if you can believe that. Kinda odd but interesting.

Sipping the first few slugs, this microbrew is a mouthful. Thick, rich and hearty came to mind. Although it's a beer from California, I got the impression of this being a beer that could stand up to a tough, cold northeastern winter's night, kind of like a good thick beef stew. It was chewy like a meal but finished surprisingly crisp and clean with a fresh piney aftertaste leaving me want another sip quickly. So I went ahead and took another...and another. Mmmmmm. This is a good beer!

All the way down through the entire 12 ounces of ale, my glass was pasted with a thick spiderweb of foamy lace, very impressive in my opinion. It reminded me of that one beer commercial where you can see where the beer is and where it was and where it'll be next, like tree growth rings (only these were beer death rings as it was consumed).

Overall, I'm going to give Green Flash Brewing Hop Head Red India Pale Ale a 7.5 out of 10.00 possible stars as my rating. I have always enjoyed the IPA family of microbrews and craft beers and this ale did not disappoint me in the least. I'd love to have a chance someday to try this fresh on tap at the brewery itself as I imagine it would lend to an even representation of the beer.

If you live in California or out West anywhere, there's no reason you shouldn't at least try this beer offering from Green Flash and if you're anywhere else in the country and find this microbrew in your local bottleshop or on tap at the pub, give it a try and I can almost guarantee you won't be sorry.

Oh, by the way, Green Flash Hop Head clocks in at 6% alcohol by volume. Not too over the top and just reasonable enough to enjoy two or three of these IPA beauties responsibly and reasonably. This microbrew is worth it and I'll be picking it up again if I have the chance.

Are you a beer lover? Did you enjoy reading this microbrew beer review? If you love beer and craft beers & microbrews in particular, you'll find many more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related meanderings at the
===>beer review blog
or =====>Craft Beer Reviews.

Enjoy, and always remember to drink responsibly!

Green Flash Brewing
California breweries
IPA
india pale ale
microbrew
craft beer
beer blog

Weyerbacher Winter Ale Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 03:35:00 +0000

Weyerbacher Winter Ale Microbrew Review

I picked up another microbrew from one of my past Pennsylvania brewery favorites the Weyerbacher Brewing Company. This is a winter warmer called simply Winter Ale.
I've been fond of the Christmas ale and winter warmer styles of beer over the past several years and always look forward to this time of year.

Are you a beer lover? Did you enjoy reading this microbrew beer review? If you love beer and craft beers & microbrews in particular, you'll find many more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related meanderings at the
===>beer review blog
or =====>Craft Beer Reviews.

Enjoy, and always remember to drink responsibly!

Weyerbacher Brewing
Pennsylvania breweries
winter warmer
winter ale
microbrew
craft beer
beer blog

Microbrew Review of Thirsty Dog Brewing 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:16:00 +0000

Microbrew Review of Thirsty Dog Brewing 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale

by Microbrew Review

As I mentioned the other day, from here on in for the next month or so I'm going to be sampling and focusing on microbrew and craft beer reviews of the Christmas Ale, Winter Warmer and winter-style ilk. Tonight's offering by Thirsty Dog Brewing Company falls perfectly in line with that theme, and I for one am glad that it does.

First of all, I dig the label on this 12 ounce chilled brown bottle. It's a little different but plain enough, cartoonish in a way but almost like an artist's rendering of what could have been a real actual photo of 12 dogs of all varieties decked out in their Christmas best on and around an old flatbed delivery pickup truck(I'm guessing an actual brewery-owned pickup used long ago for local beer deliveries...but I'm just guessing).

Here are the vital stats on this beer right from the label...
IBU's = 21.5
O.G. = 18.5 degrees Plato
8.3% alcohol by volume
12 fluid oz. bottle (355 mL)
Recommended best serving temp 43 - 49 degrees F.

Thirsty Dog Brewing 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale is a celebratory ale and pours into my pint glass as such. This ale pours fairly thick and rich and looks sticky as it cascades into my glass vessel. A crystal clear body boasts a beautiful ruby red/copper appearance graced with just enough carbonation activity to make it pretty. A creamy, butterscotch one finger head glazes the surface just for a few brief minutes and quickly subsides.

The aroma of this craft beer is of chocolately rich malt and very, very sweet. Figs and honey are present in the smell and those scents clog the nostrils along with that somewhat fiery alcoholic burn. A bit of clove hovers in the background but none of the cinnamon the bottle label proclaims.

Sipping down the first few swigs, I can't help but notice I may be drinking this beer just a bit too cold. While the label gives an actual ideal serving temp, I've not gone too technical with checking if this beer's got a fever yet but am guessing probably not, so I waited a while longer. It was just too cold to experience the full flavor.

So fifteen minutes go by and I try the Thirsty Dog Christmas Ale again. This time is better. Spilling the brew over my tongue, it's a little warmer and rich as heck. Sweet, sticky with some very nice nuances of that cinnamon (so boasted on the bottle label) but also with some creamy bakery flavors that go so nicely in beer this season of the year. Gingerbread and sugar cookies came to mind and a hint of cloves became more evident in the nose. While the alcohol was always present through sipping the entire glass, it was nothing more than a pleasant warming sensation and not the burn that was a bit more evident in the nose of this Christmas Ale.

One special point of note I'll make is that, while the beer had a reasonably respectable head of foam initially (that didn't last long), Thirsty Dog Brewing Company's 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale presented an intriguing set of legs down the side of my 16 ounce pint glass very reminiscent of a nice wine. Kind of unique and interesting and not something I often experience in my microbrew and craft beer reviews.

All in all, I really really like Thirsty Dog Brewing Company 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale. It's a well-put-together seasonal ale that, while not standing out as totally unique or extreme in any one area, it is an enjoyable and warming sipping style of beer that does bring to mind this wonderful Christmas season time of year. You could try this craft beer blindfolded in August and you'd definitely get the feeling that 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale is a winter/Christmastime style of beer.

I'll give Thirsty Dog Brewing Co 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale a 7.75 out of 10.00 points on my microbrew rating scale. It's definitely one I'd like to get my hands on a few more bottles of. With the 8.3% ABV though, don't get too carried away. Respect the beer and happy holidays!

P.S. Thirsty Dog Brewing Company cannot do too much wrong apparently. These folks from the Akron, Ohio-based microbrewery have never really disappointed me yet to date with their nicely crafted beers. I'm going to be on the lookout for more beers to try from Thirsty Dog Brewing and I recommend you should too if you see any of their ales locally. Cheers!

Are your a beer lover? Did you enjoy reading this microbrew beer review? If you love beer and craft beers & microbrews in particular, you'll find many more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related meanderings at the
===>beer review blog
or =====>Craft Beer Reviews.

Enjoy, and always remember to drink responsibly!

Thirsty Dog Brewing
Ohio breweries
winter warmer
microbrew
craft beer
beer blog

Christmas Ale by Breckenridge Brewery - My Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:54:00 +0000

Here I am on a lazy, cold and sunny late November afternoon. Thanksgiving is just a few days off and Christmas just around the bend. Snow is in the forecast this week. What a perfect day to imbibe in a bottle of Christmas Ale by Breckenridge Brewery.

Breckenridge Brewery is a Colorado brewery located in Denver. They've been around the block in the microbrewing arena, and I've been fortunate to sample a few of their craft beers even though I'm located way out here in Pennsylvania. I'm anxious to try the Breckenridge Christmas Ale however so I'm not going to waste any time in getting started with my microbrew review. Let's go, shall we?

First of all, the beer bottle label is festive for the Christmas season no doubt about that. Makes you want to grab the bottle right out of the sixpack shop cooler.

Pouring the beer into my unchilled glass, it pours a fairly dark ruby red in color with just a tinge of rusty copper on the edges. The head of the beer welled up to about a week one finger head and quickly dissipates to a mild glaze of tan cream on top.

The aroma of the beer is sticky and sweet with a punch of alcohol to boot. I detected a smoky dark coffee scent with some brown sugar presence, maybe a bit of raisins way there in the background. Smells pretty decent but nothing totally intriguing or complex in character.

Breckenridge Christmas Ale sips rather thin in the mouthful for as rich and sticky as it smells and appears. There's alot of alcohol in the mouth and alcoholic burn in the swallow. First impression in drinking this microbrew is that it's more of a brown ale than a winter warmer style. Although it is rather malty, there's a fair deal of hoppy bitterness that lies on the tongue and it finishes somewhat crisply. The mouthful was just a little too thin for my liking however.

Breckenridge Brewery's Christmas Ale is not a bad beer. It's respectable and looks good in a glass. It would look festive having a few bottles lined up in the fridge too given the label design. I've had better winter warmers though and there are many other microbrews and craft beers out there that better represent Christmas beers and Winter Warmers in particular. Given the 7.40% alcohol beer content for Christmas Ale, it does leave a warm feeling in the belly however.

If you've had alot of experience with winter warmer beers, you may not find Breckenridge Christmas Ale all that exciting. If you'd just like to try a craft beer for the Christmas season, this is a fair one to experiment with and share with a few friends around the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table this season. Breckenridge Brewing Christmas Ale gets a 5.75 out of 10.00 micro brew review points.

I've got quite a few more microbrews on my list of Christmas beer to sample before the holidays and I'll be posting again shortly, so stop back soon and thanks for reading this microbrew beer review!

--------------------------------------

Do you love beer? Did you enjoy reading this microbrew beer review? If you love beer and craft beers & microbrews in particular, you'll find many more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related mish-mash at the
===>microbrew review blog
or =====>Craft Beer Reviews.

Enjoy, and always remember to drink responsibly!

Breckenridge Brewery
Colorado breweries
winter warmer
microbrew
craft beer
beer blog

A Microbrew Review of Lancaster Brewing Company's Winter Warmer

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:43:00 +0000

The holidays are just around the corner and for any microbrew and craft beer lover, this season is always met with excitement. I love Christmas beers and winter warmers. The winter beer season is officially upon us and I'll be reviewing microbrews of the wintertime ilk for the next several months.

Tonight, I reached in the fridge and pulled out Lancaster Brewing Company's Winter Warmer. Lancaster Brewing Company (an eastern Pennsylvania microbrewery) offers some great beers and I was looking forward to trying their Winter Warmer offering eagerly.

Pouring the beer into my unchilled beer glass, This beer pours a dark ruby, mahogany color with a mild creamy tan head only about a finger deep and quick to subside to a meer corona of froth on the outer walls of the glass. Nice color and virtually opaque with only the slightest hint of light passing through when held up to the kitchen fan light.

Classified as an Olde Ale, this beer's scent is warm and fuzzy, sweet and caramelly with a hint of spiciness in the nose. Toffy and scotch eminates from the surface with a butter cookie background.

First sip is smooth on the tongue with a sharper alcoholic bite in the swallow. Winter Warmer is a very sweet and sticky microbrew leaving a ring of lollipop stickiness around the lips. It's rich and malty and almost a meal in itself. A slight toffy presence can be detected. The beer became even more sweet and sticky as the beer warmed in my glass. There was no lacing on the glass whatsoever as the microbrew disappeared slowly. This one is definitely a slow sipping kind of craft beer.

Overall, I can definitely recommend Lancaster Brewing Company Winter Warmer for one of those upcoming cold winter's evenings around the fireplace. It's a holiday style craft beer that is worth a try and I will be sure to be picking up several more Winter Warmers before the holiday beer season is over.

One other recommendation is to drink this beer with respect. Lancaster Brewing's Winter Warmer is a bit dominant when it comes to the alcohol level. When it comes to alcohol content in beer, this winter ale boasts a hearty 8.9% alcohol by volume rating and having more than two in a sitting is probably going to invite trouble.

So there you have it. First holiday style beer for the Christmas season and Lancaster Brewing Company's Winter Warmer is a hit in my book. I'm giving it an 8.0 out of 10.00 beer rating points for my microbrew review. Get your hands on Winter Warmer if you have a chance this winter. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
--------------------------------------

Like beer? Did you enjoy reading this microbrew beer review? If you love beer and craft beers & microbrews in particular, you'll find many more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related mish-mash at the
===>microbrew review blog
or =====>Craft Beer Reviews.

Enjoy, and always remember to drink responsibly!

Lancaster Brewing
Pennsylvania breweries
winter warmer
microbrew
craft beer
beer blog

Schell Octoberfest Beer - A Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:01:00 +0000

I was digging around down in the fridge tonight and found a bottle of Schell's Octoberfest that I thought I'd try. Hadn't had a chance to sample this craft beer just yet so no time better than the present, that's what I always say when it comes to beer.

Popping the bottle cap on this chilled 12 ounce brown bottle, I poured the beer fairly roughly into my 10 ounce bar mug watching as the creamy off-white head billowed up in the glass to just about a one finger standing. It looked rich and thick and although the beer's head receded just a bit, it constantly glazed the surface of the brew even as I started sipping 5 minutes later.

The color of Schell's Octoberfest was a bright and sparkly light copper rust. Shimmered just a little when holding up to a light with carbonation respectably present and well distributed throughout the liquid. Aroma was sweet with just a smidgen of "sugar cookie" scent to it. Overall, not a real strong smelling marzen beer but that's okay. I'm here to drink it. Total mug presentation of Schell Octoberfest was pretty nice. Nothing turning me away at this point.

Sipping down the first few sips, my first impression was although it was standard Marzen Octoberfest sweet, it seemed a little bit thin for my taste. Watered down may be too strong of a description, but just not an overall rich mouthful in my opinion. It was slick and went down the throat very smoothly with very little carbonation feel in the mouth and on the tongue. A slightly sour aftertaste was distracting. But I'm going to drink the whole beer anyway, what the heck?

As the microbrew warmed at about halfway through the glass, the beer took on more and more of a thicker, richer feel to it. It tasted creamier and became a little more rounded in the finish. There are no hops here at all but that's great for an Octoberfest beer. I quickly finished the last half of the mug and thought I might try another before the month of October is out.

August Schell Brewing Company hails from New Ulm, Minnesota. The brewery has been around since 1860 and has the pleasure of claiming many of its beers to be award-winning throughout the years. Schell's Octoberfest, as one example, won the Silver Medal at the 1991 Great American Beer Festival. There's actually a really neat overview of the history of the brewery if you have a chance to check out their website at August Schell Brewing Company.

My bottom line beer review for Schell Octoberfest is that it is a very quaffable craft beer, especially for this time of year heading into the fall. This Octoberfest beer can be consumed quickly and easily with not a whole lot of complaints from me. At 5.5% alcohol by volume, it's not over the top and won't get you in too much trouble if you partake in 2 or 3 at a sitting. This would be a great Oktoberfest festival beer and I think even better if being pulled off the tap into one of those great big German Octoberfest bier steins. I'll give Schell's Octoberfest 7.25 out of 10.00 points for the beer style and it's one I'll personally be having again, probably fairly soon!
-------------------------

Like beer? Did you even slightly enjoy reading this microbrew beer review? If you love beer and craft beers & microbrews in particular, you'll find many more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related mish-mash at the
===>micro brew reviews blog
or =====>Craft Beer Reviews.

Enjoy, and always remember to drink responsibly!

Schell Brewing
Minnesota breweries
Octoberfest beer
microbrew
craft beer
beer blog

Great Lakes Brewing Co Nosferatu Stock Ale - My Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:37:00 +0000

Great Lakes Brewing Co Nosferatu Stock Ale - My Microbrew Review

I just had to grab a couple bottles of Great Lakes Brewing Company's Nosferatu Stock Ale at my local six pack shop tonight. I couldn't resist. Friday night, late September, a chill in the air and Halloween just around the corner, Nosferatu really caught my eye. Great Lakes Brewing Co a Cleveland, Ohio brewery, has been known to produce some really great microbrews and craft beers and some really great bottle labels too (in my opinion anyway).

Nosferatu follows suit by featuring what almost seems like a still shot movie clip of the famous vampire himself. Striking, chilling and spooky, yet entertaining all at once. And with Halloween coming soon, this beer and its label image fits the bill.

Pouring the chilled 12 ounce bottle into my standard, unchilled glass 10 ounce beer mug, this beer forces a strong, billowy light almond head straight to the brink of the mug and almost right over the edge. Two fingers and looking quite handsome, this head is creamy as it gets and doesn't go anywhere anytime soon. It stuck around a good four or five minutes before never really disappearing altogether.

Beer aroma is strong an bitter. Slight licorice notes are blended nicely with the sticky sugar malt sweet smell but never really dominates. A hint of clove and raisins also came to mind. Not really strong in its scent, but interesting enough to make me want to take a sip and right quick!

First sip provides a very strong and somewhat surprisingly hoppy punch. Alcoholic tints bite and swirl from front of tongue to back, burning just a bit as it goes down. Bitter hop bit stays on the tip of my tongue well after swallowing the microbrew. I notice as the glass warms the alcoholic tones actually dim a bit and a richer velvety mouthful proclaims its presence.

Viewing the beer in my mug, I noticed immense lacing all the way down through the mug. Sticky, clinging webs of bubbles and froth clearly mark the status of this beers comsumption right straight through to bottom of the glass. If you take a sip every minute, you could tell exactly how much time you spent drinking the glass of beer just by counting the frothy rings.

This beer looks awesome too. The liquid is a vibrantly, strong mahogany/rust in the glass. Carbonation is good and healthy but not too vigourous. Nice, miniscule,lazy bubbles drift in spirals up and about feeding the foam at the top just enough to maintain a good foam breadth throughout.

Great Lakes Brewing Co Nosferatu is a very good craft beer. I'd almost venture to say it is great. It's definitely enjoyable throught the glass and actually improves as time goes by. Thick, rich and satisfying and a real for hopheads too if you're into the hoppier bitter beers. There's a nice malty backbone but it just helps to balance, not sweeten the beer.

I'd recommend Great Lakes Brewing's Nosferatu to anyone who's into craft beers of all types and into hoppy beers in particular. The label adds to the seasonal autumn feel to it an I'd love to be able to throw a Halloween party next month and feature a bushel barrel of iced down bottles of Nosferatu to all of my guests although the 8.0% alcohol content of beer would make the party rather interesting if everyone sampled more than two.

I'd give Great Lakes Nosferatu Stock Ale an 8.25 out of 10.00 points for my microbrew review rating. This is an excellent beer and one I think many folks will enjoy and look forward to fall after fall.

If you even remotely enjoyed reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at the ===>
beer blog
or =====>Craft Beer Reviews.

Cheers, and please drink responsibly!

Great Lakes Brewing
Ohio breweries
Stock Ale
Nosferatu
microbrew
craft beer
beer blog
Cleveland microbreweries

Summit Oktoberfest Marzen - A Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:19:00 +0000

It's not officially fall just yet. And October's a few weeks away. But hey, I'm already thinking about the Oktoberfest beers. And why shouldn't I be. I picked up a mixed sixpack of Octoberfest style beers tonight and Summit Brewing Co's Oktoberfest Marzen was the first to sample of the evening.

First off, Summit Brewing Company calls St. Paul, Minnesota its home. I'm not all that familiar with the microbrews from Summit so trying this one gave me a little sense of curiosity and intrigue.

Pouring the 12 ounce chilled brown bottle into my glass, I observed a respectable creamy eggshell head which topped a nice mahogany, rust colored liquid. Carbonation was quite lacking however, almost non-existent. Did I get my hands on a bad beer?
Holding the glass up to my nose didn't help. It smelled a bit like that all too familiar scent of when you've got yourself a skunked beer that just wasn't handled or stored correctly somewhere along the way. I was worried I'd wasted $2.00 on this one.

However, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised once I started drinking this microbrew. There was nice comforting caramel malty sweetness. Not cloying or profound, but more common and expected. Being that I thought this one might be spoiled originally, this was a pleasant surprise already. I was a winner already just in the fact this wasn't a drainpour beer. The mouthful was actually fairly thick and rich and only became more profound as the liquid warmed about halfway through the glass of beer. Nothing too off center here and there was a nice spiciness to this brew in the mouthful. No real hop presence at all however, not to worry though. This is an Oktoberfest. Alcohol presence did start to make itself known toward the latter part of the glass. The warmer the beer got, I could more and more feel that alcoholic burn.

While Summit Brewing Company's Oktoberfest was not the best Octoberfest beer I've ever tried, it was respectable. It was sweet, and very easy to drink. My bottle I'd originally thought was spoiled. So just finding out it was drinkable was a pleasant surprise that probably lent to a more favorable subconscious rating that would normally be the case. I'd felt like I got lucky I guess.

I'd recommend giving this Summit Oktoberfest beer a try if you see it in your neighborhood bottle shop or tavern, especially this time of year (just keeping in the spirit of the season). Summit Brewing Company's Oktoberfest Marzen was very drinkable and smooth. There is nothing challenging or out of the ordinary with this beer however. It just kind of blends in with all the other Oktoberfest offerings you can find out there this time of year. Nothing too bad, but nothing all that special either. Not memorable. It is smooth though, and very easy to drink. Despite the 7.7 Alcohol by Volume rating, it's one that doesn't kick you too much in the butt but you're by your second, you're probably going to be ready to move on to something else anyway.

I'm giving Summit Brewing Company's Oktoberfest Marzen a 6.00 out of 10.00 on my rating scale. I will add, that I'd like to try this fresh on draft at a local watering hole sometime. I think it just might make a significant difference in this microbrew's flavor and richness versus the traversed bottled version.

If you even remotely enjoyed reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at the ===>
beer blog
or =====>Craft Beer Reviews.

Cheers, and please drink responsibly!

Summit Brewing
Minnesota breweries
Marzen
Oktoberfest
microbrew
craft beer
beer blog
Minnesota microbreweries

Flying Dog Brewery Snake Dog IPA - A Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:14:00 +0000

I haven't seen alot of microbrews from Flying Dog Brewery around these parts here in Western Pennsylvania until just recently. In fact, my favorite craft beer bottle shop has started stocking three or four offerings lately from Flying Dog Brewery and I was excited to give Flying Dog's Snake Dog India Pale Ale a try, so I grabbed a bottle this evening.

Flying Dog Brewery started out in 1994 as a small Denver, Colorado based microbrewery that's since relocated all of it's beer brewing production to their Frederick, Maryland brewery (where they'd been brewing a good portion of their beer since purchasing the second brewery in 2006).

The Flying Dog Brewery bottle labels are famous for featuring the eclectic artwork of Ralph Steadman of Hunter S. Thompson Gonzo fame. This bottle of Snake Dog IPA literally jumped off the shelf at me with its eye catching labeling. I couldn't pass it up.

Cracking open the bottle and pouring the 12 ounces of chilled libation into my glass, the head of this beer was fantastically aggressive, billowing up into an overwhelming 2 finger eggshell white, fluffy head that stuck a good several minutes before begrudgingly dissipating to a more managable drinking level. Color was nice, shimmery and coppery with lazy bubbles of carbonation sauntering upwards to the surface.

The aroma wasn't quite as aggressive though. A little bitter and astringent with piney scents taking the front scene of the beer's smell. There's definitely hops in there and I'm going to get them!

First couple of sips boasted a deliciously crisp brew. As with most IPA's, this beer was bitter but not to a fault. It was nicely balanced with just enough malty sweetness at the swallow but that familiar bitter hops presence stayed with the aftertaste for a while. Flying Dog Brewery has produced a balanced beer with a good mouthful of flavor. I detected a mild hint of smokiness in the beer that nicely complimented it's royal hoppy bite. Snake Dog IPA has a distinctive liveliness to it, it's very zesty for lack of a better word. Not a lot of that often grapefruity flavor however, which I found to be a good thing.

The alcohol makes its presence known and becomes progressively noticeable in a burning sensation as the beer warmed in my glass. Checking the bottle label, I notice that this craft beer clocks in at a hefty 7.1 percent alcohol by volume which is approaching an imperial IPA level. It's not overbearing to the beer flavor however, but the ABV is something to bear in mind if you're sampling Snake Dog IPA and plan to partake in more than a couple servings. This microbrew will bite you if you're not careful!

All things being equal, I must say that I love Flying Dog Brewery Snake Dog IPA. Everything in this beer I thought went well altogether. The cool looking label artwork, the quirky story and themes behind the brewery itself and of course the well put together beer inside the cool bottle. While nothing stood out as incredibly shocking or groundbreaking with this beer's flavor, no characteristic took anything away from it's excellent India Pale Ale attributes.

Flying Dog Brewery Snake Dog IPA has definitely bit me and I'll be getting off the porch and running with the big dogs right back to the bottle shop for a few more of these before the day ends tomorrow. I'd recommend Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA to any microbrew lover especially if you favor the more hoppy Pale Ales and India Pale Ale style beers. Get some today!!

If you even remotely enjoyed reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at my===>
beer blog
or =====>Craft Beer Reviews.

Cheers, and please drink responsibly!

flying dog brewery
snake dog ipa
IPA
india pale ale
microbrew
craft beer
beer blog
denver microbreweries
colorado microbreweries
maryland microbreweries

Pyramid Breweries Thunderhead IPA - A Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:03:00 +0000

Here's a real nice microbrew that's relaxing enough on the palate yet moderately challenging to the taste buds. I'm from way back east here in Pennsylvania but was lucky enough to snag myself a bottle of a longtime Washington state favorite microbrew from Pyramid Breweries. Pyramid was originally established in Washington way back in 1984 as a very small Seattle-based microbrewery.

Pyramid Brewery beers are not all that available here in the eastern part of the U.S. but I did notice a few other Pyramid offerings in the cooler on my beer hunt excursion tonight. I picked their Thunderhead IPA as my sampler for the evening out of the several Pyramid beers just because the name sounded cool, the label stood out and I typically like IPA's.

Pyramid Thunderhead did not disappoint either. I cracked and poured the 12 ounce bottle into my 10 ounce pub glass and was greeted with a fiery copper toned ale bursting in bubbly carbonation with a respectable 1 finger egg white frothy head that stuck for several minutes. The clarity was surprisingly clear, no haze and bubbles dancing eagerly.

This microbrew aroma offered much of the typical when it comes to an India Pale Ale. Fruity and pungent grapefruity citrus, just a mild hint of piney esters in the far distant background. Fresh and crisp came to mind from the scent. Nothing spectacular but nothing off or out of place.

First few sips gave off a super hop bomb impression. I've had quite a few IPA's in my time and like them very much but this beer was awesome. Very fresh flavor for being trucked across the country from the West Coast hoppy beer headquarters. The hoppy bitterness was surprisingly smooth and sweet at the finish of the swallow. There's some respectable malt backbone in there and a coating of piney oily aftertaste that left me sucking in my cheeks well after the swallow. A salty residue stood present acting almost as a chaser. This IPA makes you want to take another sip and fast.

Impressive doily-like lacing graced the beer mug walls and didn't go anywhere for the duration of the session almost like a skeleton of a beer long gone. Pyramid Thunderhead IPA was long gone before long.

This beer is very slick and easy drinking for how hoppy and bitter it is. I was surprised a little with how brewery fresh it tasted. The 6.7 percent alcohol by volume made itself noticeable but not so obtrusive as to distract or take anything away from the overall IPA experience.

I've had a lot of IPA's through the years. It's one of my favorite styles. While some might say this preference leads to biased reviews of IPA's, I think the opposite in that it makes me more discriminating as to what is or isn't a good India Pale Ale microbrew.

Pyramid Thunderhead IPA did surprise me with everything about it. I was wary at the start with the "twist-off" cap, but beyond that, this is one well built craft beer and an excellent IPA to boot. Fresh, smooth, well-balanced and representative of the style. The Washington, Oregon and West Coast microbreweries have a long standing history of producing some of the better bitterly hoppy beers and Pyramid Breweries Thunderhead IPA follows suit with some of the better that I've tried.

I'd recommend this microbrew and would personally pick up a sick pack if I could for a late summer event like a Labor Day picnic (when all your friends are drinking Coors Light). The only issue would be the higher than government issue 6.7% ABV that could get you in some trouble by beer number four or five. Watch it and enjoy Pyramid Thunderhead responsibly. I know I will! Cheers!!

If you found any enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at===>
Microbrew Review Beer Blog
or =====>Best Craft Beer Reviews.

Cheers, and please drink responsibly!

pyramid breweries
thunderhead ipa
IPA
india pale ale
microbrew
craft beer
beer blog
washington microbreweries

Lagunitas Brewery India Pale Ale - My Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:20:00 +0000

This cool looking small brown bottle with the plain aged parchment looking label caught my eye in the local six pack shop cooler this evening. What's the microbrew I'm referencing you ask? It's Lagunitas Brewery's very own special IPA (or India Pale Ale) offering that's on tap here at the house tonight.

As I mentioned, the label was cool because it was so plain (although it features a small depiction of the famous Lagunitas brewery spotted dog in the top right corner of the label. It was sort or reminiscent of one of those old Wild West "Wanted" posters.

For those of you who may not know, Lagunitas Brewing Company is a Petaluma, California-based microbrewery with a somewhat famous and storied history and a very cool and entertaining website (Lagunitas Brewery). Anyway, on to the beer at hand in in the plain, brown, cold 12 ounce bottle.

As I poured the microbrew into my 12 ounce pub glass, I took note of the awfully clear, clarity of this beer which is not out of the possibility for an IPA but in my experience somewhat rarer than most for such a chilled brew. Hues of robust burnt orange copper and bubbles bustling everywhere and mostly upwards greeted my eye blossoming into a wonderfully foamy eggshell marshmallow two finger head which stayed and lasted a good three minutes or so.

Dryed citrusy floral aroma wafted strongly off the top of the glass and surrounded my drinking vessel with a "come hither" hoppy scent. Already I'm liking what I see and smell.

The taste of Lagunitas Brewery's IPA does not disappoint, whether you are a huge fan of hops or just an adventurous microbrew and craft beer sampler alike. This beer is well put together.

The first sip went down very crisp with a pretty extreme dry hoppiness tang. Extreme but not offensive as I put it if that makes any sense. This is a beer that will not leave you guessing as to its style if you were drinking it blindfolded in some sort of blind microbrew taste test.

There's a citrus sense of grated grapefruit peels and clove in the the far background that contributes to the drinking enjoyment. As the beer warmed at about halfway through the twelve ounce mug, the swallow became stickier but still with a welling up of hoppy "kaaa-chow" at the end the crawls up the back of the roof of your mouth. The beer finished with a mild ripe peachy pine aftertaste that left me personally wanting another bottle. Unfortunately, that's not to be the case tonight unless I get the energy up (and the wife's purse change) to ride back down to the store to grab another bottle.

Overall, I'd give Lagunitas Brewery Company's India Pale Ale a 7.75 on my 1 to 10 microbrew and craft beer rating scale. I have no idea on what the alcohol by content is for this beer but there's no warming or burn effect that I could perceive during my beer session. I'd say you could have a few of these just about any time without getting too out of hand and the flavor and visual of this beer in your glass will be interesting enough to have you wanting to keep them coming. Not an out-of-the-bottle sipping beer.

If you're lucky enough to pick up California's own Lagunitas Brewery offerings any where in your neck of the woods in the continental US, I'd recommend picking up a bottle or two of the IPA whether you're an India Pale Ale fan or not, this beer's worth cracking the cap for.

If you found any enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Best Craft Beer Reviews. Click the links above and please let me know what you liked or hated and let me know any beers that you might like to see me review next time. Cheers and please drink responsibly!

lagunitas
lagunitas brewery
IPA
india pale ale
microbrew
california microbreweries

Weyerbacher Brewing Company Hops Infusion India Pale Ale - A Microbrew Blog Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 23:31:00 +0000

I picked up Weyerbacher Brewing Company's Hops Infusion this evening along with several other nifty looking India Pale Ales since I guess I'm in a hoppy mood. What else could it be that I focused on this particular style of microbrew to review for the remainder of the weekend?

Weyerbacher Brewing Company is based in Easton, Pennsylvania and has provided me with quite a few favorable reviews of many of their craft beer products I'm happy to say. I'm hoping their Hops Infusion India Pale Ale doesn't let me down and continues a fine track record for producing some good to great microbrews.

Cracking the bottle cap of this chilled 12 ounce brown bottle of brew, I poured carefully into my unchilled 10 ounce glass beer mug to find a visual display of an almost mahogany, copper colored liquid, slightly hazy from the chill is my initial assumption.

The beer smells pretty good just waving my nose several times intently across the brim of my beer mug. Zesty, spicy and that oh-so familiar hoppy scent that leads me anxiously into the first of many sips of the microbrew. Tinges of mild floral aroma add some character to the beer's bouquet.

The very first sip is crisp and crunching with the hops. There's a very good punch of tip-of-tongue bitterness with lively enough carbonation to make this beer "jump" on my tongue. Swallow is full and rich with an unobtrusive coating of malty sweetness on the sides of my mouth filtering to the far back of my tongue. There's an expected presence of piney citrus abound, but the malt ingredient in this Pennsylvania craft beer is very well balanced for the IPA style.

It's definitely bitter from the hops, as you would commonly expect from any India Pale Aleworth its salt, but very nicely balance and almost rich as silk from it's sweeter sidekick Mr. malt. I like it and I suspect many others might as well (if you're into hoppier beers and it's available in your neighborhood).

Weyerbacher Brewing Company continues to produce some of the better microbrews which I've been lucky enough to have the pleasure of sampling and reviewing. Hops Infusion follows suit and does nothing to tarnish that great microbrewing reputation. I'm not sure just how far west the Weyerbacher beer brand reaches in its marketing and distribution, but if you're in the mood for trying a new India Pale Ale, I'd recommend Weyerbacher Hops Infusion as a microbrew that will not set you into orbit, but will certainly make you want another one or two if you get the chance. It's a very good summer's evening back porch sitting with friends kind of IPA. Try it, you'll like it!

P.S. Weyerbacher Brewing Company Hops Infusion clocks in at 6.2% alcohol by volume according to the bottle label and website. Not over the top in ABV but enough to make you want to bear it in mind if you grab a six pack. Might be good to split with a friend if you plan to finish all six at an outing. One last note, the bottle beer label is a cool closeup photo-type image of a hop flower. Real nice and indicative of what you'll be getting inside the bottle.

If you found any enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Best Craft Beer Reviews. Click the links above and please let me know what you liked or hated and let me know any beers that you might like to see me review next time. Cheers and please drink responsibly!

weyerbacher
Weyerbacher Brewing
IPA
india pale ale
microbrew
Pennsylvania microbreweries

Clipper City Brewing Company Below Decks Barleywine Style Ale - A Microbrew Blog Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:43:00 +0000

Clipper City Brewing Company has become pretty high up on my list of great microbreweries lately. This Baltimore, Maryland microbrewery has put out some great beers and a few of them I've been lucky enough to sample as of late. Clipper City's Below Decks Barleywine (a 2007 vintage offering from their Heavy Seas line of microbrews) is just the latest in a series I've had the chance to enjoy recently.

I poured the chilled 12 ounce brown bottle of Below Decks into an unchilled pint glass. Color is a spectacularly clear copper and ruby. Awesome presence of carbonation and effervescence makes itself known. There really was no foam or beer head to speak of in this craft beer (as the photo above proves). Aroma was mildly of sweet fig and molasses, but not a very strong scent at all.

Taste is great! This barleywine style ale is thick, rich, sweet and sticky. Roasted malt is everywhere with molasses flavors abound. It's slick on the palate and sticky on the cheeks with a zest and zing yet on the tip of my tongue at the swallow that lingers for what seems a minute or two. While this beer is of the thicker sweet variety, it still offer a bubbly life to it. It takes on a personality of its own. It's alive!

Alcohol burn is reasonable but not overwhelming strong or present even given the fact that this craft beer is clocking in a a powerful 10% alcohol by volume rating. There is a warming effect in the chest and stomach after the first few swallows. Very nice indeed. I believe this beer has had just enough of time to mellow just a tad taking a bit of the sting off the alcohol kick that might have been too dominant had it been in a fresher state of existence, say maybe when it rolled off the bottling line late last summer or early fall (hard to say its born on date since there is no indication on the bottle).

I've gone through a few barleywines in my years of sampling craft beers. There are several that have really stood out to me and have held a warm spot in my heart over time. Clipper City Brewing Company's Below Decks Barleywine Style Ale does not rank right in the top 2 or 3 overall, but comes in respectably as a second tier barleywine in my book. It's certainly well put together and very tasty indeed. It's a sipper and not something I'd down more than one or two in an evening, but it offers enough to keep it interesting along the 30-60 minutes it takes for me to imbibe a full twelve ounces.

I can't find anything glaringly wrong or off with Below Decks Barleywine Ale. It's not the ultimate barleywine I've tried, but it's nowhere near the worst either. This is worth the try if you enjoy the stronger barleywine style ales. Pick up a bottle or two if you see it somewhere in your local sixpack shop. I don't think you'll be disappointed at all. As with any strong ABV craft beer and barleywine ales in particular, it might be a good bet to keep a spare in the fridge for a year or two before trying it out again just to see how well this barleywine matures over time. I'll get Clipper City Brewing Company's Below Decks Barley Wine Style Ale a 7.75 out of 10.00 on my personal microbrew rating scale. You'll enjoy the beer and check out the entertaining bottle label as well.

If you found any enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. Click through on the links above and please let me know what you liked or didn't like and let me know any beers that you might like to see me review next time. Cheers!

Clipper City Brewing Company
barleywine
Baltimore microbreweries
craft beer
microbrew
Maryland microbreweries

Speakeasy Untouchable Pale Ale - My Microbrew Review Blog Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:43:00 +0000

Speakeasy Ales & Lagers is a California-based microbrewery which proudly calls San Francisco its home of beer brewing operations. Tonight I grabbed a bottle of Speakeasy's Untouchable Pale Ale out of the cooler at my local mix a six craft beer and microbrew outlet. I'd have to admit that the bottle imagery of a screen printed 1930's mobster-type character with a sneaky looking pair of eyes painted on the bottle neck caught my eye the most out of the many bottles in the cooler to select from.

The text on the back of the bottle reads:

"Sssshh! During Prohibition, the masses were forced underground into the speakeasy. Hidden within the streets of the city, friends gathered where music played and drinks were poured... Untouchable does justice to the American Pale Ale, enforcing a strict balance of arresting hop flavor and a smooth maltiness that's just undercover."

Well, we'll see how it stands up to the promise.

Pouring the chilled brown bottle of micro brew into my 10 ounce glass beer mug, this American Pale Ale displays a rusty nail orangey color. It was very cloudy and high in floating yeast particulate. It wasn't the prettiest of beers to look at in my mug, but the respectable white and pillowy 3/4 inch head was admirable and stuck around quite a bit longer than I had guessed that it might.

Upon placing my nose up to the glass rim, I find that my olfactory senses are greeted with a musty floral scent, slightly oily and earthy all at once. Mild hints of lemon waft in the far distant background and pine makes a non-obtrusive appearance in this craft beer aroma.

Partaking of the first few sips of this chilled pale ale, the beer's mouthful was smooth and full. A respectable hoppy bitterness was present with lesser twinges of malty sweetness further in the background, but just enough to make the beer interesting and balanced overall. I sensed a grassy earthiness to Untouchable Pale Ale. Carbonation in the mouthful was fair and became more visually evident as the liquid cleared somewhat by mid glass. The swallow finished primarily clean with just a hint of citrus bitterness left mid-tongue.

Finishing off the full 12 ounce bottle, I'm left with wanting to try one more bottle of this craft beer. I got the feeling that I just might like this ale a little bit more upon a second sampling. At 5.5% alcohol by volume, I probably could have stood another bottle or two of Speakeasy Pale Ale. But I'd only picked up one tonight and will probably find myself moving on to other microbrews tomorrow.

I might try this beer again in the future. But overall, I didn't find any one particular feature that I could point to in making it one of the better American Pale Ales that I've sampled over time. It's worth a shot though and especially if you're just starting into the world of microbrews but just aren't quite ready for the further extremes of an IPA or the stronger imperial strength beers. Matching this beer up to it's perfect situational serving setting, I'd say this would be a great beer on ice, bottles piles high in a bushel barrel while sitting around a cozy beach fire with friends on a chilly summer's evening. I recommend giving Speakeasy Untouchable American Pale Ale a try sometime in your microbrew sampling endeavors.

If you found any enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. Click through on the links above and please let me know what you liked or didn't like and let me know any beers that you might like to see me review next time. Cheers!

Speakeasy Ales & Lagers
California Microbrewery
microbreweries
craft beer
microbrew
Speakeasy Untouchable American Pale Ale

Clipper City Brewing Company's Red Sky at Night Saison Ale - A Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:59:00 +0000

Clipper City Brewing Company's Red Sky at Night Saison Ale. Here's a craft beer I've never had the opportunity to sip down before let alone do a microbrew beer review about. I just picked up this single 12 ounce bottle from the famed Baltimore-based microbrewery tonight and was anxious to give it a try. Let's get started with the beer review shall we?

Pouring the chilled brown bottle into a 16 ounce pint glass, the "new penny" colored ale sparkled and shimmered with good carbonation and plentiful, playful tiny bubbles cascading eagerly upwards towards the surface. Once there, they formed a meager one finger layer of head that only lasted but a brief minute or so.

This Baltimore-based microbrew's aroma of strong candied fruit and yeasted malt wafted aggressively from the surface and all around the close proximity of my glass. Fruits of banana, plum and even a bit of sweet citrus come to mind along with the unmistakable scents of Belgian yeast. So far, this beer is looking and smelling pretty good.

Partaking of the first few sips of Red Sky at Night Saison Ale, my palate is greeted with a full bodied, sour yet sweet flavor. It's definitely Belgian in nature and thick in texture. The initial sweetness is quickly followed by the soured zesty fruitiness ending in a fairly clean swallow with a citrusy and oily presence left in the middle of the tongue. There's a certain level of spiciness to it as well which makes the ale quite refreshing, maybe almost too much so.

As the glass emptied to its halfway point, I observed an absence of any lacing or "legs" from this beer on the wall of my pint glass while the liquid still remained crisp and clear and full of carbonated energy. A timid ring of foam still lined the top perimeter of the glass at this point. Throughout the remainder of the sampling this Clipper City Brewing Company microbrew stays strong and consistent never wavering in flavor or scent.

Overall, I'd give Clipper City Brewing Company's Red Sky at Night Saison Ale a 7.75 on my microbrew rating scale of 1 to 10. This is a respectably complex and enjoyable craft beer that will please many fans of many wide-ranging microbrew styles yet will also satisfy those experienced and discriminating Saison Ale style afficiandos as well. The 7.5 percent alcohol by volume presents a warming factor in the gut which is not predominantly what you'd seek out in a seasonal beer this time of year being that it's late spring/early summer and all. But Clipper City's Red Sky at Night will definitely stand on its own merit no matter what the calendar says or what the occasion might be. Just don't go overboad with this "Heavy Seas" offering from Clipper City Brewing Company. Keep it "above board" when enjoying this microbrew. Ahoy Matey!! Cheers!!

If you actually experienced any level of enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. Click through on the links above and please let me know what you liked or didn't like and let me know any beers that you might like to see me review next time. Cheers!

Clipper City Brewing Company
Saison Ale
Baltimore microbreweries
craft beer
microbrew
Maryland microbreweries

Troegs Dreamweaver Wheat Beer - A Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:22:00 +0000

Spring's here!! Even though it hasn't felt like Spring the last couple of weeks, it's May 17th and summer's just around the corner...I hope! Now's a good time to start sampling and selecting some favorite summertime style microbrews and craft beers to enjoy during the upcoming sweltering hot months. My wife was kind enough to bring home a local Pennsylvania microbrew from our friends at Troegs Independent Craft Brewery out of Harrisburg, PA. This microbrew is none other than Troeg's Dreamweaver Wheat Beer (one I've somehow never tried before).

Anyway, I wasted no time in cracking open the 12 ounce chilled bottle and poured Dreamweaver Wheat agressively into my 14 ounce pilsner glass which just happened to be the only clean beer sampling vessel in the cupboard at the time.

Troegs Dreamweaver Wheat Beer revealed itself as a musty straw colored liquid with much carbonation bearing a one finger marshmallowy head at the surface which remained for all but only a short minute or two. Very cloudy, chilled haze was the predominant visual from this unfiltered wheat craft beer.

The aroma was strongly reminiscent of bananas and clove, very sweet with just a mild hint of allspice in the far background. This was a very nice scent for this microbrew and not unexpected being a wheat beer by nature.

Troeg's Dreamweaver Wheat Beer tastes great in a nutshell. The beer is zingy on the tongue and vibrantly bright. Bananas do overwhelm the flavor in my opinion, but in a sweet and sensual way for this style of beer. It's smooth and velvety with its natural oily sensation slickening and coating the back of the mouth before swirling down into the gullet. This microbrew does have a little bit of weight to it for a summertime beer but I like it. There's not a lot of hops to be noted but that's also to be expected and the lack thereof didn't disappoint in any way or distract from the beer.

In all honesty, from my past experiences, wheat ales have never been my absolute favorite style of microbrew. But Troeg's Dreamweaver Wheat Beer is one of those beers that just might change my mind in the long run. I could definitely sit out back on the porch after a hot July afternoon of mowing the grass and easily see myself putting back two or three of these well crafted Pennsylvania microbrews one after the other. And with the convenient 4.8% alcohol by volume rating, this is a craft beer that won't get you in too much trouble too quickly. That's a real change of pace from some of my other favorite beers that are heavy on the ABV.

Troeg's Dreamweaver Wheat Beer is a champ in my book when it comes to wheat beers specifically and summertime style beers in general. I'll definitely be keeping an eye open for another couple of these brews to grace the beer fridge for the warm months ahead. I'm going to give Dreamweaver Unfiltered Wheat Beer a 7.0 on the microbrew Richter scale and throw more kudos to the fine beer brewing brothers at the Troeg's Independent Craft Brewery in Harrisburg, PA. Those guys know what they're doing when it comes to brewing no matter the style or season. Pick up some Dreamweaver Wheat now while you can before it's gone like leaves on the trees in the fall.

If you actually experienced any level of enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. Click through on the links above and please let me know what you liked or didn't like and let me know any beers that you might like to see me review next time. Cheers!

troegs
summer beers
microbrew
craft beer
Pennsylvania microbreweries

A Microbrew Review of Samuel Adams Irish Red Ale

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:05:00 +0000

I'd been meaning to pick up a bottle of Samuel Adams Irish Red ever since I'd seen it for the first time in the local beer cooler right before St. Patty's Day. For whatever reason, I passed on it at the time and am just finally getting around to sampling this Boston Beer Company offering after grabbing a single 12 ounce bottle of it tonight.

I poured 12 chilled ounces of this ale into a standard 10 ounce glass mug discovering a fiery ruby colored liquid bursting with those lively tiny effervescent bubbles o' joy just racing gleefully to the top of my beer mug. Those little bubbly leprachauns formed a gloriously frothy eggshell colored head that stuck around for a good five minutes and never fully dwindled down to non-existent. Foamy and creamy was my general impression.

The nose of this craft beer was malty and sweet with a tinge of allspice in the far distant horizon. What that was doing in this beer, I'm not sure. Sweet and malty sticks in my mind though.

The first few sips of Samuel Adams Irish Red was smooth and silky. I may have been better served to let the beer warm in my glass a bit before partaking but as it warmed a bit at mid-bottle, more flavors came out to round out that malty kiss of sugar. The predominant sweetness was nicely balanced with a mild hop backstop and notes of smoked peat appeared and left its mark on my palate.

As the beer in my glass dwindled, there was not much in the way of lacing or "beer legs" gracing the glass walls but I was mainly focused on drinking Sam Adams Irish Red, not looking at it for long periods of time.

My bottom line review of Samuel Adams Irish Red leaves me thinking that this is a very good beer, one of my favorite ales from the Boston Beer Company. This is smooth drinking, packed with flavor and easy to imbibe in more than one or two without going over the top in the alcohol by volume realm. I only wished that, knowing what I know now, I'd have picked up a six pack of this ale to have on hand and enjoy at this year's St. Patrick's Day celebrations. It's definitely a supremely enjoyable and well put together craft beer that I will be sure to keep in mind and look for come early March of 2009.

If you have a chance to grab a left over, straggling bottle from your local beer purveyor's shelves from this year's batch of Irish Red Ale, it's definitely worth a shot and your time. Samuel Adams Irish Red is a winner. Thanks again Boston Beer Company!

Oh, by the way, I'll give this beer review a 8.00 out of 10.00 points on my microbrew and craft beer review ratings scale. Boston Beer Co. knows what they're doing when it comes down to brewing!

If you found any level of enjoyment at all in reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. Click through on the links above and please do let me know what you liked or didn't like and also any beers that you might like to see me review next time!

sam adams
samuel adams
microbrew
craft beer

Victory Brewing Company's Hop Wallop - A Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:48:00 +0000

A Microbrew Review of Victory Brewing Company's Hop Wallop

Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, Pennsylvania

Sure, it's St. Patrick's Day today. But for whatever reason, I picked up a bottle of Hop Wallop from Victory Brewing Company at tonight's visit to my local mix six beer purveyor. Notably, this beer is a yearly Fall season brew but this bottle was still hanging around in the cooler and it's got a "enjoy by" date of 12/6/08, so what the heck, right? Hop Wallop is customarily classified as an Imperial India Pale Ale craft beer, brewed and bottled at Victory Brewing's Pennsylvania-based Downingtown brewery.

This imperial IPA poured a cloudy, chill-hazed burnt orange from the 12 ounce brown bottle into my unchilled 16 ounce pint glass. The head of this beer quickly rose to a 3/4 inch, pillowy meringue froth that lasted a good 2-3 minutes before slowly subsiding.

This craft ale's aroma wafted up, out and about from my glass, ringing true to a strong hoppy character. Very bold in bitter grapefruit and cheering from the sideline presence of fresh pine was predominant.

The initial sip of this Victory Brewing Co offering puckered my mouth and gave off a zesty kick of otherworldly hops bitterness. The primary flavor is bitter grapefruit and it lasts through to the swallow. Carbonation level isn't a distraction at all and it ends by going down pretty smoothly although there is a sticky lollipop sour aftertaste that lingers well after. There is just a glimmering hint of a spicey flavor to it in the background, almost clove-like, but not much.

Hop Wallop is strong, very strong in its overbearing hop supremacy. Any malt in this Victory beer? It's close to impossible to detect that's for certain but it's got to be in there somewhere. In looking more closely at the label, I can see that this Pennsylvania craft beer boasts a pretty hefty alcohol by volume rating of 8.5%. I couldn't tell it however as the alcohol content appears very well cloaked in this Pennsylvania based microbrew. Either way, in flavor and in alcohol, it's not a chugging beer, at least not for me. One interesting note is that by about 1/3 left in my glass, this microbrew is especially clear and crystalline almost. It changed appearance about as quick as the weather does here in Western Pennsylvania.

Overall though, my personal opinion is that Victory Brewing Company Hop Wallop is a very good beer although pretty straight-forward and one dimensional in complexity. This ale is probably the king of beers when it comes down to sheer hop bitter terror. It's all about the hops. I personally enjoyed Hop Wallop, but I would guess that there are likely many folks who wouldn't if hoppy beers are not their cup of tea. In fact, even if hoppy beers are your favorite, Hop Wallop still might not be the ticket. It depends. This Imperial IPA falls on the extreme end of bitter hop bombs. I'd give Victory Brewing Company's Hop Wallop an 8.0 out of 10.0 points on my scale. It's a worthy brew for your bucks and especially worth a sit down with for any hop head out there.

P.S. The label on the bottle features a cartoon slappy pappy miner 49er character who goes by the moniker of Horace "Hop" Wallop, at least according to the entertaining little label story about the origin of Victory Hop Wallop. Maybe the story's true, maybe it's not. You decide.

Microbrew Review of Samuel Adams Double Bock - by the Boston Beer Company

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:50:00 +0000

March is here and spring is just around the corner finally. And with Spring comes the spring seasonal beers. I have a few spring craft beers that I look out for each year around this time, but I'm always trying to find new beers to sample no matter what the season.

Tonight at the local six and save beer shop, I was able to procure a craft beer that I hadn't tried to date. This beer is none other than Samuel Adams Double Bock. This late winter/early spring seasonal beer is brought to me by our good friends at the Boston Beer Company. I've noticed this past year that Samuel Adams has produced seasonal beers as a limited time offerings. I'm not sure exactly when this practice started but this is the first time I'd seen Samuel Adams Double Bock anywhere. But hey, I'm a guy and an amateur and I don't pay alot of attention sometimes I guess. Maybe this Doppelbock beer from Sam Adams has been around for years and I just missed it. Either way, I was excited to give this craft brew a shot.

I poured this beer into an unchilled 10 ounce glass mug. The beer was a beautiful deep coppery mahogany color and shimmered when held up to the little. Very tiny, frisky bubbles of carbonation dodged and darted their way quickly to the surface forming a creamy eggshell colored head that lasted but for a brief minute or two before settling to a meager corona of foam against the mug wall. I was a little surprised to see so much noticeably active carbonation.

The aroma of Sam Adams Double Bock is of strong, sticky sweet syrupy malt with tinges of alcohol stinging just a little on the nose. An almost carmel and licorice hint lingered very faintly in the background.

I'd poured this beer a little bit cold and found the first sip to be noticably strong and chewy with alcohol presence more present than I'd have expected. It actually was a little more present than I would like. As the beer warmed about half mug, the alcohol fell more into the background but provided a warming sense to the belly. I was impressed with the amount of spider web lacing down the side of the mug that Sam Adams Double Bock left as a ghost of the beer that used to be there.

Samuel Adams Double Bock got smoother and more enjoyable as it warmed. It's filling and chewy and finishes admirably clean for such a malty brew. The Bavarian hops ingredient in this craft beer only makes a forgettable cameo as Double Bock is all about massive quantities of malt and that's really what a good double bock beer should be.

My bottom line is that I really enjoyed my review of Samuel Adams Double Bock. It's a great spring seasonal beer and I found it very drinkable yet almost a meal in itself. It was filling and thick yet crisp and refreshing in an "end of winter" sort of way. I couldn't see myself pouring this beer on a hot summer lawn mowing day, but for the first few mid 50 degrees days of the coming spring, Sam Adams Double Bock hit the spot. I will caution that this Double Bock rates a whopping 8.8 percent alcohol by volume, so be respectful and sip responsibly. It's not really a chugging kind of beer anyway.

I'm no expert on double bock beers, but I really liked Samuel Adams Double Bock and will seek out another bottle or two to sample again before the heat waves of summer. I'm also looking forward to whatever Samuel Adams might come out with as their special Summer Seasonal Beer in the upcoming months. Sam Adams Double Bock rates an 8.25 out of 10.00 with me and I hope you like it too if you get a chance to try it. It'll shake you right out of those late winter doldrums and into spring.

If you by chance found any mild enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. Click through on the links above and please do let me know what you liked or didn't like and also any beers that you might like to see me review next time!

Saranac Winter Wassail Microbrew Review

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:46:00 +0000

Although it's now March, I was able to pick up a straggler winter beer sampler 24 pack of Saranac's 12 Beers of Winter. The 12 beers is actually only 6 different styles of beers in 2 separate 12 packs (a little misleading as I'd initially thought I'd have the opportunity to sample 2 of 12 different brews).

Anyway, the price was right and I'd had several pretty good past experiences with craft beers from Saranac (Saranac's actually one of the brand names of beers brewed by Matt Brewing Company out of Utica, New York). This case of craft beer looked festive enough from the design on the packaging and since it is still officially winter, I thought I'd give it a try.

Saranac Wassail Ale, as served from the traditionally classic brown glass bottle (with fairly festively cool label)poured a crisp cool looking copper pink into an unchilled 16 ounce standard pint glass.

The perky foamy head rose in agitated fashion to a billowy off-white head of a good three quarters inch, but simmered down in less than 2 minutes to virtually nothing. Nothing too notable here yet.

Aroma is festive. Malty and sweet with rough edges of fruit and spice. A very faint raison/clove scent eminates. Not alot like many Christmas ales I've sampled these past few months. For a spiced ale, I sense more in the way of fruit presense.

This winter ale microbrew provided a fairly crisp flavor. Sweet and malty at first but more in the way of fruit presense as I progressed mid-glass via the warming stages. The sweetness and malt tended to transgress to a fruity, plum-like flavor. Not so much on the spice side once hitting mid-glass with warming. I really don't know the alcohol by volume rating of this beer but assume it's under 6%. If it's more than that, it's extremely well hidden.

Saranac's Winter Wassail is an enjoyable microbrew. It's refreshing, a little unique, and fruity in an unobtrusive manner. I imagined more prominence in the way of spices judging by the label description, but was more impressioned with the fruit side of this ale. Plum sticks foremost in my mind, at least with this particular 12 ounce bottle.

If you haven't tried any beers from Saranac yet, this microbrewery's offerings are definitely worth a shot. I've sampled several from the Matt Brewing Co and have rarely had any extreme disappointments. I would describe many of Saranac's beers as great "crossover" beers to the craft beer world. Saranac Winter Wassail out of their Winter Beers mixed sampler pack is worthy of inclusion in the mix of 24. It's more of a milder Christmas beer I'd say with better enjoyment promised upon consumption around festively warmer holiday meals rather than while riding out a late winter blizzard in the freezing cold of an unsurrendering winter. This is global warming? How can we get some more? I think we need it.

A Microbrew Review of Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:30:00 +0000

Okay folks. Here's my review of Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA.

I snagged this Imperial India Pale Ale tonight at my local mix and match bottle shop. Good deals abound tonight which is always a good sign and a great start to the Super Bowl weekend (I'm wrecklessly predicting a Giants upset by two points by the way. But hey, what do I know?)

90 Minute Imperial IPA is proudly produced by Dogfish Head Craft Ales, a craft beer brewery based in Milton, Delaware. For those of you who haven't heard of Dogfish Head brewery, they're known for their "experimental" and "extreme beers". While they have a few brews more or less considered their flagships and more accessible to the average microbrew drinker, they've always been on the cutting edge of craft beer brewing since their humble beginnings by their founder Sam Calgione way back in 1995. And with some of the Dogfish Head craft beers I've sampled to date, it might just be that we may only be in the beginning stages of experiencing some great, extreme out-of-this-world, unthinkable microbrews from the friendly Dogfish Head folks in Milton, DE. They definitely seem to keep an open mind when it comes to brewing.

So anyway, on to the beer at hand. First off, let me say I like the beer bottle design. I got mine in a 12 ounce brown bottle. The label features the familiar dogfish head shark overlaying an aged parchment colored paper with a screening of hops prominently displayed in the background. The brewery description reads: "What you have here is an Imperial India Pale Ale featuring a single constant 90-minute hop addition. It's balanced by a ridiculous amount of English Two-row Barley. Then we dry hop it in every tank." Yes, they really do!

90 Minute IPA pours a sparkling champagne copper with bubbles vibrant and abound. It sparkles! It shines! It almost seems alive and the hoppy musk eminates aggressively well off of the surface emcompassing any airdom within reach of the nose. Great aroma with a "sweet?" hoppy scent. Almost sticky, sugar hops if there is such a thing. Would make a great cereal, wouldn't it? Mom, can I have a bowl of Sticky Sugar Hops? The head raced up the side of my meager, unchilled 12 ounce mug and almost jumped the fence to freedom. After a few minutes though, it reduced to a manageable level and maintained a subtle film throughout the sampling.

This craft beer's flavor was tremendous folks. Thick, hoppy, bitter and rich all in one. 90 Minute IPA offers a lasting, unobtrusive mouthful of strong bitters and hops rounded off amazingly well with a malty and sweet stickiness that almost makes this craft beer a meal in itself. I noticed progressively more chewiness as the beer warmed. It's a dramatic contrast from the take back of initial hop shock. A marshmallowy coating of lace graced the side of my mug as I reduced it's 12 ounce volume to just a few drops on the bottom. I just don't know how they keep it all together here with this beer. For a Double India Pale Ale, this beer offer a lot of character and many facets not commonly found in Imperial IPA's.

Probably my only negative that I can give Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA is the fact the it clocks in at a whopping 9.0% alcohol by volume (according to the label). And it's a blatantly noticeable alcohol burn in tasting this microbrew that supports that. 90 Minute IPA is so doggone good and so tempting in making me want for more. It's just not something I can stand more than two of in any one sitting. Oh well, it's still great to have found a beer this worthy of waiting and looking forward to for the next time around. I'll head back to the store and stock up on a few more to keep in the beer fridge for the next few days.

Summary: Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA is probably one of the best all-around craft beers that I've had to date. It's just so well rounded in all aspects, but still it screams extreme in the fact that it doesn't lean in any one direction or categorization than would be reasonably assumed. If I could find this beer at a standard 5.0% abv, I'd have 90 Minute IPA as my "go-to beer" all the time. If you like IPA's and Double IPA's, give Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA a go. You most likely won't be disappointed and you just might find a new favorite beer. It's worth it. I'd give Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA a 9.75 out of 10.00 on my craft beer rating scale. Get some today!!

dogfish head
dogfish head brewery
microbrew
craft beer
imperial india pale ales

If you had any fun or enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and love craft beers in particular, you'll find more reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. I've also review Dogfish Head Punkin Ale if you care to check it out. Click through on the links above and please do let me know what you liked or didn't like and also any beers that you might like to see me review next time!

A Microbrew Review of Anchor Brewing Company's "Our Special Ale"

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:50:00 +0000

I was lucky to find and procure several bottles of Anchor Brewing Company's "Our Special Ale" tonight. Anchor Brewing Company craft beer products are not easily found in my locale (here in Western Pennsylvania) and a special find like Anchor Brewing Company's Christmas Ale 2007 seasonal beer is not one to just take for granted.

I've heard and read quite a lot about Anchor Brewing Company (based way, way out in California as a San Francisco-oriented craft beer brewery)and have had the opportunity only to try a couple of their lovingly produced ales. I know of one gentleman who frequents my local bottle shop who always seems to be grabbing a 12 pack of Anchor Steam Ale every time I'm there. I'm guessing it's "his beer" and perhaps he possibly drinks nothing else. Maybe that's a strong indicator of Anchor Brewing's cult type following nationally. Who knows for sure?

Anyway, on to Anchor Brewing Co.'s Christmas Ale. This Christmastime seasonal beer is only offered from November to January each year and the recipe differs each year as well. I've discovered that the "tree" on the front of the label is an actual unique tree also. Very ketchy. I like the marketing already. The label lists the 2007 vintage as well as "Merry Christmas & Happy New Year"! Nice, especially nowadays where everywhere you turn, people seem to go out of their way to be politically correct in leaving the word "Christmas" out of anything they print or portray.

Pouring the 12 ounce brown, glass bottle of ale into my trusty 14 ounce glass mug, this beer pours an almost opaque dark ruby with an abundance of carbonation (bubbles firing everywhere) and a huge billowing head of fluffy carmel frost on top. Very visually inviting this beer is.

Aroma is spicy, scents of mild carmel, sweet fruits (dates?!?) and a slight twinge of what I perceived as cloves. Hmmm, very interesting so far.

Tipping the mug back to my lips, Anchor's "Our Special Ale" does not disappoint or let down in the slightest. This craft beer is crisp and refreshing and lively in every sense of the word. I could very much just describe this seasonal beer in one simple word, "festive". It's very smooth and gives a sweet malty coating on the palate. Very chewy, almost a meal in itself. I tasted a nice balance of hop backbone to offset the sweet, malt characters and the spice made its presence felt just enough to not be too overbearing. I really like the balance and it's just hard to describe the equilibrium between the beer feeling heavy but still alive and zesty at the same time. If a craft beer could be judged on its ability to seem like a living organism, Anchor Brewing Company's 2007 vintage of "Our Special Ale" would be that beer for me.

In brief summary, I personally would highly recommend Anchor Brewing Co.'s "Our Special Ale" for your next holiday meal or festive gathering. I'd recommend this one to my dearest of friends. Anchor Christmas Ale is rich, robust, refreshing, pleasing to the eye and boasts loads and loads of character. It's an interesting ale that I could personally enjoy more than 2 or 3 of at a sitting without getting bored even in the slightest. In a nutshell, this is one great craft beer any time of the year, let alone as a special Christmas Ale. I guess that just lends a little more to its mystique, being that there's only just a small window of time for you to pick some up for your beer refrigerator before it's all gone until the 2008 edition is released next Christmas. I will give Anchor Brewing Company's Christmas Ale a big 8.75 out of 10.00 points in my ratings as an excellent representation of what a celebratory Christmas time, holiday ale should be. It's a winner!

If you experienced any slight fun or enjoyment in perusing this microbrew beer review and, if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more reviews of both new and old microbrews, craft beers of all kinds, and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. Click through on the links above and please take a second to let me know what you liked or didn't like and also note any beers that you might like to see me review next time! Hey, I'm new at this beer review thing. I need to know what I should be trying out!

A Microbrew Review of Abita Christmas Ale

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:12:00 +0000

I have to admit, I picked up a couple 12 ounce bottles of Abita Brewing Company Christmas Ale this evening just solely because of the shiny silver foil printed labels. Something about the appearance of the bottle just shouted "festive". I had to give it a try. And being the holiday season, this beer fit right in. I'll be blunt by saying I'd trying a couple of the year round offerings from Abita Brewing Company (a microbrewery based in Abita Springs, Louisiana) and at least with those microbrews was not the most impressed. I was hoping Christmas Ale might be a little different.

Pouring Abita Christmas Ale into a standard unchilled 12 ounce beer mug, I was presented with an amber, reddish vibrant hue. The beer looked "zesty" so to speak with a bold bright color and energetic bubbles abound everywhere. There was no notable head to point out and despite it's bubbly appearance, the beer gave off a "thin" image.

Taking the first couple sips of Abita Christmas Ale was where it really got going for me. The nose was sweet and bready. A little bit of clove mixed in. Not a whole lot of out of the box going on here but the flavor was respectable. It was a little thin for my taste, but still with a bit of Christmas Ale type spice and bite. Abita Christmas Ale was clean, crisp and refreshing. It gave off a little bit of holiday-esque sensation through it's spiciness but kept it drinkable with the balance of hops throughout. It didn't go over the top.

I actually could imagine myself enjoying several of these regularly during a typical microbrew session throughout the year regardless of the season. Abita Brewing Company Christmas Ale was just that darned drinkable and easy to put down. Now, if only all the Abita Brewing Company offerings were in the same ballpark of flavor, I'd be more and more on the lookout for Abita Brewing offerings in my local microbrew bottleshop haunt and at the beer distributor as well.

As a quick wrap up, I'd have to say that I do recommend the Abita Brewing Company Christmas Ale to anyone who's asking. It's not all that complex of a brew and certainly not as sweet, thick, or spicy as a lot of Christmas craft beers are know for, but Abita Christmas Ale holds it's own, is very drinkable and is at least interesting enough to make you pay attention to the beer throughout the entire bottle consumption process. I noticed a little more flavor as the beer warmed and a little more warmth from the milder levels of alcohol by volume included in this beer as well.

I'd recommend going out and picking up a bottle or two of Abita Brewing Company's Christmas Ale if you do get an opportunity to this holiday season. The festive label will make it look a little more exciting than it is, but the beer will not disappoint and would be a nice, "lighter" craft beer addition to any holiday gathering throughout this Christmas beer drinking season.

If you had any fun or enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and love craft beers in particular, you'll find more reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. Click through on the links above and please do let me know what you liked or didn't like and also any beers that you might like to see me review next time!

A Microbrew Review of Victory Festbier - Oktoberfest Style Lager by Victory Brewing Company

noreply@blogger.com (David James) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 01:44:00 +0000

Here's another craft beer in the Oktoberfest vein picked up just this week at my local microbrew and craft beer bottle shop. This beer is another from a Pennsylvania brewery which I've become quite fond of over the past two years. Welcome to Festbier Lager from Victory Brewing Company, a brewery based in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

As mentioned in previous posts, I'm really starting to come along in beginning to appreciate the Oktoberfest style beers this fall. I thought I'd try this Festbier being that it's described right on the label as an Oktoberfest style lager.

Upon pouring the properly chilled beer into an unchilled sixteen ounce pint glass, it's easy to describe this beer as a burnt, rusty orange color with a little bit of cloudiness and haze. Festbier poured with almost no head to speak of and very minimal evidence of carbonation. From appearance, it almost looks like it may be spoiled or flat.

Smell is faint. No very much eminating from the surface as far as aroma goes until you really take a good whiff. Scent is somewhat sweet and predominantly of bready malt, maybe almost a toast smell with a strange orange peel presence as well (almost like one of those gel fruit candies shaped like oranges and lemons...strange).

Several sips into the beer, it's got a little more of a carbonated feel to it than its appearance admits. Beer tingles a little on the palate. Not very much excitement in the flavor however. It's got the typical bready, German malt flavor but nothing out of the ordinary or striking. There's not a whole lot in the way of hops bitterness (nor anything tasting like the orange peel as hinted to in the aroma). It wasn't very crisp and left a somewhat unpleasant sour aftertaste on the tongue well afterwards.

As far as an Oktoberfest beer goes, Victory Brewing Company Festbier is pretty standard in the real of Oktoberfests, although it's easy for me to deduct from sampling this beer that I have had better Oktoberfest beers. It's decent enough to drink and is not drain pour quality certainly, but running out and purchasing a 24 bottle case of this at $27.00 for my party this Saturday is something I will not be doing. I probably wouldn't have more than one and I'm guessing my guests would not as well.

My final assessment of Victory Brewing Festbier is ho-hum, which disappoints me a little being that this beer was from one of my growing favorite local Pennsylvania microbreweries. I wanted to like it more, but just can't honestly say it's on my short list to be drinking again anytime real soon. At 5.60% alcohol by volume, this would be a beer you could enjoy a few of on a warm fall evening on the back porch after a football game. But I just don't see myself doing that with Festbier. It's worth a try though and maybe it might be a better experience for you though. Who knows. But in the world of countless Oktoberfest microbrews, with so many beers and so little time, I might steer you towards another beer to satisfy your fall Oktoberfest season beer hankering.

In all fairness though, Victory Brewing Company is a fantastic craft beer brewery with incredible beers. For Victory Festbier though, I'd rate this Oktoberfest beer a 6.00 out of 10.00 points.

If you had any fun or enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and love craft beers in particular, you'll find more reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. Click through on the links above and please do let me know what you liked or didn't like and also any beers that you might like to see me review next time!