U.S. Beer Tour

A Bit of Southern Hospitality: Raleigh NC

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 00:58:00 +0000

So I had to rush South for the weekend recently. Time was short and, as I've bemoaned to the point of becoming a theme on this blog, brewpubs just aren't how they do things in the South. They just don't. The brewers brew. The restaurateurs... er... restaurant?

So one has to go looking. I looked and I found the Carolina Ale House. It's a family restaurant / sports bar and grill that basically has a lot of beer. Nothing special, but nothing to complain about either.

I focused on beers from North Carolina and this is the sample I came up with:

Big Boss Brewing - Bad Penny: This is a dark ale from a local Raleigh brewery. There was a light, sweet caramel aroma. The flavors were on the light side. A kind of bitter, woody flavor mixed with a bit of roasted malt and caramel sweetness. Herbal, floral hops came in toward the end and gave this beer a dry finish.

Red Oak Brewing: Red Oak Lager: Red Oak is all about simplicity. There are breweries that churn out a multitude of different beers that leaves malt heads staring at beer menu like a child that's been told he can have all the candy. Red Oak has two. One of those is their German Lager. I picked up a very light fruit aroma. The fruit sweetness continued on the top of the flavor with a tiny hint of noble hops in the back. Very refreshing session beer.

Foothills Brewing Company - Foothills Torch Pilsner: A light lager from the next town over. This beer was surprisingly heavy on the hops for a style that tends to favor the light flavors. There seemed to be very little malt here so the lemongrass, herbal flavor from the hops were kind of allowed to run the show. I liked it for the fact that it had a decent amount of flavor, but the hops could be scaled back a tad.

Pints at the Station: Baltimore, Maryland

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 00:16:00 +0000

Way out on the East Coast and Baltimore this week. I was banished to the suburbs this time, but it put me close to a nice little restaurant and brewpub that might normally be too far out to make the trip worthwhile.

The Redbrick Station is mostly a grill and bar type restaurant. I don't know if beer is really their specialty, it was good, but it didn't seem to be the focus. It was good, but not spectacular. The beer was more or less what you would expect from the styles although they did have a cask conditioned beer available, so that's a pretty big mark in their favor.

I would both recommend and warn against the fish and chips here. They are awesome. At the same time they pile the plate high with french fries and big-old cuts of battered fish. If you missed lunch, like I did that day, you might be tempted to eat the whole thing. It was delicious, but it did create a gastronomical adventure later in the evening.

I guess, what i am saying, enjoy in moderation.

Now, the beer.

Honey Go Light: A light honey ale that makes the honey known in a very pleasing aroma. The dry, sweet flavor is fairly prominent off the top followed by bread flavors and a fizzy mouthfeel. As light ales go, this was pretty good. Probably not something to reach for everyday, but refreshing when summer starts cranking the heat up,

Avenue Ale: There was a very light citrus aroma here. I could detect the hops in the aroma, but not nearly as much in the flavor. There was some slightly roasted, bread and malt flavor. The citrus was there but overall this beer just didn't have the flavor I like in a pale.

Something Red: No aroma I could detect here. The flavor was first dominated by malty flavors with hints of dark cherry fruit. Pine and floral hops started very, very light and slowly climbed to give the beer a dry, bitter flavor.

Cask Conditioned Red Ale: The same beer as above served just below room temperature and naturally carbonated. This really brought out a malty aroma that just wasn't there before. There was a little bit of caramel sweetness with the malt and dark cherry in the flavor. There was more sweetness here, but the hops still managed to cut through it at the end.

Daily Crisis IPA: Just a hint of citrus in the aroma. As far as IPA's go this was a bit different. First there is lots of light malt but almost no hops. You have to wait a bit. Give it a few seconds. Keep waiting... hold... there it is. Pine and floral hops eventually show up almost after the rest of the flavor has already passed. I enjoyed it to a certain degree but I think those who really, really like an IPA would find this disappointing and they would probably be right to think that.

Spooners Stout: Intense coffee aroma here. Kind of a drier Guinness clone although I did get hints of chocolate peaking out from the creamy roasted grain flavor.

Scotch Ale: This packed a hell of a hop wallop for the style. Sweet roasted malt with light cherry fruit carried most of the flavor but there was a very distinct pine bitterness.

The Bounty Part 2: The Others

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 00:14:00 +0000

Okay, so I wasn't quite done with Layffette Brewing Company. As I said last week, their beer is pretty much awesome and it is plentiful. However, if for some reason some person were to glance up at their beer board and dismiss it with both a 'phooey' and maybe even a 'pesha' you do have options.

Oh so many options.

Since I already drank my way through what they had to offer, I went back to wade farther into Indiana beer.

Sun King - Sunlight Cream Ale: This was the last of Sun King's regular brews I hadn't gotten my hands on. I talked about the Osiris IPA and the Wee Mac in a previous post. I picked up a sweet lemon grass aroma. True to the nature of a cream ale, it had some extra body and a good dose of sweet cream flavor. There was maybe a hint of citrus in the back, but mostly pretty much what you would expect from the style. Not bad in any sense, but lacks a bit of complexity.

Triton Brewing Company - Rail Splitter: A flagship IPA from another Indianapolis brewery that appeared on my radar. I picked up citrus hops on the aroma and really, really picked it up in the flavor. The floral and citrus was pretty intense but is was tempered to a certain degree by some caramel malt. Hoppy IPA, but not so much that it can only be enjoyed by someone who can check the IBU's in their bloodstream.

Flat 12 Bierwerks - Pogues Run Porter: A regular brew from another Indianapolis Brewery that appeared on my radar (The damn things must be breeding somehow). The name of this porter tips its hat to the British working-class origins of the style. The name and label also appear to be a shout-out to Shane McGowen of the Pogues. I'm not a hundred percent sure but I'll let you be the judge:

If nothing else, a reminder to floss regularly.

Anyway, I liked the licorice, coffee aroma on this beer. Lots of that same bitter coffee as well as some chocolate make this a pretty typical porter. A decent amount of wood and pine hops add just a hint of complexity that give it a something extra. A typical porter with a kick, you might say.

And with the above image forever burned into your brain, that's it for Indiana for now... I swear. At least for a week. Maybe more. We will see.

Cheers.

The Bounty: Lafayette Brewing Company

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:09:00 +0000

Maybe it's the disturbing amount of time I've spent here over the years, but I find that Indiana is a little-known gem in the world of awesome grain-based beverages. Every time I find myself wandering this weird little state in the middle of the country looking for beer, I find it. And every time I figure that, this time, I'm probably getting to the bottom of the barrel. When I come back, I realize that there is more beer underneath.

For today's post I had to venture far from the welcoming lights of Indianapolis, but not too far.

Lafayette Brewing boasts award winning beers brewed locally. Not exactly a unique stance for a local brewery, but well deserved in any case. The first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of different styles they had available during my visit. There's something about staring down at three sampler trays that makes you slowly push your car keys to the other side of the table and steel yourself for a long battle.

They were plentiful and, for the most part, they were excellent. As I go through the line there were, I think two that really didn't resonate. Really, I don't think they were bad as much as I don't think they weren't as good as their siblings.

Overall I was impressed. There's a bunch to talk about, so let's not stand on ceremony. Time to pull up a pint... or two...

...or twelve.

HMS Porter: Pretty standard charcoal and coffee aroma that hides something a bit unusual for a porter. The flavor is heavy on some bitter herbal hops with some bitter coffee flavors that blend surprisingly well. The flavors are propped up with some creamy sweetness that leads to a very nice and rather complex porter.

East Side Bitter: I couldn't pick up much of an aroma here. This turned out to be a pretty simple, nice session beer. Toasty caramel sweetness with a bitter herbal back. Nothing earth shattering but very nice.

Black Angus Oatmeal Stout: I picked up a little liquorice on the aroma here. The flavor had lots of bitter for a stout beer. I picked up lots of smoky, woody flavors along with a pretty heavy herbal flavor.

Take Flight APA: American Pale with a heavy citrus floral aroma. This is one of the few I didn't really dig since it was pretty heavy on the hops dancing dangerously close to triggering a hop bomb. It would be okay for an IPA but it was too much for a pale.

Electric Oatmeal Stout: They do love their oatmeal here. This also presented with a woody aroma, but the flavor and mouthfeel were much smoother. This stayed on the sweeter side of the equation and mixed the woody leather flavors with some coffee and sweet chocolate. Nice contrast to the Black Angus.

Cask Aged Hazelnut HMS Porter: I picked up a very light herbal aroma here, a different variation from it's draught brother. The flavor was also richer with a heavy dose of vanilla to mix with the coffee and chocolate with very little to none of the bitterness shown from the last.

Tippecanoe Common Ale: Light hoppy aroma here. This the hop bill on this one was similar to the pale although not half as intense. The citrusy, floral hops and the light malt made this one feel more like a pale.

Marley VSOP: There was some debate on the meaning of the acronym, VSOP. I don't think two members of the bar staff gave me the same answer. It's a very special... something or other at any rate. The light chocolate aroma of this dark beer was very nice, but the flavor was quite complex. I picked up hints of coffee, chocolate, red wine flavor and the slight bit of herbs and vanilla.

Star City Lager: Now for something completely different, a light beer with a hint of hops in the aroma. There was nothing much light in the flavor, however. There were some sweet, bread flavors right off the top with some grassy pine hops that follow fast and hard and made for a surprisingly flavorful light beer.

Bumpy face Agave Wheat Wine: This is where things got interesting. The aroma had just a bit of sweet, light fruit that I could just sit and smell all day. I picked up apple, pear in the heavy-bodied light malt and it finished with a touch of citrusy floral hops.

Otis Brown: Actually I lied. I don't know if it was the heavy flavors from the bumpy face or if the last two beers in the sample were just kinda.... meh, but it tapered off here at the end. This brown ale had no aroma I could find. Light sweet caramel flavor with a medium body and that's all one can really say about it. It avoided being watery which is so often the hazard with this style, I'll give it that.

Phantom Sun: No aroma again. This beer combined some sweet toasty flavors with a decent amount of citrus floral hops.

I made it through. Was sober enough for a pint of the Bumpy Face before it was time to venture into that good night.

I woke up three days later with this blog post scrawled on a hobo's chest. He didn't seem to mind.

Under the Empyrian Skyes: Lincoln NE

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 04:34:00 +0000

Empyrean Brewery, for me, is like that next door neighbor I never really got to know. He waves when he's nearby we exchange a few words about the weather, but I never really got to know him and I never asked about the strange lights and sounds in his garage at 3am. It's high time I packed a six pack, knocked on his door and introduced myself.

Empyrean is a bit of a staple of the Nebraska brew scene, such as it is. The Midwest have been slow adopters, but Empyrean has one of those leading the way. I've run into them once or twice but I've really not had the chance to see what they've been getting up to in Lincoln. Here's a closer look.

Besides bottles at the local beer store, the place to get some Empyrean goodness is at Lazlo's Brewery and Grille, which confused the hell out of me. To speak true, I never intended to visit Empyrean. I would have liked to, but I couldn't find them anywhere in Lincoln. Found a brewery called Lazlo's that looked good, and then it turns out they are one in the same entity. Why not call their taproom Empyrean Brewery and Grille? Only the gods and the head brewer know for sure.

Chaco Canyon Gold: Light beer with a slightly honey sweet aroma and flavor. It finishes just slightly dry and has a nice flavor for a light beer.

Burning Skye Scottish: I've had this before but, just for kicks, I'm reviewing it again to see how much my perception has changed over the years. I couldn't pick up any aroma on this beer. The flavor was bready with a light caramel sweetness too it. I picked up hints of mocha and dark cherry as well. Although it's hard to tell, it tastes light and slightly watery for the style with a fizzy mouthfeel.

Luna Sea ESB: There was just the slightest hint of pine on the aroma. The flavor was dominated by light roasted grain and caramel sweetness but there were some pine hops that stuck their head out a little at the end for a slightly dry finish.

Third Stone Brown: I was just able to pick up some sweet caramel aroma on this beer. The flavor was sweet with roasted grain, bread and maybe just a touch of coffee to bitter things up a tad.

Watch Man IPA: It came with a pretty standard citrus and floral hop aroma. The flavor was an example of an IPA done right. There is a decent amount of back-of-the-throat bitterness but it comes with a tone of citrus, pine and floral flavors that are powerful but not overpowering.

Dark Side Vanilla Porter: No aroma I could detect. The flavor is pretty much as advertised. Strong vanilla flavor that dominates the palate with some coffee and chocolate thrown in for good measure.

Collapsar Oatmeal Stout: Nitruos stout with a nice woody aroma. The beer was definitely on the sweet side, but it was hard to pin down. I picked up some wood, coffee and chocolate flavors but it was so smooth it disappeared almost as fast as it appeared. Before I knew it, my sample was gone. This is one of those beers that's almost dangerously drinkable. Nitrous often has that effect as does oatmeal, which probably explains why this goes down so easy.

Fallen Angel Sweet Stout: I couldn't pick up any aroma on this. It was very drinkable, not as much as the Collapsar, but in the ballpark. Flavor was pretty straight forward, though. Mocha, coffee, roasted grains... not much else to say.

Three Floyds, Two Brothers and an Old Dominion in a Pear Tree.

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 04:14:00 +0000

This is one of those posts that... isn't so much written as gathered. Normally I find a brewery, have as many samples as I can stomach and really get into their guttyworks. Sometimes that is not possible to do. Sometimes I'm in a hurry to get to the next city. Sometimes I happen upon a random beer in a random bar that I don't know what to do with.
So what follows is sort of a collection. By themselves, I don't feel they have enough meat to equal a full post. So they've been mashed together. We have a couple of beers from 3floyds, a couple from Old Dominion and something from Two Brothers thrown in for good measure.

3Floyds:
I managed to get my hands on some Gumballhead from this brewery a little while back and I've been stalking this weird Indiana Brewery ever since.

Zombie Dust: In the bars and taverns of Indiana this is a beer spoken with a certain reverence usually reserved for a Deity of some kind or another. It's one of those beer that is a challenge to even taste since it has a tendency to fly off the shelf the minute it arrives. Luckily, I know some people. Well one person, but he is a fellow traveler and a good human. If you are reading Patrick, thanks again.
Anyway I picked up a lot of fruity malt on the top of this beer in the form of pear, berry and light citrus. This serves a a base for an impressive hop bill that brings a lot of citrus along with some spicy, floral hops. Worthy of the hype? Not sure. But for a heavily hopped beer, I really enjoyed it.

Alpha King: Flagship beer of 3Floyds. I loved the citrusy floral aroma on this beer. These qualities are well-balanced with the malt and the result is a nice, drinkable beer with a lot of flavor and a little kick.

Two Brothers

Domaine DuPage: This beer is described by the brewery as a 'French Country Ale'. I picked up a touch of hops on the aroma. It's got a medium body with a light toasty sweetness right before a slightly bitter, herbal finish. Nice beer, but nothing much to set it apart from every other amber ale.

Old Dominion: Another brewery from the surprisingly beer-fueled state of Delaware that I managed to find just outside of D.C.

Pale Ale: I picked up some spicy hops on the aroma from this beer. Definitely a hoppy beer, but it has enough flavor to hold against the pure back-of-the-throat bitterness. I picked up a lot of spice and pine on the flavor. It finishes quite dry but without that lingering hop character.

Oak Barrel Stout: There was a very light sweet fruit aroma on this beer. I picked up a lot of wood on the flavor along with some leather and a touch of caramel sweetness. This beer was harder to pin down because the flavor is truly complex and the flavor hits hard and almost disappears.

Pure Louisiana: Abita Brewing

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 03:58:00 +0000

I've talked about them before. Okay, I've talked about them once when I managed to spirit away a bottle of their special Marti Gras brew. But given my semi periodic trips to the Crescent city, it's kind of surprising that I hadn't talked about Abita brewing at any length. Well I'm gonna now. It's happening...
yep...
any moment now...

Here's the deal. Abita is to the South as Boulevard is to the Midwest or New Belgium is to the West or what Sam Adams is to... well the entire freaking country. You find it out and around and for good reason, it's pretty good.

Like the breweries mentioned above, they have a flagship beer that is the go-to for most microbrew lovers in the area. The Abita Amber is a fairly typical, slightly malty light amber ale in the same spirit as a Fat Tire. It's got some mild roasted, nutty notes with just a hint of hops in the back that makes for a decent beer to sink in large quantities. Best of all, it's available at just about any bar in Louisiana and elsewhere in the South. That being said, I had the chance to track down some of their other beers during my last visit and this is what I came up with.

Jockamo IPA: The quasi-masochistic hop-heads from the Pacific Northwest would probably make farty sounds towards this IPA. It doesn't come at you with that intense bitter flavor that is associated with the style. It's aroma actually has some fruit notes alongside the tell-tale citrus. There is some spicy, citrus hops but they kind of float on a tide of heavy, fruity malt sweetness. It's a little out of sorts for the style, but a pleasant beer anyway.

Purple Haze: Raspberry beer and pretty decidedly so. Lots of sweet fruit on the aroma and even more packed into the flavor. A little too much for my tastes.

Hop Gator: The bartender at Lagers Taproom didn't know what kind of beer this was. BeerAdvocate even seems to fumble over itself when it comes time to classify this. It starts off with a very, very light spicy aroma. The flavor reminded me much more of a pepper beer then anything else. The green chili is especially pronounced at first, but it slowly melds into a more herbal hoppy finish.

SOS: This is a beer brewed to help the continuing cleaning efforts on the gulf coast (yes... they are still at it. Thank you BP, good work). A sweet, fruity pear flavor dominates this beer right off the top. The finish is a little on the dry side with the hops adding a woody, pine flavor. The two different flavor profiles actually clash rather nicely in this beer.

Andygator: Finishing with a specialty brew. This is a helles dopplebock with a very light roasted aroma. It's a big-bodied smooth beer that has some light, sweet toasted flavors that leads to a very drinkable beer. What it's really doing, however, is skillfully hiding the upwards of 8% alcohol. It's one of those beers that can be classified as dangerous. You can drink a lot, yes you can. And you can wake up with an imprint of the bathroom floor on the side of your face. That's how they do things in Louisiana... so I am told.

Bottle Beer Tour #6: It's Fuggin Cold, Drink Beer.

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 05:28:00 +0000

It is Mid-February here in Nebraska and, right now, the weather is doing it's best to make the joint uninhabitable. It's the time of the year when a dip above thirty-two degrees is cause for running outside naked in sheer celebration of the fact that your bits won't turn blue and fall off. It is the time of the year to sit inside and drink beer until it becomes warm enough to... well... I guess go outside and drink beer.

It's also been a slow travel season for me. On the upside, no white-knuckling it over some God-forsaken mountain pass. On the downside, no weird brews to talk about. So it's time, once again, to break open the beer fridge and root around inside for some goodies.

Victory Brewery, Hop Wallop: This has an absolutely wonderful
orange blossom honey aroma to it. Those flavors translate slightly into the flavor profile. It kind of sits in the background while a massive herbal hop bill takes center stage. Nice blend of flavors. Given the nice sweet orange honey flavor I could be persuaded that fewer hops could be better, but a nice beer all around.

Choc Beer, Last Laugh: American White ale from Oklahoma
light banana lemon aroma. The fruity esters are more pronounced in the flavor with that lemony flavor lingering in the background. Clean and refreshing beer.

New Holland, The Poet: Deep charcoal, woody aroma on this oatmeal stout. The aroma suggest that it might be on the bitter side, but it really isn't. Not quite sweet either, just a nice full-bodied mellow beer with woody coffee notes. An excellent beer for the winter months.

Three Floyds, Gumball Head: There is a light fruity citrus aroma on this eccentric wheat beer. The flavor is hoppy.... but it's not. The first thing you get in the flavor is a flash of citrus, floral hops and, just as you are waiting for the dry, herbal bitterness that should probably follow... it just blends away into this nice, slightly sour, bread and rye malt flavor. I imagine it as a really good beer to use as a practical joke for a die-hard IPA fan as their beloved bitter hops remain just barely out of reach.

Canned Beer Tour: That's right. I said it.

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 05:54:00 +0000

It has been said that good beer doesn't come in cans. It didn't come in cans, at least. Things have changed a bit.
I've said before, I'm a fan of this and my conviction is only growing. For the first time I've managed to assemble a few of the old 'oil can' in my Sanctuary (or where I get drunk in front of my computer) and sampled a few canned beers gathered from both hither and yon.

Ska Brewing, Mole Stout: Pretty much as advertised. The aroma has a nice dark chocolate note to it with just a hint of pepper. The flavor is just wonderful. Sweet dark chocolate and coffee notes dominate with some woody, herbal flavors and just the slightest hint of black pepper. This is one of those beers that just stands out. Once you have this beer, I'm convinced that if I were handed this in some blind taste test some day, I'd be able to pick it out.

Sun King Brewing, Osirus: The aroma on this pale ale is subtle, spicy, citrusy and kinda sweet. The flavor has a lot of those same qualities flowing through it. It's sweet, citrusy with a spice that kind of lingers with the bitterness into the aftertaste.

Sun King Brewing, Wee-Mac: Scottish style ale with a slight woody cherry aroma. The beer has quite a bit of body with just flashes of flavor. I pick up a hint of cherry a hint of wood and a hint of bitterness before they kind of fade into a light roasted flavor.

Santa Fe Brewing: Saison 88: I like the sweet, floral slightly citrus fruity aroma on this a lot. The flavor is lighter, but not without a lot of nuances. There's just a hint of sour along with the floral qualities. That sort of melds into a nice malty, citrusy finish. Light on the palate with a fizzy mouthfeel. Nice session beer with a little extra kick.

Founding Fathers: Washington D.C.

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 01:10:00 +0000

So we're in our nation's captiol this week.

Okay, I lied. We're on the outskirts of the D.C. area on the Maryland side of the city, but from what I can tell from the news, there is abolutely nothing going on in the middle of this city worth paying attention to. Mostly a lot of men in suits figuring out new and exiting ways to screw a lot of people over and steal a staggering amount of money. It's probably better for everyone involved if we find a quite place to sit and weather the storm with a pint. And I have found such a place.

Franklin's Brewery, Restruant and General Store is... well it's a little out there. Both in scope and brewing style which is just kinda awsome. I think the best way to describe this place is, it's like the Cracker Barrel for lunatics. They've got a nice restruant, an attached gift shop with all sorts of eclectic wares and enough beer to keep the voices quiet for a few precious minutes. The whole place has kind of a relaxed art house feel which is kind of cool. That same style translates into how they brew beer which leads to some fun when it comes time to sink a few pints.

Old Miser: A winter ale with a light fruity aroma. It's quite malty with some rich, maybe just slightly tart cherry fruit with some earthy woody notes and a slight pine bitterness. Slightly unusual beer but excellent one. It's packs quite a bit of body but it has a very drinkable quality about it.

Highland Hugh: No real aroma on this scotch ale. The flavor is intently fruity with a slight rum flavor right off the top. As the flavor continued to work through the palate I picked up some leather and some and a slightly bitter finish.

Broken Gnome: This is a darker belgian ale with a light Bananna aroma. The flavor contains leathery, spicy notes that kind of start out and fade into a light bed of tropical fruit that's quintessentially Belgian. It's takes the imbiber to a weird place for a minute before returning them home a little confused but overall very pleased with the experience.

Private IPA: Typical citrusy aroma. It's very hoppy but its one of those beers that has enough hop flavor and malt to balance the bitterness, something that I seem to be finding more and more. Maybe it's me and the hopheads of the world are finally wearing me down.

Hop Zen: A hoppy beer that's closer to a bitter amber ale. Similar hop and flavor profile as the Private IPA with a flash of caramel and toasted grains that help manage the hop bill.

Black hop down: I'm sensing a pattern in the aroma. The dark beer qualities, black roasted grain coffee, appear in the background and serve to prop up the hops.

Farewell to Farms: I pick up a lot of floral aroma here with a hint of caramelly sweetness. In the flavor the sweetness and the floral hop qualities really play well together. It's not overtly sweet but just a nice, flavorful lighter beer.

Okie Round-Up: Tulsa Oklahoma

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 05:28:00 +0000

If you're in Tulsa, Oklahoma and you're looking for a spot to grab a hold of some quality pints, there is really only one game in town, McNellies.

I talked about this beer bar way back in 2011 when I last visited this city. On a side note, that post is still the most popular post on this whole blog by at least a factor of at least three. I'm lead to believe that the title I selected, 'Bar Craw of Tulsa' has lead a few savage drunks astray. Far from finding a guide to the local watering holes they came across my inane rantings... which is probably for the best. At least they found out where the best beer was.

They actually have two locations in the city of Tulsa, and I highly recomend either. Good food and, of course, good beer.

Since I am in Oklahoma, I focused on the far-flung local beers that, like many breweries in the southern part of the U.S. don't go in for all that brew-pub non-sense.

Mustang Brewing, Winter Lager: This has a sweet, fruity and caramelly aroma with warm toasty notes mixed in. Mixes body with drinkability extreemly well. Its malty with warm woody toasted flavors with just a hint of herbs to add to the complexity of this very nice winter beer.

Mustang Brewing, Mmmmhops: There is a slight hint of hops in a lightly sweet aroma. The flavor is... well, different. It's got a hefty malt bill that takes Northwest citrus hops and sweetens the citrus considerably. Add a bit of light but dustinct flavor make this a sweet hoppy anomaly.

Mustang Brewing, 66: No real aroma in this light beer. But for the style, it's actually quite nice. The light malts support some peppery herbal hops. It has some body to it and it's almost dangerously drinkable (who stole my pint?.... And where are my pants!)

Prairie Artisian Ales, Standard: A farmhouse ale with a heavy tropical fruit and clove aroma. Thankfully, the flavor doesn't sport quite the same punch. It has this slightly sour homebrew flavor that's a little odd but not unpleasant. Finishes quite hoppy which arrive late as a bit of a surprise. Overall a very nice rustic ale.

COOP Ale Works, Gran Sport Porter: I picked up some coffee and chocolate in the aroma. It has a full-bodied and creamy flavor with some roasted coffee and unsweetened chocolate. Standard porter qualities but still a nice cold weather beer.

COOP Ale Works, F5 IPA: This beer has an intense, citrusy herbal aroma. There are some floral flavors in the flavor that almost go so far as to be soapy. There is an intense bitterness that hits and sticks in the back of the throat. Not the most pleasant IPA I've had recently.

Dead Amradillo Brewing, Amber: Nice toasty creamy and caramelly aroma. I picked up a toasted buttery biscuit flavor with peppery hops just peaking through. There may have been some light fruit sweetness in there as well.

Dock of the Bay: Long Beach, CA

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 02:18:00 +0000

Stopping in for a few pints at the Belmont Brewing Company.

You gotta love this place if only for it's ocean side location. It provides a nice view while sucking down beers.

It's a little more spendy then some places, but not prohibitively so. One can still stop in for some decent eats and a couple of beers and not be squinting at the bill hoping to the gods that total is really a phone number.

That being said, nothing all that staggeringly exiting in the beer department. Not bad, not by any means, but nothing that really sets it apart... except for the view.

And onto said beer:

Strawberry Blonde: As anticipated, this fruit beer had a pretty heavy strawberry aroma. The beer itself is quite sweet and the strawberry flavor is very pronounced. Basically the proverbial 'beer for people who don't like beer'. But for what it is, not bad.

Pale ale: Pretty heavy citrus hop aroma. It is very heavy on the hops without a lot if malt to back it up so it at first taste it's more like a lighter IPA then a pale.

Marathon Blonde: No aroma that I could detect. Light, sweet... light ... ... that's about it. I could detect some faint fruity flavors in there but otherwise not much complexity to speak of.

Top Sail: Nice, warm toasted aroma. Slight roasted grain character with just a touch of bitterness in the back for a simple but rather nice amber ale.

Long Beach Crude: No real aroma to speak of again. Full bodied unsweetened chocolate. With a slight herbal licorice quality. Dry finish. Very nice dry stout

Just for the Helg of it IPA: This IPA is brewed with a rather novel hop from Western Australia known as the Helga hops. The aroma seems pretty familiar, citrusy, slightly spicy and floral. In the flavor, the hop character is tempered nicely so there a ton of flavor without a lot of bitter. Drinkable but pack full of citrusy floral flavor. One of the better IPA's I have had for the sheer amount of hop flavor they managed to pack in while still making it palatable.

Left Coast Redemption: Long Beach, CA

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 05:19:00 +0000

I first came into contact with Beachwood Brewing company here in Nebraska, strangely enough. This Southern California brew pub was one of the few to brave the Great Planes and bring a couple of pints up.

And frankly, their appearance didn't make the best of impressions suffice to say, their pale ale... meh.

I am now convinced that whatever hell-brew they schlepped up to Nebraska was something they must save for out-of-towners because, not only did I not see this rather unexciting pale on their menu, but the beers they had on tap were much better. Nothing that will make the beer acolyte rethink everything they know about hops and barley, but very good none-the less.

The cool thing about this place is the fact that this is a place where the local beer geeks gather. To illustrate this point, there was one moment where the bartender discretely pulled a small bottle from behind the bar and passed it to a group of guys at the other end of the bar. They all gasped and stared in a kind of reverence one only normally runs into in a religious setting. I asked about the bottles and the bartender said, "Goose Island is coming out with a new line of sour beers. There was only two available and I got both of them."

Yeah... it's that kind of place.

And speaking of beer:

Melrose IPA: Loved the floral citrus aroma on this beer. This beer packs a lot of bitterness, but it's one of those beers that's got enough citrus and hops from the hops to really make this beer enjoyable. It's a hop bomb, no doubt about it, but in that pleasant way.

James Brown Ale: This brown ale has a deceiving coffee mocha aroma on it. I say deceiving because it's got some serious hops for the style. I pick up a heavy amount of herbal earthy hop character underneath a roasted malt back. It's different but not terribly appealing to me personally.

Utter Love Stout: Nice big roasted aroma on this milk stout. The flavor contains big bodied, sweet coffee mocha notes. It makes for a wonderful winter beer in a part if the country that doesn't really have any winter to speak of.

Hops of Brixton: A familiar floral citrus aroma on this ESB. It has an interesting blend of citrus bitter hops with a kind of fruity malt background. It's a remarkably good balance and leads to a wonderfully bitter drinkable ale.

Oat monster: A lot of sharp roasted aroma with maybe a hit of licorice. The flavor is very smooth, full bodied yet fairly dry with a bit of an herbal floral finish.

Hop Ninja: Okay, this double IPA frankly scared me a little. Their IPA had a massive dose of IBU's but they managed to get away with it. But with a double? The urge to go completely overboard was just too great. They would end up with hop bomb that obliterate any taste sensations I had left. The aroma is pure cascade hops. It was like putting my face in a hop bag. The taster wasn't bad but it tasted like cascade hops with some sugar added. It was pretty good but I don't think I could finish an entire pint.

Ryeco Suave: Belgian with a spicy clove and fruity esters aroma. The flavor is mild, smooth and wonderful. There are some spicy qualities with the banana and tropical fruit. Pleasant beer all around.

I've got one more dispatch from Southern California before I leave this area of the country. Until then, cheers!

Scrap Metal City: Detroit MI

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 21:42:00 +0000

More and more I feel a weird kind of affinity for Detroit. There is no reason whatsoever for this ruined city to have as many microbreweries; good microbreweries mind, in a city that's almost become the icon of the kind of post-industrial economy desperation. Yet, in my semi-frequent visits I always come across another brewery.

It is my theory (my highly uninformed theory but I have yet to hear a better one) that Detroit is filled with people who know damn well that no corporation or government is going to give a damn about them. These people find their own way to try and survive. They build, they create and more then a few of them brew.

My selection for this visit was Copper Canyon Brewery. And after such a grandiose introduction, honestly, I was a little disappointed with the selection, although they were out of one of their regular beers and the seasonal was in the process of being rotated out, so it kinda is what it is.

Alt Beer: Rich and malty with a hint of dark fruit and a touch of citrus in the finish. Nice all around drinkable beer here.

IPA: Fairly typical citrus aroma. There was an interesting, heavy floral quality to the flavor however. It's a nice change, but it was far too much in this beer. It had a bitterness that was off the charts but it wasn't the normal back-of-the-throat bitterness one gets from most hops. This one you feel everywhere and it quickly overwhelms the palate.

Brown Ale: This beer had a nice fruity and sweet aroma. The flavor was full and very malty with some chocolate, dark cherry and toasty grain characters. Sweet, but a nice beer overall.

Golden Ale: Wheat beer with a heavy clove tropical fruit flavor. The Belgian yeast tropical fruit clove flavor is overwhelming and my pint had this metallic off flavor that made me fairly certain that I had a pint of a bad batch, despite the waitresses insistence that she didn't think it was.

On a side note, I am proud to announce that this little tale from Detroit is the 100th post of this blog. Given the mortality rate in the killing fields of the blogosphere, making it to 100 posts is, I feel, a bit of a mile stone. Blogspot is littered with the corpses of blogs that were sporadically updated ten times before the author became distracted by something else shiny.

So I'm kind of proud of that. Thought about doing a 'Best Of' post in commemoration, but honestly, couldn't be buggered. At the sheer number of brews this site boasts, any ranking would have been completely arbitrary at best.

Instead it's business as usual. Thank you for reading. And now I'm off to find another beer.

Cheers!

Southwest in the Southeast: Altanta, GA

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 05:35:00 +0000

Finding good beer in the South is a slightly different prospect, as I have mentioned in the past. It involves putting the nose to the air and sniffing out those strange little bars where, among other things, specialize in brewery wierdness. One such place is a Georgia chain known as Taco Macs.

On the surface, Taco Macs is every other massive sports bar you've ever visited in Anytown USA when there is a game on the television that your television provider refuses to provide without signing over children to be used as their little evil minions.

That's how they plan to take over the world, by the way. Armies of displaced kids snatched from the ranks of Americans that just want to watch the Big Game in their undies. You heard it here first.

....Anyhoo!!!....

Along with the hundreds of televisions broadcasting every concievable sporting event on the planet and plates full of hot wings, they have a respectable beer selection. They have two sections to the establishment I visited in the Western hinterlands of Atlanta, downstairs for general pop and a strict over-21 section upstairs. The trouble is the bulk of the awesome beer is only available downstairs, which kinda sucks for anyone who likes to sink down a few pints of something interesting without the defening din that was pretty much pervasive and ear-piercing. During my visit, the waitressess were nice enough to leg it up and down the stairs to bring me the awesomness from down below, which was really, really nice of them.

I stuck to a bit of local color this time around. Taco Macs had a fairly complete selection of the local Sweetwater Brewing Company so I more or less stuck to their brews... ... more or less. I was able to sample their flagship brew several months back, so this post should more or less round them out a bit.

Sweetwater Motorboat ESB: This selection has a nice, spicy, floral aroma. Those floral herbal hops meld almost perfectly with some light roasted malt. Finishes just a tad heavy on the hops, but it a very nice beer overall.

Sweetwater Blue: Wheat beer with a lemony sweet fruity aroma. A refreshing beer for a hot humid summer with a sweet lemongrass flavor.

Sweetwater IPA: This is one of those IPA's I dearly love. Brewed with Northwest hops for the floral citrus quality but balanced just right with malt to make for an enjoyable bitter beer. Nothing particularly fancy or complex, but citrusy and floral hops done right.

Sweetwater Crank Tank: Pilsner beer with a grassy light malt aroma. They really try and pack a lot of flavor into this light beer. Lemony and floral hops dominate the profile to the point that it's more akin to a pale ale withiout the body and malty backbone. Hops are almost too much since they are the only thing with any flavor.

One additional brewer on this post (I did say mostly Sweetwater afterall) is an offering from O'Dempsey's Brewing Company.

O'Dempsey's Your Black Heart: This Russian Imperial Stout has an intense fruity, woody aroma. That fruity malty flavor melds with a hint of herbal licorice and spicy hop character that finishes a little on the dry side of the spectrum.

Southern Belles: Oklahoma City, OK

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 00:08:00 +0000

It is my experience, and forgive me if I am mistaken, but Oklahoma strikes me as the last hold-out when it comes to the fine art of microbrewing.

Not totally, mind. As I am about to illustrate there is good beer to be found. But it takes quite a bit of looking. According to both google and Beeradvocate, there are two brewpubs in the whole state of Oklahoma. This point was emphasized when I saw the 'craft beer' section of one of the local stores that included two fruit beers from Shocktop and Sam Adams Boston Lager.

But it is there, and one place to find it is Bells Isle Brewing.

They have a respectable selection of beers, and many of them are different enough to be interesting. Food is fairly typical bar fare. It's nice but nothing that really stands out about it apart from it's location in a city where locally brewed beer is still a kind of oddity.

Belles Blonde: This has a light wheat lemongrass aroma. The flavor is dry and moderately bitter with herbal lemony hops. For a style that can often flirt uncomfortably close with tasteless and watery, this is a nice representation of what the style can be.

Wild Mary's Hefenviesn: No aroma really stands out. Lemony hops clash with tropical fruit from the yeast in a way that's a little jarring at first. I got used to it as I finished my taster, but it still wasn't anything I was terribly exited about.

Raspberry Wheat: Raspberry is the operative word here; lots and lots of sweet fruit dominate the flavor profile. The flavor has a slight floral quality to it that adds a bit of character for a refreshing sweet lighter beer.

Flannigans Amber: Again, no real aroma. The flavor has roasted flavors with a hint if sweet fruity malt and herbal hoppy finish. Standard amber character here.

Irish Stout: No aroma. It has a full bodied character with intense roasted coffee woody flavors that dominate and kind of spread through the palate. It's one of the more complex beers that's tough to nail down.

Power Plant Porter: The flavor has the typical roasted grain flavors with a hint of dark fruit sweetness that kind of clash with the sharp roasted barley flavor. Not bad, but not something I personally like in a porter.

IPA: There is a very light citrus aroma here. Lots of heavy herbal pine hops with a hint of citrus. Not very well balanced, though, the bitterness hits the back of the throat pretty hard.

The Drunkard'ss Walk Across The Country: Everywhere and Nowhere

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 18:11:00 +0000

The time has come for another one of these posts. This is the time of the year where I am whipped around the country like I'm involved in the worlds biggest version of the ice-skating game where children hold hands and experiment with centripetal force. Inevitably I feel a like the poor bastard at the end of the line; dizzy, a little ill and questioning the sanity of my actions.

The following beers were sampled at three different places. The first place was the Heorot Pub in Muncie, Indiana. The second at Golden Valley Brewing Company in Portland and the third was at some sports bar in Oklahoma city that's really not worth discussing in detail; they didn't have much of a beer selection nor was the place particularly interesting. So here's the two:

The Heorot Pub: Fun fact: When I asked Siri about the Heorot Pub, her response was, "Sorry Jeremy, I cannot find places in Afghanistan. Seemed a bit harsh. Muncie isn't the nicest or most interesting city in the country but I don't think it's quite as bad as Afghanistan. For example, there is one place in the city where a lost soul can stumble into for a decent beer. It's a small, dark, wood paneled paradise where every square inch of wall space seems dedicated to some oddity and the weird and wild beers flow. I can't imagine a more quality place to sit and sink pints for hours on end. Among their many offerings, I had:

People's Brewing; Mound Builder: Since we are in Indiana, I was able to get my hands on a cask aged version of this beauty. It has a sweet, raisin, brown sugar aroma that are complimented by dark fruit and malty flavors. All of the above work together to stand up to an impressive spicy and floral hop bill and the result is a well-balanced but complex brew.

New Albion; Community Dark: Among those that have a bit of an obsession with microbrewing in the United Sates, the name 'New Albion' is said with a certain reverence. It is generally agreed to be the first microbrewery in the United States, that is to say the first small-scale brewer since Prohibition and the industrialization of brewing. Problem is that, like most new ideas, it needed some tweaking and New Albion closed it's door nearly twenty years ago. Which made seeing it on the beer menu a little shocking.

Information is a little spotty, but it seems that someone in the wilds of Ohio has resurrected the brewery, if in name only, and has recently begun brewing under the name.

The dark beer they are brewing has a nice roasted coffee and chocolate aroma with some nutty sweet caramel flavors to go with it.

New Albion; Hoptimis: Since the resurrected brewery (dare I say zombie brewery?) required a little more investigation, I went with one more. Their IPA had a light hoppy aroma that left me completely unprepared for the assault that was to follow directly. This is all spicy, herbal hops with the subtlety of a baseball bat to the head. Didn't have any of the balance a good IPA should have.

And then I was in Portland, Oregon.

It's a shame that, while nestled deep in the the beer-filled bosoms of Portland, I didn't have time for a proper motorboat. But that is the way of things lately. I did stop by a Golden Valley located in a massive freaking building in Beaverton. Nice place but crowded as all hell which, given the size, is quite a feat. Food was good, beer was good, but nothing special to say about it.... well apparently there is a company in Portland that makes it's own ketchup and mustard, but that was the only thing that really stuck with me. Caring about whether or not one's condiments are locally produced seems to be a very Portlandian thing.

Golden Valley; Red Thistle: Light caramel aroma with a hint of citrus. It's kind of a typical amber with a little extra. It's got that slight roasted flavor with a spicy hop background that demonstrates the city's love for the little green flower.

Golden Valley; Dundee Porter: Slight coffee aroma with a fairly heavy bitter character in the flavor along with some coffee and woody roasted flavors. P-town loves them some hops.

One last beer thrown in.. kinda just because. It was in my notes waiting for one of these random posts to appear. I was in an typical sports pub in Oklahoma when this little nugget floated to the top.

Left Hand Brewing; Stranger American Pale: This has a citrusy sweet orange aroma. The flavor is lighter with a dose of malty sweetness that barely helps reign in the dry, citrus, pine hop character.

Back to business as usual next week where I actually find an interesting place for a beer in Oklahoma. Yes, they exist.

A sixpack of freestyle: O'so Brewing

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 03:51:00 +0000

I picked up a six pack from this eccentric Wisconsin brewery. I've mentioned before my love for such things. There is nothing that fills me with as much hope and joy as the thought of a barely-contained maniac standing over a brewpot with a handful of obscure ingredients and a gleam in his eye. O'so seems to have that same love. The self-proclaimed 'freestyle brewer' invites the world to 'join the fight against boring beer'. This is a motto they hold quite well, all of their beers have a little something extra. A strange, texture or a different flavor that keeps the beer snob on her toes.

One thing that I found endlessly entertaining was the fact that they put descriptions of their beer on their labels. They were, for the most part, a little grandiose, but one would not expect much less. I had a bit of fun with them and they are reprinted in italics.

Night Train Roasty Chewy Robust Judicious Cream Bold Complex Immense: Lots of roasted coffee and chocolate with maybe a hint of cherry on the aroma. This is one of those beers where you have to run to keep up with the flavors that are running across your tongue. I picked up the aforementioned coffee and chocolate, cherry, vanilla and so on. It all takes place on a kind of bitter background of roasted barley. Very nice dark beer.

Hopdinger: Pungent Hoppy Crisp Floral Bitter Piney Resinous Engaging: Yep, that's pretty much the available lexicon when it comes to IPA's... except maybe engaging. Not sure if I've ever labeled a beer engaging... I mean ALL beer is engaging, I suppose. Anyway I pick up a little bit of pine and citrus on the nose. Lots more citrus on the palate with a kind of astringent herbal flavor just behind it. It's not an overwhelming IPA the citrus, floral and herbal qualities are intense but they are not overly bitter.

The Big O, Zippy Crisp Tangy Luminous Subtle Unique Sunny Jubilant: This has a very light malty aroma. Kind of a lemony pilsners. It's got a little bit of body and starts with a sweet malt that's... kinda pushed aside by a hint of lemongrass. Nice, light, refreshing but not without an interesting nuance.

DANK Imperial Red Ale. Wonderful brown sugar cherry caramel aroma. Not the malt bomb I kinda assumed it would be. The above flavors are more or less tempered with a coffee and unsweetened chocolate bitterness. The cherry peeks through a little more then the other flavors and there's some slight astringent hops character in there as well.

Memory Lane: A special pilsner brewed to raise money for Alzheimer's research. Light grassy aroma. O'so brewing proves they have, not only the will, but the ability to put their own unique spin on every style, though in this case I'm not sure it's a good one. There is a very intense, lemony sour flavor. It wasn't unlike another German beer from Wisconsin. This wasn't as pleasant, though.

Dominator Dopplebock: Wonderful chocolate cherry aroma with maybe a hint of charcoal. The flavor starts sweet with that chocolate cherry flavor. Some bitter pine and woody flavors arrive a little later and help temper the malt and blend together nicely leaving a crisp, slightly dry aftertaste.

One Hit Wonder: Dayton Ohio

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 21:47:00 +0000

Lock 27 is brand new on the Dayton Ohio scene. As of this post it will have been open only a matter of months.

As such, this microbrewery has a lot of growing ahead of it. I will say this for the place. The owner was out tending bar and chatting up the customers and he is a man who truly loves beer in only the way only a long-time home brewer can.

It will be interesting to see how this joint evolves in the coming years. It is a place that celebrates both good food and good beer. That seems like a good start to me.

On my visit they only had one origional beer on tap. They had a decent selection of good beers from out and around, but only one of their own at the moment. So this is going to be a little different post as I will include a couple random beers they happened to have on tap... just to round things out a bit.

Kay?

Kay.

Beer?

Lock 27, Winston ESB: No aroma to speak of. Nice, creamy mouthfeel. A good deal of caramel malt sweetness balance a load of lemony, grassy hops. Very nice, drinkable beer.

Southern Tier, Pumpking: Tis the season for those wonderful, spicy pumpkin ales. This beer from upstate New York, was quite nice, with a sweet creamy quality to the normal bill of pumpkin spice.

Great Divide, Hoss: Rye lager from Denver Colorado. This beer had a very light fruity aroma. There was a sweeter, light berry flavor with a hint of pepper from the rye that gentelly turned to a floral hop back.

One last thing about Lock 27. The curry is awesome. That is all for this week.

College Town Quicky: Colombia, Missouri

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 01:09:00 +0000

Last week I stopped by one of the breweries in the college town of Columbia Missouri. Things...er... could have been better. One beer, in particular, could have been better.

I was able to quickly stop by another brewpub in the town... possibly to get the taste out of my mouth. I didn't have a lot of time to spend, so I only had a very small cross section of their beers but, from what I could find, I should have stopped at Flat Branch Brewing instead.

It was a bigger joint. The food wasn't quite up to the same level as Broadway, but I had a shrimp po' boy and was quite happy. I was all the happier since I didn't have a beer that made be think of licking a... you know what. Let's just get on to the beer.

Oil Change Stout: Charcoal chocolate aroma. Nice full bodied stout with a smooth, unsweetened chocolate and roasted grain flavor.

Honey Wheat: Very, very light grassy aroma. The sweet honey flavor is prominent here along with some slight grassy hop notes. Extremely flavorful for the style and, I think, what most people might expect when the phrase 'Honey Wheat Beer' is thrown around.

Green Chile: I always love a nice pepper ale. It doesn't have to be complex, and this one clearly isn't, but a good chili beer awesome in its own rite. Light malt backs up and restrains the chilies here making for a nice refreshing lighter beer with a hint of spice.

ESB: Started with a fruity caramel aroma. The fruit really hit up front and slid slowly into the 'B' in ESB. The hops in back had some pine and herbal flavors that really stood up well to the sweet fruity malts at the top. All in all a nice, flavorful beer.

Anyway, that's all from Missouri for now. It's Ohio for the next couple weeks.

Cheers!

Into the Underground: Columbia Missouri.

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 20:24:00 +0000

There's going to be a moment in this post that is not going to be pleasant for anyone. I've run into a few brewpubs that just don't click with me. It happens.

None of those brewpubs had anything as bad as the Wee Heavy. But we will get to that. First, a positive note:

Broadway Brewery is a basement bar located right on the main drag of Columbia. There's kind of a relaxed, coffeehouse, art house vibe about this place.

I doubt there is a better place in town for a burger... especially if one chooses to get a little esoteric with the meat. They do have a basic beef hamburger for the purists, but on top of that they have a buffalo burger, a pork, spinach and goat cheese burger. Personally I rocked the lamb burger and I was extremely happy that I did. It along with their signature potatoes was awesome.

So that's good. The beer, on the other hand, had a bit to be desired. The food was great... the beer, not so much.

The majority of their beers had one of two major problems with them. They were either watery or they just had strange off-flavors. One off-flavor I hope to never encounter again... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Honey Wheat: Light floral aroma. This one gets a pass because light flavor is kinda in the style. It was just lightly sweet with a nice... well... honey and wheat flavor. Pretty much as advertised.

Boone Dog Brown: There is something very sad about a watery brown ale and this is a good example of one of those. Or a bad example as the case may be. It had a slight coffee aroma but the flavor had a very light roasted flavor with a hint of coffee but, otherwise, was just fizzy and watery.

2011 Barley Wine: Okay this was one of the hits but, honestly, it's hard to miss with a nice barley wine. This had a nice chocolate cherry aroma. It had some big cherry and port wine flavors with some herbal bitterness in the back.

Blonde on Blonde: No aroma to speak of. It had some light grassy flavors along with pretty intense herbal bitterness, but that's it. It was watery, then very bitter. Too bitter for the style.

American Pale Ale: This turned out to be the one I liked best (apart from the barley wine), although there was nothing all that special about it. It featured a nice load of citrus hops that were flavorful without being overbearing, but it was pretty much exactly like most pale ales.

Cherry Saison: This one had a sour cherry aroma. The sour flavors hit and clashed with the fruity clove and banana esters from the Belgian yeast. It was really weird at first, but I have to admit that the combination kinda grew on me after a while.

Cream Ale: This seemed like a combination of styles more then anything else. It started with a nice sweet caramel aroma but along with those sweet, creamy flavors there was some very intense woody, grassy hops. It tasted like a cream IPA... and not in a terribly pleasant way.

Black IPA: The aroma and the flavor tell the same tale. Bitter chocolate and coffee meet and make sweet love with bitter citrus hops. Simple, but nice. Neither flavor is overpowering and it makes for a nice dark beer.

Wee Heavy: I've run into precious few beers that I actively dislike. There are many I thought could be better, but very few that I have a deep-seated loathing for. I think that, in the history of this blog, this is the worst that I've tasted. The aroma was wonderful. It had some light fruit and wood aroma that had all the promise of a good scotch ale. The flavor... well... it had this leathery flavor. It had a big leathery flavor. It was like... and I apologize, this comparison is not going to be pleasant for anyone, including me... it was like licking a cowboy.

That is not a typo, I didn't mean to write liking, it wasn't like 'friending' a country singer on Facebook. It was like giving a tongue bath to a professional bull rider.

There are those who might enjoy licking a cowboy, but I do not. The very fact that this beer made me think of that rather horrific idea is as good a reason as any to avoid it.

Lightning Hopkins: This in an ale brewed with sassafras. I liked the idea, but the resulting sweet root beer flavor clashed heavily with the hops to the point that it just seemed out of place.

Bottom line. Broadway Brewing, get the lamb burger. Eat the living hell out of the lamb burger. Enjoy a pale ale or maybe a cherry saison if it tickles your fancy.

Might keep a distance from the rest.

Great Nebraska Beer Fest: Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 15:58:00 +0000

Well folks, it that's time of the day. It's the time in which where, after a day full of heavy drinking, people start getting touchy feely. It's the time of day where it is not unusual to see two men walking arm in arm from tent to tent. In the distance you can hear slurs of, "I love you man..." So let's get through this before things get awkward.

Plowshare Brewing, Rumbleseat Rhubarb Beer: The gentleman running the tap poured me a glass and said, "You'll like this. It's got the same sweet tart qualities as rhubarb." That was a really accurate description. The rhubarb is the most prominent flavor, but it's given a little sweetness from the malt.

Beach Wood, Pale Ale: One more out of towner from California and, to be honest, kind of a so-so representative. Citrus hops on the nose, light caramel flavor with citrus hops... pretty much the quintessential pale ale. Not bad but nothing special.

Confluence Brewing Company, Farmer Jon Multi Grain Ale: A Des Moines brewer proving that multi-grain isn't just for bread that helps you poop. This is an ale brewed with wheat, barley, rye and oats. That being said, this is a lighter ale there's not a lot of added quality to it. It's a refreshing light beer with a bit of extra body.

Funkwerks, Tropic King: Belgian ale from Fort Collins. Tones of fruity esters, banana, tropical fruit and a hint of pepper spice. Comes out with a banana nut aroma.

Nectar Ales, IPA: A kind of Belgian, IPA cross from California. I picked up some citrus aroma combined with some of those fruity esters on the nose. The fruity flavors are very pronounced but there is a very distinct hop bit that comes on slowly but really lingers.

Schlafly, Pumpkin Ale: I finished the festival with, appropriately enough given the current season, a pumpkin ale. This St. Louis ale comes out with a nose-full of pumpkin spice. This is one of those pumpkin pies in a glass that some people absolutely cannot stand. I quite liked it, though... although by this time, I doubt there was much I wouldn't like.

And that's the Great Nebraska Beer Fest. I hope you enjoyed this whirlwind tour of what the Midwest has to offer. We're back to the cross-country bar hopping next week.

Cheers!

Great Nebraska Beer Fest: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 23:42:00 +0000

Continuing dispatches from my hometown beer festival. Let's get to it, shall we?

The thing I always find slightly amusing about these beer festivals is the lack of interest in the big breweries.   Budweiser, Miller and the like didn't show their faces at this gathering, but a couple of the biggest microbrewers (if they can be called that) like Sam Adams and Goose Island did have a little booth with taps and a couple of forlorn looking people manning them.

Meanwhile breweries like CIB can't pour them fast enough.

Brand recognition means nothing in this place, if anything it's detrimental. This is a place where the people flock towards something different. It's a beautiful thing, really. This is the playing field for the little guys. The big boys are welcome to play, but they are about to know what it's like to be picked last for a change.

Empyrean Brewing, Domino Effect: Another home-state beer I am sorta familiar with.   I've had their Burning Skyes at any rate. This is a lighter beer that "celebrates the changing of the seasons". It has a vaguely unpleasant skunky aroma though. The flavor isn't bad; it's refreshing with light malt and a kind of earthiness.

Little Apple, Brewing: Blueberry Ale: From Manhattan Kansas, a town I assume to be the exact opposite of Manhattan, New York though I confess I've not been either place. The fruit flavor is in the aroma and the flavor and in just the right amount. Its just slightly sweet and imparts more of the fruit tartness that mixes with the crisp lager flavor. It was quite refreshing, a quality I started valuing highly in the heat.

Little Apple Brewing, Malbok: Started off with light roasted grain with a hint of peach in the aroma. I picked up sweet, light fruit flavors off the top along with some subtle hop bitterness in the back that really helps balance the sweetness.

Lone Tree, Hop Wrangler: This another selection from a brewery I featured just a couple months back. The aroma had some banana, clove notes to it which left me completely unprepared for what was about to happen to my poor palate. All I tasted was bitter. Pure, astringent, back-of-the-throat bitterness. Clearly that's where this beer got it's name. For a brewery I really enjoyed, I was kinda disappointed here.

Thunder Head, Dark Wheat: A strange beer from Kearney Nebraska. Overall the effect of a dark wheat beer was similar to a dark lager. There was no aroma to speak of and the flavor was a simple, roasted grain experience. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did, but it was very refreshing dark beer on a hot August day.

Blind Tiger Brewery, Java Porter: Back down in the wilds of Kansas where microbrewing has apparently taken off far more then I had ever expected. Their coffee porter had the sweet mocha aroma but the flavor was more bitter with charcoal and roasted barley added to the sweet coffee. Not bad but nothing special for a porter.

Infusions Brewing, Butcher Brown: The GMBF has a fair share of sneak previews. I noted a couple I managed to stumble across already, but this is a bit different. By the time I actually post this, Infusions will be open and, hopefully, slinging a lot of beer. However, during the festival Infusions was still over a month away from opening.   Beer from a brewery that's not even open yet? That's kinda cool. This beer has the Belgian yeast aroma of clove, banana and esters. A lot of browns want for flavor and this beer does not have that problem at all. Not even in the slightest. I picked up lots of black roasted grain with spicy, peppery hops bringing up the rear. As I continued to enjoy this beer I began to suspect that the pepper was actually a product of actual pepper, but there was no one to confirm this.

Cathedral Square, Repent Rye: Interesting rye ale from St. Louis. It started off with a dark port wine aroma. It was more bitter then I would have predicted from the aroma; citrusy, spicy hops stand up very well against the light fruit flavors in the beer.

Iowa Brewers Union, Rye IPA: Okay, so not really a brewery in and of itself. More like a really, really big homebrewers club from central Iowa. But they came with beer, so they are awesome. Their offering was a kind of mix of styles. It started off with a wonderful spicy, dark fruit aroma. I picked up lots of rich raisin, date and caramel flavors with just a hint of pepper from the rye. Didn't get much in the way of hops though. Good beer, but probably not a great representation of the two styles.

Chaser Bros, Raspberry Stout: If nothing else, I learned I need to get out of the house more.   Okay, let's refine that slightly... I need to get out of the house and then travel maybe... five miles as opposed to a thousand. This is another brewery from a nearby Nebraska town that, sadly has escaped by notice until now. Their stout had a wonderful dark chocolate berry aroma. The flavor conveys pretty much the exact same idea, but with a little bit of coffee bitterness as well.

Goldenrod Brewing, Saison IPA: Another brewery coming soon to the Omaha area, but came to the festival with a preview of coming attractions. This is a much better example of two styles making sweet love with each other. The saison is well represented in the banana clove and fruity esters and which stand up to, and oddly compliment the citrus and pine in the hops.

One more marathon session before it's back to business as usual around here.

The Great Nebraska Beer Fest: Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 02:05:00 +0000

It is my opinion that, cities like Milwaukee and Chicago notwithstanding, the Midwest was late to the microbrew revolution.

It's the fifth year of the Great Nebraska Beer Fest, my first year attending and proof that they are learning fast, boy.

The great thing about the Great Nebraska Beer Fest (hereafter known as the GNBF because I am freaking lazy, deal with it) is that they bring the Midwest beer out in force. Besides the major cities in the area, the hinterlands of Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska are well represented. Some of big breweries from elsewhere have a presence as well, but they are a minority.

It is a celebration of Midwest Brewing.

The other cool thing was the size. I've been to beer fests in Idaho and Oregon and they very much bring the crowds. This means, however that one gets a beer and immediately jumps into the line again for the next one. By the time they get to the front of the line, it will be time for another beer.

Here, this is not the case. It's a smaller event then I've been to in the past, but there are more then enough breweries bringing strange and unusual beers to make it interesting and there are rarely any lines whatsoever.

The location has something to be desired. I have no knowledge of what went into the process of finding a venue for the GNBF, but a strip mall parking lot? For one it was one of the hottest weekends of the year in Nebraska that weekend and there was probably three square feet of shade, each crowded with pale drunks trying to keep from catching on fire in the direct sunlight. The blacktop doesn't help.

Anyway, on to the avalanche of beers.

Nebraska Brewing Company, Fathead: A new selection from a brewery I've covered in a previous post. Very new, actually. Truth be told, it's not even available for another month, but this is a special occasion. It has a nutty, dark fruit and red wine aroma. I picked up licorice, vanilla, roasted nut and a surprising dash of bitter hops. It reminds me of a bitter scotch ale. The flavor combination was interesting, but they clashed a bit.

Big Wood Brewing, Morning Wood: Coffee stout, a beer style for those mornings when a drunken haze is the best way to approach a day. It has a heavy sweet mocha, espresso aroma, but those qualities diminish slightly in the flavor. It was lighter and watery. Good but lacking some of the body I was hoping for, I think.

Big Wood Brewing, Bark Bite IPA: This, appropriately, had a woody, pine aroma with a hint of honey. It was quite sweet and malty at first, and it helped temper the herbal pine hops that followed soon after.

Blue Blood Brewing, Blue Blood IPA: This is a brewery that I just recently became aware of, I found a couple of their brews at the supermarket and included them in the last bottle beer tour. The aroma carried the promise of citrusy hops. A promise that was kept, although not to the intensity I expected. Like the Morning Wood, the flavor just wasn't there, especially for an IPA. In that heat, it was a welcome and refreshing beer, but lacked something for the style.

Free State Brewing, Ad Astra: Though I had never had a chance to sample their beer until now, I've always had a soft spot for Free State Brewing. Kansas is a state that gave up prohibition very, very grudgingly... which is strange because you'd thing people would be in favor of anything that makes the state more livable. Anyway, until 1989, brewing was still illegal in Kansas. Just to emphasise what we are dealing with, there was a time that Kansas even outlawed any liquor on aircraft crossing Kansas' airspace. (So next time your flying over Kansas, feel free to raise your drink and a middle finger) When the law was finally repealed, Free State became the first legal brewery in Kansas in over 100 years.

Anyway, history lesson over. Beer! The Ad Astra has a very light aroma. The flavor is nutty, fruity and contains hints of red wine. Very nice, sweet, malty amber ale.

Free State Brewing, Storm Chaser: Seasonal offering from Free State. Citrus hop aroma that pretty much follows in it's entirety to the flavor. The hops are enough to produce a back-of-the-throat bitterness, but there's enough flavor that I didn't find it overpowering.

CIB: Yola: Here's the best description I can offer for CIB Brewing. Somebody has gone out and started doing legally what Grandpa had been doing in the barn for years. CIB specializes in 'high alcohol farmhouse ales', specifically beers fermented with wild yeast and bacteria. That makes CIB the place to go for sour beers, a style so obscure that only Portland or a pack of lunatics in the wilds of Iowa could possible pull it of. The Yola Artisnal Ale starts off with a fruity honey aroma. The first thing I noticed on the flavor was a very sour citrus that was followed by some nutty dark fruit notes. It was one of those beers that took me quite a while to decide whether I liked it or not.

CIB: Cherry: There was some considerable plum and cherry sweetness on the aroma here. The flavor had much more sour cherry along with some very complex earthy flavors. It was quite nice, but I don't know if I would drink a lot of it although the complexity of the flavor would have me reaching for another glass.

Left Coast Brewing: Voodoo: One of the few breweries from outside the neighboring states. This had a roasted coffee aroma. The flavor has a lot of that coffee along with some dark roasted grain. There was a heavy dose of herbal hops that showed up and kinda clashed with the rest of the flavor. I kinda enjoyed this beer right up to that point.

That's the end of part one. More goodness from the Midwest to follow in the coming weeks. Cheers until then.

Yes, they even put it in the Beer: Louisville Kentucky

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 00:23:00 +0000

I am, of course talking about bourbon. Kentucky is kinda known for it. There's more brewing going on in Kentucky then I think anyone who lives outside the state was wont to expect. Of course the most popular brew in the area is anything that spent some time in an old bourbon barrel. But more on that in a minute.

This week, a quick trip to Louisville brought me to Bluegrass Brewing Company where they insist that beer is food. At least, that's the phrase they put on the shirts here. Overall not a bad place for a pint or two. On beers that featured hops, I think they tended to overdo it a tad, but overall not bad.

Summer Wheat: Light on aroma but it hides quite a lot of flavor in there. It's just a little sweet with a little roasted quality in there as well. I picked up a hint of citrus and it had a creamy, smooth feel to it. Interesting body to a lighter beer, but the overall effect was really good.

Alt Beer: Maybe it was a shock to the system after the much sweeter wheat beer earlier, but this one struck be as increadibly bitter. It was heavy on the medicinal hop flavor to the point I couldn't pick out much else in the flavor profile. The bitterness faded a little as I went on, but I started picking up a skunky flavor at that point. Not the best beer I've had recently.

Nut Brown: This beer had a lovely nutty caramel aroma. The flavor was lighter but it managed to avoid the watery taste of some brown ales. It's sweet, roasted with some dry, woody flavors to for blalance.

American Pale Ale: Light, spicy citrus aroma. The citrus flavors on the palate are rather more intense. Some floral notes follow towards the end that linger and it finishes rather dry.

Dark Star Porter: There was a pretty standard light, roasted aroma on this beer and it pretty much stayed the same in the flavor, although I picked up the same skunky flavor on this beer as it warmed as well.

Bourbon Stout: The smell is pretty much all bourbon and the flavor is dominated with that particular spirit, but it helped with some sweet roasted malty flavors. Very drinkable for a beer with this kind of body and this kind of alcohol content.

Homewreaker IPA: The aroma is light, but this beer is the definition of a hop bomb. Its that kind of bitterness that hides any characteristic except for the fact that, 'this is freaking bitter'. Like punch right to the back of the throat bitter.