Archive for the 'German' Category

Brief Thoughts on Some Beers

Published on October 3, 2008 in Ale, Beer, Belgian, Cellaring/Aging, German, Lager and Review. Closed

Alright, this is going to be quite the post. I haven’t been writing about every beer I’ve been drinking lately. In part, it’s because I was sick last week, preventing me from drinking some of the more “special” beers I have here. It’s also been because I’ve been lazy. Work has been busier than it had been because of the beginning of the semester and hiring new staff and all that goes along with Septembers for me. So I’m going to write a few lines about most of the beers I’ve had recently. This is in no particular order. I’m just writing.

I’ll start off with tonight because it’s fresh in my mind. I’m currently drinking an Anchor Old Foghorn Barleywine Style Ale. This one was bottled in January. That means it’s about 10 months old. This is the reason I clicked the “cellaring” category. I opened this one because I needed a nice little nightcap. At 9.4%, it fits that bill just right. The beer is sweet and malty. It’s got a seriously strong fruitiness to it, which is really nice. It’s not like drinking a fruity beer, it’s just a fruity maltiness. It’s perfect. It’s got just enough hops in it to give it some balance. Unfortunately, I have never had this beer fresh. For whatever reason, I can’t get it in RI. I picked this up at Julio’s over the summer. Get it if you see it. It’s awesome.

I also had Stone Coast (RIP) Jamaica Style Stout tonight. Susan and I tried to split it, but she wasn’t crazy about it. I thought it was fantastic. This one has probably also been aged, though in the store, not my cellar. Stone Coast Brewing closed on August 1. I bought this, along with some others, while I could still find it. It has a very roasty flavor to it. It’s got a nice medium-full body. It’s a very drinkable stout. If you can still find it, get some. It’s good.

How about some Double IPA’s next? I’ll continue with Stone Coast. If you can find some 840 IIPA, get it while it lasts. This is a great double IPA (their regular IPA is 420 IPA, also excellent). It’s quite different for a double IPA in that it’s got a strong caramel malt presence. This doesn’t ruin the beer, however. It actually enhances it a bit. It’s not overly hoppy like a west coast IPA, but it’s definitely got a good bit to it. It is actually not a double of the 420, which tastes almost like a west coast IPA. They also made a 1260, which I was lucky to be given a bottle. I’m kind of saving that one.

Rogue Imperial IPA is also a good one if you can get past the cost of the ceramic bottle. At $15 for the bottle, it’s a bit pricey, and honestly, not worth the price. However, it’s a great double IPA. The beer is nice and hoppy, but has a great malt backbone to it. You might be best trying to find this on tap somewhere (Doherty’s East Ave in the Bucket had it on tap for a while).

The last, but certainly not least, of the recent double IPAs is Smuttynose Big A. Holy crap! This is probably the single best double IPA I have had. I enjoyed this far better than Ruination, Hercules, and even YuleSmith (though I haven’t had the summer YuleSmith, meaning I haven’t had a fresh YuleSmith). This one has all the hops the west coast DIPAs wish they had, and it came from 2 states north of here. This one is a must have, though it sells out fast when they do release it.

Being October, I have had a bunch of Oktoberfests, Harvest Ales, and Pumpkin Ales lately. I’ll mention some of those. Nikki’s just did 3 weeks of Oktoberfests and Pumpkin Ales. Here’s the best of those, some of which I bought. I’ll start with Pumpkin Ales because I tend not to like them. The only one at the Nikki’s tasting I really liked was Wolaver’s Will Stevens’ Pumpkin Ale, which seems to be sold out now. It wasn’t overly spiced and had a nice hops flavor to it. It was just right. The best Pumpkin Ale I have ever had was Schlafly from St. Louis. Susan was nice enough to bring back a bunch of beer for me from her trip out there. Schlafly Pumpkin Ale is the single best Pumpkin Ale I have ever had. It was all around perfect.

Now, the Oktoberfests… The best is still Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen. This beer is a perfect German Oktoberfest. Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr also have great Oktoberfests that are actually German. I don’t even know how to describe the flavor. It’s crisp, clean, and flavorful. Of the Americans, the best I’ve had are Brooklyn Oktoberfest, Clipper City Marz-Hon, and Wachusett Octoberfest. They’re all similar in style, though the order I listed is the order of my preference.

Of the autumn/harvest ales, my favorite is Gritty’s Halloween Ale. It’s an ESB and absolutely fantastic (go figure, their Best Bitter is also awesome). It’s got that perfect flavor for the fall weather. It just goes with the fall foliage for some reason. Long Trail Harvest Ale is another good one. This is a nice brown ale. It’s easy drinking and has a good flavor to it. It’s supposedly made from all Vermont ingredients, though I don’t know if they actually got the hops from up there. Finally, there’s the Woodstock Inn Autumn Brew. This one is brewed with cinnamon and nutmeg. I don’t normally like beers with a lot of cinnamon in them (like Harpoon’s Winter Warmer). However, this one is actually quite tasty for a beer with those spices. It’s also worth a try.

And now some one off’s. Continuing with the Schlafly thing, Susan was nice enough to get me 2 bottles of their Dry Hopped American Pale Ale. This one is fantastic. The dry hopping gave it a nice floral aroma. It has a nice floral hop flavor to it as well and then goes into the pine and grapefruit flavors as it warms up a bit. It’s a fantastic APA.

I decided to open my bottle of Russian River Damnation while watching and helping some friends brew an ESB. I’m not normally a big Belgian Golden Ale fan. However, this beer is probably my favorite of the bunch. It’s absolutely perfect in my opinion. It has a good amount of carbonation, but not too much. It has a nice malt flavor with just the right amount of hops. It’s sweet, dry, and crisp all at once. I wish I could get their beers on this side of the country.

And finally, last but not least, probably the single most talked about new pale/amber ale on the market. I got to try the Budweiser American Ale, and I have to say that I’m very impressed. It’s nothing special, but it’s solid. It’s a good pale/amber ale. It has a nice body, which isn’t thin. It has a good flavor of hops and malt. And the best part it, it’s very accessible by people new to craft beer, while having a brand that’s familiar to them. I think this will be the next gateway beer for many people. I can see myself buying it for friends and family who prefer lighter beers. I see myself giving it to people new to the craft beer scene. I see myself drinking it when I want something cheap or if it’s the only thing a bar has (I drink other stuff if they don’t have any craft beer).

Thus concludes my recent beer thoughts. I’ll try to keep up from now on, though you never know what might happen. I apologize for the long post, but this had to get written. I have even more that I didn’t write about. If I added those, it would be about 3 times as long.

Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen Weiss

Published on August 13, 2008 in Ale, Beer, German and Review. Closed

I know I had previously said I would do a side by side, but that never happened. What did happen, however, is that I moved a bunch of beer from my pantry to the cellar for the summer (the pantry is much warmer than the rest of the apartment now, while the opposite was true in the winter). Because of that, I forgot I even had a bottle of Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen Weiss. I pulled it out of the cellar and decided to pop it open. I had previously tried this at a couple tastings at Nikki’s. When the beer was fresh, it had a nice hops bite to it that fit perfectly. The beer has aged a few months and here are my thoughts.

The beer pours a cloudy grassy yellow/maize color with a huge head. Carbonation is more present now than it was fresh. The beer smells of yeasty breadiness and a nice hoppy grassiness. The flavor up front is some of that sweeter malt flavor along with some bready flavors. The hops are there, but more subdued than they were when the beer was fresh. They were a bit grassier now and not quite as in your face as they had been. This tastes much more like a German beer than an American beer. It’s got a nice mouthfeel, just ever so slightly chewy and bready. It’s still quite drinkable, though if I gave it an A before, I’d give this a B+ now.

I much prefered this beer fresh. In my opinion it has passed its prime, though it is still a very excellent beer (and this is coming from someone who isn’t a huge fan of wheat beers, especially those with lots of yeast). The whole idea behind the beer was the hops and with those more subdued, you aren’t getting the purpose of the beer. If you haven’t had it and can still find it, it is worth trying. It does taste more like the German version did fresh.

An Alt, a DIPA, a Smoked Porter

Published on July 19, 2008 in Ale, Beer, German and Review. Closed

I’m still trying to drink through my ever expanding beer collection so that I can actually use part of the shelf in my fridge, but I keep buying more. I’ve decided that as long as I’m drinking more beer per week than I buy per week, I’m good. Tonight, I had 3 beers.

I started with Victory’s 10 Years Alt. It’s, obviously, an altbier. Very few American breweries make these (in fact, the only ones that come to mind are Long Trail and Tuckerman). This one was originally brewed for their 10th anniversary (hence the name, which is a play on words as “alt” means “old” in German). It pours a nice dark amber color with a small head. It immediately smelled of nice piney hops and sweet malts. The taste is hops up front and malt down in back. The malt profile becomes more pronounced as the beer warms. It’s a tasty one. I think I actually found an American altbier that I like better than Double Bag. Unfortunately, I can’t get this one anymore.

I then moved on to Speakeasy Double Daddy. It’s a double IPA. I think I wrote about Speakeasy once before and mentioned that they had only 2 beers worth buying, this one and the amber ale. This one was really nice. I had a mix of different hops. There was some grapefruit flavor mixed in with some piny hops with just enough malt to give it balance without detracting from the hops. It was a nice solid DIPA.

The last beer I had was Rock Art’s Midnight Madness Smoked Porter. I don’t remember if I wrote about this one yet. It’s a very smoky porter with just enough roasted malts to give it a nice flavor. This would be great paired with Vermont cheddar or some smoky meats.

Sam Adams Sample B Dunkelweizen

Published on April 1, 2008 in Ale, Beer and German. 2 Comments

Not all that long ago, Sam Adams had a little competition of their own to determine what the next beer in the regular lineup would be. It was between an Irish Red Ale and a Dunkelweizen. We all know that the Sam Adams Irish Red was the winner as it’s out on liquor store shelves everywhere, and pretty good I might add.

However, the Dunkelweizen, which I managed to get a bottle of last week, is pretty good. Personally, I wish they went with this one. Too few breweries brew good German style beers. This one was a good one. While I can’t really write a good review as I think I had it too cold, it was a very nice beer and I am not normally a fan of wheat beers. I like a good German style beer. This one hit the spot last night. It was the obvious underdog in the competition, but it was a worthy competitor, in my opinion.

Anyway, here’s to hoping they brew it again. It was good. Here’s also to hoping that more breweries brew German style beers (with the exception of the Hefeweizen as I think it’s brewed a bit too much).

As usual, Playing Catch Up

Published on March 17, 2008 in Ale, Beer, German, Lager and Review. Closed

As always seems the case with me (mainly because of other stuff going on), I’m playing catch up.

Last night, Susan and I split the bottle of Hoppin’ Frog B.O.R.I.S. the Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout (BORIS stands for Bodacious Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout) that we picked up at Yankee Spirits over the weekend. We had never heard of Hoppin’ Frog and she likes Oatmeal Stouts, so we decided to try it. I’m glad we did. It pours a thick black with a thin dark tan head. There is very little carbonation present. Smells of roasted coffee and chocolate. It’s thick and slightly oily in the mouth with a nice roasted flavor. There’s a lot of bitter chocolate and coffee flavors, along with a slight caramel sweetness. It had the nice smoothness of an Oatmeal Stout mixed in with the power of a RIS. This is one flavorful beer and definitely worth the purchase. Hoppin’ Frog is a brewery from Akron, Ohio. It’s good to see more of the midwestern beers making their way to the Northeast.

Saturday night, I had my bottle of Burton Bridge Empire India Pale Ale. The bottle says that this English India Pale Ale was brewed using the recipe of the original IPA, which was used to make a stronger, more hopped beer to last the voyage overseas for British soldiers and colonies. Now, I will say that English IPA’s tend not to be quite as hoppy as their American cousins. That’s not a bad thing (unless you need that hops flavor). This beer was no different, though it does have a different taste. It’s bottle conditioned, so it had a lot of yeast taste to it. It says to let the sediment settle to the bottom, and I had let it sit for a good 5-10 minutes after removing it from the fridge (where it also sat). I guess the sediment in this one is in suspension most of the time as it wasn’t clear. Anyway, the flavor was nice and malty with a little hops and the yeast added a little tartness to it. It had a slight bready mouthfeel and smelled a little on the sweet side with a hint of lemon. It was good, though I don’t know if I’ll buy it again for the price ($5+ for a 500 ml bottle).

I don’t remember when I had my Long Trail Double Bag, and I don’t have an exact writeup about it. It’s a stronger Altbier than the regular Long Trail Ale. The label calls it a German Sticke. The beer is really good. That’s, unfortunately, all I can say. If you see it, buy some. It’s worth it. Long Trail is one of the single most underrated breweries in my opinion. Their beers are solid, they just don’t brew anything really extreme (though the Double Bag is 7.2%), which shouldn’t be held against them. I’m hoping to do a tour of their brewery in Vermont on my honeymoon in June (yes, we’re being different and going to Vermont).

Finally, on Wednesday, I had Einbecker Schwarzbier. This dark lager wasn’t anything special. It poured a brown color with very little head. The beer had a very malty aroma, though nothing really stuck out. It had a light flavor of slight chocolate with a hint of caramel. I wasn’t overly impressed with this one. It was too light for my tastes and I’ve had other schwarzbiers that I liked much better (Sam Adams Black Lager and Monschof).

That should do it for now. Perhaps I’ll write more tonight. I think I’ll start down my small IPA collection that I’ve been building.

3 more beers…

Published on March 8, 2008 in Ale, Beer, German and Review. Closed

Last night, I was in the mood for drinking, so I had a few beers.

First up was the second beer in the Sam Adams Longshot box, the Weizenbock. This one was doubly nice because I got to use my new weissbier glass. The beer poured a cloudy brown with a nice light tan head. Smelled of malty sweetness and a slight hint of banana. The beer was nicely carbonated with a nice bready/chewy texture (that’s a good thing). It tasted of yeast and bread and a little banana. It was nice and smooth and something I’d never expect from Sam Adams. I’d like to see them make this part of their regular (or at least seasonal) lineup. This was an excellent beer. Two thumbs up to the homebrewer that came up with this recipe. It’s true to style and a good example of a weizenbock.

Next, as I had made my trip to Nikki’s even though there was no tasting, I had picked up a bunch of IPA’s. I’ve been missing the hops lately. Last night, I tried the Southampton IPA. This one poured a slightly hazy pale amber color with a very small white head that quickly disappeared. Smelled of citrusy hops. Lots of hops in the flavor as well as some malt. I wasn’t crazy about this one. The flavor of the hops didn’t seem right and the balance was a bit off. It was a decent IPA, but not what I’ve come to expect from my IPA’s. Would I drink it again? Probably. Do I prefer other IPA’s? Definitely.

Finally, for dessert, I had Clipper City’s Holy Sheet, an abbey ale. This one poured a clear brown color with a small tan head that quickly disappeared. It tasted of some spices and malt, but lacked what I’ve come to expect of Belgian style ales. It was too clear and lacked body and flavor. I probably won’t be buying this one again. It seems as though they filtered a beer that should’ve been left unfiltered or, better yet, bottle conditioned.

So the night started out great, but went downhill. Next time I’ll try the Southern Tier IPA. Hopefully, that’ll be a good one. Their Un-Earthly IPA is fantastic.

Catching Up…

Published on March 6, 2008 in Ale, Beer, German, Lager and Review. Closed

So I haven’t written a whole lot lately, but I have had some pretty tasty beers. I’ll go in reverse order as I remember them.

Last weekend, Susan and I went back to Yankee Spirits because I wanted to try to get Alesmith Speedway Stout. They were out of it, so I got some barleywines and the Sam Adams Longshot 6 pack. Longshot is a homebrew competition that Sam Adams holds every year. They brew the 3 top beers and put them in a 6 pack. Unfortunately, this year, one of the winners was a Double IPA. Because of the hops shortage, they will brew it next year. So there were 3 of each of the other winners, a Grape Pale Ale, and a Weizenbock.

Last night, I tried the Grape Pale Ale. It pours a nice amber color with a 1 finger white head that hangs around for a while. It smelled like a pretty weak pale ale with some hops, but mostly malt. It had a very very faint grape scent to it, but not really enough for me to notice that much. The flavor was much the same, pretty light on all parts. I couldn’t really taste a whole lot of grape, but it added to the sweetness. This beer would be better for the summer. It was nice and light and easy drinking, but not big on flavor.

The night before, I had EKU 28, one of the German beers I picked up. This Eisbock was big on flavor. It poured an amber color with a small head. Smelled of fruit and malty sweetness. Very little hops were present in the aroma. The taste was fantastic. It was nice and fruity with a slight alcohol warmness that lasted throughout. It was a very sweet beer and worth drinking again and again (though maybe not in the same night at 11% ABV). Very different for a lager.

Finally, the night before that, I had Left Hand’s Imperial Stout. This was one of the smoothest, imperial stouts I have had. It had a nice sweetness with just enough bitterness to balance it out. It pours a dark mahogany color with a very small tan head that disappears quickly. The smell is of roasted malts, some slight sweet chocolate, and a very slight hint of hops. The taste is sweet and slightly bitter. It’s a very smooth and easy drinking, especially considering the 10% ABV, which was not at all noticeable.

One Brewery, 2 very different Pilseners

Published on March 2, 2008 in Beer, German and Lager. Closed

I haven’t written anything about the great tasting last week at Nikki’s yet, but here’s a couple of the beers I tried there (and liked since I bought some).

All the beer was from the same brewery, Kulmbacher Brauerei AG. Last night I had the EKU Pils and the Kulmbacher Edelherb Premium Pils, both German Pilseners (a style I wouldn’t normally try).

The EKU Pils is a clear yellow color with lots of nice carbonation and a nice thick white head. Smells dry, crisp, and refreshing. Has some nice notes of some grassy hops in the nose as well. Taste is very much the same. It’s crisp, cool, and very refreshing. This would be a great beer for a hot summer afternoon. It’s not very bitter, but it’s not overly sweet. There’s a nice balance of the grassy hops and the sweeter malt. I could easily down several of these in a sitting.

The Kulmbacher Pils is quite different. It pours similar, though it’s a bit cloudier than the EKU. The smell is quite a bit sweeter with some fruity/sugary notes in there, but still some grassy hops. The taste is very different from the EKU. It’s sweeter with a sugary quality to it. The grassy hops are present, but only as a little balancing act for the sweet malt character. It’s almost got a slight sweet apple/pear flavor to it. It’s just as refreshing as the EKU, but in a very different sort of way.

Both beers were quite good. If you’re looking for something different for a hot summer afternoon, these are perfect thirst quenchers.

Berliner Style Weisse

Published on February 29, 2008 in Ale, Beer, German and Review. Closed

For my second beer of the night, I had the Berliner Style Weisse from Bayerischer Bahnhof. This was one of the newest beers at Nikki’s. The beer pours a pale cloudy yellow with almost no head. Lots of carbonation quickly shows up and goes away. Beer smells of a tart lemon bread (if lemon bread existed). Taste is similar. It’s slightly tart/sour, a little bready, and kind of sweet all at once. Being an unfiltered wheat beer, it’s no surprise that it is a bit bready in mouthfeel. It’s a good beer. It’d be great on a hot summer afternoon. It’s got a nice palate-cleansing quality to it. I’d buy it again, but I’ll likely wait for summer. I want to compare this to Dogfish Head Festina Pêche, an American take on this old German style.

Aventinus Eisbock

Published on November 28, 2007 in Ale, Beer, German and Review. Closed

As a follow-up to the Aventinus Weizenbock, I decided I needed to try the Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock, an Eisbock. The flavor was much the same, though there was a difference. The water or something was frozen to make the beer stronger and the beer had a colder feel to it (even after sitting out of the fridge for a while). The smell was of bananas and bready malt. The taste was complex. I got some fruit (again bananas) and some bready malts and a little bit of caramel and some mild spices. I also noticed a very faint hint of alcohol in the flavor (at 12% ABV, that’s not surprising), though it did not detract from the drinkability or flavor of the beer. It was very good and definitely worth a try (though I’d try the more traditional Aventinus first). If there was such a thing as a German Quadrupel, this would be it.