In honor of today’s events I decided to review a Goose Island brew.
Demolition is a Belgian style Golden Ale. The color of the body is gold and the head white. The aroma is alcohol (7.2% ABV), crackery, and sweet. Amber would also say it’s Belgiany (which means the yeast is very distinctive and she’s not a big fan). The taste is sweet, some cloves, with a dry warming finish.
Salud!
The Lips of Faith series is New Belgium Brewing’s fun series. Well, at least I think it is. Usually there are more sours than any other type of beer in that series but this time around I found their Sahti. A Sahti is a traditional Finnish rye ale that is brewed with juniper. This one however had some lemon and orange peel added to it for a little extra something. I’ve had rye ales before and ales brewed with juniper but it’s pretty rare to find them mixed. In fact I’ve had one other Sahti ale before. This one was called Sah’Tea and was brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery. This one is different from New Belgium’s because of two things. The first is the addition of Black Tea to the beer (hence the Tea part of the name). The second was the method of production. Their method involved heating rocks and adding them to the wort for the boil. This adds a nice caramelization of some of the wort for a nice flavor addition. But this review isn’t about that one (but I do highly recommend it if you can find some) instead it’s about New Belgium’s Sahti.
The color of the body is a light coppery amber with an off white head and has a very clear appearance. The aroma is malty, sweet, and citrusy (mostly lemony). The taste is sweet with some juniper bitterness (at least that’s what I assume since there was an earthy taste I couldn’t identify), slightly citrusy, grainy (from the rye), and a hint of caramel. The mouth feel was very similar to most amber ales which makes sense being that this was an amber ale. I liked it but Amber thinks it tastes like fat tire (perhaps she needs to be reminded of what that tastes like). When it was super cold it did. I’m also working without aroma since I was cooking. It’s true. She was cooking and I have more trouble with aroma and taste when she is cooking.
I didn’t know that Sahti ales were just rye ales brewed with juniper until I looked into it for this review. Being familiar with the Dogfish Head one I assumed it was more the method than the ingredients. That being said before I knew this I had received my next kits for brewing and one happens to be a juniper rye ale. We’ll see how that comes out, but for now I’ll be drinking more of this so I know what I’m aiming for.
Prost!
Out with the old in with the new. That’s right. Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. So to celebrate the ending of one year I opted for Old Jubilation Ale by Avery Brewing Company. Even as I type this it seems that the wind is blowing away 2010 as quickly as possible. But this past year has been a great one. Let’s take a look back. The biggest even was our wedding. Without that we wouldn’t have gone to Portland and came up with the idea for this blog. Also we bought our first house without which I wouldn’t have a place to store all the delicious beers for review. So for us it’s been a fantastic year and I hope next year will be even better.
The body color is a very dark brown (mahogany according to the bottle) and the head is a light tan. The aroma is sweet, fruity, and a hint of hazelnuts/toffee (I originally thought it was smokey until Amber pointed out those in the flavor). The taste is malty/grainy, slight nuttiness, with a toffee finish. The mouth feel is thick but has a nice warming sensation. This one is really good. Warning though the alcohol bite is a potent one (8.3% ABV). Old Jubilation Ale goes down easily and that ABV will sneak up on you very quickly.
The flavors of this beer give me a mental image of a year that is heavily weighed down with memories, sadness, good times, and bad. It really does make you reflect on the last 365 days and look forward to the next. Happy almost New Year everybody and look for 2 posts tomorrow. We’ll be doing Frambozen and as we celebrate the new year I’ll be cracking into my Infinium bottle.
Prost!
Christmas time is here and and everyday it’s a madhouse full of people rushing to get shopping done. Trying to one up everybody by getting the next best thing. Humbug!
I’d rather sit on my couch and enjoy a great beer while watching soccer. Christmas…Humbug!
Ok, so while that last one is kinda true, I was really just trying to set the mood for Ebenezer Ale from BridgePort Brewing Company. I hate to be the Scrooge here, but BridgePort just doesn’t do much for me. I like Hop Czar, but that’s about it. This one is alright. It’s slightly different from the other winter ales I’ve had but it’s just not there. I like it. It’s a lot more beer-y than most winter/Christmas beers. I’m sure if any of you get the chance to try some you may find that you like it as it is not as potent, but to me that’s the fun part about winter ales. Let’s see if after this tasting the spirits of beer can change my mind.
The body color is a dark brown with a light tan head. The aroma is sweet, like caramel, alcoholy, and a subtle floral. The taste is semi sweet with a slight floral hop bitter finish. Not as spicey or alcoholic as most winter/Christmas beers, but more hops. The mouth feel is kind of syrupy with a slow to hit you warming sensation. It’s good, but it’s not great. It is about half a percent lower on the ABV than others I’ve been reviewing (6.4%) but in a good way. It is slightly easier to consume. The floral hops in the finish are different. Yay floral! The other beers I’ve reviewed recently tend to lean with a more resiny hop. Boo resiny. I’m not sure how I feel about BridgePort going with the floral. I’m not a big fan, but this is one I could easily pick up and drink many times over without feeling like I’m missing anything.
Well the spirits kind of missed the mark; I wasn’t converted into loving this beer. I did see the light and realized that my tastes are not the same as others and so this beer might be better suited for some of you than others. Pick some up and give it a try. Let me know what you think about it. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Be sure to check in tomorrow as I have a couple posts planned and maybe even a third if I can get it done on time. I hope you don’t mind being educated about beer and Christmas.
Bah Humbug! Sorry, what I meant to say was Prost!
Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of other blogs posting on He’Brew beers as it is the time of year that their Jewbilation is released. Unfortunately, this review is not for that, but one I did in October of a beer that I bought in September, He’Brew Origin Pomegranate Ale by the Schmaltz Brewing Company. More unfortunately we didn’t get either of them posted during Hanukkah. Bad Gentiles. I’ve had several of their beers in the past and enjoyed them (especially R.I.P.A. which was a Rye IPA that featured Lenny Bruce on the bottle). The only problem is finding them near Manhattan. I was lucky enough to find this bottle at Beer Goggles in Manhattan, but I haven’t seen any of their other beers at any of the other liquor stores. Until we bought Jewbelation Fourteen at Nespor’s yesterday. I bet Goebel Liquor in Wichita carries them.
He’Brew Origin weighs in at 8% ABV. The color of the body is a hazy light red brown with a light tan head . The aroma is malty with a hint of pomegranate. That surprised me as most fruit beers smell like fruit. This one smells like beer with a hint of pomegranate. The taste is that of a heavy amber ale. It’s slightly bitter, dry, and the pomegranate taste is subtle which is really nice. Origin is a really well done fruit beer, subtle yet distinct. It does feel thick going across my tongue though. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it does have a syrupy mouthfeel. If it didn’t have the dryness it would be too malty and remind me of drinking diluted syrup. At 8% you don’t want to down the whole pint 9 by yourself. I think wine glasses at a dinner party may be called for.
If anybody sees any other He’Brew beers out there let me know as I do like their stuff and it seems difficult to find in this state.
Prost!
