Beer Review: Great Divide Brewing Co. – Espresso Oak Aged Yeti
Mar0
This is one hairy mutha
The Espresso Oak Aged Yeti claims to be a good food pairing for breakfast burritos, eggs Benedict, hash browns, cheesecake and creme brulee. I am not sure if I could ever come to drinking beer in the morning but I can see how this beer would wake anyone up. It has a strong taste, the taste is good but is not subtle. Here are some pertinent stats:
Amount of brew in bottle: 22 fluid ounces
ABV: 9.5%
Type of brew: Imperial Stout
Price: $12
This beer is dark, intense and not super smooth or sweet like you find with many wood-aged beers. The taste of the espresso comes through quite clearly and adds to the bitterness. Although the hops and malts finish off the taste. Like all of the other imperial stouts I have had this is not a fast drinking beer, especially from the intensity of the flavor I would get my ass kicked to the floor chugging this beast. It appears that this beer is coming out slowly and in small batches. When my fiance went to grab this beer for me (ain’t she great!) there was only one case left in the store and they had not even brought it out yet. Thankfully we got a bottle to try as I could see drinking this beer often. Although for the price of this beer you could buy a 6-pack of oak-aged arrogant bastard which is one of the more expensive 6-packs you can find in a grocery store making it the only major downside to this beer.
The good: great tasting beer, awesome label, kickstarts you if you are at all tired
The bad: the price and limited stock
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La Biere des Collines – Hercule Stout
Mar0
Run away!
Today I am drinking La Biere des Collines’ Hercule Stout which is a bottle of brew I purchased a few weeks ago mainly because the label caught my eye. Before I get into the bulk of the review below is a summary of the pertinent stats:
Amount of brew in the bottle: 11.2 fluid ounces
ABV: 9%
Type of brew: Belgian ale / Stout
Price: ~$4
I was pretty anxious for this beer as I thought it would good and since most belgian ales aren’t stouts I figured it would be interesting. Plus with a name like Hercules Stout I was imaging a dark strong beer that would kick anyone’s ass. Sadly, I was let down like a geek going to watch Episode 3 of Star Wars on opening night. The smell of this beer is awesome with hints of chocolate, sweetness and a faint scent of hops and if the taste was half of what the smell was my expectations would have been met. However, on first sip the illusion setup by the smell disappeared. The taste has a tiny hint of chocolate from the barley but otherwise the taste is flat and boring. I would not recommend this beer as there are far better ones out there.
The good: The label is dang cool, the smell is great
The bad: The taste
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Anker Brewery – Cuvee Van De Keizer
Mar0
King of Kings - Photo by Jana
For my latest review I am drinking Cuvvee Van De Keizer brewed by Anker Brewing. This is a belgian beer that is brewed only once a year on Charles the Fifth’s birthday and the thing that attracted my attention when I was at the store was a quote from some random person that saying: “this is the best beer in the universe.” Naturally I wanted to try this best beer in existence. This beer is a little bit more than I normally would pay costing $13 but with such high reviews I had to try it 
. On pouring this beer it had a thick bubbly head with a dark red color with no sediment. The smell of the beer is fairly sweet with a hint of alcohol. On sipping this beer it is sweet, smooth and a pleasure to drink. This beer hides the fact that it has a 11% ABV unlike many American micro-brews there is no taste of alcohol which is pretty nice.
While reviewing this beer I had the “pleasure” of watching Twilight for the second time with my fiance but thankfully this beer kept me good company and let me get through the joys of Twilight. Well I can’t say I drank this beer through the whole movie since the movie is almost two hours long and I finished the beer 40ish minutes into the movie, sigh. Overall this beer is great and I can see why people have rated it so highly on ratebeer.com.
The good: A delightful beer to drink
The bad: If you like hops this is not the beer for you also it is dang expensive
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Hair of the Dog – Matt
Mar0
I wanna be a punk rocker
Many people in the know on beer know that Seattle and the Northwest have a lot of great beers. There is a vibrant culture here in Seattle with many great places to get beer. One great place to pick-up beer is Bottleworks sure their website sucks but don’t let that cloud your judgment about the store. Every year the owners of the store contact a brewer to create a special beer for them. This year it was Hair of the Dog and in the normal style of this brewer the beer is named after a person in this case it is Matt which is the name of the two owners of Bottleworks. I bought this bottle on an impulse when I was at the store I am happy I did although my wallet thinks differently. First let me say this is the most expensive 12 oz. bottle of beer I have ever purchased it ran me $20! But enough with trivial things like money let’s get down to the important stuff how good was this beer?
Well I have to say pretty damn good. It is a very sweet smelling beer and like the bottle says there is actually a hint of apples. If you do not like sweet beers though run far away from this puppy as it is another one of those “dessert beers.” But, besides the sweetness this beer is very strong. The bottle says it is 11.5% ABV but I don’t buy it I think it is much higher. The beer is very dark and heavy. I had this beer straight out of the bottle so I didn’t get a picture of the actual beer but I just love the label. I mean a punk rock bulldog how cool . Overall I liked this beer and I would not have minded picking up another bottle or two just to see how well they aged. This beer would probably be really great aged a few years it would probably mellow out and get even sweeter.
The good: smooth beer that kicks like a bulldog bites
The bad: the price!
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Dogfish Head – Palo Santo Marron
Mar0
She is one smooth mistress
I have had a bottle of Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron in my fridge for the last two weeks and I finally decided to break it open for a review. Well it was worth the wait! This beer is smooth a little sweet and packs a punch. When I first poured the beer the smell was very noticeable and there was a pretty good head. Like most wood-aged beers this one has a smooth cognac-type taste to it. The color is dark brown and the taste has hints of caramel (the bottle says hints of caramel and vanilla but I must be dense because I couldn’t taste any vanilla).
I enjoy drinking wood-aged beers as they really do mellow out the beer and make it so easy to drink it turns into a dessert like experience. The beer hits stronger than any dessert I have had considering the ABV is rated at 12%. Overall like the rest of the Dogfish Head brews I have had this was a great beer and it packs a great punch and a great flavor.
The good: great taste and very easy to drink
The bad: it is pretty strong and if you like hops this is not the beer for you
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Stone (and company) – Special Holiday Brew
Mar0
Yummy spices!
Recently I got my hands on Stone’s/Nøgne-Ø’s/Jolly Pumpkin’s special holiday ale and I am glad that I did. This is a pretty mellow beer that tastes great. Admittedly I was a little hesitant to try this beer at first since the additional spices involved with this beer are: chestnuts, juniper berries, white sage and caraway seeds. With all of these additional spices I was curious to see if the beer tasted good or like someone threw my grandma’s spice rack into the brewing process. Thankfully the spices are not over powering but you can taste hints of additional spices. Another interesting thing about this beer is that it is a compilation of three different breweries: Stone, Nøgne-Ø and Jolly Pumpkin. I could imagine that the logistics of creating this beer was a bit of a pain-in-the ass since the companies are spread throughout the world (Norway, Michigan and San Diego).
On thing I initially noticed is that this beer is fairly carbonated, not to the point of soda but it is definitely not flat. It has a fairly sharp aftertaste but not like what you normally expect from a hoppy beer. I think the sharpness comes more from the caraway seeds but I can’t be 100% sure. This is a darker beer with a small almost non-exsistent head when poured. The beer is supposed to be packing a 9.0% ABV which is fairly strong but it doesn’t taste like a beer that strong or I am just getting used to these stronger beers . As the beer warms up the bitterness almost disappears and the spices become more prominent. Also, at the bottom of the cup you can see white sediment which I am assuming is the white sage. Overall I thought this beer was decent but I think you have to have specific tastes in order to like it.
The good: Unique flavor and easy to drink
The bad: Some people might not like all of the different spices
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Stone 08.08.08 Vertical Epic
Mar0
Let's get vertical
Recently I had Stone’s 08/08/08 vertical epic. I couldn’t wait till 12.12.12 which is how long the beer was supposed to sit before drinking it.Some background on the epic series, it started on 01.01.01 and is brewed in increments for each year. The idea behind it was to try all of the beers in a vertical tasting on 12.12.12. Which sounds awesome but there are two problems for me related to that idea:
1) I am not that patient
2) When they started this I wasn’t even able to buy beer and I was ignorant on the ways of beer
Let’s get back to the review shall we? The beer initially tastes like a mix between a sour and a Belgian beer. This beer is incredibly easy to drink and is very light. One of the most interesting things I find about this beer is that even though it seems like a light beer it is packing a powerful punch! This beer weighs in at 8.5% ABV meaning this is no light easy going beer if you drank this one on an empty stomach get ready to feel something . This beer is so light some people might mistake it for a lager but is like no lager I have ever tasted. As this beer warms up it becomes slightly more bitter and sharper tasting.
The good: easy to drink light beer, won’t fill you up but will make you feel warm inside.
The bad: if someone wanted to do it correctly they would have to hold off till 12.12.12 to drink this dang thing!
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Baltika – Extra 9 Lager
Mar0
The first good lager I have had
I usually don’t drink lagers but tonight I am making an exception as part of session 25 a lager was called for. So, I picked up a bottle of Baltika Extra 9 Lager. I can literally count the number of times I have had a lager on one hand. But this is the first craft lager I have ever had and I must say I am impressed. It has a great taste and it is light and easy to drink. It has a faint taste of honey and is fairly fuzzy and almost tastes like a beer with champagne hints. This might be from my lack of experience with lager . Overall this beer has opened my eyes to lagers.
The good: great taste and easy to drink
The bad: it has the stigma of being a lager
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Chang Lager
Mar0
In my most recent trip to Thailand I happened upon Chang Beer, which I believe is distributed in the US though I have yet to see it anywhere (I’ve seen and tasted both Singha and Tiger). Chang is everywhere in Thailand from bars to clubs to restaurants to everywhere else, and is relatively cheap (all alcohol in Thailand is cheap). Before ordering the bottle, I admittedly thought to myself, “this is going to be just another southeast asian lager,” but I was pleasantly surprised with my first swill. This was another asian lager, but as you drink a citrus lime taste initially hits the tongue followed by a very mild and almost unnoticeable hoppiness. Unlike other Thai beers, there isn’t a strong sweet or sugary taste, which is invitingly different. There definitely is a crispness to the beer which I was told later is said to be attributed to the well/spring water Chang uses. Overall, I liked the uniqueness of Chang lager though this is only given into account to its region.
The Good: Uniqueness for a southeast asian lager
The Bad: It’ll take quite a few of these to get a buzz
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