Brouwerij Huyghe Delirium Tremmens

Happy Birthday to me!

Today, in celebration of my birthday, I wanted to get myself something special. While wandering around the local beer distributor in my town, I decided I wanted something with a cork on it. I also decided I wanted something that reeked of celebration with its label. Needless to say, Brouwerij Huyghe served that purpose with its dancing pink elephants on the label.

But how could you say no to dancing pink elephants

This brewery opened in 1654 located in Melle, Belgium. Unfortunately, Belgium is not on my planned stop during my trip to Europe this summer but perhaps I'll be able to visit someday. It's a family run company that has plenty of history in the area. This particular beer I bought was bottled around March 2010 so that puts it at more than a year and a half old. Perfect aging, in my book at least.

The beer poured a pale yellow with a bright white head that took the entire length of the beer to dissipate. The nose was very similar to champagne. It was very bright while being surprisingly mellow considering the ABV is supposed to be 8.5% ABV though it may have been a bit stronger when I got to it. The flavor of the beer was nice. It was well balanced with an almost champagne like quality to the flavor. There was a good citrus quality to it as well. The finish had a little bit of alcohol to it. The bottle ran me $10.49 for 25.9 ounces which is a little pricey but well worth it for my birthday.

Here's hoping you all celebrate yours in a similar manner!

Southern Tier Imperial Pumking Ale

As the last entry in the Great Pumpkin-Off 2011, this beer is a more than proper way to end. Southern Tier Brewing Co. already impressed me with their Hop Sun over the summer so when a fan of the blog recommended this beer I was happy to oblige his request. 

Related, perhaps, to Jack Skellington?

Now I hate to continuously point out the importance of naming a beer and the subsequent way that beer is perceived, but this beer's name is Pumpking Ale. As it can be seen in the picture above, the pumpkin is a crowned and regal looking jack o'lantern. Now unlike other beers that have given themselves important names (see Raison d'Etre), this beer truly is the king of pumpkin beers this year and is my personal favorite of the five I've tried so far.

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The beer poured a nice shade of orange with just a little bit of haze to it. The head was bright white and had good retention to it. The nose of the beer was just like fresh scooped pumpkin. It was sweet and a little nutty but distinctly pumpkin. The flavor matched it perfectly. It was smooth and well balanced in spite of the high ABV of the beer. The finish of the beer left you wanting more and I have never been so sad to have finished a bottle of beer and not have another one to drink. I bought this beer in a 22 oz. bottle and paid around $8 for it. So while it was a little pricey, this beer undoubtedly did not disappoint and certainly had a lot of bang for the buck.

Keegan Ales Brewery

So in honor of a good friend coming to visit me, we decided to visit a local brewery. She wants to get better at tasting beer and, well, I have a blog about beer so who was I to say no. This time we went up to Kingston, NY and visited Keegan Ales. The brewery was founded in 2003 and has garnered much acclaim over the past 8 years. I had already tried their Mother's Milk stout at a party over the summer so I was looking forward to this visit.

We didn't get to go on a tour but you could see the brew room to your right when you walk in so it wasn't a complete bust on that end of things. The brewery has a bar/restaurant attached so we found a table and ordered a sampler tray for each of us.

Sampler tray from lightest to darkest

There were five beers on tap that day and we were given them from lightest to darkest.That was the order we drank them in starting with Old Capital.

Old Capital

Old Capital is an American Blonde Ale and its color gives you just that. It was pale gold with a thin white head. There were a few citrus notes in the nose but was overall very muted. The taste was not dissimilar to a pilsner and was very refreshing. It was clean and crisp to drink with a nice finish. Very drinkable and accessible to anyone.

Hurricane Kitty IPA

Next up on this adventure was Hurricane Kitty's IPA. I'm still not the biggest fan of IPAs in general but this one was still very accessible. The color threw me off a bit seeing as I will probably always presume that an IPA will be pale gold but the copper red was a very pleasant surprise. The head was bright white and had a nice retention to it. The nose had a pleasantly mild hoppiness to it with some pine and citrus notes to it as well. The taste was much heavier on the hops giving the beer an almost pine tree like flavor to it. The flavor lingered in the mouth a bit but overall the beer had a very dry finish it.

Mother's Milk

Mother's Milk was the one I had tried previously so I knew I was going to enjoy this one. The beer was nearly black with a creamy head. The nose on this beer was full of rich chocolate and coffee notes. The beer itself was incredibly smooth to drink and had an almost creamy quality to it. There were plenty of chocolate and coffee notes mirrored from the nose into the flavor of the beer. The finish had a distinct milky flavor to it.

Joe Mama's Milk

Joe Mama's Milk is Keegan Ales' Imperial stout. They added brown sugar to Mother's Milk to increase the alcohol content and did so rather successfully as it weighs in around 8% ABV. This beer was almost nearly black in the pour with a cream colored head. The nose was very similar to that of Mother's Milk in that there was a good amount of chocolate but I found that the coffee notes were quite a bit stronger. I could also smell the brown sugar that had been added. The taste differences were almost undetectable as was the increased alcohol level in this beer from the original stout. The taste lingered a bit and finished with a a very malty flavor.

Oktoberfest

The final beer of the day was their seasonal Oktoberfest beer which was a traditional Märzen style. It was a very dark brown pour with a white head. The nose was malty but had a few brighter hoppy and floral notes to it. The flavor was more hoppy than malty to me despite the color of the beer though I am learning to be better about judging a beer by its color. It had a crisp finish with the floral notes lingering a bit at the end. 

This was undoubtedly a great brewery to go to and hang out. They hold events on the weekend and have bands play. The pricing is reasonable as well. It was $2 a sample putting the sampler at $10. Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience that I look forward repeating soon in the future. 

Gilded Otter Dusseldorf Altbier

My younger sister recently celebrated her twenty-first birthday. To help her celebrate, our family went out to dinner at the Gilded Otter. The recommendation came from a number of people and we were all looking forward to it. 

Places like the Otter seem to have an additional burden on them to not only provide quality beer but also quality food. This restaurant did not disappoint in either respect but as this is a blog about beer, I will stick to my beer selection for the evening. They have an impressive selection of beers considering they brew in house and it was difficult to pick out just one but I settled on the Dusselfdorf Altbier. The altbier is a brown ale, which is slowly becoming one of my favorite varieties of beer and promised to be different from the other two styles of brown ale I've reviewed. 

The beer, as seen above, was a brownish gold color and appeared with a thin head of white foam. The nose was a bit muted but had a healthy blend of both malt and hops. There were some notes of breadiness as well. The taste matched the nose in its balance of malt and hops. There was an overall sweetness to the beer that was very interesting and hard to place a real flavor to. The finish was a little bitter but not unpleasantly so. Overall, I was very impressed with this beer. 

My sister and my dad also had beers that I tried, though not nearly enough to write a review, and both were very good as well. My sister had the Clove Valley Pumpkin Ale and my dad had the Huguenot St. American Lager. At $6 a pint, the beer was reasonably priced for the atmosphere and I am most certainly looking forward to going back and trying more of their beers.