Saranac Hefeweizen

So for those who didn't know, the past few weeks I have been out of town so the posts have been automated. This post is included in that. I've been travelling in Europe and finished up my trip in Las Vegas with some friends. I set these posts up in advanced so I wouldn't have to worry about the blog while I was out of the country. Don't worry though, I took notes on all the beers I tried while I was away (especially in Ireland!)

This week, I have another of Saranac's beers from their Summer Sampler. This one was the Hefeweizen because I needed a break from all IPAs I've been drinking. Seriously, that many hops can kill a girl. Plus, I do have a soft spot for wheat beers.

The beer poured a gold color with some cloudiness. There was a thin, white head that dissipated rather quickly. There was some nice lacing as the beer moved down the glass. The nose was very bready with a few light citrus notes. The flavor had a strong banana notes with mild spiciness and just a bit of the bread that was in the nose. The finish was nice and clean.

Overall, a very nice beer. A good example of the style, in my opinion, though not the best I've ever had. I would recommend it to any one looking for a beer at the end of a long day. 

Shock Top Wheat IPA

A few weeks ago, my friends and I went out to celebrate my roommate moving in. We went to a local favorite, Junior's, for some food and a few drinks before really heading out for the night. Junior's has a great deal where they feature a brewery and put a few of their beers on special for the month. This month the brewery was Shock Top. The bottles of the Wheat IPA and Raspberry Wheat were the particular specials when we were there so I had the Wheat IPA.

I really have been getting into different IPAs lately, see the last few posts if you don't believe me. I think that, when done correctly, they are a very nice beer. I still have a hard time when the brewer has been too heavy handed with hops. I'm also a big fan of wheat beers. With how smooth they are and how generally refreshing they are, I find that they are among some of my favorite beers. The combination of the two was something to look forward to in my mind. 

I wasn't given a glass so I couldn't get a proper read on the color but I'm pretty sure it would be a solid gold color with some haze. There was a solid hop nose with a slight hint of citrus. The beer itself was a bit sweeter than I expected. It had a strong bready flavor to it as opposed to the hops that I was expecting considering it was an IPA. The finish was clean and pleasant. 

While it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, it was a good wheat beer. I'm not sure I would give it the credit of being a full IPA considering that it was lacking the hop flavor that I was expecting. Not as good as it could have been, but a good try nonetheless. 

Saranac Rye IPA

So as I mentioned in an earlier post, I purchased Saranac's 12 Beers of Summer pack which gives you 6 different beers to try. The next few blog posts will likely be about them as I had never had most of the beers in the pack before. This post is about their Rye IPA.

A Rye IPA is when the brewer replaces a portion of the grains with rye instead. The proportion is usually somewhere between twenty and thirty percent depending on the recipe but on various websites I've seen people say they put as much as forty to fifty percent of the grain to rye. They tend to have a spicier flavor to them from the rye and can be very startling the first time you try them if you aren't expecting it.

The beer poured a hazy, deep gold color with a bright white head. I didn't get much of a head but it did seem to stay with the beer as I drank it. There was very little lacing on the glass as I drank this beer. The nose was very spicy with quite a few hop notes to it. The flavor was pleasantly spicy with a welcome burn as you got to the hop notes. It was nicely balanced with a few malt notes toward the end. The finish was nice and clean with just a bit of a lingering burn.

A very nice beer though not something I would necessarily associate with summer considering the spice of it.

Thomas Neeson's SMaSH IPA

A good friend of mine started homebrewing about a year and a half ago. I've tried some of his beer and it is quite good. He's a grad student up in Vermont studying Education and he is a talented musician as well. He doesn't have a brewing website yet but as soon as there is something I will put a link in here.

The most recent batch he gave me to try was an all-grain brew of an IPA that was dry hopped. This was his first all-grain brew and he had been doing extract brews before that. For those who don't know what that means: extract brewing means that you are brewing using prepackaged malt extract where as in all-grain brewing, you are creating the extract yourself by creating the extract yourself by mashing different grains to create the wort.

The beer poured a hazy, gold color with a thin white head. There wasn't very good retention of the head and very little lacing in the glass as the beer was consumed. The nose was surprisingly mild for a dry hopped IPA but there were still a few hop and citrus notes to be found. The beer was very much a full bodied IPA with a lot of good hop flavor with some nice, light lemon notes as well. The finish of the beer was a lingering of the hop bitterness which left you wanting more of the beer.

A great example of DIY in the beer industry, this was very much a successful homebrew.

Saranac Blueberry Blonde Ale

So I was without internet for awhile as I moved into my new apartment but I didn't stop taking notes or trying new beers. One that made a particular impression on me was from Saranac's 12 Beers of Summer Pack, Saranac Blueberry Blonde Ale. Now in the past, I had found one of their seasonal beers a bit strong for my taste but one of my friends was raving about it so I decided to try it. Also, I was still on the hunt for the mystery blueberry beer that I HAVE FOUND and will review at a later date.

The beer poured a hazy, gold color with a bright white head. The head had good retention throughout and there was some excellent lacing. The nose of the beer had some very strong blueberry notes with just a hint of some citrus. Normally, this sort of nose is the hint of bad things to come but the flavor was pleasantly mild. It had a very nice blueberry flavor that was well balanced with a touch of hop and citrus notes. The finish was very mellow with a bit of blueberry lingering at the very end.

This beer is available, as I said, in the 12 Beers of Summer Pack but also in its own 6 pack if you want just this one. I highly recommend it.

Franklin's Brewery

A few weeks ago was the Family Hootenanny where we sat around most of a Saturday, drank beer, talked, played music and were generally awesome. My cousin Emma and her boyfriend Paul brought up some beers from their local brewery, Franklin's Brewery, for me to try. I'll probably do a more formal review when I go to visit this summer but for a sampling of what this brewery has to offer, I figure this is a good start.

First one up was the Anacostia Ale. The beer was a deep copper color with a cream colored head. The nose was very well balanced between hops and malt with a few very light citrus notes. The flavor reflected the nose with a bit of a pleasant hop bite. The finish was smooth and refreshing with the sweetness of the malt lingering just a bit.

The second beer I tried was the 10th Anniversary Ale. This one poured a hazy gold color with a bright white head that had a good retention throughout. This was also a very well balanced beer though much more mellow than the Anacostia. The nose was mild and citrusy. The flavor was a good balance between good bready malts and nice, light hop notes. It was a lingering finish.

Overall, I think this was a great sampling from a small brewery. I would love to get the chance to try more and hope to do so soon!

Deadwood Nut Brown Ale

This weekend my parents and I went to Boston to see the Red Sox play the Orioles. We stayed at a Comfort Inn not too far from downtown. Inside the inn, there were signs for a Deadwood Cafe and Brewery so, being me, I twisted everyone's arm into going.

When we arrived, the place wasn't exactly what we expected. It was in a bowling alley but who am I to judge? This could be some fantastic beer that no one knows about. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

They were out of their stout but the replacement offering was a nut brown ale so I ordered that. On the website, it's described as a blend of a Pilsner and a Stout. The beer came out a dark brown, nearly black color. There was a small head that was cream to white in color but it dissipated very quickly to a very thin layer of foam. The nose was muted but a few floral and hop notes were present. The flavor was thin and overhopped for the style of beer. It was nearly identical to my dad's IPA in the amount of hoppiness. It was very disappointing since malty beers are my favorite and that's what this was supposed to be in part. There was no real aftertaste which was good but the beer overall was lacking. I'm sorry to say I won't be recommending this to anyone because I wouldn't want them to face the same disappointment that I faced here. 

Buffalo Bill's Blueberry Oatmeal Stout

The quest for the elusive blueberry beer I had two summer ago continues. This time I decided to get out of the ales and try a stout. Unfortunately, it still wasn't a success in finding the magical purple beer but in any case, this one was still very good. Buffalo Bill's Brewery was the source of our most recent blueberry beer in the form of their Blueberry Stout. 

Their label held a lot of promise for my search which is why I bought it. I mean, look at all the berries on the label! Needless to say, that while the beer wasn't purple, it certainly did not disappoint in blueberry flavor. Even though this wasn't the beer I was looking for, I would certainly look for it again. 

Dad wanted to be fancy since it was a tulip glass

I poured the beer into a tulip glass from the Spiegelau collection that I have. The beer poured a deep brown, nearly black, color with a tan head that dissipated rather quickly. The nose of the beer was full of blueberry notes with just a hint of toasted malts and chocolate. The flavor matched the nose wonderfully with the classic stout flavor standing up wonderfully to the sweetness of the blueberries. The finish was clean with no real flavor lingering. There were a few hints of chocolate. The beer was remarkably smooth with little carbonation. It was overall a very good experience. As I said earlier, I strongly recommend this to anyone who enjoys both blueberries and oatmeal stouts. 

New Planet Off Grid Pale Ale

So for this post I did something a little different. My mom recently found out she is gluten intolerant. She, like many of us, enjoyed a good beer from time to time but no longer can. I've been on a bit of a mission to find a decent gluten free beer and this one caught my eye on my last trip to the beer store.

New Planet's Off Grid Pale Ale boasted a higher hop rating from the store I was in than other beers I usually drink. So considering they also boast being a gluten free beer, I was very much intrigued. I bought two, one for myself and one for my mom to see if it satisfied her craving for real beer. Neither of us were disappointed. 

As you can see, the beer is a dark amber color and poured with a nice, cream colored head. The nose was light but fruity with a few malt notes evident across it. The mouth feel was very similar to a regular beer. It wasn't thin like some other gluten free beers I've had. The flavor was what really sold it though. While not identical to beer, it did bear a strong resemblance to beer. It had a hoppy, slightly bitter flavor to it with a strong hop finish. There was a slightly unpleasant aftertaste to it but it wasn't unpalatable. It was on par with a normal beer's finish. So for any one out there looking for a good gluten free beer, I would strongly recommend this one. 

I found it at Half-Time Beverage store in Poughkeepsie, NY. It was $2.59 a bottle which is on the pricey end for beer for them but definitely worth it as an alternative to regular beer for those who can't have. 

Brooklyn Summer Ale

So life got a little crazy these past few months and despite the fact that I tried some wonderful beers, I just didn't have the time to write about them. Things are calming down now so we're going to try to start things up again here.

About a week ago, my sister and I were on our way to get some beer for a party we were going to when we got distracted by a display of this year's summer beers. Among them were several cases of Brooklyn Brewery's Summer Ale which we scrambled to purchase. This is a beer we both enjoy a great deal and look forward to every year.

Brooklyn's Summer Ale is an English style Pale Ale which tends to have more malt notes than its American and Indian counterparts. Brooklyn's holds true to this in the actual flavor of the beer. I put this beer into my standard pint glass and it poured a gold color with a bright white head. The nose of the beer was hoppy and floral with just a hint of fruitiness. The flavor of the beer was surprisingly mild with a good mixture of hop and malt notes. There was a bit of citrus to it as well giving it a very crisp texture. The finish was clean and left you looking for more.

A very solid beer, in my opinion, that is accessible to both people who enjoy and do not enjoy the hoppy IPAs. A great start to summer and I look forward to continuing this blog for awhile to come.

Smuttynose Star Island Single

So for Christmas this year, I asked for fancy beer glasses because I was trying to be a little bit cooler this year. Put the beers I try in the correct type of glass when I try them to give them a proper chance when I review them. The set I picked out was from Spiegelau and my aunt got them for me from Amazon. I got them about a week and a half ago and was very excited to use them. Turns out, the jokes on me and I put this beer in the wrong glass, but alas, I digress.

Last week I had the opportunity to try a beer from Smuttynose Brewing Co., their Star Island Single. This is a Session Ale. I've also seen it listed as a Belgian Pale ale and at first glance, tomato tomato (which works much better when said aloud). However, after a bit of research I discovered that session ales are beers that are very drinkable with an alcohol content that is below 5.0% ABV. This definition disqualifies Star Island Single as a session ale by just a touch as its alcohol content is 5.1% ABV. Almost only counts in horseshoes and hangrenades, after all. The other part of the definition, however, is a beer that is well balanced in both malt and hops making it very drinkable to all parties. In this, Star Island Single succeeded.

This beer, on a whole, was unoffensive. I don't like coriander much as a spice and I could definitely tell coriander was used in this beer so it took away from what could have been a perfectly fine session ale for me. The beer poured a very pale gold color with a bright white head. The new glass I used was the lager glass instead of the tulip glass which was a rookie mistake (I'm sorry). The glass did show off some very nice lacing of the head, which was well retained throughout the beer's duration. The nose was very yeasty with some light floral and citrus notes. The flavor of the beer was very well balanced. It drinks a bit like a pilsner. It was also very yeasty and the coriander notes were evident here in the citrus notes of the beer. The finish was clean, no flavors really lingered.

Sorry for the fuzziness, it didn't look like this on the camera

As we all know, I can take forever to finish a beer. This beer was the same in flavor from start to finish with no remarkable changes as the beer warmed up. Overall, it was a solid beer. I didn't particularly care for it because of the coriander but I think its a very accessible beer otherwise. This beer I bought at Half-Time Beverages of Poughkeepsie. Their address is linked in the location and their website is in the name.

Magic Hat Encore

I want to apologize for the lack of blogging lately. I've been uninspired lately, for lack of a better word. Beer, while still my drink of choice, was just not making me want to scream from the rooftops about it lately. It has been a very sad two months of uninspiring and lackluster beer. Fortunately, all that changed two weeks ago when I went to visit a couple of my friends up in Vermont.

My friend Tom deserves a lot of credit for this blog because without a lot of his pestering, I wouldn't be drinking a great deal of the beers that I have tried. I'm sure of this because I really hated hops not too long ago and now I think they're all right, most of the time at least. I went and stayed with him and Jess exactly two weeks ago and we went to Burlington to visit Magic Hat in Burlington, VT. The brewery is fantastic, I highly recommend a visit. I did not bring my camera with me, and I wasn't particularly looking to review the brewery at that time with the lack of inspiration and all; but if you get the chance, don't pass it up. You get four free samples and that choice was one of the hardest I've had to make in awhile.

When I was there they had their Encore on tap. Encore was one of their IPAs on tour and made with the ever hard to find Simcoe hops. I've said it once and I'm sure I'll say it until it's no longer true, I don't like beers that are too heavy handed on the hops. I have a hard time with very bitter beers and was extremely hesitant to try it given that it's even dry hopped. That being said, I bought a six pack to bring home and formally review before I left the state.

The name of this beer was most certainly deserved. It needs an encore for its encore. The beer is a wonderful blend of both genres it represents. It is an American Wheat IPA. It is simultaneously hoppy and yeasty which generally seem to be contradictory flavors in most beers. I brought this beer home because I knew my dad would enjoy it and tonight was that night.

The beer poured a rich, deep gold color that was a bit cloudy. The head was white and had very good retention throughout the course of drinking the beer. The nose has a lot of good hop notes to it but there is a bit of a bready undertone to it as well. Overall, both are very subtle and not very scary in the least. The flavor is the most remarkable part of this beer. It is a bit hoppy but in a way that doesn't make the beer inaccessible to people who don't like that quality in a beer. It isn't bitter, there are little to no pine notes which generally are what drive me away from a beer. There is a hint of mango, which I was told by one of the gentlemen at the brewery and will freely admit that I probably would have been driven mad by the unnamed flavor in the beer. This note, I was told, comes from those Simcoe hops that are so desired by brewers. The finish is bright and leaves you wanting more.

This beer is truly a delight in every way. The price of $8.99 for the six pack was more than doable considering the quality of the beer. I do feel the need to say that the best part was what was under the caps. I hadn't noticed it on the first one I had of the six pack but when I uncapped the second I saw a saying on the cap so I arranged our caps for a photo op. I'll be sure to update this when I uncap the other two from the pack.

So happy 2012, everyone! Raise your glasses to a bright new year!

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. 

Saranac Pumpkin Ale

Halloween seems all too perfect a time to have the second to last beer in the Great Pumpkin-Off of 2011. Especially given the label for this beer is a Jack O'Lantern. Saranac Pumpkin Ale is one of their seasonal brews that's available in their 12 Beers a Falling or in its own 6 or 12 pack. The brewery is located in Utica, NY and as of right now I'm supposed to go visit it very soon. 

Happy Halloween!

 This particular beer was picked out by a friend for his birthday and the first sampling I did was with him straight from the bottle. I was a little put off by it then so I decided to do a proper sampling of it a few days later, thinking that the bottle somehow changed the way the beer tasted.

The beer poured a deep reddish gold color. There was very little head on the pour and what there was seemed to dissipate very quickly. The nose was very spice heavy with clove being the most notable one of the bunch. The flavor wasn't much different. The clove was downright overpowering. It was difficult to discern a lot of the other spices that were there because of the clove. I also found it difficult to discern the pumpkin at all. The spices lingered on the palate after the beer was finished, tasting almost like burnt spices after awhile.

It depends on personal tastes on this one I suppose and I like cloves as much as the next person, but I strongly feel you should be able to taste the pumpkin in a pumpkin ale. The beer was fairly disappointing but not overall terrible. It certainly left a warmth from all the spices and at $8 a six-pack it is certainly reasonably priced.

Brooklyn Brewery Monster Ale

Now when I started this blog, I was determined to try as many different types of beers as possible. It wasn't going to matter to me how scary or intimidating the name was, I was going to try it. Lately, I know I've been slipping a bit on this but a beer I found on my last trip to the store seems to have upped the ante a bit. 

 Monster Ale is a barleywine style ale from the wonderful Brooklyn Brewery. It's a middle of the road barleywine as far as ABV goes coming in at a sound 10.1%. The strongest beer I'd had up to this point was Unibroue's La Fin du Monde at 9.0% ABV but this "monster" from Brooklyn was a horse of a different color.

The pour was a little disconcerting as no real head appeared but I think that may have been from a lack of a goblet to pour it into as well. The color was a dark gold and what head there was, was white. The nose was a  lot of whiskey notes but there was some fruit evident as well. The taste was strong. There was no mistaking that this beer was strong. It was still very pleasant, exactly like drinking a wine which, as its name suggests, makes it fairly perfectly named. The finish left you wanting more. I was disappointed when my glass was empty and as I only bought one bottle, I had no more Monster Ale. It was about $2 for the bottle but more than worth it. I would highly recommend this beer to people who like a challenge.

Samuel Adams Black Lager

As mentioned in my first Sam Adams post about their Pumpkin Ale, I bought the entire Harvest Collection they put out this year in the 12 pack. I've always enjoyed Sam Adams as I feel their descriptions of their beers on the tops of their labels are spot on and they always put out a quality beer. I have not yet met a Sam Adams beer I do not like and hope to continue on this very happy tradition.

Tonight's selection was the Black Lager from the collection. My uncle and I had been discussing it only a few days before and he told me how wonderful it was so I was, once again, excited to try another new beer. As a rule, I don't read the description of the beer until after I try it, especially with Sam Adams since theirs are right on the bottle.

The beer poured dark, nearly black in color with a few ruby highlights when it was held up to the light. The head was thick and cream colored. The nose of the beer was rich. There were a number of malt notes with highlights of chocolate and just a hint of coffee. The flavor did not disappoint. It was chocolate with a mild sweetness to it. The finish was dry with some of the coffee flavor hanging on. Overall, it was a very good beer, perfect for a cool, fall evening which is what Sam Adams surely intended when they put it in their Harvest Pack.

Hell or High Watermelon

So it turns out, when you start writing about beer, your friends start thinking of you when they try new and/or weird beers. That's how I came across this beer here. I was at a friend's house one evening and she remembered she had something for me. As she ran to get it I remember her saying, "It's really awful but we thought you should try it." That's something to really strive for, in my opinion at least.

It was 21st Amendment Brewery's Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Ale. As we've seen, I do enjoy trying flavored beers. It intrigues me to see how a brewery gets certain flavors into their beers and how well they actually succeed. Watermelon is a particularly tricky fruit which you'd know if you'd had anything artificially flavored like watermelon. Sometimes, it's fantastic...others not so much.

Unfortunately, this beer fell firmly in the latter category. The beer was a straw color that was slightly cloudy which disappointed me a bit as I was hoping there'd be at least a slight pink hue to the beer given the color of the fruit. The nose then gave away what I was in for. It had a sickly, sweet watermelon smell to it that I could barely get past. The flavor was similar to someone dropping a watermelon Jolly Rancher in a beer for only a few moments so that the flavor was just enough to ruin the beer. It was very watery and not very appealing at all. Overall, it was a grand disappointment. As I got the beer as a gift, there was no cost for me.