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!

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!

Samuel Adams Pumpkin Ale

The second beer in the first annual Great Pumpkin-Off is from a larger, more well known brewery. Every year, Sam Adams puts out a Harvest Pack and in the Harvest Pack is their very own Pumpkin Ale. While it may seem like Sam Adams has been around forever, the brewery actually started in 1984.

This was an impressive beer. The color was deep reddish orange, bordering on mahogany with a cream colored head. The head was thick when initially poured but thinned as time passed. The nose was rich with cinnamon and spices along with a good dose of malts. The beer itself had a rich, spicy flavor that was thoroughly reminiscent of pumpkin pie. It was warm and full bodied, which I realize is generally a wine description but it is the best way to really describe this beer.

I would highly recommend this beer to anyone and look forward to trying the rest of the beers in this year's harvest pack. For the 12 pack it ran me $16.49 and there were 6 different types of beer in the 12 pack. The third beer will be the Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout from Cape Ann's Brewing Company.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

In the spirit of the changing of the seasons, I decided to try pumpkin beers. This will be the first of four posts dedicated to these tried and true harbingers of fall. First up is Dogfish Head's oldest brew: Punkin Ale. Now, my first experience with Dogfish Head was less than spectacular and I was more than happy to finally be done with what I had started affectionately calling the "whiskey beer", I had promised a friend that I would send her a delicious pumpkin beer. After a bit of research, and some wandering around a distributor, Punkin Ale seemed to be the best bet to try to win her over to the wonderful world of beer.

Dogfish Head: Take 2

In case you can't read the label in the picture, it says: "A full-bodied brown ale brewed with real pumpkins, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon & nutmeg." Once again, I was immediately on board. A beer brewed with all the best parts of pumpkin pie and none of the crust? This was something I could get behind.

Pie in a glass? 

The beer, despite being a brown ale, was more of a deep orange color which I found to be highly appropriate. There wasn't much head on it when I poured but what was there was a cream color. The smell was not very dissimilar from what you would expect. There was a lot of cinnamon and nutmeg but it was also a good dose of alcohol in it as well. The taste was as if someone infused pumpkin pie into a beer. There was a good amount of spices evident in the flavor and more than enough hints of pumpkin. It was a little thin in the mouth but I feel the high ABV may have something to do with that. The price was $2.99 for the bottle and $10.49 for the 4-pack so it was a bit pricey but worth a try. Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience and a great beginning to the pumpkin season! Up next: Sam Adams Pumpkin Ale

Love letter to Big Sky Brewing Co.'s Moose Drool

Moose Drool

Not exactly something that screams being delicious. Kind of seems like something that would be a last resort when you go into the refrigerator. I was mostly intrigued and only a little wary of the name when my cousin told me about this brew. I did some cursory research before going out to see what I was getting myself into and was a little more scared when I saw it was a brown ale after my experience with Raison D'être. I know they're not nearly the same, for the record, but Raison D'être was based on a Belgian style brown ale so that was what I was basing my experiences off of. 


Needless to say, I was smitten at first sip. This was perhaps the most rich and balanced beer I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. Moose Drool is made by Big Sky Brewing Co. in Missoula, Montana and it is one of my new goals in life to visit there some day because if this beer is any indication, the rest must be brilliant. 

The beer was served on tap and was a dark mahogany color with brilliant ruby highlights. There was very little head on the beer but what was there was white. It did manage to hang around for the whole pint too. The smell was rich and mallty. It wasn't very different from other malty beers in the nose but the biggest difference for me was undoubtedly the taste. It was smooth and velvety but still mildly carbonated in just the right amount. The flavor was rich in dark chocolate tones with coffee highlights and stayed that way through the glass, even as the beer began to warm up a bit. 


The only bad thing about this beer is I can't have it on a regular basis as Big Sky doesn't distribute to New York. I would love to try their other beers that they have listed on their website such as Slow Elk or Cowboy Coffee Porter. It runs about $9.99 a six pack from their online distributors plus shipping and tax. I believe it was about $5 or $6 at the bar for the pint. It was undoubtedly worth it and everyone should try this beer if they're given a chance. It truly is worth drooling over. 


Edit: As informed by my cousin/comment, the bar served Moose Drool at a very manageable $4.50 a pint. Now, if only shipping it were so convenient...

Widmer Hefeweizen

My second day in the Seattle area included a day trip down to Portland. I was incredibly excited because I wanted to go see Powell's books and was actually not really thinking about beers to try while I was there. All of my book shopping and squealing left me hungry though so we ended up trying to find somewhere close by to eat before we headed home. About a block away from Powell's we located Henry's 12th Street Tavern. At first glance, it doesn't quite look like it will live up to its tavern name but one look at the beer list and all fears will be quieted.

There was a third panel too!

As you can see, the beer list was quite extensive (as it continued on to a third panel on the reverse side) and was even separated by types of beer so that you can pick according to the style you want. They have a few specialty beers that are denoted by an asterisk next to the name and are served in a snifter as opposed to a traditional pint glass. It should also be noted that all of these beers are on tap. There are no bottled beers in this tavern. Being in Portland, I wanted to get a beer from Oregon rather than Washington since that was more local and ended up settling on Widmer Hefeweizen, brewed right in Portland itself.

Now, I will never claim to be a beer expert. I know which styles I tend to like and which I tend to stay away from. I had never heard of a hefeweizen before so I did a little searching. Hefeweizen translates to "yeast wheat" which is an unfiltered wheat. From what I read about the traditional German style, it's supposed to smell like bananas and cloves. Widmer Brother's Hefeweizen, however, is an American style Hefeweizen so I feel that is probably why I couldn't smell either.

As you can see from the photo, the beer was a gold/orange color that was cloudy in appearance. The head was thin and white but stayed with the beer throughout the duration. It was served with a lemon which made discerning the actual smell of the beer from the lemon but the beer itself seemed to be mild. There was a definite bready aroma to it but lots of citrus as well. The taste was also fairly citrusy and very smooth. The finish was refreshing and didn't linger much after the drink was gone.

The price was not an issue, I believe it was $6 for my beer. I would highly recommend this beer to people who enjoy things like Blue Moon and would like to try something different. I had the bottled version of it later on in the evening and would strongly recommend to wait to try it as a draft if the option is available over the bottle.

Harpoon IPA

Now I know what you're thinking. She doesn't like hoppy beers, why is she drinking an Indian pale ale? It was the special last night, to be honest, and I hadn't had it on tap before so I thought I'd give it another shot. A friend of mine and I went to Friday's for appetizers and drinks last night because I was being stubborn and wasn't hungry for real food.

I would like to say that I wasn't skeptical. I would like to say that I was terribly gung-ho about the opportunity to once again give hoppy beers another chance, but I wasn't. I was being cheap and it ended up being a pale ale. So I got it and was a bit hesitant but fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised by my own reaction.

This particular one was made by Harpoon Brewery. This brewery opened in 1986 and currently has two locations, Boston, MA and Windsor, VT. Their IPA is one of seven year round brews made by the company.  According to their website, their IPA is modeled after the original English IPA that was created to bring beer over to America in the unrefrigerated vessels available way back when.

Hops: Perhaps the former bane of my existence? 

I took a few sips, not really believing that I was enjoying this hoppy beer. Who was I? What was wrong with me? No matter what the question was, the answer always seem to come back to "It doesn't matter, this is delicious." The beer was hoppy, as IPAs are. It was a very light beer, that is to say it didn't feel like it was filling me up like some of the other beers I enjoy. The finish was clean though very bitter and hoppy in flavor. It lingered in the mouth much like the Hop Sun but dissipated much faster.  

As the picture shows, though not very well, the beer was very light gold and when poured from the draft it had a nice, bright, white head on it. The price was perfect for what we were doing at $4 for a pint but it was on special that night. I would undoubtedly drink this again, even if it wasn't on special. Does this make me a convert? Not necessarily. Does it make me want to try other hoppy beers and see how I like them? Absolutely. 

Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre

Raison d'être \ˌrā-ˌzōⁿ-ˈdetr^ə\: a French phrase meaning "reason to be" or "reason for existence" 

Now, no matter what you are making, calling your product the reason to be or the reason for existence is a tall order to fill. It is ambitious and puts the bar very high to begin with. The question stops being is this any good and quickly becomes does this live up to its name. 

I found this beer on my most recent journey to my favorite beer store (which at this point I feel deserves a solid mention so the details on the location of this magical land will be at the bottom of the post for those of you located in the Hudson Valley area) I had a difficult time deciding on a beer. I didn't want to start being a one note horse and get the delightful malty beer that was recommended to me by the owner when I bought the Celebrator Dopplebock at my last visit. So I wandered and wandered and my sister finally decided it was time for us to leave so I threw up a Hail Mary. 

I had heard a lot about Dogfish Head and nothing but good things from everyone who spoke of it plus this beer was labelled American Beer of the Year so I figured it was only good journalism to buy it. At this point, I had no idea what the beer's name meant but even so, I was excited to try something new. 

My friend translated it for me and immediately, my outlook on the beer changed. The bar had been raised and  now not only was this the American Beer of the Year but it was reason to be. Who wouldn't be thrilled to try something like this? 


I did my usual research and as it turns out this beer was created to go with a wood-grilled steak according to the brewery. Made with Belgian yeast and brewed with green raisins and Belgian beet sugars, the intention of this beer was to be paired with steak and invoke the feelings of good Bordeaux wines. The brewery's website instructed me to drink it out of a snifter or goblet. Upon going through the glasses available to me, I couldn't find a glass goblet or snifter but there was a plastic one so I poured. The result was disastrous looking so I quickly switched the beer to a pint glass. 
  

Much nicer looking beer, I promise

As can be seen, the beer was a deep reddish-brown color with a good head on it. The head didn't last long but that may have been because of the inappropriate glass I was using. The smell of the beer was very sweet, the grapes and sugar were very apparent and smelled a bit like candy. Now, this beer is 8% ABV which is a lot stronger than most beers that you can get in your grocery store. While I do enjoy strong beers, as with the Dopplebock and, my current personal favorite, La Fin Du Monde, the taste of alcohol in this beer is strong, bordering on unpleasant when it's cold and nearing the taste of whiskey if it sits too long. You can, of course, still taste the grapes and I think if the beer's alcohol content was just a smidge lower, it would be a very enjoyable brew. The price, while not terribly steep, was too much for me to ever consider trying this beer again at $11.99 a six-pack. Overall, I would say this beer does not live up to its name. It set the bar high and it seems as though instead of going over it, it runs right into it. 


 Now for the beer store location:

Beverage Plus II
15 South Street
Warwick, NY 10990-1325  
(845) 986-8855     

Southern Tier's Hop Sun

I bring to you today, a beer that is very unique. It is the summer seasonal beer from the Southern Tier Brewing Company called Hop Sun. It is a relatively young brewery being in operation since 2002, located in Lakewood, NY. Despite it's recent start, it has already garnered national attention and is distributed to many states.

Look at the pretty bottle!

I can't, and won't, take credit for picking out this beer. My sister noticed it on my first trip to my favorite beer store so I bought it. It is listed as an American Wheat Ale on Southern Tier's website but it is unlike any other American Wheat Ale I have tried. The box boasts that it's brewed with three different types of malts but based on its appearance, you wouldn't know it.

Pretty gold color hiding delicious malts? 

This beer doesn't fall into my typical category either. Because while it has a delicious malt taste at the beginning, the finish is all hops. The finish is not too bitter though which is something I find to be characteristic of hoppy beers which is why I think I enjoy it so much. The beer itself is sweet and citrusy with a good amount of carbonation. The head was good with the pour for dissipated fairly quickly. The hops finish lingers in the mouth a long while making the beer last. Aside from the finish, however, you wouldn't be able to tell the color of this beer just by the taste I think.

The price isn't too bad either. For a six pack, I paid $9.99. Taking into consideration this is a seasonal brew, I find the price to be completely reasonable. It's a little more expensive than other similar styles of beer but considering the complexity, I'd say the price increase is well worth it.

National Bohemian

Also on our trip to Baltimore, while my dad and I were at Camden Yard, an unusual mascot caught my eye.

Mustachioed cyclops?

Who was this one-eyed, mustachioed man and what was he selling, you may wonder. The answer was his name is Mr. Boh and he's selling a locally brewed Pilsener by the name of National Bohemian. National Bohemian is a domestic beer originally brewed by the National Brewing company right in Baltimore. Today, it is brewed by Miller in Eden, North Carolina and distributed by Pabst. The beer is still only distributed in the very local market of Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and North and South Carolina. There is also a National Bohemian bar located inside Camden Yard. Needless to say, however, the uniqueness of the mascot was the only thing that was needed to get me to try this beer. 

They had a mascot walking around and everything!

The bar tender was very nice and also quite knowledgeable about the beer he was serving. He was patient with my tourist status and politely explained the proper way to order his beer. When asking for a National Bohemian, it's most correct to order it as a Natty-Boh, or just straight up Boh. The beer I was handed was light gold in color with very little head which was a stark difference from the beer I had earlier, Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale. 

Dad's elbow was in all my pictures of beer

The beer's appearance is reminiscent of other golden domestic beers you may be familiar with such as Budweiser or Coors. The taste, however, was quite a bit different. While it is a pilsener and many pilseners are on the bitter or hoppy end of things, I found this to be quite refreshing and lacking the usual bite. Some may find this disappointing but as I do not like hoppy beers, I found the change to be very enjoyable. Since I had the beer in a major league baseball stadium, the price I paid for it was greatly inflated at $7.50 for the glass pictured above. After doing a little research, I found that the 24 pack should run about $20. Overall, I would give this beer 3 mugs out of 5. It was a very good beer for the purpose it serves as an easily drinkable domestic beer and you cannot beat it for the price. I would consider it a must try if you're in the Baltimore area, if only for the history associated with it.