Thread O' Beer!

Day Two: IPA
India Pale Ale | Goose Island Brewing Co | Chicago IL

https://i.ibb.co/LvG8tfx/PXL-20211203-020725279.jpg

Goose Island is a brewery I used to lean on more heavily way back in the days when there were only a few options in town besides Bud/Miller/Coors products. If you wanted something exotic, you had your choice of either Sam Adams Boston Lager, Summit Pale Ale, Goose Island Honkers Ale, and that was about it. The craft beer revival was still years off, no-one outside of England had ever heard of an IPA, and Goose Island was a big fish in a small pond. Now, of course, there are fish aplenty to choose from, so I don't pay Goose Island much mind, except when I can get my hands on their exceptional Bourbon County Stout.

And of course, just like everybody else, they have their token IPA, which I never had any reason to try, what with the overrepresentation of the style in virtually every market. So I guess I can thank this advent calendar for finally getting me to try it. Lets see what this one has to offer.

Appearance wise, it pours rather light for an IPA, a very light copper. Great head retention and legs. A half hour and there is still plenty of both. The first sip starts sweeter than I was expecting, a sorta saccharine sweet you get from white sugar, though thankfully not cloying. Hardly any caramel notes to speak of. For an IPA, the bitterness is subdued, giving way to granny smith apple, a bit of the sorta pepperiness you get with arugula, and... it took me a while to put a finger on it, but reading the can and seeing mention of grapefruit, what it seems to me I am tasting is grapefruit rind.

What is killing my enjoyment of this, tho, is the finish. That grapefruit rind lingers way longer than it should, and, in the end, when the rest of the flavors fade, the taste left in my mouth smacks of detergent. This is not the sorta beer you want to drink without something to chase it with to clear your pallet. You shouldn't need to have to do that with a beer, and with plenty of other IPAs out there that don't fart on their way out the door, there really isn't any reason for me to try this beer again.

I'm gonna stick this one with a 2: disappointing / minor flaws.

2 down, 22 to go!

3. Peanut Butter Milk Stout (Left Hand Brewing)

https://i0.wp.com/knapsack.news/wp-c...68%2C609&ssl=1

Left Hand's Milk Stout is one of my favorite beers, especially on Nitro. I generally try to grab a couple when I see one, and enjoy. I'm also a sucker for peanut butter and chocolate (which a stout has tendencies toward). So I was excited to see this at my go to online shop. As for how it lives up to expectations, well, I'll say I've had better for a peanut butter stout. I can really taste a nuttiness, but I'm missing the cream of a milk stout. This would probably benefit from a nitro, as the mouth is a bit sharp, and it's hard to find the stout under all the nut, so it could almost be a peanut butter any-beer. Maybe I'll try to find the recipe and recreate it, but with half the nut. I like it okay, but I just wish the nut was slighter, instead of full force.

21 beers remain.

Day Three: Crush Apricot Sour
Fruited Sour Ale | 10 Barrel Brewing Co | Bend OR

https://i.ibb.co/sCrwFbx/day-3.jpg

Wow, talk about a fruit forward beer. If this beer were a train, it would be a fruit engine, a fruit coal car, fruit passenger car, and fruit in the caboose. Not really much to write about in this beer, as it is rather one dimensional - or more accurately, two. There is apricot, and there is tart, maybe a hint of apple. Okay 2 and a half dimensional, but that is as high as I will go. On the plus side, being as it is as fruit forward as a sangria with grape jelly mixed in, it provides a good gateway beer for people who want to try a sour, tho, really, calling this a sour is a bit of a stretch. People going in and ordering a La Folie after having one of these are going to be in for a bit of a rude awakening.

On the other hand, people who've developed a fondness for the characteristic funk brought on by brettanomyces present in the more, um, eclectic sours are going to be a bit disappointed by this here beer.

But as it stands on its own two feet, it's a pleasant enough beverage to be drinking. I'm liking it well enough for what it is, but that may be Friday afternoon talking. I'm gonna give it a 3/5 - serviceable.

3 down, 21 to go!

4. Kohaty (Varvar Brew)

https://www.debierliefhebber.nl/en/m...var-kohaty.jpg

Not going to lie, I only picked this up because it looked cute, and I was trying to round out my box. If I did a blind taste of this, I'd probably never guess IPA, it's so very sweet, and only enough hops to give it some bitter undertones. Looking it up, it's a New England IPA, and I can see that it does work there. A creamy, fruity glass of goodness, giving me a happy beer hug, just like the logo on the can. And even the can is unique, a tall and skinny .33l instead of the normal squat can. I'm liking everything about this beer, easily the best of the short list. Possibly too sweet for some, but I really like what this Ukraine brewery was able to do.

20 Beers remain.

5. Blueberry Maple Stout (Saugatuck Brewing Co)

https://www.beeroftheday.com/photos/...out-2872_0.jpg

Another sweet one, but this time it's expected, as we have a desert beer. This one is exactly as expected, a maple, blueberry tasty stout beer. I'm a sucker for sweet stouts, and this one is very good, despite me not being a huge fan of blueberry. If I were to blind taste test this, I'd probably be able to guess it, it's that spot on in style and flavor.

19 beers to go.

Day Four: Hefeweizen
Bavarian Hefeweizen | Golden Road Brewing | Los Angeles, CA

https://i.ibb.co/FDfrCKT/day-4.jpg

Running a little behind already due to spending all of yesterday decorating the tree then going to see a band called Trailer Trash perform their annual Christmas set, then walking out into the first significant snowfall of the season. It was like being teleported into a Hallmark Holiday movie. I was looking around for some woman in a pantsuit making out with some scruffy guy in flannel. No dice. But I have an opening in my schedule now, so lets see what this hefe from LA Based Golden Road Brewing has to offer.

Appearance-wise, the haziness, hefty head and amber orange hue rat this out as a hefeweizen, tho it's not as hazy as a lot of hefe's I have had in the past, in that there is no yeast floating around in it, and I see nothing settling on the bottom after it's been sitting for awhile. Also, the head dissipates rather quickly. But that is fine.

Body wise, it is a tad light for a hefe, the thicker examples of which can almost hold a fork standing in the middle of them, lending this beer a more suitable weight for the warmer LA summers where you want something to drink that's not gonna settle in your gullet like a ball of lead. On the nose, I pick up hints of clove, orange, and a bit of breadiness.

Taking a sip, the first thing that hits me is a slight twinge of tart, just a touch - no one is gonna mistake this for a berlinnerweisse - which gives quickly to the more familiar notes of orange peel down the middle, finally finishing with an almost marshmallow like sweetness, which sticks around for awhile. Curiously, the esters which give many hefes their characteristic banana-like flavors are held tightly in check here, again, not a bad thing.

All in all, not an overly complex hefe, to be sure, but there ain't nothing wrong with that, and coupled with a moderate body, this beer would be great for those like me who enjoy a good Bells Oberon in July but want to mix it up a bit. I'm gonna give this a 3.5 - good.

20 to go! I'll try to do 2 tomorrow to catch up.

6. Ssslurppp (The Brewing Projekt)

https://cdn.stamped.io/tr:h-800,/upl...7c89754bf.jpg?

It's a chocolate, raspberry, imperial, milk stout. I love all 5 of those things. This is exactly what it sounds like. It's quite possibly the perfect beer for me, in theory, and the taste is right there. This is my favorite beer, ever, I think. I want to buy more.... 10Euro a can... well, maybe not :( I'm literally speechless at how good this beer is.

18 beers to go, probably.

I'll play some catch up on this year's Holiday Beers:


https://greatdivide.com/wp-content/u...1-881x2048.png
Great Divide's Peppermint Bark Imperial Stout

It was good for like half the sips, but at a pint, it became a chore. Enjoy the tester, but leave it there.

Gizmo and others will probably hang me (rightfully?) for these two, but:

https://bottlecraft-prod-images.s3.a...1635957567.png

PRETTY PRETTY GOOD. I'm sorry, but I could drink these at any and every holiday party and the unique peach/pecan taste isn't overbearing, but I'd feel quite good in my Christmas sweater and being jolly.

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/1fd...0d27aa4de.jpeg

THIS ON THE OTHER HAND IS SHIT. Avoid at all costs.

...but it's FESTIVE!

...and SMOOTH!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bac0n

...but it's FESTIVE!

...and SMOOTH!

---

Let me point you right over to this Festive Shiner!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bac0n

...but it's FESTIVE!

...and SMOOTH!

---

I foresee festive and smooth on Sunday.

Never had any of those 3, E, but the Shiner sounds interesting enough to try. Fun fact, Shiner was the first less-than-macro(?) brewery that I've almost gone to a couple of times, but never actually did. They hold a festival every year (or did back in the '90s/00s) and since I lived in San Antonio, and my in-laws still do, we thought about going a few times, but never pulled the trigger.

I'm in Utah this week, so we'll see what I can dig up here.

Day Five: Night Owl
Pumpkin Ale | Elysian Brewing | Seattle. WA

https://i.ibb.co/jyVd2T8/day-5.jpg

Despite the timestamp you see on this post, no, I am not drinking a beer at 6:30 in the morning. Not today at least. Although there is truth the adage you can't drink all day unless you start in the morning, today is not one of those days. I actually tried this beer last night, but ran out of gas and needed to hit the hay before I could write anything up. So here I am, writing about beer while the rest of my family is still in bed. I'm living the dream.

That aside, I first heard of Elysium Brewing back in 2015, when Budweiser was out snatching up microbreweries left and right, all the while running this ad campaign equating craft beer with snobby hipsters sporting waxed mustaches and sticking their faces in beer snifters filled with pumpkin peach ale as if they were at a wine tasting, all the while extolling themselves as folks who make "real" beer the "hard way". Um, yeah, brewing your beer with robots, then throwing in some sawdust and calling it "beechwood aged" is definitely "the hard way". :p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uJKhkwTG64

Well, Elysium (who actually has made a peach pumpkin ale) got a bit of press as one of the breweries who clapped back, saying, "really? you just bought us, and that's what you think of us?" And they had a point. It's not the smartest move to be shitting on your subsidiaries.

Okay, enough of the history lesson, time to get off the grandstand and tell you what I think of this beer. When I saw that it was a pumpkin ale that was on the menu for today, I have to admit, I was not too excited. Virtually all of the pumpkin ales I've had overdo it on the pumpkin - a lot - and to be honest, pumpkin is one of those things I prefer in a pie, and only on thanksgiving, but alas, I have a job to do. Sometimes you have to take a hit for the team. There is no I in team. Teamwork makes the dream work. All that shit. Time to buck up, young camper, and get this over with.

Anyway, sticking my nose in the snifter like one of those maligned hipsters reveals the tell tale pumpkin betraying this beer's origins, but also I am picking up graham cracker, mulling spices, and at the end, a little vanilla as well.

Tasting it, I am surprised that it starts very dry, with a jolt of bitterness, sure got my attention, but after the aggressive opening sequence, it rapidly fades to apple, then finally the notes of pumpkin start to enter the picture. I say notes, in that the pumpkin is definitely not overwhelming here, I am happy to report. It teams nicely with everything else around it, rather than hogging the ball like some NBA superstar, a rarity among this genre. Towards the end, the pumpkin bows out and ends on a mellow sweet note, reminding me of a poached pear.

All in all, I was rather surprised at how much I found myself enjoying this beer. I would even go so far as to say that this is a favorite among pumpkin ales that I've tried, right up there with Southern Tier's Pumking - tho this is a much more accessible and quaffable beer, to be sure.

I'm gonna give this a 4.25/5 - great, on the cusp of awesome. If you like pumpkin ales, are pum-curious, or would like pumpkin ales more if they just didn't go as apeshit with the pumpkin, then this beer comes highly recommended.

19 Beers to go! Maybe tonight I will catch up...

7. Hoppy Xmas (Brewdog)

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/01/3e/0c/0...6e97e763bc.jpg

Like bac0n, I too am getting to this one pretty late in my evening, but luckily it's not a heavy sipper. I thought I had already done this one, perhaps, but a quick search of the thread got no results, so I guess it is new, good. That said, it's an IPA, that's supposedly festive. I agree with the first part, and not so sure of the second. It's an okay IPA, overall, standard hoppyness, with a decent malt base. Nothing exciting, overwhelming, or underwhelming, just a decent IPA.

17 beers until Christmas

Day Six: Storm Surge
New England Hazy IPA | Red Hook Brewlab | Seattle WA

https://i.ibb.co/rs0Fx2w/day-6.png

Wow, with the proliferation of hazies these days, I am surprised it took me six beers to finally get to one. I woulda thunk by now I woulda had four, maybe five. But people can't get enough of 'em, these IPAs with their haziness which is borne of yeast that remains suspended in the beer rather than clumping together (a somewhat sophomoric-sounding term called "flocculation". ) and settling on the bottom, to be filtered out later.

As for this beer, I would call this a HIMO - Hazy In Name Only. Sure, it has the appearance of a hazy, sorta, but that's where the resemblance stops. Rather than having a bouquet like you've been punched in the face with an tangerine boxing glove, this one smells boozy, with some resin and bitterness on the nose.

Rather than being soft and smooth and citrusy on the pallet, this one starts bitter and stays that way, a bit of green apple on the front (what's with me and picking up apple in every beer I taste these days?) and the only citrus notes I am picking up are those of grapefruit, but it's fleeting, and all that remains in the end is bitterness, kinda like those depressing art house movies my mom seems to like.

All in all, rather tame for a so-called hazy, but, eh, well, sorta meh as a beer as well. I'd have one if my only other options were bud lite, white claw or urine, but by itself, I am one and done with this one. 2.75 - meh.

18 beers left!

8. Good Juju (Left Hand Brewing Co)

https://cdn.craftbeer.com/wp-content...-rendering.png

I've praised Left Hand before, here and in real life, and I really like their stouts. This is not a stout, this is a ginger pale ale. This is not good. This is like someone handed me a seltzer water while talking about beer and ginger. It almost has no taste, and what little comes through is fizzed away on the tongue. I may not finish this.

16 beers to go

Day 7: Cucumber Crush
Sour Berlinerweisse | 10 Barrel Brewing Co | Bend, OR
https://i.ibb.co/PFHRc1D/day-7.jpg

As I sit here pondering the upcoming berth of my beloved Iowa State Cyclones against the Clemson Tigers in the prestigious Cheez-It Bowl on the 29th, yeah, you hear that right, the fucking CHEEZ-IT bowl, suddenly it dawns on me that the name of these fruited sour beers 10 Barrel is putting out is a little word play on the Orange Crush soda-pop. Oh, for clever!

Anywho, lets hope this one is not as fruit forward as their apricot sour I had a week ago. Fortunately, it is not. On the nose, yeah, some cukes all right, but what follows is a bright, soft aroma and, well, sweet tarts. Now, I like sweet tarts, so I'm all in on this one. Taste-wise, it starts out cucumber-ific, but goes tart after that - more tart than sour, I would say - then gives to pineapple. It remains a very clean, crisp, pleasant beer all the way through, surprisingly easy drinking for a berlinner.

This is a beer that I could find myself really enjoying on a comfortable summer evening. Everything about it smacks of a late June breeze. This is a very pleasant berlinnerweisse, I would definitely pick it up again, and if I happen across it in the bottle shop this summer, I will be hard pressed not to grab a six. I'm going to give it a 4 out of 5 - great.

Got the booster on Wednesday, and it put me out last night. No biggie, I'm off tonight and tomorrow, so should be an easy 2fer tonight. Starting with the beer whilst prepping dinner:

9. Bravo (Firestone Walker)

https://i1.wp.com/thefullpint.com/wp...size=478%2C600

An Imperial Brown, which I've not seen too many of. This thing smells great upon uncapping, so I was ready to dig right in. It's very cloudy, and had a nice tan head that dissipated pretty quick. As for the taste, it's a full body, lots of malt, and typical roasty brown flavor, but behind that is the barrel that it aged in, giving me a whiskey finish in the back of my throat, and warming on the way down. It's a solid beer, and probably great for food prep, as I can sip here and there as I work on my steaks and potatoes.

15 beers remain.

Day 8: Longboard Island Lager
American Lager | Kona Brewing | Kailua-Kona, HI
https://i.ibb.co/J3ynPJz/day-8.jpg

And here we have another beer that I had last night but was too tired to write up a review. As a side, as I was cruising the Kona website trying to remember the town that the brewery lives in, I was beset by all these gates asking me to confirm my age to be over 21, which is pretty common for brewery websites. Now, while I understand the motive behind it being to assert that beer is for those of legal drinking age, c'mon guys. All you are really accomplishing is adding some clicks to those who legit want to get to your website while doing nothing meaningful to keep underage kids out.

Full disclosure: that was a bit of fluff as I don't really have a lot to say about this beer, to be honest. Now, now, don't get me wrong, it's a it's a fine beer, it's a good Good American, easy drinking to be sure, but there really isn't a whole lot going on here. On the nose, all I have to say is it's... mellow. Taste wise, it starts off a bit bitter, but then goes sweet-ish, hints of pear and melon. The bitterness is restrained, but persists. On the plus side it's a clean beer, I imagine best served ice cold.

All in all, a competent beer, if not an exciting one. I am going to give this a 3/5 - serviceable.

10. County Fair Cobbler (Wiley Roots Brewing Co.)

https://untappd.akamaized.net/photos..._1280x1280.jpg

I had no expectations upon seeing this one come out for tonight. Strawberry cheesecake at least seems to fit an after dinner profile. It's apparently a sour, with strawberry puree, cinnamon, graham crackers, vanilla and lactose. A creamy sour, which does smell of strawberry on the pour. Tasting, it's smooth and creamy with tartness, which is coming from the strawberry flavor more than the sour, but I can taste the sour on the back end. The cinnamon and graham is there a bit as well. It kinda does taste like a strawberry cobbler. Strawberry is one of my lesser favorite fruits, so I'd be interested in trying this with other fruits. It's decently good.

14 beers remain.

Enjoying the write ups guys.

Tonight’s ‘snow storm’ brought to you by Able’s Old Trusty Beer. A beer that’s just a good lighter beer. Bac0n brought it up north during the summer, and it’s been one of my go to’s for awhile. It’s a nice break from all the craft beers I’ve downed over the years.

Now, if these flakes don’t get bigger up here, I’ll mix myself something stronger. I know the south metro is getting hammered, but just small flakes here so far.