Also check out the Beerfly travel guide from Beer Advocate. There's also Pub Crawler but it can be flakey sometimes.

Since someoene else is doing most of the rest of the states, I can do a forthcoming short report from here in Hawaii. Very short - we literally live a stones throw from the Maui Brewing Company...don't even need to drive there .

They have a rotisserie too - so it's red meat and beer night.

Their Big Swell IPA is excellent; much better than Sierra Nevada (which is my household standard beer btw). They also make Coconut Porter - yes, coconuts. It's won some awards or other and it really does taste of coconut!

Anyway, the babysitter's bi-weekly evening stint is tonight, so we can get some of this:

It's 5pm now, so the baby sitter better hurry up. I had a Sierra Nevada to centre my palate; then another to keep it going...

Is that another canned brew that's actually good? If so, I must say that with this and the Old Chubb, good canned beer is a pretty surprising development in the beer world.

They only started canning a few of their ales this month. I can't vouch for the canned version, since I had it on tap at the place itself. I should grab a can or two and a pint and compare them one day.

So we went down to the Maui Brewing Co. and commandeered a section of the bar. Since I'd already had a couple of SN's at the house, I ordered a sampler of the 9 ales they had on tap to get tasting - 3 or 4oz of each - and started off with the lighter ones, progressing to darker. For reference I'd prolly give SN pale ale a 3.5/5.

Bikini Blonde. 1/5. Their lager. Yuck. Smells very yeasty; like a batch of homebrew, but I'da thrown it away if I'd made it. Tasted very yeasty, but in a bad way, like rotten fermented fruit taste.

Double Overhead. 3.5/5. A pale ale with tons of hops. Very hoppy, smooth creamy texture and almost a whisky flavour to it. Great flavours but so much hops it'll pucker your cheeks.

Maui Pale ale. 2.5/5. Lost my notes for it, but I remember it being a bit overly hoppy & bitter finish; skip it and order Big Swell.

Big Swell IPA. 4/5. A smooth pale ale. Slightly on the lightweight side for IPA, but that lends itself to standing up well to volume drinking, if ya know whadda mean... Full flavour to begin with leading to just the right amount of bitterness in the finish.

Red C ock Dopel-Bock. 4.5/5. A big hit. This was sweet with malty, caramel flavours and a nutty lingering finish. Perfect level of hops and bitterness. The wife loved this one and had a pint with her ribs afterwards.

Belgian Abbey Ale. 4/5. Distictly denser than the pale ales. More complex, malty and rich, with a hefeweizen nose and taste to it. A little on the sweet side for me but great flavours and probably fits with the style of belgian abbey beer it's meant to be.

Penguin Stout. 3.5/5. Very guiness-like, w less creaminess but slightly sweeter. Same level of bitterness. Would be good with smoked dishes (I have scribbled down; I was feeling the effects by now).

Coconut Porter . 3/5. Fun flavour that might go well with somethign a bit spicy to eat, like a beef stir fry. The extra edge of bitterness cf Penguin, and heavy mouth feel would make it tough to drink more than one, I think.

Black Pearl ale. 0.5/5. Whoooweee. Lucky I was halfway drunk by the time I got to this one. Skanky; tastes like a skunks ass. Quick, give me a pint of pale ale to wash this away with...! Just horrible, imo.


Summary/cliff notes. Hits & misses. Not shy with the hops and a couple of great flavourful & distinctive ales in their selection.

PS: My prime rib with Belgian Abbey ale went down a treat.

Nice report. I'm def. curious about the can/tap/bottle comparison if you do it.

This isn't a proper review, as I'm just a bit buzzed ATM. In any case, if you happen to have the chance to get a bottle of Vicroy 12, be sure to buy it. It's a very tasty Belgian quad style ale. And at 12%/vol, if you're going to finish the bottle yourslef be sure you don't drink anything else or you have a DD. SWMBO will complain about me snoring tonight for sure.

Edit: Just checked Beer Advocate & it appears that V-12 has been bottle as recently as last August. The bottle I had was bottled in April 2004.

This is a awesome beer... But it is very rich and will take a good while to finish the 750 ml bottle. I goto victory 3-4 times a month and usually get a bottle to bring home. It runs about 7$ for the bottle and they have a 2 beer max while drinking at the brewery.

If you happen to get a hold of another bottle of this try and let it get about room temp it will taste much better this way.

These are the same guys who put out the Weizen Bock and the Storm King? Dang. They're in NY along w/ me, and I don't think I've seen this one in BotW, in spite of them having a lot of the rest of their beer available. I'll look next time I'm there, though.

Interesting article my gf sent me.

http://men.msn.com/articlemh.aspx?cp-documentid=3872767&page=1

32 things to do with beer. I'm also anticipating the arrival of my Mr. Beer home brew kit any day now. Trip report will come of course.

ScottieK

ScottieK,
Before you make your Mr. Beer batches, buy some dried or liquid malt extract from a homebrew shop. Preferably local, but there are lots of good places on line if you don't have any nearby. Use the extract in place of the table sugar the Mr. Beer instructions will tell you to use. Your beer will taste much better.

Yes Victory is a very good beer and i Love Storm King. The 2 owner/brewmasters have actually went to Belgium to learn specifics about making great beer. If you ever get a chance to goto the brewery (its not very easy to find for a nonlocal.) they have articles about them doing this.

Well, I'm finally back in Minnesota, and all I can say is that I'm disippointed in the lack of good beer. There's nothing here.

However, I really like the Summit EPA, it's on par with Sierra Nevada.

Other than that it's all but impossible to get any decent craft brews. There's a place in MPLS by the name of Surdyks, they have a mass selection of everything.

I'll make a trip soon and do more reviews.

I miss the West Coast.

Wookie-

New Belgium brewery is in Fort Collins, CO

Don't forget Anderson Valley Brewing CO., easily one of the best West Coast breweries.

Scottie,

Check out the few homebrewing threads posted here and in OOT if you haven't.

Ah.

I have once again returned to Beers of the World, and once again I've spent way too much money. I have 3 cases of top quality brews, though. Hopefully some of the rest of you will join me in doing some reviews.

It's spring now, and for my beer drinking, that means hops. I picked up a number of imperial IPAs and a couple other hoppy brews to help shake off the winter cold. Hops is a flower, after all. The other thing I'll be exploring in this latest purchase is beer in a can. Based on reports in this thread, beer in a can, can in fact be good. I picked up all the canned microbrews in cans I could find so I could evaluate this for myself. What I'd really like is to get a bottled and canned version of the same beer so that the scientist in me will have a proper control, but I wasn't able to find any of that. I'll just have to do the best I, umm, can. I also picked up a few Belgian odds and ends, just because I can't help myself.

I'll probably do a couple reviews tonight, and my first will be one of the canned beers. The people touting Old Chub, the Scotch ale from the Oskar Blues in CO were the ones who first got my attention about canned beer, so it's fitting that I review it first. I paid $9.35 for a sixer of this beer that weighs in at a hefty 8.0%.



The beer pours a nice dark brown with a respectable head.



It smells like a standard Scotch ale, and that means sweet dark malt. There's almost no trace of hops. There is a hint of dark dried fruits like raisins, dates, and figs. The flavor is right in line with the aroma. It's mostly a sweet, rich dark malt. There is just a hint of the dark dried fruits, and a little smoke that I didn't get in the smell. I wouldn't have thought this was an 8% beer, though. I would have guessed 6-7%, and only because of the sweetness, not because of the flavor of alcohol. This beer isn't the most exciting thing I've ever had, but I'm not always in the mood for exciting. It'd be a pretty good staple beer for me. I'm going to award it . It's definitely the tastiest thing I've ever had from an aluminum can, surpassing Guinness and Coke, I suppose, not that they were the stiffest competition. I didn't detect any funny flavors imparted to it from the can; I would have believed that this was bottled beer if someone handed it to me already in the glass. OTOH, I can't really say that the can has anything going for it unless you're in some sort of abusive environment where bottles might be more easily broken. At this point, I'll believe that beer in cans can be good, but I won't be going out of my way to buy canned beer specifically.

For my 2nd review, I got a bottle of Chouffe Houblon Dobblen IPA Tripel. This is apparently a strongly hopped tripel. Belgianbeerlover gave this 3 hearts, and Miles gave it 4. I paid $8.35 for a 750 mL bottle of this 9% beer.



As mentioned in previous reviews, this beer has the most impressive head of any beer I've had. It's uncontrollable with even the most gentle pours, and it lingers to the last drop. It laces your glass completely, and it even maintains shape as you're drinking.



The aroma of this beer is dominated by hops. However, they don't seem to be as distinct and bold as some of the hoppy beers I've enjoyed most. There's a little coriander in there, too, that gives this away as a Belgian beer. The flavor, though, IMHO, doesn't live up to the potential. The hops are a welcome addition, but they're not as flavorful as even cheap IPAs. The flavor of the tripel was also pretty mild. The fruit and the spice were very subdued. I wanted to like this beer more, but I'm going to give it . With more spice and better hops, this could be a great blend, but at this stage, it's not much more than decent.

Tonight's review is Saranac's new Imperial IPA. I've come to know Saranac to be a pretty decent value in beer. They're not the highest quality brews, but they stack up decently. They're usually quite cheap compared to many micros, which is nice. I paid $8.99 for a six pack, making this their most expensive beer. A four pack of the DFH 90 runs me $11.65, though, so it's still on the cheaper end of this variety. This beer is a little weaker, packing 8.5% ABV and 85 IBUs compared to the 90's 9% ABV and 90 IBUs.



The beer pours the expected clear orange-amber color. It was a little short on head, even with an aggressive pour. It's lacing my glass nicely, though.



Taking a whiff, I'm impressed. The hops are quite strong, and I especially smell the floral variety I like the most. I don't smell too much sweetness or malt. Taking a sip, it's a little different than the smell. The hops are dominated by the bitterness, then there are the flowers, then the citrus. This is a little bit of a let down, but I can't complain too much. The malt is fairly dry and fairly mild. If you thought the DFH 90 was syrupy, you might like this one better, actually, but I like the sweetness of the 90 contrasting w/ the bitterness of the hops. I'm going to award this beer and a half . This is a solid imperial IPA, if not the best out there. It's a great buy at the price, though. Reading the bottle, it appears this is the first in a new line of premium brews that Saranac will be putting out. I'm looking forward to it.

I think I'll do a couple reviews tonight. For my first, I'll review an impulse buy. If you look carefully at the bright green sticker in the pick below, you'll see why. I bought this bottle of Grieskirchner Joerger Weisse because it was on sale for $1.44 for a half liter. That's cheaper than a single 12 oz of Sam Adams, JW Dundees, or any of the "premium" beers put out by BMC. Should I have been wary? We'll see, but I didn't have much to lose. Somewhat unusually, this is an Austrian weissbier, not a German one. It has a fairly typical 5.1% ABV.



The beer pours a typical golden yellow. The head is a little shy for this style. It's a bottle conditioned beer, and I swirled the yeast into the beer as usual.



The first thing I smell in this beer is a bold fruity sweetness. It doesn't smell as spicy as some. In the flavor, though, the fruit, mostly apple, peach, and banana is a little more subdued than I expected. The yeast and wheat flavors of the malt are good, and it's definitely a sweeter beer. This isn't the most exciting weissbier I've had, but for this price, I can't complain at all. I'm going to give it . I'm pretty tempted to go back for a case.

For my second review, I've heard too much about Anderson Valley Brewing in this thread to continue to pass it up. I got a couple different ones, and tonight's is the Boont Amber Ale. I paid $10.49 for a 6 pack of this respectable 5.8%.



The beer pours a familiar nice medium brown, but without much head.



While the look of this beer was familiar, the smell was quite unexpected. I expected malt with light hops, but instead it has a strong aroma of caramel and cherries. The flavor is a little more typical, but it's still a nice blend. The brown malt dominates, but there's a nice sweetness along with subtle hops and that cherry flavor. I'm impressed with this beer, and I appreciate the recommendation. I'm giving it .

Today for lunch i purchased Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine



It ran me 4.50 for the 22 OZ. bottle. I love to drink barely wines but they are really rich and I can only drink 1 at a time.
The beer itself poured with a nice amber color and a little white foam for head. It has a beginning sweet taste which barley wines are know for then a kinda bitter taste takes over from the hops.
This beer is well worth trying, as for a stone beer it lives up to the name. I am also sure if you let the beer mature for awhile this beer would it would change into something awesome. I am going to start giving the hearts so we will say this one is 1/2

I feel once again compelled to vent about Californians and their cheap Stone beer.

In that vein, I'll do a Stone review tonight, their Ruination IPA. I paid $6.29 for a 22 oz bottle of 7.7% ABV beer. The Stone website gives the IBUs as 100+. I went to look it up because, to spoil the surprise, I thought the hops were on the milder side.



The beer pours a more golden color than the orange-ish DFH 90 and Saranac IIPA. The head is pretty light, but it is persistent and does lace my glass.



When I sniffed this beer, I expected to be knocked over by hops. Instead, the hops are there, but not as pungent. The malt comes through with a little bit of caramel. The flavor features the hops a little more strongly. It's not overly bitter or dry, but I taste more of the citrus than the flowers in the hops. The malt isn't too sweet, and it's not overpowering. While I'd expect a beer that claims to pack 100+ IBUs to be bolder, my impression is that this beer's strength is that it's more balanced compared to, say, the Great Divide Hercules. It's other strong suit is that it lingers very nicely. I confess, I wasn't floored when I first had it, but it's grown on me more. I'm going to give it . I'd say I like it a little more than the AV Boont Amber, but not quite enough to merit an extra half heart. This is a good beer, but I can't really call it a value pick at the prices I'm paying. It's much better in CA.

Stone is an awesome brewery.. They had Ruination IPA, Old Guardian and one of my favorite beers Arrogant Bastard Ale. I decided to go with ABA and OG this time.. I will have to try out Ruination IPA and will try and post what I think of it.

I rated the Ruination a half heart higher than the original ABA. It's quite good, but the Oak Aged Bastard is really where it's at.

I couldn't help but do a 2nd review tonight. I had a bottle in my fridge I was itching to try. This is the Double White Ale from Southampton Publick House. Belgian whites are already some of my favorite beers, and double has to be better than single, right ? I paid $4.95 for a 22 oz. I can't even find the ABV at their website. It does taste a little stronger than the average white.



It pours the usual light gold color with a typical head for the style.



This beer smells pretty damn good. The wheat, coriander, and orange show through nicely. The flavor is better. This beer is pretty sweet, and that works well with all the flavors in here. The fruit from the orange and the typical flavors of cloves and coriander are excellent. The flavor lingers very well, no doubt helped by the sugar, but there's still a lot there to enjoy. I'm going to give this beer and a half , the same as I gave Allagash's white. I like this one a hair better, but not enough to give it a perfect score. I'd still like a little more complexity in the spices to put it over the top. Regardless, this beer goes out with the highest recommendation to any Belgian beer lover. It's not a bad buy, either, at this price.