Hey guys. Just a set of quick reviews. I was in Portland this past weekend to catch a Celtics game, so I of course drank a bunch of beer. One night I met up local 2p2er ThaSaltCracka at the Rogue Ale House, along with his brother. Great guys to drink some beers with. The Rogue place was cool because you could get these carved wooden bottles that held 4 4oz glasses, so you could sample a ton of beer. We mostly just told the waiter to pick stuff out for us. I got pretty drunk so I can't give a very solid review. I know I had all of, but not limited to, the following: Brutal Bitter, I2PA, Chocolate Stout, Mocha Porter (I really liked this), Old Crustacean (crusty he called it, barleywine, pretty good I thought), Hazlenut (sans Sklansky's likeness.. probably my favorite sampling)... that's all I can remember. Not much more than that if any. After two of those samplers (we called 'em bats before realizing they were shaped like bottles), I also had a pint of Chocolate Stout, though I should have got the Hazlenut Brown Ale.

I hit up a couple other breweries when wandering around by myself, as well. One was called McMenamin's.. I guess they're all over town. I actually went to two. One in the uptown area while wandering. While there I sampled 3 beers: a pint of Hammerhead Ale, Nantucket, and a half pint of their IPA.

The Hammerhead was kind of a hopped up Amber Ale. Pretty close to an IPA, but not quite. I liked it quite a bit. It had a good malt character, with a good amount of hop flavor, and the hops were pretty citrusy. I'd probably say 3.5's.

The Nantucket was a bitter, or so they said. When I think bitter I think of darker red ales. This was actually pretty golden, and not really bitter at all. It wasn't bad, really, but so far from its billing that I wouldn't order it again. 1.5's.

Their IPA also left much to be desired. That same citrusy, hoppy flavor was there, but it was too sweet, and it lacked the crisp finish that I think is a must in order to crack my IPA rotation. Not awful, but nothing special. 2's.

The next day I found another McMenamin's a few blocks up from my hotel, so I tried their Terminator Stout, which TSC suggested. It's got the nitrous tap, so it's basically their guiness. It was pretty good. Pretty nice semisweet flavor to it. Still, nothing special. 3s. Though their beers didn't slay me, I did like both bars. They had a bunch more to choose from, too.

After the game, I went to a place called the rock bottom. I tried their Porter and their Stout. Both were kinda weak in my opinion. They were tasty and fine to drink, but there wasn't any strong smoky, roasted flavor too them. Each are probably 3ers.

Rogue Ale house definitely was the highlight of my beer tasting festivities. I also stopped at a few non-brewery bars and had some black butte porter on tap. That stuff is just delicious.

And the Celtics won, so all in all a great weekend!

KC, Rock Bottom is pretty weak IMO. If you were going to try a few other places, you should have gone to New Old Lampoc or hit up Widmer.

It was good meeting you too man!


Also, you forgot to mention the gay bartender and the hazelnut rum.

oh yeah the rum. That was good, but I think that's what did me in. After I left you guys I was pretty lit. I had to pound a bunch of water back in my hotel room and was totally zoned in on watching the Matrix and started drunk dialing/texting my friends back east.

Gay bartender: bears some resemblance to a dude in Bear Force One. He was pretty awesome... took on the challenge of picking a bunch of different beers, which was appreciated.

as for my rock bottom choice, I just sort of jumped in the first place that looked open with some beer I hadn't tried. They did have a tasty burger, so I'll give them that much.

I'm a NY'er and I stick to what I know I like. (SN pale and Heartland IPA).

But, Mudville 9 on Chambers Street just recently added 100+ beers.

After reading some of these posts, I may have to pop in and try some new ones.

Thanks for the good reading.

I just tried a new white beer - Blanche De Bruxelles White Ale offered on tap at "CB Six" bar I mentioned above. It was a very yellow-golden colored liquid with a little more kick to it than regular witbiers. I found it to be very pleasant and easy to drink nonetheless (I prefer wits to be milder in alcohol content, I guess).

Good beer, but not "OMG I love it" kinda good. I'm sure it should find its share of fans though.

Bump because I'd hate to see this thread die, plus I just tried one I felt like writing about.

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale (2008). This is my first Barleywine Style Ale, and I was pleased to see 9.6% ABV on the label. This brew pours a deep copper, with a thick cream colored head that leaves a heavy lacing all the way through. Smell of rich malts and dense flowers; clearly alot going on in there. Taste was a little disappointing early on; the hops completely dominated, and there wasn't a great balance (tasted like an IPA). However, after 2/3 of the glass, the hops really subdued and the rich maltiness came to the front. I've never had a beer change so much in one glass as did this Bigfoot, and it really made it worthwhile. It's not spectacular , but I think it's definitely worth a look. I also recommend their Celebration Ale, which I found to be top-notch for a great price.

Let's keep this thread alive, people! I really look forward to new posts on here. Don't kill my spirit, please.

Hey storm,

Over the holiday weekend I bought a six of SN Celebration and a six of Saranac India Pale Ale.

It was a good weekend.

I must try the Bigfoot, thanks for the suggestion.

Now, if only i can find it... distributors stink around here....

Hey aren't you from NYC? If so, there a bunch of places where you can find Bigfoot, not to mention other great brews. Shoot me a PM and I'll let you know where to do all of your beer shopping.

Why don't you just post it in the thread?

PM sent.

I'm thirsty. lol.

I have a couple quick reviews after a long hiatus.

First off is the Lagunitas IPA. They got this in relatively recently at my favorite watering hole, and now that I'm drinking again, I can try it. I've been back and forth on Lagunitas beers. Most of them are hoppy, but they're a pretty wide range of quality. I thought their IPA was pretty solid, though. It poured a clear gold w/ a smallish head (kinda hard to control for head at a bar, though). I'm not sure of the ABV or the bottled price. The smell was dominantly hoppy, and the flavor was as well. The hop flavor was overwhelmingly citrus, as opposed to the grassy or floral hops you find in some beers. It was a nice flavor though -- flavorful without being just bitter. There wasn't a whole lot of malt behind it, but the hops were tasty enough for me to enjoy this beer nonetheless. This is a beer for hopheads only, but for those that are, I give it and a half . This was a nice spring beer.

The second beer I had last night was a local brew, and one you'd probably have a hard time finding outside of Rochester. I had Rohrbach's Irish Ale, another new offering that came out just before St. Patrick's Day (ldo). It poured a dark red with a little more head than the Lagunitas IPA. The flavor was earthy and dry. It was pretty unusual, as there aren't a whole lot of beers out there like this. I had a hard time knowing what to make of it. The flavor lingered nicely, and there were plenty of flavors in it I couldn't quite place. Since I tend to prefer beers that add a sweetness to their complexity, I can't really call this a personal favorite, but it was still enjoyable. I've been going back and forth between giving it 3 and 3.5 hearts since last night. Maybe I'll just call it and a quarter and be done with it, even though I don't usually give quarter ratings.

Wookie (and all others, for that matter),

I've just recently taken a liking to IPAs, but haven't had too many. I've only tried Flying Dog's and Bridgeport's (which I liked a lot), and Sam Adams Imperial Pilsener (don't think this qualifies as an IPA, but close enough) I also have Urthel's Hop-It and Samuel Smith's India Ale in the cabinet. Do you have any must-try IPA suggestions for me?

This all depends on where you're from, since some things won't be available to you. Here's a list of stuff from all over the country (though California figures prominently), so that perhaps you'll at least find one to try:

Bell's Two Hearted Ale (Michigan)
Alesmith IPA (California)
Surly Furious (Minnesota)
Stone IPA (California, but has distribution pretty much everywhere)
Victory HopDevil (Pennsylvania; wide distribution)
Green Flash IPA (California; recently expanded distribution)
Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA (Delaware; wide distribution)

Best of luck.

Thanks Maxx. I don't know which I'll be able to find here in Oklahoma (about the worst place for beer outside of the Middle East), but I'll look into those.

Got another one I tried tonight: Urthel's Santharam Quadrium Ale. It's a Belgian style quadruple coming in at 11% ABV. Pours a purply rose color, with a nice bubbly head. Noticed the carbonation right off the bat, nice soda pop kick to it. This quad is heavy on the yeast, and doesn't do a spectacular job of hiding the alcohol, especially as it warms up. Overall, it's very similar to other quads I've had, but with less dark fruit flavors like cherry and plum, and more yeasty taste. Definitely not a bad brew, I'd give it 3 's. However, compared to the other 2 quads I've tried, I'd have to say St. Bernardus Abt 12>Chimay Blue>>>Urthel's Quadrium. Definitely worth a shot if you like quads (but who doesn't?)

honestly, if Bridgeport was the only IPA I could have the rest of my life, I'd be fine with that. Such a quality brew, at a good price. Maybe not my absolute favorite, but I think it has the best finish out of the ones I frequent.

Stone would be my other top choice. Sadly, I haven't tried a few of the ones Maxx posted, and I consider myself a hophead. You can try other non-IPA Stone brews, too, like Ruination and Arrogant Bastard.

OH! I know my favorite. Racer 5 IPA. By Bear Republic. Not sure how wide their distribution is, but I have seen it in a bar or two back in Boston. Their Red Rocket Ale is a good hoppy bitter, too. They have a good Rye style brew, too. Can't remember the exact name.

As for me, I haven't been trying many new beers lately. However, I did find a great bar here in Sac with a pretty big beer list. Not a huge on tap list, quite a few English style beers, but they have Allagash White.. mmmmm. Lots of bottled selections. Cool place.

Other than that, I've just been pounding Miller High Life like it's my job. $8 and change 12 packs are no joke. I love this stuff.

My favorite beer of all time is brewed by the Bushwakkers brewery in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. It's called Sodbusters. It is a brown ale, similar in flavor to Newcastle. As compared to Newcastle, it is a bit darker and more rich. Although it's microbrew, the brewmaster at Bushwakker's is a genius, and it is consistently excellent. I don't go to Regina very often anymore, but it is a mandatory stop whenever I do. They have several other winners as well. Whatever style you are looking for, they have got you covered.

Another personal fave is Gulden Drac. It's a Belgian Golden. Yeasty as all hell, quite alcohalic (10% I think) and delicious. My roomate and I have ordered a couple of cass from our nearest liquor store in the last few months. The head on Drac is phenomenal, particularly if you have the proper glass to pour it into.

I tried an interesting Belgian ale last night, thought I'd share.

Verhaeghe's Duchesse de Bourgogne: This is a Flanders Red Ale, which, according to BeerAdvocate, is infamous for its distinct sharp, fruity, sour/tart flavors. The bottle says it combines brews cask-aged in oak for 8 months and 18 months. The smell is of a sour wine, very strange from the first whiff. Color is reddish brown. Taste is a little less intense than the smell, but still has a good sourness to it, and a refreshing, thin moutfeel. It certainly took some time to get used to, but it grew on me the more I drank. It's definitely incredibly unique, and I think everyone should try it once.

Alrright.. brand new review. Sampling a beer I never tried of from a brewery I never heard of. San Diego's Green Flash Brewing Co.'s West Coast IPA. Cheesy name, but whatever. I was browsing around and I was near a BevMo guy helping a customer pick out a "hoppy" beer. It was kinda neat.. the guy seemed new to the whole 'hops' thing, had an article with him and everything, and the BevMo guy was very helpful. He gave a few recommendations, and when he mentioned Racer 5, I chimed in and told the guy that it was my favorite IPA. New guy wisely grabs a sixer of Racer 5. BevMo dude asks if I tried any Green Flash stuff, said I hadn't heard of it, and walked out with sixer of the IPA and a 22oz bomber of their Barleywine.

Clocks in at 7% ABV.

Pour - Pours your standard orange/copper IPA color, maybe a tad on the darker side. I guess this is bottle conditioned as I poured rather aggressively and now there's yeast floating all over the place. It's actually pretty neat looking. It's not like when you see a bunch of yeast swirling around in a Belgian beer. It's just suspended there, hardly moving. some Had a decent head, but not much retention.

Nose - Sharp floral, citrusy, grassy hops baby. Very good.

Flavor/Mouthfeel - Strong hoppy flavor, no surprise there. A little heavier on the malt side than some IPAs, but not by a whole lot, just enough to notice. I like the balance. As I take a sip, my taste buds tingle and there's an earthly quality to the flavor. The finish is superb. Sharp, crisp, clean. There's a lingering bitter aftertaste. It dampens as the brew goes on, but at first it seemed like there was a hint of ESB type bitterness.

I haven't finished the beer yet, but I gotta say, this is a superb brew. I have a feeling it will suffer in the drinkability department, but a pint or two of this is just fine. I'm going to give it , maybe even 4.5. I'd like to do a side by side comparison with Racer 5 someday. This is pretty awesome stuff and might be my new favorite. We'll see after I slowly enjoy the six pack, hopefully not too fast as I'm wont to do.

Looking forward to the Barleywine now!

edit: after I wrote the review went and checked it out on BeerAdvocate. Scores very well there. One minor note on my review: seems I'm bad with vocab. Where I say "grassy" it's better qualified as "piney". I think most in this thread probably understood that anyway, though.

I recommend Breckenridge Brewery 417 small batch double IPA - insane and one of the best beers I've ever had. Must like Hops!! 10%+ ABV!

I've never cared for beer much but the best beer I ever tried was in some bar in Germany where they served a "gleicke bier" or "dirty beer". It's half coca cola and half beer.

Link just so you know I'm not making this up here's other people discussing it:

http://www.cultures-shocked.org/foru...read.php?t=876

This past weekend I was down in DC (dancing ldo), driving the same way I've gone many times before. Little did I know that I was passing right by a veritable beer Mecca. Fortunately, I had some friends there who righted my ignorance. In Gaithersburg, MD, just off the 270, there's a Dogfish Head Alehouse. DFH is based in DE, but I guess they have a few alehouses expanded towards the greater DC area.

The only real problem was that I had a 6 hr drive back home ahead of me. If I had my way, I'd have kicked off the night with a pint of the 90 min IPA before diving head first into pints and bottles of their even stronger beers, ultimately being driven home by a friend who'd foolishly agreed to be DD. I wasn't going to get my way. Oh well, I'd have to see how best I could drink and still be sober to drive home when dinner was done.

Their draft list was a little disappointing, honestly. It was roughly:

60 Min IPA
90 Min IPA
Alehouse 75 (a blend of the 60 and the 90)
Pale Ale
India Brown Ale
whatever they called their light lager (big whoop, and they were out anyway)
Chicory Stout
Raison D'Etre
Black and Blue (their strong fruit ale: black raspberries and blueberries)
Aprihop
Black and Tan (Chicory and 90 min)

I was a little disappointed because there wasn't anything on tap I hadn't tried except the light lager, the Alehouse 75 (yeah, I'll just have the 90, please), the pale ale (yeah, I'll still just have the 90), and the black and tan. The black and tan did sound appealing, though, and it should be a perfect compliment to the fish and chips I was planning on having for dinner. Let me tell you, it was one damn good black and tan. The combination of the flowery hoppiness of the 90 with the woody smokiness of the stout was just the thing I was looking for. Thinking about it, it's actually a pretty good beer for this time of year. After a winter of drinking dark stouts, this was a good transition into the hoppy beers I usually enjoy in the spring as the snow has just melted and things are just beginning to get green again. Anyway, I think I'll give the union of these two fine beers a hefty and a half rating. I can't recommend the combo highly enough.

The other thing that caught my eye there was that they had bottles of their Red and White, a beer described as a Belgian white blended with pinot noir juice and then aged in pinot barrels as well. It sounded really interesting, but I didn't want to commit to a 750 mL bottle of 10+% beer, so I decided not to get it. I'll have to check BotW this weekend to see if they got that beer in sometime during Lent when I wasn't shopping there. Anyone tried it?

Hey Wookie. I have tried Red and White before and to be honest, it's not worth the price tag. While aging in pinot noir barrels is a pretty sweet idea, it just doesn't work with that beer. You'd be way better off finding a bottle or several of the newest batch of Captain Lawrence Smoke from the Oak (wine barrel). For anyone in the NY tri-state area, this beer is a must-try, even though it'll cost you 13-15 bucks for a 750. It's their regular smoked porter aged in merlot and pinot noir barrels. The combination of roasted malts with red wine accents is intriguing in and of itself, but when you taste it, it's a whole other story. First you get the oakiness of the barrel along with a slight tartness from the wine. Then comes the porter, though not as smoked as one would hope, you get a good dose of chocolate and coffee on the taste buds. While this post wasn't originally intended to contain a rating, I'd give Smoke from the Oak 4.25 . The distribution is somewhat limited at only 120 cases made, so snap it up if you come across it.

Thanks for the rec. I'll certainly be looking for that one.

I was shopping at Beers of the World today for the first time in a while, and the first time in an even longer time that I bought new things. I think I did pretty well. I went in with the purpose of treating myself to a good hoppy beer. Spring has finally sprung. It was 70 degrees and sunny today, and I wanted a delicious hoppy beer to go with the delicious juicy steak I planned on grilling myself for dinner. I generally enjoy hops for my spring drinking. I picked up a bottle each of Green Lantern's single and double IPA based on kidcolin's review. I saw Saranac had a new Imperial Stout out, so I got that. Ithaca had a new Imperial Red in their premium line, so I had to try that, too. I also nearly fell over when I saw this bottle:



Oh, hello there! How you doin'? I didn't think I could get Alesmith beers out here. I'd looked for them several times, but I never saw them. And yet here, 4-5 months out of season, I found a few bottles of one of their most highly regarded brews tucked away in a non-prominent place. I paid the $8.39 for a 22 oz bottle of this 8.5% ABV beer w/o batting an eye. Maybe I should have bought more than one, but I wasn't quite ready to commit to multiple bottles of this w/o having tried it. I'll go back and buy more if it lives up to its reputation.



In spite of my very gentle pouring, this beer has a most impressive head. It's bottle conditioned, so I expected a heady beer, but this would not be contained. This beer is pretty much second only to La Chouffe's Tripel/IPA for the beer with the thickest and most persistent head. I even took another pic after I fought my way through it, drank it for a bit, and let it sit:



Still thick and billowy, and as I write this, there's still a marshmallowy dollop floating in what's left.

I could smell the hops from this beer as soon as I started pouring. It smells like it has a sweet malt behind those hops as well. Once I battled though the head for a proper sip, I was very happy with my purchase. The hops come through first. They're mostly piney, but there's some of the floral and citrus flavor as well. The malt base is strong and quite sweet. Once I finally had room in my glass to swirl the yeast from the bottom of the bottle in, the flavor was even better. I like the yeasty flavor in my beer. The flavor lingers wonderfully in my mouth. It's hard to fault this beer, but I feel like I'd prefer it if it was just the slightest bit hoppier. It's very close to perfect, though, and too much more hoppiness could ruin it. Even with that, though, it's hard for me to give this anything but my rating. This is a wonderfully delicious beer I can't recommend highly enough. It's the best beer I've had that has not been brewed in the Belgian style.

For tonight's review, I bought a bottle of Ithaca's new brew from their premium Excelsior series. I've been somewhat unimpressed with the series, honestly. Most of the beer has been pretty good, but not a great value, and not best in class. The Ten, though, billed itself as an "Imperial American Extra Strong and Special Double Red Ale" (lol), and a big hoppy red ale was what I was shopping for specifically. Additionally, Ithaca's Cascazilla, probably their best beer, is a delicious hoppy red, so they had some credibility in this style. I paid $9.99 for a 750 mL bottle of this 10% beer.



The beer pours a cloudy brown without much head. This is a bottle-conditioned beer, but in spite of moderately aggressive pouring, I didn't get much head out of it. What little there was dissipated pretty quickly.



The beer smells of hops, but not as strongly as the Yulesmith. When I took my first sip, I was quickly struck by a sharp bitterness, but now that I've had a few sips, the bitterness isn't as overwhelming. I don't enjoy the hop flavor of this beer nearly as much as the Yulesmith. The hops are mostly just bitter w/ some grassy and piney character w/o having as much of the floral and citrus flavors I enjoy most from hops. The malt is...pretty good. It's not as sweet as the Yulesmith, and not as potent. There's a little more of an alcohol flavor to it, too. This is a pretty good beer, but I'd be a plum fool to pay almost $2 more for this compared to the Yulesmith (at least as long as I can get the Yulesmith). I'll give it .