The other night I dueled Samuel Smith's India Ale vs. Urther's Hop-It. I have to say both were quite different than most IPAs. Smith's was very balanced, with lots of sweet malt to back up the moderate hoppiness. It also was a bit watery, but overall the balance/drinkability made it a quality brew. I think a tad overrated by BeerAdvocate, but very good nonetheless. The Hop-It had an incredible fluffy, long-lasting head (similar to Wookie's Yulesmith), and was even more mild on the hops, but was powerfully sweet with tart fruits as well; I even tasted some banana in there, which made me feel like I was drinking a blend of IPA/Tripel/Hefeweizen. It was quite unique, 9.5% alc, and it hid the alcohol better than anything I've ever had. I definitely preferred this to Smith's, and I highly recommend it (if you like sweeter beers).

Where is Urther's based? How is their distribution? This sounds like a beer I'll def. want to try, and just what I'm looking for in my spring drinking.

Whoops, Urther was a typo; it's "Urthel", and it's located in Flanders, Belgium. They've only been around since 1990, but they've created a pretty good buzz for their consistently good beers (they only have 5 different brews, but I hear they're all good). As for their distribution, I live in Stillwater, OK and have access to several of their brews, so that's saying something. I've tried their quadruple, which was definitely worth a look, and the Hop-It is a perfect spring beer IMO.

OK, I actually think I've seen this beer at Beers of the World. I was planning on going back there today to pick up some more bottles of the Yulesmith, so I'll look for this one. It sounds delicious.

OK, I'm going to offer my take on this beer. It ran me $2.79 for a 12 oz bottle. That's pretty steep. For another $0.50, I could have gotten a bottle of DFH's 90 min IPA.



I poured pretty gently, but I still had chunks of yeast floating in my beer. I'm not sure why some beer will have chunks of yeast, but others will just have a relatively uniform cloudiness from the yeast. This is indeed a little darker than a normal IPA. It doesn't have too much head, but it does lace my glass lightly as I drink it.



The smell is all hops, mostly piney. The flavor initially is dry, bitter hoppiness, but there's some pine and grass and a mild malt behind it. The finish is mostly the bitterness. This is a pretty dry beer. I mostly agree with KC's assessment, but it's not as much my style of beer. I prefer Lagunitas's IPA, which I gave a 3.5. I'm going to give this one a rating. I generally prefer the style of hops in the Lagunitas compared to the hops in here.

boooo!!!

I'm going to pick up their Imperial IPA tonight. I also sampled their barleywine. I didn't bother reviewing it because I was lazy and less than impressed. I'm not really well versed in the style, but compared to what I'm familiar with (SN's Bigfoot and Stone's Old Guardian, mostly), it was pretty mediocre. Not bad, just not great.

storm,

I picked up a bottle of the Hop-It. I hope it lives up to your billing, because it wasn't cheap.

All,

Looks like I beat KC to reviewing the Green Flash Imperial IPA. I paid $6.89 for a 22 oz bottle, which isn't as expensive as I might have guessed it'd be. It's not "cheap," but it's well within the realm of sanity. It's also only a modest step up in alcohol from the regular IPA; this one is 9% ABV.



The beer is very similar in color to their regular IPA. It has about the same level of clarity and head, too. It's a little light on head in spite of an aggressive pour, and I'd say it lasts only slightly longer than that of the regular IPA.



The pic makes this beer look darker than it is. The smell is again dominated by hops, naturally, but it smells more of the floral and citrusy hops I enjoy more. That's the bulk of the flavor, too: a good helping of mostly citrus with a little floral hopping, plus a moderately strong, dry malt. This beer reminds me a lot of the Lagunitas IPA, really. It's hop character is similar, and it's malt isn't much stronger or sweeter, which is unexpected, considering this is an imperial IPA. I think I like it a hair better than the Lagunitas, but not quite a half a heart better. It gets the same and a half rating.

Wook,

I had it this weekend. I agree with some of what you said, especially on the more floral/citrus notes. However, I did find that the malt character was a good deal stronger. To be honest, I prefer the regular IPA, which I think might be generally true for me in many cases. For instance, I hate the DFH 120 IPA but love the 90 (which I guess sort of borders on "imperial" status). I guess we'll just chalk it up to preference.. I like the dry, crisp finish of a normal IPA, which I find the malt character of many imperial/doubles tend to mask (Stone Ruination being a notable exception).

I did get a chance to compare the Racer 5 to the Flash IPA. Still sticking to Racer 5 as my top dawg. I still think the Flash IPA's finish is superior, and the balance is on par, perhaps even better, but hop flavor in the Racer 5 brings more of the floral character without sacrificing too much of that sharp piny flavor I like. All in all it's pretty close, but Racer 5 wins by a nose.

(warning: first review)



I got a 6 of this and a 6 of corona at the store last week. I was inspired by the warm weather to get summer type beer. After a nice walk to the store and back I was pretty thirsty and decided to crack open one of the Summer Ales. I was pleasantly suprised with how refreshing and light the flavors were. Compared to other Sam Adams which are a heavier, less refreshing beer I found the notes of lemon really nice.

Lemon is a very fresh and vibrant flavor whihc really contributes to the nice flavor of this beer. The color is very nice, kind of like a light amber. It drinks very easy and would be an ideal choice for a summer cookout or bbq.

I rate it a 5/5. My voting may have been swayed by the first nice day of spring so you could maybe rate it a 4/5 under any other circumstance

Feno,

Which do you prefer, Blue Moon, or Sam Summer? Also, where do you live? There might be some regional brews I'd recommend to try, too.

All,

A brief review of Saranac's Imperial stout w/ no pics. I thought their imperial IPA was decent, esp. for and IIPA that was cheap. The imperial stout is fairly new, so I thought I'd give it a try. It ran me $2.25 for a 12 oz bottle; it would have been something like $9 for a sixer.

It pours the expected thick dark brown, but perhaps not as thick as some of this style. It doesn't have much head. The smell is mostly coffee with some malt. The feel is a little thinner than other imperial stouts. It's not as syrupy or sweet as Brooklyn's Black Chocolate Stout. The flavor is mostly coffee and malt without much caramel or chocolate or hops. I'll give this beer . It's not bad, but for a similar price, I prefer Brooklyn's BCS.

MrWookie,
I go to college in Providence, Rhode Island. I have tried Newport Storm and Narragansett whihc are two of the regional brews. Narragansett is like a local version of Bud Light, nothing special. I really didnt like Newport Storm that much when i tried it once.

I have yet to try Blue Moon but next time I am at the store I will check it out.

Yeah, def. give Blue Moon a shot. It's fairly cheap, and I still think it's the best product put out by Bud, Miller, or Coors. I haven't tried their new spring brew this year, but their summer, fall, and winter brews are all pretty decent.

Random question about IPA's. I was wondering what was the difference between like a 60 Minute and a 90 Minutes IPA?

The 90 minute IPA is a style of beer known as an "imperial" or "double" IPA, not a traditional IPA. Beers of this style are more strongly hopped, and made from more barley, and thereby generally sweeter, maltier, higher ABV, and often a shade or two darker in color. Many of this thread's favorite beers are imperial IPAs, of which the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA stacks up very well. The minutes of this particular beer refer to the time taken to hop the beer -- more minutes = more hopping.

Here's my first review. I'll start reviewing more, as I'm a homebrewer and would probably like to become a beer judge in the semi-near future.

The beer is Fullers London Porter. It's about 5.4% abv and is.... a Porter. I'd never had this before and picked up a 6 pack at the local liquor store. I think it ran me about 9 bucks.

Onto the beer, I poured it into a 22 oz English Style pint glass. It poured pretty thick with a pretty clean white head. The aroma is dominated by a roasted coffee smell. The roast hits your mouth right away, followed by bitter notes of chocolate. It is very malty though the taste does fade rather quickly. Overall I'd give it and a half. I could've given it a 4 if the taste was longer lasting. I really enjoyed this.

I don't have a ton of similar beers to compare this too. From memory the closest thing I've probably had to this in the last 6 months would be Okacim's porter, but it's a much bigger beer (I think that's like 8+ %) and falls into the baltic category. The only other porters I've had recently would be Three Floyd's Alpha Klaus, Flying Dog Gonzo and Flossmoor Station Killer Kowalksi, all different beers but very very good in their own ways.

I'll try to review some beers around my region that people outside of the midwest may not get a chance to try every day. It might give you something new to look forward to on your next trip out here or perhaps even give you a change of pace from your usual lineup of beers.

Here's a picture of the Porter:

Where is Fullers based?

I'm going to do a few reviews tonight, the first is a seasonal brew from Victory, a PA brewery that puts out the very well-regarded Storm King imperial stout. I picked up their Whirlwind Witbier hoping to find a delicious but cheaper alternative to my beloved Allagash White. This ran me a modest $2.15 for one 12 oz bottle, so it at least meets the second criterion.



The beer pours a slightly hazy gold that's light on head. The head quickly dissipates. In my pic, I forgot to take the shot until after I'd taken a few sips, but there wasn't a whole lot of head.



I'll be honest, I didn't have very high expectations for this beer, but it smells pretty good. It has a nice, sweet smell of orange and coriander. The flavor lives up to the aroma. It's lightly sweet, wheaty, with some orange and light Belgian spices. It's not quite at spicy or yeasty as I'd like, but it's pretty solid. The mouthfeel is a little thin, and I'd have preferred it to have a little more head to it. I'll give it . It's not as good as Allagash's white, but mostly because I miss having a little head on my beer. Still, I do love this style of beer for summer drinking, and it's a fair bit cheaper than Allagash, so I might be picking up a sixer or a case of this later.

My second review is from last night. I was out at my local fancy beer bar, and I was in a mood to be adventurous. I ordered a pint of Pauwel Kwak, and this is what I was handed:



It ran me $8.50 for an 8% ABV pint, so it'd better be good. I wasn't sure of proper drinking technique, if I was supposed to remove the round-bottomed glass from the wooden unit, drink, and replace, or if I was supposed to grab onto the wooden handle and drink the thing as a unit. I settled on the latter, and that was the consensus amongst the group I was out with. Noobish? Oh well.

The aroma smelled strongly of apples and lightly of spice. It tasted like a good cider, really. It tasted that way, too. Apple flavor came through strongly. There was a little spice to back it up, but not as much as I might have expected from a strong Belgian ale. It also had some yeastiness and malt and some other fruit flavor in there (cherry?), but I mostly noticed the apple. This was pretty good, and a good adventure, but it's too expensive for me to want to buy again. I'll give it and a half

Wookie,

I went to the store tonight. They only had Blue Moon White Ale so I opted to get Harpoon IPA. I will return later on wiht a review of the IPA. Fwiw it ran me $9.30 for a sixer and i didnt get carded, woohoo

Feno,

The Blue Moon White Ale is the one I most recommend you try. It's the one most similar to the Sam Summer. I'm curious about your thoughts about the IPA, though.

London.

Apparently they also own hotels, inns and bars throughout London.

There's a good chance I could pick this up, then. Is your rating out of 4 or 5? You think this is worth going out of my way to track down?

Fullers ESB is top notch. Very good brewery.

http://www.fullers.co.uk/rte.asp?id=48

I guess theoretically it would be out of 5.

When giving it a 3.5 I envisioned a 4 being one of my favorite beers and a 5 being something sort of like a holy grail.

So I guess a 5 would be like saying "I played a perfect game of poker."

As far as whether or not you should go out of your way to track this down, unless you particularly like porters and/or cannot get any good porters near you, I would probably not suggest you devoting a lot of time to searching for this beer. If you have to drive an extra 20 minutes to a different store to buy it, then I'd say go ahead and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Sounds like we're rating on a similar scale. I probably don't give out enough 5s, though. I'll look this one up, although I may delay for a while, since I don't drink too many dark beers during the spring and summer.