Yeah I didn't find it especially enjoyable but it sure was interesting. I'll post a review soon.

Wookie,
I think I've seen reviews for a few of the imperial stouts I've tried but this is a recent list.

Victory Storm King: Always a personal favorite
Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial: Actually had a similar flavor as the Ten Fidy with the hint of vanilla at the end, but obviously much thinner.
North Coast Old Rasputin: was awhile ago and I wish I could remember more about it but I remember it being tasty.
Sam Smith Imperial: Also awhile ago, but I remember it being especially bitter but lacking the more complex flavors of some of these other Imperials.

On a different note, when I was in Berlin this summer I tried some "maebocks" and "dunkels" that blew me away, since I generally have a favorable bias toward stouts or very hoppy IPAs. I really know nothing about the style of those types of beers though. Any recommendations along these lines?

I did a review of a few Maibocks in this thread, and I didn't really like a one of them. My favorite was in fact not a German one at all, but instead was Flying Dog's Heller Hound Anti-spring. If you do a search in this thread for "maibock" you can dig up my review.

As for dunkels, I've found that it's hard to go too far wrong as long as you get one from Bavaria. Weihenstephaner may put out the best, but I've had good ones from Julius Echter, Schneider, and Ayinger. I have a 12 pack from Erdinger that I'm going through right now. I don't like it quite as much as the first four I listed, but hey, it was on sale, and it's still pretty good. I actually prefer the original hefeweisses, but I'd never turn down a dunkel.

That's pretty elite company you're putting the Oskar Blues stout with. I have to say I'm skeptical, but I'll also have to give it a shot as soon as I see it in the store.

Lastly, congrats to ChicagoRy for the 1000th post in this thread!

Tonight, I'll review a beer from a brewery I haven't yet sampled, the Left Hand Brewing Co. from Colorado. Someone in here mentioned that they were pretty good, so I decided to give them a shot. I bought a 12 oz bottle of their Haystack Wheat for $2.25. Now, normally I'm very skeptical of American wheat beers, but this one did at least say it was bottle-conditioned. That gives me hope that a brewery other than Brooklyn has come up with a competent imitation of German Hefeweizens, but we'll have to see.



The beer pours a nice gold color without much head that soon dissipates. Once I swirled the sediment and poured that in, then it assumed the cloudy gold of the German hefes.



The beer has a pretty mild smell, but a smell of wheat malt and hint of orange. The flavor is a nice surprise. We do have a competent imitation of a German hefe! It's not perfect, but it's competent. It has a mild clove flavor, yeastiness, and wheat flavors that are too-often missing from American versions. It also has that orange flavor, but it's a little light on banana. It's a pretty mild beer, the German versions are bolder, but this would still be a good beer for summer drinking. I give it . I think I still prefer the Brooklyn Weiss, but for people who can't get that, or for people who find that a little too sweet, it's a nice alternative if you don't want to spring for a German hefe.

Left Hand has some good stuff. The milk stout's pretty good, and I love their Octoberfest. I'll have to pick up the Haystack soon.

I think I can get the milkstout, but I didn't see the Oktoberfest. I'll look for it this fall, though.

I've tried the left hand milk stout and found it rather bland to be honest. A very smooth beer but the consistency was very thin relative to other similar stouts.

I actually agree w/ you, despite my previous post. It is a little thin, and it's by no means my favorite stout. Everyone else I know that's tried it really seems to like it a lot, though, so I still recommend it to others.

That means I get a free 6 pack, right?

I had a Thomas Hardy's Ale last night. My buddy didn't like it so he left another one for me, so I'll review it later this week.

Also picked up a 6 pack mix with some IPAs in it, so I'll have some new stuff to drink/review this week.

Just some quick ratings. Enjoyed all three of these beers.

Schneider Weisse Original



Really nice hefeweizen with orange and banana in the flavour and lovely clove notes.

3.5/5

Samuel Adams Black Lager



330 ml bottle. Pleasant malty aroma. Good beige head disappeared quite fast. Malty flavour with hints of burnt caramel and a little chocolate. Light hops flavour with low bitterness. Smooth mouthfeel and an easy finish.

3/5

Leffe Radieuse



Fruity nose with big spice and orange scents. Pours a lovely amber colour with good lacing and a big head that lasts well. Flavour is fruity and spicy with definite citrus. Mouthfeel smooth and fizzy. Finishes with a slightly unpleasant creeping bitterness and subtle alcohol notes.

3.5/5

JrJordan - thanks for the heads up on that brewery from Colorado - I checked with my store in Phila and unfortunately the distrubutor doesn't bring in Ten Fiddy. I'm going to check some NJ stores and do whatever it takes to get some. Sounds like it's one of the best stouts ever made. Will have to try the Scotch ale they make.

No problem cw.
FWIW they just started distributing that stout in NY as well so it may not have reached all ends of the earth yet.

In the meantime I'm "stuck" in Nassau, Bahamas for my current work project and their idea of quality beer is Heineken. *shudder*. I can't wait to come back this weekend to have a Stone 11th Anniversary I've been saving for a special occasion.

On a side note, I tried the most recent Vertical Epic from Stone and thought it was decent but loved the series concept in general. Does anyone know how easy it is to buy the existing bottles in the series and if so, where I might do so from NYC? Do you know of any other breweries that do these series type distributions?

I saw one from the series but obvioiusly it was a more recent yr. I can't imagine it's easy to get the past years from the series very easily.

I know a fair amount of other breweries put on "xx year anniversary" beers.

As far as getting past years, I would try something like ratebeer.com or beeradvocate.com and if you have anything worthwhile to trade you can probably find somebody on there to trade you bottles.

And while you're in the Bahamas, try some rum.

I've been googling for some sort of Rum tasting event in Nassau but am striking out pretty badly (except for the Bacardi Distillery tour which I may save as a last resort). Any thoughts?

labarde,

i am kinda suprised that sam adams is available in australia. how often can you get your hands on good american beer?

JrJordan,

Here are a few breweries that show up when searching.

http://ratebeer.com/beer/breweries/b...ctory-0-17.htm

One of them looks like Heineken or something and I don't know if any of them are actual micros or brew anything on premises for the island.

As far as Rum goes, this is about all I could get with a few minutes of searching:

http://www.ministryofrum.com/forums/...ghlight=Nassau


Let me know if you do anything related to Rum or Beer, I've only been to the Bahamas once when I was younger (I think Freeport, but I'm not even sure atm) and had a pretty good time, albeit I was not in search of good beer.

The Boston Lager is pretty easy to get and I found the Dark Lager at a good shop for beers. However there is a distinct lack of good American beers available here. I annoys me because after reading lots of ratings I really want to try many American brews!

Tonight's review is Otter Creek's White Sail ale. It's their attempt to cash in on the Belgian White trend that's taken hold since Blue Moon's introduction of the style to the masses. I haven't found Otter Creek to be a particularly noteworthy brewery, but their beer is cheap. I'm perfectly happy giving some of their beer a shot to see if I can find a good value. A 12 oz bottle ran me just $1.79. They don't indicate the ABV, but I'd be surprised if it was too far away from 5%.



This is a bottle conditioned beer. It poured a clear gold until I swirled in the yeast in the bottom. Then it assumed the nice cloudy gold that's par for the style. It's a little light on head, though, and what's there dissipates w/o lacing my glass.



The smell is surprising, honestly. It's right in line with what I'd expect of a good Belgian white, and for a cheaper beer, that's a welcome surprise. They do a pretty good job on the flavor, too. It has a strong citrus flavor (orange and lemon) along with a little of the spice and yeastiness. The aftertaste has a strong herbal component that is a little more pronounced in this beer than in others of this style, and it's a little too much. I put this as roughly comparable to Victory's slightly more expensive offering. . This might have gotten the extra half heart if not for the slightly out of balance herbal character in the after taste.

I decided to give Urthel's Hop It another shot, this time from an 11.2 oz bottle that does not have a corked top. The bottle cost me $5.85, so it's actually a hair less expensive per ounce than the larger bottle. I suppose that's common for beer, though.



This time, it pours with an appreciable head. It lingers fairly well, but it's not as persistent as the La Chouffe Tripel-IPA blend or Alesmith's YuleSmith. It's a cloudy gold with some chunks floating around in it. There were chunks floating around in it even when I held the sealed bottle up to the light.



The aroma is of a light grassy hopping and a mild malt. Man, after Stormstarter's enthusiastic review, I really wanted to like this beer. I was hoping for something like Brooklyn's Hopfen Weisse, or maybe a more potent version of the La Chouffe IPA-Tripel blend. This isn't either. This is like a slightly hoppier version of a saison, and it just doesn't do much for me. The beer I'm having now is better than the spoiled version I had earlier, but it doesn't have a whole lot more going for it. It has a moderately strong grassy hop character with a light, and just slightly sweet malt behind it. This is anything but a bad beer, but for the prices I'm paying for this, I can't help but want a little more. On the absolute scale I use in my ratings, this is about a beer on its own merit, but it's a pretty poor value in my opinion, and I won't be buying it again. Even if you're interested in trying a beer that's similar to this, I'd recommend any of a number of different beers. I liked the saisons from Flying Dog (Wild Dog), Southampton , or Brooklyn (Local 1) better than this, and they're better values. The aforementioned Lachouffe Triple-IPA blend is cheaper and somewhat more adventurous. And then Brooklyn's Hopfen Weisse is also cheaper and just plain amazing. I hate to say it, but stay away from this one. It's not worth what you pay for it, and even if you really, really like beers in this style, there are comparable options I like better that cost less.

A couple of reviews.

First off, last night I went out with some friends to Piece Brewery in the near north side of Chicago.

I've been wanting to try Piece for some time, almost as much for their New Haven style pizza as for their award winning brews.

My girlfriend wasn't feeling well almost as soon as we got there, so I ended up only being able to try two of their beers.

I started out with a Porter, "Big Black Mariah" I believe it was called. This weighed in at 6.5% I think. It was what you would expect from a porter, roasted, coffee, even chocolate near the end. I don't remember the aroma, but it did have good head retention and the hops weren't too strong. It was a well balanced, very solid beer. Since I had it on draft I'll give it 3/5. It cost me 5 bucks for 16oz.

My second beer was their Full Frontal IPA. They call it an APA, but I really thought it was an IPA when I was drinking it. The server called in an IPA as well, but I guess it's just a really hoppy APA. ABV was 5.5% on this one, and I believe it was also 5 dollars for 16oz.

This was a very tasty beer. A citrusy hop aroma and a boat load of hops in the taste. I took a growler of this to go and can provide more detail about this beer when my buddy and I drink it tomorrow or Saturday. It was a very refreshing beer and I'll give it a 4/5. Definitely one of the better hopped ales that I've had.

I also had some of their "White" pizza while I was there. It was very good, mostly cheese and thin crust. While I still would consider 3-5 Chicago area pizzerias above this one, I was really impressed with the pizza.

All in all I was very impressed by Piece Brewery. The service was great, the pricing was normal and the quality of food-beer was great. I really would like to go back there some time and try their dunkelweizen, dark-belgian and a few other beers they had on the menu that looked very good. They also had a decent selection of guest drafts, mostly from Three Floyds, and a solid selection of guest bottles.

Now, onto the beer I am enjoying right now.

I blindly selected "Coal Porter" by Atlantic Brewery Company out of my beer fridge. It cost me 1.80 and I got it at one of those "make your own 6 pack" stands at this little "world traveler" place I've only been to once. I had to get my mom a gift for mother's day so I grabbed 6 random beers to review (though 2 were DFH 90 min and DFH Aprihop, they were accidentally put in the 1.80 section so I had to get those).

I've never heard of this beer and I know a few of the beers on the shelves were a little dated. This one has the little Sam Adams style date on the side of the beer, but nothing is ripped to indicate when I should drink this beer by.

Nevertheless, the description online says they cellar this beer for 6 months before releasing it, so I think I'll be ok. It also says the beer is 5.8% abv.

My expectations were not incredibly high going in.

The beer poured a thin tan head. Pretty black, though I can't see great shades as I'm in a badly lit room. It smells roasty. Upon first sip, you get bitter notes of coffee. Very roasty beer. Perhaps a little chocolate in here, but the roasted bitterness is the highlight of this beer. I don't have much experience with Target and Williamette hops (what they say they use in here) but they seem to have a less distinct flavor.

Overall, I really enjoy this beer. I'll give it a 3.5/5. The Target hops with the roasted barley seem to be what I enjoy most about this beer. I'll have to look into some other Porters that use Target for bittering and see if I enjoy them as much.

I agree with Wookie on the Hop-It. I paid 4.99 for the 11.2oz and it was a pretty hefty 9% ABV but, I wouldnt see myself buying this again.

For the upcoming weekend, I got some Sierra ESB's (boring I know) and a sixer of Smuttynose IPA.

Cheers!

EDIT: I forgot, I still have some Lagunitas IPAs in the fridge along with about 3 or 4 Brooklyn Winter Ales..

Here's a question:

Do you guys all pour the bottled beers into a pint glass before imbibing?

I'm ghetto and always drink from the bottle.

I had a few Smuttynose IPAs this weekend and noticed LOTS of sediment floating around in the bottle... maybe I should be pouring this into a glass and swirling it out?

Thanks!

BTW.. I found the Smutty very bold.. not my favorite IPA but still very good.

I think most "good" beers taste better poured into a proper glass but once in a while I'll go "ghetto" and drink form the bottle. I won't usually drink anything better than say Sierra from a bottle. (that's kind of a bad example as Sierra is technically the reference standard IPA IMO)

Kev,

It depends on how lazy I am, how much I feel like cleaning a glass, and how good the beer is. Most of the time, I pour a bottle of any beer that cost me more than $3 into a glass. That's a pretty accurate rule for me, actually. I'll almost always pour a beer into a glass if I'm having it for the first time and am reviewing it, even if it's cheap beer. However, since I don't frequently drink beer that costs me more than $3/bottle, so I drink from the bottle pretty frequently, even Ommegang's Abbey ale, which is probably poor form. Oh well.