Peter!

Great to have you back. And no, there's never any shame in reviewing a beer that someone has also reviewed. In fact, I love to hear it when someone else posts their take on a beer I've reviewed.

Not sure if I can find the Little Creatures, though. BotW has a sad selection of Aussie brews.

Has anyone else tried Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale? I had my first tonight, and it's a unique and very refreshing taste. Head is basically non-existent, pours with a murky dark reddish/brown color. The sour part is fairly mild and the taste is something like tart cherries with some other dried fruit flavors mixed in there.

This was my first sour ale, and after reading around online it sounds like Monk's is one of the tamer ones. I would be interested to try some of the really strong ones.

Flanders (and sour in general) is probably my favorite style. I'm always on the lookout for ones I haven't tried as well as introducing others to it as it's definitely not as well known as some styles.

Here are two I highly recommend that you should be able to find at most higher-end beer stores.

Rodenbach Grand Cru - more traditional flanders
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/216/673

Duchesse De Bourgogne - super complex, tons of flavors happening all at once
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/641/1745

Also the Russian River sour stuff I've had is super good, but it's really hard to find (at least for me in the PNW).

Well, I'm snowed in. Time to start drinking. Southampton's Christmas Ale seems appropriate. A 22 oz bottle ran me a pretty reasonable $5.39 for a 7.2% ABV beer. Southampton isn't exactly an inexpensive brewery, but they're usually cheaper than other brewers for comparable beer. There are many kinds of Christmas ales, from the pale red, hoppy Sierra Nevada Celebration to the malty, spicey offerings from, say, Harpoon. They say that this is a French Christmas ale in the Biere du Garde style. I have no idea what this means.



The beer pours a clear medium brown with a light head.



The beer's smell is mostly of malt. Yeah, this beer isn't particularly exotic. It tastes like a fairly strong, lightly hopped brown ale. This is about a beer on my scale. I could see myself drinking a fair amount of it, and buying a fair amount of it, if it came in 6 packs of 12 oz bottles, but I can't get it that way. Oh well.

Wookie's going for 2 tonight, and I might even do a 3rd if I get really bored on this snowy night. Next up is Troeg's Mad Elf Ale. I don't think I've had anything from this brewery before. They're based in Harrisburg, PA. This is a mighty 11% ABV beer that is described as a red ale brewed with spicy yeast, cherries, and honey. Ran me $3.35 for a 12 oz bottle: not cheap.



The ale is a clear red without much head. It's seldom beer this strong has much of a head.



Its aroma is apparent as soon as I uncap the bottle. It smells strongly of cherry and, like a dunkelweizen. This is very nice. It's not cloyingly sweet, like I thought it might be, nor does the cherry flavor make it taste like cough syrup. Instead, this ale tastes mostly like an ueber-dunkelweizen or ueber-weizenbock with a hint of honey and cherry. I'm surprised at how spicy and yeasty it tastes in spite of not being bottle conditioned, but my tongue doesn't lie. This is great Christmas drinking without employing obvious seasonal characteristics like piney hops or gingerbread spices. I'll give this beer a hefty and a half rating. One of these is good to last you a while rather than being something I'd down 3 of in a night, but if this sounds up your alley, you'll enjoy every sip.

I just drank a large bottle of Fort Collin's Chocolate stout. I got it for $3.25 at a gas station. Its fairly thick with a somewhat small beige head. The overwhelming taste is of chocolate. There are some hints of caramel and ash. It is not complex at all and has a slightly syrupy?/bitterish finish. It has a relatively low alcohol content at like 6%. Personally... I'm loving it. I rate it 3.9/5
mmm I love chocolate lol.

so it appears like i got an awful lot of beer for christmas, to be expected i guess, will try to distill some highlights into the thread at some point, for the time being i've just been going through the duplicates before actually trying not to just drink everything.

I sampled it at 3 Floyds awhile back and thought it was interesting, but wasn't in love with it, sorry I can't remember anything specific. My friend who loves that style of beer was very high on the Monks Cafe flemish.

I've only had 3 of them, one was from a local brewery and wasn't bad, but the other was something called The Duchess or something similar (I think you can find it at most big beer stores like Binny's or BotW that Wookie talks about), and I really enjoyed that one. There's a picture of a woman on the bottle, which surprisingly isn't all that common.

I really enjoyed Collaboration not Litigation, though it was a joint brew with Russian River (I think it was an Avery release, however).

What do you think about Left Hand?

Also, I've had Olfabrikken Porter a few times now and am absolutely loving it. I'll give it a full review next time I pick up a bottle. I've found it at 2 spots in Chicago, and it's pricey, 10.99 for a 22oz. I still think it's more than worth it for a special occasion, even with a seemingly limitless selection of great beers available around here.

Hi guise, haven't posted ITT in awhile..

I'm chiming in to say that Green Flash's West Coast IPA is a must try for hopheads out there.

I've mentioned it before but, after drinking mostly browns in NOV and DEC, I scooped up some more of these and it quickly reminded me how awesome it is.

Cheers.

Great Lakes is a Cleveland brewery that I've recently spring up on tap all over bars here. I picked up a variety pack of theirs, so I'll post some brief reviews from that. Their amber lager is nothing special, though. Only and a half .

Just got back from the holidays back east. My sister brought one of the bottles of the Old Rasputin XI, along with a neat Old Rasputin pint glass. When I get my other 2 bottles from my sis's place, I'll do a more formal review with pictures. Let me just say this beer is strong as hell. Similar to Old Rasputin, obv, but the notable differences was a noticeable alcohol presence, a smoother mouthfeel, and stronger caramel flavors. I was really blown away. I can already say it's a 5 hearter, but I'll wait until I can put down some thoughts as I drink it.

Also while back east, I picked up some Smuttynose Pale Ale, my first try of that NH brewery. I got a six of pale ale though I wanted to either try the brown or the winter, due to the fact I knew I'd be drinking a bunch with some buds. It was quite delicious. Very crisp and clean and pretty hoppy.

Peter - thanks for the rec on the Little Creatures - always on the lookout for a good pale ale. Now to find some in Philadelphia......

I like Great Lakes's pale ale better than their amber. It may actually be more of an IPA, as it has a decent hop kick and is 6% ABV. It's not not really anything to hunt down, but a decent .

Great Lakes's porter is again nothing special, but fairly drinkable. I'll give it , but I'd rather have a JW Dundee's.

Hello fellow beer lovers! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread and all the reviews. I have just one problem with it: A distinct lack of Montana beers.

As a state blessed with over 13 craft breweries (we have the highest brewery to person ration in the nation!), I take it as my duty to review as many as possible in this thread and hopefully convince a few people to come out to the Big Sky state and try a few.

As an aside, this last summer a group of friends managed to visit the majority of the breweries. We have a website in the works to blog about our beer reviews and visits to different breweries. When it goes live I would love everyone's input!

Wookie,

Did you get any of their Dortmunder Gold?

Hey Cowboy! Good to see another Montanan in the Lounge! Welcome!!

I would love to read some reviews on Montana beers and the various brewpub beers. I am in Billings every now and then but rarely get into other larger towns so I would be most interested in them.

Favorite Montana Beer so far has to be good old Moose Drool!!!

Where are you located in MT??

Also, careful inviting too many people out here. Might get too crowded!

I am currently living in Billings. In terms of quality beer, Billings is near the top of the list.

Best Pub? Toughy. I personally am a huge fan of Angry Hank's but Carter's is quickly becoming a dynamite brewery.

Yellowstone brewing is probably the city favorite due to how long it has been around. Montana brewing has won the most awards but in my eyes is probably the 3rd best.

Favorite beer? Tough. I am a self proclaimed hop head and was raised on the best IPA's in the state from Sleeping Giant (now Lewis and Clark) beers. At one time they had 4 IPA's. Now with the hop shortage it is hard to judge them against what they all were 2-3 years ago.

Whoops, I kind of got lost there!

Favorite Beer: Head Trauma IPA from Angry Hanks. Trainwreck (Carter's) Peacemaker (Lewis and Clark) and Blackfoot's OPA all are a close second.

Not IPA favorite: Old Stache. This comes from Tamarack brewing. The beer is actually aged/brewed in Whiskey barrels. Imagine the best of whiskey and beer....it's heaven in a glass.

Favorite Brewery: If I had to pick one......I can't. Big tie: Kettlehouse (Bongwater and Cold Smoke!!) Angry Hanks (Dunkel, IPA) and Madison River (all of it!)

As for Moose Drool....so hit and miss if you don't get it right at the brewery. You have to be real careful where you get it. If the keg lines are not clean and the keg taken care of it can be BAD. But a clean line/keg and it is great.

If anyone is in B-town, PM me. We can visit all the spots! The more the merrier.

Is there a good place in Billings to buy some of these beers, bottles?

Next time I am in town and have a little time we will have to get together and do a good brewery tour. Usually when I am in town it is one of those drive two hours, shop and then get on the road for the 2 hour trip back home. But every now and then I have a bit if time to dork around.

Do you play poker in town? if so, any places you like in particular? I usually end up at the Crystal Lounge when I play but have tried a few others.

Bottles:

You can get Montana Brewing and most of the Yellowstone Brewing bottles at Albertson's and World Market. As for Angry Hank's/Carter's/Himmelberger (this place is so small it does not have a taproom...but the Whitewater Wheat is TO DIE FOR...when he makes a good batch....) they don't bottle yet.

To be honest, I would pick up a growler of something different when you are in town. Hank's, Carter's and Yellowstone are very reasonable on new growler's + fill. The refills are incredibly valuable.

Next time you are headed to Billings send me a PM w/ your number and we can set something up! I love going down to the breweries and having my full allotment of drinks!

I play poker on a regular basis (less so now that I am in the middle of applying for law school). I play almost excusivley @ Jackpot Nevada. It has a 100 buy in NL Tu-Sa. No max buy in on Sunday. The play is pretty soft (minus a few tough regs -> when you show up I will point them out/introduce you to two of em) the dealers are very fast, and there is no smoking!

There used to be an after hour game but that was raided. Too bad because it was SUPER juicy.

What part of MT are you in? My friends and I are looking to doing fishing across the state.

The growler is a great idea. Where are Hank's, Carter's and Yellowstone located??

I will give you a PM next time I have time in town and we will sample barley pops!!

Sure did. That was the one I had tonight! I wasn't the biggest fan, but I was having it with some of the spicy chicken soup I posted about in the Food Blog thread. The spiciness of the food drowned out some of the flavor of the beer. My tentative review is that it's got a cleaner, crisper taste than, say, Budweiser, but it's not as deliciously hoppy and flavorful as Brooklyn's lager. Still, if the soup had not been so spicy, I might have gotten more from it. I generally prefer bolder beer than pale lagers, though, but I'll give this another go. Still, I'd be surprised if this gets even a 3 heart rating from me.

Sorry, forgot to answer this part.

I am about 2 hours ESE of Billings in Ashland (about 40 miles west of Broadus). No decent fishing anywhere close to me here, which I know may seem wierd given my handle on here.

About the closest place is Tongue River Reservoir and I haven't even been there much the last couple of years. So I am not much help as far as fishing goes.

Was not a big fan of the one sixer I had. It was OK but nothing special.

RDH,

I gave another try to the Dortmunder Gold. It is indeed a beer that fares better in subtlety than boldness, and while it's not a bad pairing with spicy food, you won't think much of it when paired with such. It does have a nice crispness to it. Still, I do tend to go for bolder beer, and I do prefer Brooklyn's hoppier lager in a more apples-to-apples comparison with one of its immediate peers. I'd be curious for your take on this, as you tend to appreciate this style more than I do. I'd give this a and a half rating for me, but I wouldn't fight with someone who insisted it was a 3.