Frambozen, New Belgium Brewing

Well I'm happy to say this review is one that I had originally not planned on writing. I have been searching for Frambozen since I found out it was ready to be shipped out. I checked New Belgium's website and was under the assumption that this brew would not be making it to the fine state of Illinois this year. Fortunately, as fate would have it, I journeyed into one of the liquor stores that I rarely visit and as I was searching the shelves for something good, the last six pack of Frambozen caught my eye. I was very excited because it's a beer I've been wanting to try for a while, and until I found it at this liquor store I had pretty much given up on trying it this season.

Frambozen pours a dark red, almost ruby color. Its a very warm and inviting color, very appropriate in my opinion for a Christmas beer. There is about a finger and a half of tan head and disappears pretty quickly and leaves a thin layer across the top of the beer. This is a little lacing on the side of the glass.

The scent this beer gives off is a mixture of malt and raspberries. There is a hint of sweetness from the malt and a predominant sour note from the raspberries. I thought that I smelled a little alcohol in the mix, but was unsure since this brew is only about 6.5% ABV. I also caught a subtle hint of earthy hops as I searched a little deeper. The raspberries really dominate the bouquet of this beer though.

I thought that this beer had a really interesting taste to it. The idea of a raspberry beer that is not a wheat beer is in itself an interesting concept. I was intrigued to see how the caramel malts would interact with the raspberries. I was very skeptical if I would even be able to make out more than a hint of the raspberries. My first sip of this brew was full of that raspberry sourness that I had smelled at first. The sweetness from the caramel malt is briefly present at the beginning of the sip before your palette is overwhelmed with the sweet/sour bite of the raspberries. I think enough caramel malt was used so that it balanced the sour of the raspberries to the point where it was a pleasant sour that one would get from one of the more mild Belgian sours. This beer definitely reminded of a sour with a sharper bite that didn't completely dominate the palette. Near the end of the sip the sourness mellowed out into the level of sweetness mixed with sourness that one would get from eating a raspberry without sugar.

This beer had a medium mouth feel, with a lot of carbonation present. The aftertaste was a mix of malt with sourness. I think the after taste is the only place where this beer kind of let me down. I felt like the flavors kind of separated after the sip was done, and I was left with this awkward malty/sour taste that transitioned into a malty taste after the sourness wore off. It wasn't unpleasant, it was just kind of strange and didn't reflect the rest of the drinking experience.

Overall, I enjoyed this beer. I think I may have over hyped it a little bit but it was definitely an interesting beer. I thought the use of the raspberries in a brown ale was very unique and made for an interesting combination of flavors and tastes. I would definitely recommend trying this brew if you can find it but I also wouldn't over hype it like I did.

Anchor Brewing, Anchor Porter

I know I'm still taking a lot of time in between posts, but in my defense it is the holiday season and I'm busy shopping, eating, celebrating birthdays, etc, etc. I've stocked up on some solid beers so I should be churning out more posts more frequently now. On a positive note the Binny's by my house has finally joined the 21st century and decided to start selling a "creat your own six pack" option which is great news for this blog because it means I will be able to try a greater variety of beers instead of having to buy one sixer at a time.

Today's beer, Anchor Porter, is one that I've been really excited to drink all week. Anchor is a classic brewery in the world of American Craft Beer, and while I'd still consider myself new to them I have tried enough of their beers to know they when it comes to beer, Anchor doesn't mess around.

This beer pours a very dark brown, almost black color. I noticed the head parfaited a little bit with about a finger of tan and white colored head. The head lasted as a prominent film throughout the tasting. There was a heavy amount of lacing on the glass.

Anchor Porter had a very sweet scent. It smelled like chocolate with a tiny hint of roast as I continued to smell it. The sweetness was accompanied by a smooth and pleasant maltiness.

The first taste of this beer was incredibly smooth. The sweetness from the smell translated beautifully into the taste. The sweetness from the malt was the predominant taste in this beer but as you near the end of the taste the roastiness from the chocolate malt surfaces. This is a subtle bite about midway through the taste that gives the beer some bite to counteract the sweetness.

This beer had a medium body, as well as a lot of carbonation. When I swished it around, I got a little bit of chewiness but it lasted briefly. This beer had a sweet aftertaste with a hint of roast that balanced out the sweetness very nicely, and didn't linger very long. It's hard to say a porter is crisp but this beer had a very strong flavor, yet didn't overwhelm the palette. It was an incredibly easy to drink porter. Anyone who is skeptical of dark beer should definitely give this beer a whirl, because it's not your average run-of-the-mill porter.

Overall I would have to say that this is one of the best porters I have had in my short time as a craft beer enthusiast. It was very easy to drink, and I really liked how the sweetness and the bitterness from the chocolate malt and hops balanced each other out almost perfectly. This is a beer I will be telling everyone to at least try once. As for me, I've found a new favorite beer.

Avery Brewing, Imperial Stout

I'm sad to say that I have been so busy these last couple of weeks that I really haven't been able to keep up with this blog. I've tried a lot of really good beers and I'm kicking myself because I haven't taken the time to write about them. I'm going to do a much better job keeping up with this thing from here on out. There's too much good beer out there and I've taken it upon myself to make sure that the few people who read this blog hear about it.

I decided to celebrate my comeback with a monster beer. That is, The Czar from Avery Brewing. This beer is a part of their Dictator Series that I wan in love with early in November when I reviewed the The Kaiser. This beer is as big, if not bigger, than the Kaiser. It definitely knocked me for a loop. I was expecting a big, flavorful, powerful beer and that's exactly what I got. This beer also taught me to follow the rule of "the darker the beer, the warmer it should be served." As the beer warmed the best developed more and more, which was really cool to experience.

This beer pours a very dark brown color, and sits opaque in the glass. Initially it had about one finger of head, but this fell back into the beer pretty quickly. There were some signs of carbonation along the side of the glass, and a light film on top of the beer the whole time I was drinking. It left a lot of lace on the sides of the glass throughout the tasting.

The scent of this beer was pretty interesting. I got some subtle hints of chocolate and coffee. It had a very prominent sweet quality to it, and underneath the sweetness there's a tiny bit of alcohol that I could smell. The label mentions toffee and molasses and I got a little bit of those flavors as well as the malty sweetness.

My first few tastes of this beer were very underwhelming and I was a little concerned for a little while. I had put this beer in the fridge and in hindsight I wish I would have chosen to not chill it at all. When i first tasted this beer I could taste the chocolate malt, alcohol, and molasses and that was it. And the flavors I could taste were very subtle. So I let the beer sit for 20 minutes and came back and could taste a lot more. I got hints of coffee, toffee, and the molasses was a lot more prominent. I felt like the malts stood out more as well. I was even able to enjoy the slight bite from the hops as I sipped. This beer should definitely be enjoyed at room temperature, or slightly chilled. The beginning of the taste has a strong sweetness to it mixed with alcohol and some slight fruitiness. There is a little bite in the middle from the hops that evens out the sweetness perfectly and the finish is coffee with a hint of alcohol. The alcohol is impossible to avoid in this beer, as it sits at 10.5% ABV and has a 1.104 original gravity. The alcohol is by no means unpleasant though. It's just unavoidable so if you don't like that flavor in your beer this isn't the brew for you.

This beer had an incredibly heavy body. There wasn't a whole lot of carbonation and when I drank it I found it to be almost chewy. The mouth feel was very interesting. I felt like this beer was thicker than others, it was very hard to freely swish this beer around in my mouth. It definitely lacked the watery characteristics that a lot of other beers usually have. Its the first time I could significantly notice the heaviness of the body. The aftertaste of this beer was really nice, especially considering how heavy it was. The alcohol didn't linger at all. It finished with a nice coffee taste that wasn't overpowering by any means. I actually enjoyed its lingering quality.

Overall I thought this beer was awesome, especially after I had it when it warmed. I felt like the heavy body was kind of weird, but as I finished the bottle I got used to it and it really wasn't a big issue. It just caught me off guard initially. If you're into imperial stouts, I would definitely pick this one up. I plan to grab a bottle and cellar it for a couple years and hopefully by then this blog blows up and by then everyone will read a blog post on the cellared bottle. But I digress, go get yourself a bottle of this bad boy. It's a great winter beer and if you enjoy stouts get yourself an early Christmas present.

I plan to write many more posts for December. It would be blasphemous not to. I plan to do an ultimate review of King Henry from Goose Island on Christmas Day. Thats their bourbon barrel barley wine and its supposed to be insane. It better be for 25 bucks a bottle. I hope every one has a very happy holiday season, and make sure to check back soon for a new post.

Rogue Brewing, Double Chocolate Stout

I'm sad to say that i don't have a whole lot of experience with Rogue Brewing. I finally decided to take the plunge, and picked up their Double Chocolate Stout. I don't want to give too much away in the first few sentences of this review, but let's just say that this beer was a perfect compliment to celebrating an anxiety ridden Denver Broncos win.

This beer pours a dark brown, almost black color and its pretty opaque. About one finger of tan head accompanies the first pour. The head disappears pretty quickly and leaves a whispy tan head on top of the beer throughout the tasting. There is very little lacing on the sides of the glass.

The aroma of this beer is a mix of chocolate and roastiness from the malt. The chocolate aroma of this beer is profiled very nicely. It didn't just smell like chocolate malt, it smelled like actual chocolate and I really liked that about this beer. The roast from the malt balanced with the chocolate really well, which translated into the taste beautifully.

The first taste of this beer gave me a lot of chocolate, followed by some bitterness and roastiness as the taste continued. What really stood out to me about this beer was the chocolate. This beer uses real chocolate and you can definitely taste it. There is a subtle hint of hops about mid way through the tasting and you can also detect subtle hints of malted barley and oats. The flavors really balanced out nicely in this brew, I didn't feel like any of the flavors were overly dominant.

This beer didn't have much carbonation and had a pretty heavy mouth feel, mixed with a little creaminess. The after taste was roasty and malty. There was a little sweetness at the end of the taste but the lingering taste was the roast mentioned before.

Overall I really enjoyed this beer. The chocolate profile really stood out to me and there wasn't an overwhelming amount of roast like I'm use to with stouts. The chocolate added a really nice sweet quality to this brew. I'm pretty disappointed that I haven't gotten into Rogue sooner. I will definitely be trying a lot more beers from Rogue in the new future and hopefully be posting some more raving reviews.

Breckenridge Brewing, Christmas Ale

It's Saturday, so what is more appropriate than drinking and appreciating some solid craft beer? Now that Thanksgiving has passed I can feel fully comfortable buying Christmas beers, which is always exciting. I found a single bottle of Breckenridge Brewing's Christmas Ale for a couple bucks and decided to start off the holiday season with it.

This beer poured a dark amber color with a pretty thin layer of white head on top. The head dissipated pretty quickly, and left a very thin, whispy head on top throughout the tasting. There was a medium amount of lacing on the sides of the glass.

I didn't feel like the aroma of this beer gave off much complexity. I felt like the caramel malt dominate the bouquet of this brew. There was a lot of sweetness from the malt and I got a good amount of earthiness from the hops.

Breckenridge's Christmas Ale tasted the same way it smelled. On my initial taste I got a lot of sweetness from the malt, which was evened out nicely as the tasting proceeded by the earthiness and bite of the hops. The hops added a medium bite near the end of the tasting. The malt definitely dominated the initial tasting of this beer, but I thought it was well balanced as the tasting proceeded.

This beer had a good amount of carbonation that gave it a bubbly mouth feel and a medium body. My issue with this beer was the after taste. I felt like the earthiness of the hops was a little to dominant in the after taste. I found it kind of unpleasant. There was a little bit of sweetness from the malt but it disappeared rather quickly leaving the earthy bitterness on its own.

Overall I didn't really prefer this brew. I was expecting a lot more from the taste since it's labeled as a Christmas beer. It felt more like an amber to me. I didn't really pick up any Christmas spices or other flavors that are characteristic of Christmas beer. Given the other beers I've had from Breckenridge, I was kind of disappointed. That's not to say I wouldn't drink this beer again, because I would. I was more disappointed because this beer doesn't really live up to is label as a Christmas beer in my opinion.

I have some exciting beers on deck this week, as well as a review of the Summit Brewery tour and tasting in order as I'm going up to Minneapolis this weekend for the Broncos/Vikings game. (No I'm not a Tebow fan, I'm an actual Broncos fan.) Cheers!

New Holland Brewing, Farmhouse Hatter (and Thanksgiving dinner!)

I figured it would only be appropriate to make a post on this wonderful day of great food and even better beer. I didn't have the stomach to drink too much today as I went out last night, but I made an exception and grabbed a bottle of Farmhouse Hatter, one of New Holland's four variations of the Mad Hatter IPA. This brew was a steal at 5 bucks for a bomber, so I pretty much had nothing to lose. Unfortunately at the time I hadn't planned on making a post about this beer because I've been feeling especially lazy, but I eventually mustered up enough energy to sit down and churn this post out, so you get a picture of this beer accompanied by the very delicious Thanksgiving day meal my wonderful mother prepared. But enough about the food, lets get to the good stuff.

The Farmhouse Hatter is labeled as a farmhouse style IPA (aka a Belgian IPA). This beer poured a cloudy orange color with over two fingers of thick white head. The head stayed for a long time but eventually fell back into the beer and left a thin white layer on top of the beer. There was a lot of lacing on the side of the glass.

This beer had a very nice aroma to it. There were a lot of fruity esters from the Belgian yeast as well as some flowery and earthy hop scents. I thought the hops and esters combined very nicely to give this beer a pleasant scent.

On my first sip of the Farmhouse Hatter I got a lot of hoppiness. The flowery scent translated into the taste nicely, but I felt like the earthiness from the hops and the fruitiness of the beer from the Belgian yeast mixed in kind of an odd way. It definitely took some getting used to. There were also some hints of citrus as I continued to taste, which added to this beer's nice clean finish.

There was a lot of carbonation in this beer which contributed to its lighter mouth feel. I felt like it finished pretty crisply after each sip. The aftertaste was a combination of citrus and hoppiness, with a majority of the hoppy after taste having some earth like qualities. It wasn't an unpleasant earthiness, but I felt like it made for a strange combination with the fruitiness and citrus.

Overall I thought this beer was okay. As I have mentioned previously, I didn't like the earthy hop bitterness in this beer. I thought it was a strange combination with the rest of the the flavors. I definitely want to try some of the other Mad Hatter off shoots though. I thought this beer was interesting enough, it just wasn't my favorite.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving full of family, fun, food, and great craft beer. CHEERS!

Bells Brewing, Java Stout

It's a chilly Friday night, I have work tomorrow morning, so what is better than cracking open some delicious craft beer and relaxing. I felt like something dark and flavorful so I picked up a bottle of Java Stout from Bell's Brewing. I have been waiting for this beer to come back since last year when I missed its season by weeks. Bells has a handful of beers that it releases around this time that are released in extremely small batches and are supposed to be delicious. I was lucky because I found this bottle for sale as a single. A six pack of Java Stout will run you about 16 bucks, before tax. If you can, try to find a single bottle before you commit to a six pack. I feel like most people will either love or hate this beer, I doubt there is much middle ground.

Java stout pours an opaque brown, almost black, color. When I hold the glass up to the light I get almost nothing coming through. This beer is dark. It pours with a thin tan/brown head that dissipates almost immediately. There is a good amount of lacing on the glass throughout the tasting.

The first smell that hits your nostrils when you sniff this beer is coffee. They call this beer Java Stout for a reason. The aroma of this brew is roasted coffee beans mixed with the roastiness of the black malt. I got little to no hoppy aroma.

As far as taste is concerned, this beer was intense. On the first sip I got a little bit of sweetness followed by an intense coffee flavor followed by some bitterness from the roast of the black malt. Most of the bite that I got was from the roastiness of the malt and the bitterness from the coffee beans. The coffee flavor in this brew was really strong. It had one of the most prominent coffee flavors of any of the stouts brewed with coffee that I have had. I really enjoyed the roasted bean flavor.

This beer had a certain chewiness to it. There wasn't a whole lot of carbonation, which gave this brew a pretty heavy mouth feel and really enhanced the flavors. The after taste of this brew was dominated by the coffee in my opinion with a hint of roasted malt.

Overall I enjoyed this beer. I like the infusion of coffee beans with stouts, and I feel like Bells did a really good job with this one. I liked how the coffee took center stage with this brew. The combination of the roasted coffee beans and roasted malts made for a very interesting combination of flavors that assaulted my palette in a good way. If you like coffee and dark beer, then I would definitely try to find this beer. Maybe split a sixer with a friend to cheapen the cost. The only downside to this beer I could find was the price of a six pack. It may be worth it though simply because this beer is available for a limited time and is a really good drink.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have another review ready for you all. My Irish Red home brew is finally done so I hope to share my thoughts on that either tomorrow or Sunday. I also plan on brewing Sunday so I may do a recap of that also.

CHEERS!!!