Sierra Nevada Brewing Company - Ruthless Rye IPA

When one thinks of the father of the American craft beer renaissance, Ken Grossman, the founder of the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, is my obvious choice. Beginning with a homebrew store and producing five-gallons batches, Mr. Grossman developed what would become the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, the iconic, hop-forward ale. Since the development of his award-winning pale ale, Mr. Grossman has stayed actively involved in the brewing process producing a philanthropic ale series, Ovila Abbey Ales, an exceptional year-round portfolio, the educational Beer Camp series and the newly released, Ruthless Rye IPA.
After seeing an advertisement for the Ruthless Rye on a recent Beer Advocate magazine, I have been searching for this adjunct IPA. The clarity of this beer was astonishing, and with its copper-orange color, it was truly eye pleasing. The one-finger head was very bubbly leaving excellent lacing and a thin film along the outside of the glass.

The nose of this beer is very earthy. A grassiness resonates throughout the smell with a subtle citrus backbone. The addition of rye provides a spiciness that is quite pleasant and aromatic. Underneath the rye and hop character a sweet malt backbone creates a well-balanced aroma.
The taste profile is quite short and somewhat uneventful. There was a burst of grassy hops along with the spiciness of the rye, which was excellent, but this mouth party almost immediately ended with a very dry finish. I was hoping for the rye to play a greater role in the taste profile, but it was overpowered by the hops.
The mouthfeel was quite light, and coupled with minimal carbonation, was somewhat disappointing.
This a good beer, but not a great beer. I wanted it to excel in every way, but it just measured up to other rye beers that I have had like: Hop Rod Rye, Red Rye PA, and Righteous Ale.

Cheers,
PandaMack  

Anderson Valley Brewing Company - Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout

I have always enjoyed both Russian Imperial and American Stouts, but recently, I have developed an affinity for Oatmeal Stouts. With this in mind, I ventured to a local bottle shop and picked up the Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout from Anderson Valley Brewing Company.
This stout pours an oil black opaqueness with no observable highlighting. Due to the possibility of this bottle being old (picked it up from a make-your-own-sixer), I wasn't surprised when the head dissipated almost immediately after I had completed the pour.
The aroma for this stout contained no real smellable oatmeal notes. However, dark chocolate and roasted malt combined to make the aroma quite pleasant.
The taste profile was very balanced with dark chocolate and oatmeal washing over the palate during the initial phase of the taste. A very nice hop bitterness completes the taste leaving a subtle hop character on the back part of the palate.
Before seeing the beer, I thought this stout would have a creamy, silky consistency, however, the mouthfeel was more aqueous than I anticipated. With that being said, the viscousness and light carbonation combined to create a medium-bodied brew.
At 5.7% ABV, the Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout is as close as a stout can get to being sessionable and I could see myself enjoying multiple pints throughout a cold winter night. This a good beer, and if love stouts like myself, definitely give this one a chance and I think it may convert you to the "dark" side.

Cheers,
PandaMack

Atlanta for the Holidays

Every second holiday season, my wife and I make the journey south to enjoy the company of friends and family in historic Roswell, GA and hip Midtown, Atlanta, GA. I look forward to every trip south, but this trip always bring multiple opportunities to dive head-first into Atlanta's beer culture because friends and family are more willing to sample and indulge.
I began my dive with my brother-in-law, Jamey, in the comfort of my mother-in-law's home with a beer I have always wanted to try, Wake n' Bake Oatmeal Coffee Stout from Terrapin Brewing Company. I love stouts and this beer delivered on all its advertised hype. It poured a pure oil black with ruby red highlighting. With my mouth absolutely salivating, I sampled with utter delight. The taste profile began with an initial flood of coffee that subsided to leave a hint of chocolate and bitterness. The oatmeal created a silky, creamy mouthfeel, which bordered on divine. This is one of finest constructed stouts that I have had the chance to taste.  

The second wave of my sampling occurred in Little Five Points, a section of Atlanta that is east of downtown. We began the day with at The Wrecking Bar. As we entered, I was transported back 300-400 years to medieval tavern (minus the leather sofas). There was beautiful hardwood floors and exposure brick on the walls. Granite and brick columns added both support for the second floor and ambience to the downstairs bar. We decided to start with a sampling tray of eight beers. All the samples were very delicious, but the Jemmy Stout, Victor Squared IPA, and Golden Nelson Ale were the stand-outs. After we had completed the tray, we had the opportunity to speak with the brewmaster, Bob Sandage, which was a true delight. He was very nice and extremely knowledgeable about his beer. If you ever find yourself in Atlanta, the Wrecking Bar is a must stop - it will not disappoint.

Feeling great, Jamey and I walked two minutes to a very hipster section of Little Five Points to the Porter Beer Bar. Every time I have been to the Porter the draft list is amazing and this visit was no different. After contemplating for far to long, I settled with the Moonraker Ale from JW Lees Co. and Brewers. It was a very interesting take on the winter warmer style with hints of gingerbread and cinnamon with a very delicious tart finish. My second and final beer was the collaboration blend of seven different beers from three New York breweries: Shmaltz Brewing Company, Captain Lawrence Brewing, and Ithaca Beer Company. This beer is easily one of the best beers I have ever had the opportunity to drink with its dark fruit-figgy quality interwoven with deceptively sour notes.
To complete this amazing beer day, we stopped off at Hop City Beer and Wine. This was my third visit to this store, but Jamey's first and he was blown away by the tremendous selection of domestic and import craft beer and the quality of beer available at their "Growlertown". The haul this time was full of Russian Imperial Stouts from Scandinavia with a single from both New Zealand and Germany.

Throughout the remainder of the week, cool family outings took place culminating with The Roswell Ghost Tour. Following these great events, Jamey, my wife (and his sister), Emily, their step-brother Chris and my father-in-law, John ventured to a local Taco Mac. Everytime I go to Taco Mac, I always think, we don't have anything like this in Boston! Taco Mac is a family-friendly bar beer with good bar food and a great beer list. Throughout the multiple discussions, appetizers, yelling at Brian Kelly and Notre Dame Football, I sampled: Duck Rabbit Porter, Fort Collins Brewery Double Chocolate Stout, and Highland Brewing Company's Oatmeal Porter.

What follows is all the beer I had the opportunity to sample, Oh buddy!:

Bell's Brewery: Best Brown
Bierbrouwerij Grand-Cafe Emelisse: Triple IPA
Brooklyn Brewery: Brown Ale, The Companion
Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery: Porter
Fort Collins Brewery: Double Chocolate Stout
Harvieston Brewery: Ola Dubh Special Reserve 18
He'Brew (Shmaltz Brewing Company): Genesis 15:15, Geektoberfest
Highland Brewing Company: Oatmeal Porter
Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company: Brown Ale, Honey Weiss, Big Eddy (2011), Creamy Dark
JW Lees Co. and Brewers: Moonraker Ale
Kona Brewing Company: Pipeline Porter
Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company: Southern Pecan
New Belgium: 1554 Black Ale, Ranger IPA
Scuttlebutt Brewing Company: Tripel 7
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company: Celebration Ale
Southern Tier Brewing Company: Creme Brulee Imperial Milk Stout
Sweetwater Brewing Company: 420 Pale Ale, Festive Ale, Happy Ending Stout
Terrapin Brewing Company: Wake n' Bake Stout, Moo-Hoo Stout, So Fresh and So Green Green, Rye
Victory Brewing Company: Headwaters Pale Ale
Wild Heaven Craft Beers: Invocation, Ode to Mercy
Wrecking Bar: BaDunkeldonk, Colin's Wee Heavy, Golden Nelson, Hale Street Hefeweizen, Jemmy Stout, Victor IPA, Victor Squared

Cheers,
PandaMack

Stone Brewing Co., The Bruery and Elysian Brewing Co. - La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado

Within the world of craft beer, collaborations are a relatively new and exciting development. When collaborations arrive on shelves, beer lovers are eager to purchase and enjoy the new and unique brews. This eagerness stems from the opportunity to try products from breweries that normally aren't distributed in one's area. The, La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado, brought together three outstanding west-coast breweries: The Bruery, Stone and Elysian and gave me - an east-coaster - the opportunity to sample a product from Elysian. With some of the most innovative minds in craft beer working together, the brewmasters from these three breweries tried to create an incomparable pumpkin ale with the use of international ingredients: Fenugreek and Lemon Verbena.
The addition of these uncommon ingredients peaked my interest - how would these ingredients enhance the rich flavor of a pumpkin ale?
This pumpkin ale pours a very dark chestnut color bordering on black. There is a beautiful and alluring opaqueness with a two-finger head sitting frothily on top. There is great head retention that leads to very intricate lacings on the glass.

The aroma was a balance between the bitterness from the hops with a malty sweetness. There were two companions that accompanied this balance: cinnamon and brown sugar.
Even after reading the description on the bottle, my pumpkin ale habituation needed to be suppressed because I was expected traditional pumpkin spices. After a couple of sips, I was able to pick up a nice hop bitterness from the Citra hops. To complement this light bitterness the brewmasters have infused the beer with a toasted-malt character balancing bitterness with sweetness. This sweetness could be due a brown sugar addition which was very present during the initial phase of the taste. As the beer warmed and opened up, the yams become more apparent, but the taste profile lacked a true pumpkin character.  

The mouthfeel was much thinner than I anticipated after seeing a very dark beer enter my glass. There was very little in the way of carbonation, which, if present, may have lead to a more noticeable pumpkin flavor. My wife enjoys wine more than I, and we both noticed a wine-like dryness and finish to this ale.
I appreciate the attempt to produce a distinctive pumpkin ale, but the taste was lacking a true pumpkin flavor. At 5.0%ABV, La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado is very sessionable, however there are many other pumpkin ales/lagers that I would look for first, most notably, The Great Pumpkin Ale from Cambridge Brewing Company.

Cheers,
PandaMack

 

Somerville Brewing Company (Slumbrew) - Happy Sol

Over the past year, numerous breweries have opened their doors in the bay state; located in Somerville Ma., Somerville Brewing Company (Slumbrew) is one such brewery. Homebrewers first, Caitlin Jewell and Jeff Leiter, refined their products through diligent, experimental work in their brewlab, a 350 square foot facility designed for recipe development. Once theses recipes meet the specifications and demands of Slumbrew brewmasters, they are scaled up for commercial productions at Mercury Brewing Company in Ipswich, MA. Currently, Slumbrew has a three-beer profile: Happy Sol, FlagRaiser IPA and Porter Square Porter and the newest, Happy Sol, a hefeweizen, is reviewed here.

Happy Sol pours a hazy-golden color with noticeable orange tints. The bubbly head rises to a one-finger height, but quickly disperses. The dispersal left very little lacings along the sides of the pint glass.
Due to the abundance of blood oranges used in the production of Happy Sol, I was surprised that the aroma wasn't completely dominated by citrus notes. There were two main complementary smells to the orange citrus part of the aroma: yeastiness and subtle spicy pepper. Most likely due to the use of blood oranges, a minor tangy quality was also present.

The initial part of the taste profile pops with coriander. Immediately following this short-lived coriander burst, orange enters into the taste profiles and lingers throughout. To round out the taste, pepperiness is present, but not overwhelming, letting the orange be at the forefront of the taste. During my first sips, the traditional fruit esters (banana) were not present, however as the beer warmed and was agitated, banana esters began to enter the taste profile adding farther complexity.
The mouthfeel was light to medium in body with moderate carbonation. I enjoyed the fullness and smoothness of this hefeweizen, which most likely due to my adoration of silky stouts.
At 5.5%ABV, Happy Sol is bordering on sessionability, which raises its drinkability. Its balance is one of it greatest attributes. The spiciness and citrus are held in check allowing multiple players to shine throughout the taste profile. Finally, at 5.95$ this beer is a truly great deal, so if you see it on the shelf at local MA bottle shop its definitely worth checking out.

Cheers,
PandaMack

Founders Brewing Company - Founders Dry-Hopped Pale Ale

I have always been intrigued by the process of dry hopping and its ability to alter the aroma of a particular beer. The Sam Adams Deconstructed IPA provides an excellent opportunity to enjoy the subtle differences between five hop varieties: Hallertau Mittelfruh, East Kent Goldings, Ahtanum, Simcoe and Zeus. With all this hop variety, the Cascade hop is non-existent, however it is the sole hop present in Founders Brewing Company's dry-hopped Pale Ale.
After a very vigorous pour, this pale ale is a light-copper color with a miniscule head. This head immediately dissipated leaving a very thin film of tiny bubbles across the surface of the beer. Within the body of the beer there was an unexpected amount of suspended sediment (most likely from the dry hopping).

The aroma leaving the glass was somewhat disappointing. I was expecting the floral and citrus characteristics of the Cascade Hops to excessively waft from the glass, however the aroma contained a very delicate piney quality mixed with weak citrus (grapefruit) notes.    
The taste profile of this dry-hopped pale ale was very underwhelming. There was more grapefruit quality during the taste than was present in the nose, but lacked a hoppy bite (dry hopping only adds to the aroma). The taste profile was completed with malt character creeping into the taste adding a short-lived sweetness.
The mouthfeel is light to medium in body with soft carbonation. The beer was much more aqueous than I anticipated and liked.
As a fan of Founders Brewing Company, I wanted this beer to be so much more than it turned out to be. I am glad that I had the opportunity to sample this pale ale, but I don't think I would buy this again, however, I could see myself ordering a pint at a local beer bar to see if there was a freshness issue.
An Ok beer from a Great brewery.

Cheers,
PandaMack

Bryggeriet Djaevlebryg - Gudelos

As a lover of Imperial Stouts, I am always looking for something new and interesting to try. During my last trip to Granite Liquors located in Weymouth, MA, I was perusing through the amazing craft beer selection when I noticed an imperial stout that I have never come across before, The Gudelos, from the Bryggeriet Djaevlebryg. The Bryggeriet Djaevlebryg (Devil's Brewery), located in Copenhagen, Denmark is composed of four members all who have a degree in associated scientific disciplines (as as science teacher, this is awesome!). The four members of the brewery collaborate to produce "devilishly delightful beers". The Gudelos (Godless) was brewed in association with the Danish Atheist society with a portion of the proceeds going to the organization.
The Gudelos pours a deep, motor-oil black with a very foamy two-finger head. As the heads reached its final retention levels, it created a film covering across the beer's surface. Around the bottom of the head, ruby-red highlights are accentuated when the glass is held up against the light. There are many streams of small-bubbled carbonation that rise to the surface in straight lines. After consuming half a pint, there are lacings that remind me of organic molecules all over the glass.

The aroma of this beer is full of dark-bitter chocolate. To complement the chocolateness of the Gudelos are subtle black licorice notes with a hint of burnt sugar or molasses. To my surprise, this stout, for its very dark color, did not contain a prominent roasted quality.
The taste profile was very layered. The first wave washed chocolate all over the palate.....so delicious. The second wave contained the black licorice that is present in the aromatics of the beer. The third and final wave (very subtle) of the taste profile reminded me of saturated coffee grains.
I appreciate the lighter mouthfeel of dry stouts, but I truly enjoy the higher viscosity and medium-bodied silkiness of imperial stouts. The Gudelos exudes these qualities exceptionally well. The silkiness contains just the right amount of carbonation leading to a impressively crafted beer.
The is a great imperial stout! If you are as fond of stouts as I am, The Gudelos is a must-try. At 8.9% ABV, I can see myself enjoying many of these devilish stouts during cold New England winter nights.

Cheers,
PandaMack