Review 170: Deschutes The Dissident

Review 170

7/22/13

Deschutes The Dissident: 11.4% abv

Background: Well, here we are with another special review. A coworker of mine donated this beer to our cause and for that we are greatly appreciative. We of course took advantage of that by writing a review on it. Deschutes Brewery doesn’t show up in Michigan, but that doesn’t mean they’re the new kids on the block. Deschutes was founded in 1988 in Bend, Oregon. They distribute to 18 states, and are the 11^th largest brewery in the U.S. Now we’re talking. Founder Gary Fish named the brewery after the nearby river, which can be well noted on their emblem. This particular beer is the Dissident, 2013 vintage, which is a Flanders-styled brown ale, sour and tart in character. This is a wild yeast beer and according to Deschutes, they use Brettanomyces (a type of yeast often known as the “Brett”) as their catalyst. Deschutes claims this to be a brewing “challenge”, as it is fermented in isolation in pinot noir and cabernet barrels with a lot of favoritism and special treatment. We recall that cherries were part of the mix too, here. So this is obviously a complex and well-cared for beer. The fun question is next. What does it taste like?

Nose: The nose starts off with a good mixture of spices and fruits, with some anise, cinnamon, gingerbread, allspice, and some red grape flavors. There is a slight hint of dark cherries, but it certainly isn’t as prominent as one would think. The fruitiness includes tart green apple, with some yogurt-like creaminess and some confectionary sugar notes that come through. It is a sweet, mellow sweet smell that lulls you into an arguably questionable sense of security. There is a very sweet red wine character that comes through, probably due to the cab and pinot aging.

Arrival: The arrival starts of tart with some sweet lemon flavor to it, with definite cherry tartness up front. To compliment these two flavors, there is a sense of tart green apple to bring up the arrival even more. There is almost a carbonated lemon-lime soda flavor that comes through as well. There isn’t much sense of grain or oak, but it does pack the initial tartness of a sour candy. There is a very faint hint of agave in the arrival present, which adds to the syrup-like sweetness.

Body: The agave that was found in the arrival slips into the body with some presence, along with the tart fruit notes, but gives way to some spicy notes that were found in the arrival as well. There are some notes of cherry and blackberry that come through, with slight hints of red wine and dark grapes. There is a little bitterness and a subtle creaminess that come through in the body, with just a small subtlety of pepper. There is a little bit of Christmas spice character that goes along with this beer, but it is very minute.

Finish: There is, from the nose, a sense of sweet red wine without any sense of dryness to it. There is a really dominant sense of creaminess in the finish, which is in good contrast to the fruity character that resides in the beer. The tart apples, cherries, blackberries, and other flavors reminiscence of a Sangiovese. The finish is about medium in length and not terribly complex, but it does finish off smoothly, and convinces you that you are not actually drinking an 11% beer. Don’t let it fool you though. That will end you up in a ditch.

Final Comments:  We’ve had a small number of sour beers in our time, and by far, this strikes me as one of the more unique, complex ones. That being said, it isn’t mind blowing, and the finish definitely loses some of zest that the nose and arrival mounted up. It isn’t hard to drink, but I can see how if you like hoppy beers, this could really get to be a bit sweet over time. This strikes me as a cordial-type beer, and is a great thing to share with friends. It does show incredible promise that sour beers don’t have to taste just like grape juice (I’m looking at you La Roja), and with a little more complexity and less tartness dominating the flavor, this could truly be a home run type beer. We enjoyed the spiciness and unique qualities that aren’t normally found in beers of this style. As far as Deschutes goes, this is a great first impression of them and we look forward to the opportunity to try more of their beers.

Why you’d buy it: This beer is a great learning experience and you don’t mind a mixture of sweetness, tartness, and mild spices

Why you wouldn’t: You don’t like tartness

Score: 8.5/10

Review 109: Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Review 109

11/24/12

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron: 12% abv

Here we are with another Dogfish Head. This one may seem a little confusing to you. Dogfish puts on the label that this is a malt beverage. All that this implies is that malted barley is part of the grain they use in manufacturing this beer. This isn’t in any way revolutionary or different from any other beer, ever. The difference is that there can be a malted beverage without hops, which is not a beer. So is this a beer, or a malted beverage? The answer is yes. It is a beer and they are calling this one a brown ale, says their website (making us do extra work to find the answers here). Okay, so then is there anything else interesting to know about this beer? Well it’s called Palo Santo Marron, and to our best translation, a marron is a name given to two closely related crayfish. Yes, that isn’t very exciting, and if you sensed the uncertainty here, its because we don’t know who would name a beer after a crayfish. 

The Palo Santo we can shed some more light on, though. This is a wood, specifically coming from the Bulnesia Sarmientoi tree, or Palo Santo tree, which is commonly used in burning for incense or aging wine, along with having some medicinal qualities. So this is a unique paring with wood we’ve never tasted before. How’s it hold out? On the nose, you can find the obvious malt scent quite easily, but there are some other obvious ones as well. Raisons, dark coffee, milk chocolate, and some large berry flavors of strawberry, raspberry, and unique slight banana, and pear, with smooth rich notes of vanilla and toffee. When you first try this beer, you will realize how dark and rich it is for a “brown” ale. The arrival contains chocolate, blueberry, raspberry, vanilla, banana, cream, and there is even a slight note of light citrus in there. This is a very complex arrival and intrigued us to dig deeper. The body of the taste contains malt, a slight unexpected dryness, ginger, raisons, fruity notes of pears and some creaminess, tobacco and vanilla. The body is sort of empty and disappointing comparatively speaking, but don’t worry. We haven’t yet finished this. 

Because there is still the finish! AH! Get it? The finish contains many complex flavors, the most obvious of which is malt, but giving off chocolate, substantial tobacco flavors, yeast, more malt, wheat, dry barley, dark fruits, coffee-like bitterness, pears, slight woodiness, cream, vanilla, caramel, and even a slight smokiness. This is a fantastic array of flavors, and they do blend well together. The beer is dark and smooth, with bitter coffee and tobacco flavors setting this one apart from other dark beers in its category, but there is hardly any influence of hops in here. We like this one, but it is expensive. Worth at least one try if it sounds good to you. 

Score: 9.25/10

Review 107: Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre

Review 107

11/21/12

Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre: 8% abv

Alright people. Dogfish Head is a big deal to some of you for their 90 Minute IPA. Dogfish Head Brewery is from Delaware, and only recently has it entered into the Michigan market. They were founded in 1995, which makes them younger than I am...amateurs. So are they worth the fuss? Well we were going to tell you a while ago, when they were a bigger deal, but we are backed up on spirits and beers to try. Since we’ve done a lot of IPAs, we wanted to move forward with something different. This is a “mahogany ale”, or a Belgian style brown ale which we are effectively calling a brown ale, so let’s get started. On the nose, we have a light, smooth blend of light woodiness and light hops, mixed with some wheat-like graininess. There is also a noticeable fruitiness in the form of raspberries and strawberries, but it includes yeast, raisons, cantaloupe, and heath. Overall, a unique, complex nose. When finally trying the beer, you’ll get instant sweetness from molasses and maple syrup like flavors, some berries and dark grapes and raisons. The body of the flavor gives off more light, dry raison taste, with some mixed berries, and some sugar and honey flavors. Unfortunately, there is a watery character to this beer, which is instantly a disappointment. The finish is light with some hops, raspberry and strawberry again, walnuts, and more cantaloupe. It is slightly dry as well. Overal, this is not a complex beer, and the nose is the most enjoyable part of it. It is sweet and drinkable, but other than that, it isn’t very compelling. Luckily it isn’t too expensive, so it might be worth a try, but we wouldn’t rush out to the store for it. We are hopeful that the next Dogfish Head gives us better luck. Thank you to some guest reviewers, Josh and Justin. Glad to have you contribute. 

Score: 7.0/10

Review 96: Arcadia Ales Nut Brown Ale

Review 96

8/30/12

Arcadia Ales Nut Brown Ale: 6.0% abv

Another Stupid-College-Classes-That-Don’t-Teach-Anything sponsored review today, so feel privileged. Arcadia Ales is a pretty well known brewery in Michigan out of Battle Creek, so let’s be happy about that. That’s not to say we’re going to be easy on this one. We’ve had a tough run of brown ales, but we will see what Arcadia can offer. I don’t have a lot of background information on this beer, so maybe I’ll talk about Arcadia for a second.

They were established in 1996 and they specialized in British-style ales. Then they tell us something about being authentic and that they use special amazing magic something-or-anothers. We don’t really care about the marketing jargon. So now that Arcadia has done so well to introduce themselves, let’s introduce their beer. Although not the first one of their beers I’ve had of their personally, it is the first beer we have sat down and reviewed. 

On the nose, when we first smelled this beer, there was a sort of foul stench to it, that was characterized as upchuck....if you catch my vomit...I mean drift. That dissipates though, and leaves some pleasant notes, although it’s quite sparing with what it gives you. The kind of norms for this kind of beer: vanilla, caramel, malt, toffee and cream. I can’t say a whole lot about it...sorry. The arrival has nut....shock. Taste includes caramel, vanilla, malt, apple and fluoride. Sorry, This isn’t going to be an enthusiastic one. Again, I don’t know what to say. Take whatever you want out of this, I don’t think I need to say it. Finish...ugh. It’s medium-short, with slight tartness, nut, and citrus. 

I hope you all know that this is an extremely boring review for me to write. And I think we were too generous with the score, having written this. This wasn’t a fun one, and I don’t feel compelled to jump back to try it again. Luckily the next review is interesting. I won’t change the score because I don’t have the authority to do it, but I also wouldn’t recommend this to anybody who cares about more than being a drunken blithering idiot. 

Score: 7.0/10

Review 86: Founders Frangelic Mountain

Review 86

7/26/12

Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown Ale: 9% abv

We’ve been trying some unique beers lately, and Founders rarely disappoints. This disappoints, but it only disappoints in the sense that there isn’t more left in the bottle. It is a winner, and it is worth getting before time runs out. Alright, since we’re running short on time tonight, we’ll make this one straight forward. I apologize to those who look forward to my witty commentary and interesting dialog. Oh well, you can live on. So here’s what we have out of this brown ale. It is a 9%er, so expect  some good flavor in this guy. 

The nose contains everything under the sun, including light coffee, caramel, strong hazelnut, buttery popcorn, chocolate, vanilla, mocha, wheat, fudge, anise, honey dew, good old fashion rice crispy treats, with earthy and creamy notes to boot. Forgive me for not being more graphic about this, but I’m just trying to get the facts out. 

The taste is fantastic, arriving with tart apple and orange flavor, with a balance of coffee and hazelnut, vanilla, caramel, mocha, molasses, orange, malt, earthiness, poppyseed muffins, nutmeg, and ginger. The finish is longer, with peanut butter, caramel, orange, coffee, molasses, malt, unripened banana, nutmeg and ginger all contributing to the finished product. We noted this beer as having a light flavor, but also being full bodied, with tartness on the arrival, and having a particularly excellent balance to it. Is it worth a try? Yes. Will you like it? You better. Next one will be better. 

Score: 9.5/10

Review 65: Big Sky Moose Drool

Review 65

6/18/12

Big Sky Moose Drool: 5.1% abv

If you're well versed in classic craft style American beers, you've probably heard of this one. It's a brown ale made in Montana, and it's quite popular in several other States as well. It fits the profile of a brown ale, and we were interested to try it out. So here's what we that about it. 

On the nose, we picked up some blended notes of caramel, honey, light hops, lemon, pine wood, apple, maple, pineapple, raison, and anise. The nose is fairly complex and pleasing, but the beer doesn't get horribly better from here. The taste holds sweet flavor, containing apple, caramel, lemon anise and barley. With a lot of thought, we couldn't find much more to the flavor. 

It's not horribly powerful, and not really complex, but refreshing and enjoyable all the same. The finish is where things really go wrong. We couldn't really call the finish short, because it didn't really have one. From what we could gather, there was a slight bit of bitterness and a very slight amount of nutmeg, coupled with apple. With how refreshing this beer was, we would have liked to see more of a finish to couple the taste. You'll probably enjoy this beer, but it's not really thought provoking in any way. 

Score: 7.5/10