Review 78: Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale

Review 78

6/28/12

Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale: 8.19% abv

You might notice that we have a slight bias towards beers aged in bourbon barrels. This is simply not true...well yeah it is, but it’s for good reason. Bourbon is a fantastic statement of whiskey and it adds great character to beer. This particular one is not very extravagantly named, but we aren’t worried about that. You can’t get this spirit in Michigan, but it is available in other parts of the world (namely Kentucky). So what does bourbon do to this beer that makes it so much better? 

Well when we start with the “schnauze”, as one of our notetakers designated, there is overwhelming sweet, rich notes of honey, caramel, and chocolate, but also being contributed to by other dark notes like oak, molasses, malt, and grainy wheat. Couple this with a creamy nose and some slight earthiness and smokiness, and you have yourself one Hell of an intriguing nose. The nose by itself is fairly rich, but the richness continues into the taste. The taste will scream that good ole butterscotch note to you, which definitely stands as the champion taste in this beer, keeping with it vanilla, malt, lots of caramel, chocolate fudge, and a slightly light citrus on the arrival. 

The taste is rich and thick, but not the most complex of all. The finish won’t disappoint though, keeping the butterscotch, vanilla, and caramel notes. Overall, the finish is medium-long and fades softly as it dissipates. There is malt, corn and wheat which also contribute to this finish, with an interesting apple fruitiness which trails along with the finish. In the end, we didn’t really recognize this as an ale, but it was still enjoyable, and very different. It’s worth a try if you ever find it. It won’t disappoint your curiosity, but it’s certainly not for everybody. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 77: Mt. Pleasant Brewing Steam Engine Stout

Review 77

7/10/12

Mt. Pleasant Brewing Steam Engine Stout Ale: 6.4% abv

Well, being a Kalamazoo patron, and since this is our first Mt. Pleasant review, I planned on spending most of this review cracking jokes about Central Michigan University in hopes that this beer would be as inadequate...well, you get the point. But unfortunately, the joke is on me tonight, since I was intelligent enough to brush my teeth right before commencing this review. Don’t worry, this is the beauty of having a panel of tasters to compare notes to, so you won’t see fluoride as one of the tasting notes. 

Anyway, Mt. Pleasant Brewing Company brings us their stout, and in small letters put ale under stout. It is a stout, so don’t be fooled into thinking it’s not. As they describe it, it is a rich, smooth stout that some describe as a “Mistress”. They even go so far as to call it “home-wrecking” good. It’s not. We probably wouldn’t leave our seats for this one, let alone our houses. If it makes anything better, we did give it some praise. Start at the beginning, and you start at the best. Mt. Pleasant obviously never adhered to the save the best for last principle. 

The nose is the most unique, complex part of the beer, and knowing what we know now, we might have just stayed there. This is “make a candle scent out of it” good, but that’s about as far as I’ll go. A sweetness greets you at the nose, presenting less coffee than your average stout, but compensating with a prominent red wine flavor, and some delicate strawberry and raspberry notes as well. 

There is a soft oakiness to the nose, as well as a strong chocolate flavor. This beer will even give you that warm aroma of bread rising if you agitate it enough. Then we go to the flavor, and here’s where things get a little less great. The mouth-feel, first off, is not as thick or full feeling as a normal stout would be. It is not a heavy feel, but rather lighter, more delicate, like you’d expect from an IPA. This isn’t a bad thing, but it did strike us as different. 

The taste proceeds with coffee, and much more of it then you’d guess from the nose; vanilla, slight nutmeg, malt, a red grape at the beginning, and a small hint of chocolate that will not sate your appetite if you’re a lady at that specific time of the month. The interesting thing of it is that the nose is kind of misleading towards the rest. The finish is medium in length, and provides a reinforced memory of the coffee you just tasted, with some vanilla and weak caramel notes, a little bit of lemon, and a slight bitterness. Complexity is lost, here we are at the end. Anticlimactic, I know. But don’t be so hard on it. It’s a nice, easy drinker with a classic stout style and a lighter body. It is definitely worth a try, just don’t expect a Kentucky Breakfast Stout here. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 76: Oscar's Brewing Company Oscar's Folly

Review 76

6/27/12

Oscar’s Brewing Company Oscar’s Folly: 7.5% abv

As we’ve noted once or twice before, Oscar’s Brewing Company, or OBC (less of a burden to type) is actually a company that’s not actually a company, but a local native of Kalamazoo brewing his own beer with quite some talent. But he hasn’t been the only one brewing his own beer, as Bell’s took a particular interest to it as well during Bell’s Brewing competition. Since OBC won the competition with their Oscar’s Folly IPA, we figured we’d give it the kind of scrutiny you’d expect from several guys with no lives.  

Does this IPA measure up to the big dogs? Here’s us jumping into it. You might be surprised to find a very fruity, tropical smell to this beer, and not the super hoppy, bitter smell you would potentially get from your classic IPA. There is a tangy fruit smell, with only slight hops and pine to attribute to its bitter nature. Fruit notes we gathered included orange, pineapple, mango, and grapefruit. It does follow most IPAs with its floral smell. 

The smell doesn’t mislead you either, with the taste being very fruity. You get citrus notes of orange, lemon, and grapefruit, and even so much as lemon rind. There is slight pine, and a light amount of hops as well. There isn’t as much bitterness as you might have thought. The finish is noticeably short, with a hoppiness, grapefruit, and lemon being predominant flavors lingering from the taste. This is a unique IPA and almost reflects what a farmhouse IPA would be in bitterness, and fruitiness. Unfortunately, it does lack in complexity and we wanted much more finish. This makes for a good summer IPA, or an IPA for beginners who aren’t ready for the heavier ones. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 75: Atwater Vanilla Java Porter

Review 75

6/27/12

Atwater Vanilla Java Porter: 6.0% abv

Since we've been trying quite a few porters lately, we went on and got another one. Clearly, we're just unorganized and posting our reviews out of order, but just don't pay attention to the dates. You want to be a Michigan company supporter? Well here it is. Atwater is a brewery in the Detroit riverside district. Help our spirits economy and buy local beers. Just make sure its the good ones. This is a light porter, classic to the idea that porters should be the lighter cousins of stouts, but maybe this is the lighter, younger, weaker, nerdier cousin, because it sure lacks in a lot of areas, albeit the nose is moderately complex. 

It will give you those coffee and vanilla classics, with some nice mocha, toffee, caramel, butterscotch, and creamy milk notes as well. Taste-wise, you get a different story. The arrival starts with an intriguing tartness, and includes some mixed berries. It barrels into a pool of water though. As in, the taste is noticeably watery. The taste has those three classic stout characters that we love so very very much, and mention even more. Coffee, caramel, and vanilla. 

We should make an acronym for it to speed things up: CCV. Genius. For all of those brewers out there, take notes. To close out the taste, there is a nice milk chocolate note present, but it isn't well represented, because of how watery it is in body. The finish...CCV. That's it. It's medium long, but sort of boring, to be honest. The breakdown then, is that this beer fills its shoes, but those shoes have holes in the bottoms. It's a nice lighter dark beer to help those trying to enter the world of stouts, but don't expect it to be more then a light drinker, and we thought that was what lagers were for. 

Score:7.5/10

Review 74: Stone Old Guardian Barleywine

Review 74

7/2/12

Stone Old Guardian Barleywine: 11.3% abv

Stone is a well known micro brewery from California. Before we go any further, this is a good time for you to know that this beer is not for the faint of heart. It will kick you in the face if you aren't ready for it. Here's an example for you. The IBUs for this beer is 85, which is higher than most of your average beers. FYI, IBUs are International Bitterness Units, and they're a real thing. And we confirmed that when we tried the beer for the first time. Don't think this changes anything for us, because we can handle any acronyms this beer throws at us. So let's see what we experienced when we tried this barleywine. 

The nose gives a wonderful blend of flavors, including sweet fruit flavors of apple, lemon, pear, and a counteracting bittersweet grapefruit character. The nose continues with sweet notes of caramel, molasses and brown sugar, honey, sweet malt, chocolate and toffee. The nose is wonderful, and everything about it eludes to a complexity following in the taste and finish. If this was foreshadowing, then we were excited. And sure enough, it was. 

The taste is insanely complex, showing an odd creamy character with hints of vanilla, with extreme balance of bitter and sweetness going at the same time. Bitter notes include pine, hops, and grapefruit, with sweet notes of malt, caramel, wheat, pear, apple, and a maple brown sugar flavor hitting as well. Unfortunately, the finish is slightly disappointing, as the bitterness overpowers any details tasting notes, but pine, grapefruit, and a long lasting flavor are noticeable. This is a sipping beer. If you want to pull a prank on somebody, try having them chug this beast. It is a complex, wonderful beer, and you should definitely try it. The lack of complexity in the finish really is the only reservation in this beer. Give it a try.

Score: 9.5/10

Review 73: Glenmorangie The Original

Review 73

6/28/12

Glenmorangie The Original: 43% abv

This is a single malt Scotch, and one of the better 10 year old Scotches on the market. And when we start introducing more Scotches as reviews, we will try to make it very evident that there is indeed a correct pronunciation and most people screw that up. Glenmorangie is pronounced like an orange would be: like Glen-M-Orange-ee. At ten years, any Scotch is young, as a Scotch tends to mature fully at about 25 years of aging. So how does such a young Scotch compare to the rest? 

Well, on the nose, you get sweet aromas of honey, pear, white grape, molasses, and a sugary character. We also noted an odd presence of agave that you might find in a tequila, but it was faint. Now the taste, that become more complex, citing vanilla notes, malt, honey, wheat, slight mixed berries, light melon character, and hints of creaminess and spiciness to compliment the rest of it. 

The taste is fantastic, but still lacking in the deep complexity you'd expect from a quality Scotch. It is younger though, so it doesn't absorb all the oak character that it should, but retains a certain youthful freshness to it. The finish contains honey, agave, ginger, apple, some sweet maple notes, cherry and even some almonds as well. The finish is long and enjoyable, and we really liked basking in it's complexity and presence. This is a young Scotch, but it's one of the best, fighting 10 year olds like Macallan with a lot of flavor and presence.

Score: 9.0/10

Review 72: Anchor Porter

Review 72

6/25/12

Anchor Porter: 5.6% abv

This is a very special review tonight. This is a micro-brewery from San Francisco, and there is a reason to be excited about it. We've gone to a special store, which does "Crash Courses" on beers every day. Those special beers get discount prices at this already super-competitive store. More on this store later. Anchor prides themselves on unique beers, and man, do they deliver on that front. Porters are known for their rich coffee flavor and lighter style, but there are some very unique perks to this one.

On the nose, you will find a disappointing lack of complexity, but don't be discouraged. On the nose we found primarily, your standard coffee, with vanilla and caramel giving some sweetness to the smell, but also including a light, sweet apple note when the beer is agitated, and also slight brown sugar. The nose is pleasantly light, telling you that it only wants to be a porter, and not box with it's heavier stout cousins. 

On the taste, we have coffee of course, but less of it than you'd expect. The arrival is led by a very outlandish green apple tartness, but also includes cinnamon, bitter roasted malt, and toffee. We feel that there is a lack of balance and evenness in the flavor, although it is complex enough. Here's where things get really good. The finish is wonderfully long, with great notes of vanilla, bitter malt, pine, coffee, and an utterly unique spicy red pepper subtly nestled in the back of the finish. 

The whole beer is definitely dry, which is different from your average porter. Unfortunately, the complexity of the beer is lacking, and balance is disappointing. This is still unique, and definitely worth a try. It certainly raised our brows. Let's get back to this shop. If you are in the Kalamazoo area, make a trip to Beer and Skittles and check out their awesome prices, good selection, and wonderful customer service. This beer will be on sale at a special price tomorrow. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 70: Glenlivet 12 Yr

Review 70

6/25/12

The Glenlivet 12 Year: 40% abv

One of the classic high-runners in the world of single malt scotches. You've probably seen this one around, and if anything, it'll be at your neighborhood Applebee's. If you've never had a single malt Scotch before, this will probably be your most available option. So this is a practical choice for most people, at a reasonable price. 

On the nose, you get classic Glenlivet scents of light malt, white grapes, apple, vanilla, pear, and honey. It is not the most complex, intriguing nose as far as a Scotch goes, but it is light and refreshing. After adding water, there is slight floral notes to continue with the nose. The taste presents malt, honey, cereal grain, sweet lemon, light herbal notes on the arrival, tea leaves, and after water, some oatmeal and barley to step it up. 

In the finish, there is apple, honey, cinnamon, oatmeal, and a slight slight cherry to compliment the end of the orchestration of flavors. In general, we felt that water dulled out the flavor of this whiskey, and at 40%, it's well worth being cautious of diluting it. Not the most intriguing of Scotches, but a decent introductory to malts. 

Score: 7.5/10

Review 69: Oscar's Brewing Company Barleywine

Review 69

6/24/12

Oscar's Brewing Company Barleywine: 11% abv

I'd be willing to bet you haven't heard of Oscar's Brewing Company, and there's also a good chance you've never had a barley wine either. Well, you get both in one review. Oscar's Brewing Company is actually a one man operation by a gentleman in western Michigan who crafts his own brews. You might wonder why we're messing with the small fries, but really we're not. This particular brewer has some accolades to his name, including winning a contest with Bell's and having his IPA produced by them for a limited time. That's the same company that makes Oberon. So now we've got your attention. 

Here's the deal on barleywines. Categorized also as Old Ales, these are beers that sit between 8 to 12%, which gave them the title as "wine", for being on par in alcohol content. Some tasting notes before you get bored: On the nose, we got apple, malt, lemon, orange, honey, rye, wheat, slight floral notes, and a creamy character. The nose is well balanced and pleasant. 

The taste is malty and creamy as well, showing off some citrus notes of lemon and grapefruit, even going so far as to showcase some orange. We also noted tastes of caramel and cereal grain. The finish was medium in length with complex flavors of grapefruit, oak, dry pine, apple, pear and slight bitterness carrying through. So in conclusion, this is a fantastic beer, albeit not the most complex, nor having the best finish. It almost felt as if some unknown quality was just slightly missing, but we couldn't put it on paper. We'll be doing several more of OBC's beers scattered over the next reviews. Keep a look out if you liked what you've seen. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 68: Terra d'Oro Zinfandel Port

Review 68
6/21/12
Terra d'Oro Zinfandel Port: 19% abv

This is a zinfandel port, meaning it is made with zinfandel grapes. As you can probably tell, this is a red port, and has a nice rich flavor to boot. I'm watching Olympic Gymnastics as I'm writing this review, making it extremely difficult to provide more insight on Terra d'Oro as a company. Check them out, as they are in California and make anice wine. To the tasting notes. On the nose, you can find plenty of interesting notes, including grape jelly, strawberry, cherry, blueberry, slight oak, vanilla, slightly grainy, confectioner's sugar, with a slightly spicy note. The taste is hugely raisons with, confectioner sugar, black cherry, strawberry, raspberry, yeastiness, malt and chocolate to boot. The finish ends with more powered sugar, sweet orange, tons of raisons, cinnamon, and vanilla. Overall, this is a good wine with tons of sweetness, and shows quality in the world of ports. Worth trying. 

Score: 8.5/10

Review 66: Dragonmead Final Absolution

Review 66

6/20/12

Dragonmead Final Absolution: 8.5% abv

We're still in Michigan, finding unique and awesome expressions of beer around the different areas. This one is a particularly noteworthy piece by Dragonmead Brewery in Warren, Michigan. This is a Belgian Trippel ale, which is known to be heavier and higher in alcohol content, so let's give this a go. 

The nose is fruity and refreshing, providing flavors of grape, champagne, apple, honey, slight lemon, anise, vanilla, cantaloupe, a subtle peppermint, and pumpkin. The nose is pleasant and complex, with a refreshing body and tons of flavors to swoon over. The taste continues this trend, providing many of the same notes for enjoyment, including honey, lemon, honeydew, lots of apple, vanilla, grape and strawberry, wheat, bubblegum, fall spices and pumpkin, and a little bit of champagne. 

The finish actually takes a slightly different path, having a subtle vegetal quality, covered with melon, slight hops, a continuation of peppermint, and that little reminiscence of pumpkin at the end. The length of the finish is medium and aptly satisfying. This beer is a great one, with tons of flavors and enjoyable complexity, albeit leaning on the side of sweet, as a Belgian would. It's definitely worth a check out if you like the style. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 63: Brau Brothers Moo Joos

Review 63

6/18/12

Brau Brothers Moo Joos: 5.8% abv

Yes, here at KCM we bring you the kind of things that you've never heard of, and perhaps for good reason. Today, we are showing you an oatmeal milk stout, made by Brau Brothers. In researching this beer, we saw comments saying "thought it was 8%", and we were intrigued to try this "Moo Joos". On the nose, we found this stout to be chocolatey, malty, and creamy, screaming things like vanilla, roasted almonds, and oak. 

Over time, the nose on this beer will open up, revealing more, such as milk, anise, italian bread, and mixed berries. It does have a slightly alcoholish smell to it. The nose is encouraging and delightful. The taste on the other hand, just isn't. It is a nice taste, but not full bodied or complex. 

On the front, one will find a slightly watery taste with almonds, malt, caramel, coffee, and an oddly out of place lemon tang to it. This lemon becomes more prevalent as you drink further, and does not mix as well with the stout character as we would have liked. The finish is medium in length, with oatmeal, salted peanuts, coffee, chocolate, and creamy and milky. It's not horribly complex, and it's not what you'd expect. Overall, we were disappointed in the lack of complexity and body. No, I don't think this beer is 8% abv, and I don't know how you could. 

Score: 7.0/10

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

Review 62: Sprecher Black Bavarian

Review 62

6/17/12

Sprecher Black Bavarian: 6.0% abv

Looking at another style of lager, we turn to the brewer Sprecher to provide us with a look at the black lager. If you've ever had a black lager, it was probably Guinness's new Black Lager release. So let's see how it fairs against the competition. On the nose, there is a unique strong caramel note out in front, followed by malt, vanilla, fudge and cocoa. 

The nose isn't horribly complex, but it does offer a uniqueness, and is prominent. The taste offers up slightly more complexity, offering slight coffee, vanilla, malt, caramel, wheat, green apple, slight molasses only present in the arrival, and an earthy overtone. Overall, this is a lighter statement, lacking the heavy coffee and chocolate notes that you'd see present in a stout. If you want a good starter beer, this appears to have the right DNA for it. 

The finish is weak, short, and sweet, offering up slight coffee and caramel, but dying off quickly. With a lack of defined experience in black lagers, it becomes hard to give a confident rating on how this beer performs. It lacks severely in complexity and flavor, but actually offers more than black lagers we've tried in the past. It's definitely worth a try if you like lighter style dark beers, but didn't blow us away. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 67: Olde Peninsula Stout Chocula

Review 67

6/17/12 

Olde Peninsula Stout Chocula: 5.25% abv. 

This beer jumped out immediately at me because it's got such a catchy name. Because of this, it made me much more excited to try it. Not to mention that it's somehow more fun drinking beer from a growler. Onto the beer the nose has notes of chocolate, coffee, vanilla, malt, caramel, gingerbread, roasted almond, and a smell that reminded us of Rock n' Rye soda. 

In the taste, we found coffee, chocolate, green tea, roasted almonds, raisons, vanilla, caramel, molasses, malt, oatmel, and slight earthy tones. The finish showed a strong presents of coffee, chocolate, and vanilla with slight citrus and green tea with the length being medium-short. What we liked about this beer was it's complexity and uniqueness. Despite the name, "Stout Chocula", this beer had a lot of depth and complex flavors in the background even though it was dominated by the coffee and chocolate. 

Points were taken off of this beer due to it's medium-short and light finish. We felt that a beer with this strong of flavors should have a longer finish. Despite all of this, this beer is very enjoyable to drink and easily one of the best stouts out there for your dollar. 

Score: 8.5/10

Review 64: Booker's Bourbon

Review 64
6/16/12
Booker's Bourbon: 64% abv

Yeah, this isn't a beginner's drink. That 64% is noticeable. Booker's Bourbon is part of Jim Beam's "Small Batch" series, along with Knob Creek, Baker's and Basil Hayden. The name comes from Booker Noe, a recent master distiller of Jim Beam. Why is this bourbon so high in alcohol? It is a cask strength whiskey, which means it was pulled straight from the cask without being watered down. So here's the scoop.

The nose is complex, but burns heavily. One can smell vanilla, butter,brown sugar, caramel, honey, corn, and wheat before any water is added. With the addition of a few teaspoons of water, the nose opens up to reveal more vanilla, some berry sweetness, molasses, maple, and substantially less burn. There is extreme flavor in this bourbon, including brown sugar, molasses, oatmeal, wheat, a soft pre-cookie mix (the kind that has only butter, flour, and shortening in it), caramel, nutmeg, gingerbread, earthy, maple, and oak. After adding water, the taste is more dry, keeping grainy and introducing slight malt, cinnamon, and slight apple, with even some herbal notes on arrival. The finish becomes apparent, keeping several characteristics from the taste. The finish has spicy notes, corn, barley, rye, maple, caramel, malt, with some cream and ginger. After adding water, there is more malt, oatmeal, with the inclusion of allspice, and earthiness. The finish is medium short, which makes this bourbon less than perfect. This is a wonderful statement, and if you can handle the higher percentage alcohol, it's a real pure and flavorful bourbon. Water is highly recommended. 
Score: 9.5/10

Review 61: Maker's 46

Review 61

6/16/12

Maker's 46: 47% abv

No, it's not a typo. I know, it seems odd to call something "46" with a 47% abv to it. But the number actually has nothing to do with the alcohol content, so don't fret. Maker's Mark is an interesting company, because in the world of bourbon, they don't do a lot of whiskey making. They've had one consistent product for as long as they've existed: "Maker's Mark". So although this one has been on the shelves for a while now, it still has historical significance, being the newest, and only other iteration of Maker's on the market. Interestingly, what makes 46 different, and what gives it it's name is that wood staves are placed into the cask after the primary aging is done, and is finished like that. 46 is the name of the type of stave they used. So with that little background knowledge, onto tasting notes! 

On the nose, one will find pleasant aromas of cinnamon, light chocolate and fudge, vanilla, and allspice, with an extreme burn to it. With water, this burn will settle down, and caramel and even some floral notes with become evident. 

The taste is strong and complex, yielding, caramel, chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, allspice, apple, oak, ginger, oatmeal, apple, with some cajun flavor to it. After the addition of water, the flavors smooth out more, providing a nice spiciness with more oatmeal graininess and cinnamon and green apple. The finish burns a lot, but not just an alcohol burn, more of a hot cinnamon burn, retaining the apple and vanilla, keeping ginger, oatmeal, cajun, but adding in a slight wheat and maltiness. The finish is medium in length and full bodied. 

As a closing statement, this is a high alcohol bourbon, but is one of the best ones out there, displaying complexity, unique character, and spicy goodness. Maker's did a great job with this, and is recommended for any bourbon drinker. It is advised though, that if being drank straight, add a few teaspoons of water to allow more flavor to break out. 
Score: 9.0/10

Review 59: Four Witches Black Saison

Review 59

6/13/12

Four Witches Black Saison: 7.3% abv

The Black Saison style beer is the first of which we have reviewed. For a small bit of background on this beer, this particular brew has never been bottled before by New Holland, so we went to the front lines to provide you with the inside scoop on if it's a worthy buy. And if it is, it is only a small batch seasonal, so start looking! 

The nose consisted of peppermint, vanilla, cream, mixed berries, melon, banana, with a hint of lemon at the end. The taste had the typical flavors of darker beers including coffee, chocolate, and vanilla cream but it also had a few tangy notes such as apple, orange, and basil. The beer finished with the taste of orange, vanilla, malt, and wheat, cream, apple, coffee, and chocolate. 

Overall this beer made a good impression upon us due to its interesting blend of characteristics from darker and lighter beers. However, we felt that the finish and the taste lacked complexity and left more to be desired. Still a well priced and admirable statement by New Holland. Pick it up if you get the chance.

Score: 8.5/10

Review 58: New Holland Charkoota Rye

Review 58

6/12/12

New Holland Charkoota Rye: 7.79% abv

Yup, it's a lager. Not like lagers you would know though. Not like lagers anybody knows. This is a smoked dopplebock, so for the people out there who don't speak German, that's a heavy lager. That should be evident in it's color. And I'll be honest, this is probably the most unique beer we've ever tasted, good, bad or indifferent. 

Disclaimer: None of the tasting notes in this review have been exaggerated at all. Beware. Onto the nose. On the nose, the one that will punch you in the face is the smell of smoked mesquite, with further notes of chocolate, vanilla, raisons, cinnamon, sweet potato, coffee, rye, tartar sauce, nutmeg, smoked pig skin, and slight hay. Like I said, I wish I was making this up, but this is all part of what this beer smells like. Onto the taste, you'll be shocked to find it's just as bazaar. The taste is HUGELY smokey, with an oddly out of place creaminess to it, coffee, cherry, caramel, root beer, malt, molasses, and strawberry. Don't worry, it get's better in the finish. 

On the finish, there is root beer, spicy beef jerky, bacon, cherry and coffee. The finish is long and prominent, so you won't forget what you're tasting for a while. This beer is not BAD by any means, but chances are, you won't like it. It represents everything a beer should be: complex, unique, and of good quality. Just beware...We can't mark it down for being so darn outlandish, so we still gave it a mark for a high quality beer. 

Score: 8.5/10