Review 88: Dogfish Head Positive Contact

Review 88

7/30/12

Dogfish Head Positive Contact: 9% abv

Dogfish Head fever has been going around lately, but because of budgeting cuts, we haven’t been jumping on the bandwagon, so suck it up. We’re going to do one for you, but that’s about it. Why did we pick Positive Contact? Well for a couple of reasons: there are good sales people out there, it has a very interesting description to it, and we like exclusivity, and this would be a little more rare. One of our suppliers only had six bottles to their name. We claimed one and now we’re going to tell you more about it. This beer advertises being brewed with apple cider, cilantro, and...you guessed it, cayenne pepper. Makes sense, right? Enough to catch our attention. 

So is it just a Frankenstein beer, or is this actually worth your attention? We found out for you. We noticed sediment in the bottle when we poured it, and the head was decent in size. The nose shows off the apple cider, but presents very fruity notes, similar to a trippel ale. These include pineapple, slight pumpkin, orange, unripened banana and green grape, and cantaloupe. There are darker notes of malt, yeast, caramel, and vanilla. 

The taste continues the trippel ale theme with some similar fruit notes. It has a yeasty flavor with cantaloupe, crisp apple, herbal flavors, creaminess, citrus, cloves and a mellow body. The finish is gradual, with notes of cantaloupe, apple, vanilla, peach, orange and anise. And yes, exactly what you’ve been waiting for: cayenne. The cayenne is not dominant, but is a gradually increasing flavor which adds slight heat and spice to the beer. This isn’t an out of place taste. This beer is done very well, and is highly recommended. 

Score: 9.5/10

Review 87: Glenfiddich 18 Yr

Review 87

6/30/12

Glenfiddich 18 Year Old: 43% abv

I know what you’re thinking: Oh boy. Good old KCM told us that higher percent alcohol content means more flavor, and nicer whiskey and we’ll love this one. And you’re probably thinking also: oh, this is OLDER and it looks DARKER, so it must be BETTER. Well, you are wrong on all accounts. Yes, higher alcohol content is generally associated with more flavor and complexity, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be true. There is a lot of stipulations to generalization about alcohol, so don’t be fooled. 

Secondly, there is an assumption that darker whiskey is always going to taste better than lighter whiskey. This is also not true. Most companies will put caramel colorant (don’t get excited, it’s flavorless) in their whiskeys, because they “know” you’re stupid and will buy it for just that reason. Finally, there is no rule that says older whiskey is better whiskey. Older whiskey is just that; older. So it is different. As whiskey ages more, it starts to lose the characteristics of the spirit and gain the characteristics of the wood. Don’t assume your money is well spent. And that brings us to this review. The more expensive, older of the Glenfiddich range, and therefore the better one. And we plan on proving that in our notes. 

This one is a Single Malt Scotch aged in Oloroso Sherry casks and Bourbon casks. The nose on this sucker will give you some fruity notes of blueberry and light ripe banana, but primarily gives you those classic notes like caramel, vanilla, slight maltiness, with the addition of more rare notes of butterscotch and cloves. Ahh, you see! That whole introduction about horrible whiskey was all a facade! No...it wasn’t. 

The taste can be depicted as flat and dull. It is a malty whiskey, with a large saltiness in the body, a little bit of black licorice, slight tartness, and this inexplicably artificial cherry taste. It is a sweet cherry, but like cough syrup artificial. Not okay. That’s all we really got out of it. The finish doesn’t get better. The salt dominates, with cherry and honey, slight maltiness, and a tiny hint of sherry at the end. The finish is medium-short, which I’m okay with, because I wasn’t missing much. Sorry, we wanted to like this whiskey, but it doesn’t pull through, and we wouldn’t waste the $80 it costs to get this. Highly UNrecommended. 

Score: 6.0/10

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 85: Glenfiddich 15 Yr Distillery Edition

Review 85

7/22/12

Glenfiddich 15 Year Old Distillery Edition: 51% abv

Before we move onto the 18 Year Old, we want to take a visit to a different version of the 15 year old Scotch. This one is only slightly different, being ONLY 11% more alcohol than the regular. Oh, and instead of using three different types of casks, this one uses two casks: American and European oak. Its always important to understand what high proof alcohols really mean. One last thing to note about this whiskey. This one is non-chill filtered, which means it has not been sent through a filter to get rid the haze in the color. We like this kind of thing because chill filtration is said to hinder some of the flavor. Does all this really make a difference, or are we just speaking mumbo jumbo about this stuff? Let’s take a look. 

The nose is huge in flavor, but if you’re not careful, it can burn quite a bit as well. It has nice, dark, rich flavors of caramel, vanilla, malt, oak, chocolate, hazelnut, and molasses. You will get some sweeter, but tart notes of green apple, and cherry, and even so much as a delicate smokiness once you dig into it more. There is still some light sherry that we can normally find in Glenfiddich. The nose will either repulse you or excite you, but I urge you not to let the potency of the aroma scare you off. You’re close to the taste by now, so don’t give up! 

The taste is dry, and most of the burn will hit you in the arrival. This Scotch is definitely malty, and grainy. Barley and wheat are large contenders in the battle for your attention, but don’t let that take all of your focus. Caramel, vanilla, sherry, honey, and oak all give some flavor to this malt, as well as some spicy cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. We even noted baked red apple in the flavor. Don’t worry, I’m drooling just thinking about it myself. This Scotch, being at 51% can take some water, so don’t be too shy with it. This helps mellow the flavor out a bit, as well as bringing out earthier tones. The taste is spicy with a huge presence in the arrival. It swells at the end of the body. The finish is medium-long, and prominent while it lasts. This is where the sherry really comes to light, showing nice sweetness. There is maltiness and cinnamon in the finish, along with fruity notes of honeydew, strawberry pear, and cherry. Some fresh mint exists in the finish, but there’s a more prominent saltiness which competes with the sweet malt flavor. 

With time and water, this Scotch will open up and become sweeter. It takes water well and depicts a great flavor profile. This is very enjoyable, and well made Scotch, and does better by night and day than the regular production level Glenfiddichs. Highly recommended. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 84: Weihenstephener Hefe Weissbier

Review 84
7/19/12
Weihenstephener Hefe Weissbier: 5.4% abv

This is our first Hefeweisen that we’ve done. That being said, there is a technique to pouring Hefeweisens, and we really didn’t do it right. The recorder was helpful enough to comment on how bad the pourer was at pouring. But we tried and we’re going to get better with time. What is a Hefeweisen anyway. Well, as you might guess, it’s a German beer, but you might have already guessed that. It is a lighter, but very yeasty beer, which produces a large foam head to it. I can’t tell you all the technicals on it, because we’ll be saving that for the next Hefeweisen we do. I’ll try and keep this one short. On the schnauze, orene will find a very light, yeasty nose, indicating a similarity to many German beers. It has some fruity notes of apple, orange, pumpkin and banana, which is common in Hefes. It is yeasty, but also has some malt and wheat to it, with slight spiciness. The taste is interesting, for the fact that there is a dry, zestiness which creates a slight tingle as you first drink this. The arrival is light with some honeydew, leading into a big banana flavor, with some sweet flavors of lemon and cherry, with yeastiness to boot. It is very light, but borderline watery. The finish is light in the yeastiness as it settles, gives off some fruit notes of faint apple and some pumpkin. The finish is medium-long in length. There isn’t much more to say about it. We need to know more about these beers, but this didn’t shake our foundations. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 83: Glenfiddich 15 Yr

Review 83

7/18/12

Glenfiddich 15 Year Old: 40% abv

The next Glenfiddich in our Glenfiddich series, and this time we’ll start talking about how to pronounce Glenfiddich. If you’re saying it like it looks, with a “ch”, you’re saying it wrong. Glenfiddich is pronounced “Glenfiddick”, so now you know. But this is going to be a review of lessons, because there are several things we have never talked about. Let’s start with the oak barrels. The oak used in the production of this whiskey is a combination of sherry oak, bourbon, and new oak. This creates a lot of blends of flavors. 

Secondly, let’s talk about Solera vats. No, Microsoft Word, it isn’t a spelling error. Solera systems are where whiskey gets put in the top while whiskey is pulled out of the bottom of the vat, so there is a constant filter of whiskey, and there’s always a refreshed mix of whiskey in the vat. What does that mean for the taste? We really don’t know. And it really doesn’t matter, because we’re here to figure that out anyway. That’s our Glenfiddich lesson for the day. 

Onto the nose: We get a fruity collage in this whiskey, with red wine, cranberry, maraschino cherries, raspberries and raisons, not to be displaced by the standards of caramel, vanilla, molasses, and maltiness. The nose also contains some powdered sugar to add to the sweetness, but a contrast of lemon that flips the coin in flavor. I’m actually cheating and previewing the 18 Year Old as we speak...Don’t tell. The taste is something else entirely...but not really. Malt is a prevalent part of this whiskey, followed by molasses, barley, saltiness, and caramel. We actually noted a slight peatiness, although it’s only very subtle. There is also cinnamon heat and a tiny bourbon influence in the taste. Overall, it isn’t the most complex Scotch we’ve ever experienced in taste. It is rather dry though. Hell, this might be a shorter review than I thought. The finish is dry, with some major lemon tartness to start, followed by some cherry and lime to boot. The citrus and tart notes get more potent with the addition of water, but you’ll also find some sherry, cinnamon, caramel, butterscotch, salt, and even a slight vegetal quality to the whiskey on the finish. 

We even went so far as to notice slight orange to it. To be honest, this doesn’t take leaps and bounds above the 12 Year Old, but it does make some strides. It might be an “optimistic” score for this one, but we decided this was the most appropriate. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 82: Founders Devil Dancers

Review 82

7/17/12

Founders Devil Dancer: 12% abv

It’s not often we report IBUs (International Bitterness Units) in our reviews, but for this one, I think you have to. This is why. Devil Dancer is one of Founders specialty beers, but it is not just some lame oak aged beer. It is a TRIPLE IPA. There is certainly some intimidation that goes along with drinking a beer called Devil Dancer that’s a Triple IPA and ranks 112 IBUs on a scale that you rarely ever see above 90. I won’t lie, after having had Double Crooked Tree, I wasn’t so much interested in trying this beer at all, but we have some IPA junkies over here, so we did it out of obligation to our audience. I will say, it does have a calmingly beautiful amber color to it. And then it eats you alive like Cerberus would on your decent to Hades. I exaggerate. 

So what can we say about this one? The nose is not like Cerberus eating you alive, frankly. It is actually quite fruity, with an immediate impression of pineapple, peach, ripe pear, apple, lemon, cantaloupe, and grapefruit. Yeah, that’s just the fruitiness behind it. It has those sweet flavors of caramel, molasses, honey, and malt to it, but you don’t miss out on the floral and piny flavors as well. The taste will surprise you. And no, it doesn’t start or end with BITTER!!!!! The taste isn’t very “IPA”. It is malty, with a full mouth-feel, meaning it’s a little thicker in texture. It’s certainly not a lager. The sweeter notes resemble caramel, milk chocolate, maple syrup and pineapple. Contrasting that are the grapefruit and pine notes that are strangely not overpowering. So this beer isn’t bitter? What was all this hype about Cerberus and triple headed dogs and what-not. Yeah, hold onto your shorts, impatient reader. 

The finish will hit you different ways different times. It happens now and again that the beer you’re drinking can be hugely impacted by HOW you drink it. Meaning, how much of a gulp did you take, which part of the back of your throat did it hit, etc. And the bitterness behind this beer is the same way. Also, it builds up, like the heat behind a ghost pepper would. Needless to say, the finish is long and bitter no matter what, but there is sweetness and some interesting stuff goes on here. Let’s start with the basics: pine and lemony citrus, and that’s the basics. From here, our tasters came up with orange rind, coffee bean, sugarcane, rock candy, and Meyer Dark rum mixed with tonic. These notes might be a little obscure, but there is some truth to each of them. Like I said, this beer’s bark is worse than it’s bite. Ha! See, I went back to that Cerberus thing one more time! It’s good, but maybe not having the depth and complexity, or the balance that we seek in ideal beer world. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 81: Glenfiddich 12 Yr

Review 81

7/11/12

Glenfiddich 12 Year: 40% abv

Glenfiddich. If you knew we were doing Scotches, you’d probably have guessed this was coming. This is one of the biggest, and well known Scotch distilleries in the World, pioneering single malt production around the WWII time period. Glenfiddich is a Speyside malt, but that’ll get delved into deeper in other reviews. Don’t want to get nerdy with the historical references, but just for the context, most companies regarded global spread of single malts was foolish, so you kind of owe Glenfiddich at least one bottle of purchase for allowing Scotch to be widely available on a global scale. 

The real question, though, is if their volume of production has influenced the quality of their spirit. What we’re reviewing today is their flagship Scotch, the 12 Year Old. Yeah, he’s the young one in the bunch, but Glenfiddich threw this Scotch in a bourbon cask and a sherry butt before bottling it. Stop your giggling! (A “butt” is a type of tall, skinny oak cask made from European Oak; it is the most commonly used type of cask for sherry wine) Now that we’ve got your immaturity under control, let’s move forward. Enough of the babbling; what does this son-of-a-gun taste like? 

Well, we started with the nose, which gives off some interesting, but limited flavors of malt, vanilla, cherry, sherried oak, and a hint of salt. We had some questions, but we feel there is a slight influence of hot cinnamon in the nose as well. The taste luckily gives you more to bite off of. The taste is sweet with molasses and vanilla, but also contributing defined spiciness of cinnamon and ginger as well. There is a tangy note which becomes more prominent with water, revealing some mix of orange and lemon. Finally, and you’ll hear this from everybody, but there is some pear, and even some apple to this whiskey. It isn’t until the finish that you’ll get a stronger sherry presence. 

Not like Macallan 12, but this definitely has a sweet hay taste in the finish, coupled with some grainy oatmeal and caramel. You still get those fruity notes that carry through, with some red apple and pear, and a nice cinnamon residual at the end. The finish is medium-long so you get to enjoy it a bit. Overall, we prefer this over Glenlivet’s 12 Year Scotch, but they’re really worlds apart. That being said, this isn’t the best Scotch out there, and you should definitely keep different ones. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 71: Innis and Gunn Independence Day

Review 71

7/4/12

Innis and Gunn Independence Day: 7.0% abv

Ladies and gentleman, there is no greater honor than to support the people who serve this country and represent American freedom. Innis and Gunn, although a Scottish Brewery, has dedicated a beer to our Independence Day, and made it taste good as well. Here at KCM, we hope every has a safe night and appreciates their holiday, but also keeps our troops in mind. 

This special edition brew is aged in oak, like all Innis and Gunn beers, but is made from the fresh, new oak barrels, that haven't had all the whiskey in them. So let's see what we can find. On the nose, there is caramel, molasses, oak, vanilla, lime pear, green apple, lemon, white grape, roasted almonds, cantaloupe, slight pine and honey. The nose is complex, and that's an encouraging sight, but unfortunately, it doesn't continue from there. 

The taste is simpler, representing oak, toffee, vanilla, peach on the arrival, apple, pear, molasses, and slight licorice. The finish carries over several of these tasting notes, including pear, apple, slight pineapple and black cherry. Beyond this the beer offers very little, losing complexity incrementally. It does have a lot to offer on the nose, and is a light, drinkable beer for these awfully hot, summer days. This isn't by any means a bad beer, but doesn't meet the standards that other Innis and Gunn beers hit. Enjoy a safe holiday. Bless the troops and those away from home. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 80: Appleton Estate 12 Yr

Review 80

7/3/12

Appleton Estate 12 Year Extra Old: 43% abv

Appleton Estate is a one of a kind rum distillery from Jamaica. They have several different rums in their collection, including a V/X, a Reserve, a 12 year, and if you’re lucky to find them, a 21 year old and a 30 year old rum as well. The latter two are certainly not regular production. Appleton Estate ages their rum in barrels which had previously housed Jack Daniels, which tends to be a unique addition to the Appleton flavor. What we’re reviewing today is their 12 year old rum, which is very affordably priced at around $30 a bottle in Michigan. 

We don’t normally bring up prices in the reviews, because it biases things, but it is certainly a bargain in this case, no matter what light you look at it in. So let’s get into this a little bit. Are we just talking this one up, or is it really the spirit we’re talking about? On the nose, you will get a complex array of flavors, which range in spiciness and fruitiness, with some sweeter notes as well. Spiciness includes cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, giving a nice balanced complexity of spices. The nose is rich and smells syrupy, but has a surprising burn to it that you normally don’t get out of a rum. One can also pull out notes of apple, but also interestingly banana and coconut. There is a dark chocolatey note, with vanilla, caramel and molasses to add to the complexity. Overall, this nose is incredibly complex and fantastically balanced. 

This is very encouraging, so without any cliffhangers, here’s the taste. In taste, we have an apparent oakiness, where the Jack Daniels lets you know it is in the rum with a semi-subtle presence. The rum has cereal grain notes to it, like rye and wheat, but it just keeps coming. The nutmeg and ginger are evident in the body, but are joined with a fresh mint taste on the arrival. Then those classic dark tastes of rum come in, like molasses, maple and toffee. The taste is also very complex, well balanced, and provides a great amount of flavor to it. The finish stays around a while too. 

There is a long finish, and gives you more fruits! Notes like cherry, strawberry, raspberry, and raisons evolve through the taste into the finish. There is a slight bitterness, but a sweetness of powdered sugar as well. The odd note in the finish is a subtle presence of agave, generally overpowered by the more powerful cinnamon note. The mint note also revisits us from the arrival. There it is. All the things to be said about this rum. Here’s the thing: is it as great as we made it sound? The best way to describe it is that we could find no flaws in the rum. Thus, we cannot mark it down for no flaws. And there it is. 

Score: 10/10

Review 79: Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey

Review 79
7/1/12
Kilbeggan Irish Whisky: 40% abv

You might look at the picture of that bottle and think we had one too many drinks to be doing a review on it, but that’s really not the case. This bottle been around for quite some time. It even survived St. Patties Day. A purple heart veteran if you will. Anyway, this is a special review because it is our first Irish whisky review. You might find this disturbing, but don’t worry. We’ve had a bit of experience with this stuff in the past. It is also one of the first times you will have heard us saying “peat” in a review. We are not referring to your uncle, no. Peat is a earthy moss that can be found in regions of Scotland and Ireland. It has been used a lot in the past for its slow burning properties and block-like physical form. Back when different forms of fuel were scarce, distillers would use anything they could to dry their grains in the germination process. This is the process of malting, peat became a big proponent of it. Irish whiskies have been known to have it, but in fact, Islay Scotches are much more well known for their peaty character. 

Naturally, you can catch that dark campfire-like peat smell on the nose, but it isn’t super prominent to the untrained nose. There is also notes of honey, lemon, salt, and pear. To be honest, we kind of butchered this review, because there were some mystery scents we just couldn’t identify. There was a floral character, as well as herbal and unknown spicy notes as well. The nose is complex, but as I’ve mentioned, some of the notes were hard to place for us. 

The taste is spicy as well, with some light peat to it, but also smokiness. Smokiness, we generally take as being slightly different then peat, although they are very similar. Among the spicy notes we could identify some pepper, salt, cinnamon, and even a slight saltiness. There is some fruitiness as well, namely pear with some lemon and lime to tag along. Finally, we get that sweet maltiness that we love so very much to keep the taste engaging. The finish is medium-short in length and gives the least amount of complexity, revealing the cinnamon hotness and peppery spiciness, with residual grain and smokiness. There is even a little bit of lemon left at the end. 

Overall, this is a good, spicy, intense Irish Whisky, and it packs some huge flavor to it. It is a contrast from the Jameson and Bushmills classics, but even though Cooley Distillery is the third and least famous of the three remaining distilleries in Ireland, this whisky puts up its dukes and compares. And lets be honest, this bottle has been around for too long, so it could have lost some flavor along the way. All the same, an admirable start at a good price point. 

Score: 8.0/10