Review 178: Stone Vertical Epic Series 121212 Ale

Review 178

9/18/13

Stone Vertical Epic Series 12 Ale: 9% abv

Background: The final chapter! There won’t be a sequel? Or will this be like Star War and start all over again? Well, without ruining the surprise, I sure as Hell hope so. This is a series of experimental beers produced by our bitter friends, Stone. The project started in 2002, when the first beer was brewed. The idea was to make aging-friendly beers that could be compared year after year. So every year, a new beer has been produced. This one, produced on 12/12/12 was the last batch to be made in the Vertical Epic series. The bottle impressively states that the beer is an “Ale brewed with spices”. Sounds very simple, if you ask me. Well it isn’t. The spices in this beer are incredible, and before this beer disappears, you should try it.

Nose: The nose is immediately greeting you with spiced notes of allspice, nutmeg, pumpkin spice, and gingerbread. There are some molasses and apple flavors that come out early on, with a small hint of fresh mint. There is vanilla and caramel present in the nose, with some cocoa as well. As the beer opens up, there are more dynamic notes of caramel apple and spices. There is an old oaky flavor that becomes prevalent the more you dig into the nose. There is some orange and a little bit of wood lacquer that shows up in the smell. This is absolutely a master class on what balance should be. We are really going crazy for this nose. Let’s hope the rest of the beer doesn’t disappoint.

Arrival: The arrival is favorably spicy, with features of apple, vanilla and allspice being major components. There is also some clove and nutmeg that comes through. The clove becomes more present in the body, but starts making its feature here. There is a slight instance of pear present, with fruitiness present. There is also a good pumpkin and pumpkin spice note blending into the body.

Body: The body is dominant in cloves, with dry pepper bitterness and some hoppiness. The apple and pear are still present, with wood and vanilla taking the center stage not shortly after. The cadence is great in the body, and builds from the arrival with not too much effort. The pumpkin spice comes through strong here, and lasts through the finish. The body has a great medium mouth-feel.

Finish: In the finish, there are dark chocolate notes, spicy notes of allspice and clove, and vanilla present right. Pumpkin, apple, pear and other brilliant notes are still apparent in this rarely epic finish, and it isn’t failing to entertain us more and more. The spiciness, with some subtle bitterness comes through on the finish and tapers off at the right pace, without losing balance at any point.

Final Comments:  Well I hope I didn’t give away too much in the background section (I’m usually better about that then I was today). This beer is incredible. It isn’t an easy task to throw a bunch of spices into a brew and expect something good to come out of it. The spices can either over-dominate the beer or underwhelm your expectations. This one didn’t do either of those. The balance of spice complexity and character with different sweetness and earthy tones really contributed to a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I don’t normally swoon over a beer, but I just have never tasted anything like this to date. I don’t think this is a Friday-night at college kind of beer, mind you, but for an experience, it is almost unsurpassable at a reasonable price.

Why you’d buy it: Because you read my review.

Why you wouldn’t: You hate things that taste good.

Score: 9.75/10

Review 158: J.W. Lee's Harvest Ale Matured in Sherry Casks

Review 158

5/3/13

J.W. Lee’s Harvest Ale Matured in Sherry Casks: 11.5% abv

Background: J.W. Lee’s is an independent brewery owned by a family in Manchester. That is a pretty interesting point, because we haven’t reviewed a lot of authentic U.K. beers. They were founded in 1828, and now are on their sixth generation of family ownership. They also own a number of hotels as well.  This brewery tends to show off cask-aged ales, so that seems to be the focus. These guys produce quite a few beers, but as it tends to be in the European brewers, their beers tend to be very low percentage. This one, on the other hand, is not low at all, being at 11.5%. This is a Harvest Ale. This is actually considered a barleywine, which will explain why some of the flavors of malt come out more. This particular special release is aged in sherry barrels, which by itself is not very well seen in brewing today. We were very excited to see what this did to a beer.

Nose: Starting off as a fairly neat nose, one can relate the slight fruitiness of this beer to a Belgian style, but the uniqueness takes over from here. There are some notes of subtle raison, nuttiness, and slight malt. There are sweet notes of caramel and honey which front the nose, charging forward with ornaments of molasses following behind. If I had to guess, I would say this was aged in an Oloroso sherry barrel, although the size is hard to approximate. It adds a sort of obscure wine-like character to the beer. Not only does this beer look like apple cider, but you do get some notes of apple cider as well. The nuttiness, as the beer starts to open up, resembles toasted nuts; maybe not almonds per say, but none the less a toasted smell. We even started to sense some notes of dried oak, albeit not an aggressive smell, and a unique bit of plum as well, with even a hint of dark cherry.  

Arrival: The arrival, after smelling this beer for a few minutes, will knock you down. It has a sweet sherry and nuttiness at the beginning. There is some honey and maltiness in the arrival, but it is a pretty tightly packed, solid flavor. The arrival will start sweet at a slightly chilled temperature, and the sherry sweetness spills over into the body quite well. You will catch those apple cider notes in the arrival here as well. There is definitely some raison quality to this arrival. This might appear to be overly sweet when the beer reaches room temperature.

Body: To completely contradict the arrival, you will find interesting notes of peat and tobacco dominate the palate. It is not at all like the arrival, and leaves you a little astonished at what you just tasted. There are some burnt paper qualities to it. There is still some sweet raison to it, rich flavors of honey and the smoke becomes pretty powerful. This will calm down after the beer warms up though. The smoke flavors get pushed back to the finish as the beer transitions in temperature.

Finish: There is a little more peat in the finish than in the body, but you still get some prominent malt notes, along with the strong flavor of burnt tobacco. There is a strong amount of nuttiness to the beer, with the residual feelings of Oloroso and raisons. After the beer warms up to room temperature, the tobacco is right in the finish and kills the complexity.

Final Comments: This is probably one of the most complex beers we’ve ever had, with a dynamic influence from the temperature change. This has a great diversity, and the nose will tease you into thinking this would be simple and sweet, but it isn’t. This beer does model the sweetness of sherry, but takes on some prominent notes of other flavors as well, making this one of the most education beers we’ve ever had to drink.

Why you’d buy it: You don’t mind spending money, and want to try something completely different.

Why you wouldn’t: You are bitter and hateful and frown upon everything happy and good.

Score: 9.75/10

Review 140: Epic Brewing Big Bad Baptist Stout

Review 140

2/11/13

Epic Brewing Company Exponential Series Big Bad Baptist Stout: 11.4%

Background: It’s easy to forget how young the microbrewery boom is, and man is it a boom. We wanted to look outside of Michigan, where a lot of the strong microbreweries are cropping up and jump all the way to Utah. What’s in Utah? Epic Brewing Company. They aren’t the only ones who go by this name, but the other brewing scene is in New Zealand so let’s avoid that for the sake of simplicity. This group is from 2008, and as of 2010 they have 9 fermenters and that means more capacity. This would be exciting for any business. I wouldn’t mind having a few fermenters myself! So a little more about the beer, you might want to hear. Sounds like Epic’s Exponential Series is a little more experimental, sitting alongside the Classic Series and Elevated Series. Sure enough, this particular stout is not just an off the line stout. It is brewed with cocoa nibs and coffee beans. It also sits in the Imperial region with the longest title ever and a whopping 11% abv. 

Nose: Cocoa, coffee, vanilla, dry wood, sawdust, malt, dark, rich, apple, raisons, brown sugar, earthy, light tobacco, chocolate, nutmeg

Arrival: Creamy, light, easy, modest crispness, mellow, vanilla, caramel, coffee, apple

Body: Coffee, frothy mouthfeel, oak, chocolate, crisp apple, vanilla, wheat, slight berry notes

Finish: Cherry sweetness, chocolate, mocha coffee, slight hops, heavy cream, wheat

Final Comments: So with a slight earthiness and a huge, frothy creaminess to it, this is an interesting stout, but what comes across as an interesting experiment turns into an over-powering amount of coffee and cocoa influence. This is a complex enough beer, but it is robbed by the domination of the coffee flavors. The gentle character of this stout does fool you into forgetting that you’re dealing with an Imperial bad boy here, and if that’s the kind of thing you like, here’s your winner.

Why you’d buy it: You’re a coffee drinker who likes soft stouts

Why you wouldn’t: You want to get more out of your beer than coffee.

Score: 8.25/10

Review 137: New Holland Night Tripper

Review 137

2/1/13

New Holland Night Tripper: 10.8% abv

Background: We’ve talked a little bit about New Holland. In fact, when we started doing reviews, we started with New Holland as a brewery, so there has been some discussion. Just recently we visited their quaint brewing operation and saw what could only be described as breath-taking: a room full of barrels aging Dragon’s Milk. That brings up a good point. Dragon’s Milk is now New Holland’s highest selling beer, having surpassed Mad Hatter as number one. One could say New Holland knows how to make a dark beer, and we couldn’t agree more. That’s why we were skeptical about Night Tripper, an imperial stout aged in oak that comes out once a year. Could this beer really be worth waiting for, when Dragon’s Milk is always available? They do sound very similar when you chart them next to each other. Both aged in oak, both black as night, and 10% compared to 11%. So you might think this is a gimmick. It isn’t.

Nose: Chocolate, brown sugar, coffee, caramel, apple, malty, pear, vanilla, light butterscotch, raisons, slightly dry, dark, crisp, smooth, balanced

Arrival: Coffee, chocolate-covered strawberries, slight citrus, toffee, apple, vanilla, caramel, butterscotch, refreshing, fruit, blackberry

Body: Coffee, brownies, rich fudge, cherry, sweet, slight tartness, toffee, crisp apple, butterscotch, oatmeal

Finish: Roasted coffee, malt, chocolate, slightly bitter grapefruit and hops, vanilla, pecans, boozy, raisony, wheat, apple

Final Comments: What can we say about this? This is quite a killer stout. It’s complex, but unlike other stouts out there, it balances between different flavor profiles without overwhelming you with the dark notes generally associated with a stout. So it is sort of an oxymoron, but you can find out for yourself. Is it like Dragon’s Milk? It isn’t nearly as creamy, and it is a different kind of stout all together. Better or worse? We’d like to say better, but you will have to find out for yourself.

Why you’d buy it: Find a reason why you can’t. I can’t think of one.

Why you wouldn’t: Read the above comment

Score: 9.75/10

Review 133: Rogue Dead Guy Ale

Review 133

1/14/13

Rogue Dead Guy Ale: 6.5% abv

Background: Rogue is a brewery in Oregon. The bottle will tell you “It Glows!”. They’re talking about the bottle with this one, so don’t think you’re drinking something radioactive. Yes, we did in fact check to see if the beer glowed in the dark, and no, we aren’t the most gullible people in the world. This is obviously an ale, with a sort of orange-ish color.

Nose: Malt, orange citrus, wheat, honey, pineapple, hops, dry old wood

Arrival: Barley, wheat, light fruit, crisp fruit, citrus

Body: Barley, wheat, smidge of honey, crisp fruit

Finish: Barley, wheat, dry light hops, pine, slight lemon, citrus

Final Comments: You might be able to tell by the list of these notes that there is not a whole lot to this beer. That is absolutely true. That does not make this a terrible beer. It is actually a pleasant beer to drink, and has a refreshing summer taste to it. Therefore, it could be that drink you sit on your back porch and sip on when you want a beer like an Oberon, but perhaps less hoppy and pretty dominantly grainy. This won’t appease the IPA lovers out there and it certainly won’t keep you in your seat thinking, but you could very well enjoy this as a pool-side brew.

Why you’d buy it: You’ve graduated from drinking Bud Lite

Why you wouldn’t: You enjoy beer that makes you think

Score: 7.5/10

Review 131: Dogfish Head Immort Ale

Review 131

1/11/13

Dogfish Head Immort Ale: 11% abv

Background: This is an unique ale from Dogfish Head, those craft brewers from out of state that do a great job of making some awesome brews. This particular ale is brewed with maple from Red Brook Farm in Massachusetts, peat-smoked barley, juniper berries, vanilla, and English and Belgian yeasts. Obviously, this is a long list of “customizations” that Dogfish Head has applied to this particular beer, so we absolutely couldn’t pass it up. Plus, we love us some peated whisky, and there is simply not enough use of peat-smoked barley in alcoholic beverages. We wanted to see how this guy fared.

Nose: Brown sugar, malt, sweet melon, tart apple, slight anise, vanilla, soy beans, juniper berries, yeast, soft berry notes (blueberry/raspberry), pear (Reminiscent of Dragonmead Final Absolution)

Arrival: Creamy, yeast, molasses, caramel, cocoa, sweetness, Rock N’ Rye soda, sweet berries, big arrival

Body: Sweet, light tartness, yeast, almonds, slightly nutty, apple, anise, Rock N’ Rye, tangy citrus, maple

Finish: Vanilla, creamy, grain, barley, slight meatiness, subtle peat, more smokey, yeast, cocoa, medium w/lasting after taste, spicy smoke, fruit, mixed berries, grapefruit (light), slight woodiness

Final Comments: This is a greatly complex beer, and hits a ton of points of interest. Every single element of it screams for you to take a closer look, and we’re sure you could spend several nights trying to figure this one out. The nose is inviting, and the yeasty trippel-style ale character in the initial impression certainly doesn’t hurt the beers presentation. The beer is a high alcohol content beer, and you’ll want to sip this one, but it is relatively easy to drink.  

Why you’d buy it: You want to drink an engaging ale, you want to encourage good craft brewing, and it is pretty damn amazing.

Why you wouldn’t: You are still stuck on how drunk you can get on Miller High Life, or you’re still drunk on Miller High Life

Score: 9.5/10

Review 122: Dogfish Head Bitches Brew

Review 122

12/16/12

Dogfish Head Miles Davis Bitches Brew: 9% abv

Back with another Dogfish Head review. And this one is one of the more limited edition Dogfish Heads. This is a dark ale brewed with honey and gesho. So you might not know what gesho is like we didn’t, or maybe you’re more intelligent than us. Gesho is formally known as Rhamnus prinoides if you’re going to look it up, and it is used in Ethiopia like hops is used here. The stems are collected from the plant and boiled, and the extract is mixed with honey to make mead. That’s an interesting little fact for us all, and it gives some context to this beer, and maybe the bottle art too. 

So this is a dark ale, but this is a dark ale like Cabin Fever is a brown ale. In other words, it is kind of a stout. The nose confirms this for you with notes of coffee, vanilla, caramel, roasted barley, chocolate, toffee and some wheat. This is a pretty typical nose. The arrival is coffee-like, with some small lemon-lime influence, vanilla, and even soft cream. 

The body contains coffee, toffee, grain, barley, wheat, cream, raisons, and even almonds. This is turning out to be pretty typical of a stout, with a little bit of nuttiness to change things up. The finish is big in the barley flavor, with wheat and chocolate on the back end, coupled with some small hops notes, coffee, toffee, cream, and almonds. The finish is long and big, and very enjoyable. 

So this isn’t really a terribly complex ale, and it is pretty typical for the stout/dark ale character. This doesn’t make it good, but it isn’t cutting edge. And frankly, we like to see our expensive beers in smaller bottles, because drinking a full fifth of a 9% beer in a night doesn’t lead to appreciation, it leads to drooling. None the less, this is a nice beer and we think you’d enjoy it, but I wouldn’t break my legs to get another bottle of it. 

Score: 8.25/10

Review 121: Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

Review 121

12/16/12

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja: 7.2% abv

Jolly Pumpkin is something else. A brewery around several areas in Michigan including Traverse City and Ann Arbor, JP specializes in sour beers. The last time we did a sour beer, the result wasn’t the best in our minds. Despite this, we aren’t going to be deterred and wanted to try another one. Remember, KCM uses three main criteria for scoring their reviews: uniqueness, complexity, and quality. A second tier of qualifiers includes drinkability, price, and personal preference if the panel isn’t decisive enough. I say that because I need to preface this review. The idea of a sour beer is that while the mash is being created, the beer is allowed to be infected by bacteria (science can be gross, folks) and this bacteria produces a sour biproduct. This is the core concept behind a sour mash, for you Jim Beam/Jack Daniels fans. 

La Roja is an amber ale which uses this ideology and barrel aging to give it a distinct flavor. Spoiler alert, we don’t think it worked. The nose is the first encouraging part. The nose contains a decent number of fruity flavors like strawberry daquiri, grape, sweet red wine, pear, floral notes, acidity, lemon, light pine, tangerine, nutmeg and even some subtle raison. We were content with this, and it foreshadowed to a good complex beer. Here ends the encouraging part. 

The arrival contained very concentrated fruit flavors of red grape juice, cranberry, grapefruit, slight oak, and some acidity. We are getting more hardcore with the cran/grape juice as we push into the flavor, with no sign of bitterness, but rather citrus notes like tart lemon and grapefruit. There is a SLIGHT hint of grain here, but you probably won’t notice it unless you’re looking for it. The finish....is the same. There is an addition of slight yeast is all. Okay. So this beer doesn’t taste like beer, and doesn’t taste like there is alcohol in it. If you handed this to a five year old, they probably wouldn’t know you replaced their Juicy Juice. This would be okay if we felt there was a greater complexity to it, but it wasn’t found in this bottle. Jolly Pumpkin may have some great beers, and we have experienced them, but KCM doesn’t recommend this one. 

Score: 5.0/10

Review 110: Bell's This One Goes to 11

Review 110

12/4/12

Bell’s This One Goes to 11 Ale: 11% abv

Okay. Bell’s put this one out for their 11,000th batch, and they got a little out of hand with the number 11. I’m not sure what the significance of the word 11 is, or if there is just a lot of things you can do with it, but they sure did a lot to emphasize it. You’ll notice that its name is so cleverly crafted, AND it is at 11%. Oh Bell’s, you never cease to impress. Okay, onto the beer. This is an imperial red ale, which we haven’t seen a whole bunch of, but it sounds good enough. So what’s it like? 

Well, the nose is pretty impressive. Right of the bat, you can find grapefruit and fruity citrus notes come out in the form of lemon and grape acidity. There is also the addition of red apple, pear, pear skins, barley grain, pine resin, pineapple, and agave. So with this slew of notes you should think we’re crazy. The point is it has a fruity, but slightly bitter nose with some sweetness and maltiness to it. It is complex and enjoyable. Now I’ve told you the good news? Do you want to hear the bad news? Too bad. The arrival starts off well, with a sweet, mellow overtone of malt, with caramel, creaminess, molasses, agave, and some pine tastes to it. That pine obviously introduces the bitter into the beer. The body is malty, with caramel, lemon rind, slight bitterness, slight apple, and some hops. So not very complex, with primarily grain and bitterness to offer. The finish is identical with the addition of grapefruit. Translation: more bitterness. 

Don’t get me wrong, this beer isn’t excessively bitter in comparison to some of those beers out there, but it just doesn’t have other flavors to justify it. Now, there is a footnote to this as well. Generally speaking, this would garner a harsh score, but we have had some inventory issues, so this beer has been sitting around for about two months. We’ve been told that this beer is at its prime fresh off the shelf. We can’t score this as a winner, but there is a potential that what we’ve reported could be less than what this beer’s maximum potential is. 

Score: 7.25/10

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 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 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 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 57: New Holland Farmhouse Hatter

Review 57

6/9/12

New Holland Farmhouse Hatter: 5.8% abv

Today is the day. If you like IPAs and PAs, go around and find something New Holland and enjoy. Today, we have a farmhouse IPA, which New Holland will tell you is a refreshing beverage to enjoy while you're working on the farm. So for all you farmers out there, we want to help you decide whether this is the beer for you. Here are the answers. 

On the nose, we were surprised to find fresh mint at the front of the smell, along with pine, apple, pear, light lemon rind, brown sugar, ginger, herbal incense, honeydew, honey and a bourbon-like vanilla smell. The smell is the most unique of the New Holland line Mad Hatter line. The taste is also incredibly unique, showing basil, mint, citrus, honey, molasses, earthy, orange and lemon on the arrival, malty, green apple, and just zesty in taste. 

The finish is medium-short, having honey, basil, slight smokiness, what, malt, mint, green apple, and slight dryness. It's unfortunate that the finish is so short, because this unique statement by New Holland is amazing. Besides the shortness of the finish, this beer is worth every penny. Highly recommended. 

Score: 9.5/10

Review 23: Founders Double Trouble

Review 23
4/19/12
Founders Double Trouble: 9.4% abv

This is an imperial IPA, also known as a double IPA. I've been told by sources that an IPA generally sits between 5-7% abv, while an imperial IPA is above that. That would explain this categorization. Generally speaking, higher alcohol content yields more flavor, and this IPA proves as no exception. On the nose, one can find pear, lemon, grapefruit, honey, pine, hops, and light floral notes. The nose is well balanced and light, having a pleasant aroma. The taste becomes bittersweet, but with much more balance of sweetness compared to a regular IPA. One can taste apple, grapefruit, honey and pineapple on the palate. The finish is long, with notes of apple, grapefruit, lemon and nutmeg. From the IPAs we've had in the past, this is a great step forward, for not too much more of a price. 
Score: 9.0/10

Review 24: Founders Dry-Hopped Pale Ale

Review 24
4/19/12
Founders Dry-Hopped Pale Ale: 5.4% abv

With a tradition of very exciting and original names, Founders brings us a dry-hopped pale ale. The nose on this beer is filled with traditional pale ale characters, having pineapple, grapefruit, honey, and cinnamon. It has to be said though that there is a slight off-putting scent in this beer, characterized as drying paint. It was not prominent and most would not notice it. The taste is hoppy, salty, with characters such as wood, malt, lemon, lime, pine and even some sprite. Although this is true, there is a watery character to the beer, which stands out like a hole in a bathroom stall. The finish is medium short, with malt, wood, and lemon-lime characters. The finish is pleasant, which makes it all the more disappointing when it's gone in two seconds. So for this one, the watery character, possibly intrinsic to the alcohol content, along with the shorter finish, really knocks this otherwise pleasant beer down. 

Score: 8.0/10