6.30 - What The Fuck Is Jai Alai?

No, really.. what the fuck is this insane game?  Called the fastest game on earth, it looks like that weird scoopy wiffleball game that kids play on the beach.. except far more insane.  On top of that, it's also a beer!  So it's a Sunday afternoon, let's do some shit around the house and drink a few beers.  These are some of those that Mama Lane hauled up from Florida, and the ones that I was most excited about.  She managed to get me an Oak Jai Alai without knowing what it even is!!  SCORE

Cigar City Brewery - Jai Alai IPA
a 7.0% ABV 70 IBU IPA.  Heard crazy things about this beer, so let's see what the hype is all about.  A ruddy copper/orange pour and almost no head..   it could be that this is a bit old, but whatever.  This has a terrific nose!  It's tough to stand out as an IPA, but being one of the most sought-after beers of it style is such a short amount of time must mean something.  It's an orange-citrusy/pine blend that's got sublime peach and nectarine and grapefruit notes.  It's somewhat resinous while being bright and sunshiny at the same time.  Can't wait to taste this...  It's smooth, bright, malty, and citrusy.  Like an Orangina had a love baby with grapefruit and pine hops, then that baby grew up to have some ridiculous swagger.  So smooth and bold!  There's just enough faint, sweet bready malts to hold this up in the midst of such well-rounded hops.

- - 9 hops!

Cigar City Brewery - Oak Jai Alai IPA

Same base beer as the Jai Alai - 7.0% ABV/70 IBU IPA - that's then aged on American White Oak.  The beer is already a slightly darker burnt orange hue.  Same amazing aroma with vanilla and a nice faint toasty note.  This follows through to the taste..  same great hop profile but with the added smoothness of some oak and vanilla sweetness that stays in an unbelievable balance.  I can't believe this was picked up blindly by my mom.. what a score!

- - 9 Hops!

6.28 - Fuck Your Rules

Pretty sure I've already done a review like this.. but seriously.. fuck your rules.  I'll drink my beer how I damn well please and when I damn well please.

Stone - Enjoy By 5.17.13 IPA

a 9.4% ABV Double IPA.  This is another in the Enjoy By series that Stone has been cranking out for the last 7 months or so.  The first one was fucking fantastic. The next that MA had access to.. not so much. How will this be?  Oh.. and this is almost 6 weeks past the drink by date.. fuck off, suggestions  (this review is a combination of drinking fresh and drinking old)  Same as last two pours - slightly hazy golden yellow with a decent, pure white head.  Just like all the others, the hops jump from the bottle, to the glass, to your nose.  Unlike the 2nd batch to hit MA (4.1.13 I believe) this has much more aromatic hops.. but if the 12.21.13 was a 10, this is a 9, compared to the 4.1's 7 rating.  There's pine, grass, grapefruit, mango, that weird onion/garlic note.. super resinous, super dank..  definite dank aromas here if ya catch my drift.  On first sip.. it's sharp, harsh, utterly bitter.  There's some smooth honey malts with light pilsner malts..  barely any at all in this beer.  Terrific hops.. bitter, floral, piney, tropical.. this has it all.  Same idea as the aroma - the first release was epic as all hell and this is just a notch beneath that beer.  It's tough to describe just a potent brew, except to say that it's a Fuck-You-Seven-Ways-To-Sunday pure hop beast. (yes, even past it's date)

DAMN

- - 9 Hops!

6.24 - Once Upon..

Once Upon A Time.. a drank a beer.  Or two.  Or more..  Oh wait.. that's tonight, like most nights. Oops.

Pretty Things - Once Upon A Time X Ales - November 22nd, 1838 (English Mild)

a 7.4% ABV English Mild Ale.  

Crazy cool story behind these beers.  Pretty Things works with a beer historian from time to time to recreate recipes brewed years and years ago.. some time between the early 1800's and mid 1900's.  This beer is an English Mild, a moniker that used to represent 'young' and 'fresher' beers as opposed to aged.  This is the "same" beer as the other one that is in this post, just brewed 104 years and 3 months apart, showing how the recipe changes with different periods in history and different economic and cultural pressures (WWII in regards to the later)  AKA a really fuckin cool concept!  On to the beer..

A sunshine-y hazy yellow pour..  Nice grain/wheat nose with some citrus/lemon fruit, hints of peaches and nectarines and some honey and toffee sweetness (as would be expected from an English beer)  Mainly malty, smooth, and sweet nose.  The taste is creamier than I would expect, and far more flavorful, especially for such an 'old' beer.  There's doughy malts that mix with sweeter caramel and light toffee..candied sugar.. but softer citrus, lemon peel and some faint, pleasant piney hops come through as the beer sits on your tongue. There's some spice as if from rye or pepper as well.  It's very smooth and leaves a sweet drying crisp finish. Very cool to drink a re-creation of an old beer and you can see where the influence for many currently styles comes from!

- - 7 Hops!

  

Pretty Things - Once Upon A Time X Ales - February 22nd, 1945 (English Mild)

a 2.8% ABV English Mild Ale. 

Same beer, almost 107 years later.  Different brewing methods, different ingredients available..  oh and there was a fucking world war going on!  That would sorta affect how things are done.. ya know?  Less grain available because of the war effort means lower ABV.. and that's a difficult trend to reverse once life returns to normal.. yeah beer is a huge part of society and culture, definitely so in Britain, but there's other things to focus on...  with that, I present to you a beer that was a forefather of British-style beers for years to come.

Copper/brown pour and minimal head...light malt and grain nose with some honey and faint caramel. Touches of nuttiness and some wood/oak notes as well.  This is certainly light.. but a surprising amount of flavor is packed in here as well.  Very, very faint hops are present that mainly play second fiddle to the malts (to the extent that a 2.8% ABV beer has malts).  Honey biscuits/toast and incredibly light, watered-down caramel with some vanilla and roasty nutty tones.  It's incredibly drinkable, but a bit surprising if you didn't exactly know what you were drinking.  There's a dry, sweet finish to this with some subtle grassy flavors and yeasty esters.  You can definitely see the influence on British beers that this style had (or represented), but this can still pack great flavors

- - 7 Hops!

6.23 - Attach of the Swamp Ape!

The last one from Florida Beer Co that my momma brought back from her little trip to Florida.  Only one from them that I have ever heard of, so I figured I'd save it for last.

  

Florida Beer Company - Swamp Ape Imperial IPA

a 10% ABV 85 IBU Imperial IPA.  Very traditional for the style, it's an orange-y golden pour and minimal head.  There's a ton of malty sweetness coming off the nose.. honey, graham crackers.. with a lot of peach and apricot fruit and floral notes (think rose and lavender).  This is a hot boozy IIPA for sure.  The malt and hops cannot contain the 10% ABV and the sweetness fall short of the bitter hops..  This is out-of-whack.. no balance between any of the flavor components.  On it's own, the hop profile isn't bad, but is a bit heavy on the resinous piney hops.  The malts are a bit too sweet, but not terrible.  But combining the two just makes more of a mess.  It's not terrible, but it's mediocre at best for the style.  (it COULD be that this is a little bit old.. but this should be holding up better than the pales and other styles I got from FL)

- - 5 Hops

6.18 - Long Shot Five Crown

It's been a while since I did the first 2 in this pack..  Derf's Secret Alt and Dark Night in Munich.  But this is an Imperial Stout.. and the Bruins just won, leading 2-1 in the Cup.  So fuck it.

Samuel Adams - Longshot (Joe Formanek) Five Crown Imperial Stout
an 8.9% ABV Russian Imperial Stout.  Crazy dark pour and a huge thick mocha head that just exudes bitter chocolate and coffee aromas.  There's roasty notes, with some oak and rich plum/fig fruit notes.  It's big, it's bold, it's smooth, it's creamy..  It's sweet and roasty/bitter chocolate all in one.  There's some coffee in here, but it's bitter, black and takes a back seat.  This is all about the roasty/charred earthy malts and chocolate notes.  There's underlying dark fruits.. some black cherries and figs.. some licorice and anise.  It's a classic RIS with the emphasis on the chocolate malts and ultra smooth without any noticeable booze heat.  A shining example made even more impressive that it's from a homebrewer (yeah yeah, the label says he's been brewing it for 15 years.. but still!)

- - 8 Hops!

6.17 - This Dial Goes To 11

Get the reference?  No?  Go back to culture school you uneducated fool!

Notch Brewing - Left of the Dial IPA

a 4.3% ABV Session IPA.  Why session you ask?  Cause Chris Lohring (the owner and brewer) is the fuckin' man and you will drink whatever he brews.. ya hear me?!  Well, it's actually because Notch (and Chris) opts to only brew low ABV - session - beers.  His mindset, at that of many craft drinkers, is they want flavor, tons of it, but want to be able to enjoy the beer for what it is and be able to come back and have another without risking a DUI or shelling out crazy money for a cab ride home.  Seriously, go read up on him, Notch, and his knowledge/description of the beers.  The man knows his shit.   ... back to the beer!  It's a slightly hazy golden orange pour, just the right amount of head..  There's some orange/citrus and tropical hops.. slightly grassy.. with mildly sweet honey and bready malts on the nose.  As for the taste.. take everything you know about IPAs and throw it right out the window.  Keeping with the 'session tradition' and English style, the malts are flavorful but light and sweet.  The hops also are very flavorful, but far subdued and not as bitter as we're used to as craft drinkers.  They're tropical, piney, and slightly spicy/peppery..  there's some herbal notes that pair well with the mild hops.  It's hard to describe this one as it's like a watered down IPA without actually being watered down... tons of flavor, incredibly crisp and drinkable.  Just a superb beer and one that makes you rethink the state of craft beer.

- - 8 Hops!

6.16 - Day of the Father

Mother's Day.. Father's Day.. all these days.  Everyone does cards, family dinners, some small gifts..  Is that enough for the human beings who combined their genetic material to give life to you?  NO!  Not just 1 day out of the year!  And not just little things like that.  What do they appreciate the most?  Quality time with you!!  (yes.. I'm getting sentimental up in here, so what!)  Anything I drink at home (again, I live with the parents currently.. so what!), I've been sharing with my dad.  A lifelong BMC drinker, I've been slowly getting him to appreciate craft beer and it's just so darn cute hearing him describe beers!  So I thought I'd share some good stuff with him this year

Night Shift Brewing - Ever Weisse Berliner Weisse

a 5.5% ABV Berliner Weisse-style beer brewed with strawberries, kiwis, and hibiscus.  Berliners are a sour wheat beer traditionally lower in ABV.  They're often served with flavored syrups much like soda shoppes around the middle of last century.  So naturally, modern brewers have adopted this and been aging the styles with fruit.  The color of this beer is out-of-this-world.  Seriously, the picture does it zero justice.  A vibrant pink/red pour.. quickly fading head.  A tart aroma hits you as soon as the bottle is popped with candy-like fruit sweetness..  some strawberry, but getting other fruits like cherries, blackberries and raspberries.  Like childhood bottled and fermented.  This has a fantastic level of tartness.. not necessarily towards the realm of being 'sour'.. just enough to pucker up and give you that little twinge in your jaw.  There's more fruit sweetness, not exclusive to strawberries again (thankfully - strawberry flavor is one of my least favorite fruit flavors) and touches of tropical - which I'll attribute to the kiwi.  There's citric notes and hints of oak and tea (hibiscus?).  The finish is sweet, sharp, and a bit dry.  It's not overly complex.. just gives you exactly what you want - tart, fruit, sweet, and bubbly.  This is pretty damn awesome (oh, and they do 3 more seasonal releases in their Sours [Berliner Weisse] program)

- - 8 Hops!

Jack's Abby - The ABCs Double IPL

A 7.5% ABV 100+ IBU Douple India Pale Lager.  yes.. India. Pale. LAGER.  C'mon.. you don't know Jack's Abby yet?!  WTF is wrong with you!  Get with the craft beer picture in New England!  JA does lagers.. and lagers only.  Personally, I think this results in much 'cleaner' beers, allows the malts, hops, and anything else to really shine through.  For this, they used Apollo, Bravo, Calypso, and Simcoe hops.. holy moly!  Golden copper/yellow pour and a giant thick head, the hops burst forth from the bottle.  Tropical hops dominate with equal parts citrus, grass and a great piney zing that finishes off the nose.  Almost no malt is present, the hops are the star here and in the taste.  Insane hop flavors, ranging from sharp and piney to really smooth citrus and tropical notes.  And let's just say grapefruit grapefruit grapefruit!  (tangerine and orange peel too.. but my lord, that grapefruit!)  It's smooth for such a strongly hopped beer with just a touch of light caramel and honey malt holding it all together.  Brewed for the DrinkCraftBeer Spring Hop Fest, this is the embodiment of unreal hops..  kudos!

- - 9 Hops!

6.10 - Wake Me Up, Mr Perkulator

Monday's suck, right?  They drag, you're exhausted..  well coffee usually does the trick.  Usually.  How about AFTER work hours.  Yeah, beer.  Perfect

Dark Horse - Perkulator Coffee Dopplebock
a 7.5% ABV 21 IBU Dopplebock style beer brewed with coffee/with coffee added.  Who knows, there's coffee.. can;t go wrong.  Right?  Sounds like the style would go great with coffee.. so let's see.  It's a murky brown pour that fades to coppery brown near the top.. almost no head.  Pretentious-coffee-shop roasted coffee aroma with some milder cacao and caramel notes, faint smoke.  This is a great coffee beer.. it straddles the fence of being artificially flavored and overly bitter-roasted coffee quite well, as well as having solid wheat malts to back up the Dopplebock categorization.  It's not overly sweet, nor heavy.. there's just the right amount of cocoa, roast, and plenty of coffee to back up the name.  And while it's not exuding the most exquisite gourmet roasted coffee flavors, this taste most like my ideal cup of coffee.  Just a malty, roasty, coffee-tastic brew.

- - 8 Hops!

6.9 - Down In That Deep Deep South..

I seriously love beer trades..  It's a crazily expensive habit to get into.  But still cheaper and healthier than crack.  Well.. maybe not cheaper.  Shit.

Here's a fruit of one of those exchanges..

Deep Ellum Brewing Co - Farmhouse Wit
a 4.8% ABV and 25 IBU blend of a Farmhouse Ale and a Belgian Wit.  The really cool connection with this is that there's an area of Dallas known for great food, drink, and culture..  Deep Ellum is also a fantastic local bar with great beer and a southern food flair.  So let's drink something by Deep Ellum brewing and see if it has the spirit of both places in the beer.  The color of this beer is incredible.. bright golden yellow like sunshine in a glass with a pure white head.  Not as clear as many Farmhouses or Wits are, but with that hue, I'm certainly not complaining.  There's signs of both styles in the nose..  some citrus and spice from the Wit and grassy hops with bubblegum yeast notes from the Farmhouse.  This is a bit fuller than you would expect, but is more than refreshing.  Tons of lemon and citrus, some coriander and/or various spices.  There's light sweet honey malts and a little bit of grassy hops on the finish with just the right about of yeasty funk.  A bit overly carb'd, but it really works for this beer.  Tons of flavor and very very refreshing.

- - 8 Hops!

6.5 - Just Ride The Waves, Brah

Now this will be very interesting..  I got 2 cans of this about 8 or 9 months ago and had one pretty soon thereafter..  can a pale ale brewed with passion fruit and cherries stand the test of time?  Let's just hop on that wave and see, man.

Maui Brewing Company - Sobrehumano Palena'Ole Pale Ale

a 6.0% ABV and 24 IBU Pale brewed with fruit.  The cool part is, it's a collab with Jolly Pumpkin with passion fruit from the Hawaiian Islands and Michigan cherries used in each.  Maui will brew theirs traditionally while Jolly Pumpkin will take the base beer and barrel age it for a sour release.  From what I hear, the JP release was incredible and from experience, the first can I tried was faintly tart, a nice blend of the two fruits.. probably a solid 6 Hops rating as the fruit was the only high point.  After many months...

It's a chunky pour with a large brown hued head.. muddy copper water.  There's a little funk in the nose with old fruit and faint cherry sweetness with some stale bread.  Not too enticing.  The taste and body.. well it's light, but feels chewy and a bit chunky.  There's some tart, but it seems to be akin to a bottle of juice that has been open too long.  It's an infected-type sour.. or badly aged.  The cherries are still present, but almost none of the passion fruit.  There's a mild sweetness in the finish, but more of that weird funk.  This may have been a bad can.. or else age is worse to this brew than Macauley Culkin.  

Previous.. 6-7 Hops

This time around..

- - 4 Hops!

6.2 - You Have Reached The Hoptimum

Unlike the last post.. sometimes you want a kick-you-in-your-teeth strong beer and you actually do drink said beer.  Time to fuck some palates up!

Sierra Nevada - Hoptimum Imperial IPA

a 10.4% ABV 100 IBU palate wrecking monster of a brew.  A gorgeous golden copper pour and quickly dissipating head are a hallmark of this monster.  And the nose..  holy hops.  Dank, resinous, just pure hop juice.  There's citrus, pine, sharp spicy hops.. also some tropical notes and overloads of caramel.  This is like hops and weed had a baby in your nostrils.  Amazing.  It's a huge and strong beer.. thick and syrupy.. in the description they use whole hop cones.. well it's like they just squeezed out the essence of the hop.  It's utterly bitter and fairly sweet for such a hoppy beer.  Tons of pine and grapefruit in the body with a huge dose of malt that strains to hold it all together.  There's caramel, toffee, and some rich bread.  But seriously.. this is ALL ABOUT THE HOPS.  The alcohol isn't that hidden as the beer warms a bit, but really.. who cares? Dear God this is so good.  It's like Sixpoint's Resin on steroids.  It's like mainlining pure hops.. it's just.. damn. 

- - 9 Hops!