9.27 - Pale Ale of the People

Had a good beer friend go back home to FL for a mini-vacation.  Kid is crazy enough and generous enough to bring back a few things for some people in my little tasting group.  This was one of them.

Intuituon Aleworks - People's Pale Ale
a 5.5% ABV 29 IBU Pale Ale - their flagship beer.  A clear copper orange pour, huge fluffy orange-hued head.  There's a ton of grainy hay malt notes, touches of sweet honey and caramel.. dry grassy hops and a bit of orange peel in the nose.  Clean and light, the large amounts of hay honey malts are bright and subtle.. a nice balance.  The body follows suit, this is a very solid Pale.  There's the right balance between body, sweet malts, crisp dryness and a faint hop profile.  This just fits.  Toffee/caramel melds well with grassy hops, touches of citrus and pine throughout.  A really nice Pale that would be a great day-to-day crushable brew.

- - 7 hops!

Oh.. and he hooked me up with a Jai Alai IPA that coincidentally was canned ON my birthday.  May not be fresh by most people's standards.. but the freshest Jai Alai I've ever had

9.22 - Trading Group Tasting

So in my beer trading group, there's persons around the country.  Apparently a lot of people meet up while on vacation, business travel, etc, with other members in the group that live where they're travelling and share beers.  Everyone seems incredibly chill and generous, so randomly meeting with essentially strangers actually doesn't seem odd at all.

A member from Portland, OR told myself and some of the other MA guys (thankfully they live very very close) that he would be in MA for business and wanted to meet up for a bottle share.  For me and at least one other guy, it would be out first share with someone from the group, so we all dug fairly deep for it!

 in drinking order...

Anchorage Brewing Company - The Tide and It's Takers

a 9.0% ABV Belgian Tripel brewed that is aged in French Chardonnay barrels with Brettanomyces.  Terrific balance between the Belgian yeast influence and the buttery, oaky tart that came from the barrel-aging. 

Backlash Beer Company - Declaration

(been there, done that!  But one of the MA guys, and the OR guy definitely hadn't had it.   It's my obligation and civic duty to introduce them to Backlash!)

Hill Farmstead - Clara

a 4% ABV Saison/Grisette.  Hay, yeasty, dry, crisp, citrus.  I can see the hype around HF now.  Everything works together.   I can imagine drinking this in the fields 90 or so years ago.. a perfect example of the style

De Garde - Mulligan

a 6.4$ ABV Belgian IPA spontaneously fermented with wild yeast and aged in gin barrels.  The herbal, oaky characteristics imparted from the barrels is nothing shy of divine.  Take the essence from you favorite gin-based drink, shove it in a hookah.. take a big ole inhale while sipping on a drying Belgian IPA with minimal hoppiness and you get Mulligan..  whoa!

Jester King - El Cedro

an 8.0% wood-aged Saison with Brett.  If you couldn't tell.. it was aged on cedar.  I love the Saison and funky Brett aspect to this beer, but the cedar.. all I'm missing is legit cedar splinters on my tongue..  like chewing on cedar floor boards..

Night Shift - Crusader

an 8.5% Belgian IPA aged in Chardonnay barrels.  A bit underwhelming, not a ton of hops, mellowed by the wine barrel sweetness and a juice-like body.

Ale Apothecary - Spencer

a 13% ABV dry-hopped, fruited, barrel-aged Wild Ale brewed with Brett.  Seriously..  just fucking wow. There's no words... fucking world class

Allagash - Ghoulschip

a 6.9% Wild Ale brewed with pumpkin, pumpkin seed and molasses.  Holds up amazingly being from 2011, pumpkin is incredibly subtle, great sour presence

Olde Hickory - Event Horizon (2011)

an 8.5 BB Imperial Stout with honey.  Low ABV for the style, but the taste is fucking phenomenal, honey sweetness, bourbon/vanilla notes, chocolate, coffee.  The lower ABV fits it perfectly.. any higher and the thickness/booze would probably take over.  The final beer and the star of the show..

People - you gotta make trading friends in other cities.. and drink with them!  You may come across some unbelievable beers!

9.20 - Marshall Wharf

I snagged these while in Maine 2 months ago, both list a brew/can date in June, so trying to hit these within the 3 month 'sweet-spot' window for IPAs/hoppy beers.

Marshall Wharf - Ace Hole

a  6.3% American Pale Ale brewed with Sorachi Ace and Citra hops.  Man.. I love me some Citra..  this is a gorgeous golden yellow pour with a big, bold head (as is the case with these canned beers).  Bready, light, sweet caramel nose with tons of citrusy hops.  Again.. fuckin love Citra.  It may be impossible to make a bad beer that uses Citra.  Grapefruit, pepper, candied sugar..  it makes me want to drink this through my nose. With this sweetness and hop profile, hard to believe it can be called an APA, this is fantastic.  So much crisp balance to this beer, the hops are bold and bright, but play nicely with the golden bready malts.  A touch dry on the finish, this would easily be an everyday beer if I had that sort of access.. simply fantastic.  hard to find a single thing I'd change about this.

- - 9 Hops!

Marshall Wharf - Cant Dog

a 9.7% ABV Imperial IPA.  Can someone explain to me why some breweries use the DIPA moniker and others use Imperial IPA?  Tomato tomAHto I guess.. right?  A bright copper, heady pour.. another head that takes forever to settle and laces the glass gorgeously.   Huge amounts of caramel malts, sticky, resinous citrus piney hops... a bit subdued and not as sharp as I think it has the potential to have, but it's about 3 months old.  It's got a very strong hop presence, but I feel like the hop flavor has faded and all that remains is mainly in the nose.  There's still strong a strong piney presence, but it melds in with the sticky malts and boozy bite.  This needs to be drank fresh.. BUT I can imagine what this would be fresh.  The balance is still there, just muted like someone trying to smother an aging grandparent with a pillow.  But the nose is still amazing!

- - 8 Hops!

9.18 - Small Bottle Share

Another installment of my weekly group bottle share. A bit more tame this time around, but still very enjoyable!

Brewmaster Jack - Jame
a 5.4% ABV and 20 IBU hoppy Blonde Ale.  Brewed with Citra, Motueka and HBC 342 (love that ish), it has a subtle, tropical hop profile that suits the wheaty, clean, hay-like blonde malts.  Drinks incredibly easy
- - 7 Hops!

Night Shift Brewing - Amarillonation
8.6% ABV Belgian DIPA in their '-nation' series, showcasing hop varieties.  You get the Belgian yeast characteristics and some juicy, dry hops.  My biggest qualm is that there's no balance, the drying hops take over in one sip, and the next is all barnyard Belgian funk.
- - 7 Hops!

Two Brothers Brewing - Hop Juice Black
a 9.9% ABV Black DIPA.  Funny story here.. was hunting for bubblewrap to send out a package.. rummaged around in a box I had recently received and felt something hard at the bottom of the box.. I had an extra freebie bottle that I overlooked!  SCORE!!  This is everything you'd want in a Black version of a DIPA, tons of roast and coffee, big body, and big citrus/pine hops.  So balanced, but so potent!  A wonderful surprise for sure
- - 8 Hops!

Elevation Beer Company - False Summit

an 11.1% ABV 20 IBU Bourbon barrel-age Belgian Quad.  Stole the show, so sweet and rich, but with a nice oaky, vanilla bourbon kick.  ABV is completely hidden, the sweetness is mellow and fruity.  This is perfect for the style.

- - 9 Hops!

9.15 - Another Weez

Anytime the limited release Maine Beer Co beer's see their way to MA, you MUST get them.  Seriously. One of the few breweries from which I've had multiple beers, and haven't found many, if any, I did not enjoy. This is a really cool release they did..  most breweries are doing some beers now where they keep the same base beer, but change up the hops.  This 2 beer release keeps the hop profile and swaps out the malts between the two beers..  The results are very interesting!

Maine Beer Co - Weez

a 7.2% ABV Black IPA?  Cascadian Dark?  Hoppy Porter?  Who knows..  but they took the hops from Another One (you see that next) and infused them into a dark, roasty, malty brew.  If you couldn't tell from the label, a portion of the proceeds go to a stray cat shelter/foundation.  WOOO kitties!!   It pours a light chocolate brown, a touch watery of a pour, with a fluffy mocha head.  Roasty, nutty malts, hints of charcoal, smoke, chocolate and a faint citrus hop in the background.  It drinks exactly how I'd expect a faintly hoppy porter to drink.  Light body but velvety smooth.. there's chocolatey roast, some nuttiness, char and toffee, but a fair amount of citrus and grassy hops with a menthol/lemon cough drop-type flavor - which is actually not a bad thing.  Slightly medicinal, but more orange rind, lemon peel and grapefruit juice..  gives way to a dry, cocoa powder finish, semi-sweet and more roast.  A very enjoyable 'Black IPA'.. let's see what the traditional take is..

- - 8 Hops!

Maine Beer Co - Another One

a 7.0% ABV IPA..  take the hops from Weez, change up the malt bill to reflect a traditional IPA and you get yet another IPA from MBC.  A bright golden yellow pour, fluffy average white head.  More of those citrus hops come through on the nose, just more so due to sweeter malts.  There's the sweet caramel and wheat notes, but you get peaches, nectarines, orange rind, as well as some tropical mango and pineapple.  Great nose for sure.  But when it comes to the actual flavor, the medicinal astringency that was a bit present in Weez comes through much more prominently due to the lighter malts.  It throws everything off..  the malts are OK, at best..  rounded and a bit sweet.  But any and all hoppiness is completely skewed.. it comes off metallic, faded..  and this is not 'old' by any means, well within MBC's suggested drinking timeframe.  It had potential, but in my eyes (and taste buds) it really is just 'Another One'

- - 6 Hops!

9.13 - In The Nick Of Time

This beer just keeps coming out.. time after time..   and with all the goddamn ones I have stashed away, it's hard to be sure I drink certain beers in time.  Well, thankfully I managed to crack this one by with a few hours to spare.

Stone - Enjoy By 09.13.13
again, a 9.4% ABV 90+ IBU Double IPA ultra-fresh hop bomb.  Let's keep this simple.  I've done 3 or 4 of these reviews now..  this one is easily the closest to the first batch of Enjoy By that came out last Novemeber.  Huge dank nose, sharply bitter with just a touch of honey and caramel malts.  Despite the 9.4% ABV, there's so little body to this beer.  Just wave after wave of hops.  If you love bitter beers and enjoy your hops the most when they Bruce Lee-kick you in the jaw..  hunt down Enjoy By when it drops next.

- - 9 Hops!

9.10 - Stone and Deer Piss

Sometimes I just sit on my beers too fucking long.  This is one of those times.  I'm a dumbass.  Enough said.

Stone Brewing Collab - Japanese Green Tea IPA ( Baird and Ishii breweries - Japan & Guam )
a 9.2% ABV DIPA brewed as a fundraiser with proceeds going towards the Japan tsunami relief funds.. yes, this is that old.  Japan tsunami of 2011 old.  wow.  oops.  A bright golden yellow pour as thick as orange juice with almost no head.   Faded citrus hops notes with some mellow floral, herbal tea aromas.  I think the age may have affected this one a bit.  Wheaty and cracker malts hit first with some smooth, pleasant citrus hops up front that transition to a juice-like citrus profile infused with herbal tea notes.  I'm no tea fan, but this works nicely.  I imagine the hops and herbal notes would be far sharper and clean if I had this anywhere within even the first 12 months..  tis the fate I'm bound to endure with so many goddamn beers.
Still very nice.. because I don't dig tea, I'm ok with the level of 'tea-ness' this presents.

- - 8 Hops!

Ghost Pale Ale ( DeerDummy Beer ) - Minhas Brewery

a 5.0% ABV Pale Ale - contract brew for the DeerDummy website.  In a trade with a good partner, I was extra'd a goddamn Surly Darkness (fuckin seriously?) and to balance it out, he threw in this lovely gem.  He called it Deer Piss Beer.  Well, it fuckin reeks of corn and adjuncts.  Huge oxidization aroma..   semi-sweet body, but all corn.  Skunky, watery, harshly bitter in the bad way.  I dumped 1/2 of it  (yes, I choked down half!  I'm a trooper)   Funny funny guy...

well I got a Darkness out of the deal.. I guess I deserved a shit beer to balance it out!

- - 1 Hop!  ( because it was fuckin free )

9.9 - Road to RuinTen

So I missed this when it was released last year, and thankfully Stone decided to re-relese it as an annual thing.  If you thought Stone couldn't up the hops on Ruination/Enjoy By..  well here's this hop beast.

Stone - RuinTen

a 10.8% ABV  ˜110 IBU 'roided up, hop-infused version of Ruination, first brewed for the 10th anniversary of Ruination.   Thankfully, they're doing it fresh every year now.. and a killer bottle.  Great shelf presence.  It pours a richer hazy copper orange than it's 'base' beer.  Medium head, but I'll be damned if the friggin thing barely ever dissipated.  Huge, resinous hop nose, tons of toffee, orange rind, pine..only a hint of the high ABV..and only as it warms.  There's some caramel, cracker sweet malts but almost instantly this is replaced by ridiculously sharp hops.  Tons of pine, floral, grassy and citrus hops, all rolled into a mini atomic bomb that detonates on your tongue.  Insane.  Besides the initial taste, and some intermittent notes of sweetness, this is pure hop juice.. crazy thick, even for an almost 11% DIPA.  Oily, juicy.. at times dank as all hell, like hoppy nugs.  There's some spice on the end like they infused it with rye malts, and the booze becomes more noticeable as it warms.. but the huge hops do a good job of subduing this.  For those that thought Ruination was the height of hoppy dankness..  seek this one out.  Stone managed to up the bar on hops.. yet again.

- - 9 Hops!

9.6 - Look At Those Cans!

At some point, there needs to be some sort of theme to these damn posts.  Here we've got ourselves a nice little two-fer theme!  

New Belgium - Shift Pale Lager 

a 5.0% ABV 29 IBU Lager take on a Pale Ale.  Everything Jack's Abby has done, I've loved.  And this was around first.  Sad I didn't get to try it on my recent trips to it's distro area, but I finally scored one, so let's see!  Just what you'd expect - a hazy golden pour, big ol' fluffy white head.  There's a strong nose for a Pale filled with fresh hay, honey, cracker malts, with some grassy/piney malts and some faint tropical fruits.  Dry, crisp, somewhat fruity, a touch hoppy and sweet.. for such a simple style, this is firing on all cylinders.  It's an incredibly clean and bright beer, nothing overpowers anything else, but everything stands out.  Caramel, cracker and honey malts, fresh cut grass, essence of pineapple and mango.. all of these come through wonderfully.  I can see the 'hype' (more like huge praise) behind this beer.. totally warranted.  A terrific evey day beer.  

- - 8 Hops!

New Belgium - Fat Tire

a 5.2% ABV  18 IBU American Amber Ale.  I believe I reviewed this from a bottle about a year ago when I visited Georgia.. but here's the can.  Can't remember if I really did or not.. so I'll just do it again for you bastards.  Another one that had huge praise surrounding it.  Copper pour with an average-sized head.  Bready, caramel, toffee, touches of mineral/metallic, yeasty, citrus..  a bit lighter than most Ambers I've had with more citrus notes.  It's definitely light for the style, but for 5.2% it's sort of expected.  Take Shift, add more nuttiness and caramel malts and you have Fat Tire.  It's crisp, yet rounded and smooth, there's the citrus notes that meld well with the faint hoppiness and sweeter malts.. but the sweetness is by no means too much.  This is a very nice beer.. yes there are better Ambers out there as this premiered years ago, but it shows you where the style came from in the US.

- - 7 Hops!

9.1 - Labor Day Insanity

My turn to host a tasting!!

And it's a holiday.. so let's go all out!

(note - I will NOT be reviewing any of the beers.. you can just gawk at what we all consumed)

At it's peak, I was chilling with about 9 other people, everyone bringing something cool.  No whalezbro, nothing crazy.. just a bunch of us having good beer and good conversation.

Homebrew - dark malt Saison

Backlash - Apocalypse Series: Conquest White IPA, War Rye Farmhouse Ale, & Famine Single Malt/Single Hop Triple

Maine Beer Co - Lunch IPA

Parish Brewing Co - Farmhouse IPA

Pretty Things - Once Upon A Time XXXX Mild Ale

Samuel Adams - Dark Depths Baltic Porter

Mystic - Hazy Jane Summer Saison

Boulevard - Sixth Glass Quadrupel

Berkshire Brewing Co. - Dean's Beans Coffeehouse Porter

Monchshof - Kellerbier (unfiltered, unpastuerized and open-cask matured)

3 Floyd's - Zombie Dust Pale