Tag Archives: usa

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Founders Brewing Company, Stout - Imperial, USA

Founders Lizard of Koz

Thursday, 16 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Founders Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 10.5%
Style: American Imperial Stout
Other Notes: 40 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Imperial Stout brewed with blueberries, chocolate and vanilla. Aged in bourbon barrels.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.53
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.4

Intro: A 750ml bottle with no visible bottled on or best by date. Poured into a snifter.
Appearance: Black in colour with a one finger tanned head that dissipated fairly quickly while leaving some spotty lacing.
Aroma: Roasted malts, milk chocolate, vanilla and sour blueberries. It sounds good, but this combination in this form was a bit of a disappointment for me.
Taste: Overwhelming sweet blueberries and chocolate with only a touch of vanilla. I feel the bourbon is actually there too, kind of creeps in here and there, but is just completely covered by the blueberries.
Mouthfeel: Full bodied with low carbonation.
Overall: This seems to be a love or hate beer for a lot of people, even though I appear to be kind of in the middle. I shared this with my girlfriend who had about 200ml, while I finished the other 550ml. The first few sips were actually pretty good, but towards the end, due to the sweetness, it was slow going trying to finish it. I felt this would have been better in a 12 fl oz bottle. This way, one person could enjoy it and you could just open another bottle if you needed more. Perhaps aging this would make it better by toning down the blueberries, but as always, there’s no guarantees.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Anchor Brewing Company, Beer Reviews, California Common / Steam Beer, USA

Anchor Brotherhood Steam

Monday, 13 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Anchor Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 5.6%
Style: California Common / Steam Beer
Other Notes: Dry-hopped beer

Brewer Description: (from website) In the spring of 2014, our friends of Chris Robinson Brotherhood released their album “Phosphorescent Harvest” and kicked off their U.S. tour in the SF Bay Area. To celebrate, we tapped the first keg of our Brotherhood Steam Beer, a Golden State Collaboration of handcrafted California tunes and handcrafted California brews.

Inspired by the brewing tradition of our flagship, Anchor Steam® Beer, Brotherhood Steam Beer is brewed with its own unique recipe. A distinct malt bill gives the beer its copper color, and dry-hopping with Citra and Nelson Sauvin hops adds aromatic hints of citrus and mint. The result is a smooth, full-bodied malt flavor with a lingering, fresh hop finish.

A long-standing English brewery tradition is to designate their beers, “Ordinary”, “Best or Special”, and “Extra Special Bitter” (ESB) to note beers of increasing strength.

In the spirit of that tradition, we like to think of Brotherhood Steam Beer as an Extra Special Lager (ESL), aka “The Gig Beer” – an easy drinking brew from the first set to encore.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.5
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.4

Intro: A 12 fl oz can with no visible canned on or best by date. Poured into a stemmed Mikkeller tasting glass.
Appearance: A clear copper orange colour with a just less than two finger off white head that had decent retention and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Citrus orange, citrus zest, grass, herbal, caramel and toasty biscuit.
Taste: Grapefruit, orange, lemon, citrus zest, caramel, biscuit malt sweetness, herbal and floral.
Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Nicely balanced and easy to drink.

2 - Maybe (likely wouldn't buy, might drink), American Amber / Red Ale, Ballast Point Brewing Company, Beer Reviews, USA

Ballast Point California Amber

Wednesday, 8 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Ballast Point Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 5.5%
Style: American Amber Ale
Other Notes: 51 IBUs. ESB-inspired ale

Brewer Description: (from website) Our California Amber takes its inspiration from traditional English ESBs. Four types of malt gives it a bold complexity, and our proprietary yeast strain lends it a fruity, madeira-like richness. However, it’s the American hops that give this ale a distinct bite and floral aroma that have earned it just about every major beer medal.

My rating: 2
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.54
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.2

Intro: A 12 fl oz bottle with a Julian bottled on date of 16321, meaning that it was bottled on 16th November 2016. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A clear dark copper colour with an orange-reddish hue and a slightly less than two finger cream head that had great retention and left some nice lacing.
Aroma: A touch light but there’s caramel malt and pine with hints of fruit and herbs.
Taste: It’s exactly what I expected from the aroma with sweet caramel malt, toffee, pine and fruit with a bitter finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium to light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: A decent amber ale that I’d drink again, but not sure I’d want to pay for it.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), American IPA, Ballast Point Brewing Company, Beer Reviews, USA

Ballast Point Big Eye IPA

Monday, 6 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Ballast Point Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 7%
Style: American IPA
Other Notes: 84 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from website) The beer that helped put San Diego IPA’s on the map. Our Big Eye IPA is a big hoppy brew, thanks to the abundance of American Columbus and Centennial varieties we use to flavor and dry hop. While the English originally added extra hops to preserve their beers for sea travel, we do it for the love of all that bold, intense flavor that makes India Pale Ale one of our favorite styles.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.76
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.6

Intro: A 12 fl oz bottle with a Julian bottled on date of 16327, meaning it was bottled on 22nd November 2016. Poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass.
Appearance: A clear copper colour with a big three finger off white head that had decent retention and eventually settled to a fluffy layer while leaving nice lacing.
Aroma: Pine, grapefruit zest and orange with touches of caramel malt.
Taste: Bitter grapefruit zest, orange rind and pine balanced with some lightly sweet biscuit and caramel malt.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to light carbonation.
Overall: A nice and balanced IPA that I wouldn’t mind drinking more of.

4 - Good (buy), American Strong Ale, Beer Reviews, Deschutes Brewery x Hair of the Dog Brewing Company, USA

Deschutes x Hair of the Dog Collage #2 Conflux Series

Friday, 3 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Deschutes Brewery x Hair of the Dog Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 14.3%
Style: American Strong Ale
Other Notes: Blend of Deschutes’ The Abyss and The Stoic with Hair of the Dog’s Fred and Doggie Claws. 19 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Deschutes Brewery and Hair of the Dog Brewing Company bring you another artistic collage of cask-aging alchemy. This encore collaboration delivers notes of vanilla, caramel and molasses with roasted accents and complex malt character.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.34
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 22 fl oz bottle with a bottled on date of 1st August 2016. Poured into a snifter glass.
Appearance: A clear dark amber brown colour with pretty much no head other than an extremely thin tanned coloured layer that doesn’t even cover it completely and dissipates quickly. Only some sparse lacing.
Aroma: Lots of dark fruits especially raisins, cherry, raspberries, plum and prunes. Following that, there’s roasted malt, caramel, toffee, oak, vanilla, molasses, chocolate and whiskey. The Pinot character seems to come out more as it warms.
Taste: Chocolate and cocoa at the beginning followed by some dark fruit, mainly raisin, cherry and prunes. In the middle there is some red wine coming through before finishing with caramel, toffee, vanilla, oak, molasses and whiskey.
Mouthfeel: Full bodied with light but prickly carbonation and light alcohol warmth.
Overall: This wonderful sipper has complex aromas and taste. It is very well blended as the result is well balanced. Good fruit, malt and barrel character. I already have another bottle to age.

words of another dreamy traveller