Tag Archives: usa

18th Street Brewery, 4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, German Berliner Weisse, USA

18th Street Sour Note Berliner Weisse

Tuesday, 21 June 2016 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: 18th Street Brewery (The Sour Note Brewing)
Country: USA
ABV: 3.5% or 4.3% (I’ve seen both, but nothing definitive, not even on their own website)
Style: German Berliner Weisse
Other Notes: Unfiltered, sediment may occur, do not recommend cellaring of this beer

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Berliner Weisse is a top-fermented, bottle conditioned wheat beer made with both traditional warm-fermenting yeasts and lactobacillus culture. Regional to Berlin, this sharp, tart, fruity and refreshing ale dates back to the Middle Ages and has been called ‘The Workers’ Sparkling Wine.’

Delicate, yet aggressive, sour beer is the culmination of great patience, immaculate attention to craft, & an immense amount of labor. Just as many find great beauty in the acerbic, tart, & earthy overtones of a great sour, we also find the same beauty in our hometown of Gary, Indiana.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.99
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A 750ml bottle with no best by or bottled on date poured into a Cantillon ballon glass.
Appearance: It poured a clear golden yellow colour with an extremely thin white head that disappeared almost immediately with little lacing.
Aroma: Tart apple and lemon with a hint of grass and wheat.
Taste: Like the aroma, sour and tart lemon and apple with a hint of mango, grass and wheat.
Mouthfeel: Dry, light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Simple but extremely refreshing considering it’s 34 degrees outside. It’s printed on the bottle “we do not recommend cellaring of this beer”, and I did not intend to, but I estimate it’s maybe got a year on it, but in good conditions.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Porter - Imperial, Stone Brewing Co., USA

Stone 20th Anniversary Encore Series: 6th Anniversary Porter

Monday, 20 June 2016 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Stone Brewing Co.
Country: USA
ABV: 8%
Style: American Imperial Porter
Other Notes: 2016 release. Drink fresh or age at cellar temp

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Stone 20th Anniversary Encore Series. No single day can contain something as momentous as our 20th Anniversary here at Stone Brewing. So we’re celebrating this milestone throughout 2016 by bringing back some fan-favorite beers from our past, using their original recipes and bottle art (with either the classic or new back-label text, depending on which one you get), while looking forward to a future filled with continued creativity, passion and a helluva lot of fun. Join us!

Stone’s 6th Anniversary Porter
An ode to density, viscosity and the unbearable opaqueness of being…

Considering that we were barrelling down on a beeline path in what might have seemed to be a ruinous (get it?) direction with previous Anniversaries’ IPA offerings to the hop god-hops are not a real religion, but perhaps they should be? Already a large and ravenous throng is ready and willing to offer their palates up on the sacrificial altar unto the not-yet-deity-it might seem that we are grabbing the bottom of the steering wheel, thrusting our full body weight and then some downwards to increase the force to the brakes while downshifting and spinning the wheel in an attempt at a vulpine Starsky & Hutch-esque move (how’s that for a dated-not-pertaining-to-anything ‘70s reference there, Huggy Bear?) to reverse direction in a din of screeching tires and acrid rubber smoke (along with the obligatory camera shot of the lone-rolling hubcap), thus treating our brewery as if it were some sort of asphalt-faring drogher, to which I say a hearty “Nay!” to all that lurpy (which isn’t even a real word, but it sounds cool and seems to somehow be apropos in this context) puerile nonsense, for this is not what it seems by any stretch of the imagination, as it is instead simply a very sharp turn within the context of that which is the Stone Anniversary Ale, allowing us each to glow in our own individually pulchritudinous way as we pay homage with this sui generis “goosed up a notch or three” version of our much loved and equally misunderstood Stone Smoked Porter, which we think is truly the bee’s knees in brewer’s trousers. Capisce? Good. And don’t worry about them succubuses (succubusi?)… our gargoyle is watching.

Note: This logophobic nightmare of a label contains ludicrous amounts of rambling, nonsensical text due to Team Stone members submitting words such as “lurpy” and “Huggy Bear” for Greg to incorporate into the copy for the original release.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.75
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.6

Intro: A 22 fl oz bomber bottled on 3rd April 2016 and poured into a Moonzen teku glass.
Appearance: It poured a clear dark brown colour with a one finger tanned head good retention and moderate lacing.
Aroma: Toasted malts, cherry and vanilla with a hint of smoke and chocolate.
Taste: Roasted malts and smoky char dominate with bittersweet chocolate in the background and a hint of vanilla.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: A pretty good Imperial Porter that’s balanced and surprisingly easy to drink. Glad I got to try it.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Jack’s Abby Brewing, Lager - IPL (India Pale), USA

Jack’s Abby Hopstitution XPL #3 Calyptra

Friday, 17 June 2016 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Jack’s Abby Brewing
Country: USA
ABV: 5.5%
Style: American IPL
Other Notes: Hops – Calypso and Citra

Brewer Description: (from bottle) The hardest part about making new and exciting hoppy beers is sourcing the hops you need. Most hops are bought under contracts which are signed two or three years in advance. We occasionally get opportunities to acquire small quantities of specialty hops that are enough for one batch of beer, but no more. “Hopstitution” allows us to feature hops that we would otherwise not be able to make use of.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.2
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 16.9 fl oz. bottle with no bottled on or best by date, poured into a Moonzen teku glass.
Appearance: It poured a cloudy golden colour with a slightly less than two finger white head that had good retention and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Citrus orange, mandarin and a bit of peel with hints of mango.
Taste: Juicy with orange, melon and mango dominating. There are also some light herbal and floral notes, a hint of lemon zest and is lightly bitter.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied and highly carbonated.
Overall: Another great lager from Jack’s Abby. Much like Hoponius Union, it is light tasty and easy to drink.

18th Street Brewery, 4 - Good (buy), American Pale Ale, Beer Reviews, USA

18th Street Deal With The Devil

Wednesday, 15 June 2016 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: 18th Street Brewery
Country: USA
ABV: 8.5%
Style: American Pale Ale
Other Notes: Unfiltered, sediment may occur

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Brewed as a salute to our brothers at Spiteful Brewing, Deal With The Devil is packed with Citra hops. It is a juicy pale ale that’s low in bitterness and huge in tropical flavors.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.21
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 22 fl oz bomber with no best by or bottled on date. Poured into a Duvel tulip glass.
Appearance: It poured a hazy deep amber orange colour with a one finger cream coloured head with decent retention and nice spotty lacing.
Aroma: Strong citrus notes with orange and grapefruit rind combined with lots of pine and caramel sweetness.
Taste: Orange, approaching candy orange, with a good amount of grapefruit zest, pine and caramel sweetness.
Mouthfeel: Just over medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: For some reason, I had it in my head that this was going to be like pseudoSue or Zombie Dust, but this was completely different and not in a bad way. Deal With The Devil was still a great pale ale with a good balance between citrus fruit and malt.

2 - Maybe (likely wouldn't buy, might drink), American Double IPA, Ballast Point Brewing Company, Beer Reviews, USA

Ballast Point Watermelon Dorado

Monday, 13 June 2016 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Ballast Point Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 10%
Style: American Double IPA
Other Notes: 90 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from website) Our Watermelon Dorado Double IPA is not one to back down from big flavors. Mash, kettle, and dry hopping blend to create a huge hop profile that is balanced with a blast of watermelon. The result is a refreshing brew that is all summer and no seeds.

My rating: 2
My beeradvocate.com rating: 2.89
My ratebeer.com rating: 2.8

Intro: A 12 fl oz bottle with a Julian bottled on date of 16053, meaning it was bottled on 22nd February 2016. Poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass.
Appearance: It poured a clear golden orange colour with a huge four finger off white head with good retention and left lots of nice lacing.
Aroma: Strong watermelon with a hint of orange peel and sweet biscuit caramel malt.
Taste: A little weird like the flavours don’t mix together. There’s candied watermelon, cucumber (which I guess could be mistaken for the watermelon skin and white parts), some bitter grapefruit and fruit jello like sweetness. And none of it really came together unfortunately.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: I don’t know. I think this beer may be in the you either like it or don’t like it category. There isn’t really a middle ground. And in my case, it just wasn’t for me. It actually smells nice, but the tastes were just muddled and did not fit together for me.

words of another dreamy traveller