Road Dog Porter

Brewer: Flying Dog, Denver, CO and Frederick, MD (more recently)

ABV: 6%

COLOR: Hearty Amber. Dark and Rich

Aroma: High quality chocolate malts and an almost plum-like aroma that all scottish porters tend to have

Flavor: Very rich in malts. Not very hoppy (31 IBU) but balanced well for a crisp finish, unlike many cheaper porters.

Opinion: This beer has been one of my absolute favorite beers for years. It's what I've always compared every porter to since. The brewery is great. Everything they touch turns to gold. It's not hard to tell why Hunter S. Thompson lends his name to it and gave them their catch phrase "good people drink good beer." On a more personal note, I appreciate how the brewery fought the censuring of their "Good beer. no shit." until they inevitably won the case, and now proudly print the word "shit" all over their bottle. So in that regard, here's my full opinion.

This shit is the best shit you'll find. It's so rare that a bar even has this shit, that if you happen upon some shitty bar that does, call the owner and tell him how great his shit is. Essentially, if you don't like this shit, then you're nothing but a shit and you should eat shit and die, shiteater. Now go off and buy this shit or you will forever be drinking far shittier beer.

Stone's 12th anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

Brewer: Stone Brewing Company, San Diego, CA
ABV: 9.2%
COLOR: Black. Coal Black.
Aroma: You are really overpowered by a combination of the chocolate and the alcohol--a whiskey aroma.
Flavor: Very dark. Bitter, but not a different kind of bitter, lending itself entirely to the chocolate and not hops. The alcohol is prevalent, like drinking an aged bourbon.

Opinion: The first thing that stands out as you drink it is, this tastes like the kind of chocolate bar that's way too fancy for me. It's like drinking a highly alcoholic bitter chocolate bar that deserves to be made into a cheesecake. They say it themselves, due to the international hop-shortage, they went with a non-hoppy beer for this year's anniversary ale. I think the risk paid off, but I also think this beer is too young. Knowing Stone, they probably aged it about 6 months before selling, but it tastes like it needs a few more years under its belt.

This beer is good for two things:
1) Buy it and store it for ~2 years, then drink it the next time Dr. I.J. Hoffman stops by.

2) Make it dessert. Pair it with cheesecake, or put some vanilla ice-cream in it and make a beer float (if you've never done this before, I recommend you go out and by the first porter/oatmeal stout you find and do this).

If you've decided to just drink this for shits and giggles, be prepared: this beer will knock you on your ass. It's like a Young's double chocolate, but, ya know, for men.

Anderson Valley Hop Ottin' IPA

Brewer: Anderson Valley Brewing Co, Mendocino County, CA
ABV: 7%
COLOR: fucking purple rainbows... what do you think.
Aroma: It's hoppy but there's a hint of sweetness behind it
Flavor: Bold and full. There's more to it than just hops, but they add a great finish.
Opinion: I'm a huge fan of Anderson Valley. Their Oatmeal Stout is one of the best you can buy, and it won't cost you a Sammy Smiths (it's no drake's crude, though). It's a beer you can find pretty readily. I got mine at Trader Joe's.

Their choice in hops is really excellent. They way I judge an IPA is I take a sip, and breathe out through my nose as I drink it. If the hops are balanced right, this experience is better than the initial taste. This IPA definitely upholds this. It's a very refreshing IPA. I wouldn't recommend chugging it after a 5K, but it would be great on a hot day.

I would actually say that it's stronger than a normal IPA. Both the alcohol, at a respectable 7%, and the strength of the hops (probably a lot of Magnum) resemble more of a double IPA.

It's definitely worth a try, but then again, all of AVBC's beer's are fantastic. Plus, they're a solar powered brewery, so you can feel like you're better than everyone else before the alcohol even kicks in.

Stone Brewery

Well, it's about time that I started contributing to this goddamn webpage...

As you all know (to painfully annoying detail), I've been living in San Diego for the past year. What you probably don't know is that I started working at a bar that has 24 taps of high-end and local beers. Through this I've gotten accustomed to a lot of great california beer, reviews to follow. I've also had the pleasure of being in aroma proximity to the Stone Brewery. Having recently finished my fifth brewery tour, I figured I should share some of what I've found:

STONE BREWERY
I'm not even really sure where to begin... You've probably all had a stone beer before, whether their hearty pale ale, or their tast-bud raping ruination double ipa. I recommend going out and buying their arrogant bastard ale right now. Anyway, their whole attitude is "you're not worthy" or "you won't like this beer," etc.. Their brewery is the same. Even finding the place... it's not on google maps (at least not the right address). The building is completely un-marked. You have to know where it is. As you walk up to the front of the brewery, you notice the incredible gardens that surround you. They have vines of lavendar and orange above your head and rows of ivy at your feet. You enter through the restaurant, greeted with a massive boulder in the middle. The smell is overwhelming. It's not the usually malty smell of a brewery. They take the floral, spicy aroma of the hops and mix it with the aroma of the gardens and taunting smells from the kitchen. The restaurant is open to the outside with koi ponds throughout, and is made of raw stone and unpolished steel. The bar, incredibly stocked with beers from Victory to Ommegang to Mad River on tap, and about 100 other specialty beers in bottles, gives way to the giant fermenting tanks, held immaculate behind a wall of glass.

During the tour, the guide carries a beer for "demonstration purposes," and casually demonstrates how to drink it in between each station. As for the tour itself, it's fairly standard. They pass around malts and hops that you can taste. Then they talk about the history of the brewery, etc. They let you see anything you want, unlike the bigger brewery tours. I got to go into their hop fridge. Once the tour is over, they give you a 7 oz taster glass and say you can have four beers from their ~10 different varieties. Of course this is not a strict number. They give you some bullshit about how you've got an honest face and they don't usually do this, then pour you some more beers. The best part about this is that this whole event so far has been free.

After I peruse the gift shop for a while, past shirts that say "fizzy yellow beer is for wussies" and beach towels with the gargoyle mascot exclaiming "you're not worthy" to all the annoying beachcombers, I head to the beer garden. That's right, behind the restaurant, there's and honest to god beer garden. They have rocks placed just so that you can rest your beer on them while sitting next the the waterfall. After a few hours, I get hungry and head to the restaurant. Stone specializes in having local organic foods prepared depending on what's available. The duck tacos are amazing, and I highly recommend the buffalo burger (get the extra peppers, but be careful, they're hotter than Kurtains' wing-o-death sauce). The food is incredible, but so are the prices. A full meal (without beer) will set you back ~$30-40 a person (with tip). After the meal, they set up a projector in the garden and played The Blues Brothers movie. Every week is a different classic movie. I don't really remember what happened after that, but I woke up in my own bed, so it was alright.

As far as I'm concerned, the Stone Brewery has it right. It's like Disneyland, only less anti-semitic and with a friendlier mascot. So if you're ever in San Diego, go to the Stone Brewery. Fuck the zoo... you can't drink a zebra.

Frugal Joes Ordinary Beer

Brewer: Steinhaus Brewing Company
ABV: ?
COLOR: Pale Yellow
Aroma: Sweet Malty
Flavor: Honey-Malty
Opinion:
Found this in my fridge, my roomate mentioned he got it at Trader Joes. Basically I was expecting an above average generic pale ale. Didn't necessarily get that, but it is in no way above average. It is a very sweet beer, almost Belgian tasting (minus the spice). Little to no hop aroma leaves it very bland tasting after the first couple of swigs this beer gets really old (really quick). Not sure of the price, but i would not invest in this if it was more than 18-20 a case...

Fun for the whole family...

So, the last few years when my family and I have went on vacation we have had a "beer tasting" event. Now, this differs a little from those snobby wine tasting parties, and the amount of people who have partaken has never gone over 8, but I assume you could expand it quite easily.

The way we start out is we goto this local make your own six pack store in North Carolina called Chips (http://www.chipswinemarket.com/) which i highly recommend for beer and wine purchasing when in the Outer banks.

Picking the Beers

We normally buy a large selection of beer (usually every person buys a six pack), we only buy one of each due to the small amount of people partaking, but if you want to expand you would have to buy multiple of each bottle. Now as for your selection you can really do whatever you want. We normally try and get a wide variety of styles (we do focus on specific styles we know people enjoy, and avoid ones people do not enjoy), but I could also see it being very fun to maybe buy all of one type of beer and rate them to find the best Porter for example. Also, you will probably pick these depending on how serious you want to be with this, we normally don't read to much into what we are buying because we are just hanging out and having a good time and not actually trying to accomplish anything major in our decisions. Anyways that's enough on picking the beers, moving onto the actual "event"

Running the Event

The way we run our event is a very interactive social way, unlike some other versions where people write down their opinions of the beer. Basically, we put the beer in some sort of tasting order, we try to make sure the most flavorful and strong beers are at the end so they don't overpower your taste buds, and we just start drinking. After each beer, somebody rinses the glasses, and everybody eats something to clean their pallet (can be a variety of things). Then we put the bottle back on the table in the order of which we rate it (left to right, left being #1). This is fun because after every beer you can move around the order. Normally the event takes around 1.5-3 hours depending on how many people and how many beers.

Conclusion

Yeah, this isn't anything I am presenting to you as a definitive way to do this, I am just saying this is how we do it and we always have a great time. So please try and put your own spin on this and help try and perfect it. And if anything you do works really well, please post it here so we all can learn from you.

We're Back and The Reaffermation of The American Light Beers

Hey, I recently noticed that people were actually coming to this site, and I really haven't done much with it at all recently, so i think i'm gonna try and update this site a little more regularly. So yeah, please stay tuned, and if you would like to submit a beer to be posted on this site, just use my general format and email it over to me and i'd be more than willing to post it.

Anyways, when I started this blog, I started it with the idea of a normal guy writing about beer...I didn't want to come off as some sort of Beer Aficionado (aka snob), but I also wanted to provide my own personal insight into beer, and maybe talk about some other topics in beer consumption other than various beers. Since i really never got around to doing that, here we go...

The main beer that seems to get shit on by all the Beer Snobs around the world is the American Light Beer. Now I am not going to sit here and tell you that these Light beers are the best thing since alcohol was invented, but I personally feel that even though they may not be big on flavor, they defiantly have their time and place. There are specific times that if you offered me a "nicer beer" that I would in-fact turn it down for a light beer. So sticking with the big three here is how i personally rate them:

1. Miller Lite
2. Coors Light
3. Bud Light (i actually hate this beer)

There are a few other lite beers that I like to dabble in (natural light, straub light, IC Light, Molson Light) but for arguments sake we will stick with the big 3. So here we go, a list of times in which i personally feel an American Light Beer kicks the shit out of any other beer.

1. On the Beech - When I am sitting on the beech on vacation or whatever, I am there to have a good time and relax. Whatever beverage i choose to go with me on this journey of sitting in the sun, Horseshoes, swimming or whatever, is something that
   • Gives me a buzz without getting me hammered
   • Is refreshing
     
   • Is still palatable if it gets alittle warm from the sun
   • Taste fine with sand on it
   • Doesn't put a hole in my pocket
   • Moving beer back and forth to the beach, potentiality of ice melting gives a high probability of skunking beer
     
   • Sand is not a good cup holder, spilling is highly probable
   • Most of the time at the beech, a very high number of beers are consumed
   • Anybody is willing to drink it
   For these reasons you can see why, at the beech, I would not want to drink a "nice" beer over a cheap light beer.
2. Working Outside (mowing the lawn, gardening) - This is pretty much similar reasons to the beech, except there is less of a need for as much quantity in this situation. But once again, if i am cutting the grass, I'm reaching for a Miller before i grab an IPA.
3. BBQ - Damn, this is getting repetitive, same reason as beech
4. Getting Hammered - At a bar or at home, if i'm gonna get myself all sorts of messed up I'm drinking lite beer. Getting drunk on fancy beer is bad for several reasons
   
   • PRICE
   • Higher alcohol content = less remembering of the party = less partying
   • I find fancier beer hangovers are worse
   • Constant need to describe to everybody around you what you are drinking, just saying Miller is way shorter then saying a name nobody knows then having to explain what it is.
   • Drinking games are just better with lite beers
   So as you can clearly see, if i am gonna get Drunk, i'm gonna do it off lite beer, save me some monay and get the same effects.
5. Drinking at a bar when driving - This is just simple, if i am meeting some friends and want to have a couple of beers, I can know i'm safer by drinking 3% alcohol beers than risking it by drinking some higher alcohol content beers. I am not condoning drunk driving, i am just saying it's safer to drink lite beers in this situation

Basically this is just some things i figured i could write up really quick, to try and sway people away from this anti-lite beer fad that is sweeping the nation. I am very flexible with my beer consumption and I do really like good beer, but I do understand that there are times when lite beer is good. So yeah, next time somebody gets a lite beer at a bar don't give them shit.

Also, some things to look forward to... More beers to be reviewed, and a tested method to a great beer tasting party idea that you will have a lot of fun with...

Legacy Hoptimus Prime

Brewer: Legacy
ABV: 9.00%
COLOR: Dark
Aroma: Hoppy
Flavor: Smooth Almost Refreshing
Opinion: Now when I think of Double IPA, I think of very bitter beers, if somebody told me that a Double IPA was one of the most refreshing beers they have ever tasted I would call them crazy, then i had the Hoptimus Prime. I was lucky enough to try this at the Big Pour at Construction Junction, which was a great event, and honestly, of over 150 beers they had there (I most likely sampled 50) this was byfar my personal best in show. When I got to the legacy booth they had two beers 'Brown Aled Girl' and 'Hoptimus Prime,' now I do like IPA's but Brown Ales are one of my favorite beers, but I figured, that is such a cool name, i have to try this beer, so both me and my cohort asked for a hoptimus, and it was probably the best decision I made that day. At first smell, it smelled like any other extremly hoppy beer, but after sampling it I was amazed. Somehow, it retained a strong hop flavor, had a 9% abv, and was refreshing to drink. It is so hard to describe, but I can honestly say, that I could imagine sitting outside anytime of year, it has you covered, refreshing for the hot months, high in alcohol for the cool months...you got a problem...the Hoptimus got you covered...

Oh yeah, they have it on Cask at fatheads too...

Highland Brewery Oatmeal Porter

Brewer: Highland Brewing Company
ABV: 5.8%
COLOR: Dark Brown
Aroma: Normal Porter aroma
Flavor: Smooth porter taste
Opinion: So first of all let me tell you the context that this beer was drank in. When in North Carolina, my dad myself and some other guys had a beer tasting event. The way it worked was we bought like 20-25 beers, and one by one, sampled each one of them, then put them in the order in which we thought they were ranked, it wasn't anything too formal, just a fun time. So none the less, this beer, was the hometown underdog, it was purchased at the last second when one of us had one six pack to fill, nobody had heard of it, it was just there and I knew I liked oatmeal porters. Now this beer was absolutly amazing, it was nice and smoth, not too thick, and had a nice hoppy flavor. It is a little sweet, I assume there was some brown sugar added, but nothing too overwhelming. Overall I really enjoyed this beer, and I wish i could find it up here in the north, so hopefully they read this and decide to bring it up to me.

Weeping Radish Brewery and Bavarian Restaraunt

Weeping Radish
Outer Banks, North Carolina

So before I jump into this, I need to tell you that although advertised as a Brewery, the Weeping Radish recently moved all their brewing operations off site, but they still only have their hand crafted beers on tap (i assume they relocated in an effort to expand). Also, I have never actually ate at the restaraunt, but what I hear from close friends I understand it is very good. Now onto what I do know about the place...Well first of all the atmosphere is amazing, even though I have never been to Germany, I can imagine the Weeping Radish's decor represents the country quite well. In addition to that they exclusivly use hand crafted glasses from Germany to serve their beer in. So at the Weeping Radish they have 5 beers all year round, Corolla Gold (Helles), Corolla Light, a Heffeweizen, Black Radish (a black lager), and their Fest beer (which i'm not quite sure what it was), and normally they have 2 seasonals on draft, which when I was there was the Kolsh and I believe the Farm beer. Also all of their beers are available in bottles (1 liter or a Pint 9oz bottle), or by the case. When I was there I only had the Black Radish, which was amazing (I will write a seperate article on this), but I know from drinking the other beers out of the bottle in prior years that they are equaly as good. There was only one waitress in the bar area but she stayed on top of her respective, and we were waited on in a timely fashion. Also they have authentic german pretzles (That's what they say but they are basically super pretzles, but who cares), so those were a great snack while drinking some beer. Also If you have family who isn't interested in sitting in a bar or whatnot, they do have other shops connected to the outside (I have not been in them in some years but I imagine they are the typical Outer Banks nick-nack shops), and a play ground for children. Finally make sure to check out their gift store, not only can you buy their beers in bottles but they have tons of nifty t-shirts and other cool merch (including their glasses they use in the bar, which are really expensive now due to a glass shortage or something in germany, or atleast that's what the guy with the german accent told me). So yeah, if you are ever in the outer banks and want to drink some good craft beer, I highly suggest you either get your ass up to the weeping radish or try their beer in some way, I leave you with a saying they printed on a T-Shirt i purchased...

Those who drink beer sleep well,

Those who sleep well cannot sin,

Those who cannot sin goto heaven

Amen.

Unibroue 15

Brewer: Unibroue
ABV: 10%
COLOR: Golden/Copper
Aroma: Smelled like a belgian beer
Flavor: La Fin Du Monde + Champaign
Opinion: So the other day when i had that Jamaican Style Red Ale, my friend and I decided to grab two big Belgian beers from Dee's...now as i stated before, this blog is a sanctuary for drunkards, who want to know about beer, and being drunkards ourselves, we bought these with 100% intentions of getting messed up, you know since Belgian beers are quite alcoholic and seem to do the job of getting you messed up quite well. So, my friend grabbed a Unibroue La Fin Du Monde (which is one of my favorite Belgian style beers, even though it really isn't because it's made in Canada, but it is still fucking great and gets a good buzz goin), so going with the theme of Unibroue i decided to grab one, of equal (in fact higher) alcohol content, and that I haven't had before, which was the Unibroue 15, the celebration of 15 years of their brewery. So he and I decided to drink these on a weeknight, see if we could get all messed up. So when i opened the beer there was alot more force behind it then a typical Belgian beer 1 liter 9 oz bottle (halfway between typical big Belgian and champaign), it foamed a bit, but then it settled down. Once i started drinking this, I though man, this really tastes like La Fin Du Monde and Champaign, I tasted my friends La Fin Du Monde, and by god I was right. Seriously, I really like Unibroue beer a lot, but I really do not like champaign at all. So overall I am going to have to say from the perspective of this beer hound, this is a beer that I would personally pass up, also considering the greatness of Unibroue's other selections. Stick with the standard line up, not this shitty celebration of 15 years.

D's SixPax & Dogz

D's SixPax & Dogz Menu

So unlike previous posts about beer, this is a great place to get great beer and great food. This is located in the Regent Square area of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania (down the street from frick park). This place has probably 100 brads of beers cold (in a walk in cooler), that you can just walk up and get whenever you want while you are eating or hanging out, so no need to wait for the waiter, and probably 10-15 beers on tap (also available to go in growler form). They do a very good job of rotating through the beers on tap, and do keep changing beers up in the walk in cooler. Also another nice thing is when you are done eating, or if you just want to buy some beer to take home, in the back they have warm beer in their beer cave, probably around 200 or so brands where you can make your own six pack to bring home.

As for the food they have a fairly typical bar menu, everything that i have had there so far has been excellent. Normally I stick with the hot dogs or sandwiches, but their pizza and wings were also fairly good.

Price wise, the beer is not expensive at all and I would even go as far as to say it is affordable (especially when compared to other beer snob hangouts), their food is a little on the pricey side, but normally worth it when you consider the beer and the overall atmosphere.

Mad River Brewing Co's Jamaica Brand Red Ale

Brewer: Mad River Brewing Company
ABV: 6.6%
Color: Dark Amber color
Aroma: Sweet aroma, mainly caramel malts
Flavor: Very strong caramel malt flavor, a bit hoppier then expected
Opinion: So i first picked this up at a local make your own six pack place (D's SixPax & Dogz) expecting it to be on the level of an Irish Red beer, after looking at the description on the label I found out that in fact it was an Amber Ale, but the waitress already opened it, and really, i don't care that much...beer for the most part is beer, and I trust the fine proprietors of Dee's to pick out only the best of beers to offer...none the less, when it was first opened, i'm guessing they do some sort of bottle conditioning because there was some muddy goo on the top part of the neck...easy to fix, got a cup poured it in, no yeast or sediment in my beer...none the less, once i poured it I really knew there was no way this was a red, alot darker and more muddy...now this is one of those beers that I classify under the category of drinkable and enjoyable...and this is not a negative thing in the world of beer, but a positive thing. What I am saying is when I drank this, I did not jump out of my seat in amazement of the flavor but it still was good. Nothing special, but enjoyable...is the best way to describe the experience. It was a bit on the sweet side, but there was a bit of bitterness the first few sips (after that you barely notice), and the hop flavor did not stand out to much (meaning that you knew they were there but no specific characteristics could be seen)...Like i said, nothing that I am going to jump out of my seat to recommend, but a good brew none the less

Otter Creek Fine Ale's Copper Ale

Brewer: Otter Creek Fine Ales
ABV: 5.40%
Color: Dark Golden Color
Aroma: Toasted malts with a hint of caramel
Flavor: Overall very malty (mainly toasted malts) has a hint of hoppiness at the end but nothing overwhelming or obvious
Opinion: So I grabbed this case at a local beer distributer in the "Organic" section, now I really am not a big "organic" kind of person (personally I'd take giant eagle over whole foods any day), but it was only 25 bucks so i thought what the hell I'll give it a shot. When reading the description on the bottle it is discovered that it is inspired by German altbiers, which i do not have much experience with. Now myself, I am personally more of a malt man then a hop man, I like hops alot, but most of the time I would take a malty beer over a hoppy beer, and that is exactly what it is. Although it claims to be made with 3 different types of hops, i suspect that by having 6 different malts caused the maltiness to take over the hop flavor. Now this may be a problem for some people (my friend a supposed poster on this blog but he seems to be too lazy as of now to contribute) may not like this but i find it just fine. Not to say there is not hop flavor, a few seconds after each swig i find a slight hop presence in my mouth to even off the taste. Overall i find that this is a good beer, but nothing amazing, I have had samples of their Porter, which i thought was fantastic, and I would like to try their pale ale, both of which i suppose will be better overall (but to be fair I like those types better then altbiers).

Rating: I have decided overall ratings are stupid so i will no longer post them...jackass

Boulder Beer Company's Hazed and Infused

Yes I am reviewing two beers from the same company in one day, deal with it.

Brewer: Boulder Beer Company
ABV: 4.85%
Color: Amber-Brown
Aroma: HOPS!!!!
Flavor: A nice floral hop flavor graces the pallet with a good malty flavor to back it up, kind of sweet, a little bit bitter (but in a good way)
Opinion: Now as I said before, I am a huge fan of boulder beer company's beers, thats why I drank two different types today rather then spreading out. Now i have had this beer several times, as it is one of the primary beers in Boulder Beers national distribution (this and Mojo IPA). This is a great beer though, it has a really nice hop flavor but is not one of those hop wallop beers. The strong dry hopped taste and the malts really create a great balance of flavors. The beer is at a good thickness, but i think it is best suited for cooler weather (think fall). I actually have never had this one out of a bottle surprisingly and normally drink it only out of tap, which serves it really well. This beer is amazing in the way that is good for people who are not big hop head and the ones of us who love hops, it is truly a happy medium. From all the Boulder Beers this is defiantly my favorite
Rating: 8.4/10