1179. Mahou Clasica
Back in Madrid, Jadyn and I had dinner and beer at Antigua Hueveria.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Mahou SA
Alcohol: 4.80%
Serving: Tap
Style: Euro Pale Lager
Appearance: 3.5 | Smell: 3.0 | Taste: 2.0| Mouthfeel: 2.5 | Drinkability: 3.0
Overall: 2.65
Mahou Clasica pours a clear, darkish golden, and is topped by a creamy, bright white head that fades to a film, leaving good lace. The aroma is light, with grassy, slight peppery hops, and sweet notes.
Upfront this beer is mildly sweet, with a neutral graininess throughout. The finish only has a mild, mild hint of bitterness. This beer is light-bodied, mildly carbonated and thin.
Mahou Clasica is pretty bland, there's not much flavor at all, and it feels watery.
1180. Cruzcampo Lager
Later, after wandering around Madrid, Jadyn and I ended up on Calle de Las Huertas, and had tapas at a place called Milano, which seemed to be staffed by a single, slow waitress.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Grupo Cruzcampo SA
Alcohol: 5.00%
Serving: Tap
Style: Euro Pale Lager
Appearance: 3.5 | Smell: 3.0 | Taste: 2.5 | Mouthfeel: 3.5 | Drinkability: 3.0
Overall: 2.95
Cruzcampo pours a clear golden color, and is topped by a white head that eventually fades to a film leaving good lace. The aroma is pretty plain: lager sweetness, graininess, and grassy and peppery hops.
This beer starts out with the standard grainy/sweet lager taste, and then moves into a mildy bitter finish that has a small dose of grassy hops. This beer is light-bodied, moderately carbonated, and crisp.
Overall this was better than some of the other lagers we had, but it was still pretty generic.
Back in Madrid, Jadyn and I had dinner and beer at Antigua Hueveria.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Mahou SA
Alcohol: 4.80%
Serving: Tap
Style: Euro Pale Lager
Appearance: 3.5 | Smell: 3.0 | Taste: 2.0| Mouthfeel: 2.5 | Drinkability: 3.0
Overall: 2.65
Mahou Clasica pours a clear, darkish golden, and is topped by a creamy, bright white head that fades to a film, leaving good lace. The aroma is light, with grassy, slight peppery hops, and sweet notes.
Upfront this beer is mildly sweet, with a neutral graininess throughout. The finish only has a mild, mild hint of bitterness. This beer is light-bodied, mildly carbonated and thin.
Mahou Clasica is pretty bland, there's not much flavor at all, and it feels watery.
1180. Cruzcampo Lager
Later, after wandering around Madrid, Jadyn and I ended up on Calle de Las Huertas, and had tapas at a place called Milano, which seemed to be staffed by a single, slow waitress.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Grupo Cruzcampo SA
Alcohol: 5.00%
Serving: Tap
Style: Euro Pale Lager
Appearance: 3.5 | Smell: 3.0 | Taste: 2.5 | Mouthfeel: 3.5 | Drinkability: 3.0
Overall: 2.95
Cruzcampo pours a clear golden color, and is topped by a white head that eventually fades to a film leaving good lace. The aroma is pretty plain: lager sweetness, graininess, and grassy and peppery hops.
This beer starts out with the standard grainy/sweet lager taste, and then moves into a mildy bitter finish that has a small dose of grassy hops. This beer is light-bodied, moderately carbonated, and crisp.
Overall this was better than some of the other lagers we had, but it was still pretty generic.
Labels: Euro Pale Lager
We took the AVE train to Barcelona on April 20th. We had some tapas and Estrellas that day, and we had two new beers for me on April 21st.
1177. San Miguel Especial
Jadyn and I stopped for tapas and beer at La Taberna del Cobre in the La Ribera section of Barcelona. We had a couple of San Miguels on tap.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: San Miguel Fabricas De Cervaza Y Maltas
Alcohol: 5.40%
Serving: Tap
Style: Euro Pale Lager
San Miguel poured a clear golden, and was topped by a white head that faded to a film, leaving good lace. The aroma was mild with some grainy and grassy notes, and a mild sweetness in the aroma.
A neutral graininess upfront moves into a mildly sweet center. The finish is grassy with only a slight bitterness. San Miguel is light-bodied, moderately carbonated, and feels a bit thin.
This was a pretty standard Euro Pale Lager.
1178. Verboden Vrucht
After Tapas at La Taberna del Cobre Jadyn and I set out to find Churros con Chocolate, which resulted in quite a bit of wandering about. We ended up having them at Opera Suprema de Barcelona on Las Ramblas. They had a variety of beers available, so I decided to have a Belgian beer that's widely available, but that I've somehow never had.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Brouwerij van Hoegaarden
Alcohol: 9.00%
Serving: Bottle, 11.2 oz.
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 4.0 | Smell: 3.5 | Taste: 3.5 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 3.5
Overall: 3.65
This beer pours a cloudy, reddish brown, and is topped by a fluffy, beige head that had small flecks in it, and left decent lace. The aroma is quite varied. There are notes of cherry, dark fruit, caramel, and slight notes of medicinal phenols.
This beer is well attenuated upfront, but quickly moves into a sweet center with notes of cherry and dark fruit. The finish was slightly medicinal. This beer is medium-bodied, well carbonated, and slightly dry in the finish.
Overall this beer was decent, a bit sweet overall.
1177. San Miguel Especial
Jadyn and I stopped for tapas and beer at La Taberna del Cobre in the La Ribera section of Barcelona. We had a couple of San Miguels on tap.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: San Miguel Fabricas De Cervaza Y Maltas
Alcohol: 5.40%
Serving: Tap
Style: Euro Pale Lager
San Miguel poured a clear golden, and was topped by a white head that faded to a film, leaving good lace. The aroma was mild with some grainy and grassy notes, and a mild sweetness in the aroma.
A neutral graininess upfront moves into a mildly sweet center. The finish is grassy with only a slight bitterness. San Miguel is light-bodied, moderately carbonated, and feels a bit thin.
This was a pretty standard Euro Pale Lager.
1178. Verboden Vrucht
After Tapas at La Taberna del Cobre Jadyn and I set out to find Churros con Chocolate, which resulted in quite a bit of wandering about. We ended up having them at Opera Suprema de Barcelona on Las Ramblas. They had a variety of beers available, so I decided to have a Belgian beer that's widely available, but that I've somehow never had.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Brouwerij van Hoegaarden
Alcohol: 9.00%
Serving: Bottle, 11.2 oz.
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 4.0 | Smell: 3.5 | Taste: 3.5 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 3.5
Overall: 3.65
This beer pours a cloudy, reddish brown, and is topped by a fluffy, beige head that had small flecks in it, and left decent lace. The aroma is quite varied. There are notes of cherry, dark fruit, caramel, and slight notes of medicinal phenols.
This beer is well attenuated upfront, but quickly moves into a sweet center with notes of cherry and dark fruit. The finish was slightly medicinal. This beer is medium-bodied, well carbonated, and slightly dry in the finish.
Overall this beer was decent, a bit sweet overall.
Labels: Belgian Strong Dark Ale, Euro Pale Lager
Despite the best efforts of Eyjafjallajokul Jadyn and I managed to fly from Philly to Madrid on April 18th. We arrived in Madrid early on the 19th, and spent the day seeing the city, and fighting off sleep to try to lessen the effects of jetlag. Our first day we quickly discovered that, as anticipated, Spain is not a beer country.
1175. Estrella Damm
We had dinner at La Gloria de Montera, which was pretty good, although my Fideua (paella with noodles rather than rice) was only so-so. The only beer that they had was Estrella Damm, which would be the first of many mediocre lagers that I had over the course of the trip. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the camera out after dropping off our bags at the hotel.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Damm S.A.
Alcohol: 5.20%
Serving: Bottle, 12 oz.
Style: Euro Pale Lager
Appearance: 3.5 | Smell: 2.5 | Taste: 3.0 | Mouthfeel: 3.5 | Drinkability: 3.5
Overall: 3.1
Estrella Damm pours a straw golden color, and is topped by a decent, fluffy, bright white head that fades slowly. The aroma is clean and mild though there are notes of adjunct "maltiness", and faint, grassy hop notes.
There's a clean, neutral maltiness upfront that moves into a slight sweetness in the center. Thankfully there's a bit of hop presence in the finish which really do wonders to make this palatable. The hops are slightly spicy with mild bitterness. This beer is light-bodied, with prickly carbonation, and a crispness that keep it from being watery.
This beer was crisp and had some hop presence, and it was probably the best Spanish beer that we had on the trip, though Jadyn liked Mahou best.
1176. Legado de Yuste
After dinner we decided to walk around the area of Madrid where we were staying for a bit. We ended up walking past a bar called Beer Station, which advertised a large beer selection, and seemed to be geared towards tourists to me. We dropped in hoping to get to try some less common Spanish beer. The selection here was pretty bad, while being much better than any other bar we went to in Spain. Most of the beer available was mass-market European beer that was also available in the US. We each ended up getting a Legado de Yuste (Legacy of Yuste), which was an alleged Belgian-style abbey ale.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Grupo Cruzcampo SA
Alcohol: 6.50%
Serving: Bottle, 11.2 oz.
Style: Belgian Pale Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 2.5 | Smell: 1.5 | Taste: 2.5 | Mouthfeel: 3.5 | Drinkability: 3.0
Overall: 2.45
Legado de Yuste pours a clear, golden copper in color, and is topped by an off-white head that fades to a sudsy film. The aroma is very, very mild. I had to really try to pick anything out. There was only a very mild fruitiness present in the aroma, which was joined by a hint of sweet maltiness when the beer was swirled. I really don't know how a beer can have such a mild aroma.
The taste was clean overall with nothing objectionable, but the lack of flavor. A neutral graininess upfront moved into a mild banana fruitiness in the center. The finish had a bit of chalky yeast, pepper, and dry hops. This beer was medium-bodied, and highly carbonated.
Overall this beer was pretty bland, but fortunately that was really its most objectionable quality.
1175. Estrella Damm
We had dinner at La Gloria de Montera, which was pretty good, although my Fideua (paella with noodles rather than rice) was only so-so. The only beer that they had was Estrella Damm, which would be the first of many mediocre lagers that I had over the course of the trip. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the camera out after dropping off our bags at the hotel.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Damm S.A.
Alcohol: 5.20%
Serving: Bottle, 12 oz.
Style: Euro Pale Lager
Appearance: 3.5 | Smell: 2.5 | Taste: 3.0 | Mouthfeel: 3.5 | Drinkability: 3.5
Overall: 3.1
Estrella Damm pours a straw golden color, and is topped by a decent, fluffy, bright white head that fades slowly. The aroma is clean and mild though there are notes of adjunct "maltiness", and faint, grassy hop notes.
There's a clean, neutral maltiness upfront that moves into a slight sweetness in the center. Thankfully there's a bit of hop presence in the finish which really do wonders to make this palatable. The hops are slightly spicy with mild bitterness. This beer is light-bodied, with prickly carbonation, and a crispness that keep it from being watery.
This beer was crisp and had some hop presence, and it was probably the best Spanish beer that we had on the trip, though Jadyn liked Mahou best.
1176. Legado de Yuste
After dinner we decided to walk around the area of Madrid where we were staying for a bit. We ended up walking past a bar called Beer Station, which advertised a large beer selection, and seemed to be geared towards tourists to me. We dropped in hoping to get to try some less common Spanish beer. The selection here was pretty bad, while being much better than any other bar we went to in Spain. Most of the beer available was mass-market European beer that was also available in the US. We each ended up getting a Legado de Yuste (Legacy of Yuste), which was an alleged Belgian-style abbey ale.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Grupo Cruzcampo SA
Alcohol: 6.50%
Serving: Bottle, 11.2 oz.
Style: Belgian Pale Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 2.5 | Smell: 1.5 | Taste: 2.5 | Mouthfeel: 3.5 | Drinkability: 3.0
Overall: 2.45
Legado de Yuste pours a clear, golden copper in color, and is topped by an off-white head that fades to a sudsy film. The aroma is very, very mild. I had to really try to pick anything out. There was only a very mild fruitiness present in the aroma, which was joined by a hint of sweet maltiness when the beer was swirled. I really don't know how a beer can have such a mild aroma.
The taste was clean overall with nothing objectionable, but the lack of flavor. A neutral graininess upfront moved into a mild banana fruitiness in the center. The finish had a bit of chalky yeast, pepper, and dry hops. This beer was medium-bodied, and highly carbonated.
Overall this beer was pretty bland, but fortunately that was really its most objectionable quality.
Labels: Belgian Pale Ale, Euro Pale Lager
1174. Black Ryder
The weekend after I got back from by trip to Colorado and Las Vegas Jadyn and I went to the CBC for drinks. They had a new beer on tap that I had to try. Black Ryder is a "rye malt, double India Black Ale".
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Cambridge Brewing Company
Alcohol: 8.00%
Serving: Tap
Style: American IPA, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 4.0 | Smell: 4.0 | Taste: 4.5 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 3.5
Overall: 4.15
Black Ryder pours a dark black with ruby tints, and is topped by a creamy, brown head, which fades leaving nice lace. The aroma has notes of strong resiny, herbal hops, noted of dark fruit, and a slight spice. The fruity notes really make the aroma.
Toasty malts upfront move into a caramel sweetness, and grape-like fruitiness in the center where spicy rye malts appear. This sweetness is balanced by a strong, resiny hop bitterness in the finish. This beer is medium-bodied with prickly carbonation.
The hops, and roasty malts make this a pretty bitter beer, but the other flavors make this a far more interesting beer than just another DIPA.
The weekend after I got back from by trip to Colorado and Las Vegas Jadyn and I went to the CBC for drinks. They had a new beer on tap that I had to try. Black Ryder is a "rye malt, double India Black Ale".
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Cambridge Brewing Company
Alcohol: 8.00%
Serving: Tap
Style: American IPA, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 4.0 | Smell: 4.0 | Taste: 4.5 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 3.5
Overall: 4.15
Black Ryder pours a dark black with ruby tints, and is topped by a creamy, brown head, which fades leaving nice lace. The aroma has notes of strong resiny, herbal hops, noted of dark fruit, and a slight spice. The fruity notes really make the aroma.
Toasty malts upfront move into a caramel sweetness, and grape-like fruitiness in the center where spicy rye malts appear. This sweetness is balanced by a strong, resiny hop bitterness in the finish. This beer is medium-bodied with prickly carbonation.
The hops, and roasty malts make this a pretty bitter beer, but the other flavors make this a far more interesting beer than just another DIPA.
Labels: American IPA
1171-1173. Three From Dillon Dam Brewery
Published by Unknown on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 9:30 AM.
Matt Jeremy and I skiied at Keystone on Thursday, at Vail on Friday, and at Copper on Saturday. We spent most of our time at Vail and Copper skiing trees and bumps, and by the end of the day at Copper Jeremy and I had gotten the hang of bumps, and were skiing them pretty well. It's going to be hard to go back to skiing in the Northeast. After our day at Copper we went to Dillon Dam Brewery for our après-ski.
1771. Extra Pale Ale
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Dillon Dam Brewery
Alcohol: ?
Serving: Tap
Style: American Pale Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 3.5 | Smell: 4.0 | Taste: 3.5 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 4.0
Overall: 3.7
Extra Pale Ale pours a clear copper, and is topped by a sudsy, beige head that fades to film, leaving good lace. The aroma is dominated by piney, and citric hops, but has a base of mild, toasty malts.
This is a pretty standard APA flavor-wise. Toasty malts upfront move through to a slightly sweeter, bready finish, where leafy and grassy hops provide a firm bitterness for balance. This beer was light-bodied, crisp, and had a nice, prickly carbonation to it.
I thought that this beer was very refreshing, and was a great after ski beer.
1172. Pallavacini Porter
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Dillon Dam Brewery
Alcohol: ?
Serving: Tap
Style: American Porter, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 4.0 | Smell: 4.0 | Taste: 3.5 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 3.5
Overall: 3.75
This Porter pours a ruby-tinted, dark brown, and is topped by a thin, brown head that retains well. The aroma had a nice dose of roasty malts. There were nice chocolate notes, as well a dark roasted malts.
A rich, chocolate sweetness upfront, moves through to a slightly fruity, astringent center, with a mellow finish that has a bit of roasted bitterness, but not as much as I'd like to see. Pallavicini Porter is medium-bodied, moderately carbonated, and has a rough roasty character.
Overall this beer is a bit sweet, but was overall pretty good.
1173. Sweet George's Brown
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Dillon Dam Brewery
Alcohol: ?
Serving: Tap
Style: English Brown Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 3.0 | Smell: 4.5 | Taste: 4 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 4.5
Overall: 3.95
Sweet George's Brown pours a lightly hazy, reddish brown, and is topped by a light beige film of a head. The aroma is bready, and has a light fruitiness, and hints of roast. This smells like a very nice English Brown Ale.
There's a bready sweetness upfront that moves into a fruitiness in the center, that's balanced by a roasty, hoppy bitterness in the finish. This English Brown Ale is medium-bodied, highly carbonated, and has a bit of a coarseness that I associate with roasted malts.
I really liked this beer, it had a nice malt profile that was the focus of the beer, but it was nicely balanced by judicious use of roasted malts and hops.
1771. Extra Pale Ale
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Dillon Dam Brewery
Alcohol: ?
Serving: Tap
Style: American Pale Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 3.5 | Smell: 4.0 | Taste: 3.5 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 4.0
Overall: 3.7
Extra Pale Ale pours a clear copper, and is topped by a sudsy, beige head that fades to film, leaving good lace. The aroma is dominated by piney, and citric hops, but has a base of mild, toasty malts.
This is a pretty standard APA flavor-wise. Toasty malts upfront move through to a slightly sweeter, bready finish, where leafy and grassy hops provide a firm bitterness for balance. This beer was light-bodied, crisp, and had a nice, prickly carbonation to it.
I thought that this beer was very refreshing, and was a great after ski beer.
1172. Pallavacini Porter
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Dillon Dam Brewery
Alcohol: ?
Serving: Tap
Style: American Porter, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 4.0 | Smell: 4.0 | Taste: 3.5 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 3.5
Overall: 3.75
This Porter pours a ruby-tinted, dark brown, and is topped by a thin, brown head that retains well. The aroma had a nice dose of roasty malts. There were nice chocolate notes, as well a dark roasted malts.
A rich, chocolate sweetness upfront, moves through to a slightly fruity, astringent center, with a mellow finish that has a bit of roasted bitterness, but not as much as I'd like to see. Pallavicini Porter is medium-bodied, moderately carbonated, and has a rough roasty character.
Overall this beer is a bit sweet, but was overall pretty good.
1173. Sweet George's Brown
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Dillon Dam Brewery
Alcohol: ?
Serving: Tap
Style: English Brown Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 3.0 | Smell: 4.5 | Taste: 4 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 4.5
Overall: 3.95
Sweet George's Brown pours a lightly hazy, reddish brown, and is topped by a light beige film of a head. The aroma is bready, and has a light fruitiness, and hints of roast. This smells like a very nice English Brown Ale.
There's a bready sweetness upfront that moves into a fruitiness in the center, that's balanced by a roasty, hoppy bitterness in the finish. This English Brown Ale is medium-bodied, highly carbonated, and has a bit of a coarseness that I associate with roasted malts.
I really liked this beer, it had a nice malt profile that was the focus of the beer, but it was nicely balanced by judicious use of roasted malts and hops.
Labels: American Pale Ale, American Porter, English Brown Ale
Jeremy, Matt and I bought a few six-packs to drink while we were at Matt's family's place in Colorado. The two that were new to me were Levity from Odell and Flying Dog's Doggie Style Pale Ale. I only drank them out of the bottle, so no reviews here.
1169. Odell Levity Amber Ale
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Odell Brewing Company
Alcohol: 5.00%
Serving: Bottle, 12 oz.
Style: American Amber/Red Ale, BJCP Style Guide
This beer was considerably maltier than Odell's 90 Shilling, which was also an Amber Ale. It was tasty and had some nice sweet malt flavors, but wasn't as balanced as 90 Shilling. Overall it was decent.
1170. Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Flying Dog
Alcohol: 5.50%
Serving: Bottle, 12 oz.
Style: American Pale Ale, BJCP Style Guide
This was a decent, straight-ahead pale ale. The malts were bready and toasty and were balanced by a bit of hops.
1169. Odell Levity Amber Ale
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Odell Brewing Company
Alcohol: 5.00%
Serving: Bottle, 12 oz.
Style: American Amber/Red Ale, BJCP Style Guide
This beer was considerably maltier than Odell's 90 Shilling, which was also an Amber Ale. It was tasty and had some nice sweet malt flavors, but wasn't as balanced as 90 Shilling. Overall it was decent.
1170. Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Flying Dog
Alcohol: 5.50%
Serving: Bottle, 12 oz.
Style: American Pale Ale, BJCP Style Guide
This was a decent, straight-ahead pale ale. The malts were bready and toasty and were balanced by a bit of hops.
Labels: American Amber/Red Ale, American Pale Ale
1168. Odell 90 Shilling Ale
Jeremy, Matt, and I spent our first day in Colorado skiing at Keystone. We skiied a mix of groomed runs, bump runs, and tree runs. Matt was much better than either of us, but Jeremy and I were pretty evenly matched.
We stopped for an après-ski of chili and a couple beers in River Run Village. They had Odell 90 Shilling on tap, and since it's brewed in Colorado I gave it a try.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Odell Brewing Company
Alcohol: 5.50%
Serving: Tap
Style: American Amber/Red Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 4.5 | Smell: 4.0 | Taste: 4.0 | Mouthfeel: 3.5 | Drinkability: 4.5
Overall: 4.1
90 Shilling pours a clear red, and is topped by a foamy, beige head that retains well, and is fed by a steady stream of bubbles. It looks very appealing. The aroma has rich, caramel and malty notes. Along with hints of mild fruitiness, and grassy, hay-like hops.
This beer is on the malty side, but comes out very balance. The malts upfront are toasty and bready. Sweeter notes of caramel appear in the center, and there's a moderate, grassy bitterness in the finish. This beer is medium -bodied with high carbonation, and a slight roughness.
I thought that this beer was very tasty. It had nice malty flavors and enough hops to back them up without overpowering them. It tasted great after a day of skiing.
Jeremy, Matt, and I spent our first day in Colorado skiing at Keystone. We skiied a mix of groomed runs, bump runs, and tree runs. Matt was much better than either of us, but Jeremy and I were pretty evenly matched.
We stopped for an après-ski of chili and a couple beers in River Run Village. They had Odell 90 Shilling on tap, and since it's brewed in Colorado I gave it a try.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Odell Brewing Company
Alcohol: 5.50%
Serving: Tap
Style: American Amber/Red Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 4.5 | Smell: 4.0 | Taste: 4.0 | Mouthfeel: 3.5 | Drinkability: 4.5
Overall: 4.1
90 Shilling pours a clear red, and is topped by a foamy, beige head that retains well, and is fed by a steady stream of bubbles. It looks very appealing. The aroma has rich, caramel and malty notes. Along with hints of mild fruitiness, and grassy, hay-like hops.
This beer is on the malty side, but comes out very balance. The malts upfront are toasty and bready. Sweeter notes of caramel appear in the center, and there's a moderate, grassy bitterness in the finish. This beer is medium -bodied with high carbonation, and a slight roughness.
I thought that this beer was very tasty. It had nice malty flavors and enough hops to back them up without overpowering them. It tasted great after a day of skiing.
Labels: American Amber/Red Ale
1167. Back Bay IPA
Jeremy, Matt, and I went to Colorado and Las Vegas in early April. We had beers and some nachos at the Beer Works in Logan Airport while we were waiting for our flight.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Beer Works
Alcohol: 6.50%
Serving: Tap
Style: American IPA, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 3.5 | Smell: 3.5 | Taste: 3.5 | Mouthfeel: 3.5 | Drinkability: 4.0
Overall: 3.55
This IPA pours a hazed copper, and is topped by a white head that fades to film leaving good lace. The aroma has notes of raw sugar, and toasty malts. There's also a good amount of herbal, resiny hops.
Sweet, toasty, and bready malts upfront move into a citric center with notes of raw sugar and then into an herbal, piney, hop bitterness. This beer is smooth and medium-bodied with moderate carbonation
I though this beer was pretty well balanced, and overall was a decent IPA.
Jeremy, Matt, and I went to Colorado and Las Vegas in early April. We had beers and some nachos at the Beer Works in Logan Airport while we were waiting for our flight.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Beer Works
Alcohol: 6.50%
Serving: Tap
Style: American IPA, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 3.5 | Smell: 3.5 | Taste: 3.5 | Mouthfeel: 3.5 | Drinkability: 4.0
Overall: 3.55
This IPA pours a hazed copper, and is topped by a white head that fades to film leaving good lace. The aroma has notes of raw sugar, and toasty malts. There's also a good amount of herbal, resiny hops.
Sweet, toasty, and bready malts upfront move into a citric center with notes of raw sugar and then into an herbal, piney, hop bitterness. This beer is smooth and medium-bodied with moderate carbonation
I though this beer was pretty well balanced, and overall was a decent IPA.
Labels: American IPA
1166. Orchard White
Jadyn bought this beer while I was away and we had it on my first night back in Boston (March 31st).
Beer Stats:
Brewery:The Bruery
Alcohol: 5.70%
Serving: Bottle, 750, mL
Style: Witbier, BJCP Style Guide
I didn't take notes on this beer, but I remember it being a pleasant Witbier. It certainly looked nice.
Jadyn bought this beer while I was away and we had it on my first night back in Boston (March 31st).
Beer Stats:
Brewery:The Bruery
Alcohol: 5.70%
Serving: Bottle, 750, mL
Style: Witbier, BJCP Style Guide
I didn't take notes on this beer, but I remember it being a pleasant Witbier. It certainly looked nice.
Labels: Witbier
1165. Saison - Brett
This was another beer that I picked up at Spec's. Win and I split it on Tuesday night.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Boulevard Brewing Co.
Alcohol: 8.50%
Serving: Bottle, 750 mL
Style: Saison / Farmhouse Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 4.5 | Smell: 4.0 | Taste: 3.5 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 4.0
Overall: 3.9
This Saison pours a cloudy straw-golden, and is topped by an enormous, vigorous, fluffy, off-white head, which fades leaving copious lace. The aroma has notes of bananas, pepper, and Brettanomyces.
A clean, neutral graininess upfront moves into a sweet center with notes of banana and citrus. The finish is pretty sweet, but is cut by a mild bitterness, and earthy Brett flavors. This beer is light-bodied and highly carbonated.
I like Saisons with a touch of wild character, but this one was a tad too sweet.
This was another beer that I picked up at Spec's. Win and I split it on Tuesday night.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Boulevard Brewing Co.
Alcohol: 8.50%
Serving: Bottle, 750 mL
Style: Saison / Farmhouse Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance: 4.5 | Smell: 4.0 | Taste: 3.5 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 4.0
Overall: 3.9
This Saison pours a cloudy straw-golden, and is topped by an enormous, vigorous, fluffy, off-white head, which fades leaving copious lace. The aroma has notes of bananas, pepper, and Brettanomyces.
A clean, neutral graininess upfront moves into a sweet center with notes of banana and citrus. The finish is pretty sweet, but is cut by a mild bitterness, and earthy Brett flavors. This beer is light-bodied and highly carbonated.
I like Saisons with a touch of wild character, but this one was a tad too sweet.
Labels: Saison
