1001 Beers

Beer No: 108
Page No: 91
Category: Amber

It's always sad to read a story like this:

A small crack in a fermentation vat at the Okanagan Springs Brewery in Vernon, B.C., may be to blame for a creamy beer bomb that blew more than 32-thousand litres of fermented foam across a downtown street.

Similarly, to hear about such floods at other breweries, like the one we were told when I last visited the Stone Brewery, just make my heart sad.  All that good beer, flowing down a street, down a drain, not into my belly, just upsets me.  But alas, not every drop can flow into my belly where it belongs, but on my upcoming trip this weekend, I hope to have enough beer to make up for the beer that is spilled for no good reason.

I'll be visiting the fine folks at Firestone Walker later today and then heading out to Russian River and Sierra Nevada on Sunday.  So until I return, there shall be no new beer posts.  And I apologize for the missed days earlier this week.  I'm still trying to get back on track, but it just gets tough some days when you've got other more pressing priorities.  But hopefully when I return from the trip, I'll be rejuvenated and ready to drink more amazing beers.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Coopers Vintage Ale by Coopers Brewery

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 12/20

Rating: 3.4 / 5.0

Had from bottle - 2008 vintage. Pours dark red/brown with slight tan head. Aroma is full on malts, caramel, slight fruity aroma with just a bit of alcohol. Flavors are surprisingly good. Well balanced malts and spices with a hint of some fruit and the slightest bit of acid. It was good and a pleasant surprise given previous Coopers tastings. A well done vintage ale.

Beer No: 107
Page No: 247
Category: Amber

At first I thought I had made a mistake, because this bottle is part of the "Imperial Series" by Samuel Adams and the beer listed was just the Double Bock, but upon turning to the page in 1001 Beers, it's clear that this is the beer they intended to put in the book.  Which is kind of annoying because I didn't really enjoy this beer at all.  I thought the flavors were a bit medicinal and the "imperialization" of the beer just didn't really help out at all.  The taste was just acceptable with some smoked malts and some hints of coffee, but the heavy hops they tried to add just threw things out of whack.  That being said, it certainly didn't ruin my International Beer Day.

And in honor of International Beer Day, here's a wonderful song about Duvel, among my favorite beers as well.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Samuel Adams Imperial Double Bock by Boston Beer Company

Aroma: 6/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 6/10
Palate: 2/5
Overall: 9/20

Rating: 2.6 / 5.0

Had from 12oz bottle. Pours dark brown with slight tan head and good lacing. Aroma is heavy smoked malts, some coffee, and alcohol. Taste is alcohol, lots of malts, and a nice hop bite at the finish. A bit disappointing, had expected something a bit more complex and less medicinal.

Beer No: 94
Page No: 120
Category: Amber

World Cup Day 16...what is there to say?  Today's beer comes from the United States, and just like that, the United States is out.  A very disappointing game in which they give up an early goal AGAIN, manage to tie it, have chances to win it, push it to extra time, and give up another early goal, and can't recover.   A sad day, but I've still got Germany in it, so it's not all bad quite yet.  In the early game Uruguay handled South Korea pretty well.  They gave up a goal (the first of the tournament), but scored two pretty easily, advancing to the round of 8 where they now face the afternoon's winner, Ghana.

Of course, I picked the United States to win (the homer pick) and couldn't have been more wrong, but in the early game, I predicted a 2-1 Uruguay win, so nice call there (though 2-1 is pretty easy to guess and could be called for most games - as that was the final score of the Ghana / U.S. game as well).

For today's beer, we have a new American classic, New Belgium's Fat Tire Amber Ale.  It's their flagship beer and, while a solid, consistent beer, it just isn't the best that New Belgium puts out and it's just a good, run-of-the-mill amber ale.  As noted in 1001 Beers though, in an interview with brewmaster Peter Bouckaert, he commented, "Luckily, we have Fat Tire, and that allows us to do all these other things."  So, I'm glad Fat Tire's around, because it allows them to produce amazing beers like La Folie, Love, and the amazing Lips of Faith Series (Eric's Ale, Dark Kriek, Transatlantique Kriek, Biere de Mars, and many others).

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

New Belgium Fat Tire Ale by New Belgium Brewing Company

Aroma: 6/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 6/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 10/20

Rating: 2.8 / 5.0

Had from six-pack - 12 oz. bottle from BevMo. Pours amber in color, slight tan head. Aroma is malty with slight hop undertones. Taste is fairly weak for an amber, nicely balanced, but doesn’t show off any flavors well. Nice nutty flavors linger afterwords. A solid, consistent amber, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Beer No: 92
Page No: 43
Category: Amber

Day 14 of the World Cup - it really doesn't get much better than this.  Needing a win over Slovakia to advance, most thought Italy would be making it to the knock-out round (myself included), but instead, they come out, play with no intensity until the last 15 minutes and end up losing to Slovakia as Paraguay advances with the Slovaks.  Meanwhile, the Netherlands have had a strangle-hold on Group E from the start and they came out today and beat Cameroon to take the group with 9 points.  All Denmark needed to do was tie Japan, a feat most thought they could accomplish, but instead, like Italy, they come out with lazy play, allow Japan to score on two free kicks, and lose 3-1, allowing Japan to advance with the Netherlands.  A crazy day for sure.

We've got one more day of round-robin play to go as groups G & H need to be sorted out tomorrow and then on Saturday, the knock-out round begins.  The United States plays Ghana in the afternoon match while Uruguay and South Korea play in the early game.  I just can't wait for the weekend to get here...

As for my predictions, I predicted Netherlands & Denmark (by a hair) and Paraguay & Italy.  So just 2/4 today.  But after being 8/8 the previous two days, I'm still a nice 10/12.  For my World Cup Beer Challenge, I'm now 5-6-3 with the beers that correspond with the teams playing.  Two wins in a row now with England yesterday and Japan today.  Tomorrow we finish up the round-robin round with a beer from Spain as they play Chile.  And tomorrow I'll try and post my schedule for the next round.  Saturday will definitely be an American beer and then on Sunday I can go with a German or English beer.  Monday and Tuesday will be much harder though, so I have to see how the games turn out tomorrow to see if I even have any exotic beers remaining to choose from.

Unfortunately, while Japan had a great showing on the field today, I was not impressed with their beer.  The Angry Boy Brown from Baird Brewing showed some promise at the start with a nice frothy pour and a sweet aroma, but the taste just let me down.  Way too much in the way of alcohol flavors with an almost watered-down feeling to it.  This is my last brew in the book from Baird Brewing and I had hoped they'd put forth a better showing.  Their Rising Sun Pale is just ok, certainly nothing special, and I think if I have to pick a favorite brewer from Japan right now, it'd have to be Kiuchi (brewers of Hitachino).

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Baird Angry Boy Brown Ale by Baird Brewing Co.

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 6/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 9/20

Rating: 2.8 / 5.0

Had from 12 oz. bottle from Hi Time Wines. Pours hazy amber brown with huge three finger head. Head dissipates slowly leaving behind slight lacing and bubbly film. Aroma is very malty with hints of nuts and alcohol. Taste is stronger alcohol than in aroma with mostly malts, caramel, and nuts rounding out the taste. Somewhat dry finish, just too much alcohol flavorings and a little bit watered down for me.

Beer No: 91
Page No: 301
Category: Amber

Hello Day 13 of the World Cup.  What an absolutely amazing day.  First, in the morning games, the United States once again got robbed on a goal where the player was called offsides and clearly wasn't, but despite being eliminated with a tie, the United States pushed on, and in the first minute of extra time, finally scored a goal.  So both the United States and England advance on the back of 0-1 wins.  My prediction was 100% correct from a couple days ago.

However, even though my logic doesn't really make sense when I go back and read my predictions from Group D, I did say that Germany and Ghana would advance, like they did.  I really wasn't expecting Australia to play the way they did though.  They beat Serbia, 2-1, and, had a 2-0 lead at one point and was just one goal away from advancing.  Unfortunately, they couldn't push it to 3-0 and Germany couldn't score a second goal to help out Australia, so in the end, we'll see United States vs. Ghana and England vs. Germany this weekend.  I can't wait.  My two favorite teams are still in it, and now they're on opposite sides of the bracket, so here's hoping for a United States / Germany final.

As you can see, I switched up the layout for the 1001 Beers blog.  They introduced some new features, including "Pages" so now I have set pages for "About 1001 Beers.net" and "All Beer Reviews by Date."  I think the new layout is also easier to read and a bit easier on the eyes without the yellow.  There's another layout I really liked, but I'm probably going to stick with this layout for a while now.

Back to the beer though.  Generally, I'm not the biggest fan of Samuel Smith breweries in England, but there's just something about this Yorkshire Stingo that I enjoyed.  It wasn't really the explosion of malts as I'm not the biggest fan of malty beers, but I think the complexity gained from aging the beer in oak ale casks really enhances all the flavors and makes this 8% beer really enjoyable and flavorful.  The aroma is very strong with fruits, raisins, and malts while the taste balances the fruity sweetness with nice malts and a subtle oak flavor.  It's really a great, interesting beer you should try and track down.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

Had from 550ml bottle from BevMo. Pours hazy amber with thick two-finger head and ample lacing. Aroma is lots of sweet fruits, raisins, toffee, and malts. Taste is complex with the alcohol just coming out at the end of a complicated sip of malty sugars, raisins, prunes, subtle oak flavors, and caramel. I was very surprised by this beer and really enjoyed it. A rare exceptional offering from Samuel Smith.

Beer No: 79
Page No: 93
Category: Amber

Well, despite a pretty boring second game with a 0-0 tie between France and Uruguay, the day went very well in South Africa.  Somehow, as the #83 ranked team in the world, South Africa was able to get a 1-1 tie with #17 ranked Mexico.  The game was actually very entertaining with Mexico dominating the first half, having a goal wiped away on an offsides (the correct call) and then coming out in the second half somewhat listless and allowing South Africa to score first on Tshabalala's goal - the first goal in a World Cup on African soil (trivia right there for y'all).  So with those four teams going, today's first World Cup beer came from Mexico - the Cucapa Barley Wine Ale.

Now, I'm not a fan of Barley Wines - I think I've made that clear in the past.  The alcohol just isn't hidden enough for me and I always prefer hops to malts.  So these strong, high ABV, malty beverages just don't sit well with me and I tend to avoid them when I have the choice.  However, this was the only Mexican beer left that I could find in stores, so, a barley wine it is.  1001 Beers doesn't really have much to say about this barley wine and instead goes into how the brewery was named, which is probably a good idea, as I didn't enjoy this barley wine at all.  I found it just way too sweet - full of malts, alcohol, and flavors of raisins and sugar.  Overall, not the best start to the World Cup drinking experience, but, I'll be sampling upwards of 32 stouts tomorrow, so I'm sure that will be a much better experience.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Cucapa Barley Wine Ale (Centenario) by Cerveceria Cucapa

Aroma: 6/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 6/10
Palate: 2/5
Overall: 11/20

Rating: 2.8 / 5.0

Had from 750 ml bottle from Hi Time Wines. Pours ruby brown with no head and very slight carbonation. Lacing is good. Aromas of sugar, fruits, raisin, toffee, malts, and caramel. Taste is similar, very sweet, overpowering sugars and fruits. Heavy alcohol flavor with lots of malts and toffee. Finishes sweet. Not my favorite style, but I have had better barley wines. An ambitious beer from Mexico though.

Beer No: 72
Page No: 186
Category: Amber

The last in my quick travel through the four oddly shaped 330ml bottles from Belgium, we end with the Maredsous 10 Tripel after having the lovely Maredsous 8 Dubbel yesterday.  Not much new to note here after going over the "Certified Belgian Abbey Beer" label yesterday, but I did enjoy this tripel.  On par with the Piraat as far as alcohol content (10.0% vs. 10.5%), I found the Maredsous to be clearly superior.  So, after declaring the Maredsous 8 better than the Gulden Draak, we have Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat 2, Brouwerij Van Steenberge 0.  However, all four of the beers were above average, and if I were a fan of malty beers like all four of these were, I'd be content to drink them in rotation until the end of days.  And here they are, crazy 330ml bottles and all:

On a completely unrelated (well, maybe related note), yesterday The Bruery announced their intentions to open a store in Old Towne Orange, just a few blocks (ok, maybe a lot of blocks - 2.3 miles - or 11 minutes on bike) from my house.  And I couldn't be happier.  The Buery Provisions will feature not only their own brews, but also a vast selection of hard-to-find beers, a nice tasting room, and most likely, choices of cheese and other charcuterie.  It'll be absolutely awesome to be able to bike on over, have a couple beers, some cheese, purchase some bottles, and bike on home.  They can't open soon enough for me.  Welcome to Orange.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Maredsous 10 by Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat

Aroma: 6/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 7/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

Had from 330ml bottle from BevMo. Pours golden orange with slight white had. Aroma is of citrus hops, spices, and lots of malts. Taste is of alcohol, malts, sugar, spices, fruits with very slight hops in the finish. Pours fizzy with an aftertaste of alcohol and the smallest amount of bitterness. Had in succession with Piraat and this is clearly a superior beer with the same alcohol content. A very good tripel, but not the best I’ve had.

Beer No: 70
Page No: 228
Category: Amber

So here we are, 7% of the way through 1001 Beers...a loooong way to go.  And here goes beer #2 on my trip through 4 oddly shaped 330ml bottles.  This time it's Piraat from the same brewery as Gulden Draak, Brouwerij Van Steenberge.  Here again, we have a heavily malted beverage and again, 10.5% ABV.  This time it's a little bit easier to classify - a Belgian Strong Ale.  Hopped a little more than the Gulden Draak, this time, they add rice and sugar to the mash tun to ensure plenty of sugar for fermentation, hence the 10.5%.

Again though, this sort of heavily malted beverage just isn't up my alley.  But, like Gulden Draak, it's not a bad beer.  In fact, if I were a fan of these heavier malted beverages, Piraat would be right up my alley.  In fact, back in the day, I used to visit a local eatery, Hollingshead's Deli, I used to get Piraat quite often.  But then again, in those times, it was probably the 10.5% that attracted me to it.  Either way, if you haven't had a Piraat, it's definitely one to try - at least once.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Piraat by Brouwerij Van Steenberge

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 7/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 12/20

Rating: 3.2 / 5.0

Pours golden yellow / orange with a slight white head. Aroma is mostly sweet with hints of honey, oranges, spices, and hints of citrus hops. Taste is mellow - sweet, malty, low hop flavors. Another fizzy beer from Van Steenberge, finishes slightly astringent with alcohol lingering. Good, just not great.

Beer No: 63
Page No: 89
Category: Amber

Well, this finally finishes off my Avery beers.  Truly a sad day.  Luckily, I have many more Maharaja's in the fridge and storage, so Avery will not be forgotten.

Today, I made my way out to my temperature-controlled storage to see what I had sitting there waiting for me to drink.  And while I'm happy all my Vertical Epics are sitting there, aging perfectly, I found some other, lesser beers that most likely did not age well at all.  It's these beers that I brought home with me to sample over the next few days.  Plus, I took one of the AleSmith Speedway Stouts from the early 2000's (I think it's either 2003 or 2004) (I have 3), and brought it home for the Stout Party on June 12th.

Back to this beer, it's got a really cool story behind it.  Both Avery and Russian River had beers named Salvation in their line-ups.  But instead of suing each other for the name, they got together, blended the two Salvations, and came up with Collaboration Not Litigation.  The resulting beer is a fruity marvel with a wonderful complexity and 9% ABV that really hits you (not in taste, just in warmth).

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Avery Collaboration Not Litigation

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 3.8 / 5.0

Had from bottle from BevMo - Batch #4. Pours hazy orange / brown with slight white head. Aroma is very fruity - oranges, sugar, and malts. Flavor is more fruits - slightly alcoholic, strangely able to feel the ABV after a single bottle of beer. Had no idea why it was called Collaboration Not Litigation, but love to read the cool story. Very tasty, drinkable beer.

Beer No: 61
Page No: 154
Category: Amber

I'm usually not a fan of barleywines.  I find them excessively malty with a watery/oily texture that just doesn't really go well with what I have come to expect from my beer.  I like some bite with my beer - most notably a nice hoppy bite.  So while 1001 Beers is filled with all sorts of beers in all sorts of categories, I've really been putting off trying any of the barleywines.  But, it was either the Avery Hog Heaven or a Duvel last night and for some reason, I figured a Hog Heaven would hit the spot.

And boy did it.  Not your standard run-of-the-mill barleywine, Avery's Hog Heaven packs a hop wallop with 100+ IBUs and a hoppy nose that will knock you back a step.  Using the Columbus hop - a high-alpha acid hop variety - the pine and citrus aromas and flavors really dominate this barleywine.  Perhaps that's why the label calls it a "Barleywine-style Ale" and not just your standard barleywine.  Whatever you call it, Avery once again delivers a top-of-the-line product here with a malt richness that is balanced well with the hop bite.  I have just one more Avery beer to go in the book, but I'll definitely be going back to their fine ales, as they really have blown me away with their flavors and quality of beers.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Avery Hog Heaven from Avery Brewing Company

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 7/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 14/20

Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

Had from bottle from BevMo. Pours cloudy orange with a nice bubbly white/tan head. Aroma is a nice blend of hops and malts with the hops really coming through. Sweet malts are dominant as well in this barleywine. Though I’m not the biggest fan of barleywines, the taste of Avery’s really worked for me. I think the hops really upped the drinkability as the malts don’t dominate the flavors here. Taste is initially bitter from the hops, finishes a bit dry and sweet. A nice ale for those that probably aren’t huge barleywine fans.