What Beers Did You Drink Today? Or Yesterday? (Part 2)

[Pilori]

Brown Paper Bag Project's Trinity Beligan style Trippel.

This is a wonderful new (nano)brewery here in Dublin, Ireland. There is a decided lack of craft beer here and, when there is, it's never too interesting and definitely not comparable to California (where I'm from). Every single beer that BPPB has put out has been fantastic, so I'm very happy!

The Trippel is lightly carbonated with some nice typical Belgian flavor, a little spiciness, and some residual sweetness. Eating this with some baked Mont D'Or.

[ChrisTaylor]

Another rye beer. This time it's Bear Republic's Hop Rod Rye Specialty Ale. I don't like it as much as the Sierra Nevada one. It's pretty good, I mean, but sometimes when a beer's hop, hop, hoppy that's all it is. A bit one dimensional.

[ChrisTaylor]

Moon Dog's Mummy Have a Bite Toffee Apple Amber Ale. It's aged for a couple months in Calvados barrels. Interesting. Glad it's a 330mL bottle. Boozy, tho'. I suspect a dangerous lunatic might do a riff on the car bomb theme with this and Laird's.

[Adam George]

Sierra Nevada's rye beer. First Sierra Nevada I thought was truly excellent.

Ruthless Rye--I love this! Haven't seen it yet this season but I will be looking.

Ruthless Rye has made its way to London on Draft at the Black Heart in Camden.

Impressive and ballsy. I struggled down a pint and despite enjoying it, I will be ordering in halves from now on.

[MasteringTheFlame]

I had Summit's Biere de Garde, it is the 14th beer in their unchained series. Good stuff! I gotta brew a biere de garde again.

[Czequershuus]

Billies Chilies from Twisted Pine last night. My first chili beer. Quite nice, reminiscent of a well made Michelada. I could see how this would go well with spicy food, especially Mexican food, but not likely a beer I would purchase again. Good, but not moreish.

[FrogPrincesse]

Stone RuinTen IPA. Five pounds of hops per barrel, "a stage dive into a mosh pit of hops". 110 IBU and 10.8% ABV.

What amuses me with these bold macho IPA hop-bombs is that they always remind me of grandmother herbal teas. Beer with a intense dose of chamomille. Of course there is the bitterness too.

This one has a good malty backbone so there is something to balance out the hops.

Reading material.

[FrogPrincesse]

Last night a Black IPA, Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale with black cherries (special release). No photo but it was very dark. Bitter and black. Rich smoky malty flavor with plenty of hops in the finish. The cherry was subtle which is a good thing.

[Rafa]

When in the mood for something rich (often lately), I've been enjoying Left Hand's decadent but dry-ish Milk Stout. (Though I see it has its detractors round these parts.)

I also finished off my supply of Rogue's Chipotle Ale, a seasonal ale that's gone way out of season but which I still found highly drinkable, well-rounded and refreshing with just enough vegetal bite from the peppers.

[ChrisTaylor]

Rogue's Santa's Private Reserve Ale. I guess I like it. Less outlandish than the two or three Rogues I've had so far, which works in its favour. One of my local bottle shops has started stocking Rogue so I have four or five others to try.

Something closer to home: Red Hill Brewery's Scotch Ale. Chocolatey but not ... you know, too much. This is a beer I could consume with steak and eggs and frites. It's pretty fucking good. I know I've had Red Hill stuff before, purely because it's avaliable, but clearly nothing was that amazing if I can't remember anything about it. Toe-to-toe I think it has the edge on the Santa beer.

Edited December 18, 2013 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Here is one from a couple of nights ago, Seizoen Bretta, an organic farmhouse ale made by Logsdon in Oregon. Very sour & dry, and similar to some (good) Breton apple ciders. Not what I was expecting. It would be great with crepes but I don't recommend it with roast chicken.

[ChrisTaylor]

Rogue's Dad's Little Helper. A bit more assertive, a bit more character than the Santa Ale. And yet clearly in the same family. I think I like it a little more than the Santa beer but it's a slow burn. I wish I could get 330mL bottles of their beers.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Club Negra. This, odd as it may sound, is a lagered stout at 5% - meant to be drunk ice cold. The whole concept weirded me out a bit, but the brew itself was quite tasty - malty and pleasantly bitter with tones of coffee and bitter chocolate. This brewery is known for really hoppy profiles, and the hops do assert themselves even here, but not so much as to be off-putting (I flat out hate the standard Club Gold pilsener because all other flavours are lost to the hops, but they seem to have themselves under control here.)

[ChrisTaylor]

Rogue's Dead Guy Ale. It was nice enough, I guess.

[C. sapidus]

Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout. Only available in the winter, but always one of my favorites.

Edited December 23, 2013 by C. sapidus (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

Mountain Goat's Crossbreed. Crossbred because it's shooting for the hoppy hefe thing. Does an okay job of it, I guess. I think sometimes these craft beers can be too hoppy. That metallic note of the hops just dominates. It's the shot of Bailey's.

[FrogPrincesse]

Pliny the Elder double IPA from Russian River. SO worth the hype (if I were smart I would keep my mouth shut!). Beautiful IPA bursting with hops, with also some really cool stone fruit and citrus flavors. Eminently drinkable.

Edited December 23, 2013 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

Cavalier Courage. This is an interesting one. It's an ale developed by or in support of some guy that's dying--perhaps he's dead now, as I saw the Australian Story episode about him some time ago--of Motor Neuron Disease. I consumed this in the midst of a 12 hour session in the kitchen involving everything from locust bean come to pork hocks to pureed pop corn. It's just the right kind of beer for that.

I guess what I'm saying is that if this beer was basically my tombstone after I died from some terrible disease for which there is no cure, I'd be rather pleased. Perhaps I'd even suggest you share one with a homely girl if you had thought to please my ghost.

Edited December 24, 2013 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

St Stefanus Blonde (cellar release November 2013). This is a nice example of a blonde ale. Works nicely in the Australian summer. Would buy again.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Club Rojo. This was supposed to be a 4.5% abv red lager, but it's failing on a number of counts (including actual redness!) Not sure I'd drink it again - their lagered porter is better.

[ChrisTaylor]

Another Australian brew: Feral's Hop Hog. This my idea of a hoppy beer. There's enough maltiness and fruitiness going on that it doesn't taste like you're sucking on one of those hop tea bags you can buy at the home brew shop. In fact, this beer is really good. It gets a big fat stamp of approval.

Edited December 28, 2013 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

This one was on the shelf with all the Rogue stuff at my local bottleshop and I grabbed it, I admit, without even looking at the bottle properly. I saw the word COFFEE. All the rest was irrelevant. I even thought it was a Rogue--same cap--until I looked closely at the bottle and realised it's not even American. It's another skip beer. Which, considering the run of success I've had with local brewskis, isn't such a bad thing. This one is Burleigh Brewing Company's Black Giraffe Black Coffee Lager. Now that's a name. It's like the Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace of Titles With Colons in Them of beers. Except rather than being shit it's actually rather good. It manages to be a novelty beer--a novelty beer being a beer that's really trying to taste of something other than just beer--that I actually like, which in the words of some nameless Guy Ritchie character played Jason Statham is quite a fucking thing. The maple bacon doughnut bullshit that Rogue served up? Devilry. Those sweet fake lambics that are like some mildly booze version of raspberry soft drink? Communism. This, though, it's got a nice coffee kick to it while still being unmistakably beery. A boilermaker of this plus some, I don't know, El Dorado 15 or Ron Zacapa 23 would, in the words of the Great Stath, by quite a fucking thing.

[ChrisTaylor]

Another beer from the Burleigh Brewing Company. This one's a little more conventional, I guess, than the coffee one as it comes in the form of a hoppy pale ale. It's named--amusingly, if you're silly like me--Hasslehop. It's accessible. Fruity. Almost ... pineapple-y. Summer beer. A bit different to most of the other beers marketed on the basis of their hop content. I've only had, as best I can recall, two of the Burleigh beers and already they stand out as a brewery that's trying to make a product that's approachable but still complex enough for a snobby alcoholic seasoned drinker responsible person with a bit of experience responsibly sampling small amounts of many different beers . I think it's a good drop. And it goes nicely with this:

Edited January 4, 2014 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

No video clips this time round. Another Feral. This one is their Sly Fox Summer Ale. Highly carbonated. Maybe a little too carbonated. It does what's on the label, I guess: an easy-drinking ale that isn't too boring. Has a crispness to it that makes me want barbecued pork and prawns and things like that. Maybe this would go nicely with fish and chips.

[FrogPrincesse]

Mischief from The Bruery, a Belgian-style strong ale which is part of their year-round lineup.

A little tart/acidic at first, which took me by surprise. Then some sweetness and depth in the finish with a good flavor from the hops. Overall it feels light while being very interesting. I think it pairs well with food and will buy it again for sure (it sells for less than $10 for 750 mL).

Edited January 14, 2014 by FrogPrincesse (log)