Thursday, October 31, 2013

Great Divide: Espresso Yeti

This was an obvious choice for this blog. Great Divide's Espresso Imperial Yeti stout just screamed out for me to make some bacon and eggs and crack open this beer. I did, and it did not disappoint.
This beer is an absolute beast, and finishing it all by myself was a feat that I was very happy to be able to partake in. The taste is pure roasted coffee right off the bat, like someone decided to make some coffee in a tiny pot in this beer. The vanilla notes from the oak are in there as well as some roasty coffee deep in the background. The taste is amazingly smooth for a 10% beer. The flavors are like smoke on the tongue, filling up my nose with aromas and my palate with bitter coffee and sweet malt. I can't describe this beer anymore than I can wax poetically about the first time it touched my lips. Every sip is gets more complex with more flavors of the oak coming out as it warms up. If you see a bottle sitting on a shelf somewhere I'd buy it immediately.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Mystic Brewing: Will o the Wisp & India Wharf Pale Ale

About a week or so ago I found a beautiful Mystic Snifter at Goodwill and bought myself a bottle of their fall saison, Will o' the Wisp. Then the flu hits and I'm laid up with some flu like variant for about a week and have been on a steady diet of theraflu and vitamin C. In that time I acquired Mystic's newest Wigglesworth Series beer, an english style IPA, India Wharf Pale Ale so now that I'm better, let's drink them both.
For starters, Mystic Brewing makes impeccably clean tasting beers, and I've never been disappointed with anything they've put out. It's hard to explain what I mean, but these beers just always have an amazing smell, taste, and finish to them. Will o' the Wisp is their fall saison, and pours a nice brown and smells of brown sugar with something that reminds me of maple syrup. The taste is very autumn like, as if the fallen leaves distilled itself down into a wonderful elixir with some clove and pepper mixed in for good measure. The hops are in the background for this beer, giving just a slight bitterness in the finish. This is the first brown saison I've ever had and I can honestly say it's an excellently drinkable fall beer.
After that comes the new beer from Mystic's british beer series Wigglesworth, India Wharf Pale Ale. I was very recently told that Lord Falconer from last winter might not be back and is being supplemented with India Wharf. If you've read this blog, Lord Falconer was one of the best stouts I've ever tasted so I was very disappointed to hear about it's potential demise. But, fear not, India Wharf continues Mystic's tradition of wonderful beer. IWPA pours a lovely hazy golden with a nice lacy head. The smell is a musty american hops smell mixed with some earthy malt giving hints of citrus and fresh baked dark bread. The beer tastes amazingly earthy with both hop freshness and some bitterness in the finish. One sip after another is a nice balance of bitter and sweet and bitter again.
It's amazing to drink the two beers one after another. They're two completely different styles of beer yet they're both executed perfectly. I'm very thankful to have them within ten miles of my Brighton home and readily available whenever I want them. Prost!

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Sixpoint: Autumnation

Great with buffalo chicken pizza.

Consistency is the pride of some brewers, being able to churn out the same high quality beer over and over. The Alchemist has been churning out 16oz can of Heady Topper for over 2 years and it's still the same amazing beer. Sixpoint Brewery out of Brooklyn, NY has no need for such consistency. Every year their seasonal seem to be tweaked one way or another, some good, some bad, but experimenting at all times. This years Autumnation is like none of the others. Previous years it was a pumpkin beer, but this year it's a lovely wet hop harvest ale made with the hop of choice chosen by Sixpoint's lovely fans, Mosaic hops. Mosaic hops are a fairly new variety of hops that pack a nice level of alpha acids, giving both excellent aroma quality and even levels of bitterness in the finish. 
Autumnation is a hop shadow box, taking a nice copper ale support and filling it with a single hop that's loaded with tropical fruit citrusyness and a bit of earthy fruityness. Then in the finish it's bitter, but doesn't suck the life out of your tongue. A much needed dose of hop deliciousness in a sea of pumpkin and fest biers. After a post birthday drying out this was a nice way to get back on the wagon, or fall off it, I forget what the wagon represents.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Long Trail: Pumpkin Ale

So this is what happens after drinking non stop for three days during my birthday. I don't update my blog for much too long. Let's get back to work.
Pumpkin beers seem like the most volatile of seasonal ales. One year they're well balanced and the next year there's too much spice, or too much malt. Last year, Long Trail Pumpkin was one of the better pumpkin beers I tried, being logged a 5 in my Untappd account. This year though it just wasn't the same, with a touch too much sweetness. It's actually a good beer, but it's hard to want to drink more than 1 in a sitting cause the sweetness makes it feel very rich. But if you're looking for a nice beer to compliment your pumpkin pie at the end of meal, this might be the beer for the occasion.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Blue Hills: Pumpkin Lager

I didn't see this beer coming. Blue Hills Brewery's Pumpkin Lager just said to me, easy drinking, potentially dangerously drinkable with a portion of pumpkin pie thrown in one way or another. What I didn't expect was a healthy dose of delicious chocolate malt to make this beer one of the most interesting and dessert like pumpkin beers I've had all season. This is what I always expect from a pumpkin stout, but this lager with a nice deep amber color and thin carbonation actually delivered what I was hoping for from a few others so far. Chocolate malts with some nice toffee sweetness and like pumpkin pie spices make it an delightful beer. If I could find this nitro charged at a bar somewhere I think it'd be even better, cause this beer is calling for a nice smooth creamy finish. Really though, worth the $5 bucks and then some. Better than a lot of pumpkin beers I've had so far.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Baxter: Hayride

Aged on American Oak is a phrase that always gives me pause when I'm drinking beer. Yes, oak aging can give a beer added complexity with nice vanilla overtones and a woody finish, but sometimes it can made an already sweet beer nothing but a big ol' sweet bomb. Luckily for my taste buds, Baxter Brewing Hayride is the former. Brewed with two rye malts, new zealand hops and then aged in fresh oak with ginger, black pepper and orange peel, this beer is all subtly all the way. It's got a nice hint of everything, with that spicy rye, ginger, and black pepper working together, the orange peel and sweet malt working together, then finishing with a nice light touch of wood on the tongue. It's complex enough that you can just sit back and sip on it and easy drinking enough that you might not even notice it. It also pours pretty dam ugly, so I might leave it in the can unless you like it dirty. But that's up to you.