Stone: Sprocket Bier

When I was around fifteen I discovered public transportation. After school I'd walk to Medford Square and catch the 96 (or 94, which took way too long) to Davis Square in Somerville where I discovered all sorts of new things. Guacamole!  Indian food! What the hell is this stuff and why didn't anyone in my family ever eat this? The other discovery for me were Aero chocolate bars, first given to me by a long lost British friend. Aero chocolate bars are amazing, with nice semi sweet chocolate that were incredibly light on the tongue, unlike anything we hand out on Halloween or I could find at grandma's house.
The first sip of Stone Brewing's Sprocket Bier reminded me of my first experience with an Aero bar. It pours a deeply dense looking beer, with a nice layer of fluffy white head that quickly settles. However, in true Kolsch style, the first sip is smooth and creamy loaded with notes of roasted coffee, chocolate and smoke. The rye settles in the finish to add a nice spiceyness to the smoke that lingers in the finish. You should seek this beer out for two reasons, one, it's unique, being one of the only black ryes I've ever seen, and two because it's incredibly drinkable and full of some pretty unique flavors and textures. And really, it should be drank because new things should always be sought out to be enjoyed, consumed, and appreciated. Who knows, maybe my Mom will get Indian food with me one of these days.

Hill Farmstead: Birth of Tragedy

Check out my sweet theme park.

I think the best thing about loving beer is having friends to drink it with. The other day I picked up a copy of a new board game I wanted, Steam Park. It's a ridiculous game about building a theme park for robots, and with a couple of phone calls I've got friends over each with bottles of beer in hand. This is usually how I end up with some of the best beers I've ever had. Case in point, my buddy Patrick brings over Hill Farmstead's Birth of Tragedy, an imperial porter brewed with honey and coffee. If you're unaware that Hill Farmstead makes amazing beers, then you really need to make the trip to Greensboro Bend, VT, it's worth hours of driving for both the beer and a beautiful Vermont countryside. So after opening a few other bottles we got to the highlight of the evening.
I could probably wax poetically about the taste of this beer for hours, but really, it's just bliss. Roasted coffee with a creamy and smooth mouthfeel, and a nice bourbon burn in the finish. This is the mouthfeel that every porter should strive to achieve, and it has the perfect balance of bourbon without overpowering it.
All tastes aside, this is what beer should be about, sharing it with friends while they earn more money from their robots than you do. I lost both games of Steam Park I played, but I got to drink Birth of Tragedy, so I'm doing just fine.

Everybody Saison!

Saisons might be my absolute favorite style of beer. They can be low in ABV and refreshing, drunk all day in the hot sun while BBQing in the backyard, they can be hopped forward for a lovely citrus or piney bite, they can be funky and tart with the right ingredient added, and they can just be Saison DuPont. No matter what, I typically love them. So I was thrilled when new saisons came in the same week. Just so I don't repeat myself, these beers all have very similar qualities, with nice sweetness mixed with some pepper, banana and clove. Saisons are all about the balance, so left take a look at three new ones. 

First up is Allagash Saison. Allagash has been making belgian style beers since 1995. I was 12 at the time. It's been a long and good road and they've just finally brewed a saison that will become their next year round beer. Everything about it screams orange, with a solid orange package, solid orange label, I think my brain even thinks it has an orange hue in the glass. I'm freaking out man!!! More citrus in the nose with pepper and clove at a minimum in the background, with little to no bitterness in the finish. 

Next up is Stone's venture into the world of saisons. They only make one year round belgian style, their Belgian IPA, but they recently made a smoked saison in tribute to a fallen co-worker, so there was probably some yeast laying around the brewery they needed to use up, bam! Stone Saison was born. Stone's reputation at first gets in the way of this beer for me. I was expecting hops. Stone has made its reputation on hop forward beers, so when I sunk my nose into it and it just had a slight banana bread smell, I was shocked. It's a very strait forward saison, painted by numbers, bottled and here it is. It's delicious, don't get me wrong, but I just built it up to be something different. 
Last one of the night was from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. La Ferme farmhouse. Much darker than the others, this farmhouse ale was made with half the farm, including oats, rye and some spelt thrown in for good measure. While it's fairly different from the others, this was actually my favorite of the three. It was packed with a nice creamy sweetness, balanced with both pepper and some of that rye spice and good musty hops in the backend. It's complex with flavors coming from all over the place. It's not really a traditional saison, but it nails all the other flavors so well. I'm kind of surprised by the result, but I guess this is why we drink them.