Brew Day: (Cranberry?) Cream Ale

This was originally planned as a festival beer. The cranberry was supposed to be the draw. Well, we all know how that turned out, but I opted to go ahead with the brew, and may or may not add the cranberry to it. We'll see.

7 lbs Domestic 2-row
2 lbs Vienna
8 oz Crystal 15°L
8 oz Carapils
2 oz Maltodextrine
1 oz Tradition (5.8%) @60min
1 oz Liberty (4.5%) @5min
Fermentis Safale US-05
Mashed 75 min @150°F

And, if the spirit moves me... some frozen or dried cranberries in the secondary (not exactly the season for fresh), and 4 oz cranberry extract at kegging.

I was originally targeting a higher mash temp, closer to 154°F, but I've had problems overshooting in the past, so I was a little more cautious this time. It seems to have worked against me, however, and I wound up with a mash of around 146°F. So I added and added and added hot water, near boiling, and got to maybe 150°F. Maybe for the best... should be a little more fermentable, maybe balance well with the maltodextring sweetening it up.

I also currently have a bit of a conundrum in transferring the wort into the fermentor. I have a simple, copper imersion chiller, and over Christmas added a ball valve and diverter tube to my kettle. The ball valve so I could finally transfer into a carboy for primary (rather than pour the wort into a plastic bucket), and the diverter to pull wort from the side of the kettle and avoid trub in the fermentor. Well, the immersion chiller makes a neat little pile of trub in the center of the kettle difficult. So does the diverter, for that matter, disturbing the whirlpool. The end result was more trub in the fermenter than I would have liked.

As it happened, I listened to the Basic Brewing Radio on a trub-in-the-fermentor experiment the next day. Had I listened to it beforehand, I mightn't have worried so much. At any rate, fermentation took off overnight (between 8 and 16 hours later), and she's bubbling happily away. We'll see how it turns out. O.G. was 1.058.

Homebrew and Beer Festivals

A 78 year-old law that has been largely ignored for decades is now keeping homebrewers out of Illinois beer festivals. I won't speak to any specific festival or homebrewer group, but, suffice to say, I'm not happy. Update 4/19/2012: Since the local paper has now run a story on the subject, I think I can go ahead and say that I'm talking about the Peoria Jaycees International Beer Festival, and my own homebrew club, the Homebrewers of Peoria. The statute in question, the Liquor Control Act of 1934, lays out all the licensing requirements for making and selling alcoholic beverages of any kind, but provides the following exception in Article II, Sec. 2-1:

...nothing herein contained shall prevent the possession and transportation of alcoholic liquor by the possessor for the personal use of the possessor, his family and guests, nor prevent the making of wine, cider or other alcoholic liquor by a person from fruits, vegetables or grains, or the products thereof, by simple fermentation and without distillation, if it is made solely for the use of the maker, his family and his guests...

Further exemptions are made for medicinal and religious uses of alcohol.

So hombrewing of any alcoholic beverage (shy of distillation) is totally legal without license in Illinois, provided it is purely for personal, familial, and guest consumption. So, to the letter of the law, serving homebrew at your average beer festival is, probably, illegal. The real question at hand is, should it be?

I've only heard two arguments against serving homebrew in a semi-public venue such as a beer festival. The first is some vague notion of sanitation. Homebrew is, viewed by the government, a largely uncontrolled substance that could contain anything. We're brewing at home, in our filthy, non health-inspected garages. Lord only knows what we're putting in there! And if someone gets sick from drinking our dirty, dirty beer, the festival organizers could be held liable. Oh noes!

Make no mistake, sanitation is important. However, bad sanitation doesn't lead to toxic beer. It may lead to bad beer (sometimes on purpose), but the simple fact is that nothing harmful to humans can grow in the alcohol and preservative (hops) rich environment of beer. That's why people drank it in the middle ages instead of plague infested water. Sure, there are plenty of allergies that could be related to beer; gluten, yeast, nut, etc. But anyone with such allergies should know to ask before they drink, and homebrew is no different from commercial beer in that instance. Indeed, homebrew is probably safer in that case, since the actual brewer is right there to field any questions about the beer they're serving.

The second argument against serving homebrew at public events stems from the very definition of homebrew: unlicensed alcohol. This can be attacked in several ways, from homebrewers circumventing licensing requirements, to serving untaxed alcohol, to robbing commercial brewers of sales.

Let's think about just how big a contribution homebrewers may be to beer festivals. BeerFestivals.org lists nine scheduled beer festivals in Illinois for 2012. I'll be extremely generous and assume that, 1) being early in the year, only about a fifth of festivals are scheduled and listed, for around 50 total fests, and 2) every single one of these festivals is pouring homebrew. And, in another likely overestimate, I'll say 20 unique homebrewers at each festival bring five five-gallon kegs apiece. That's 1,000 (!) people serving 25,000 gallons (!!) of beer. Keep in mind, I've overestimated everywhere I could, and this is probably off by an order of magnitude at least.

The current tax on beer is $0.231 per gallon.... actually, I'll assume that some portion of that beer is over 7% alcohol and taxed at the next higher rate of $1.39 per gallon, so let's call it an effective tax of $0.50 per gallon. Add to that 1,000 homebrewers buying a $500 liquor license, and that's about $512,500 in lost revenue for the state. In a state with a budget deficit of around $8 billion. Or, about 0.0064% of the deficit. That is pennies, and will probably cost the state more than that just to process and enforce.
 

Is the availability of homebrew driving down demand for commercial beer at festivals? Hard to say. You're likely paying the same token or ticket for a sample of homebrew as commercial, so it's not like it's free. (The brewer does not see any of that money, by the way, so we're not selling our beer.) I would argue that, while a given attendant may drink one less commercial sample for each homebrew they try, overall attendance will be higher when homebrew is being served, increasing sales across the board.

I don't have any numbers to back that up, and the truth is probably more complicated, but there's obviously a balance point somewhere and commercial losses to homebrew are not as drastic as those big brewers might assume.

I hope this hasn't seemed to ranty. There's just no reason to keep homebrewers out of beer festivals. We love to share our beer with as many people as possible, get feedback, and improve our craft. The more outlets for this, the better. Most independent, local breweries are started by former homebrewers. Letting us into festivals could even lead to more good commercial beer on the market!

Illinois is just the latest state to get hit with this. Overeager liquor control boards across the country are noticing that the homebrew laws (usually written just after the end of Prohibition) are needlessly strict and haven't been enforced. Oregon went through this last year, Wisconsin is in the process. The laws on the books were much more strict than Illinois' (forbidding the very removal of homebrew from the home in which it was brewed), and, being much more beer-friendly states, the laws were changed. I have no such high hopes for Illinois.

Third Coast Old Ale

Brewer: Bell's Brewery, Inc.
Style: Old Ale
ABV: 10.2%
IBU:
Serving Type: 12 oz. bottle poured into an oversize snifter

From the brewer:

Third Coast Old Ale focuses on malt, offering notes of burnt caramel & other earthy malt flavors. Designed with vintage aging in mind, the malt aspect is matched to a heavy complement of hops. Sharply bitter at first, this will fold into the malt character over time and balance out the maltiness.

It's worth noting that this is the winter 2011/2012 vintage. Pours rusty brown, with pretty red highlights at the edges of the glass. An offwhite to tan head settles out to a thin film but doesn't go away. Sticks to the side of the glass when swwirled, more like wine legs than beer lace. The aroma is great, banana bread up front, cinnamon raisin bread behind, both fresh from the oven. Caramel sweetness round it out nicely.

Very sweet. All the flavors from the aroma are present, with some darker sugars adding complexity, brown sugar and maybe slightly burnt caramel. There's a hop bitterness trying to balance it out, grapefruit and earthy, but comes across a little too aggressive. It is a little young though, this kind of thing will probably mellow with age. Just a tad boozy, too, though that, too, should calm down after a while. Temperature helps, too. I thought I was serving it plenty warm at about 50°F, but there was definite improvement as it approached room temperature. Nice and viscous, thick and mouth-coating, with a light but appropriate amount of carbonation.

It's decent now, but I feel like it could be phenomenal after a few months (years??) in the bottle. This came in a sixer, so I'll definitely be revisting it over the coming year.

My score: 3.5/5
Beer Advocate: 91/100
Rate Beer: 100/100
Pintley: 3.8/5

Old Rasputin

Brewer: North Coast Brewing Co.
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
ABV: 9%
IBU: 75
Serving Type: 12 oz. bottle poured into an English pub glass

I've done this beer before, but it's such a mainstay that it's worth a rereview from time to time. But first a little background.

From the brewer:

Produced in the tradition of 18th Century English brewers who supplied the court of Russia's Catherine the Great, Old Rasputin seems to develop a cult following wherever it goes. It's a rich, intense brew with big complex flavors and a warming finish.

A beer brewed in London for export to Moscow had to endure a long, largely over land voyage through potentially sub-zero temperatures. This meant a higher hopping rate (hops act as a preservative, lengthening the shelf-life of the beer), and a higher alcohol content to prevent freezing. The hops, in my mind, is what makes it a "Russian" Imperial Stout, as opposed to just a plain old imperial stout, or any number of aged or double, barreled or bourboned versions.

Now, on to the review.

I have a rule. If I have to spend more than 30 seconds trying to decide if something is black, or just a really dark brown, it's black. This is a jet black beer, no light is getting through. A rocky, latte colored head occupies a full third of the glass before settling down to a persistant finger with some light, sticky lace. There's a little bit of piney/earthy hop aroma up front, but that's quickly overpowered by darker smells as the beer comes to temp. Definitely some coffee, like a nice, dark roast, with notes of vanilla and chocolate to boot.

The taste is chocolate malt and licorice, with dark coffee behind, bitter and maybe just a little burnt. That bitterness does have a hop contribution, and tends to linger. In the mouthfeel, this beer is silky smooth and lightly carbonated to perfection. Goes down with just a slight warming in the throat and chest, but otherwise betrays no hint of alcohol. Very easy drinker.

This is a very easy beer to recommend. Big and bold, with lots of complexity and just the right touch of hops to balance it all out. All this for two bucks a bottle, and brewed year-round. A steal!

My score: 4.5/5
Beer Advocate: 95/100
Rate Beer: 100/100
Pintley: 4.2/5 

Perkulator Coffee Dopplebock

Brewer: Dark Horse Brewery
Style: Doppelbock
ABV: 7.5%
IBU:
Serving Type: 12 oz. bottle poured into an oversize snifter.

Picked this up because I wanted to add coffee to a bock I was brewing, and this is the only commercial example I could find.

Deep brown in color with lots of ruby red highlighting. A solid finger of a nice tan head with decent retention and minimal lacing. The coffee is right up front with a rich, lightly roasted aroma. Behind that is lots of sweetness, malt and brown sugar.

Lots of coffee in the flavor too, with a slight vegetal background. Caramel, honey, and nut follow, a little like the cheerios. Some bitter astringency, but mellows with warmth.

Overall, not bad. A little one-dimensional. I think the coffee overpowers the traditional bock flavors a little. We'll see how mine turns out. 

My score: 3/5
Beer Advocate: 85/100
Rate Beer: 91/100
Pintley: 3.6/5

Trippel Belgian Style Ale

Brewer: New Belgium Brewing
Style: Belgian Tripel
ABV: 7.8%
IBU: 25
Serving Type: 12 oz. bottle poured into an oversize snifter.

Guess I'm on kind of a Belgian kick lately.

Pure gold with a pinky finger of pure white head. Leaves a fine lace clinging to the glass. Aroma is sweet spiciness, coriander and clove, banana and citrus. No alcohol but just a little perfumy. And that distinctive Belgian yeast character is behind it all.

A nice, full spice flavor, clove and coriander as in the aroma with just a touch of pepper. Citrus comes of as just slightly acidic, in a nice, quenching way. Some small, light malt character. Just a little taste of alcohol and just a little warmth in the gut. Light to medium bodied and high in carbonation. Finished with a champagne like dryness. Crisp.

Nothing necessarily jaw-dropping, but a really solid beer and very easy drinking. Would buy again.

My score: 3.5/5
Beer Advocate: 87/100
Rate Beer: 95/100
Pintley: 3.6/5

La Trappe Quadrupel

Brewer: Brewery de Koningshoeven
Style: Quadrupel
ABV: 10%
IBU:
Serving Type: 33cL bottle poured into a St. Bernardus chalice

One more Trappist beer for good measure. Enjoyed with some carry-out dynamite sushi (thanks, honey!). Pours a deep, murky brown with more red tones than most other quads I've had. A solid finger of white, big-bubbled head betrays my not quite clean enough glass. Aroma is big and malty, with raisin and fig and a little bit of spice (cinammon?).

The spice on the tongue comes through more peppery, and the sweetness just a touch tart (though still with plenty of dark fruit). Carbonation is nice and prickly on the tongue, does a good job of cutting through the almost cloying sweetness. Medium bodied, with a lingering spice at the back of the tongue.

Pretty good overall, though a touch overboard on the sweetness. The other elements all help hold that sweetness in check, but only just. The spiciness, however, adds enough depth to force me to give it a rare half-star rating.

And how does it pair with sushi? Suprisingly well, actually. The sweetness counteracts the wasabi while the carbonation and spiciness of the beer accent it. The sweetness also plays well with the savory flavors in the soy and fish.

My score: 3.5/5
Beer Advocate: 91/100
Rate Beer: 99/100
Pintley: 4.2/5

American Extra Oatmeal Stout

Brewer: Yours truly
Style: Oatmeal stout
ABV: 5.7%
IBU: 28
Serving Type: On tap into an English pub glass

Back when this was brewed, I wanted three things: 1) To brew a stout, 2) to follow a recipe out of Brewing Classic Styles, and 3) to use only ingredients I had on hand. Unfortunately, my inventory did not allow me to use any of Jamil's stout recipes, so I was left to improvise. What I wound up with was some bizarre mash-up between an American stout, a foreign extra stout, and an oatmeal stout. I give you: American Extra Oatmeal Stout!

9 lbs Domestic 2-row
1 lb Flaked oats
12 oz Chocolate malt
8 oz Crystal 60L
8 oz Roasted barley
8 oz Victory malt
2 oz U.S. Tettnang @60 min
Irish Ale yeast WLP004
Mashed 75 min @150 F

Appearance is super dark, nearly black (estimated at 31 SRM by BeerSmith). Several fingers of tan head takes its sweet time in settling to a persistent film, but lacing is minimal. Lots of chocolate on the nose, with some good roasted malts coming in behind. A little caramel sweetness too.

Where the aroma was all chocolate, the taste is all roast. Chocolate is there, mostly in the aftertaste, and more subdued. Plenty creamy from the oats, with a medium-to heavy body and mild carbonation. A sweet finish if you can find it behind the roasted flavor.

A fairly solid brew overall. I would definitely cut back on the roasted barley next time, try and let some of the subtleties of the victory and chocolate malts come through.

My score: 3/5

Abt 12

Brewer: St. Bernardus
Style: Quadrupel
ABV: 10.5%
IBU:
Serving Type: 33cL bottle poured into a St. Bernardus chalice

"Rich mahogany" sounds to me like either a joke or pretentious, but I can think of nothing better to describe this beer's appearance. A deep and dark brown with a touch of red, lightening slightly at th edges of the glass. A tan finger of head settles quickly to a tin film. Minimal lacing. Raisin and plum and banana on the nose, brown sugar and a little oak rounding it out. A really fantastic aroma.

Sweet, caramel malt and a lot of dark fruits; raisin, plum, and fig are all there, with some banana and cherry thrown in for kicks. Balances with a slightly earthy, slightly spicy bitterness. Very smooth with a pleasently prickly carbonation. A nice alcohol warmth is felt all the way down. Finishes sweet and lingering.

Best of the St. Bernardus lineup and an incredible example of the style. The Rochefort 10 edges it out in my book, but that doesn't stop it from being world class.

My score: 5/5
Beer Advocate: 98/100
Rate Beer: 100/100
Pintley: 4.4/5

Trippel

Brewer: St. Bernardus
Style: Trippel
ABV: 8.0%
IBU:
Serving Type: 33cL bottle poured into a St. Bernardus chalice

This one pours a hazy gold with a hint of orange and a solid finger of pure white head. Seems more persistant and with better lacing than the previous St. Bernardus offerings. Lots of banana and clove on the nose and maybe a little earthy or spicy bitterness.

Banana and clove are evident from the first sip, with some tropical and/or citrus fruit coming through at the end with a slight, but quenching, acidity. The alcohol is invisible, an impressive feat at 8%. It has a light to medium body, very crisp and highly carbonated. Finishes dry and very refreshing, with a hint of lemon.

Extrordinarily easy drinking but certainly no lack of complexity. I could almost knock back a few of these on a hot day if not for the high price and alcohol. A really fantastic brew.

My score: 5/5
Beer Advocate: 94/100
Rate Beer: 99/100
Pintley: 4/5

Prior 8

Brewer: St. Bernardus
Style: Dubbel
ABV: 8.0%
IBU:
Serving Type: 33cL bottle poured into a St. Bernardus chalice

Murky and brown like the 6, maybe a little lighter. The head pours off-white and maintains at a little under a finger. Ok lacing. Nice Belgian aroma, with plum and raisin. Puts me in the mind of jam spread over just barely toasted bread.

Flavor fills the whole mouth with just a sip. Taste is a lot of raisin and maybe a hint of cherry. There's also a pleasent brown sugar sweetness. Not at all bitter. A noticeable alcohol warmth. Very creamy mouthfeel paired with a prickly carbonation.

Nice overall, though I think my preference so far is for the 6. There's just not much here to balance the sweetness, and it can almost border on cloying.

My score: 3/5
Beer Advocate: 92/100
Rate Beer: 96/100
Pintley: 4/5

Pater 6

Brewer: St. Bernardus
Style: Dubbel
ABV: 6.7%
IBU:
Serving Type: 33cL bottle poured into a St. Bernardus chalice

The Pater 6 pours a murky brown to amber if you squint at it just right, with a finger of ivory head of fine bubbles. Settles down to a thin but persistent film. Lots of Belgian yeast on the nose. Behind that is all subtleties, but I can find dry fruit and some honey-like sweetness. There's also an ever so slight hint of alcohol, surprising at 6.7%.

The taste comes in quite sweet, but well-balanced, not cloying at all. A complex blend of fruit and spice notes, including byt not limited to fig, raisin, and clove. Bitterness comes afterward, cutting through the sweet but without any definitive hop character. The body is very medium (is that a thing?) and fairly high in carbonation. Tingles the whole mouth with just a sip. And again, a slight warmth of alcohol, even at less than 7% ABV.

All around a great beer. Many will disagree with me, but for the style this is probably about as close to "sessionable" as you're going to get, in spite of my comments about alcohol. Would be an excellent bridge to some of the stronger Trappist brews. All of the trappings are there, but not in quite the same volume as the Abt 12 or a Rochefort 10.

My score: 4/5
Beer Advocate: 92/100
Rate Beer: 96/100
Pintley: 3.9/5

Life and Limb

Brewer: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. / Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Inc.
Style: Strong Ale / Specialty Beer
ABV: 10.2%
IBU:
Serving Type: 750 mL bottle poured into an oversize snifter

A dark, opaque brown with a solid film of light tan head. Smells sweet and toasty, a little tinge of alcohol. It's also a little bready and a tad woody, which may be what they're going for with the "life" (yeast) and "limb" (maple, birch syrup) theme.

Tastes very sweet, the maple flavor is evident. Malt is also present and very crystal-toasty. The bitterness comes through at the end and at the back of the tongue. Not a hop bitterness, though. More like green wood, raw. The flavors balance well, but are thrown off a little by the alcohol bite at the end. The alcohol gets stronger as the beer warms. Nonetheless, it's very smooth and goes down easier than 10.2% alcohol would suggest.

This is a good beer, but could do with a bit of aging. Sweet and strong, and meant to be sipped.

My rating: 3.5/5
Beer Advocate: B+
Rate Beer: 78/100
Pintley: 3.9/5

Escondidian Imperial Black IPA

Brewer: Stone Brewing Co.
Style: up for debate... Black IPA? Cascadian Dark Ale?
ABV: 10.8%
IBU:
Serving Type: 22 oz. bottle poured into an oversize snifter

Pours pitch black with a thin finger of dense brown foam. Not even a hint of highlighting, no light is penetrating this. Good lacing. Northwestern hops are very evident in a piney, resinous, even spruce tree aroma. Strong, even before the beer has really warmed to a proper drinking temperature, but not at all overpowering. And then, I get just a slight hint of medicinality at the tail end.

The flavor... I don't know; can something be intense and subtle at the same time? I feel like that's the best way to describe this hoppiness. It's very present, right up front and every bit as pine tree as on the nose... but doesn't linger, and gives way to a slight roasted malt background. And there is a hint of alcohol warmth, felt more in the gut than the mouth or throat. Very smooth and medium bodied, on the light side in carbonation.

This is a really fine beer, yet conflicting for me. I tell myself that I have no great love for hops, but I keep subjecting myself to beers like this anyway. This could be the best hoppy beer on the planet, and I'll like it just fine, but still prefer a good bourbon barrel stout or Belgian quad. Maybe that's just a failing scoring beers in general. The beer may be flawless, but I feel weird scoring it five out of five when there are so many others, whole styles, that I would prefer to drink. Is that an argument for or against rating to style?

My rating: 4/5
Beer Advocate: A-
Rate Beer: 99/100
Pintley:

Black and Brew Coffee Stout

Brewer: Boston Beer Company

Style: Coffee Stout

ABV: 5.8%
IBU: 60
Serving Type: 12 oz. bottle poured into an English pub glass

Pours a deep, dark brown (like so many others, not quite black). Seems totally opaque, but the edges of the glass betray an ever so faint ruby highlighting. A quarter inch of tan colored head dissipates quickly but leaves a then, persistent film with decent lacing for the style. Bitter, dark roasted coffee aroma, fainter than expected. Maybe a little of that green pepper that accompanies coffee sometimes.


Coffee flavor is much more intense than the nose. A good, dark roast. A mild astringency comes off as a quenching acidity. The body is very smooth and creamy, but a tad thin. The body and the 5.8% ABV make this a very (in my book, anyway) sessionable beer, something you don't often see in a good coffee stout. 


A new addition to the Sam Adams winter 12-pack, and a pity there's only two per case.

My score: 4/5

Beer Advocate: A-

Rate Beer: 91/100

Pintley: 

Breakfast Stout

Brewer: Founders Brewing Co.

Style: Imperial Stout

ABV: 8.3%
IBU: 60
Serving Type: 12 oz. bottle poured into an English pub glass

A pinky finger of persistent, light brown head on top of a dark, dark brown, totally opaque slug of thick liquid. Decent lacing. Has the aroma of fresh brewed coffee, or maybe just the freshly roasted beans. Dark malts come through behind the coffee.

Tastes like black coffee. The slight hoppy bitterness and the tanin/astringent character of the coffee play together well, offering just the right amount of bite back in such a big beer. The dark malt flavors linger at the back of the throat. It has a nice, heavy body, but is super smooth. Correspondingly light in carbonation.

Fantastic beer. One to look forward to every year.

My score: 5/5

Beer Advocate: A

Rate Beer: 100/100

Pintley: 4.4/5

Old Stock Ale

Brewer: North Coast Brewing Co.
Style: Old Ale
ABV: 11.7%
IBU: 36
Serving Type: 12 oz. bottle poured into an oversize snifter

A deep copper or mahogany color, with short, off-white head. This beer is alive. The head fades pretty quick to a thin film, but is being constantly replinished in a curious donut shape in the center of the glass. Someting to do with the shape of the glass?

A nice fruit aroma, mostly apricot and raisin with maybe a touch of citrus. Some sweet caramely malt notes behind.

Taste is very rich and complex, with that malty sweetnes paramount. Some bitterness, but definitely playing second fiddle to the malt. Actually hop flavor is low to none. Alcohol is noticeable, but not overly so. The carbonation is moderate, but the beer is so smooth and full bodied that it's barely noticeable.

A good sipping beer, but a little overly sweet for my taste. A little more bitterness or hop character may have provided more balance. This is the 2011 vintage and has lots of potential to improve with age.

My score: 3/5
Beer Advocate: A-
Rate Beer: 99/100
Pintley: 4/5


"Donut" head

Drink'in The Sunblet

Brewer: Jester King Craft Brewery / Mikkeller
Style: American Wheat
ABV: 4.2%
IBU: 30-40
Serving type: 750 mL bottle poured into a Czech pilsner glass



A collaboration between Austin, TX brewery Jester King and self described "gypsy brewer" Mikkeller, Sunbelt is offered as a flavorful alternative to macro lagers. Light, refreshing, and goes down easy on a hot day.


It pours pale gold, just slightly hazy, and with lots of bubbles. A short lived finger followed by a persistent film of offwhite head. No lacing to speak of. Strong grapefruit hop aroma, plus some rising bread dough. 


The hop flavor is just as strong in the taste, with some fresh cut grass behind the citrus. Very bright and effervescent. A slight grainy sweetness. Very light in body, I would even call in thin. A refreshing dry finish. 


There's plenty of flavor in this, but not really any body or complexity to back it up. As advertised, this is something that would be great after mowing the lawn on a hot Texas day. Or, I don't know, wrangling horses or something. They do that in Texas, right? A beer meant to be gulped. Not one that I would pick for an after dinner sipping beer.


My score: 3/5
Beer Advocate: B+
Rate Beer: 96/100
Pintley: 

Old Rasputin

Brewer: North Coast Brewing Co.
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
ABV: 9%
IBU: 75
Serving Type: 12 oz. bottle poured into an English pub glass

A finger of rocky, dark tank head sits on top of a dark, dark brown, nearly black beer with some faint red highlighting. Coffee and roasted malts dominate the nose, with a faint hop note in the background. The beer was poured at about 45 degrees, and the aroma intensifies as the beer warms.

The first thing that hits the tongue is black, dark roasted coffee. Plenty of dark malts and a touch of dark chocolate are right alongside. An earthy hop flavor follows, balancing the roast nicely and lingering on the tongue and roof of the mouth. Carbonation seems a little high, but it goes down smooth nonetheless. The 9% alcohol is well hidden.

This is a fantastic RIS, and a no-brainer at $8 a four-pack.

My score: 5/5
Beer Advocate: A
Rate Beer: 100/100
Pintley: 4/5

Juniper Black Ale

Brewer: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Style: Cascadian dark ale, fruit beer

ABV: 8.2%
IBU: 61
Serving Type: 12 oz. bottle poured into an English pub glass

Pours black with some faint red highlighting. A finger of lumpy, light tank head sits on top and is in no hurry to go away. Aroma is herbal, piney, perhaps a touch of dark fruit. Could be it's just the juniper I'm smelling, but it's not a fruit I'm terribly familiar with.

That herbal, pine flavor is right up front, very crisp and refreshing. Roasted malt is right behind, balancing the aromatics very well. Medium bodied with a fairly dry finish. Surprisingly drinkable and quenching for the style.

This was part of the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp variety pack in 2011. And I am a big fan of this beer; it's a shame it's such a limited release.

My score: 5/5

Beer Advocate: B+

Rate Beer: 97/100

Pintley: 3.4/5