Comfort Beer

I had a rough day the other day and when I have a rough day I want a good beer.  For me, comfort beer is full of flavor and most times dark.  I was pleased that my rough day coincided with a cold snap so things lined up perfectly.  From that evening I have to share with you a stout, a black IPA, and my first ever Mexican stout.  And with no more ado, here they are.
First up was a Russian imperial stout that I will say right up front flew my socks off.  O'Dempsey's Your Black Heart was a wonderful surprise as my first beer of the night.  Had I know how much I would enjoy it, I might have kept it for last.  It was strikingly bold rich malt base with fabulous dark chocolate and coffee notes and hints of caramel and vanilla.  Add to all that flavor a slight hoppy bite and it was a fantastic complex stout that I want to go back and get more of now.  I want to share it with my friends but I also want to hide it in the fridge and give them other stuff.  It's great. Go get one.
Second was a Rogue black IPA called Dad's Little Helper.  I love a good black IPA and this one lived up to my strong expectations for a Rogue beer.  It had an aggressive hop bite and a lovely rich malt follow up.  It was a delightfully drinkable black IPA and I would drink it again in a heartbeat.
Now for my final beer of the evening I had a Clown Shoes Mexican chocolate stout by the name of Chocolate Sombrero.  Anyone who has read my blog knows of my love for all things Clown Shoes, but I almost didn't even try this one.  I was quite frankly trepidatious of the ancho chiles.  I am thrilled that I trusted my favorite brewery and gave it a shot because it was amazing!  It has a rich chocolate malt with cinnamon and vanilla and a subtle yet building spice.  It has a similar vibe to a mole sauce and is rich and decadent without being overly sweet.  It was a brilliant blend of flavors and I thoroughly enjoyed every sip.  Another big win for the clown.
So goes another night wrapped in the malty glow of a lovely row of comfort beers.  I haven't been posting as often lately but that doesn't mean I'm not drinking and making notes to share with all of you.  I will get to them all in time.  But for now, get out there and try one of these awesome dark comfort beers.  Cheers!

Bottom of the Beer Drawer

So this is one of those posts where I have come to the bottom of my beer supply and have a couple odds and ends to talk about.  So we have a beautiful brown, a delightful doppelbock, and a bold Belgian.  Lets get to them.
I'm actually gonna start with the Belgian which came from 21st Amendment with the quite sinister name of Monk's Blood.  It had a lovely spicy malt body with earthy fig and mild vanilla and cinnamon notes.  It also has a really awesome can design with a great story for the basis of the name.  It was a very tasty Belgian style ale and it has joined the list of awesome 21st Amendment beers that I have tried.  Very nice.
Next comes the Bell's Brewery's Consecrator Dopplebock.  I have been fond of all the Bell's beers I have tried thus far and this was no exception.  It was a nice full balance of malt and hop with great fig and raisin notes and a super smooth finish.  It was such a great easy drinking and memorable dopplebock.  I am a major fan.  While I have Bell's on the brain, I have heard wonderful things about the seasonal Oberon Ale and am on a mission to find one.  Anyone in the Charlotte area that spots one give me that heads up please and thank you.
Rounding out this evening is a beer from one of my all time favorite breweries, Clown Shoes.  You just can't go wrong with a Clown Shoes in hand and their Brown Angel double brown ale is certainly no exception.  It has a delightful rich malt body with bright hoppy bite and roast chocolate and caramel notes and a great easy finish.  It is not your typical brown but really so much more in my book.  I'm slowly working through Clown Shoes offerings and I can't be any happier doing it.
So this group of beers may not have a whole lot to do with each other but they were all great memorable beers.  One of my friends accused me of being a bad critic because I liked everything for one reason or another.  I will admit that while I have my favorite types of beer, for me, if a beer is good it is just good.  That and darn it you're not reading my blog if you think that because I had a whole post of bad beer not that long ago.  So read up! And more importantly, drink up. Cheers!

Olde Mecklenburg Brewery

I had the distinct pleasure of spending a good portion of my afternoon this past Saturday at the Olde Mecklenburg Brewery where they were having their Louisiana Spring Festival.  It was an afternoon of live music by The ToneBlazers (a delightfully good bluegrass band), Cajun food (including big plates piled high with crawfish), great beer, and awesome company.   Olde Mecklenburg Brewery (OMB for short) has been around for about three years in Charlotte, NC and from the looks of the turnout at this festival I expect them to be around for many more years.  The staff was all really friendly and helpful and the festival goers we sat near were an absolute pleasure to share the afternoon with.  The festival was all outside of their actual tap room and I realized after I left that I never actually managed to make it inside (sorry) but that just means that they had everything you'd want outside.  They are a small brewery, and from what I can tell from my trip there and their website they run two year round brews and one seasonal at a time.   I had a chance to try two before I was silly with beer and good times and forgot to write anything down about the third (sorry again).  So let's get to the two I do have notes on.
When I went for my first beer I told the fabulous ladies behind the table that this was to be my first OMB experience and asked for a suggestion.  Instantly I was advised to try the Copper, their flagship ale.  It was a subtle caramel malt with grain led body with a touch of hoppy bitterness on the back end and a relatively dry finish.  It wasn't a complex beer.  It was simply easy to enjoy.  I was pleased to find out that I can also enjoy this beer at out local minor league baseball stadium.  Beats what you can normally get at a sporting event hands down.
Well once that beer was gone (and I have to admit it went down pretty quick) I just had to try the seasonal.  Fruehbock is their seasonal currently and it is a nice golden bock.  It has almost citrus notes blended in the malt body.  I found the balance of flavors very enjoyable and it accompanied the spicy Cajun goodness so well.  This is a higher alcohol content then their other beer sooooo after a big mug of that I might have been able to pick out the flavor notes in the last beer but I surely didn't remember to write them down.
This event was a great afternoon on all counts.  I enjoyed my first taste of OMB from start to finish.  I would definitely like to make it back to the tap room on a normal day and drink some more great beer with great people.  Speaking of people, if you are the couple we sat across from that was on their first date - how'd that turn out? Everyone should check out OMB if they come through Charlotte.  An excellent way to celebrate local beer. Cheers!

The End of Porter Season

As the season of dark rich beers draws to a close I always feel a little sad.  Not that the summer ales are not without merit, but I love a good dark beer.  To say farewell I want to share with you two nice porters to close the season with.

First up is Knee Deep Brewing Tanilla.  It is a vanilla porter made from "grade-A Tahitian vanilla beans".  This fairly sweet porter definitely had nice strong vanilla powering through over caramel, coffee, and chocolate notes in the malt body.  While I did enjoy the flavor and smoothness of this brew, it is a bit sweet for my personal preference and almost makes itself a desert beer.  On the bright side, you don't have to say goodbye to this porter as it is a year round brew for Knee Deep.

Second tonight is Bell's Brewery's simply named Porter.  Who needs a fancy name when you have a great beer?  Bell's porter is a beautiful rich roast malt body with coffee, dark chocolate and caramel woven through.  With a mild sweetness and finish on the drier side it was a delightful beer and one I could drink over and over.   Lucky for me, it is also a year round selection!  In case you missed it before, I reviewed Bell's winter seasonal cherry stout and was in love.  This is a sign that I should try more Bell's beers.  And you should too.

So I actually proved my own title wrong in this blog entry.  It may technically be the end of the season for dark beer, but you can still get a phenomenal porter if you know where to look.  So many beers, so little time.  Stay tuned for many more great beers to come including a Sam Adams Blackberry Whitbier. For now, Cheers!

Hot Night Cold Beer

As the weather heats up I tend to move towards a lighter beer.  I want cool and crisp and refreshing when it's hot.  So tonight I wanna tell you about a few pales and IPAs I've tried.  

First up is the Sweetwater Brewing 420 extra pale ale.  This beer is super popular in the Charlotte, NC area.  If you go to an eating establishment and they only have one or two craft beers odds are pretty good that one fo them will be a Sweetwater 420.  They're based in Atlanta so I guess it makes sense that it's got a strong regional fan base.  I found the 420 light and crisp with a mild hop bite.  It's a simple beer with clean flavor.  If I were buying beer for a group with non-hopheads it might be a good step into the craft beer world.  That's about all the love I can give it.  

Second up is the Full Sail Brewing IPA.  This was my first Full Sail experience and I must say a nice experience over all.  Their IPA has a nice bright body with citrus and pine notes and a strong but not overbearing hoppy bitterness.  After enjoying the beer I checked out the company's story.  My interest had been peaked by the employee owned statement on the bottle.  The company has been independent and employee owned (by their brewing force of 47) since 1999 in an effort to create a greater work and life experience.  Kudos to them for really caring about not just great beer, but great people making great beer.  I look forward to trying more.

The third and final review for today is the Widmer Brothers Drifter pale ale.  This is the second Widmer Brothers beer I have tried and likewise the second one I have really thoroughly enjoyed.  The Drifter has a lovely hoppy bite with bright grapefruit notes.  It was clean and smooth and super refreshing.  Your average pale ale will not move me to promote it to my beer friends, but this one was well worth mentioning.  After checking out their website I have set the goal of getting my hands on their spring seasonal raspberry Russian imperial stout.  What could possibly be wrong with that?? 

I haven't been posting as often as I had been.  Life has been busy.  But that doesn't mean I haven't been drinking and stuffing my smartphone full of notes and check-ins on Untappd.  Coming soon - a plethora of porters, a dip into dunkels, and i went back for the bock. . . .and cake. Cheers!

Uinta Dubhe

It's not super often I find a beer I think is outstanding enough to rate a blog of its own but this one definitely did.  Uinta Brewing has a delightful offering called Dubhe.  As an imperial IPA is offers the best of both worlds for me.  It has the roasted malt body with the with beautiful chocolate notes along with a strong hop bitterness that brings through mild citrus flavor.  It is a stellar balance and complexity of flavors with a smooth and memorable taste and feel.  I was thrilled with this beer and can say without a doubt that it will be coming home with me again.  This was the first Uinta brew I had tried and it definitely inspired me to taste more of their selections.
Lots more coming up so stay tuned. . .but first go get a Dubhe and cheers!

Get Down With Brown

I have talked about a little of everything here except brown ale so far.  I am about to remedy that.  I don't normally head for the brown ales but they are a great beer to fill the hole between the bitter of an IPA and the richness of a porter of stout.  So here are two browns I may suggest you'd want to enjoy.

New Holland Brewing hasn't failed me yet and this was no exception.  Their brown ale is called Cabin Fever and is a seasonal brew for them.  With a mildly sweet roast caramel malt base and fig or raisin notes it is a easy beer to enjoy.  It's well balanced to provide a heartiness without being overwhelming.  An excellent choice for a cool night.

My second brown ale is a Leinenkugels Fireside Nut Brown.  Oddly this beer isn't shown on their website. The flavor profile was similar with a mildly sweet subtle toffee malt body with fig and raisin notes.  It was smooth and pleasant but perhaps lacked a touch of the richness in the New Holland selection.

Both were nice cool weather treats that I found just right for this transitional weather.  I hadn't really given brown ales great consideration in the past but I will definitely be adding them in to my seasonal rotation from no on.  I have lots of great stuff coming up IPAs to dunkels and everything in between. Cheers!

Bad Beer Blues

Don't you hate it when you get all excited to crack open your beer only to find that the beer you bought is less then extraordinary?  I hate it more then pretty much anything.  I hope to save you from a few possible missteps with my blog tonight.  I suffer for you people. Keep that in mind, hm? I kid. Onward.
First up was a major surprise to me.  I thought Newcastle. . .that should be good.  So I picked up a Newcastle Winter IPA.  First, let me say that their website is just odd.  Secondly, this beer was just odd.  Whatever hops they loaded it with had a ridiculously strong pine taste.  It was like licking a pine cone or brewing with the clippings in the lawnmower bag.  I kept sipping it looking for other flavors and something redeeming to acknowledge. . .I found a little caramel. . .still poured it out.   I hate wasting beer but I wasn't torturing myself when I had more to try in the fridge.
Following that setback, I thought i would go with something dark and delightful.  I pulled out a Roth Brewing Dark Construct which calls itself a sweet stout.  I popped the top and headed for the living room.  I didn't even make it to my chair before it was foaming over.  Ok, my bad.  Take a sip, sit down, it's foaming over again.  Seriously?  Sip.  Again.  Sip.  Again.  What??  So I go to the kitchen and grab a glass.  Pour slowly a bit off only to end up with a half inch of beer and the rest a solid mass of foam. . . .and what was left in the bottle foamed over again. . .and again. . .and again. What in the world??  I managed to get a sip for tasting.  It was a roasted coffee and chocolate kinda flavor but nothing amazing.  Since I could neither drink from the bottle nor pour a glass it too went down the drain. . . .leaving a bottle all the way up to the top of the label full of foam.  I'm at a loss to explain how they got that much foam in the bottle.  Just bizarre.
But I hate to put up a post with nothing positive so here is something to watch when you are having a couple beers.  I had to wait until my son was up for fear of laughing too loudly and waking him.
Please enjoy My Drunk Kitchen.  I so love her.  Cheers!

Dreamy Dark Beers

I love a beautiful dark beer and tonight I will share two of my most recent favorites.  Dark beers can vary greatly and these selections are excellent proof of that.  Regardless of where on the spectrum they are, they are always on the top of my list.  So enough ado already. On to the beer.
First is a truly awesome imperial stout from Atwater Brewery called VJ Black.  It has a beautiful smokey malt with sweet chocolate and vanilla notes.  There is an overall delightful dark feel to this beer and it was just totally enjoyable.  I will definitely be trying it again as well as their other offerings.
Next up is another brilliant offering from Clown Shoes Brewing called Lubrication.  This black ale has both a rich malt body and a generous hop bite in a wonderful balance.  It has pine and citrus notes throughout and a mild caramel with the malt.  I could drink this over and over and be happy with every one.  You just can't go wrong with Clown Shoes.
Last but not least is a Widmer Brothers Pitch Black IPA.  It has a strikingly aggressive bitter hoppy bite backed with a mildly sweet malt.  Hints of citrus and pine and a smidgen of toffee bring this brew together and make a great experience.  Smooth and ever so drinkable, this beer is aces in my book.
So that's three dark beers, three completely different types of beer, and three wonderful reasons to love beer.  Soooooooo gooooooood.  So give one a try. Don't be scared.  Coming up soon, more IPAs and a delightful baked goody baked with love and beer. Cheers!

This Beer is Like Apples and Oranges

No. I mean it.  Today, one beer with love for the apple and one in honor of the orange.  I am hard to impress with fruity beers, but these two were worth talking about. . .so lets do it.

Shipyard Applehead was a shock for me, but a very pleasant one.  Pop the top and the smell is straight up apple pie which is very inviting.  The taste is cinnamon and nutmeg and all the lovely flavors of pie crust with a milder touch of actual apple.  It has kind of a dry spicy finish in contrast to the bright and sweet body.  It was a very interesting fruity beer and totally drinkable if it were offered to me, but I'm not sure if I would seek it out again on my own.

Thomas Creek makes a very unique brew known as Orange Blossom Pilsner 2.  It is actually a powered up version of the original Orange Blossom Pilsner.  This beer is brewed with orange blossom honey per the label and I honestly wasn't sure what to expect.  It was sweet and rich with orange and honey notes and a definite floral tone to it.  There was little malt flavor and basically nonexistent hop bitter.  I wouldn't say this is  something you would wanna sit down and drink more then one in a row but it was thoroughly enjoyable as a single beer.  It was just one of a kind and totally worth a try.

What else is on the horizon? A banging Uinta, an impressive Sierra Nevada, and a full on Full Sail and much more.  Until then, Cheers!

Powerfully Good Beer

Sometimes I say to myself, "Self, lets buy a couple beers that are so bold and powerful that they must stand alone in their glorious-ness."  Sometimes I fail miserably in looking for that strong but still delightfully drinkable beer.  However, recently I struck gold not once but twice.  These are not beers for the faint of heart, but if you are prepared to get bold then check these two finely crafted beers out.

When you are looking for power in your beer you need look no further then an Avery Brewing Mephistopheles stout.  At a whopping 15.1% alcohol it certainly packs a punch.  From the first sip your mouth is pummeled with a liqueur like taste followed with a dark malty base.  There are coffee and spicy anise notes throughout and an almost bourbon flavor with woody hints.  It packs a punch with every sip and the blend of flavors makes it a memorable brew.  If you are looking to try this gem make sure you snag one when you see it as Avery only brews it once a year and its availability is limited.

Need more power? YES!  Then go get a New Holland Dragon's Milk Ale aged in oak barrels.  The alcohol content checks in at 10% so it's not as in your face as our first selection was.  I am not usually a fan of the oak barrel aging but this brew made me a believer.  Dragon's Milk is a remarkably tasty beer bringing a strong malt body with mildly sweet vanilla and woody notes.  A few sips in you start to pick up dark chocolate and bold roast coffee flavors.  Every sip was exciting and full of flavor.  This complex and lovely beer was a major winner with me.

What's next? Shipyard, Lagunitas, Sweetwater, and much more.  Trying out a new recipe soon too.  Until then, cheers!