Rogue - Imperial India Pale Ale

This is a beer which has thwarted my attempts at a review three times. The first time it was offered to me, I finished it down before realizing that it was something I should have reviewed (this often happens to me when I drink away from my own apartment). The second time I bought it with all intentions of reviewing it, but at the bottom of the glass, the strongly-flavored dinner and potency of the brew made me unable to write something meaningful. But at each turn I knew that I had to write one for this because it was something I'd highly recommend to others. The key was just paying enough attention to it with the intention to review it.

It pours a bright orange with a strong smell of sharp hops. The smell is th typical IPA smell, that from halfway cross the room you can identify as being an IPA. The head stays on long enough to remind you that its an IPA and the smell just entices you to take a sip.

The taste is one of the best IPA's I've ever had, and I'm glad to have reviewed this one, finally. It has a very strong and sharp hop flavor but the bitterness is still drinkable. This is one to drink slowly and really admire all that character, all those hops, and all that alcohol.

The price tag is a little hefty for this bottle, but the reward of its taste and quality are way worth it. (I know that some homebrewers love this for bottling their brews in, and I've amassed a small collection hoping to learn to homebrew... one of these days.

A Night Out in Salem... Salem (Boston) Beer Works

Maybe I'm just a little bit of a snob, but most of the time that I go out to brewpubs I only really like one or two of the beers that I try. Most I admire the attempt, but I'd rather see a brewery do eight beers well than 16 beers okay. But, I was out with friends in Salem, MA for a great summer's day of shopping, wandering around, looking for records... before embarking on a ghost tour, we stopped into the Boston Beer Work's Salem location for a bite and some beer.

I tried a lot of beer that night, and here's a quick round up. Overall I was impressed with the quality of their beer, and by the knowledge and suggestions of the staff (something I also LOVE).

The first one I tried was their White Beer, which, sadly I didn't catch the name of. This one had a strong wheaty smell, it was a cloudy light copper color and had very little head. Its flavor was sweet, wheaty and strong - a delightful start. I'm a little weary of whimpy whites, so this was a great strong start. This was very tasty and I'd recommend it, my friend who loves all things Belgian even gave it a nice nod, pretty cool!

Second up I tried their Kolch, which I tried because I've only had one other Kolch before (at the Elm City Brewery in Keene, NH) and I was curious to try another. It was cleary yellowy with a little head, it smelled light. The taste was all at the end with a really nice finish to it - an almost peachy tartness to round out the end of it. Really drinkable and interesting, I kept getting a different taste each time I sipped it.

Next I tasted their hefeweizen, which, out of all the beer that I sampled that evening was the only one that wasn't excellent. The brew was okay, but it tasted a bit more watery than most hefe's I've tried. It was properly cloudy, had a great smell and was served with a wedge of lemon, but the taste was a little less strong that I would have liked. Not an unpleasant beer by any means, just not the best hefe I've had.

Their blueberry was sweet smelling and sweet tasting, it reminded me of the Portsmouth Brewery's blueberry but farther on the sweet end of the scale. Also served with fresh blueberries, this one is very drinkable and has noticeable blueberry taste in it. I'd say this was one of the better blueberry beer's I've tried, and the best one on tap I've had to date.

My favorite of the evening, however was their watermelon beer. Now, I'll admit that I have heard of watermelon wine but never of watermelon beer. So I ordered this one because I was very curious about how that combination would sit. It came with a huge wedge of watermelon on the side of the beer, another thing that I have never seen before! It was cold, refreshing, crisp and light with a completely natural watermelon taste to it. I could seriously picture myself sitting at a barbecue with it, or sitting outside on my front lawn (if I actually had one) in the heat of a summer's day. It wasn't intoxicatingly sweet which was a blessing. It was really well balanced, thirst-quenching and I left wishing that I could just pick up a six pack around the corner from my apartment in NH. A bonus was that the slice of watermelon even tasted good soaked in beer. Who'd have thought?

I've got to hand it to these guys. Despite being somewhat of a chain, their dedication to the beer stands out. If you're in the Boston area, don't be fooled by the new-feeling of this brewery. It has some great gems in it waiting for you to try.

Brooklyn Brewery - Pennant Ale '55

If there's one thing about graphic design that I know, its that, no matter what you design there are always multiple layers of meaning. For several years, I've passed up Brooklyn Brewery products on the shelves because of their simple, cartoony logo. It cried out New York baseball, which, in New Hampshire, "we don't take too kindly to" round here (cough, Red Sox, cough, cough). In fact, it was designed by the guy who invented the I Love NY campaign. But, there is something to be said about home town pride. This brew, the Pennant Ale, commemorates the 1955 victory of the Brooklyn Dodgers. This brewing company represents fierce Brooklyn loyalty,which, when expanded to a national market doesn't always translate. But after trying the Local 1, I had to try to crack into that Brooklyn spirit and see what was brewing.

This one poured a lot darker than I expected it - nice coppery. It's a pale ale right? Well, this is a different style of pale all altogether. This is an English pale ale, so named because it wasn't as dark as most of the ales historically brewed in England. The scent on this one is tricky and different. Sweet but not hoppy, malty but not heavy. It smelled, well, yummy!

The taste is a challenge to describe because it is so fleeting. It is very pleasant and crisp, but still thick and satisfying in the mouth. As it got warmer I got to taste some of the almost smoky/toasty flavors of some of the different hops used. I like this one because it has a nice character to it - more than your typical ale. I think that it has a great malt flavor to it, and has a lot of different hops swirling around in your mouth when you drink it. I think it would make a great classic for barbeques, tailgating or even, dare I say it, a Red Sox game?

Isn't it time for us to move beyond AB, Miller and Corona at the game? This ale is great, likeable and complex, something we don't get from the big four in plastic cups at the game. I'm not sure if Boston is ready to take on something with so much New York roots, but I'd love to have one of these before a Fisher Cats game.

Batter up!

Brooklyn Local 1

Today was a bad day, and I opened my tasting fridge hoping for something good. And I lucked out.

In the door, I forgot that I had purchased the Brooklyn Local 1 because it resembled a firefighter's logo on the label, and I was hoping I could convince my brother, the volunteer fire lieutenant to drink it with me. (He's slowly expanding his drinking habits to move beyond frat-house 30 packs in cans...)

But, to introduce someone to good beer is to find it, and so trying this was on my list. I poured it out of the great bottle which had simple colors and lines, but stood out for being different. I was honestly not sure what type of beer it was, described as a "refermented ale" which, frankly, could be anything! I was pleasantly surprised to find on their website that it was a "Belgian-inspired golden ale" which, unlike many Belgian style ales, was actually made with Belgian hops, and was definitely worthy of the label.

Upon pouring, a wheaty smell was surprising (remember I didn't know the type of beer) but strong and wonderful. The head dissipates quickly, but the smell doesn't. On tasting, you'd quickly forget that this comes from Brooklyn brewery, and could easily be fooled into thinking that it had a much more traditional pedigree.

The key here is really in how they do it. According to the Brooklyn brewery's website, the uniqueness of this brew isn't really the ingredients so much as the process involved. The ale is 100% bottle conditioned - meaning that it's poured into the bottle flat, allowed to sit for a week to develop its own carbonation, then shipped out as is. The result is a really subtle carbonation, a gorgeous, complex wheat taste and a pretty high ABV to boot. If you're intimidated at all by the brews that are imported and written in different languages, a great stepping stone to their tastes might be this beer right here. It's complicated, wheaty, pleasant and warming all in the first sip, and gets better as it settles to room temperature. You can go onto the Brooklyn brewery's website and even watch a video about how it's made, so you can impress your friends with your beer geekdom.

It's a fabulous choice from a brewery that I previously underestimated. I'm curious to know what else the boys in Brooklyn can brew.

Harbors and Bluebeery.... oh my!

So, in keeping with my promise from earlier in the season, I've got a pair of blueberry beers to review to celebrate summer with. After the fourth of july and the ever-increasing heat, I keep thinking about blueberries - specifically wild Maine blueberries fresh from the vine.

In New England, several (many) breweries offer a blueberry brew - if you have an abundance of a great local ingredient... why not play with it? One of the following brews hails from Maine, another from Portsmouth, both different and interesting points on the blueberry ale spectrum. (to check out another, read my posting on my favorite blue brew wild blueberry wheat ale... bluepaw.)

The first is Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale (Atlantic Brewing Company) - which hails from bar Harbor Maine. The label claims that it is "American's Original Blueberry Ale". It is an ale based brew which is different than the taste of a blueberry wheat. I've found that ale based blueberry beers tend to have a tarter, more subtle taste than their wheat beer counterparts.
With this one, you know they 're using wild blueberries because you can smell it, but when you taste it, it comes out in the end mostly, and tastes a little better not so cold. It isn't overwhelmingly sweet, which is a good point in its favor. However, this isn't 'blueberries for dummies.' It takes a bit of concentration to pick out the fruit's flavor within this one, but it's a refreshing ale none the less. Not the best blueberry ale I've tried, but certainly nothing to sneeze at. I also respect (as always) the use of local ingredients. I actually recently heard that if you're eating a blueberry at any time, anywhere in the world, there's a 1/4 chance that it's from Maine. Cool, eh?

The second I actually had on tap, straight from the draft. It was in Portsmouth, NH at the Portsmouth Brewery. (For all you brew fanatics, its the same brewery that Kate the Great hails from.) A few friends and I stopped by to grab a pint, and we picked various beers that we hadn't tried. I saw 'bluebeery' on the chalkboard and got one delivered to me with five fresh huge blueberries dancing in the carbonation. The color of this brew was an amazing purpley red, probably from the blueberries in it. When I tasted it, I was expecting to be knocked over with blueberry, considering the color. But I was surprised by the thin and not overly sweet taste. The base of this brew is definitely an ale, which takes away a little sweetness. The blueberry flavor itself in it tastes like they are wild and tart, a great contrast to the ones that taste like the are sugared. The balance and subtlety of this brew is actually quite pleasant. It is nice occasionally to have a good non-traditional brew that isn't just a novelty. I could see myself drinking a few of these in a row - which I can't say for most blueberry ales. So, it's a good pick for the blueberry ale category.

For my own sanity, I created the chart below. Because there are really four attributes of blueberry beer : sweetness vs. tartness and strong blueberry flavor vs. subtle hints of blueberry. I don't think its perfect but I think I'll keep adding to it if I review additional blue brews.

Let me know what you think - and enjoy the blue brews this summer!

leinenkugel - Summer Shandy

I guess this may be related to the earlier discussion of fruit in beer. I decided to purchase this beer when I saw it because I really couldn't imagine what it tasted like. The description of the beer is actually that it is a shandy, or shandygaff. For those unfamiliar, wikipedia says the definition of a shandy in the U.K, is a beer or ale mixed with clear lemonade. That's right, not lemon... lemonade. Honestly I didn't have high hopes for liking this one, but it's hot out, and lemonade is refreshing so I thought I'd give it a go. I'm always open for trying new beer styles anyway.

I poured it out and was immediately hit by the smell of lemonade. By lemonade I don't mean the simple tartness or citrus notes from a lemon, but something altogether different. The smell was like freshly mixed Country Time Lemonade - that almost artificial lemon and sugar together. It poured out yellow and slightly cloudy, with a thin little white head. I have to say that the aroma was overwhelmingly strong, and I could smell it before the glass was anywhere near my face.

The taste, too, is skewed far towards the lemonade side. Despite the hint of carbonation and a tiny end note, there was very little beeryness about this brewing. It tastes, essentially, like carbonated lemonade - slightly unexpected and different but mostly a little... plastic? It feels like that fake lemon was involved instead of real lemons... not sure which they used but it's hard to get over that really strong lemonade punch. According to the bottle they add "lemonade" and "citrus flavors" to the brewed beer, so its hard to tell whethere they've made it using fruit or artificial flavorings. The lemon is sweeter than tart, which is another thing that makes it more lemonade-like instead of just lemony. On their website, it says that the brew is made with a weiss beer and a touch of honey to sweeten it, which is evident from the taste.

I think I would have enjoyed this more if it were a bit more... subtle? I've never had a shandy before so I don't have much to compare it to. But if you want to pretend you're drinking lemonade... with a little carbonation... and alcohol... by all means go for it. It could be a pool side oddity. Just warn someone that it isn't just a summer brew (it has a yellow label which reminds me of Sam Summer, among others) or they'll be lemon-faced.