Well, I’m slightly late for a March-related post, but… well whatever. Today’s selection comes to us from Clipper City, once more. It’s their Balto MarzHon, a marzen style lager (marzen as in March) that we’ve actually touched on before. But this baby comes to us from our friends at the Beer of the Month Club, so I’m not about to turn it away!
Apperance: Pours a pretty dark amber color. It’s fairly fizzy and nice and clear. The head starts out an off-white fizzy color. It quickly settles to pretty much nothing after just a few seconds.
Aroma: This beer is truly malty and nutty smelling. There’s also a bit of an apricot smell lingering in the background and, perhaps, a tad of honey.
Taste: A touch of sweetness up front is followed by a rich and nutty malt taste. The maltiness hits mid-palate and as it heads further back, it gets lighter and more hay-like. No hoppiness to speak of… well, maybe just a touch right as you swallow. But for the most part, this is a good, rich malt-based beer.
Mouthfeel: While it’s sparkly and clear, this beer is oily and smooth. It’s medium bodied and super easy to drink with just a touch of carbonation.
Overall, I really enjoyed this beer. I often have a tough time with really malty beers and am a more hoppy kind of girl. This MarzHon is truly pleasant. Nutty, smooth and slightly complex - there’s a lot of different flavors going on here.
I’ve been eyeballing Victory’s Old Horizontal for ages now. Considering that I haven’t had too many Barleywine’s, I’m excited for this one. Combining Victory’s great reputation with some recent barleywine experiences, I’m looking forward to this one.
Appearance: Pours a gorgeous amber-ruby color with a fizzy off-white head. The head is smaller - about 1/4″, and settles quickly to a light lacing on top. While the head isn’t much, it still leaves a nice pattern on the sides of the glass. The body is a bit cloudy, but not really particulate.
Aroma: Old Horizontal smells deeply of dark fruits and deep toasted malts. It’s sweet-smelling, but not too sweet. Like dark caramel and raisins. A strong alcohol smell also lingers. On deeper sniffery, I find that it also smells spicy and woody. Lots of good smells going on here.
Taste: Not much flavor up front, but this beer packs a punch towards the back of the palate. Rich spicy and dark. On swallowing, those flavors richen and the cool-yet-warming alcohol flavor swims around (no doubt my head will be swimming after not too many of these, too). A very faint bitterness lingers as well, but it’s light and helps keep the dark malts from getting too sweet.
Mouthfeel: Quite fizzy for a beer with such a high alcohol content, but it keeps this beer from getting too syrupy and thick. Despite the fizziness, I’d keep this beer right about a medium-bodied level - just right!
Overall - I was into this beer. I’m definitely really enjoying the barleywines for their complex and rich flavors and smooth taste. Bring on the Barleywines!
Apologies for the delay in blogging recently. Last week was a crazy week! Every night saw something going on and days were hectic. Luckily my wonderful friends at ICG America, who head up the amazing clubs beer of the month club, hooked me up with some extra bevvies to review! This month’s selection actually involves some that I’ve tasted before, but a second tasting is always a good measure. So I decided to give Small Craft Advisory from Clipper City Beer in Baltimore, Maryland. Clipper City puts out some great bevvies, so I’m excited to give this one a second try.
Appearance: Pours a pretty, medium amber color. The head is fizzy and white and the body sparkling and clear. The head settles away, mostly, but does leave a lite fizzy layer on top.
Aroma: Grassy and hay-like malts are prominent in this beer, but a lite hoppiness lingers. The hops are perfumy and floral.
Taste: Lightly hoppy up front; floral, but not at all bitter, hops cross the palate first. They’re quickly followed by those hay-like malts that resonate at the back of the throat and turn grassier and richer on exhaling. The Uber Pils is rich, and full of flavor.
Mouthfeel: The fizziness of this beer gives it a fuller mouthfeel than I expected, leaving it to a nice medium to barely full body. It’s remarkably smooth and quite easy to drink. Very refreshing as well.
Overall, I’m really into this Uber Pils. Flavorful, smooth, and refreshing, this is a great beer to start out the spring with and I highly recommend it!
Our second tasting from the evening at Hop Devil Grill comes to us from our friends at Smuttynose Brewery. One of my tablemates had ordered the Barleywine from Smuttynose Brewery, and after one sip, I knew it was worth a full glass. Appearance: The Barleywine comes to my table with an off-white frothy head that hovers on top. It leaves a pretty nice lacing as well. The body is a medium to dark ruby brown color and fairly clear. Aroma: Excellent aroma on this beer! The first scent to hit my nose is definitely pineapple. On deeper sniff, I pick up a rich red-wine kind of smell, maybe woody, as well as a very very light pine hop smell. Taste: Apple and malt up front with a swift kick of alcohol on swallowing. There’s a tart kind of bitterness to the tail end of this beer, but not too strong. There are all kinds of great fruits going on here - apple, strawberry, pineapple. Mouthfeel: Light to medium in body, this barleywine is dry, but full of lively carbonation, so it’s not clingy or drying to the palate. It’s easy to throw back, despite it’s sweetness and bitter taste.
Smuttynose’s Barleywine manages to do just what the Raspberry Porter I had the other day didn’t do - the bitterness keeps the sweetness under control, rather than helping it get out of control. Overall, this was a fun beer, but watch out! This was my last beer of the night. You know how it is - you toss that last one down as you pay the bill, head out the door and half way home, that 10%-er hits you. Whoo!
I managed to grab a 6-pack variety pack from Southern Tier brewery, here in New York State. I love that they do a variety 6-pack. I’m still hanging on to my lesser favorites from a 12-pack seasonal variety I reviewed months ago. It’s great to do a quick and dirty tasting, pick your favorites, and move on! So our first out of three is going to be their Raspberry Porter. Let’s see how it goes! Appearance: Pours a dark ruby-black color. It’s surprisingly fizzy - not like a soda or anything, but for such a dark beer. The head is white, but quickly calms to a slim-to-none haze over the top and doesn’t leave too much lacing. Aroma: Raspberry crazy! There’s no mistaking that this beer has raspberry in it, you can smell it from a mile away. It’s pretty sweet, raising a red flag for me. A deeper sniff reveals some very dark caramel malts and a deep woody smell. There’s also a lot of alcohol smell to this beer, which reminds me of a whiskey or a scotch mixed with raspberry. Taste: Despite the candy, sorbet-like raspberry smell, this beer isn’t sweet at all. There’s a rich raspberry taste mixed with a tobacco flavor. It lightly rolls over the palate and turns richer, slightly more bitter. There’s an alcohol kick on swallowing and a bitterness that lingers surprisingly briefly. Mouthfeel: Initially, sweet, this Raspberry Porter is followed by that bitterness and alcohol. That second taste really keeps the sweetness in this beer from getting out of control. The texture on this beer is surprisingly thin for such a dark beer, and only slightly dry for such a strong alcohol smell. Light to medium bodied, this beer is a great end of the evening sipper.
Overall, this beer was fun, and certainly different than many of the beers I’ve had lately. It was great after a nice meal and perfect for a chilly evening. While the raspberry flavor wasn’t too sweet, I’m not a huge fan of raspberry. On top of that, the flavor was pretty intense. It was great for a sipper, but by the time I hit bottom, my palate was begging for a break!
The first thing I picked out on the beer list at Hop Devil Grill was the Chickory Stout from the old, reliable, Dogfish Head brewery. It’s funny though, I didn’t realize it until I tried to taste it, but I had no idea what Chickory was. I kind of assumed it was some sort of wood-chip used to smoke meat, as you always hear of Chickory rub, or Chicory Smoked, in barbecue. As it turns out, Chickory is a flower. It’s roots are dried, ground up, and it’s actually used as a coffee substitute. Huh! You learn something new every day. Thank God for Wikipedia! Anyway, now I realize that Chickory and Stout are a perfect pair. Appearance: Pours with a black body, dark and thick with a frothy, thick & creamy head. The body seems to be smooth, and not too fizzy. Tough to tell in this low light and in such a dark beer. Aroma: There’s a surprising amount of perfumy hoppiness in this beer for a stout, but nothing overwhelming. I also smell a light coffee smell and a strange smell like dust? I know that description sounds unattractive, but it’s not really a turn-off. Taste: Light perfume up front, making the initial taste of this beer kind of sweet. As it hits the middle of the palate, there’s a rich, toasty roasted malt taste. On Read the rest of this entry »
One of my very favorite things about beer is drinking it in good company. The fact that people come together over a pint, share the day, gossip, bitch, laugh, and in our case, tease each other heavily, is a beautiful thing to me. What’s better about beer than sharing it with friends?
Last night two of my friends from work, Jeremy and Marco, hit Hop Devil Grill in the East Village. Jeremy and Marco were curious about tasting different beers and I was happy to aid them in their quest for sipping and sniffing knowledge. We were trouble from the start… and then when Jeremy’s friends Kat and Jacque showed up it was all downhill from there.
Anyway, we had a great time tasting the excellent variety of beers that Hop Devil always has on hand. Off the top of my head, we sipped at: Arbor Brewing Espresso Love Stout (Marco’s curiosity had to win over his embarrassment of ordering something called a “love stout”) Atwater Voodoo Vator Doppelbock Dogfish Head Chickory Stout Kuhnhenn Prometheus Great Divide Hibernation Ale Smuttynose Barleywine Dale’s Pale Ale
And some Belgian beer, who’s name keeps Read the rest of this entry »
OK, I know I’m way off the mark this week. This is the second non-micro, non-US beer I’ve reviewed this week. In fact, I suppose this one isn’t even a beer at all. But when I found this Shandy from Fentimans, a British soda company, I couldn’t resist. I’ve heard much about this beer and lemonade combo, but actually didn’t realize it was called a Shandy. Curiosity got the best of me. Shandy sounds so cute… so British. There are many blends of beer and soda, lemonade, fanta, 7up, and even grenadine. Usually, these bevvies are sipped in the hot summer months for a refreshing, yet not too sweet, cooler.
Appearance: Pours with a fizzy white head that very quickly fades to a light little blob of fizz that hovers in the middle of the glass the whole way down. The body is a sparkling, crystal clear light amber.
Aroma: Lots of lemon, of course, but there’s also a hint of sweet malts. Maybe cookies? Or more like a sweet biscuit.
Taste: Sweet and lemony up front. Pleasant, like a lightly carbonated lemonade. It reminds me of a lemon seltzer, but not bitter or nearly as fizzy. On swallowing, the malty flavor kicks in and a nice, rich bready/doughy flavor develops. This malty flavor brings the sweetness down a notch and reminds it who’s boss - the beer! It finishes very clean and refreshing, leaving just a hint of sweetness on the back of the tongue.
Mouthfeel: Despite being fizz-o-mania in body, the shandy definitely isn’t in texture. It’s fairly light and watery. The fizziness is refreshing, but doesn’t make it feel full. This carbonation helps to make it super light and refreshing. A perfect summer choice.
So while I sit here, on a 50 degree rainy not-quite spring day, I sip my shandy and imagine myself on the back deck of my parents house. It’s sunset, warm and the smell of fresh-cut grass is in the air. Yes, I’ll definitely revisit the shandy round abouts July 4th weekend!
Well, I’m slightly late for a March-related post, but… well whatever. Today’s selection comes to us from Clipper City, once more. It’s their Balto MarzHon, a marzen style lager (marzen as in March) that we’ve actually touched on before. But this baby comes to us from our friends at the Beer of the Month Club, so I’m not about to turn it away!
