Quickie Review: Slaapmutske Dry-Hopped Lager

Just a quick review of the Dry-Hopped Lager from Brouwerij Slaapmutske out of Belgium.  Do you know what that translates to?  Because I don't... other than the 'brewery' part!  I picked this one up as a single pretty cheap at Martin Wine Cellar, it was something new, so might as well give it a try!

Poured from an 11.2 ounce bottle into a Samuel Smith pint glass.  It just says "Lager" in the beer name but this one is a Czech Pilsener to get more specific.

It's a faint yellow color... hazy with an enormous bubbly white head. Insane retention and lacing. Took a few pours to get the entire contents into the glass... which is saying a lot for an 11.2 oz. bottle and a 16 oz. pint glass!   

It smells crisp with an earthy sweetness to it and a nice hop aroma on top.

The taste is a little more hoppy than the aroma... still crisp, still a little grassy, but very nice and refreshing.

It's starting to warm up in South Louisiana, so it's a perfect beer and style for the coming of Spring.

My Rating: B
BeerAdvocate: B


Pilsener

Review: Victory Brewing HopDevil & Golden Monkey

Time for a review of a couple of beers from Victory Brewing Company out of Downingtown, PA.  This is another brewery that I had heard of and read about, but until I hit up the bottle shop in Gainesville, I'd never seen their beers available.  They claim on their site to distribute to Texas, but I don't ever remember seeing their beers available in Houston.  Maybe I just overlooked them?  Anyway... in true beer nerd fashion I grabbed a couple, and now a month or so later finally got around to drinking them!  

The first one I tried was the HopDevil IPA, one I'd read about and was really looking forward to trying!  For this one, I poured from a 12 oz. bottle into an imperial pint glass.

It's a dark caramel color, clear with a finger worth of white head. There is a little creamy lacing and the retention is alright.  It's hoppy as it should be... more of a citrus hop flavor as opposed to a piney west coast IPA.  Makes sense considering this is coming from a Northeastern brewery.  One of the things I've really learned since I've gotten into craft beer is how different regions of the USA regard the same style. 

The flavor is similar... a little malt balance in there too almost like an APA. It's a good beer, an easy drinking IPA for sure.  It's not as bold as I was hoping for something called HopDevil, but I'm still a fan.  I think my tastes are just more geared towards West coast IPAs than East coast. 

 

My Rating: B

BeerAdvocate: A-

India Pale Ale (IPA)

Up next was the Golden Monkey tripel.  I've always been a big fan of Belgian ales, so I'm always excited to see an American take on them.  For this brew I poured from a 12oz. bottle into a Chimay goblet... always a goblet for a dubbel, tripel, quad, or strong Belgian ale.  It's a cloudy beer with a gold color, befitting the "Golden Monkey" moniker, and a small white head. Not much lacing or retention to it, which would usually be present in this style.

It has a floral and honey smell to it, hints of coriander... pretty tasty. Typical for the style but right on point with how a good tripel should smell. In my opinion at least.  The taste is a great reflection on the smell... maybe a little more floral and slightly bitter with a little hop hit in there. I'm really enjoying this one, for an American brewed tripel it's one of the best I've had in recent memory.

The mouthfeel is a little harsh, with a slight hint of the alcohol content in the aftertaste.  This one is a pretty robust 9.5% alcohol so a little flavor from that isn't unusual at all. 

I'd still go for another one of these... if it was available in Louisiana I could see some Golden Monkey finding its way into my regular rotation.

My Rating: B+

BeerAdvocate: B

Tripel

So, check a new brewery off the list... that wasn't one of my resolutions but it's still nice to try new beers from new people! 

Some Local Beer Links...

First off, be sure to check out The Beer Buddha's Top Of The Hops ticket give away!   The give away is in particular for the North Shore edition of the Top Of The Hops beer festival. The breweries for 2011 haven't been announced yet, but there were a lot of good beers to try last year!  Unforunately this one is March 19th so I'll be busy with the St. Patrick's Day parade, but there is also the Top Of The Hops in Lafayette on April 9th so maybe I'll see some people there!

If anyone is planning on hitting up the North Shore tasting you might want to consider taking the bus to and from via The Avenue Pub on St. Charles Street.  Details can be found on Facebook here:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/AvenuePubNOLA  but it's a good way to minimize driving, parking, and maximize the beer! 

 

Also... another post from The Beer Buddha, about a Schmaltz Brewing beer dinner hosted by the Martin Wine Cellar location in Metairie.  Looks delicious, and should be some pretty good beer that hasn't proliferated the BR market yet.  Maybe the Martin Wine Cellar in Baton Rouge will be hosting similar beer dinners in the future?  We can only hope!

Enjoy, and happy drinking!

Review: Samuel Adams Latitude 48 IPA

Another brew day beer!  Last week Dustin and I, with the help of our friend Kyle, set out to brew a noble pilsener.  While picking up a few ingredients from Marcello's on Perkins we also picked up one of the key components to brewing... some beers to drink during the process.  One that surprisingly neither Dustin or I had tried before was the Latitude 48 IPA from Sam Adams.  I've tried plenty of beers from the Boston Beer Company before, even a variety pack around Christmas time, but I guess their IPA had always slipped under my radar.  No longer!

As always, proper glassware is important to enjoying a beer... this one was poured from a 12 oz. bottle into an imperial pint glass.  It's an amber color, very clear with a bubbly off-white head.

It's got a hoppy aroma, but not powerful. Grapefruit seems to be the dominant flavor with a little caramel note to it.  There is definitely a nice malt balance on the front of the sip. The hops come through stronger at the end. It's good, with a bitter aftertaste but drinks really smooth for an IPA.

A pretty good beer, but I'm not blown away.  It's not up there with the Stones and Racer 5s of the IPA world, but it's definitely another good one for someone trying to get into craft beer.  But then, I think a lot of what Sam Adams is about, at least as far as their flagship brews are concerned, is getting people into craft beer.  Absolutely nothing wrong with that, the move converts the better!

My Rating: B-

BeerAdvocate: B+

India Pale Ale (IPA)

A Hoppy Brewing Trio!

Time for another 3-in-1 review... this time three brews from the Hoppy Brewing Company out of Sacramento, CA.  I picked up three bombers of their brews at Tipple's Brews in Gainesville way back in January, but it turns out 30 new beers goes a decent way!  I had never heard of Hoppy Brewing Co. before... certainly never seen them in Louisiana and I don't ever remember seeing them in Houston either so they made an easy choice as a few to add to the beer run.  

I started off with the Stony Face Red Ale, a5.6% alcohol American amber/red ale that I poured from the 22 oz. bottle into an imperial pint glass.  It's a bubbly deep copper color, no haze at all, with a creamy light head. Not a big head, but good retention and lacing.  Wine has "legs" and beer has the lacing of the head on the sides of the glass to add to that visual effect.

The smell is malty, a little metallic, not much hop presence. Unfortunately there's not a lot going on in the nose.  The taste is even more metallic to me... malt flavor dominates as it should for the style but it's a little rough around the edges. The balance is way off to me... just not very good.

Unfortunately I don't have another one of these on hand to see if this was just a bad bottle... I do have two more from Hoppy Brewing so I guess I'll see if I like them any better.  Not a good start, but we'll see where these CA guys go from here.

My Rating: C-

BeerAdvocate: B  (but the last 5 are all in the C range...)

Amber/Red Ale

 

Up next was the Hoppy Claus Holiday Ale... okay, this one should be better as I'm generally a fan of the Winter Warmer style of beer.  And it might be warm outside now but it was a lot cooler last week when I drank this one!  As usual... poured from a 22 oz. bottle into an imperial pint glass.

This one pours a deep orange color... hazy with a two-finger or so head. It has good retention and lacing. Definitely a good looking beer, but the Stony Face Red Ale looked good but tasted pretty bad. Don't want to get my hopes up yet.  There's not a very strong aroma... what is there is the typical winter warmer spice bouquet. Ginger and nutmeg and a little malt and hops but nothing is too powerful.

Fortunately the flavor is a lot more full... the spices come through, with a hint of floral hops and honey malts. Very good, certainly a step up from the weak aroma.  I really like the creamy thicker mouthfeel... just a hint of bitter aftertaste leaves it a mark or so down. I'd definitely give this beer another try, a very nice winter warmer.  A definite step up from the last beer.

My Rating: A-

BeerAdvocate: B-

Last up in this threesome of brews was the Total Eclipse Black Ale... an American stout with a pretty badass label in my opinion.  Guess what... I poured it from a 22 oz. bottle into a imperial pint glass to drink and review.

It's a dark brown beer, fairly impenetrable with a light brown bubble head. Good retention and lacing. All the Hoppy Brewing beers I've tried have been pretty good looking beers, that's for sure.

The smell is faint of chocolate and roasted malts... a little metallic twinge to it. The taste is a little subdued too... mostly a roasted flavor to it, like charred malts. There is a charred aftertaste and really no hops to speak of. It's alright, but nothing special.

It's kinda thin, not much body to speak of... I'd drink it again, but I wouldn't hunt it down.  

 

My Rating:  C+

BeerAdvocate: B

Stout

 

All in all I was left a little disappointed with the Hoppy Brewing Company.  Also a little surprised that they didn't focus more on pale ales with a name like Hoppy!  Still, part of this 365 in 2011 goal was to expand my horizons to new breweries and new styles.  I knew they weren't all going to be my new favorites, but as much as I'll know which breweries and style to seek out when I'm done, I'll know a few to avoid as well!

Review: Terrapin So Fresh & So Green Green

This is another from the beer run to Gainesville a while back... turns out 30 beers goes a long way!  Terrapin Beer Company is a brewery out of Athens, Georgia that has a pretty loyal following.  I first had their beers after a trip to Alabama a few years back, and try to grab a few whenever I'm towards the East and can find them. 

 

This one came in a bomber... poured into an imperial pint glass. It's a deep orange color, darker than a typical IPA. There's an impressive head with good retention and lacing.  Very appetizing looking beer!
 

The aroma is hoppy... very hoppy. It's a more floral hop note with a little bit of sweetness to it. It's got a pretty good aroma really.  The flavor is just more of the same... hoppy, but not a lot of balance. It's good but not great on the flavor, I'd really like to see a little more balance in the hop profile or a little malt sweetness to mellow the beer out.

The mouthfeel is good, despite the dominant hops there really isn't a bad aftertaste at all.  It's not a bad IPA, but not one I'd reach for again with other IPAs on the shelf.  This one might be a better choice for a real hop-head but I'm more about a little balance in my beers.

My Rating: B

BeerAdvocate: B

India Pale Ale (IPA)

Review: Braustolz GmbH Black Art Premium Beer

As the name Braustolz GmbH indicates, what we have here is definitely a German beer!  I had never heard of this brewery or beer before, but while on a recent run to Martin Wine Cellar it caught my attention because it was something I'd never tried... and it was pretty cheap.  I don't remember the exact price and don't have the receipt on me, but I think it was under $2 for the bottle.  Can't beat that for a good one to check out and tick off the list!

By style, this one is a schwarzbier, which translates to "black beer" and is basically considered to be a dark lager.  They aren't strong in alcohol content or thick in body like an imperial stout, but malty, sessionable beers.  Popular examples include Sam Adams Black Lager, Shiner Black Lager, and Köstritzer Schwarzbier. 

I poured this one from an 11.2 ounce bottle into an imperial pint glass.  It's a deep red color with a ridiculous tan head... great retention and good lacing.  So far I'm impressed.  It has a good malt aroma with a slight metallic tinge to it. Smells like some black patent malt, and not much hops at all.

The taste is the same profile as the aroma... dark chocolate flavors come through, not bad at all. This one certainly tastes better than I expected. It's a little thin, but no bad aftertastes or funny things going on.

Easy to drink, a great price, definitely a pleasant surprise.  I'd recommend this one to anyone looking to try some good new beers without spending a lot of money on bombers that you aren't even sure you'll like.

My Rating: B+
BeerAdvocate: B

Schwarzbier