Our Tastes-- Coney Island Albino Python

Coney Island's Albino Python is a White Lager brewed with spices. Other than the white phallic albino python that is reaching out for the brunette's labia (lips), the label is nothing special. A beer made with Specialty 2-row, torrified wheat (looks like Sugar Smacks), Weyermann Acidulated, Flaked oats and Caramel Pils. Add to it Warrior, Saaz and Summit then spice it up with ginger, sweet fennel and orange peel. Its your typical cloudy white ale on the pour with flat head and nose of fermented wheat protein. Aftertaste gives the usual wheatie. 6%abv, it was good.

Our Tastes-- Coney Island Freaktoberfest

#2 in the Coney Island taste series is Freaktoberfest. If the label isn't scary enough the cloudy blood red Kool-Aid that it pours does. Oh, and the head matches a wonderful lung foaming pink. Made with Canadian pale ale and wheat malts, German Munich and Vienna malts and British Caramel malts then bittered with Warrior, Cascade, Willamette, Hallertau and Northern Brewer. I'm not sure that there is a taste that can describe this brew. It's definitely bitter and there is a hop aroma there but you can kiss my Casper the ghost if I know what it is. 6.66%abv.

Our Tastes-- Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale

I picked some of these bad boys up at GOP, to cover one that Junk had gotten me previously and thought we would give them a spin tonight. Weyer's Imperial Pumpkin Ale pours a medium brown copper and flattening head. The aroma is fresh pumpkin meat, cinnamon and touches of vanilla. Made with cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamon and cloves; each none of these is tastefully distinctive when rolled around the mouth. This is a definite seasonal keeper. 8%abv.

Our Tastes-- Terrapin Sunray Wheat

Initially pouring an extremely pale clear "mead" color then as I swirled the base went to a cloudy flat headed bev, Sunray, yields the nose of a yeasty slight honey. The taste leaves behind a slight hint of the Tupelo honey from the Savannah Bee Company. "It’s inviting banana/sweet clove like aroma gives way to a pleasant, clean finish with a hint of tartness." Only available in the "All The Hits" variety 12-pack until this spring. Not sure what the abv is but I'd have this only if I haven't had it before. Not the best Terrapin I've had.

Our Tastes-- Dogfish Head Raison D'Extra

Keeping in mind I just had D'Etre, D'Extra is posted to be a doubling if you will of its predecessor. Not real sure where the label comes from but I'll research for personal gratification. Looks like Hank Sr. It pours several shades darker than Etre and cloudy as well. What head was here initially in my porter glass has long gone in the time it has taken me to type this. Aroma is still the raisin with slight smoky hints then the taste...the "doubling" of everything explodes in your mouth like TNT (trinitrotoluene, I gave this word to win Hangman when I was 5 at Happy Time Kiddie Land, my childcare place). These 2 beers are great vertical beers to try for both a novice and brewmaster. All the elements are there but so different in concentration. I'll have to remember this taster for differences in imperials for instance or "extreme" beers (pale ale vs IPA). From what I have read this is the same but pumped as D'Etre but more raisins (a great sugar and fruit contributor). 18+%abv, 425kcal/12oz. This stuff leaves your ears warm and head queasy after half a glass!! Well worth it. I sense not so much beer that's created but life experiences by Sam C. at DFH. I swear this stuff leaves a thick sugary coat on your tongue.

Our Tastes-- Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre

You're supposed to have Raison D'Etre ("reason for being") in a goblet but my current goblets aren't "beer clean" so I went with a port glass that I recently bought. It pours a nice dark tea color with a flattening white foamy head. The raisin note plus malt aroma and a smacking of alcohol has made this brew an acquired taste for me. When I first had this beer, I thought it was as bland as unsweetened tea, but has become a regular in the beer fridge. The Belgian beet sugars remind me of Ménage à Frank (nice when you can reference your own brew when tasting a micro form someone else) and the green raisins are very apparent. 8%abv and 220kcal/120z. This puts me about half way through the DFHs that I'll be trying.

Our Tastes-- Duck Rabbit Porter

Duck-Rabbit Porter is my next venture and I'll admit it carries a certain darkness (tis the season). OK, honestly my head bows to it as I pour this beautiful brown libation. To look at this deep tulip fresh with a brew that has a head that looks as a still fermenting beer. It is amazing how the slightly brown head looks so much like actively creating top fermenting yeast. Almost like one of those therapeutic mattresses, a little bit of a stretch. I swear it looks like a loofa its so tight with a marsh-mellow-over-the-campfire lattice that clings with each sip.There is no other sweet porter that matters to me now! A great initial mouth fullness and mutation to a heavily roasted coffee chocolate. So much so you breath it out after tasting. not sure what grains are used, hops or abv, but right now Duck Rabbit is the "Dark Beer Specialist" that they proclaim to be.

Brew Batch #29 The Bees' Knees Mead©

Update, racked it out of the primary glass carboy while still fermenting to get it off of the yeast bed and cinnamon sticks and it smelled BEEautiful. It was so light that it was hard to start the siphon for racking. As of now the gravity sits at 1.010 @64F to yield about 16%abv!!! WTF! No wonder muslims can only drink this! In the usual customary tradition (carried on by much better brewers than I) I tried a shot of it and the flavor was simple yet complex. The aroma of slight sweet clover honey is still there with a hint of cinnamon. The taste is full and light in the mouth with a champagne feel (due to the yeast strain, I'm sure, Lavlin EC-1118, aka Prise de mousse, Saccharomyces bayanus). The finish is extremely tart with lingering cinnamon. I'm sure this will mellow with aging. Oh and the alcohol is there too.

Our Tastes-- Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout

Notice anything about the name on this one, (see previous post about UK beers, "In the red corner, weighing in at 1pt 0.9US fl oz), you'll get it if you've read. The bottle and crown itself are really quite nice with a royal purple label and purple and white crown with a ram's head on it. The smell is 100% pure unadulterated cocoa powder! No malt, no hops, there may not be any beer in there, haven't tasted it yet, stand by... color is the typical uh, black. Head is flat and taste... and explosion of sweetness and chocolate. Mouthfeel is huge, malt bill is the last thing you taste, this is by far the best flavored stout I have ever had. I will make this beer before the end of the year! The only notes I have on this one (since it is not listed on their site http://www.youngs.co.uk/ ) is that it is made with pale ale and crystal malt, chocolate malt, special blend of sugars, Fuggle and Goldings hops, real dark chocolate and chocolate essence. Put them together and you get the best stout I have ever gulped at 5.2%abv.

Brew Batch #28 Imperial IPA (aka 42-A*)

Today The Enabler and I bottled up 26 FULL and 1 partial 22oz long-neck bombers with silver crowns of 42-A*. The color is as great as the original but the nose on it is noticeably different for all of the true 42-A connoisseurs out there. The use of Kent Goldings at the end had given a slightly different aroma for sure, but the overall taste is very promising. I hope both of these brews turn out well. I have 25 sets to give out plus 1 extra 42-A*. Red (denoted here in pink) can sign my boobs for that one since I told him I felt like I was following a rock star around on the tour at BS and we'll consider it an even trade;) May not do labels for the bottles but will try hang tags instead, they seem to be more cost effective at this time and more personal. Then again both could be disasters and we'll all be sitting around knocking back The Wedding Series? FG 1.006+0.001 @67F, to yield about, drumroll please.......8.7%abv. Must have been the way I mashed the grains this time by incremental raising of the temp. Each beer I have done this on so far has turned out higher in OG, of course the special addition helped too (tee-hee).

Our Tastes-- Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

Funny to me how when you look at English or "Old World" beers that they introduce the beer on the label as though they are fighting in a boxing match. In this corner weighing in at 1pint 2.7ml (550ml, 18.7oz is a "Victorian pint") Samuel Smith Old Brewery Tadcaster The Celebrated Oatmeal Stout reads the entirety of this beer. A clear bottle, like Newcastle, delivers this dark brown libation to my pint (best enjoyed in a goblet). The aroma is malty, sugar-coated raisins. Lattice is light and feathery on the pint. Taste is a velvet bitter sweetness of oats. Samuel Smith's Oatty was actually commissioned to be made, because of 1977 oatmeal stouts were gone. Best at 55F, no abv listed, but light by necessity.

Our Tastes-- Steelhead Extra Stout

The Enabler got this next one from the Beer of the Month Club courtesy of Bootleg Bonnie. Steelhead Extra Stout pours an opaque black with thick frothy brown head. Heavy chocolate malt nose with a good balance of hops. The label looks oddly like another stout I know of with a trout on the front? The taste on this one is of a heavy grain bill that finishes with a burnt coffee aftertaste. The alcohol is there in part but the oaky flavor and bitterness is what captures the mouth, mouthfeel is full and warming. The yeast bed at the bottom was a welcomed sight and looked thick enough to re-culture. About a quarter into the pint the head is gone and reflects a black pool. 6.6%abv with a sigh of contentment.

Our Tastes-- Budweiser American Ale

I told myself after InBev bought the longest standing American icon in brewing that I wouldn't drink anymore of their products as the board lined their pockets with euro from the Belgians and Augustus I rolled over in his fermenter. American Ale surprisingly is a nice departure from the usual Bud swill. It pours an amber/copper with a quickly flattening head. No lattice to mention. The aroma is a great traditional Cascade (which leads me to believe there may have been something to the rumor of Bud buying up stores of hops, either to destroy them to cut the competition or I guess eventually using them in this brew). Overall a drinkable beer that now comes in a pry-off embossed long neck. 5.3%abv

Our Tastes-- Saranac Season's Best

Saranac's Season's Best is a Nut Brown Lager with a rich clear medium brown shellacked pine. The head retains a nice slim white foam. The aroma is a biscuity malt and toast. Taste for this one is a "lagery" slight hop that makes for a different seasonal offering. Made with Munich and Biscuit malts then bittered with Tettnang. A relatively medium/heavy mouhtfeel and 5.3%abv. I'd drink a couple of these.

Our Tastes-- Dogfish Head World Wide Stout

Continuing with a night of apparent darkies, DFH World Wide Stout, makes me yearn for St. Patty's at the OAA (which may or may not be there) very soon. I am not having this one in a deep tulip but I will if need arises have it in one. WWS pours a 10,000 mile oil change, with the noise of fresh Rice Krispies, that quickly quiets as though milk has over softened them. No need for a "beer clean"glass on this one because you can't see through it anyway! The nose is heavy with raisin, plum fruitiness almost killing the malt bill I know this one must contain. There is a slight translucence to the color after settling, which allows some (like a blackhole) light to pass. A taste of heavier vanilla and roasted, toasted malt like none other that I have had. Silk as it passes thougth the teeth and I can only imagine the hops needed to balance this center ring circus act. 18+%abv, 372kcal/12oz. There is a late season grumbling like no other, beyond Phil seeing his shadow yesterday. I can think of nothing better than 6 more weeks of bone-chilling cold to freshen the ole tastebuds and close the ranks of great friends around a warming brew.

Our Tastes Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

I have been dying to try this brew since I picked up a case of them a while back. the newest addition to the DFH family of brews is Palo Santo Marron (literal translation is Holy Tree Brown). It pours like liquid night, with little ot no head that is a creamy (quickly dissipating) oatmeal cookie brown. The aroma is a slightly oaky, vanilla heavy malt. An unfiltered brown ale aged in handmade Paraguayan Palo Santo wood brewing vessel's, each at 10K gallons each (the largest wooden vessels since Prohibition). A wonderful very full mouthfeel and taste that is driven by the 12%abv. Malt, vanilla, bittering hop, rich desert, oh and 12%abv. This is a supremely built beer and yes I said built, literally from the ingredients to the aging vessels.
0026hrs-- an hour and 15 minutes later I just finished, this beer is HEAVY!

The Bees' Knees Mead©

When I was up at BlackStone a few months ago, Red (denoted here in pink) and I came across a rather novel word, "Brewmaster's Jacuzzi". It was the 2 gallon bucket that the fermenters were blowing off into, kind of made you want to put your feet in and soothe them. Well to help aid in the lowering of blood pressure, I introduce the "Brewmaster's Aquarium". Much like the calming effect of goldfish in a dentist's office, watching The Bees' Knees continue to bubble after 30 days is guaranteed to do the same. Working on getting Red (denoted here in pink) and Travis (T-rav?) to do a CABS meeting once things have settled in the summer, after nuptials. And yes, in the background that is 42-A* going to bottle on the morrow.
"To do something in space is irrelevant, but to make good beer, that is something."
~Vaclav Klaus