Our Tastes-- Duck Rabbit Brown Ale

Duck-Rabbit Brown Ale, kept me going through many a night of Stout Month, and finally it makes it to the big blog. Pouring an amazing tan cushion of head with an overall med-dark brown color. This is supports a 7 variety grain bill and gives a note of smoke on the palate during the aftertaste. I love the DR series of beers and think the idea of only dark beers is great but this one leaves a little more to be desired. An American Brown Ale with a bittered taste due to the Amarillo during the boil and Saaz for the dry-hop, no abv listed.

End of an Era (and good riddance)

Brew Batch #15 bit it in the only way it knew how, in a gusher! See below pic, this is 2 12oz beers in a gallon pitcher. Now don't get me wrong it was nice to see the head nice and creamy like marshmellow fluff, but I added vanilla extract at the wrong time not knowing what I was doing for my 1st flavored beer then I bottled too fast after the G only dropped 20 points. This was a nightmare to pour and settle to enjoy, BUT I learned a lot and that's what brewing is all about. I'll admit I did love the aroma.

Our Tastes-- Bischoff Doppel Bock

Oh this one promises to be a great German adventure. The Enabler picked this up through BOTMC. Bischoff Doppel Bock is best described like this, expect honeyed ripe red apples and a touch of grapes on the nose with a sweet dough note and a touch of the traditional German yeast mustiness. Also on the nose, look for juicy chewy sweet malts and a slight hint of blonde tobacco. On the palate, the bier goes down a little edgier than many doppelbocks with an assertive carbonation level and an overall flavor that lands a bit on the bitter side which helps stave off what might otherwise have become a cloying sweetness that some doppelbocks suffer from. Expect a pretty complex array of flavors that will develop as it warms. There's a pleasant fruity character which provides notes of apples and grapes as well as rum-soaked raisins, rye and a ghost-like juniper note. Look for a late-breaking sweet coffee-like note toward the finish (think Viennese coffee), I know I do. Now that I have completely plagiarized the BOTMC newsletter, Malt of the Earth, I am going to drink the beer that came in the green bottle, whose nose reminds me of junior high gym class, the flavor of Beck's Oktoberfest with a higher abv, mit 7,5% alkohol because I can't read the damn website!

Our Tastes-- Samuel Adams Blackberry Witbier

As soon as I could get my hands on some of the new 2008 Beer Lover's Choice Award winner I picked some up. Blackberry Witbier is another great concoction from Jim Koch. It was up against Coffee Stout. Pouring a slightly cloudy dark straw this beer has little to no head retention. The aroma is an unfamiliar berry-esque. It's the Marion blackberries from Oregon located in the foothills of the Oregon Trail where some families ahev been growing the world's best blackberries for centuries. The taste is a bittersweet berry profile and even though it is a new twist leaves a little more to be desired for me. This follows other winner like Nut Brown Ale, Irish Red, and Honey Porter. This is a great marketing gimmick that is used to somewhat track the taste of the populus. By throwing out 2 totally different recipes, SA can keep their finger on the pulse of the changes in tastebuds. 5.5%abv. Made with 2-row Harrington and Metcalf and of course malted wheat then hopped with Spalt Spalter, 60 percent of the popular vote (30,957 total votes) of 52,000 put this one in year round rotation.

Our Tastes-- Michelob Celebrate Chocolate

The Enabler snagged this one from liquorama, a vintage 2006 limited holiday edition the website has nothing on it still that I can find. It's rated on beeradvocate and we're going to give it a whirl. Color is a light brown with little head to speak of while the nose is amazingly of cocoa powder! Taste is okay with the cocoa flavor hanging around the mouth for a while. ABV is 8.5% and the bottle looks that of a NATO round with even a depression in the bottom of the bottle to handle extra pressure. A good beer but something that I'd have to be in the mood for, I mean it's a lager...that tastes like chocolate, kind of, nuff said.

Our Tastes-- Anchor Bock Beer

Bock beers are traditionally my favorite type of beer that throws the Stout Mouth back into hibernation for good. Anchor Bock beer is an example of that style. Color is a dark mahogany with slight red tints. Head pours a flat unhealthy looking slight white. Well the website helped absolutely not at all. Made with 2-row barley and wheat to yield a 5.5%abv bevvy. First made in 2005, nothing to baaaahhhh about.

Our Tastes-- Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

"Torpedoes in the water.."-- The Hunt for Red October (trust me read the book!) This one was snagged for me by Junk after the ATL Cask Ale Tasting . The color is a weird color for me, a dark straw with slight red as opposed to heavy red highlights that I've grown accustomed to for most IPAs. The aroma is an unbelievable heavy floral pine with a taste that matches. Head is flattening wit little lattice, which is odd because with all of the hops in it you would think this damn thing would grab the side of the glass like cobwebs. The taste is FULL with a pungency that crawls across the palate and clings to the teeth in a coat. Torpedo is made with 2-row, Carapils and Crystal. I have noticed that the most memorable IPAs have these grains in common. Bittering hops are Magnum, finishing with Magnum and Crystal then dry-hopping with Magnum, Crystal and Citra. I wonder if the continuity of the same hops gave the smooth aroma and flavor. 7.2%abv, 70 IBUs seem larger than that. I'll be burping this beer for a few more hours fo' sho'.

Our Tastes-- Coney Island Lager

The last of the Coney Island beers that we taste is the Lager. It filled the glass with a tarnished copper. In the fluted pilsner glasses the head is flat. The head is what I expect from a beer that you drink a lot of just because you need hydration! It's a complex beer but I think they have over reached their boundaries a bit. Made with specialty 2-row, 2 types of pale ale, Maris Otter, Cara Munich 60L, Red Wheat, Vienna 4L, Light Munich 6L with Flaked barley, hopped with Warrior, Amarillo, Cascade, Tettnanger, Saaz, Hallertauer and dry-hopped with Cascade. At 5.5%abv, it was quenching at best, no mo' money will go their way.

Our Tastes-- DogFish Head Red & White

The word for the night is "snifter", and I don't mean what Red did on his last date, I'm talking about the glass. We've had 2 beers tonight in snifter glasses. Red & Red color is cherry red in the snifters, with a flat head. We did notice that since we are tasting in the snifters that that may affect the head, there are some small bubble trails at the very tops of the creases. Nose is next to sweet naught. Made with coriander and orange peel as a Belgian wit this beer was a shock. Blended with Pinot Noir juice (like the wine) and aged in the same barrels (11%) at a fraction and blended with plain oak barrels (89%). 10%abv, its a nice brew but not one of my faves.

Our Tastes-- Terrapin Side Project #3

Gamma Ray is the 3rd in this brewery's series of "Side Project" beers. This is the first Side Project beer I have tried and picked it up at Midtown Spirits on my last visit to NashVegas to see the brew brothers. It pours a very dark straw with flat head in our thin pilsner glasses. "Brewed with 50% wheat, a handful of Munich malt and 700 lbs of Tupelo and Sourwood honeys from Savannah Bee Company" The honey taste is there on the sides of the tongue and you can smell it on the breath out. Esters are apparent across the palate. At least we think they are esters because we know that the honey fermentation is an acidic one. 11%abv and we like it.

Our Tastes-- Brooklyn Lager

Continuing with the garage clean out at my parents house, I try Brooklyn Lager. I'm not much of a true lager guy. Don't get me wrong when Budwesier Select came out it was truly the best thing out close to a mass homebrew that was smooth to devour by the case when fishing, BBQin', hop gardening, baseball watchin', etc. It pours a nice amber light orange with a nonexistent head. Listed as being a British inspired Vienna-style beer (due to dry-hopping) the aroma is balanced at best. Made with American 2-row, Hallertaur Mittelfreuh, Vanguard and Cascade gives a 5.2%abv. It's okay but as of yet I am unimpressed with BB brews. I'm working my way to others in the line and still trying to complete the "DogFish Days" of summer before summer gets here but I only have so much time and so much liver.

Our Tastes-- Cooper's Stout

The most fascinating thing about searching the site for this beer is that you only have to be 18 to enter, instead of 21 like in the USA. Cooper's Stout was a brew I tried around the new fire pit The Enabler has and wasn't able to blog at the time due to lack of Internet at my new house. For the yokes it pours an Aborigine spear tip black with a flattening white head. The aroma is a light sweet malt. When pouring it yields a slight yeast bed. Mouthfeel is lighter than I would have thought for a stout, but for a beer in the Aussie bush it has to be. Most of the hop notes are unnoticeable. A great contribution from the BOTMC, The Enabler had. 6.3%abv.

The End of Two Eras Cont'd

Shortly behind WW was my IRA (#13) for St. Patty’s 06’. Made on 11/15/05, this one included a boil over and I think that I had invited Jenna and her husband over. He enjoyed watching the process and even snagged a Budweiser stocking shirt for me long before they sold out to InBev. I’m still so proud of the color of this beer, it is a superb Killian’s hue. I know it sounds weird to describe it by another mass beer but Killian’s truly has a great Irish red color, it’s my standard reference method if you will (for color that is). The head when it was first tried was smooth and medium, but after all of this time has started to become over carbonated and yields an overwhelming head at the very end that must be allowed to settle to begin enjoying the brew. This was my first batch solo using Irish moss, a clarifying agent. Red mentions another method on his tour and I can’t remember the technical name but it equaled fish intestines to help gather grain proteins and yeast for better settling. Damn, what is that stuff called? Anyway a great beer to the end.

The End of Two Eras

After Stout Month, I ended up with one last Winter Warmer (Brew Batch #8). I remember making this stuff on 2/13/05, I think I was dating Melonhead then, not sure if she was there or not I’ll have to go back and read the old entry. When I read the description on NB’s website and it talked about this Minnesotan beer, I was hooked. I think I was going through my first “dark” phase learning to appreciate something other than lagers. The color of dark kiln dried Indian wood is still absolutely striking (just put together a Sourav table for the new house;) There is little to no hop that is noticeable but the cloyingly malt taste is heavy. Hard to believe that a beer can still be this good over 4 years later!

Random Brewing Tasters-- Tongue Splitter Ale

After a taste of this, "The Beast" be asleep for another year, a great clear brew racked by The Enabler with superb head retention. I'm curious to see what the IBUs may be and the color is superb at a dark straw. Tastes like a pine cone that has been run over by a sharp lawmower. I may use the ProBrewer sampler Red told me about just to see what the Nugget, Glacier, Cascade, Cascade, Sterling additions hopped it up to, then turned around and dry-hopped with 1/2oz's of Cascade and Sterling. No info on the probable abv though.

Stout Month Is Over!

April Fools... It's been a long dark month and some have wavered ever so slightly but overall many emails have come in about the dedication to the "Month of Evil", "Month of Darkness"? Overall a worthwhile effort that may continue next year, but who knows, I'll be back in the rotation next year for St. Pat's, it falls on a Wednesday, may need to take the last half of the week off! Tonight we try Lion Stout, which brings a certain tune to mind;) the bottle first and foremost is exquisite with its Lion's head crown, reminds me of a trappist bottle. Little tech info is available since the website is under construction. It poured up nicely in a goblet with a flattening head yieldng a dark African color of night. Flavor is a nice initially sweet malty full mouthfeel leading to a smokey end flavor. This 11.2oz beauty is a fine 8%abv BOTMC additon via The Enabler.