2021 Halloween Beers

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Elysian Brewing Company, Halloween, Oakholm Brewing Company, Pumpkins, Spencer Trappist Brewery

Hello friends!  It has certainly been awhile since I last posted here but the Halloween season inspired me to share some of my most notable beers from the past month.  I know pumpkin brews haven’t been my thing in the past, but for some reason this month I’ve really been into them.

Pumpkin Carver – Oakholm Brewing Company (5.7%)

Beer number one I came across at a farm before picking apples.  The brewery was pouring two beers that day and being in the fall spirit I opted for the pumpkin brew (on the right).  It had a slightly sweet and mildly roasted malt base that took on notes of fresh pumpkin around midsip and  combined into a clean, well blended finish.  Silencing the purist in me I went for the caramel and cinnamon rim and honestly pretty happy I did.  The beer didn’t need the embellishment, but it did compliment the flavors very nicely.

The Munkster Mash – Spencer Brewing (5.2%)

My next beer poured a very appealing golden orange body topped by a thin layer of white foam.  It had a very approachable and easy going smooth light malt taste upfront accentuated by hints of yeast and subtle notes of pumpkin and spice.  The medium-plus body carrier these flavors near perfectly into a clean, subtle finish.  This was a truly good beer that was a real pleasure to enjoy outdoors on a beautiful fall day.

Dark O’ The Moon – Elysian Brewing Company (7.5%)

Now for something a little different, this brew poured dark with not even a hint of lacing.  It’s distinct cinnamon and chocolate aromas were picked up immediately on the front end taste.  It picked up some extra spice notes on the backend but the creaminess of the base stout kept them in check which j definitely appreciated.  Another solid brew.

Night Owl – Elysian Brewing Company (6.7%)

My next pumpkin ale poured to a dark copper body with some slight off-white lacing.  The taste and smell both featured fairly prominent vegetal pumpkin, sweet malt, and spices though fortunately the spice element wasn’t as potent as the scent suggested.  A very nice pumpkin beer that approached my spice limit without surpassing it

The Great Pumpkin – Elysian Brewing Company (8.0%)

This next brew was labeled as an imperial pumpkin ale.  It started out innocently enough by pouring to a festively murky orangish amber body, but unfortunately things took a downward turn from there.  The smell was sweet with a noticeable spice presence.  On the sip I got some doughy pumpkin pie notes that were quickly got overpowered by an unbalanced blast of nutmeg and allspice.  The finish was boozy and unexpectedly tart.  This was a miss for me.

Punkuccino – Elysian Brewing Company (6.0%)

My final beer for this post poured a dark coffee color with some minimal off-white lacing around the edges.  Tastewise creamy light roast coffee mixed with hints of chocolate cinnamon and nutmeg in the background in roughly that order. I could nitpick and suggest that this could do with a bit more body, but overall this was another one that I really enjoyed.

And that’s it for now.  Until next time, Happy Halloween!

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KALEA Brewery’s Advent Calendar Part Two: Days 7 – 12

Tags

Advent Calendar, Austria, Beer, Beer Review, Germany, Holidays, Winter

Happy Monday folks!  Time to take a look back at the past week and see what beers my KALEA Advent Calendar had to offer.

Day Seven: Schloßbrauerei Rheder – Jubiläumsbier 333 (Rheder, Germany)

Style: Marzen

ABV: 5.3%

Overall: It poured true to style with a clear copper body beneath a bubbly, off-white head.  It had a smooth, full body featuring doughy malt and a slightly resinous sweetness at the edges.  I found it to be a very fine brew, though not necessarily one to get particularly excited about.

Day Eight: Hehenthanner Schlossbrauerei – Tannen Hell (Hohenthann, Germany)

Style: Helles

ABV: 5.0%

Overall: It arrived in my glass with a clear yellow body with lots of lively carbonation feeding a thick foam head.  The beer had a bubbly, light body and a finish that was perhaps a bit grainy.  Not my favorite beer in the set.

Day Nine: Privatbrauerei H. Egerer – Perlenzauber (Grobkollnbach, Germany)

Style: German Pale Ale

ABV: 5.4%

Overall: Pouring to a light copper body topped by a thin foam lacing, this was somewhat similar to a lightly hopped version of some of the helles style beers encountered on previous days.  A solid brew, I enjoyed this one.

Day Ten: Herrnbrau – Festbier (Ingolstadt, Germany)

Style: Marzen

ABV: 5.5%

Overall: I was initially somewhat skeptical about whether I needed a second marzen this week, but then this beer went out and impressed me!  It poured to a clean light copper body with a creamy, slightly off-white foam head.  The tastes were smooth and subtle, with a pleasing blend of bready malt and caramel sweetness.  I really enjoyed this in ways that I was not expecting to, hopefully I can find some of these in my area next fall.

Day Eleven: Ankerbrau Nordlingen – Grandl (Nordlingen, Germany)

Style: Helles

ABV: 5.0%

Overall: Similar in appearance to all the other helles brews reviewed thus far, it had a grainy/slightly yeasty finish that wasn’t for me.  Moving on,

Day Twelve: Privatbrauerei Loncium – Vienna Style Lager (Kotschach-Mauthen, Austria)

Style: Vienna Lager

ABV: 5.5%

Overall: It poured to a yellowish-copper/amber body and featured a nice hint of hops around the edges.  It was a good beer, but I’m definitely ready for something a bit different at this point.

And there you have it.  I would still rate the experience as so far so good, though I do wish the collection of brews so far was a bit more diverse.  Personal preferences aside, the beers have all been solid but unfortunately very similar.  I think the occasional heavier dark brew (thinking something along the lines of a bock, dunkelweizen, or stout) would increase the excitement level a bit and give the collection a more seasonal feeling.  See you again next Monday to find out if my holiday wish gets fulfilled.

Cheers!

KALEA Brewer’s Advent Calendar Part One: Days 1 – 6

Tags

Advent Calendar, Beer, Beer Review, Brauerei Zwonitz, Flotzinger Brau, Furst Carl Schlossbrauerei, Germany, Graminger Weissbrau, Kaizen-Brau, Propeller Bier

It’s hard to believe, but December is here and 2020 is heading into the final stretch.  To help me get through this socially distanced holiday season, my wife surprised me with the Brewer’s Advent Calendar from Costco featuring 24 cans of beer from small brewers in Germany and Austria.  I honestly have no clue what to expect from this, but it does seem like a fun way to get back into posting!  Here’s a look at what the first six days had to offer.

Day One: Flotzinger Brau – Hell (Rosenheim, Germany)

Style: Helles

ABV: 5.2%

Overall: Well, the name certainly felt like an appropriate way to begin the 2020 holiday season!  This brew poured to a clear, yellowish body with lots of lively bubbles running up the glass to feed a thin layer of foam across the top.  Tastewise it was crisp and refreshing, with a nice light sweetness sitting atop clean pale malts.  This was a nice, easy drinking brew to start the month’s journey with.

Day Two: Furst Carl Schlossbrauerei – Kellerbier (Ellingen, Germany)

Style: Kellerbier

ABV: 5.1%

Overall: It poured to an amber tinted yellow body topped by a thin layer of white foam.  As with the previous offering, this one featured some nice pale malt sweetness, but more subtle overall with hints of caramel mixed in with an earthy graininess.  The body was light with slightly above average carbonation.  Another nice, refreshing beer at the end of a long day.

Day Three: Kaizen-Brau – Kauzle (Ochsenfurt, Germany)

Style: Pilsner

ABV: 4.8%

Overall: It was a clean, crisp, and slightly sweet pilsner.  I don’t have a lot to say about this one, but it delivered what you’d want for the style.

Day Four: Brauerei Zwonitz – Zwonitzer Steinbier (Zwonitz, Germany)

Style: Steinbier

ABV: 5.6%

Overall: I’ll admit that this is a style that I do not recall having come across before.  Apparently translating to stone beer, this style is brewed without the use of metal kettles and is instead mashed in wooden tubs with hot stones used to raise temperatures.  As for this particular beverage, it had a light brownish/amber body topped by wisps of beige foam.  It had a light sweetness upfront followed by underlying notes of roasted and smoked malts.  I’m generally not a fan of smoked beers, but this one had a subtlety that made it way more approachable than most.  This one really intrigued me and I’m happy I had the chance to try something different that what I usually come across.

Day Five: Graminger Weissbrau – Kirta (Alotting, Germany)

Style: Dunkelweizen

ABV: 5.6%

Overall: This one poured to a medium brown body with a determined and persistent off-white head.  It featured some grainy, chocolatey malts upfront, some slight notes of spicy hops in the middle, and a malty finish highlighted by hints of dark fruit.  While one or two sips seemed a bit uneven in terms of blending flavors, on the whole I really enjoyed this one.

Day Six: Propeller Bier – Turbo Prop (Bad Laasphe, Germany)

Style: Imperial Pilsner

ABV: 6.5%

Overall: It poured a dark yellow/amber with some white foam lacing across the top.  The taste was a somewhat surprising blend of sticky sweet hops bitterness, caramel malts, and notes of honey.  Its smooth, creamy finish was immensely satisfying.  I’m not entirely sure this is properly a pilsner, but it is my favorite beer of the box thus far.  Wishing I had a bunch more of these!

And that concludes the first six days of my advent calendar beer adventure.  At this point I will rate the experience as so far, so good.  While most of the brews haven’t been particularly flashy by stereotypical American craft beer standards, they have all been solid and enjoyable.  I’ve even learned something along the way!  I’ll be back next week to let you know how the next six go.  Cheers!

Halloween Double Feature: Lord Hobo Brewing Company – Doom Sauce

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Halloween, Lord Hobo Brewing Company, October

Hello and welcome to the after dark edition of my annual Halloween double feature!  Hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable night so far.  Let’s take a quick look at my featured beverage this evening!

Beer Name: Doom Sauce

Brewery: Lord Hobo Brewing Company (Woburn, MA)

Style: Black Double IPA

ABV: 7.8%

Description: A darker take on the brewery’s popular Boom Sauce NEIPA, 

Appearance: It poured to a deep black body topped by a bubbly light tan foam.

Smell: Light roasted malt with hints of citrusy bitterness.

Taste: Creamy, smooth dark mark swirled with citrus and tropical notes upfront.  Keeps the malt backbone through mid-sip and ends with a lightly toasty and moderately hoppy finish

Mouthfeel: Medium, pleasantly smooth body with moderate carbonation

Hype: None.  I didn’t even know this existed until a friend brought it over a few days ago.  Talk about a pleasant surprise!

Overall: I really liked this one.  It is everything one could want from the style and super smooth to drink.  Black IPAs were kind of my thing when I first got into beer years ago and since the style has been out of favor for some time now, finding a really good one is a nice treat indeed.  Grab this if you can!

Allagash Brewing Company – Haunted House

Tags

Allagash Brewing Company, Beer, Beer Review, Fall, Halloween, Maine, New England, October

With Halloween right around the corner, at last the time is right to unveil my final pickup from Allagash Brewing Company last month!

Beer Name: Haunted House

Brewery: Allagash Brewing Company

Style: Hoppy Dark Ale

ABV: 6.66%

Description: Inspired by the brewers’ love of porters and their own House beer, a low-ABV Belgian pale ale.

Appearance: Black body with about a finger’s worth of tan head

Smell: Not entirely unlike a Belgian pale ale mixed with a toasty porter.

Taste: It opened with notes of light roast coffee, dark chocolate and creamy dark malt upfront.  Midsip it took on some more grainy, pale malt tastes.  It closed with a well balanced blend of Belgian yeast, earthy hops, and roast coffee.

Mouthfeel: Smooth medium body with slightly below moderate carbonation.

Hype: I had some higher than usual excitement about this one.  It had eluded me in years past so I was happy to finally track it down.

Overall: Smooth and easy drinking despite the rather interesting blend of tastes.  An excellent Halloween treat!

Great Marsh Brewing Company – Peach Hard Seltzer

Tags

Great Marsh Brewing, Massachusetts, New England, Seltzer

Hi folks! Just posting a little something from my summer backlog. Taking advantage of another beautiful late Summer afternoon, the family and I took a Sunday out to Appleton Farm in Ipswich, MA a couple of weeks ago. While there, we took in some beautiful scenery and enjoyed a couple of beverages from the folks at Great Marsh Brewing and their line of hard seltzers.

Beer Name: Peach

Brewery: Great Marsh Brewing Company (Essex, MA)

Style: Hard Seltzer

ABV: 4.5%

Description: For their line of seltzers, the brewers wanted to distinguish themselves from a crowded field of similar products. To do so they made efforts to capture the water profile of Selters, Germany and took the additional, and somewhat novel, step of not adding any additional sugar.

Appearance: I drank this one from the can, but I have sufficient reason to believe it was clear and bubbly.

Smell: Faint sweet notes of peach.

Taste: Light notes of ripe peach throughout. The finish was pulpy with faint alcohol notes.

Mouthfeel: Lightly carbonated and light-medium bodied.

Hype: None. I’m not exactly up on developments in the world of hard seltzer.

Overall: I really enjoyed this as an outdoor, warm weather beverage. Standout for me was the refreshing, light, and natural taste and (most importantly) the fact that it wasn’t as aggressively carbonated as a lot of other hard seltzer options I’ve come across.

 

 

Maine Trip – Part Three: Bissell Brothers Brewing Company, Portland, ME

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Bissell Brothers Brewing, Maine, New England

The final installment of our Maine brewery adventure happened on our return home with a quick pit stop at Bissell …

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Maine Trip – Part Two: Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, ME

Tags

Allagash Brewing Company, Beer, Beer Review, Maine, New England

Our second stop along Industrial Way was Allagash Brewing Company, one of my favorite “classic” craft beer breweries.  Founded back in 1995, they’ve been consistently serving up some of the best Belgian-inspired brews the New England area has to offer.  Picking up the beer was super easy, after ordering from the road the no contact curbside pickup only took a few minutes.  We did, however, linger in the parking for a little bit longer than that to pick up a pair of delicious lobster rolls from the Bite into Maine food truck that frequents the brewery.

My first beer out the gate from them was their iconic Allagash White.  I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this one since it’s been listed here before, but if you’re not familiar with this one do yourself a favor and try it out.  Checking in at 5.2%, this Witbier is easy drinking with light notes of orange peel, coriander, and wheat.  It has been a long time goto of mine, so we picked up a 12 pack to stock the fridge with.  It was definitely a good decision.

Beer number two was North Sky, a new to me 7.5% Belgian stout.  It poured a dark brown/black looking body topped by a thin off-white head.  Taste-wise it offered creamy, light roasted notes throughout with hints of dark fruit sweetness on the finish.  The beer had low carbonation and a super smooth body that made it really easy to sit back with and enjoy both outdoors and in.  I was a big fan of this one and enjoyed a few of these under the stars.

My third and final beer from Allagash was, well, one I’m not ready to share yet.  It’s not something I really need to hype by being all secretive or anything, let’s just say that the time is not yet right.  Before I get to that one, though, I do have one more brewery experience to share at the end of the week.

Maine Trip – Part One: Definitive Brewing Company, Portland, ME

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Brewery Visit, Definitive, Maine, New England, Portland

It feels like it’s been ages since my last visit to a new brewery, but here we go again!  To celebrate our 10th Anniversary my wife and I made our way up to Isleboro, Maine last week to socially distance at a guest house on a beautiful seaside estate.  Along the way there and back we stopped off at a few breweries that, combined with some much needed time off, got me back in that blogging feeling.

Our first stop on the way up was along Portland’s legendary Industrial Way, the current (and former) location of many of Maine’s most popular breweries.  It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and the brewery corridor was pretty active, but fortunately the various establishments and their patrons looked to take distancing and mask wearing seriously.  While we didn’t have time to visit all the breweries clustered together (funny how a child and a pandemic can change your priorities), I did manage to assemble a nice collection of brews to enjoy during our stay on the island.

For today’s post I am going to first report on the new (to me) place we visited, Definitive Brewing Company.  It opened up in 2017 which was a good two-plus years after our last visit to the area but occupied some familiar territory across the street from Allagash Brewing Company.  Though I only purchased beer to go, they did look to have some nice outdoor beneath tents they had set up in the front and rear of the lot.  I side stepped all this, however, for the side pickup window to collect the cans I pre-ordered from the road.

My first taste of the brewery was an 8.3% NEIPA called Particles.  It poured to a hazy, dark yellow body with a fluffy layer of foam across the top and gave some huge tropical aromas on the way into the glass.  Taste wise it offered up some nice tropical and kiwi notes upfront and finished with an assertive, hazy bitterness highlighted by hints of lemon.  Overall it was a solid example of the style that I enjoyed drinking.  I could easily see someone giving this higher lower marks depending upon what they look for in their NEIPAs.

My second brew from them was a 7.2% dessert stout appropriately named Stuffed.  Officially labeled as a double milk stout, the beer was conditioned atop “chocolate sandwich cookies” and certainly drank as such.  It poured thick and in the glass had a black colored body topped by a thin tannish head that was quick to dissipate.  It smelled chocolately and slightly sweet and tasted of thick cream and chocolate upfront, a doughy cookie middle, and a light roasted chocolate finish.  Its medium-plus body carried the big flavors well and managed to not be so thick that it made finishing the beer a chore.  I would definitely recommend this as tasty and satisfying dessert stout, though I really can’t imagine drinking more than one in a sitting.

My third and final brew from Definitive was Bass Reflex, a 7.0% DDH NEIPA hopped with Citra, Cascade, and El Dorado.  It came out of the can to reveal a cloudy pineapple-juice colored body topped by a foamy white head that left distinct lacing on the glass as the beverage went on.  It had some big tropical aromas that carried through to the opening taste before arriving at a hazy, resinous bitterness on the end.  The body was standard for the style and had a pleasant fluffy feeling that I really enjoyed for reasons I can’t fully explain.  I really liked this one and found it very on point for the style.

And that wraps up things for today.  Later on this week I’ll take a quick look at the second brewery we hit up.  Stay healthy my friends!

Night Shift Brewing Company – My Peachberry Brings All the Hops to the Yard

Tags

DIPA, Massachusetts, New England, Night Shift Brewing

Taking advantage of an absolutely beautiful day last weekend, I made a stop at Night Shift Brewing Company for the first time in quite awhile.  I’ll admit that it still feels a bit weird going into public these days, but the brewery and staff did an excellent job keeping people distanced while serving up food and beer in their outdoor patio space.

Beer Name: My Peachberry Brings All the Hops To the Yard

Brewery: Night Shift Brewing Company (Everett, MA)

Style: Milkshake IPA

ABV: 7.0%

Description: I couldn’t find a full description, but this was a milkshake IPA brewed with lactose, strawberries, and peaches.

Appearance: Cloudy orangish/grapefruit juice color with wisps of white head

Smell: Faint tart berries and mild bitterness.

Taste: Initially a bit on the tart side, but that was replaced quickly by sweetness blending both the strawberry and peach ingredients.  The middle of the sip mixed in a bit of creaminess and pale malt while the finish reintroduced a touch of berry and a mild to moderate bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Smooth medium body with roughly moderate carbonation.

Hype: None that I was aware of, I just really liked the name.

Overall: I liked it.  I can be hit or miss on this style but this one appealed to me.  It had a nice mix of sweet, tart, and bitter notes to keep it interesting throughout.