• About

Beer Rants and Books

~ Drinking beer and reading books

Beer Rants and Books

Tag Archives: Vermont

Zero Gravity Craft Brewery – Oktoberfest

09 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by mrericness in Beer Reviews

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Fall, New England, Oktoberfest, Vermont, Zero Gravity Craft Brewery

Fall is in the air and Oktoberfests are in my glass!  My last brew was a tough act to follow, but this one did so quite admirably.

Beer Name: Oktoberfest

Brewery: Zero Gravity Craft Brewery (Burlington, VT)

Style: Marzen

ABV: 5.4%

Description: The Vermont brewery’s take on this fall favorite.  Brewing specs are available on their website.

Appearance: Came out of the can to a cloudy copper body topped by a beige colored finger of foam

Smell: Subtle toasted malt with just a hint of sweetness.

Taste: Smooth and subdued.  It had faint notes of sweet malt and lager yeast to start which were followed by an equally mellow toasted malt presence on the end.  A very clean, easy going beverage.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a touch less than moderate carbonation.

Hype: None on my end.  This was pretty much a random pickup based on the style.

Overall: Another good one!  It didn’t pack much of a “wow” factor but it was an immensely satisfying beer to sit outside with on a cool fall day.  

Advertisement

Bent Hill Brewery – Better Every Day

17 Wednesday Jul 2019

Posted by mrericness in Beer Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Bent Hill Brewery, NEIPA, New England, Vermont

Another general store pick up, I was again swayed by the packaging.  The 8-bit design really called to me, what can I say?

Beer Name: Better Every Day

Brewery: Bent Hill Brewery (Braintree, VT)

Style: NEIPA

ABV: 5.8%

Description: This New England-style double IPA was brewed with Citra, Centennial, Jaryllo, and Mosaic hops.  10% of all proceeds from sales go to support a local high school’s music scholarship program.

Appearance: A somewhat unattractive murky yellowish-brown/slightly orange body.  There was a pretty noticeable amount of carbonation feeding the beer’s white foam head.

Smell: An alluring burst of pulpy citrus and melon juice greeted me immediately upon opening the can.

Taste: The juice and melon promised by the smell appeared right away, but got rather quickly by pale malt in the middle of the sip and a warming, slightly boozy haze of resinous bitterness on the finish.  This ending bite seemed a bit assertive considering the soft sweetness at the beginning.

Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body with moderate carbonation.

Hype: None.  It just happened to catch my eye.

Overall: It was alright.  After drinking a second one, I am content to say that this falls solidly in the category of perfectly fine but otherwise unremarkable.  Yeah, the ending was a bit assertive but it is far from the worst offender I’ve come across in this area and drinking it out of the can did minimize that a bit.

Upper Pass Beer Company – Moove on Up

15 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by mrericness in Beer Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, New England, Stout, Upper Pass Beer Company, Vermont

I picked this next beer up in a quaint little general store in Jamaica, VT that had a surprisingly solid beer fridge, complete with labels dating their IPAs!  I don’t want to over sell their selection since any enthusiasts out there would note that it’s missing some of the state’s heavy hitters, but it did nonetheless offer some rather enticing choiced.  I grabbed this one because I liked the name and the can art just screams Vermont.

Beer Name: Moove on Up

Brewery: Upper Pass Beer Company (South Royalton, VT)

Style: Milk Stout

ABV: 5.9%

Description: 

Appearance: Pour a dark, brownish-black body with a thin white head.

Smell: Sweet cream and chocolate.

Taste: True to the smell, the beer opened with sweet chocolate and cream notes upfront.  These were followed by a light to moderate blend of roasted coffee and bittersweet chocolate to close it out.

Mouthfeel: More or less medium bodied and super smooth. Low carbonation.

Hype: None that I am aware of.  

Overall: It was alright.  I wasn’t necessarily blown away, but it was a nice little beer to enjoy on an evening when a stout probably should have been the last thing on my mind.  Worth trying for those that like the style.

Burlington Beer Company – Peasant King

11 Thursday Jul 2019

Posted by mrericness in Beer Reviews

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Blog Life, Burlington Beer Company, NEIPA, New England, Vermont

Hello everyone!  I’m now officially back from a long weekend spent out in beautiful southern Vermont.  While we didn’t exactly turn this into one of those infamous “Vermont beer trips,” my wife and I did take advantage of opportunities to sample some local wares.  This one was not only one of our favorites from the weekend, but it also comes with a rather memorable story.

Before treating our son to his first ever fireworks show, we took him on a gondola ride up a mountain and on a short hike to a fire tower on Stratton Mountain.  At the base of the tower, my wife and I broke out some snacks for him and a beer for us. No sooner had we done so than a friendly park ranger came out of a nearby hiking shelter and started a long chat with us about the area.  She didn’t say a thing about the beverages, but that didn’t stop us from feeling a bit like chastised teenagers on the way back down the trail!

Beer Name: Peasant King

Brewery: Burlington Beer Company (Burlington, VT)

Style: NEIPA

ABV: 9.0%

Description: An imperial NE-style IPA brewed with Kohatu, Zythos, and Cascade hops and a mix of Pilsner and Vienna malts.

Appearance: Once I finally got it to a glass, the beer poured to a murky orangish-yellow body topped by about a quarter-finger of thick white foam.

Smell: Tropical fruit followed by a warm hazy bitterness hanging over the end.

Taste: Lots of melon and tropical sweetness upfront, followed by some grainy light malts in the middle.  The beer closed out in a slightly booze haze of bitterness, featuring a nice blend of tropical and pine hops.

Mouthfeel: The body was a touch above medium and had a slightly less than moderate amount of carbonation.

Hype: None.  This brewery has been hit or miss for me on a couple of occasions but I was determined to go into it optimistic.

Overall: This was a good.  It had a bit of a kick to it while still being refreshing.

Lawson’s Finest Liquids – Knockout Blonde

08 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by mrericness in Beer Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Craft Beer, Lawson's Finest Liquids, New England, Vermont

It’s been a little while, but I am settling in with another gift beer.  The friends we met up with the weekend before Halloween had also made a trip up to Vermont recently and this is one of the goodies they left me with.

Beer Name: Knockout Blonde

Brewery: Lawson’s Finest Liquids (Waitsfield, VT)

Style: Blonde Ale

ABV: 5.0%

Description: Listed as blonde ale packing an extra punch of Cascade and Centennial hops.

Appearance: It poured a see-through, slightly cloudy golden/light amber body topped by a thin white head.

Smell: Sweet light malts with resinous hop oil bursting through on the end.

Taste: Sweetness upfront as mellow citrus flavors combine with a light malt backbone.  The ending, however, was intensely bitter with resinous, oily hops dominating the brew.

Mouthfeel: Roughly medium-bodied with moderate-plus carbonation.

Hype: Elevated.  Lawson’s is one of the breweries that helped put Vermont beer on the map and built up the state’s beer-hype in the first place.  Although two of the brewery’s core beers now see pretty regular distribution in my area, the rest of their offerings just don’t come down this way.

Overall: Very aptly named, this is easily the most intense blonde ale I’ve ever had.  In all honesty, I would have to say I found the closing bitterness a bit too and would have preferred something either slightly more balanced or at least less aggressively hoppy.

The Alchemist – Beelzebub

11 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by mrericness in Beer Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Craft Beer, New England, The Alchemist, Vermont

Yet another amazing beer I received from a friend.  These are always greatly appreciated, even more so since they don’t mess around when it comes to their beer.

Beer Name: Beelzebub

Brewery: The Alchemist

Style: American Imperial Stout

ABV: 8.0%

Description: Nothing on the website, but there is a short video of co-owner and head brewer John Kimmich talking about it here.  Worth a watch.

Appearance: Poured out thick and black with two-plus fingers of tan foam up top

Smell: Sweet, creamy malts mixed with a sappy bitterness.

Taste: A mixture of two worlds, this tasted something like the fusion of an imperial stout and a West Coast DIPA.  Lurking beneath the surface of the beer was the sweetly rich presence of dark malt upfront followed by a bit of roasted coffee and bittersweet chocolate at the end.  On top of this there was a fruity bitterness that gradually transitioned to a resinous, pine sap finish.  Combined, these two parts resulted in a slightly sweet brew that featured a rich base of dark malts underneath an assertive sticky, piney hop presence.

Mouthfeel: Creamy and on the thicker side upfront before a moderate amount of carbonation comes through on the finish.

Hype: I think it’s pretty fair to say this brewery’s offerings still come with a good deal of excitement attached?  I know I was excited to have this again.

Overall: Perhaps closer to a black IPA than an imperial stout, I’m not quite sure this beer really fits that well into any category.  It combined equally intense elements of both styles and managed to bring them together into a single cohesive, and rather delicious, beer.  I definitely recommend checking this out if you have the opportunity, but go into it with an open mind.  Someone expecting a stout might find this overly hoppy while someone looking for hop juice may not be into the malt profile.  An excellent hybrid.

Lawson’s Finest Liquids – Super Session #2

15 Monday May 2017

Posted by mrericness in Beer Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Connecticut, Craft Beer, Lawson's Finest Liquids, New England, Vermont

I had been eager to get my hands on some Lawson’s since they started showing up at local bottle shops earlier in the year.  Even though it tends to move quickly, I’ve had a few opportunities to pick some up over the last couple of months that I was just never quite able to take advantage of  The funny thing then about this six-pack is that I almost walked right by it without noticing.

 

Beer Name: Super Session #2

Brewery: Lawson’s Finest Liquids (Warren, VT / Stratford, CT)

Style: Session IPA

ABV: 4.8%

Description: Per the description on the can, this version of the session IPA was brewed with “copious” amounts of amarillo hops and features a “full” malt flavor.  The Vermont-based brewers made this batch at the Two Roads Brewing Company’s facility in Connecticut and canned it on 04/06/2017 (I prepared this when they were about a month old).  The six-pack of 12 oz. cans cost me $13 at my go-to spot downtown, which I was pretty happy with considering I was expecting these to carry more of a premium price tag.

Appearance: Poured a nice golden-yellow with bubbly white foam up top and visible carbonation running up the glass.  The body was cloudy but still able to be seen through.

Smell: Sweet, zesty citrus with pine in background.

Taste: Piney with citrus sweetness upfront.  From there it turned to dry, crackery malts, bitter grapefruit, and lemon zest.  Very clean and crisp with a nice balance between hops and malts.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a sticky, dry feeling to it.  Moderate carbonation.

Hype: Definitely elevated.  While this may not be particularly limited release, Lawson’s is still one of those popular Vermont breweries people tend to get excited about.

Overall: An excellent session beer that lived up to its reputation.  Drinking this made we want to be outside on a warm spring/summer day, which is probably about as high an indication of success as you can get for the style.  I’ll definitely be picking this up again when I see it, especially as we’re getting into the warmer months.

Long Trail Space Juice (Does Not Contain Juice)

18 Wednesday May 2016

Posted by mrericness in Beer Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Long Trail Brewing Company, New England, Vermont

I liked the random alien references on the can, but something about the two “Does Not Contain Juice” disclaimers stuck me as odd.  Not sure if this was part of the joke or a required disclaimer, but I found it weird, especially in this area of juicy DIPAs.  Either way, I’m getting side-tracked.  On with the review.

20160511_204604

Beer Name: Space Juice

Brewer: Long Trail Brewing Company

Style: DIPA

ABV: 8.7%

Description: As detailed on the brewery’s website, this was brewed with two-row and caramel malts and a heavy dose of Galaxy, Mosaic, Citra, Columbus, and Ella hops.  No date on the can that I could find, but they do say that the last canning run was on 04/22/2016 and these weren’t at the store a week or two ago.  The $15.49 price tag for a four pack of 16 oz. cans seemed a bit high for what I was used to from this brewery, but I went with it based on their track record.  I poured the beer for this review into my NERAX pint glass.

Appearance: Poured a not quite opaque light amber body with a foamy white head.

Smell: There was a bit of sweetness, but overall not much to say here.

Taste: Sweet malts upfront with a piney, earthy bitterness on the back-end.  Not very assertive on either front, I would call both tastes more muted than I would balanced, though they were certainly the latter as well.  The finish had a hint of alcohol, especially as the beer sat for a bit, and had a lingering sugary sweet taste mixed with some bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Medium-plus bodied with a slight creaminess.  Moderate amount of carbonation.

Hype Factor: I had seen online that some people looking forward to this one, but that’s about as much hype as I am aware of.

Overall: This wasn’t necessarily a bad beer, but I did find it disappointing.  It didn’t quite do it for me stylistically and at the price point it was offered at I have come to expect more.  The beer ended up coming off as more muted than balanced, which led me to wonder about freshness.  However, since the website states that this was scheduled to hit stores in early May (right around the time I drank it) I have to assume that this is representative of what the beer was meant to be.  I’ll have no problems finishing the rest, but is not something I would seek out again.

NERAX 2016

07 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by mrericness in Beer Festival, Beer Reviews

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Beerd Brewing Company, Boston, Cask Ale, Firkin, Four Quarters Brewing, Gluten Free, Hill Farmstead, Massachusetts, Montys Brewery, NERAX, NERAX 2016, New England, Oast House Brewery, Real Ale, Spencer Trappist Brewery, Vermont

20160406_192617

Yesterday I had the joy of attending the opening night of the NERAX 2016 festival in South Boston.  For those who may not know, NERAX is short for New England Real Ale eXhibition, and their mission for the last 20 years has been to provide the New England states with quality cask ale.  If you’ve ever been to a bar or brewery in the region and enjoyed a cask offering, chances are you have them to thank for it.  As for the festival itself, it is running from Wednesday, April 6 through Saturday, April 9 at the South Boston Lithuanian Club (an easy half mile walk from the Red Line’s Broadway stop).  Scheduled to feature over 100 firkins of real ale and ciders over the course of the next few days, the event is a grand celebration of cask beer showcasing a variety of the region’s favorite breweries alongside several others coming all the way from England, Scotland, and Wales.

20160406_183127

Before getting into the brews, it is worth noting how this festival was a refreshing departure from others that I have attended.  For starters, it was a lot smaller.  The venue was a large function room/auditorium with a long serving counter at one end and a merch table at the other.  The crowd was fortunately much smaller that I’ve grown accustomed to as well, probably no more 150 or so people in there at any given time (forgive me, I’m terrible at estimating crowds).  This gave the event a much more relaxed and intimate feeling than the larger Beer Advocate and Craft Beer Summit festivals I’ve attended previously.  I heard they get more people and open up some additional space for the weekend sessions, but on my particular night I dare say that I had personal space in which to drink and reflect upon my beer.  The pricing model was also quite different from my past experiences.  Tickets are $5 (online or at the door) for all but the Friday session and another $5 deposit gets you an actual glass for the evening to either keep or return for your money back.  From there you pay as you consume, with different serving sizes available.  You can get the full breakdown of the costs here on their website.  Be warned that it is cash only.

20160406_193431

As for the beer, there was something for everyone.  You name the style and they likely had a cask of it; English Milds, Pale Ales, IPAs, Brown Ales, Stouts, and even a Gose or two. On the whole the beers tended to skew towards lower ABV offerings (mainly in the 4 – 5.5% range), though there were a few larger ones lurking out there as well.  I had my share of samples and came across a variety of great brews.  While availability will vary from night-to-night, I do have a few standouts I’d like to mention to help give a sense of what they had to offer.

My Top Three:

Hill Farmstead – Edward (dry-hopped with Newport): The highly regarded Vermont brewery was serving up a cask of their 5.2% pale ale dry-hopped with Newport hops.  Juicy with a refreshing hop finish, this beer was every bit as good as its reputation.  A real treat to have on cask.

Beer’d Brewing – Hobbit Juice: This 9.2% DIPA from Connecticut was one of the biggest beers pouring last night and also one of the tastiest.  The beer fared really well on cask, with its abundant hops still standing out atop a smooth malty base sweetened by the addition of fresh raspberries to the cask.

Four Quarters Brewing – French Toast Bear: A 6.0% brown ale by another fine Vermont brewery, this one tasted almost exactly like Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  I suppose that makes a lot of sense given this was created by conditioning their regular brown ale with cinnamon sticks, vanilla beans, and maple syrup.  I could see this getting a bit cloying in large amounts, but my quarter pint sample was sweet delicious breakfast in a glass.

Three Surprises:

Oast House Brewery – Aber-Dabba-Doo: I took a chance on this offering from a Welsh brewery I’d never heard of based off of the name alone.  What I got was an excellent 4.2% amber ale.  With mild notes of caramel malt and a lightly floral hop finish, I thought this was perfectly suited to cask format. 

Monty’s Brewery – Dark Secret: Out of solidarity with my wife there was no way I could pass up a gluten-free cask beer, especially if it happened to be a stout.  Easily one of the best gluten-free beers I’ve ever had, not to mention pretty good in its own right.  At 5.5%, it went down nice and smooth with a subtle roasted malt character.

Spencer Trappist Brewery – Abbey Brown: Coming from Massachusetts’ own Trappist brewery, this was my first time having a Belgian-style beer on cask.  It definitely suited this one well, giving it a nice smooth sweet and roasty taste combined with a perfect mouthfeel.

I would highly recommend this event to any beer enthusiasts in the Boston area this weekend.  Fans of cask beer shouldn’t miss this, and anyone curious to try it out can get no better introduction.  The festival offered plenty of great beer, including some one of a kind creations, and an atmosphere that is hard to come by at beer events these days.  The catering by Redbones BBQ was a pretty nice touch as well. 

Cheers!

Burlington Beer Company: Coffee and Cake

21 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by mrericness in Beer Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Burlington Beer Company, New England, Vermont

This time we’re looking at a couple of beers from Burlington Beer Company.  These came to me two weekends ago from friends we had in town, so to start things off many thanks to them!  I didn’t know much about this brewery going in other than that they are fairly new (opened in 2014) and have some pretty cool can designs.  Let’s start exploring!

20160120_210216(0)

First up was Barista, a 7.3% coffee porter.  Appropriately enough, I took out some different glassware for a change and poured this one into my Bean Porter mug.  The can was dated 12/2/2015 and had a FRESH POTS message stamped on the bottom.  Right off the bat this beer reminded me of my morning coffee.  It poured a deep brown body topped off by a quick to dissipate tannish head.  Smell was light roasted coffee all the way.  As you probably expect, the taste kept this trend going, blending a  creamy light roast coffee flavor with a little bit of cocoa.  The finish is roasty and bitter with occasional hints of booziness.  The mouthfeel was pleasantly smooth and on the thicker side, though there was a bit more carbonation than I might have expected.  Not a large amount mind you, but more than I would have thought. While this wasn’t the biggest or the boldest coffee porter I have ever tried, it certainly was enjoyable.  Great representation of the style and well done.  I’d seek this out again if given an opportunity to do so.

20160118_184614

Up next was Strawberry Whale Cake, a 5.5% cream ale brewed with strawberries (at rate of one pound of fruit per gallon of beer).  Date on the bottom of the can was 07/08/2015 and a (presumably) tongue-in-cheek WHALEZ BRUH message printed below it.  Call me easily entertained, but I liked the messages.  Pour on this one was a deep, golden-yellow body with a fizzy white head that lingers for a little bit before bubbling away.  Smell was slightly yeasty with light malts and a hint of fruit.  The taste picked up right where the smell left off.  The beer had a crisp, almost pilsner-like backbone paired with doughy, light malts.  Topping this off were sweet and slightly tart strawberries that take over through the finish.  Medium bodied and fairly bubbly, I wouldn’t quite call this dessert in a glass but it did come pretty darn close.  The difference in my mind was that the beer was ultimately more light and refreshing than rich and decadent, but your gauge of things like this may differ.  Overall I found this beer really interesting, but think of it more as a novelty than something I would want to regularly drink.  Still pretty good though and worth a try.

So there we have it.  Two solid brews from another up and coming Vermont brewery.  Cheers!

← Older posts

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • October 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014

Categories

  • Baseball
  • Beer Reviews
    • Beer Festival
    • Brewery Visit
    • Oktoberfest 2015
    • Pumpkin Beer Tasting 2015
    • Summer Session 2016
  • Book Reviews
    • Fantasy
    • Fiction
    • Historical Fiction
    • Horror
    • Non-Fiction
    • Sci-Fi
  • Book Tags
  • Challenges
    • 13 Days of Halloween
    • 30 Day Geek Out Challenge
  • Music Monday
  • Random Tag Tuesday
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Beer Rants and Books
    • Join 246 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Beer Rants and Books
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...