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Fasten your beer goggles.
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Our mission at Dr. Beer Love is to teach you to stop worrying and love the beer. Our secondary mission is to drink a lot of beer. Our tertiary mission is to give you ratings on those beers - objective, unbiased, opinionated, prejudiced ratings based on what we find good about beer. Take it with a grain of salt or preferably one of those big beer pretzels they sell in Munich. Those things are great.
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And recently from the Beer Blog...
Guinness is revamping the St. James's Gate brewery - they're going to upgrade it to produce only for the Irish and British markets and handle tourists. A new brewery is being built that will make Guinness for export and it should be commissioned in 2013.
This means a significant space reduction once the new brewery is operational and at that point they will sell half the land at the St. James's Gate brewery as it exists now (source: Times Online UK).
Read the full press release from Diageo (parent company of Guinness, Harp, Red Stripe, Johnnie Walker and lots of other top brands).
By John on
May 14, 2008 @ 6 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 5 out of 10
Louisiana is a special place in the Dr Beer Love household - son Beer Love was born there and spent his first 25 years there. And though Father Beer Love wasn't born there, he's called it home for well over 30 years. Because of that Abita beers may get a special nod in the beer love department, though we're not opposed to telling you how we really feel about them - see the Abita Wheat and Abita Mardi Gras Bock reviews as evidence. That said Abita Springs, LA wouldn't be a bad place to call your final resting grounds.
With the Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager we didn't know what to expect going in - our experience with fruited beers in the past hasn't always been remarkable (see Sam Adams Cherry Wheat), but this one seemed too good to pass up. We do know one thing from the Abita Purple Haze - Abita knows how to fruit their beers.
Father Beer Love was the first to buy it, having seen it in an ad for Albertson's, and quickly called to say that a 6 pack was in order. Needless to say in that time son Beer Love has been through two 6 packs and as he writes this may be making plans for his third.
For our official review we used a weizen glass and on the pour got a huge 3" white foamy head that gave a good amount of head lacing as it dissipated slowly. The beer temperature came in at 45.1 F from the 12 oz bottle. The body clarity was clear and almost sparkling, with a soft carbonation and a yellow to golden color.
The aromas, though not great in number, were scintillating - strawberry, vanilla, sweet biscuit, heavy cream, dough, batter and white cake. It smells very much like a strawberry shortcake or a white cake with strawberry icing.
The tastes were in line with the aromas, and we got an additional barley note in the flavor. The initial flavor gave us light sweet, light bitter and light tart and the finish stayed true to the initial flavor. The finish duration was average, the body lacing was fair and the mouthfeel was a little dry. On the malt to hop scale it was slightly skewed towards the hop side, just a little off of perfectly balanced.
All said it tastes like dessert! Beer for dessert - and that suits us just fine. Memories of childhood - a sweet warm biscuit split and buttered with real butter, covered with strawberries the size of your thumb that had real flavor sliced and macerated with real sugar until the juice came out and cold heavy cream poured on top and and let set for a few minutes to let the flavors blend (what we didn't know then about cholesterol and saturated fat). You can tell these are real, great Louisiana strawberries in it, and they are understated enough to be enjoyable - it has a definite beer taste to it and the strawberries don't overwhelm. The bitterness, sweetness and tartness all work together to make it quite enjoyable and refreshing. It's not very complex, but it is quite satisfying. Worthy of a 12 pack and a great session beer - it's a gulper. It's a shame to drink just one though. It's repeatable and quite drinkable. It's memorable and even has that wow factor we look for. The harmony is so-so but would we buy it again? Yes and we have.
This is just about the perfect spring beer. Ideal for 60 to 80 F weather. We don't think it would work in the summer, fall or winter. Spring is just about right. If you want to label it with a season call it a good Easter beer, which coincides well with the strawberry season. A great way to cut the yellow dust (pollen) that covers everything, especially after mowing. Drink it fast though, it probably won't keep well for months on end. Buy it young, drink it quick and enjoy spring and its new rebirth of flavors. Everyone we've shared it with has loved it. The overall rating is a solid 4, plus one point for nostalgia and tasting like our youth - strawberry shortcakes with real cream, not Cool Whip. Don't get too critical and don't over think this, just take it for what it is - a good, enjoyable treat of a beer, not a top beer in the world by any means - and you'll love it. Get it soon though because it's a seasonal and won't be around all year. And though we didn't use it for the review - a frosty glass or mug would be perfect for this one.
Tangent: In typing up this review I kept mistyping strawberry as strawbeery, perhaps because of my poor grammar skills, but perhaps because the marketing switch in me is always turned to "on". In retrospect this might be an even better name for the beer. Or at least a good descriptive phrase. Who knew? Strawbeery!
By John & Dad on
May 12, 2008 @ 10 PM with 0 Comments
We launched the first official redesign of the Dr. Beer Love web site this week, meaning we're officially version 2.0, with a web 2.0 look. And officially we will never use that term again because we hate it.
This site redesign got started a little under a month ago and we took the opportunity to update a lot. Highlights include:
- We made the site much more aesthetically pleasing - cleaner graphics, larger fonts, wider layout, more breathing room, etc.
- We made the site much faster - like a billion times faster.
- We merged the beer blog and beer ratings together so they can live together in beer harmony. You can still pull out just the ratings if you like by clicking on Beer Ratings at the top of the page.
- We put the full content of the last 25 beer blog and beer rating posts on the home page so you don't have to individually click on each post to read them. We hated having to do that just as much as you.
- We added some "meta data" to the beer ratings - namely you can now browse by Beer Styles - we broke these out into two main categories - Ales and Lagers.
- We put the full counts of the number of beers in each of our ratings categories so you know what you're getting into.
- We put sortable beer results on all ratings, styles and search pages. This will give you a table where you can click on the header to sort by beer name, date reviewed, reviewer and number of comments.
- We made the search results a lot better and a lot more usable, especially if we don't have any results matching your search.
- We added a Dr. Beer Love Twitter feed so we can post quick micro-updates.
- We made the ads (hopefully) a little bit more relevant to the content.
- We did a lot of boring behind the scenes work to help with search engine results and things like that.
- And finally we've got a ton of ideas in the queue that we will push in the coming months. Videos, free stuff and more.
We welcome any and all feedback - Twitter us up or drop us an email. Cheers!
By John on
May 11, 2008 @ 9 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 6 out of 10
For Mike.
This is our first memorial beer tasting, in the memory of our co-worker and friend Mike White. I found out after his passing that he was a big fan of the Dead Guy Ale, so on the way back from his funeral some fellow co-workers and I decided to stop at World Market and pick up a few 22 oz bottles. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Our HR Director mentioned before that Mike would occasionally joke around and tell her he had 6 Dead Guys in his kitchen. Classic.
It's a relatively new beer in the market and the story goes that in the early 90s it was created as a private tap sticker to celebrate the Mayan Day of the Dead for a restaurant in Portland, Oregon. It stuck and turned into an actual bottled product a few years later. Style-wise it's considered a Maibock, which is in fact a lager known to be a little bit hoppier and contain a little more alcohol than a traditional bock, and is usually served around the springtime (May Bock, the ideal time to start drinking beer outside). It's almost like a light version of a double bock. Rogue makes it their own though and throws in their proprietary "PacMan" ale yeast, giving this lager the word ale in the title and confusing those of us who try to classify styles on our web sites as either a lager or an ale.
We used a standard American pint glass for the test. Beer temperature was 48.6 F and the ABV is a nice 6.6%. The initial pour from our 22 oz friend gave us a large 2 inch foamy off-white head that dissipated slowly and left virtually no head lacing. It was a cloudy, almost murky-like amber/orange color. Looks good!
The initial aromas gave us caramel, honey, roasted and toffee malts. We also got some citrus (mostly orange) and some alcohol to the smell. The initial taste gave us most of the same profile as the aromas but added more depth - we detected a nuttiness, coupled with brown sugar, ginger and sherry. It was a treat to find these taste notes and added complexity we weren't able to pull out of the aroma. The alcohol was not present in the taste like it was the smell. The initial flavor was a moderate sweet with a light bitter and light saltiness to it. The finish duration was average in length and the finish flavor profile changed a little to a light sweet with a moderate bitter and a light to moderate saltiness. There's a lot of malts in here and a good number of hops to balance it out.
The mouthfeel was dry and we got no noticeable body lacing. The malt to hop scale came in ultimately at balanced, but this was an average measurement. Initially the malt profile stood out and it leaned to the malty side, but through the finish we moved more to the hoppy side. Not too far either way, but enough to notice the slide. Almost like two beers in one!
Dad notes he had an original review of this on 7/19/2005 - close to 3 years ago when we first started getting into the craft brews:
"Catchy name forgettable taste - bad." My how things change - would have been a 1 or 2 then. Did the beer change? No, I have and this proves it.
Repeatability and drinkability are both there - we would definitely do another. We felt like it had a good balance to it, but not that intangible harmony we find in the upper tier of beers. Though good - it was memorable for sentimental reasons - it didn't have the "wow" factor that some beers do. We would definitely buy it again though and we love the 22 oz size, which should be mandatory for all beers. You really can't go wrong with it - $4.99 for the 22 oz bottle is a little pricier than you may expect, but it's money well spent. The beer evolves as it warms - we suggest you start with it cold and experience it mature as it gets warmer.
The bottle reads: "Gratefully dedicated to the Rogue in each of us" - and to you Mike.
By John & Dad on
May 8, 2008 @ 10 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 9 out of 10
The Beer Fairy came to my house and left me a bottle of this fine stout. I must be very, very good or very pitiful. I have read comments online saying what's the big deal with the excitement about this stout? Let me say that I live in a vast Stout wasteland, 3 kinds of Guinness, Sierra Nevada, Mackeson and Beamish that's being sold for half price because it is really old.
On the day I opened this I promised the Beer Fairy I would share this with the Lovely Mrs. Beer Love so I let it counter rest to a perfect 54.3F -12.1C temp. and poured two tulip glasses. The initial pour gave me a 1.5 inch creamy dark brown head that dissipated slowly and had virtually no head lacing. The color was opaque black and had little carbonation. Aromas were coffee, dark chocolate, espresso, molasses, perfume, earth, alcohol, black licorice, brown sugar and smoke. Taste were mostly the same but included dark dried fruits which reminded me of strong Belgium ale. Initial flavors were moderate sweet, light bitter and light saltiness. Finish flavors were heavy sweet, moderate bitter, light salty and light tart. The finish was long, mouthfeel was creamy and had virtually no body lacing. On the malt to hop scale I put it just to the malt side of balanced [4].
I found this incredibly complex, the taste in drinking were espresso and chocolate first later comes the anise taste. The malts just seem to last and last in the finish. It's hard to believe the IBU is as high as it is. The taste stays on the back of the tongue for a long time. In the aroma the espresso comes through heavier than the chocolate but in the sipping the chocolate marches to the front. Wow! I had to limit myself to one glass the first time as it got hard to write well enough to read. I actually finished this over a period of 4 sittings. On the second sitting I tried it right out of the ice box to see if the cold changed the profile, chocolate and anise were stronger and almost no coffee aromas, taste were anise and molasses undertones. As it warmed to 54F the profiles went back where they were on first tasting. After the last was gone I thought about having my tongue bronzed.
I know your next question, why does it take you 4 sittings over 8 to 9 days to drink a 22 oz. bottle of beer? The answer is a story I heard a long time ago. Traveling salesman and a farmer sat down to dinner with the farmers family, in walked a pig wearing 2 gold medals and walking on 2 wooden legs to his own place at the table. The salesman asked the farmer about the pig. The farmer said that the 2 gold medals were for saving 2 of his children, one from a burning barn, the other from an icy pond - that's why he eats with us. The salesman asked about the wooden legs. The farmer said "a pig that special you don't eat all at once."
By Dad on
April 29, 2008 @ 6 PM with 0 Comments
There's another new beer in stores now. Not select stores, but EVERY store that sells beer. You can even find this new beer at convenience stores like Circle K and 7-11. It's called Recession Resistant Beer and it's inside every bottle or can you can pick up everywhere beer is sold.
Check out the full story, Recession threat not causing brewers to cry in their beer, over at STL today.
Cheers!
By John on
April 28, 2008 @ 7 PM with 0 Comments
It's interesting to note that A-B is using Michelob as the brand to launch most of their more diverse craft brews. They've got their two staples - Michelob and Michelob Light, plus Amber Bock, which to most people I know was their "breakout beer." They've since pushed out Porter, Marzen, Pale Ale, Wheat and Honey Lager. And now they're getting ready to push out Red Ale, Brown Ale, Dunkel Weisse and Bohemian Pilsner. Are we running the risk of diluting the real craft brews or will taste prevail?
Full story is here at STLtoday.com.
By John on
April 22, 2008 @ 7 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 7 out of 10
Currently #91 on the RateBeer.com Top 100 Best Beers in the World, the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA is an IPA force to be reckoned with. This is another in a series of Thursday evening reviews between Father and Son Beer Love, but this one wasn't a phone review, it was our first ever video review. That's right we got Father and Son Beer Love hooked up through the miracle of iChat so we can just sit in front of our Macs and talk and see each other. How great is that?
For those who don't know, the story of the India Pale Ale (IPA) is quite interesting. For starters as a category, IPAs are classified as a sparkling pale ale with a little bit more alcohol and hops than a typical Pale Ale. A Pale Ale is called that because it generally uses ale yeast and mostly pale malts. In the IPA the extra alcohol gives it a little kick and the extra hops give it a very distinctive bitterness - this bitterness is almost exclusively the defining characteristic of the style. British brewers invented the IPA in the 1700's to solve the problem of keeping beer fresh on long sea voyages in hot climates, to places like India and Africa. These trips were torture on beer (and the crew no doubt) and beer tended to spoil, becoming sour and flat. You've got to remember that pasteurization wasn't invented until the 1860's and refrigeration wasn't a viable option so alcohol and hops were all you had to fight spoiled beer (they prevent bacteria growth). With the invention of the IPA long travel and hot climates were no longer a problem and the British brewers could ship beer all the way to India and it would still be fresh, 6 months plus later.
Back to our beer, the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, which is classified as an Imperial or Double IPA. It's called a 90 minute IPA because the boil time of the wort in which the hops are added (continuously, mind you) is 90 minutes. More boil time on the hops means more bitterness. They also make a 60 minute and 120 minute IPA following this same process that are less bitter and more bitter, respectively. It's brewed in Milton, DE by the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, and our 12 oz bottle comes in at 9% ABV and 90 IBUs. Our bottled on date was May 2, 2007. I don't think we have to worry about this one going bad.
We poured it into a tulip glass and got a beer temperature of 52 F. The initial pour yielded an average 1 1/4" white fizzy head that gave us a fair amount of lacing. It's got a medium amount of carbonation and the body is fairly clear and a nice amber color. The initial pour gave us a number of aromas - mainly caramel, sherry, earth and spices and of course a lot of hop aromas - citrus, floral, grass, herb and pine.
The initial flavor is a moderate sweet and a heavy bitter and that stayed true through the finish. Hell, it's an IPA, what did you expect? In addition to the aroma notes above we also picked up some honey later in the taste. It's really a beautiful complex mixture of tastes. There was surprisingly no alcohol in the taste, but the alcohol does hit you - it's very strong and potent. The taste became very nice as it warmed - it's definitely a taste bud tickler. There's really no "hop shock" to speak of and though it's hoppy, the balance saves it. It edges just a little, but not too far, towards the hoppy side on the patented Dr Beer Love malt to hop scale. The finish duration is long, the mouthfeel is oily and there was a fair amount of body lacing.
Neither Father nor Son Beer Love are hopheads, but this is a great hop beer. It's not necessarily repeatable, or rather you probably shouldn't have another one though you may want it (high gravity, you see). It was, however, very drinkable, very memorable, had a great wow factor and we would definitely buy it again. We feel the main thing about it this beer is the balance. It's just extremely balanced, especially considering how complex it is, and it becomes so wonderful as it warms into the 60s. We don't have a lot of IPAs in our ratings to compare it to so we've given it a 7 as is. When we have other IPAs to compare it to we may come in and adjust the rating. For now you need to get this beer and try it. If you love hoppy beers (do you like Sam Adams?) then you'll fall in love with this one. And even if you're not a known hophead, there's still something in here for you and you should be able to appreciate this for the wonderfully unique beer it is.
By John & Dad on
April 15, 2008 @ 8 PM with 0 Comments
BeerTown.org has released some stats on the American craft beer scene for 2007, including the top 50 craft beer companies by sales volume. No surprises at the top of the list with Boston Beer (Sam Adams), Sierra Nevada and New Belgium sitting in the top 3 spots. I was happy to see though that the Spoetzl Brewery, makers of our almost hometown Shiner Bock, came in at number 4. There's some great companies on the list - Bell's, Dogfish Head, North Coast Brewing and our beloved Abita, coming in at 17. Check out the full press release here (PDF format).
You can also check out some of their other interesting Craft Brew Statistics, including how the craft beers break out - microbreweries vs. brewpubs, growth rates and total overall numbers. A worthwhile read.
By John on
April 15, 2008 @ 6 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 9 out of 10
Go ahead and put on your to-do list, if you're ever in Kalamazoo, MI, to visit the Bell's Eccentric Cafe where you can try most of the Bell's Beers on tap. We'd say you also need to visit Bell's Brewery as well, but it's not open to the public. We base this directive solely on the strength of this one rating. Looking over their brands though, they tend to make mostly ales and stouts and porters, so wethinks it would be hard to go wrong.
In case you haven't guessed, this Bell's Expedition Stout review is one of our infamous Thursday phone reviews between Father and Son Beer Love.
This 12 oz bottle of Expedition Stout goodness sported a 10.5% ABV and came in right at 50 F when poured into our American pint glass. The pour produced an average 1 1/4" dark brown creamy head that had excellent lacing as it dissipated slowly into the murky depths below. Completely black and opaque in color, we noted very little in the way of carbonation.
The initial aromas gave us chocolate and coffee, earth and black licorice. The initial flavor gave us a moderate sweet and a heavy bitter, which stayed true through the finish with the exception of a light saltiness we started to pick up. The regular chocolate and coffee aromas though turned into dark chocolate and espresso tastes, with some additional smoke flavor coursing through our taste buds. The finish duration is long, the mouthfeel is oily and the body has a good amount of lacing to it.
It's a bold taste and the bitterness we pick up is not in the hops. Though it's as far to the malt side of the malt-to-hop scale as you can get, in your mouth it's actually almost perfectly balanced - between the sweet of the chocolate and the bitterness of the coffee it finds a terrific niche. There is no alcohol in the taste initially, but as it warms you start to pick up some alcohol notes in the finish. The beer overall becomes more refined as it warms into the upper 50's and lower 60's. It's a stick-to-your-ribs kind of beer and a taste bud tingler - it's an almost overwhelming experience in your mouth.
It would be good with cheeses, crackers and fruits and great with a fine steak (Ruth's Chris, maybe?). It's repeatable, drinkable, memorable, has a wow factor to it and we would buy it again. One of the few times we've agreed on all those factors. This would frighten away a beer newbie, but after a year or two of gradually working into the dark stuff they'd be able to appreciate this beer for what it is. Definitely a top beer.
By John & Dad on
April 10, 2008 @ 10 PM with 0 Comments
Think you know what the fastest growing beer in America is? We're not just talking craft beers here but all beers. Specifically year-over-year growth in 2007 in supermarkets.
The winner? Blue Moon.
The full article is available here.
By John on
April 10, 2008 @ 5 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 4 out of 10
The latest Thursday night Father and Son Beer Love Session features the O'Fallon Smoked Porter. The smoked porter concept was new to us so we were pretty anxious to give it a shot. We like smoked and we like porters, so let's blend the two and dive in.
The O'Fallon Brewery is conveniently located in O'Fallon, Missouri, and I'm sure the crew there was pleased with the happenstance of the name/location. This Smoked Porter weighs in at 6% ABV in it's 12 oz bottle, which also tells us it was the 2004 Gold Medal winner for the best smoked beer in America. To celebrate we served it up in an American pint glass and had an initial pour temperature of 47 F. Perfect!
The pour produced a small 3/4" frothy medium brown head and an opaque black body. The head dissipated rather quickly and left a fair amount of lacing in the process. Not much carbonation to speak of. Our initial aromas, using our patented Dr. Beer Love sniffing process, gave us roasted malts, black licorice, soy sauce and smoke. We rated the smoke smell as very comparable to liquid smoke that you use to marinade your meats when you can't actually smoke them outdoors.
Our initial flavor was a moderate bitter, followed by a lightly salty aftertaste. Very interesting. The soy sauce taste is high predominant and the smoke flavor follows thereafter. It's not terribly complex and we were a little surprised there was no coffee or chocolate notes at all to it - being smoked porter newbies we're not sure if that's the style or just the style of this one in particular. The finish had an average to long duration and produced an odd saltiness we really haven't experienced much before in other beers. The mouthfeel was dry and on the malt to hop scale it was closer to the heavy side of malts.
It's definitely worth trying one - it may suit you or someone you love's tastes very well. It definitely won't appeal to the masses and didn't really appeal to us. Try it for its uniqueness though - this thing makes its own statement and we respect that. Plus one point in the rating for it's boldness, brazenness, brashness and bravado. This may work with a hearty meal - think briskets and stews. The heavy bold flavors might jive a bit there. Hell, it may be worth a shot to marinade your steaks right in this. Now that we can get into!
By John & Dad on
April 8, 2008 @ 6 PM with 0 Comments
Dr Beer Love respects people who get all scientific with their beer tasting, and the folks over at Rate Beer definitely get a beer glass raised in their direction for their latest endeavor - A Going Blind Tasting. 25 imperial stouts in one evening. Twenty. Five. Bottom line is it turns out to be a little too much work and all the dark beer completely dissolved their palates. But what a way to go!
By John on
April 5, 2008 @ 1 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 3 out of 10
The Bully Porter (technically written as "Bully! Porter") comes to us from the Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, MO. This is another in a series of Thursday evening phone reviews between Father and Son Beer Love.
The 12 oz bottle features a 5.4% ABV and we served it up in an American pint glass at 52 F. The bottle has a great label on it featuring a monocled bulldog wearing a tuxedo holding up a beer. That may be the best highlight to our session.
The initial pour yielded a huge 2 1/4" light brown rocky head that had a good amount of lacing as it dissipated slowly. The color was an opaque ruby dark brown, almost black. No carbonation to speak of, but it can be hard to tell in a beer this dark.
The aromas were burnt, chocolate, coffee, earth, black licorice and smoke. The initial flavor was lightly sweet and heavy bitter, as were the finish flavors. The finish was long in duration and there was only a fair amount of body lacing. The mouthfeel was terrific - nice and creamy. On the malt to hop scale it was on the very malty side.
Aside from the great mouthfeel there wasn't a lot to write home about with this one. It started out well enough with a good, somewhat surprising first impression, but it became much less enjoyable towards the end. The lack of balance really started grating on our nerves. It's not very complex and the burnt malts led to some strong bitterness. What was attractive in the beginning became annoying in the end. It's like you've been on 6 dates already and now you're resenting her. Do you break up or keep going because it's too much trouble?
It's definitely not repeatable and was only so-so in drinkability. It wasn't memorable, had no wow factor and we wouldn't buy it again. The 6 pack was in the $7 price range, so that may have some appeal, but we'd say it's worth trying only if you can pull a single of it. There's a lot of other porters out there better than this one.
By John & Dad on
April 4, 2008 @ 7 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 4 out of 10
The Schlafly No. 15 comes to us from the Saint Louis Brewery in Missouri, the same state that houses Grandmother and Uncle Beer Love. This is another in a series of Thursday night phone reviews between Father and Son Beer Love.
We poured the 6% ABV 12 oz bottle into an American pint glass and pulled a temperature of 45 F. This bottle had a bottled on date of June 26, 2007 (we reviewed on January 31, 2008). We got a large 1 3/4" off-white creamy head that produced a good amount of lacing as it dissipated quickly. There was a medium amount of carbonation and the appearance was a somewhat murky amber color.
The initial aromas were caramel, wheat, citrus (maybe grapefruit), herb, bubble gum and spices. The initial flavor was lightly sweet, lightly sour, and moderately bitter - the taste bud trifecta. The hops are strong, but not bad - it gives it a definite character. The taste gave us some more fruity flavors and the fruitiness increases as it warms. The finish flavor was lightly sweet and harshly bitter, with a long duration. This biting aftertaste may have a touch of that grapefruit we smelled to it. The mouthfeel was oily and the body lacing was fair, not nearly as impressive as the head lacing. On a malt to hop scale this one slides over somewhere in the mid range of the hoppy side.
Overall it's drinkable, but not repeatable, not memorable and we wouldn't want to buy it again. It would probably be better with food. It's a decent ale from Schlafly, but it could be much better.
By John & Dad on
April 1, 2008 @ 8 PM with 0 Comments
 The Dr Beer Love household (East) is plus one now with the latest addition to the family - the dedicated beer fridge. That's right, I finally had so many beers in our real fridge that my beautiful beer love wife finally said "Enough!" and I got my wish. Click the photo to enlarge it in a popup window.
This bad boy is actually a converted wine cooler from Home Depot. It's the Magic Chef 44 Bottle Dual Zone Wine Cooler (Model MCWC44DZ). The racks are removed for ideal vertical bottle storage with the exception of one rack towards the top of the bottom zone for cellaring purposes (currently cellaring a lone Trappistes Rochefort 10). The top zone is the lager and low gravity zone which is kept at 45 F and the bottom zone (the larger of the two) is the ale and high gravity zone which is kept at 50 F. No more counter resting my beers before drinking - they're ready to go straight out of the beer fridge. We've stored this in the closet underneath the stairs, out of sight but not out of mind.
If you're wondering how many beers we can fit in a 44 bottle wine cooler it's in the neighborhood of about 70 bottles. It's currently not at capacity. Donations are accepted.
By John on
March 31, 2008 @ 7 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 2 out of 10
This was in my first 10 pack from CPWM (Cost Plus World Market) and thought I would try it again to see if my taste had changed from 7/26/05.
Beer temp. 47.1F-8.6C. Using my go-to British pint glass I got a large 2.5 inch foamy off white head on top of a hazy amber orange body. Carbonation was soft and the head dissipated slowly with fair head lacing. Aromas were caramel, honey, roasted, toffee, floral, pine and earth. Taste were caramel, pine, resin and spices. The initial flavors light to medium sweetness from the malts and a light bitterness from the hops. Finish flavors were heavy bitterness and light sour. Finish duration was average to long and the mouthfeel was oily. There was almost no body lacing and on the malt to hop scale I gave it a 7 with 5 being balanced and 9 hoppy. I didn't find it repeatable, drinkable, memorable and had no wow factor. I know I won't be keeping this in my rotation.
This kind of reminds me of an IPA but without the malt depth. You might say "Dr. Beer Love this had 7 aromas and 4 tastes - what's up with that?" I may have pushed it on the aromas and could easily have been 3 with pine being one of them, and pine and resin in the taste just doesn't do it for me. I'm glad the finish wasn't any longer than it was. By the way I didn't care for it then and don't care for it now. It was kind of fun though going through the old notes from 2 1/2 years ago.
By Dad on
March 28, 2008 @ 4 PM with 0 Comments
Last night I was enjoying a delicious Duck Rabbit Milk Stout (review to come later) out on the patio, throwing the toys for the dogs and enjoying the beautiful 70 degree evening that is more often than not springtime in Charlotte.
As it proceeded to get dark I came inside and sat down on the couch to finish off my tasty beverage and noticed a beer covered bug sitting near the inside rim of the glass, wavering and flailing, all drunk on dark beer. An unfortunate side effect of the warmer weather is that the bugs start to come out from wherever they've been hiding all those winter months.
Under normal circumstances if I find a bug in my food or beverage I usually cease and desist all eating of said food or beverage. However, this is beer. Beautiful, wonderful beer. Glorious, magnificent dark beer. So I grab a paper towel, scoop the bug out of the beer and proceed to lap down the rest of it, undaunted and undeterred, so singularly focused that a Zen master himself might look to me for advice on what "mind like water" truly means. What would I tell him? A mind on beer is a good place to start.
By John on
March 27, 2008 @ 9 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 5 out of 10
The Fort Collins Chocolate Stout is another in a series of Thursday night phone reviews between Father and Son Beer Love. Fort Collins Brewery, out of Colorado, makes a good number of beers. The Chocolate Stout has a great graphic design to it with a lipstick kiss mark next to the beer name on the label.
We served this 5.3% ABV stout up in an American pint glass and registered an initial beer temperature of 49.8 F. The initial pour gave us an average 1" frothy medium brown head that yielded a fair amount of lacing as it dissipated slowly. There is very little carbonation to the beer, perhaps masked by its absolutely opaque black color.
Initial aromas were of chocolate, mild coffee (possibly espresso), roasted malts and black licorice. It's a great smell, very strong. The taste echoed the aromas, but wasn't nearly as strong as we thought it would be - it's not too sweet at all. The initial flavor was only lightly sweet and actually slightly bitter. The aftertaste was unchanged in terms of flavor and had a short to average duration. It's a subtle aftertaste with some very mild hops that dulled as we drank it. The mouthfeel was terrific - a rich creamy mouthfeel - one of the better ones.
We were really surprised by this one - it's not a sweet stout, but it has a sweetness to it. It's obviously malt heavy but there are some hops to balance it out. It's not overly complex. It might work well with various cheeses if you wanted to pair it up with some food. Though it's drinkable, it's not repeatable and isn't really memorable. You're kind of put off on it by the time you finish it.
Overall it just doesn't really make a statement. You don't make a statement with undertones in a stout, you need overtones. Go all in. I see on their site that Fort Collins also makes a Double Chocolate Stout as a seasonal beer. That may be worth trying to see if they get it a bit more "right". As an alternative I'd recommend trying the Young's Double Chocolate Stout or even better (if you can find it) the Foothills Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout.
By John & Dad on
March 27, 2008 @ 7 PM with 0 Comments
As I've written about before, the ingredients that go into beer are experiencing extreme price increases, leading to a shortage of things like hops.
Combine that with the recent announcement that Boston Beer (makers of Sam Adams) just posted a huge 4th quarter increase in profits (despite the 21% increase in the price of goods) and year-over-year growth in profit (24%) and revenue (20%) and you witness a company poised to make a difference. So what do they do?
Announcing the Samuel Adams® Hop Sharing Program. They're going to share their hops with other U.S. craft brewers who are struggling to get hops. They're offering 20,000 lbs of hops to help the cause and they're offering them AT COST to the brewers who need them. They're not trying to make a buck here, they're trying to help their own.
Dr. Beer Love respects companies who post healthy revenues and profits in tough times, but he has an even greater respect for companies who acknowledge that competition is okay and tries to do the right thing during those same tough times. Make your next toast to Sam Adams for being good people.
By John on
March 25, 2008 @ 7 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 5 out of 10
Brought to you from the fine folks at the Sprecher Brewing Company in Glendale, WI, this Special Amber Lager is their best seller. It's a medium bodied German style lager, checking in at 5% ABV and it was was served up in an American pint glass.
The initial pour yielded a large 1 1/2" frothy off-white head that didn't sport any lacing and dissipated quickly. The body is a beautiful amber/orange that's slightly hazy in appearance. There was very little carbonation to the body.
The aromas were solid - caramel and honey, citrus, banana and maybe a hint of mint. The initial flavor was a moderate sweet and the finish was a light sweet. The finish is about average in duration and the mouthfeel is somewhat dry. The aftertaste is a bit awkward - you brace yourself for sweet but it doesn't really hit you like that.
Overall there's not a lot to the beer - it's good, not great - it's right in the middle. It's not very complex but it's a good balance between the malts and the hops. It wouldn't be a bad beer with burgers. I'd say it's worth a shot - repeatable and drinkable, but not really memorable. You won't be crazy about it but it could make for a good session beer.
By John on
March 25, 2008 @ 6 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 8 out of 10
After the fiasco with the Moosbacher I wanted to show the Lovely Mrs. Beer Love a good weissbier. Just so happened to have one of these on hand, as the weissbier law is set to go into effect.
Beer temp. 42.7F-5.8C. a .5L bottle poured a hazy yellow gold with a large 2.5 inch frothy white head that dissipated fairly quickly with virtually no lacing. The carbonation was soft and the aromas were biscuit, wheat, citrus, lemon, yeast, banana and clove. Taste were yeast, lemon, banana, clove and the all important pepper. Initial flavors were light in both sweet and tart, and the finish flavors were the same. Finish was short, mouthfeel was dry and had virtually no body lacing. I forgot to check the malt to hop scale so feel compelled to go get some more gladly. Repeatable,YES, drinkable, YEAH, memorable, DAMN RIGHT, wow factor, not quite, buy again, ABSOLUTELY.
What can you say, is it the best hefe in the world? Not quite. This brings back so many memories of Munich. At Octoberfest 06 when the first keg was tapped at noon and the cry went up "O'zapft is!" John and I walked around the Wies'n with 250,000 of our closest friends and couldn't get a seat for 2 1/2 hours and trudged back hot and sweaty to our hotel I pointed out a small bar across the street and we went in. I wasn't going to not have a dam beer on opening day. Fortunately no one spoke English so John ordered a Lowenbrau and we both snarked it down. They had the usual stand up tables and a few stools. A person sitting on a stool who appeared middle eastern patted one and indicated I should sit down, an old grey headed sweaty fat man with to many clothes on gratefully accepted. I asked if he spoke English, his entire vocabulary was New York, Chicago and Miami. He said to we "weissbier goot". John and I each had a .5L each, Wow, I'de had this one in the states but I never had a better one. As we left for the hotel I told John that he was the German version of the common American Bar Fly, which I know very well. I wish him well, and doubled his English vocabulary which now includes Mardi Gras, Doubloon {which he now has in his billfold] and New Awlins.
Back to the beer. in this one the banana aroma predominates the lemon which I kind of prefer but the balance is so very good that you thirsty for your next drink while you are still drinking. The only thing that keeps me from giving it a nine is the pepper bite that is barely there. Of course I live in Louisiana and we like pepper, black, red and tabasco.
By Dad on
March 20, 2008 @ 3 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 4 out of 10
Zon is another offering from the Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, where Father Beer Love went purchase happy on his latest trip to see Grandma and Uncle Beer Love. It should be noted that like many of the beers from that Missouri trip, we may have waited to long to review this one. This was originally reviewed on January 31, 2008 and the bottle showed a best by date of November 1, 2007. That could definitely affect the rating and we're willing to concede that point.
This review is another from our Thursday phone reviews. Boulevard calls this their "interpretation of a classic Belgian witbier." Zon, by the way, is Flemish for "Sun." We served this 4.4% ABV brew up in an American pint glass. Beer temperature was about 41 F at the onset for the 12 oz bottle.
The initial pour produced at large 2 1/2" frothy white head that dissipated quickly but left excellent lacing. The beer seemed to have little carbonation and was a hazy straw color.
Initial aromas were wheat, coriander and citrus - specifically grapefruit, orange and lemon zest. It's a good medley of citrus aromas and a very good clean smell. The initial flavors were a light sweet and a light tart, with the sweetness the more predominant of the two. The taste wasn't as complex as the smell, sadly, and there was virtually no body lacing as it was consumed. The finish flavor was again light sweet and light tart, but added a dimension of light bitter, with the hops showcasing themselves most prominently. The finish was rather short in duration and the mouthfeel was actually somewhat dry.
The main issue with this beer is it just doesn't have a great balance. It may edge a little toward the malt side on a malt to hop scale, but the balance feels more out of whack than that. It is repeatable and is drinkable, but it's not memorable, has no wow factor and we probably wouldn't buy it again. Overall it's no Hoegaarden. It may compare fairly favorable with a Blue Moon, but the advantage would have to go to the Blue Moon. It could be a good summer beer and a triple digit day may have us giving this thing several bonus points. It may be a little too hoppy for a witbier, but it might be a good fit for a hophead (neither Father nor Son Beer Love fancy themselves a hophead). Worth a try, but there are other good Belgian style wheats to choose from first.
By John & Dad on
March 18, 2008 @ 8 PM with 0 Comments
Take getting home before the sun goes down, one mild, almost-spring evening in the lower 60's, your back patio, a bottle of Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier Dunkel, a weizen glass, your two trusty miniature schnauzers, a frisbee for the white one, a tennis ball for the black one and two rousing 20 minute games of fetch while drinking said Dunkel and you've got the ingredients for a perfect evening.
By John on
March 18, 2008 @ 7 PM with 0 Comments
Rating: 5 out of 10
Picked this up in Mo. and even though it had a dinosaur on the label since I only had one John let me keep it. It's from the O'Fallon Brewery and the label says " A Truly Extravagant Beer " I didn't know what it was so guessed at the temp. and went with a straight pull from the box. The temp. was 43.7F -6.7C beer color was a reddish brown with a huge 3 inch frothy head that dissipated slowly and laced fairly well. If I had to call it, it would be a brown ale. The aromas I got were light chocolate, roasted and toasted that I associate with caramel but didn't find it. The yeast had an earthy smell along with a sherry aroma. Intrigued I went for a taste, they were brown sugar, port, smoke and surprisingly brandy. The initial flavor were light sweet and bitter and the finish was the same. Finish duration was average with an oily mouthfeel and virtually no body lacing. On the malt to hop scale I put it at 3 with 5 being balanced.
I must admit that I was taken and wish I had stored it better. I could drink several in a row. This could be a way to introduce lager drinkers to ales, porters and stouts without scaring them off (ooh I won't drink that it's toooo dark).
By Dad on
March 14, 2008 @ 5 PM with 0 Comments
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