Hefe Madness - Round 1 - Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier vs. Pyramid Hefe Weizen

By John on May 4, 2009 (0 Comments)

Note: This is the Dr Beer Love Hefe Madness Tournament, where we put eight hefeweizens head-to-head in a beer tournament to end all beer tournaments, March Madness style. See the original post here. All beers are consumed in weizen glasses with John and Beer Love neighbor Josh serving as the judges. If you're reading this in an RSS feeder you may want to head over to the web site as the brackets tend to show up better on the web page itself.

Round 1, Beer Battle 1

1 Weihenstephaner
  Hefeweissbier
----------------
               |
8 Pyramid      |--------------
  Hefe Weizen  |
----------------

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier comes in as the number one seed in the hefeweizen tournament, thanks to it's "A" rating at BeerAdvocate.com and overall 95 rating at RateBeer.com. The 12 oz bottles cost $1.99/each.

Pyramid Hefe Weizen comes in as the number eight seed in the hefeweizen tournament, thanks to it's "C+" at BeerAdvocate.com and overall 32 rating at RateBeer.com. The 12 oz bottles cost $1.49/each.

(8) Pyramid Hefe Weizen

The Pyramid pour gave us a large 2" foamy white head that left no head lacing as it dissipated slowly. There was little carbonation and the yellow/gold body had a slight murkiness to it.

The aromas came in with wheat, citrus, lemon and yeast. The flavors came in with an orange taste that kind of overpowered the beer. The Pyramid comes in in pretty far to the right on the malt to hop scale - 3 clicks to the right of balanced on the hoppy side. We got a yes to repeatable and drinkable and a no to memorable, wow factor and buy again.

Our notes were that it had a good, crisp taste, but that it was somewhat bland and muddled relative to the traditional hefe notes. There was also a tart/bitter edge to it that didn't sit well. The aftertaste lingers in a bad way and the "X" factor is not impressive. It's better cold - it doesn't hold together well at all as it warms up.

Overall score for Pyramid: 3 out of 10

(1) Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier

The Weihenstephaner pour gave us a large 2 1/2" white head that laced fairly well as it dissipated slowly. It had a soft carbonation and a nice cloudy haziness to the yellow/gold body.

The aromas came in with wheat, citrus, lemon, yeast, banana, clove and spices. A nice bouquet overall. The flavors came in with lemon, banana and clove. The Weihenstephaner came in just about perfectly balanced on our patented malt to hop scale and got a yes to repeatable, drinkable, memorable and buy again. The only no was for wow factor.

Our notes were that it was quite refreshing and much more complex than the Pyramid. The banana flavors really popped as it warmed up and overall it had a great harmony and balance to it.

Overall score for Weihenstephaner : 8 out of 10

Winner: (1) Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier

Updated bracket:

1 Weihenstephaner
  Hefeweissbier
----------------Weihenstephaner
               |Hefeweissbier
8 Pyramid      |--------------
  Hefe Weizen  |             |
----------------             |
                             |
5 Erdinger                   |--------------
  Weissbier                  |             |
----------------             |             |
               |             |             |
4 Paulaner     |--------------             |
  Hefe-Weizen  |                           |
----------------                           |
                                           |
3 Franziskaner                             |----------------
  Hefe-Weisse                              | HEFE CHAMPION
----------------                           |
               |                           |
6 Arcobrau     |--------------             |
  Weissbier    |             |             |
----------------             |             |
                             |             |
7 Flying Dog                 |--------------
  In-Heat Wheat              |
----------------             |
               |             |
2 Ayinger      |--------------
  Brau-Weisse  |
----------------

Next time: (2) Ayinger Brau-Weisse vs. (7) Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat.

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Hefe Madness

By John on April 27, 2009 (0 Comments)

With March Madness and college basketball finally done the Beer Love wife reminded me that the sports we watch in the Beer Love household are pretty much over until football season kicks off in the fall. So we decided to create our own sport to both celebrate and get us through the spring and impending summer months. That's right - we decided it was time for our first ever beer tournament. But what kind of beer tournament?

Well, we love the hefes here at Dr Beer Love, so much that we made a rule about it - so why not put a bunch of hefes head-to-head and figure out who the real champ is? And so we declare the official start of the first ever Dr Beer Love Hefeweizen tournament.

Hefe Madness

1 Weihenstephaner
  Hefeweissbier
----------------
               |
8 Pyramid      |--------------
  Hefe Weizen  |             |
----------------             |
                             |
5 Erdinger                   |--------------
  Weissbier                  |             |
----------------             |             |
               |             |             |
4 Paulaner     |--------------             |
  Hefe-Weizen  |                           |
----------------                           |
                                           |
3 Franziskaner                             |----------------
  Hefe-Weisse                              | HEFE CHAMPION
----------------                           |
               |                           |
6 Arcobrau     |--------------             |
  Weissbier    |             |             |
----------------             |             |
                             |             |
7 Flying Dog                 |--------------
  In-Heat Wheat              |
----------------             |
               |             |
2 Ayinger      |--------------
  Brau-Weisse  |
----------------

Let's meet the contestants:

#1 seed: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier
Coming in with an "A" at BeerAdvocate.com and a 95 rating at RateBeer.com. 12 oz bottles at $1.99/each.

#2 seed: Ayinger Brau-Weisse
Coming in with an "A-" at BeerAdvocate.com and a 92 rating at RateBeer.com. 500 mL bottles at $3.49/each.

#3 seed: Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse
Coming in with an "A-" at BeerAdvocate.com and a 90 rating at RateBeer.com. 12 oz bottles at $1.49/each. Though it has the same overall rating on both sites at the Paulaner Hefe-Weizen, the higher seed went to Franziskaner based on more reviews at BeerAdvocate.com - 793 reviews vs. 634 reviews. Also, the price tag was 50 cents less per bottle. Better bargain means a higher seed, with all things considered.

#4 seed: Paulaner Hefe-Weizen
Coming in with an "A-" at BeerAdvocate.com and a 90 rating at RateBeer.com. 12 oz bottles at $1.99/each. See notes on Franziskaner above for seed justification.

#5 seed: Erdinger Weissbier
Coming in with a "B" at BeerAdvocate.com and a 53 rating at RateBeer.com. 12 oz bottles at $2.39/each.

#6 seed: Arcobrau Weissbier Coming in with a "B" at BeerAdvocate.com and a 49 rating at RateBeer.com. 12 oz bottles at $1.99/each.

#7 seed: Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat
Coming in with a "B-" at BeerAdvocate.com and a 36 rating at RateBeer.com. 12 oz bottles at $1.79/each.

#8 seed: Pyramid Hefe Weizen
Coming in with a "C+" at BeerAdvocate.com and a 32 rating at RateBeer.com. 12 oz bottles at $1.49/each.

So all told we've got $54.23 worth of beer from Total Wine. Six German (Bavarian) beers and two American beers. We bought 3 of each beer as well so any beer could make it to the finals. And to help us through it all we recruited one Beer Love neighbor - Josh - to help us drink and rate and drink some more.

So if you want to play along at home go and get these beers and tune in over the next few weeks as we work our way through each pairing until we declare the official Hefe Champion.

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The Doctor Spells Irony P-B-R

By John on April 20, 2009 (0 Comments)

So yours truly was recently invited to attend the greatest of American past times - minor league baseball - with his beer pals Josh and Trent. The Charlotte Knights were squaring off against the Gwinnett Braves and we were right behind home plate.

That's when we were approached by a young lady in a Charlotte Knights jersey who asked "Do you want to be the PBR fan of the game?" Beer Love neighbor Josh and I had a quick consultation and asked "Will we have to actually drink PBR?" to which she responded "No." "Then we're in!" we retorted.

For those not in the know, PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) is not exactly the kind of beer one would usually associate with Beer Love Headquarters - it's an American lager and though it's arguably better than any of the big 3 American lagers, it's not exactly what the Doctor orders when he's writing his beer prescriptions out on his beer RX pad. It's much more "macro" than the microbrews we tend to seek out. In fact, PBR currently rates a 3 out of 100 over at RateBeer.com.

So yes, Dr Beer Love himself, purveyor of good beers, champion of stouts and porters everywhere, lover of Bells and Dogfish Heads and Duck Rabbits and Three Floyds and Founders and Great Divides, was the PBR Fan of the Game:

Many thanks to Beer Love neighbor Josh for the grainy, 1.3 mega pixel photos he snapped from his cell phone. Without that we would have no photo documentation that there was a PBR, a fan, or even a game.

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Guest Post: Quest for the Perfect Beer List

By John on April 13, 2009 (3 Comments)

Editor's Note: While Dr Beer Love is out on paternity leave, he's having his online beer consiglieres post for him - this one comes to us from The Beer Babe.

As a beer reviewer, I'm always a bit picky about the restaurants and bars that I seek out. I love trying out new places, but nothing ruins a night out for me more than finding out a new bar's tap list consists of what I could find crumpled on the ground of my college campus after an all night frat party. Only slightly above that, in my opinion, is a bar in which they have a bigger craft beer selection - including the "macro" craft brews like Sam Adams - but nothing local despite the presence of some wonderful brewings in the neighborhood.

So I set out to define what, to me, would make up the perfect craft beer list at a bar. I have considered this long and hard (while visiting restaurants and drinking beer, of course) and come up with the following criteria. Most of these steps don't take too much time or even money, only some conscious thought to consider the beer drinker.

1. Manageable Quantity
   Sure, if you had an unlimited budget, you could put more than 50 tap lines in and import the most amazing brews that the world has to offer all in once place. These places are shrines that I make semi-annual pilgrimages to, but wouldn't qualify as my perfect beer list. What matters more to me than having everything at my fingertips is having a good small selection that makes sense. Humans become paralyzed when given too many options. If I had to pick a perfect number for craft brews on tap I'd probably ask for between 8 and 10.
2. Local Beer
   If you live in the United States, there's a good chance there's a craft brewer less than 50 miles from your doorstep. While having choices that you wouldn't normally be able to find is exciting, I have seen bars that have totally ignored higher quality local brews at the expense of the hard-to-find imports or big time breweries. The key is balance - represent your local brewers if they make good beer, and offer up something that a regular beer lover wouldn't be able to buy at Hannaford.
3. Casked Beer
   Having a cask engine in a bar is expensive, and is certainly an investment. But any bar that is serious about beer should consider this. The customer with a high level knowledge of beer will travel miles for an interesting selection on cask, and there are more and more beer geeks joining the rank every day. I'm usually surprised when I find casked beer at a restaurant or bar, and I usually return periodically to see what they've put on cask.
4. Balance of Styles
   Would you want to come to a bar every week if they only had one or two styles of beer? If a bar picks mostly pale ales and lagers, or ales, there's little discernible difference between them. I love to go to bars with lots of styles, so if I'm educating someone about craft beer, I can feel out their particular tastes. A key indicator for me is if a bar has a porter or stout other than Guinness on tap.
5. The Details
   Providing information about each beer and brewery as well as serving the beers appropriately (throw out the frosty mugs, okay?) all add something special to one of my favorite beer bars. Have matching glassware for a brewery? Use it. Have lots of styles? Explain them on the menu. Also, keeping your beer list up to date is important. I have often been disappointed by seeing something on a list only to be told that it was either tapped out or hadn't been tapped yet! Also any bar or restaurant that takes the time to suggest beer pairings, or hosts beer dinners is a step above all else.

Every time I go out to a bar I look for the criteria. Someday I know I will find my perfect beer list. I'd love to hear if you've found yours!

Thanks, The Beer Babe

Comments can be emailed to askthebeerbabe@gmail.com or posted below!

Editor's Note: Many thanks to The Beer Babe for guest lecturing here at Beer Love University. Be sure to check her out - one of the best beer sites on the Internet today.

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Guest Post: Left Hand Milk Stout

By John on April 7, 2009 (2 Comments)

Editor's Note: This is a guest rating from Dr Beer Love's Circle of Trust - this one comes to us from Scott over at TheBrewClub.com.

Being a Lefty myself, and also a lover of good Milk Stouts, I am really looking forward to trying this Milk Stout from Left hand Brewing Company out of Longmont, Colorado. This Milk Stout has some serious recognition for its goodness! It won the 2006 and 2008 World Beer Cup Gold Medal in the Sweet Stout category, and a Silver Medal at the 2008 GABF for Milk Stout. Not bad!

If you've been following The Brew Club for any time, you'll know that I've really taken a liking to these Milk Stouts lately, and I hope that maybe you'll give one a try as well. For some reason, every time I tell someone about a Milk Stout - they get the impression that there is literal milk mixed into the beer. That would be gross. This is not the case! With Milk Stouts, or Sweet Stouts, lactose is added to the mix to give the beer some sweetness. Lactose is milk sugar and it doesn't ferment in the brewing process. People with lactose intolerance don't know that they're missing with these beers! So that's the story, loosely, of what a Milk Stout is.

So far, I've tried four other milk stouts, and this Left Hand Milk Stout will be number 5. I'd also like to say Thanks! to Dr. Beer Love who is responsible for hooking me up with this beer to try for you! He's another Milk Stout fan, and I hope to see what he thinks of the Keegan Ales Mother's Milk and Lancaster Milk Stout soon! Let's get on to the beer, shall we?

First, I apologize for the Ice Tea glass that I had to use for this tasting. Remember folks, its not about looks, and all my 'real' beer glasses are in the dishwasher so this vessel will have to do! Getting on to looks, this 5.8% ABV stout beer poured into my glass in the typical dark way expected form Milk Stouts. Dark, dark, dark. Let's just say this beer is basically black, OK? It created a smallish head with a nice beige color, also typical, and in short order the head reduced to a thin beige coating on the beer. Swirling this milk stout in my glass a bit, there was a little bit of bubbly lacing - but it wasn't clingy.

Smell. Well what can I say? The Left Hand Milk Stout smells like a Milk Stout should! Roasty malt flavors infused with the unmistakable sweetness of the lactose sugar. Nothing surprising here but I think the Left Hand might have a slightly stronger coffee or chocolate smell than the previous milk stouts I've had.

Let's give this beer a taste now eh? It has a big roasted malt flavor, and much like the scent you can pick up on the sweetness in the taste quite easily, but it is not overdone. There is more of that coffee flavor in the taste, as there was in the smell, more so I think than the other milk stouts I've had. The body is medium to heavy - there's some body to this beer! Still, this ale is very smooth, and very drinkable. There's just the slightest hop bite and no alcohol sting - this beer could be the definition of smooth and creamy! I also found that as I sipped this Milk Stout, the flavors became even more pronounced, so I would suggest you let this one warm up a bit to get the fullness of the flavors.

There is a lightly bitter aftertaste that is agreeable, and the beer leaves a bit of a sticky coating in your mouth, but this isn't a bad thing considering the type of beer it is.

Overall, I'm going to give the Left Hand Milk Stout a solid 4 star rating. I think as a Milk Stout, its one of the best I've had, but I still think the Lancaster Milk Stout is just a touch better overall. Still, if you are a fan of Milk Stouts, I don't see how you can go wrong trying one of these from Left Hand Brewing.

Editor's Note: TheBrewClub.com uses a five star rating system while Dr Beer Love uses a 10 point rating system. Their 4 turns into our 8, simple as that.

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Where in Time is Dr Beer Love?

By John on April 4, 2009 (2 Comments)

So, the Doctor hasn't made a house call here in quite a while. We can only offer our apologies and one terrific excuse - the newest addition to the Beer Love Household - Anna Jewel Eklund, born on the Ides of March.

So - we're taking a bit of a breather from the site while we're working on getting used to this whole first baby thing. Have faith that Father Beer Love has gotten to come visit his first grandbaby - and that he's also noted that Son Beer Love is now also a Father Beer Love. It's true what they say - having a baby changes everything - it kinds of turns the sound down on everything else going on in your life, including your beloved beer site.

Many thanks to Beer Love pal Scott from The Brew Club who sent a terrific care package and also dropped a note saying that maybe I should let the world know that we had a good excuse for the lack of updates. Fear not we'll be back soon, and many thanks to all of you who have sent your best wishes.

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Sam Adams Winter Lager

By John & Dad on February 19, 2009 (1 Comments)

You probably know that we're fans of the Sam Adams Seasonals lineup. We don't hide that. They're usually quite a bit more balanced than the regular Sam Adams Boston Lager, and we like that because we like our taste buds to retain the ability to actually taste things. See, it's a proven fact that too many hops can actually dissolve your tongue. It's true, look it up! (Editor's note: that's not true in the least bit).

The Sam Adams seasonal lineup looks like this, starting in the spring: Sam Adams White Ale, Sam Adams Summer Ale, Sam Adams Octoberfest and Sam Adams Winter Lager. We're hitting all the Sam Adams seasonals and this is stop three of four on our incredible journey. Sam Adams of course, is brewed by the Boston Beer Company, which makes lots of fine beers - probably 10 to 20 different beers total - that cover a broad range of styles, alcohol contents and price points.

Our Sam Adams Winter Lager registered an initial temperature of 47.5 F and our 12 oz bottle sported a nice 5.8% ABV. We used an English pint glass for our review.

The initial pour gave us a large 2 1/4" foamy off-white head that dissipated slowly and left us some good head lacing en route. There were no discernible carbonation bubbles to speak of. The body was clear with a textbook amber color.

For the aromas we were able to pull our a very light caramel, nutty, floral, orange, resin, cinnamon, ginger and some miscellaneous spices. It's really a great sniffer of a beer. For the tastes there were fewer notes, which gave us biscuit, light caramel, floral, ginger and some more miscellaneous spices.

The initial flavor notes were a moderate to heavy sweet and a very light bitter. The finish flavor notes were a light sweet and light to moderate bitter. The moderation in the hops and bitterness in this and other Sam Adams Seasonals is one of the biggest selling points for us.

The finish length is short, the mouthfeel is nice and creamy (not like a Guinness, but still creamy nonetheless), and the tongue hit is in the middle of the tongue. There's no body lacing as we lower the beer levels in the glass.

On the Dr Beer Love patented malt to hop scale it comes in one click to the right of balanced on the hoppy side (a 6 for those keeping score at home, and we know you are). For our bottom line notes we get a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance and buy again. We get a no to harmony, memorable and wow factor.

This is a good beer, a fine beer really. There is a nice malt sweetness that hits you immediately and makes you take notice, along with the wonderfully smooth mouthfeel. It really shows you what Sam Adams can do when they put a restraining order on the hops.

This is a beer that really fits the time of year that it's available - winter. It matches up beautifully with what the body craves during the cold winter months. The Winter Lager could also go well with dessert - the spices would play beautifully with just about any final course.

The price is good and it's a good value at the price. This is a great beer for repeatability - you could and should do more than one. It's terrific on tap (Son Beer Love had a lot of this on tap during the winter months) and it's a nice introduction to winter/Christmas style beers for the craft beer newbie. It's also a perfect conversion beer for those wanting to get into craft beers or for those you want to get into good beer.

As a test I gave this out at a Panthers tailgate party to a pure Bud Light drinker (who had told me not to bring any fancy stuff) and he wound up having 3 of them. Then he called me the next week to tell me he bought a six pack to have that weekend. Mission accomplished and you're welcome.

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Our Life in Beer 2008

By John on February 2, 2009 (2 Comments)

Apparently we blacked out during the month of January because we're just now getting to our 2008 year in beer review. And what a year it was! We wanted to go back through 2008 and see what we learned, what we liked and how we grew. We had 113 posts last year - 64 of which were beer reviews (that's better than a beer a week!). That's a lot of beery goodness and we were happy to share it with you - our beer love community. So here are our thoughts on our life in beer in 2008 (note: these beers were new to us in 2008, not necessarily new beers that came out in 2008):

• Best New Beer Style of 2008: Milk Stout
  Dr Beer Love had his first milk stout in 2008 and man oh man was he impressed. Where had this been all our life? The malty, coffee, roasty flavors gripped our palate and left us wanting more. The new rule in the Beer Love household is "When you find a milk stout you must buy it" (and yes that should be sung to the tune of Devo's "Whip It"). We've got several milk stouts in the queue for ratings in 2009, in case you're wondering why we have so few on the site.
• Best Beer of 2008: Foothills Sexual Chocolate
  2008 gave us a beer that delivered both in name and in experience - the Foothills Sexual Chocolate Stout. On tap, in the bottle and any other way we could get it - we got it and made sweet chocolaty love to it. It's a terrific beer that you should get while you can, because it's pretty limited in release. As a matter of fact it comes out this month (February)!
• Best Non-Stout of 2008: Aventinus Doppelbock
  "Non-stout" seemed like a much more elegant way of saying "lager" so we went with that. The reason this category exists is because we love stouts - more malts, more flavors, heartier - whatever the reason we really prefer them over lagers. We know that's a sweeping generalization to make but we feel it's important to note our bias. That said, the Aventinus Doppelbock was by far our favorite non-stout of the year - one we'd put head to head with any stout in terms of sheer enjoyment.
• Best Fruited Beer of 2008: Abita Strawberry Harvest
  We went a little nuts with the strawberry beers this past year, but no matter what the Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager continued to rise to the occasion. We labeled it perhaps the most perfect spring beer on the market today.
• Best IPA of 2008: Dogfish Head 90 Minute
  We're admittedly not big hopheads, but when we found this IPA we knew it was special. And that's just what the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA is - special. It's got wonderful balance to it - plenty of malts to balance out the hops, and a nice strong 9% ABV to boot. We would never turn this beer down.
• Best Beer Review of 2008: Michelob Amber Bock
  The review for Michelob Amber Bock will always be special to us for several reasons - it was a review of the breakout beer that got us into good beer, it was our 100th beer review and it was one that we put a lot of time into (we started writing this months before we posted it). It embodies everything we wanted to do with our beer reviews - namely documenting the "experience" of the beer above and beyond the beer itself. We only wish we had the time to do this with all the beers we try.

Looking back on 2008 it's easy to see it was a good year for beer for the Doctor. It was also an epic year for the Dr Beer Love web site - we had all of 444 unique visitors in the month of January 2008 and we set a goal of breaking 1,000 visitors a month over the year. Well, for the month of January 2009 we had 4,175 unique visitors. That's an 840% increase in beer loving visitors. That's a lot of beer love! Thanks to everyone for loving the beer with us - here's to beer in 2009!

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Mackeson XXX Stout

By John & Dad on January 27, 2009 (8 Comments)

Picking back up with our Father and Son Thursday review sessions, we're hitting the Mackeson XXX Stout, pronounced Mackeson Triple Stout. Opinions vary on the pronunciation of Mackeson - we've seen everything from "Mack-E-son" to "Mickasen" so we'll just agree to disagree.

Though technically an InterBrew (now InBev) beer, it's brewed by the Boston Beer Company in Cincinnati. It's said that the recipe for Mackeson has been around since 1801, but that refers to the British version of the beer known simply as Mackeson's Stout. The American version gets the XXX distinction because it's so obscene, like you can see everything, including, oh wait. It's called XXX because it's got a 4.9% ABV as opposed to the 3.75% ABV of the UK edition.

For our rigorous testing purposes we procured a 12 oz bottle that was, as we said, 4.9% ABV. The beer temperature for the rating was 56.5 F and we used an British pint glass.

Our initial pour gave us a large 2 1/4" rocky dark brown head that yielded a good amount of head lacing as it dissipated slowly. There was little to no carbonation and the color was an opaque black.

A few good whiffs gave us a nice arrangement of smells - chocolate, coffee, molasses, roasted malts, black licorice, cream and soy sauce. A few good tastes gave us a lot of the same with a little bit less and a little bit more: chocolate, coffee, roasted malts, earth, black licorice, cream and soy sauce.

Our initial flavor notes were a moderate sweet that stays constant into the finish but rounds out with a light bitter and light saltiness as well. The finish length is average, the mouthfeel is creamy and the tongue hit is in the front. There's really no body lacing to speak of. On the patented malt to hop scale it comes in 3.5 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side - one of the more malty beers we've done.

For our bottom line notes we get a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance, harmony, memorable and buy again. Our only no is for wow factor (we're just not as easily wowed as we once were).

It's very similar to a milk stout, especially in mouthfeel. Some review sites actually classify it as a milk stout (some classify it as a sweet stout and some show a milk/sweet stout). Whatever it is it's very smooth and nice. It's got a strong sweetness to it though - stronger than a Young's Double Chocolate Stout, and that may be off-putting to some of you who don't like them super sweet. The sweetness really hangs around on this one.

The good news is it seems to be pretty readily available and relatively inexpensive - you can probably pick it up for less than $2 a bottle in a single. It's a really good session beer if you like the sweet stuff and would go really well with some cheese and crackers. This one is definitely Doctor approved.

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The Beer Scene on Bourbon Street

By John on January 17, 2009 (0 Comments)

The Beer Love wife and I took a trip to New Orleans back in September for our babymoon (the last big trip before the baby comes) and happened to find our way to Bourbon Street. Though the Doctor had been to Bourbon Street several times before (I am from Louisiana, mind you), unfortunately I wasn't so much into the beer scene back then. Those times tended to consist of hurricanes and hand grenades and resulted in well, we won't go there.

So this time I paid attention and what did I find? Not surprisingly, the focus of the beer scene on Bourbon Street is much like that of the hard liquor scene - the debilitating effects of the drink rather than the notes, flavors and variety.

There are a few good places off Bourbon Street (d.b.a. and Crescent City Brewhouse come to mind), but Bourbon Street offers a unique focus on beer in a way that is noble in it's own right. Something you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the continental United States. What can I say? Take a look at the photo above and tell me they don't know their target market.

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Smithwick's Irish Ale

By Dad on January 6, 2009 (0 Comments)

I found this at CPWM for for $1.69 a bottle. Original date of test was 6/29/08. It's brewed from by Guinness and it's actually pronounced Smitiks.

Beer temp. 48.0F - 8.9C. This beer has an IBU of 20 (from ask Michael) and ABV of 4.5%. In a pint glass I got an average 2 in. foamy off white head that dissipated quickly with fair head lacing. Body was a clear normal orange red, with a lively carbonation.

Aromas were caramel, cereal (think Grape Nuts), nutty, toasted, floral, nutmeg and cream. Tastes were caramel, lemon and cream. All the aromas and tastes were light with the exception of the cereal which was the most predominate. Initial flavors were a light to medium sweet and a light bitter. Finish flavors were a light sweet, light acidic and a moderate bitter. Finish duration was short, mouthfeel was oily and there was virtually no body lacing. The malts settle on the middle of the tongue and the hops work the back. On the malt to hop scale I gave it a 4 or one notch to the malt side of balanced. Bottom line got a yes to repeatable, drinkable, balance, and buy again. Harmony got a so so and no to memorable and wow factor.

I drank this in the summer and now that it's cold I almost feel I could bump it up a number (which I have done after trying another one on a cold night ). As I reread this review I got really thirsty. From what I've read on the web this is supposed to be Irelands #1 Ale, I can see why. It had a surprisingly clean smell with quite a lot of subtle aromas and a nice mild taste without being overwhelmed with caramel. The fruitiness of the ale yeast makes its self known so would be a good conversion beer to lager drinkers. With the low ABV it is a good session beer and I know I could work my way through several. It ain't top tier but it ain't bad. Well worth a 6 pack as it's a great value.

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Anchor Liberty Ale

By Dad on December 24, 2008 (0 Comments)

This is actually classified as an American Pale Ale. To beer newbies it would be more like an India Pale Ale (IPA) elsewhere. This has a 90% rating overall and a 95.6% style rating on ratebeer.com. It has an ABV of 5.9% and I couldn't find an IBU rating but I'll guess at least 40+. Originally rated on 3/1/08.

Beer temp. 44.0 F (7.7 C). In a pint glass I got a 2 inch frothy white head that dissipated slowly with almost no head lacing. Carbonation was lively and the body was a clear orange. The aromas were caramel, nutty, citrus, grapefruit, pine, plum and raisin. Taste were the same except the plum and raisin were lost. Initial flavors were a light sweet and a moderate bitter. Finish flavors were light sweet and a heavy bitter. The mouthfeel was oily with a long finish and fair body lacing. On the malt to hop scale I gave it a 7.5 or 2 1/2 clicks to the hop side of balanced. On the bottom line I got a yes to drinkable and a no to repeatable, balance, harmony, memorable, wow factor and buy again.

With all the hops it should have a good shelf life. I liked the fruitiness in the taste till the hops became so much more predominant. If you're a hophead this might be kind of tame to you but I'm a malty kind of guy and it just was not to my taste. I must admit I have changed some over time as a couple of years ago I would have poured it out. It really makes a statement and has been on the market since 1975. Hats off to the guys at Anchor Brewing.

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Murphy's Irish Red

By Dad on December 10, 2008 (0 Comments)

Picked this up at CPWM for $1.89 plus tax. I also had the help of the Lovely Mrs. Beer Love in this review from 6/27/08.

Used a pint glass and got a large 3 inch frothy off white head. Beer temp. 47.4F - 9.2C, ABV - 5%. The head dissipated quickly and there was almost no head lacing. The color was a clear sparkling amber. The aromas were pretty thin which is why I needed an extra really cute nose to help out. We came up with light caramel, citrus. dough and yeast. Taste were caramel and butterscotch. Initial notes were a moderate sweet and a light bitter. Finish notes were a light sweet a moderate bitter and a light tartness. The finish was short, mouthfeel was dry and almost no body lacing. On the malt to hop scale it came in at a 5, or balanced. The tongue hit was mostly in the back. Repeatable yes, drinkable yes, balanced yes, harmony no, memorable no, wow factor no and buy again maybe.

Overall the aromas were pretty weak and the taste of caramel was light and the butterscotch was kind of a stretch, maybe I was trying too hard and make something complex out of something simple, that's why I gave buy again a maybe. It could be a change of pace and wouldn't offend anyone. Price isn't bad either. At first I thought it was a lager until I looked it up online. Could be a transition beer to ales too.

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Otter Creek Pale Ale

By Dad on December 3, 2008 (0 Comments)

This is another BOTMC sample from John, thanks again son. Original tasting was on 6/11/08.

This has an IBU of 40 and is 4.5% ABV and came in a 12 oz. bottle. Beer temp. was 46.5F - 7.9C and I used a pint glass. It poured a hazy amber orange with a 2 in. fizzy off white head that dissipated slowly with fair head lacing and soft carbonation. Aromas were caramel, nutty, toasted, citrus, floral, dough, butterscotch and nutmeg. Tastes were caramel, toasted, citrus, grapefruit, resin and soy sauce. The initial flavors were a light sweet and a moderate bitter. Finish flavors were a moderate acidic, heavy bitter and a moderate salty. Finish duration was long with an oily mouthfeel. The bitterness worked the back of the tongue and roof of the mouth the hardest while the malts work the front of the tongue. Body lacing was fair and on the malt to hop scale I gave it a 7 which is 2 to the hop side of balanced. I got a yes to drinkable as I finished it but got a no to repeatable, balance, harmony, memorable, wow factor and buy again.

This is I guess what an American pale ale is as opposed to one from England. It seems like Americans like to pound their pale ales full of hops but where does that leave a malt gut like me? That's not a typo I just got a glimpse of me in the mirror. I look like a keg cut in half vertically and turned sideways. If the hop guys are heads us malt guys can't be butts as that is a style of porter so I'll settle on gut. Back to the beer. I'll just say I was disappointed.

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Left Hand Deep Cover Brown Ale

By Dad on December 2, 2008 (0 Comments)

This came from BOTMC - a really great gift for any beer lover on your gift list, heck you can even give it to yourself or me if you just have to.

Beer temp. 44.0 F. I used a pint glass and got a large 3 in. foamy light brown head that dissipated slowly with virtually no head lacing. Color was a clear brown and had soft carbonation. Aromas were caramel, nutty, toasted, toffee, a slight citrus, yeast, brown sugar and maple syrup. Taste were caramel, nutty, toasted, light citrus, maple sugar and a kind of nonspecific fruitiness. The IBU's are 20 and the ABV is 4.4% so this is a damn fine session beer which as I get older seems to be getting more important. The initial flavor was a light sweet and the finish flavors were a moderate sweet, light bitter and a light tart. The finish was short the mouthfeel was oily and it had a surprisingly good body lacing. On the malt to hop scale I gave it a 3 1/2 which is 1 1/2 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side, right where I like it. I got a yes to repeatable, drinkable, balance, harmony and buy again. Memorable got a so-so and wow factor got a no.

Overall this is just a damn fine ale. The malts had a nice sweetness with lots of depth to the caramel and toast with a subtle nuttiness and maple syrup in the background. I didn't find the caramel annoying which i sometimes experience. I think the nonspecific fruitiness must have come from the ale yeast. The hops, while light, did balance out the malts pretty well for me as I'm a malt guy not a hophead. I actually did my tasting on 6/9/08 and have just now gotten around to putting it out and after reading what I wrote I wonder why I didn't rate it higher but since I've drunken them all up and it isn't available locally I'll just have to let it stand. If you can find it buy it and if you can't finish it I'll take care of that for you.

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Hofbrau Original

By Dad on December 1, 2008 (1 Comments)

Who wants to go to Munich? I see a lot of hands up and somebody standing in his chair waving both hands yelling "YES!" Sorry, that's me. You'll need a passport and a big fistful of money. If you have two big fistfuls of money I have my own passport. Barring that we'll just grab a couple of Hofbrau's and gaze at a picture John snapped at the Hofbrau Festzelt tent at Oktoberfest in 2006. I found this at CPWM for $1.89 a bottle and then got 3 of them in a Beer Of The Month club the next day.

I served this up in a .5L Hofbrau dimpled mug I brought back from Munich. It had a 3 1/2 inch huge foamy white head. Bier temp. was 48.4F-9.7C and had 5.1% ABV. It had good head lacing and dissipated slowly. Carbonation was lively, the body was a clear sparkling yellow. Aromas were barley, hay, citrus, lemon and yeast. Tastes were only barley, lemon and yeast. Initial flavors were light sweet and light bitter and finish flavors were light to moderate sweet, light to moderate bitter and a light tartness. Finish was short, mouthfeel was watery and body lacing was good. On the malt to hop scale it came in at a 5 which is balanced. Yes to repeatable, drinkable, balanced, harmony and buy again. No to memorable and wow factor.

This may have been the quickest bier review I've done. Is this the best helles we found in Munich? No. But it's a good example of the style. This is as smooth and beautiful as a female Lufthansa flight attendant offering you a free bier. At the Hofbrauhaus restaurant we both had a liter of their dunkel with lunch on our shopping day and loved it.

If you do make it to Oktoberfest here are a couple of hints we learned on the first day: the difference between 3 liters of bier and 2 liters and a liter of radler (half bier and half lemonade-actually Sprite) is the difference between a 4 hour nap and a 2 hour nap and after 2 liters pay a visit to the bathroom even if you don't think you need to, trust me on this one.

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Sam Adams Octoberfest

By John & Dad on November 26, 2008 (2 Comments)

We've written before how the Sam Adams seasonal beers differ quite a bit from their flagship beer (Sam Adams Boston Lager) - namely in that we like them and most of them aren't overly hopped. Mind you, we respect the Boston Beer Company and their aggressive approach to beers - they don't half ass anything and they don't necessarily try to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Their seasonal lineup looks like this, starting in the spring: Sam Adams White Ale, Sam Adams Summer Ale, Sam Adams Octoberfest and Sam Adams Winter Lager. We're making sure we hit all the Sam Adams seasonals over the coming months and this is stop two of four in our journey.

For this Thursday beer session we're working on the Sam Adams Octoberfest, which is the fall seasonal in their collection and is usually available from August to November. Our 12 oz bottle sports a 5.4% ABV and we got a starting temperature of 44.1 F. Our initial pour gave us an average 2" frothy off-white head that dissipated quickly and left virtually no head lacing. There was a medium amount of carbonation and a normal clear body that was amber/orange in color.

The aromas came across with caramel, toasted malts, toffee, brown sugar and spices. It's got a really nice bouquet to it. The tastes came in with caramel, nutty, toasted malts, citrus and spices. It's really a quite refreshing beer and though it's not overly complex, there's something to be said for it's simplicity.

Our initial flavor notes came across as a moderate sweet and a very light bitter that evolve in the finish to a light to moderate sweet, light acidic, moderate bitter, light tart and a very light saltiness. There's quite a bit to the finish on this one, despite the finish length being somewhat short. The mouthfeel is oily, the tongue hit is middle, and there was virtually no body lacing as we gulped it down.

On our patented malt to hop scale, it comes in one click to the left of balanced on the malty side. Very nice for a Sam Adams brew. For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance, harmony, memorable and buy again. The only no is to wow factor.

Truth be told, Sam Adams Octoberfest is just a great everyday beer for the fall months. It's absolutely perfect for the fall weather in the south and it's got a lot of bold flavors for a lager. It drinks like an ale and this is a perfect example of what a Sam Adams seasonal beer can be. It's completely worth a 12 pack and that might not last you 12 days. It goes heavier on the malts and lighter on the hops than a traditional Sam Adams, which is just what the Doctor ordered. We recommend making this a yearly purchase, nay, investment.

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SuperBigAssBeerCo, Inc., LLC

By John on November 20, 2008 (3 Comments)

From the InBev Completes Acquisition of Anheuser-Busch press release:

"Effective today, InBev has changed its name to Anheuser-Busch InBev to reflect the heritage and traditions of Anheuser-Busch."

Blink. Blink blink.

I understand why they went with Anheuser-Busch InBev, I really do. But I'm always a little taken back when a company has a chance to completely rebrand itself and the best they can do is combine the two names together. I'm sure they spent weeks deciding whose name would come first and all that jazz. Hell, they even have a new logo and everything. But come on, did you even have a marketing person in the room? This reeks of a complete lack of marketing involvement. And if marketing was involved and that's the best they can do? Well, crap.

I'd love to see a press release come out that says:

"Effective today, InBev has changed its name to SuperBigAssBeerCo to reflect the fact that we bought Anheuser-Busch and now we're super big. We're the biggest brewer in the whole freaking universe. As a matter of fact, that beer you're drinking right now? That's one of ours."

Any other ideas on a better name for this new entity?

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Redhook Double Black Stout

By John & Dad on November 18, 2008 (1 Comments)

When we got the email from the PR agency for Redhook asking if we'd like samples of their Double Black Stout it didn't take long for us to reply that we'd be happy to oblige. It also didn't take long for us to appreciate how insanely cool it is to have a beer company send you beer. So we'd officially like to welcome our first truly free beer to the site. Technically it's a "Redhook Double Black Stout With Coffee", but we think "Double Black Stout" will suffice.

The Double Black Stout has an interesting background. It was originally created in 1995, but Redhook stopped making it in 2000. As you know this was well before the craft beer movement, so you may say they were ahead of their time. Like when Apple introduced the Newton, a little before the market was really ready for tiny handheld computers. Either way, this beer is back for a limited time - early November 2008 through February 2009, or until it all gets consumed, which will probably happen very soon, as this is a fantastic beer.

Brewed by the Redhook Ale Brewery, we got a bomber (22 ounce) that has an MSRP of $4.99. The ABV comes in at a nice 7% and our starting beer temperature was 55.0 F. We served it up in an English pint glass and our bottle's batch number was 08-0410.

Our initial pour gave us a large 2 1/4" frothy light brown head that left a fair amount of lacing as it dissipated slowly. There was no noticeable carbonation. The color was an opaque black, but we think there may have been some possible ruby tones when you held it just so.

The aromas come in with chocolate, hay, roasted malts, milk and loads and loads of coffee. And not weak coffee, strong coffee. Like John Coffey. The tastes were very close to the aromas: chocolate, roasted malts, black licorice, milk, smoke and more coffee. A really obscene, fantastic amount of coffee.

The initial flavor notes are a moderate sweet and a light bitter that evolve in the finish to a heavy sweet and a heavy bitter. The flavor is very intense - we'd almost call it a bittersweet stout. The finish length is long and the mouthfeel is fantastic - thick, coating and creamy. The tongue hit covers the whole tongue with it's bitter and sweet notes. There's a fair amount of body lacing as your drink it and on the Dr Beer Love patented malt to hop scale it comes in with the rare 4 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side circle. That is as malty as it gets folks and the Doctor loves it.

For our bottom line notes we got all yeses - drinkable, repeatable (though we don't think we could do another bomber), balance, harmony, memorable, wow factor and buy again.

We really feel like calling it a bittersweet stout is the best way to describe it. Picture what it would be like to combine a schwarzbier and a milk stout and you'll have a pretty good clue what the Double Black Stout is like.

It's not for the faint of heart and it's definitely not for a craft beer newbie or a straight lager drinker. It is an absolute steal at $4.99 for the bomber. It is very intense and the flavor may shock you a bit. This was Father Beer Love's first beer in 8 days as he was healing from surgery and weening off his meds. He called it awesome and trust us, that's not a phrase he throws around a lot. Our recommendation? Buy it while it's available and cellar a few of them - it may smooth out a bit as it ages and be even better.

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The Doctor is In

By John on November 17, 2008 (0 Comments)

Well, it's been a while now, hasn't it? How do we explain our near month long absence? Just ignore it and hope you didn't notice? Not the doctor's style. It plays out like this: Father Beer Love had foot surgery and was not able to do a tasting for several weeks while he worked on getting his feet back under him, as it were. Son Beer Love hit his busy time of year for work which meant traveling to trade shows in far off exotic places like Chicago for upwards of 8 days at a time. Put all that together and you get essentially a month of no reviews and very little time for anything else.

We know this is all just an excuse, but trust us when we say we haven't abandoned the beer site or the beer community, though our posts on Twitter may indicate otherwise. It's just been a crazy couple of weeks here and we're hoping things smooth right on out. We've got some beer reviews in the queue as well we'll be updating here shortly and things should go back to normal here at Doctor Beer Love. We should even get some in person reviews around Christmas! Thanks for hanging in there with us.

In the meantime, we found an interesting article that introduces people to the different styles of beers that work well with the seasons and also goes into food pairings. Nothing groundbreaking for hardcore craft beers drinkers, but a good choice for someone just getting into craft beers: To Every Beer There Is a Season. Cheers!

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Bell's Kalamazoo Stout

By John & Dad on October 20, 2008 (0 Comments)

Thursday beer review time with Father and Son Beer Love is once again upon us. This week we go back to one of our favorite breweries - Bell's Brewery up in Kalamazoo, MI - and try the beer named after the city - the Kalamazoo Stout. You may recall we've reviewed several other Bell's beers here including the Bell's Two Hearted Ale and most notably, the Bell's Expedition Stout. Loved 'em both.

Our Bell's Kalamazoo Stout came in at a temperature of 55.6 F and poured an opaque black color into our English pint glass. We got a large 2" frothy medium brown head that left a good amount of head lacing as it dissipated slowly. There wasn't much carbonation in our 12 oz bottle which checked in at 6% ABV.

The aromas came in with chocolate, coffee, molasses, roasted malts, light toffee, light alcohol, black licorice and smoke. A really nice bouquet to get us started. The tastes came in pretty spot on to the aromas - chocolate, coffee, molasses, nutty, roasted malts, black licorice and smoke.

The initial flavor notes were a moderate sweet that evolved in the finish to a heavy sweet and a moderate bitter - that sweet though hangs around a good bit. The finish length was long, the mouthfeel was creamy and the tongue hit was in the middle. There is a fair amount of body lacing as well as we drank it down. On our patented malt to hop scale we come in 2.5 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side - that's pretty solidly malty, just like we like 'em.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance, harmony, memorable and buy again. Our only no was to the wow factor.

Overall the Bell's Kalamazoo Stout has a nice sweetness to it. It's like a Bell's Expedition Stout light, which is not a knock on it at all, but rather a compliment. The lower ABV makes it a bit more drinkable and repeatable than the Expedition Stout, though the aromas and flavors aren't quite as complex. The bottle reads that it's a stout brewed with brewer's licorice, which sound like our kind of licorice, though we're sure in reality it's probably like the baker's chocolate we begged for time and time again and when we finally got a piece of it we were completely unsatisfied, just like we were told we would be.

This is a really great basic stout. All told, we really love this beer. This is more than just a special occasion beer, it's a good stout to have on hand at all times.

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Coors Banquet

By John & Dad on October 9, 2008 (2 Comments)

For our recently fallen beer comrade Jerry Reed, who passed away on August 31, 2008, Father and Son Beer Love decided to devote a Thursday night review to the beer that Snowman and the Bandit worked so hard to deliver to the fine folks in Atlanta. This one's for you, Snowman.

Coors Banquet, which also goes by Coors Original or just Coors, has been produced since 1873 in Golden, Colorado. It's now owned and operated by the MillerCoors company. Surprisingly, Coors Banquet only has about 1.5% of the domestic beer market (Coors Light is around 15.5% of the market and Bud Light is by far the most popular domestic beer with about 34.9% of the market). You probably already know the story of Adolph Coors and probably wonder a little bit as you read this sentence why a strong, solid name Adolph isn't that common any more. By this sentence you've probably realized why the name Adolph isn't so common any more. We'll leave it at that.

For our review we procured 24 oz (1 pint 8 oz) cans from the convenience store (Son Beer Love's was even served up in a brown bag!) for $1.69 each. These are "cold activated" cans with a frost brew liner in them. The mountains on the can turn blue when the taste is completely obscured by cold. Only then is it safe to drink. Just kidding of course!

Coors Banquet weighs in with a 5% ABV and our beer temperature was 34.2 F, which was cold enough to activate the mountains on the can, which oddly, even when the can was empty, remained blue. We used a tall weizen glass for the pour which gave us an average 2" fizzy white head that dissipated quickly and left a fair amount of head lacing in the glass. There was a lively amount of carbonation and the body was a clear sparkling yellow color.

There are just a few aromas we could note - grain and corn primarily. The corn smell is a little off-putting at first, but we think it just caught us a little of guard. As it warms we got some lemon and some light alcohol in the smell as well. On the taste side we got a mild lemon in the initial taste and the corn came in with the aftertaste. The initial flavor notes were a light sweet and the finish flavor was a very light sweet and a light bitter. The finish length was quite short and the mouthfeel was watery. The tongue hit was on the front of the tongue and there was virtually no body lacing in the glass. On the patented malt to hop scale it came in just about balanced. Not too malty, not too hoppy, not too much of anything.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable and a yes to repeatable. We got a no to harmony, no to memorable, no to wow factor and no to buy again. We were on the fence with balance and can only say it had some - it's super thin malts, but equally thin hops - so we guess that balances?

It doesn't rub you the wrong way - it's like a big glass of cold. We can say this - it smells like beer. Like it really smells like beer in the most common sense of the word - like the people on television who drink beer out of a can that has the word "beer" on the outside of it. It smells like that.

On a hunch, we took a swig out of the can and you know what - we think it tastes better out of the can than in the glass. Out of the can you get a nice little metallic profile that "works" with it. Plus, it just feels so right drinking this out of the can, the way you just know it was meant to be consumed. The way all those thirsty people in Atlanta no doubt drank it when it was delivered to them by Snowman and the Bandit.

It was a little bit of a surprising review for us. We felt pretty sure this would be one of our lowest ratings, but overall it wasn't bad enough to pour out. The taste is somewhat like a slightly bitter flavored water. There's more bitter in the finish of the beer than in a glass of water but not much. We actually did a blind taste test against the glass of water we normally have when we rate beers and the results, though not inconclusive, were quite closer than you would think.

It's odd, we know, to rate something that doesn't have much of anything to it with something higher than a zero, but would you rate a glass of water a zero? Something almost has to be overdone in the wrong direction to rate a zero. This isn't enjoyable, per se, but it's also not not enjoyable, if you catch our drift. Maybe the water from the Rocky Mountains makes a difference. Our final advice if you have to drink it - drink it cold, drink it quick and drink it out of the can.

And let's remember, this one was for Jerry Reed, who's up in heaven running his eighteen wheeler over motorcycles and feeding Fred all the hamburgers he wants. East Bound and Down, good buddy.

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The Great 2008 Beer Ratings Adjustment

By John & Dad on October 6, 2008 (1 Comments)

We just recently posted our 100th review and to celebrate we decided to look back over all 100 of our previous reviews. What did we find? Well, besides the fact that we really, really love beer we found that we dropped the ball on a few of our ratings.

Most of the ones we dropped the ball on we rated too high, though a few we rated too low. Many of these "too high" ones were early reviews where we just didn't have a lot of beer experience to rate against. Some were too high because they were the first ones of the style we tried and as we tried more we realized we were just big fans of the style. For some we got a little too crazy focusing on one thing, like how a beer tasted on a 105 degree day with a plate of BBQ. Whatever the reason, we decided to fix it and get it right. For all of these we tried another bottle or sometimes many bottles and came up with the revised rating.

So, here's a complete list of what we changed and why we changed it. We feel pretty confident as we go forward past 100 that our benchmarks are set and we won't miss many from now on. When we do, we're confident you'll let us know. And if you want to know more about our rating system just check out our explanation of what the ratings mean.

Adjusted Beer Ratings: The Up Elevator

• Trappistes Rochefort 10 - went from a 9 to a 10. We weren't going to give out ratings of perfect 10s until we had 100 beers. This one moved up the list, plain and simple.
• Foothills Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout - went from a 9 to a 10. Again, we always felt it would be a 10, we just needed to get to 100 before we could give it the true rating.
• Duck Rabbit Baltic Porter - went from a 9 to a 10. This was the last of a small set of three beers that went from a 9 to a 10.
• Paulaner Hefeweizen - went from a 7 to an 8. The more we tasted the Paulaner Hefeweizen the more we realized it was at the top of the hefe pack. And trust me when we say we drank a lot of it this summer.
• St. Bernardus Abt 12 - went from a 7 to an 8. This one suffered a little bit from expectations going in to the initial rating. We were expecting more chocolate and coffee and were surprised by mostly dark fruits. After another one though we really began to appreciate it for what it was and realized it was in fact a solid 8. This has led us to a bit of a Dr Beer Love rule - we always try to buy two bottles of any given beer and we just drink the first one, then rate the second.

Adjusted Beer Ratings: The Down Elevator

• Paulaner Salvator Double Bock - went from a 9 to an 8. We fell in love with this beer the moment we tasted it and still love it. But this was an early beer for us and we've tasted a lot since then. Love the double bock style, for sure. A solid 8, but not quite worth a 9.
• Ayinger Jahrhundert Bier - went from a 9 to an 8. This is another beer we did early on that we liked a lot. We realized after multiple tastings since then that we went a little too high for a helles. It's probably best in class for that style though.
• Young's Oatmeal Stout - went from an 8 to a 7. This is a good solid beer, but it's another we did early on that was one of the first stouts we did. We realized we loved the stouts and this is a great one, just not quite worth an 8.
• Flying Dog In Heat Wheat - went from an 8 to a 6. Don't get us wrong, we really like the In Heat Wheat and it's probably the beer that turned us into hefeweizen lovers. But we've done a lot of hefes since then and we started to realize that there were better ones, especially the ones from Germany. The In Heat Wheat lost a few points when we realized it didn't hold up quite as well when it warmed.
• Red Stripe - went from a 7 to a 5. We really dropped the ball on this one, probably our worst offense. There's just no way a Red Stripe should have rated a 7. It's a solid, middle of the road beer and we were temporarily blinded by the fact that this has become our go-to beer for BBQ because it has some nice molasses flavor to complement it. A hot day and a lot of BBQ make this beer seem a lot better, when stand alone it's just a good middle of the pack beer.

Questions or comments on our adjustments? Just let us know below.

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Pilsner Urquell

By John & Dad on September 29, 2008 (8 Comments)

For this week's Thursday Father and Son beer session we decided to try the Pilsner Urquell, which states right on the bottle that it is "The Original Pilsner." This one is a favorite of Beer Love neighbor Jerry who sent over some great history on the beer.

For starters it's brewed in the town of Plzen over in the Czech Republic. We'll give you three guesses what they invented there. Because of it's water source, Pilsner Urquell has been used throughout Europe by many people to help dissolve kidney stones and gall stones. The water source comes from the nearby city of Marianske Lazne (visit their official web site), which is a spa town where people go to drink the local spring water for it's health benefits. Not just the plebians of the town, but world dignitaries, royalty from many countries and other famous people as well. The visits are actually doctor prescribed in many instances. The spa is actually the town's main industry. Now for the beer - they say one Pilsner Urquell a day will do it to realize the health benefits. Note the "one" qualification there - everything in moderation here people. No other beer has this claim because of the water source.

Now on to the review. For our test we used, naturally, a pilsner glass. We got an initial beer temperature of 44.2 F and our 12 oz bottle sports a 4.4% ABV. Our initial pour gave us an average 1 1/4" fizzy white head that left virtually no head lacing as it dissipated quickly. It's got a medium carbonation and the body is a clear sparkling yellow/golden color. It looks like a textbook pilsner.

For the aromas we picked up a light biscuit (almost a sweet biscuit smell), citrus, grass, bread dough and some ginger. It's quite a clean smell - very refreshing and crisp. Unfortunately the smell is the most intriguing part of the beer.

On the taste side we were able to note the light biscuit, grass and some light lemon. Not much complexity here - you pick up some hops and it's kind of like a Heineken on the finish - somewhat skunky and also slightly metallic. This results in a strange disconnect from the aromas to the flavor. The malts thin out significantly and the hop bitters edge on in. The finish is very sharp.

For our initial flavor notes we get a light sweet and a very light bitter. The finish notes evolve to a light acidic and moderate bitter. The finish is average in length and it's not a coating finish - one sip of water cleans it right out of your palate. The mouthfeel is watery and the tongue hit is right in the middle of your tongue. There's no body lacing to speak of and on our malt to hop scale it comes in about a click and a half to the right of balanced on the hoppy side.

For our bottom line notes we get a yes to drinkable, yes to repeatable and yes to balance. This means a no to harmony, memorable, wow factor and unfortunately a no to buy again.

It's a textbook session beer at 4.4% ABV and we feel like it should be done pretty cold to dull the taste out a bit. Maybe a thick walled cold, not frozen glass. It could be a good intro to a slightly hopped beer without a strong malt backbone for a craft beer newbie. We want to like it more because of the smell, but ultimately we're just not big fans.

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Bell's Two Hearted Ale

By John & Dad on September 23, 2008 (0 Comments)

It's another Thursday beer review where Father and Son Beer Love get together, fire up the computer, video conference each other and have a beer. It's a little known fact that this was actually Alexander Graham Bell's vision when he invented the telephone in 1876.

Tonight's review is the Bell's Two Hearted Ale. Don't be fooled by this one - it may be from Bell's Brewery (which in fact was not invented by Alexander Graham Bell), but it's not a dark beer. Bell's has a bit of a reputation as a dark beer company, at least in our minds (see one of our all-time favorites - the Bell's Expedition Stout). This one is actually an IPA - an India Pale Ale. If you need a little background on what an IPA is check out our review of the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA where we go into the origins of the style. To show you what a great beer company Bell's is, this non dark Two Hearted Ale comes in at #79 on the RateBeer.com Top 100 Best Beers in the World. So, yeah, Bell's knows a thing or two about beer in general, not just the dark stuff.

For this review we used an English pint glass. We got an initial temperature of 54.3 F and the 12 oz bottle comes in at 7% ABV. The initial pour gave us a huge 3 inch foamy white head that left a good amount of lacing as it dissipated slowly. There's a lively carbonation to the clear, sparkling amber/orange body. A beautiful looking beer.

The first whiff gives us a good medley of aromas - straw, citrus (grapefruit, lemon and orange), floral, grass, mint, apple, pear and white wine. A nice complexity and a nice balance. The taste heavily echoes some of the hop aromas - citrus (mostly the grapefruit) and grass and also adds a note of resin. It also adds a light toasted malt flavor for some balance. An interesting taste that is completely and utterly dominated by hops. When we finished and took a look at the hop section of our review form it was slammed full - we had 8 hop notes circled in total for the aroma and taste.

The initial flavor comes in as a moderate sweet and a light to moderate bitter. The finish flavor evolves to a light to moderate sweet and a heavy bitter. The finish length is long - maybe the longest finish we've ever done. It's the finish that won't die - a sip of water didn't make the bitterness in the finish go away at all. The mouthfeel is oily, the tongue hit covers the whole tongue completely - front, middle and back. There is a fair amount of body lacing and on the patented malt to hop scale it comes in 3 clicks to the right of balanced on the hoppy side - one click away from the hoppiest mark we could put.

For our bottom line notes we marked a yes for drinkable, balance and memorable. We marked a no for repeatable (one was plenty for us), no for harmony, no for wow factor and no for buy again.

Now you might be saying - what is our major malfunction that we wouldn't want to buy it again? It's rated the 79th best beer in the world after all! Well, It goes way too far over to the hop side for us. We're not anti-IPA, but we much prefer the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA because it had a much better balance to it.

See, if you're going to slam a beer full of hops you need a lot of malts to balance it out. There's just not a lot of that in the Two Hearted Ale. Whatever malt sweetness there is in the beginning, the hops march in and just pound the sweet out of your mouth like all those drums in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in China. You definitely feel that hop burn on your tongue - it reminds us a bit of our fated Ipswich Original Ale review - where we noted a burnt taste that we thought may in fact be the hops killing our taste buds. So yeah, it would be our contention that the hop shock factor is high.

Now even with all that said we can appreciate this beer for what it is. The Bell's Two Hearted Ale makes a big statement. We love most of the Bell's beers and they don't half ass anything they do - this beer included. It's probably a good example of the IPA style, but this may frighten a craft beer newbie away from ever doing another IPA. It would probably be better with food (which might be the only thing that would kill the finish) and it would likely be a great beer for a hophead. Others may want to proceed with caution.

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