Drink. Blog. Repeat.

Sixpoint Brewery

Brooklyn, NY

Resin Imperial IPA

9.1% ABV

I think it was early last year when I started hearing raves about Brooklyn’s Sixpoint. A lot of beer geeks in the region seemed to be flipping out about their products. That hype reached a fever pitch when the brewery finally started canning and distributing their beers, and even more so with the release of their new DIPA, Resin.

(Thanks to my friend Brian for hooking me up again, and for this mouth-watering photo.)

The story behind Resin is that the brewers wanted to create a beer that honored the natural oils of hops, which are released as this sticky, sap-like substance when the hop cones are heated. (There’s a bit of poetic waxing about the beer in the video below.) Having tried Resin a couple times now, I can say I definitely understand what they were going for, and think they achieved it.

In the glass, Resin has this deep mellow orange color, with a bit of light yellow around curve of the glass. It’s pretty hazy, as I’d expect a DIPA to be, with this murky dank look. There’s a nice pillowy head on top and some really nice lacing along the sides.

The smell, in short, is dank. There’s hints of wet pine, grapefruit and mango. The malt backbone comes through pretty prominently along with this thick, sticky sweetness. It’s a very herbal smell.

It tastes really bitter on the front of the tongue, with this quick pinch at first. That gives way to a really sticky, slightly sweet hop flavor throughout the mouth. It definitely has those sappy, resinous qualities they were pushing for. It finishes with this really thick taste on the back that gives way to a really nice mellow hop bitterness that sits on the back of your tongue.

It’s kind of hard to explain, but the beer really does achieve what I think they were aiming for. It’s sticky and sweet, but well balanced and very drinkable. Once again, my friends in the Northeast know how to make me a happy hop head.

I was in Folly Beach, SC, for the night a couple weekends ago, and since it’s in proximity to Charleston and Mt. Pleasant, I decided to show some love for great local beer by swinging by two of my favorite local breweries: Coast and Westbrook.

While I had been to both before - and to Coast about a month ago for Brewvival - I always make a point to stop by and try some fresh product straight from the source.

First up was Coast, located in North Charleston. Coast was founded in 2007 by David, a longtime home brewer, and his wife Jamie, a bio major from New Jersey. While the couple makes some of the best beer in the state, I have even more respect because Jamie led the Pop the Cap SC movement, which revolutionized beer in the Palmetto State

(Quick background: Before 2008, SC breweries could not sell beer on premises. A bill passed by our state Legislature changed that, and allowed beers up to 17% ABV to be sold in the state. Before then, it was the beer dark ages in SC. Visitors are allowed only four 4 oz. samples per visit in conjunction with tours, and sales as restricted per person, but it’s better than nothing.)

The brewery sells growlers and bottles on site as well as conducting tours of their brewery, which is basically one small room with all the necessary equipment. While it was St. Patrick’s Day when my fiancee and I visited, the brewery was dead, so Jamie was bussing us samples and talking with the cliental.

On tap that day:

• Shreddin’ Wheat, an American pale wheat ale with a lighter sweet taste of orange and hops;
• Dead Arm Pale Ale, a 6% West Coast-style pale also that’s light, crisp and hoppy;
• Export Scotch Ale, a 4.5% Scotch ale that could have been confused for a rauch beer. Super smokey with a bacon flavor;
• Bulls Bay Oyster Stout, an awesome oyster stout brewed with local oysters. I think it was because of the protein or calcium, but the oysters gave the beer a light roasted quality, with hints of chocolate and a great dry finish;

With the crowd light that day, Jamie was able to talk to everyone on site and give a tour of the brewery, which was albeit a quick one. She talked about some of the upcoming beers they’ve got, including the next release of their barrel-aged versions of Blackbeerd, their incredible imperial stout, and Old Nuptial, their equally as incredible barleywine.

After an hour or so at Coast, we made our way over to Mt. Pleasant for a stop at Westbrook. The brewery, founded by Ed Westbrook, another longtime home brewer, is one of the state’s newest breweries. They just celebrated their first anniversary with the release of Mexican Cake, an excellent imperial stout brewed with habanero peppers.

Westbrook is a sharp contrast to Coast. Whereas the latter is located in a small building in a naval yard, Westbrook is in a huge, brand new building tucked away at the back of an office park. The brewery itself is huge, cavernous and, for the most part, spotless. In addition to all the usual equipment, a small canning line was recently installed, and there’s an impressive barrel room off to the side.

Of the beers on tap that day, I tried:

• Covert Hops, a 5.7% black IPA with the characteristic light roast and hop flavors;
• Beer Table Table Beer, a 4.7% collaboration with Stillwater. It was tart and crisp with a nice funkiness to it;
• Lichtenhainer, a 4.2% smoked sour ale. The first time I tried it a couple months ago, I described it as tasting as if you poured an ashtray into a glass of lemonade. (I.e. disgusting.) The second time was much better. A really nice smoked taste with the tartness of a sour;
• Imperial Biscotti Break, another collaboration, this time with Evil Twin. It’s an imperial version of their already great stout. Much smoother with a good kick of chocolate, almonds, coffee and vanilla.

Rant time: This was my second time visiting both Coast and Westbrook, but likely my last time visiting the latter. For the second time, Westbrook’s taproom staff was snobby, rude and discourteous to the people in the taproom. The two girls working that day completely ignored those with empty glasses, stood in the corner talking with each other most of the time and seemed burdened by the fact they had to fill up 4 oz. tasters for paying customers. I understand working on a Saturday sucks, but if you don’t like doing it, then quit or at least try to make your customers feel welcomed.

In fairness, I was contacted by Westbrook after my visit and assured changes would be made. (Sounds as if I might not have been the only one with complaints.) And I’ve heard from plenty of others they’ve always had a great time during their visits. Still, not an enjoyable experience for me for the second time in a row, but one I hope to not see repeat again.

Coast? No complaints. Those folks are nothing but awesome.

Complaints and accolades aside, both breweries make great beer. South Carolina’s lacking when it comes to breweries, but not when it comes to quality. I highly recommend a stop at each if you ever get a chance to visit the coast.

The Alchemist Pub and Brewery

Waterbury, VT

Heady Topper Double IPA

8.0% ABV

Having heard lots of good things about Heady Topper, the continually-made-yet-still-impossible-to-find imperial IPA from Vermont’s Alchemist pub and brewery, I was a bit giddy when a friend pulled out two four packs at my recent bottle share. I was even more excited when he gave me a can to take home to enjoy all for myself. While the beer has fallen off a bit in the two weeks since - it’s definitely a beer to enjoy as fresh as possible - it’s still easily one of the best imperial IPAs I’ve ever had.

The brewery recommends you drink the beer straight from the can. Because it’s bottled with real bits of hops, the resins and oils dissipate when you pour it into a glass. They stay concentrated when you drink it straight from the can. After cracking it open, I tried a few sips from the can, and the taste is definitely noticeable. There’s a bit more mellowness to it straight from the can and a light hop bite.

But a picture of a can doesn’t make for a good photo for the review, so I broke the rules.

In the glass, Heady Topper has this real deep yellow sunset color that shines bright around the edges of the glass. There’s a small head on the top that dissolves pretty quickly. And all the flecks you see in the photo? Hops. I teared up a little the first time I saw it.

This thing is the definition of a hop bomb. The dank, resinous pine smell from the hops overpowers everything else. It smells thick and sticky. There are a lot of herbs and spicy notes too, and kind of this really chewy breadiness too. But first and foremost: hops, hops, hops.

Did I mention there are hops? Because there are a ton of hops, especially on the mouth. The bitterness in this is incredibly concentrated on the front of the tongue. The stinging astringency gives way to this really thick malt backbone mid palate, but that gives way to … you guessed it: hops. I remember it stinging a bit more when I first had it, but this can was much more mellow.

In closing: Hops.

The Lost Abbey

San Marcos, CA

Judgment Day Belgian Quad

10.5% ABV

My fiancee and I celebrated our two-year (dating) anniversary this past Monday with a nice surf and turf dinner with roasted potatoes. I wanted to dip into the cellar and grab something I thought would work well with a meal, and a Belgian quad seemed to be a good fit.

Having only tried a few beers from The Lost Abbey in the past and not being very familiar with them - aside from the fact they specialize in Belgian-style beers - I tend to just grab a couple random offerings and see what works. A recent trip to Atlanta yielded a bottle of Judgment Day, a quad (or strong ale, depending on who you ask) brewed with raisins. They have yet to disappoint and this definitely continued that trend.

It starts with that classic quad appearance: Deep ruby color, almost brown with dark purple tint. There’s a pillow of a brownish head on top, about a finger’s length, and it sticks around for a long time..

On the nose are hints of a ton of things: molasses, plum, raisins, banana and fig. It’s kind of a subdued smell, but you can tell it’s just really rich and complex.

The first thing you get on the mouth is a strong hit of carbonation with a real slight slight bitterness. That carbonation continues throughout the mouth. It’s like Scrubbing Bubbles on your palate, and you can feel it washing over everything. Those really rich, sugary flavors come through as well. There’s plum, molassas and raisins. On the back is a big of tartness which is cut nicely by the sweetness of the raisins. It’s a really big, complex beer, but one that’s still surprisingly drinkable.

Boston Beer Co.

Boston, MA

Griffin’s Bow Oaked Blonde Barleywine Ale

10.0% ABV

While they’ve grown to be the juggernaut of the craft beer world, Samuel Adams mainly sticks to the middle of the road when it comes to new releases. Nothing they make is bad, per se, but it’s not all that astounding either, in my opinion.

But recently, the Boston-based brewery has started putting out a series of small batch beers that have been a hit for me. The Third Voyage DIPA, Tasman Red Red Ale and Vixin Chocolate Chili Bock were all really good, solid beers that were not hard to come by. South Carolina recently got the fourth entry in the first run of that series, Griffin’s Bow, a lighter barleywine brewed with New Zealand hops and aged on toasted oak. After trying it, I have to say it’s easily my favorite of the series so far.

Its pours a crystal clear brighter orange color with a good two fingers worth of a tight off-white head. I’m accustomed to barleywines being that deep plum-colored or brownish red color, so this was a surprise.

There’s a really sweet note on the nose, expected with a barleywine, with hints of toffee, burnt sugar, malt and that really nice oak scent. There’s also a dull fruit characteristic to it as well, with peach and pineapple being prominent.

The hop characteristics really shine on the front. There’s that peach and mango taste with a little hint of bitterness. From there the malt characteristics take over. Big bread and toasted notes fill your mouth. The sweeter characteristics and oak flavors really shine on the back. There’s that toffee, bread and oaky taste blending together into a really mellow 

I love a good barleywine, and this was probably one of the more interesting ones I’ve had. Not super complex, but the New Zealand hops and oak flavors really gave it a nice touch. Apparently the first run of it clocked in at 11.5% ABV and this one was knocked down to 10% - this was the second batch - so I’m not sure if much has changed. Regardless, this is definitely one to check out.

Oskar Blues Brewery

Lyons, CO

Deviant Dale’s India Pale Ale

8.0% ABV

As I’ve said before, I’m first and foremost a hop head, and the more piney, mouth-stinging bitterness I get from an IPA or pale ale, the better. So it should come as no surprise that Oskar Blues’ Dale’s Pale Ale is one of my favorite beers. It’s light and refreshing, but bitter and biting. Plus, since it comes in a can, you can take it anywhere. What’s not to like?

So of course I was excited to find out OB would be making an IPA version of their perfect pale ale, and in a tallboy at that. It worked well for SweetWater with their IPA version of 420, so I had faith DD (heh) would turn out just as good.

The pour is a deep amber color, almost opaque but with a little bit of haze. There’s a thick, bubbly head on the top with a lot of carbonation coming off glass.

On the nose is this incredible pine smell with a little bit of a fruit scent at well You get those classic hints of grapefruit and citrus, with that bite from the pine. A really great, classic example of the style.

On the front of the tongue is a slight bitterness, but then this really smooth and rich taste coats your mouth. It’s like biting into a really fresh, juicy fruit. Again, there are those classic tropical fruit tastes you’d expect: papaya, pineapple, peach, orange, etc. On the back is a bitter, very juicy and hoppy taste that sticks to back of tongue and cheeks. As the flavors fade away, the bitterness really sticks around. The best way to describe it was like eating pine needles. (Appetizing, I know.) It’s not a dry, off-putting taste, but this really mellow kind of bitterness that just doesn’t go away. And yes, that’s a good thing.

About a week ago, a group of my friends and I got together to welcome another friend back to town the only way beer geeks should: With a massive, all-day bottle share. With the temperatures in South Carolina rising, it was a perfect opportunity to bring new and old friends together on the porch to share in the fun.

The visting friend was down from Connecticut and brought some Northeastern goodies: Treogs’ Nugget Nectar, The Alchemist Heady Topper and a wealth of stuff from New England Brewing - where he works part time - including Imperial Stout Trooper. A local beer geek broke into his stash and brought out plenty of goodies as well: Russian River Supplication/Redemption/Consecration/Sanctification, Cigar City Marshal Zhukov’s Imperial Stout and Guava Grove and lots more.

It was, in short, a good day.

It was also ironic timing since the day before, I was visiting a friend in Atlanta when the subject of bottle shares came up. In his mind, his stash - which I found really impressive - was weak compared to his super beer geek friends. He told me when he went to bottle shares, he felt like he wasn’t pulling up his part of the bargain and that others may feel underwhelmed.

That got me thinking: What, exactly, is the point of a bottle share?

To me, if you’re sharing your stash with a group of friends in an attempt to show off in favor of introducing people to something they might not try otherwise, you’re doing it wrong. Bottle shares are a time for beer geeks to get together, commiserate and pop open a few (dozen) bottles of really great beer. Everyone has a different palate and picks up on things the person next to them might miss. Maybe you can introduce someone to something new, or a style they might not be familiar with, or something they might not have enjoyed in the past. But first and foremost, it’s about sharing great beer with great people.

At this point, I have yet to participate in a bottle share with a beer snob. I haven’t been around anyone who has showed off their beer with an air of superiority, or scoffed at what someone else was pouring. No one has been stingy with pours. No one has refused to let someone try something. No one has kept a secret stash. Everyone has been open and willin

Which brings me back to that Sunday. Looking at the lineup - I’ve posted a couple photos below - I was amazed at how much good beer I was able to try, and how many things I was able to mark off my to-drink list. But what was even better was the people I was with.

Around midnight, when I was heading out and saying my goodbyes, the visiting beer geek gave me more to take home, including a pack of Nugget Nectar and a bottle of Heady Topper (which was one of the best IPAs I’ve had). Another friend refused to trade with me, not because he wanted to keep something for himself, but because he didn’t want me to lose something of mine when I could just drive across town and drink with him sometime.

Sharing really is caring.

JailHouse Brewing Company

Hampton, GA

Hop Riot Double IPA

8.0% ABV

Hampton, GA’s JailHouse Brewing Co. has put out increasingly good beers. For being just 3 years old and stationed in an incredibly small town (4 square miles, about 7,000 people), the small brewery is pumping out year round beers that rival their bigger Georgia counterparts (SweetWater and Terrapin).

Unfortunately, Hop Riot is their first misstep for me.

Coming in at 8% and 100+ IBUs, Hop Riot is marketed as an imperial pale ale or a double IPA. For an IPA, it pours a really dark brownish amber color with red tones around the edges. There’s a big, tight off-white head with a lot of lacing that lingers.

On the nose is are toffee and caramel notes, with a bit of a hop to it. It’s very muted and dull smell as opposed to most imperial IPAs, which are generally hop bombs.

The taste is really underwhelming. There’s a strong, slightly bitter malt flavor on the front. Mid palate, there’s a strong bite of rich hops, but that gives way real quickly to the toffee and caramel flavors. Unfortunately, those give way to what I’d describe as cardboard. There’s a dry, stale flavor that takes over the palate and makes it kind of unenjoyable to drink.

Hop Riot is JailHouse’s January release, so it may be better in its prime. But sadly, it does not hold up very well after a few months. It’s a shame for such a great brewery to put out something so disappointing.

——-

Furthering my belief that I ended up with a bad bottle instead of an example of what the beer was supposed to be, the folks at JailHouse tweeted me a message after I posted how disappointing I thought the beer was.

@drinkblogrepeat would love for it to have hit a home run for you. We’ve had some great feedback on that beer.

— Glenn Golden (@jailhousebrewer)

March 9, 2012

1) Another example of great customer service. I would expect nothing less from the JailHouse team. They’re all-around quality people.

2) It’s a shame I probably won’t be able to grab another one before it’s off shelves. I’d like for JailHouse to keep their flawless record with me. That “loss” should come with an asterisk, though - 4-1*

Maui Brewing Co.

Maui, HI

Mana Wheat American-style wheat ale

5.5% ABV

Dipping into my Hawaiian stash again for another offering from Maui Brewing. This time, their Mana Wheat, an American-style wheat ale brewed with pineapple juice. While I generally favor traditional Hefeweizens - that rich banana flavor, that sweet bubble gum smell - more than American wheat beers, this is definitely an American version of a wheat that really surprised me.

It pours that traditional hefe look: Deep orange, hazy as hell from the yeast and very effervescent and carbonated. The carbonation was flying off the end of the glass, and of course there was a thick, fluffy head on top.

The smell on this thing is fantastic. The pineapple is very pronounced, but with that dull sweetness you get from straight juice instead of that slight tang from regular pineapple. It’s a very thick smelling beer.

And damn, if this thing wasn’t tasty. There’s that sweet but hoppy flavor on the front, the thick mouthfeel that washes over your palate and a crisp, clean finish. The pineapple really make this stand out. That tangy, sticky sweetness imparts a really great flavor.

The only bad part? I’ve only got one can left.

Great Divide Brewing Co. has been one of my favorite breweries since I became passionate about craft beer. Their Yeti series brought me over to the dark side and showed me there was much more to stouts than Guinness (ugh), and the rest of their regular brews and seasonals have really impressed me.

I’ve had most of their catalogue, but there are a few that I haven’t picked up yet, including their Old Ruffian barley wine. There’s plenty of it around here both in and out of season, but I had never picked up a bottle until a few weeks ago. I put it in my cellar and decided I’d crack it open sometime down the line.

While rearranging my cellar - read: closet - a couple weeks ago, I was checking out some of the bottles and noticed the bottle of Old Ruffian I picked up was bottled on Dec. 2, 2009. Two things crossed my mind: 1) Awesome. I snagged 2-year-old bottle of awesome barley wine. 2) This thing has been sitting on the top level of a store shelf for more than two years.

Barley wines get much better with age, at at 10.2% ABV, I figured it would hold up well. But still, sitting on a store shelf as opposed to a cellar for 2+ years isn’t really ideal storage conditions. I figured I would shoot the guys are GD an email letting them know some not-so-fresh product was floating around. (I know a lot of craft brewers are sticklers for having their latest and greatest on shelves, so I figured a heads-up would be all right.)

Later that afternoon, I received a reply from someone in GD’s quality assurance office thanking me for letting them know. They said they would get in touch with our local distributor and try to get some fresher stuff on the shelf.

Then they took it a step further. The rep offered to send me a fresh bottle of Old Ruffian straight from the brewery or a GD t-shirt, whichever I wanted. I had heard brewers offered refunds or replacement bottles to people who had issues, but I was never fishing for anything by letting them know. I just wanted them to be aware of what was out there. Still, the offer was greatly appreciated, and I picked the t-shirt. (I’m sure I can find a newer Old Ruffian around town.)

Last Friday, before I headed out for the weekend, this arrived in my mailbox:

This is a great example of customer service. In addition to clearing up the problem, they wanted to make sure the customer was left happy, which I definitely was. I’ve heard this is sometimes the MO of craft brewers - to give consumers some type of compensation if they’re not pleased - but I wasn’t looking for a handout by emailing them. As a fan, I just wanted to make sure fellow drinkers got the best experience.

So, cheers to Great Divide and all the folks that work there.

New Belgium Brewing Co.

Fort Collins, CO

Dig American Pale Ale

5.6% ABV

Fat Tire is a gateway beer for a lot of future beer geeks. Along with Sam Adams’ Boston Lager, it’s usually found on most draft lineups at restaurants. While it’s a solid yet ultimately unimpressive beer - brown ales are just boring to me - it’s not a very good indicator of the rest of New Belgium’s catalog.

In addition to their great Lips of Faith series, New Belgium’s seasonal beers are quite good for their respective release windows. Dig, an American pale ale, is their newest spring seasonal, replacing Mighty Arrow. Brewed with a nice selection of hops, including Sorachi Ace, Nelson Sauvin and Nugget, Dig is a really well-rounded and well-balanced beer that would easily suit a cooler evening as much as a warmer day.

The beer pours a deep, almost brownish orange, with a loose bubbly head. Maybe it was because I was using a New Belgium goblet, which has a nucleation site on the bottom, but the head lingered for a long time. Not much lacing, though.

There are a lot of different scents on the nose. Lemon, melon, orange, passion fruit and other tropical fruits. The melon flavors are very prominent with slight wisps of other citrus.

I really liked the taste on it. There’s a night malt taste on the front that’s pretty strong, but the fruit flavors wash over everything. It’s a very full, flavorful beer. The hops give it the rich flavors and bite, but the malt give it a thicker taste and mouthfeel.

Dig is surprisingly well-balanced for a spring beer, which I usually expect to be lighter, more effervescent beers like Alpine Spring. It’s flavorful and malty, but not so rich that it’s not a porch-appropriate beer. Definitely worth checking out.

Troegs Brewing Company

Hershey, PA

Nugget Nectar Imperial Amber Ale

7.5% ABV

For hop heads, there are a lot of beers that fall under the “must have” category. Pliny the Elder, Bell’s Hopslam, Avery Maharaja and so on are all beers I hear fellow hop lovers say you HAVE to try.

Included in that list is Troegs’ Nugget Nectar, a 7.5% imperial amber ale that is as hoppy as your average imperial IPA but with a bit more on the malt side. It’s always eluded my grasp since we’re out of their distribution area, but since I’ve got friends in the Big Apple, I was able to get some shipped to me this week.

The color on Nugget Nectar is really nice. A deep, rich amber color with a lighter orange around the curve of the glass. There’s a really foamy head on top that linger for a good bit.

The smell is part East Coast IPA, part West Coast IPA. There are really rich tropical fruits - papaya, orange, melon, peach - but there’s also a hint of pineapple and a light toffee note. It all blends together really nicely into that lush, mellow smell you’d get with an DIPA.

The taste is really mixed. There’s a crazy bitterness from the hops concentrated on the front of the tongue, which gives way to the really rich bouquet of tropical fruits in the middle of the mouth. On the back is a a really bitter maltiness with a bit of sweetness. There’s kind of a bready, toffee aftertaste that lingers on the back of your throat.

It’s not quite what I expected it to be - I was expecting a bit more of an IPA taste - but with it being a amber ale, that maltiness is expected.  But damn, it’s a great beer.

This weekend I’ll be heading back to my home state for the third beer-related event in less than a month. This time, it’s back to the SweetWater Brewery for my second Brew Your Cask Off cask ale festival.

Cask ale or “real ale” is, in essence, beer au naturel. When beer is bottled, additional carbon dioxide is usually injected into the bottle before it’s capped and sent off for consumption. That’s why beer you get at the store is usually pretty carbonated and bubbly. But if you’ve ever had home brew, you know that additional carbonation isn’t present, and instead only the natural carbonation from the yeast and secondary fermentation sugars. It gives it kind of a flatter taste, so to speak, but is the same as any other beer just without extra carbonation.

Cask ale is the same thing: Beer is brewed as usual, placed into a smaller keg with extra sugars for secondary fermentation and allowed to work its magic. It’s unfiltered, unpasteurized and naturally carbonated. Live yeast is still present in the container as well, meaning it continues to mature on it’s own. (Again, this is noting new to home brewers. Yeast usually ends up in bottles and your brew gets better with time. Usually.)

SweetWater does an excellent job of celebrating and honoring cask ale. For the past few years, they’ve invited upwards of 100 companies, businesses, restaurants, home brewers and others to come and brew their own casks. They then invite the public to come and sample all these different beers in an event that’s part competition, part festival.

Last year was the first time I went and I was floored at how good some of these glorified home brews were. I saw beers with ingredients I never imagined being used and some casks that rivaled some of the better beers I’ve had in my life. All this week, the brewery has been teasing what will be on hand this year on the BYCO Twitter page. Here’s just a sampling:

Sneak peek - Cask #1 from @fifthgrouper and #SCKV - Tea Bags - A southern spin on Finnish sahti with black tea and lemon

— SweetWater Brewery (@BrewYourCaskOff)

March 6, 2012

sneak peek cask #2 - @hopjacks with the Dirty Sanchez - porter with cocoa, ancho chili, coriander, vanilla bean, agave @sweetwaterfl #byco

— SweetWater Brewery (@BrewYourCaskOff)

March 6, 2012

sneak peek cask #10 @McCraysTavernWV - Southern Fig Wheat - A southern inspired wheat beer w/ figs, pecans, dates, strawberry, ginger #byco

— SweetWater Brewery (@BrewYourCaskOff)

March 6, 2012

sneak peek cask #17 @FonatinesATL - Hoppy Granate - heavily hopped ale brewed with subtle hints of pomegranate, lemon zest, & allspice #byco

— SweetWater Brewery (@BrewYourCaskOff)

March 6, 2012

Sneak peek cask #24 - @ajc - Toronto Cocktail Brown Ale - This beer features rye whiskey, Fernet Branca, hints of orange and oak. #byco

— SweetWater Brewery (@BrewYourCaskOff)

March 7, 2012

Sneak peek cask #25 - Alpha Kenny One - Oak chips soaked in Jim Beam Black with coffee and cocoa. #Aubrey’s #byco

— SweetWater Brewery (@BrewYourCaskOff) March 7, 2012

This stuff is seriously ridiculous. My mouth has been watering all week.

One of the biggest problems last year was the cramped and confined conditions, but with SweetWater’s massive expansion, they’ve increased how many tents they’ll be able to put up, meaning this year’s festival will literally be bigger and better than ever before.

If you’re in or around the Atlanta area, this is not one to miss.

Terrapin Beer Co.

Athens, GA

Wake ‘N’ Bake Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout - 8.6% ABV

Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout - 6.0% ABV

As much as I love SweetWater, the Georgia-based brewery I’m most impressed with is Terrapin out of Athens. Both breweries seem to have a similar model: solid year-round and seasonal brews and increasingly impressive one-off brews (Dank Tank for SweetWater; Side Project for Terrapin). But with Terrapin being much smaller than SweetWater, they make quite a name for themselves with damn good beer.

Two of their best beers are Wake ‘N’ Bake, an imperial stout brewed with local coffee and oatmeal, and Moo-Hoo, a chocolate milk stout brewed with cocoa nibs. (Wake ‘N’ Bake has been renamed “W-n-B,” since it’s less risque, I guess.) Each beer is awesome on its own, but people have begun mixing the two into a concoction called Wake ‘N’ Moo.

WnB and Moo-Hoo both pour a deep, dark brown with a very slight head. The nose on WnB is dark malts and coffee, and the chocolate really comes through on the Moo-Hoo. The tastes are as expected: WnB is a bit biting with a robust coffee flavor and Moo-Hoo is creamy, like drinking heavy chocolate milk, and both have a great lingering aftertaste.

While each is great on its own, they get even better when mixed together. I poured both into a glass at the same time in an effort to mix the flavors up as best as possible. (I did happen to get a fancy cascade effect but didn’t have my camera ready in time to get a picture.) The nose on the WnM is primarily that smooth chocolate from the Moo-Hoo with a slight roasted note. This thing tastes excellent, too. The Moo-Hoo is the most pronounced, and you get that chocolate flavor right out front. But on the back is the coffee, which lingers really nicely and tastes a lot light a chocolate-covered coffee bean.

Kudos to whatever genius thought up this one.

Founders Brewing Co.

Grand Rapids, MI

Double Trouble Imperial IPA

9.4% ABV

Many of the reviews I read about Founders’ Double Trouble described it, in one form or another, as a “Hopslam killer.” That’s a hefty goal to achieve, and with me being quite the fan of Hopslam, I couldn’t pass up the chance to welcome a challenger.

But after trying multiple bottles, I can say that Hopslam is still alive and well.

Double Trouble pours a lighter orange color with a hefty two fingers worth of a tight white head on it. Unlike Hopslam, the aromas don’t take over while you’re pouring, but are much more subdued.

The smell is classic imperial IPA: rich tropical fruits such as pineapple, papaya and mango. Again, like Hopslam, but much less juicy and pronounced. It’s kind of a muted smell, although a delicious one.

The taste, however, is great. There’s a very concentrated tropical fruit taste on the front of the tongue that spreads across your palate. It’s a bit drier than Hopslam but has much of the same juicy tropical characteristics. What I don’t like is the bitterness on the backend. While Hopslam’s honey lingers after you drink it, Double Trouble has a kind of dull bitterness that sticks to the back of your throat. It’s not off-putting or bad, it’s just different.

Double Trouble is a great imperial IPA. There’s no mistaking that. And in fairness, the pack I got was bottled before the wealth of Hopslam I have, so that may have subdued the taste a bit. But when it comes down to the two of them, Hopslam wins again.

Maui Brewing Co.

Maui, HI

CoCoNut PorTeR

6.0% ABV

My first experience with Maui Brewing Co. was at a local beer festival a few years ago, and it happened to be CoCoNut PorTeR. Since then, I’ve been hoping to get my hands on a can again, but since Maui’s closest distribution to South Carolina is Virginia, it wasn’t likely.

Fortunately, I got the hookup the other day.

The beer pours a dark brown, almost black color. There’s a small brownish head, but it disipates pretty quickly.

The smell is dark, roasted coffee, dark chocolate and toasted coconut. Nothing really stands out, but one of the beer’s big appeals is the fact it’s brewed with hand-toasted coconut. That shows up slightly on the nose but is great once you taste it.

There’s a good bit of carbonation on the front of the tongue, which pops open the taste buds. There’s a very smooth mouthfeel to it. The dark, smooth chocolate is the first thing that hits you, and on the back is the roasted qualities. As you swallow, the coconut takes over your mouth. It’s like biting into one of those chocolate-covered coconut candies while drinking a cup of strong coffee. The rich, roasted flavors all blend together so well as you drink it and become even more pronounced as it warms up.

Just as good as I remember. Just as good as I hoped it would be.

My parents recently became empty nesters after my younger brother went off to college. So, with ample amounts of free time and no kids around the house, they’ve coped the best way they can: Lots and lots of vacations.

The most recent of those trips was a two-week trip to Hawaii. They visited volcanoes, historic Polynesian sites and whatnot, and had a nice, enjoyable time together.

And then, about two weeks ago, I got this text message from my dad:

Glad to know they’re still thinking of me.

Later that afternoon, I navigated my mom through a “special store,” as she called it, and told her what kind of stuff to send my way. My main focus was anything from Maui Brewing Co., whose closest distribution to South Carolina is Virginia, according to a brewery rep.

On Thursday, the package arrived. It didn’t disappoint.

Inside, we found two cans each of all of Maui’s year-round brews: CoCoNut PorTeR, a 6% robust porter brewed with hand-toasted coconut; Bikini Blonde, a 5.1% Munich Helles lager; Mana Wheat, a 5.5% unfiltered American-style wheat ale brewed with pineapple; and Big Swell IPA, a 6.8% dry-hopped IPA brewed with Columbus, Chinook, Centennial, Simcoe, Falconer’s Flight and Citra Hops.

There were also a few things from Hawai’i Nui Brewing and Mehana Brewing Company, including Hapa Brown Ale, a 5.9% brown ale; ‘Alala Hawaiian Crow Porter, a 5.2% porter heavy on the espresso; and the Big Kahuna, the Southern Cross Belgian Style Double Red Ale, an 8.2% seasonal red ale fermented with Belgian yeast and plenty of hops.

Mahalo to my parents on the successful beer mail. 

Since they opened in Columbia a few months ago, the World of Beer location in The Vista has been quite a popular spot for beer geeks. As an alternative to Flying Saucer, World of Beer is a straight-up bar with restaurant-style service and a pretty impressive bottle and tap selection that rotates every few days.

In hopes of being the go-to bar for craft beer fans, World of Beer regularly hosts special releases and parties for breweries and limited-release beers. That included Wednesday night when they were selling bottles of Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Ops.

Black Ops is a much-sought 11.3% imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels. Brooklyn takes their excellent Black Chocolate Stout, age it in bourbon barrels, bottle the beer flat and then add champagne yeast in the bottle to re-ferment it. It’s got a perfect 100 on RateBeer and a 92 on BeerAdvocate. With only 1,000 cases released a year, it’s pretty hard to come by, and since I’m a sucker for limited release beers I jumped at the chance to get some.

I exchanged some messages with whoever runs the bar’s Twitter account and found out they had about 40 bottle on hand, meaning there was little chance they would run out.

That’s not what actually happened, though. Only 10 of the bottles would be available for purchase, and then only through a raffle, all of which was announced just a couple hours before the release.

Side rant: Look, I understand holding on to a few bottles for friends and coworkers. Lots of bars and beer stores do it, and there’s nothing wrong with that. And sure, having this image of manufactured limited availability is a great way to get people in the door. But if you’re going to brag for a week that you’re the only place in town that’s going to have this beer and hype it up so much, only to pull something shady like that at the last minute - especially after telling a loyal customer you’ve got way more than you’re giving away - is kind of a dick move. Hell, they were using MY tweets to promote the thing, only to pull a bait-and-switch. I’m not complaining, and I don’t think I was entitled to anything, but come on. SEE UPDATE BELOW

With about only a dozen bottles on hand, the bar decided to have a raffle instead. My fiancee and I got to the bar, met up with some friends and put our name into the raffle. The crowd was pretty sparse and I figured we would have a good chance of getting at least a bottle or two.

The raffle never happened. Only nine people signed up, according to our waitress, meaning if you wanted a bottle, you got one. (As I said before, stouts aren’t usually a big thing in Columbia, and the fact it was 75 degrees in February didn’t help.) Minutes later, we had four bottles sitting at our table: one for me, one for the lady and one for each of our two friends. There were some some nice signature tulip glasses to go along with the bottles as well.

So after all that confusion, I ended up with two bottles of our own and one I bought off a friend. I’ll be cracking one open this weekend and keeping the other two in my cellar for future enjoyment.

Was the whole “raffle” shtick needed? Apparently not. Are they worth the price? Maybe. Am I happy I’m stocked with delicious beer? Hell yes.

To quote “Gotta Have It” off Watch the Throne, “It’s just blacks on blacks on blacks.”

UPDATE: There was apparently some miscommunication and confusion during all the back and forth about the event. WoB received only 12 bottles of Black Ops; the 40 remaining bottles were of another beer. So yes, the raffle was in fact a good idea. Fortunately for us, there weren’t many people there. I’ve updated the post in accordance. A big thanks to the folks at World of Beer for clearing that up for me. 

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

Milton, DE

Noble Rot

9.0% ABV

As I mentioned in my previous post about Dogfish Head, the brewery has usually been a hit-or-miss brewer for me, with more misses than hits recently. Their Faithfull Ale was bland, flavorless and boring, and I’m passing on Ta Henket because I haven’t heard a good review about it. But I had heard some really high praise for Noble Rot, so I figured it was worth a shot.

The brewing process for Noble Rot - classified as a saison of farmhouse ale - is really intriguing. Unfermented grape must from viognier grapes is infected with botrytis, a fungus that when harvested at the right time imparts a really great sweetness from the grapes. Pinot gris grapes are added to the mix along with pils and wheat malts and additionally fermented with Belgian yeast. The result is part beer, part champagne, part white wine.

The beer pours an absolutely gorgeous crystal clear straw yellow. There’s about a finger to a finger and a half of a bubbly white head that dissipates fairly quickly.

The smell is of a peppery white wine with that crisp champagne bite. The Belgian yeast and the grapes give off a slight sweetness, but it’s closer to a white wine than anything.

The taste is pretty phenomenal to me. There’s that sharp carbonated on the front that helps pop open the taste buds, followed by that richer white wine and champagne flavor that’s coupled with a slight peppery quality and sweetness. It finishes dry and clean, but the sweetness really lingers on your mouth.

It’s crazy that this is technically a beer. If you had someone do a blind taste test, they’d likely say it was a wine or a champagne. This was the first win from DFH in a while.