July 2012
19 posts
3 tags
Ommegang Art of Darkness
Brewery Ommegang
Cooperstown, NY
Art of Darkness Belgian Strong Dark Ale
8.9% ABV
While Ommegang’s year-round offerings are all pretty great, I’ve found their limited edition beers to be some of the New York brewery’s best, and ones that put a really great twist on their Belgian-style beers.
Art of Darkness is one of the newest of those limited edition beers. According to the...
5 tags
Sierra Nevada/Russian River Brux
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. - Chico, CA
Russian River Brewing Co. - Santa Rosa, CA
Brux Domesticated Wild Ale
8.3% ABV
One of the things I really like about collaboration beers is that it gives people the chance to sample an offering from a brewery they might not otherwise get to try. Recently, there’s been the New Belgium/Lost Abbey Brett Beer collaboration, and of course all the...
4 tags
Dogfish Head URKontinent
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Milton, DE
URKontinent Belgian-style Dubbel
8.0% ABV
Dogfish Head keeps cranking them out, I keep drinking them up.
URKontinent is a collaboration between Dogfish and, of all people, Google, who set up a forum of sorts on their website to crowdsource ingredients to brew with. What they came up with was wattleseed from Australia; toasted amaranth, an herb from...
5 tags
Stone Smoked Porter (Original, w/ Vanilla Bean, w/...
Stone Brewing Co.
San Diego, CA
Smoked Porter (w/ Vanilla Bean and w/ Chipotle Peppers)
5.9% ABV
I’m quick to pick up anything new that Stone puts out. I’m usually at the store the week something new comes out to pick it up, and it doesn’t usually last long in my fridge. And when it comes to their year-round slate, I’ve had everything before, and multiple times at...
Beer Is My Church: How #CraftBeer Saved Me From... →
Powerful, honest post. Takes guts to write something like this.
beerismychurch:
I’ve toyed with the idea of writing this post for many, many months. What it reveals is personal, but ultimately freeing and hopefully helpful. Alcoholism runs in my family, as it does in millions of other families in America. It’s a terrible thing. It’s a disease. It ruins lives. It…
3 tags
Dogfish Head Pangaea
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Milton, DE
Pangaea Belgian Pale Ale
7% ABV
And again we go back to Dogfish Head, this time for one that’s been around a while, but I’ve never gotten to try.
Pangaea is a Belgian pale ale originally designed to be a way to unite people during the holidays as one would unite the continents before they shifted into the world as we know it. And of course,...
2 tags
Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown
Founders Brewing Co.
Grand Rapids, MI
Frangelic Mountain Brown Ale
9% ABV
Oh, Founders. How I love you so. Not only are your year-round and seasonal beers great, but your Backstage Series really shows just how awesome you really are.
First, there was Blushing Monk, the awesome Belgian ale brewed with raspberries. Then, one of the holiest of holies, Canadian Breakfast Stout, a chocolate and...
2 tags
Dogfish Head Positive Contact
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Milton, DE
Positive Contact Wheat Beer
9% ABV
It’s no secret I’m a fan of Dogfish Head. Just search for the brewery and you’ll find plenty of glowing reviews of their beers from me. But I will admit, the lengths Sam and the DFH folks go to to make beers can be a little intimidating at times, and the results aren’t always as good as...
2 tags
Founders Cerise
Founders Brewing Co.
Grand Rapids, MI
Cerise fruit beer
6.5% ABV
If I haven’t made it clear already, I really love Founders, and having them back in South Carolina has reminded me just how great their beers are. But while I’ve had most of their slate, there are a handful that I hadn’t had the chance to try yet, including Cerise, their summer seasonal fruit beer.
Cerise is...
3 tags
Westbrook Single Hop: Amarillo
Westbrook Brewing Co.
Mt. Pleasant, SC
Single Hop: Amarillo Rye Pale Ale
5.5% ABV
When I reviewed the Single Hop: Pacific Jade - the first entry in Westbrook’s single hopped rye pale ale series - I commented that I hoped the brewery would continue to crank out more and more variations of the style, similar to what Mikkeller did with their (his?) single hop series.
I didn’t have...
3 tags
Anchorage Whiteout Wit
Anchorage Brewing Co.
Anchorage, AK
Whiteout Wit Bier
6.5% ABV
I’ve talked before about how impressive the beers Anchorage Brewing puts out on on a semi-regular basis are. They’re labor intensive, inventive and unique within their respective styles. They’re an incredibly inventive brewery and one that goes out on a limb, yet succeeds every time.
That trend continues with...
4 tags
EPIC Brewing Brainless on Peaches
EPIC Brewing Co.
Salt Lake City, UT
Brainless on Peaches Belgian-style Golden Ale
10.5% ABV
Who knew that such great beer could come from the middle of Mormon country?
EPIC Brewing - the stateside brewery, not to be confused with one of the same name in New Zealand - lives up to its name with some pretty big beers, especially in their Exponential Series. I was hooked about a year ago after...
3 tags
Columbia, SC (FINALLY) Getting First Brewery
It’s about damn time.
For years, rumors have endlessly swirled about how Columbia, SC, would finally get its first full-fledged brewery. For too long, Hunter-Gatherer - which, don’t get me wrong, is fantastic - has been the only place in Columbia to get locally-brewed beer. Time after time, those in the know have said this will be the year the Capital City finally get a brewery all...
3 tags
Coast Bull's Bay Oyster Stout
Coast Brewing Co.
Charleston, SC
Bull’s Bay Oyster Stout
5.8% ABV
I don’t think I need to go over again how much I love Charleston’s Coast brewery - I’ve talked about it before - so instead I’m just going to get into one of their fantastic seasonal offerings.
Coast’s oyster stout is, surprisingly, an oyster stout. But what makes it special is it’s...
4 tags
Green Flash/Founders Linchpin
Green Flash Brewery - San Diego, CA
Founders Brewing Co. - Grand Rapids, MI
Linchpin White IPA
7% ABV
White IPAs must be the thing to brew these days. Not that I’m complaining or anything. Taking a style such as the IPA and brewing it in a different way is fine with me. And when you get two breweries as great as Green Flash and Founders to do one together, it’s as if you’re...
2 tags
Stillwater/Hof Ten Dormaal Bronze Age
Stillwater Artisinal Ales
Baltimore, MD
Bronze Age Traditional Belgian Farmhouse Ale
6% ABV
Now that temperatures are pushing the century mark on a regular basis here in South Carolina, my taste for stouts has diminished (at least until the sun goes down) and my love for lighter, spicier beers - namely saisons - has reached its peak. And when it comes to American-based brewers of...
4 tags
Dogfish Head and Stone Saison du BUFF
Stone Brewing Co. - San Diego, CA
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery - Milton, DE
Saison Du BUFF
7.7% ABV and 6.8% ABV, respectively
My recent beer-related journeys have helped me procure the Stone and Dogfish Head batches of Saison Du BUFF, thus completing the collection. I was really impressed with the batch brewed at Victory and expected nothing less from the other two variations. They were all...
3 tags
Stone Ruination Tenth Anniversary
Stone Brewing Co.
Escondido, CA
Ruination Tenth Anniversary IPA
10.8% ABV
What is there to say about Stone Ruination that hasn’t been said before. As one of catalysts for double and imperial IPAs, the intensely hoppy, insanely bitter yet incredibly drinkable beer is well known and much loved by hopheads.
So, what to do when your “liquid poem to the glory of the hop”...
2 tags
New Belgium Tart Lychee
New Belgium Brewing Co.
Fort Collins, CO
Tart Lychee American Wild Ale
6% ABV
I’ve talked before about how New Belgium’s Lips of Faith series is what makes the brewery really stand out. While Fat Tire is a great gateway beer, the unique and inventive brews they concoct through Lips of Faith are generally stellar, and - as the name entails - a bit of a leap (or lip) of faith when...
