beer7 – Page 2 – What I Learned Tomorrow

Saranac Brewer’s Blood Imperial Amber Ale

Here’s a neat one: an “imperial amber ale” with a hefty 90 IBU’s and a stiff 8.7% alcohol. Judging by the price and the packaging, this is the flagship of Saranac’s rebranding, but it’s made in Windsor Vermont, not in Utica, New York. Not sure which empire declares this stuff “imperial”, but it sure ain’t the Empire State.

So what we have is a great recipe that some crafty brewers came up with, and it must involve some high-end ingredients to command a luxury-good price. It certainly tastes like they used good stuff. The color is definitely amber, maybe even darker than a regular amber ale, and the smell is a fairly complex melange of hops and malts.

Nice intriguing body to this beer, and the hops are well done, though this one has a problem that you do see in high-alk brews sometimes: the taste of the alcohol itself raises it’s hand to be counted. Unfortunately, that detracts from the overall taste. Looking for a beer here, not a beer-flavored liqueur.

Malts are nice and meaty, they hopped the heck out of it, so it should be right up my alley. And it is good, but the strength is just a little shy of whiskey-face, and that’s not for me. Hate to do it, because someone poured a lot of sweat and tears into this bottle, but tallying all the pluses and minuses here leaves it with a 7.2 rating, low for a beer of this quality.

I don’t want to turn anyone off from trying this, i found it in the “pick your own six” section, where for $11 you can try 6 beers where you’d normally have to spend $70 to try ’em all. If you can find a single of this, try it. You may like it, well, in fact i’m sure you’ll like it, but try it and decide from there if it’s something you’ll spend the premium price on, for a full six or twelve.

Sierra Nevada 11.5 Plato IPA

Another “session” IPA and now i’m so proud of myself for knowing what that means! Now that i know it’s designed for drinking at work, i think i need a new job. On the other hand this one introduces a new and mysterious beerword term: 11.5º PLATO. They try to describe it as “how big the beer will be”, but i got 12 ounces, so i figger i’m beating 11.5 plato’s already, and i don’t even know what a plato is. Hah, so there!

No, i’m not as dumb as all that. What they call “bigness” is what i call the “body” of a beer, the sturdiness of the malted beverage indicates how much hoppiness they can cram in there before it starts to separate. Or congeal, or, whatever a beer does when it can’t hold its hops.

True to be called a Session IPA, this is spot on the nose at 4.5% alk, so SN is just squeaking by under the limbo bar here. I like cushions, so i would’ve made it 4.4%, but hey, they do what they want, they have the vats and the permits and licenses.

The color is a nice gold, dark gold, not “straw” but not into amberland. And the body does indeed bear the welts from beating some hearty malts into submission. Great solidity, you can feel it in the mouth and taste it under the hops as well. I like that they were able to do this at 4.5% alcohol and still find room for serious hoppys.

The aroma is a bit reminiscent of a wet dog who’s been rolling in something that was not purely mud, not trying to be insulting here, but it’s a tad like rodent droppings. Luckily, none of that aroma carries over into the taste. The taste is really very excellent. This one’s not going to shake up my Top Five IPA’s, but i do like it very much.

What SN was trying to do here, they pulled off in spades. It’s a low-alk IPA with great body and crafty attention to hops, somehow they knew just how much hops they could plug in here, and they did. It must be that Plato guy who told them. Taste is refreshing, yes, all those flowery words like “tropical ” they use on the label come through. This hop profile is a little less piney and more fruity, less citrusy and more plummy. Nectariney?

A great Summer beer, i’ll put this right behind the Bonobo in 2nd place for a Summer beer. Most of all, i am really impressed by what SN did here. The nose is awful, but the taste is supreme. I have to give this a 7.3 for a body that holds up but is lighter than what my belly craves, and hops that are finely done but lighter than what my tongue loves.

If you are looking for a Summer beer and can’t get the Bonobo where you live, then try for this 11.5º Plato, it should have a wider distribution than Bonobo.

Leinenkugel’s IPL

Holy cow! I haven’t seen a twist-off cap in years, hahah! The recent craft trend is to cans, even, and long ago it got to be that brewers of good beer blanketed disdain on the screw-off cap. Actually, it requires a more expensive piece of machinery to seal caps like that, which is why smaller places (with tighter budgets and thinner margins) have usually gone for the pry-off cap, but it has turned into a point of beer snobbery.

According to the bottle, this IPL (already ranted on that term) is 6% alk and Leinenkugels is the Pride Of Chippewa Falls since 1867. So i’m 149 years late for that party, but seems i came at the right time. I love the body of a lager wearing the sexy dress of megahops, and this one sproings the sprongo too. Odd thing is that Texas, The Land Of Ridiculous Government Regulations, considers this an ale, not a lager beer.

Real delicious, no matter what it really is. It’s got that beefy real-beer body and jammed full o’ hops for a good aftertaste which soaks into the upper-rear palate and hangs there for a couple minutes after each glug. Good and fulfilling, though not really a Summer beer with the beefy alk level and heavier, curvy body. Sweeter than an ale, no matter what Texas nutballs say, and the bottle’s claim of a smooth finish is just about right.

Had better IPL’s, but trying another one is never a bad idea. If you’re like me, which nobody is, you’ll like this. I’ll give it a 7.0 because it’s good but not exquisite.

Magic Hat SMASH Hits IPA

A little different take on the IPA, here’s Magic Hat’s take on an IPA singularity: one hop, one malt. The latter is Vienna Pils malt, the former is Delta hops. And this is one of the Magic Hat brews which they’ve contracted out to the Genesee Brewery, instead of pure Vermont progeny.

Alk content is 5.5%, color is pale sure, but not quite as pale as many. What it does have is a distinctive taste, a lemony hop bitter and serious Euro beer body. It’s that pungent taste, sharp and biting that German beers have, only not as serious as they do it. I like the simplicity here, very citrus hopping and light-ish alcohol make this a great Summer beer. And since MH farmed out production, the price is nice too. Rating it 7.9 for having a plan and intent, and sticking to it.

Abita Big Easy IPA

Abita's Big Easy IPA — Abita’s Big Easy IPA

Normally, you beware when a beer’s label says Easy Drinkin’ on it. But i bought it anyway, because it was on sale at $9 for six. These are the same people who make Purple Haze, a raspberry lager which has nice artwork on the carton but the concept sounds like an abomination. I’m sure it is, and never plan on buying it. The artwork on this one is much less infernally menacing, with a big river steamboat. Folks on the boat are dancing, someone brought their tuba, and i think i spotted the skeleton from the Purple Haze carton.

Again, the neat trend of Much Info on the bottom of the carton, listing the malts, the hops (4 kinds) and Abita even exposes what yeast they used. Bravo, bucko! And there’s more: the water source, style, color, IBUs (40 here), the alk (4.5%), and something called a Lovibond Rating, whatever the hell that is, this beer gets 7 Lovibonds.

And still more, there are 4 kinds of approved glassware and food pairings too. Fish (narrowed down to “most fish”) are suggested, and not one but four kinds of cheese: American, Havarti, MontyJack and Muenster. Really? American cheese? I thought American cheese these days was mostly made out of plastic with colorings and flavorings added. Meh, perhaps i’m wrong about American cheese, but i can’t see it paired with anything other than white bread and ketchup, maybe a slice of some indeterminate meat.

Not going to call this TMI because i like the trend, but one wonders if the next step is full recipes on the bottom of a beer carton? It is definitely a new world for beer.

As for the beer itself, there’s a light beer-body and medium-level hops, the quartet of cones used are perhaps muddying the overall flavor where a trio or duo could have been more effective. The label comes out and admits that they tossed lemon peels into the vat, and you can taste that, and it is good, but that also might be taking some of the precision off the edges of the hops.

Light alcohol, good citrusy taste even if it is a little forced, but it certainly does taste like it’d be good on a hot-hazy-humid day, which Louisiana is simply infested with. I can recommend this for human consumption, rate it at 7.0, and encourage you to give it a go. However, my food pairings would differ: basil/garlic chicken, broiled scallops, or gouda cheese. Skip the American cheese until we determine what it’s made out of.

Great Lakes Steady Rollin’ IPA

Wordy packaging but a simple beer. Good score for info, however, and this one is at 4.8% alk with 50 IBU’s. Following a neat recent trend, the bottom of the sixer’s carton recommends the proper glass to drink this out of, and food pairings (spicy chicken tacos and fresh salad, by the way).

Single variety of hops, Mosaic, and this one is another “Session” IPA, and i really have to find out what that means one day. The technical stuff aside, i’ve had Great Lakes beer before but wasn’t bowled over by it. This one is pretty good. A low alcohol IPA for an active Summer day, clean taste and a medium-weight beer body.

Already found the perfect Summer IPA: the Bonobo from CB. But this one is a pleasing second place, nearly a creamy taste and low on the malted sweetness. I could serve this to friends and not worry whether they like it or not. A fine beer for what it tries to be, a 7.1 rating is fully earned.

Just wondering, is there any beer out there, where they recommend pairing it with bacon-wrapped meatballs? I mean, chicken tacos and fresh salad is… kinda limpdicky.

Samuel Adams Rebel Rouser Double IPA

Sam Adams' Rebel Rouser 2X IPA — Sam Adams’ Rebel Rouser 2X IPA

There’s an eye-opener. 85 IBU’s, 8.4% alk, and the outside of the can has all kinds of other descriptors like “West Coast Style” and “unapologetically hoppy.” Speaking of the can, this is the fourth Sam Adams “Rebel” IPA i’ve tried, and it should get mentioned that all the cans themselves are top-of-the-line hunks of aluminum. Much more solid and sturdy than most cans these days, and it sounds like a small matter, and it is really, but it’s just a subtle indication that this is a high-class beer operation.

But the horror of that Grapefruit IPA still clouds my opinion of Sam Adams as a whole, and it will for years to come. Apologize, Sam, or i can’t buy any of your stuff anymore. I still shudder when no one’s watching.

Now on to this Double IPA… High alcohol, absurdly hoppy, like giving your mouth a hop bath even though it insisted it was clean already. There’s no slinking around the corners with this one, either you face the hops head-on or they’ll slap your face like you just pinched their sister. Not for dilletantes, this one.

Pine and orange, according to the label, but also pine-bark and rhododendron roots, green berries and scored kafir leaves, this is so hoppy that it nudges right up against the boundary into salty. Drinking this, even your burps come out like Pine-Sol. Drink too much, and i’m sure that you won’t have to buy Lysol… your upchuck will surely leave the toidy sparkling clean.

The beer-body side of the equation is very nice, someone at SA has learned a thing or three about which malts you want if you’re going for the halo of Hoppier Than Thou. Nearly a German body to it, but instead of the sour they’ve brought in the tart. It’s a pretty good beer, and would have an 8.1, but there is the now-automatic deduction for all Sam Adams beers, until they apologize publicly for making that grapefruit IPA. So this one gets a 7.1.

Genesee Brew House Pilsner

Another crafty brew from the enormous and otherwise uncrafty Genny Brewery. To lift a wet finger to the beerworld winds, it seems like the craze for IPAs is dwindling down, and the next craze, though uncertain at this date, might just be Pilseners. Crisp light-body beers, lower in strength than IPA, lighter in hops, and all that makes the brewer’s art stand out in higher relief.

This here is a good example, though i admit that i have not been jumping all over the Pilsener wagon, but this is indeed crisp, lightly hopped and low-alk at 5.0%. As said before, i prefer a lager, so in the dark ages before crafts, i’d usually go for the lager Bud over the pilsener Miller. The pils heartland in America was always the Upper Midwest, where North Germans settled heavily… think Milwaukee and Detroit.

So with my limited comparison skills, this brew blows the doors off of the Miller i know and remember. This is hoppier, likely a nod to the current fashion in overall brewing, and it’s got real beer taste, which an 80s megabrewer had to forego in the rush to get as much beer as possible out onto the loading dock.

I like this, but at $9 for a sixer, and being neither a lager nor IPA, i probably won’t buy it again. Plenty of things i totally adore are only a buck more per 6. All considered, i can give this a hearty 7.0 for quality and for killing the preconceived notion of a pilsener, even though they spell it “Pilsner” on the label, heh.

Samuel Adams Rebel Cascade IPA

OK, i have to deduct one full point from my rating here, because of the horror of SA’s Grapefruit IPA which refuses to leave me, even after a couple weeks. And i’m sticking to my promise: i will never buy any Samuel Adams product again, until they publicly apologize for putting grapefruit juice into beer.

This is a good IPA, however. At a strong 7.3% alk, with 76 IBU’s, and i now know what an IBU is, thanks to an article in a local weekly about local craft breweries. It’s a real beer, with fully malted barley and finished with darn heavy hops, but it does go a little overboard on the hops, a problem which SA’s exquisite 48º Latitude IPA does not suffer from.

Nicely drinkable here, smooth texture in the mouth and rich beer body underneath the cloak of hops. But that 7.3% keeps it from being a “kickin back” beer. There’s really no point in running that race anymore, the Hoppier Than Thou race is over and Sierra Nevada has won. But this one got a mention on the final leaderboard, and that’s something to cheer up someone’s Grandma.

After deducting the Sam Adams Grapefruit Penalty, this Cascade IPA rates a 7.2 for quality brewing and attention to ingredients.

Smuttynose Robust Porter

Smuttynose's Robust Porter — Smuttynose’s Robust Porter

Jumpin’ Jiminy, that’s a beer which commands your attention. Almost syrupy pouring out of the bottle, and they call it a porter but it walks like a stout and talks like a stout. And it sure tastes like a stout. Can’t see light through the glass and the head is creamy like Guinness, but the head is not as persistent as a real stout. This one, i wish i had poured a pint at room temperature, that opportunity now lost, but i bet it would stand up to being drankened [sic] like in a real pub.

Taste, at refrigerator temperature, is indeed “robust” like drinking a hunk of pumpernickel bread. It has that true porter quirk of making your mouth water as you drink it, with an almost salty element. The rest of the taste is woody and hints at dark rich soil freshly turned. At 6.2% alk it’s not a small beer, burly but not swarthy, if it was a woman it’d be 5’11”, 140 pounds with big tits. And actually, there she is on the label. Not a Summer drink by any means, but paired with a meaty stew on a December evening, this beer would constitute half the meal.

I can rate it at 7.8 for purity of vision and strong execution on the brewery’s side, and i think i know a place where you can make your own sixer of craft beers for $11 where they carry all the Smuttys. I want to try this one unrefrigerated.