Beer Reviews – Page 59 – Beer Search Party

September 25, 2015August 31, 2018

Featured Review – Oktoberfest from Goose Island

We head to the Chicago and Goose Island for our third Oktoberfest offering, Goosetoberfest!(That’s what I call it)

Now this garnet hued Festbier smells Germanic to me. Sweet and malty. That combo prominently stars in the beer but thanks to a hearty bitter kick and some dryness on the back of the tongue, this beer avoids being a one-hit wonder. There is a brûlée note that opens up as the beer warms as well. I can easily see this being “imperialized” and then cellared. It really reminds me of the sweeter aged beers like Samichlaus. The label makes claims of toffee and dried apricot. I can understand where people would taste the toffee but the apricot is a puzzler to me.

No matter, this would kill with a bratwurst. The savory would really play well with this especially if you had a sweet condiment to go with it.

September 22, 2015August 31, 2018

Review – Deep Roots from Three Weav3rs

Deep Roots is my favorite beer from Three Weav3rs. And now that they are bottling their stuff, I have the chance to see how the ESB fares in the bottle.

First off, I really like the design. No matter the color, you know you are looking at a Three Weav3rs beer with the wavy lines painted on the bottle. I also like that the beer description is in a nice sized font and not the Stone eye test font.

On to the beer, the aroma has a woodsy-sawdust aroma to it that I really enjoy. The flavor has a good bite of hops that compliments the malt focus that is really the star of the show. There is a nutty taste that I associate with British beers here as well. Maybe a little to citrusy for a traditional ale but compared to the prevailing West-Coast style it is very Great (Britain).

September 21, 2015August 31, 2018

Review – Fruitlands from Modern Times

On the label, Modern Times has three descriptors for their beer. I would make the following change. Cherry – Cherry – Tart. Not quite sour and the Gose part is well buried under an avalanche of cherry. You would think that I didn’t like the beer. But I do. This is a fun fruit beer for cherry lovers which I am one.

The beer is a serious pink/rose color. The aroma is all about the fruit as is the taste. Let me get a little more detailed. This is pie cherry. The kind with that touch of spice to it. Nutmeg and cinnamon to be more precise. As the beer warms, an almost pie crust taste can be detected at the back. It may be denting an even bigger cherry taste but it is not hindering it much.

So, the question is, do you like cherries? If the answer is yes, then buy it.

September 19, 2015August 31, 2018

Featured Review : Oktoberfest from Hofbräu Munchen

For these first two Oktoberfest reviews, I have made the unusual choice of pairing the beer with cookies. Diddy Riese cookies, to be exact. Now we move on to the second beer, Hofbrau Oktoberfest.

For this traditional Teutonic version, I have picked a cinnamon sugar and white chocolate Macadamia nut cookie to pair with the Oktoberfest in the (shudder) green bottle. The beer pours a dark yellow and has a much more Pilsner-esque aroma to it when compared with Left Hand’s more autumnal Okto.

Starting with the cinnamon sugar, the noble hop kick and fizziness of the Hofbräu beer struggles at first but settles on a slightly overlapping flavor profile. The minerality of the beer is at odds with the cookie though.

Nuttiness and sweetness of the Macadamia nut with white chocolate has a nice counterbalance thing going on but this type of cookie would be a beast to pair a beer with and this Okto though light can’t balance the cookie enough.

September 14, 2015August 31, 2018

Review – Harvest Newly Developed Hops from Sierra Nevada

Orange as a pumpkin, or the New Black is my take on the color of this latest Harvest beer from Sierra Nevada. To me the proof is in the pudding though. I love the idea of the series as it stands but the execution hasn’t thrilled me. I’ve had good beers but nothing to reach the level of the iconic pale or the Torpedo IPA.

This new beer does have some nice orange juice notes to it. Not super laden down either, it has a nice bubbly texture to it. There is also some wine grape notes stuck in there as well primarily from the aroma. This is the type of beer that could elicit different flavor responses from each person that tries it. The bitterness is a notch too strong and a little tannic to me.

This is an interesting effort. Better than others in the series but still hampered by attributes that don’t work for me.

September 10, 2015August 31, 2018

Featured Review – Oktoberfest from Left Hand Brewing

For the first of four OktoFest beer reviews we start in Colorado with Left Hand Brewing. And to change things up, I am tasting this Marzen Lager paired with three cookies from the famous Diddy Riese in Westwood.

When tasting with the peanut butter cookie, the beer really helps lighten the buttery and heaviness of the peanut butter. The dark roast is a little too much for the peanut flavor though.

When it comes to the classic chocolate chip cookie, the match-up is a little too adversarial for me the beer wants to be lighter but the chocolate is too rich and sweet and doesn’t give up

Oddly, the chocolate chocolate chip works much better. The added sweetness gives a proper foil for the malt and carbonation.

Overall, the Left Hand Oktoberfest is light and lively with a bit of spice to it. A solid beer.

September 3, 2015August 31, 2018

A New Stroll on Mission Street

Trader Joe’s has a few house brands, Ol’ Burro (Golden Road) and Joseph Brau (Gordon Biersch) and Mission Street which was done by Firestone Walker but now is brewed by 4+ Brewing in Salt Lake City.

So it is time to see how the Utah version of the session pale and IPA taste….

The slightly mercenary naming of the pale ale as a “session pale” is the only turn-off for the blue labeled Mission Street. The beer has a juicy citrus and tea taste with a nice layer of bitterness and malt underneath. It tastes lighter than the 4.7% ABV.

(On a side note, the label is stamped with the bottling date which is very helpful.)

On to the IPA, which is quite fine. Woodsy would be the main flavor attribute. A little toffee sweetness to it which is a bit of a detriment. Tastes heavier than it’s ABV which is a fitting counterpoint to the pale ale. Again, it is rather a juicy beer with some pepper notes in it.

I would take the Session Pale over the IPA but both are screaming great deals at $6.99 a six-pack with tax that comes out to about $1.25 a bottle.

August 28, 2015August 31, 2018

Review – Snakebite From Gigantic

Many moons ago, I embarked on a month-long visit to London as a college theatre course. My naive beer and alcohol knowledge consisted of wine information gleaned from my parents and college parties. For some reason, I became enamored of the Snakebite a 1/2 lager – 1/2 cider concoction with black currant added. It was not good.

But now, memories paint it in a different light and Gigantic Brewing has teamed with Cider Riot! and Beau’s All Natural Brewing to make a 2015 version of the Snakebite. The Gigantic version is Kolsch fermented with apple juice and black currant .

How will it compare to my faded recollections? Let’s see….

Right off the bat the currant and apple flavors pop. Thankfully, it isn’t in a sweetened juice way as this ale/cider hybrid gets very dry, very quickly. There is a biscuity undertone and a bit of watery lightness on the back of the tongue to stave off a complete drying effect. This amber/red streaked colored beer still retains a beer-iness even though the aroma has a bit of mint quality to it. Like drinking a sour ale, this rewards the fan who slowly takes it in rather than as a quick refresher type of beer.

On my new (patent pending) rating scale of, Buy It! – get a bottle. Try It. – get a taster. Shy from It. – get something else first Snakebite gets a Buy It!

August 26, 2015August 31, 2018

Featured Review – Two from Pure Order Brewing

I started my duo of Reinheitsgebot influenced beers from Santa Barbara’s Pure Order Brewing with what they call a red wheat with the moniker Red Eye. They reference dunkel on the label but this beer felt lighter with hints of strawberry to it. Did I hold onto it for too long? Was my first thought upon sipping for the first time. Before long though a light grain taste started peeking through the hazy, dull and nearly black beer. The promised raisin notes surfaced as well.

Crooked Neck Hefe has a better name and a cool tall tie-in to the Santa Barbara Zoo but I fear it also fell into a too old trap. Hints of clove and banana are underneath. But there is a starting to turn edge to it that even some warming up can’t alleviate. I can’t in good conscience review it here. What I do know is that these beers either didn’t have good transport to L.A. or they were more delicate than others in the style.

I will try again and amend this post with further results.

August 20, 2015August 31, 2018

Featured Review – Vanilla Coffee Lager from Sudwerk

When I get a “blah” / “meh” kind of beer, my first and charitable reaction is to think that I bought it or drank it too late.

That may be what happened with this Coffee Vanilla Lager. I recently had Sudwerk’s Citrus Gose and really enjoyed it so my expectations were high for this beer but it never really took flight.

Coffee notes were really muted. No sweetness from the vanilla or cocoa nibs was evident, so I was left with a middling slightly flavorful dark lager. I will chalk it up to bad timing and try it again. Maybe if I see it on draft.