Tag: review

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City Beer Store – Review 2 of 4

Time for another round of which beer is the best! I have four beers to review over the course of this month that I purchased from City Beer Store in San Francisco. (You can subtract the mead, that I will review separately.)

#2 is from Hop Butcher for the World, Thematic Glow. Now this is a proper hazy. Murky yellow/orange in the glass. The famed Bedford Park, Illinois brewery has made a double hazy that has a nearly vanilla creamy mouthfeel to it. It is not over the top fruity either, in fact, it is more pine than anything with a real zing of hops. Maybe more Rakau than Citra.

This is a close call but I think the FW is a skosh ahead here with two beers to go.

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Santa’s Pint Glass – Day 15

We drive through the valley, staying in the same area code to review a San Fernando meets Belgium winter ale from 8One8 Brewing.

The label proclaims “aged with cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and cloves” none of which really stride into frame. This has a St. Bernardus Christmas Ale vibe but it seems to be missing something. The aftertaste isn’t as rounded. A little too sharp. Maybe the 2022 batch will amp the spice up.

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Review – Oktoberfest from Athletic Brewing

For a change if pace, let’s review an N/A Oktofest bier. From my go to, Athletic Brewing.

This has a pleasing beer being brewed, grist mill aroma. Doesn’t quite have the breadiness that I associate with the style though. A bit thin and watery. I get a hint of fest but it seems diluted to me. More tea like in flavor. It is a common non-alcoholic problem where everything seems too muted.

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Central Coast Okto Showdown

Today we compare / contrast two Central Coast Oktoberfest beers.

Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest, an oak aged lager, pours a pretty orange hue.  You can smell the malts from arms distance away. Crisp with malt taking center stage. Simple and straightforward.  A slight metallic note at the back but this is a lovely fall beer.

There Does Not Exist Oktoberfest Lager is another orange gem but this version is say more silky and missing some of the crispness.  I get an Navel orange citrus note as well that mingles with the malt notes.

Winner – This is a tough call. I would like to merge the crispness of the Oaktoberfest with the TDNE complexity.  But if asked which I would get seconds of, it would be the Firestone Walker.

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Review – We’re Out of Dynamite by Great Notion

I haven’t had a Great Notion beer in awhile but SoCal has been getting quite a few beers from the PDX brewery that I thought the time was right for some dynamite, or lack thereof.

You will read about where I bought it later today, but here is the review from me and two fellow tasters…

This was not a well loved beer. One gave it the lowest rating she had given a beer and the other found it not to his taste. Me well, I found toasted coconut big time with a neapolitan ice cream aroma.  There was some tropical notes but more strawberry.  It was almost like a sour stout in which the ABV over 11% does not really show.

It may be another while before I have another pastry stout

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Review – MacLeod Ales 7th Anniversary Stout

Time to crack open the impressively packaged Imperial Double Mash Stout from MacLeod Ales…

This is a gentle giant of a beer. Pours dark brown in color with just a few, fast dissipating bubbles on top. I get cherry, chocolate and a slight nutty taste at first. This is a smooth beer. The ABV is not showing. As it warms, I get Dutch chocolate pudding with a bit of coffee bean bitterness.

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Featured Review – (3) from Ruse Brewing

Thanks to City Beer Store of San Francisco, I snared a couple beers from Ruse Brewing in Portland.

Static Equation – pours a hazy yellow color.  label claims apricot, grapefruit and dankness from the Citra-Simcoe-Mosaic hop trio.  I get a dank Meyer lemon taste with a pillowy feel to it.  Bit of a hazy burn at the back of the palate.

Ghost Coast – clear and yellow in color.  has a good strong lemony bitterness.  lot of malt chewiness here as well. gettin a bit of grassy character as well.

Thought Frequency with Great Notion – lightly hazed yellow color. quite spicy and herbal driven.  light in texture. pine aroma to me.  a bit of a toasted malt character here that is different from most hazies and not what I expected from a Great Notion collab.

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Featured Review – Free Wave Hazy IPA from Athletic Brewing

Hazy and N/A? Let’s dive into the next Free Wave from Athletic Brewing

First item of visual business is that it is not holding the haze very well. It isn’t crystal clear but a little added murk is in order. The aroma is very much orange candy or soda. That carries over into the taste which has a pretty good level of piney dank bitterness but I am not getting the pillowy quality that should be in the style. Then the body fades at the end a bit. If this was labeled West Coast, it would get higher ratings but for a hazy, it misses too many marks

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Up From The Cellar – Bourbon County Stout 2014

I have found a beer that I guess I hid out of spite for SABInBev. Time to open this 2014 pre-variant heavy slate of Bourbon County Stouts.

BCS14 – Pours a murky dark brown.  Light bourbon on the nose.  A little cherry in the taste but this is not heavy at all.  Some chocolate and wood notes as well with a tiny touch of sour at the back. Alcohol doesn’t really show.  Thinking that maybe 7 years was too much time? Just amazed at how thin it is overall