Avalanche

Beer Name: Avalanche Ale
Brewery: Breckenridge BBQ & Brew Pub
ABV: 5.4%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

I wish all breweries gave all their beers exciting names. I find that Avalanche Ale is a much more exciting name than just calling it Breckenridge Amber Ale. The only downside to giving beers cool names is when you go out to a restaurant and they don't clarify on their menu what type of beer each option is. Sometimes it's pretty obvious (if I'm ordering something called Hop Devil, I'm not expecting a stout), but if I told you a beer's name was Mojo, that doesn't really give you any possible reference point for beer type.* Still, I'd rather have the exciting names. If I end up drinking a Belgian white because of it, that's really my fault for not doing my research properly.

Avalanche Ale is a reddish amber beer that poured with a fluffy head around a finger in width. The head faded away pretty quickly, and it left a very erratic lacing pattern. There is a sweet malt aroma mixed with something fruity smelling. My instinct is to say apples, like a crisp Granny Smith apple aroma. Everything seems light and pleasant here.

This is a pretty malty beer, with really only the faintest hint of any kind of hop. There is a fruitiness to the flavor as well, but nothing dramatic. I think it could use just a little bit more carbonation, but without knowing the age of the beer I probably shouldn't make that a general statement. This particular bottle could use some more oomph though. The beer finishes with a very light bitterness, and it lingers slightly with the malt.

Final thought - While nothing spectacular, there isn't anything I dislike about this beer. It's light and crisp, it has a nice maltiness to it, and it finishes without leaving a heavy flavor behind. This would be an easy beer to make a night of, and a drastic improvement over what generally makes up a long night of drinking.

-Jon

*Mojo is an IPA, which you would have known if you were a dedicated reader.

Red Rocket Ale

Beer Name: Red Rocket Ale
Brewery: Bear Republic Brewing Co.
ABV: 6.8%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on:

Bear Republic refers to this beer as a "bastardized Scottish style red ale" on the bottle, but as an amber ale on their website. Eh, whatever. They can call it whatever they'd like as far as I'm concerned, since it's their beer.

Red Rocket Ale is a dark amber beer. It poured with about a finger of head that faded slowly, leaving a moderate lacing pattern behind. The aroma of this beer is fantastic. There is a nice roasted sweetness coming from the malts, like a toasty caramel or toffee. It also has some hop aromas, probably just a few aromatic hops tossed in there for a little balance. I would wear this beer as a cologne, it smells so good. Well, probably not because that would be silly, but you get the idea.

The flavor here is good, but not quite as good as the aroma. This is a fairly strong flavored beer, with a whole lot of malt flavors dominating. There are some hops in there as well, but they only come through as a lightly bitter finish. The beer lingers slightly with a caramel aftertaste in the middle of my tongue.

Final thought - I enjoyed this beer, although you have to prepare yourself for an assault on your tongue. It makes a good sipping beer.

-Jon

Red Rock Ale

Beer Name: Red Rock Amber Ale
Brewery: Opa-Opa Steakhouse & Brewery
ABV: 6%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Born 11/5/11

I'm a little bit surprised that this beer hasn't been featured here before. Has it really been over 16 months since the last time I drank one? Time sure flies.

I was drinking these bad boys straight from the bottle, but I've had enough on draught to know some of the important details. Red Rock is a redding copper colored beer that has a little bit of head, but that's not really what it's all about. The aroma is a mixture of light hops and malt, and everything here seems to be in balance. Nothing too outstanding, but nothing bad either.

Much like the aroma, everything is here in balance. There are some nice malty flavors with very light hints of fruitiness. There are also some grassy hops, but nothing bitter. The whole thing has a little bit of a roasted or toasted flavor. Good carbonation for the flavors, and the beer is easy drinking.

Final thought - I like the Red Rocks, so long as they are nice and cold. This is not a beer that stands up to a temperature shift very well though, so be sure to keep them well refrigerated.

-Jon

Hop Harvest Ale

Beer Name: Hop Harvest Ale
Brewery: Vintage Brewing Co.
ABV: 6.6%
Serving method: 16-oz draft in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Since we had to check out of our hotel by noon and our flight wasn't until 5:20, we still had quite a bit of time to kill even after factoring in a 1.75 hour drive to the airport. We decided that the best way to spend said time would be at a brewery. Little did I know at the time that all this delicious beer (along with pretty much everything else I had consumed in the previous 24 hours) would be violently expelled from my body in a losing battle with motion sickness.

Vintage had a whole bunch of enticing beers, but I finally settled on the Hop Harvest Ale for my first choice. It was a cloudy ruby colored beer that arrived with a very light head that faded away, leaving only a thin layer behind that lasted for most of the beer. It also left a light lacing pattern behind. The aroma of this beer was hoppy, but a grassy sort of hops. It makes me think that the beer is hopped using super-fresh local hops, but I don't really know if Wisconsin is the appropriate climate for hop growing or if any local hops even exist. It's a mystery.

This beer had a very good flavor. It was hoppy, but the hops weren't overpowering like with an IPA. It was like they were an important part of the beer without being the main focus. They are also present in a lightly bitter finish. The beer had a nice amount of carbonation and finished cleanly.

Final thought - This was a great first beer choice. I would definitely recommend it to anyone, but I'm not sure that Vintage ships its beers way out here to MA. That's quite unfortunate, as this was only the first of several delicious things I drank that afternoon.

-Jon

Late Harvest

Beer Name: Late Harvest Autumn Ale
Brewery: Redhook Ale Brewery
ABV: 5.9%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Bottled 9/8/11

Redhook is actually based in Washington, but it has a brewery in New Hampshire as well. Based on some simple calculations (i.e. looking at a map), I'm assuming that this particular bottle of beer originated in NH rather than a few thousand miles away.

Late Harvest is an ambery copper colored beer based on the small amount that I spilled. It's probably a bit darker when it's poured into a glass. There is a nice aroma of sweet maltiness here, with something like maple syrup in there. At first, I was expecting this to be a hoppy kind of beer, with the "Harvest" part of the name implying that it was brewed with fresh-picked hops. However, upon giving it a good sniff, I am 100% sure that my original thought was incorrect.

Much like the aroma, this beer's flavor is pretty heavy on the malt. Sweetness upfront and sweetness in the finish. There's a medium amount of carbonation, which is more than I was expecting. I don't think that's a bad thing though. The finish is a bit heavy and sticky, and it has a little bitterness in it from what I can only assume is from some kind of finishing hops.

Final thought - Nothing wrong with this one. It's a good malty beer with a nice variety of sweetness to it. It's a little thin, but that's not a game-breaker. Although I have learned through my research that the company that owns Redhook might be partly owned by the same folks who brew such delicious beverages as "The King of Beers." That might be an issue.

-Jon

Hex

Beer Name: Hex
Brewery: Magic Hat
ABV: 5.4%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Best by 11/30/11

Hex, aka Ourtoberfest, is not classified as an Oktoberfest beer over at Beer Advocate. This also goes for the Rate Beer site, although this one seems like a less fancy ripoff of Beer Advocate. I decided to go straight to the source, but on the actual Magic Hat website, it's classified as an Ourtoberfest, which just isn't helpful at all. Come on! That's not even a style!!

Regardless of what kind of beer it officially is, Hex is a deep copper colored beer that pours with about a half inch of head that fades fairly quickly, leaving almost no lacing. The aroma is strongly malty, with some caramel and chocolate notes. It seems like a typical smelling Oktoberfest beer, even though it might not be.

As usual, Magic Hat produces another enjoyable beer. There is a nice malty flavor here, with a lot of the caramel from the aroma and just a light hint of the chocolate. The beer has a light carbonation and a smooth mouthfeel, leaving just a hint of hops and caramel in the aftertaste.

Final thought - It probably isn't the best Oktoberfest beer, or possibly even an Oktoberfest for that matter, but Hex is tasty and makes a great choice for relaxation. It even tastes good when it warms up, which works nicely if you are struggling to find something good to watch on TV on a Thursday while the Red Sox are working on the most epic September collapse in baseball history.

-Jon