Dorothy Goodbody's Stout

Beer Name: Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout
Brewery: Wye Valley Brewery
ABV: 4.6%
Serving method: 16.9-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

This is the last of the group of stouts I got, so hopefully we'll finish things off on a positive note. The only reason that this one was last is because it was furthest back in the fridge. Let's see how it goes.

Dorothy Goodbody's Stout is another pretty dark stout, but not quite as dark as the Oat was. This one is almost solid black, but has ruby highlights when held up to a light. There was a little bit of head on it which faded very slowly and left a whole bunch of lacing behind. The aroma here is very subtle acidic coffee. That doesn't sound very appealing, and it isn't.

This beer has a very sharp bite to it. That is the major taste that I get. It's a lot more bitter than most stouts I've had before, which is probably related to the acidic smell. It feels a lot hoppier than other stouts, or less malty, or both. As a stout, I am not sure that bitterness is the way to go. There is quite a bit of carbonation here, and that combined with the bitterness makes this beer a little harsh to drink.

Final thought - I don't really like this beer. It's too bitter and dry to be a stout. Maybe that's the way "English" stouts are supposed to be, but if so, then they're not for me.

-Jon

Long Trail Pale Ale - UPDATE!

I have good news about the Pale Ale! I had the last of the 3 contained in that Survival Pack, and it tasted just fine. So that means that other one was just bad, and the beer is normally tasty. This one had a good hoppy flavor and fits nicely into the "pale ale" category. And any time I can add another beer to my approved list, that's a good day.

-Jon

Firehouse Amber Ale

Beer Name: McNeill's Firehouse Amber Ale
Brewery: McNeill's Brewery
ABV: 5.5%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Best by Feb 2011

Day 10 - The fridge is starting to look a little lean. The number of selections has been declining steadily. I'm not sure we'll make it to Christmas.

I first tried this beer at one of the many brewers festivals this past summer. Then I saw a bottle of it at Ryan & Casey's, so I figured I'd give it another go. Unfortunately, this was the same day I got a very spicy burrito that paralyzed my tastebuds, rendering them incapable of savoring my newfound brew. So today is the day we finally give the Firehouse Amber Ale its due.

This beer is a cloudy golden orange color with a thick head that disappears very slowly. As it fades, it leaves a very heavy lacing behind. The aroma of this beer is lightly hoppy and citrusy.

Firehouse Amber Ale has a slightly bitter hoppy taste and then a sort of sour flavor in the aftertaste. I like the hops, but I don't think I really care for the sourness. There's a slight carbonation here which adds a nice bit of action to each sip. There isn't much other flavor going on here, which is kind of disappointing. I remember this beer being different the first time I had it.

Final thought - While it's not a bad beer, I'm just not a big fan of this one any more. I am not sure what happened between that first taste and now, but things just aren't the same. Sorry Firehouse Amber Ale; it's not you, it's me. We've just grown apart.

-Jon

Oat Imperial

Beer Name: Oat Imperial Oatmeal Stout
Brewery: Southern Tier Brewing Company
ABV: 9.6% or 10.8% or 11%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

This ABV business is getting ridiculous. I've got 9.6% from Beer Advocate, 10.8% from the Southern Tier website, and 11% from the actual bottle. If a company can't stay consistent from their website to their own bottle, then there's almost no hope of me figuring it out. Maybe the bottle is rounding up? Either way, I'm not sure where BA is getting their figures.

The Oat Imperial Oatmeal Stout is possibly the darkest beer I've ever had. I actually held the glass up to a very bright light to see what happened, and it was like an eclipse. I was expecting a little bit of head on it, but I didn't actually get any. None at all. And despite this, there was still a very faint amount of lacing on the glass. I'm not sure where it came from. The beer's aroma was malt and oats, and it smelled delicious. I would wear this beer as a cologne. And then probably alienate all my friends and family.

Oh boy, this beer is tasty. It's very malty and has pretty much no hoppiness, so those of you who hate the Celebration Ale, give this a try. It's basically the opposite. I am not exactly sure what the oats contribute here, but I like it. The beer is super smooth, and if it weren't for the ridiculously high alcohol content, I could drink this all night. As is, I will probably be on my ass after this bottle, which is like drinking 5+ beers in 20 minutes. There is a bit of a sweet aftertaste to this beer.

Final thought - If this beer wasn't so expensive, I would drink a bottle every week. It is absolutely fantastic. In other news, this post is the first time there's been 4 tags instead of 3. Yet another landmark event during this fantastic beer streak.

-Jon

Long Trail Pale Ale

Beer Name: Long Trail Pale Ale
Brewery: Long Trail Brewing Company
ABV: Um. . .
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Bottled 11/1/10

Alright, I am mildly concerned because this beer is not listed on the Long Trail website. That's weird. I hope this isn't a trap beer, which is actually poison. I guess we'll find out.

This particular pale ale is a cloudy golden color with a little bit of orange in there. There was about 1/4" of head on top which faded quickly and left a decent amount of lacing behind. The aroma here is of piney hops, as expected in a pale ale.

Hmm. There's something off about the taste here. I don't know if this is an issue with this beer in general or this specific beer because I remember trying Kathryn's beer before and it tasted fine. For whatever reason, this bottle of beer just tastes off. I can taste the hoppiness and the crisp bitter finish, but there's also something weird going on. Maybe it IS poison!! In non-paranoid news, the beer has a medium carbonation that works well with the beer's style. The finish is a little dry, but not too much. There's a mildly hoppy aftertaste.

Final thought - I hesitate to make a decision about this beer until I try another one. I had a sip of Kathryn's last time she was here, and it tasted like a good pale ale. Not top notch, but still good. This one just tastes wrong. I will save my final judgment until I get another opportunity to try one.

-Jon

Double Chocolate Stout

Beer Name: Young's Double Chocolate Stout
Brewery: Wells & Young's Ltd.
ABV: 5.2%
Serving method: 16.9-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Best by 3/26/11

I believe this post marks the first beer from outside the United States. We're going global with this thing!!

Young's Double Chocolate Stout is one of the darkest stouts I've ever seen. You can just barely make out a hint of ruby at the extremes, but other than that, this baby is solid darkness. There is a light head, and the beer leaves an erratic lacing pattern on the glass. Based on the name of the beer, I bet you can guess that the aroma is chocolate. There also seems to be some roasted chocolate. Maybe that's the double chocolate from the beer's name!

If you ever try this, prepare yourself for a sweet beer. There are chocolate beers, and then there's this beer. By far, the dominant flavor here is chocolate. This is almost like drinking a dessert. I know there are wines classified as "dessert wines," but I am not sure if there are dessert beers. If there are, this beer has to be included. After the initial chocolateyness, there is a mild toffee flavor in the background at the end. This beer is not very carbonated, which makes it very smooth to drink. It has a mild chocolate aftertaste.

Final thought - If you know anything about me, you know that I love chocolate almost as much as a girl who just got dumped. Actually, maybe more. So obviously I enjoy this beer. It's good when it's cold and it's good as it warms up. The sweetness might be a little too much to drink more than a couple though, which is its only downside. Other than that, it's great.

-Jon

Hibernator

Beer Name: Hibernator
Brewery: Long Trail Brewing Company
ABV: 5.6% or 6%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Bottled 11/3/10

There's still lots of new beers in the fridge, so the streak continues. I've got a Long Trail Survival Pack and 4 more untested bombers, so there should be daily updates from here to Christmas. Consider that your present from me.

So, Beer Advocate says that Hibernator is 5.6% ABV and Long Trail's website says it's 6%. I would assume that Long Trail knows its beer, but then again, it's in Vermont which means there's probably a lot of pot smoking going on. Hooray for stereotypes!

Long Trail's Hibernator is their winter beer in the Scottish ale style, which means that it probably gets rip-roaring drunk and then goes golfing and eats haggis. Yeah, stereotypes again!!. Anyway, the beer is a cloudy orange color with a thin head and a light lacing. Its aroma is a malty scent with a little bit of bread/grains and maybe something sweet like coffee or caramel.

This beer is deceptive. The first sip is weird, and seems not good. But then it gets more tasty as it warms up a little bit. Don't get fooled by that first taste. It gets much better. The beer has a slightly sweet malty flavor with a little bit of hops in the background. There's not a lot of carbonation, but it still seems like too much. The beer finishes cleanly without an aftertaste.

Final thought - This beer is good for the winter, since it tastes like a winter beer. I do wish it was slightly less carbonated, because then I could definitely just drink a bunch and avoid going outside for an extended period of time. Which is pretty much all I'm looking for during the winter.

-Jon

Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

Beer Name: Lefty's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
Brewery: Lefty's Brewing Company
ABV: 7.2%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown for sure, but sometime around 12/6

I have been looking for this beer ever since Mmmm, beers! launched and I found out that Lefty's was right up the street from Kathryn. Well, that search has finally concluded. Also, the confusion about the date up there is because Lefty's mentioned something on that particular date about Chocolate Oatmeal Stout on their Facebook page. I am not sure how exact it is though.

As a stout, this is another dark beer, but it's a deep brown with hints of red as opposed to the almost blackness of the last milk stout. Like the other dark beers I've gotten from Lefty's, there wasn't very much head or lacing. The smell was sweet roasted coffee at first, and then a strong chocolate smell after a minute or 2.

The Chocolate Oatmeal Stout doesn't taste as heavy as most other stouts. It's very smooth, with roasted chocolate as the main flavor. The beer also has a little bit of a burnt coffee taste. That sounds like it would be bad, but in beer that's not a problem. It's very malty, and there's a little bit of hop flavor to balance things out at the end. There's just a little bit of carbonation, and a slightly sweet aftertaste.

Final thought - After the way my brain hyped this beer up, there was pretty much no way it could possibly live up to my expectations. With that in mind, I still enjoyed it. I think it could possibly have had a little more chocolate, but that's just me. I'd be willing to drink it again, given the opportunity.

-Jon

Blackbeary Wheat

Beer Name: Blackbeary Wheat
Brewery: Long Trail Brewing Company
ABV: 4%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Bottled 11/01/10

Let's keep this thing going. Four beers in four days, even though I am secretly writing this a couple of days ago. It's like a time paradox!

Blackbeary Wheat is one of many fruit beers that I enjoy because I am secure in my masculinity. And because I can't call myself a beer connoisseur without being open to all beer varieties. This beer is a pale yellow color and sort of looks like one of those beers you would be drinking at a keg party. There is no noticeable head or lacing. The aroma of this beer is blackberry (obviously) and maybe some malt. Mostly it's berries though.

Much as expected, the dominant flavor here is blackberry. As a matter of fact, this beer would probably be terrible without it. There's also some grainy flavor, which is probably the "wheat" part of the name. It's a very light beer, with a little bit of carbonation and no real aftertaste. Combined with the low ABV, you could probably drink a dozen of these before you run into any problems.

Final thought - This beer is good at what it does, which is be refreshing. It's not a beer that I would be super excited about, but it does make a regular trip to the fridge during the warmer months. Overall, it's very average.

-Jon

Milk Stout #2

Beer Name: Left Hand Milk Stout
Brewery: Left Hand Brewing Company
ABV: 5.2%
Serving method: 16-oz draft
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Bam! Three new beers in a row. Now we're cooking with gas!

After my delicious experience with Wachusett's Milk Stout, I decided that I should always try beers in the milk/sweet stout variety if I have the opportunity. So when the guy at the bar finally moved and I could read the draft list, I knew that Left Hand's offering had to be my beer of choice.

This is a dark beer. The Vanilla Stout from earlier was pretty dark, but this one makes it look more like Coca-Cola. The Left Hand beer is more opaque. There is a thin head on it, but it leaves a very heavy lacing pattern. The aroma here is like a roasted sweetness with the usual suspects of coffee and chocolate in the background.

This beer is delicious! It's a little sweet, but not overly so. It's not very carbonated though, which I liked because I don't want a lot of carbonation in my stouts. But some other people probably won't like it because it almost seems flat. Well, to each his own. There's a little bit of the coffee and chocolate flavor in here as well. This is an easy drinking beer.

Final thought - Buy this, drink this, enjoy this. It's fantastic. And it's not too strong, so you can have a bunch before there's a problem.

-Jon

Smuttynose IPA

Beer Name: Finestkind IPA
Brewery: Smuttynose Brewing Company
ABV: 6.9%
Serving method: 16-oz draft
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

See, I told you it was time to get serious. And back-to-back posts is the best way I know how to make that happen.

Smuttynose is one of the most hilariously named breweries around, and they have a little otter (or something similar) in their logo so they get to be on the list of beers I'll pretty much always try. The "Finestkind" IPA is a deep golden-orange beer with about 1/4" of head on the top. This lasted for a bit as well as leaving a nice lacing on the glass. The aroma here is the standard citrusy and piney hops of an IPA.

Whoa, this is a dry IPA. There isn't a whole lot of bitterness, but it's so dry that I almost needed a water afterwards to rehydrate my mouth. Ok, that's an exaggeration. But this is very dry. If you don't like your IPAs dry (think Stone IPA or Celebration Ale), then you'll want to skip this. As for drinkability, this beer has a medium carbonation and survives nicely as it warms up.

Final thought - This is an above average IPA, but I wouldn't rank it in the top tier of ones that I've tried. I'll drink it again though, because it was very enjoyable.

-Jon

Vanilla Stout

Beer Name: Saranac Vanilla Stout
Brewery: The Matt Brewing Company
ABV: 4.8%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Alright, it's time to get back on track with the beer tasting. November wasn't a major dropoff from the first 2 months, but it wasn't where it should have been. December is time to turn things around. Obviously I'm not spending my time eating burgers, so I should have plenty of opportunities to go buy new beers.

Or maybe Kathryn will have time to buy beers, like her Saranac Winter Pack. There were a few different beers that I was excited to try, but #1 on the list was the Vanilla Stout. It's a stout AND vanilla! That has to be delicious, right?

This beer, like most stouts, falls into the dark category. There wasn't really much head here, but that might be because it's been sitting in the bottom of the fridge for a bit. It still left a little lacing despite this. The aroma here is like a vanilla coffee.

Blah. This beer does not do justice to what I'm expecting for a vanilla stout. It doesn't taste like a typical stout, and that's not a good thing. There's a little bit of the vanilla here, but, as Kathryn put it, it tastes like a "soda beer." It's got a healthy amount of carbonation, and not much of an aftertaste.

Final thought - There were 2 Vanilla Stouts in the variety pack, and I won't be drinking the second one. That's pretty much all that needs to be said here.

-Jon

60 Minute IPA

Beer Name: 60 Minute IPA
Brewery: Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
ABV: 6%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Bottled 9/2/10

I bought this beer for 3 reasons: I'm on an IPA kick, there wasn't anything else that caught my attention, and "Dogfish" reminds me of Chloe's catfish-like face on her supposedly dog body. Hee hee, pugs are pretty ridiculous. Based on the name, I am guessing that this is an India Pale Ale that uses a 60-minute boil. You know, in case you cared.

This beer is a golden color and slightly opaque. It leaves a very thin head that quickly evaporates while still leaving a good lacing on the glass. There's a citrusy hop smell, as expected from an IPA. If you let it sit for a minute or two, you can also pick up on something else, but I am not sure what. You'll have to give it a try and let me know.

The 60 Minute IPA is classic IPA. There's a bunch of hops at the beginning of a sip, and then a little bit of maltiness. It finishes a bit dry and bitter, but not nearly to the degree of something like the Celebration Ale. The light amount of carbonation is perfect for this beer. There's more of an aftertaste here than I'd like, but it's not a deal-breaker.

Final thought - 60 Minute IPA is a solid beer that will enjoy a place on my rapidly growing list of approved Fridge Fillers (trademark pending). I think even nonfans of IPAs might enjoy it since it's not nearly as bitter as most others are. But it's still a little bitter, so don't try to misquote me by telling me I said otherwise. I'm on to you!

-Jon

Cabin Fever

Beer Name: Cabin Fever Ale
Brewery: Berkshire Brewing Company
ABV: 6.3%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown, best by 4/21/11

Wow, this beer is either really fresh, or lasts a really long time. April!?

I have been out of the beer game recently, which is sad. In actuality, I have been drinking lots of crappy beer, but Bud Light doesn't qualify for a place here since there's nothing "mmmm" about it. And also because a lot of it ended up making its way back out of my stomach by the same route it went in. Oops.

I am pretty sure that I've reviewed Cabin Fever before. In fact, I'm sure of it. But who cares? That was a long time ago, at a restaurant that no longer exists in that location. And it wasn't covered at this particular branch of the Mmmm [nouns] franchise. So let's revisit this tasty brew.

Cabin Fever Ale apparently fits into the "winter warmer" category. It's a copper ale with a mild head and a serious lacing pattern. It's like artwork. There's a malty aroma with a little bit of spicy hop.

As for the taste, it's more malty than hoppy. There's sweetness and grains, and a bunch of spices in the background. I am not feeling a whole lot of carbonation, and there's no bitterness. The aftertaste is a little sweet as well. If you don't like hops, you might like this beer, as they are very difficult to find here.

Final thought - Just like I thought last time I had it, this beer is delicious. I prefer it strongly to the other winter warmer I've had this season, although this was doesn't taste as much like Christmas. I suppose that if I were snowed in with a few growlers of this, things would be ok and I would not, in fact, suffer from Cabin Fever.

-Jon