Will Stevens' Pumpkin Ale

Beer Name: Will Stevens' Pumpkin Ale
Brewery: Wolaver's
ABV: 5.35%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

There are three things you should know going into this post. First, Wolaver's and Otter Creek are pretty much the same company. There is a backstory here, but you can look it up yourself, you lazy slacker. Second, I think the box these beers came in had the bottling date, but I accidentally destroyed the box. There's a story there too, but I'm not telling it because it's not very good. Finally, after a weekend of brewfest-ing, we stopped at two different breweries on the way home, including Otter Creek & Wolaver's. It was like that episode of The Simpsons where Homer and Marge went to the all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant and Homer got cut off from the food, so they drove around looking for another all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant, and when they couldn't find one Homer went fishing. That's how I am with beer. And yup, that was a ridiculously ungrammatical run-on sentence. Deal with that.

Will Stevens' Pumpkin Ale is a cloudy orange beer that poured with about a half inch of head that faded pretty quickly, leaving only a slight lacing pattern behind. The aroma, as expected, is mostly pumpkins and pumpkin pie spices like nutmeg. It's not an overpowering aroma though, and there are some other things going on there that my nose is not powerful enough to pick out. Probably some other spices.

This particular pumpkin ale is completely organic, as that's Wolaver's thing. They use Vermont pumpkins, so I am assuming that all the pumpkin flavor in here is the real deal, something that cannot be said for other pumpkin brews. The pumpkin flavor here is noticeable, but it's not ridiculously strong. This means that the beer actually tastes a like a beer instead of a liquid pumpkin pie. There is a medium level of carbonation, and a slight aftertaste of spices.

Final thought - I used to be a huge Pumpkinhead guy, but I think this beer has swung me away from the overdone pumpkinicity of Shipyard's beer back to world of more subtle flavors. However, I think there's a place for both beers in the fridge this fall. The bottom line is that this Will Stevens character has got the right idea, and his beer is quite tasty.

-Jon

Sweet Action

Beer Name: Sweet Action
Brewery: Sixpoint
ABV: 5.2%
Serving method: 16-oz can in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Best by 9/20/11

This is the second of my Sixpoint gift beers. Kate drank the other 2, so you'll have to ask her how they were. I know she hated one of them, but I don't remember which one it was. Sweet Action is supposed to be a balance of sweetness and bitterness, so that's what I'm expecting.

This beer is a hazy orange color that poured with a very heavy head slightly less than an inch thick. It faded slowly, leaving just a thin layer on the top of the beer for most of the pint. There is an aroma of hops at first, but it's gradually replaced by malt. The aroma isn't very strong though. This beer leaves a light lacing behind at the end of the pint.

Much like the can suggested, there is a nice mix of sweetness and bitterness here. The sweetness starts off each sip, and there is a hoppy bitterness at the end. There is a mild carbonation in the beer, and it has sort of a creamy feel to it. The whole thing is very smooth and easily drinkable.

Final thought - I'm not sure why I let this beer hide in the fridge for so long. Well, it's only been 2 weeks, but still. This is a very enjoyable beer, and it deserved a better treatment. Luckily it comes in a can, so there's not a whole lot that can go wrong while it sits in the fridge.

-Jon

Moo Thunder Stout

Beer Name: Moo Thunder Stout
Brewery: Butternuts Beer and Ale
ABV: 4.9%
Serving method: 12-oz can in a frosted mug
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Much like their Porkslap Pale Ale, Butternuts' Moo Thunder Stout also has an awesome can. A cow getting struck by lightning isn't quite as sweet as two pig high-fiving, but it's still better than the vast majority of beer containers.

This beer is very dark, but not quite solid black. It looks sort of like cola. There was about an inch of head that slowly faded without leaving much lacing behind. That may have been because the mug was chilled, but I'm not sure. We have a Butternuts mix-pack in the fridge, so I'll be able to check this out later with a different, unchilled mug. The aroma is chocolatey and coffee sweetness, which makes it seem like this is going to be a sweet beer.

The first sip is delicious. Since this is a sweet stout as opposed to a normal stout, the lactose sort of stands out. It's not too sweet though. There's also some roasted coffee and chocolate flavors in there as well. The beer has a decent amount of carbonation, and it has some body to it. The finish has a little bit of bitter coffee, but it doesn't linger as an aftertaste.

Final thought - This was a delightful beer that went perfect with my burrito, but I think would also be great on its own or as an aftermeal digestif. I am not sure if that is what a digestif is, or if that's even how it's supposed to be used. All I know is that this beer would be delicious at a wide variety of times, and I plan to do so in the future.

-Jon

Bengali Tiger

Beer Name: Bengali Tiger
Brewery: Sixpoint
ABV: 6.4%
Serving method: 16-oz can in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Best by 9/20/11

This beer was a gift. Hooray for beer presents!

Bengali Tiger is an IPA from Sixpoint, a brewery in New York City. It's a golden orange colored beer that poured with a thin head that bubbled for a little bit and then faded away. According to the can, this beer is supposed to leave rings of lacing behind that resemble a tiger, but my particular can did not do so. I'm a little disappointed. The aroma of this beer is hoppy, like an IPA should be, but it also has some fruit in there, specifically oranges.

This beer has a very complex taste. There's citrusy hops, and sweetness from the malts, and a little bit of an orange flavor. . . there's a lot going on here. There is a slightly bitter finish, but even that has some sweetness mixed into it. The aftertaste here is very mild, with a little bit of hops. The beer wasn't very carbonated (probably why there wasn't much lacing), but I don't think that is the norm. My guess is that I just got an off can, as this beer seems like it should be a carbonated one.

Final thought - I didn't really enjoy my first sip of this beer, but after that I thought it was very good. I guess it's a good thing that I didn't judge it solely on the first sip. That also makes me think that I need to try some of the beers that I didn't really like at various beer festivals a second time, as maybe a 3- or 4-oz sample isn't enough for a full judgment. My (beer) world has really been turned upside down here.

-Jon

90 Minute IPA

Beer Name: 90 Minute IPA
Brewery: Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
ABV: 9%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pilsner glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Dogfish Head's 90 Minute IPA picks up where the 60 Minute leaves off, adding 30 more minutes of hop additions. I'm guessing that also adds some $$ to the price.

This is a copper colored beer that came with a good half inch head that gradually faded, leaving a nice lacing pattern behind. Obviously with all the hops used in the brewing process, they are the dominant aroma. It's not all hops however, as there are also some malt hints in the background.

90 Minute IPA packs quite the hop punch in its flavor. I started my bottle with the end of my meal, and it was a great beer to pair with the spicy food I was eating. Once I was finished eating, I still had about half of the bottle to go. At this point, the hoppiness was almost overwhelming. This is a very strong beer. There is a medium amount of carbonation, and the beer has a good amount of body in each sip. The finish has some sweetness and bitterness, and it lingers on in the aftertaste.

Final thought - As a beer to drink with a meal, this one is great. But as a beer to just sit back and drink a couple, I think I would go with the 60 Minute instead. The 90 is like a full-out tongue assault, and it seems to me that it needs a little food to balance it out.

-Jon

Dead Guy Ale

Beer Name: Dead Guy Ale
Brewery: Rogue Brewery
ABV: 6.5%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pilsner glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Ok, so I looked up pilsner glass because I was pretty sure that's the type of glass I had, and there are a whole bunch of different shapes that call themselves "pilsner." That's just silly. At any rate, Alex and I went to Parish Cafe (where he is participating in a 100 beers in 180 days challenge) to watch the Sox and drink some beers, so this and the next 2 beers are from that drinking session even though they'll be posted on different days from when the actually occurred.

Rogue's Dead Guy Ale is a bronze colored beer, or possibly a deep copper. Mine was poured for me, and did not have any head. The aroma was a bit tough for me to pin down, but it seemed like it was dominated by malts. Not much lacing when I was done with this one.

This beer has a good flavor, and a whole bunch of carbonation. There's maltiness the whole way through, and maybe a little bit of caramel or something else sweet. It also has a sweet finish. Even with the high carbonation, this beer was easily drinkable. I don't often drink bocks, but maybe I should try them more often.

Final thought - I know that I'm supposed to really enjoy this beer because it's from Rogue and all the beer geeks love Rogue and won't say a bad thing about them. Well, I liked it, but I'm not about to go telling everyone I know that this is a must buy. You'll probably like it, but you might not. It's pretty good though, in my opinion. Which is what you're here for.

-Jon

IPA

Beer Name: Lake Placid India Pale Ale
Brewery: Lake Placid Pub and Brewery
ABV: 6.8%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Alex had a bunch of different beers in his fridge from some sort of Beer-of-the-Month thing. I figured I might as well go with the IPA since I'm always on the lookout for IPAs that Kathryn might actually enjoy drinking.

Again, I was drinking from a bottle, so I don't have much to say about the appearance of Lake Placid's IPA. I can say that there is a good aroma of hops, but not much of the malt that the bottle's label tells me is in there.

This beer has a good amount of bitter hops, but not much malty sweetness to balance it out. I was actually expecting a lot more in the malt area, so I was a little bit disappointed. While the bitterness was good for an IPA, it was a little bit too much without anything to balance it. Having said that, this beer was still very easy to drink, and I plowed through a couple of bottles.

Final thought - While it was a good beer to just sit and relax with, I am not sure I'd go for this one again. I guess I prefer the IPAs with the sweetness in the background to balance out the bitterness from the hops.

-Jon

Mojo

Beer Name: Mojo IPA
Brewery: Boulder Beer Company
ABV: 7.2%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Best by 7/6/11

Wow, cutting it a bit close with this one. Also, I thought I already posted this, but apparently I hit Save Now instead of Publish Post. That's a rookie mistake, and you hate to see it. Oh well. I can always go back and change the date to when I actually wrote it. Problem solved.

The Mojo IPA (which I like to pronounce with a soft J just to be a doofus) comes in a bottle with a cool label that is unfortunately too dark for me to see the beer. Based purely on the aroma and taste, I would say that it's probably a light copper colored beer that would pour into a pint glass with about a 1/2" of foam, maybe slightly less. I think it would be a fun experiment to try this out with the last bottle I have to see how accurate it is. There is an aroma of citrus hops, mostly grapefruity.

The flavor here is pretty much what the aroma suggests it would be. There's a good citrus hop flavor with some nice maltiness at the end for a hint of sweetness. It has a bitter finish, but only a very slight aftertaste. There is a bit of carbonation, but not too much. Although 7.2% isn't that high, it's still up there, but the beer doesn't seem that strong. It has a good drinkability.

Final thought - This is a good IPA, but it's not one of the top tier ones. I wouldn't mind having them again, although I'll probably aim for some bottles with a best by date that's a little further away. This particular 6-pack will make a good experiment now that I've had a bottle right before the date and can drink another one once it's gone by. Let's see what happens!

-Jon

Cream Stout

Beer Name: Cream Stout
Brewery: Elm City Brewing Company
ABV: Unknown
Serving method: 16-oz draft in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

This particular lunch was a 2-beer lunch. That's my kind of lunch.

Elm City's Cream Stout is about the same color as their Oatmeal Stout. It might have been slightly lighter, but it was still pretty much solid black. This beer did not really have much head, but there was a light lacing pattern on the glass when I finished it. There is a roasted aroma here that is the most noticeable part of the scent.

The Cream Stout has an intense roasted flavor with some faint coffee in the background. It also has a very bitter finish and aftertaste. There's a lot of smokiness in the flavor, and it's not quite as smooth as their other stout. I think it would have been good with my burger, as the sweet flavor of the BBQ sauce would have paired nicely with the flavor of this beer.

Final thought - This beer was ok, but I preferred their Oatmeal Stout to it. Kate thought that it tasted like an ashtray, which begs the question of how she knows what an ashtray even tastes like. I wouldn't go that far, but there is definitely a smokey flavor to this beer. I probably wouldn't get this beer again if they had other stouts available.

-Jon

Oatmeal Stout

Beer Name: Oatmeal Stout
Brewery: Elm City Brewing Company
ABV: 3.5%
Serving method: 16-oz draft in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Ok, so June was not a big beer drinking month. Actually, that's not really accurate. It wasn't a big new beer drinking month. I had a whole bunch of 6- and 12-packs to finish off, so I didn't really want to load up on a bunch of new things to drink. There's only so much fridge space. Fortunately, all that stuff has been consumed, so it's time to kick off the second half of the year with some (hopefully) delicious new brews! First up are a pair of stouts from Keene, NH.

Elm City's Oatmeal Stout is a solid black beer that came to me without any noticeable head. This also meant that there wasn't much lacing on the glass, although there was a very faint pattern at the end of the pint. It was hard for me to pick up on any aroma here, but I think that might be more due to my allergies than to the beer not having a strong aroma. I did pick up on a little bit of roasted scents.

This beer was good, but it wasn't especially memorable. It's very smooth, with just a little bit of carbonation. There's a light roasted flavor, and an aftertaste of bitter coffee. After a few minutes, the beer became quite delicious. It seems like the kind of beer that should be served at a slightly higher temperature than your average beers. It made a great companion to my burger.

Final thought - Definitely worth the short trip to Keene, this particular oatmeal stout was very enjoyable while I drank it. I am actually shocked at how low the ABV is. This is a great example of a session beer, since it has a good flavor without knocking you on your ass.

-Jon