Double IPA

Beer Name: Double IPA
Brewery: The People's Pint
ABV: 7.8%
Serving method: 12-oz draft in a snifter
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

My phone refuses to recognize the word "snifter" as being a legitimate word. This thing needs a "Yes, this is a word and stop changing it to 'sniffer' every time" button. Admittedly, that name could use some work.

The Double IPA is a seasonal beer from The People's Pint. It arrived in its snifter as a amber-orange beer with just a little bit of head on top. This faded away fairly quickly, but did its best to cling to the sides in a heavy lacing pattern. Sadly, it was not very successful, but I believe that is because the glass was not properly rinsed as I was picking up just a very faint soapy flavor. We can talk about how soapy flavors in a beer can arise from either improper rinsing or over-fermentation, but that's really a topic for another day and another blog (like Mmmm, brewing, which I am trademarking right now). Bottom line is that without a properly cleaned glass, there isn't going to be any lacing, which is what happened here. On the other hand, the aroma of this beer is a super strong citrus hop, and it's fantastic.

Had this beer's flavor lived up to the aroma, it would probably be a new favorite. Alas, this was not to be. The beer has a pretty good flavor, but not as awesome as the aroma. It's not as citrusy as the aroma had led me to expect, and it could use just a little more maltiness for balance. As it is, there is a lot of bitterness without much flavor behind it at the end of each sip. Fortunately, the aftertaste is pretty mellow, so it doesn't drive you away. The light carbonation works well for this beer.

Final thought - This beer gets an A+ for aroma, but only a borderline B- in execution. I really should give it another try in my own glassware just to see what was going on in the soap department, so I'll keep an eye out for it at Ye Olde Package Store, aka Ryan & Casey's.

-Jon

Lucky U

Beer Name: Lucky U IPA
Brewery: Breckenridge BBQ & Brew Pub
ABV: 6.2%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

I picked up this mix-pack of beers a while back, but there wasn't room in the fridge for it so I hid it away out of the light. Now that I've finally cleared some space, it's time to hit these 4 beers from Breckenridge.

Lucky U is a hazy beer, somewhere between orange and light brown in color. It poured with slightly less than a finger of head, which faded away pretty quickly but left a bit of lacing behind. There is a nice hop aroma, but there's also a whole lot of malt (for an IPA) as well. It's very citrusy from the hops, and the malts have an appealing sweetness.

The flavor of this beer is surprisingly mild after the aroma. There are some nice hop flavors, but they are not overly strong and the bitterness is very low. There's a light maltiness to each sip as well. I was a little bit sad that it wasn't as citrusy as the aroma had led me to expect, but there was still enough hoppiness to keep my tongue happy. The beer has a good carbonation, and only a light aftertaste.

Final thought - This is a nice drinking IPA. The hop flavors are very muted for an IPA, so I could see drinking a few of these without my palette suffering from a hop overload, which sometimes happens with the more hop-forward beers. I would enjoy having this beer again.

-Jon

Cadillac Mountain Stout

Beer Name: Cadillac Mountain Stout
Brewery: Bar Harbor Brewing Company
ABV: 6.7%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Kate wants to go to Bar Harbor for a vacation. Since there is a brewery there, I'm up for it. We could do a mini Maine beer tour.

Cadillac Mountain Stout is a limited release, so it might be tough to find. This is a very black beer, all the way to the edges. It poured with a small head that faded away pretty quickly, leaving only a faint lacing behind for the first glass but a heavy amount for the rest of the bottle. Maybe it needed a little bit of moisture on the glass for the lacing to stick. There is a big roasted dark chocolate aroma here, which is pretty great.

The flavor here is very roasted, mostly chocolate although there is something else happening as well. Sort of like a grainy flavor, but with toast notes. Whatever it is, it seems to be working, as the beer is easy drinking. There is a only a low carbonation to this beer, so it's very smooth. A very light bitterness shows up for the finish, but the aftertaste is sweet and malty.

Final thought - There isn't anything that really stands out about this beer, but the whole thing is very delicious. It's like a basketball team where even though there isn't a superstar, they manage to keep winning games. This beer works well with food, but it's even better on its own where there isn't anything else to mess with its flavors.

-Jon

Lubrication

Beer Name: Lubrication
Brewery: Clown Shoes
ABV: 6%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on:

While I was reading up on this beer, I found a link about people who thought that it looked like there was a wang on the label because the robot on the label is holding a gasoline nozzle at its waist. Which reminds me that people are stupid and I hate them. So much...

Lubrication is a very dark beer. In the glass, it's basically solid black, but as it pours, you can pick out some ruby highlights if the light is right. It had a finger of fairly thick head that faded away in a few minutes, leaving a moderate lacing pattern behind. The aroma is roasted hops, which is an odd combination. It's probably more likely roasted malts behind the hops, but the only part of the malt I'm getting is the roasted part. This could be because I am brewing beer right now, and the malts in that one are super roasted smelling. Or possibly I burnt them. The point is, there is a serious roasted aroma going on right now.

The first sip is very good, and then the rest start going downhill. At first, there is a nice balance between the hops and the malt, and it's nice. Then the hop flavor sort of disappears, and the malt takes over. Normally this wouldn't be a major issue, but the malt flavor is a little too smokey, and it really dominates everything else. And not in a good way. The beer has light-to-moderate carbonation, and it finishes with a little bitterness. In a strange twist, the hops that disappeared earlier show up very faintly in the aftertaste.

Final thought - It starts off well, but all good things come to an end I suppose. This would be a good beer at a brewers' festival, as I think a few ounces would be delightful.

-Jon

Sculpin India Pale Ale

Beer Name: Sculpin India Pale Ale
Brewery: Ballast Point Brewing Company
ABV: 7%
Serving method: 16-oz draft in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I seem to remember saying something about trying a wider variety of beers this year and not just drink stouts and IPAs all the time. Well that's dumb. I like stouts. I like IPAs. So that's what I'll be drinking, and variety be damned. You know what? Out of spite, I think I'll brew a stout myself this weekend. You might be wondering who I'm spiting, and that's a valid question to which I have no answer.

Sculpin is, possible, a nice coppery ale. I say possible because I drank it at The Hangar, and the lighting in there is horrendous for beer color judgment. It arrived with a fluffy head around a finger in height or so. This head faded very slowly and left a heavy lacing pattern behind. The aroma here is a fantastic citrus hop, with just enough malt in the background to suggest that this beer is going to be amazing.

There were several beers on the menu that I wanted to try, but I have a fridge full of beer at home that needs drinking so I had to pick just one. I ended up panicking when the waitress asked for our drink orders and picking the Sculpin because it had a weird name. Well, I must have pleased the beer gods, because it was a good choice. The flavor has a great citrusy punch to it, and there is a big malt backbone to add a sweetness to the bitterness from the hops. There was only a light carbonation, but that's good because the beer itself was a great accompaniment to the hot wings we were eating. What a delicious brew.

Final thought - I enjoyed this beer immensely, and it also received Kate's highest IPA rating of all time. Granted that rating was "I don't really like it, but if I had to drink an IPA, this is the kind I would drink," but that's really high by her standards. Seriously, this is on par with me recommending a Belgian white*. Clearly you need to go out and try this beer.

-Jon

* Ok, in the interest of honesty, I should probably admit the following: I was at the restaurant Judie's once, and my mother asked me for a beer recommendation. Based on her previous beer drinking, I suggested Allagash White, which of course she loved. Obviously I need to open up a beer store and sell craft beers to people. If I can get my mother to drink craft beers, I can get anyone to.

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

Winter Red Ale

Beer Name: Winter Red Ale
Brewery: Otter Creek Brewing
ABV: 5.5%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Last time there were bottles of Otter Creek at Mom & Chuck's house, they had accidentally set their refrigerator far too cold and frozen the beers. This resulted in some beer volcanoes, and made the beers undrinkable. This time was much more successful, so I was actually able to enjoy a few of these OC brews.

Winter Red Ale is a seasonal beer that I drank straight from the bottle. This means that I have nothing to report on its head retention or lacing. On the other hand, even in a bottle there is a nice piney hop aroma. There's also a little toasted caramel in it as well. It's a nice combination, so hopefully the flavor can match up.

Well this is much more drinkable than the last red ale I had, so that clears up the issue of whether it was the beer or the style. There's a light hop character to it, but the star of the show seems to be the malts. They have a nice grainy caramel to them, with the hops keeping things interesting. The beer leaves a light aftertaste on the back of the tongue. Unfortunately, after about 2/3 of the bottle, the flavor shifted from a nicely balanced beer to a sort of off-putting bitterness.

Final thought - Things were pretty good at the beginning, but the flavor kind of went south after a little while. I think this would be a very enjoyable beer as long as you finish it within about 10 minutes or so. Open it up, start the clock, and get drinking!

-Jon

Dale's Pale Ale

Beer Name: Dale's Pale Ale
Brewery: Oskar Blues Grill & Brewery
ABV: 6.5%
Serving method: 12-oz can... in a plastic cup
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

I'm so embarrassed to have consumed a craft beer out of a plastic cup. But I was out at a bar, and it was super busy, and it was either that or drink it straight out of the can, which is only appropriate at cookouts and parties. That was a ridiculous run-on sentence, but I don't care.

Dale's Pale Ale is, somewhat surprisingly considering its name, a fairly dark copper-colored beer. Given the nature of my beer's container, there wasn't really going to be any lacing. Or, if there was, it wasn't going to be noticeable since the cup was also white. There was a good head on it, however, so I'd imagine that in a proper glass things would be looking good. The aroma is a mix of light citrus and pine hops, and pretty typical of the American pale ale style.

This first thing that hits me about this beer is that it's a more bitter flavor than I was expecting. There's a maltiness to help balance it out, but there is definitely a sharp dry bitter flavor at the finish. It was a little jarring at first actually. After a few sips, I was a little more prepared for the flavor, and it was pretty enjoyable. It has a good carbonation and a bitter aftertaste that hangs around for a long time.

Final thought - This was a pretty good beer. The finish was a little dry for me, but that's just a personal preference. I think that the next time I drink one of these, I wouldn't make it my first beer of the night so that I can warm up my tastebuds a little bit.

-Jon