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.

Vanilla Porter

Beer Name: Vanilla Porter
Brewery: Breckenridge BBQ & Brew Pub
ABV: 4.7%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

This is the 3rd of 4 beers from the Breckenridge pack, and the one I was most excited about. I shouldn't have been though, because my history with vanilla in beers hasn't been great. But I really want it to be, so I'll keep on trying vanilla flavored beers until I find a winner. Come on brewers! You're so successful with chocolate!! Don't leave vanilla out.

Breckenridge's Vanilla Porter is a very dark brown beer, but it's slightly translucent if you hold it up to a light. It poured with a good head, and it held on for a little while before leaving a light lacing pattern. There is a strong aroma of malt here, with vanilla and a bit of fruit mixed in as well. In hindsight, I should have realized that this beer needed to be given a few minutes to warm up, but I was a little too focused on Holmes on Homes to think clearly.

At first, the beer seemed a little lacking in flavors. However, it turns out that I just needed to give it time. By the end of the glass, there was a nice vanilla flavor with each sip. There was also a good amount of malt and sweetness for the whole glass, and nothing really in the hop department for bitterness. The beer finishes mostly clean, with a lightly sweet aftertaste.

Final thought - This was pretty good by the end of the glass, although I'm not about to go out and grab some more. It seems like it would be a good beer for sitting inside on a cold winter night. The vanilla curse is definitely broken.

-Jon

Oatmeal Stout #2

Beer Name: Oatmeal Stout
Brewery: Breckenridge BBQ & Brew Pub
ABV: 4.9%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

I have been a little lax on my beer updates in the past week, but instead of blaming it on laziness, I will instead use the excuse of wanting to drink a couple before writing my thoughts. That way my opinions will be a little more focused. Or something like that.

Breckenridge's Oatmeal Stout is a very dark beer, but it's a thin sort of blackness. It poured with basically no head, although there was a very thin ring around the edge. There was a very light lacing, but it tended to slowly fade away rather than last on the glass. The aroma is roasted grains, with some coffee. It actually reminds me of the stout I just put into bottles a couple weeks ago, which might not necessarily be a good thing.

The roasted notes from the aroma are also present in the flavor, although they aren't quite as noticeable as I was expecting. Most of what I'm getting is a bitter roasted coffee, with not much complexity going on. The beer is very carbonated for a stout (which is like a moderate carbonation), and finishes slightly bitter and turns into a bready aftertaste.

Final thought - This beer is not bad, but there are just too many other great stouts out there for it to get a regular place in my fridge. I have to stick to the classics. And try new things, I suppose, since this poor blog will stagnate if I don't.

-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