Weihenstephaner Vitus Beer Review

Tonight I'm straying from my bulk of American beer reviews to give you my thoughts on a beer from the other side of the Atlantic. I'll be reviewing Vitus from the Weihenstephaner brewery in Freising, Bavaria, Germany. Weihenstephaner (pronounced vine-schte-faw-ner) is a southern German brewery that has been in existence, in one form or another, for nearly 1,000 years and now lay claim to being the oldest brewery on Earth. I can't think of an older brewery, so I have to concede the point. They were originally a monastic brewery but a few hundred years ago they became the official state brewery of Bavaria, back before German unification which didn't happen until the reign of Otto von Bismarck in 1871. Today, the brewery is a Bavarian-endorsed company that operates as a private business. They're no longer state-controlled. They are a fairly common brand whose beers can be found in decent beer and liquor stores as well as bars and restaurants the world over. I find their various wheat beer offerings to be their best efforts (they produce a truly exemplary hefeweizen, the Hefe Weissbier). Given this, I am tonight reviewing Vitus, a weizenbock.

Weizenbocks are a somewhat interesting style. They are a wheat ale that exhibits most or all the same flavors as a typical hefeweizen, but they are brewed to the alcoholic strength of a typical bock; that is to say, stronger than your average hefeweizen. Whereas most hefeweizens are 4.5 - 6% abv, weizenbocks range from 7-10% abv. Vitus is 7.7% abv, for those of you keeping score at home. Since the alcohol is ramped up, what one should expect is a fuller-bodied, more intensely flavored hefeweizen. Let's call it an imperial hefeweizen, yes? For more on the hefeweizen style, please see my style overview. That being said, let's get to work.

The beer is bottled in Weihenstephaner's usual 500ml (16.9 oz) bottle. Many foreign brewers use this half liter size but it is less common in stateside breweries. I like having this size option at my disposal. Sometimes it is just the right amount of beer. I deviate from my usual strong pour and instead pour gently down the wall of the glass, correctly anticipating a huge, creamy white head. I'm also using my weizen glass, as it is historically and culturally accurate to do so. When in Rome, right? The beer itself is a significantly hazy, slightly murky but still beautiful medium gold, or maybe dark straw. The tall, slender glass really shows this beer off and allows the ample head room to form. After a couple minutes, this bodacious carbonation settles into a quarter inch that is solid throughout. Appearance: 13/15

My nose's first forays into the glass reveal major clove spice notes, backed by sturdy banana flavors. I smell lemon, bubblegum, maybe some mint. Yes, definitely mint. Spearmint, if forced to elaborate. All of these are well within reason in a weizenbock but they're presented in such a way that keeps me interested. I like what I smell so far. Nose: 22/25


Banana takes the driver seat, forcing the nose's clove to ride shotgun. Crisp lemon darts about my tongue. There's still a minty flavor present and I rather enjoy it. Its actually more pronounced a mint flavor than other similar beers I've had and I really enjoy it because it provides character to a style that can occasionally become too straightforward. Bubblegum is still there, but its sweetness is a little more vague than the other fresh, bright summertime flavors here. Moderate alcohol content is well hidden beneath the appealing sweetness, offering only traces to my tongue when I really dig around for it. All around good stuff. Palate: 47/50


The mouthfeel hits a bullseye, managing to be both full of spritzy carbonation and creaminess for days. Medium body is supremely easy going down. I can't imagine how I'd improve it. Mouthfeel: 10/10


OVERALL: 92/100


Really great beer from Weihenstephaner. While their Hefe Weissbier is a king in the world of hefeweizens, this weizenbock is really good but not quite the best. For my money, I go to Schneider's Aventinus when I'm looking for a weizenbock. But this is a tasty beer that's affordable enough at $5/bottle for you to do a side-by-side comparison. As always, cheers!

The Bruery White Oak Beer Review

For this review, I'll be diving into a beer that's new to me, White Oak from The Bruery in Placentia, CA.

The Bruery is an amazing upstart little brewery, founded just a few years ago in 2008. The name is a portmanteau of "brewery" and the family name Rue, who founded The Bruery. In its short existence, The Bruery has made an extremely strong name for itself in the beer geek community. They are virtually unknown outside of Orange Co. and the beer geeks worldwide who love them. They make no four or six packs, only large format 750ml bottles (same size as wine bottles). They make a lot of Belgian-esque beers, though often with a twist. Perhaps an unusual ingredient or a strange brewing technique. They do make some non-Belgian beers, however, and a great deal of their cache among the beer geek crowd derives from their Black Tuesday stout, a massive imperial stout that is aged in bourbon barrels for over a year and then bottled around 19% abv, though exact strength varies from year to year. This is a once a year release available only at the brewery and it inspires a great deal of excitement, much like Three Floyd's release of Dark Lord. They are also in the process of releasing a once-a-year Christmas beer. Each year they make a different beer and name each one after one of the twelve days of Christmas. Each one is designed to be aged so that you can collect them all and enjoy them together when Twelve Drummers Drumming finally gets released. This winter, we'll be expecting Five Golden Rings, so we're still a ways off from completing the series. I've had most of The Bruery's regular lineup and have been impressed with all of it so I'm excited by the opportunity to review a beer that I hadn't previously even seen around here. I picked this bottle up from the good people at Ludlow Wines in Cincinnati near the University of Cincinnati campus. Big thanks to Mike for always being friendly, helpful, and eager to strike up a conversation about good beer.

Weighing in at a hearty 11.5% abv, White Oak is kind of in a league of its own. You might call it a Barleywine, even though it's technically 50% wheatwine aged in bourbon barrels and 50% Belgian Strong Golden Ale. Barleywine is a rich, decadent style that originates in England and refers to the very strongest member of the broad pale ale family. Barleywines are kind of like amber ales ratcheted into overdrive. I love barleywines. They make great nightcaps and pair well with lots of cheeses, bread, and desserts. They are called barleywines because they are made with barley (thus they are beer, not wine) but are often brewed to wine or near-wine strength. They tend to start out around 8% abv but quite routinely range into double digits. Making the wheatwine variant of the style is simple enough: you just use a portion of wheat instead of straight barley in the malt bill. Wheat tends to make the body a little leaner and crisper, with a slightly fluffy mouthfeel. Bourbon barrel aging will impart flavors of oak, vanilla, coconut, and maybe even some orange. The beer is named White Oak because it is this species of oak tree that provides the staves used to make most bourbon barrels. So this beer would be unique enough if that were the whole thing, but it's only half the picture. The other half of the beer is The Bruery's Mischief, a hoppy Belgian Strong Golden Ale. I'll be very curious to see how the sweet, rich flavors of caramel, molasses, oak, vanilla, and coconut that I would expect in a barrel aged wheatwine blend with the spicy, fruity flavors of Mischief, a beer I'm familiar with (which is excellent on its own and worthy of you buying a bottle). Let's open this bad boy and find out.

The bottle is a pretty 750ml magnum shape, like a champagne bottle. The label is simple but its shape is unique and consistent across all The Bruery's beers which makes their lineup easy to spot on a shelf. This is a very good thing, establishing a brand like that. The beer itself is very unique unto itself. The color is almost exactly in the middle of the two styles brought together in this bottle. A wheatwine would usually be a copper to dark amber or even reddish brown beer while a Belgian Strong Golden Ale will be a pale gold or even as light as straw. This beer straddles the line; I'll call it dull gold or bronze to light copper. Clarity is decent, some haze present. The beer pours like a Belgian Strong Golden Ale with a massive ivory head that fills the glass like mousse. After a couple minutes, the head has dissipated into a quarter inch with excellent lacing. Appearance: 14/15

The nose on this beer is refreshingly different. A true blend of both styles, I can smell it all. Vanilla, coconut, and fruity esters greet me first, followed closely by oaky notes. Caramel, dark fruits, and spices dance around merrily. The oak also gives off a sort of earthy appeal. More spices there, not peppery, more like cloves. The more I smell, the more I notice the caramel kind of enveloping the whole thing. And I love caramel. Nose: 25/25


First swallow and I get bourbon! Whereas the nose carried all the typical indicators of bourbon, oak, vanilla, coconut, the palate removes all doubts of its bourbon heritage and throws in a smack of bourbon booziness right at the front of the palate. Its almost like a shot of bourbon dropped in a strong ale. I like it, but I love bourbon and like boozy alcohol flavors in moderation so this might not be for everyone. Some dark fruits are there too and great flavors of banana and bubblegum remind me of the Belgian roots that run deep in this beer. It really is a marvelous balancing act they've achieved here. The usual woody notes are present too but I like that the Belgian character expresses itself behind the bourbon flavors. This rescues the beer and makes it far more palatable than most beers with a bourbon punch like this. Palate: 46/50


The mouthfeel is pretty good, and the family rue succeeded in their mission here: crafting a robust yet crisp wheat ale. What I wonder is if they should've abandoned the whole "crisp" thing and given the body a little more oomph to stand up to the bourbon flavors. Rather than a wheatwine, I think a barrel aged barleywine would've been more appropriate and would've achieved better balance. I will give them credit, though, for crafting an 11.5% abv monster that actually drinks much lighter. The Belgian influence tempers the body and leaves it in the medium-full category, rather than overtly full which could've made the beer too sweet. I'll trust that they ran through a couple incarnations of the recipe before settling here. They don't strike me as the type to send beer out that they don't trust, so I'll keep all my hypothetical questions and nitpicking criticisms to myself. Mouthfeel: 8/10


OVERALL: 93/100


So this was a good beer. I'm glad to have tried it and I'm very appreciative of The Bruery trying something that no one else is making right now. What's more is they actually made a good beer out of what could've been a train wreck. That being said, I won't be rushing out to buy more bottles at $14 a piece. There are precious few beers out there that I will repeatedly buy at that price (here's looking at you, Alesmith Speedway Stout) because there are just too many new and different beers that I want to try for me to be spending my sadly limited funds on repeat buys of boutique beers. But you should totally try this beer, unlike any beer I remember having. Cheers!

Beer Basics 101: Ale vs. Lager

For my next entry in the Beer Basics 101 series, I'm donning my professor hat to explain two of the most basic yet most misunderstood beer terms: ale and lager. More specifically, what is the difference between the two?

Let me clarify something first: ale and lager are the names for the two subcategories of beer. Every style on Earth (with maybe one or two exceptions) falls into one or the other. I know that these terms can be confusing because they are often misused by people, including breweries because, let's face it, Anheuser-Busch's advertising department might not know much about beer. I've heard brewers and beer drinkers alike speak about stouts and ales as though they're two separate things. They're not. Stout is merely one type of ale. Please remember that all beers are either ales or lagers.

So what defines these two subcategories of the beer world? Well, that's a tough one. There aren't a ton of hard and fast rules that delineate between the two. What is quantitatively different is the yeast. The all-important yeast. In my style overview of German Hefeweizens, I briefly touched on yeast. The importance of yeast in a beer cannot be overstated. It is the metabolism of the yeast that provides alcohol and, therefore, defines beer. No yeast equals no beer. I further argue that yeast is the agent of change that has made beer such a mystifying drink throughout the millennia. It must be remembered that, for the vast majority of brewing history, human beings knew nothing of yeast. Beer dates back at least 6,000 years and likely much farther but it is only in the last few hundred years that we have known that yeast exists. Prior to the invention of the microscope, all beer was spontaneously fermented by wild, unseen yeast. This has enormous importance as pertains to the cultural significance of beer. Imagine you are a farmer who occasionally makes some beer, living in 4,000 B.C.E ancient Egypt. You are well familiar with the otherwise innocuous ingredients of barley and water. But you also know, through some happy accident, that if you combine the benign barley and water and store them for a period of weeks in one specific spot, that when you revisit your beverage you will find it has new, strange, and powerful abilities to alter your perceptions and state of consciousness. Since fermentation is a mechanism as yet unfathomable to you, you attribute these wonderful new properties to powers beyond your control. Perhaps your supreme God, a lesser god of the harvest or the grain, or even to the animus that you believe flows through all living things. It is this spiritual connection that enamors you of beer from your earliest encounters with it. Beer soon takes its place in various ceremonies and rites as a way of reaffirming your people's belief structure. It is through this great importance assigned to beer that beer eventually permeates its way to other aspects of your life and your experience is not dissimilar from the experiences of your contemporaries around the globe. Drinking beer, in this context, is not unlike Christian communion, wherein believers consume bread and wine as literal or figurative representations of Christ. The core of the rite of communion is to establish a connection with Christ, the same sort of connection sought after by our ancient, beer drinking predecessors. Sure, it's easy to dismiss my ramblings as the waxing philosophical of a delusional nerd because today, the magic is gone. We live in the scientific age and understand yeast so well that, like so many other things in our world, we've begun controlling it and bending it to our use. But the cultural history of beer leaves us an important message: that it is important to, at least occasionally, give beer its due deference because our ancestors thought it magical and used it as proof positive of their understanding of the world around them. And all that magic was thanks to yeast.

Whew, now that the flowery, philosophical geeky stuff is out of the way, let's get back on track. Differences in yeast define the difference between ale and lager. Yeast is a microorganism that is a member of the Fungus kingdom. These tiny little fungi do all kinds of things like make bread rise, provide texture and flavor to cheese, make wine, and make beer! It's this last one that I'm focusing on. Varieties of yeast used in beer fall into the species Saccharomyces cervisiae. S. cervisiae is the ale yeast, and all the infinite multitude of ale yeasts are members of this species, even though they have noticeable differences. These differences occur below the species level, similar to all dogs being classified as Canis familiaris. There are plenty of breeds of dog that look and act quite different, but they're all the same species. Same with the yeast. Lager yeasts, notably fewer in quantity, are known as Saccharomyces pastorianus, although this is based upon obsolete taxonomy. Lager yeasts are now recognized as yet another subtype of S. cervisiae, though the old nomenclature is still used.

Strains of ale yeast are too innumerable to name here (new ones are being created all the time) but there are essentially only two strains of lager yeast that produce the overwhelming majority of all lagers. The difference in ale and lager yeasts is that ale yeasts naturally rise to the top of the beer in the fermentation vessel and are thus known as top-fermenting. Additionally, ale yeasts ferment at relatively warm temperatures, around 60 to 65 degrees. Lager yeasts are just the opposite: they settle to the bottom of the fermenter (bottom fermenting) and ferment at cooler temperatures, usually around 45 degrees. Ales also ferment faster than lagers. In fact, the word lager is German for "storage" due to the long fermentation time.

Because of the difference in how they function, ale and lager yeasts have different properties as pertains to final aroma and flavor. Ale yeasts tend to be more expressive and produce a variety of byproducts that lend additional flavors to the beer. Lager yeasts typically ferment rather clean and depend upon the raw materials of malt and hops to do the heavy lifting in the flavor department. Thus, a rule of thumb is to say that ales are typically more flavorful and distinctive, while lagers tend to be more nuanced and easy drinking. This is a major oversimplification, however, and one should remember that there are exceptions to the rules. Kolsch, for example, is a very light and easy drinking, low flavor and mostly inoffensive ale whereas a doppelbock is a rich, malty, sweet and fruity lager. It is also important to remember that while ales are typically more flavorful, both ales and lagers have their place. I don't always want to drink an imperial stout that requires my full attention, ruins my taste buds, challenges my palate, and demands that I drink it in sips. Sometimes I just want a few bottles of a good pilsner so I can kick back and watch the games or enjoy a barbecue. I keep coming back to my mantra and you would do well to repeat after me: Beer should be fun. I hope this entry wasn't too long or complex. I try to keep it light and minimize how much I geek out on things like yeast, but this topic needed some real explanation because so few people really grasp something as basic as the difference between an ale and a lager. I know I said in my last Beer Basics post that I was going to keep these short and sweet. My bad. I hope they're still worthwhile. If you have any suggestions or questions, leave them in the comments. Thanks. Cheers!

Stillwater As Follows Beer Review

For tonight's beer review, I'll be checking out As Follows from Stillwater Artisanal Ales based out of Baltimore, MD. Big thanks must go to the beer department at The Party Source in Bellevue, KY and especially their beer buyer Danny Gold for having recently begun carrying Stillwater beers. I've had a number of their offerings and I think they're all phenomenal. To have them in my backyard is a real treat, so thanks again guys. There were a couple of beers among the Stillwater offerings at Party Source that I hadn't had and As Follows was one of them so it seemed like a perfect time to review a beer that sounded like it would be right up my alley.

As I mentioned in my review of Stillwater/Hof ten Dormaal's Bronze Age, Stillwater specializes in Belgian styles and As Follows is no exception. For more on Stillwater, check out my aforementioned review of Bronze Age. As Follows is a Belgian Strong Golden Ale, aka Belgian Strong Pale Ale. I reviewed another beer in this style when I reviewed Sierra Nevada's Ovila Belgian Golden so if you'd like to learn a bit more about the style, please check there. As Follows caught my eye not only because it's from one of my favorite up-and-coming breweries doing a style I really dig, but because I think they added a twist to the tried and true Belgian Strong Golden Ale formula. They tout the beer as being "big, bold, hoppy, and gold." It's that magical word 'hoppy' that makes my ears perk up. A hoppy Belgian Strong Golden Ale, you say? Well, I guess I'll have to drink that one, I say! This potential addition of some big juicy hops is just the sort of thing that might send this beer over the edge. I've had hoppy Belgian goldens in the past (though it's been a while) and a couple have been transcendent. I'm hoping for that same experience here, but I won't know for sure til my nose is in the glass. Oh, I'm bubbling with excitement already! Stillwater additionally bills the beer as being, "an eschatological ale. . . built sturdy enough to withstand the apocalypse." This is all the more description I need to be eagerly anticipating this beer before I even cradle it gently in my trunk for the trip home. Let's get down to business.

The bottle is simply exquisite. I adore Stillwater's bottle presentation and As Follows stands tall among its peers. A very fine foil, like what one might expect on a good bottle of wine, conceals the bottle cap underneath on this 750ml bottle. The label art is, as with the rest of their beers, really intriguing. Being an eschatological ale, the label features the sort of retro doom-and-gloom, fire and brimstone artwork that immediately calls to mind Dante or John Milton. This evocative art really complements the whole experience. More brewers would do well to take a page out of Stillwater's book here. As I pour into my Libbey Poco Grande glass, I have to rein in my usual hearty pour because this beer is a frothy monster. A gigantic, three or more fingers of dense, creamy, mousse-like head fills my glass to the brim. After a couple minutes, the head that just won't quit has settled down into a quarter inch of iron-willed persistence. The head itself is a vibrant white. As the head settles, I'm able to appreciate the beer itself. It is a cloudy deep straw to hay in color. Lacing on the glass from the huge head is outrageous. Appearance: 15/15

Sticking my nose in the glass confirms the abundant presence of what I'd been hoping for - hops! I love hops almost as much as I love Belgian ales so this is perfect for me. Big, citrusy American hops dominate. Orange, tangerine, pineapple. I can also smell plenty of bready yeast notes and some spice in there as well. The spice smells almost peppery, but I'm unsure right now. All in all, this beer smells great. I get a few band-aid type phenols in there, but nothing too apparent. Nose: 24/25


Mmm, this beer tastes really good! On the palate, the hops are very apparent. While they're not as fresh as I'd like them to be (like, a hop addition yesterday), I know the freshness of the hops isn't the brewer's fault by the time it makes it to retail shelves so I won't hold it against them. The hops are only ever so slightly faded, revealing some traces of bitter astringency. But again, nothing too off-putting. The hops still complement the other flavors here quite well: Fruity yeast esters like banana and a touch of peach, distinctive spiciness that almost defines the beer. The more I drink it, the more I'm thinking the spice is a cross between black pepper and cloves. I also detect traces of bubblegum hiding in there. Palate: 48/50


The mouthfeel is superb. It is at once creamy and bubbly. The bodacious CO2 is ever present here. A body that sits comfortably on the higher end of medium coupled with ample carbonation make this 9% abv beer dangerously drinkable. As I sit here, I realize just how little is left in my glass or the bottle. They did a really great job with the body and texture here. Mouthfeel: 10/10


OVERALL: 97/100


I was fairly certain I would like this beer from the moment I found it waiting for me on the shelf. It is a beer that pays attention to details and rewards those able to see them. Is it the best Belgian Strong Golden Ale I've ever had? I don't think so, but that doesn't mean it isn't one heck of a beer that is fruity and drinkable enough for hot summer nights but complex and rich enough for wintertime nightcaps. This versatility will also translate well into an assortment of foods. Please, pair this beer with salads, breads, cheeses, chicken, fish, wild game, and fatty entrees that need a little hefty carbonation to cut the richness. I also wouldn't mind putting this beer with some desserts that include bread pudding and angel food cake. Cheers!

Goose Island Lolita Beer Review

I mentioned in my last review of Goose Island's Juliet that I had also come across a bottle of Goose Island's Lolita. Well tonight I'll be reviewing it. I decided to do them back to back to compare them as accurately as possible. I'm interested in which I'll like more.

I don't really have any brewery or style information to share here as the brewery and style are the same as Juliet, a sour ale made by Goose Island. Please see my review of Juliet for more information about Goose Island and sour ales. While Juliet is made with blackberries and aged in cabarnet barrels, Lolita is made with raspberries and aged in unidentified wine barrels. Both are fermented with an unidentified wild yeast and while Juliet comes out at 8% abv, Lolita clocks in at a respectable 9% abv, which is on the upper end of alcohol for any sour ale I've ever seen on either side of the Atlantic. Many Belgian Fruit Lambics, which serve as partial inspiration for both these beers, range from around 2.5% to 5% abv. Maybe both of these sister beers are imperial sours? Also, I mentioned in my previous review on Juliet that I suspected Goose Island of using Brettanomyces bruxellensis to ferment these beers, but I wish to issue a retraction. As I reflected on the beer last night, I decided it didn't exhibit any of the qualities I would expect from a brett-infused beer and that my palate was tasting something that wasn't actually there simply because it was on my mind. Yes, the power of suggestion can work on yourself. The only other information I could glean from the Goose Island website is that they recommend this beer to drinkers of Belgian framboise, a raspberry lambic. They also recommended serving Lolita with a wide variety of foods. That being said, let the review begin!

The beer is presented in the same 22oz bottle as Juliet, though the label is more of a true white and 'Lolita' is written in an all-caps, block letter font in a kind of raspberry color. A touch simple, but classy in its understated aesthetic. The beer pours an interesting pinkish orange, almost like a summer sunset or strongly brewed iced tea. A quarter inch pinkish beige head of countless little bubbles quickly dissipates into oblivion. The beer looks completely still after a moment, belying the plentiful carbonation that I know lurks among its depths. Appearance: 13/15

A lot of the same great funky and tart yeast flavors come billowing forth in the nose, confirming my suspicions that both Juliet and Lolita receive the same yeast treatment. I also smell definite oak, the wine barrels no doubt. Unfortunately, I'm not well-versed enough in wine to venture a guess as to which wine it may be. The beer smells vinous and a touch earthy. There's a little mustiness in there too. The raspberries are quite apparent as well, though not as dominate as I anticipated. They're duking it out for attention with all the other smells as well as a tannin astringency that bites the nostrils, ever so gently. Nose: 24/25


The raspberry comes springing forward much more in the palate. It is young, fresh, and vibrant. Its audacity is ameliorated by the oak and tannins that flank its approach. The raspberry character seems concentrated, more like a jam or preserve than the fruit itself. That certain unmistakable acidity inherent in raspberries is also apparent and serves to balance the sweetness nicely. The overall palate still conveys plenty of tart funkiness and moderate acidity tied together by fruit and oak. There's a certain creamy butter like flavor that flashes across the end of the palate right before disappearing down the throat, almost reminiscent of a buttery  Chardonnay. That particular buttery flavor owes itself to a compound known as diacetyl which is unacceptable at any level in many styles but which can be tolerated at low levels in some Belgian sour ales as a strictly complementary flavor. That is the precise nature of this butter flavor, which makes me think it was intentional. It also puts Chardonnay on the top of my list for culprits responsible for the mystery wine barrels. Palate: 47/50


The mouthfeel was really good. A touch fuller than Juliet and more firmly in the medium range, this fuller body is still belied by abundant carbonation. There is a definite but not exuberant creaminess on the back end. Mostly marked by plenty of champagne carbonation and a springy, fruity body. Nicely done. Mouthfeel: 9/10


OVERALL: 93/100


Well, I definitely liked this beer too and it is another stellar addition to Goose Island's beer geek-centric beers. I think, all things being equal, that I ever so slightly preferred the Juliet. I thought the body was more spot on and the blackberry flavor there intermingled with the oak better. That being said, Lolita is a wonderful beer that I might buy another bottle of before it disappears off the shelves around here because I'd love to age a bottle for a couple years or so and see where it comes out. If you're wanting to get into sours, here's another great place to start as well as a beer that proves that summer beers don't have to be boring. Cheers!

Goose Island Juliet Beer Review

Oh boy am I excited! Tonight I'm reviewing a beer that I've had in the back of my mind for a long time. Goose Island's Juliet is a beer that I had heard many great things about, but which I never seemed able to find. Today, in a stroke of pure luck, the good people at Hyde Park Wine & Spirits in Cincinnati just happened to get some in, as well as Juliet's sister beer Lolita. I'm excited for that beer too and will be reviewing it in the coming days.

Goose Island is a pretty big heavyweight in the brewing world. John Hall started the brewery as a brewpub in 1988 in Chicago, IL and expanded into a production brewery in the 1990s. He opened two brewery locations in Chicago and helped to define Midwestern beer culture. Goose Island is today available in an impressive 36 states and Europe. Last year, Goose Island lost its independence when it was purchased by Anheuser Busch-InBev, the beer conglomerate responsible for so many lackluster beers like Budwesier and Stella Artois. Now a wholly owned subsidiary, this was initially seen as a major blow to craft beer - just another instance of the big boys swallowing the competition. But what seems to be happening, at least for now, is that Goose Island is being left to their own devices to continue making beer their way while benefiting from the marketing campaigns and distribution resources of AB-InBev. This improved distribution is, in my opinion, the reason I was finally able to get my hands on Juliet (and Lolita). I also think that us beer geeks are benefiting from the AB-InBev distributors not being familiar with all these new beers they're selling. They're more concerned with selling product to retailers rather than carefully allocating each case so as to keep things fair among retailers and maximize hype. The end result is that places like Hyde Park Wine & Spirits that are willing to pay the high prices of premium beers like this can find themselves with sufficient quantities to support a far larger number of sales. While this is certainly less democratic, its a gold rush if you know where to shop for the good stuff. So for now, I am cautiously happy about Goose Island's merger with the enemy.

Juliet falls into a somewhat new category of American beer known as American Wild Ales. This still murkily demarcated style doesn't necessarily mean that the brewers used wild yeast, but they might have. A more proper but broader term to describe this style might be to simply call them sour ales. Yes, you heard right. Beers can be sour and sour can be good! This is a hip style in the beer world right now and draws a lot of attention from hardcore geeks and brewers looking to capitalize on the craze. I'll admit to as of yet not being a huge fan of sours, but they're growing on me even as they hurt my wallet (sours are invariably expensive). The reason this style is kind of murky is because American brewers have done something new with these beers. They trace their influence to the great sour ales of Belgium. The Belgian sour ale family includes such a multitude of styles that encompass so many brewing and aging techniques, blending processes, unusual ingredients, and wild or peculiar yeast and bacterial infections that I can't even begin to describe them here. Suffice it to say that these Belgian originals are endlessly creative and their American counterparts have built upon that creative legacy by adding their own twists, including barrel aging. The qualities that all sour ales will typically have in common is some level of sourness, moderate to high acidity, and tannin-like qualities similar to what one might find in wine. Speaking of, this style is the closest thing to wine in the beer world and a great sour ale would be a prime candidate for converting wine drinkers into beer drinkers. Just don't push conversion too hard; you don't want to seem snobby. After all, wine is supposed to be fun just like beer.

Juliet, in particular, is aged in cabarnet wine barrels with real blackberries after being fermented with wild yeasts (I'm guessing, before I even drink the beer, that they're using Brettanomyces bruxellensis, a popular funky yeast). The beer weighs in at 8% abv. Goose Island's website recommends it as a great beer for pinot noir drinkers. I'm interested to see what happens!

The bottle is very pretty, nicely adorned with an eye-catching yet understated off-white label that identifies the beer in purple cursive and also prominently displays the vintage, as if calling out to wine drinkers. Indeed, this beer is bottle-conditioned and sours are excellent candidates for aging, just like wine. After a moderate pour into my upright Libbey Poco Grande glass, I am left with a very beautiful, if somewhat delicate looking, rosy red beer whose excellent clarity shows off tinges of orange, red, and amber. The head is a pinkish white quarter inch of champagne-like bubbles that quickly dissipates to a razor thin ring. Among the more interesting beers I've seen in a while. Appearance: 14/15

Putting my nose in the glass is different for me. As I said, I'm not as well versed in sour ales as some other styles but I like what I smell. A wood tannin-like astringency greets me, backed by a pronounced fruity (blackberry?) note. A hearty swirl reveals some funky yeasty notes I recognize from some Brettanomyces-infused saisons. I definitely get oak, maybe some phenolic spice. But I like these spices; they seem inviting. They're not the nasty sort of band-aid phenols. There might be a trace of white vinegar in there, but this beer smells as appetizing as any sour I've encountered. Nose: 24/25


Oh wow, no wonder they said this was a good choice for pinot noir drinkers. Huge flavors of dark fruit, more assertively blackberry than in the nose, express themselves wrapped around a huge oak tree. These big oak flavors dance nicely with a great red wine-esque tannin character. The beer is unmistakably tart and this might repel some beer drinkers. But the tartness isn't offensive and even suggests the kind of tart one might find in a breezy red wine. The beer is off-dry, neither dry enough to pucker my lips nor sweet enough to cause cavities. The sugars are beautifully attenuated and leave me with a superbly balanced flavor profile that transitions and offers new flavors as it moves down my tongue and hits my throat. Upon further tasting, the tartness is beginning to become a little puckering, more dominant than I initially realized. This isn't bad, just different from my original impression. There's also definitely some light spice in there but I can't put my finger on it. Cloves? Cardamom? I also get some citrus buried in there, is that tangerine? Palate: 48/50


The mouthfeel might be my favorite thing about this beer, even though I thought the rest was pretty damn good. Spritzy, tingly carbonation dances across your tongue. A medium body lends enough weight to support the array of flavors. Finishes clean with a bone dry swallow, dry enough to bring you back for more. Mouthfeel: 10/10


OVERALL: 96/100


Yep. I love this beer. The wait has been worth it. This was one of those pivotal, trans-formative beers for me. It is my favorite sour ale (Sorry, La Folie. You had a good run.) and has helped me cross the threshold into truly loving sour ales, perhaps my last great frontier among beer styles. I thoroughly recommend this beer to all red wine drinkers and adventurous beer lovers like me. I love pairing beer with food and this beauty will work wonders with all kinds of stuff. The bar has been set very high for when I crack open Lolita. Cheers!

Leinenkugel's Big Eddy Wee Heavy Scotch Ale Beer Review

For tonight's beer review, I'll be checking out a style that I wish there were more of - the Scotch Ale. For this, I'll be opening Leinenkugel's Big Eddy Wee Heavy Scotch Ale.

Scotch Ales, alternately known as Wee Heavys, are actually an extended family member of the large pale ale family. The Scotch Ale is not to confused with Scottish Ales, which are lighter in body and lower in alcohol but otherwise essentially the same beer. Wee Heavys, as I prefer to call them, spend a longer time boiling in the mash tun during brewing. This extra time caramelizes the wort and imparts sweet flavors and a deep copper to brown color to the beer. The style will also exhibit some smoky notes and there may even be a tea-like bitterness in some examples. The style is quite hefty and serves well as a winter warmer or nightcap as the alcohol by volume ranges from 8% up into double digits. It is the strongest of the pale ale family save for the Barleywine. This particular example from Leinenkugel's tips the scales at 9.5% abv. The best way I can think to describe this style is to say that it is a strong, rich, and sweet beer almost reminiscent of an amber ale on steroids with some notes of smoke and/or peat. I am a scotch drinker, on the rare occasion that I'm not drinking beer, and this is a big part of why this style appeals to me. I love my scotches smoky and peaty and I can find some of those characteristics right here. That's one of the things I love about beer, that beer can exhibit so many flavors from so many other foods and drinks.

The Leinenkugel Brewery is based in Chippewa Falls, WI. While they were founded eons ago in 1867 and survived Prohibition by bottling and selling soda water, they are today a wholly owned property of Coors. They are no longer an independent craft brewery. This is a common occurrence in the beer world; large breweries will often buy smaller craft breweries as a way of competing in the craft market or simply to own their competition entirely. This corporate ownership by Coors explains the pervasiveness of Leinenkugel's. Their beer is available in nearly every supermarket, corner store, gas station, and liquor shop in America. Few if any independent breweries have the type of production capabilities to reach that level of saturation - yet. The only one that comes close is Sierra Nevada. While Leinenkugel's has built its reputation largely upon beers I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole (Summer Shandy, Berry Weiss), they have recently begun producing small batch, limited run beers under the Big Eddy name that retail at medium market prices, around $10 per 4 pack. Other entries in the series have included their Imperial Stout and Imperial IPA. All biases against breweries like Coors aside, these were decent beers. They were tasty and technically very good. My only complaint is that they might have not had enough personality. Both tasted exactly like the textbook definition of their respective styles, as though the BJCP guidelines had come to life in a beer. But there was nothing that made them stand out in a crowd, no defining feature, nothing memorable. I'm at a point in my beer drinking where I'm more interested in creativity and uniqueness than technical perfection. That being said, these are great beers to try if you're just getting into craft beer. I'll be curious to see if Big Eddy's Wee Heavy falls into the same trap. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that this beer has very big shoes to fill as my favorite Wee Heavy is the much revered Alesmith Wee Heavy. I will honestly make every attempt to set this and my bias against Coors aside and judge this beer in its own right.

The beer is presented in the typical Leinenkugel's Big Eddy bottle, a typical 12oz brown bottle wrapped in a rustic brown label. Each beer in the Big Eddy series sports a different trim color to quickly differentiate each one. The Imperial Stout was red, the Imperial IPA green, and the Wee Heavy navy blue. Upon cracking the bottle cap and pouring strongly into my Libbey Poco Grande glass, I am met by a very deep copper colored beer with many highlights of ruby, amber, mahogany, and garnet. The light even exposes traces of a burgundy-like color. The head is only about a quarter inch of khaki foam that quickly drops back to a thin ring. This lower level of carbonation is perfectly acceptable for the style, though some do exhibit large heads. Appearance: 13/15

The nose is pleasing. Notes of molasses and caramel greet me upfront. Sweet, dark fruit esters accompany them to the party - plum and raisin perhaps? I have a finely tuned nose for peat and my nose tells me its in there. There's something earthy, peaty, and smoky about this beer that instantly recalls Islay scotches. More straight smoke masquerades behind the peat. I smell a campfire. A little biscuit-like bready malt dances around in there too. A delight to sniff. Nose: 23/25

The beer becomes smokier and sweeter on the palate. I readily identify roaring peat fires floating in the background combined with a faint cured meat-like smokiness. The sweet dark fruit flavors are vying for attention as well. All these flavors are wrapped up in a sturdy caramel backbone. It is very good but, despite my hopes to the contrary, this beer is beginning to resemble an imminently well crafted but perfectly forgettable beer just like its Big Eddy brethren. Palate: 45/50

The mouthfeel is decent; big and powerful. While it certainly tries hard, it does fall through on the back end of the swallow; a certain unmistakable wateriness come creeping in when instead I would be hoping for a final punch of bitterness or smoke to finish the job. Mouthfeel: 7/10

OVERALL: 88/100


Well, this beer landed about where I expected it to but hoping it wouldn't. Its a shame when a beer's biggest flaw is its utter mediocrity but that alone is enough to let it get lost in the shuffle of an ever-evolving world of beers to tantalize and entice. I just can't imagine remembering this beer in six months. It was still very decent and would be a great introduction to the style, though I'd sooner choose Founders Dirty Bastard as your initial foray into Wee Heavys. Sorry Leinenkugel's, I know you tried really hard with the Big Eddy series and I know what you were going for, but you're not quite there. Cheers!

Beer Basics 101: What is Beer?

Tonight I'm starting yet another series of posts entitled "Beer Basics 101." While my Beer Geekery 101 posts are written about the finer points of truly appreciating great beer, the Beer Basics 101 series will seek to answer some nuts and bolts questions, clear up confusion, and dispel commonly held myths. I hope this distinction makes sense and proves useful.

For this entry, I thought I'd start with some very fundamental topics that a lot of non-beer geek folks might find themselves at a loss to answer. First, what is beer? Beer, quite simply, is any beverage that is brewed, not distilled like hard liquor, and then fermented to low or moderate alcoholic strength wherein the fermentable sugars are derived from cereal grains. Make sense? What my best attempt at a broad technical definition means is that you make beer by steeping partially germinated cereal grains (partially germinated cereal grains are called "malts") in water and then exposing the resulting "tea" (known in the beer world as wort) to yeast that feeds upon the maltose sugars available in the malts (that's why you have to partially germinate them - to make the inner sugars available for yeast consumption). The process of yeast consuming sugars and converting them into byproducts, in the case of beer, alcohol and carbonation, is called fermentation. Between steeping the malt and pitching the yeast, most modern beers receive a hop addition, though this wasn't always the case as we look back in history. After the yeast is introduced, fermentation begins and the soon-to-be-beer is laid down for a period of weeks or months to allow fermentation to complete. The time necessary to complete fermentation varies by style and, more importantly, the particular strain of yeast being used. I mentioned that beer is derived from cereal grains. Cereal grains can refer to any number of different crops, though barley is the overwhelming choice worldwide today not only because of its abundance and ability to grow well in a variety of climates, but also because its physical structure and durability lend itself well to the brewing process. Aside from barley, a whole slew of grains may be used. They include but are not limited to: wheat, oats, rye, corn, rice, sorghum, millet, and spelt.

I think I'm going to keep my Beer Basics 101 posts short and sweet. I'd prefer they be a fast, easily digestible read so that educating yourself is quick and simple. I left a lot unsaid, even about the basics of what beer is, so my next post will focus on varieties of yeast and the difference between an ale and a lager. I'll then probably post about hop varieties so that these three short and snappy reads will give you an understanding of what's in your glass next time you crack one open. Cheers!

Stillwater/Hof ten Dormaal Bronze Age Beer Review

Tonight I'll be reviewing an interesting beer, Bronze Age, a collaboration between Baltimore, MD based Stillwater Artisanal and the brewery Hof ten Dormaal in Tildonk, Belgium. This beer came to me by way of my wonderful girlfriend who stopped by famed beer store Bruisin' Ales in Asheville, NC when she was there back in April. Big props to her. Also, as I have also been to Bruisin' Ales in the past, I want to give a big shout-out and an even bigger thanks to everyone at Bruisin' Ales. While you have a selection that can't be beat, I think what makes you guys a world class beer store is your attitude and clear investment in and love for the beer community. Keep on keeping on!

Stillwater is a curious brewery as they're one of a handful of breweries I can think of that are nomads; that is, they don't have a brewery to call their own. Rather, they travel the country and world and brew their beers in other established breweries. This spirit of collaboration in the craft beer world is great. The most well known nomadic brewer is Mikkeller, which is a Danish brewery run by a guy named Mikkel, simply enough. Being a nomadic brewery means that your production might be a little inconsistent but it also gives you the opportunity to sow your beer seeds all over the place and brew a far greater variety of beers than would be possible under a single roof. For proof of this, one need look no further than Mikkeller's astonishingly long lineup of beers (ratebeer.com lists over 300 beers made by Mikkeller). Stillwater is very well regarded for their much smaller collection of beers including some of the best saisons on either side of the Atlantic. Since they focus mostly on Belgian styles, travelling to Belgium and working in tandem with Hof ten Dormaal to make a beer seemed a natural fit. Bronze Age would be called a saison or farmhouse ale. In fact, the label identifies the beer as a "Traditional Belgian Farmhouse Ale." For an in-depth explanation of saisons, please see my style overview. Remember when I said in my overview of saisons that they varied wildly from brewer to brewer and often contained unique ingredients? Well, Bronze Age is a prime example. They brewed it with a portion of the grain bill being spelt, an ancient and wild variety of wheat that was a staple of many European diets during the Bronze Age. The idea with this beer, insofar as I can deduce, was to reasonably recreate the type of beer that would've been produced in Belgium during the Bronze Age, which occurred there from about 1600 to 700 B.C.E. Let's step back in time, shall we?

The beer is beautifully presented in a 375ml (12.7oz) green bottle with a cork and cage finish. The label exhibits Stillwater's usual intriguing and eye-catching artwork that features two hands, one wrapping the other in guaze with a background that features wild wheat and what appears to be a brain. How very curious. The beer itself pours with a massive ivory head. I have to cut my usual strong pour short so as not to spill over the glass. I half expect this type of carbonation in beers like this, so I am unfazed. This 8% abv beauty is a light straw yellow that is semi-hazy. Everything looks great so far. Appearance: 14/15

After the head recedes over the course of a few minutes, leaving some lacing, I have space to really get my nose in the glass. I'm met with a very saison-ish nose. Classic hints of spice, pepper, some fruity esters. I smell some barnyard and cellar funkiness. Giving the glass a hard swirl clarifies some of those esters, there is pear and red apple very apparent. The pepper definitely smells like standard black table pepper. There is also a pleasing lemony zest to the nose. I think what I previously called barnyard could more accurately be called grassy. Solid nose and this beer so far has my taste buds jumping in anticipation. Nose: 23/25


Ah, tasting, my favorite part of beer. Doing this elaborate reviews with the beer right in front of me while I write about other aspects of the beer really drives up the anticipation and makes the payoff that much better. I taste a little more funkiness and mustiness than was in the nose. I still get that grassy note and I'm beginning to think that is due to the hops. I've never read anything about the exact hop bill on this beer, but I'm guessing Styrian. The pepper kind of bounces around throughout the beer, even as the beer transitions and travels from the front of my mouth to the back of my throat. The peppery spice makes a grand final gesture, giving me a quick blast of spice right as I swallow. Kind of lovely, actually. The esters of apple and pear are there too and help balance out the spice and the funk (Sidenote: The Spice and The Funk is now the name for my next homebrew when I make a saison. Don't steal my idea.). Very nice flavors overall and, while not groundbreaking, they are as unique as any saison and they're on-point for what I expect from the style. Palate: 45/50


The mouthfeel is nothing spectacular but very good nonetheless. Ample carbonation and a lean, dry body make this 8% complex ale immensely drinkable. It is very bubbly, almost champagne like. In case you're wondering, there is a beer style that very nearly approximates champagne. Its called biere de champagne. Its a new style still gaining traction in the beer world. Anyway, great mouthfeel. Mouthfeel: 9/10

OVERALL: 91/100

Well, its safe to say I liked this beer a lot. I'm a sucker for saisons and since my second area of geeky interest is history, throwing in a special ingredient like spelt and naming your beer 'Bronze Age' is sure to win me over. That being said, I think this beer is very solid and definitely worth a try if you find it. Cheers!

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA Beer Review

Well now, a beer review for a beer that's as polarizing as it is fearsome. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you for your beer geek pleasure, the 120 minute IPA from Dogfish Head Brewery. Buckle up, things might get crazy. I yanked this behemoth of a beer out of my cellar and decided to give it a review since this beer is pretty raw when fresh. I'm hoping that time has managed to sooth a little bit of this savage beast. The beer could broadly be called an Imperial IPA (in fact, the label bills it as the imperial IPA). To call it as such, though, is to emasculate all others in this style. The 120 min IPA exists in a realm all its own, for this particular beer clocks in somewhere in the neighborhood of 18% abv. Holy intoxication, Batman! When this beer was first brewed it was ratcheted up to about 21% abv and was for a time the strongest beer on Earth. While it has since been eclipsed, it is still extremely impressive because, as Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione is quick to point out, this beer still seems like a beer. Other beers that are stronger than this have no carbonation and are often meant to be enjoyed like a scotch or cognac, at room temperature in small quantities from a snifter. Sam Adam's Utopias at 27% abv is a prime example of this. The beers that have pushed the envelope further than this aren't even purely brewed; they are brewed into double digits and then undergo a process called freeze distillation in which freezing temperatures cause water in the beer to separate from the alcohol. When this happens, the water is filtered away leaving behind a concentrated essence of the beer not dissimilar to hard liquor. But Dogfish Head's 120 min IPA is purely brewed and definitely still looks like a beer - Carbonated, in a 12oz bottle, meant to be drunk cool, and not completely astronomical in price. A 750ml resealable bottle of Sam Adams Utopias retails in the ballpark of $150 whereas Dogfish Head (henceforth abbreviated DFH) prices their ultra strong 120 min IPA around $10 per 12oz bottle. Still pricey to be sure, but nowhere near the highway robbery going on over at Sam Adams.

Dogfish Head Brewery was originally founded in 1995 in Reheboth Beach, DE as a brewpub (a restaurant that brews the beer they serve on premise). They still operate the brewpub but a few years after opening the founder, Sam Calagione, opened a full-scale production brewery in nearby Milton, DE. While beer for the restaurant and many of their experimental batches are still made in Reheboth Beach, most of the beer they make comes out of Milton. With the off-centered Sam Calagione at its helm, DFH has evolved into one of the largest and best known craft breweries in the U.S. by continually pushing the envelope with many of their beers. They are constantly exploring new techniques, resurrecting extinct historical styles, and employing stranger-than-fiction ingredients. This unpredictability combined with a dedication to perfection has built them a loyal following among many beer enthusiasts, although some are put off by their off-the-wall approach. They produce a variety of extremely strong beers and 120 min IPA is among the best known. To brew a beer up to 18% abv is very difficult. Most yeast won't survive the fermentation as the rising alcohol will actually kill the yeast, thereby ceasing fermentation, around 10-12% with most yeasts. The trick to making beers this strong is to use a particularly hearty yeast that can survive higher alcohol environments and then carefully monitoring the brewing process. Once the yeast begins to max out, brewers must dump the beer with lots of sugar to re-invigorate the yeast and push the fermentation onward. Consequently, all super high alcohol beers are going to be pretty sweet. DFH balances this high level of sweetness by deploying the most insane hopping regimen I've ever heard of. They boil the hops for 120 min (standard is 60, and thus the name of the beer) then they dry hop the beer (adding hops to the finished beer after fermentation to add a boost of hoppy flavor) every day for a month. That's a lot of hops. The impression is still a very sweet beer. The 120 min IPA is one of those extremely rare IPAs that actually improves with age. When young, the flavors are disparate and obnoxiously sweet. As time goes on, the beer dries out a bit and the flavors meld into a more harmonious whole, hopefully. This particular bottle is about 6 months old. Here goes nothing...

A strong pour from the 12oz bottle whose label is adorned with little other than a picture of a hop cone reveals a deep golden, even coppery colored beer in my DFH signature glass. Clarity is very good. A half inch beige head quickly recedes into a sturdy ring. Better carbonated than I remembered and impressive given the beer's strength; carbonation doesn't fare well in high alcohol environments. Appearance: 13/15

The nose is leviathan. I can smell it as it sits on my computer desk two feet away. Immersing my nose beneath the rim of the glass is an assault on my nostrils. Huge, sugary boozy notes are elbowing for attention with massively fruity esters. I smell plum and cherry especially. Also present are unmistakable hop notes - bold, citrusy, and fruity. I even get a big floral bouquet here; this is one complex and gargantuan beer. Nose: 22/25


The beer has in fact dried out from the absurdly sweet monster that it is when fresh. The flavors come in three distinct waves: first, big fruit flavors, more cherry and plum. Maybe a little vanilla there too. Second, hops galore. This is among the most intense beers I've ever had, and I don't scare easily. The hops take the throne as this beer pummels (in a good way) the roof of my mouth. As I swallow, a quick transition into a superbly large smack of sugary alcohol sweetness that cracks the back of my mouth like the devil's whip. I can't adequately describe what its like to taste this beer. Palate: 46/50


The mouthfeel is yet another unfathomable aspect of this beer. Must be tasted to be believed. Very thick, a sugary grit to it, with plenty of carbonation that I think has developed in the bottle as a result of the aging. The carbonation is a good thing here as it rescues the taste buds from the unrelenting madness of this beer. Mouthfeel: 9/10


OVERALL: 90/100


What can I say about this beer that hasn't already been said? I mentioned it was polarizing and boy it is! Some people hate this beer for being boozy, cloying, under-attenuated, and estery beyond all belief. While these are valid criticisms, people like me love this beer for what it represents: a beer and a brewery unafraid to push limits and challenge what our perceptions are. I love this beer because I support Sam Calagione in his efforts as a vocal, passionate, and highly visible advocate for the industry that he has helped to define. DFH, for me, embodies the spirit of adventure that is the lifeblood of our culture and community. I highly recommend this beer to anyone who thinks of themselves as a bit "off-centered," because this is an ale for you. Cheers!

Style Overview - Hefeweizen

A big part of me really wanted to do a beer review tonight but I'm recovering from a sore throat and stuffy nose so I thought it unfair to do a review if I can't do it right. Instead, I'm giving a style overview of a well-known and much loved style: the Hefeweizen. While you may alternately hear this referred to as a weizen, weisse, weissbier, etc., the style I'm talking about refers to the golden, fruity, and phenolic wheat ales that originated in southern Germany originally as a summertime beer but which are now produced year-round by many brewers. It is also important to note the difference between the Hefeweizen and the very similar Kristalweizen. The only difference is that the Hefeweizen is unfiltered and the suspended yeast sediment lends a heavy haze whereas a Kristalweizen is filtered and should present brilliantly clear. Kristalweizens aren't tremendously common, however, so most of the time ordering a German wheat ale means you're getting a Hefeweizen.

As I mentioned, Hefeweizens originated in Bavaria in southern Germany.The word "hefeweizen" literally means "yeast wheat", a beer with yeast. Hefeweizens are one of a handful of ales produced in a country that defined the lager tradition (indeed, the word lager is German and means "storage"). Don't worry, I'll talk about the differences between ales and lagers in another post. For now, suffice it to say that almost all beers fall into one of those two major subcategories and that Germany is lager-crazy. One difference that bears mentioning in this post as it pertains to the character of a Hefeweizen is this: yeasts used to produce lagers generally have little flavor and the yeast leans on the hops and barley to do the heavy lifting in the flavor department of most lagers. This is in contrast to ale yeasts that are quite expressive and produce a number of natural chemical byproducts that contribute greatly to the ale's aroma and flavor. A Hefeweizen's signature is defined by the flavors produced by its yeast.

One of those byproducts that result from the yeast during the fermentation process are what are called phenols. Phenols can present in a variety of beers and are even present in other alcohols (Some of my favorite scotches are exceedingly phenolic). Problem is, phenols can sometimes contribute unpleasant flavors. I've heard phenols described as band-aids, hospital flavor, metallic, medicinal, salty, all manner of undesirable tastes. Lucky for us, phenols can also produce really tasty flavor compounds and that is precisely what they do in a Hefeweizen. The phenolic compounds in a Hefeweizen tint the beer with a very noticeable and supremely enjoyable aroma and taste of clove. Seriously, smell a hefeweizen and then smell a whole clove. Dead match.

A second fermentation byproduct that derives from ale yeasts are known as esters. Esters are pretty cool little flavor compounds. Esters, often together with phenols, define many a Belgian style (and boy do I love my Belgians). Esters contribute a fruity sweetness and the exact profile of fruitiness varies depending on the strain of yeast and the beer itself. As pertains to a hefeweizen, esters give off an unmistakable aroma and flavor of bananas. That's right, bananas. Some folks also describe the estery flavors of hefeweizens as tasting like bubblegum, sometimes both. Regardless, the resulting balance between clove spiciness and fruity sweetness makes for one very tasty, overtly approachable, easy drinking backyard summertime beer.

Hops are present in hefeweizens, as they are in 99.99% of all beers out there, but here they exist in small quantities only present enough to provide a touch of balance to the sweetness of the beer. There is no discernible hop character. The malt bill is at least 50% but sometimes up to 70% wheat malt, with the remainder being the clean and inoffensive Pilsner malt. Therefore, since the malt profile is not tremendously strong nor does the hop profile blow your socks off, the hefeweizen is all about the yeast. The one thing the malt does contribute to is the body, also known as the mouthfeel or overall texture of the style. Beers with a high wheat content will exhibit a fluffy, almost aerated mouthfeel while the wheat will also contribute to the beer's haziness and produce a massive, nearly out-of-control white head that is an important characteristic of the style. The color of the beer itself ranges from straw yellow to dark gold. Body is light to medium, alcohol by volume ranges from 4.4 to 5.6% (or thereabouts).

The hefeweizen is typically served in a tall slender glass like this:

This is what is called, suitably enough, a weizen glass. These glasses might also pull double duty in bars and restaurants for serving tall orders of draft pilsners and the like. American drinking habits have dictated that the hefeweizen is at times served with an orange slice, though some men might find it difficult to live down drinking a beer with fruit among their friends. While I don't have these macho notions, I still drink hefeweizens without an orange. Way I see it, if the brewer wanted me to have some fruit, he'd have put it in the beer. I want to taste what the brewer intended me to have. Make up your own mind. Remember, beer

is supposed to be fun!

I'll be honest - I have a patriotic streak when it comes to beer. I think American brewers are among the most talented, creative, and innovative brewers out there. Their ingenuity sparked a craft beer revolution over the last 40 years and has now created craft beer revolutions in other countries. I'm sick and tired of uninformed beer drinkers trashing a beer simply because its American or automatically extolling the virtues of any foreign beer. Judge a beer on its own merits, people! That being said, I do think the Germans still have the market cornered when it comes to classic Hefeweizens. While many American breweries produce an offshoot of the style known as an American Wheat Ale, a true and high quality Hefeweizen isn't as common as you might think stateside. In fact, many brewers who claim a Hefeweizen are in fact brewing American Wheat Ales. The one solid example of an American hefeweizen that I can think of off the top of my head is Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis. Very tasty beer, but I haven't seen it around in a while so it might be down for the count. For me, the quintessential authentic Hefeweizen is the Weihenstephaner Hefe weissbier. A true classic. Ayinger's Brau-Weisse as well as Paulaner's Hefe-Weissbier and Schneider's Weisse are also great examples. I'm lucky to live near the Hofbrauhaus in Newport, KY that brews the beer it sells on premise and part of their regular lineup is a great weizen. While I'm not overly impressed by it in bottle form, there's something about getting it fresh from the brewery and sitting on a long wooden bench that's magical.

In the end, I hope this post (and others like it) are more than overly verbose and dry explanations of things you might not care about. I hope they embolden you to try new things and drink great beer. I hope it helps you establish that connection with the beer in your hand because then it's not just drinking a beer - it's an experience you'll remember. If all these nerdy hopes and dreams aren't your thing, at least you can show off to your friends next time you crack open some hefeweizens on a hot summer night. Cheers!

Beer Geekery 101: Choosing the right glass

For the second installment in my Beer Geekery 101 series, I'm once again donning my professor hat to give you some tips on maximizing your beer drinking experience. Tonight, I'll be focusing on glassware. I'll cover proper glass cleaning technique in another post (trust me, its worthy of its own entry, lots to talk about).

First, let's establish a simple fact: It is always preferable to drink beer from a glass rather than the bottle or can. And no, a Solo plastic cup doesn't qualify as glassware. A glass is preferred over straight from the bottle because a bottle or can limits the extent to which you can enjoy and appreciate the beer. Drinking beer sans glass prevents you from seeing the beer's color or allowing a proper head to form. Head is important to beer as it contributes to the mouthfeel and thus your overall impression of the beer. The color and clarity, or lack thereof, of the the beer is important because beer is best enjoyed if you can assess all aspects of the beer, its appearance, feel, taste, and smell. Which brings me to the next reason why a glass is important. Drinking from the bottle or can means that you are completely excluding your nose from the situation. Our sense of smell is of paramount importance when tasting any food or drink. That's why nothing tastes good when your nose is stuffed up, because smell is a major component of taste itself.

Now that we've established that a glass is essential to any good beer drinking experience, you might be asking yourself, "Hey, I've always just poured my beer in a pint glass. Isn't that good enough?" The answer is, well, sort of. I will once again revert to my mantra that beer ought to be fun and that no one should ever look down on you for how you like having a beer. That being said, not all glassware is created equal. There are many styles of glass out there and many of them have highly specialized shapes and sizes that best express the styles for which they were designed. My standard drinkware is my Libbey Poco Grande Glass (pictured in most of my beer reviews). This glass is what's referred to as a tulip glass. It has a bulbous lower body on a stem that tapers toward the neck and then flares open at the mouth. This particular shape, while attractive and classy, is also very utilitarian as the large body provides ample room for voluminous heads to grow while the narrow neck channels volatile aromatics up toward my nose and the wider opening guarantees that the beer will cascade over my entire mouth, allowing me to get an accurate impression of the beer every time it comes to my lips. Add to that the glass is far sturdier than your average wine glass and we have a real winner here. I purchased a four pack of this glass through bedbathandbeyond.com and it cost a measly $10 plus shipping. Trust me, this is a worthwhile investment. If you're not sold on a tulip glass, even though they are suitable for nearly every style, there are other options out there. A good red wine glass or brandy snifter make a fine vessel for sampling many a tasty beer. Sam Adams produces a very available glass they call the Perfect Pint glass that is a marriage between the tulip and traditional pint glass style. I have a Perfect Pint myself and I love it for sturdy, hoppy beers like IPAs and Pale Ales. It also does great with amber ales and brown ales. For wheat beers like German Hefeweizens, I recommend a taller, slender, stemless glass that tapers slightly at the center and opens again for a wide mouth, much like what pilsners and mainstream light lagers are often served in when you order a larger size of draft beer at a restaurant. This style will also work well with the pilsner, although the classic footed pilsner is an option if you're looking to expand your glass collection.

Belgian beers should have a glassware entry of their own. Some are served in goblets, some in tulips, some in snifters. Others are served in tumblers, flutes, or chalices. General rule: Rich, heavier beers should use a goblet or snifter while lighter beers can use tulips. This is a gross oversimplification, however; the truth is that many breweries in Belgium are very particular about their glassware and often produce their own glasses to accompany their beer. If a brewery, Belgian or otherwise, produces a specialty glass, its a safe bet that you should use that glass for many if not all of their beers. For example, every time I drink a Dogfish Head beer, it gets poured straight into my Dogfish signature glass, which is one damn fine glass. Another popular brewery-branded glass is Duvel's infamous oversized tulip, perfectly suited for the massive head that their beer produces. Because I'm rather invested in my beer drinking habits (read slightly obsessive), I often won't drink a beer out of branded glassware unless the beer and the glass match, even though I have a large and varied collection of brewery glasses. For this reason, I keep various unbranded glasses including my Libbey Poco Grande and several awesome glasses from Crate & Barrel on hand at all times.

The glasses I've mentioned by name here are all fantastic and certainly worth adding to or starting your collection. As I said, you can also use a large red wine glass or snifter if you're unsure about the difference that a glass can make. Some folks out there contend that glassware doesn't impact a beer enough, if at all, that one should obsess over it as I do. But I'm putting the information out there so that you can try out various glasses and make up your own mind. Beer is fun and you should do what you want. I'm just here to offer some friendly advice from someone who's been around the dance floor a couple times. Cheers!

Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown Beer Review

After the relative disappointment that was my previous review of New Holland's White Hatter, I'm hoping that this review will restore my ever so slightly shaken faith in Michigan breweries. I picked this bottle up from The Party Source in Bellevue, KY and while there, Greg in the beer department took me in the backroom to get me my bottle (thanks for the hookup, Greg!) and while there, he named me The Party Source's customer of the week! Check it out on Facebook. Anyway, I'm excited about this beer because it is the fourth and latest installment in Founders wildly successful Backstage Series, a line of one-time production beers that have previously been taproom/brewery exclusives. To get these beers out into Founders distribution footprint is a big deal in the beer world; we've been longing for these beers for quite some time. This series also marks the first time that Founders has bottled beer in large format bottles, in this case 750ml bottles. The previous releases were Blushing Monk, Canadian Breakfast Stout (insanely hard to get but one of the best beers I've ever had), and Curmudgeon's Better Half. As I said, these are all special, highly prized beers and Frangelic Mountain Brown is no exception.

The beer could broadly be called a brown ale, but the label indicates an abv of 9%, which is far outside the range of your typical brown ale (Newcastle is the best known example). The brown ale originates in England and dates back centuries but has fallen out of popularity in recent years. Besides Newcastle, there aren't a ton of brown ales being made. There are notable exceptions being produced such as Dogfish Head's Indian Brown Ale and Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar, but even these are variations on the classic. I guess the style doesn't typically inspire people. Founders has produced their own twist with this beer. Frangelic Mountain Brown is the 16th iteration of their Mountain Brown Ale, which is itself a taproom exclusive. For this particular incarnation, the Founders team brewed it with actual hazelnut coffee. I'm excited to see how this beer turns out because I enjoyed Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar, brewed with hazelnut, and will be interested to note how the added coffee component affects the finished product. The brown ale style lends itself well to the hazelnut flavor, as the style tends to be a robust, ruby-brown colored ale with sweet notes of caramel and nuttiness. Let's dive in!

The beer is very nicely presented in a 750ml bottle with a beautiful mountain landscape and a nifty retro-ish label. An unabashed pour into my Libbey Poco Grande glass shows off a medium brown beer with plenty of ruby, garnet, and mahogany highlights. This pretty little beer is topped off by a cream colored half inch head that fades back into a ring and some interspersed foam after a few minutes. Looks promising so far. Appearance: 14/15

Holy hazelnut coffee, Batman! Right off the bat, my nose is inundated, and I'm not using the word lightly either, absolutely inundated with hazelnut coffee. I've never smelled a beer that so nearly approximates the smell of a coffeehouse. Wow. Luckily, I love hazelnut and coffee and combining the two in beer is kind of magical for me. It is very difficult to get past the hazelnut coffee smell. Maybe some caramel? Tough to say. The beer smells so delicious my mouth is watering and my olfactory sense memory is rushing me back to cozy memories of even cozier coffeehouses with good drinks, good friends, good music, and good conversation. But seriously, if you dislike hazelnut or coffee, stop reading now. You will hate this beer. Nose: 22/25

And the coffee just keeps coming! Straight through the palate, across every inch of my tongue and to the back of my mouth, nothing but hazelnut coffee. I mean yikes! There's a great creamy flavor in there too and I'm really getting into this beer as its beginning to warm so all the flavors are out and in full stride. The alcohol is remarkably well hidden. I have a high threshold for tasting booze, but this tastes a lot like plain old hazelnut coffee. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad thing; its great, because despite all of the flavors that we don't typically associate with beer, it still drinks and feels like a beer. So its pretty cool drinking a hazelnut coffee that constantly reminds me of its beery goodness at every turn. Palate: 47/50


The mouthfeel here might be my favorite aspect of the beer. Creamy, medium-full (way fuller than expected) and just enough pop of carbonation to let you know its a beer and not actual Frangelico. Awesome and different. Mouthfeel: 10/10


OVERALL: 94/100


I liked this beer from the outset but I ended up rating it higher than I expected. Sometimes my own ratings surprise me because I'm so focused on each segment during evaluation that I don't always see the big picture until I add up the total. I think I ended up liking this beer more than some others because A. I love the flavors that so dominate the nose and palate and B. I have an affinity for beers that can completely surprise me and do something I never would've expected. I almost want to get another bottle and drink it with breakfast. It would go great with sausage and biscuits. What can I say, I loved this beer! Cheers!

New Holland White Hatter Beer Review

Tonight I'm reviewing a new beer from the New Holland Brewing Co. out of Holland, MI. The White Hatter is part of a series of beers that New Holland has turned out of late that are all re-imaginings of their trusted standby Mad Hatter IPA. Unfortunately, I couldn't find much information about the brewery itself as the website wasn't very easy to navigate and seemed in need of an update. What I can tell you is that they're not newcomers and, while I've had many of their beers over the years, I've not been tremendously impressed with most of them. I did like their Beerhive Tripel pretty well and their Nighttripper imperial stout was solid. I think the problem that holds this brewery back from being a bigger regional player is that they have consistency issues; I can't inherently trust their beers. Moreover, I find that even their best beers have far superior counterparts being produced by other breweries. Consequently, I seldom buy their beer anymore. I picked up their White Hatter, though, because it is part of a miniature trend that I've seen lately.

While this beer could be loosely referred to as an IPA, it isn't going to resemble most IPAs out there. Its something of a hybrid style; a Belgian witbier (white, unfiltered beer made with wheat) that carries with it the more extreme hopping schedule that you would expect in an IPA. The beer also retains some of its witbier identity by using traditional spices including orange peel and coriander. Depending on who is making them, these hybrids range between 5.5% and 7% abv, which is about the range of witbier to IPA. The White Hatter is 5.5%. I think the goal was to create a beer as refreshing as a witbier but with more interest and pizzazz on the tongue. This little wave of white IPAs has also included Sam Adam's Whitewater IPA and a recent collaboration between Green Flash and Founders that they named Linchpin. Having had and enjoyed both of those, I wanted to check out more of the competition.

The beer is presented well in a 22oz bottle complete with foil over the cap and neck and eye-catching artwork on the label. A semi-cautious pour down the side of my pint glass (anticipating bountiful carbonation) reveals a disappointment. The beer has surprisingly little head, a quarter inch at best that I am powerless to agitate and that quickly recedes into a ring with no lacing or retention. A protein rich wheat beer with plenty of hops should yield a much healthier head with better retention and lacing. The beer itself is a shade or two darker than most witbiers (think Blue Moon or Hoegaarden) and is hazy to the point of being nearly opaque. Appearance: 10/15

The aroma smells of a pretty classic (read boring) hop profile. I detect some spiciness, both from the coriander and potentially from the hops. It straddles the line of the two styles poorly; it neither reeks of hoppy goodness enough to entice me nor does it present strongly with all the sweet esters and spices that I would want in my witbier. Overall, I'm left wanting more. Nose: 18/25

The palate is as uninspired as the nose. I might be overly critical here because I've had two beers that do this style better, but New Holland didn't quite hit the mark here for me. The flavors lean too heavily on the spices and this encumbers the hops. It comes across as a very hoppy witbier (not sure I'm interested in that) whereas the Linchpin from Green Flash/Founders, for example, was a super tasty witbier that still managed to have some definite IPA character by exhibiting prominent, bright, citrusy notes. Moreover, the flavors here are less distinct than in their counterparts and this muddling only serves to confuse the palate. Palate: 35/50

The mouthfeel is, like the rest of this beer, decent. Lacking in creativity to keep me interested or enough technical expertise to hit the nail on the head, it is simply there. I would hope that a beer like this that is supposed to be immensely drinkable would have a pitch perfect mouthfeel (would've been a saving grace here) but I am once again left hoping for more. Mouthfeel: 6/10

OVERALL: 69/100

I really didn't set out to trash this beer. These are my honest opinions about each segment of the beer. While it may be unfair to compare it to others like it, the fact that this style is so new means that you will invariably draw comparisons to those who have come before you. Were I to perform Hamlet, I would fully expect someone to tell me how I sucked in comparison to Laurence Olivier, John Barrymore, and Edwin Booth. This is the risk you take in forging a new path - occasionally you get lost in the woods. This isn't to say the beer was bad per se, simply that it frustrates me when I can see what a brewer was going for only to watch them fall so short. Please don't let this review deter you from trying New Holland's beers as they have a whole range of very serviceable beers that can challenge your palate without being too intense when you're first starting to break into craft beer. They're a great starter brewery in my book. Unfortunately, I've moved past them and now depend on the likes of Stone, Bell's, Founders, and Dogfish Head for my staples. Cheers!

Beer Geekery 101: Proper Serving Temperature

In this post, I'm starting a new series of blog entries by going over some insider tricks and guidelines to help you maximize your beer enjoyment. Once I've covered all the aspects of enjoying a beer that I feel deserve attention, I have a feeling I'll write a post that summarizes the previous posts and also gives you some step-by-step guidance on evaluating and rating a beer yourself. While this may render me obsolete in some small way, I realize that I can't drink and review every beer out there (try as I might) so I figured the only magnanimous thing to do would be to pass what little wisdom I have on to you.

To start this series, I'll be discussing one of the most overlooked features of a beer - its temperature. The sad truth of the matter is that most people drink their beer too cold. Way. too. damn. cold. Drinking your beer too cold will severely limit how much you enjoy it. I don't blame the beer drinkers here; I blame the makers of the inferior light lagers that dominate the international beer market such as Budweiser, Miller, Coors, Labatt, Heineken, etc. These beers are streamlined to be as inoffensive as possible in order to appeal to the broadest possible audience but this streamlining is done to a fault as the beers are terribly bland and virtually indistinguishable in a blind taste test. Since they have precious little to contribute to the flavor department, indeed since their beers taste abominable the nearer you get to room temperature, their marketing departments have invested untold millions in convincing the good, honest beer drinking populace that colder is better. For proof of this, one need look no further than Coor's cold-activated can, where "the mountains turn blue when your beer's as cold as the Rockies." First, that's an awful gimmick. Since when did my hands become ineffective at determining if a drink is cold? Now I need visual confirmation? Give me a break. Second, this massive media campaign perpetuates the ice-cold beer myth. Some beers should be consumed at or slightly below 40 degrees, but never down around 32 degrees. To be fair, draft beer systems are supposed to be maintained at 38 degrees regardless of the beer being served. This temperature has more to do with maintaining homeostasis within the system rather than ideal serving conditions. Once, however, I was out with a friend at a restaurant who ordered a draft Bud Light and it was served to him with ice crystals floating on top. Completely unacceptable. I would've sent it back. Anyway, ideal serving temperature varies by beer style and I'll outline some pointers below but remember, if you order a draft beer and the style calls for it being warmer than 38 degrees (many do), your hands can once again become invaluable tools as they're quite useful in warming up a beer in no time.

The general rule is that lighter, lower alcohol beers are served cooler. Beer should never be ice cold as it freezes out your taste buds and prevents you from picking up on nuances. Beers like pilsners, kolsch, and dortmunders as well as ales like witbiers and hefeweizens are extremely enjoyable around 38-40 degrees. Beers with a little more heft like amber ales, saisons, and Belgian golden ales taste great around 40-45 degrees. Beers with some bite to them like IPAs, American Strong Ales, and Tripels are super palatable in the upper 40s. Fairly heavy beers like quadrupels, Belgian Strong Dark Ales, and other relatively rich, malty beers are best kept in the upper 40s to 50. The real heavyweights like Imperial Stouts and barleywines are best enjoyed starting out around 55 or so but I've had plenty of these styles at room temperature and they're fantastic. What's important to remember is that these guidelines aren't set in stone and you will run across beers that might not fit so neatly into the guidelines I've described ever so briefly. In these cases, do what feels right to you; beer is supposed to be fun, not work. If you're unsure about how best to enjoy a beer, a fun experiment is to start off with the beer quite cold and then notice the changes in aroma and flavor as the beer warms and opens up.

If you've not yet heard the good word that I'm preaching, if you still don't put much stock in the temperature of your beer, try this on for size: drink a good craft beer and a light, mainstream beer of your choice side by side at room temperature. I predict you'll find that the light beer tastes and smells insipid; its amazing what awful flavors these beers reveal when they're not hiding behind 30 degree temperatures. By contrast, I think you'll taste the higher quality of ingredients as well as the care and craftsmanship that goes into good beer.

Once you've realized that I'm not just a crazy nerd, that I'm actually onto something with this whole temperature thing, your efforts to better enjoy your beer may begin in earnest. If you're like me, however, you'll eventually want a little more scientific precision in your beer temperature. For this, I recommend going to your local hardware store and springing for an IR thermometer. Its a great little handheld device that bounces a laser off the surface of your beer and gives you a temperature reading accurate to within a couple degrees. This is far preferable to sticking the same thermometer that you put under your tongue in your beer. Gross. Please, enjoy beer without your household thermometer. Cheers!

Founder's Devil Dancer Beer Review

For this entry I'll be reviewing one of my most eagerly anticipated once-a-year releases, Devil Dancer from Founders Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids, MI.

Founders was started by Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers in 1997. They took a huge risk by quitting their comfortable day jobs and taking out massive loans (like many other upstart breweries) to start turning out their beers. According to company history, the brewery was near bankruptcy after producing an entire range of well crafted but unremarkable beers. This, after all, is an industry and a culture that prides itself on pushing boundaries. As a hail mary play, the Founders team decided to start making beers that really excited them; strong, aromatic, in your face ales. This new-found inspiration led them to their philosophy of not brewing for the masses, instead choosing to brew for the select few and hoping that it pays off. This philosophy is apparent in the motto that guides their brewery to this day: "Brewed for us. Enjoyed by everyone." The change of direction has payed off marvelously for Founders. Today they are a powerhouse regional brewery with a strong presence throughout their distribution range in the midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. They have become an immensely well respected brewery that does a great deal of their business on a stable of expertly crafted and affordable beers that include their Centennial IPA, Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale, Curmudgeon Old Ale, and Red's Rye Pale Ale. Most breweries would be overjoyed to have a collection of beers this good. Founders was not. In addition to their regular offerings, they produce some very special (and at times, exceedingly rare) beers that make beer geeks and hunters like me get all giddy. They've produced Blushing Monk (an over-the-top raspberry beer fermented with Belgian yeast), Canadian Breakfast Stout (brewed with coffee and aged in maple-bourbon barrels), and Kentucky Breakfast Stout (brewed with coffee and aged in bourbon barrels). Their extensive lineup of specialties also includes their Devil Dancer, a beer that they bill as a triple IPA.

While this beer would most closely fall into the category of Imperial/Double IPA, I have to say from the outset that to think of this beer within those boundaries would be to do it a disservice. While it is insanely hoppy, it also has a massive malt bill and a hefty abv of 12%. These facts taken together might place it more accurately into the realm of a supremely hoppy barleywine, especially if you drink the Devil Dancer with 6 months or more of age after its had some time for the hops to quiet down. I'll be drinking a fresh sample so whatever IPA character they were aiming for should be intact. I have an additional bottle that I may drink and review down the road for the sake of comparison.

The beer is presented in Founder's distinctive squat 12oz bottle. After a strong pour of half the bottle into my trusty Libbey Poco Grande glass, I am left with a beautifully clear reddish amber beer with a quarter inch khaki head that recedes quickly into a loosely bubbly ring with a couple patches of carbonation floating in the center. Looks like a run of the mill amber ale or barleywine, but I know from experience that its anything but. Appearance: 13/15

I give the glass a swirl to wake the beer up and I'm greeted by a very unique collection of aromas. This beer really does smell as though an extremely potent double IPA and a hearty barleywine had some sort of deranged love child. Huge piney hops bite my nose, the pungent aromas of alpha acids making a bee line for my unsuspecting nostrils. Dancing right in behind the hop parade are the aromas I would expect of a good barleywine. I smell dark, ripe fruit, reminds me of cherry and red grape. Fruity esters from the copious yeast used are also present. If ever there were a beer that contained a smell for everyone, this would be it. The contrast is great. Nose: 23/25


On the palate, the beer presents more IPA-like, but still a far cry from your average IPA. Huge piney blasts of flavor run roughshod over my tastebuds and delicately singe the roof of my mouth and soft palate. This beer doesn't mess around. The hop profile is also deeply resinous. I doubt I'll be able to properly taste anything for the remainder of the evening. There is a bit of a harsh, boozy burn on the back end that punctuates the beer while some of those sweet barelywine aromas in the nose struggle to be heard over the screaming hops. There's also something a bit spicy and herbaceous, probably more of the hops expressing themselves. Truly a complex beer and, at times, difficult to dissect. Palate: 47/50


The mouthfeel is precisely what I would expect from a beer of this magnitude but it is nothing that really puts a signature on the beer or makes it otherwise stand out. Mouthfeel: 8/10


OVERALL: 91/100

This beer is really great, though I do prefer by a wide margin the bottles I've had with some age on them. When fresh, the flavors and aromas are a little too discordant to really make this beer one of the very best. While it is a great beer worthy of the Founders name, if I'm going to pay super-premium prices ($6.50 per 12oz bottle), I want super-premium quality. If this beer cost 3-4 dollars a bottle, it might have rated a bit higher. It is one of those frustrating beers on the precipice of greatness for me; luckily, my memory tells me that the precipice is easily crossed by 6 months to a year of aging. For now, only time will tell. Cheers!