I've been in denial

about how long I've gone since posting. But I'm back now, so never fear.

Tonight I'm reviewing Hoppy Brewing Company's Liquid Sunshine Blonde Ale. Hoppy was my very first follower on Twitter, and for that I'll be ever-grateful. I'll also be grateful for the fact that they make delicious beer. They're based in Sacramento, which is only a couple hours from where I live, and I've been wanting to drive up and check out their pub. Hmm, come to think of it, my birthday is Saturday. Are you reading this, husband?

Back to the matter at hand.

This is a very pretty beer. It pours a deep gold with a slight haze, has a generous 1-finger head, and is nice and effervescent. I love watching all the tiny bubbles float up through the glass, don't you?

The aroma is well-balanced. I'm not knocked over by any single smell. It's a little floral and a little citrusy.

The flavor is definitely citrusy. Funny, because as I poured I thought the haze made it look like a very light wheat beer. The flavor does the same. So I Googled and found out this one is made with barley, rye and wheat. Then I Googled further to find out if all Blonde Ales are made with both barley and wheat, because I realized I don't actually know what a blonde ale is. From what I can tell, it's any ale that looks and/or tastes like a lager but is not a lager. So wheat is not required, though it seems to be at least a fairly common ingredient. Glad we cleared that up. Back to the issue at hand: this beer has some wheaty characteristics, but doesn't taste like a full wheat beer. For what it's worth, it doesn't necessarily taste like a lager either. Though it does have the nice crisp finish that my homebrewing research tells me comes from the lagering process (which can be done on both lagers and ales).

But crispness is more a matter of mouthfeel, which is...crisp. And carbonated. We'll call it light-to-medium bodied.

As for drinkability, I'm classifying this as a good dinner beer. At 5% abv, a glass or three won't leave you feeling too loopy. However, the sweetness and the carbonation I'm guessing wouldn't be too kind to my stomach after more than that. Quality over quantity though, right?

Lagunitas Maximus

I picked this one up figuring we needed a slight change from the usual Lagunitas IPA that I buy on a weekly basis. I figured it would be similar, but a little more hoppy and a lot more alcohol-y. I was right on both fronts. 

Appearance - Golden amber; very clear, with a strong 1-finger head that stuck around for a few minutes.

Aroma - Surprisingly mild. It was Hoppy, but with a good balance of sweet malts.There's the citrus quality that you expect with a good IPA.

Taste - Definitely citrusy, with a sweet aftertaste from the malt. Hops aren't overpowering, but they're definitely there.

Mouthfeel - Smoothness similar to carmels melting in your mouth (a little oily). Carbonated enough that there's a little tingle on the back and sides of the tongue.

Drinkability - In all fairness, this review directly followed the Runitation, so anything would taste mild in comparison. I do think this could is sessionable, and I'll definitely be adding it to the regular rotation. I swear Lagunitas isn't paying me, but at this point I want a job there.

Sorry for the quick post tonight. I'm packing up to leave for my little brother's wedding. We have quite the fun-filled weekend ahead of us. However, my brother and his soon-to-be wife aren't big beer drinkers (unless you count Bud Light), so there likely won't be much opportunity for reviewing or posting. I'll be back on Monday.

Stone Ruination IPA

This is one of the three I bought last week while I waited for the smog check to get done on my car. I drank it Sunday night while I was boiling my homebrew Stout. I chose it because the bottle said it was unbelievably hoppy (100+ IBUs!!!), and man, they were right. I'm not entirely convinced that's a good thing, though.

My thoughts:

Appearance - It's orange/amber, and quite cloudy. The head is less than a finger, and it dissapates quickly.

Aroma - It smells like hop pellets right out of the package, and I should know because I had a fresh package of hops to compare it to. There's some citrus buried in there, but it's not evident at first.

Flavor - How do I say this without incriminating myself? This sh*t tastes like marijuana. My excuses for knowing this are A) I was an RA in college and busted my fair share of potheads and B) living in California where it's practically legal anyway, I've befriended my fair share of people with medicinal marijuana licenses. But seriously, the hops are just overpowering. And I love hops, so if I'm telling you it's too much, it's too much. I couldn't pick any other flavors out. Hey, I'm new at this. And they brag right on the bottle that this beer will destroy your palette.

Mouthfeel - It burns. I will say there's more carbonation that I expected.

Drinkability - This is not a session beer. I find myself craving meat and potatoes while I drink it, and I think it would be delicious with a nice heavy meal. I split a 22 oz bottle with my husband, and that's enough for me.




So I realize this all sounds kind of negative. This isn't a bad beer, and I'm sure people who really, really love hops will enjoy it. My husband thought it was great. It's just the kind of beer that there's a time and a place for. I'd definitely drink it again, though I doubt it will ever be the first bottle I reach for on a lazy Sunday evening.

WTF

You knew this was coming if you read my post yesterday. Lagunita's limited release Wilco Tango Foxtrot is one that you're going to want to get your hands on.

We'll ignore the mildly annoying name. I won't talk about the fact that it should have been called Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Or that Wilco, while the name of an awesome band, stands for "Will Comply" in military voice procedure, not for the letter W. No, I won't talk about that. Because the truth is, the name made me chuckle, and was probably 60% responsible for my decision to purchase the beer. The other 40% of the decision was made easy by the fact that I greatly enjoy Lagunitas's products and have a lot of confidence in the quality of their beers.

Anyway. Here are my thoughts:

Appearance - A nice, clear brown with orange highlights. The head is thick and ivory, and sticks around for a little long while.

Aroma - The hops will knock you over. I'm expecting a flavor very similar to their IPA based on the scent. The weakness of my sense of smell paired with the strength of the hops leaves any other aromas undetectable for me.

Flavor - Surprisingly, not as much like the IPA as I expected. It doesn't have nearly the same bite or aftertaste. It's bitter at the front, but finishes with some malt and chocolate.

Mouth feel - Despite the fact that the head is still going strong, it doesn't taste overly-carbonated. In fact, it's very smooth--almost oily--on the tongue.

Drinkability - I shared the 22 oz bottle with my husband. Now I'm eyeing his glass and wondering if he'd notice if I took it (he would). I could easily polish the full big bottle on my own, but probably wouldn't be interested in more than that in one sitting.

Kona Brewing Company Pipeline Porter

We're not going to talk about Syracuse. We're not.

Instead, we're going to talk about the only thing that could soften a blow like that: beer.

I sat down to enjoy(?) the game with a Pipeline Porter. My local grocery store has a very limited selection of craft beers, and this one was by far the most interesting. It's brewed with 100% Kona Coffee, which in my opinion is some of the best coffee around. Here's what I thought:

Appearance - Very dark, nearly opaque brown, with hints of scarlet when held to the light. There's almost no head on this, which I generally consider a disappointment with dark beers.

Scent - The coffee aroma is unmistakable, and wonderful. Other than that, there's a hint of sweet maltyness and little else.

Taste - Again, lots of coffee. The flavor really hits at the back of the throat. Still, the malts come through enough that I don't feel like I'm drinking a flavored beer.

Mouthfeel - Full bodied. It's smooth, almost creamy with very little carbonation.

Drinkablility - I'll be 3 deep by the time this post publishes. It's good for relaxing in front of the TV after dinner. Not necessarily something you want to drink with a meal or in a hard-partying environment.

Life is Too Short to Drink Cheap Beer

So on my latest trip to the liquor store, I picked up a six-pack of Warsteiner Premium Verum purely for nostalgic reasons. See, back when I was just a wee beer b1tch of 22, I worked a brief stint as a waitress in a German restaurant. The food wasn't particularly good, but the owners made it a point to stock a large variety of Bavarian beers. In this particular little suburb of Washington DC, we probably boasted the best beer list in a good 10 mile radius. And of course, the clientele, who were mainly a Bud Light kind of crowd, had a lot of questions about all the different choices.

Although the overall work experience at this restaurant was one of the worst of my life, I will credit them with being the first to inspire in me a real interest in beer. It was there that I learned the difference between ales and lagers, and I could even explain the difference in flavors between a Pilsner, a Dunkel, a Marzen and a Weizen (we always had one of each on tap, though the specific brands rotated).

I still have the pin that I wore on my apron, given to me by the distributor from Warsteiner: Life is too short to drink cheap beer. I thought it was an awesome slogan. Still do. So that's what I was thinking when I picked up that six-pack on Saturday. Warsteiner definitely lives up to it's claim of not being cheap (over 9 dollars for 6 beers), though I don't believe it's the beer I'd choose for my last meal.

So, without further ado, here is my review of Warsteiner Premium Verum:

Appearance: Clear and golden. Nice two-finger head of pure white, and it stuck around for a little while.

Smell: The first thing I thought was "this is what beer smells like," by which I mean, "this is what mass-marketed American light beers smell like." It had a bready smell that I assume came from yeast, and some hoppiness to it. Otherwise it's pretty generic. To keep with the nostalgia theme, it will bring you back to frat parties and family reunions.

Taste: A little sweet, almost no bitterness. There's a floral flavor that sets it apart from other pilsners.

Mouthfeel: Very carbonated, which I like. Light and crisp, but with very little bite and almost no aftertaste.

Drinkability: Very. It's got a very low alcohol content, and the general flavor of the kind of beer you drink by the case. If you're trying to wean yourself off the aforementioned mass market American lagers, this is a good place to start. If you can't stand the mass market American lagers, you'll probably want to stay far away from this. I'll put it this way. You probably don't want to serve this at your next cocktail party, but if you've got the cash you can easily replace your Bud Light with this at your next beer-pong tournament. Your players still won't puke and you can feel all nice and beer-snobby.

Pyramid Thunderhead IPA

While grocery shopping today I picked up a couple six-packs of beers I've never tried. Since the selection at Safeway isn't nearly as good as the one at BevMo, I didn't have much to go with.

My first pick was Pyramid Thunderhead IPA, because I like IPAs. They've got a brewery in Berkeley (along with Seattle and Portland), so I'm in keeping with my recent local beer theme.

To be honest, I don't have a whole lot to say about this beer. It's mild, and drinkable in that it doesn't have any of the strong flavors that might turn you off. But overall I find it fairly lackluster, and I've definitely had better IPAs.

My detailed thoughts:

Appearance - It poured a pretty light amber, with just a slight haze. A small but steady stream of bubbles rose to a 1-finger head, but that narrowed to a very thin cap within 2 minutes.

Smell - Very light. I asked my husband for help on this one given my well-documented problems with this category. He detected a little fruityness, and something herbal. All I smelled was beer.

Flavor - It's like a toned down IPA. There's very little bite and no complexity. There's flavor there, it's just very muted.

Mouth Feel - There's enough carbonation to leave a tingle on your tongue. I won't call it light-bodied, but it's definitely lighter than expected.

Drinkability - As stated before, this is drinkable the way Bud Light is drinkable. There just isn't enough flavor there to slow you down.

Double Fisting

I'm trying to train my palette to understand beer better. I'm not the best of tasters (or maybe I'm just an honest beer taster), because when I'm drinking anything less similar than a Bud Light and a Guinness, I can't really tell the difference.

So tonight, I decided to try two similar beers side-by-side, so the differences would be more discernible. What I learned from the experience is that this only works for the first few sips. Because once you're about half-way through, the alcohol starts to take a toll on your senses. Please note that I finished both beers before writing this entry, and they may not have been the first drinks of the evening. So take what comes with a grain of salt...

The two beers I tried were Anchor Brewing Company's Anchor Steam and Anchor Liberty Ale. I purposely chose beers from the same brewery, that were close to the same style, thinking that would give me fewer variables in the flavor. This may have been a mistake: as I said, before I was half-way through, they really did start to taste the same.

The easiest way to tell the difference between these beers was appearance. I poured each from the bottle into a tall pilsner glass. Anchor Steam is a nice medium-amber color. The head was thick and frothy, but only lasted about 2 minutes, and was wildly inconsistent in bubble size. The Liberty Ale was a lighter gold color, and slightly cloudy. The head lasted slightly longer than the Anchor Steam, and the bubbles were much more consistent.

As far as aroma, I'm not going to get into all that crap about fruity notes and whatnot. Mostly because what I smelled was beer. The Anchor Steam had a stronger, breadier scent, and the Liberty Ale was more hoppy, but otherwise fairly bland smelling*.

The Anchor steam had a stronger taste than Liberty Ale. I don't mean stronger alcohol-wise. I mean the Anchor Steam was more bitter, and the aftertaste lasted longer than the Liberty Ale. Liberty was lighter, but crisp and still very flavorful. It didn't have as long or as strong an aftertaste as the Anchor Steam either. 

I will admit that I just don't "get" mouthfeel. It all falls under flavor for me. I can't tell you which beer is light bodied and which is medium bodied. I can tell you the Anchor Steam seemed slightly more carbonated, and the flavor seemed to fill my mouth more than the Liberty Ale. Is that what I'm supposed to be looking for?

Finally, as far as drinkability, I think they were both very good beers. The stronger, more bitter flavor of the Anchor Steam might make it less enjoyable for the uninitiated. But while I think Liberty Ale is a better "beginner" beer, I by no means find it bland. Obviously, I was able to drink both of these in tandem, so they've got to be pretty drinkable.** Bottom line, I've tasted better beers, but I wouldn't kick either of these out of bed.

*Full disclosure: I have a really bad sense of smell. Really bad. For this reason, I'm usually the one in our house that gets stuck with the task of cleaning up after the dog.

**Let's be honest, I don't let alcohol go to waste. Even if these were unpalatable I'd have finished them. But I would have complained about it, and I'm not; so you can rest assured that they're okay.