Review #5 - Half Acre's Baume'

I should start by saying that I'm a little biased in favor of Half Acre. I pass their brewery every day on the way to and from work, which is pretty cool. They're fairly new, so most places only have two of their beers: The Over Ale, which I like, and a Lager, which I haven't tried yet.

However, during one of my excursions to Binny's, I saw bombers of Baume' which according to the bottle is:

1) A handsomely hopped rye stout
2) The first beer brewed in their new location (by my house!)

On repeat trips to Binny's, I saw they're sold out, so I'm really glad other people are trying this beer. It's great! The rye and hops certainly give it a punch, but it's also smooth and drinkable and even though it shouldn't matter too much in my opinion of it, I really like the bottle. I have another bottle of this, but I'm holding on to it. I have a feeling it's going to get better with age, and I also like having a limited edition piece of Chicago brewing history.

Verdict: They should re-brew this and get it into six packs!

Verdict II - My dad would like that it's named after French Chemist Antoine Baume', who came up with a scale to measure the density of liquids.

Review #4 - Boulevard Brewing Sample Pack

Last weekend I went home for Memorial Day to see some old friends, and attended both a graduation and engagement party. Of course, beer was heavily featured and I tried to focus on drinking beers down there that aren't readily available in Chicago.

Boulevard is the second most popular brewery in Missouri. When I was in college, their Unfiltered Wheat was a local favorite, especially with women and especially paired with a lemon slice. I remembered it being pretty good, so when I was picking up beer for a BBQ with my parents, I grabbed a variety 12-pack.

This included:

2 Unfiltered Wheat
2 Lunar Ale (Dark Wheat)
2 Bully Porter
2 Pale Ale
2 Single-wide IPA
2 Zon Witbier

On to the quick and hasty reviews:

The Unfiltered Wheat, Lunar Ale, and Zon all tasted pretty much the same. Yeasty, wheaty, tangy and slightly clovey. All totally unremarkable and mediocre. The Zon is a pretty strange looking beer, it's super light yellow and cloudy (it's not filtered either, and neither is the Lunar) but that was about all that was interesting about any of these. The Bully Porter and Single-wide IPA were both okay, but I'd pick other options before either of them. The Pale Ale was fine, but it tasted too much like my homebrew for me to get too excited about it. That said, it was probably my favorite one of the bunch.

All and all, I was totally disappointed. I thought there would be at least one selection in the pack that would blow me away, but these brews were all pretty dull.

The Verdict: Should have gone for the Sam Adams variety pack instead

Verdict II - The mosquitos in Missouri are no joke!

Review #3 - Otter Creek Russian Imperial Stout

The first of the bottles I received in my Dark Lord trade. I drank this slowly, over about 90 minutes, while eating a curry and watching Americas Funniest Home Videos on the couch with Katie.

I poured this into an oversized red wine glass, as I still don't have a proper goblet or chalice for this type of beer. Apparently it needs a lot of surface area to do its thing.

There was a small, thin, head, which was gone before I knew it, leaving behind oil-slick looking patches on the top of the beer. Looks like a big glass of motor oil.

It smells like toffee, and roasted grain. Oh, and booze. The smell was the best part about this beer.

Taste - Strong roasted malt flavors, some chocolate, lots of burnt taste, significant bitterness from the hops. It leaves a sour aftertaste on the back of the mouth. The alcohol is very upfront. I guess I sort of expect that from a 10% ABV beer, but usually there's enough flavor to mask part of it.

It could be I just wasn't in the mood for this, but all and I all I think this a pretty weak beer. Not balanced and too many sharp flavors. I'd go for an Old Rasputin over this any day. It took me quite a while to finish this one.

Verdict - I'll pass

Verdict II - America's Funniest Home Videos sucks. They need less naked kids farting in the bathtub and more people falling down the steps.

Treasure Trove

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Dark Lord Day at Three Floyds Brewery in Munster, Indiana. Dark Lord is a special Russian Imperial Stout that is only sold one day out of the year, and only at the brewery. It costs $15 per 22 oz. bomber and you were limited to 4 per ticket.

I bought my limit, but with the idea that I could trade this highly-coveted beer for other beers you can't get in Chicago. I kept one to drink (which I haven't done yet), traded two, and haven't decided what to do with the fourth.

Anyway, one of the packages I received in return for the Dark Lord arrived today. Needless to say, the guy was obviously thrilled to get some because he seriously hooked me up, as you can see in the picture.

The box contained:

1 22 oz. bottle of "The Abyss" Russian Imperial Stout from Deschutes Brewery, OR
1 22 oz. bottle of "Vortex II" Russian Imperial Stout from Pisgah Brewing Co., NC
1 22 oz bottle of "Pugsley's Signature Series Barley Wine" from Shipyard Brewing, ME
1 22 oz bottle of Russian Imperial Stout from Otter Creek Brewing, VT
1 12 oz bottle of "Ruth" American Pale Ale from Hair of the Dog Brewing, OR

Reviews to follow!

Review #2 - Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA

Last night I went with my girlfriend Katie to my co-worker's olde tyme country music group (The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader String Band) at the Whistler Bar in Logan Square.

Whistler had a lot of tasty-looking cocktails you don't see a lot of places with ingredients like rye whiskey, pepper-infused tequila, egg whites, etc. Eight bucks each really didn't seem like that bad of a deal, but I wasn't in the mood for booze, so I checked out the beer list. Nothing on draught, but a good selection of regional bottles (Bell's, Great Lakes, Three Floyds) so I was set.

First, I had a Bell's Porter, which was okay, but I think I need to try it again before I write something up. I had been chomping on a bit wad of mint gum immediately before I drank it which might have muddled things up a bit.

After the porter, I felt like trying something different. I drink a lot of dark beer and this blog won't be very interesting if all I talk about is porters, browns and stouts, so I ordered a Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA.

I'm usually not a huge fan of this style. A lot of IPA's smell too much like pine cones and cat pee for me to consider them a suitable source of refreshment, but I haven't readdressed too many of them since I started getting more into beer. I've really enjoyed most of the GL beers I've had, so I thought theirs was a good one to try.

Before I talk about the actual beer, I want to note a little about the way it was poured. The bartender sat a pint glass on the bar and held the beer totally upside down and let it drain into the glass right down the middle. I was surprised, but it actually produced pretty good results. The head flared up quite a bit at first, but quickly dissipated back into the glass. I usually tilt either the bottle, the glass, or both, so it was interesting to see a different style.

Onto the beer: The first thing that really struck me about this beer was the smell - it had a strong, distinct grapefruit aroma that was really clean and refreshing. I'm usually not one for spending a ton of time sniffing my glass, but this beer deserved it.

The taste was similar, strong grapefruit notes, and the hoppy bitterness you'd expect from an IPA. It's ABV is 7.5%, but it's very well hidden. It's very drinkable and refreshing.

Verdict: Great beer, and affordable too. Great lakes usually runs $7.99 for a six-pack. My girlfriend, also no great fan of IPAs also agreed the beer was "delicious" and ordered one for herself.

Verdict II: Katie's first beer was a Bell's Oberon Wheat Ale. After a few sips she looked at me and said "This tastes like a taco". She was 100% correct. It smelled and tasted like some combination of corn tortillas, sour cream, and aloe. Very strange, and pretty gross. I think I've had Oberon before, and didn't notice, so it's possible she had a bad bottle or the glass wasn't cleaned correctly. Either way, a pretty interesting experience.

Review #1 - Rogue Chocolate Stout

Rogue Chocolate Stout

Purchased: on sale at Binny's. I think it was $4.99 for a 22 oz. bomber

Consumed: 5/13 while playing Family Feud online and watching ABBA videos on Youtube.

I haven't had too many Rogue products. I think it's because their bottles are painted and I don't like bottling homebrew into bottles that aren't "naked". Sometimes I go to the Gold Star with my friend Ellen and drink $4 pints of Dead Guy on tap, and I've also had their Shakespeare Stout. Most of their beers usually go for about $7 for a bomber, so it was nice to see it on sale.

Poured into a Boddington's imperial pint glass, dark brown, with a thick head.

Unsurprisingly, it smells like chocolate! More specifically, it smells sweet, like milk chocolate. However, the taste really surprised me. It's much more bitter than I would have imagined. It still tastes extremely chocolaty, but it's a bittersweet or baking chocolate type taste. This is a good thing, if it tasted like it smelled it would be like drinking a mudslide. This is thick and rich, without being cloying. I could have easily put back another one of these.

It tasted a little sweeter as it warmed up, but still had a strong bitterness to it throughout.

Verdict: Very enjoyable! I couldn't afford to drink it too often but I'll keep an eye out for another sale.

Verdict II: ABBA rules

Welcome

Hello,

I've decided to start blogging about my experiences with beer and homebrewing. There are a lot of sites that one can read for detailed, nuanced reviews of beers, (beeradvocate and ratebeer for example) but this blog will take a more simple approach for a few reasons, listed below

1) I don't have a very sophisticated palate, and lack the knowledge to add much meaningful insight to the prolix reviews on those sites.

2) Rarity and hype seem to artificially inflate the ratings of many beers. I plan to drink the beers, write about them and then read the thoughts of others so I can realize what a tin-tongued idiot I am.

3) Most people I know would find the sites I mentioned above to be overkill, and information overload. I hope to be informative without being pedantic or snobbish.

I always welcome questions and feedback, so feel free to say hi.

All the best,
Steve