Series of Sam (1 of 6)

So, along with this weekend's festivities, I procured a mix-pack of Sam Adams, which remained largely untouched. It contained 6 different Sam Adams beers, most of which I've tried at one time or another, but none of which I've really taken the time to sit and taste.

As such, over the next however long, I'll be periodically reviewing these six beers. I'm starting tonight with their Boston Ale. Not to be confused with their Boston Lager, this beer is a little hoppier and a little more aggressive.

It's called a Stock Ale, which I have just no clue what that is, but that didn't inhibit my interest. It pours a nice rich golden amber, with about one finger of head. The smell is caramel, with a little bit of a hoppy or earthy note. A nice hop flavor balances some roasted flavors, as well as some sweeter caramel notes.

It does remind me of their Boston Lager, but certainly a little stronger. The flavor isn't too dark, but it's pleasantly dark, like a nice bock. Enjoyable, drinkable, if not too exciting. Definitely a nice beer to sit and sip.

Free beer is usually the best beer

so, I had the pleasure of drinking way more than usual this weekend, but in nice moderation. Friday night was the usual bars, going to Pub Dog for their tasty beer and pizza. Apparently their new seasonal isn't out yet, but I'm intrigued to try it when it comes out, whatever it is.

Saturday, a local wine store, Iron Bridge Wine Company, had a big wine sale, complete with free tastings and free food. I really like Iron Bridge, because their tastings allow you to see what kind of wines you line, and they place them on a scale of weaker to stronger, and have very knowledgeable staff on hand. I found out that I need to find more Grenache and Cote Du Rhone wines to try.

After that, it was over to perhaps the best local liquor store, The Perfect Pour. This place has literally the best beer selection that I've ever seen anywhere. It is ridiculous how much beer they have. They were also having a tasting, and were featuring Woodchuck's spring cider, and Fraoch's 20th Anniversary Ale.

Woodchuck's spring cider was just awful in my opinion. It is supposed to have a sort of mead influence, but it comes off like a bouquet of flowers dipped in too much honey - It didn't taste like a cider at all. It was sugary to the point of horror, and just really not my thing. My friends didn't mind it as much, but yikes. Not for me.

Fraoch is a Scottish brewing company which I'd never heard of before. However, clearly I was missing out, as their 20th Anniversary Ale is a Heather Ale, aged in Speyside whiskey casks and was *delicious*. It had a nice heather/herb/hoppy flavor, but was subtley smokey as well. Really enjoyed it, hoping to find more offerings in this vein.

Sadly, Saturday was not an adventurous beer night, especially with a bunch of bombers chilling back at my apartment - we settled for a 12-pack of Sam Adams mixed styles, which was nice, and Yuengling's special release Bock.

Yuengling's Bock was actually really tasty. Like most of their offerings, it's not really complex or adventurous, but that's not what you look for in Yuengling. It was tasty and dark without being heavy, and was extremely drinkable. Yuengling is that nice middle class - ridiculously better than Bud or Miller, but not as expensive as Sam Adams or other starter craft beers.

In summary - the woodchuck was cloying, the fraoch was delicious, and the yuengling was tasty and enjoyable, in the most relaxing way. Try the yuengling if you're grabbing a case for a night of movies or cards, and grab the Fraoch if you're looking for something new and interesting.

Beer Thursdays

I wanted to title this something like "a post that isn't about stouts", but I feel like that joke was old before it was ever told in the first place.

I have to admit that I like having a night of the week that I often have a beer on. It's not locked in by any means, but it's often something to look forward to. I get to think about what beer I want to try in a given week, but it's also something to look forward to, and for me it's a reward that reminds me that the week is almost over.

Obviously many people drink several days a week, and I certainly do from time to time drink a few times during the week. But that's usually sharing a few beers with friends, or going out to a bar to be social. This is the enjoyment of sitting down, and taking the time to really taste and observe a beer.

I like to pair this with watching TV, as I'm already relaxed and in a good mood, and cracking open a delicious beer only adds to this. Conveniently, two of my favorite shows are on Thursday nights. The total experience is just really relaxing, which is nice. What about you, my faithful readers, do you have an evening you set aside, or do you prefer to test and taste as you go, whenever the opportunity occurs?

Anyway, this isn't just about me rambling. This Thursday I had the good fortune to still have a few bottles of Ommegang, specifically their Hennepin Saison. I'd heard excellent reviews of this beer, but was a bit wary as I've heard it's one of their hoppier beers.

It pours a very pale yellow, looking almost like water at first before settling in to a light golden color. The head is ivory white and thick. I actually swiped off a bit of the head, and found it thick as bubble bath (I can't think of a straighter analogy, sorry), and very bitter.

The smell was similar, light and crisp, hints of what might be floral scents? The taste though was really impressive. It was cool and refreshing, but full of light sweet fruits like pear. It had some hoppy bitterness, but it was very balanced and did a good job of rounding out the flavor and not overwhelming everything else. There were also some floral notes with some grains and citrus in the background as well.

Overall a really tasty beer. Not my favorite, as I'm still not a hoppy beer guy, but easily one of the better hoppy beers that I've tried. Suffice to say that I'd be happy to drink it again, but I might not seek it out. If you enjoy hops, give this one a try for sure.

I am bad at not ordering stouts

So, as promised, and despite snowmageddon 2010, my friends and I made the sojurn to Max's on Broadway. Tragically, I forgot that today starts their Belgian beer festival. This meant that their usually superb tap list was down from 80-some to about a dozen.

Luckily, they also have an extensive bottle collection. I was trying to find Rogue's Black Lager, but they were out. Luckily, they had another beer that I've been wanting to try - Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout.

It's pleasant and boozy upfront, with some nice roasted notes and what tasted like some bitter chocolate. The nice part though was the finish, which was smooth coffee. The beer poured *dark*, and even the head was a dark chocolate brown, rather than the usual tan head.

Oddly enough, it pours from a can, but was surprisingly full bodied and delicious. I felt like for an Imperial Stout, it was nicely drinkable, and didn't try to overwhelm me. Definitely a nice beer to have when hanging out and having a beer or two with the friends.

And when I say a beer or two, I mean it - that bad boy weighs in at whopping 10.5% abv, although you'd never know it from the taste. Speaking of mightily boozy beers...

I can't help myself. I swore I'd never spend $12 for a single bottle, but well, there I was. They had the entire Brew dog Paradox line. Paradox is a stout that is then taken and aged in a variety of different whiskey casks to get different flavors. I'd had the speyside before and was suitably impressed, but this monster blew me away.

I asked for a reccomendation and received Brew Dog Paradox Smokehead. The smell hits you - boozy and smoky. A little thin on the mouth, but you barely notice it, because you are drinking what can only be described as an unholy union of whiskey and beer.

There are other flavors - peat, smoke, things like that. The overwhelming flavor though is a smooth whiskey taste. It should surprise no one that this beer is a 10% abv beer, and damn you can tell it. It is rich and complex, and one of the more interesting beers I've tried. This is a sipper for sure, not something you can really drink with anything else if you want to appreciate it.

Was it way too expensive? Heck Yeah. But it's a bar, and bars as a rule are way too expensive. Was it worth it? Absolutely. It was one of the more innovative and interesting beers I've ever tried, and I am thrilled that I had the chance to try it.

Now, I'm going to go back to my stomach flu and wishing for the sweet release of death. Hopefully you're all having an excellent snow week without too much cabin fever. See you all next time!

-The Unabashed Ungourmet

SuperBeer

Sadly, this is not about a superhero who goes around giving out beer. Rather, it is one of my many bad puns :-P

So, the Superbowl. What a wonderful night. Great football, great food, great friends, what more could someone want? Of course, I could have done with a few less Budweiser commercials. I know there's nothing to be done for it, but the more I hear about them and how they try to put the competition out of business, the sicker I get.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all about competition producing better products. But that's just it. Budweiser makes shit. Their regular beer is shit. Their light beer is shit. Their "craft" beer? Shit! I rue the day when I find my favorite brands have been pushed out by this giant of watery piss beer, behemoth of mass produced swill.

Ok, so enough ranting right? Well, I also cracked open one of my various bottles for this most joyous of occasions. Specifically, I decided that I needed to finally try the Brew dog Rip Tide stout that I'd been saving.

It pours without much of a head, rich and black. The smell is smoky and boozy, but not overwhelming. The taste continues with the smoky motif, and rounds it out with some delicious coffee, and then rounds it out with some sweetness, maybe caramel?

Now, I liked this beer, and I definitely enjoyed this beer, and would buy it again. But I have to be honest, it kind of reminded me of a slightly less well done version of Belhaven's Scottish Stout. The comparison is a little unoriginal, what with them both being scottish companies, both being kind of smoky stouts. But I feel like it's a valid comparison.

Where the Belhaven stout is full bodied, the Brew dog feels a little flat and a little thin. Where the Belhaven coffee nicely flows into a sweetness, the Brew dog goes bitter, and then the caramel swings in. I want to reiterate, the Brew dog wasn't bad. The Belhaven was just excellent.

I also finally tried Ommegang's Witte, but I have to admit that by that point I might've been a little too far into my cups to accurately review it. We were taking shots every time the saints scored, and I don't do much hard liquor anymore.

However, I do remember a delicious beer. Not too far off the standard Wit bier (belgian wheat beer), but a tasty iteration of that theme. Strong notes of a cinnamon or nutmeg(maybe cloves?), backed up with some orangey citrus, and a nice undertone of wheat that wasn't overwhelming. So often in wheat beers, the wheat overwhelms almost all the other flavors, but this time the flavors held their own, which was nice.

It was kind of a nice beer to sip when I was trying to wind down, but there was a little too much excitement for that. I would enjoy this one a lot as a beer to drink with dinner, or on some calm summer evening, or even out at the beach. It's a very refreshing beer, and it was a little odd paired with burgers and jambalaya and winter and parties.

Overall though, definitely recommend it for anyone who likes Belgian wheat beers, or really just wheat beers in general. Might not be for everyone, but if you like Blue Moon then you owe it to yourself to give this bad boy a try.

Going to Max's this Thursday, so expect something good that evening. Til then!

-The Unabashed Ungourmet

Not totally about beer

So. I haven't actually tried any new beers in the last 2 or so days. Shocking, right? It's okay, I'm saving myself for this weekend (Superbowl) and then this following week (trip to max's) where I will imbibe a copious amount of boozamahols.

In any case, there is a purpose here. I'm debating making beer bread. I have several likely looking Belgian beers, but I'm thinking Three Philosophers, if just because I have an expansive amount of it. Also, it is delicious, and tastes of cherries, and I think it'd be wonderful in bread.

I found a few recipes all of which look the exact same and fairly simple. The question for you all is, has anyone tried this before? If so, how was the bread - did it taste of beer, or just bread with some hints of other flavors?

Let me know your thoughts on this - If I do make it, it'll probably be so I can force my friends coming along to Max's to try it. So, what say you, the masses?

Indulgences

So, thankfully this post is about beer, rather than religious topics. Specifically, delicious beer.

So, Oliver's beer. It's actually served at the Pratt Street Ale House, as I've mentioned before, but it's brewed in their basement, so it's something of a joint endeavor. It's one of the few beers actually made in Baltimore, and one I'm damn proud to introduce people too.

As any casual reader will know, I'm there pretty frequently with mi padre. It's a pretty sweet place, but tonight was sweeter than usual. I headed over there with Lemur and Browns Fan, to try their new beer, Bishop's Indulgence. An 8% Stout, I was of course looking forward to it.

I couldn't pick up a smell at first, but that's pretty typical of their beers, for whatever reason. It's not just me either; something about the head on their beers masks the smell of the beer. It's odd.

Anyway, the first taste is sweet chocolate. As you let it sit, it develops some carmelization sweetness, along with bitter cocoa nibs. There's also generous amounts of vanilla, mellowing the whole thing. Overall an excellent desert beer, but this is definitely a one and done. More than one and you'd just get gut rot from all the sweetness.

In fact, when I followed it up with a delicious porter, the porter actually tasted bitter for the first few sips by comparison. Bishop's Indulgence is a seriously sweet beer, but is a delicious desert stout. It's creamy and rich and everything a stout should be.

Pleasantly, we ended up getting free beer, as two drinkers left behind full beers in a hurry, but by then I was already three beers in, and in no capacity to taste flavors or make judgments. Still, one can't waste good beer.

I may crack a bottle of my remaining stouts for poker tomorrow night, but we'll have to see; I may just take a short break from beer after this beer filled evening, and looking forward to the super bowl, which will no doubt feature several delicious beers.

Wishing you a happy and hopefully beer filled week, this is the Unabashed Ungourmet.