BrewDog 5A.M. Saint iconoclastic red beer

Some beers aren’t as easy to find some place as other beer. Breweries will only produce a beer and distribute it in it’s own local market, some distribute nationwide, wither in large quantities or small. This beer is a craftbeer from Scotland, BrewDog 5A.M. Saint iconoclastic red beer, 5.0% ABV. It’s not so easy to find but it close to a hard brew to locate. 5A.M. Saint pour a deep amber/brownish red color with a one half finger of light tannish head that slowly trickles and fades in to foamy whiffs of lacing. Very little amount of light was found to be coming through the glass with little amounts of carbonation bubbles due to the color clarity of this BrewDog beer. The aroma on 5A.M. Saint is earthy with pine notes, nice citrusy grapefruit with a nice scent of biscuit and caramel notes. 5A.M. Saint’s taste is hoppy yet earthy/piney upfront, then you get a little biscuit with a touch of malt/caramel followed by a slight pineapple that is almost none existent. The mouth feel medium due to the hops but is nice. 5A.M. Saint finishes nice and hoppy with earthy citrusy grapefruit notes and has a lingering after taste of an earthy piney hoppy flavor with hints of biscuit malts. Overall 5A.M. Saint was a good surprise for my taste buds, so I would give 5A.M. Saint a just barely an A-. I enjoyed this beer, I though it was a good balance between the hops and the malts, and didn’t find on flavor to over powering the other flavors. I also like it because the hop profile wasn’t all in your face with bitter hop flavor, I mean you can have this and go on to another beer and it will not ruin the other beers flavor. So go out and try BrewDog 5A.M. Saint iconoclastic red beer and see what you think. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Uinta Brewing Co. Yard Sale Winter Lager

During the winter months there tends to be a lot of different sub-styles of beer. A lot of style will just have the word winter in front of it, like winter porter, winter stout, the generic, winter ale, and/or winter larger. This beer falls under that, it’s Uinta Brewing Co. Yard Sale Winter Lager, 4.0% ABV. This is just an amber lager with honey and caramel. Yard Sale pours a nice amber color with a two finger light beige head that fades quickly. There are some amounts of light coming through the glass with a healthy amount of carbonation there. The aroma on Yard Sale is sweet with caramel and hints of coco like chocolate, and faint toffee. The taste is first sweet with a nice malted character and then you get a quick hit of chocolate and slight toffee with a dash of a very faint bitterness. But mostly the taste is sweet, but not overly sweet. The mouth feel is mild with a nice richness. Yard Sale has a sweet chocolate toffee like after taste that stays for a short while and fades. Over all this is a nice beer; I though it was good, nicely balanced with nice flavors. So Uinta Brewing Co. Yard Sale Winter Lager gets a B. Nothing really wrong with; it’s just a good average winter lager. I enjoyed it and wouldn’t mind have this again. Would I recommend this one? Yes, maybe. So go out and try Uinta Brewing Co. Yard Sale Winter Lager and see what you think. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!     

Ridgeway Brewing Santa's Butt Winter Porter

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first review of the New Year. Hope everyone had a safe and most enjoyable one. Today’s beer is an English beer (Porter), Ridgeway Brewing Santa’s Butt Winter Porter, 6.0% ABV. If you find the name amusing the brewer likes to point out that “Butt” refers to certain sized barrel customarily used for beer-a very large barrel in fact, holding one-hundred eight imperial gallons. Santa’s Butt pours a deep dark brown color with a beige/chocolate three-finger head that is very slow to fade, and leaves great whips of lacing behind. No light was found streaming through the glass and the tiniest amount of carbonation was found due to the dark nature of this beer. The aroma is a roasted scent with hints of chocolate and coco sweetness. Santa’s Butt has a sweet nutty taste upfront with nice hints of chocolate and the tiniest amount of a bitterness that comes and goes super quick. This beer isn’t overly sweet, but has just the right amount of sweetness and nuttiness to satisfy you. The mouth feel is mild to medium with a nice richness, and the finish is nice clean, sweet with a fuller richness, that leads into a sweet chocolate nutty after taste that stays for just long enough to really enjoy it. Overall this is a good solid English Porter. So I give Santa’s Butt A-, it’s a good beer and an easy drinker for winter, but does have one quality that stands out over the others to make it a perfect A+ beer, but still a really great English Porter. So please go out and try Ridgeway Brewing’s Santa’s Butt Winter Porter and see what you think of it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Unibroue Maudite

One of my favorite styles of beer is the Belgian style. There are so many different Belgian styles and there are great. Many different breweries from all over the world brew different Belgian beer styles. Belgian beer is widely popular throughout the world. Here is one example from Chambly Québec Canada, Unibroue Maudite, 8.0% ABV. Maudite is Belgian strong dark ale and is refermented in the bottle. Maudite pours a dark ruby color with a big two fingered, light beige colored head that very slowly dissipates and leaves some thin lacing behind. I found very small amounts of light coming through the goblet with tiny amounts of carbonation bubbles racing towards the foamy head. The aroma on Maudite is of dark fruits, such as plums and raisins. There is a bit of a clove like scent going along with the dark fruits and I found a faint hint of coriander. The taste is not as strong as some other Belgian strong dark ale. There is a light citrusy note at first that fades into a light dark fruit (the dark fruit get more intense as the bee warms), Then you get a little strong boozy taste that fades into semi clove like taste. Maudite has a slight sweetness to it that is most pleasant. Maudite has a medium mouth feel and finishes nice and smooth with hints of sweetness. The after taste on Maudite is nice with a plumy semi sweetness that sticks around just enough to really enjoy. Maudite is great beer so this gets an A. I’ve not really had a beer from Unibroue that was just plane, okay or bad.  They brew such wonderful beer and Maudite is a great one of theirs. I highly recommend trying Maudite. So go out and try Unibroue Maudite and see what you think of it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Mother Earth Brewing Old Neighborhood Oatmeal Porter

Over the years brewers have been putting different things into beer to make a new taste sensation and/or flavor profile. But one ingredient has been used for quite some time now. Oatmeal is one item that is widely used in porters and stouts for a nice touch of sweetness and texture. He is a local North Carolina example of an oatmeal porter, Mother Earth’s Old Neighborhood, 5.5% ABV. This is almost a sessionable oatmeal porter ABV 5.5% ABV. Old Neighborhood pours a deep black color with dark ruby red edges, with a nice big three finger beige head what sticks around quite nicely and forms good looking lacing. I saw no light coming through and I found there to be very little carbonation bubbles. The aroma is like a nice sweet bowl of oatmeal on a cold day with hints of roasted malts. The taste is at first slightly roasted then comes a hint of the sweetness from the oatmeal. I did find a tiny bitterness from the roasted right before the sweetness. The mouthfeel is smooth with a slight creaminess and has a semi-sweet finish with a hint of a roasted character. The after taste is slightly sweeter still with a nice roasted quality. Overall Old Neighborhood Oatmeal Porter is a solid B+ beer. It is easier to drink than others in this style and has a great balance of flavors, and isn’t overdone on one particular thing. I would like to have this one again. So go out and try Mother Earth’s Old Neighborhood Oatmeal Porter and see what you think of it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche Doppelbock

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy holiday. When we think of Germany and its beer we tend to thin about Munich and the styles of beer that come out of that region. But Germany has many other great beer brewing regions such as Berlin, and Bamberg. Here is one Bamberg example, Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche Doppelbock, 8.0% ABV. With Schlenkerla the malt is kilned with oak wood, and is paired with the multifaceted bitterness of Hallertau aroma hops. Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche Doppelbock pours an amber color with a one finger white head that fades rather quickly but leaves behind decent lacing. I found some nice amounts of light, but not a lot, and there is great carbonation bubbles racing from bottom to the top. The aroma on this Dopplebock is like a freshly charred two by four with a faint malt scent. The taste isn’t as intense as the aroma, but you get a slight bitterness up front followed by toffee smokiness. The mouth feel is slightly mild to medium and z Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche Dopelbock finishes slightly smoky. The after taste has hits of bitterness surrounding a light smoke flavor and a faint toffee and caramel taste. Overall this is not the best Schlenkerla beer, so this gets a D+. I found this to be to bitter for what it was and not enough sweetness or smokiness to help balance it out. I could not found where the Dopplebock flavors where when drinking this beer. I wouldn’t say this is such a terrible beer, but it’s kind of bad in my opinion. So go out and try Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche Dopelbock and see what you think. Have a happy New Year! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Left Hand Fade to Black Vol. Five

Breweries sometimes brew a certain beer each year that is different each time but may have some similarities. This beer is Left Hand Brewing Fade to Black Vol. Five, 7.8% ABV. This version of Fade to Black is a dark (black) rye beer. Some call this style of beer American Black Ale. Fade to Black Vol. Five pours a somewhat thick black color with ruby beige color with a quarter finger of quickly fading head that leave little wimpy lacing. I found no light coming through nor did I find carbonation bubbles. The aroma on this ale is slightly dominated by a black licorice scent with a very faint spice note. I also found some chocolate and earthy pine note but they were faint at best. The taste on Fade to Black Vol. Five is slightly bitter at first, kind of like a black licorice bitterness followed by a light chocolate and an earthy bitterness. The mouth feel is medium to slightly heavy and has a bitter fuller finish. Fade to Black Vol. Five’s after taste is faintly semi sweet with a little spicy bitterness. I found this not as well as I was hoping it would be. So I would give this a C-. I wouldn’t have this again. Overall I though it was to bitter and not enough of the rye was coming through, and should’ve had a touch more sweetness. It was so unbalanced; I just think it needs to have just few more of touches of rye and some sweetness to really make this well-balanced black ale. Go out and try this and see if you agree or disagree with me and form your own opinion. So I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!