Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

One of my top favorite breweries is here again, it’s Samuel Smith and this is their celebrated Oatmeal Stout, 5.0% ABV. I’ve loved every beer I’ve had from Samuel Smith. This style of beer doesn’t really use actual oatmeal in the brewing process, but oats are used in the mash.  They give smoothness and a touch of sweetness to the beer. This Samuel Smith pours an opaque black color with a big three finger tan rocky head. The head stay for a while that leads in to very wonderful lacing. This beer looks so great just sitting there. I did find a little amount of light coming through the pint glass with a small pack of carbonation bubbles. The aroma on Oatmeal Stout is sweet with the scent of oats and bittersweet chocolate. There is a nice roasted aroma too. The aroma reminds me of fresh and sweet homemade oatmeal. The taste is nice and you first get the lightly sweet oats hitting your tongue, followed by a light chocolate that has a bit of a roasted noted around it. The taste on this makes every sip you want another. The mouth feel is medium and a bit on the rich side. Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout finishes nicely with oats and a hint of sweetness that makes for a nice semi dry and sweet aftertaste. I have to find a Samuel Smiths beer is bad, their beer are never lower that a C+, and there is only one, their cider. But this, their Oatmeal Stout is getting A+ from me. I would have this over and over again. This is a very tasty beer, and does not go overboard with the oats or other ingredients; it’s all balanced well in to a great beer. I highly recommend this beer! Please go out and try this and see just how great Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout really is, you might just love it! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly! 

New Belgium Dig Pale Ale

Well for quit some time now I have been seeing New Belgium’s spring seasonal, Dig Pale Ale, 5.6% ABV. But have not tried it till now. This pale ale has been around for around two or three year but I am not totally sure on that. New Belgium uses Sorachi Ace, Nelson Sauvin, and Cascade hops in Dig. So New Belgium claims you should get incredible lemon aroma, burst of passion fruit, mango, peach, and notes of grapefruity citrus. But that is what they claim and put on the side of the label. Dig pours a light brown to a medium/ semi dark amber color with a two and quarter finger of white head that stays nicely and fades into good lacing. I could not see much light coming through and I could barely see carbonation bubbles. The aroma of this pale ale is hoppy with a light lemon aroma but nothing along the lines of incredible, but it was good nonetheless. I did find a faint mango there but it was there then gone in a flash. The taste on Dig is nice amount of citrusy grapefruit up front with a nice sweetness in the middle but just enough to cut bit of the bitter grapefruit, then towards the end there is a nice hop bitterness that linger just a bit. I don’t get any peach or mango. The mouth feel is medium and the aftertaste is hoppy with grapefruit and there I didn’t get a very faint passion fruit. The hoppy aftertaste on dig does stay for a little while. Overall this beer is good but not a solid good, but close. I will give this a B. Nothing wrong with this beer. I just didn’t get everything the side of the label claimed, but what I did get was good. Would I have this again? Yes but there is some pale ale I would choose over this that is just slightly beer (21^st Amendment’s Bitter American is one). I don’t dislike this one; it just didn’t blow my taste buds or me away and wow my socks off.  So yeah I would recommend this to a craft beer drink or a somewhat of a new craft beer drinker. So go and try this one and see if you like it! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Samuel Adams Alpine Spring

Well it’s officially springtime, at least in some places it feel more like than other, that maybe buried in snow and whatnot. But this is a spring seasonal from Samuel Adam, Alpine Spring 550% ABV. Sam Adams calls this an unfiltered larger, and yes I think it looks like what they say it is. Alpine Spring pours a hazy golden yellow color with a bright one finger tight white head that is quit bubbly. I found little light coming through the glass with a nice stream of bubbly carbonation. The aroma is a bit on the citrus side with nice lemon scents with a nice hit of crisp malt. Alpines taste is a nice little lemon and crisp malts like you get in the aroma, the taste is like a lighter wit or a lighter wiezen style beer. There is also a very tiny amount of hops to this but very low on bitterness. The mouth feel is light to medium with a nice zesty feel and some tingle of bubbles on your tongue. Alpine Spring finishes crisp and very refreshing, leaving a little sweetness and lemon behind for a nice aftertaste. I enjoyed this, so I am giving this A. This beer is a great effort from Sam Adams, and I would love to have this over and over again.  Yes I would recommend that every beer drinker go and try this one. It really captures springtime, and Alpine Spring is like a beautiful spring day in a bottle. So please let me know how you like this one down below in the comment section! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly

Weeping Radish OBX Beer

Welcome, yes I know it has been a while since the last beer review. That is because I have been busy with home repairs and a vacation, but now I am back with yet another beer to review. This is a North Carolina beer, from Weeping Radish (Farmbrew, LLC) in Jarvisburg on the North Carolina outer banks way up near the Virginia state boarder. This is OBX 6.0% ABV, a Kölsch Style. This is a German warm-fermented style of beer that originated in Cologne Germany. OBX pours a gold straw like color with a one and a half finger tight white head that dissipates rather quickly, leaving a thin ring of white on the sides. This beer is not bad on lacing either. There are some nice amounts of light coming through the glass with a nice stream of carbonation bubbles racing from the bottom of the glass. The aroma is of grains and a semi-sweetness that smells a bit sticky. I also found a hint of a biscuit like scent. But the all aromas are on the lighter yet crisp side. The taste is light with a very light sweet grain taste that is refreshing and crisp. There is a very light yet faint hop character among the other taste of this OBX, but nothing extreme. I did find this to have a good carbonation bubbly feel to it that adds to the nice crisp refreshment. OBX has a nice clean, crisp, and refreshing finish, that leads into a nice mildly sweet and a light bubbly hop aftertaste. This OBX Kölsch didn’t really blow my taste buds away, but it did go over well with them.  This is a nice choice for a warmer day, and would be okay for the springtime season. So I am giving this a C+, just a hair above average by me. I wouldn’t pass this over if it were the only craft Kölsch I could have, and yes I would have OBX again, but that is hard, because it is only sold local, at the brewpub and on their website. I do recommend this to larger, pilsner, and lighter beer lovers. Don’t worry I do have more reviews coming very soon! Cheers Please enjoy responsibly!

Kirin ichiban

Konnichiwa from Japan to the beer geeks, this is Kirin Ichiban, 4.9%R ABV. Kirin is one of the largest breweries in Japan. This is an American Pale lager and is brewed with one hundred percent malt. Kirin pours a light yellow straw color with a thing bright white head that dissipates quickly, and no lacing is left behind. I found lots of light streaming through the mug and plenty of little carbonation bubbles. The aroma of Kirin is malted with big bready and biscuit scents. There also is a slight corn/grain like aroma. But I will say that the aroma overall is a bit thin and light. The taste on Kirin is light and malty, but not a sweet type of malt, it’s more of a gain type of malt flavor. There is sort of a wet cardboard and metallic taste there that is just the tiniest bit off putting. The mouth feel is malted with corn and gains and then is very light almost boarder line watery, but none to bad. Kirin finishes nice clean, crisp and refreshing. It leaves a nice malted grain taste in your mouth that does stay just enough to be good. The aftertaste is nice with that malted flavor of gains. This beer is just the right amount of plain, not to complex or not to boring. I am giving this C. Yes there is room for improvement but I wouldn’t say that this beer should reinvent itself, just some tweaks here and there. This beer is gets a little better with some good seafood; the seafood brings out a little more of the malts used here. So try this Kirin beer and see for yourself. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Pyramid Snow Cap

The west coast of the USA really brews very interesting beer form some of the best breweries, but most people thing of California, but don’t forget the northwest US especially The Pyramid Brewery. They are one of my favorites and this is the winter warm Snow Cap 7.0% ABV. What this is, is a malty sweet winter seasonal beer, with balanced hop presents or big hoppy presents and can be higher in alcohol. Generally this style comes from Britain. Snow is brewed in the British style. This warm pours a mahogany amber color with a darker tan three finger head that sticks around for a while and leaves killer lacing. I found very little light through the glass with some small amounts of carbonation. Snow Cap has a nice slightly hoppy aroma with hints of dark fruits like cherry plum and some raisins. There is also a sweet malty aroma there. The taste on Snow Cap is first bitter and sweet, but not like an IPA, it is more malty than just hoppy. I found there to be a very think roasted coco flavor there and a nice dark raisin plum and cheery fruits there but just slightly so. The mouth feel is medium with a nice bitter finish, but nothing overwhelming, the after taste is what I would call malted fruit hops. I get mostly a sweet low semi roasted bitterness that does finish nicely. You do taste the 7.0% AVB especially as the beer warms and comes close to room temperature. So I would give this an A-. Snow Cap has some good balanced flavors but the finish is hoppier than I was expecting it to be, but over all a great beer with great flavors. Yes I would recommend you try this and I’ll be having it again soon. So go and please try this! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!