ALC/VOL: unknown

Color: hazy golden yellow

Smell: lemon/orange citrus, banana, clove

Feel: very light in body texture. Fluffy, foamy head. Very little carbonation.

Taste:  Light and refreshing. Very crisp, clean finish. Tastes like what a Hefeweizen should taste like. Even without a lemon wedge, this taste very lemony, in a good way.

Overall: I’ve never had a hefeweizen I didn’t like and this one is no exception. Definitely an American style hefeweizen. These are typically less carbonated and spiced than the more traditional German hefeweizen. This is very refreshing. I would probably go ahead and say that this is a better hefeweizen than both the popular Pyramid and Widmer hefeweizens!

Imperial stout is a stout beer that is known for it’s higher alcohol content. Most stouts have about a 5% alcohol content. Imperial stout is around 10%. The name comes from the fact that the beer was made in England specifically for the imperial courts in Russia. The higher alcohol content was necessary to ensure that the beer would not freeze en route to it’s icy location.

ALC/VOL: unknown

Color: dark reddish amber. Very cloudy with a lot of sediment at the bottom of the bottle.

Smell: Honey, orange citrus

Feel: very bubbly, almost soda pop level of carbonation

Taste:  Floral, pale ale style hops. Clean after taste.

Overall: The name had me thinking it was going to be a hoppy beer. I’d say the hops were at a pale ale level. As mentioned above, this is a very floral or earthy tasting. Or as my wife says, “tastes like burnt hair.” To each his own.

This was a good beer. I’m running out of descriptive things to say that distinguish this beer from any other…I give up.

ALC/VOL: 5.4%

Color: pale yellow/orange

Smell: orange/lemon citrus, banana

Feel: bubbly, kinda champagne like carbonation

Taste:  lemon/lime citrus. Orange juice aftertaste

Overall: very good and very refreshing. I was a bit worried about this beer. I love white ales like Hoegaarden and New Belgium’s Mothership Wit. However, Blue Moon is also a white ale and I’m not too fond of that. I was sure, however, that this would more like Mothership or Hoegaarden just by seeing the name Witty. In Belgium, white ales are called “witbier.” Hence the name “Witty.” Blue Moon on the other hand, being as it’s just Coors in disguise, calls itself “Belgium style white ale.”

Witty is in between Mothership Wit and Blue Moon, leaning much more heavily towards Mothership. The color was darker and more orange than most witbiers. Honestly, it may rank the same as Mothership Wit being as I haven’t had it in almost a year so my memory may be off. Nonetheless, by the end of the glass, I was wanting more.

In the leaflet that came with my beers it states that Witty won the gold medal in the 2010 World Beer Championships. I can see why. Well done Chameleon Brewery!

Last month it was all about hops. 2 pale ales, an India pale ale and a spicy winter ale. This month is leaning towards the lighter, sweeter ales.
2 wheat ales: a Hefeweizen and a white ale. I love hefe’s and whites (with the exception of Blue Moon!) so I’m excited for these!
The other will be interesting. One is named “Hop On Top” the other is an “Extra Special Bitter” ale however, the descriptions state that neither is overly bitter. They are both supposed to aromatic and lightly sweet. Hmmmmm… We’ll see!
As before, I plan on writing reviews of each of these. Not than any of you will find either of these in Vegas. I mostly do this for my own beer snobbery knowledge!

Last night at the bar it was mentioned that many people don’t realize how many different types of beer there are. I thought I’d give a brief overview:
To simplify things, there are primarily two different types of beer: Ales and Lagers. At the most basic level, the difference between the two is the type of yeast used to ferment the beer. Lager yeast ferments at colder temperatures and ale yeast ferments at higher temperatures. Lagers and ales break down even further into different types of beers.
Lager:
This is the most prominent type of beer simply because this is the kind of beer that Budweiser, Miller and Coors are. Other common lagers are the popular Mexican beers: Corona, Dos Equis, Pacifico etc. These beers are best served at ice cold temperature and as such have a lighter more “refreshing” taste. Or as I think of it, kind of watered down taste. The predominant lager beers are American lagers and pilsners. Again simply because this is what the big 3 companies make. The good lagers are the kind that Germany makes: marzen, bock and dunkel. These beers are typically darker colored and have a much more complex taste than the common American lager. However these beers are still lighter in flavor and feel than most ales and don’t have a predominant hop taste.
Ales:
These are the more complex beers with a wider range of style. These range from the wheaty Hefeweizen and white beers (like Pyramid Hefeweizen or Blue Moon) to the dark stouts (like Guinness). Pale ales and India pale ales sit in the middle of the spectrum. IPAs and pale ales are recognized by their hoppy bite. Ales are the predominant type of beer everywhere except North America. I couldn’t begin to try and explain every type of ale because there is just so many kinds!
Ales are by far, my favorite kind of beer just because there are so many different kinds. The few beers that ive blogged about here have all been ales. I’ll try to continue to review different beers and use that opportunity to describe the beer type and it’s common characteristics.

Another brief review:
It’s decent. Very straight forward and simple taste. Reminds me a lot of Newcastle Brown Ale. But here’s the problem: the brewery calls it a pale ale. If that’s the mark Mendocino was looking for, then they completely missed it. This beer has a very mild hop flavor, as opposed to the hoppy bite that pale ales should have. Like I said, it’s a good beer, but between this and Blue Heron, there’s not enough hops in their beers to be personally satisfying.

Not in the mood to do a full review so I’ll keep it brief:
It’s good. Tastes like what an IPA should taste like. Nice hoppy finish and a smooth taste. Stegmaier brewery was definitely the better of the two breweries I received this month.

http://j.mp/eJ6TRv

The Montana Department of Transportation released a commercial showing a man being picked up at a bar by a horse. The intent is to remind drinkers to not drink and drive and instead, have a friend pick them up.
But what do alcoholics really want to know? “Is that legal?”
After several calls had been made to the police station, they released a statement stating that yes, it technically is legal to ride a horse drunk since it is not a motorized vehicle as the law describes.
I think there’s a business opportunity here. I’m gonna open a bar on a ranch that will charge people to ride the animals drunk. Or I could outright start selling horses by encouraging people of their benefits, primarily the legal ability to take yourself home after a night at the bar!

ALC/VOL: 18%

My favorite part about the design of this bottle, is the bottle cap. Dogfish Head typically sticks to using gold bottle caps. For their beers that are above 9% alcohol, they use a red bottle cap:

For this beer, and I assume others of such high levels of alcohol, they use the below “caution” bottle cap:

Color: This is a very dark brown, almost black beer. It is beyond opaque. After pouring, look down into the glass. It looks like you are looking at pictures of outer space. Infinite darkness with the small moving bubbles making up star formations.

Smell: Strong malt smell with chocolate, coffee, hazelnut and some carmel.

Feel: There is practically no head and what little carbonation exists, disappears shortly after pouring. It is much thicker than most beers and has a slight syrupy consistency. Tilting the glass leaves a residue slowly dripping down the sides.

Taste: Sweet and creamy. It hides the alcohol well considering how much is in it. Tastes like very dark chocolate or unsweetened baking chocolate. The darkness gives the beer a black coffee like taste. The high alcohol content gives it an aftertaste very similar to red wine.

Overall: In case it wasn’t obvious, I love this beer. Definitely not an everyday beer, and definitely don’t drink more than one at a time. In, fact you’re probably not going to want to drink anything else for the night after this. The texture and consistency make this a very filling beer. This is something you would have after dinner with, or as, dessert.

The taste definitely isn’t for everyone. Highly recommended for those who enjoy dark chocolate or dark coffee. I would highly recommend any beer lover to try this if only for the uniqueness of it. Keep in mind that Dogfish Head does not brew this year round. Snag up whatever you find because what is out there, is all that will be available until December of 2011!