ALC/VOL: 7%
Color: Reddish Auburn
Smell: Very hoppy aroma
Feel: Medium body/average carbonation and mouthfeel
Taste: Strong hop taste. Light citrus finish.
Overall: This is a very good beer. It tastes very similar to Dogfish’s 60 Minute IPA. There’s not a strong apricot taste. It’s present more so in the finish but not in aroma or body. Just lightly citrusy. Despite how good this beer is, I feel like there is little uniqueness compared to 60 Minute IPA to justify the price increase. A four pack of Aprihop costs the same as a six pack of 60 Minute. I might need another to get a definitive opinion. Either way, saying this tastes like 60 Minute is not a bad thing. 60 Minute IPA is the gold standard of IPAs.
ALC/VOL: 4.2%
Color: golden yellow
Smell: Broccoli
Feel: crisp and well carbonated
Taste: The initial taste is some sort of vegetable. It’s not broccoli. I can’t put my finger on it. The finish is very pilsner like.
Overall: The brewery calls this an aroma hop ale. It definitely has some sort of flowery, vegetable like aromas to it. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about it. It’s not that it’s a bad beer. It is good, but I’m not exactly in the mood for something like this. The problem is, I’m not exactly sure when I’d be in the mood for this. I might be a bit generous with this brewery since I liked their Witty so much. I don’t want to say it’s bad, it’s just unique. And for that I want to commend them for taking a chance with something different. It may be a bit weird, but it’s still a good quality beer.
ALC/VOL: 10%
Color: Black
Smell: Dark chocolate, espresso, burnt toast
Feel: Big foamy head gives this beer a smooth feel. Little to no carbonation.
Taste: Tastes like it smells. The dark roasted malts give this beer a very coffee-like taste.
Overall: Sea Monster is a beer for people who love dark beer. This is a very dark beer. Darker beers are made with malted barley that is roasted longer than the barley used in lighter color beers. Much like the darker coffee roasts, Italian, French or espresso roasts, darker roast beer has a very defined smokey, bitter taste.
This beer is very similar to World Wide Stout that I reviewed earlier. The tastes are almost the same. The main difference being that this has almost half the alcohol content that World Wide Stout has. This gives the beer a less alcohol pungent taste, and a little bit more carbonation. All in all, this is a very good beer.
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!
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!
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.
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!
