Firestone Walker Brewing Company: Double Barrel Ale

It’s been a long time since I have posted anything but I have found time to continue on my blog. The beer that I will be reviewing today is The DBA by Firestone Walker Brewing Company. This beer is considered to be a Bristish Pale Ale and that is fermented in oak barrels.

Since this beer is fermented in those oak barrels you will get a hint of oak in the aroma and the flavor of this beer. When drinking this beer you will get a variety of other flavor as well . Those other flavors consist of caramel and toffee. Depending on your taste you may taste a hint of chocolate but it will be minimum. There is a bit of bitterness from the hops that are in this beer as well but the bitterness is also very minimal.

So what is in this beer? This beer consist of a variety of malts and hops. The malts that are in this beer the base malt that is the two row, caramel malt, chocolate malt, Munich and Maris otter pale malts. These are what give the beer the caramel and toffee flavors. The hops that are in this beer are as follows; Magnum, Styrian Golding and East Kent Golding.

I’m not the only one that thinks this beer is a great beer. Ever since this beer has been brewed it has been winning gold and silver medals. So if you love great beer as I do, I encourage you to try this one

Angel City Brewing: Eureka Wit

As you all know, I go to the local Bevmo on a regular basis in search of great beer to try. However,  often my trips there lead me to the same brewers. In search of other great brewers,  I reached out to a few different breweries. A few of them responded to my emails and a few didn’t. The few that didn’t probably should have because they would be getting free publicity, but good on the ones that did. They get an extra shout out!!

One of the breweries that I reached out to was Angel City Brewery, which is located in Los Angeles, CA.  This brewery was founded in 1997.  As most breweries do, they started out as a small brewery. However, since then they have been rapidly expanding. Included in that expansion they happen to acquire  Alchemy and Science, which is a craftbeer partnership or collaboration.  They now brew and distribute more beer than they ever have.   Because of their expansion, in 2010 they moved to a new facility in the Los Angeles Arts District. That is where they currently reside.For this and other information go to www.angelcitybrewery.com

Now lets get down to the nitty gritty of this beer!!!

The Eureka Wit is consider to be a Belgian White Ale. If you are familiar with belgian beers and wittbiers you have an idea what ingredients are in them. However, each has its own unique twist on it. This one is no different. The unique twist that I noticed was the addition of Nelson Sauvin Hops. I have not noticed very many beers that have this style of hops.  What does this type of hop do for the beer? Well, what the Nelson Sauvin Hop is, is a hop that was developed in New Zealand and is actually named after grapes. That’s right Grapes!!, which is not something you normally associate with beer. However, its adds a wonderful aroma and taste to this beer.  It will give the beer an aroma of fruits which also will be noticed when this beer hits your palette. It is also a bittering hop, but nothing that is going to make your beer difficult to drink. It’s actually a very smooth bitter.

Nelson Sauvin Hops is not the only thing this beer is brewed with. This beer also contains a variety of malts such as Europils, flaked oats, and the wheat you expect in a wit. Also common to the wit’s or belgian style beers are the coriander and orange peel.

I know you guys are inching to try this beer so lets go ahead and pour this beer into your favorite glass. When you first pour this beer into your favorite glass you will notice that it pours to a hazy pale golden/yellow color.  Take the glass to your nose and inhale deeply. When you do this you will notice a variety of different aroma’s but the orange peel will definitely be more noticeable than the others. But that is definitely not the only aroma’s that you will notice. You will notice a variety of different fruits, which are created by the hops in this beer.  Depending on your senses you may smell the grapes, grapefruit, or even passion fruit. No matter what you sense I have no doubt it will be delightful.

I know you can’t wait any longer so go ahead and take that first sip. When you take that first sip your palette will be overwhelmed just like your nostrils were when smelling the beer for the first time. For me when I first took the sip of this beer, I was surprised. Due to the aroma of orange peel, I thought there would be a big presence of orange peel in the beer. However, its not overwhelming, its a hint which is perfect because you get the full effect of the other fruit flavors that are created by the hops. At the end of the beer you are left with a slight bitter and coriander. In my opinion the coriander is the lasting taste.

When thinking about choosing a beer to go with your meal, you need to take this one into consideration. This beer goes very well with a variety of different cheeses such as Pepper Jack or Feta. It also will go very well with a variety of meats and fish.  I would recommend drinking this beer chilled, I would say that 50 degrees Fahrenheit would be an ideal temperature to drink this beer.

This beer  is a great beer with its own distinct additions to it. Those unique additions are what make this beer a one of a kind and a must have. If you haven’t tried this beer, you should go out and get one ASAP!!!

 

 

Blue Moon: Short Straw Farmhouse Red Ale

Over the years I have known Blue Moon for only the blue moon that most people know. However, as with any of the other breweries they have more than one style of beer. With that said, Blue Moon has an extensive collection of beer, which a lot of people may not know about. The next beer that I’m going to review is part of the Expressionist Collection by Blue Moon. This beer is their ” Short Straw Farmhouse Red Ale.”

After having tried a lot of Blue Moon beers I have come to notice that they tend to use a variety of different spices in their beers, and this beer is no different.  This beer is brewed with a combination of multiple malts, multiple hops and a variety of spices. The malts in this beer are Caramel Malt, Pale Malt, European Abbey Malt, European Acidulated Malt, Chocolate Malt and Malted White Wheat. That is a lot of malts for one beer so don’t be surprised if this beer has a very maltey profile.  The hops in this beer are of the  Spalt Select and Czech Saaz variety.  Now like I said there is a variety of spices in this beer as well which includes white pepper, hibiscus and corriander.

When you open this beer and pour it into your favorite glass you will immediately notice the aroma of the malts in this beer, which isn’t a surprise. But hidden in the aroma is the aroma of the other spices and the hibiscus.  The aroma of the hops really aren’t noticeable at all in this beer which is pretty normal for beers from Blue Moon. 

When you take your first sip you will definitely notice the taste of the malts on your palette. The one type of malt that really stuck out to me were the Caramel and Chocolate Malts which really give the beer the Red Ale distinction. The other malts really combined to compliment those two but weren’t very distinct.  The beer starts of with the malts and ends with the spiciness of the pepper and corriander.  This beer is a very smooth beer. You will get a minimal amount of bitterness from the hops but not enough to be anything overpowering, but its a red ale so you wouldn’t expect that anyway.

When looking to pair this beer with a meal, try pairing it with a meat that has a bit of spiciness to it. 

I hope you all enjoy this beer as much as I did.

Cheers!

 

Blue Moon: Harvest Pumpkin Ale

Since Summer is just about over, I have started getting into the fall beers a little bit early. There are many out there but I have tried the ones that just about everyone can find in a store near them. The first one that I have tried is the “harvest Pumpkin Ale” by Blue Moon. As with all of the beers brewed by Blue Moon, Im sure you will all enjoy this one.

To start off with this beer is brewed with a variety of malts, hops, and spices.  The malts that are is this beer are the Munich and Caramel malts while the Hallertau hops are added in the brewing process. To add a unique flavor to this beer, pumpkin, allspice, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg are added as well.

All of these ingrediants combine to give this beer a very pleasent taste. This beer pours to a dark amber color and has a slight head but nothing to spectacular. With a lot of fall beers you tend to get pumpkin flavor in the beer. The same goes for this one as the name would suggest however its just the right amount. The pumpkin taste is not to powerful at all and combines nicely with all of the other ingredients.

If you are looking to pair this with a meal you are in luck. This beer will pair very well with many things. You can pair this with alot of dishes that have beef as the main ingredient.  This will also pair well with many of your favorite seasonal soups. If you would like you can also use this beer as a cooking to or in a marinade to give your dishes a nice added touch of seasonal flavor. As with all of the beers on here Im sure the majority of you will enjoy it.  Cheers.

Schneider Weisse: Tap 7

It is a well known fact that the more one performs an action the better he or she will get. This is also true when it comes to cooking, baking and anything that involves a recipe. The more that you make that recipe the better it is likely to come out. You may be asking yourself, “why is he talking about recipes getting better with time?” While this is because the next beer that I am going to review is brewed by one of the oldest breweries in Germany. The beer that is brewed at Schneider Weisse is brewed with the same recipes that it had back than when Georg Schneider founded the brewery.

Schneider-Weisse is a pretty unique brewery because it brews wheat beers and nothing else.  When brewing its beers they use barley, hops, yeast, and wheat malts.  The brewing process for these wheat beers take place in open tubs and use open fermentation brewing techniques.

This beer will pour to a dark golden color and will have notes of various ingrediants. Of course when you open the beer you will initially smell the wheat malts that this beer is brewed with. However, if you take the time to try and distinguish the other ingrediants within this beer you will get the hints of banana , cloves and nutmeg.  With that said, you will put this beer in what would be considered the Hefeweissen category of wheat beer.  As you take your first sip you will also notice the same hints of those ingrediants. When I took the sip in order to review this beer, I first noticed the sweetness of the wheat malts. That was followed by the hint of banana. I found that as the beer warmed a little the banana became easier to notice. The beer ended with the taste of the spices in this beer which include the nutmeg and the cloves that this beer is brewed with. Depending on your palette you may notice those in a different order.

This beer is definitely one that everyone will enjoy. It is a wheat beer so like most of the wheat beer there is really no bitterness to this beer at all. This beer is only about 5.2 ABV, so if you are an experienced beer drinker, feel free to have more than one. This beer is also very versatile when it comes to food pairings. Some of the food I would pair this beer with is sausage, shellfish, pork and poultry.

Samuel Adams: Stony Brook Red

A few weeks ago my family left to the east coast for vacation. I was supposed to go but do to unforeseen circumstances I had to stay home. I couldn’t have wanted to go more but sometimes life just throws curveballs your way and you have to roll with them. I found this a good time to try a few different beers and become even better friends with Samuel Adams. There have been a couple of different Samuel Adams beers that I have reviewed on my blog in the past. As I try more of the beer from them, the more I enjoy the beers produced by them. This time around I tried their, “Stony Brook Red”, and it was fantastic. It is a beer that everyone can enjoy.

What lead me to try this beer was the bottle. I have came across many different bottles since I have started my blog but nothing like this one. So congrats on the great marketing team.

So when you first pop the cork on this beer you know what you are getting yourself into. You immediately smell the aromas of the fruit and the sweetness of the malts in this beer. But lets dive deeper into this beer.

Starting off, lets talk about what this beer is brewed with. The malts that are in this beer are two row pale malts, Munich dingemans special B and dingemans aromatic malts. The hops in this beer are of the Hallertau Mittelfrueh variety.  This beer is also brewed with a Belgian style top fermenting yeast. So that is just was is producing some of the great flavors that you are tasting when you are drinking this beer. But those ingrediants are only the beginning of the beer as well, what is the final product of those ingrediants will be sure to amaze you with every sip.

So after you pop the cork, the next step is to pour this beer into you favorite glass. This beer will pour to a dark reddish brown and like I said before this beer has a very sweet aroma to it. You will be able to smell the sweetness of the malts and a lot of the sweetness is also coming from the aroma of fruits. When I tried this beer the fruit that came to the top of my head was pear along with some dark fruits such as berries as well. It really depends on your nose to what you will smell exactly.  Then when you take your first sip you will get what you expect after smelling this beer. The beer has a sweet taste to it that has a lot of fruit accents in it. However, that is only part of the taste. You will of course get the sweetness of the malts, and the best park is the slight hint of the oak that comes from this beer aged in oak barrels and that hint of oak is what makes this beer fantastic.

So like I said this beer is surely going to be enjoyed by everyone. I say that because this beer has sweetness, tartness and a little bit of sour. This beer is not bitter at all and goes down really smooth. If you are having this beer with a meal I recommend that you try this beer with mussels you will be amazed at the way they pair together.

I recommend you try this beer in the very near future.

Cheers!!

Napa Smith: Amber Ale

Its that time once again where I dive into another beer review after not having post anything in a while. The beer that I have recently tried is one that will please a lot of people. This one is the Amber Ale by Napa Smith Brewing.

I happen to find this beer to be one of the best Amber Ales that I have ever tried. This is a very complex beer that have a variety of taste and aromas. The complexity comes the variety of hops and malts that this beer is brewed with. This beer is brewed with six different malts which is pretty unique in itself, I have tried beers that are brewed with multiple malts however not many that have this many. Anyway, the malts within this beer are 2 Row, Munich, Honey, Red, Amber, ESB . The malts in this beer are noticeable right from the beginning. As soon as you pour the beer into the glass of your choice you can smell the sweetness of malts. The malts will give this beer a variety of notes through out the beer which include toffee, caramel.

With each sip also also comes a low level of bitterness. The bitterness comes from the variety of hops that are in the beer. Those hops are of Centennial, Sterling and Mt Hood varieties. These hops will also give the beer a little bit if a floral aroma. However, the bitterness of this beer is very mild, the sweetness of the malts will hide most if the bitterness of this beer.

This beer would make a great beer for the summer months. I say that because the summer months are for barbecuing and this beer goes really well with any BBQ. This beer also goes really well with dry aged cheese. You can find this beer in a lot of different places. I happened to stumble upon it at the local Bevmo.

The Lost Abbey: Red Barn Ale

It has been a while since I have reviewed a beer from the Lost Abbey brewery but the one that I am about to review is definitely a must have. The beer in the review is the “Red Barn Ale.” It is a fantastic beer that I couldn’t recommend more.  However, to me the ail throws this beer off a little bit. To me I found this beer to be in between an ale and a wheat beer. Its really a combinations of the two.

With that out of the way, I have to say that this beer is a very complex beer that has a lot of different ingrediants, aromas, and tastes.  To start off with this beer is brewed with a variety of malts and hops. The hops that this beer is brewed with are the Phoenix and German Tettnang Hops. Those hops are combined with Two Row, Flaked Wheat and Flaked Oat malts. This beer also includes a combination of yeast orange peel, black pepper, ginger and grains of paradise.

I happened to stumble upon this beer at my local Bevmo and it comes in a 750ml bottle. I chose this beer because I have had a few of the other Lost Abbey beers and have loved them and figured this one wouldn’t dissappoint. So when you pop the cork on this bottle and pour it into your glass you will notice that this beer pours to a dark golden color and is hazy like a wheat beer. When you pour it, it will have a mild head but nothing spectacular.  As I do with all of my beers, I smelt this beer before I had even took took a sip. What I noticed was that it has a sweet aroma to it. In my opinion the ginger really stuck out in my mind, it was a different aroma and maybe thats why. Its one that you don’t find in a lot of beers. I also sensed a floral aroma to this beer which is more than likely coming from the hops that are in this beer. Than of course you get the fruity\citrus aroma from the orange peel.

So once I had time to distinguish the aroma’s I  took my first sip. Like I was saying, I found this beer to be a mixture of an Ale and a wheat beer and you can get this when you take your first sip. To me the beginning of the beer is really where the wheat beer aspect of this beer is. You will get the smooth refreshing portion of the beer where you can taste the orange and the ginger. Then when you get to the back end of the sip you will get hit with the bitterness of the hops. However, don’t be alarmed  , the bitterness is not overwhelming. Its actually right on point, it gives you the ale aspect of this beer.

So if you are looking to try a very unique beer that you will be sure to love, You have to try this one.

 

 

Stone Brewing Co:Smoked Porter

There is really nothing better than ending a long day with a great beer.This is something that Stone Brewing Company is great with helping me with. I say that because it seems as though all they do is make great beer. The latest of their beers that I have tried is their Smoked Porter.

This beer is one of my favorites that have been produced by these guys. As soon as you pour this beer you can get a sense of why they call it a Smoked Porter. The smokeless of the beer immediately hits your nostrils. However, if you take the the time to examine past the initial smell of this beer you get to the aromas of a typical Porter. You will smell the hints of sweetness produced by the roasted malts, the chocolate and some cocoa.

Then when you take your first sip you will get even more greatness. The very first sip will be a complex one because there are so many different flavors you will notice if you try. Those flavors are chocolate , liquorice and finally I had tasted caramel at the very end of the sip. All of these tastes have a smokeless added to them which makes this beer so complex and unique.

I suggest that if you like Porters and other beers from Stone Brewing Company, try this one.

Ironfire Brewery:

Last night my wife and I went to Slater’s 50/50 for the first time and it was really an enjoyable experience. When we got there it was already really busy but we didn’t mind the 45 minute wait. We went to the bar and got a beer for ourselves. The beer that I got was one that I have heard of but have never had before. It was the vicious Disposition by Ironfire Brewery.

I would consider this beer a Porter. It pours to a very dark brown and when I received it, the beer still had a great khaki head. It was served in a typical pint glass and was served chilled. I wish they would have served it a little warmer as the taste of the beer would have been more distinguished. However, when I brought the.beer to my nose there where a few different aromas. Those  aromas were chocolate, caramel all which are created by the roasted malts in this beer. Then when I took that initial sip the sweetness of the roasted malts took over my palette. I could immediately sense a hint of chocolate which was followed by a caramel and cocoa taste that lasted until after the sip was.in my stomach.  To me I didn’t really notice any bitterness to this beer at all, which made this beer go down really smooth.

I had paired this beer with a spicy burger and to me it was a great pairing. You could also use this beer as a dessert beer because it has such a great sense of chocolate and caramel to it. Any way you drink and pair this beer, I’m sure that you will enjoy it just as much as I did.