Go A Few Rounds With Yards Brawler Ale

This post has been a long time in the making and for no reasons other than I'm lazy and school sucks. I have finally decided to write up a review for one of my favorite regular brews.  Being in Philadelphia has afforded me the opportunity to try some very excellent beers from the eastern Pennsylvania area, as well as Delaware and Maryland.  However, this one comes right from the "City of Brotherly Love", Philadelphia, more specifically Yards Brewing Company down along the Delaware River.

Anytime I think of Yards I immediately think of their Brawler Ale.  This is one of their year round available ales.  While very abnormal for craft beer it has a very low ABV coming in at only 4.2%.  This may have you thinking it is a very light and flavorless beer as mainstream beer marketing has unfortunately done.  However, it has a considerably robust and strong flavor, especially since it has such a low alcohol content.  It has a very caramely and almost bready taste to it with subtle hints of lemon or something citrusy at the end.  One would not find this flavor a shock if they did not know the ABV in advance though because it pours a very pretty dark red and brownish color that had a very light, almost white head (that was also very small). It is most certainly a session beer in that it is a very flavorful and filling beer, but drinking one of them will not severely impact your level or judgement and coherence. To me this means it's the perfect beer to have when doing homework and projects at night.  I can grab a few of these and drink them throughout the night and relax a bit without feeling drunk to the point of not being able to complete my work.

I absolutely love the labeling on this bottle as well as it has a classic style image of a manly man boxing a devilish creature.  They also give it the appropriate title of a Pugilist Style Ale (which after using the google machine means it is a "boxer" style ale).  You can certainly go a few rounds with this one.  For someone like myself who is on a somewhat restricted budget these were also great on my wallet not costing much more than a dollar and a half a beer (when purchased in a 6 pack), which I find to be very beneficial for my stomach, liver and wallet.

He'brew Origin Pomegranate Ale

Courtesy Of Shmaltz Brewing Company

For the holidays I received an excellent addition to my beer collection, the Shmaltz Brewing Company's 2012 Holiday Gift Pack. It came with 8 excellent beers, which were supposed to be consumed during Hannukah. Unfortunately I was unable to do this. Instead I felt it would be necessary to at least try one on Christmas. The lucky brew was the Origin Pomegranate Ale, which was excellent. Being a big fan of pomegranate I was very excited to try this one and see how they worked this pomegranate flavor into this ale.

Shmaltz He'brew Origin Pomegranate Ale

I was unable to get my hands on a decent glass to pour this into so I had to drink straight from the bottle. While it wasn't the most ideal thing to do it made my life easier. It appeared to be a light amber and reddish color with decent carbonation. There was a sweet and somewhat potent scent from what I could smell emerging from the bottle. The flavor was nothing too overwhelming or exciting. There was a slight hop to the flavor initially which eventually turned into a nice and surprising pomegranate and tart flavor that went down very smoothly. It definitely did not taste as potent as it is at a whopping 8% ABV. It tasted more like a mild 4% or 5% ABV session beer.

As a whole this was a beer I certainly enjoyed and would get again, but not one that I would go out of my way to find. I feel that the ratings it has been given on various beer review sites do not do it justice though. I look forward to trying the rest of the box and will hopefully review a few.

There Can Only Be One Highland Brewing Company

Having just finished my final fall semester of my undergraduate career, I felt it was time for a nice little vacation. A few friends of mine and I went down to Outer Banks, North Carolina for a few days since one of them has a house down there. Since I was far out of my usual area I decided it would be the perfect time to try and find some local beer that I couldn't find in the Northeast. We went out Sunday for lunch and football to a local bar/restaurant, which i expected to have a decent beer selection. Unfortunately, I was wrong, they had a very limited list of beers. Fortunately, they did have a few local options, so I went with the Highland Brewing Company's Gaelic Ale. Highland Brewing is located in Asheville, NC and while not within a short drive of where we were staying it was by far the closest option and one I have never seen any of back home. The waitress gave us our bottles as well as glasses to pour them into if we so chose to.

Courtesy of Highland Brewing Company

While I really wanted to drink straight from the bottle because I'm lazy, I felt it would be a great disservice to not pour it into a glass since it took me an extra 30 seconds.  As I expected it had a beautiful deep amber/brownish color. After pouring it into my glass I noticed very little head and even less lacing. What little head there was, was very light in color. There was a very nice slightly sweet aroma to it, which was rather surprising to me. Now for the most important aspect of the beer, the taste! On first sip I was very confused about what exactly I was tasting besides hops and malts.  After letting my taste buds adjust, I found it had a nice lightly sweet flavor similar to how it smelled when you first took a sip.  However, that was only how it opened and welcomed itself.  Once it hit your mouth for more than the initial moment the flavor changed. While not a dramatic or crazy change it does give a stronger hops and wheat taste.

All in all this is a solid beer. It may not be the best I've had, but it is far from the worst I've had.  I thoroughly enjoyed it while watching some decent football and would not mind having it again.

Kolsch-style is my style!

Last weekend, Nick and I took an adventure with some friends down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Leaving our beloved tri-state area, we figured this would be a great opportunity to try some local brews that would otherwise be unavailable back home.

A closeup - how pretty!

The 6 pack we picked up to try was Mother Earth Brewing’s Endless River Kölsch-Style Ale. (Side note: I learned that the classification of “Kölsch” is strictly reserved for only 20 or so breweries in Germany surrounding the town of Cologne, and therefore anything else must be designated as Kölsch-Style. Most Kölsch-style ales are actually mistaken for light lagers, as noted here).  This brewery was about 180 miles inland of us…sounds far, but seemed close enough to be considered regional to us. I was drawn to this beer by the artwork on the 6-pack and the bottles…it was just too artistic to pass up. (Nick: I couldn't agree more, I'm a sucker for beautiful artwork on the bottles. I will definitely try a beer based off of its packaging.)

Kölsch beers are typically light and easily drinkable – probably my favorite style of lighter beers because they’re crisp and have a bit of a bite to them on the finish. To me, this one did not disappoint; Nick might tell you otherwise. (Nick: While I do agree that there is a certain crisp flavor to it, I'm not enamored with it. It was a little too light for me and just seemed to be missing a little something. While not a terrible beer by any means, I would prefer something with a little more flavor to it.) 

When poured from the bottle, it has a soft golden color with a decent but quickly dissipating head and next-to-no lacing. There was quite a bit of carbonation to it, so I probably should have drank it a bit more quickly than I did so it wouldn’t go flat – woops! Definitely very drinkable, you could take this sucker down in a few gulps and be on to your next. (Nick: I can attest to that. I may have not that with the second one I had.) Aroma gives off a slightly grainy malt smell, a bit corn-bready. It also had some fruity-ness to it, perhaps some lemon and apple. If you’re not into this on a regular basis, I’d say it’s still an absolutely great choice as a summer beer.  (Nick: I definitely got a hint of some sweeter fruit flavors, but no cornbread smell for me. I would certainly add this to the summer beer rotation.)

From the brewer:

Super artsy-fartsy.

"A clear, crisp beer, Kölsch offers a very slight fruity flavor and aroma. It is light gold in color, with a delicate head. This light-bodied beer appeals to nearly everyone who samples it. Expect to enjoy a slight tang in the finish.

Food Pairings: Leafy Green Salad with Creamy Dressing, Broiled Lobster, Grilled or Steamed shrimp, Fried Soft Shell Crab, Peach Cobbler" (Which sucked for the two of us, having bought this after our delicious seafood dinner at The Black Pelican). The packaging had a sweet QR code to scan that told you all of this, instead of cluttering up the 6-pack with words. 

Happy drinking!

-Maggie (& Nick)

It's That New Bitches Brew

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery always has and most likely always will be my favorite craft brewery.  The things that Sam Calagione and his staff do down in Milton, DE are nothing short of awesome and amazing.  I have yet to try a bad beer from them, ranging from their quintessential 60 Minute IPA all the way to their Midas Touch and oh so famous Punkin Ale.

I have finally gotten my hands on one of their beers that I have not been able to find since its creation in 2010, Bitches Brew.  It was a beer created for the 40th anniversary of the original release of Miles Davis' album with the same name.  The beer was created as a fusion of imperial stouts and tej, which after doing some research is a traditional ethiopian drink considered a mead or honey wine made with honey and roots from the gesho plant.  It is made up of much more imperial stout than tej as the tej is just added for some sweeting and contrast in flavor if you ask me.  Sam stated that the reason he created the beer this way is because it goes along with the album, which was a fusion of jazz, funk and rock, the first of its kind.  The label is absolutely beautiful and contains the artwork from the album created by Mati Klarwein.

Image courtesy of www.dogfish.com

So enough boring stuff and onto the good stuff, the beer itself.  It comes in an a larger 1 pint 9.4 oz bottle, which is obviously much larger than the typical 12 oz bottle or can.  As such I had to share this drink with someone else and that lucky person was my old man.  Good thing we split it too because it would have been difficult to finish the whole thing with dinner otherwise.

So we poured it into our glasses and that was the beginning of a very lovely journey.  It comes out extremely dark and almost creamy with a very nice coffee colored head.  It is opaque or damn close to it when held up to the light.  Next came a nice waft to see how delicious it smelled.  While it had a very typical imperial stout scent at first with a delicious roasted barley and malt smell, there was a hint of something I could not initially put my nose on.  It then came to me when reading the label, it's the sweet smell of raw honey!  Not something you deal with on a daily basis, but certainly has a distinct and delicious smell.  There was nothing overwhelming about the scent, it seemed to hit all the right notes at all the right places.

It tasted like something I had never had before, yet felt very comfortable to drink and not to crazy of flavors.  It certainly tastes very strong of an imperial stout and has a certain creaminess to it.  However, it doesn't have lingering bitter notes like other imperial stouts I've had.  Instead it has a delicious sweet and creamy finish to it that leaves you wanting more, almost similar to a chocolate milk or chocolate truffles.  It weighs in at 9%ABV which is on the higher end of beers, but falls directly in the average range for Dogfish Head and may actually be on the light side, especially when compared to the likes of their 120 Minute IPA, which weighs in at 15%-20%ABV.  However, this is certainly not a beer you will drink more than one of as it is rather filling and would undoubtedly sit on you if you had too much of it.

According to ratebeer and beeradvocate it got an average score of 99 and 92 out of 100 from each site respectively.  If you can get your hands on this beer, I highly suggest you grab as many as you can as this is a limited release beer.  I myself bought 4 of them total as I have fallen in love with them.  While it may not seem like a wise decision on a college budget when you consider that they ring in at around $12 a pop.  It isn't the worst idea when you think that a single bottle may last you a lot longer than you'd expect throughout the night.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

In The Nick Of Time

Hi, My name is Nick, and I like beer. Now that that's out of the way, I guess I should tell you a little about myself.  I'm the only contributor of this blog that is still an undergrad, and will only be one for 6 more months. So I guess in a way I hope this will help me prepare for post-college life somewhat. I am also one of the few contributors that brews my own beer as well.

Before I get to that though, I feel I should give my history of beer fascination. My father has always been a big fan of good beers especially Sam Adams as that was the most common craft beer 10-15 years ago. As such, I have always hated the crappy college basement party beers like Natty, Keystone, and Coors just to name a few. Anyone writing on this blog can attest to that statement that, only when we started trying unique, craft beers that cost more than 30 cents a can did I start showing an affinity for liquid bread. After turning 21, my dad and I both delved deeper into the craft brewery world. In doing so I found my favorite brewery, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.

We decided to venture down to Milton, Delaware to visit the Dogfish Head Brewery itself and then headed over to Rehoboth Beach, DE to finish up the full tour and visit the Alehouse to try some special brews. After finding out first-hand the process in which to make beer, I went out and found a local home-brew store where I go to school in Philadelphia. I found the absolutely amazing Home Sweet Homebrew down on 2008 Sansom Street - they provide you with all the necessities to brew for a beginner as well as loose ingredients for the more advanced and experienced brewers. With their help, I have brewed a Brown Ale and a Brown Porter and plan to brew some type of fruit-infused Ale next. Since entering the craft beer world, I have tried to drink as many different craft brews as possible, from as many different breweries as possible.

I like to think I fit in very well with the Dogfish Head motto of "off-centered ales for off-centered people". I also strongly believe that the statement made by one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, sums up this wonderful world of craft and micro breweries, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy". I think I've rambled on enough at this point - I hope you all enjoy this.