Sri-Freakin'-Lanka?

Yea, you heard me - today's beer comes from Sri Lanka. When I was driving to Denver last weekend, I stopped in ol' Pueblo at Hercules Liquors and found this little gem. The proprietor of the shop recommended it and I have to say that I'm extremely glad that I did. Who ever thought that Sri Lanka made good beer?!

Appearance - A frothy chocolate head, pitch black with almost no visible carbonation. Feels very inviting. 4.5/5.0

Smell - Coffee dominates the nose, but you'll also get some mocha and roasted malt in there. Nothing that is all that different from the expected. 3.0/5.0

Taste - A bit different flavor than I was expected based on the smell. While the coffee was more promenient in the nose, the taste seems more focused on the bitter chocolate. There's definitely a coffee flavor to it, but it's not all that robust. In fact, there's some sweetness to it. Nothing as sweet as a milk stout, but definite sweetness at the beginning of each taste. This beer is packing a pretty impressive 8.8% ABV, but you can't taste the alcohol at all. 4.0/5.0

Feel - Thick and rich. The beer definitely coats the mouth well and finishes smooth. The aftertaste is malt and dark chocolate. It takes a while for the flavors to clean up in your mouth. 4.5/5.0

Drinkability - I think I paid $3.99 for this thing and it's probably one of the best beers I've had for that price. Unfortunately, it's not available here in New Mexico...wah wah. Would definitely pick it up again though. 5.0/5.0

Happy Anniversary Sierra Nevada

Got to celebrate my birthday with my lovely wife, Tina, my brother and dad over at Nob Hill Bar & Grill and I heard through the grape vine that they had the Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Stout on tap. This seemed like an appropriate beer to celebrate both a birthday and an anniversary.

Appearance - A frothy, creamy tan head; a thick blackness with quick lacing. 4.0/5.0

Smell - The aroma was lighter than I expected with the malt dominating, followed up by some coffee. 3.0/5.0

Taste - Lots of malt and alcoholic coffee flavor. Oaky, with some acidic tart cherry at the front end, then blends into a molasses flavor. Highly enjoyable. 4.5/5.0

Feel - Coffee dominates the end, but the flavors are well blended and are subtle as they dissipate. 4.0/5.0

Drinkability - A very tasty, great representation of a stout. A great offering from Sierra Nevada and I would regularly get this, if it wasn't a special deal. 4.0/5.0

You can pick this up at Quarters and Jubliation - about $10 for a fancy looking bomber.

Know Your Beer: Stouts

If you are following along, we're going to hit the end of the "Beer Spectrum" before we start exploring some of the more speciality styles within the spectrum. After talking about hefeweizens, ambers and IPAs, I think a logical next step would be the Stout. This type of beer may intimidate a number of drinkers, who see its pitch blackness as a black hole of flavor or "taste" that they won't venture to get close to. I have to admit that I was one of those individuals. I don't think you could get me near a dark beer to save my life. In fact, a good friend of mine (Mr. Crow) challenged me to try some of the darker spectrum and I couldn't have been happier to expand my horizons to this type of beer.

The Stout will obviously be a dark beer - so expect this brew to be pretty opaque. Head will likely depend on the type of beer, as traditional stouts will lean to a lighter head and chocolate/mocha stouts will have a more tan/brown head. The scent profile will offer a lot of malty deliciousness, as well as coffee and some bitter chocolate aromas. There will be a distinct level of bitterness - not the high amount that you'd get in an IPA, but enough that you'd taste it.

When you see a stout beer, you can expect it to be called a number of different things: Stout, Porter, Oatmeal Stout, Coffee Stout, Chocolate Stout, Oyster Stout, Milk Stout. While all of a similar nature, the flavors will drastically differ based on the type of stouts, and by a function of the type, the ingredients used in the brewing process. Utilizing traditional carbination or more modern nitrous will change the flavor and texture of the beer, appealing to some and not to others.

Obviously, thanks to Mr. Crow's challenge, we have looked at a number of stouts on this blog: Four Peaks Oatmeal Stout, Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout, Breckenridge Vanilla Porter, Breckenridge Oatmeal Stout, Rogue Shakespeare Stout and Rogue Chocolate Stout.

Other stouts that you may have heard about, but never had - Guinness, Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout, Lost Coast 8 Ball Stout, Marble Brewing Oatmeal Stout, Diamond Bear Paradise Porter and Rogue Mocha Porter.

To Be or Not to Be, that is the Brewski

Apparently, Burt Reynolds is paying Shakespeare at a liquor store near you. We had about 30 minutes to kill before heading to the Oakland Airport, so ended up swinging into the Rogue Ale Public Room in San Francisco for a quick brew. They had a great selection on draft (probably 40% Rogue ales, 59% other microbrews, 1% the King of Beers). I ended up going with the Shakespeare Stout, as it sounded very dramatic.

I love nitrous beers - they have this amazing waterfall effect as the head settles. Just fun to watch and take in as the beer works its mojo. The beer's head was a nice creamy tan color and featured some light coffee/mocha scents. The beer itself was really smooth. The coffee and chocolate taste was light (just like the smell), but flavorful. No aftertaste on this one - just a great stout. WAY better than a Guiness, I'd get this one again. Too bad there isn't a Rogue place here in ABQ...curses.


Appearance - 5.0/5.0 - love the waterfall effect of the nitrous, tan creamy head - very full
Taste - 4.5/5.0 - silky smooth - coffee and light chocolate taste
Feel - 4.0/5.0 - no aftertaste, extremely smooth in mouth
Smell - 4.0/5.0 - very light with coffee/mocha accents
Drinkability - 4.5/5.0 - way better than a Guiness - very tasty, smooth - I will be repeating this beer.

I didn't get to have much of the Chocolate Stout that Tina had gotten, but damn, what a good beer. I will be on the look out for it and a review will be posted when I get my hands on it.

Sactown Brews

Got the pleasure to visit some friends in lovely Sacramento, California recently and I drafted my buddy Kevin into the beer tasting service. So, we ended up getting a number of them in, but here are the high (and low) lights...

First off was this delicious IPA - the Green Flash Brewing Imperial IPA. We were checking out the variety of bombers at the Nugget and was looking for the most IBUs we could. The Imperial IPA came in at 101 IBUs (yikes!) and a sturdy 9% ABV. You really got that delicious hop bitterness in the beer. If you were doing a blind taste test, you could just smell this sucker and know it was an IPA. Suprisingly enough, it's a smoother beer - you just have a really strong bitter taste with it.

On the other end of the spectrum, we had the Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA. Ah...yea...not so good. It looked, smelled and tasted like an IPA...just not a very good one. While a number of IPAs I've tried have a decreasing bitter taste (so, starts strong, then phased down), this did the opposite and I didn't care for it.

The Black Boss Porter was a good way to end this, as it was a really delicious porter. This thing was pitch black - it was almost like trying to look into a black hole. No light was escaping the gravity of this beer. It's a Polish beer - Hey, what is long and hard that the the Polish bride got on her wedding night? Her new last name.

Anyway, lots of malt and coffee aroma and taste to this porter. You can even get a hint of chocolate if you look for it. It went down really smooth and quickly...heh heh. At 9.4% ABV, you can really taste the alcohol on this one, but fortunately the malt doesn't make it overwhelming. Definitely go pick this one, even if just for an one-time taste.

Happy 250th Birthday Guinness!

I'm not all of that much of a Guinness fan really. Someone recently travelled to Scotland and Ireland and the message from there is that "Guinness doesn't travel well." I can usually have one, maybe two, Guinnesses (Guinnessi?) before I'm ready to move on.

Imagine my surprise when I get home from a conference to find this little gem in the Beer Fridge. Tina had seen it at Smith's and thought it looked interesting (ah, I'm rubbing off on her...) The Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout was excellent - a really smooth, rich coffee/chocolate taste with that roasted malt flavor in there too. You don't get that same aftertaste that I tend to have at the end of a Guinness Draught, but maybe that's because the 250 doesn't utilize nitrous.

Anyway, grab one of these six packs and celebrate a birthday!