Sam Calagione Talks About Life & Limb and Future Collaborations is a post from: Simply Beer

With me on this podcast was Mark Jackson, Corey Greenberg, Travis Glohs from Amanti Vino, and John Hoyas from Hunterdon Brewing .  The only prerequisite I have for the Beer Brawl™ is a love of beer.  You don’t need to know anything about the beers we are drinking only a willingness to try them and voice an opinion.

As usual we have a podcast of The Beer Brawl™ ready for download:

Listen to the Podcast

or download from iTunes

On Tap:

• Grado Plato Strada San Felice
• Borgo Re Ale Extra
• Montegioco Demon Hunter
• Del Ducato Verdi
• Barley BB Dexi
• Panil Barriquée

Before we started the Beer Brawl™, I was looking at the beer and was amazed by the unique ingredients that were being used by some of these breweries.  Now I was excited to try these new beers especially the ones with unique ingredients like chestnuts and chili peppers.

The First beer of the night was a substitution.  We were supposed to be sampling a saison, Del Ducato Nuova Mattina, but it was unavailable. So, we started the night with Grado Plato Strada San Felice.  As soon as I opened up this Chestnut Ale, I was wearing it!  It exploded all over the place.  This was a time I wished we were doing video, it was absolutely hilarious!  This was a malty nutty ale, almost a brown ale.  Good head and lacing.  It also had a really nice hop spice on the backend.  All in all a good start to the evening.

Switching gears to our next beer, Borgo Re Ale Extra, a unique interpretation of a saison.  This beer just played with you sense of smell, super floral hop aroma.  But, the taste was very much like a saison, very dry and the hops did not carry over into the flavor except for a bit of spiciness.  Again a very interesting beer, the second of the night.

Switching gears again to another style of beer for our 3rd Italian Beer of the night, this time a Italian Dark Ale (also was classified as a Belgian Strong Dark Ale).  The Montegioco Demon Hunter was very well received by us, it was a very complex and flavorful beer.  there was a nice balance of malt, hops, fruit, and alcohol to make this one of our favorite beers of the night.  It also had the coolest packaging.

Moving onto an Imperial Stout brewed with hot chili peppers, yes, an imperial stout with chili peppers.  I was kind of skeptical about this beer at first, but the flavors were nicely put together.  The aroma was fairly typical of the style, roasted malts, coffee, and chocolate.  On the palette  you could not miss the hot peppers, there was some serious heat with this  beer.  But, thankfully there was also some serious chocolate and toasted maltiness going on to balance out the flavors.  Surprisingly enough to me, this was a pretty good beer.

Once again, moving onto another style of beer, the Barley BB Dexi was a bit of a hybrid beer.  Literally a Barley – Wine, part beer and part sapa.  The combination of these two together really made for a unique drinking experience.  The 10% abv was expertly hide and the sweet flavors that finished peppery and dry.  The biggest draw back from this beer, the price ~$25 per bottle.

The final beer of the night, and the one I was most looking forward to drinking, was the Panil Barriguée (2007 batch #8).  This our first tasting of a Flanders Red (Sour Ale) during a Beer Brawl™.  This beer is the definition of a Flanders Red, earthy, leathery, sour, and sweet (no sweetners added).  I would love to age this beer for a couple of years.

Please Download the podcast and listen to all the details about these craft brews stacked up against each other.  But if you don’t have time here are how we rated them:

I’m working on the next Beer Brawls™, we have Belgian Quads, Trappist Ales, Pumpkin Beer, and Oktoberfest Beer Brawls™ coming up.  We’d love to hear your suggestions!

Beer Brawl™ 23 – Esoteric Italian Beer is a post from: Simply Beer

With me on this podcast was Mark Jackson, Corey Greenberg, Kevin Malavarca, and Mike Malavarca.  The only prerequisite I have for the Beer Brawl™ is a love of beer.  You don’t need to know anything about the beers we are drinking only a willingness to try them and voice an opinion.

As usual we have a podcast of The Beer Brawl™ ready for download:

Listen to the Podcast

or download from iTunes

On Tap:

• Harpoon Leviathan Big Bohemian Pils
• Rogue Morimoto Imperial Pils
• Rock Art Hell’s Bock
• Left Hand Rye Bock Lager
• Pinkus Jubilate Dark Lager
• Samichlaus Helles

Kevin said it best before we started recording the podcast, this is really going to be one interesting selection of beer.  I wasn’t that convinced of that before we started recording, but by the end of the night, it was one heck of a roller coaster ride of beer tasting.  We hit some good highs, but also record the lowest score in Simply Beer History!

(Left to Right) Corey, Kevin, Peter (Mark is obscured by my gynormous head)

First up for the night was the Harpoon Leviathan Big Bohemian Pils.  Quite frankly I didn’t have high hopes for this beer, I have been continuously let down by Harpoon beers over the years.  But, with a open mind and hopes for something unique from the special line of Harpoon beer we start the Beer Brawl™.  We were all pleasantly surprised by this beer.  At 9% ABV, this was a deliciously big, full bodied, and slightly hoppy pilsner.

Unfortunately, the next beer up could not live up to the standard set by the Harpoon Big Bohemian Pils.  The Rogue Morimoto Imperial pils was a huge let down.  While the bottle did say it was an extremely bitter, which there was a ton of bitterness, it also stated a huge malty backbone which was nonexistent in this beer.  With out the malty backbone, the bitterness just got carried away.

Thankfully the brewers from Vermont got us back on track.  The Rock Art Hell’s Bock was right up our alley!  It was extremely well balanced between the malt and hops for a bock.  There was a bit of tartness in the beer, I’m not sure if that was intended or not, but it really worked well for me.

Continuing on the the good side of beer, was the Left Hand Rye Bock.  Some good healthy debate on the flavors in this one, but we all agreed that it was good, smooth, spicy, and had a nice rye tang.

Just as we were on an upturn, disaster strikes!  The second worst beer I ever had, seriously, I would drink Budlight Lime over this beer if some one offered me the choice today!  We found it pretty much undrinkable. So, we decided to try another bottle…. well, listen to the podcast and you’ll hear what happened next.

After the last beer we had to take a break to get the taste out of of our mouths, but thankfully we ended the night on a high note.  The 14% abv 2007 Samichlaus  Helles was nothing short of a spectacular beer.  Tons of flavors, Raisins, Port, Honey, and Rum.  I’m going to have to buy a couple of bottles to cellar!

Please Download the podcast and listen to all the details about these craft brews stacked up against each other.  But if you don’t have time here are how we rated them:

* If you listen to the podcast, then you’ll understand my rating.

There will probably not be a Beer Brawl™ the week of the 17th, but the week on the 24th I’m trying to line up a very unique Beer Brawl with a Distributor, so stay tuned!

Beer Brawl™ 22 – Obscure Lagers is a post from: Simply Beer

With me on this podcast was Corey Greenberg, Mike Kivowitz from Leafy Green.info, Teri Gatto, and James Nash .  The only prerequisite I have for these Beer Brawls™ is a love of beer.  You don’t need to know anything about the beers we are drinking only a willingness to try them and voice an opinion.

As usual we have a podcast of The Beer Brawl™:

Download Podcast

or download from iTunes

On Tap:

• Allagash 2009 Victoria Ale
• Allagash 2009 Confluence Ale
• Allagash 2009 Curieux
• Allagash Black
• Allagash Hugh Malone Ale

I almost feel as I was blessed with this line up of beer, while the beer was pretty pricey, each beer was unique and a pleasure to drink.  It is rare that I get to say that in a podcast.

The Victoria Ale, from the Allagash tribute line, was a great way to start off.  This beer, at 9% alcohol, was clean and dry with a slight tang.  It was about as close to a chardonnay as a beer can get while still being a beer.

The Confluence was one of the favorites of the night.  If you haven’t had this beer your missing out.  An amazing blend of sweet and tart that is so refreshing, especially on a hot day.

The other favorite of the night was the Curieux.  This is the Allagash Trippel aged in Jim Bean Barrels.  Wow, what a beer.  Having an amazing base beer to start with really allows the full potential of oak aging to come together.

Unfortunately for us the Black was the let down of the bunch, while an OK stout it just wasn’t up to the caliber of the other beers.  We found it over carbonated and thin and the color was that of brown ale.

Rounding out the Night was the second tribute beer, the Hugh Malone Ale.  This was a well balanced belgian IPA, good use of some aggressive hops with out going overboard.

Overall I’m extremely impressed by the quality of the beer from Allagash.  I can wait to try some of their new beer.  Hopefully we’ll get a chance to try some of the “wild yeast” beer.  Allagash, send us some beer!!!

Download the podcast and listen to all the details about these craft brews stacked up against each other.

Beer Brawl™ 22 will be taking us on the road again to the Liquor Outlet and Wine Cellar in Boonton NJ, where Kevin has selected, as he puts it “Obscure Lagers”.  I’m excited to see what he has in store for us!

Beer Brawl™ 21 – Allagash is a post from: Simply Beer

(*Swapped the Weyerbacher Insanity with the Weyerbacher Twelve right before recording)

With me on this podcast was Mark Jackson, Corey Greenburg, and Travis Glohs from Amanti Vino.  The only prerequisite I have for these Beer Brawls is a love of beer.  You don’t need to know anything about the beers we are drinking only a willingness to try them and voice an opinion.

As usual we have a podcast of The Beer Brawl™:

Download Podcast

or download from iTunes

On Tap:

• 2009 Bigfoot Barleywine
• 2007 Simply Beer Barleywine
• 2007 Schlafly Barleywine
• Stone old Guardian
• 2007 Rogue Old Crustacean
• Weyerbacher Twelve

Recording at Amanti Vino in Montclair NJ

We started off the night with the Bigfoot Barleywine, but in retrospect this beer probably should have been shelved for another couple of years.  Next up after that 09 bigfoot was the Simply Beer homebrewed clone of a Bigfoot barleywine, bottled in 2007.  big huge head on a nutty chocolaty beer.  Barely made the style but a very drinkable beer. Probably the guys were being overly nice, cause it was my beer, but it was very well received.

The 2007 oak aged Schlafly Barleywine was next.  After their 2007 Imperial Stout, I had high hopes for this beer and it didn’t disappoint.  The oak and vanilla imparted onto the beer really took it to another level.

Hoping to get something good from Stone, increasing our 2 good beer streak to 3.  What we got was another young beer.  Not saying it was bad, but will be much better in a year or two.  Tons of hops and a strong alcohol taste that needs to mellow out.

Would the Rogue old Crustacean 2007 Barleywine get us back on track?  That depends on which of us three you asked.  Me presonally I really liked this beer.  A great example of what some tender aging can do for a beer.  The other guys didn’t like it as much as I did…

The last beer of the evening was the Weyerbacher Twelve.  This was their twelfth anniversary ale a “Barleywine” with 50% rye.  As you can see by me putting Barleywine in quotes, classifying this as a Barleywine just didn’t work for me.  Great beer if you don’t know what you are drinking, but it tasted nothing remotely close to a barleywine.

Download the podcast and listen to all the details about these craft brews stacked up against each other.

Inspired by last weeks Allagash tasting, Beer Brawl™ 21 will be an assortment of Allagash beers.

Beer Brawl™ 20 – Barleywine is a post from: Simply Beer

With me on this podcast was Mark Jackson, Corey Greenburg, and Will Hogan.  The only prerequisite I have for these Beer Brawls is a love of beer.  You don’t need to know anything about the beers we are drinking only a willingness to try them and voice an opinion.

As usual we have a podcast of The Beer Brawl:

Download Podcast

or download from iTunes

On Tap:

• Weyerbacher Blanche
• Brooklyn Weiss
• SlyFox Project Pale Ale (marynka hop)
• SlyFox Slacker Bock
• Captain Lawrence Double IPA
• Youngs Double Chocolate Stout

We all agreed this was a nice change of pace, first recording outside of the Beer Cave and secondly the luxury of draft beer.   We started off with an exceptional Wit beer, Blanche from Weyerbacher.  We all thought this was a refreshing, full bodied, well-balanced beer.

The Brooklyn Weiss was next.  One of the things I really love about Andy’s, they always pour the beer into appropriate glassware.  We were drinking half glasses, so we didn’t have the full experience of the weizen glass with this beer.  None-the-less, the beer had a pleasant aroma and good flavor, but was missing on the back end.

The two Slyfox beers were next on the hit parade, unfortunately they we not big hits among us.  The Project Pale Ale had a burnt flavor that keep on compounding making this beer more and more unpleasant to drink.  And the Slacker Bock, it just didn’t seem to have an identity, falling short in our books.

Thankfully for us, the Captain Lawrence cask Double IPA was up next.  It was arguably one of the best IPA we have had.  Right up there with Pliney the Elder.  It had a wonder aroma and well balanced flavor.

We ended off the night on a controversial sample of Young’s Double Chocolate Stout.  My beer was far different then the others, with strong butterscotch and chocolate aromas and flavors.  Both Mark and Will’s beer was chocolate with out the lushness I had in mine.

Download the podcast and listen to all the details about these craft brews stacked up against each other.

Next Podcast will be recorded from Amanti Vino in Montclair, NJ. For our 20th podcast we’ll be celebrating with a bunch of Barley Wines!

Beer Brawl 19 – Andy’s Corner Bar is a post from: Simply Beer

With me on this podcast was Mark Jackson and Stephen Kennedy.  The only prerequisite I have for these Beer Brawls is a love of beer.  You don’t need to know anything about the beers we are drinking only a willingness to try them and voice an opinion.

As usual we have a podcast of The Beer Brawl:

Download Podcast

or download from iTunes

On Tap

• Elysian Perseus Porter
• Avery New World Porter
• Rogue Mocha Porter
• Stone Smoked Porter
• Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter

This is one of my favorite styles of beer, so to say I was excited and had some high hopes for these beers is an understatement.  We quickly went through these beers with only one disappointment.  The others were all pretty good, with the Flying Dog brewery winning its second Beer Brawl with the Gonzo Imperial Porter.

Download the podcast and listen to all the details about these craft brews stacked up against each other.

Next week, Simply Beer Cellar clean out, Interesting and Unusual Beers.

Beer Brawl 17 – American Porter is a post from: Simply Beer

This tasting did not get off to a good start, the Stone rep was over an hour late to the tasting.  He said he was stuck in traffic, which he probably was, but this is Jersey.  There is ALWAYS traffic, you should plan on it.  If that wasn’t bad enough there were no glasses for the tasting, we had these 3 ounce cups which were angled so you couldn’t swirl the beer.  But, we’re there to try some good beer, right!

The first of five beers was the Stone Levitation, their basic session beer,  low ABV and should be a nice easy drinking beer.  Because of the glasses we were using, it tasted like plastic.  There must have been some residue in the cup, because this beer tasted like chemicals.  Nice way to form an impression on potential customers.  I will forever associate this beer with plastic, yuck!

The Smoked Porter was next for us, more of the same.  A smoked plastic beer that was server to us way to cold.  0 for 2 Stone.  At this point, most of the people at the tasting we grumbling about  the “effort” put into this.  Had this been my first tasting with the folks from the Draught Board 15, I would have laughed my way out and never given them a second thought.  Luckily, I had been to others and knew this was not the way the Draught Board operated.

Note: the Smoked Porter was used in Beer Brawl 17 – Porter, I gave it a 92.  A good beer when served at the right temperature in a good glass.

Stone Arrogant Bastard

The Arrogant Bastard Ale was the next up, using the same cup, hoping the plastic taste will go away.  Having had the Arrogant Bastard on Tap before, I have enjoyed this beer, but once again it was another plastic beer.  I’m sounding like a broken record, but how can you expect to gain customers with such an amateur display?  The people at this tasting are more of the “connoisseur” types then the drink whatever is cheapest at the Piggly Wiggly.  I would imagine these are the type of people Stone would to impress and be spokespeople for their brand.

Stone 13th Anniversary Ale

I was excited, even with all the glassware issues, to try this next beer, the Stone 13th Anniversary Ale.  Every year Stone creates a limited Anniversary ale, this year was an Imperial Red Ale.  The Rep only had 22oz bottle for 22 people, nice…  You can see from the picture how much we all got, it wasn’t enough to get a sense of the beer.  To Bad, the one sip I had tasted pretty good.  It was very hoppy!

The final beer was a completely unmemorable Russian Imperial Stout.  Beer was served way to cold and we didn’t have much to get a sense of this beer either.  A continuing theme this tasting.

Overall, I enjoyed the people there (Twitter:@geservo  & @richdigi), but as I’ve said a hundred times this review, Stone didn’t seem to care about our tasting.  It’s too bad, I’ve lost some respect for this company.

Stone Brewery Tasting sponsored by Draught Board 15 is a post from: Simply Beer

The Russian Imperial Stouts were created for the Russian czar in the early 1800’s, who had a real passion for good stouts.  This lead to the creation of this style as brewers keep making bigger and maltier stouts to impress the Czar.   The American Imperial Stout is an offspring of the Russian Imperial Style, the American version tends to be bigger, hoppier, and sweeter.  All the Stouts for this Beer Brawl were aged in some sort of Bourbon or Whiskey Cask, imparting additional flavors and age to the beer.

With me on this Beer Brawl was Mark Jackson, Corey Greenberg, and Kevin Malavarc.  The only prerequisite I have for these Beer Brawls is a love of beer.  You don’t need to know anything about the beers we are drinking only a willingness to try them and voice an opinion.

Unfortunately, this weeks podcast was corrupted.  My apologies for those of you looking forward to this podcast.  But here is a summary of what happened.

On Tap Tonight:

• Schlafly Imperial Stout 2007 (pronouced shlaff-lee)
• Schlafly Imperial Stout 2008
• Brooklyn Black Ops
• Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
• BrewDog Paradox Stout
• 2008 Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

As I said above, this week were on the road, in Boonton NJ.  Here we meet up with Kevin Malavarc, the Beer Manager from one of NJ largest beer stores, the Liquor Outlet Wine Cellars.  Aside from the 2007 Schlafly and 1 bottle of the Goose Island, Kevin brought all the beer from his store to this Beer Brawl.

After a couple failed attempts to get the AC working in the room we were in, we decided suffer on in 90° heat, in the name of good beer.  Our first beer of the night was the 2007 Schlafly Bourbon barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout.  With an ABV of 10.5% this was one of the lighter beers of the night.  We all thought the ‘07 Schalfly was a excellent beer with a good balance of Bourbon, Chocolate, Vanilla, and Caramel.  The Bourbon flavor had mellow quite nicely which was well balanced with the malt.

Since we were lucky enough to have the 2007 Schalafly, Kevin brought the 2008 so we could compare the two together.  After letting the 2008 come up to about 55°, it was amazing how close the 2008 was to the 2007.  I’d say the only difference, the bourbon was a bit sharper, but in a year, I think the 2008 will taste pretty close to what the 2007 taste like now.

Brooklyn Black Ops

The 2008 Brooklyn Black Ops Russian Imperial Stout was next up.  I had previously had this beer about 2 months ago at a Brooklyn Brewery tasting event. I really liked the beer then but thought it was a bit over oaked.  I was wondering how this bottle would be, Kevin said he’d been holding onto it for several months, what will power!  This beer poured the most amazing think head, it was perfectly balanced, the bourbon, oak, chocolate, and malt all worked in harmony with this beer.  It was a Delicious beer.  Kevin and Mark called it “Amazing”.

Beer Brawl 16 - Kevin pouring the black ops

The Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout was the next beer up for review.  This too also poured a pitch black with a tan head.  The head was not as dramatic as the Black Ops, but still looked good.  This breakfast stout brewed with coffee and vanilla, then aged in oak bourbon barrels for over a year.  At 11.2% ABV this was our biggest beer yet, but the alcohol is not what we tasted, it was the coffee.  If you don’t like coffee, you will not like this beer.  But even as a coffee lover,  the coffee in this beer was almost overwhelming.  To us, the beer was like a gritty bourbon spiked coffee.  That may be the best sounding description, but these flavors were extremely strong.

Beer Brawl 16 - Peter tasting the Kentucky Breakfast Stout

Next up was an American Imperial Stout from Scotland.  The young brewers at BrewDog have really come on strong to the beer scene with some extreme beer and the Paradox stout was no exception.  This 10% ABV stout was aged for 6 months in Scotch whiskey casks giving this beer a very strong peat and brine flavor with roasted coffee.  Mark and I didn’t feel it was well balance, but Kevin liked it a bit more then us.

Finally, the Goose Island Bourbon County Stout was the beer both Kevin and I were looking forward to the most since we’ve heard so many good this about this beer.   Boy, this beer caused a heated discussion between Mark and myself.  I personally will only server a stout at a slightly chilled temp, around 55°, but the label on this bottle says to server it a 40° which is what Mark thought we should be doing because that is what the brew master must have wanted.  We argued this point for about five minutes with neither of us conceding our point.  Before the discussion of the temperature, both Kevin and I were  disappointing in this beer,  While I felt this beer had well blended flavors,  the alcohol (13%abv) was very dominating in the flavor profile.  Kevin had some other descriptive words for the beer… without down that road, he didn’t like the beer at all.

Beer Brawl 16 - Mark making his point about the temperature

After all was said and drunk, the Brooklyn Black Ops was the clear cut favorite of the group, with the rest of the field finishing close behind.  For the most part,  a very good selection of beer that held up well to our scrutiny.

The next Beer Brawl will be Porters.  I have a great lineup of a bunch of different porters.  Check the Simply Beer Calander to see what is coming up.

Beer Brawl 16 – Bourbon/Whiskey/Scotch Aged Imperial Stout is a post from: Simply Beer

With me on this podcast was Mark Jackson.  The only prerequisite I have for these Beer Brawls is a love of beer.  You don’t need to know anything about the beers we are drinking only a willingness to try them and voice an opinion.

As usual we have a podcast of The Beer Brawl:

Download Podcast

or download from iTunes

On Tap Tonight:

• Erdinger Hefe Wiezen (pronounced air-dinger)
• Paulaner Hefe-Weizen natural wheat
• Schneider Weisse Hefe-Weizen
• Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier (pronounced vine – hen – sta- fanner)
• Franziskaner Hefe-Weizen (pronounced Franz-is-kahn-ner)
• Hitachino Nest Weizen
• Harpoon UFO
• Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat

Mark (left) and Peter(Right) discussing Hefe-weizens

By far our most entertaining podcast!  The swilling started of pretty normally for a beer brawl.  We quickly went through the 5 German beers in about 40 minutes.  They were all pretty much what we expected.  The best of the Germans was the Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier (say that 5 times fast!).  It was a well crafted, exceptionally balanced beer.  At least that was my opinion, Mark had his opinions about the beer and oh boy, when it came to the Hitachino you got to listen to his tirade!  It didn’t get much better with Mark and I with the UFO, but thankfully the Flying Dog In-Heat wheat saved the day and Mark’s blood pressure.

Download the podcast and listen to all the details about these craft brews stacked up against each other.

Next week Simply Beer will be on the road with the guys from The Liquor Outlet and Wine Cellar in Boonton NJ.

Beer Brawl 15 Hefe-Weizen is a post from: Simply Beer