CS Booze Club.

[Jester]

Been too long since a review, and damn it, I want a beer!

Quick note: tried Woodchuck Winter Cider the other day, and it is a nice, crisp, tasty cider. Didn't take any notes, didn't score it, but off the top of my head, I'd give it a 6.5 or 7. Not as awesome as their Pear, not as wretched as their Summer.

Now, on to tonight's offering!

Fuller's 1845 Award Winning Ale, Bottle Conditioned, "for the fresh flavour of real ale." Nice large 17 oz. bottle, too.

Darker than I was expecting. Not a black or a brown, but a dark, dark reddish, almost brown colored ale. Almost opaque. Rich, flavorful nose. I had no idea what to expect from this, but so far, it is impressing me.

The taste is far different than the nose. At first this was good, then bad, and now a confused goodness. It is rich and malty, but there is a definite streak of dry bitterness running through it that caught me by surprise. This is kind of reminiscent of a Christmas ale or a Winter. I can't quite identify the flavors...orange peel? Hint of brown sugar somewhere? Spices? '

Overall, a tasty and somewhat surprising beer, complex and flavorful, but not overly heavy. I'd say it gets a 6.5 or 7....definitely not like many beers I've had before.

[KiaKat]

I should review the wine I've got right now. It was supposed to be the Thanksgiving wine, but I forgot the case and we ended up drinking a lovely (but far too light) Loire Valley Chardonnay.

Domaine Gachot-Monot Bourgogne Rouge 2009. A rather modern Burgundy, with strong fruit notes and a fairly plush mouthfeel, but good acidity and a nice earthiness (with a bit of a prosciutto note... or is that left over from my pizza tonight?). Just a touch of yeastiness, and a hint of oak (mostly vanilla).

Good thing I've got two more bottles. That was a crap review. I'll try again when I'm not coming off twelve days straight of work.

[Jester]

Let's talk about Warsteiner. Why? Well, because as I sit here tending to a very evil chili that I'm making, I want a beer. And this one jumped out of the fridge at me.

No, seriously. I opened the door, and the damn bottle LEAPED out of the fridge from the bottom shelf, landing in my arms, and looked up to me with pleading labels, as if to say, "Drink me....drink me now." How could I resist?

Very light yellow in color. Looks almost American. But, it being German, hopefully that is the only resemblance to cheap Americrap.

Nose smells like ordinary average beer. 0 for 2. Hmmmm...

The good news: far better than Americrap such as BuMiCo. Actually rather tasty, but clearly on the cheaper end of the German beer market. Decent lighter beer to drink, but it really doesn't rate with the better American craft beers, not to mention the better German beers. But definitely a step up from the Corona I just finished.

Overall, I give it a 5. Decent, worth drinking, but ultimately very forgettable.

[Jester]

So, despite having plenty of probably wonderful craft beers in my fridge waiting for me to try, on my way home yesterday, I made the judgmental error of stopping at my local Beer Monger's to grab a quick six-pack. Not at one of the grocery stores or convenience stores, mind you, but the Beer Monger's.

Quick six-pack my ass. I ended up with a mixed six-pack of singles, including some Christmas/winter beers, as well as a six-pack of Xingu, a lovely black Brazilian beer I have reviewed in here before. My "quick six-pack" stop cost me 30 minutes and just under 30 bucks. Brilliant move, huh?

(To be fair, that 30 bucks for those 12 beers is still a steal. 12 crappy Coronas in a bar would cost me 60 bucks, and that's before tip! And I get a six of a beer I know I love, plus six new experiences, three of them from a brewery--Breckenridge--whose products I generally like a lot. So, grumbling aside, it's still a positive. )

So, having slovenly killed off half of the Xingus while watching The Biggest Loser last night (and yes, I very much recognize the irony there), I figured tonight I'd do a bit of drinking and reviewing. My reward for having gotten some extracurricular work done for my bar, thank you very much.

First up: from Left Hand Brewery (one of my favorite breweries), we have Volume 3 of their Fade to Black series: Pepper Porter. First impression is good....it pours like motor oil, always a positive in my book. The nose is more subtle than I would expect...malty, with very noticeable scent of pepper. Makes sense, considering what it is. But of course, what about the taste?



A while back, I tried a chipotle ale from one brewery, and a smoked porter or ale from another. Both huge disappointments. I have a bottle of Rogue's Chipotle Ale in my fridge, and have heard good things about it, so look forward to it with much anticipation.

But this.....this is astounding. A deep malty taste, almost chocolatey in its consistency, with a strong pepper bite on the finish. It doesn't SOUND good, I know. But it is earthy, malty, tasty, dark, thick, and that spice kick at the end just wakes your taste buds up and screams "HAVE ME!"

And I think I shall.

Final score: 8.5, almost a 9. Just an astounding beer.

And more proof than not all beer that comes from Colorado is tasteless swill. (Left Hand Brewery is in Longmong, Colorado.)

[protege]

No, seriously. I opened the door, and the damn bottle LEAPED out of the fridge from the bottom shelf, landing in my arms, and looked up to me with pleading labels, as if to say, "Drink me....drink me now." How could I resist?

Uh, when the beer starts talking, that's the sign that you've had too many

But, I agree with you on the Woodchuck Pear. Good stuff. I haven't had their Winter Cider yet though. I still have a case of Mike's Hard Lemonade (many flavors, actually), and my last 6-pack of Old Speckled Hen to finish off.

[Jester]

Alrighty, after promising for a long time, here are my various notes on beers from my September vacation back home in Phoenix to the present, beers I have tried out and about at various bars, rather than here at home where it was easier to comment on them.

Guinness Black Lager: Pours smooth and dark, black really. Nose is like a mellowed out Guinness Stout. Tasty black lager, not quite as much flavor as I expected, as you might find in Sam Adams Black Lager or Left Hand Milk Stout. (I did not score the Guinness Black Lager at the time, but looking back, it probably deserved a 6 or so.)

I tried the GBL in the Tilted Kilt in Tempe, where I had a grand old time, it being my first visit to a Tilted Kilt. All heterosexual males who love beer should visit a Tilted Kilt at some point in their lives. The female staff (which is the vast majority of the front of the house staff in TKs) are clad in skimpy Catholic school girl type outfits, and the place has an excellent selection of beer. 'Nuff said, right?

From Firestone Brewery in California, Pale Ale 31: dark amber color, pleasantly hoppy nose, citrus hoppy taste, nice bite, very pleasant. Score: 6.5.

From O'Dell's in Colorado, Cutthroat Porter: dark brown color, creamy head, brown sugar nose with a hint of maple, taste is a bit thin, with just a hint of porterness...disappointing. Score: 4.

Also from O'Dell's, I had 90 Schilling Ale: dark reddish amber, slightly sweet nose with a hint of red beer...very good red beer, even if they call it an ale, though slightly watery...very drinkable, very tasty. Score: 6.

DBA Firestone: British pale ale...dark reddish amber, slightly hoppy nose...tasty pale ale with a slightly hoppy edge to it. Light and refreshing. Score: 7.

From New Belgian, a company whose products I normally despise (such as the despicable Fat Tire Amber), we have 1554: This is listed as a blackened ale, whatever that means. Dark brown with a little hint of ruby red coloring...slightly sweet nose with rich chocolate undertones...rich, chocolatey, brown sugary, DELICIOUS. Would go great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream plopped into it, which you can't say about many beers. Four of my friends, with different palates and tastes in beers, all loved the 1554. Not liked, but loved. My hat's off to New Belgian on this one, as it is head and shoulders about their usual offerings of dreck, such as the aforementioned Fat Tire. (Puke.) Score: A solid 8.

From Sleepy Dog Brewery in my home town of Tempe, Arizona (though I tried it in Tombstone, Arizona), Leg Humper Hefeweizen: Not cloud, as is typical if hefeweizens, just slightly hazy…very strong banana nose, light banana and clove flavors, decent tasty wheat beer, NOT a hefeweizen, simply a wheat beer. Beer score: 6. Hefeweizen score: 3. I hate beers that try to make you think they are something they so clearly are not. (YES, Fat Tire Amber, I am talking to YOU, damn it.)

Also from Sleepy Dog Brewery I had Red Rover Amber: perfect dark amber color, almost no nose, slightly fruity, good amber, a little too sweet and fruity for an amber (with strong flavors of plum and raspberry), overly sweet, and it only got worse as I drank more of it, and it was about the only beer on my Arizona trip that I did not finish, as it simply did not go with the fantastic ribs I was eating at the time. Score: 4.

Hacker Pschorr Dunkel Weiss: cloudy brown with a hint of red…very good nose, kind of like an oatmeal cookie, with brown sugar and cinnamon elements…the dark brown of the dunkel was perfectly offset by the “hefeness”…loads of banana, brown sugar, cloves, and cinnamon. In a word: yummy. Score: 8.

From Oak Creek Brewery in Sedona, Arizona, we have their Oak Creek Nut Brown: nice brown color, creamy head, roasty nose…delicious brown, creamy and delicious…by far, the best thing I’ve ever had by Oak Creek, and I’ve tried some of their offerings before. A solid score of 8.

Epicenter Amber, from San Tan Brewing in Chandler, Arizona: color is reddish amber, as it should be. Nose is smooth and light, with a hint of richness and hop bite. Drinks smooth with the characteristic amber bite, though the bite here is a bit lighter than most true ambers. Probably one of my favorite ambers, definitely my favorite offering from San Tan. Score: 7.5.

From Alaskan Brewing, makers of the fantastic Alaskan Amber, Alaskan White: golden, slightly hazy, sweet fresh summery heather smell, slightly wheaty tasty, tasty and refreshing. Good, but not great. Score: 6.

From Newcastle, best known for their Nut Brown Ale, I tried Werewolf Blood Red Ale: appropriately dark blood red color, light foamy head, very interesting nose, which was actually somewhat reminiscent of, well, blood…weirdly good…very tasty…perfect Halloween beer. Score: 7.5.

Sol: Meh. Skunky Mexican beer. Score: 2. Don’t bother.

From Abita, makers of one of my all-time favorites, Abita Amber, there was Abita Wheat: pale yellow color…slightly skunky but slightly sweet nose…okay taste, slightly wheaty, but nothing special. Drinkable but forgettable. Score: 3.5.

From the makers of Texas’s very own Shiner Bock, we have Shiner Black Lager: dark black with hint of translucence. Nose is dark roasted malts. Very smooth, malty, and tasty. Not as flavorful as many black lagers, but still very tasty. Score: 7.

From Wisconsin, Leinenkugel Oktoberfest: light reddish amber, a tad bit light for an Oktoberfest. Nose is rich, and smells of barley and spices, reminding one of autumn. The taste delivers what you would expect from an Oktoberfest. Tasty and autumny. Score: 7.5.

From Laughing Dog Brewery in Idaho, The Dogfather Imperial Stout: pours dark and thick like motor oil. This is a good sign! Thick creamy tan head. Nose is dark and very malty, with a hint of a dark stone fruit, either plum or date. Dark, dark, dark taste, with sweet liquor overtones, which are not surprising considering the 10.9% abv. Hint of cherries coming out. I’d been trying to figure out one taste that was coming out in this beer, and it took me a while, but finally I concluded that it was dark chocolate. Bitter dark chocolate. Yummy! Score: 8.5.

Sierra Nevada Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale: dark, dark brown, but not black…heathery smell with hint of honey…superb autumn beer. Flavorful and tasty. Very interesting, very tasty. Not as flavorful as most browns, but still very nice. Drinkable, tasty, good, but not spectacular. Score: 6.5.

San Tan Gorfo Stout: very Guinness like…rich, dark, slightly bitter, mellow, tasty. Score: 7.

Grand Canyon Amber: perfectly dark red amber color…light pleasant nose…smooth taste with very slight amber bite. Very drinkable. Score: 7.

Firestone Walker Oktoberfest: light reddish amber in color. Subtle autumny nose. Lighter than most Oktoberfests, but still tasty and drinkable. Score: 6.

From Tampa’s Cigar City Brewing, there is Big Sound Scotch Ale: dark, with a nice head, but impossible to see the true color in the dark Key West bar I was in. Rich and malty nose with a hint of bitterness…and the taste delivers on the nose’s promises. Rich, dark, malty, and lovely, with a note of bittersweet chocolate. A bit sweet. Score: 8. However, upon further review, the sweetness grew to the point of being cloying, and the beer became a one note wonder, so I downgraded the score to 6.5.

Cigar City El Lecter Dark Mild Ale: very dark brown in color, and opaque…subtle nose of malt and brown sugar…decent taste, but nothing special…I expect more from Cigar City Brewing…this was a very boring and ordinary beer. Score: 4.5.

Dogfish Head Festina Sour Peach Wheat: nice hazy golden straw color…subtle sour citrus nose…tasty, but tastes more lemony than peachy…okay, nothing great, nothing horrible. In the end, a refreshing lemony beer. Score: 5.5.

Harpoon UFO Hefeweizen: slightly hazy golden orange…very subtle wheaty nose…tasty but average hefeweizen. A little light on the typical hefeweizen flavors. Score: 6.

Murphy’s Amber: reddish amber color…nice earthy nose…average amber, nothing special. Score: 4.5.

Belhaven Scotch Ale: reddish brown…rich malthy nose…decent, but a little sour. Okay, nothing great. Score: 5.

Fuller’s Cask Conditioned Porter: deep black…awesome rich malty nose, with hints of coffee…DEEEEElicious! Bittersweet chocolate, coffee, rich, malty, just the right amount of bitterness. Score: 7.

Young’s Double Chocolate Stout: first time I’ve had this on draft…great color, black with creamy tan head…wonderful rich malty nose, very chocolatey…rich chocolate taste, not as chocolatey as the same beer from the can, but still wonderful. Score: 8.

From Sierra Nevada, their Celebration IPA: (But wait a minute, Jester, you don’t like IPAs. Well, generally no, I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I won’t try a new beer if given the chance, even if happens to be a style I typically don’t like. Hell, I’ll try anything once!) Reddish amber…strong hop nose…actually not bad for an IPA…tasty, more like a regular pale ale to me. I probably wouldn’t order it often, but tasty enough. Score: 6.5

Spaten Pilsner: Pilsner is another style I typically am not overly fond of, but again, I’ll try anything. Besides, I love Spaten’s products in general, so I was willing to give this one a go. Light yellow in color, typical of pilsners. Light fresh nose. Light taste, with some richness. Surprisingly tasty, really nice pilsner. Score: 6.5.

Boddington’s Cream Ale: golden color…subtle fresh smell…creamy, rich, slightly bitter…I’m not a huge fan. Score: 4.5.

Samuel Adams Double Pumpkin Ale: dark ruby red to brown in color…the bartender described it as “gross”…the nose is pure pumpkin…the taste is pumpkin, but weird. Not as gross as the bartender said, but not really tasty. Score: 3.

Brooklyn Brewery’s Post Road Pumpkin Ale: dark orange color…nice pumpkin nose…nice light pumpkin taste, maybe a little too light on flavor. Score: 5.5.

From Southern Tier, I tried their Imperial Crème Brulee Stout: opaque and black…smells like custard, vanilla cream, and crème brulee STRONGLY…GREAT taste, but very unpleasant aftertaste. Initial score of 8, but adjusted to 7 due to the aftertaste.

The above beers were tried in various watering holes in Arizona and Key West, and I also checked out a few brewpubs while I was in Arizona, including BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery, where I tried a four beer sampler.
Harvest Hefeweizen (4.9% abv): pale and cloudy golden, excellent banana nose, nice taste but a bit muted. Didn’t live up to its promise. Score: 5.5.
Nutty Brewnette (5.9% abv): brown ale, rather light for a brown, translucent ruby reddish color, sweet winelike nose, a sweet thin brown, unimpressive. I think it is wrong to call this beer a brown. A major miss. Score: 3.5 for lameness.
At 0 for 2 in 2 of my favorite style of beer, BJ’s is quickly looking like yet another clueless corporate yuppy brewhouse.
P.M. Porter (6.4% abv): dark dark brown, almost black, very slight translucence, thick creamy head, gorgeous malty mocha nose, nice taste, but thin and runny. The taste barely saves it, and doesn’t live up to the wonderful nose. Score: 5.5.
Tatonka Stout (8.5% abv): imperial stout, dark, perfect black color for a stout, light and indistinct nose, decent stout with hints of coffee in the taste, but again thin and watery. Best of the four I tried, but far from great. Score: 6.
BJ’s fails. It seems to me to be embarrassing corporate schlock, a bad attempt to cash in on the recent craft beer explosion in this country. Beer snobs need not bother darkening their doors. I only hope the food is better.


Okay, so now I am caught up on my past beer notes. And shall forge ahead with new ones! Yee ha!


Stay thirsty, my friends!

[Jester]

Tis the holiday season. So I thought it would be a perfect time for a Christmas Ale!

Specifically, the Christmas Ale from Breckenridge Brewery, a lovely little operation from Colorado. I'm pretty sure I've reviewed some of their products here before, but in brief, their flagship Avalanche is lovely, and their Vanilla Porter is just an astounding dessert-like beer. So I was curious about their Christmas Ale.

It has an interesting color, being reddish brown, but slightly translucent. Haven't seen many this color before. The nose is all Christmas, being slightly malty but definitely heavy on the Christmas type spices: nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, etc. As I said...this beer just SMELLS like Christmas.

And the taste....rich without being over the top, tasty, earthy, interesting. Hard to describe actually, though I am getting a bit of an odd aftertaste, which is interfering with my otherwise lovely enjoyment of this beer. Weird. In any case, worth a taste if you see it in the stores, but I wouldn't necessarily hunt it down. Score: 6.5.

EDITED TO ADD: After sitting and drinking the entire beer, the aftertaste mellowed after a while, so that may well have been me, not the beer. Still a nice beer, not brilliant, but very tasty, very good for pairing with a holiday meal.

[KiaKat]

On Sunday, we had our staff party.

We started with a lovely Champagne. Pierre Peters Cuvee Speciale, Les Chetillons, 2004. Divine. Pure mineral bubbliness in a glass. One of the most delicate sparklings I've ever had. I'll likely not have it again soon, considering it retails for around $125 a bottle. Too bad, because if I had the choice to drink one thing for the rest of my life, this would likely be it.

Our second bottle was from Agrapart & Fils, another Grower Champagne. (Grower Champagnes are a newish trend in the world of bubbly - instead of being made to a consistent house style, like Veuve or Dom Perignon, they're made to the vagaries of the vineyards and the people who work them. The good ones are really something special. Agrapart & Fils is considered to be one of the top producers of Grower Champagne, and now I understand why. This bottle was 7Crus Mineral - a very low dosage bubbly produced from grapes grown in vineyards in all 7 Grand Cru communes in Champagne. Rich, true Champagne with a complex, nutty finish. Gods but I love bubbly wines.

Bottle #3 was a Puligny-Montrachet from Louis Carillon: 2008 1er Cru Les Combettes. Bits of brioche, pear, just a touch of nougat, lemon, mineral... I could go on and on about this. I'm not one for oaked Chardonnay, but Puligny-Montrachet is just the right amount of oak. Enough to emphasize the depth of the wine, but not so much that it overwhelms all the fruit. It's a fascinating wine.

Fourth up was a Sancerre: Pascal Cotat "Les Monts Damnés" from the small village of Chavignol in the Sancerre region. Normally one would not put a Sancerre after a Bourgogne Blanc, but in this case it was the perfect sequence. The Sancerre is muscular and citrusy, with a fair hit of green (leaves? lemongrass?) that follows the almost-caramelized smooth Bourgogne. Nicely refreshing to the palate before we dive into the reds.

The fifth bottle was the first red of the night - a 1999 Barbaresco. I admit to not getting the label, but by this point I was fairly tipsy, so whatever history I may have gotten about the bottle went in one ear and out the other - aided by the headcold I'd been nursing for days. Cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and a bright, sharp cherry note right in the middle. Surprisingly fresh and young for a 12 year old wine. Perfect with the duck I ended up ordering.

On to the sixth! Rioja, from CVNE. Vina Real 1985. Chosen because that's my coworker's birth year (mine was far too rainy and cold, it produced only mediocre wines), it proved to be a nearly-perfect example of a high-quality Rioja. Leather, coffee, allspice, raspberry, blackberry... it's a brambly berry bonanza!

Seventh, and final, was scheduled to be the highlight of the evening - A 1964 Gevrey-Chambertin. The cork was almost disintegrated - we had to send it to the kitchen to be opened. The bottle was covered in a fine white mould - a good sign that it hadn't been disturbed in years. The fill showed some evaporation, but was still above the shoulder slope of the bottle, which meant the cork likely hadn't dried out, and there was a good chance the wine was still really good. We poured it around the table, nosed the wine, sipped...

It was corked.

[Seenoevil]

My mom makes a nice mixed drink this time of year. She calls it a Mellow Yellow. Just mix equal parts kahlua and eggnog Its amazing... especially if the nog is homemade.

[Jester]

Rioja. I LOVE rioja.

Eggnog....am going to attempt to make it from scratch in the morning. I should have had it finished tonight, but I was out later than planned, and didn't get started in my kitchen until midnight....and after two hours, I have managed to finish both of the salsas I'll be bringing with chips (store bought, but nice) to my friend's Christmas party tomorrow night. I REALLY want to make the eggnog, and preferably mix it with either Kilo Kai Spiced Rum (of which I have a fair amount) or Brinley Gold Vanilla Rum (of which I have none, but plan on buying a bottle on the morrow). Of course, if the homemade nog doesn't meet my standards, or I somehow manage to screw it up, I have a backup plan....store bought nog!

[thansal]

What actually goes INTO egg nog? Is it (as the name implies) egg and cream? Is it cooked? (I'm NOT a stickler for eating uncooked eggs, unless I'm feeding other people).

[Jester]

According to the recipe I was provided with, it has milk, cream, egg yolks, vanilla extract, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. And of course, whatever liquor you choose to add. In my case, it will be rum.

[sms001]

Re: Egg Nog.
THE go-to for this is an Alton Brown episode which is hilarious - he's furtively trying to avoid the FDA storm troopers whilst making his 'nog.

You can heat (with a little liquid from the recipe - about a teaspoon per egg) your eggs to 160, or 145(?) for three minutes just as you do for a custard base for ice cream. Or you can cook the whole nog mix after it's done if you aren't doing the fold in the whites route.

OR, you can add any alcohol over 50% in a 3 to 1 nog to spirits ratio and hold for five(?) hours, making sure it's well mixed before and after.

Guess which I prefer?

[Seenoevil]

You can also buy pasteurized eggs at the store (yes it boggles my mind too). They're only a little more expensive than normal ones.

[fireheart]

Jester, by any chance, have you tried Lucky Beer?

http://danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_908599/lucky-beer

Just curious.

Surprisingly, my sister (who just turned 18 yesterday) and I have strayed away from the lolly water disguising itself as Vodka Cruisers and are drinking ACTUAL alcohol . She doesn't like sweet stuff, whereas I don't mind sweet, but the cruisers are TOO sweet.

I need to get her away from Sol and Corona though . I'm slowly starting to learn my way around Cider as well. My boyfriend is going to provide some Rekorderlig cider for me to try, since my drink of choice has so far been Strongbow. Although methinks I need to beat Dan Murphy's (friendly local liquor outlet) around the head on their 20 recommended ciders: 5 Seeds is the WORST.