CS Booze Club.

[Jester]

What do you mean, "might"?

[sms001]

And which pale ale were you talking about?

Sorry, that is kind of a run on sentence. The Samuel Smith Organic Pale Ale (used to be called 'Old Brewery Pale Ale').

[Jester]

Not sure if I've had that one yet. Will have to check my notes, or just order it if I see it. Though the more I think about it, the more I think I haven't had it.

I have their. Organic Lager, Organic Strawberry, and Organic Chocolate. Loved the Chocolate, pretty sure I liked the Strawberry a lot, the Lager was decent.

[Victory Sabre]

Ale Asylum Ambergeddon from Madison Wisconsin.

A little darker red color than I usually see in an amber beer. Very little head to it.

Quite hoppy. I do like hoppy beers. Good flavor. It kinda kicks up a standard amber beer. Yeah, I might get it again next time in cheesehead land.

[Victory Sabre]

Well, I was in the southern twin cities area after playing, and winning at poker, so I decided to make a trip into cheesehead land and get beer.

I picked up 3 new brews today.

South Shore Nut Brown Ale
Tyranena Brewing Rockey's Revenge
and Great River Roller Dam Red Ale

I'm going to try the Rockey's revenge tonight. According to the bottle, it's aged in bourbon barrels.

http://tyranena.com/rockys-revenge/

HO-LEE-CRAP! It's so smooth going down. The flavor is hard to describe, besides awesome! Wow!!!!

I wish I would have gotten more than a 6 pack.

Fairly dark. Slight red hue to it

[deadbody]

I picked up 3 new brews today.

South Shore Nut Brown Ale
Tyranena Brewing Rockey's Revenge
and Great River Roller Dam Red Ale

Just FYI, Great River and Tyranena are distributed into MN, so you might be able to find them around.

Drank a couple Surly Blakkr over the last 2 nights, Black double IPA, not a super big fan, lots of hops up front, but some roasty undertones that just don't quite merge. This is a style that when it is done right is amazing, but can be pretty bad if done wrong.

[Victory Sabre]

Just FYI, Great River and Tyranena are distributed into MN, so you might be able to find them around.

I found that out last night by going to their websites, and I will be getting more in the future.

[Jester]

This is a style that when it is done right is amazing, but can be pretty bad if done wrong.

Too true. While I am not an IPA fan, have had several brown IPAs, black IPAs, and white IPAs that I loved. It's just the true IPAs that drive me over the edge. But recently my bar had Shipyard's Black IPA on draft, and it was so hoppy, I couldn't drink it. It was if the black part of the black IPA was an afterthought. I got a slight hint of chocolate on the aftertaste, but that was after the pumped up hops had beaten my tongue into the dirt. Bleah. And this from a brewery I normally love. Very surprised, very disappointed.

[mathnerd]

I finally have something to add to this thread after lurking on it for what seems like forever!

Revolver Blood and Honey out of Granbury, TX. It's an orange and honey beer and it's fantastic, even though I normally don't like sweet beers. Since I'm newish to the craft beer thing, I'll just cut and paste from their website:

American Wheat Ale – ABV: 7% IBU: 20
An unfiltered deep golden ale made with malted two row barley and wheat. The brew is finished with Blood Orange zest, local Fall Creek Farms Honey and other spices that bring special flavors to this unique beer.

I had it on draft a month or so ago at a bar near where I live. It was perfect with the giant cheeseburger and sweet potato fries I ate for dinner that night.

[Jester]

Seaweed. Beer. An odd combination, you say? Well, not really. Not to anyone who's had a nice Asian beer, such as Kirin Ichiban, with their sushi dinner. Not only are sushi rolls made with seaweed sheets (the nori that forms the base of rolls), but seaweed salad is a lovely accompaniment to a sushi dinner.

But beer made with seaweed? That stopped even me. But because I love trying new things, and because this was made by a Scottish brewery (Williams Bros), and I've been growing more and more fond of Scottish beers in recent years, I just couldn't resist picking up a bomber of it.

Kelpie Seaweed Ale (Scotland, 4.4% ABV): While the label is green, the beer is most definitely not. This did not surprise me. What did surprise me, though, is that it is dark. Very dark. As in black dark. Squid ink black, I could joke, but squid ink actually seems to have a slight purple hue to its blackness (yes, I've cooked with it...why ever do you ask?), whereas this is just....black. With virtually no head.

The nose is subtle and hard to place, but seems to have some richness and some maltiness, as you would expect from a black-colored beer, but not from a seaweed beer. What you would expect is at least some note of grassiness, which this does have, but in a good way. No, really. Grassy can be good in beer, as I've found out previously.

But enough with the preliminaries. It's seaweed beer. How does it taste?

Different. Definitely different. But not in a "Omigawd, it's seaweed beer, it tastes like rotting kelp" kind of way. Just....different.

It's dark, but the body is light. This is not in itself odd...Xingu has made its name with this, and has done so admirably. There is a malty taste, though it is not overpowering. There is something I would describe as slightly grassy, though not overpoweringly or offputtingly so, which is probably what makes this beer so....different.

But, is it GOOD? That is, after all, the important question. After all, Ghost Face Killa tastes different too, and there is nothing pleasant about THAT different. Honestly? Kelpie is nice. And yes, good. Is it great? No. But it is nice, and drinkable, and worth drinking. Would I seek it out, now that I've tasted it and gotten past the novelty? No. But neither would I turn it down were it available to me. I think I'd enjoy it with certain seafood, like mollusks, especially mussels, and any hearty "steak" fish, like swordfish, halibut, or certain tunas. And other lighter dishes, like stir fry or chow mein. And for some reason, it seems to call to salmon. Literally, I am having a craving for a nice smoked salmon to nosh with this beer. Seeing as the best salmon I've had has been Scottish or Irish, that doesn't seem that surprising to me.

Final verdict: interesting, and good. 6.5/10.

[KiaKat]

Is there any salinity to the Kelpie? Honestly, it almost sounds like one I might enjoy. I'm not usually one for beer, but in recent years my tastes have gone more in the subtle-earthy-herbal direction, and this sounds very much like that style.

[Jester]

Everything I thought about it is in the review. So no, no salinity that I got from it. But them, I've never gotten any salinity in a beer, so maybe you're tasting stuff I'm not, or trying beers I've never had.

[Jester]

More international beer!

Kalnapilis Bock (Lithuania, 7.3% ABV): Light golden color. Fresh, light nose, with subtle floral notes. Light body but flavorful beer. Well-balanced. Definitely a good beer to have with food of just about any sort. 6.5.

[Jester]

Made myself some chicken stir fry tonight*, so I thought I'd have an Asian beer with it.

Hitachino Nest White Ale (Japan, 5.5% ABV): golden white color, mostly hazy in appearance. Light, wheaty, lightly floral nose. Smooth, wheaty taste. Well-balanced. Definitely a good white. Should go well with my stir fry. 6.5.


*If you're wondering, I made my stir fry with chicken breast, white onion, red bell pepper, green beans, zucchini, water chestnuts, baby corn, garlic, soy sauce, black and white pepper, ground ginger, and cayenne pepper, and finished it with teriyaki sauce and pineapple chunks, and served it over teriyaki rice, with which I cheated by using a pouch of teriyaki rice and heating it up in the skillet.

[Jester]

Stir fry dinner eaten. Japanese white ale drank. Belly full. Dishes done.

Time for dessert!

Hitachino Neat Red Rice Ale (Japan, 7.0% ABV): hazy appearance, with a light reddish brown color. Nose is tough to describe, as there's not much of it. I get a somewhat sweet smell, with a hint of something else, but damned if I know what. Good thing I saved this beer for dessert, as it is sweet. Noticeably sweet, but not necessarily in a bad way. There's a bit of a candy aspect to it, honestly, but a pleasant candy, not anything cloying. Almost like red licorice or red vines. It's weird, but oddly tasty. And from the above description, I wouldn't have thought so. But somehow, it works. I actually prefer it to the earlier Hitachino Nest beer I had, as that was kind of boring and nondescript. This beer is neither of those, and while the white ale could easy blend in with others of its ilk, there's no forgetting this one. And I'm not sure it has others of its ilk. Or even an ilk. In any case, it's definitely different, highly unique, and while it's certainly not for everyone, to me, it's a winner. 7.0.