So I love Earl Grey and was super excited for this, but I’m really not feeling it here. The base beer overwhelms the subtlety of the teas and they end up turning into a weirdly herbal, perfumey and bitter aftertaste.
Reminds me a lot of the beers I had in London, roasty, just a little more dank (smell & flavor!) than I usually like. Assertively dry and bitter. Would love to try this on cask pour.
Normally this would be way too sweet for me but at least this beer came in advertising exactly what it was. This tastes like maple fudge, high, sweet, pretty darn alcoholic. Not thick, which comes from its KBS heritage and which I think helps in this case. Nice dessert beer.
Initially concerned that the Candy Cane flavoring would be a gimmick, and have an overwhelming amount of artificial flavoring. However, they seemed to have been able to achieve a subtle hint of peppermint but remain predominately a traditional milk stout.
This is very nice, and I appreciate it came in a small bottle. Caramel, vanilla, hint of raisin and slightly tart from the port. Very smooth. Just a bit tacky in the throat, which is the only thing holding it from perfection, but maybe with age it'll get better.
Starts off with a weird herbal taste, but gets better.
Strong coffee like the breakfast stout with a little bit of maple sweetness and chocholate.
The first swig of this is super weird, the fenugreek gives it a bitter, Chinese herbal medicine like quality. There's a really nice brown ale behind it and as your palate gets adjusted it ends up being quite pleasant. However, "it burned my taste buds until it was fine" is not really a ringing endorsement for a beer.
Much drier than I expected, which is really great. Like an Granny Smith or other tart apple pie... Nice to have another unsweet cider here. Only complaint is a kind of faint, soapy aftertaste.
The basic flavors are good, but it's maybe a little too simple-sweet. These same flavors with some more complexity would be pretty killer, though.
Firestone Walker Molé Merkin (2019)
The cinnamon and chili are immediately present in the nose. So much so that I expected it to overpower the palate, but surprisingly, it balanced it really well with the cocoa. Very good. Just short of perfection. Also happy birthday Mike. Thanks for the beer!
The original is best here, I guess! Just dry enough to balance out the juice of the apple; only lightly tart so that nothing lingers unpleasantly.
A believable watermelon juice flavor, not fake watermelon candy, which is nice. That said it kind of flattens out an already sweet cider to end up with something rather one-note.
Weird, but I liked it. Lemon is more of an essence; doesn’t add sourness but clearly identifiable. Dill is strongly present in scent and flavor, and it combines a bit with the sweetness to give an unusual but appealing flavor.
Interesting clove / plum flavor. Hint of smoke? Plum is quite clear and pleasant. I know this is supposed to be honey forward, but I did find myself wishing it were less sweet. A little flat.
Weak-ish blackberry flavor. Sage is unidentifiable if it’s there; somewhat sweeter than seems appropriate given the weakness of the other flavors.
Comparatively intense fruit flavor in this one; tart apricot. Sweet and sour, hint of something spicy on the lips? Not exactly fizzy, but it tingles nicely in a way the other flavors do not.
Strong smell of molasses, coffee, and cocoa. Strong fizzy forward. Acidic clean body. Was worried that it'd be too sweet but so far this is like a toasty pecan pie, sorta.
Tons of sediment, almost unpleasant-looking, but flavor wise this is pretty good. Juicy, mango is clearly at the front of the flavor. No tartness or bitterness, and the overall feeling here is plesasantly sweet. Light finish.
Lightly sweet, juicy, very, very pleasant cider.
Better than my memory of it (eight years old!) but I've gotta tell you, the pickings at Suncadia are very, very slim.
Reallly tasty, orange-citrus fruitiness and some juicy hop flavor. Just a touch of resin but otherwise not bitter at all.
Reuben's BBIS (2020)
Starts smooth and very tasty for a new vintage of BBIS, surprisingly so, but kind of loses its lustre through the course of a glass. The alcohol is very pokey and is quite dominant over time. Might need some aging.
Still delicious, and maybe a touch smoother on draft.
Thick, syrupy, Almond Joy-type coconut stout, although it smells sweeter than it tastes, thankfully. Caramel and not much overt hazelnut; maybe in the overall smooth finish. Just a hint of smoke/roast but not as over the top as the usual Evil Twin stout story.
Fragrant, and fruity, almost juicy, without any of the offensive edges of a more profound IPA. Very crowd-pleasing. In bigger news, this place has very good loco moco, maybe a new local favorite.
Light wood-smoke, not overwhelming, with a caramel/malty Vienna lager character about it. I'd love to compare it to other Aecht Schlenkerla rauchbiers but it's been a very long while since I've tried one.
Delicious, caramel, sweet, lightly fruity. I liked this a lot better than what I remember of the Brew 3000, but the difference may be because it was on draft.
Delicious, as usual. I wish I'd taken more notes at the time, though.
Cereal/malty, just a hint of esters, brackish finish, not too boozy (which can be a danger with Maibocks). This was pretty much what I was looking for.
Held up well in the recapped bottle, even after four days.
The Cherry was just on the edge of cough syrup but was nicely countered with some dark chocolate bitterness. It’s still fairly sweet so probably best delivered in a desert context and in small quantities.
Cola-like, lightly-sweet, nutmeg-forward. Sticks a little in the throat, but overall not a bad pumpkin ale at all. Also: super cheap.
