Okay, this is legitimately weird. I thought this was going to be a stout at first and when it poured bright violet I was surprised. Thick, almost sludgy, the smell is intense peanut butter. First sip is very berry jam, which is a weird transition, and then it goes peanut butter again. I've never really had a beer like this before, but it actually did satisfy my desire for a stout.

It certainly tastes like black currant, which is nice and unusual, but like most of these New Glarus fruit beers, is way more juice than beer. I usually have a hard time drinking intensely fruity berry juices, and this had more or less the same effect on me.

Really a tasty lager. Starts very Bohemian but finishes with a bit of hay and cereal, brackish finish. Nicely balanced. Not sweet like a Helles, but has a good body.

Not thick, but still way too sweet. Boozy.

Fruit candy-forward flavor, reminds me of a honey cough drop. Medium tart, wheat funk, soda-like. Pretty good.

Same vintage as last time but there was a sour tinge to this that built up over time, kid of like that infected-barrel quality that Big Block beers tend to have. By the end of the glass I was not enjoying it anymore.

Meh.

A pale festbier. Malty, crisp apple, a little bitter, grassy. Maybe a little sweeter than I love her but pretty good.

Looks like I had this on nitro last time. This was CO2 this time and I think maybe I’m missing the touch of sweetness nitro might have added (though I’m not getting the soapy bit). The tartness takes over somewhat, even though it’s not that pronounced. Still interesting though.

I did not like the flavor of this one.

Clean, medium tart. Liked it.

Hoppy saison with a hint of pepper, finishes with a mellow cereal flavor that is probably from the grains of paradise. Lightly bitter aftertaste.

Quite sweet, but tempered by the coffee in a way that winds up being pretty appealing. Some of the hop pungency pokes through at the end.

On draft in Seattle!!!

Reading my previous reviews, this time seems to match up most with the first time I had this.

A nostalgically hoppy amber. In the old days I would have hated this, and it's still a bit over the top but I enjoyed it.

Standard high-roast stout.

Not sweet at all, this is a cloudy wheat beer with dry berry notes. Pretty good.

Medium-tart, dry guava flavor. If it’s not super-complex, at least it’s not super-simple. Very solid fruit sour. Wasn’t sure whether to expect coffee based on the name, but it’s not.

A tasty if young-tasting barrel stout, toffee-caramel, sweet. Nice to have as an option for a nice dinner.

Really nice without being light. Grassy, caramel, apple,some vegetal bitterness on top. They say this is lagered for 90 days, and I’m not sure what that does, but this is tasty.

Really nice, mild on the pumpkin spice, but most of the flavor is a rounded one from pumpkin flesh.

Clean, white pepper. More Belgian-tasting than expected.

Hoppy, funky, sour. Quite dry. Finishes clean. I liked it but didn't have too much of it.

Date bread, molasses.

Very solid English porter, slightly tangy, chocolate, roast.

Unusual flavor, high toffee sweetness leading into floral hop flavors and a toasty biscuit finish. It maintains a light mouthfeel throughout and finished clean, although there’s a strong, bitter aftertaste. I think I do like it.

I noted the almost-burnt roastiness of the Media Blackout previously and this certainly seems related. Thin, slightly tart, high, rounded bitterness. Caramel, notes of pecan.

First impression is that the tangerine is dry and essence-y. This isn’t a juicy radler, and makes it a less-refreshing experience. That said, the flavors are pretty good here.

Thick, malty, somewhat sweet. A big change of pace in this flight that maybe would benefit from a little space.

An extrapolation of the Tony. Very solid, clean flavors. Tiny touch of bubblegum at the front.

Light, bready/biscuity flavors, but not especially malty. Nice, dry, fizzy finish obscures a bit of funk.

Lightly sweet underneath. Grassy. Bitter on top. I liked this a lot.

Very similar to the coffee, slightly sweeter, light but not overdone coconut. I keep going back and forth about what I like better.

Medium-thick, vanilla, wood. Nutty with slightly sweet coffee that turns a bit uric at the end. Nice.

Definitely didn’t taste like a Mexican lager. Very hoppy, vegetal, a little soapy.

Bracingly bitter, on the metallic side but compellingly enjoyable. Slightly grapey.

Just a taster but this was nice. Chocolate, thinnish, roast. Touch of spice. Will have to try more later.

Not sure why I didn’t like this last time, but on draft this is delicious. Light, just sweet enough, tasted a ton like a bowl of Peanut Butter Crunch with milk. It would be easy to drink too much of this.

White pepper, yeasty bitterness. Bracing, I’d call it. Tasty.

Classic, if young-tasting, barrel aged stout. Still quite sweet but less so than the mocha. Definitely thicker.

Thinnish, sugared coffee, strong alcohol. Nice aftertaste, but the uncomplicated flavor makes this less great.

Quite tart, it's dominated, almost to a pungent degree, by the flavor of lemon juice. Just a hint of lactose sugar on the finish, but it doesn't do too much to diversify the flavor. Tingles long after the sip. Would definitely have liked more "cake" here.

The same cloudy funk as the Muir Woods, but the hop presence is stronger and slightly more acrid. Malty - graham cracker/toffee sweetness on the finish.

Pine, lemon, a cloudy cereal funk. Barely bitter and very clean - liked this a lot!

Bittersweet chocolate, hint of sweetness, light, hoppy finish. Pretty good.

Absolutely tasted nothing like gochugaru, absolutely tasted nothing like any kimchi I’ve ever had. It’s probably not bad but it literally failed at its one job.

Decent, light-tasting lager. Sweet barley flavor but not as watery-syrupy as, say, a Terra. Still, pretty soda-like.

Fruity, citrus, dank, perhaps a little too herbaceous. They play up the weed in the name and it certainly does bring it to mind.

Dry, quite tart, light Brett funk is primary in the flavor, followed by raisin and wood. Finishes remarkably clean.

Exactly what it professes to be, smooth coffee opening, cereal sweetness but not anything on top of that, and an assertive bitterness on the end that meshes well with the coffee.

Everything’s better with old friends.

Going back to the base flavor just reinforced the lactic tackiness in the finish. I wonder if it's fair to call it verging on spoiled milk?

The most intriguing flavor was the biggest letdown. The initial taste was really off, almost vegetal, although it normalized to something more cinnamon-prominent after a couple sips.

Vanilla dominates in this one.

All of these beers have a sour lactic finish, which I didn't love, but the coffee variant was the best one, probably because the bitter roast offset it.

Tannic, thin, makes me think of a nut liqueur like an amaretto or something. It’s good, but I think if there were a little more body to this thing it would be remarkable.

Light, very roasty, coffee. Not sweet at all. Bitterness lingers.

Way too much. Pine-citrus IPA, somewhat thick, very sweet.

The sourest beer of the day, unidentifiable fruit, caramel.

Very tart, cranberry, puckery. Unremarkable.

Quite tart, puckery, with a significant amout of funk. Second one that approached blue cheesy flavors. Dry finish.

Dry cherry, caramel, wood. Not tart at all.

Super-dark head and lacing. This was a remarkably redolent of cacao, pungent actually. Sweet and liqueur-like. Reminded me of the Berserker, a beer I haven't had in a very long time.

Kind of flat, blue cheesy funk. Apricot.

It's easy to take this one for granted, but I'm glad I tried it. Just super, super good.

Simplistic, sweet. Not bad, but the finish seemed a bit harsh. Other folks at the table really disliked this one this year though.

Super clean. Blueberry. Quite tart, low funk, clean. Lots of clean beers at this particular instance of Big Wood.

Very caramel apple. It's quite sweet, but very surprisingly, appropriately sweet. Very much recalls apple brandy.

Slightly fruity, sweet stout. Seems to have frighteningly little reason to be here. There's definitely no discernible chili.

Kind of like a sour, carbonated red wine? Didn't seem beer-like at all, although it wasn't bad.

Quite tart, unidentifiably fruity. Very clean.

Very blueberry, quite sweet.

Not much barrel, lots of coffee. Very good, but comparing against a standard stout.

A stronger initial hit of booze. Lingering chili spiciness.

Light prune and caramel, finishes with a candy sweetness. Super-clean.

Just a taste. Lots of coffee, vegetal, a spicy finish. Very weirdly made me think of daikon pickle, which is not as negative a note as it sounds.

Somewhere between blueberry and raspberry, notably floral, no funk. Medium tart, very clean finish.

Probably my second-favorite beer of the day. Smooth, not as sweet as the PNC, still a cacao-forward flavor but with a strong presence of peated whisky that became clearer as the glass warmed up.

Dream come true to get a new release of this, one of the first epic beers I ever tried. Did not disappoint. Smooth chocolate, incredibly smooth finish, medium sweet.

Pours golden. Very nice, sour and dry, a bit salty on the lips but with a nice authentic guava flavor.

I didn't take notes on this one, unfortunately. I have a vague recollection that I didn't taste any mint at all, which would have been a disappointment for something staking its claim on the Frango name.

Just lightly roasted, not sweet, not thick. The right amount of peanut. I thought this was delicious.

Maybe it was in opposition to the Hanami but this was very much on the edge of syrupy.

Dry, champagne-like. Dries out on the tongue which is probably from the tea. Delicious.

Round, malty, redolent of unspecified spice. Bitter finish. Tastes like a fruit beer without the fruit.

Pretty strongly bitter, and I hate to say “in a rubbery way” because it’s actually really quite good. Light lemon, some cloudy cereal funk, but all very dry in a way that leads really naturally into the bitterness.

Robust but creamy, mocha notes, high roast, malty as all get out. I enjoyed it!

Don't have a great recollection of this, but my lingering impression was that this was in the sweet-pithy category.

Blandly sweet nitro red.

Pretty decent chocolate milk stout. Sweet, but not too sweet. Thinnish mouthfeel. Cola-like? The milkiness lingers as a tackiness in the throat, as does something of a roast bitterness.

This doesn't seem stylistically accurate. Maybe my taste buds are off but this comes across like a slightly toastier version of the pumpkin ale, and the sweetness doesn't really work for me.

Basically a pumpkin beer? Spice forward, hints of sweetness, lightly hoppy, clean, pretty bitter on the aftertaste.

Banana, clove, but also tart, finishes distinctly metallic but clean.

Looks like they changed the name. First taste seems great - a deeply hoppy, woody flavor that is offset by some cereal funk. It's nice, but on the fruit front there's a lingering citrus oiliness that outlasts the flavor and leaves the mouth dry, just a tad off-putting.

Holds up in character through the nitro, chocolatey, roasty, mellow.

Each new release of this beer seems a little less whiskey and a little more Scotch ale. Fairly thin, but mellow. Barrel is mostly wood and background. A fine beer for my birthday.

Almost nitro-flat but contributes to a very smooth opening. Finishes with a somewhat rounded hop (or rye?) bite at the end that reduced my enjoyment a smidge.

Seemed extremely overhopped for a blonde. I see previous notes like this, maybe it's always been this way?

Whereas I thought the Aloha Death was thin and fake-tasting, this was just the right amount of the right flavors. Otherwise, it's a light-ish stout-ish beer like the other Irish Death variants, and just as enjoyable.

Very tasty, fresh, Deschutes-like IPA. Not too piney.

Sweet, bitter, definitely a bock, but almost maibock-like in strength and sweetness. Almost skirts the edge of syrupy-sweet but doesn't get there, thankfully. Pretty enjoyable.

Lightly tart, champagne-grape notes with sweet cereal. Dry and clean, refreshing, very tasty.

Pretty far away from what I expected in a wit. Musty and vegetal, thin and a bit tart. Reminds me more than a little bit of a ginger or ginseng tea. Did not clock cranberry in this.

Forward-sweet, fragrant and hoppy. Slightly herbaceous. Dries pretty fast into a typically brackish Italian Pilsner finish but manages to stay sweet all the way through to the finish. Quite refreshing.

A decent if unremarkable malty amber. Bit of caramel, muted hops, not much of what I would call a rye bite. It certainly accompanied the food.

I quite liked this. Not sure I got more than a hint of pineapple, the overall impression is of a bitter orange, a nice pucker, but dry and clean. I've never had the cocktail and I gather grapefruit is involved? That's believable. But it tasted more orange to me.

Bright, fizzy pale ale, seemed unusually prickly/spicy, which was a nice surprise. I was well into a hearty meal by this point so I'm not entirely sure I can trust my flavor notes, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Basically my platonic idea of a Scotch Ale, yeasty, nutty, goes down smooth without any particular sweetness or bitterness. Reminds me of imprinting on this style at Black Raven or Bellevue Brewing. Or maybe it's just this pizza place, which is great.

Really delicious, I think. Not resinous or bitter at all, the primary flavor is fragrant lemon-pine hops, juicy, but clean.

Clean and nice, the initial flavor is herbaceous, like a lightly-sweet lemongrass herbal tea, but followed very quickly upon by a dry pineapple fruitiness and a mellowing coconut. More soda-like than beer, although it is dry. Only mid-tart. I'd say this beer is exactly as advertised.

Aged now for seven years, lots of caramel, cacao, and hints of aged balsamic grape, finishing with a nice, clean, tannic dryness. Love to open an old bottle and find that it's still superb.

Very light, like a cream porter. Pleasant coffee overtones, and smooth.

White pepper, light, reminds me of a wit more than a Bavarian hefe.

Clean but with slightly more pithy bitterness than the hazy. The rest of the flavor seems just a bit on the watery side.

Light, pleasant pine/lemon hazy IPA. It's spritzer-like, clean and not bitter at all.

Mellow, sweet cereal, hint of fruit.

You can definitely tell the family resemblance in this. Bready, a bit spicy, but clean, bright, almost metallic. Still, this was the most normie beer of the flight.

Hazy dry with a prickly carbonation that heats up the back of throat almost like ginger.

A dry hoppy saison, actually not that different from the rice lager but with less funk and a little more bite.

Super clean, fragrant, lightly dry, faint funk.

White pepper, coriander, citrus, dry, clean, mellow.

Brackish and dry like you might expect from an Italian Pilsner, but with a lemon pine hop sheen on top. Veers a little acrid but not bad.

Thick, caramel, intensely sweet but with a chew that matches. Lightly tart on the finish with plum/apple. Did not detect peat at all.

Luminosa hops, apparently. Lighter tasting than I expected, but very nice for sure.

Super clean, fruity, mango. A bit spicy.

Bracingly bitter, dry, brackish, and yet impressively clean. Hops are peppery, not fruity.

Hazy, oily, like concentrated hip essence. Borders on spicy. It’s definitely extreme without feeling over the top but it’s not exactly refreshing. One to explore if you just want to feel one with the hops.

Hit much nicer today, but I was fresh. Very smooth, light spice, murky and pumpkiny. Plus it’s nice being back at the Pine Box.

Light, lightly tangy, got that watery corn syrup flavor but otherwise crisp. I don't know how this compares to Bellevue's own Vacuna but wouldn't be surprised if it's very similar.

Opens pretty strongly fruity, tangerine-like, sweet, before transitioning to a high-alpha bitterness. The perfume from the opening lingers, so does the bitterness.

Pours blonde, opens a little musty, a little fruity, but resolves to cereal sweetness rather quickly. Brackish finish. Can't tell if there's a lime overtone to this? I just ate pho.

Sweet and port-like, strong in flavor all-around and pretty much what you might expect based on the description. You can taste the barleywine underneath but the barrel is pretty dominant here. Save this one for dessert.

Light, sweet milk stout with nutmeg-dominant pumpkin spice added. It's got a relatively thin mouthfeel but this still tastes a little bit on the cloying, candy-like side.

Super-interesting. The hops up front are dominant, a weirdly thick mouthfeel with lemon, bitterness, almost tart, before dissipating into a classic sweetish, cereal, almost buttery German pilsner flavor profile.

Cask-poured, complex with citrus and a somewhat marked transition to herbal, vegetal bitterness.

Starts lemon pine and gets deeply pungent very quickly. Murky, resinous and finishes with almost a numbing tingle on the tongue, and yet this is much more compelling than this type of beer would normally be for me. Reminds me of that old Stone Belgian IPA with its pepperiness and yeasty bitterness.

This is... a bit much. Maybe it's because it was at the tail end of a lot of beers, but this was over the top malty, over the top hoppy. One could say this is by design for barleywines, but I've had many that were a lot more enjoyable than this.

Not as good as I remember. Pumpkin spice and cream dominate and the base beer is a little lost, but it's pleasant enough.

A little weak, a little sour, this is a non-assertive roast. Reminds me a lot of what I don't love about nitro stouts without actually being on nitro.

Not as successful as the Log Boom as this one has a sweetness that kind of goes on too long.

Definitely the Log Boom and definitely a sweet, almost candy-like but realistic POG flavor that frankly overwhelms the finish. Not sure it ever resolves into a single flavor, which is the biggest problem.

High and sweet hop opening fades quickly. This is a piney, light pale ale, with a finish that hints at a dry champagne. Not bad.

Mostly just a taste, to compare with the tangelo. Without the fruit, this just tastes watery.

So light... Compared this with the regular Sammamish and this is definitely fruitier, although still a very kind of dilute experience.

Light but dry, transitions directly into a dark, cloudy, roasted malt flavor. Definitely a lager, but not sweet at all. Brewed by Bellevue Brewing.

Clean, lightly floral, hints of corn. Light, or watery? I think in this case it might be the former.

Brewed by Bellevue Brewing under the house label here. Lots of caramel, grassy, rounded hops, medium bitter finish. Strong. The caramel lingers in a sweet aftertaste. Would be interesting to compare this directly with Bellevue's Scotch ale.

Really, really good. Clean, dry mouthfeel with bright strawberry-like flavors, hints of florality, and a tart-to-clean finish. Had to buy a bottle of the Hanami afterwards, which looks related (but sencha based).

I don’t love the style but this is pretty good in that context. Cacao, light roast, hops poking out in the right balance. Similar bitterness buildup as the Aloha. Finishes clean.

A really nice combination! Light tropical/grapefruit hazy flavors with a bit of complex dryness from the hibiscus. Very clean finish.

Good, but smooth it is not. Imagine an Oktoberfest märzen mixed with straight whiskey.

Similar to the Cult Classic on the surface, a little more simplistic, almost watery compared to expectations against the “lighter” style.

Sweetish lemon pine pale, light with a clean, drying finish that recalls a Pilsner. No cloying flavors. I really liked this.

Ultra brackish, almost metallic, but otherwise the flavor is very clean, lightly grassy, not as sweet as a Helles.

A really high quality IPA - lemon-pine, lingering bitterness and fragrance without being over the top. Strong without feeling unbalanced, although there is just a hint of perfume-like artificiality around the lemon flavor.

Perfect temperature, just cooler than lukewarm, barely fizzy, herbaceous hops and strong bitterness but in great balance.

Nutty, hints of cocoa, thematically not that different from the afraid of the dark but honestly I can’t get behind the nitro (even though it’s better than usual)

Dry and light dark lager, more amber though less sweet than a Vienna, barely fruity, bready.

Lemon cereal IPA, dry and bitter finish, but lager-like and really refreshing.

Light plum, caramel, tastes strong and also festive. Somewhat vegetal finish.

Opens as a mellow tripel that is slightly amped up on the cloves and then gets uncharacteristically hoppy. Has a similar finish to the Julius.

Orange, vanilla, hops, cloudy cereal finish. Initial impression is sweet but it’s well-balanced after the flavor transitions to hops. Aftertaste is somewhat bitter. Solid.

Clear, bubbly, banana-forward Belgian ale. Has a lager-like brackish bitterness that offsets the initial brightness and makes the overall experience feel more complex and balanced.

Watery, diluted corn syrup impression from this beer. Definitely a big step down from the Oktoberfest.

I don’t know what was up with the last time, but this is very good again. Still hits every flavor I want from an Oktoberfest-Marzen.