Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout: Thick and delicious

Hey everyone. The original review’s on the Journal-Advocate website, so check it out there. Seriously, the rest of this post will make a lot more sense. But the gist of it is that I bought the Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout as a random selection of a “mix six-pack,” had no expectations, and was blown away. One of the best stouts (of any kind) I’ve had all year.

But in one part of the post, I note that the can seems to have a “half bear/half elk beast” on the front. I couldn’t find a name for it. It seems the brewers heard my call, because they emailed me to clarify that the beast was, in fact, a “beer” (bear + deer). Its name is Barkley, and it’s “one of the last remaining Legendary Boonville Beers.”

So now you know.

Pond Hopper Double Extra Pale Ale

Let me just take a moment to highlight one of my favorite breweries. Not just in Colorado – but anywhere.

Odell Brewing Co., out of Fort Collins has stayed with me since before I even liked beer. When I was a young(er) beer enthusiast, their 90 Shilling Scottish Ale was my favorite, right above New Belgium’s Sunshine Wheat (with pizza) and Coors Light (with parties). As I grew, I fell in love with their IPA, then their Mountain Standard Black IPA. Before I knew it, I’d formed a spiritual, gastronomical bond with their beers.

Most of their beers.

Like a lot of breweries, Odell puts out bigger, 750mL bottles of their more time-consuming, niche-market experimental brews that beer geeks crave. Unlike a lot of breweries, you’d be hard-pressed to find one for less than $10. And I’m cheap, so I’ve never had one.

But thank the Hop Gods above, I finally found a bottle on sale ($2 off!) and decided it was a sign. And that’s all I needed to make Pond Hopper Double Extra Pale Ale mine.

Odell collaborated with Thornbridge Brewery to make this beer, which is a British brewery – hence the “Pond Hopper” name – with an interesting mission. According to their website, one location makes beer that “highlights the traditional infusion mash ale system” while another “highlights our ability to innovate through technology.”

The beer itself, says Odell’s website, is made with English malts and American hops, with a splash of Australian galaxy hops thrown in to honor Thornbridge’s production manager, Caolan Vaughan.

With so much diversity, it’s a wonder the beer holds together so well.

Pond Hopper Double Extra Pale Ale

Sight: The corked bottle gives a nice “pop,” followed by a wave of sweet aroma, which I’ll get to next. Pond Hopper pours a hazy orange gold capped by a huge beige head that sticks, slowly fades, and never goes away.

Smell: At first, a strong spicy citrus aroma smacks the face, stinking wonderfully of orange juice and pine. It takes a minute, but you’ll suddenly smell fresh cantaloupe, and it will blow your mind.

Taste: Note that this is a pale ale, not an India pale ale. So the harsh, palate-smashing bitter hops never come about. But there’s plenty of bitterness. Sweet, fresh citrus hops dominate the front of the taste and are just balanced out by substantial, but mellow, malts reminiscent of white bread or biscuits.

The finish is light, considering the 8.9% ABV and the amount of hops they use. But overall it feels both creamy and juicy throughout.

Overall: I give it a 93. Just short of exceptional. The flavors are bold, bittersweet and well balanced, which are led into by a sensationally delicious smell. Seriously, it should be made into a candle. Pond Hopper is bitter and hop-driven without being overbearing, and the malts make a smooth appearance as the beer warms.

The biggest setback is its light body, which could go along with its “pale ale” designation. For a beer with so much flavor, I’d expect it to be a bit more rounded – mostly in the malt department. But still, it’s delicious and unique. Definitely worth the money if you can find it on sale. If not, stick to the rest of their stellar repertoire.

#100: 10th anniversary Stone Ruination IPA

Ohhh yeahhhh. It’s the century mark.

In case you didn’t know, I’ve been keeping a log of all the sweet tasty beers that go into my belly. And if it’s taught me anything, it’s that there’s too much beer. I mean, I am at 100 beers and I haven’t even tried everything in Fort Collins, let alone Colorado, let alone the US. But I guess if there’s any addiction to have, this would be pretty high on the list. Plus, it’s saving me from Sterling’s uranium water.

So to celebrate my grand achievement, I’ve chosen a genuine hop monster: the 10th anniversary Stone Ruination IPA. I tried the original at some point, but it became a victim of Fourth of July craziness…oops. I do remember it being stupid well-rounded and full of hoppy tasty goodness. I don’t think it’s available on the East Coast, but if you can find it, it’s pretty affordable and definitely worth the pick up.

Anyways, whatever regular stone ruination is, this is double that. It’s a bubbling, frothing jumble of beer emotions (but it’s still brewed with the same recipe). It’s a 10.8% ABV, 110 IBU monstrosity. But it’s also pretty well balanced.

The beer pours a bright copper and gives off a nice, thick beige head. It’s got the full spicy hop smell you would think it’d have, but I also got some grapefruit and a little bit of peach, which I know sounds weird.

But the bottle stays true to its word. It says on the front that it has been ruining palates for 10 years, and I believe it. But holy shit, I have no idea how they balanced this thing. Of course there is a lot of western hop flavor, especially on the mid-palate, but it’s also slightly bready.

It’s not even the most bitter beer I have ever had. You get it mostly on the back end and it increases over time, bye-bye the time you know how bitter it is the alcohol content has made your whole body warm and fuzzy and you can’t even tell. The after effects feel like you’ve taken a whiskey shot, but left the harshness.

Overall it’s definitely a big, bold, smart double IPA that doesn’t have some of the punishment that other double IPAs have. Don’t get me wrong, having more than a couple glasses of this at one time will make your face go numb but at least it won’t punish you in the process. It’s not my absolute favorite, but considering it’s only using the ingredients of the regular stone IPA, I think it did pretty well. It’s a 92 for me and absolutely worth buying if you can find it.

Here’s to the next 100!

What’s wrong with me!

Guess what I’m drinking tonight! It’s not a local brew. Or from Colorado, the west or (arguably) a respectable craft brewery.

But listen, I got this really good deal on a IPA Hop-ology combo pack, and I wanted to try it. So far there’s a lot of what I expected, but surprise! There are also a few that I really enjoy.

This one, for example, surpassed my very, very low expectations. Samuel Adams Latitude IPA is a clear ruby/copper and smells like sweet, spicy hops (imagine Hawaiian rolls). The taste is hoppy, but not too bitter. According to beeradvocate, what I’m experiencing is hop oil, but I’m somehow okay with that in this case. I give it an 88.

I have one more beer to go out of the six, but I may not get to for a while. My 100th reviewed beer is coming up, and there’s no way it’s going to be that one.

Stay posted.

Make sure to check the ABV…

Just drank Breckenridge brewery’s 471IPA. Wasn’t the hop bomb they hyped it up to be, but it was still delicious. Very well balanced, and definitely one to check out.

Also, it’s 9.2% ABV. Yeah, that caught me off guard. Still, I guess a night cap is supposed to put you to sleep. There’s nothing wrong with a 12:30 beer to finish off your day, regardless of its strength.

Wooo!

 

Last week was a big week for me in the beer world. I got published! That’s right. The fine folks of the Sterling Journal-Advocate were lucky enough to get my sweet, sweet beer advice, which you all know is top-notch (I am so sorry, northeast Colorado).

The good news is I’ll get a little more incentive to write about some fantastic beers and share my uninformed views with the world. The bad news is they link to this blog, so I have to provide you wonderful people with MORE updates, and I know how much I clog up your Twitter feeds and Facebooks with the amount I post now. It’ll be okay.

Anyways, last week I talked about a beer I briefly mentioned on here called Hoegaarden (If you haven’t seen it, check it out at http://www.journal-advocate.com/sterling-food/ci_20472894/hoegaarden-wit-blanche-surprising-bottle-sunshine). What’s cool is one of my favorite podcasts, The Beer Temple, covered the same beer in a Belgian Wit episode the same day my review came out. It’s about half an hour, but you’ll get something out of it if you watch the first 10 minutes, at least. Very cool. Check it out at http://craftbeertemple.com/videoblog/. It’s episode #97.

And that’s it. No review today, but check for a review in the Food section of the Journal-Advocate tomorrow. It should be something excellent.

 

Update: I give up (also, I review Schweinsbrau Weisse)

I give up. That’s right, I give up. I was going to make a glorious comeback this afternoon with a post to finish up my liquor store series, and it all got deleted.

So, in an effort to keep myself from flying into a rage, I’m going to sum the whole thing up in two or three  paragraphs (minus the last part, which I never got to anyways).

The third and fourth liquor stores I went to left me scared to come back — the first because I don’t think the cashiers actually worked there, the second one because I think he might’ve been an old drug/gun peddler. Also, the second one kept all of the beer behind the counter, minus one six pack that I bought that ensured I never, ever go back.

At the first liquor store I got a Hoegaarden Belgian White, which some guy who took my money recommended to me. It was surprisingly good, even though it took me a couple of tries to get into. I ended up giving it a 91 for its sweet freshness and the fact that it was so different from what I thought it would be.

The second store had a very sad selection, so I got Samuel Adams Boston Lager, which I’ve had before but had never reviewed. It looked amber and beautiful, but it tasted stale. It still had a month to go on its drink-by date, but who knows what that guy did to the beer before I bought it. It got an 86.

The third beer was called Famosa Lager, the “Pride of Guatemala.” It may or may not have been a year past its sell-by date (which I didn’t notice when I bought it), but I thought it might have promise. It didn’t.  It was like a Corona Light minus the flavors that make me think of the beach and that pretentious lime trick I do where I put a lime in and turn the bottle upside down with my thumb inside. It tasted like corn and astringent and bubbles. It made my mouth feel sad. I gave it a 55 for being in a beer bottle, having alcohol and looking kind of like a real beer.

But here’s where things went right for me. I found a decent liquor store last week! It’s next to the hospital on the nicer side of town, and it offers a pretty good beer selection. Also, the people behind the counter didn’t make me fear for my life.

It was there that I found….

Beer #5: Schweinsbrau Weisse from Herrmannsdorfer. 

Mmm mmmm. An excellent surprise. It came in a one-pint bottle with a nasty-looking pig in a field on the front – already a fan. But the beer forces you to react with it as soon as you pop off the cap. As soon as I did, foam came slowly flowing out. I had to put my mouth over it to keep it from going all over the place (and the gas tasted like sweet tarts).

As soon as I pour it, I can tell it’s different from other Hefeweizens I’ve had. It’s a dark orange amber with some cloudiness to it and ample head that sticks around. The smell is like cloves and fresh bananas, but it’s faint. The taste is also subdued, but it’s incredibly drinkable. If you get the head in there, the sweet, slightly bready beer literally floats on a cloud down your throat. It’s subtle and delicious. Shweinsbrau is creamy, with a bit of banana sweetness that stays consistent through the whole swallow. There might be hints of bitterness at the end, but not much.

Overall, I can’t tell if it’s the fact that it’s foreign, it’s delicious or I found it in Sterling, but I thought the beer was excellent. It’s the best Hefe I’ve had hands-down and the best beer I’ve had in a month at least. I’ll give it a 95. I’m torn on going higher, but I don’t think it’s complex enough to go any higher. They brew it according to the “Reinheitsgebot Purity Law,” which means that it has to fit certain guidelines, so I’ll give it that. But for being so limited, it definitely knows how to work with what it has.