Carter Drinks Beer

I like beer. I drink beer. I talk about beer. Pictures are my own unless otherwise specified.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Trillium Brewing Double Dry Hopped Melcher Street IPA

Sorry for the long delay in posts. Law school and all that. Trillium's a little operation in Boston. Their distribution is small, but they make some fantastic stuff. 

ABV: 7.2%

Price: I honestly can't remember. Like $11-$12 for this 750 mL bottle, I think.

Availability: Rotating. Trillium keeps a few regulars (Fort Point Pale Ale, Trillium Farmhouse Ale) available year-round and brews everything else on a rotating/once-off basis. I think this is the first and only batch of DDH Melcher Street they've done thus far, but they might very well bring it back later. Regular Melcher Street is part of their regular rotation.

Appearance: Cloudy, yellow-gold color. Big, fluffy white head with lots of lacing.

Nose: . . . It smells like weed.

Taste: Dank as fuck. Tons and tons of fruit flavor - orange, mango, pineapple, lemon. Slightly grassy. Very little malt backbone. Bitterness is almost non-existant.

Body/Mouthfeel: Surprisingly light for a 7.2% IPA. Finish is mostly dry (though there is a bit of stickiness) with very little alcohol heat. 

Thoughts: Okay, lots of hoppy beers get described as "dank", with the connotation being pretty obvious. I've had some like that before, but this is the second hoppy beer I've had from Trillium (brought a regular Fort Point with me as well) and . . . holy shit. It leaves you with this vague sensation in the back of your throat like you just smoked a joint. Like, if you didn't know that hops and weed are from the same family of plants, you might figure it out from a beer like this. It's kind of insane. I realize that sounds kind of gross, but it's not. The juicy fruit flavor of this beer is off the charts, and there's very little bitterness to offset it. It kinda fucking rocks.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Straight to Ale Cabernet Barrel Aged Laika (Imperial Stout)

Laika Russian Imperial Stout is one of Huntsville, AL-based Straight to Ale's most well-known and well-loved beers. They do a couple barrel-aged versions as well, including this one.

ABV: 11.7%

Price: Got this at Hop City in Birmingham. Don't remember the exact price, but it was around $10 for this 22 oz bomber.

Availability: Brewed for the first time last year; looks like they plan for it to be a once-a-year thing. Late fall.

Appearance: Oily pitch-black. Frothy, but quickly dissipating dark tan head and no lacing.

Nose: Dark chocolate, raspberry, tannic red wine

Taste: Starts with a lot of dark roasty character, particularly a dark chocolate that's so thick it's almost like fudge. Tons of dark fruit follows - lots of cherry and raspberry. A note of licorice as well. Finishes with an oaky red wine flavor, but without much acidity.

Body/Mouthfeel: Thick and oily - almost Bourbon County level thickness. Finishes long, slow, and fairly hot. The ABV isn't overwhelming, but it's definitely present. 

Thoughts: Yummy. Aging in red wine barrels is becoming more and more popular these days, and in my experience the beers tend to be very hit or miss. This one's a definite hit though. The wine character shows up largely in the form of dark fruits, and it meshes extremely well with the malt flavors, particularly the dark chocolate. Great beer from one of Alabama's finest breweries.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Russian River Pliny the Elder (Double IPA)

"Solum certum nihil esse certi (The only certain thing is that nothing is certain)." - Gaius Plinius Secundus, aka Pliny the Elder, Roman author, naturalist, and naval commander.

Pliny is one of the most celebrated American beers of all time. It is the archetypal modern West Coast-style double IPA.

ABV: 8%

Price: Got this from a friend, but the internet indicates that, where available in retail, Pliny runs roughly $5-7 for the 510 mL bottles it comes in.

Availability: Year round, but Russian River's distribution area is extremely limited.

Appearance: Deep, cloudy amber-gold. Big fluffy white head with lots and lots of lacing.

Nose: Citrus, lemon, pineapple, grapefruit, pine

Taste: Tons and tons of bright, citrusy hop flavor. All of the aforementioned fruit that were in the nose. There's an undercurrent of sweet, bready malt, which is just enough to give the beer some balance without taking anything away from the hop flavors. Ends with a grassy, piney hop presence.

Body/Mouthfeel: Moderate thickness. Relatively dry finish, without much lingering bitterness. Alcohol is somewhat noticeable as it warms, but still extremely drinkable.

Thoughts: The truth about Pliny is this: if you've had other amazing DIPAs, it's not going to blow you away. It doesn't do anything novel that other great examples of the style don't. As opposed to something like Heady Topper, it's not mind-blowing. That said: everything that Pliny does it does *extremely* well. Its reputation is not at all undeserved. It is everything that this type of DIPA should be, and it's a fucking fantastic beer. Do not pass up a chance at this beer, particularly if you love hops.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Samuel Adams Thirteenth Hour (Belgian-Style Stout, i.e. Belgian Strong Dark Ale)

Thirteenth Hour is part of the Sam Adams Barrel Room Collection. Every year, Sam Adams brews a special oak barrel-aged beer called Kosmic Mother Funk. KMF is then blended into a variety of different small-batch brews, which form the Barrel Room Collection. Thirteenth Hour is one of these beers. The base beer is a stout, but the resulting blend far more resembles strong Belgian-style dark ales rather than a true, roasty stout.

ABV: 9%

Price: Got this one at Costco as part of a three-pack with two more of the Barrel Room beers (New World, the tripel, and Tetravis, the quadrupel) for $23. Considering that each individual beer is normally ~$10 for the 750 mL bottle, that's a pretty solid deal.

Availability: Year round. It'll be somewhat different year-to-year, corresponding to the various vintages of KMF, but they make it enough that you can pretty much find it all year long. Boston Beer Company is, of course, the largest craft brewer in America, so you should be able to find it at any bottle shop.

Appearance: Dark but not completely opaque. Shows a reddish-brown tint in the light. Fluffy tan head, but not much retention or lacing.

Nose: Dark fruit, plum, raisin, toffee

Taste: Tons and tons of dark fruit flavor - very much in the dark Belgian style. Plum, raisin, date, etc. Delicious. There's a bit of a tannic oak taste as well. There's a toffee-ish note in there, but the coffee/chocolate stout flavors that the bottle (and SA's website) claim really aren't there - in fact, you'd never really guess this was a stout if it didn't say so. There's actually a light tartness to the fruit flavor as well (which is always a big plus in my book).

Body/Mouthfeel: Like you'd expect from a quad/Belgian strong dark. Thick-ish but not creamy or heavy. A slight warmth at the end, but otherwise a muted alcohol presence.

Thoughts: Huge fan of this, actually. Don't go into it expecting a stout, or that it'll even really be stout-like. I've actually had this before, shortly after I got into craft beer. I remember being disappointed because I was expecting a stout, and what I got I found weirdly champagne-like. Which sort of makes sense - they do actually use a champagne-yeast to make it - though it's not clear when in the fermentation process this happens. This time around, though, I'm enjoying it way more. It's a really, really solid Belgian-style strong dark ale - one of the best American ones I've had. The flavor isn't *super* complex like a real Belgian quad, but it's really goddamn tasty and I love the subtle tartness. If you're one of those people who thinks Sam Adams is too big to make great beer, shame on you. They make a few duds, but they've got the resources, the knowledge, and the passion to make some fine-ass beers. Thirteenth Hour is one of those.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Victory Harvest Ale (Wet Hopped Pale Ale)

ABV: 6.5%

Availability: Yearly release (Fall)

Price: ~$10-11 per 4 pack

Appearance: Clear, brilliant gold with a moderate white head. Small amounts of lacing.

Nose: A burst of citrusy-herbal hop notes - grapefruit, pineapple, mango

Taste: Sooooooo much dank, fruity, floral hop flavor. Big big grapefruit/citrus notes. Lighter, more tropical hints of pineapple and mango. There's an earthier undercurrent of pine and resin. There's almost no malt flavor at all, but the hop bitterness is so light that the lack of any balancing sweetness doesn't hurt it.

Body/Mouthfeel: Light body, though there's a mild sticky-resiny quality. No noticeable alcohol on the back and very little lingering bitterness.

Thoughts: Think you don't like hoppy beers? Try something wet hopped like this. The hop flavors are so bright, so fresh, so juicy - it's simply incredible. They also tend to be considerably less bitter than traditionally hopped beers, so they can be easier to drink (and more palatable to those who don't like a lot of bitterness). Most of them are IPAs, but I like the idea of doing it in a lighter-bodied pale ale like this, where the hop flavors can shine through even more. Also helps that this one is made with Citra and Mosaic hops, two very fruity and flavorful hop varietals. Great stuff, Victory.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Guys, I think I have a bit of a wet hop addiction.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Stone Lukcy Basartd (American Strong Ale)

Lukcy Basartd is a blend of the three normal Arrogant Bastard variants - regular AB, Oaked AB, and Double Bastard. The resulting blend is then dry-hopped.

ABV: 8.5%

Price: Get this one as part of Stone's Bastard Box if you can. A 22 oz bottle of this will run you $8-$10 depending where you are, but the Bastard Box nets you this, a regular AB, a Double Bastard, and a (box-exclusive!) bourbon-barrel AB for about $22, which is a much better deal.

Availability: Lukcy is released in late fall with Double Bastard, but once every *two* years as opposed to DB's once a year.

Appearance: It's a very pretty deep red (perhaps garnet?), with a finger of frothy tan head, which retains excellently as you drink it. Lots of lacing too.

Nose: Lots of citrus, cherry, bready malt, and vanilla

Taste: Rich and exceptionally smooth. The hop presence is stronger and fruitier than regular Bastard - big citrus presence, which I love. Rich, dark, bready malts are present throughout. There's a dark fruit flavor in there as well, almost like you'd expect from a quad. You can also definitely taste the oak flavors from oaked AB, but they're much more muted - mostly it's a smooth, subtle vanilla somewhere near the end. 

Body/Mouthfeel: Fairly thick, but the finish is drier than you'd expect. Surprisingly little alcohol presence, especially considering that regular and oaked Bastard tend to taste boozier than they really are.

Thoughts: I haven't had the bourbon-barrel one yet, but I'm pretty ready to crown this the king of the Bastard family. It's got the balance of regular Bastard, the big malt kick of Double, and a much improved (i.e., smoother/less harsh) version of the oaky vanilla flavor in Oaked AB. The dry-hopping adds a big kick of citrusy hop flavor and bitterness, balancing out the booze and the sweetness. This is a really, really exceptional beer. Stone knows what they're doing. 

[carterdrinksbeer]

Goose Island Pere Jacques (Dubbel), 2013 Vintage

Here's the second half of the GI duo I found at the bottle shop. The label calls Pere Jacques a "Belgian-Style Abbey Ale" - but it's essentially a dubbel.

ABV: 8.7%

Price: I paid $2 for this 12 oz bottle.

Availability: I believe it's normally a seasonal/yearly release, but the Goose Island website lists it as "currently unavailable", so I'm guessing it's on hiatus for now.

Appearance: Dark, very cloudy amber-brown with basically no head or lacing. You hear this phrase thrown around a lot with beers, but it really looks like liquid bread.

Nose: Dark fruit, spice, and yeast

Taste: Lots of fruit - plum, apricot - and sweet, smooth malt. Backed by a sharp, spicy Belgian yeast flavor. The sharp, fruity flavor makes me think of ruby port.

Body/Mouthfeel: Pretty thick but with a surprisingly dry finish. Almost no alcohol on the back end, which is impressive at 8.7%

Thoughts: Definitely one of the best American dubbels I've had. It's a smooth yet flavorful take on the style, and the strong but subtle tastes are very reminiscent of true Belgian abbey ales.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Goose Island Matilda (Belgian Strong Pale Ale), 2012 Vintage

The bottle shop down the street randomly had this and a 2013 Pere Jacques hanging out in their singles fridge. Who was I to say no?

ABV: 7%

Availability: Year-round

Price: I paid $2 for this single 12 oz at Corks and Tops in Tuscaloosa

Appearance: Hazy golden color with flecks of yeast. Fluffy white head and plenty of lacing.

Nose: Pears, spicy yeast, a touch of brett-y funk

Taste: Light fruit with a vague tartness up front. Spicy yeast and cloves follow, with a touch of funk at the end.

Body/Mouthfeel: Smooth, medium-light body. Finishes pleasant dry with no hint of alcohol.

Thoughts: Not overly complex like you might expect, but damn tasty. It smells like it's going to be a lot more sour/tart/funky than it is. Don't know that it really sticks out to me in any way, but it's more proof that whatever you think of their business decisions, Goose Island makes some damn fine Belgian style beers.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine (2013 Vintage)

Had a final one of these sitting around after picking up a 4-pack last year. Why not drink it?

ABV: 9.6%

Availability: Winter

Price: Don't remember, honestly. Got it at the Downtown Spec's in Houston. Just over $10 for the 4-pack, I think.

Appearance: Sweet-tea amber and very cloudy. Small off-white head and just a tiny bit of lacing.

Nose: Dark fruit, sweet malt, spice

Taste: Figs, raisins, caramel, with a sweetness that's somehow both strong and subtle. A pretty powerful spice character, and just a leftover hint of the bitter, piney hops that dominated in the fresh beer. The bitterness lingers a bit in the finish, but in the front of your mouth rather than the back of your throat.

Body/Mouthfeel: Thick, dense, and syrupy. Lingers for a long time. It's warm, but mellow for a beer that's almost 10%.

Thoughts: Holy hell, this aged well. The fresh beer (and one that I had after ~6 months of aging) had a powerfully bitter hop character, syrupy malt sweetness, and whopping alcoholic heat on the back end. All that's been wayyy smoothed out 1.5 years later - what's left is a beer that's still got strong flavor, but is now more mellow and complex. The malt character is now almost quad-like - dark, fruity, layered - though it's still both sweeter and more bitter than most quads. The hops have mostly vanished, leaving behind a spicy kick and a more reasonable bitterness. 

*That's* what an American barleywine should taste like. Splendid.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Review - Bell's The Oracle DIPA

ABV: 10%

Availability: Late summer

Price: Got two 12 oz bottles at Spirits in Northport for (I think) $2.80 each. I believe they had six-packs for $17.

Appearance: Cloudy pale gold. Small white head but pretty significant lacing.

Nose: Pine, citrus, and sweet malt. Surprisingly subdued aroma for a DIPA.

Taste: Very piney and citrusy, with a backbone of sweet caramel malt. Herbal and a touch spicy.

Body/Mouthfeel: Pretty thick and oily-syrupy. The finish is drier than you might expect based on the mouthfeel. Warm and boozy.

Thoughts: The description on Bell's website makes a big deal of this beer being hop-forward and not very malty, but I don't see it. At 10% it's pretty hefty and that shows in the big malt sweetness and boozy finish. It's just hoppy enough and not quite so strong to reach that "barleywine in all but name" territory of, say, Devil Dancer or DFH 120, but it's close. Pretty solid overall, but not what I was expecting. 

[carterdrinksbeer]

Live Review - Birthday Edition! Jester King Black Metal Farmhouse Imperial Stout

Hey team - sorry it's been so long. Starting law school has kept me pretty busy as of late. But I've got some more content coming, starting with a live review for my 24th birthday!

ABV: 9.3%

Availability: BeerAdvocate says year-round; JK website says winter seasonal. I'll assume JK is correct. 

Price: This one was about $17 at Corks and Tops on Bryant in Tuscaloosa

Appearance: Pitch black. Frothy tan head but not much lacing.

Nose: Dark chocolate, earthy notes

Taste: Strong tastes of dark chocolate, coffee, and roasty malt. Mild licorice notes. Lots of earthy/peppery farmhouse yeast flavor at the back end, with a very mild funk to finish up.

Body/Mouthfeel: Thick but not especially so for an imperial stout. Finish is very dry. 

Thoughts: Good-ass shit. "Farmhouse Imperial Stout" is an unusual to be sure - though not surprising if you know Jester King: they ferment everything with their in-house farmhouse yeast. But it works really, really damn well. The earthy/spicy notes really complement the roasty stout flavors. This is a top notch beer - unsurprising from the masters at JK.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Live Review: Avery Twenty One ("Imperial India-Style Brown Ale")

Avery Brewing in Boulder, CO is a leading American craft brewery, one of many in the state. Every year they brew a special Anniversary Edition beer to celebrate the anniversary of their founding in 1993. Twenty One is this year's installment in that series - a "Imperial India-Style Brown Ale" - with "India-Style" presumably meaning "hoppy as shit".

ABV: 8.3%

Availability: One and done (Avery uses that phrasing on its website and I like it). Get it if you can find it.

Price: Got it at Hop City in Birmingham - I believe for about $11.

Appearance: Dark brown with a reddish tint. About a finger of light tan head (dissipates relatively quickly) and moderate lacing.

Nose: Chocolate, dark fruit, citrus

Taste: Chocolate, toffee, and a touch of dark fruit - pretty typical strong brown ale flavors at the front. Skews big time hoppy at the back end - lots of citrus, pine, and some more tropical fruit flavors as well. Avery's website says it's got Amarillo and Simcoe hops in it - both of which have very distinctive flavors - and you can tell. Ends with a touch of bitterness but nothing too strong.

Body/Mouthfeel: Medium body, low carbonation, long lingering finish.

Thoughts: A novel experience! It's essentially like a strong black IPA, but rather than the roasty malt character you get from that style, it's got the toffee/chocolate type of a brown ale. That description is altogether not surprising given their style description, but it's interesting to see what that actually tastes like. And like a black IPA, for me it actually works pretty well. Didn't blow me away, but still an excellent beer.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Beer Blurbs, Weekend of 8/8

Reviewing a beer, while enjoyable, can feel like work sometimes. When I have a beer at a bar or just have a single 12 oz at home, sometimes I'd prefer not to do a full review. When that happens, I'll put my thoughts about the beer in a Beer Blurbs post like this one.

Spaten Oktoberfest

A real disappointment, unfortunately. I was really looking forward to a legit German Marzen, but I didn't take note of the fact that this comes in a green bottle. This one, at least, was noticeably skunked, and I couldn't taste a whole lot more than that. Womp womp. I'm sure it's delicious when fresh in Germany. 5.9% ABV.

Sierra Nevada Flipside Red IPA

Tasty! Lots of piney and citrusy hop flavor, with a very noticeable biscuity malt backbone to earn that 'red' label. The bitterness at the back end is pretty strong, but it works well in this beer. A very solid hoppy fall seasonal - kind of like a milder version of Celebration. 6.2% ABV.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Image via suburbanwino.com

Ode to a Style: Marzen/Oktoberfest

Fall is nearing folks, which means (FOOTBALLFOOTBALLFOOTBALL) breweries are naturally releasing their next round of seasonals (. . . even though it won't actually be fall for over a month). And one style you'll see from pretty much every brewery release is an Oktoberfest beer - more properly known as a Marzen. (Technically the "a" should have an umlaut on it, but I'm too lazy to look up how to make that happen.)There are plenty of places where you can read about the history and culture behind the style, so I'm just gonna talk about why I think Marzens are awesome. 

To my mind, they're the ultimate fall beers. The spicy, toasty, nutty flavors and relatively light body/low alcohol make them a great match for the indeterminate weather of fall - easy drinking enough for a hot day, but warming on a cold one. They're easy to find, they're hard to fuck up, and they're just plain fun to drink.

It is true that you don't see a lot of really exemplary ones - you won't find any Marzens on the BeerAdvocate Top 250 list - but in my experience only a very small percentage are actively bad. It's one of the styles I first embraced as a beer lover, and while I devote a lot of my drinking these days to hop bombs and barrel-aged stouts and other extreme or exotic beers, I will never, ever turn down a delicious Oktoberfest. The masses might be chugging their adjunct lagers, but when I watch football on a gorgeous fall Saturday or Sunday, there's nothing I love more than one of these beauties.

For good examples of the style: well, like I said, everyone and their mother makes one. They are a *bit* less common among small brewers because they are lagers and a lot of small breweries don't have the infrastructure for lagering. Pick up a local one if you can find it. If not, Sam Adams is a solid option, as is Brooklyn, or Left Hand (I've also got a review coming for Spaten's, so check that out). For something more intense, Avery makes a fantastic beer called The Kaiser, which is an imperial version of the style and one of the best lagers I've ever had.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Live Review: Founders Double Trouble (Imperial IPA)

ABV: 9.4%

Availability: Summer Seasonal

Price: Picked up as a single 12 oz at Spirits in Tuscaloosa. I think it was $1.99.

Appearance: A really surprisingly light gold color, with a thin white head and not much lacing

Nose: tropical fruits, pineapple, lemon

Taste: A little bit of light toasted malt under a big wave of hop flavor - I'm actually tasting a lot of lemon, but there's also grapefruit, orange, and pine. Grassy, floral, earthy notes as well. Some lingering bitterness on the back end but nothing too strong.

Body/Mouthfeel: Light-medium overall (though very light for a DIPA), low carbonation. Slightly sticky finish.

Thoughts: A really surprisingly light and refreshing DIPA. Certainly does *not* taste its 9.4% - no alcohol warmth at all. The stickiness weighs it down a bit at the back end, but it's still unusually light - both color and body-wise - for the style. I've had plenty of better DIPAs, but this is one is different in a really good way.

[carterdrinksbeer]

Live Review: Straight to Ale I.S.S (International Space Saison)

ABV: 8.25%

Availability: Once, I think? Not really sure. I know other barrel-aged versions are on the way.

Price: In the $9 range, I think, at Hop City

Appearance: Cloudy amber, not much head or lacing to speak of

Nose: sweet rum, spice, fruit

Taste: The rum flavor dominates, in a very pleasant way. Caramel, apples, apricots, and a bit of candy-like sweetness. It's spicy and warming. Finishes boozy and satisfying. Yum. 

Body/Mouthfeel: Medium thickness, smooth and sticky. Definite alcohol warmth. 

Thoughts: An unusual beer, for sure. I think this is only the second rum-aged beer I've had, and the first was Saint Arnold Bishop's Barrel 6, a rum-barrel version of Pumpkinator, their imperial pumpkin stout. So this is a considerably lighter base beer, so the rum comes through wayyyyyy more. And it works! It really does. There's a great fruity/caramel-y sweetness going on through the whole thing. You can't really tell that it's a saison - there's a bit of that spicy character, but not a lot. Still, good stuff.