Beer Sampling - Maduro Brown Ale

I'm over-the-top with the posts and consumption lately, but it's been a stay-at-home weekend with the wifey sick and the hubby looking for saucy fun in the form of good beers.

This is Cigar City's Maduro Brown Ale.


Poured from a can in to a pint.

A - solid brown in the middle, lighter brown towards the top and bottom of the pint (b/c of light and reflecting light); 1/4 inch head; nice yet dissipating lacing

S - cocoa; oaty; milky; really nutty; some subtle caramel of toffee

T - roasted malt up front; milk chocolate; cocoa up front and on the back; the roasted maltiness shines through; there's some subtly sweet oatmeal here; some mild and subtle hop aroma

M - this beer is creamy and pleasantly carbonated; mild body despite a full flavor; well-balanced; hardly any notion of alcohol; nutty smoothness

O - technically not sessionable at 5.5, this is still the kind of brown ale you could drink all night; there profile is solid...slightly sweet, delicious on the front end and the back, lots of roasted nutty goodness. Great brown ale offering up there with Avery's Ellies for any everyday beer.

Serving type: can

Some extra froth due to frosty mug...Maduro Brown Ale from Cigar City

Beer Sampling - Plymouth Rock Pumpkin Ale

Purchased at Bubble's which is across the street from Rockyard Brewing, the creator of this seasonal bomber. Here are the notes:


Poured into tulip-pint

A - reddish amber; virtually no head; no lacing; very little carbonation

S - caramel; toffee; boozy-ish from the malt I think; spicy

T - sweet bread; moderate pumpkin but heavy on the nutmeg; again, spicy; hints of molasses; some candy corn maybe; cinnamon in there as well

M - it's a little bitey; the molasses hits the back of the tongue adn stays; the spices hit there too; pretty easy to drink given all the spice activity here

O - this was purchased across the street from the brewery; that said, the bomber was $5...pretty solid for that price; I'm a big pumpkin fan in general, so this review is slightly weighted...however, this is towards the bottom third of pumpkin beers I've tried; nothing blew me away here...but a good value beer for sure.

Serving type: bottle

Plymouth Rock Pumpkin Ale - Rockyard Brewing Co.

Beer Sampling - Russian River Pliny the Elder

Russian River Pliny the Elder - 8%abv; bottled on 8/14/12...YES, I realize this probably should have been enjoyed sooner; "hoppy beers are not meant to be aged", yadda x3; I hadn't encountered a Pliny until some time in August having kept my eyes open (albeit somewhat passively) for a couple of years, and then I encountered and bought 3 within a 5 week period; I was trying to save this last one as long as I felt I should, and realized it's now 2.5 months from the bottled date.

Pliny has a reputation that precedes itself, ranked regularly as one of the finest doubles; appearance is deep golden; there are some serious bubbles cranking in this, looking very effervescent; the head is massive and frothy; the lacing is sticky and staunch...after a sip the glass is barely visible from the other side.

The aromas make your mouth water; bitter citrus and grapefruit; heavy on the dank pine smell too.

The beer tastes like you think an IPA should: aggressively hop forward, slightly bitter but not overwhelmingly so; the hoppy flavors are not try, yet the beer keeps you grasping for more; there's a sweet-soapy taste on the backend and I fear it has something to do with me saving it, but feel I can remember this flavor from previous encounters; there is a tantalizing bread feel here too.

It's a smooth mouthfeel, a little cloying and just the right amount of carbonation; it goes down really smooth but leaves some sticky froth in the throat.

Obviously this is a top shelf beer and worth getting your hands on anytime...it's (usually) cheap too...only $6 for a 510ml. Russian River does a really good job with supply in that the manage to keep the demand heavy, maybe unnecessarily so but I don't work RR QC. That said, I've had better/comparable DIPAs that didn't evade me for years. If they made just a bit more of this and retained the quality, it just might be the best beer around for the money. As it stands, it compares well with DFH90, Firestone Walker Double Jack, and ODells Myrcenary.

The highly regarded Pliny the Elder

Beer Advocate Profile

I went out and made one...finally...and moved some 50-odd reviews from the blog over to there.

My profile is here.

I also went out and organized a Facebook group as I attempt to encourage a loose collection of friends and family to get together on a regular basis for a bottle share. The group is called the Front Range Bottle Share and the Facebook page is here. We'll see if I can grease the wheels on the idea and start getting folks together to share, explore, and enjoy.

I'm also going to start to at least TRY and use the typically utilized criteria for beer reviews:

Appearance
Smell
Taste
Mouthfeel
Overall

Does the ASTMO acronym seem a little odd to anyone else?

You can learn more about these designations from the Beer Advocate website and/or below:

What to look for 
There are five categories to evaluating a beer with your review: 

Appearance - Note the beer's color, carbonation, head and its retention. Is it clear or cloudy? Does it look lackluster and dull or alive and inviting? 

Smell - Bring the beer to your nose. Note the beer's aromatic qualities. Malts: sweet, roasty, smoky, toasty, chocolaty, nutty, caramelly, biscuity? Hops: dank / resiny, herbal, perfumy, spicy, leafy, grassy, floral, piney, citrusy? Yeast will also create aromas. You might get fruity or flowery aromas (esters) from ales and very clean aromas from lagers, which will allow the malt and hop subtleties to pull through. 

Taste - Take a deep sip of the beer. Note any flavors, or interpretations of flavors, that you might discover. The descriptions will be similar to what you smell. Is the beer built-well? Is there a balance between the ingredients? Was the beer brewed with a specific dominance of character in mind? How does it fit the style? 

Mouthfeel - Take another sip and let it wander. Note how the beer feels on the palate and its body. Light, heavy, chewy, thin / watery, smooth or coarse? Was the beer flat, over-carbonated? 

Overall - Your overall impression of the beer. 

Beer Sampling - Cigar City Jai Alai IPA

Cigar City Jai Alai 

I continued my exploration of recently received Cigar City brews with the cranking open of my Jai Alai IPA in a can. Here are my notes, with the beer poured from aforementioned can in to the above-viewable and always favorite snifterpint:

Crisp looking and deep gold/amber with some sediment present; exceptional foam, nearly a full inch; heavy lacing as well; smell-wise, this beer is really floral; smells like tangerines and oranges; Jai Alai has a pretty subdued taste given the heavy hints of hop and citrus on the nose; I'm getting notes of hops, bitter orange and tropical fruit, and some kind of cream; there is depth here, but I can't pinpoint what the layers are; it's crisp, creamy, and makes my glands salivate when I drink it; there's a solid malt-hop balance in the mouth; the bitter hops linger long on the tongue; overall, this is a solid IPA...plenty of punch packed without tasting too boozy. Great can of beer that I liken to Ska's Modus Hoperandi...with a little less bitter-hop up front and a lot more creaminess. 

Here are reviews on this beer from Beer Advocate.

Beer Sampling - Founders Breakfast Stout

We'll keep this one short and simple, because I really shouldn't be focused on a beer post at 7:20AM.

Founders Breakfast Stout - 8.3%abv; "double chocolate coffee oatmeal stout"; black as night; brown foamy 1/4 inch head; sticky lacing; full of coffee aromas on the nose, dark chocolate too; lots of roasted malt present; pleasantly hopped at 60IBUs; tastes like sweet cold coffee with the perfect amount of alcohol; slightly oatmeal-y; the sticky continues as the black gold drags from my mustache; slightly bitter on the back end just like you'd expect from a coffee stout; enjoyed on International Stout Day...jackpot!

Founders Breakfast Stout - one of the best stouts made EVER

From the Founders Brewing site:

Breakfast Stout

On Tap!

 

The coffee lover’s consummate beer. Brewed with an abundance of flaked oats, bitter and imported chocolates, and Sumatra and Kona coffee, this stout has an intense fresh-roasted java nose topped with a frothy, cinnamon-colored head that goes forever.

ABV: 8.3%

IBUs: 60

Availability: Sep - Feb

Beer Sampling - Cigar City Tocobaga Red Ale

I've been hyper-actively engaged with various beer purchases from LetsPour.com of late. I need to stop, seriously. Because like any good shopper, there is only an end to the madness when you run out of resources. But I haven't seen Cigar City anywhere since I tried them at GABF last year...and they make some really good beer. Of note: if you're curious about online beer shopping, check out LetsPour...and if you're interested in Cigar City specifically and want to explore beyond LetsPour, check out LuekenLiquors.com. Keep in mind that some states do not allow beer sales/delivery to private individuals (read: residences) without a specific license to do so. Thankfully, Colorado is NOT one of those totally up-tight states. Given the passage of Prop 64 on Tuesday, Colorado is about as NOT up-tight as Amsterdam.

Anyway, I've executed three orders of various Cigar City beers through LetsPour in the past two weeks. I've also placed an order for a friend as a favor. My last order that included today's beer was a little jumbled: I was suppose to get a CG Jai Alai white oak, but the packagers replaced that desirable beer with a third Tocobaga. After consulting with customer service, I was refunded $5 and given a $5 coupon towards a future purchase. Not bad, but I'm left without knowing what Jai Alai white oak tastes like! Lueken's sells it though, so I may give them a shot with an order soon.

To the beer!

Cigar City Tocobaga Red Ale - 7.2%abv; the beer is deep amber, almost a reddish copper in color; there's a small head with consistent lacing present; it smells crisp with clear hints of hops up front; subtly grapefruit-y and citrus-y; very well-balanced 'red'; pleasant hop flavor w/o being too overwhelming; some additional notes of sweet fruit, like a pineapple or kiwi...muted, but present; very smooth and almost a silky mouthfeel; a little dry bite on the backend coming from the red ale side of this beer; overall, very quality and completely sessionable. Look for more Cigar City reviews to come!

Cigar City Tocobaga Red Ale

From the CG site:


ABV: 7.2% IBU: 75 OG: 18 SRM: 12
Available year round
(Florida only) 

The Tocobaga lived off the bounty of Tampa Bay hundreds of years before the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500’s. They were potters, tool makers and the only Florida natives to grow maize. The large platform mounds they built are still with us today, with one of the largest found near Old Tampa Bay in Safety Harbor, Florida.
Climb to the top, and with a little imagination, you can see Tampa Bay as they did.

Tasting Notes
Pours amber in color with notes of citrus and caramel. Citrus hop bitterness upfront with notes of caramel and an Amish bread sweetness. Citrus hop bitterness returns at the end for a long dry finish.

Beer Sampling - Short's Brewing Co.'s Black Cherry Porter

Among the myriad of MI-area beers I brought back, Short's Brewing Co.'s Black Cherry Porter was included. Based on what I've seen on the shelves, their bottled beers are varied and vast. I've tried their Soft Parade (fruit infused rye ale) and their Huma Lupa Licious (IPA). I was really tempted to pick-up, if only for novelty's sake, their Bloody Beer, a "light bodied beer fermented with Roma tomatoes and spiced with dill, horseradish, peppercorns, and celery seed." YUM. Who wouldn't want one of those on a Sunday morning?!

Anyway, I dragged back a six-pack of the Black Cherry Porter and shared four with my brother and father-in-law. There's no description on their website for the beer, so you'll have to trust me and rely on mine if you're interested in its flavor profile. Here we go!

Short's Black Cherry Porter

Short's Brewing Co. Black Cherry Porter - 7.0%abv; brewed with black cherry puree; color-wise, this beer is dark, almost oil-like; there are some very slight red tinges in the head, which is a bit frothy and sits at about a quarter inch; the lacing is substantial and stays on the glass well after a sip subsides; the nose is very dark roasted, almost bitter; there is a very light sweetness in the aroma; that said, there really isn't any cherry flavor here; it's pretty bitter on the tongue, almost coffee roasted; again, some very light sweetness in flavor but the cherry is non-distinguished; interesting taste for sure and heavy like a porter!