Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale 2010

Is it weird that lagers are best in warm weather (they're cold brewed) and ales are best in cold weather (and they're warm brewed)?

Maybe a little weird?

OK, not really weird at all. But, funny.

It is funny.

Weird, funny, or otherwise, the winter seasonals are among us -it's time to start drinking! (And reviewing!)

To start, I thought I'd get the Brew Review Georgia holiday season rolling with a tried and true classic: Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale.


First, I've got to say that this beer should be brewed year-round. It's basically a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale with a ramped up profile and a less aggressive hops flavor. There are no spices and no flavoring agents.  The piny hops taste is huge and round and as the flavor dissipates it turns into a dry, roasted malty tingle  (If that sounds strange, I swear it isn't. Just big and bold, without being aggressive or over-the-top). The alcohol percentage is a high 6.8%, but you'd never know it from the taste.

It pours a beautiful amber color with a lot of frothy head. It's also dry hopped, so the smell is intense.

All this talk of gigantic flavors and smells could lead one to think that Celebration Ale isn't drinkable, but that's definitely not the case.  In fact, it's extremely drinkable: the six pack I bought was gone before I realized it. Whoops! I guess I'll just have to buy more!

Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale is truly a one-off worthy beer that's also sessionable. I give it a 5/5.  So, go celebrate! And drink up!

(And come back next week to see more seasonal reviews!)

Blonde or Brown?

Do you like blondes or brunettes?

Me? I consider myself a brunette kinda guy, but my two favorite ladies, my girlfriend Erin and Scarlett Johansson, are both blonde. So I guess that makes me a blonde kinda guy.

But really, hair is hair. Who cares? Not me. One thing I do care about, though, is blonde and brown ale. Not hair, ALE.  These two different styles of beer are very different, with lots of adherents on either side.

Personally, I like them both, but I like brown ales a good bit more. I like the warm, rich, malty taste of a brown ale as opposed the smooth, clean, simple taste of a blonde.

Either way, I've picked out two examples of both to review for your drinking pleasure.  You can thank me later.

First up: Atlanta Brewing Company's Red Brick Blonde Ale.



ABC's Blonde Ale won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival back in 2007 in the Golden/Blonde Ale category. Pretty cool, huh? The AJC wrote a story about it, here, if you're interested.

The gold medal tells you that this beer is a perfect example of what a blonde ale should be. Only thing is, blonde ales are pretty simple. Here are the GABF's guidelines for a blonde/golden ale:

"Golden or blonde ales are straw to golden blonde in color. They have a crisp, dry palate, light to medium body and light malt sweetness. Low to medium hop floral aroma may be present but does not dominate. Bitterness is low to medium."

Sounds good, sure, but not good good. Not make you want to go out and buy a 6-pack good. Actually, to me, that sounds like the description of most big-box domestics from Bud, Miller, and Coors.

ABC's Blonde Ale isn't from Bud, Miller, or Coors, though, so you've got to give it points for that.  As far as taste goes, it's exactly what the GABF says it should be. Nothing more, nothing less (though I did get a slight plastic taste in the aftertaste).

In my notes, I wrote "totally inoffensive" and "good beer for a non-drinker who wants to support craft beer".

So there. 

I'm giving Atlanta Brewing Company's Red Brick Blonde Ale a 3/5. It's simple, but it's perfect for a session beer or for drinking with a burger or a pizza.

Next up, let's try Sierra Nevada's Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale. 

Sierra Nevada makes the world's best Pale Ale, pretty much everybody agrees. 

Their Brown Ale isn't as good.

When I think brown ale, I think of Newcastle.  Smooth, sweet, light, but still robust, all of those great things that Newcastle is.  Tumbler isn't NOT those things. It's just at once too much and not enough.

The too much part refers to a smokey, roasted malt flavor that appears out of nowhere at the end of a drink.  To me, it tastes funny.  And it doesn't fit. 

The not enough part refers to the blandness of the standard brown ale flavors.  The leafy, earthy flavors are present, but they're peripheral and not pronounced. That's why it's so strange that the big smokey, coal-fired flavor pops up so aggressively at the end. Other flavors are present, such as roasted malt, and chocolate, but they don't fill out the beer.

It's not a graceful beer. And that's exactly what a brown ale should be: graceful. And delicious. Graceful and delicious.

Normally, I'd prefer a brown ale to a blonde any day. But this time, I'll take the blonde. I'm noticing a pattern...

Anyway, it's a 2/5 for Sierra Nevada's Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale.

Fall time = pumpkin beer time!

I love fall.

Always have.

My love probably started back when I was a kid: jumping in piles of leaves, trick-or-treating, and gearing up for the holidays is all pretty great stuff that happens exclusively between September and November.

I still love fall, too, even though I don't jump into too many piles of leaves or trick-or-treat anymore. 

My love lives on now because of my fondness for... you guessed it! Pumpkin beer!

Tons of different breweries make pumpkin beers and, honestly, I've never had a bad one.  A few have stood out to me, though.

This year, the best pumpkin beer I've had was Terrapin's Pumpkin Ale.  Apparently most of the Southeast agreed with me: I wrote John Cochran, Founder and President of Terrapin, to find 6-packs in the Chattanooga area and he said they were sold out already!

TOTALLY sold out! Not just in GA/TN! 

He comforted me though: they'll brew more next year!

Terrapin's version of the pumpkin ale was my favorite because it was so balanced. It was good beer first and good pumpkin beer second.  The pumpkin flavor was infused 100% with the other standard ale flavors, something some flavored beers miss (I'm looking at you Sweetwater Blue!).

But, since I literally am not physically able to get any bottles to review, I'll write about some other solid examples of pumpkin-flavored brews:  Brooklyn Brewery's Post Road Pumpkin Ale and Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale.

First off, let's look at Brooklyn's Post Road:

This is a fall-time classic. Pretty much any store that's not a gas station or a Wal-mart stocks Post Road from September-November.

As they should.

Post Road Pumpkin Ale tastes great, smells great, and drinks easy.  All at once it's a great craft beer and a great session beer.

It starts out bright, fresh, and super crisp. It's floral, biscuity, and spicy right on the front of the tongue and it finishes just as strongly (but not TOO strongly).  Cloves and pumpkin are the most obvious flavors, but cinnamon is there, too, backing up the others.  The smell of the spices really ratchets up the taste, too, as does the dry, clean mouth feel.

As far as comparisons go, I found it similar to a Sam Adams Boston Ale.  Minus the pumpkin part, of course.  In my notes, I also wrote that it brings to mind a lighter IPA type taste.  That's probably a comment on the floral characteristics more than the overall taste, though.

All things considered, this is a classic, standard-bearer pumpkin ale.  I give Post Road Pumpkin Ale a 5/5.

OK, next let's tackle (pun originally unintended) Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale!

I love Dogfish Head. Founder Sam Calagione makes awesome beers. He's even got his own beer show on the Discovery Channel! (It's called Brew Masters and it's on Sunday nights at 10:00.)

They make a great spring seasonal (Aprihop) and a interesting (if not tasty) throwback beer (throw WAY back... like 3,000 years back!) called Midas Touch (it's brewed from a 2,700 year old recipe found in King Midas' tomb).  Their Pale Ales are genre-definers, too.

Anyway, Dogfish Head's version of the pumpkin ale is bigger and heartier than Brooklyn's Post Road.  It packs a 7% ABV percentage and has a much more robust, malty flavor. I get a grittier, earthy taste, too, with a rounder, less direct taste profile.

If you tend to like Brown Ales and maltier beers, then you'll probably love this one.  Me, I like brown ales a lot, so naturally, I liked this beer a lot.

It doesn't quite measure up to the Post Road in a few areas, though: it isn't as pumpkiny (is that a word? Spellcheck doesn't think so. Alas.) as the Post Road, which detracts points. The aftertaste is also a little lackluster -it kind of sags, without hanging around for very long. These are minor gripes, though.

Ultimately, Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale is a delicious take on the pumpkin ale. It does fall short of Brooklyn's Post Road Pumpkin Ale, but that's not to say it isn't great. It's just different. I give it a 4/5.

Yuengling's Lord Chesterfield Ale

Back in August, at the 16th Annual Southern Brewer's Festival in Chattanooga, TN, I battled the heat, the crowd, and the excessive pretzel necklaces in order to try some of the country's best beers. Normally, I try a few too many and end up forgetting all the different beers I tried. This time, though, in the interest of beer journalism (and the desire to avoid heat stroke), I kept it to a more reasonable four.

One of those beers came from a familiar name: Yuengling.  But the beer, Lord Chesterfield Ale, was less familiar. In fact, I'd never heard of it (turns out they have Lord Chesterfield Societies up north... no kidding.)

Anyway, the beer was great. It was my favorite of the festival.  I hadn't really thought much more about it until I came across a six-pack in a convienence store today. Surprised, I ponied up the $7.00 and bought some. Again, in the interest of beer journalism -I've got to keep you guys informed!


Right!?

Right.

Ok, first, the luster that Lord Chesterfield had at the festival has faded.  The draft beer at the festival had a bold, round flavor, whereas this bottle was flatter and more one-diminsional.

Out of the bottle, it smells Dutch (think Grolsch or Heineken).  Where those beers are bold and bright, Lord Chesterfield leaves a flat initial taste with a mild, dry carbonated sourness through the middle.  It finishes clean and dry with some notes of bitter grain. 

Let's personify the taste: Lord Chesterfield (he was a real guy -a British diplomat back in the 18th century, apparently) takes a carriage ride to the Netherlands to introduce a new plan to defeat the French or the Spanish or whomever. While there, he drinks a Grolsch, thinks 'I'd like a Pale Ale from back home', and takes an Alka-Seltzer (he had a headache?).

They didn't make Alka-Seltzer back then?


Well, IF THEY DID, then that's what Lord Chesterfield Ale would taste like.

I don't want to sound too negative though, I do think it would make a great session-drinker.  It's light, crisp flavor keeps you coming back for more and doesn't bludgeon your taste buds with complexity.  All things considered, I enjoyed my bottle of Lord Chesterfield Ale, but it was nothing special and it certainly didn't live up to the keg from the festival.

I give Yuengling's bottled Lord Chesterfield Ale a 2.5 out of 5 and the draft version a 4/5.

Brew News: Terrapin Hop Shortage Ale

Hey pub-crawlers, great news. Terrapin's first Side Project beer, Hop Shortage Ale, is on the shelves of a few select package stores. The Hop Shortage Ale is a kind of middle finger to the worldwide hop shortage, with a healthy heaping of hops in every bottle.

Spike (Terrapin's brewmaster) only brewed one batch (I saw it in the fermenter when I took the tour, too! I watched my beer ferment...neat, huh?). This beer is also the first bottled Terrapin to come out of the new brewery in Athens. And actually, unless I'm mistaken, it's the first beer to be sold publicly, bottled or otherwise, ever brewed in Athens by Terrapin.

I bought two for myself (they're $7.00 for a 1 pint, 6 ounce bottle) and loved every single drop. It's a lot like the Rye Pale Ale, with a little more hop taste through the beer.

Sherlock's in Kennesaw had it as of April 4th and Total Wine in Kennesaw didn't on April 4th.

Brew Review: Great Divide St. Bridget's Porter

Hey gang, how's things?

I'm doing great, thanks in part to the wonderful beer I'm reviewing today: Great Divide Brewery's St. Bridget's Porter. Porters aren't exactly popular beers...a lot of brewers don't brew them (for some reason), but I thank Great Divide for brewing this one. Porters have a bad reputation among some beer drinkers, I think, in part because they tend to be pretty heavy in the flavor and alcohol department. That's a valid gripe, but not for St. Bridget's.

Sure, it's thick and it's heavy, but in the best possible way. This beer is like a Cacao Reserve chocolate bar...silky, smooth, thick, slightly bitter...just plain good, really. The pour produces an abundance of frothy head that contrasts beautifully with the dark black of the beer. It smells like metallic chocolate and carbonation. The taste is also fairly carbonated (to help get you over the slight bitterness, I'm guessing) with a deep, rich, super-dry chocolate taste. Notes of coffee and fruit (which one, I'm not sure) round it out. If ever a good cold weather beer was brewed, this is it. It's warm and rich and the taste hangs around for a good hour after you're done.

I'm giving Great Divide's St. Bridget's Porter a 5/5. It's a great beer in a genre of brewing that is sometimes underappreciated.

Great Divide is another Colorado Brewery that surprised me, though I've always been intrigued by them. They brew a beer called Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout that I've been eying for years now. If St. Bridget's Porter is any indication, their other brews are worth checking out.

Brew Review: Left Hand Sawtooth Ale

Alright guys, sorry about that last beer. My first negative review...it hurts, but it's true. Anyway, I'm moving on with my life. If it doesn't kill you it only makes you stronger, right?

All kidding aside, though, this week I'm reviewing Left Hand Brewing Company's Sawtooth Ale. This is Left Hand's flagship beer, but even so, it's my first time trying one (I love their Milk Stout, for the record).

Left Hand is based out of Longmont, Colorado (I'm usually a little guarded toward Colorado brewers. I'm not sure why, but I think I perceive them as perceiving themselves to be more "cool" or "hip" than they should). I mean, yea, they're cool...they make beer for a living. But they seem to flaunt it with crazy labels, weird names, and undrinkable weirdness.

Regardless of my feelings towards Colorado based breweries, I love this beer. Sawtooth is a good old standard ale. Nothing crazy here, just malts and hops, and balanced quite well, I'd add. It pours a hazy light copper color with a good amount of head. It smells like it has more punch than it actually does...kind of like an IPA. The taste, though, is classic ale -perfectly balanced with a slight lean toward the malty side, a nice wet mouthfeel, and awesome drinkability. Left Hand's website claims Sawtooth is a great session beer (meaning it's good for drinking more than a few of). I totally agree. I'd put this up there with Bass as far as smooth, crisp, all around balanced beer goes. I actually finished it a lot quicker than I had planned, if that means anything (I think it testifies to its greatness).

I'm giving Left Hand Brewing's Sawtooth Ale a 4.5/5. This is a great, balanced beer and is a perfect representation of what a good ale should be. It's not a 5/5 simply because I reserve 5/5's for more daring beers.

If you like the Sawtooth Ale you'll probably dig Bass, Terrapin's Rye Pale Ale, and or Atlanta Brewing Company's Red Brick Ale.

And again, be sure to check out Left Hand's website. It's really cool and has some of the neatest graphics I've ever seen.