Bottle Conditioned

Hops hops hops. That describes this beer, and rightly so. The same brewers of the famous Ruination IPA and Arrogant Bastard have done it again this year with their 11th Anniversary ale. Self-titled as a “Black IPA” (or, IBA), this beer has a sweet nose loaded with citrusy, grapefruit hops that reek of West Coast. The beer sits in a snifter with a thin white head and a dark brown body. The nice medium thick mouthfeel supports a huge load of the same hops that are on the nose, with a sweet carriage underneath to pull the hops through the mouth. Starting slightly candylike on the front, the hop character fades to a heavy and widespread bitterness across the back of the mouth, lingering into a long bitter finish. Some faded dark fruit notes are present as well, but play second fiddle to the hops. Some resiny characteristics also run through the middle of the beer and tend to show up around mid-glass.

Overall, this is a pretty nice beer. Not terribly complex, but a solid beer that I’d classify as a super hopped up IPA (not quite into IIPA world, to my palate). At 8.7% abv and god-knows-how-many IBUs, this beer is surprisingly drinkable. Refreshing, in fact. But then, I love hops, so to others it could be off putting.

Generally, I’d recommend it. It’s not a far departure from their Arrogant Bastard archetype (although, I’ve not had AB in awhile), but still solid. Get yourself a bottle and give it a go.

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Last night, we attended a Sam Adams tasting and voting event here in Nashville.  Pretty cool stuff.  I was all prepped to do some live blogging from the event, but I don’t have my new phone, nor the blog set up for it yet…coming soon tho, live blogging!

Overall, the event was a bunch of fun.  I was duly impressed with the rep from Sam Adams, and his ability to explain beer correctly to the audience.  Too often, people leading beer tastings (many time someone who just works at the distributor) don’t know anything about beer.  This guy knew his stuff.

We were able to sample the Boston Lager, Sam Adams Light, Honey Porter, Octoberfest (sic), and Brown Ale.  The Boston Lager was served to us in the new Sam Adams glass (albeit, only about 1/3 full, so the true wonder of the glass was stifled).  We’ve tried the new glass before, and I’ve got to say - we’re pretty impressed.  Awhile back (about a year ago), we did a tasting comparing the Sam Adams glass with a standard pint glass.  The Sam Adams glass was much better, especially in the aroma department.  We were able to keep the glasses that we used during the event, so it’s nice to have a couple on board now at the house.

The other beers were as expected, and were typical for Sam Adams.  However, the cool part was when we were able to vote on the next seasonal.

Two beers are up for the spot:  an Irish Red and a Dunkelweizen.  I was enamoured with the idea of Sam doing a Dunkelweizen, so I was probably biased toward that particular beer, but nonetheless, we gave both an equal shake.

Both beers looked beautiful.  Aroma on both was fairly weak, with the Dunkel having a slightly better presence in this area with notes of banana, phenols, and light spiciness.  The body on both of the beers was average, with the Dunkel again coming out slightly ahead. 

Taste was where the rubber met the road.  The Irish Red tasted thin with very little malt depth and complexity and that signature Sam Adams bittering profile.  I thought the hop choice was a bit strange.  The Dunkel had a better profile, with the same notes as the nose plus a nice fruity background and a lingering fruity finish.

Overall, the Dunkel was clearly the winner.  That said, however, the Irish Red is currently winning the contest, which is unfortunate.  The group in attendance last night overwhelmingly chose the Dunkel, however, we seem to be at odds with the rest of the country. 

We’ll see which wins.  Natually, I hope the Dunkel does, but whatever.  Still, it’s a pretty cool way to get the consumers involved, and not a bad marketing plan either.  No doubt, there will be quite a bit of this seasonal bought when it finally turns up in stores.

The night was fun.  We met some cool folks, drank some good beer, and had a great time.  I won a Sam Adams hat, while Mollie was able to snag a set of 4 acyrllic pint glasses (not sure why they’re plastic, but they’re good for the pool or something of that sort).  If this contest happens to swing through your city, make sure to check it out.

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I love Clipper City beers. The Hop3 IPA is one of my favorite, if not my favorite, IPAs. Their Saison is strong, perhaps not the best, but very good. So, when I was in Charleston this past week and saw this beer by Clipper City, I had to have it.

So, as I sit here sipping it from a snifter, I thought I’d write a few words about how it tastes…after all, isn’t that the reason this blog is here?

So, on with the notes:

Appearance: The beer pours a nice medium brown color, which is slightly hazy due in part to the large amount of wheat in the grain bill. A swirly wispy head lays quietly across the top, making its light brown presence just slightly known.

Aroma: The aroma is complex. I first noticed that it resembled a Barleywine in some respects, with a lot of dark fruit and some raisin. Not much in the way of alcohol. There is also a nice layer of spice across the background - cinnamon and some nutmeg.

Taste: The thick and slick mouthfeel gives way to a hearty body. Alcohol finally appears in the taste, but in balance. Dark fruit still shows up, but not as heavy as in the nose. A nice layer of bitterness lays across the middle of the tongue, sliding back and letting go fairly quickly on the finish, giving way to a long fruity finish. Some caramel sits sweetly in the middle of the mouth. The wheat in the beer definitely shows up, and to my taste, might be slightly much. It comes across quite spicy and meaty in the middle of the beer and tends to temporarily throw the beer out of balance slightly. Maybe it’s just me.

Overall, it’s a good beer. Not blowing my mind, but good. One thing I’ll say is that it’s certainly a sipping beer. At 10% ABV, that probably goes without saying, but it’s even less quaffable than a Barleywine or Dubbel at a similar strength. The only thing that I find a bit intrusive is the wheat. No doubt, the style is supposed to have the wheat presence, but in this amount, it’s a bit distracting.

Recommended to try, but probably not going to be a mainstay in your cellar.

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I’m sitting on the porch right now enjoying a thunderstorm and an Imperial Stout. Nice night. The Imperial Stout in mention is the Clipper City Peg Leg. I figured, since I’m sitting here with the computer on my lap and a beer in my hand, it makes sense to blog about it.

This is a pretty good impy stout, if a bit light on the body and roast. I tend to like my Imperial Stouts to be big, complex, roasty and with a nice hint of prune or raisin. This is good, just not terribly complex. Off the top, I get a good amount of alcohol. At 8% that’s not terribly surprising, but I have tasted some with higher alc that have it a bit better integrated. There is some chocolate roast, more like a coffee bean type note that simmers along the top of the beer but never really gets terribly interesting. Bitterness is about right in the back of the mouth, spiked by enough roasty astringency to get your attention. Honestly, that’s just about it with this beer, except for a bit or caramel in the taste…not much to my palate tho.

Overall, it’s not bad. Not great, but not bad. I MIGHT buy it again, or order it somewhere, but I can think of others that I’d seek out first.

Now, all that said, I LOVE Clipper City’s beer, especially their Loose Cannon IPA. Between Mollie and I, that could be our favorite IPA. So, give their stuff a try, we highly recommend it.

(Oh, and we can’t get it in TN, so if you’d like to send us a couple hundred cases, that’d be great.)

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Just wanted to post a quick note on this beer, as I had it last night.

I had great hopes for this beer, as I tend to like Belhaven’s Scottish Ale (Bottle, not nitro can), so I figured this would be a nice one to try. Let me start by saying that I really love Scottish and Scotch ales. The smoky dryness combined with nice caramel notes are really nice in a lot of these styles. Unfortunately, this particular example fell slightly short.

This beer poured clear with a nice head. A nice aroma of caramel and light smoky notes (very light) was inviting. Taste-wise, however, the beer didn’t stand up to what I was expecting. The first item I noticed was a pretty thin body - a bit off putting for the style. Alcohol content in the beer was low (6.5%), but technically in style according to the BJCP. There were some nice kettle caramelized tastes with a slight tinge of smoke around the edges, but that was about it.

I drank the beer out of a brandy snifter, hoping for a beer that would have the body and flavor profile to support such glassware. Really though, this beer didn’t benefit much from this particular vessel, and probably would have been ok out of a pint glass - another thing that slightly bothered me.

Overall, this beer was a bit too easy to drink. Don’t get me wrong, I love beers that are easy to drink, but I expected this Wee Heavy to be a bit more of a late night sipper.

If you’ve had it, feel free to comment and let me know what you think!

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