Stone Double Bastard Ale

A beer that I've been itching to review (drink) for quite some time now. Stone Brewing Double Bastard Ale is a brew that comes to the east coast in relatively limited quantities. I just never got around to having a bottle for myself until this one. Of course, this bottle has been sitting in my beer fridge since just before the New Year. Now that we're half0way to snowed in, I figure this is a good time to crack open the Double Bastard Ale, finally.

As soon as I open the cap, I can smell a good bit of booze seeping out the top. I can't say that I'm surprised, with a name like Double Bastard, I would expect it to be a big, boozy version of the Arrogant Bastard. If you haven't seen my reviews of the Arrogant Bastard in the past, I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of Stone's flagship beer. I've always found the Arrogant Bastard to be a bit too rough and unbalanced for me.

The Double Bastard pours a dark, rusty brown color, and very cloudy opaque. Almost no head whatsoever surfaces, except when I pour it vigorously. Even the head that does arise is a very thin film of off-white head, which dissipates quickly. The nose reveals a touch of hops, but is largely overwhelmed by some roasted malts and booze.

On the palate, the Stone Double Bastard is bounding with roasted malts, distinctly rough and earthy sides to the sweetness. There's a good bit of subtle hops on the back of the tongue, but the bitterness is quickly washed away by the booze and malts.

Have you ever had the Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale? Imagine the Arrogant Bastard pumped up with more roasty, sweet malts, and lots and lots of alcohol. For my personal taste, this is exactly what I was hoping the Double Bastard would be. As I've said before, I think the standard Arrogant Bastard isn't quite my style. It's plenty hoppy and plenty malty, but neither the bitter hops nor the sweet malts take the lead. Tonight's beer, the Double Bastard, takes the indecisiveness of the Arrogant Bastard and kicks it in the ass with booze and malts!

The Double Bastard is a bit intense to drink much of, but since the snow isn't getting any lighter, I might as well keep going. I've got a couple more beers in the cooler, but they're going to have to be pretty bold and serious beers to follow this Stone Double Bastard!

Stone Brewing
Double Bastard Ale
TCSH Rating - 8.5/10
Good beer, but nothing incredible.

Eli
Bibo Ergo Sum

HItachino Nest Beer 3 Days

Today I'm going to look at what appears to be the only Japanese brewery that we get in the States that still makes their beer in Japan. I'm talking about none other than Hitachino Nest Beer! (I am now going to refer to them as "Hitachino Nest" only.) Brewing out of Tokyo, I first heard of these guys when I saw a beertuber and friend of mine post a video of his personal tour at the brewery. The video was in Japanese, as expected, and Winton (BeerichiTuba on youtube) wrote all the subtitles himself; it looked like a really nice brewery, and I hope to visit it someday. Anyway, on to the beer.

3 Days has an interesting story behind its birth. If you can read the label in the picture you can get the full story, otherwise you'll have to live with my short summary. So, March, 2011 an earthquake hit Japan, as we know, and the brewery also went down for a while. Due to a power outage the mash tun, with wort in it, sat for three days and developed natural fermentation with in-brewery cultured lactic acid. They say that this beer was limited to 8,000 bottles only. That may sound like a lot, but a case of bombers and non-six-pack beers is 12 bottles, so that is around 666 cases. Moving on...

3 Days pours kind of caramel-like orange brown with a light beige head resting atop the fluid. For those of you who are big on visualization, it looks pretty good but amazing. The aroma is somewhat surprising. The closest style I can come to for this is a "Belgian Strong Ale" (courtesy of www.ratebeer.com) and that is basically a catch-all for higher gravity Belgian beers that are not sours, saisons, or "abbey" styles (dubbel, tripel, quadrupel) and are often hard to distinguish from the abbey styles. The 3 Day smells like salted caramel coupled with some sort of barnyard funkiness. I am not sure how I feel about that; I can't really say I like it a lot, but it is not bad.

The taste is more in line with what I would expect, but there is still a twist. We have big caramel and bready flavors, typical of the Belgian styles barring sours, and the twist comes in with a hint of sour fruit. This sour character must come from the lactic acid and the fruit aspect is also typical of Belgian styles.

3 Days has a thicker body, as expected for the style, and is very smooth but is lacking in that typical Belgian carbonation and finishes with some funk on the back end.

From what I've gathered, this brewery is certainly worth trying if you can find their stuff. Check Florida and Wisconsin and California, I don't know where else. If you can find this beer, pick it up. It is rare.

Kiuchi Brewery
Hitachino Nest Beer 3 Days
TCSH - 7/10
Aka - limited, rare, average

Dallas

Theakston Old Peculier

Hey guys, I'm back after a long, inexplicable hiatus of a month and a half and I have something that is special in its simplicity. Today I bring you Theakston Old Peculier, an import from Masham, England, that used to be readily available in the States many years ago (my father said he used to drink it all the time thirty years ago) and then disappeared for a while and has now made a comeback to the States.

So what do we have? For starters, this import is NOT in a clear or green bottle, which is a relief. "The Legend," as they refer to it (see picture to right), pours a deep red, maybe like a dull ruby, with a large light beige head similar to those slacks we lads used to have to wear to church when we were little kids that were somewhere between white and khaki.

The aroma is, unfortunately, not very impressive. There subtle hints of both malts and hops but nothing is very distinct. I would be disappointed, but from my understanding of British beers the aroma is not something they focus on, so I'm hoping they make up for it in the taste. Onward!

The taste was the the redeeming factor for the Old Peculier. Big caramel, mild burnt coffee, red fruits, and some hints of wheat sweetness. At first it seemed almost like a hodgepodge of disjointed flavors that just would not work together, but as it warmed up a tiny bit and as my palate adjusted to what I was tasting I came to find this rather pleasant. The wheat gave way to subtle, back-end sweetness while the caramel and burnt coffee blended with the vinous character from the red fruits.

Old Peculier is velvety and supple while drinking and has a very subtle dry bitterness on the finish. You can find Theakston Old Peculier at beer stores in the Dallas area (Keg and Barrels is my place) and it should be available in other beer markets around Texas, such as Houston and Austin. Be prepared to pay import prices; $13 for a six-pack, but if you think about the per beer cost it is cheaper than if you were to try to purchase six single bottles (most likely).

Theakston
Old Peculier
TCST - 7.5/10
Aka - Worth trying at least once, even if just for novelty.

Dallas

P.S. - I will likely do at least one pumpkin beer, as it is the season, and I will do an Oktoberfestbier as well. Today is the official start of Oktoberfest in Germany. PROST!

Firestone Walker Double Jack Double IPA

Happy International IPA Day, everybody! This day, August 2nd, is dedicated to the glory and praise of the hops. I used to be a big Hop Head back in the day and I do still enjoy the bitter every now and again. Today I will focus on a gloriously hoppy beer from Firestone Walker.

Firestone Walker is a very popular brewery out of Paso Robles, California, and like a lot of other West Coast breweries (Stone, Sierra Nevada, etc.) they are masterful in their use of hops. When I saw this in Missouri, I just had to have it (since Firestone Walker doesn't make it down to Texas). Shall we dive in?

Double Jack pours clear copper orange with a large, LARGE, white head from the 22 oz bomber. At 9.5% ABV there is no alcohol presence on the nose, and it explodes with citrus and pine and has a hints of light sweeter malt aromas. The taste on the Double Jack is SO BITTER but so amazing. There are lots of tropical fruit flavors and a pleasant sweetness that lingers underneath the bitterness that is reminiscent of caramel.

Double Jack coats the mouth, lingers, and then fades. It is not too thick, but thick enough to handle the bitterness, is very smooth feeling in the mouth and does not have very much carbonation despite the giant head that formed when poured. The finish reminds me of spicy hops, usually from the Czech Republic, and is still quite bitter, but not all that drying. 22 oz and 9.5% ABV, perfect for sharing.

Firestone Walker Brewing
Double Jack Double IPA
TCSH - 10/10
Aka - Near perfect, but as they say "best enjoyed in moderation."

Dallas

Russian River Consecration

As "Sour Beer Week" comes to a close it seems to have turned into "Sour Beer Fortnight." I wanted to close with another great American sour, the highly sought after Consecration by Russian River Brewing out of Santa Rosa, California. This brewery is famous for their "-tion" series of sour and wild ales, and the ever sought after Pliny the Elder (and Pliny the Younger) imperial IPAs. Russian River does something interesting with all their beers that are, as they say, "refermented in the (this) bottle". They cork and cage all of them, even the 12 oz bottles, which this one was.

Consecration is not just a "sour" beer, it is aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels with currants added. Are you noticing a pattern here? Sour ales tend to be aged in oak and often have fruit in the barrels. You won't hear me complaining. I love barrel aged beers.

Anyway, Consecration pours out somewhere on the spectrum between amber and mahogany, which might seem like splitting hairs (or light waves) but it's important, and has hints of orange. The head fizzled away faster than I was able to register in my mind that it was there, leaving a thin ring around the edges of the glass.

Consecration smells sour from start to finish and has some lovely fruit notes and an oaky vinous dimension as well. Consecration is mouth-puckering sour with a pleasant black currant, and other fruit, sweetness that hints of barrel aging. Consecration is on the thicker side of beer with an astringent sort of feel in the mouth, and is definitely fizzy and prickly, but not like a soda. Consecration has a finish that is almost divine, both sweet and sour, calling for another drink and also demanding for the utmost respect.

This now concludes "Sour Beer Week" part 1. I will come back in an undetermined amount of time with another great handful of sours from both Belgium and the States. What should I start reviewing next?

Russian River Brewing
Consecration
TCSH - 10/10
Aka - Get as much as you can, but that could break bank.

Dallas

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

Here I am with my obligatory "sour beer week continues" message.

Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales (yes, that's right "Artisan Ales"; they only brew ales, no lagers) is out of Dexter, Michigan and seems to specialize in sours, based on what I've heard.

This was my first beer from them, and they are not available in Texas. Hopefully this "Artisan Amber Ale" delivers.

La Roja pours brownish red, I guess that's amber, from the 750 mL bottle and has a nice khaki cap for a head. The aroma is sour, mild fruitiness, and has some sweetness from the barrel blended ales that ranged from two to ten months of aging. The taste is a lot of the same, sourness and hints of fruit and a very subtle sweetness. I might not have a lot to say, but that doesn't mean that I haven't saved the best sours for last.

La Roja coats the mouth with a lovely, prickly sourness and has a fair amount of carbonation in the mouth, expected for the style, and has a pleasant sweet and sour finish that really makes you wish the bottle weren't empty.


Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales
La Roja Artisan Amber Ale
TCSH - 9.5/10
Aka - Fantastic American sour, with a cat pirate on the label. Cannot lose.

Dallas

Goose Island Juliet

Today I look at an American sour after doing quite a handful of Belgian sours. This is none other than Goose Island Juliet, one of the Three Sisters (a series of sour beers aged on different fruits). Fermented with Brett, and aged in cabernet barrels on blackberries, Juliet shows a lot of promise, so I hope she does not disappoint me. Hopefully I will get to try the other two.

Juliet pours hazy orange with hints of purple and a super tiny white head. I actually really like the slight purple tinge to the beer, really sells the beer. The smell is straightforward, but amazing: sourness, a nice vinous character from the barrel aging, and some blackberry notes. The taste follows the nose with lots of sour fruitiness and a nice blackberry profile that is both a little sweet and a bit tangy.

Not thick, but not watery, Juliet is refreshing, with a nice sour astringency and a fair amount of mouth-carbonation. Available in 22 oz bottles, I know this one is expensive, but worth it. I would love to try a bottle that has been aged a few years, if anybody can wait that long to drink it.

Goose Island Brewing Company
Juliet
TCSH - 10/10
Aka - Almost worth killing yourself over...

Dallas

Beer Haul

Hey everybody, I'm taking today off from posting a review because of the funeral, but I wanted to share with you some of the exciting beers that we've picked up while on this trip. Keep in mind that these will all be split between my father and me, and a friend or two.

Here it goes!

Amager Hr. Frederiksen (imperial stout)

Leinenkugels Big Eddy Wee Heavy Scotch Ale

Leinenkugels Big Eddy Imperial Stout

Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout

Evil Twin Soft Christmas Aka Pretty Please with a Cherry on Top (imperial stout)

Evil Twin Ashtray Heart (smoked stout)

Evil Twin Christmas Eve at a New York City Apartment (imperial stout)

Dieu du Ciel! Solstice d'hiver (barleywine)

Fantôme Hiver (saison)

Fantôme BBB Dark White (Belgian ale)

Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel (imperial stout)

Hoppin' Frogs B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher (imperial stout)

Hoppin' Frogs D.O.R.I.S. The Destroyer (imperial stout)

The Bruery Tart of Darkness (sour stout)

6-pack Lion Stout

6-pack New Glarus Black Top (black IPA)

Grand Teton Snarling Badger (Berliner weisse)

Schlafly Tripel

Schlafly Quadrupel

Schlafly Grand Cru

Schlafly Reserve Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout

Evil Twin Soft DK (imperial stout)

Evil Twin Freudian Slip (barleywine)

Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast (stout)

Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew (smoked)

Haandbryggeriet Krøkkebic (sour ale)

New Holland Rye Hatter (rye pale ale)

New Holland Black Hatter (black IPA)

New Holland Farmhouse Hatter (farmhouse pale ale)

Weihenstephaner Korbinian (dopplebock)

Jolly Pumpkin Madrugada Obscura (sour stout)

Goose Island Sofie (saison)

4-pack Straffe Hendrik Tripel

4-pack Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel

Boulevard Love Child #2 (sour ale)

Sierra Nevada/Russian River Brux (wild ale)

2012 Stone Russian Imperial Stout

Most of these beers will be reviewed on the site. A few will be aged. I have not had any beer on this list, with the exception of Stone RIS, Goose Island Sofie, and Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel.

Zoetzuur

One more entry for Sour Beer Week, again on the road (this time in Milwaukee, WI. The funeral is Wednesday, that is tomorrow). Today I present to you a "Flemish Ale." I suppose this is somewhere between a red and a brown, of the Flemish variety (of course), and there really isn't much else for me to say. If I remember correctly, this was brewed in collaboration with Michael Jackson's (the beer hunter, not the pop star) Rare Beer Club to celebrate something, I do not remember what, exactly.

Zoetzuur comes in a 750 mL bottle, corked with new cork (which is rubber) and caged. It pours out reddish brown, almost ruby colored, with a large khaki colored head. The aroma is vinous, grapes and hints of actual wine, and has some wild yeast funk to it. Somewhat reminiscent of a Belgian style ale, but is lacking in that particular sour character.

Taste is sour, thankfully, and has some grape and cherry notes to balance along with the funkiness. Zoetzuur is medium bodied, and very smooth with some soft carbonation to allow for a lingering finish that is a little woody, sour, and funky.

At first I did not like it too much, but as I drank it certainly grew on me. And the 7% ABV was quite well hidden.

De Proefbrouwerij
Zoetzuur Flemish Reserve Ale
TCSH - 8/10
Aka - Solid sour, but I'd rather drink others...

Dallas

Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René

Sour Beer Week is still coming to you from St. Louis, MO. Today I look at another gueuze, but first a little bit of background info on the brewer, yeah?

Lindemans is a Belgian brewery that specializes in the various lambic styles: fruit, faro (sugar added), gueuze, and unblended (though I haven't seen a Lindemans unblended lambic). The most common Lindemans lambics are the fruit ones: raspberry, cherry, apple, peach, and black currant (I don't feel like dealing with the Belgian words tonight). Something interesting about the Lindemans line is this: 1) all their bottles, the 12 oz and the 750 mL, are green glass and they put a small cork in them, underneath their slightly larger than normal cap.

Cuvée René pours clear, very bubbly, orange with a large white head. Often times people at first think this beer is skunked once it is opened (the term "skunked" refers to a beer being "light struck" due to being in clear or green bottles, where the UV rays from sunlight react negatively to chemical compounds in the hops, becoming almost the exact same chemical a skunk sprays), but it is not skunked. There is a bit of funk on the nose, but it is predominantly sour with hints of sour citrus notes.

The first taste is rather tart, verging on mouth puckering, but if your mouth can get used to it, fruity and yeasty flavors are also present. My father, who loves Duchesse (which isn't that sour), thought this was way too sour, and I thought it was almost too sour. If you like a really sharp sourness, then you should pour the yeast into your glass (otherwise, leave it out).

Cuvée René is light-to-medium as far as the body is concerned, and has some decent carbonation, while being astringent. This beer remains sour throughout, but that isn't a bad thing. This beer can age, so try cellaring a bottle, let me know what you think.

Brouwerij Lindemans
Gueuze Cuvée René
TCSH - 8/10
Aka - A tiny bit better than the Timmermans Oude Gueuze, but not much.

Dallas

Petrus Aged Pale

Today on "Sour Beer Week" I look at what is described as "an undiluted old beer, only to be exported to the US." Doesn't that make us feel special? This is not considered a Flemish Red or Oud Bruin, and it is not a gueuze, so let's just see how it is, shall we?

Petrus Aged Pale pours clear golden from the 11.2 oz bottle and has a substantial, fluffy white head. The aroma is sour with some subtle hops and hints of fruit. The taste is quite sour, but there is a touch of vanilla and sweetness underneath it all to redeem the beer, if you don't like sours.

Aged Pale is rather watery in the mouth but is also quite fizzy, so I guess it is something akin to soda. The finish on the Petrus Aged Pale is sour, without a doubt, but also fades to what is almost sweet.

Sadly, I do not remember the cost, but Petrus is a fairly common brand out of Belgium. If you can't find it, I will be surprised.

Bavik-De Brabandere

Petrus Aged Pale

TCSH - 8.5/10

Aka - Sour and sweet, worth a try

Dallas

Timmermans Oude Gueuze

As sour week continues, and it will continue until I decide it is done, I figured I should look at a gueuze, and give a little bit of info and insight into the style for you all.

Gueuzes are native to Belgium, and are a blend of young and old lambics, in which the yeast is revived and the beer is naturally carbonated. The dominant character of a gueuze is sour, but are intended to be quite complex. Due to fermentation with wild yeasts and bacteria, some flavors are unexpected and the overall outcome is unpredictable. Unlike most beers, old hops are used in gueuzes and are intended only to function as a preservative (which hops do, if you didn't know) and are not for flavor. The blending of young and old is meant to take some edge off and round out flavors. So, now we dive right into the gueuze.

I stumbled upon this beer at one of my local beer stores, since I can't always shop at Eli's shop, and it was the only bottle I saw. So I had no choice but to pick it up. To my surprise, this beer was bottled on 16/12/2010 (that is 12/16/2010 for those of us who don't do the European dating system). That is old, especially for a beer I had never seen before. Coming in at 5.5% ABV I wouldn't have expected it to have sat around that long (I'll talk more on aging beers at a later date). Standard 750 mL, corked and caged bottle.

Oude Gueuze, which I think is a fairly common name for such beers, pours out translucent golden with a rather small, super fizzy white head that vanished quickly (that astringency thing again). The aroma is pretty much sour, but if one smells hard enough there are some yellow fruit aromas that linger beneath, mostly lemon. Taste is seemingly one dimensional, sour, but a few more sips in to get acclimated to the sourness there are some other, very subtle notes of funk, but sadly this is not very complex. But it is solid on the lemon and sourness.

Timmermans
Oude Gueuze
TCSH - 7.5/10
Aka - Good, but there are better.

Dallas

New Glarus Raspberry Tart

Here is another shining star from New Glarus Brewing. The concept is the same as the Wisconsin Belgian Red, but this time they use Oregon berries instead of Door County cherries. With no other background info, on to the beer.

Raspberry Tart pours rather brownish red with a small fizzy head that is less pink than the other. The aroma is, rather obviously, of raspberries, but there is a slight woody touch in there as well, for a pleasant surprise. The taste is simply raspberries with a touch of tartness to keep it a bit interesting. This, like the cherry beer, is a fairly one-dimensional ale, but at least they are straight forward with what you're going to get and if you don't like it then don't drink it.

The 750 mL bottle comes with a couple thin layers of purplish wax around the cap. There is one issue I have with this beer. Well, not really the beer itself but the production of both of these beers. Raspberry Tart, which I prefer over the Wisconsin Belgian Red, is often overlooked because most people seem to prefer the Wisconsin Belgian Red, including both my parents, but I suppose cherries are just more popular than raspberries and sweet is more popular than tart. I guess I'm the odd one out...

New Glarus Brewing Co.
Raspberry Tart
TCSH - 9/10
Aka - Somewhere between beer and raspberry lemonade, but not a blend.

Dallas

New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red

So, after reading Eli's post about the Founder's Cerise (which I would still like to try) I decided I should post about a cherry fruit beer. And it just so happens to be one of the hardest beers to get outside of Wisconsin. That's right, the state that is the furthest laterally north of me. My mother brought back a bottle, and I've had it a few times up there, including once at the brewery.

New Glarus Brewing Company is a tiny operation run by Daniel and Deborah Carey up in the small Swiss style town of New Glarus, Wisconsin and the brewery grounds are breathe-taking. Imagine a little Château-like thing sitting atop a hill overlooking the town, with a decent sized field area with picnic tables scattered about. On to the beer!

Wisconsin Belgian Red is a cherry beer made with Door County cherries, which are supposedly famous (I'll take their word for it), and locally grown barley. The bottle is a 750 mL bottle that comes with a couple thin layers of reddish wax around the cap. The beer pours out pretty much straight red, or ruby red, very clear, and has pink (you heard it ladies, pink) fizz sitting on top. The smell is exclusively of cherries, as expected. And the taste is, as well, exclusively of cherries and is rather sweet.

If you like cherries, fruit beers, sweet beers, or just trying new and different beers then this is a must try. I will say this, though I really liked it, it can be a little too sweet after a while.

New Glarus Brewing Co.
Wisconsin Belgian Red
TCSH - 9/10
Aka - "she's my cherry pie..."

Dallas

Cigar City Kalevipoeg

I've been waiting for a good reason to review this, and Matt's first post with The Cork Stops Here was the perfect excuse.

Matt and I have done several trades; he sends me lower East coast beers (mainly Cigar City and Terrapin) and I send him lower Midwest beers (Texas stuff and Boulevard). Though this beer was not from our most recent trade, but rather a trade that was done back in February or March, I still think of this as a very recent trade (and I suppose it is, in some sense of time). On to the beer!

Cigar City is out of Tampa, Florida and has gathered quite a bit of popularity, even though they don't seem to distribute far from their home state. And this beer was specially brewed to celebrate their 10,000th batch. Yes, that is right, ten thousand batches. Not bad for a brewery that has only been around for four years (yes, founded in 2008).

Kalevipoeg (KAH-lay-vee-po-egg) is named for some Estonian epic poem about a giant who helped create the land and fight other giants. I'm not going to question it; I just care about the beer. Baltic Porters are a lager style that often fall between a British porter and a Russian stout on the flavor scale (and are sometimes fermented with cold fermenting ale yeast), and more often than not have higher alcohol percents. Cigar City's offering fits the bill perfectly, coming in at 9% ABV.

When poured into a tulip or snifter (or small mouthed, large bowled stem glass) Kalevipoeg appears pitch black with a sizable tan head. Being pitch black, there is pretty much nothing else that can be said about the body of the beer until after the first taste. The aroma... man, I could smell this beer all day long (figuratively). Smoke (another key flavor in the style), caramel-like sweetness, and lots of dark fruits, such as raisins and figs, aromas just flow from the glass. The taste follows the nose almost to the T: there is smoke, that caramel or lighter candy sweetness, and the dark fruits, but this time it is raisins and dates.

Kalevipoeg is fairly thick in the mouth, but not chewy, so it coats the mouth without being difficult to swallow. The beer is smooth and not disrupted by lots of carbonation, but it does still fizz to remind you that you are drinking beer and not supping liquid heaven clouds. All-in-all, I say this is a fantastic representation of what was a forgotten style in the West until the fall of the Iron Curtain in the late 1980's. I really wish I could get it again, but alas, it was a one time offering.

Cigar City Brewing
Kalevipoeg Baltic Porter
TCSH - 9.5/10
Aka - Worth creating the land and fighting giants for.

Dallas

Stone Ruination 10th Anniversary IPA

Stone is easily one of my favorite breweries. They are masters of the hops and are not afraid to make beers they like, in the face of market demands. And this beer was easily one of the most anticipated releases of the year by hop-lovers such as myself.

Stone Ruination, one of the beers that paved the way for the imperial/double IPA style, turned ten years old this year. How did Stone celebrate? They amped-up EVERYTHING. The malts, the hops, the IBUs, the ABV. This is more like an older brother to Ruination than a birthday celebration, but you won't hear me complaining.

Ruination Tenth pours a beautiful, mostly clear sunset orange with about a finger to two fingers of a solid white head. Without a doubt this should be poured into a tulip or snifter to maximize the beauty of the beer. I haven't seen anything so bitter look this good since Avery Maharaja.

The aroma that rose from the glass was like that of incense to the gods: heavenly. Strong citrus aromas, flowers, and some tropical fruits, like mangoes. This is probably the closest I've come to smelling a bunch of whole hop cones. And I absolutely love it. The taste on the Ruination Tenth is just as impressive as the nose. This one is definitely bitter and not for the faint of heart. With the bitterness there is a lot of citrus, mostly orange, and a pleasant sweetness lies underneath all of it with some sweet mango and soft caramel notes.

Despite being a MASSIVE beer, Ruination Tenth has a medium body feel in the mouth and is rather slick feeling with a very mild amount of carbonation, so the flavors linger and are not scrubbed away. The finish on the Ruination Tenth Anniversary is actually a bit dry, as if it were wood aged, but not before a blast of bitterness punches your palate. Well worth the price, and was cheaper than I expected.

Stone Brewing Company
Ruination Tenth Anniversary IPA
TCSH - 9.5/10
Aka - Liquid perfection. If you still have a chance to drink this, do not wait any longer.

Dallas

Rahr & Sons The Regulator

Two posts in one day? What is wrong with me? Answer: there is so much beer to drink and so little time (in other words, it's not my fault).

Another Rahr & Sons beer on the docket for the night (day, whatever). And this one is a lager. A doppelbock, to be exact. This should be exciting, right? The Regulator sounds intimidating. Here it goes...

The Regulator pours a lovely ruby red-mahogany, crystal clear, with a variable light tan head (size seems to depend on the type of glass used, as it often does; for most beers I tend to use a footed/stem glass but even those have a wide variation in bowl shape). The body, while clear, does not look thick nor oily, and actually seems a bit watery, which might be the only downside to the whole appearance package. Unfortunately, I fear the appearance might be the best part of this beer.

This was not a particularly aromatic beer, and the little I could pick up was less than astounding. There were bits of chocolate, hints of caramel, and hints of bread, and not much in the ways of hops either; with doppelbocks being a malt bomb most times, this was rather underwhelming and did not bode well for the taste.

As I expected, the taste was also unimpressive but not bad, mind you. It had hints of chocolate and hints of caramel, but nothing stood out. Doppelbocks are supposed to be big, bold beers (see classics such as Ayinger Celebrator and Weihenstephaner Korbinian; or even an American take on the style that is quite popular: Great Lakes The Dopplerock) and The Regulator did not live up to the standard. Not to mention the finish was somewhat dry, like a bread verging on stale that calls for a drink of water after eating it or perhaps butter on the bread itself.

Available around Texas, $7-9 for a 22 oz bottle.

Rahr & Sons Brewing
The Regulator Doppelbock
TCSH - 6-6.5/10
Aka - Worth trying once. Split it, and the cost, with a friend.

Dallas

Rahr & Sons Lã Grange

Now, for all intents and purposes, Fort Worth is my backyard (please don't hate me, all you great people from Fort Worth), and Rahr and Sons is my metaphorical playground. I have visited on several occasions, have several Rahr pint glasses, and have sampled many of their beers. But on to THIS beer...


Lã Grange... Most of us, hopefully, think of the song by the Southern rock legend ZZ Top, who were from Texas, but what a lot of people don't seem to realize is Lã Grange is referring to a whore house. Thankfully, this beer does not.

This Texas saison, or "farmhouse" ale, pours out hazy golden straw yellow with a large, fluffy white head. One can make out a few bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass. It looks exactly like what you would want to be drinking on a hot summer's day after working out on the farm for several hours, or with your plowman's lunch.

The aroma is earthy; it has lots of strong yeasty notes that lend to both fruitiness and some mild funk that is characteristic of saisons. One thing I appreciated about this beer is that they did not use brettanomyces in the production of this product, as many saisons do (and I love brett in my beers, especially sours). The taste follows the nose pretty well; there are nice fruit flavors such as white grapes and pears, some spices and straw-like characters, and some funk to round it out.

Lã Grange also has a nice feel in the mouth, being bubbly but not excessive, and not too thick that you're eating bread but not too thin that you're drinking water. This beer also has a nice, crisp, refreshing finish, perfect for the Texas heat, for sure. Available throughout Texas, $6-7 for a 22 oz bottle.

Rahr & Sons Brewing
Lã Grange Farmhouse Ale
TCSH - 8.5/10
Aka - A must try.

Dallas

Goose Island Demolition

I don't know what Eli has in the shop (if you haven't visited the site yet, you should), but I got this beer in a trade with a guy from Kentucky, along with a few other special Goose Island beers that will show up here if Eli lets me have my way. And I must say, this beer delivered.

Most people in the US beer world have heard of Goose Island, and their sale to InBev, and most people still really want their beer. Well, I am no exception. I even made a trip up to Chicago just to drink at their Clybourn location. Sadly I was there a day early and, therefore, missed their release of Black Mission on tap...

Anyway, on to the beer. Demolition is a Belgian style Golden Ale, which really doesn't mean much except that it will be golden in color, usually lighter in body, and have some yeasty and light fruit flavors. This is all true, but there was something different.

A lot of Goose Island beers that are "special" releases (Bourbon County Stout, Matilda, Pepe Nero, Pere Jacques, The Three Sisters, King Henry, you get the idea) have on their label that the beer will mature in the bottle for up to five years. Demolition did not say this, but instead said that it would remain fresh for up to 180 days past the bottle on date. That is fine, I like beers to have a bottle on date on the label and/or a drink by date. This bottle of Demolition was bottled on May 18, 2011.

This beer was over a year old!

I drank it anyway. It was very pleasant. Light in body with a slick, almost oily looking texture and body with a bright white head, as expected. Smelled like bread, had a bold yeast profile, and reminded me of lighter colored fruits, such as white grapes. For a year old beer, when it is only expected to last half a year, I was quite surprised at how well it held up.

I would like to try a fresher bottle, but given what I had, I enjoyed it.

Goose Island Beer Company
Demolition Belgian Style Golden Ale
TCSH - 8.5/10
Aka - If you can get it, try it. Maybe even age it for a while.

Dallas
I'm still the new guy

Clown Shoes Vampire Slayer

Okay, so we all hate clowns, right? I do. They are creepy. But their shoes, man, those shoes are pretty awesome. Am I right? Well, I like Clown Shoes. The small, contract brewery out of Ipswich, Massachusetts, I mean.


I'm going to look at what is probably my favorite beer from them, and I've had almost all of their beers at this point. Vampire Slayer, an American style imperial stout, is their second anniversary release (Hoppy Feet 1.5 is their first anniversary release), and is both expected and surprising. This beer is almost nothing like their Russian imperial stout, Blaecorn Unidragon, other than the fact that it is an imperial stout and has a high ABV.


Vampire Slayer is big, bold, and surprisingly not too in-your-face. Lots of chocolate notes spew from the glass without being overly sweet, and has some nice smoke character, made from "vampire killing stakes," and a punch of roast. The taste is pretty much what you would expect based on the nose: lots of chocolate, but again, not too sweet, and some smoky character and some roast. It is all very pleasant, and not too brutal.


The body is, of course, pitch black and has a pretty nice sized medium brown head. I would recommend pouring this into a tulip or a snifter to get the full effect of the aroma and appearance, but I suppose your standard pint glass would work as well. The mouth-feel is somewhat creamy, somewhat smooth, and not so thick that you have to chew the beer. But it isn't watery either. The carbonation is subdued and so is the 10% ABV; there is no heat going down at all, making this beer surprisingly drinkable. All things considered, I will likely pick up another bottle or two. $6-8 for a 22 oz bottle, available throughout Texas and wherever Clown Shoes beers are sold.

Clown Shoes Beer

Vampire Slayer American Imperial Stout

TCSH - 9-9.5/10

Aka - Amazing! Highly Recommend.

Dallas (Stephen)

I'm the new guy