Brasserie Dubuisson Bush Ambree

As part of a beer trade with the Beer Club 4 Men, I received a bottle of Brasserie Dubuisson Bush Ambree, dubbed The Strongest Belgian Beer. I found that to be a bit tacky of a slogan, but I won’t judge the beer based on that. The beer pours an amber color with a frothy off-white colored head. The aroma consists of raisin, caramel, biscuit, alcohol, and yeast. The taste is sweet and smooth with caramel, yeast, raisin, and fig up front. Some alcohol burn warms the back of the throat. The finish has a nice earthiness to it, and caramel and toffee linger on the tongue. The alcohol content is 12.0% ABV. I was quite impressed with the flavors of this beer, and it completely stood up to the alcohol content. It had a nice warming burn, but is not overwhelming.

Sly Fox Ichor Abbey Style Quad

I received a bottle of Sly Fox Ichor Abbey Style Quad from the Michael Jackson Rare Beer of the Month Club, even though Sly Fox is not that far away from me and I hadn’t picked up a bottle of it previously. The beer pours a murky dark brown color with a lofty and foamy tan head that leaves a small trace of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of raisin, chocolate, fig, sweet malts, and toffee. The taste is smooth and sweet with plenty of caramel and raisin flavor malts up front. Hints of chocolate and toffee peek through before the carbonation settles in and brings some grassy and earthy hops with it. The alcohol content is 10.0% ABV. This was quite an enjoyable quadruple, and I’d say it ranks up there with some of the finer Belgian quads. It had a great smoothness with just a touch of chocolate.

Samuel Adams Dark Depths Baltic IPA

I picked up a bottle of Samuel Adams Dark Depths Baltic IPA from Al’s of Hampden. I wasn’t exactly sure what a Baltic IPA was, but I assumed a hopped-up version of a Baltic Porter. The beer pours a black color with a frothy beige colored head that leaves plenty of speckled lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of pine, lemon, toasted malts, chocolate, coffee, and caramel. The taste is smooth and creamy with a lightly bitter lemon flavor to it. A pine spiciness stands above the chocolate and toasted malts that make up the base of the beer. The finish allows some caramel to come out before a dryness lingers on the tongue. The alcohol content is 7.6% ABV. It seems my assumption was correct in thinking it was a hoppy Baltic Porter, and it was quite delicious. It had plenty of hops, but built upon strong dark and roasty flavors.

Samuel Adams Cinder Bock

I picked up a bottle of Samuel Adams Cinder Bock from Al’s of Hampden.  The beer pours a dark amber color with a lofty and frothy off-white colored head. The aroma consists of smoke, caramel, malts, bacon, and charcoal. The taste is smoky and dry with plenty of charcoal and bacon flavors on the front end. There is a nice caramel sweetness that lies underneath the smoke to balance it out well enough that it isn’t overpowering with smoke. It taste almost like a cookout. The alcohol content is 9.4% ABV. I thorough enjoyed this. While the smoke could have been a little more intense, it was balanced rather well with the sweet caramel base of the beer.

Anchorage Brewing Galaxy White IPA

I received a bottle of Anchorage Brewing Galaxy White IPA as part of the Michael Jackson Rare Beer of the Month Club. The beer pours a pale yellow color with an extremely lofty and frothy white head that leaves a few speckles of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of lemon, barnyard funk, pine, grass, and hay. The taste is funky and lightly tart with plenty of dry grassy flavors with earthy tones and a large profile of lemon. Pepper and pine come out on the sides of the mouth, and add to the dryness. The after tastes lends to the french oak that the beer was aged in, and leaves a woody flavor in the mouth. The alcohol content is 7.0% ABV. I was quite impressed with this beer. It was mostly funk because Brett is so dominant, but there was a nice bit of lemon and pine in the background that gave it somewhat of an IPA feel.

Pizza Boy Brewing Arck Angel 4IPA

I stopped in to Al’s of Hampden to try the Pizza Boy Brewing Arck Angel 4IPA. A quad-IPA is a new experience for me, and I was really excited to try it. The beer pours an orange-amber collection with a bubbly white head. The aroma is huge on tangerine and sweet pink grapefruit with orange, apricot, passion fruit, caramel, and pepper. The taste is bold and citrusy. Lots of tangerine, grapefruit, orange, and apricot compile the flavors on the front end. Sweet caramel and orange candy flavor are hidden in the background and a hint of alcohol burn comes out on the finish, but nowhere near the expected burn for the 13.0% ABV that it is. There is a lightly dry after taste with a hint of bitterness that lingers around. I still cannot get over the fact that this beer had very little alcohol burn at 13% and how the bitter hops and sweet orange and caramel hid that content. If you get a chance to drive to Enola, you must try this beer!

Beach Brewing Company Hoptopus

I received a bottle of Beach Brewing Company Hoptopus in a beer trade with the Beer Club 4 Men. The beer pours an amber color with filmy white head. The aroma consists of tangerine, grapefruit, orange, and pepper. The taste is very bitter and dry with grapefruit, tangerine, and orange all providing a citrus flavor. The finish has pepper and hints of caramel that are not subtle. Pine and spruce compile the after taste and orange hangs around well after the beer is gone. The alcohol content is 8.8% ABV. This was my first offering from Beach Brewing Company, and I was quite impressed, especially in the ultra-competitive Double IPA category. All the right flavors were there, and it had the perfect bitterness to it as well.

Boulevard Smokestack Series Saison Brett

My friend and fellow blogger Russ Beck brought a bottle of Boulevard Smokestack Series Saison Brett over to share with a few friends and me. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white head. The aroma is funky with hay, barnyard funk, and lemon, mostly as expected. The taste is very funky (more so than the aroma!) and dry and provides plenty of hay, lemon, and pepper. Finishing out the experience, coriander and orange come out, which were pleasant but unexpected. The alcohol content is 8.5% ABV. This beer was right in line with the quality I’ve experienced from Boulevard in their Smokestack Series. I was plenty funky and had all of the right flavors, and completely impressed me with the light orange and coriander flavors on the finish.

Olde Hickory-Foothills-Duck Rabbit Olde Rabbit's Foot

I received a bottle of the Olde Hickory/Foothills/Duck Rabbit collaboration Olde Rabbit’s Foot from the Beer Club 4 Men in a beer trade. The beer pours a black color with a thin bubbly tan head. The aroma consists of chocolate, vanilla, and bourbon. The taste is smooth but has a dry alcohol bite. Roasted malts come out before dry chocolate nibs dry out the mouth. A light honey accent, hints of alcohol, and oak are present in the finish, rounding out the flavor. The alcohol content is 10.13% ABV. This was a well crafted beer with delicate balance that was much appreciated. It was as if all the flavors were holding hands in harmony rather than fighting to get the attention of my tongue.

Troegs Scratch 58- Triple Mango IPA

I stopped in to the new Troegs brewery to sample the Troegs version of the homebrewing content winner Triple Mango IPA, featuring as Scratch 58. Pizza Boy Brewing also ran a version of this beer as a Test Batch IPA. The Troegs version pours an orange color with a frothy white head. The aroma is big on mango with caramel, tangerine, and grapefruit. The taste is pretty bitter and fruity. It is mostly mango forward before citrus flavor takes over with tangerine, grapefruit, and lemon. Underneath, there are hints of pine and pepper, and the after taste leaves pineapple and grass and on the tongue. The alcohol content is 10.8% ABV. This version was more bitter than Pizza Boy Brewing’s version, and boy was it a hop bomb. I loved every second of it, and I definitely had to order a second glass.

Spring House Blacker Cracker

My friend Heather brought over a growler of Spring House Blacker Cracker with dinner one night to share with me. The beer pours a black color with an oddly gray colored head. The aroma consists of toasted malts, caramel, chocolate, and pine. The taste is smooth yet toasty with a roasted malt flavor taking up the front end of the beer. Hints of chocolate, lemon, and pine peek through before setting on a dry peppery finish. The alcohol content is 5.7% ABV. This was a solid Black IPA with a nice spicy flavor on top of a roasted and chocolate base. The gray head was a little odd and took some getting used to, but it definitely didn’t ruin the beer.