Stoudt's 5025 Sour Belgian-style Quad

My buddy Ed brought over a bottle of Stoudt's 5025 Sour Belgian-style Quad to share. The beer pours a caramel color with a bubbly white head. The aroma consists of raisin, wine, oak, and caramel. The taste is lightly tart with a dry wine flavor on the front end before settling into a raisin and fig base. There is a smooth finish with pepper on the back of the throat. The alcohol content is 11.0% ABV. I was amazed at how well the wine barrel-aging complemented this Quad and provided a wonderful dryness to the sweet caramel, raisin, and fig base flavors.

Left Hand-New Belgium Beer Week Sauce

Another beer I ordered at Varga Bar in Philadelphia was the Left Hand-New Belgium collaboration Beer Week Sauce. The beer pours a black color with a frothy tan colored head that stays for a while. The aroma consists of dark Belgian chocolate, toasted malts, vanilla, and caramel. The taste is dark chocolate and rather dry with a light vanilla accent and a caramel sweetness. Coffee provides a great balance and wonderful flavor. The beer finishes a little dry and bitter, but has a wonderful overall flavor. The alcohol content is 6.0% ABV. This beer had an amazing balance of chocolate and coffee flavors with a nice vanilla and caramel sweetness.

Sierra Nevada Knock on Wood Bourbon Imperial Stout

While at Varga Bar in Philadelphia, I ordered a glass of Sierra Nevada Knock on Wood Bourbon Imperial Stout. The beer pours a black color with a frothy tan head that leaves a thin bubble lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of chocolate, lots of vanilla, oak, chili peppers, and toasted malts. The taste is full of dark chocolate and a large amount of vanilla. This beer isn’t sweet, but nice, smooth, and lightly bitter. On the finish, a light bit of heat comes from the chili peppers, but it doesn’t linger very long. The alcohol content is 9.2% ABV. This was an excellent beer with a bold chocolate flavor that was nicely balanced with chili peppers, all while hiding the alcohol content rather well.

Yards Bourbon Barrel Aged Old Bart Barley Wine

I ordered a glass of Yards Bourbon Barrel Aged Old Bart Barley Wine at Varga Bar in Philadelphia. The beer pours an amber color with a frothy off-white colored head. The aroma consists of caramel, toffee, raisin, bourbon, and vanilla. The taste is sweet and smooth despite the bourbon alcohol bite to it. There is raisin, caramel, fig, vanilla, and oak flavors all mixed together, providing a wonderful blend. The alcohol content is 10.3% ABV. I was quite impressed with the barrel aged barley wine, as the beer stands tall against the bourbon, but adds a great accent to it.

Weyerbacher Last Chance IPA

I ordered a glass of Weyerbacher Last Chance IPA while at Varga Bar. This beer is intended to help animal rescue organizations with some of the proceeds from its sale. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white colored head that leaves a thick lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of tangerine, lemon, Pinesol (not a bad thing), caramel, pine, and pepper. The taste is bitter yet very light and delicate on the tongue. There is plenty of lemon, pine, orange, tangerine, and grapefruit that comes along with this beer, and it finishes with pepper on the tongue and a pine after taste. The alcohol content is 5.9% ABV. This was a rather delicious IPA with great bitterness to it and a light body that allowed the hops to completely shine.

Central Waters Peruvian Morning

I went to Varga Bar for the first time in Philly for brunch and I ordered a glass of Central Waters Peruvian Morning, a bourbon barrel aged coffee stout. The beer pours a black color with a very thin and bubbly tan colored head. The aroma consists of strong coffee, bourbon, cherry, vanilla, toasted malts, and oak. Basically, it’s how I would like to start my morning off every day. The taste is strong and chocolaty at first with a wonderful vanilla and cherry accent to it. An alcohol bite from the bourbon hits the tongue, and the beer finishes with some toasted malt flavor and lingering oak. The alcohol content is 8.5% ABV. This had a wonderful strong base of coffee and chocolate, but the vanilla and cherry flavors from the bourbon really popped in this beer and made it simply fantastic.

Columbus Brewing Company IPA

I received a bottle of Columbus Brewing Company IPA in a beer trade with Cleveland Food and Brews. The beer pours an orange color with a frothy cream colored head that leaves specs of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of caramel, lemon, pepper, tangerine, orange, and grapefruit. The taste is bitter and dry with plenty of citrus flavors including orange, lemon, tangerine, and grapefruit. There is a little bit of pepper and sprice, and the beer finishes with a caramel sweetness. The alcohol content is 6.5% ABV. This wa s great IPA that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was fresh and hop forward with plenty of citrus flavors, and there was a nice balance in the finish with caramel.

Troegs Scratch 70- Fancy That Triple IPA

On Father’s Day, I stopped in to the Troegs tasting room to try Scratch 70- Fancy That Triple IPA. This was one of the top three finishers in the homebrew contest that saw the Mango Triple IPA win. This beer pours a golden color a bubbly white head. The aroma consists of caramel, tangerine, grapefruit, pepper, and spruce. The taste has a sweet caramel base, bitter citrus including tangerine, grapefruit, lemon, orange, candy, and an after taste that has a spicy pepper and spruce flavor. The alcohol content is 10.4% ABV. This was a wonderfully bitter beer with great citrus flavors that play very well with each other. It was so great, that I decided to order a second glass.

Troegs Scratch 69- More Helles, Less Bock

I picked up a case of Troegs Scratch 69- More Helles, Less Bock from the brewery. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white colored head that leaves some lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of sweet caramel, toffee, grass, and malt. The taste is sweet on the tongue at first with caramel and toffee, along with some strong malt presence. The finish has a nice grassy balance and leaves some earthy hops on the tongue. The alcohol content is 5.6% ABV. I thought this beer may have been a little too sweet, but it was somewhat palatable. I wouldn’t want several in a sitting, but having one was refreshing enough.

Port Brewing Hop 15

I ordered a glass of Port Brewing Hop 15 while at Brewhouse Grille in Camp Hill. The beer pours a cloudy golden color with a thin bubbly white head. The aroma consists of orange, lemon, tangerine, sweet caramel, and toffee, which is very prevalent. The taste is overly bitter and amazing with tangerine, orange, and ruby red grapefruit citrus flavors. Pine and spruce provide a nice spice while hints of caramel and toffee barely peek through the hops but provide a nice base. The mouth feel is oily and resiny as this beer delivers a major hop punch. The alcohol content is 10.0% ABV. This beer was so delicious and bitter, it will satisfy any hop head out there. While the faint of heart (tongue?) need not try this beer, if you love hop I recommend you try this beer.

Buckeye Brewing Cleveland Porter

In a beer trade with Cleveland Food and Brews, I received a bottle of Buckeye Brewing Cleveland Porter. The beer pours a black color with a thin bubbly tan head that leaves a little bit of a lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of chocolate, coffee, toasted malts, vanilla, and caramel. The taste is smooth and chocolate with caramel and has a nice vanilla accent. There is a coffee finish that is a little bit dry. The alcohol content is not available online, but I would estimate it to be about 6.0% ABV. This was a nice porter that have great coffee and chocolate flavors. they balanced each other out and the added accents of caramel and vanilla made it a wonderful beer.

Free Will Citra IPA

While at Brewhouse Grille in Camp Hill, I ordered a glass of Free Will Citra IPA. The beer pours a golden-amber color with a medium bubbly white colored head. The aroma consists of tangerine, grapefruit, orange, and toasted caramel. The taste is light and refreshing and not overpowering. There is a caramel background while tangerine, grapefruit, lemon, and orange flavors peek through. Pepper and spruce finish the beer and linger for a while. The alcohol content is 5.5% ABV. This was a really good and refreshing IPA with wonderful citrus content. I will definitely order this beer again and seek out other offerings from this brewery.

New Belgium Somersault

Another beer I got to try at the Leinenkugel Beer Garden was the New Belgium Somersault. The beer pours an amber color with a bubbly white head. The aroma is grassy and has some lemon and earth smells as well. The taste is light and lemony while being very refreshing with a great citrus pucker. Grass, pepper and caramel round out the flavors on the finish and balance it delicately. The alcohol content is 5.2% ABV. I enjoyed this beer as it went very well with the hot weather. It was very easy drinking but was also flavorful, a great combination.