Tired Hands-Pizza Boy Brewing California Uber Helles

I ordered a glass of the Tired Hands-Pizza Boy Brewing collaboration California Uber Helles. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white color head. The aroma consists of grapefruit, tangerine, orange, lemon, and pepper. The taste is light and hoppy with grapefruit, orange, and lemon citrus flavors on the front end. It has a peppery and spicy finish that tickles the back of the tongue and light caramel roundness. The alcohol content is 5.3% ABV. This was a clean drinking beer with nice citrus and spiced notes to it. I have since ordered this beer several more times, as I cannot get enough of it.

Pizza Boy Brewing Apple Brandy Barrel Aged Solid Gold Bock

On a recent visit to Al’s of Hampden, I ordered a glass of Pizza Boy Brewing Apple Brandy Barrel Aged Solid Gold Bock. The beer pours an amber color with a thin bubbly white colored head. The aroma consists of sweet apples, caramel, a hint of oak with a dash of of cinnamon, and very reminiscent of apple pie. The taste is powerful with apple flavor right of front and a sharp brandy alcohol bite. Caramel smooths things over before a slightly tart finish. The alcohol content is 5.3% ABV. This barrel-aged beer provided a wonderful blend that is pie-like with a lightly sour aspect to it as well. I highly recommend trying this one if you get the chance.

Pizza Boy Brewing Orangatang

Another beer I ordered at Al’s of Hampden right after he tapped Pappy was Pizza Boy Brewing Orangatang. The beer pours a golden-amber color with a bubbly white colored head. The aroma consists of orange, vinegar, barnyard funk, grass, and horse blanket. The taste is dry and grassy on the front end with a slight orange sweetness before funk settles in and it is potent leaving behind a horse blanket flavor to linger for quite some time. The alcohol content is 5.2% ABV. I’ll be honest in saying I expected this beer to be more sour than funky, but it was quite delicious. I’d mostly compare it to an orange saison rather than a sour beer.

Pizza Boy Brewing Pappy

I went to Al’s of Hampden when he tapped his own Pizza Boy Brewing Pappy, a Pappy Van Winkle aged imperial stout. The beer pours a black color with a thin filmy tan colored head. The aroma consists of strong bourbon, oak, chocolate, vanilla, and cherry. The taste is very bold and strong with bourbon on the front end that attacks the tongue. The flavor profile is laced with alcohol and gives off oak hints built upon a dark chocolate background. Caramel, coffee, vanilla, and cherry also make some intermediate appearances. The alcohol content is 10.5% ABV. If you love bourbon barrel aged beers, this one is for you. While the bourbon doesn’t overpower the hefty stout, it certainly makes its presence known and yield cherry and vanilla accents into the beer.

Pizza Boy Brewing Simcoe SamuRYE

Another beer I ordered at Al’s of Hampden was the Pizza Boy Brewing Simcoe SamuRYE. The beer pours a dark amber color with a bubbly off-white colored head. The aroma consists of sweet grapefruit, tangerine, orange, lemon, passion fruit, and rye. The taste is dry with grapefruit, tangerine, orange, and passion fruit. A bite of rye comes out with other hints of green pepper. The alcohol content is 6.0% ABV. I was a little bit surprised by the pepper flavors that came with this beer, but I think the rye and citrus flavors were able to balance everything and play well together.

Pizza Boy Brewing Punk'in Disorderly

I ordered a glass of Pizza Boy Brewing Punk’in Disorderly on a recent visit. The beer pours an amber color with a thin bubbly white head. The aroma consists of pumpkin, caramel, and nutmeg. The taste is smooth and sweet with pumpkin, lots of caramel, and pilsner malt. There is a light dry hop finish with pepper and hints of nutmeg and allspice. Overall I noticed very little cinnamon which kept the beer from drying out the mouth. The alcohol content is 6.0% ABV. I liked the lack of cinnamon spice in this beer, as I thought it allowed the other spices and pumpkin to shine, and even a slight hop accent.

Pizza Boy Brewing Sunny Side Up Little Amps Double Coffee

For my buddy Adam's after rehearsal dinner party, I picked up a growler of Pizza Boy Brewing Sunny Side Up Little Amps Double Coffee. The beer pours a black color with a frothy tan head. The aroma consists of strong coffee, dark chocolate, vanilla, and caramel. The taste is dry and full of fresh and bitter coffee. A solid chocolate backing is what really makes this beer, while some vanilla and caramel add touches of sweetness. The alcohol content is 11.0% ABV. Make no mistake about it, this beer knows how to deliver the coffee flavors. It was almost as if I was drinking black coffee in the morning, and that is how I love my coffee stouts.

Pizza Boy Brewing Citra Hopgasm

I ordered a glass of Pizza Boy Brewing Citra Hopgasm at Al's of Hampden, a fresh hopped beer. The beer pours a cloudy golden color with a frothy white colored head. The aroma consists of tangerine, orange, grapefruit, candy, pine, and hop funk. The taste is bitter and sweet all at the same time with candy-like backbone. Tangerine, orange, grapefruit, pineapple, and passion fruit all surface with sugar on the finish. The after taste starts with pine before pure hop oil takes over the mouth. The alcohol content is 8.4% ABV. I overly loved the flavors in this beer, especially how candy-like it was. If I had one complaint it would be that the beer was a little light on the carbonation, but that is not enough of a deterrent to keep me from coming back to this beer.

Pizza Boy Brewing Royal Tannin Bomb

I stopped in to Al's of Hampden to try some newly tapped Pizza Boy Brewing beers, the first of which was the Royal Tannin Bomb, a blueberry sour. The beer pours a rose color with a light bubbly white colored head. The aroma consists of blueberry, vinegar, and horse blanket. The taste is tart, full of blueberry, and has a solid wheat base,.Hints of lemon peek through with vinegar tagging along, and a dry finish that is fruity and fresh. The alcohol content is 4.5% ABV. The Royal Tanning Bomb was a wonderfully tart beer that left a bitter flavor on the tongue, but it had just enough blueberry sweetness to balance everything nicely.

Pizza Boy Brewing Holy F-

I stopped in to Al’s of Hampden to try a glass of Pizza Boy Brewing Holy F-, Terry Hawbaker’s first beer for the brewery. Holy F- is an American Wheat beer brewed using no hops in the kettle, only whole leaf Columbus hops in the whirlpool. It comes in at 77 IBUs, which is amazing to me. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white colored head. The aroma consists of lemon, tangerine, orange, and caramel. The taste is light and focuses on wheat at first before pepper, lemon, earth, and funk accent the beer, all leading to a bitter finish. The alcohol content is 5% ABV. For not having any hops added in the boil, this sure is a bitter beer, but it absolutely is easy drinking and quite refreshing.

Pizza Boy Brewing Ballet IPA

I stopped in to Al’s of Hampden and ordered a glass of Pizza Boy Brewing Ballet IPA on cask. The beer pours a red amber color with a frothy white colored head. The aroma consists of caramel, lemon, vanilla, anise, and pepper. The taste is bold with caramel and plenty of anise on the front end adding a sweetness the beer with a spiciness afterwards. There are hints of lemon and pepper on the finish. The alcohol content is 9.1% ABV. This was a wonderful beer that spotlights anise, provided you like the flavor. I know some people do not, but I definitely enjoyed it very much in this beer.

Pizza Boy Brewing Peach Luna

I picked up a growler of Pizza Boy Brewing Peach Luna from Al’s of Hampden to share with friends. The beer pours a dark brown color with a lofty and frothy off-white colored head. The aroma consists of caramel, peach, and malts. The taste is bold and robust was caramel and toasted malts and a hint of peach sweetness on the finish. The after taste is dry and has some toasted toffee. The alcohol content is 5.3% ABV. This was a very enjoyable lager with a great accenting peach flavor. I will definitely be ordering this beer again if it is on tap.

Pizza Boy Brewing Hop Test #1 (Stakem)- Smoked IPA

While at Al’s of Hampden, I ordered a glass of Pizza Boy Brewing Hop Test #1 (Stakem)- Smoked IPA. The beer beer pours black color with a frothy tan head. The aroma consists of smoke, BBQ, caramel, chocolate, and lemon. The taste is smoky and very delicious with a chocolate and caramel base. A great BBQ flavor provides some mid-range accents and lemon and pepper come out on the finish. The alcohol content 8.7% ABV. As a style, I liked the smoked IPA better than a typical black IPA, as the added sweet and dry smoke flavors really played well with the bitter hops from the IPA.

Pizza Boy Brewing West Shore IPA

I picked up a growler Pizza Boy Brewing West Shore IPA from Al’s of Hampden. The beer pours a golden color with a lofty and frothy white colored head. The aroma consists of tangerine, orange, grapefruit, lemon, passion fruit, pine, grass, and caramel. The taste is light bodied but has a cornucopia of citrus and bitter flavors including tangerine, grapefruit, passion fruit, and lemon. There is a spicy pepper and grassy finish with pine and a funky and dank after taste that lingers on the back of the tongue. The alcohol content is 6.5% ABV. This was a wonderful IPA with plenty of bitter citrus flavors that pound the tongue and leave a nice dank flavor behind. I will definitely be ordering this beer again and again when I am at Al’s.

Pizza Boy Brewing NEON

On a recent visit to Al’s of Hampden, I ordered a glass of Pizza Boy Brewing NEON. This beer is interesting as it was made as half hefeweizen and half double IPA. The beer pours a cloudy golden color with a frothy white head. The aroma consists of pepper, lemon, wheat, earth, and pine. The taste is dry and bitter with lemon and pine on the front end. Grassy hops and peppery spices come out on the finish. The alcohol content is 5.3% ABV. This beer was quite different from the normal, as it was a really hoppy wheat beer. Most wheat beers are light and un-punishing, but this beer really rammed home the hops.

Pizza Boy Grasslands

Another recent tapping at Al’s of Hampden was the Pizza Boy Grasslands, a saison. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white head. The aroma consists of lemon, grass, and pepper. The taste is dry and peppery with lots of grassy hops. Lemon hints provide a nice accent and the beer has an earthy finish, resulting in a light sweetness on the tongue. The alcohol content is 4.7% ABV. While not perfect, I’d say that Grasslands was a rather good first attempt at a saison from Al, and I look forward to see where this beer goes in the future.

Pizza Boy Brewing Turkey Burglar (Tart Cherry)

On a recent visit to Al’s of Hampden, Al tapped his Pizza Boy Turkey Burglar (Tart Cherry), a Beliner Weiss. The beer pours a lemonade colored yellow color with a thin filmy white head. The aroma is tart with cherry, and lemon, but most interesting is this has an almost urine-like funk to it. The taste is dry and light with a tartness on the tongue. Lemon is prominent, but the cherry is very faint and almost undetectable. The alcohol content is 3.6% ABV. I really liked it, even more so than Dogfish Head Festina Peche. While the aroma may be slightly off-putting, the taste is completely worth it.

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!

Pizza Boy Brewing Test Batch Mango Triple IPA

I made it a point to ordered a glass of Pizza Boy Brewing Test Batch Mango Triple IPA while at Al’s of Hampden. This beer was the winner of a homebrewing contest, and will also be brewed by Troegs. The beer pours a cloudy and unfiltered orange color with a thin bubbly white head. The aroma is strong on mango, tangerine, orange, and bitter grapefruit. The taste is extremely smooth and fruit forward. The mango flavor is sweet on the tongue before orange, tangerine, and grapefruit bitter up the finish. Hints of pepper linger in the finish. The alcohol content is 9.1% ABV. The mango sweetens up the flavor and really balances the bitterness without masking it. This beer was also very thick in the mouth feel, as it was not filtered and it allowed the mango to take over the properties of the beer.

Pizza Boy Brewing Test Batch Porter with Vanilla Bean and Kopi Luac

I gave the Test Batch Porter a sip from Pizza Boy Brewing and was about to order a glass when I saw that Al had tapped a firkin of the Test Batch Porter with vanilla bean and Kopi Luac. The beer pours a black color with a frothy beige head that leaves a nice lacing on the glass. The aroma is big on coffee with some chocolate and vanilla hanging out in the background. The taste is smooth and silky with a chocolate flavor up front before a big coffee push takes over the tongue. The coffee flavors taste completely fresh like a coffee shop. A sweet vanilla finish overtakes the bitter coffee flavors. The alcohol content is 5.6% ABV. Wow, was this beer excellent. I know the base of the beer was quite tasty, but adding the Kopi Luac and vanilla beans just took it over the edge. It was one of the better coffee infused beers that I have tasted.