Appalachian Brewing Company Abbey Roade

The February beer of the month at Appalachian Brewing Company is Abbey Roade. The beer has a brown amber color with a light white frothy head. The smell is filled with malts and really hints at alcohol. The taste is sweet with banana and pepper and finishes with an alcohol bite. The alcohol content is 6.4% ABV. I am a huge fan of the Abbey Road and usually order it whenever I am at Appalachian Brewing Company, as long as it is on draft. The last batch lasted until February, and I hope this one does as well. The Abbey Roade has a great finish that is sweet with a nice alcohol kick.

Appalachian Brewing Company Chocolate Cherry Stout

I stopped into Appalachian Brewing Company of the Valentine's Day Weekend because they had released two kegs of Chocolate Cherry Stout at each location. The beer has a black color with red hues and a light tan head. The smell is toasted malts with chocolate accents. The taste starts with sweet cherry on the front and milk chocolate and toasted malts follow. The alcohol content is not posted on the website, but I would guess it to be around 6% ABV. I thought that this was an amazing beer and the cherry makes the ensemble work. The sweet accent to the bitter chocolate made a very enjoyable experience.

Flying Dog Raging Bitch

I picked up a case of Flying Dog Raging Bitch from Westy's in Camp Hill. The beer has a yellow golden color with a lofty foamy head that sticks to the edges of the glass. The aroma is full of lemon, orange, and grapefruit citrus and fresh hops. The taste is sweet and lemony citrus on the front. It then turns more to grapefruit on the middle tongue and finishes a little dry and tastes of earthy and piney hops. The alcohol content is 8.3% ABV. This is a fantastic beer with many sweet citrus flavors balanced nicely with earthy dry hops. I absolutely recommend trying this beer and will buy this again.

Yuengling Bock

I grabbed a six pack of Yuengling Bock at Wegman's to give it a try. The beer has a dark amber color that is almost brown with a light bubbly head. The smell is sweet and malty. The taste is sweet at first with a light hop bite underneath. There is a slight roasted malty flavor in the middle and the beer finishes a little sweet with caramel. The alcohol content is 5.1% ABV. I thought this was a pretty good bock despite coming from a larger brewer. It is a definite improvement to the lager, even though I like that beer as well.

Victory Helios Ale

I picked up a bottle of Victory Helios Ale from Wegman's. The beer has a pale yellow color with a lofty foamy and bubbly head. The aroma is fulled with lemon smells with faint hops and a little malt in there as well. The taste is filled with lemon and peppery hop accents. There is a little butter undertone on the finish. The alcohol content is 7.5% ABV. I thought the Helios Ale was a very good beer and somewhat complex. The mic of lemon, pepper, and butter really made an interesting brew and it was great tasting.

New Holland Cabin Fever Brown Ale

I grabbed a bottle of New Holland Cabin Fever Brown Ale the last time I was at D's Six Pax and Dogz. The beer has a deep brown color with a light foamy white head. The smell is malty with heavy hints of alcohol. The taste is very powerful with the alcohol accents on the front and has a light malty finish with a toffee undertone. There is a faint oak accent on the back of the tongue. The alcohol content is 6.25% ABV. I thought that the beer tastes much more like alcohol than I expected, especially for 6.25%ABV. I did like the flavor and overall experience, but the oak and alcohol taste is a bit powerful.

Dundee Porter

The sixth and final beer I had out of the Dundee sampler pack was the Porter. The beer has a dark brown color with a light tan head. The smell consists of chocolate and toasted malts. The taste is filled with toasted malts and chocolate. The alcohol content is 6.1% ABV. I thought that this was a very tasty porter and would definitely get this beer again. It isn't a heavy porter, so drinking several of these in one sitting is not a problem.

Troegs Scratch 27- Cocaobunga Chocolate Stout

I stopped by Troegs to pick up a case of the most recent scratch beer, Scratch 27- Cocaobunga Chocolate Stout. This beer was developed with the Scharffen Berger Chocolate company. From the Troegs website:

This collaboration resulted in the delivery of a special blend of cocoa nibs that were added during the boiling process. In addition to the nibs, lactose was added at the end of the boil to give a little sweetness in the body. The addition of Galena and Simcoe hops lends a subtle fruity balance. After primary fermentation, the beer was aged for three weeks on a blend of cocoa nibs and Ugandan vanilla beans.

The beer has a dark brown color. It has a medium bodied and bubbly tan head. The smell is full of roasted malts and sweet chocolate. The taste is sweet and chocolaty with a nice roasted undertone and vanilla accents. It finishes with light hop bite that is faintly detectable and also is a a little bitter in the chocolate finish. The alcohol content is not posted on the website, but through Twitter correspondence Troegs estimates it to be 6.0% ABV. This was an excellent example of how a chocolate stout should taste and be presented. The vanilla and chocolate flavors play with each other through the drinking experience and the nice bitter finish really makes it seems like you are eating a chocolate bar.

Dundee Wheat Beer

The fifth beer I tried out of the Dundee sampler pack was the Wheat Beer. The beer has a pale yellow color with a lofty foamy white head. The smell is lightly citrus and wheat. The taste is wheat and light lemon flavor. It drinks pretty smooth and has a light dry finish. The alcohol content is 4.2% ABV. Overall, this is a light beer and not too complex but I have found that this beer is well liked by females, so it is good to have around for the ladies.

Dundee Pale Ale

The fourth beer I grabbed out of the Dundee sampler pack was the Pale Ale. The beer has a light golden color with a thin white filmy head. It smells lightly of malts with slight hop accent. The taste is sweet and malty and finishes with a faint hop accent. The beer has a faint creaminess to it as well. The alcohol content is 5.3% ABV. The Pale Ale was not the best beer, but still found a way to be pleasing. It was also not very complex, but very easy to drink. This is a perfect beer to introduce someone to craft beers that usually drinks something a little more mainstream and tasteless. I'll call this a transition beer.

Dundee India Pale Ale

The third beer I tried out of the Dundee sampler pack was the India Pale Ale. The beer has an amber color with a light frothy white head. The smell has a nice accent of earthy hops. The taste is light with sweet malts at first. The taste then twists to a light hop flavor with a slight pine with lemon undertone. The alcohol content is 6.3% ABV. I thought that Dundee has provided a decent IPA. The hops are not overpowering and the lemon accent is very pleasing.

Dundee Pale Bock Lager

The second beer I drank out of the Dundee sampler pack was the Pale Bock Lager. The beer has a light yellow color with a foamy white head. The smell is malty with light accents of hops and honey. The taste is malty with a bitter hop finish. The hop accents consist mostly of pine hops. The alcohol content is 6.2% ABV. Overall, the Pale Bock Lager was a little dry, but pretty decent. It wasn't the best beer I have ever had, but the experience will keep me coming back to this beer.

Dundee Honey Brown

I picked up the sampler pack from Dundee and the first beer I had was the Original Honey Brown Lager. The beer has a yellow color with a light white bubbly head. The smell is sweet and consists of honey and malts. The taste is light and sweet with honey accents that is very light and crisp. The alcohol content is 4.5% ABV. I thought that the Honey Brown was a decent drinking beer. It isn't very complex, but is a decent easy drinking beer for all occasions.

Blue Point Old Howling Bastard

My Long Island native co-worker went home for a weekend and return with a bottle of Blue Point Old Howling Bastard Barley Wine Style Ale for me. The beer has an amber color with light red hues and a foamy cream colored head. The aroma is sweet and malty and consists of grapes and apple with a hop freshness to it. The taste is hoppy on the front end with a nice amount of earth hops. The taste then turns to sweet malts with a toffee lacing. The beer leaves a hop flavor in the mouth on the finish. The alcohol content is 10.0% ABV. I liked this barley wine very much and would recommend picking up a bottle. The mixing of the toffee and earth hops really makes drinking this beer a pleasurable experience.

Matt and Mike's Homebrew

My friends Matt and Mike have their own homebrewing operation and asked if I would like to try their beer. I obviously accepted and offered to give them some blog space in return for the beers. I hope to venture into homebrewing in the near future, so the final product of a homebrew complete interests me.

The first beer I tried was the Oktoberfest. The beer has an amber color with a thin white bubbly head. It smells sweet and malty. The taste is sweet and malty with a slight sour finish. I liked the freshness and flavoring, and it had a perfect sour finish.

The second beer I had was the Dunkleweizen. The beer has a dark amber color with a thin filmy head. The smell consists of sweet malts and alcohol. The taste is malty and alcohol bite on finish. I thought that the Dunkleweisen was pretty tasty.

The third beer I had was the Belgian Abbey. The beer has a gold color with a light head. The smell consists of sweet malts. The taste is packed with alcohol and and malts. This was my favorite of the six-pack I was provided and is a very tasty abbey.

The fourth beer I tried was the Irish Stout. The beer has a dark brown color with a nice tan head. The beer smells of toasted malts. The taste is light chocolate with toasted malts. I thought the Irish Stout was a multidimensional stout and I really like it.

The fifth beer I had was the Bavarian Wheat with American Yeast. The beer has copper color with a lofty foamy white head. The smell is lightly hoppy and smells of wheat. The taste is sweet and full of yeast and light malts. It was a light beer with great taste.

The sixth and final beer I had was the Bavarian Wheat with Belgian Yeast. The beer has a copper color with a think bubbly head. The smell is malty and sweet. The taste is very good and sweet with a good alcohol finish. The interesting fact about the Bavarian Wheat beers is that the yeast was the only variation between the two beers and the character of the two beers is completely different.