Brewer : Brasserie Union (Belgium)
Style : Abbey Dubbel
ABV : 6.5%
Quick story about this beer. I was walking around the local Crown store, which I've dubbed "The Hustler Crown" because it's located right across the street from the Hustler store on Sunrise, and saw this on the sale rack. Being one who doesn't like to pass up a deal on a beer I haven't tried before I decided to reach for it and fork over my $2. This particular Crown store has got some great beers. They have sales all the time on singles, plus it's tucked away which gives it an almost cozy, neighborhood feel to it. Anyway, on with the review.
It was a surprising treat this was. The color is dark brown with a thin bubbly head. The carbonation seems pretty good and the head retention is pretty spot on as well. The aroma is a little fruity at first then as it warms up you get more of a malt presence. The mouth feel is no super heavy and it seems very drinkable. The flavors aren’t too complex, but you get a sense of fruit and a little bit of tart on the back end. Not a bad beer at all. Picking out random beers in the past has been hit or miss but this one proves to be a good choice.
Grade B
Brewer : Gordash Brewing (Florida)
Style : Abt/Quad
ABV : 10%
Has a nice, smooth pour out of the bottle. The color is dark brown with a light orange tints to it. The carbonation seems pretty solid. The head seems thin, bubbly, and creamy. The retention is pretty decent as well. The aroma’s are pretty sweet. My first initial whiff I got vanilla and maybe even a little bit of cotton candy. Sort of unusual but it works. The ABV, which is 10%, is hidden very well amongst the sweet flavors. A very decent beer. Now, how does this taste on draft?
Grade B
Brewer : Bells Brewery (Michigan)
Style : Imperial Stout
ABV : 12.5%
This one has been sitting in my fridge for a little while now and I’ve been itching to try this. The pour, into my Dogfish snifter, was very black and dense. The head was thin and bubbly with an almost brownish color. From the first whiff I got somewhat of a big alcohol burn, which I wasn't too surprised by, since the ABV is 12.5%. I also got malts and barley has it warmed up a bit. As I went in for the first sip I expected it to be almost harsh, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it is incredibly smooth. I wouldn’t say easily drinkable, but if you’ve had World Wide Stout from Dogfish, this will seem like a cake walk, in terms of harshness. Will search out the different versions of this for sure.
Grade B+
Brewer : Bison Brewing Company (California)
Style : Spice/Herb/Vegetable
ABV : 6%
I’m somewhat attracted to beers that combine unique flavors. Beers that think outside the box. Well this one is a good attempt at thinking outside the box but fell short of my expectations. The color is golden brown with virtually no foam whatsoever. The carbonation seems OK, and whatever foam did collect in the glass quickly disappeared. The aroma has hints of hops and a little bit of malts, but definitely not enough honey or basil to call this one "honey basil". Both those flavors were too faint and didn’t make an up front appearance. If I were blind folded I probably won’t have been able to tell the difference between this and some random lager. But hey, I must applaud them for trying.
Grade C-
Well last night was my 3 year anniversary with my beautiful girlfriend Kim so I wanted to break out something special, and boy did I ever. I have to thanks to Dstructo for trading me this bottle for the BA Zukhov, even though you didn't really need to. I know that this blog is pretty new but it could be all down hill from here.
Brewer : Cigar City
Style : American Strong Ale
ABV : 10.5%
Bottle 91 of 204. Big thanks to Dstructo for this bottle. The color is a dark, with a murky brown tint to it. Very low carbonation and no head when poured into my Cigar City snifter glass. The first initial whiff I got bourbon, maple, dark roasted nuts, and a little bit of spicy notes on the back end. Flavors are very stellar, they mask the ABV very well, considering that fact that it’s 10.5%. The mouth feel is very light and soft, goes down extremely smooth, no alcohol burn whatsoever. Absolutely incredible.
Grade - A+ -
Brewer : Southern Tier
Style : Fruit Beer
ABV : 4.6%
While strolling down the isle of Total Wine Boca I spotted a Southern Tier beer that I hadn't tried before, or thought that I haven't had before. I inspected the label to find the words "Raspberry" on it. Thinking to myself that a fruit beer can't be that bad I took the chance and decided to buy it. Turns out that Southern Tier had just changed the label and that I had actually had this beer about a year and a half ago. I wasn't too disappointed by the beer but there is nothing in there that's gonna turn people's heads. I gave my brother a sip and he goes "That will get the girls drunk for sure." I guess that could pretty much sum up that beer. A chicky beer to say the least, but if your looking for something different just to change it up then go for it.
Grade - C -
Brewer : Mikkeller
Style : Belgian Strong Ale
ABV : 9.39%
This being a "rare" Mikkeller beer to South Florida, I decided to hunt it down and score a bottle from the great people up at the Charleston Beer Exchange. Belgian Strong Ales, to me, have always seemed hit or miss, but this one was one great beer. Poured into my Delirium snifter glass, I got a flutter of fruit, wheat, and berry aromas. The color was on the dark brown side with a thin white foamy head. The carbonation was pretty stellar. I sipped on a glass for about 10 minutes and every sip was just as good as the first. A great enjoyable beer from Mikkeller.
Grade - A -
"I guess he'd rather be in Colorado. Guess he'd rather work out where the only thing you earn is what you spend" ~ John Denver
John Denver put Colorado on the map, well that and probably Coors, but let's not mention that in public. Anyways, here's a great new beer from the Rockie Mountains.
Breckenridge 471 Small Batch IPA
Style : Imperial/Double IPA
ABV : 9.2%
A new brewery to South Florida, Breckenridge Brewery batch 471 could quickly become another great go to beer of choice for me. For two reasons. One, the taste and flavors are great. The aroma is hoppy, earthy, along with fruit notes as well. The appearance is cloudy and a little on the darker side. Two, it’s super affordable. At my local Total Wine, it was like $2 a bottle, if you decided to go the single bottle route. I’m somewhat inclined to buy a few bottles and see how this one ages.
Weyerbacher Quad
Style: Abt/Quad
ABV: 11.9%
I normally don’t go out of my way to look for quad’s but I’m glad that I was able to hunt this one down while I was in Orlando for the day. I poured it into my Delirium snifter and got a good amount of fruit in the nose. The color was brown with reddish tints. The head was pretty thin and sparse, and it quickly disappeared. The flavor was pretty sweet and somewhat tart. The carbonation was pretty good, as was the mouth feel. The ABV is pretty high, but concealed very well amongst the flavors. A damn good beer.
Grade B+
Had the pleasure of sharing this bottle with my brother during the most recent UF game. What a way to spend the afternoon.
Dogfish Bitches Brew
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 9%
Was very happy to hear the news that South Florida was going to get a shipment of this delicious brew. Dogfish was one of the first breweries that I really got into after stepping into the craft beer world, so my expectations were more then a little high for this one, and they didn’t disappoint by any means. Poured into my Delirium snifter glass the color was pitch black, almost syrup like in the thickness of it. The head is a pretty sexy brown color, bubbly and not too thick. The aromas I got were a lot like the description, honey, coffee bean, and chocolate. The carbonation was spot on. Every flavor was very easily detectable and as it warmed up a bit the flavors just grew and grew. A great enjoyable, sip-able beer. Maybe a cigar to match with it.
Grade - A -
Here we go. Let's get this moving. First off I have to say thanks to two amazing friends. Brian and Brittany Anderson are just awesome people. Thanks for letting me use your camera to snap some shots of these beers. I may have to use that camera again in the near future.
Mikkeller I Beat yoU
Style: Imperial /Double IPA
ABV: 9.75%
Brewed at BrewDog
I’ve been somewhat of a Mikkeller whore as of late, so getting a hold of this one was a real treat. South Florida doesn’t really get too many Mikkeller beers, so when I was able to get this in a trade I was pretty excited. As I poured it out of it’s 12oz bottle into my Delirium snifter glass I was able to get a big whiff of hops. I settled in for a closer inspection and got earthy, piny flavors and maybe even a little fruit towards the back end. The carbonation was pretty spot on, as was the head retention, which was a beautiful pearly white. It had a great mouth feel, but I can’t see myself drinking more then 2 of these. The ABV is pretty close to 10% so I’d be somewhat cautious in putting down a few of these. The Ferm, from Dosbeerigos.com maybe right in saying that this could be better then 1000 IBU. Hopefully I can score a bottle of the BA 1000 IBU to compare some notes.
Grade -A-
With all the great South Florida beer blogs out there (DosBeerigos,MikeLovesBeer,EGA,UnitedWeDrink,SouthFloridaBeerBlog) I thought it was time for me to throw in my two cents on how much I love craft beer. I'll updating the blog every Sunday, with probably one or two beer reviews at a time, depending on how much I drank during the weekend.
Well that's the short and skinny of it. To all the #FlaBeer guys and gals out in Denver enjoy the GABF and don't get into too much trouble.
Cheerz,
Casey
