Ithaca Flower Power IPA

Brewer : Ithaca Brewing Co. (New York)
Style : IPA
ABV : 7.5%

So Saturday is upon us and what better way to start the day then with a nice IPA before all the college football begins. That actually makes me think of a question : If your watching football all day, college or pro, what style of beer could you easily drink throughout the day and not get bored of it?
I love imperial stouts, but they do tend to fill me up much quicker then any other style. Pumpkin beers are another favorite of mine, and I know that many of my fellow beer friends despise them, but those too can get boring after a while. I'd have narrow my selection down to two styles.
1.IPA
2.Sour/Wild

I don't have any sour's on hand for today, but I do have a pretty good IPA.
This one was shared with Mike last weekend. It seems as though a majority of the IPA's I've been having lately are coming my way through extra's in trades and if there's one thing better then buying a good beer it's getting a good beer for free. 

I'll keep this review brief and to the point. This IPA had many good qualities you would typically find in a good beer. A good goldish brown color, not too dark but still nice to look at, with a bubbly head. Hoppy aroma's but with a strong malt backing. Good mouth feel and good balance of flavors. And not to forget easily to drink. The ABV is 7.5% so you might want to take it a little bit easy. Just drink some water in between and you should be fine. 

Cheers and enjoy the  football today

Grade B

Mikkeller/Brewdog I Hardcore You

Brewer : Mikkeller (Denmark)/ Brewdog (Scotland)
Style :  Double IPA
ABV : 9.5%

So it's Friday, which always brings a smile to my face, but tomorrow I have to work (bring in the soft violin music), so I decided I review a beer from a brewer that has yet to let me down.......
Who might you ask? Mikkeller of course. This one is actually a collaboration with Brewdog brewery out of Scotland who make some really great beer as well. 
I had my good friend Mike from MikeLovesBeer over this Saturday to try out some beer and I decided it was a good time to break this one out. I've slowly been trying to convert others over towards Mikkeller. Well not covert, but more or less show them the light. Everyone has a brewery or brewer their particular to and Mikkeller just happens to be mine. 

 The color on this baby just seemed perfect and very inviting. Dark brown tints with a fluffy head that quickly disappeared. A large amount of hops prevail in the aroma swiftly followed by citrus, such as grapefruit. The flavor is somewhat over consumed by the hop presence but you get a good amount of the malt backing with a sweet, but bitter finish. Well balanced and easily drinkable. Anyone who likes DIPA's would easily drink this beer and be completely satisfied. Maybe that's a bit of a pretentious statement, but it's a damn good DIPA in my opinion. 

Grade A

 

Allagash Confluence Ale

Brewer : Allagash Brewing Co. (Maine)
Style : Belgian Ale
ABV : 7.4%

Allagash has been good to me in so many ways. I remember 2 years ago when I visited Maine with my girlfriend and her family. The streets were carved from brick and the port constantly gives off the ocean smell, plus the cooler weather. We went in the summer, but it was still nice and chilly. But the best part was getting off the airplane and grabbing a lobster roll at a restaurant in downtown Portland. I didn't know anything about Allagash at the time, but I checked out the draft list and said "I'll have an Allagash." Could have been one of the best decisions I've made. Lobster roll and an Allagash beer, life couldn't get any better at that moment. 

Since that time there have been highs and lows for Allagash in the South Florida area. I've got to try a good portion of what they offer down here, that would be the highs. The lows would be the fact that Allagash is being pulled from the South Florida beer market, as many of you may or may not know. So getting hold of hard to come by Allagash beers has become somewhat of a quest for me. 

This one, Allagash Confluence, sort of had me a little bit confused. I get a majority of my beer info from two sites. RateBeer and BeerAdvocate . One site had it listed as a Belgian Ale and the other had it listed as a Wild Ale. I didn't know what to make of this conundrum of sorts so I let the beer do the talking.

The color was pretty light, but with light goldish tints. It had a very thin, bubbly head but quickly said bye bye after a short period of time. There were very faint sour aromas going. Possibly a little bit of lemon zest, but mostly a lot of belgian yeast prevailed in the aroma. The flavor was just like the aroma, belgian yeast, but with a little bit of tartness to it. 

What style do I consider it to be. Well it has some sour qualities but not enough to bare the name Wild Ale. I'd go more with Belgian Ale myself. The yeast really came through a lot more then the sour tartness. A good enjoyable, sipping beer. 

Grade B

 

The Dogfather

Brewer : Laughing Dog Brewery (Idaho)
Style : Imperial Stout
ABV : 10.85%

This was another one I shared with friends on Friday night. Sometimes I stroll through Total Wine Ft. Lauderdale not really looking for anything in particular and I find something on my want list. This was one of those occasions. I knew that The Dogfather was from Laughing Dog, which we (South Florida beer scene) just picked up, but I didn't know that we were gonna get any of this as soon as we did. I was planning on making a trade for this in the future, but screw all that mess now. Saving time and money, my two favorite things. With that being said let me describe this delicious brew........


750ml bottles are great, but I always need a wing man to help me finish it. Lucky for me I had 3 Friday night. 4 people total is probably the limit for a bomber. Everyone gets a fair share, probably less then 12oz, that's for sure, but a fair share none the less.
The pour is pitch black with a light brown bubbly head. The aroma has dark chocolate malt notes with subtle hints of coffee bean. The taste is a little sweet with a good amount of malt backing, with a medium body to it. It was a good drink, and everyone seemed to be pleased with it, but I suppose after seeing The Ferm and Crazy Cat Lady on DosBeerigos rate this one and really like it I guess I was expecting a little bit more. It's still a great beer, don't get me wrong, but it was lacking a little...I don't what. 


Grade A

What happened to Monday!?

I apologize for not posting anything Monday. I was tied up with school and work and other things of that nature, but hopefully that won't  happen again.
Well Friday rolled around last week and I was super  pumped to  crack open the cellar to pull out some gems, or what I hoped to be gems, since 90% of the beer in the cellar are  beers I haven't tried yet. Believe it or not much happens on a Friday night these days. By the time I'm done with work I just want to re charge my  batteries on the couch with  some beers. So last Friday  being one of those types of days I had my fellow beer drinkers come over, that being my brother and Pat, since that are in close proximity and don't do too much on Friday either. 
We opened up a few bottles that night, most of them I'll get to in the next few days, but this one I was pretty excited about. 


Brewer : Dogfish Head (Delaware)
Style  : Belgian White
ABV : 5%


I've come to admire Dogfish and Sam Calagione for his out of the box thinking towards beer and the ingredients use, but I didn’t really know what to expect from this one, so I went in with an open mind. It had a good amount of spicy, dried fruit in the aroma, which I  was pleasantly surprised by since the color was very light and the body was just as light. If I  had done my research I would have known that Belgian White beers are typically lighter in color, but then again I enjoy being surprised every now and again. The carbonation was pretty strong, which is one of those things I look for in a beer, unless it's a big stout, like  say Marshal Zukhov. 
All in all everyone seemed to enjoy it, which is probably what I liked most about it. I hate, well not always, pulling  out a beer that only I find enjoyable. I try to spread the love around. 

Grade A

Captain Lawrence Captain's Reserve DIPA

Brewer : Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. (New York)
Style : Double IPA
ABV : 8%

Well Friday is finally here, thank God, and that means it's time to crack  open some more brews to rate, but before that can happen let's talk about a good DIPA from Captain Lawrence. 
I got this a few weeks ago as an extra in a trade. Now I don't know any about Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. besides the Smoke from the  Oak porters they make, which I hear are really tasty. 
This was a really good DIPA but something really odd struck me as I poured it into my glass. The color was really light. Similar to any typical lighter beer, well maybe not that light, but pretty frickin' light. I went to take a whiff thinking that it might not hold too much quality but I was pretty wrong. 
The aroma was full of hops and malt backing. The foam was pretty thick and held it's own for quite a while. As I took the first sip a lot of the flavors really seemed to spring out from everywhere. It had a little bit of a woody character along with floral hops. The malts gave it a sweet kick to it, but nothing too overpowering. 
Overall it was a very easy sipping, drinkable beer, but I've probably had better. 

Grade B

 

Allagash Hugh Malone

While I'm sitting here waiting for a beer package to arrive, via Fedex, I'll write about the a good Allagash beer I had over the weekend. I'm truly sadden by the news of Allagash being pulled from  the shelves in the South Florida region. They're great beers, but for some reason they just don't seem to fly off the shelves here, as they might in other parts of the state, or country for that matter. While at the Cigar City night at Coffee District in Delray I talked briefly with Adam Fine of Fresh Beer and asked him this question "What's the deal with Allagash being pulled from the South Florida shelves?" And he responded with this question "How often have you gone into a bar and seen Allagash on tap?" I reflected on that for a moment and responded with "I guess I haven't really seen it on tap at all down here." So I suppose of majority of the sales from Allagash are  done with keg sales and bars and such. I mean you can go out to World of Beer and order a bottle of one up no problem,  but I doubt they have any Allagash beers on tap. I can see Adam's point. But lucky enough for me I was able to snag a bottle of Hugh Malone while in Orlando a few months back. It was a little pricey,  but  since Allagash will be harder and harder to come by down south, I figured with was well worth it. 

Brewer : Allagash Brewing (Maine)
Style : Belgian Strong Ale
ABV : 8.5%

Has a darkish pour with a thick, fluffy head. The carbonation is pretty good as is the head retention. The aroma has a good amount of hop presence and the malts aren't shy either. Both the hops and the malts are prevalent in the flavor, which is more on the sweet side, but nothing too too sweet. It was a good sipping beer. I can see this bottle doing really well paired with some seafood,  such as lobster. I mean if  your drinking a beer from Maine you gotta go with the lobster, am I right?


Grade B+