Southern Tier Gemini

This “Imperial Blended Ale” is half Unearthly and half Hoppe. I’m a huge fan of the Unearthly, so I’m a bit skeptical about this one. Let’s see how this blended ale is.

Stats:
American Strong Ale. 9.0% ABV. New York. Limited Release.

Dark golden color with a fantastic head.

Big hoppy nose that’s bringing quite a bit of a piney-earthy aroma. A hint of citrus cuts it a bit.

Mouthfeel is nice and full bodied with lower amount of carbonation.

Piney hops with a bit of earthy-mushroom. The orange and lemon flavor appears just after that and leaves with a nice vanilla and orange sherbert flavor. Medium bitterness with a sweetness, and you can’t taste the alcohol.

This is a little bit too easy drinking. It’s a decent brew, but honestly, I love Unearthly, and would much rather drink that. 89 points.

Schmaltz He’Brew Jewbelation Fifteen

This beer has 15 malts, 15 hops and weighs in at 15% ABV. Are you ready for this? The malts: 2-row, Vienna, Munich, Wheat, Chocolate, Crystal Rye, Dark Crystal, Rye Ale, CaraMunich 40, Carapils, Kiln Amber, Chocolate Wheat, Flaked Spelt, Flaked oats, Flaked Quinoa. (I guess that’s not technically 15 malts.) The hops: Ahtanum, Amarillo, Apollo, Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Columbus, Crystal, Fuggle, Golding, Palisade, Simcoe, Summit, Tettnang, and Willamette. At this point, you might be asking “why”? I have no idea.

Stats:
American Strong Ale. 15.0% ABV. California. Limited Release.

Dark chocolate color, with no head.

Interesting nose. Sweet raisins, vanilla, baked plums, brown sugar, and a little bit of booze.

Mouthfeel is actually very nice. It’s thick and boozy, but has a definite carbonation spritz.

Very sweet and a bit boozy. The booze is fairly well covered, but it’s definitely present. Lots of sweetness and a raisin and dark fruit play on the palate. There’s a wine quality about it.

Very interesting beer. It’s a nice dessert beer, but I can only drink so much of it. 90 points.

Maritime Pacific Decompression Ale

This beer was created for Seattle Beer Week this year. I guess it’s a strong ale brewed with all Falconer’s Flight hops. Should be interesting.

Stats:
American Strong Ale. 8.0% ABV. 80 IBUs. Washington. Limited Release.

Coppery color. Nice head on this one. Nice lacing, as well.

The nose is grainy with some herbal hops and a honey aroma.

Mouthfeel is great. Nice medium body with a good level of carbonation.

Grapenuts, honey, raspberries, hint of cocoa, with an herbal/spice-y hop flavor. Great length, not shy on the bitterness.

I’m liking this one. It’s malt forward in the flavor department, but has an aggressive bitter hop component. 88 points

Boulevard Chocolate Ale

This is a seasonal from the Smokestack Series. I’ve had a couple from the series, and they have certainly been stuff worth seeking out. Most chocolate beers are stouts or porters, so I was surprised to see this one is much lighter, just referred to as an American Strong Ale on BA. This beer features pale and wheat malts with Honey Naked oats, Hallertau hops, and cocoa nibs from the Dominican Republic.

Stats:
American Strong Ale. 9.1% ABV. 24 IBUs. Missouri. Spring Seasonal.

Looks kind of like a dunkelweizen. It’s dark brownish with lots of sediment and a great head.

There’s really not that much going on on the nose. You get a hint of chocolate, but you mainly get this tart apple and grain smell. To be honest, it doesn’t smell all that good.

Excellent mouthfeel, medium to full bodied.

Wow, so the palate is nothing like the nose. You get this unbelievable chocolate bar taste unlike any chocolate beer that I’ve had before. And you do get this Belgian yeast flavor and that tart apple with chocolate drizzled over the top. That Belgian yeast flavor along with a dose of bitterness hits the backend to an almost distracting level, but I didn’t notice that until the bottom of the bottle with all the sediment.

This is probably the best chocolate beer that I’ve ever had. It’s rich and decadent, without being cloying and sweet. This is a great dessert beer and can pair with any number of dessert dishes. 91 points.

Dick’s Double Danger

So this is the double version of the Danger Ale that I just reviewed. It’s not listed on their very old website. I do recall the bottle said it was one of the last recipes Dick was working on before his death.

Stats:
American Strong Ale. 8.6% ABV. Washington.

Dark ruby color, a bit of an off white head.

Nice nose with some brown sugar, plums, apples, cherries, pretty full nose.

Medium bodied and low carbonation.

Similar to the nose on the palate with rum, dark fruits, and brown sugar. Heavily medicinal on the finish with a cough syrup meets alcohol and bitterness flavor.

Worth a try, but it needs some work in my humble opinion. 85 points.

Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Grand Cru

It appears that Sierra Nevada has taken down their 30th Anniversary webpage, so I’ll have to use my memory for this one. If I recall this is a blend of the Pale, Celebration, and Bigfoot and then dry-hopped. I’ve been a big fan of the other 3, so I’m sure this one won’t disappoint.

Stats:
American Strong Ale. 9.2% ABV. California.

This is dark copper in color with a great head.

The nose is hoppy with some pine, but also quite perfumy. Citrus and caramel also come through strong. I get some slight oak with vanilla, but I have to admit it’s not a super open nose.

Great mouthfeel, medium to full-bodied.

Citrus, pine, followed by oak and vanilla flavors. Caramel and apples follow throughout. I get this beautiful orange/tangerine component, especially on the finish. Quite a good dose of bitterness on the back, but a well balanced beer, as you would expect from Sierra Nevada.

Good beer, and well worth the money quality wise. I do have to admit that it doesn’t completely blow my socks off. 91 points.

Lagunitas Brown Sugga’

This early Winter release has generous amounts of, you guessed it, brown sugar. Apparently, this beer began as a failed attempt in 1997 making Old Gnarlywine. So they added a bunch of brown sugar to save the batch and they’ve been making it since.

Stats:
American Strong Ale. 10.0% ABV. 51 IBUs. California. October Release.

Dark caramel color with a decent white head.

Lots of hops on the nose, but with quite a bit of sweetness and malts. Some barleywine aspects due to the sweetness and dark malts with a sharp, floral, and citrusy hops.

Big mouthfeel, lots of sugar.

Again, a ton of sweetness with a lot of brown sugar, molasses, but with a bunch of hops to balance it out and bring a bunch of grapefruit and floral notes.

Not generally my style of beer, due to the high sugar, but because it’s so hoppy, it just makes a delicious concoction. I like this one. 89 points.

Victory Yakima Twilight

I was pretty excited when I found this beer. This was one I wanted to try for awhile. A lot of that is because Yakima Valley produces most of the hops in the US. Something around 70-75% of the hops in the US are grown in Washington. Why this beer is being made by a Pennsylvania brewery and not a Washington brewery is beyond me. This is going to be a slight rant, so you may want to skip straight to the review right now. Why isn’t Washington producing world-class beers. We have everything for it. You can go right across the river, and find such breweries as Deschutes and Hair of the Dog that produce beers on such a cult status that people are willing to give up a lot to get them. Where is Washington’s Pliny? This state should be making the most sought after IPA’s in the world.

Stats:
American Strong Ale. 8.7% ABV. Pennsylvania.

Dark red with a fluffy tan head and great lacing.

The nose reminds me of the forests in Washington state. Nice pine and citrus aromas with lemon and orange plus there is a little perfume-y thing here as well.

Good medium bodied mouthfeel.

Hops right away on the palate with oranges, almost candied orange. I get quite a lot of fruit on the mid-palate with citrus, cherries, apples, and bananas. The the pine and the bitternesss set in at the back end. Well balanced, but high bitterness.

Pretty decent brew here, grab this one if you can get it, but you may need to wait till next year. 89 points.

Rogue Double Dead Guy Ale 2009

This is Rogue’s Double Dead Guy, the 2009 vintage. I actually reviewed this before the regular Dead Guy. This beer features 2-Row, Munich, and C15 malts with only Cascade hops. The ingredients are actually not at all the same, which is interesting.

Stats:
Strong Ale. 19.8º Plato (Around 8% ABV.). Oregon.

Sort of a dark coppery color, doesn’t leave that much head.

The nose is grainy and fruity with a little bit of alcohol coming through. I’m getting a lot of lemon, apricot and pears. A lot of breadyness is coming through also.

Medium to full bodied, pretty thick actually.

Fruits hit the palate first with lemon, sour cherries, apricots, pears, and plums. Then it gets really bready and grainy. Apricots on the finish, where it drys out and gets a bit earthy with a hop bitterness.

Not a bad beer, not killing me either. Definitely not worth the normal price for it. 88 points.

Deschutes Jubel 2010

There aren’t very many cool stories involving the creation of beer, but the Jubel is one of them. When a thief tried to steal a keg of Jubelale, Deschutes’ winter seasonal, they didn’t realize how heavy it was, and left it outside. Some of the water froze out of the beer, and made a concentrated form of the beer. The brewery’s owner, who discovered the keg liked it so much that he wanted to recreate it. That beer has been known as the Super Jubel. This is the same beer, but then aged in Pinot Noir barrels.

Stats:
Strong Ale. 10.0% ABV. 55 IBUs. Oregon.

Kind of a chocolate, dark caramel color. No real lasting head.

The nose has a lot of caramel, chocolate, sour cherry, red wine, and lemon. Alcohol appears just a little.

Medium bodied, high carbonation mouth feel.

Chocolate covered sour cherries, vanilla, caramel, red wine, and booze on the palate. Some bitterness on the back end. Feels a little off-balanced to me.

Interesting beer, but I’m not really feeling it. A lot of people are going to disagree with me, but I think it was a little bit over-done. 90 points.