Bear Republic Racer 5

On the list of classic American IPA’s this generally makes an appearance. It’s hopped with Chinook, Cascade, Columbus, and Centennial hops but packs enough pale and crystal to balance and bring it to 7%. I’ve had this beer a couple times in the past, but have managed to never review it.

Stats:
American India Pale Ale. 7.0% ABV. 75+ IBUs. California.

Nice light orange color with a pillow-y head and beautiful lacing.

It’s a lovely hoppy nose that brings a nice balance of citrus and earthy-ness. Nice little black pepper component. Almost makes me think of black pepper and orange zest.

Mouthfeel is lovely with a nice medium body and just enough carbonation. It’s perfect.

Orange zest, grapefruit, black pepper and a hint of vanilla and earth. Medium bitterness, very well balanced. Fantastic length.

It’s a classic for a reason and it can’t be denied. Drink this beer. 93 points.

Stone Smoked Porter Re-Review

It’s actually been years since I’ve had this beer, but when it was recently shipped to my beer store, I grabbed a fresh bottle. You can read my original review here. I wasn’t impressed the first time I had it, but maybe it will win me over this time.

Stats:
American Porter. 5.9% ABV. 53 IBUs. California.

Fairly light colored porter with a lot of red coming through. Really nice head on here.

Not too much happening on the nose. It’s got only a hint of smoke, but it’s mostly a chocolate malty aroma.

The mouthfeel is quite nice. It’s fairly thick with a low amount of carbonation.

Again, very little smoke on here. It’s got a lot of chocolate, and a hint of coffee. That’s about it.

Really unimpressive for Stone. The smoke is barely there, and subtle isn’t really Stone’s game. 79 points.

Moylan’s Hopsickle

I havn’t had too many Moylan’s beers in the past. Something never really excited me about them, for some reason. When I picked this one up, I noticed it has some ridiculously high scores on BA. 92 overall with the Bros giving it a 100. Let’s see if it lives up to that. The malts include 2-row, Crystal 15 & 45, and Acidulated malt, which apparently has a little bit of lactic acid. The hops are Chinook, Simcoe, Columbus, Cascade, and Ahtanum.

Stats:
Imperial India Pale Ale. 9.2% ABV. California.

Dark golden color with a great looking head.

Ridiculously hoppy nose that brings pine, earth, mushrooms, and just a squeeze of citrus.

Mouthfeel is pretty full bodied with a low carbonation level. This is hop juice, folks.

Piney and earthy hops meet a black pepper and Cayenne spice with some stone fruits which like to show up in the mid. The finish is fairly piney with a pineapple play. It’s bitter, believe me, but it’s not overwhelming for a hop head.

This is an over-the-top hop bomb that manages to have complexity and finesse. How? No idea. 91 points.

Stone Vertical Epic 11.11.11

I somehow missed this one when it came out. This is an interesting brew. It’s described as a Belgian style Amber ale brewed with Anaheim chili and cinnamon. It will be interesting to see how the Belgian yeast plays with the cinnamon and chili flavor.

Stats:
Belgian Strong Pale Ale. 9.4% ABV. California. Limited Release.

Dark copper in color with a nice head, but does fade surprisingly quickly.

Not getting too much on the nose, but there’s some sweet malts with a hint of black pepper, bell pepper, and cinnamon.

Mouthfeel is decent, it’s got some body, and the carbonation is low, but almost seems high because of the chili spice.

The flavor is bell peppers and a hint of black pepper and cinnamon, same flavor on the mid, but it starts to get a bit bitter and spicier. The back shows a bit of that malt and it’s got a sweetness to it. You can taste the cinnamon if you imagine it, but it’s not obvious.

The bell pepper taste kinda destroys this for me. It has just a tiny bit of heat and doesn’t have the lovely chili flavor that I was hoping for. I love the concept, but I’m not blown over with this effort. 86 points.

Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA

This is Sierra Nevada’s newest seasonal. I’ve had a couple six packs by now, but I’ve yet to review it. This beer features Pale, Rye, Caramel, and Chocolate malts with Bravo, Chinook, Citra and whatever they are referring to as Experimental hops.

Stats:
Rye Beer. 6.6% ABV. 55 IBUs. California. Spring Seasonal.

Nice coppery color that also has a fine head. The lacing is especially impressive.

It’s got a hop forward nose bringing a floral and spicy note with a hint of honey.

Mouthfeel is great with a nice medium body with a medium to high carbonation level.

Floral and spicy hop profile that actually eases into a floral and fruit flavor on the mid-palate. Some stone fruits show up there, while it finishes on a more spicy note with a grainy-rye flavor left on the palate.

Just another solid brew from Sierra Nevada. At first blush, I wasn’t that impressed with this beer, but the more I drink it, the more I like it. 90 points.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

This is one of my favorite beers and I’ve never even reviewed it. Not sure how that’s happened, but I had some left over from my last beer club, so I’ll finally review it. This has 2-row Pale and Caramel malts with Magnum, Perle, and Cascade hops.

Stats:
American Pale Ale. 5.6% ABV. 37 IBUs. California.

Burnt orange color with a nice white head. Quite a bit of sediment in here.

Citrusy hops dominate the nose. Orange, lemon, lime, and a hint of grapefruit. The grainy malt shows just a hint of itself.

Mouthfeel is fantastic. Nice medium body with a medium carbonation.

The citrusy hops hit the palate first, which transitions to a honey and grain flavor. The bitterness shows up and it’s on the higher side for a pale. The finish is long with a lime and grain flavor.

After all this time, this is still one of my favorite beers. It’s just a classic and one of the best pale ales out there. 93 points.

Stone Collaboration More Brown Than Black IPA

Got another collab beer to try. This one is a collab with John Kimmich of the Alchemist and Jamie Floyd of Ninkasi. First of all, I want to mention that the proceeds of this beer go to the Waterbury Good Neighbor Fund, so pick one up for that. Second, this is a very interesting beer. They backed off some of the darker malt a tad, hence the name, and put in some crazy hops. It’s got Super Galena, Nelson Sauvin, Delta, Galaxy, and Citra.

Stats:
American Black Ale. 7.4% ABV.

Dark brown with a bunch of sediment. The head on this beer is insane and leaves just a ton of lacing.

Very piney nose with just a hint of chocolate and citrus.

Mouthfeel is a light medium body with high medium carbonation.

That’s a wild tasting beer. It’s altogether a huge, hop bomb. But the hop flavor is so unusual. You’ve got some pine and citrus, but it’s also really fruity. I’m getting some apricots, cherries, lemon, orange, and it actually compliments the pine flavor very well. It’s definitely got a big amount of bitterness on the back, so this is not for everyone.

I’m loving this. I’ve had hundreds of IPA’s, but I’ve never tasted a hop profile like this, and it just tickles my fancy. 92 points.

Stone Collaboration La Citrueille Celeste De Citracado

One of the newest in the collaboration series by Stone is this take on a pumpkin ale. Patrick Rue from the Bruery, who is no stranger to weird ingredients and Dick Cantwell from Elysian, who specializes in pumpkin beers are on board to make this strange brew. I’ll steal the rest from Beer Advocate: “Brewed with Honey malt, Brown malt, and Rye malt, yams, pumpkin, toasted fenugreek, lemon verbena, and birch bark. Warrior hops, and New Zealand Motueka hops. “Citrouille”, French for pumpkin, intentionally misspelled in honor of Patrick Rue.”

Stats:
Pumpkin Ale. 5.0% ABV. California. Limited Release.

Dark brown color, with a bit of an off-white head.

Well, it smells like a pumpkin beer. It’s got that heavy spice thing going on with a bit of sweetness. There’s also this lemony thing going on, as well.

Mouthfeel is on the bigger side, and there’s not a ton of carbonation..

Brown sugar and pumpkin spices come through first, and it turns into a lemony citrus play, and ends on a roasted nut note. A bit of a bitter finish.

Very interesting beer. It’s basically a different take on the pumpkin ale, and has a bit more going on than the usual pumpkin spices. 90 points.

Beer Club 02/18/12 American Pale Ales

February gave us a chance to try something that wasn’t just a seasonal. After the Winter seasonals and the stout tastings, I wanted to try something on the lighter side of things. The American Pale Ale is arguably the most important American craft beer other than the IPA. These beers are a nice way to show what American brewing is often about, without getting too hoppy. Besides, I love these beers because they are sessionable and go great with so many types of food.

We started with one of my favorite beers to come out last year, 21st Amendments Bitter American. It’s a 4.4% session beer that packs a great flavor punch. This beer was generally liked, but fell a bit flat compared to the bigger beers that we drank after this.

We moved on to one of my favorite party beers. The plain old Full Sail Pale. There’s nothing amazing about this beer, but it’s more than solid beer at a great price point.

Deschutes Mirror Pond is a classic. This was definitely on the malty side compared to the other pales. I think this was pretty well liked because of that, but I personally prefer on the hoppy side.

Of course, the most classic of them all is the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. This might have been the least favorite of all the beers we had. I was really surprised by this, especially since this was actually MY favorite of the bunch. It’s got this amazing citrus hop flavor that didn’t resonate with the other palates.

Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale was next and quickly became the favorite of the night. This was the biggest beer at 6.5% and was definitely on the malty side. Go figure, this was MY least favorite of the bunch, but people really loved that grainy malt flavor.

We finished the night with another Deschutes beer, this time the Red Chair NWPA. I put this last because I figured this would be the hoppiest of the beers. And it was, in terms of hop flavor, but actually had a very mild bitterness. Because of that, people actually enjoyed this one quite a bit. I did notice a hint of diacetyl, that I don’t recall before, but the tasting would probably make that more noticeable.

Russian River Redemption

Here’s a new Russian River beer for me. This Blonde ale is quite low on alcohol, and the price is pretty decent. Let’s give it a try.

Stats:
Belgian Pale Ale. 4.8% ABV. California.

Pale golden color. Head fades fairly quickly.

Lovely nose, reminds one of Duvel. It’s got a Belgian yeast component with a ton of fruit. Lots of light fruits coming through. There’s a lovely honey and melon component with a little bit of black pepper.

Fairly light mouthfeel and high on the carbonation.

Light fruits and honey coming through. Getting that melon which transitions to a black pepper spice finish. There’s a nice hop profile coming through here, as well.

Just a tasty brew. It’s not on the level of their sours with me, but this is a much more nuanced and light beer. 90 points.