Uff-da - New Glarus

I always find it hilarious to figure out the local sayings when you move to someplace new. Wisconsin has been no exception. While hanging out with our friends Greg and Em, somebody said something and they said "uff-da!" Being from Virginia, I have no idea what this means, and am informed that it's an exclamation of surprise (good or bad) for something that is not too serious. At any rate, New Glarus has used the colloquialism to name one of their brews.

Vitals:

Name: Uff-da

Style: Bock

IBU: ??

ABV: 6.7%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a deep brown with about a finger of milk-chocolate colored head. The head is foamy with decent retention, good lacing and a quality cap. There are tons of carbonation bubbles clinging to the side of the glass (as can be seen in the picture).

Smell: This brew has a wonderful roasted caramelized malt smell to it but there is also an interesting vanilla undertone that is nice (and unique). Finally, there is a slight (just barely noticeable) coffee-ish smell to it, but nothing too overwhelming.

Taste: You get a sweet malt flavor that is almost immediately cut by the bitterness of the chocolate/coffee tastes (the chocolate is more noticeable as you allow the beer to warm). You get some barely noticeable hop flavor but it's so muted that it's nearly impossible to tell what it is exactly...maybe piney? You also get a tiny alcohol twinge that isn't enough to hint at the high ABV.

Mouthfeel: Heavier side of medium, even a bit chewy. The carbonation is definitely not what I thought it'd be from the look of it, but that was actually a very good thing...it just wouldn't fit with this type of beer to be a huge carbonation bomb.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: Eh, you can find better New Glarus brews and (though my experience with them is limited) better dark beers. This is only OK...definitely a solid beer, but nothing that is going to really "wow" you and is not quite good enough to further sway me towards dark beers. Definitely worth a try but I would try to order it somewhere or build your own six pack with it as a component. Personally a six pack would be too much for me.

Cheers,

Hurls

Mad Town Nutbrown - Ale Asylum

Vitals:

Name: Mad Town Nutbrown

Style: American Brown Ale

IBU: ??

ABV: 5.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a medium-colored brown with a very slight amount of tan head. Poor retention/lacing and wispy cap. This beer has a ton of debris in suspension that has me quite concerned. Not much visible carbonation.

Smell: Sweet caramelized and roasted malts - you get a big nutty smell (hence the name, I suppose) and also a faint cocoa scent. Smells pretty good and should have a great malt backing. My concerns about the debris have temporarily been alleviated/forgotten.

Taste: Very sweet and malty throughout the whole experience...the malt backing is very well toasted. You get a slightly bitter finish with some earthy hops (just slightly so). I guess my issue is that, while the taste is solid and stable throughout the experience, you don't get much complexity...nothing changes or "evolves" as you go through the taste experience. You perhaps get a tiny chocolate flavor too, but I'm not really even certain of that. Decent but forgettable.

Mouthfeel: Very smooth drink without much carbonation. Probably a medium body, but nothing really special...drinkable at least.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: This beer is just OK for me - I'm sort of at a loss because nothing really stood out to me as great throughout the experience. Ale Asylum usually puts out a better effort in my opinion, but I am also not an enormous fan of brown ales...so take it for what it's worth. If you like brown ales this is worth a try; otherwise probably not.

Cheers,

Hurls

Pepe Nero - Goose Island

Vitals:

Name: Pepe Nero

Style: Farmhouse Ale ("Belgian Style Ale" is on the bottle)

IBU: 30

ABV: 6.0%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours midnight black; NO light makes it through this bad boy. One finger of light milk-chocolate colored head that is quick to leave and doesn't lace much. A formidable cap is left atop this beer, though. Probably the best cap I've seen on a beer in a few years, maybe ever.

Smell: This beer smells...unique. You get roasted, earthy malts and almost a coffee-ish smell, yet you get a spiciness as well. The spiciness, in my mind, is probably ground black peppercorn and maybe anise. You get a faint chocolate smell, but the smell is mainly what I've previously described.

Taste: The chocolate is much more pronounced here and leads off the experience with sweetness. YOu also get some faint fig/date flavor, but not a whole lot. The beer evolves with the sweet roasted malt into more of a coffee flavor and, as it rolls back down your tongue, you really get slammed with the peppercorn taste. This beer hides its 6.0% ABV well and provides you with a very unique drinking experience.

Mouthfeel: VERY heavy and even creamy. This beer leaves your mouth surprisingly dry as well, which is a bit of a detractor here because it combines with the creaminess to give you a bit of unpleasantness in the mouthfeel.

Overall Grade: C (perhaps a B or B+ to dark/heavy beer drinkers)

Comments: I'm not totally feeling this one, though I can appreciate how unique it is. I would give it a try if you're into stouts/porters or other dark types of beers. It's a solid, but not great, effort that is unique enough to warrant paying $7-8 for a big bomber of it. Enjoy, and keep expanding your beer tasting horizons!

Cheers,

Hurls

Abt - New Glarus (Thumbprint Series)

Vitals:

Name: Abt

Style: Quadruppel (Quad)

IBU: ??

ABV: 9.75%

Gravity: ~20 deg. Plato

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a deep, dark brown; looks like a glass of chocolate. You get a finger and a half of light-brown head. OK retention, with great lacing and a great cap. I honestly cannot tell if this beer has a little or a lot of carbonation because it's so dark.

Smell: Smells like raisins, figs, candied brown sugar, dark rum, and sweet caramel malt. You get a faint hint of chocolate as well. Definitely roasted malts - I'm expecting this to have a huge malt backbone to it.

Taste: The caramelized sugar and malts are up front, followed by the spiciness of the Belgian yeast. You don't really get that nice Belgian yeasty funk to it, though, which is unfortunate. You get some raisin/fig taste as well at the finish with a slightly boozy rum-like taste. This beer is well balanced, but I almost feel like there's too much going on, muddling things up for my palate.

Mouthfeel: Small amount of carbonation. This beer is heavy and syrupy on the mouth and REALLY stays on your palate for a while.

Overall Grade: B

Comments: This is a solid beer; not my favorite, but definitely a good intro to the Quad style. This would be much much better to sip by a fire in the winter than to drink on a hot summer day. That's one of the biggest problems I have with these dark beers during the summer - I want to try them out to give them a shot, but I don't feel like conditions are optimal for truly appreciating them as I should. Oh well - give this a shot, as it's only available for a limited time (as all Thumbprint Series beers are). This strikes me as something that might age well into the winter, so you could get it now and hold onto it to enjoy it during some nice cold weather.

Cheers,

Hurls

Satin Solstice Imperial Stout - Central Waters Brewing

Vitals:

Name: Satin Solstice Imperial Stout

Style: American Imperial Stout

IBU: ??

ABV: 7.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a dark brown, or maybe black, with about half a finger of head that is coffee/milk-chocolate colored. Very poor retention, weak cap, weak lacing. 

Smell: Smells very good! Roasted coffee and even a bit like a tootsie roll; you get a faint smell of chocolate, caramelized brown sugar, and maybe some fig? I'm not so great with dark beers at this point for lack of experience.

Taste: HEAVILY roasted malts hammer you from the outset, with the taste of black coffee coming in at the back end. The chocolate comes through a little bitter, more like baking chocolate that is unsweetened. This beer is very solid and hides the ABV very well. You also get some slightly earthy hops lingering in the background. Make no mistake, this is not a very complex tasting beer, but it serves its purpose and is solid.

Mouthfeel: Heavy heavy heavy, but a VERY smooth drink, doesn't leave you dried out in the least, but honestly gives your mouth a nice coat of coffee/cocoa taste. Pleasant mouthfeel for me, aside from how heavy the beer is.

Overall Grade: B

Comments: This is a pretty solid offering for a heavy, dark beer. It's also the first Central Waters I've tried and I can say I'm not disappointed. This is a good enough dark beer to get me excited to try some more dark beers this winter. This beer would honestly be great on a cold winter evening by a roaring fire...the summer heat doesn't do it the justice that it deserves. Wait for the weather to get cold and snatch up a few of these for a snowy night!

Cheers,

Hurls

Robert the Bruce - Three Floyd's Brewing

So, here goes nothing with my first dark beer review - a Scottish Ale. I feel better about the fact that I'm trying this one out because it's brewed by Three Floyd's, which is typically just great all-around in what they brew. Let's see how it goes!

Vitals:

Name: Robert the Bruce

Style: Scottish Ale

IBU: 30

ABV: 7.0%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a deep mahogany color that reveals an almost dark ruby color if you hold it in the light. About half a finger of tan head (I'm surprised there wasn't more than that) which is pretty creamy but doesn't stick around too long.

Smell: Believe it or not the primary smell I get here is of raisins. There is a very sweet note to the aroma, maybe grapes or brown sugar? All of this is held up by a strong roasted malt smell. On second thought, I think what I smell is a hint of figs (maybe not the grapes/brown sugars that I hinted at earlier).

Taste: This beer is GOOD; you get a strong roasted flavor from the outset (it's almost like coffee in the way it tastes roasted). You get a bit of chocolate undertones as well I think. You can definitely note the 7.0% ABV in the aftertaste, just a BIT more than you should, IMHO. You get some leafy hops at the finish, giving it a slight bitterness, and the beer warms you up slightly as it goes down. The most surprising thing with the taste is that the raisin smell didn't manifest itself in the beer very strongly, if at all.

Mouthfeel: THIS is where the beer is a huge win for me. If I'm going to drink a darker beer I want it to be a medium body type like this. There's a tiny bit of chewiness to it, but also a lot of carbonation, which strangely play well off of each other and create a great drinking experience.

Overall Grade: B+

Comments: This is a very good beer, and I've come to expect nothing less from Three Floyd's. The beer is quite deceiving when you get to the mouthfeel after only looking at the beer. The taste is unique and the body invites you to have a few, unlike some other darker beers that leave you feeling like you just ate a 3 course meal involving a very large chunk of red meat. This certainly wins some points for dark beer in my book and could very well expand my horizons (you're welcome, Bhavin). If you can get your hands on this and are a fan of dark beer, definitely pick some up and try it out. If you hate dark beers with a fiery passion, this could possibly sway you a bit, but it's all about keeping an open mind and appreciating the beer for what it is!

Cheers,

Hurls