Ranger - New Belgium

Vitals:

Name: Ranger

Style: American IPA

IBU: 70

ABV: 6.5%

Gravity: 14.6 Plato

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a bright burnt orange, which somehow makes me think it'll be more hoppy than malty. About a half-finger of off-white head, surprisingly poor retention and cap, but good lacing. There is not much visible carbonation and the beer has a translucent quality to it.

Smell: This beer smells AMAZING! There is a HUGE crisp citrus hop aroma, not too much malt to accompany it. There are some piney notes as well - I am literally salivating for this one...

Taste: The taste is a nice little roller coaster...going from SHARP citrus hops to sweet malt, back to hops again (citrus AND piney this time) to the finish. Very nice drinking experience. The taste is mostly hoppy, but you get some grapefruit in there...it's complex enough, but not overly so. This beer just tastes damn good...a very clean, crisp drink that leaves a long aftertaste. Hides the ABV quite well.

Mouthfeel: Slightly to the heavier side of medium bodied and not too much carbonation. The mouthfeel fits the beer well...it's juicy/creamy but doesn't dry you out...coats your mouth and gives you that oily feel.

Overall Grade: A-

Comments: This is a VERY good IPA...I would definitely drink it again and almost pit it against Bells Two-Hearted, which is saying a lot. At 6.5% ABV and 14.6 Plato it is much too high ABV and too heavy to drink too many of them, but hop heads will love this offering from New Belgium. They seemingly make almost entirely solid beers.

Cheers,

Hurls

Tripel Nova - Ale Asylum

Vitals:

Name: Tripel Nova

Style: Belgian Tripel

IBU: ??

ABV: 10%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a very light straw color with about a half-finger of head that is bone white. Poor retention, with no cap or lacing...disappointing in regard. This beer is CRYSTAL clear - usually you get that yeasty/cloudy look in a tripel, but this is incredibly clear.

Smell: Smells great - mostly overripe banana and oranges, with a tiny bit of piney aroma. What strikes me most is the softness of the Belgian yeast notes...you don't get nearly as much spiciness or nearly the amount of Belgian funk that you normally do. Good, soft nose on this one...

Taste: VERY sweet up front and you actually get the alcohol warmth coming on in the middle of the taste (as opposed to most beers, which normally have it at the finish...in my experience at least). It actually does a reasonably good job of hiding the 10% ABV (YES, 10% ABV...wow! have one of these and go about the rest of your evening...these will lay you out!). You get the overripe banana and orange tastes as well, which pair nicely with some other esters. The taste follows the nose with the yeast/spice aspect, which is good and different...it seems almost like the normal spice is replaced with a honey-like sweetness.

Mouthfeel: This is rather thin for the style, but still retains a little bit of creaminess...not too much carbonation. This is definitely not typical, but is pretty good in all aspects.

Overall Grade: B+

Comments: Very good triple...not quite "Belgian" though. This is a lot different than most tripels I have had, but it's pretty darn good IMHO. Check it out! Another good Ale Asylum brew.

Cheers,

Hurls

Headwaters Pale Ale - Victory Brewing Company

Vitals:

Name: Headwaters Pale Ale

Style: American Pale Ale

IBU: ??

ABV: 5.1%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Bright, clear orange color...no haziness at all to it really. Half a finger of off-white head that leaves quickly and has poor cap/lacing for an APA...

Smell: Smells great, vibrant even...lots of citrus (fruit and hops...orange maybe?) and also some piney hops. There is a very solid malt smell behind all of the hops, though, which gives it a sweet bready smell to it. Great smelling beer.

Taste: I get a burst of orange from the onset and citrus hops follow shortly thereafter...it seems to jump down the middle of your tongue all of the way to the back of your throat. The malt has a nice caramel sweetness to it and is solid (not completely overrun by the hops) so you get a nice balanced beer. This really tastes great...the piney hops and bread from the nose are there, but not in a big way. The taste really sticks with you.

Mouthfeel: Slightly on the lighter side of medium, with adequate carbonation and boy is this one drinkable. You get an oiliness that sticks with you a bit; very pleasant overall mouthfeel.

Overall Grade: A-

Comments: Yet another great beer from Victory...I've come to respect most everything they do. I would suggest that you grab this if you're a hop head or are just looking to try what a great APA should taste like. Enjoy some of Pennsylvania's finest!

Cheers,

Hurls

Yakima Glory - Victory Brewing Company

Vitals:

Name: Yakima Glory

Style: American Black Ale

IBU: ??

ABV: 8.7%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a dark chocolate color with a finger of creamy tan head. The retention is decent, with a concentrated cap in the middle of the beer. The lacing is just okay, but not a major concern. Too dark to see if there is much carbonation :-O

Smell: smells like toasted caramel malt mostly. Has a smell of raisins to it and some pleasant citrus hops toward the back end. Not extremely complex, but pleasant.

Taste: Wow, very interesting! So, this starts out mostly malty, sweet and caramel-y, but more lightly toasted than I thought from the smell. The taste rolls into a brief citrus hop and grapefruit flavor, which then gets completely engulfed by a huge roasted malt finish that tastes like coffee. It's so odd because you get that roasted flavor with a bitter hop bite, but it's missing most of the hop flavor that accompanies the actual bite. So interesting, and I like it quite a bit.

Mouthfeel: Medium mouthfeel/body but definitely on the sticky/oily side of things. Adequately carbonated, nothing out of the ordinary here really.

Overall Grade: A-

Comments: This beer is unlike anything I've previously had..it's like a light, hoppy stout...just awesome. I would highly recommend that you try this, at least just for the experience. Life is about collecting experiences, and this is definitely a very unique one, as far as beers go...should be available in many places, as Victory has good distribution.

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

Torpedo - Sierra Nevada

Vitals:

Name: Torpedo

Style: American IPA

IBU: 65

ABV: 7.2%

Gravity: 17.3 degrees Plato

Purchased at: Harris Teeter (Herndon, VA)

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a pretty, clear amber color with close-to-bone-white head (half finger). Minimal carbonation from the look of it, but solid lacing. The retention is quite poor with a moderate cap. Nothing particularly special here.

Smell: This beer smells very sweet with citrus hops and malt right there for you. You get some piney hops too, but the smell (in general) seems muted. Don't get me wrong, this beer smells pretty darn good, but it's just very faint and not totally impressive.

Taste: This is VERY hop-forward. You get a tiny bit of grapefruit up front, but it's mostly sweet caramel and molasses malt at the outset to counter some of the hops. Citrus and floral hops hit early and linger with piney hops as well. This beer is mouth-puckeringly bitter, with the malts barely coming through toward the end. Having said that, it hides its ABV reasonably well.

Mouthfeel: Creamy, medium bodied beer...a little heavy for an IPA but with adequate carbonation. It really coats your mouth and dries you out quite a bit; definitely makes your mouth pucker quite a bit.

Overall Grade: B+

Comments: So I would've typically graded this as a B, and the only reason I bumped it up to a B+ is that it's pretty much a macro that you can get almost anywhere. It's a solid beer with a pretty good taste...maybe a bit more bitter than most IPAs out there, but for a macro it is solid. So, in sum, based solely on the beer it'd be a B, but the fact that it's a macro (and thus available in most locations) it gets bumped to a B+.

Cheers,

Hurls

Stone IPA - Stone Brewery

So, after a HUGE delay, I am back to posting (hopefully on a regular basis). I basically was trying to finish up getting work done in the summer, then I upgraded to Mac Lion OS, which is somehow incompatible with my camera, so I put it off and put it off and finally uploaded some pics.

So, the story behind this one is my best buddy, Pat Fichtner, told me about how I needed to try this incredible IPA from Stone Brewery. The only problem...Pat lives in California and, if you haven't looked at a map recently, California is sort of out of the way from Wisconsin. Luckily for me, I was heading to California for my buddy Reid's wedding so, true to form, Reid and I pick up some brew to enjoy while we chatted and caught up late into the night (errrr...make that morning). You can't get much better than that...catching up with one of your best friends over some quality micro-brews! Enjoy and cheers!

Vitals:

Name: Stone IPA

Style: American IPA

IBU: 77

ABV: 6.9%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Ralph's (grocery store near Los Angeles, CA)

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a brilliant translucent orange with about a finger of off-white (slightly orange, actually) foamy head. OK retention, sparse lacing, but a nice cap up top. Moderate carbonation from the look of it and lots of stuff hanging in suspension in the beer.

Smell: Grapefruit, orange, peach, and citrus hops mostly. You can sense the malt poking its way through, though, so you can expect a decent malt backing. You get piney hops as well - not going to lie...this smells fantastic!

Taste: The grapefruit comes through with a nice juiciness up front with the malt sweetness. There is more of a spice when the hops kick in, as opposed to what normally seems like a hop "bite." It's a nice feel but I can't place that taste completely. There is INTENSE bitterness with this beer. You get hit with citrus hops first, but it tastes pinier as you go through the taste experience. This hides the ABV incredibly well and leaves you with a mouth-coating, lingering bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Juicy, yet crisp; not overly astringent and just the right amount of the hop oil quality to coat your mouth. This is somewhat light for an IPA; pretty drinkable but will put you on your butt if you have more than a few. 

Overall Grade: A

Comments: One of the very best IPAs that I've ever had; if you can find it, buy it hopheads! You won't regret this one.

Cheers,

Hurls