Alpha King - Three Floyds Brewing

Vitals:

Name: Alpha King

Style: American Pale Ale

IBU: 66

ABV: 6.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a cloudy copper color with lots of tiny carbonation bubbles zooming through it. Half a finger of head that is off-white or even tannish. OK retention but a weak lacing (which was surprising) and a spare cap.

Smell: Smells like it will be very well-balanced...lots of maltiness and breadiness to it, but there is an equal backing of piney-hop presence on the nose. However, this is an extremely pleasant nose, as the sweetness mellows out the big piney hop notes.

Taste: This brew is malty from beginning to end, with other tastes highlighting at different points. Seems mostly like caramel and citrus fruit flavors lacing the beginning, but it actually evolves into a more citrus/piney hop finish. This is a very well-crafted and well-balanced beer; you get a bitter finish for sure, so if that's not your thing then you may not enjoy this one!

Mouthfeel: This brew is a bit creamier and heavier than I expected...it actually drinks more like an IIPA or IPA than an APA. This beer has a lot of nice aspects, though...it's oily (in a good way) so it coats your mouth a bit and is well carbonated (which most Three Floyds brews are).

Overall Grade: B+

Comments: This almost seems like it's improperly classified in a few ways. First, it drinks like an IIPA, not an APA. Second, the ABV is more similar to an IPA than an APA. This is a very good beer; having said that, I would probably take Hopalicious from Ale Asylum over this one, but that's only because I feel like this one is a bit maltier and I prefer my beer to be more on the hoppy end than malty. This is a very solid heavy APA; definitely not something you'll be drinking all night long, though!

Cheers,

Hurls

Blonde Doppelbock - Capital Brewery

Vitals:

Name: Blonde Doppelbock

Style: Doppelbock

IBU: ??

ABV: 7.8%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a burnt orange (very nice), with a half-finger of off-white head. Slightly below average retention, minimal lacing, and a small, thin cap. There looks to be plenty of carbonation in this one.

Smell: Smells of light malt, with a unique green apple smell to it and a hint of caramel and maybe toffee. You mostly get malt and citrus aromas, though, with a slight grassy hops aroma in the background.

Taste: The flavor is quite disappointing after the smell. I will say it improves a bit as the beer warms, though. At first it's very flat with mostly sweet malt and alcohol heat (that is not well-disguised or hidden by the beer). I thought there was a spice to this one, but it was mostly just the alcohol heat, which hits earlier than most brews. BORING.

Mouthfeel: Very creamy, but nearly no noticeable carbonation...which is very odd considering this beer looked highly carbonated. Sticks to your palate a bit; not too much else to describe here...very standard.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: Not too much to say about this one; it's probably my favorite Capital Brewery beer, which is NOT saying much...this one is pretty forgettable.

Cheers,

Hurls

Hazed and Infused - Boulder Beer Company

Vitals:

Name: Hazed and Infused

Style: American Pale Ale (dry-hopped)

IBU: ??

ABV: 4.85%

Gravity: 12.5 Plato

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a hazy/translucent amber/brown in color, which is darker than I expected it to be. You get about 1.5 fingers of foamy head, which is off-white in color. Decent retention, but the lacing is great on this beer. You get a respectable cap after the head is gone, but nothing extremely memorable.

Smell: Piney hops pair with citrusy fruits here (grapefruit, to venture a guess). There is some sweet maltiness in the background, giving it the smell of a very balanced beer. 

Taste: Okay, so to give a quick preface to this taste review I want to give an idea of what dry-hopped, as this beer is strongly advertised to be, actually is. So typically when you get your wort (the concoction that has a lot of sugars from the grains and adjuncts that the yeast will consume to produce alcohol) you also do a hop boil usually. Boiling the hops for longer periods of time will cause more alpha acids and hop oils to be released into the beer. This will result in the bitterness that you get and some of the hoppy taste and flavor. However, hops that are added very LATE in the boil, or after the boil (as they are in dry-hopping), typically are used to add flavor and aroma without the bitterness of the hop oils.

Having gotten THAT out of the way, you get a mostly sweet, almost caramel, malt flavor up front. The hops are VERY muted in this beer and borderline on being completely weak. You get some citrus and piney hops toward the end of the taste with grapefruit and maybe lemon/orange. This beer is not nearly as balanced as it smells and I prefer my beers to err on the hoppy side rather than the malty side. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Mouthfeel: Pretty darn thin here on the mouthfeel, this is a VERY light APA. The carbonation is also low, which gives you a good, pleasant drinkability. Based on the ABV and mouthfeel you could drink this beer all day if you felt so inclined.

Overall Grade: C

Comments: This beer is what its grade indicates - very average. This honestly tastes like someone had a malty lager and then dry hopped it slightly to try to pass it off as an APA. Dry hopping, as I said, has a lot to do with the aroma, which explains why it smelled balanced but wasn't at all. This is a very forgettable beer, but it's definitely within the realm of possibilities for being a sessionable beer. Keep looking - you can do better than this.

Cheers,

Hurls

Abbey Triple - Sprecher Brewing Company

Vitals:

Name: Abbey Triple (yes they spelled it different than the style)

Style: Belgian Tripel

IBU: 13

ABV: 8.41%

Gravity: 19 deg. Plato --> 1.076 OG

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a dark orange, almost a University of Texas burnt orange. ZERO head on this beer, no cap, no lace, NOTHING...so weird. Seems very lightly carbonated, translucent and hazy. To be honest, this looks quite lackluster.

Smell: Fruity (banana) and spicy (cloves) with some yeastiness. Smells good but there's not too much else here. Maybe some other fruits on the nose and there is definitely a faint alcohol smell to it. Smells good but nothing else special.

Taste: Starts with very sweet notes (maybe caramel?) and the fruity banana kick which turns over with the spicy clove and slight bite of alcohol. You get some of the good old Belgian yeast flavor, which is good. Leaves you with a sugary and boozy aftertaste; slight detractor. The middle of this beer is very strong and then fades out, but you get some alcohol heat...hides it's ABV very marginally at best.

Mouthfeel: Lighter side of a medium bodied beer and not much carbonation. Provides the interesting spice/alcohol heat which is interesting...I can't figure out if I like that or not. That feeling rolls down the back of your throat throughout the experience.

Overall Grade: B

Comments: I had this at Quivey's Grove Beerfest last year and thought it was amazing. Now, placing it in context, with more experience with different styles, I think it's still a solid beer, but not as complex as I remember it. At ~$8 for 4 pints it's not a bad deal and is a slight step up from Leffe Blond. I still prefer Bedlam from Ale Asylum or Delirium Tremens if I'm having a Belgian beer at this point. Try it if you're interested, or if you're a Belgian beer connoisseur, but you can probably find something as good or better if you try.

Cheers,

Hurls

Ambergeddon - Ale Asylum

So, upon doing my recap, I realized I had only reviewed one amber. Putting two and two together, having only reviewed one amber and having an amber fresh and chilled in the fridge, I decided to go that route to start the evening. I also have to say, you gotta love the name on this beer. Ale Asylum is the best.

Vitals:

Name: Ambergeddon

Style: American Amber Ale

IBU: ??

ABV: 6.8%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a thick, hazy amber-brownish color with about a finger of tan head. The head retention is moderate, but leaves a nice creamy tan cap on the beer.

Smell: This beer is nutty and malty on the nose; those come through strongly. You get some excellent earthy hop undertones on the smell as well. The malt is caramel-like, so somewhat sweet. The caramel is expected, but the nuttiness isn't...not sure how I feel about that...

Taste: Caramel malts dominate the outset with sweetness, which then rolls through the nutty flavor to a slightly bitter finish with earthy hops. The malt flavor is very bold, and the hops are relatively mild, providing good balance for an amber. The hops are, however, much more pronounced than most ambers I've had. Prepare yourself for that and I think you'll enjoy it (provided you enjoy hops). The 6.8% ABV doesn't come through much but will keep you from drinking a lot of these (Editors Note: hmmm....so THAT'S what happened on Thanksgiving at Amanda & Mikes...)

Mouthfeel: Medium body with light-medium carbonation...a nice beer with some substance to it. Splits itself nicely between easily drinkable and a little bit chewy. This beer dries you out a little bit, which is a bit of a detractor (given the style).

Overall Grade: B+

Comments: This is a solid effort from my favorite WI brewery; keep in mind I'm a total hop head so this may not be for everyone. I'd say it's a must try if you want a unique amber. The beer comes together pretty well; only the astringent quality was a noticeable detractor.

Cheers,

Hurls

Wisconsin Amber - Capital Brewery

Okay, so from the start let's get this out there: Capital Brewery elects to put on some of their products "#1 Rated Brewery in America" or some such message. Having tasted 4-5 of their beers I find this quite hard to believe. Anyways, I decided to look into it and apparently in 1998 they were rated #1 brewery at the World Beer Championships. Now look, I don't have anything AGAINST Capital Brewery, but I just don't get that...either they had a massive drop off, or the judged were paid off or something. The way I would describe Capital Brewery is just solid. They brew a lot of different types of beers, but from what I have tasted you don't really get anything truly SPECIAL from them. You get whatever style you purchase, and yeah it'll be better than a macrobrew like Bud/Coors/Miller most likely, but I don't think I would ever go into a place with a wide variety of tap beers and ask for something from Capital, ya catch my drift? At any rate, this was left from our BBQ we had a few weeks ago, so I decided to go ahead and give Capital Brewery some review love, since I hadn't hit one of their products on here yet. Anyways, here goes...

Vitals:

Name: Wisconsin Amber ("Beer for Badgers" is a nice touch on the bottle)

Style: Amber Lager

IBU: ??

ABV: 5.2%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: left at BBQ

Descriptions:

Appearance: This beer is surprisingly more of an orange-red than a true deep amber. About a finger of head, off-white in color, that recedes pretty quickly, leaving some cap (some floating foam head) on top of the beer. There is some subtle lacing but not much else here.

Smell: Caramel malts are pretty heavy on the nose here from the outset. There may be a bit of burnt sugar smell in there too, but not much else comes out aside from the large malty aroma.

Taste: The beer starts you out with some sweet caramel malts, and this continues through the drink.  You even get a bit of a toffee-like taste here somewhat. I don't taste the burnt sugars that I thought I smelled, but maybe that just is the toffee-esque taste that I had. Right at the end of the drink you get a bit of an earthy/grassy/leafy hop flavor, with a slight bitterness to send you on your way to your next sip. The flavor is OK, nothing great really stands out here...tastes like a standard amber, honestly.

Mouthfeel: Light-medium bodied with a slight astringent quality right at the end when the hops kick in (not too much astringent qualities, so don't let this scare you away). The carbonation is EXTREMELY weak to the point of almost being non-existent, or so it seemed to me.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: Like I said in my little monologue, this is a solid but not spectacular beer. If you like ambers and want something cheap that you can go with quantity over quality on, then go with this. If you're looking for something higher end, steer clear and go with the Sprecher Special Amber or another craft amber with more flavor and a heavier body. All in all, this beer serves its purpose by hitting standard amber flavors, but yet nothing really sticks out...as I have sadly come to expect from most Capital Brewery offerings.

Cheers,

Hurls

Dankenstein IPA - Pearl Street Brewery

Once again, LOVE the name of this beer...just hilarious. This has me thinking there will be some extreme dank hops in this beer, which should provide a very new and interesting experience. I am stoked to try this out and this would represent the sixth and final beer in my BYO 6-pack from the Old Fashioned Craft Beer Week event.

Vitals:

Name: Dankenstein IPA

Style: American Double / Imperial IPA

IBU: ??

ABV: 9.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: The Old Fashioned (BYO 6-Pack)

Descriptions:

Appearance: Ummmm...WTF Mate? This beer is, as you can see in the picture, DARK DARK brown to the point where I'd probably mistake it for a chocolate stout if it had any head on it. The look of it seems to fit the name Dankenstein, but not the style (IIPA) as much. Very hazy with nearly zero head on the beer and minimal, if any, carbonation. I can, without a doubt, say that this is the most surprising I have been when I have poured a beer out and been utterly shocked at how it looked based on my prior expectations.

Smell: MALTS ABOUND! I have never smelled a maltier IIPA in my somewhat limited experience of drinking this type of beer. A little piney hop smell sticks its head in there, but caramelized malts and burnt sugars far outweigh any floral, piney, or other hop smells. There may be a slightly grassy hop smell, but again...this is not what I expected PRIOR to the pour. After I poured it and saw that it seemed to basically be a brown ale I am not surprised at the results from the sniff test.

Taste: So we all know smell is connected to taste. Very evident here. Caramel malts hit your tongue early and often here. The beer tastes (I would say surprising here, but the 9.5% ABV should clue you in) unsurprisingly boozy (i.e. it does nearly nothing to hide its alcohol content). Almost no hop flavor comes through for me, which is still surprising, despite the malty smells. The beer also seems a bit bready and somewhat nutty. NO HOP FLAVOR...UGH!

Mouthfeel: This beer is very thick and creamy. Pearl Street Brewery doesn't release any gravity figures on this beer, but I don't doubt it could be north of 20 deg. Plato. This is a VERY heavy beer, well suited for a brown ale or stout/porter lover. Not for me, but the mouthfeel completely matches the appearance.

Overall Grade: B

Comments: I would've graded this sucker lower based on expectations but I'm trying to be objective here. If you are expecting a big hoppy IIPA (a la Double Dog from Flying Dog Brewery) you will sorely disappointed and I would grade this a D- in that case. However, if you like nutty brown ales, porters, stouts, etc. then you wouldn't be disappointed with this beer. Don't go near it if you're expecting to be wow'd by hops, but if you like the types of beer listed above, give it a shot and I don't think you'll regret it.

Cheers,

Hurls

Hop Devil - Victory Brewing Company

I'll start this post out with a shout out to Mike and Amanda for turning me on to Victory Brewing Company. As true Philadelphians (and, consequently, huge Philly sports fans...always a good thing in my book) they stay true to supporting local companies. Victory is a Pennsylvania brewing company and, as such, their beer should be available all up the east coast I'd imagine. You should definitely check out some of their other efforts, some of which I'll make an effort to review on here eventually.

Vitals:

Name: Hop Devil

Style: American IPA

IBU: ??

ABV: 6.7%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Bottle Stop Liquors

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a deep ruby color, or possibly a rich rich amber. No visible carbonation, but there is good head retention; approximately 2 fingers of off-white (slightly tan) head. True to the name, the hop resins create a nice thick sticky lacing around the glass (get your mind out of the gutter).

Smell: This beer smells pretty darn good - spicy, piney hops and some caramel malts come through. The malts give it a nice sweetness that is definitely not present in all IPAs. The smell is somewhat understated for an IPA, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Taste: The hops definitely come through in a few ways in this beer. There is a certain earthy, piney and spicy (almost peppery) taste to the hops, which really comes through well and adds a degree of complexity not there in some of the purely hit-you-over-the-head-with-bitterness hoppy IPAs. There is a solid caramel malt backbone, which holds everything together nicely and offsets some of the hop bitterness nicely. Having said that, there is a lingering bitterness that bites for just a BIT too long for me. Other tastes are slightly bready and citrusy, but nothing I can outright identify. This beer also doesn't hide it's ABV very well; I would've guessed it to be a higher ABV if I was judging on taste alone.

Mouthfeel: This beer is thick, almost creamy for an IPA. The name again is alluded to with the mouthfeel, as the resins coat your mouth and keeps a layer on your tongue throughout the experience. This beer has an almost oily quality to it, which suggests a long boil with the hops.

Overall Grade: B+

Comments: Definitely give this beer a shot if you love hops, it will give you a pretty unique experience with some of the spiciness that it brings to the palate. I would buy this every now and then and break them out to two beers per time that I drank; this is definitely not meant to be put back all night (especially at 6.7% ABV). I wouldn't clamor for this on the regular, but I definitely give it my stamp of approval and, if you're a hop-head like me it is a must try.

Cheers,

Hurls