Bitter Woman IPA - Tyranena Brewing Company

Vitals:

Name: Bitter Woman IPA

Style: American IPA

IBU: ??

ABV: 5.75%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a deep orange with about a finger of off-white head. Looks to be moderately carbonated. Excellent lacing makes up for a bit of a lack of retention. Patchy cap on the beer after the head dissipates. 

Smell: Not much to speak of here, which is surprising for an IPA. I get some biscuit malt and earthy hops, but that's about it. The malt wins over the hop smell though, also surprising. Not sure I like that...check that, I dislike it. Not impressed so far.

Taste: I will start by saying that this beer is well-balanced and the malts blend right into the hoppiness. It's a smooth transition whereas a lot of IPAs have a noticeable "bite." Orange up front and some sweet malts. The hops are earthy, maybe piney, and some citrus. There are some other citrus flavors but I'm not completely sure what they are (I think lemon). The beer is aptly named, but doesn't leave you with overwhelming bitterness. The taste is not fantastic by any means, but I completely appreciate how the elements flow together so well.

Mouthfeel: Medium body, with somewhat noticeable carbonation. It has a nice level of resin-y feel to it, but not too much. Prickles your tongue a bit. Nothing spectacular here except the moderate level of resin.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: So, there are a few things worth noting here. 1.) This beer is a victim of its style - it just simply isn't as good as a lot of other IPAs out there. 2.) I strongly considered giving this beer a C+, but the taste experience (not the flavor, mind you) pushed it to a B-. 3.) This tastes like a really hopped up amber more than an IPA. I've had so many good IPAs up here I can't justify a higher grade for this one.

Cheers,

Hurls

Dreadnaught - Three Floyds Brewing

And now for the third, and most anticipated (on my part) offering from FFF's brewing. I'm expecting a great deal out of this beer, both because of the cost $11 for 22 oz., and because of the disappointment of Rabbid Rabbit lingering on my palate. 

Vitals:

Name: Dreadnaught

Style: American IIPA

IBU: 99 (YES!)

ABV: 9.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a deep, dark copper color with 1.5 fingers of head. INCREDIBLE lacing with a thicky creamy white head (shut up and get your head out of the gutter). Minimal carbonation bubbles, which is odd for FFF's beers, as they are usually highly carbonated.

Smell: This smells heavenly to a hop head such as myself. Citrus hops dominate here with piney hops as well. Grapefruit and mango smells here as well; the beer also offers some sweet malty smells (caramel I think).

Taste: The caramel malt backbone is perfect throughout, not too much or too little. The Taste follows the nose with grapefruit, mango, and citrus hops rolling into a duo of earthy/piney hops to finish out the experience. You can't taste the 9.5% ABV almost at all in this incredibly hop-forward big IIPA. This is truly a hop flurry on your tongue; magnificent, but not for the faint of heart.

Mouthfeel: This beer is very crisp and even on the light side of medium body (surprisingly); low carbonation, but it's there nonetheless. It has an oily mouthfeel with a puckering bitterness. However, it's worth noting that this beer doesn't scrape your palate like a lot of big IIPAs, which is awesome.

Overall Grade: A+

Comments: This is one of my favorite beers...a true hop head's dream. It is bursting with hop flavor and doesn't disappoint at any point in the experience. Surprisingly light for an IIPA. Holy crap, I wish this were cheaper because it's fantastic. If you like hops you MUST TRY THIS BEER.

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

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