Totally Naked - New Glarus

Vitals:

Name: Totally Naked

Style: Lager

IBU: ??

ABV: 4.2%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: New Glarus Brewery

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a very pale, clear, straw-yellow color with about a finger of bone white head. Decent retention and a thin cap but GREAT (and quite unexpected) lacing. Lots of active carbonation bubbles, too.

Smell: Light biscuit malt and lemony aromas here...some herbal/floral/grassy hops hanging around in the background too. The aromas are faint, but if you really concentrate it is a somewhat complex smell. Lots of lemon, though...perhaps a bit too much as it is somewhat turning me off of the smell. I think I smell a tiny bit of apple too? Weird...

Taste: You really only get a brief taste...some lemon and a tiny bit of malt...this is an extremely boring beer. This tastes like a step up from Miller Lite...not complex at all, which is disappointing considering the smell was somewhat promising.

Mouthfeel: Extremely light, with adequate carbonation and it's not quite as thin/watery as a lot of domestic lights. 

Overall Grade: C-

Comments: This is simply a very slight upgrade (in taste and experience) over domestic light macro brews...however, it comes with a corresponding jump in price. For my money, all else equal, I would buy a case of cheaper Miller Lite over this if I truly wanted something this light. The best reason to buy this is that it's a not-terrible tasting sessionable beer and it supports local business.

Cheers,

Hurls

Rabbid Rabbit - Three Floyds Brewing

So, in an order to try more Three Floyds beers, I checked out their website and saw what beers were available around this time of year. Rabbid Rabbit (yes, I know that's not how you spell rabid, but that's how they spell it) was one of the beers that caught my eye. I will warn you, this beer (as well as the next one I will review) is a bit pricey. I got a 22 oz. bomber from Riley's, as that's the only place I found this one, but it cost $10.99. That's basically $11 for less than 2 beers. This had better be impressive.

Vitals:

Name: Rabbid Rabbit

Style: Saison/Farmhouse Ale

IBU: 25

ABV: 7.4%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a straw color with 2 fingers of bone-white head. The head dissipates quickly, leaving a nice cap but no lace. Looks to be moderately carbonated; the bright color is quite inviting...

Smell: Big yeasty smell with big banana notes as well. Also seems like some honey, clove, and coriander are in there as well. Lemon comes through somewhat, too. Farmhouse ale is an appropriate term here because it smells faintly of sweet hay.

Taste: You get a big spicy taste up front with a yeasty/bready taste following, moving to the finish, which has a moderate/high alcohol heat to it. To be honest, this tastes more like a Belgian ale to me than anything else (a la Leffe Blond or another lighter Belgian Pale). The finish is drawn out and a bit too sour for my liking, but there is a decent floral/herbal hoppiness that is hidden in there. Doesn't hide the ABV well, but not incredibly poorly.

Mouthfeel: Medium carbonation, medium body. The body is heavier than it looks; the beer almost has a powdery texture to it based on how it dries your mouth out. Coats your mouth with the sour aftertaste it brings. 

Overall Grade: C+

Comments: This is just OK from FFF's; I feel quite disappointed, as I sought this out for a few weeks. This is definitely not up to FFF's standards; definitely the worst FFF's beer I've had so far (which still is a good beer anyways). It's a solid beer, but not for $11 for 22 oz. If I'm spending that on that little amount of beer I want it to blow me away; this beer simply didn't do that. I'd go with Gumballhead instead here, or if you want a true farmhouse ale you can grab some Spotted Cow on the (relatively) cheap.

Cheers,

Hurls

Delirium Tremens - Brouwerji Huyghe

I will go ahead and lead off this post that I love love LOVE getting recommendations from people - if you have beer that you enjoy, please give me a heads up by commenting on here, emailing, texting, facebook, etc. However, I am also very wary of things being pumped up too much and not being able to live up to expectations. So, when my best friend Pat F. gave me a heads up to this beer I was very grateful and went out to pick some up. I believe it only comes in this huge liter (I think?) bottle, so be wary. However, when I went to pick some up I asked the guy at the store what he thought of this and he told me that right now (not sure based on what ranking or system) it is considered to be the "Best Beer in the WORLD." Okay, so I am slightly skeptical, but very curious...here goes nothing on seeing if I agree with whomever made that assessment...

Vitals:

Name: Delirium Tremens

Style: Belgian Strong Pale Ale

IBU: ??

ABV: 8.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: So I don't normally comment on the bottles that the beer comes in, but this one is pretty interesting. It has pink elephants and dragons and crap all over it - it looks like whoever designed this was on drugs or something. Anywho...pours a golden yellow with a TON of head on the beer. I had to make 3-4 separate efforts to get the pour because of too much of the bone-white head. The head itself is very light, but had fantastic retention. There are tons of carbonation bubbles rocketing through this brew; the pour had an odd haziness to it, which made me a bit concerned that it might have an infection. Guess we'll find out...

Smell: You get a LOT in the smell of this beer: from fruity to floral, herbal to spiced. You get some cinnamon I think. I think you get some melon and banana, maybe apricot, and some wheat or yeast smell coming through. I suspect the spices to be cinnamon and coriander. I will be perfectly blunt: this smells like a great (and complex) tasting beer, and it was very difficult for me to identify a lot of these smells because there is so much going out. Having said that, all of the smells come together quite nicely.

Taste: You get a little hop bitterness coming through along with banana, coriander, and apricot. It's a pretty spicy beer and you get a quick taste of alcohol on the bite. Yeast and breadiness sort of dominates a little bit too much for me, but it's not a big detractor. You even seem to get a small taste of apple in the beer. I'm not going to lie, this is an extremely great, but complex taste to judge and I'm having a hard time with it. This was definitely my hardest beer I have reviewed to this point in terms of judging what I'm tasting; definitely not 100% confident in my notes on this.

Mouthfeel: Very light (unexpected) and carbonated (expected); great mouthfeel for the most part but leaves you a bit dried out. The best word for this beer is CRISP, and it's quite dangerous because it's so light that it's 8.5% ABV drinks basically like something that's a 5.5% ABV.

Overall Grade: A-

Comments: Great beer despite my judging difficulties...I do hate that you have to commit to a whole liter of the beer instead of individual 12oz bottles...you kinda have to commit to the whole liter in one sitting....wait...that's not a bad thing :-) Definitely try this out if you like a nice strong belgian ale. It's not overwhelmingly hoppy and the taste is just so unique and complex, you really should check it out!

Cheers,

Hurls