Beer Review - Lonerider Brewing Co Peacemaker

Today I am having the Lonerider Brewing Company Peacemaker Pale Ale.  This beer was sent to me from my brother out in North Carolina.

Beer pours a nice Copper color, with a small, off white head. Smell is a nice sweet amount of malts, mostly caramel. The smell was not very abundant on this one. The taste was a bit more flavorful, with a caramel malt sweetness. There is a bit of bitterness from the hops, but the malt definitely comes through more.

This was one was not quite what I was expecting, but nothing was bad about it. I enjoyed drinking this one, but I could not quite understand why it is considered a Pale Ale. Maybe I am missing something, but I think they fell a little bit short on that, but it is nice to drink regardless.

Beer Review - Big Boss Brewing Angry Angel

Tonight's review is the Angry Angel Kölsch from Big Boss Brewing Co. out of Raleigh, North Carolina. This was another one of the beers I acquired from my brother for my birthday.

This beer pours golden in color with a decent sized white head. Aroma is a bit biscuity, maybe a hint of citrus and a touch of butter as well. As I take sips, I tend to taste a lot of the aroma as well, with more of a buttery and biscuit type quality. There is a bit of hop bitterness that come from the background of this one, that makes it a nice refreshing beer after a nice warm day. I also began to detect a touch of pepper as I continued drinking.

Overall, this beer was enjoyable. Nothing overly special about this one, just a nice refreshing beer on a hot summer day.

Beer Review - Carolina Brewery Sky Blue

Time to review some beer. This time we will be reviewing Sky Blue by the Carolina Brewing Company. This bottle was also sent to me by my brother from North Carolina.

This beer pours golden in color with a thin white head. Beer doesn't have much in the way of smell, just a bit of a sweetness to it. The taste on this is much the same, somewhat sweet, with a malty mouthy feel. Taste is of pilsner malt.

There's not much going on here as far as taste, but it sure hit the spot after a day of 90+ degree weather outside.

Beer Review - Starr Hill Brewing Co Festie

I have to thank my brother for sending me a very awesome birthday day present a few days ago: 14 beers! These beers, with one exception, are not available in my market, so I will be making notes as I enjoy them.

The first of the 14 beers I decided to taste was from Starr Hill Brewing Company out of Crozet, VA. I was sent a bottle of their Festie, Amber Lager beer, as the can describes . The beer, as expected, poured amber in color with a small, off white head. I noted hints of caramel and toffee, but only faintly, as I began to smell the aroma. The taste of the beer was more flavorful than the aroma led me to believe, with a nice malty taste with caramel notes. The beer hit the spot on this nice summer day.

This beer has a nice mouthfeel overall and is a nice refreshing brew. It is not overly complicated; simple is sometimes better.

Beer Review - 21st Amendment Monk's Blood

It's been awhile since I've reviewed a beer. It's not that I haven't had any, it's just that I've never been in a spot to review. That being said, I decided it was time to do another review when I found Monk's Blood while out shopping today. I've heard a lot about this beer and people seem to be talking it up quite a bit, so what the heck, let's give it aq god.

As with all other 21st Amendment Brews I've had, this one comes in cans (which appears to have the story of how the beer got it's name). I poured this in to a 16oz pint glass. This beer pours a very dark brown with a sizeable, slightly tan head. The head on this one is about 3 finger widths. Aroma is of dark fruits, raisins and plums. The taste is similar, dark fruits, plums, with a bit of cinnamon and vanilla. There is also a touch of oakiness in the background that just barely seems to make it's presence known. The mouthfeel of this beer is very smooth, nice and creamy.

I enjoy this beer. If you've had it, what do you think?

Beer Review - Bell's Hopslam

If you check out lots of beer blogs or visit other beer websites, you've probably been reading about Bell's Hopslam. This time every year, beer fanatics are abuzz about this yearly release of a delicious Imperial IPA. If you haven't tried this one yet, you really should do yourself a favor and try it.

I was lucky enough to grab some of the 2011 release and had this review of it:

The beer poured golden in color with a nice white head. The aroma was strong with pine, pine and more pine. If I was walking through a pine forest, I wouldn't have smelled more pine. However, the pine wasn't overpowering, but rather refreshing to smell. The taste was a lot of the same, pine, but with some citrus and grapefruit. Again, the flavor was far from overpowering, in fact it was quite refreshing. The beer is 10% abv, but you can't really tell with everything else going on. If you like hops, you need to try this beer.

Beer Review - Ridgeway Brewing Lump of Coal

So, Christmas has come and gone, but that doesn't mean I can't share a lump of coal I was privileged enough to receive with everyone. So, Santa didn't actually leave this for me instead of presents (actually, this beer was given to beersupporterjt and he was kind enough to share) but it sure fit the bill tonight as it has been snowing all day here. That being said, we figured it was time to share another winter beer.

The beer poured dark brown with a nice, slightly off white head. The smell of this beer was of chocolate, raisin, and a bit of butterscotch. The smell wasn't very powerful, but it led me to think that I was going to greatly enjoy this beer. The taste, however, was not quite what the smell led me to believe. Taste certainly did have chocolate, but it also added a touch of coffee, but I could not find the raisin taste that I smelled. I also noted that this beer seemed to taste hot as I could definitely taste a bit of alcohol burn as I drank.

In all, this beer was ok. If you have a bottle of this sitting around, it'll make a decent drink for a snowy day, but I wouldn't go out of your way to find it.

Arnold's 1861 Porter

About a week or two ago I had a post mentioning that Arnold's was celebrating their 150th Anniversary this year and to celebrate, they decided to throw a birthday party last night. Well, Christian Moerlein also wanted to share in their celebration of 150 years in Cincinnati, so they decided to brew a beer in honor of this accomplishment and I was there to check it out.

Before I share my thoughts on the beer, there are some things to note. This beer was the first beer that Christian Moerlein brewed in  Over the Rhine! This is fantastic news because it brings them one step closer to getting their brand new brewery fully operational (it's still going to be a little while, but they're working on it). Also, because this beer was brewed in the new brewery that isn't full of fermenters and mash tuns, there was only so much of this beer to go around at the party. The event started at 6:00pm and the beer was gone by 7:00pm. I believe that this says something about Cincinnati's rising beer scene, but more on that on a different day.

On to my thoughts:

This beer pours a dark brown, with a thin, tan head. The smell is of a coffee and chocolate beans and was very nice. The taste was much the same, roasty, coffee, and chocolate. The more I drank, the more the chocolate starts to come to the front. The beer had light carbonation, but it was a nice drink. The taste was a little softer than I was expecting it to be, but it was definitely enjoyable.

If you had a chance to try this beer on New Year's Eve or on New Year's, what did you think? Do you agree with my assessment?

Beer Review - 21st Amendment Fireside Chat

Well, it's cold out there so I thought it would be another good idea to drink a beer that would hopefully help warm me up. This time I decided to grab a pack of 21st Amendment's Fireside Chat. I had seen this beer on the shelves a few times and had been wanting to grab it for awhile, so I finally did.

Let's discuss: This beer pours a dark brown color with a brown head. Smell is pretty good, with a bit of cinnamon, some nutmeg and some caramel. The taste is a bit different than the smell lead me to believe it would be. It was sweet, almost raisin, with a hint of Cinnamon on the background. I want to like this beer, but it seems to sweet to be a winter warmer style beer. 

All that said, I would suggest you give it a try too. I will be drinking this one again, but probably not to try and keep warm.

Beer Review - Breckenridge Christmas Ale

IIt's time for another beer review. This time I will be reviewing the Breckenridge Christmas Ale. As I've said a couple of times before, I love this time of year because of these types of beer.

This beer pours a dark brown in color with a decent white head. I notice a bit of a dark fruit and chocolate smell on this one with maybe a hint of Cinnamon in the background. The cinnamon flavor comes out a bit more in the taste of the beer, but surprisingly, I don't get a tremendous amount of flavor. I also get notes of the chocolate and dark fruits again. The more I drink, the more obvious the flavor becomes, but this beer just seems to be more watery than it should be.

This is a good beer and I would drink it again, but I am certainly not going out of my way to find it. What do you think?