Complex soft-textured dry body similar to newfangled Black IPA/ Cascadian Black styling due to resinous wood-charred hop oiling, enduring dark-fruited nuttiness and recessive pine comb bitterness contrasting creamy dark chocolate malting. Lingered French roast coffee finish picks up ashen walnut-seared peanut shelling,chewy cookie-doughed hazelnut-pecan tangent,and tar-like Blackstrap molasses astringency reinforcing tertiary bruised cherry, fig, and prune nuances. ‘A sexy American interpretation’ of a heady brown ale, indeed.
Monthly Archives: June 2011
CLOWN SHOES HOPPY FEET BLACK INDIA PALE ALE
Bold adjunct ale brings resinous pine-sapped citric hop bittering and ashen charcoal char to creamy cocoa-molasses base. Chewy peat-smoked black chocolate malting, subsidiary dark-roasted coffee scamper, and scant cherry cordial illusions elevate mocha rampage. Tertiary pink grapefruit and black grape tartness seeps into caliginous mochaccino dusk.
ROGUE CAPTAIN SIG’S NORTHWESTERN ALE
Wily amber-hazed red ale appears brassier and heavier malted than iconoclastic Rogue Dead Guy. Perfectly robust blend of earthen mineral graining, woody Amarillo hop spicing and toasted caramel malting sidles frisky orange-peeled grapefruit bittering. Subsidiary cherry, apple, and berry illusions perk up dark floral undertones as toffee-butterscotch sweetness gathers strength. At finish, harsh alcohol burn deepens ripe fruited plain of limited edition liquid.
SARANAC SUMMER ALE
Brisk medium-bodied summer refresher (circa 2011) maintains syrupy peach-lacquered apricot tang above fizzy hop pep to honeyed wheat spine. Sweet lemonade whim caresses sunny Belgian witbier-like citron twist at midst. Herbal-spiced coriander, ginger, lemongrass, menthol, spearmint, and eucalyptus illusions make small cameos. A strapping seasonal bettering most delicate summertime lightweights.
SARANAC ADIRONDACK LAGER
Slick middle-of-the-road German-styled pale lager seemingly retains English Special Bitter or ‘pub’ ale attributes such as caramelized rye-breaded malting, cellar-like fungi waft and mild woody hop bittering. Withered floral-spiced orange-apricot-grapefruit snip and insufficient pastry-caked spicing (nutmeg-coriander) never approach surface of short-headed amber-hued moderation.
SARANAC BROWN ALE
Insubstantial brown-sugared caramel-butterscotch-chocolate malting too distantly slick for prickled hop-roasted oats toasting. Bland maple nuttiness receives flimsy sour-honeyed glaze.
TAPPETO VOLANTE
Poor musty Italian blonde lager with pearly-headed opaque-cleared hue lacks body, texture, and complexity, though crisp alpine-watered sparkle revives salty club soda spritz. Thin, watery, washed-out and soapy, its doughy malt spine cannot carryover sour rye breading, swilled corn-floured murk, and phenol citric musk.
BLUE MOON SPRING BLONDE WHEAT
Unassuming springtime seasonal (2011) retains crisply mild orange-lemon peeled tartness over delicate hop spicing. Citric hard candied sugaring reduced by fizzy carbolic nature to frail honeyed wheat spine. Soapy citron finish is neither unpleasant nor offensive.
SAMUEL ADAMS SUMMER ALE 2011
Closer to a lightened India Pale Ale with its wood-spiced bittering lingering across advertised lemon-peeled grains of paradise fruiting. Subsequent white-peppered Belgian-like candi-sugaring and minor herbal nuances bring further peculiarities to emboldened medium-bodied seasonal.
MOOSEHEAD LIGHT LIME
Cloying saccharine-like lime soda likeness may put off all but fruited malt beverage lunkheads. Dry lime spritzer (with acrid hop-fizzed aridity and straw-yellowed hue) picks up definite agave influence, but goes flat quick. Sugary lemonade snip, tart white-yellow grape parching, and zesty menthol herbage round out trendy light-bodied desiccation.
RED HOOK MUD SLINGER SPRING ALE
Vacuous and overbearingly slick copper-bronzed session beer from hell. Faintest cocoa-dusted sugar wafer placidity and muted plum-fig conflux barely register alongside nebulous hop astringency. Unnoticeable 5.8% alcohol volume adds to the drear.
EAST COAST BEACH HAUS PILSNER
On tap at Andy’s Corner Bar, vigorous pre-prohibition-styled pale body reaches creamy honeyed malt summit. Sharply salted grassy-hopped spicing underscores corn-sugared cereal graining contrasting tart lemon-peeled yellow-fruited bittering. A well-balanced full-bodied changeup that’s more robust and flavorful than typical light pilsner fare.
