French roasted coffee intensity seeps into creamy cappuccino milking, mild espresso continuance, and bittersweet vanilla bean uprising. Syrupy dark chocolate center deepens hop-charred cola nut, walnut, and macadamia sharpness. Tingly bourbon-rum boozing underscores full-blown coffee-burnt creme brulee finish.
Category Archives: Beers A-Z
(CLIPPER CITY) HEAVY SEAS MUTINY FLEET YULE TIDE TRIPEL
Strong Belgian-styled tripel (with funky yeast sediment floating through dense amber-hazed full body) maintains candi-sugared fruit zest. Banana, bruised orange and green apple illusions counter subordinate pepper-spiced hop bittering. At finish, cotton-candied honey malt sweetness receives amiable butterscotch twist.
WIDMER BROTHERS DRIFTER PALE ALE
Fruitful hazy golden medium body embellishes butterscotch frontage with toasted almond-pecan and bright apple-pear-peach luster. At candied midst, honeyed oats gain footing alongside floral-hopped grapefruit-mango-papaya tropicalia. Zippy tangerine tang informs sugared malt finish quite succinctly.
MOOSBACHER LAGER
Tentative creamed corn lead-in of light-bodied helles lager cannot escape astringent phenol hop sabotage and soapy flow. White-breaded sourdough yeast informs oats-flaked wheat-dried biscuit base.
MOOSBACHER WEISSBIER
Murky golden-hazed hefeweizen with casual sweet ‘n sour banana-clove opening, spritzy lemon tartness and vanilla wafer pleasantry needs firmer body and less murky finish. Musty hard-candied lemondrop midst and washed-out banana bubblegum reminder regale fragile honeyed wheat base. Fizzy Seltzer-like flow diminishes astringent hop bittering of unassuming mediocrity.
BREWDOG DOGMA
Wavering spiced ale may boast kola nut, poppy seed, and guarana herbage, but these under-whelming elements barely register. Instead, brown-sugared chocolate malting, red grapefruit tang, orange-tangerine juicing, and floral hop spicing integrate with tertiary tea, hemp, and pine forest illusions. Barley-roasted heather honey sweetness validates citric malting. Nowhere near as innovative and enigmatic as label claims.
RED HOOK ESB
Offbeat copper-toned ’09 Extra Special Bitter allows tannic grape acidity, moldy orange tartness, and mild nuttiness to affect honey-soured caramel-toasted malting. Citric-hopped cider sharpness gets diacetyl at tea-like tobacco-dried backend.
OSKAR BLUES MAMA’S LITTLE YELLA PILS
Crisply carbolic straw-hued Czech pilsner needs deeper yellow-fruited luster and more incisive lemony lime tartness to overcome bleak corn malting. Understated herbal-floral influence, lackadaisical grapefruit bittering, and barren honeysuckle whim weaken over time. Kolsch-like ale yeast brings latent green grape esters and champagne sparkle.
21ST AMENDMENT MONK’S BLOOD
Kitsch-y oak-aged Belgian-styled ’09-initiated dark ale boasts candi-sugared barleywine-spirited complexity elevating compost-wafted cola-hued oak-chipped full body. Expansive cinnamon toasting drapes Belgian chocolate, banana bread, cherry puree, sugar plum and dried fig seduction. Bruised orange sweetness contrasting mild grapefruit rind bittering never ransack creamy rum-spiced brown-sugared vanilla uprising and toffee-glazed recess. Tertiary cookie dough, buttered pecan, and almond illusions cake everlastingly creamy molasses-chocolate-cocoa malting.
21ST AMENDMENT HELL OR HIGH WATERMELON WHEAT BEER
Mild golden-bodied wheat ale lacks fruity luster in canned version. Washed-out hard-candied Jolly Rancher watermelon tartness lingers softly through blanched rye wheat backbone. Subsidiary mandarin orange, peach, and cantaloupe illusions fade fast as abysmal pale-malted white-breaded sorghum slouching reaches soapy melon-limed finish. Watermelon juicing clearly needs deeper resonance and latent cloy nature proves troublesome.
RED HOOK TRIPEL BELGIAN STYLE ALE
Ambitious golden-hazed ’09 tripel with boozy 10.2% alcohol whir piles creamy vanilla malts atop banana leaf-flavored apple-pear-pineapple ripeness and peppery-hopped orange-bruised Cognac spell. Wavering cinnamon-spiced banana-clove sweetness fends off sharp alcohol burn before busy tropical finish allows funky Belgian-like farmhouse yeast strain to prod tropical Caribbean fruiting.
GRAND TETON BITCH CREEK 20TH ANNIVERSARY DOUBLE E.S.B.
Tremendous full-bodied double-hopped version of bottle-conditioned bomber-bottled ‘20th anniversary reserve’ Extra Special Bitter brings dark-spiced India Pale Ale-like fruiting to rich cocoa-chocolate malting. Orange-grapefruit peel bittering anchors brownish crimson commemoration as prune-raisin souring rises above tongue-tingling nutmeg-cinnamon spicing. Mushroom-like fungi yeast adds funky Belgian farmhouse ale underside.