Nasty Midwest muck brewed in Wisconsin for Indiana company sponsored by Ohio syndicate. Generic-named, purple-canned light lager starts desolate and watery, then turns ugly quick. Disturbing sourly skunked malt pungency, rotted vegetable continuance, and miring malt-liquored corn oiling not worse than cat-pissed ginger ale putridity. Chalky aspirin-like solvency beckons. As The Jam once sang, ‘the bitterest pill is mine today.’ At $11 a 30-pack it’s still not a bargain. Just awful.
Category Archives: Beers A-Z
(DICK’S) BOTTLEWORKS INDIA PALE ALE
Glutinous juicy-fruited Imperial IPA works creamy caramel malting, honeyed spruce and floral fragrances into tropical apricot-nectar-pineapple-pear tang as pine-sapped grapefruit-peeled bittering ascends. Gooey pastry-like almond pasting deepens sugared fructose sweetness. Lemon-candied orange, tangerine and clementine illusions vie for backspace. Not as imposingly hop sharpened as bitterer stylistic rivals. Originally brewed by nearby Washington-based La Conner Brewery.
STONE IMPERIAL RUSSIAN STOUT – 2011
Reliable ‘2011 Classic Release’ (in embossed blue bottle) maintains balanced blend of ashen maple-sapped Blackstrap molasses intensity, efficient vanilla-cocoa bean glaze, lactic smoked chocolate expectancy, and latent hop-charred coffee roasting. Sticky anise and black currant bittering drifts through mocha-bound finish.
(ANHEUSER-BUSCH) SHOCK-TOP RASPBERRY WHEAT
Decent summer-fruited malt beverage posing as Belgian-styled witbier brings up-front raspberry-seeded rasp to coriander-spiced honeyed wheat spine. Candied soda-like red grape, watermelon, cherry, and peach subsidy underscores durable raspberry puree lacquering, becoming slightly cloy. A ‘sunsational’ summer shandy.
CAPTAIN LAWRENCE BIRRA DE CICCO LIMONE LUPPOLO
Beautiful golden-cleared moderate body drapes soft lemon-limed pink grapefruit sugaring over fresh-cut grassing and delicate cracked wheat spine. Vogue-ish Sorachi Ace hops mildly embitter tangy lemon pith, mandarin orange rind, and tangerine spritz to crisp, clean finish.
NEWPORT STORM CYCLONE QUINN BARREL AGED PORTER
Ashen molasses-smoked malting deepens wood-burnt hop-charred bittering to lactic mocha finish of viscous rum-barreled porter. Maple, cedar, and walnut seep into Black Forest caking, bringing brown chocolate sweetness to pureed black cherry tartness. Flavor profile diminishes over time compared to richer barrel-aged rivals, but at $9 a 6-pack for 7% alcohol elixir, call it a bargain.
CLIMAX 15TH ANNIVERSARY BARLEYWINE
Outstandingly celebratory 15th anniversary ale contrasts creamy caramel malting with red-wined brandy, cognac, and rosé nuances atop clean-watered juicy-fruited plain. Stewed prune, candied apple, bruised orange, pureed raisin and medicinal cherry envelop chewy butterscotch-toffee follow-through. Syrupy whiskey kick and buttered rum caking add to the dewy sweetness of ambitious ruby-browned delight.
(CLIMAX) HOFFMANN DOPPELBOCK
Elegant soft-tongued dark German lager retains smooth dried fruit appeal. Brown-sugared caramel malting spreads across candied orange, soured prune, sugared fig, pureed raisin, black cherry and cola nuttiness. Aromatic red-wined bourbon-burgundy illusions vie for attention and chocolate-chalked Devils Food Cake backdrop provides further resilience.
ROGUE CHATOE CREEK ALE
Brusque cider-like oaken cherry souring needs richer flavor profile. Apple-spiced green grape tartness remits vinous lambic-like pucker for mahogany-browned fruit ale. Corky hop dryness usurps montmorency cherry influence.
SHIPYARD BREWER’S BROWN ALE
Slick mocha malting and sour lactic astringency denigrate roasted peanut, walnut, hazelnut, and Brazil nut coarsening of flaccid English-styled Brown Ale. Dry hop-charred bittering depletes caramel-toffee sweetness and earthen peat sneak.
NARRAGANSETT SUMMER ALE
Summery blue-canned moderate body ain’t bad for macrobrewed fluff. Billowy white-headed, pale-yellowed session beer with understated hop-spiced tingle and slim crystal malting plies grassy straw-wheat-hay earthiness to herb-tinged lemon peel zest and faintest pineapple-grapefruit tang. Watery texture lowers appeal.
FORT COLLINS RED BANSHEE ALE
Dismal updated version of defunct H.C. Berger’s popular red ale done in by phenol hop astringency and iodized metallic tinge, depleting short-lived toasted almond prelude. Scathing alcohol burn restricts apple-soured dried apricot tartness.