Packaged in 1-pint brown casket, moderate-bodied sienna-hued beige-headed Baltic porter seems closer to brown ale or watery barleywine. Overripe raisin, sugarplum, sour grape and cola nuttiness pleat sweet frontage. Musty cellar-like dankness consumes soy-sauced caramel-toffee malting.
Category Archives: Beers A-Z
STONE PALE ALE
Not bold enough for a brusque pale ale despite IPA-like citric hop drive and inconspicuous earthen pining. Yet lagerheads in search of an off-dry moderate-to-medium-bodied upgrade will be pleased with rounded pale ale. Despite unwarranted herbal-floral astringency, its zesty lemon spritz, creamy caramel malting and distant nuttiness nearly save the day. But there’s a certain transparency forsaking the bittersweet citrus finish.
STONE COAST 420 INDIA PALE ALE
Rightfully quaffed at High Times New York headquarters, this hemp-teased copper-toned IPA (celebrating international 4:20 time zone for getting high) brings sweet crystal malt succulence and bright red fruitiness (grape, quince, apricot) to demanding hop-fueled orange peel bitterness for heady elegance.
STOUDT’S FAT DOG IMPERIAL OATMEAL STOUT
Deluxe velvety version of Fat Dog Stout provides revelatory chocolate-espresso confluence, hop-charred toasted oats relevance and underlying hazelnut roast, finishing with a mild bourbon warmth. Vanilla extract, burnt caramel, cocoa bean and milked coffee illusions sweeten the load. Soothing fruited maple sugaring lingers on ensuing sips.
SUDWERK DOPPEL BOCK
Expansive ‘premium lager’ alleviates roasted chocolate-caramel malting and buttery cocoa elegance with soft barleywine warmth, picking up minor cinnamon-nutmeg tingle and dark rum spicing at lingered dry prune-raisin finish. Closer inspection reveals creamy maple-cola immersion.
TABERNASH WEISS BEER
Flowery hops, sour yeast, and silky carbonation dominate wheat presence two to one before delicate clove-nutmeg-allspice adjuncts invigorate mildly sweet lemony peach finish for truly distinct cloudy blonde German knockoff. Brewery defunct: 2007.
TERRAPIN SIDE PROJECT ROGGEN RAUCHBIER LAGER
Dreary ‘one-time ’08 release’ too light up-front to maintain effective rauchbier oeuvre. Singed rye malts bring wood-smoked maple-glazed bacon and beef jerky illusions to dark spicing in need of pricklier hop jab. Lacking prolonged smoked malt intensity of better German rauchbiers, this soapy Side Project’s indistinct.
THE UNDERGROUND PREMIUM ALE
Dark rust-hued brew buttresses perfumed hop aroma, nutty mocha bitterness, and barley-roasted graining with buttery malt perusal, nicking brown ale styling. Only disappointment comes when lingering sweet ‘n’ sour balance dips below shallow watery texture, giving soft finish neutral blandness.
(THREE FLOYDS) BURNHAM PILSENER
Top notch full-bodied golden-red pilsner builds from delightful bitter hop assertion to succinct maple sweetness mid-palate then brisk roasted barley finish. Darker, thicker, and more complex than light-bodied competition.
(T’IJ) PLZEN
Billowy fluffy white head builds atop golden body as thick webbed lace coats glass of mouth puckering, harshly acidic dry pilsner reminiscent of tart Belgian gueuze. Corky perfumed waft, unusual white-peppered Band-Aid palate, and grassy-hopped blue agave-clove acccents buttress sharply vinous grape tannin bitterness, affably upending lemon-soured banana eruption.
TONA PREMIUM LAGER
Drab aluminum-yellowed pale lager lets cloy rice-sugared sourdough buttering, thin mineral-grained spice hop zip and ginger-leafed maize husk get lost amongst musty corn-oiled backdrop. Musky dry-smoked beechwood soaping, bland cotton-candied nuance and pale-malted cardboard plainness depleted by ruinous chemical solvency and briny lemon-salted bittering of horrid Latino, further complicating matters.
TRAQUAIR JACOBITE FLAVORED ALE
Exquisite maroon-hued chestnut-highlighted coriander-spiced fruited malt brew gains burnt wood attenuation, sour coffee-chocolate strut, deep cherry ripeness, and herbal-tobacco accent ’til dry prune punctuation embellishes barleywine finish for debonair digestif.