1554 Black Ale

1554 is another beer from the folks at New Belgium. So far I've loved their Fat Tire, liked Mighty Arrow, was so-so on 2 Degrees Below and was not too fond of Ranger IPA. In fact I refuse to call Ranger a beer, it's so f-ed up. Anyway they have run the gamut, with me so we'll use this stuff to tip the scales one way or the other. They sure are lucky I like the black. 1554 pours out a darkish brown, really no where near black. The nose has a light mocha and strong caramel, sort of a stronger Fat Tire. The flavors are the big caramels and mocha, with the hop bitter tingling around the edges. This is a stronger Fat Tire with more mocha and a bit more body. But , this is a good thing. This is a very nice dark beer with great flavors. I wish they wouldn't call it a black beer, cause it isn't,but it's super yum yum. Again scour their website to find out where to get this beer. This tips me towards liking this brewery, they have two really good beers, that's better than some.

Fat Tire

Fat Tire Amber Ale is the flagship beer of the New Belgium Brewery from Fort Collins, Colorado. Their beers are slowly spreading around the country, and here is the reason why. Fat Tire pours out a classic amber color. The nose is heavy on the caramel, light on the hops with a really sweet mocha note. The taste? Flavor, flavor, flavor. Big caramels, molasses, and mocha.Excellent crisp hop balance up front which kind off disappears when the big flavors hit, but it's there on the finish. This is easily one of the best beers from one of the big micro-breweries I've had. This goes with any occasion or season, with food or just drinking. It's a bit light on the body, but if you plan to pound a 12 pack, and I do, that can be an advantage. Count the days until this beer makes it to your neck of the woods. Check the web site for availability. As you may be able to tell from the picture, we're back at the beach for a few days, so it's New Belgium and NC beers.

Three Winter Brews

I know it's Spring, but there are still a number of Winter beers still on the shelves and many places discount them. Here are three I saw just the other day. We have Stoudt's Winter Ale, Blue Moon Full Moon, and Bell's Winter White for your drinking pleasure. First up is Stoudt's. The Winter Ale pours out a dark amber and has classic caramel on the nose, with little hop. There's a lot of hop up front and on the back end. Kind of a shock, I found little on the nose. It's got nice flavors of baking spice, caramel and a hint of cinnamon. I like this beer more as I drink it. Seems to balance out well, but the hops do hide some of the flavor here.

Next, we have Full Moon, a Winter Ale that pours out a dark copper to light brown. The nose is sweet caramel with a hint of mocha. It tastes a lot like it smells, sugar daddy with a hint of mocha. I really like sugar daddy's. there's some hop in here to cut the sweetness a little. It is a medium bodied beer, I would have expected a little more heft. Wow, this is a nice beer.

Last, is Bell's Winter White. Bell's pours out a cloudy straw color with that distinct white head. The nose has nice citrus and coriander, along with a lot of yeast. The taste has some coriander, some caramels and the yeasty taste. I find the aftertaste poor at best. It's got a nice creaminess, but not much body. I'm not a white beer fan, but this isn't even a good white beer. Boy I really like the Full Moon. You should go get a couple for cold Spring nights. The Stoudt's is also a pretty decent, but flawed beer. And finally, Bell's has created a flaw, not decent.

STOUDT'S

BLUE MOON

BELL'S

Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial I.P.A.

Dogfish Head, out of Milton, Delaware, brings one of their premium beers the 90 Minute Imperial I.P.A. This stuff pours out a nice light amber color. It has a strong bitter hop that overwhelms the nose, and only reveals a faint glance at the malts beneath. Much to my surprise the opposite is true when it first hits the palate. The malts totally dominate up front bringing out a lovely mellow caramel sweetness. Then the hops come to the forefront, followed by a very balanced finish. This beer really brings it with big flavors and a big punch, 9% ABV. I would recommend it highly, but it is expensive, about 3 bucks a 12 ounce bottle. Make it a pint I'd be happier. Go Blue Hens, One of the gayest sounding college mascots ever.

Nectar IPA

Nectar I.P.A. is from our friends in California the home of hippies and " medical Marijuana ". They also have the best governor of any state. He has the sword from Conan in his office. My governor doesn't have one, because he wasn't fucking Conan. This beer is from the Pasa Robles, a noted wine growing region that you used to be a able to get great bargains from until it got " discovered". Anyway, this stuff pours out a clear amber. It has some hop on the nose as well as a strong floral scent and a touch of citrus. There is a lot of bitter hop up front which yields to an intense lingering herb flavor ( not a joke ). You also get a floral tinge which carries into the very bitter finish. After a couple of sips, or giant gulps in my case, the bitterness subsides somewhat. This beer is worth investigating if you like I.P.A. I think the balance is off, but there are interesting flavors here worth a look. And, it's got pot in it.

Spring Tourney Wrap and Vinyl Revisited

I thought about some of the beers that got knocked out of the tourney early and the one I kept thinking of was Vinyl. Vinyl is an amber lager from the potheads at Magic Hat in hippie Burlington Vermont. I wanted to try it again and then rate the best of the Spring beers. Vinyl is a cloudy dark amber lager with caramel and a hint of mocha on the nose. The flavor is very good, strong caramel with a hint of mocha and great hop balance. This is a crisp classic amber lager. This could be a flagship beer for any company. They should put it in their regular line. Of course it has a stupid name and an ugly bottle. I also see no Spring connection, but they smoke so much they might have thought it was Fall. Here is my list, in order, of the best Spring beers I've tried this year.

1 Spring Buck

2 Vinyl

3 Rising Moon

4 Anchor Bock

5 Aprihop

There it is. I know you can find some contradictions here, but after all this drinking is that so shocking. I wanted to add a couple more, but you have to limit yourself to make real decisions.

Magic Hat

The Spring Beer Championship: The Buck vs The Bock

The final contest of the Spring Beer Tournament is finally here. Many beers have been consumed to get this far and now only Dominion Spring Buck and Anchor Bock remain to be drunk. These are both good beers and both should be sought out and consumed. But, there can be only one. The palate cleanser for today will be air. The Buck is an effervescent honey, caramel,tea, heavy alcohol delight. Wow, I just took a big hit of this air and it's really good. The Bock is big and brown, and full of flavor. What it does it does well, but can't offer the good complex flavor profile of the Buck. Boy that's some refreshing air. I'm just gonna keep pushing through here. The Buck manages to take unusual ingredients and make them harmonize. This is something that a lot of unusual beers fail at. The Bock is very solid and I find the last sip to be the best. The problem is the Bock is solid, while the Buck is exceptional. I have no problem crowning Dominion Spring Buck the Spring Beer Champion of 2010. I'd love to do it again next year.

The Flavorful Four: #2 Anchor Bock vs #6 Garde Dog

The highest seed left is Anchor Bock. And Today they face the upstart Flying Dog's Garde Dog. The palate cleanser will be burgers. The Bock has great strong mocha and caramel flavors. This is a creamy, rich, medium body dark beer. Ah yes, the joy of flame caressed meat. The Dog is a nice refreshing beer with sweet caramel, and some well balanced hop bite. These beers are both showing really well today. I just love the crispy parts on the edge of the burger. Let's finish this.
The Bock really tastes great today. Well balanced, tons of flavor. The Dog is also looking good. This is a good beer for any time of year and I think it would shine with a variety of foods.The Bock is really going strong, but the Dog seems to improve a bit. This will come down to the last sip. The bock is gone, good throughout. It's up to the Dog to show me something with the last gulp.And it shows me a tinge of that off flavor it can have, disappointing. Anchor Bock weighs anchor, and sails off with the victory. Now the final match is set, and Anchor Bock will meet Spring buck for the championship.

The Flavorful Four: #3 Spring Buck vs #5 Irish Red

Well, this seems a colossal mis-match, but you never know. The palate cleanser wil be flavor blasted xtra cheddar goldfish. Yes I have little kids. Let'try some beer, shall we. The Buck has strong honey, caramel, and tea, and a buttload of alcohol. It also has champagne like bubbles, which I have somehow failed to note before. Nice, very crisp in the mouth. Goldfish are o.k. The Red has nice rounded hops and a good caramel flavor. It also is just o.k. like the goldfish. It also has a poor aftertaste,unless you just keep pounding them down. I think I'll bite the fishies tails off so they can't swim. Let's speed this up. Oh Spring Buck, so many flavors and textures. Oh Irish Red, so one-dimensional. Alas, this isn't a contest. The Buck just steps on Red's throat, and crushes it. Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out, Red. Spring Buck cruises into the final. I hope the match between Anchor Bock and Garde Dog is more competitive.

The Flavorful Four

Wow, we're already down to the last four beers standing. From the Mid-East we have #3 seed Dominion Spring Buck and #5 seed Sam Adam's Irish Red. The North-East brings # 2 seed Anchor Bock and #6 seed Flying Dog Garde Dog. Well Irish Red, welcome to the big time and good-bye. They are by far the least deserving beer left. I'd be stunned if they advanced. Then again, I was stunned when the toppled Glissade last round. Garde Dog is a real cinderella, but very deserving, having beaten stiff competition to get here. Both one seeds are gone, so Anchor Bock and Spring Buck are the remaining powerhouses. I think Garde Dog has a shot, but we'll see. Now, let's go right to our first match, Spring Buck versus Irish Red.

Round 2: #1 Aprihop vs #3 Spring Buck

The last of our second round matches features #1 seed Dogfish Head Aprihop and #3 seed Dominion Spring Buck. These are two heavy hitters both with flavor and alcohol, 7% and 7.8% respectively. The palate cleanser will be mini brown sugar meat loaf muffins. And we're off. Aprihop jumps to the lead with it apricotty , very hoppy, strong, crisp yummy-ness. But wait, there must be a pause to enjoy some savory meatloaf. Spring Buck comes on strong with it's bold honey -tea flavors, balanced hops and power. Meatloaf tastes better when you make it in different shapes. Let's sprint to the finish line.

Aprihop is very good, but the strong hop tends to overwhelm the sweetness of the apricot. Buck has no real weakness to me, but I could see how some may not like this flavor profile. Sip for sip the Aprihop overwhelms the Buck with it's massive hops, but I expected that. I'd rather have the delicate balance of the Buck. If you poured these beers together the results would be very good. This Spring Buck is leaving the glass quickly it's time to end this thing. Just a touch more meatloaf. And it's over, Spring buck pulls away, it's so well balanced and a pleasure to drink. But man, that Aprihop is good. A really unique IPA worthy of a try. Good to the last drop, Spring Buck moves on to the flavorful four to face upstart, Sam Adam's Irish Red.

Dogfish Head

Dominion

Round 2: #1 Noble Pils vs #6 Garde Dog

Our third match of the second round pits Sam Adam's Noble Pils against Flying Dog, Garde Dog. The winner here goes on to face Anchor Bock in the semis. The palate cleanser is jasmine rice, by itself, with a little butter or thai oil. Let's get it on. Noble Pils comes out with all hops blazing. There's a lot of hop here, but there's some nice citrus and caramel, that balances it a little. I do like that you can clearly distinguish different hop flavors. Boy that's a bitter finish though. Some excellent rice. Garde Dog has nice hop up front and a bite in the back. There's also a touch of honey sweetness and a funky malty flavor. That slight weird flavor bothers me more somehow this time. Now for the lightning round.

The thai oil is really good on the rice. A hefty draught of Noble Pils goes down nice, boy that's a bit much on the hop, but the complexity of flavor distracts you from the bite. I take a hefty pull on the Garde Dog, thats a smooth beer with some body and nice balance. There is still an odd flavor here witch could be hit or miss with some people. Neither one of these beers overwhelms the other. It's getting late in the game and low in the glass, and there is no clear winner. This will have to go down to the last sip. The great balance of Garde Dog sways me, but Noble Pils has complexity with a purpose. In the end it's which glass I wanted to reach for just a little bit more. Garde Dog WINS. I just wanted to down that last bit, whereas the last dregs of the Pils got left. The cinderella story of the tournament knocks off the #1 seed. Garde Dog goes on to face Anchor bock in the semi-final. That should be a great match-up.

Sam Adam's

Flying Dog

Round 2: #2 Glissade vs #5 Irish Red

The next match-up of the second round features another 2 seed versus a 5 seed. This time it's sierra Nevada's Glissade against Sam Adam's Irish Red. The palate cleanser will be lime Tostitos. Glissade has a nice caramelized fruit and honey flavor, but also an overbearing yeast flavor and not the best hop balance. The chips are really limy in this bag. Irish Red has nice caramel flavors with hop bitters up front and on the finish. The chips with the most tiny green dots are the best. Let's go to the video tape.

The Sam's is a decent beer it's got good balance, but kind of a poor finish. Sierra Nevada could use some more malts to balance the loud hops and yeast. I really liked this much better last time. It's amazing how the equation changes when you have different beers, different flavors. The Glissade is starting to get very low in the glass I might be warming up to it. Boy both glasses are down we have to go into overtime. Going quickly sip to sip neither dominates the other. Red has the balance, Glissade has more alcohol. Neither competitor is playing their best right now, but it just wasn't Glissade's day. They lose a nail bitter in overtime. I really can't believe I like the Red more, but there it is. The Red was just a bit better and it rightfully advances to the Flavorful Four.

Sierra Nevada

Sam Adam's

Round 2: #2 Anchor Bock vs #5 Rising Moon

The first contest of the second round pits Anchor Bock, the 2nd seed, against Blue Moon, Rising Moon, the 5th seed. Anchor is a spring bock while Rising Moon is a keifer lime leaf beer. The palate cleanser is pretzel rods. The descriptions will be far briefer in this round as you can always go back and look it up. Rising Moon is a pleasant beer to drink. The tart lime is nice but subtle enough that it marries well with the crisp hop. The best part of pretzel sticks is the salt. Beer loves salt. Anchor Bock is nice and rich with a mocha flavor and hops that sort of zing in and out.Munch, munch. Lets go sip for sip.

The Bock is a good beer with body and rich flavors. However, it's got a bit of an "off" yeast flavor and the hop is strangely intermittent. I'm not sure I'm crazy about the aftertaste either, but it's got such big yummy flavors. The Rising Moon is a nice balanced beer, that clearly would be a ten with a lot of foods, but it's beer v beer. The Anchor is starting to sway me. The Bock seems better than I remember and the Moon seems a bit duller. Rising Moon is just sooo nice and I'm sure it's gonna make another guy happy some day. No, it's not about you, it's about me. Anchor Bock, you minx, you've made me stray. Actually, as the glasses get down to the end, I find Rising Moon still has a place in my heart. Then Anchor Bock takes her top off, Rising who. Anchor Bock pushes Rising Moon aside to go on to the Flavorful Four.

Blue Moon

Anchor

Beer

( The following is a blog entry written by my six year old, Brendan.)

Grown-ups drink beer a lot. Kids don't drink beer very much. I.G.88. Zam Wessal. Yoda Y. Yyyoooodddddaaaaaa. Yyyyyoooooodddddddaaaaaaaa.........

The Effervescent Eight: Second round of the Spring Beer Tournament

The first round of the tournament is over. There's been a few upsets, and some very deserving beers got booted out of the tourney. Of the losers, Magic Hat's Vinyl and Smuttynose Hanami Ale stick out as being really good beers that you might want to try. They just had bad match-ups. Anyway let's look at the second round matches.

#1 Noble Pils VS #6 Garde Dog

#2 Anchor Bock VS #5 Rising Moon

#1 Aprihop VS #3 Spring Buck

#2 Glissade VS #5 S.A. Red

The #6 seed Garde Dog is the lowest seed remaining and considering it's performance in the first round it should give Noble Pils a tough match. While it's not a shock there's no 7 or 8 seed left it's odd no 4s made it. The Anchor Bock versus Rising Moon match may be the most intriguing. I have no idea which way that might go, although Rising Moon performed better in the first round. On the other side of the bracket, I like Glissade in a walk and think Spring Buck will be tough for Aprihop. There you have it let's see who can handle the pressure and make it to the semi-finals.

4 Smuttynose hanami Ale vs #5 Blue Moon Rising Moon

Wow, we're down to the last contest of the first round. It's been an excellent tournament so far and I'm looking forward to the second round. But first we have two more competitors. In the red corner, a cherry ale fighting out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Smuttynose, Hanami Ale. In the green corner, a wheat ale with kieffer lime leaf and lime peel, fighting out of Golden, Colorado, Blue Moon, Rising Moon Spring Ale. Wait, WTF, isn't that where Coors is from, hmmmm. Anyway, the referee for this bout will be ruffles cheddar and sour cream chips. He's surely had a lot of experience dealing with many types of beers.

And the bell rings. Hanami pours out a cloudy copper to red color. While our challenger pours out a slightly cloudy dark golden amber. Hanami seems a bit week on the nose in the early stages with some yeast and faint sour cherry. Rising Moon fails to counter with it,s weak key lime pie nose. Wow, Hanami starts to deliver blows with it's cherry pie flavor, it's mild hop bitters and lingering fruit finish, which goes on for days. The ref stops the fight while he is being eaten. Rising Moon counters the onslaught with it's key lime pie flavor and a crisp hop bitterness, that really balances the sweet out nicely. This beer is crisp and creamy at the same time, interesting. Once again, huge pieces of the ref are heartily consumed. It's time for these competitors to get down and dirty, trading sip for sip.

You would think the Hanami could take down his opponent with his big flavors, but instead the flavor, balance and hop bite of Rising Moon is starting to impose it's will. This is incredible, Hanami has been a spring favorite for years. But Rising Moon could be an anytime beer and would pair great with many foods and our referee, CRUNCH. This has been a great match-up but Rising Moon's excellent balance is really starting to tell. Hanami is stumbling. Oh, a big shot of crisp refreshing beer and Hanami is down. Down goes Hanami. Wow, an amazing contest between two worthy competitors, I would gladly drink again. Looks like Rising Moon will be appearing in my belly every Spring, and moves on to the second round to face Anchor Bock.

Smuttynose

Blue Moon

Duck Rabbit Amber

This is, alas, the last of our North Carolina beers before I leave the Outer Banks, and return to the spring beer tourney. It's been awesome looking into the beers of this area and just hanging out on the beach. I'll be back to explore the local beers again soon. So finally, we have another entry from The Duck Rabbit Brewery of Farmville North Carolina. This is a nice dark amber to copper pour with caramel, bitters and yeast on the nose. The flavors are very nice, strong caramel and big malts. There are goodly hops zinging throughout, which are tingly on the tongue. But the mantra of this beer is balance. Everything aligns in perfect harmony to create a delicious amber ale. Duck Rabbit does nothing special they just create classic styles very well. I'm impressed. I will now compose another haiku about my love for this beer.

Dark amber, moon light
Quaffing the goodness of malt
The Duck completes me


Duck Rabbit

Cottonwood Low Down Brown

This entry is a brown ale called Cottonwood Low Down Brown. There is no Cottonwood brewery, this is made by the Carolina Beer Company, which has giant breweries make stuff for them. I had no idea these people had made this beer when I tasted it, but when I found out, it all made sense. It pours a very dark brown, and has a fresh mocha nose with the barest hint of hop. The flavors of mocha are strong and nice, but the hops barely exist. I think it's that drastic unbalance which makes it taste watery to me, or it's just watery. Their is zero body here, no balance, but some o.k. flavor. This is a poor beer. Of course I did some research and found out this beer won a gold in the world beer cup. What? Of course it was made by someone else then. Soooo, what we have here is a good beer recipe taken by a "beer", not brewing, company and horribly bastardized. This is just like when the big North American companies took Kirin and Fosters and turned them into dreck. Don't insult yourself by drinking this fake microbrew. Find better.

Carolina Beer

Carolina Pale Ale

This pale ale is brought to us courtesy of the Carolina Brewing Company, not to be confused with the Carolina Beer Company. This beer pours out a clear medium gold. The nose has citrus and some mild hop bitters. First impression, much heartier than I expected, nice body. There is a touch of citrus perhaps, but notably rich caramel. There's more hop bitterness up front than I thought there would be, but it's very brief jolt before the other flavors hit. There's some nice hop on the finish as well. This is a very balanced, flavorful beer. This is one of the better American style pale ales I have had. I would think this is a versatile beer, good with food, great for general entertaining during any season. Nice.

Carolina Brewing Co.

Duck Rabbit Porter

This porter is made by the Duck Rabbit brewery of Farmville, North Carolina. They claim to be a dark beer specialist, we shall see. This beer pours out a real dark brown. It has delightful mocha and caramel on the nose with a hint of crisp hop bitters. One taste and it's all about the delicious malts. Deep mocha flavors with a smoky background, and nice caramel sweetness. There's also a light hop bitterness that, cradles the beer in it's loving embrace. The malts caress my tongue, lavishing it with attention. Needless to say this is a first rate porter. I can highly recommend it. I will now celebrate this beer with a haiku.

Dark malts sweet embrace
Cascading into my throat
Duck Rabbit be mine.

Duck Rabbit

The Rant: Let Us Return To Sanity

I have tried way too many beers recently, that have been really unbalanced on the hop side. Now I like hops and have been favorable to beers that were on the pretty hoppy side. But let's be honest , this a totally new and artificial creation. Not many years ago, you could not find any beers, period, with near the level of hops that alot of beers now have. I guess this all started with the deliberately Over hopped beers, such as your Hop Pocket etc. These beers are totally fine with me, and are novelty beers like, blueberry beer, or Garlic beer. I really like all the novelty styles. They are also important to the development of brewing, and some I believe find their way into the cannon of styles. But, this extreme hopping has worked it's way insidiously into all kinds of beer. I had a porter the other day that was so over-hopped I couldn't detect the malts, that's insane. I also had an IPA that took the hops so far as to make the beer taste like peppermint gum and Christmas tree. Not a little bit, I mean take a small branch, wrap it with 10 sticks of gum and chew. Beer should be about balance, you can put a lot of hop in a beer and still make the flavors harmonize, but it,s not about that. It's about more for more's sake. Let us return to sanity. I really should have a lot more ranting but I'm at the beach, so I can't really get up for it . Next some more North Carolina beers.

A Trio of IPA's

I decided to postpone my rant so I could drink a trio of IPA's. I thought it might help me clear my head and crystallize my thoughts. It did exactly that, which will become clear when I get a ranting. The three beers in question here are two from North Carolina and one from New Belgium in Colorado. From the beautiful state of North Carolina we have, Highland, Kashmir IPA, and Mother Earth, Sisters of the Moon IPA. From New Belgium, we have their Ranger IPA. I'm gonna handle these one at a time and compare at the end.
First of is Mother Earth's entry, I really liked their other beer I tried, Dark Cloud. This creation is a cloudy dark gold to light amber. It has real mellow hop tones to the nose as well as citrus and caramel. It is very bitter up front, but has some nice lemon and honey flavors. The finish has a real bitter hop complexion, that really lingers. This is petty hoppy, but that's what you get in an IPA. I thought it was good enough to keep throwing it down. Nice, refreshing, a solid IPA, but a bit too much bitterness, especially on the finish.
Next up is Highland's Kashmir, which pours out a cloudy dark gold. As much as I liked Mother Earth's Dark, I hated Highland's Oatmeal Porter. This has a nice mild hop, apple, citrus nose. Wow, this has nice caramel apple flavors with a crisp hop bite on the finish.This has yummy well-rounded malts and a nice body. This is an outstanding beer, and the leader in the clubhouse by 15 strokes. I can't believe this brewery can so drastically over-hop a porter and then go mild with the hops on an IPA. It's the opposite brewery. Oh by the way their label is again a pack of slanderous lies. It says this beer has " aggressive hop Character ". This is the least aggressive IPA I've had, but it's perfectly balanced and delicious.
Finally, we have Ranger IPA from New Belgium. This is a quite clear medium gold. The nose has a really strong, brisk hop. So strong it has that herbal evergreen scent, like a Christmas tree. But how does it taste? Well, just like it smells, except even stronger. It's like biting a Christmas, tree and chewing spearmint gum at the same time. You even get that strong tingling of the tongue you get with mint. Their are no beer like flavors here. I have to say it's a very unique beverage, and I kind of liked it at first. But, this tastes nothing like an IPA, or in fact any beer. They have made an interesting spearmint malt beverage. I never expected hops could be taken to this extreme, that it changed into a completely different flavor profile.
O.K, I didn't expect that, but let's sum things up. Highland's IPA was by far the best. This beer is beautifully balanced, and a joy to drink. The mother Earth IPA was also decent, but not nearly as good as the Highland. Finally, removed from the competition, is New Belgium's Ranger. I was trying to compare IPA's and they seemed to have mislabeled their spearmint malt beverage as an IPA. Congrat's to Highland, I'm going out now to buy more.

Mother Earth
Highland
New Belgium

New Belgium Mighty Arrow

This is the second of the non-N.C. New Belgium beers for our drinking pleasure. Mighty Arrow Pale Ale is apparently a Spring beer, although I had to go to their website to figure that out. It pours out a clear medium gold, not very pale. The nose is well, a lot of bitter hop. There's also some honey apple scents, although well disguised. I feared the hops would overwhelm, but it's better than I thought. Yes, there is a lot of hop up front and a momentary bitter rush on the finish, but you can also taste this nice bittersweet honeysuckle flavor. This is a very crisp beer with a nice medium body. It's quite refreshing. I thought this beer might be good with a variety of foods, so I raided the fridge and was proved correct. This is a solid beer, but sits on the edge of balance, a little more hop would have ruined it. Worth a try. Next up, my rant.

http://www.newbelgium.com/

Highland Oatmeal Porter

Next up, another North Carolina beer, this one from the Highland Brewing Company in Asheville. Highland Oatmeal Porter pours out a light to medium brown. This beer has a really malty nose with a smoky mocha note and hop tones permeating the background. Now for the important part, the drinking. Shockingly heavy hop bitterness throughout, becoming even stronger on the finish. I'm straining to search out other flavors here. Yeah there's some mocha and caramel, but they are swallowed by hops. Usually this is the type of beer that would have a rich creamy fullness, I don't get that. It Seems weak on the body. Maybe I'm going through the change and my taste is off, but I find this wildly unbalanced. All the yummy goodness that is here is locked away in a prison of hops. And this is a style where it's supposed to be all about the malts. Have these people gone mad? Why yes they have. Note: I don't read labels till after I do tasting notes. Here is the whole text from the label. This is the most infamous pack of lies ever conceived by man. " A unique Highland creation, this robust( is not) beer is black in color,( medium brown, you can see right through it, the picture above isn't a good judge) very malty ( I can barely tell malt was used) with hints of chocolate-roasted flavor ( o.k. there are hints) and a well balanced hop character. This last phrase is the most stunning lie of all, there is zero balance. I really wanted to like this beer, porters are one of my favorite styles, but they got this one wrong. I hope Highland has better, we'll see as I have several of their other beers in the fridge.
P.S. I tried it with some glazed ham and it was not as bad.

http://highlandbrewing.com/