Pike Heirloom Amber Ale

      Once again I'm grabbing a big bottle of Pike.  Their stuff has been so good I have a hard time resisting.  Heirloom pours out a classic amber and has scents of rich caramel and herbal bitter hop.  This stuff has lots of rich caramels up front, than the hops come up very strong.  However they don't overwhelm the other flavors.  This is an excellent example of a very hop heavy beer that still has balance of flavors.  This is crisp, refreshing and flavorful.  I could drink this stuff all day.  Pike once again has produced a real winner, and if it wasn't for their undrinkable stout they would have a perfect record. Go get it.

Pike Stout

Boy, I have been a big fan of the Pike beers I have had so far. I sure hope this is another winner it looks right up my ally. It pours out black as pitch and has a strong bitter black coffee nose with a touch of mocha and hop. Wow, this stuff has very, very strong flavors. Tons of, I mean TONS of very bitter coffee flavor. At first I thought they were killing this beer with hops, but I think the malts are so darkly roasted, that its off the charts bitter. There's a really smoky, burnt flavor here, but not in a good way. You could taste this for hours in your mouth. I love big, bold flavors and I love coffee, but this is just too much. You can't even discern the 7% alcohol. You probably could not tell, until later, if it was double that. I would call this a failure as it's nearly undrinkable, but it fails in the direction of being too bold and I'll give them props for that. Skip it.

The Pike Tandem Double Ale

The Pike brewery is from Seattle and they have brought us a double ale. Double is always a good sign cause it usually means more alcohol. The Tandem is a light to medium brown and has a crisp nose with some mocha, caramel and spice. The mocha and caramel come to the mouth first, followed by strong spice that goes through to the finish. This is a really nice beer although the strong spice could throw some people off a bit. The hop is just there in a tingle of the tongue. I would buy this again, I really enjoyed it and the other Pike beer I had, Kilt Lifter , was pretty good as well. The Pike has started off strong. I look forward to sampling their catalog, purely for reviewing purposes.

The Pike Kilt Lifter Ruby Ale

Another beer with a fine name and some promise. Kilt Lifter is from The Pike Brewery out of Seattle Washington. A ruby ale? Let's take a look. Kilt Lifter pours out a dark amber to copper color. The nose is a strong sweet caramel with a touch of bitter. This stuff has a lot of sweet caramel and malt up front, than the hops slowly ramp up becoming quite strong on the finish. There's nice body here and the alcohol is evident even though it's only 6.5%. The flavors are very well balanced, with maybe a bit much hop on the finish. However you only notice it the first couple sips. The sign of a good beer it seems to get better as I pound it. This is a really good beer. I would buy this again in a heartbeat. Go find it.