Yard's Tavern Spruce

      One of the best beers I remember was a spruce beer my sister and I made many moons ago.  I have not seen many on the market, this is the first commercial one I'll have tried.  Yards  pours out a slightly cloudy light brown,  and has a really sweet almost cola like nose.  Maybe with a hint of root beer.  That's funny it does't taste like that.  It's got sweet herb floral flavors as well as caramels, vanilla and a hint of fruit.  This is a pretty interesting beer, the flavors mesh well, it's balanced and has some body.  I like this but I think I'll have to try a couple more to be sure.  Worth a try, you could come to like this.  Winner.

Kelpie Seaweed Ale

      Well, I have found a number of unique beers lately, but this might take the cake.  It is in fact made with seaweed.  Kelpie pours out a very dark brown with mocha, caramel and a salty tang on the nose.  There's nice big solid mocha flavors, with a rich sweet caramel .  I don't get much seaweed here, but this is a really nice dark beer.  I forgot to mention it does have a bit of nice crisp hop.  Serve this less than ice cold it got better as it warmed up.  I could also start to taste the sea, but in a pleasant way.  This is surprisingly good, I will get this again.  Recommended.  Almost time for the madness that is the Spring Beer Tourney.

He'Brew Rejewvenator

      I loved He'Brew Jewbelation 14 soooo much I decided to try some of their other products.  Rejewvenator is a half Dopplebock,  half  Dubbel brewed with concord grape juice. OK.  Well it's worth a try,  especially the 8.2% ABV.  It pours out a slightly purple dark amber and has herb, grape and caramel on the nose.  Boy the flavors are all over the place.  Of course there's grape and herb, as well as raisin, white spice and yeast.  It's a bit strange,  I'm not sure about this mix of flavors.  As I soldier on I find this pleasant enough,  but this isn't something I would go seek out again.

Bateman's Combined Harvest

      This is an unusual entry from across the pond.  Combined Harvest is brewed with Wheat, rye, barley and oats.  This should be unique at least.  It pours out a slightly medium gold with caramels and grain on the nose.  The flavor is very sweet with nice caramels and a very distinctive lightly roasted grain flavor.  Kind of hard to describe, but a really pleasing flavor.  It's quite pleasant to drink and has some body to it.  It is a low alcohol beer so it does have one glaring weakness.  This is really worth looking into it's so unique.  I could see this becoming some peoples favorite beer.. Not me,  it's too weak.  Still,  try it.

Heavy Seas Siren Noire

      Oh,  Heavy Seas you produce such good beers,HERE and then utterly undrinkable garbage, HERE and HERE.  So to get back to just mediocre they need a winner.  Of course,  Imperial Chocolate Stout, sounds like a winner to me.  Noire, of course, pours out black as night with a staggering amount of chocolate on the nose.  There's nice hop bite all around strong chocolate and mocha flavors. This has a heavy body with a buttery quality to it.  The chocolate flavors have amazing depth and quality. I could see how some would complain that it's not that beer like, being more alcoholic chocolate.  I would disagree, I think there's enough hop here to bring it into the realm of beer.  I loved Young's Double Chocolate Stout, but this is way better.  This is great, the chocolate lover will adore this.  One of my favorites,  although this is not an easy drinking beer, more a dessert.

Lagunitas Brown Shugga

      Lagunitas brings us their Winter seasonal that's apparently made with brown sugar.  It pours a light brown with a very sweet caramel, herb and sugar nose.  The flavor is pretty unique, it has a powerful rush of sweet herb, that becomes a sugar, herb, raisin flavor.  Somehow, the brown sugar mixes very well with the giant herbal hop.  If not for this odd blending, I would find this insanely over hopped.  But it all works producing a pretty flavorful beer with great body and a generous 9.9 ABV.  I'm not sure this is for everyone, but you need to try it at least once.  I like it, I will get it again, and it's on the nice list.

Michelob Winter Bourbon Cask Ale

      Michelob Bourbon Cask is of course aged in bourban casks and its infused with vanilla bean.  Bourbon Cask pours out a hard red amber with caramel, a little vanilla and a hint of whiskey.  It drinks great with lovely strong vanilla, engaging caramels and some bourbon.  There's also a nice tingly hop throughout and a nice full body.  This is a damn good beer.  It's really lovely to drink, and I would gladly enjoy many of these through the Winter.  This stuff belongs high on my nice list.  

Troegs The Mad Elf Ale

      Troegs, out of Harrisburg PA, makes high alcohol beers and for that I salute them.  Mad Elf is no exeption with it's staggering 11% ABV.  This is already a winner.  Elf is in a nice jolly bottle and pours out a red-orange color.  The nose is rich with spice, citrus, cherry and yeast.  It starts of with a medium tingly hop that lasts throughout.  Then you get the sour cherry flavor and a bit much of a yeasty flavor.  Also, there's the spice flavors of clove and cardamom.  The body is thick and heavy and the alcohol is joyous.  Now, so far, it sounds like I really like this beer, but it's not as good as it should be.  The strong yeasty flavor bugs me.  However, there is so much that is positive here it goes up in the top half of the nice list.  I would gladly down a few more of these, and will revisit this next holiday as well.  Nice.

Longshot lemon Pepper Saison

This saison is the last of the Sam Adam's Longshot beers. This one should determine if this sixer is worth seeking out. It's a light gold with a white head. The nose is lemon zest, yeast and fruit. It sure doesn't taste very lemony or peppery. I guess there's some citrus, a little hop crispness and the yeast flavor. The hop comes and goes, but this odd flavor crops up that's like pepper feet. I'm not a fan of this beer. It starts out kind of refreshing, than the odd flavor kicks in and I check out. I will not be seeking this out again. Overall, it's hard to recommend this six pack. I really like the Old Ben Ale, and the barleywine wasn't bad, but the pepper feet saison is a dog. Wish I could get just the Old Ben Ale. Oh Wait, at Total Wine I can. Singles Baby.

Breckenridge Remarkable Vanilla Porter

The next of our trio of porters is Breckenridge Remarkable Vanilla Porter. This porter pours out a medium brown and unsurprisingly has a strong vanilla and sugar nose. Wowza, there be vanilla here in spades.It has a cream soda flavor and a little hop bitter which fades in and out. The finish is vanilla extract in a big way. Now I love vanilla. To me it's superior to chocolate, but this is just too medicinal tasting. This is not your easy drinking party beer, this is a sipper. Now, I still kind of like this stuff, but it is dependent on your vanilla extract tolerance. I'll go get another one of these someday. Still, i liked the Kona Porter quite a bit more. On to the next porter from Flying Dog.

Southern Tier Cherry Saison

Southern Tier is a brewery out of Lakewood New York. They have a rather extensive line up of beers you can check out here. The beer in question here is their Cherry Saison, an ale brewed with cherries and oak aged. This beer pours out a medium cloudy dark gold with a pinkish haze. The nose is awash in sweet and sour cherry as well as yeast and a touch of hop bitter. The flavor is sweet, with a crisp hop that balances the sweetness well. The cherry flavor is there, but subtle. Where it really comes out is on the finish. This is certainly got a lot of flavor, and strikes me as a slightly superior version of Smuttynose Hanami Ale. This has a high 8% alcohol, why I bought it, but you really can't taste it. I would enjoy sipping this beer under the cherry blossoms, but it does have a kind of funky aftertaste. It's also a tad pricey. But it comes in a giant bottle swimming with hooch, what's not to like.

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: #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.

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

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

#1 Aprihop vs #8 Vinyl

In our first look at a #1 seed, it's Aprihop versus Vinyl, in the battle of the weird names. The #1 seed is Aprihop, an I.P.A. brewed with apricots from the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware. The #8 seed is Vinyl, a spring Lager from Magic Hat in Burlington Vermont. By the way, I don't read the small print on bottles till after I do tasting notes, so I don't get their ideas of what the flavors are into my head. That said, I read the bottle and there is bizarre rambling about "mysterious melange" and "chaotic Chemistry", but no explanation as to why you name a beer vinyl. They smoke a lot of pot in Burlington. The palate cleanser is 6 hour slow roasted shredded pork. Alright time to actually get to the beer.

They both pour out a dark amber, but the Vinyl is pretty cloudy, while the Aprihop is clearer. The Vinyl has a nice hop bitterness, and sweet caramelized pear on the nose. You can smell the apricot in this Aprihop, but it's not too strong. There's also loads of bitter hop and grapefruit that all balances out nicely. Let'stake a sip, but first some pork. Wow, this does not taste at all like vinyl, it's a very traditional amber lager. There's light malty caramel and really nice balanced hop bitterness. Chomps down some pork. The Aprihop has a significant apricot flavor up front which intensifies before you get this rush of bitter hop. There's also a slight burnt flavor that's kind of pleasant. The Aprihop is amazing with this pork.

Now to get serious with the head to head match-up. First, a bit of pork cooked it's own juices with just a dry spice rub. The Aprihop is really concentrated and delicious, it also serves up a nice 7% abv. Damn, I wasn't supposed to eat another piece of pork, but I couldn't help it. Start again. The Vinyl has great balance it's a near perfect amber lager. I was afraid of this. I gave the Magic Hat an eight seed, because of it's stupid, inexplicable name and the hit or miss nature of their beers. But this is a real hit, it should have gotten a higher seed. However, they did give their beer a weird name, and how is this a spring beer, it tastes more like an Octoberfest. More pork. The aprihop is a bit of a novelty beer, but it goes great with pork. The Vinyl is ahead late in this game. Oh my, the glasses are at the same level, it's going into overtime. Still no winner and the glasses are almost empty. There it it goes the last sip of Aprihop. The winner on a questionable call is Aprihop. There's some controversy here,I really think Vinyl got jobbed. Aprihop moves on to the second round, but of all the losers Vinyl is by far the best, go get some now.

#2 Sierra Nevada Glissade Vs #7 Buffalo Bill's Orange Blossom Ale

The next match-up is between #2 in the Mid-East Region, Sierra Nevada's Glissade and the #7 seed, Buffalo Bill's Orange Blossom Cream Ale. Glissade is a golden bock made by the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company out of Chico CA, which I believe is near Suckramento. The Orange Blossom is an ale made with honey, orange peel, and orange flower extract, made by a big brewery, Pyramid, for Buffalo bill's Brewery in Hayward CA. The palette cleanser for this one is blue corn chips with chili cheese dip. Now for a rant. I know I'm supposed to have a simple water cracker so the food will not interfere with the flavors of the beer. Screw that. That's not what people have with beer, they have food. So die snobs, die.

Anyway, Glissade pours a clear pale gold, while the Orange Blossom is that cloudy straw color. Glissade has a little bitter apple on the nose, the other stuff has an overwhelming, lingering orange. Wow, that is strong. Crunching sounds. The Sierra Nevada has some nice hop bitterness up front with a creamy light caramelized apple\pear, and significant hop on the finish. The blue corn chip really holds up well to spicy dips. A large orange flavor comes up front with the Bill's, but so does some hop to balance all that fruit sweetness. That fruit lingers on the finish for a while.The golden bock is a far worthier #2 seed than the Anchor Bock, but it's a good, not great bock. The blossom has interesting flavors, but it's just a novelty beer not worthy of your regular rotation.

Need to hit those chips again, yeah those are good. Now time to go head to head. I thought the Orange Blossom was really good at first, but it get's old quick. Beers should get better as you drink them, the Glissade does. There's some real hop to the bock, but it has sublime balance. This seeding was very accurate, there's 5 minutes left and the Glissade is playing it's walk-ons. Sayonara, Orange Blossom, you just got routed. Glissade moves on to meet Sam Adam's Irish Red in the second round.

Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout

Not just content to go black, I,m going double dark, with Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout. This is an ale with real dark chocolate added. This pours a lovely dark brown at least as dark as the Xingu, I held it up to the light as well. As you would expect, the nose is a flood of chocolate that lingered well after I put the glass down. This is a stunningly creamy and delicious beer. There is a massive bittersweet chocolate flavor that lingers on the palate a long time. Eventually, you get the a little of the hop and a mellow smoky flavor on the finish. The whole lengthy experience of taking a sip is a shifting kaleidoscope chocolate flavors. The body on this stuff is surprisingly weak for a beer of this depth. I also find that after the minutes long finish you get a bit of weird bitterness in the mouth, but this is easily cured by continuing to drink.
I absolutely cannot conceive of a food item this would go with, it's flavors are so strong. But, I'll try popping milk chocolate almond bar in my mouth and see if like goes with like. Nope, the stout totally overwhelmed it. You could just treat it as a dessert in of itself. This beer is extremely impressive, but obviously you have to like chocolate a little. I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate but I'm a big fan of this beer.
This ends, for now, the showdown between white beers and black beers. The Allagash was the best of the whites but it couldn't hold a candle to either of these black beers. So in the end the blacks totally dominate. Kind of like an NBA game or a boxing match.

Dominion Spring Buck

The new spring offering from Dominion is Spring Buck. This is a blonde ale with honey, chamomile and orange peels, and a hefty 7.8% alcohol. It pours out a dense slightly cloudy cider color with alot of head. You can catch the chamomile, honey and yeast on the nose. The first sip is smooth and delicious, giving you some of the mouth feel and subtle character of mead. It has quite a strange and lingering aftertaste that I can't decide whether or not I like. I'm surprised how little one can taste the alcohol, but you can feel that delightful warmth of booze right quick. Uuummm, beer. I can definitely recommend this beer. It's really good, quite unique, and potent, but I can see how this blend of flavors might not appeal to some people. I still have a little bit of an issue with the lingering aftertaste. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.