Homemade Chocolate Coconut Cream Stout

I have been slacking on the blog for a while now, but finally I have the motivation to write. Giving my IPA craze a rest and going to try this Chocolate Coconut Cream Stout. A fellow coworker of mine, Dan the man, was kind enough to share this homemade creation of his with me. Let us see what this top chef can do!

Appearance: Pours a free flowing brownish green tone with two fingers of head, that slowly dissipates to one. Looks dark and stormy as I can not see through my tulip glass, but it has a thin viscosity that makes it inviting.

Smell: As I bring my nose to this stout for the first time, I smell milk chocolate as if it was Yoo-Hoo. Not overpowering at all but it paints an impression in your head after numerous swirls and sniffs. Chocolate smelling malts present but not getting any hop aroma. Where is the coconut?

Taste: Not too much flavor but that may be due to the nature of this light and session-able style. Coconut flavors stand out alot more during tastes, especially as the beer warms up towards room temperature. Starting to taste like a mild Mounds candy bar :)

Mouthfeel: Light, almost watery but not due to its stout like presence. Carbonation settles well, not biting at all.

Drinkability: Very impressive Danielson! It is a session beer and can definitely drink more than one. Although it is not my style, I am very impressed with the overall rating being that it is a homeade beer as I have not had that many that interest me. I give it a 7.5/10 for now...need to taste another one or two to hone in on certain characteristics. Great imagination and use of the coconut as I have never seen that before in the craft beer industry! Thanks again!!

Dogfish Head Miles Davis' Bitches Brew

I know I'm over a week late, but in honor of Sam Calagione's new show Brewmasters on the Discovery Channel, I wanted to review the beer featured in it's first episode, Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. I have only watched the premiere, but it is a good show and I recommend it for beer lovers and even non-beer enthusiasts who are interested in seeing what goes into brewing fine craft beers. Congrats, Sam, and hopefully you get that record deal with Sony.

The episode goes into detail what Sam was looking for in this beer, a fusion of imperial stout and African tej, an Ethiopian honey wine. Usually when I review a beer, I try not to read too much into a label or what I've read on a website about it so that way I don't have preconceived notions on what to expect. Since I've already watched the episode, that's going to be near impossible, so I'll try to pick out the ingredients I saw in the show in what I drink.

Appearance: Pours a dark viscous black with brown lacey head of about a finger. It looks superb and really inviting.

Smell: Roasted malts, chocolate, and coffee really dominate the scent. I could also be picking up some sweetness from the honey, but this is why I don't like prior knowledge because I don't know if the smell is from suggestion or I'm really smelling it. On the other hand, I wish I knew what gesho smells like so I could try to pick it out.

Taste: Very interesting, tamer than what you would think from an ale where 3/4 of the blend is imperial stout and from the strong malt scents. There is still some roasted malts in there, but the honey and earthy hop flavors (I'm guessing the earthy hop flavors is the gesho) are more present on the finish.

Mouthfeel: Between medium and full bodied, smooth, perfectly carbonated, and surprisingly a little thin, but I guess that is the tej cutting into the stout. The bitterness on the finish cuts out any alcohol on the aftertaste.

Drinkability: One of the reasons I love Dogfish Head and Sam Calagione is the willingness to take risks, be creative, and do unusual things. A blend of imperial stout and tej, essentially a honey wine, sounds so out of whack, but they pulled it off. It's so different and strange that it's impossible to classify it and compare it to anything I've had. Not only that, but it's incredibly easy to drink at 9% abv, which could get me into trouble. I highly recommend this beer and the show Brewmasters which airs Sundays at 10p.m. on the Discovery Channel. If you've had this brew too, let me know what you think of it, I'm interested to see other people's takes on it. 9/10

Glass type: Duvel tulip glass
Serving type: Bottle, 25.4 oz.

Witches' Brew Golden Ale

Let me be the last to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! I hope it was filled with plenty of pumpkin pies and pumpkin ales. We should all be thankful that we live in a time where we have so much variety in our choices of great beer...oh yea, and thankful for family, friends, loved ones, yadda yadda. Anyway, I heard good things about this Belgian beauty and want to give it a try.

Appearance: After popping the cork (I love uncorking beers, don't know why) it pours a clear crisp golden and orange color with plenty of suds rising to the top to form massive amounts of fluffy head thanks to the bottle conditioning (but does not stick around for long).

Smell: Smacked in the nose with citrus hops, orange, some spices, and almost a champagne style smell. There are some other fruits in there, maybe banana, and a bready yeast smell as well. Delightful.

Taste: Some great flavors in this one, bananas, oranges, lemons, and spices. Pineapples also come to mind as it warms up a bit as the spices also come more into play. There is the slightest bit of sweet candy malt in the background, but just enough to let the hops do their thing.

Mouthfeel: Light bodied, smooth, thin, a little watery for what I would expect from most tripels, sufficiently carbonated, a gentle warming alcoholic aftertaste, not as biting or harsh as you might expect.

Drinkability: This might be the easiest drinking tripel I've ever had. Everything about this beer is so pleasant that going through a 750mL bottle is no problem, though you might feel it later at 9.3% abv. The Belgian brewery this beer comes from is Brouwerij Van Steenberge. Obviously this is the first brew from them I've had, so if anyone has recommendations of their other beers, let me know. I highly recommend picking this one up if you see it, even if you're not a Belgian fan. 9/10

Glass type: Duvel tulip glass
Serving type: Bottle, 750 mL

Port Brewing Anniversary Ale

Time for another (quick) Port Brewing review...HUZZAH!

Appearance: Pours a cloudy golden amber color with a couple inches of head. Trails of carbonation rising to the top.

Smell: Strong floral hop scents with some fruit, oranges, lemon zest, and others. Almost no malt to speak of.

Taste: Huge fruit hop flavor, grapefruit maybe, with hints of spice and fruit zest. The bottle was right, a true hop monster, especially as the brew warms up.

Mouthfeel: Light bodied and a little oily coating on the palate from the hop oils, well carbonated, an alcoholic and hop bitter aftertaste.

Drinkability: The smell and taste are fantastic, but the alcoholic aftertaste makes more than one bomber a little hard to pull off. It's probably better that way since the abv is 10%. Definitely a beer that belongs towards the end of a night of drinking. This beer definitely grew on me as it got warmer...or as the alcohol got to my head. 9/10

Glass type: Dogfish Head bullet/pint glass
Serving type: Bottle, 22 oz.

Port Brewing High Tide Fresh Hop IPA

Fresh hops! Fresh hops everywhere! Fresh hop ales and IPAs are the new black for craft beers. Take any ordinary ale, fresh hop it, and BLAMMO...instant upgrade in bitterness, aromas, and oily texture. I'm not complaining; hell, almost every time I see fresh hop on the label, I pick it up and give it a try...just like this little fella which I got from Julio's Liquors in Westborough, MA.

Appearance: Perfect crisp golden color with 2+ fingers of fluffy lacy head. Slightly opaque, though I don't see any bits of sediment floating around.

Smell: A nice mixture of pine and floral/herbal hops, as well as some citrus/lemon scents as a complement. I was hoping for a little more pronounced hop aromas but that's ok. There are also hints of sweet malts that you can guess will be the backbone on the taste.

Taste: Yup, a light caramel malt background then a kick to the teeth with bitterness. Any of the hop flavors you would expect from the smell though is overpowered from raw hop bitterness, though. A slight let down for some, a big positive for hopheads.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, good carbonation, and a little oily from the hop resins, just what you would expect. One of my favorite parts from fresh hop ales is the oily coat over the palate you get while drinking them.

Drinkability: One bomber for me tonight is no problem, and I wish I had bought a second. This beer could almost qualify as a session beer at 6.5% abv (especially for other hopheads who would welcome the bitterness with open tongues...err...arms...no tongues was right). The bottle date was 9/21/10, maybe drinking it two months from the bottle date affected the lack of (extreme) hop aromas, but it did not take away from the experience too negatively. 8.5/10

Glass type: Dogfish Head bullet/pint glass
Serving type: Bottle, 22 oz.

Great Divide Hibernation Ale (2007)

Remember this little number? Jimmy and I reviewed our second beer ever and wondered at the end how we "would love to see how aging would effect it." Well, 2.5 years later, we found out, and we couldn't be more pleased.

Appearance: Much darker than amber, almost brown, lots of yeast sediment and little head.

Smell: Chocolate, roasted nut, and raisin/currant aromas dominate, with all notions of hops scent away (see what I did there?)

Taste: Nice chocolate taste, extremely mellow, no bitterness, and gets much better as it warms up. Completely different from our original review, which had hops out the wazoo. This was one of the most noticeable effects of aging.

Mouthfeel: Still medium bodied, still perfectly carbonated, but an added dry finish and very little to not at all alcoholic aftertaste. Those last two observations would be the other effects of aging.

Drinkability: Jimmy: A strange cross between a porter, stout, and barleywine, would might be a little early in the day for it, but would be a great nightcap. Mike: Perfectly balanced, great brew anytime. 8.1% abv 9.25/10

Glass type: Dogfish Head bullet/pint glass
Serving type: Bottle, 12 oz.

The Bruery Mischief

My love for Belgian beers is runs pretty deep. I'm never afraid to try a new one and they never get old, because every brewery seems to have their own take on a style.

Appearance: Holy head hand grenade, Batman! Ton of typical fluffy lacy head tops a beautifully golden colored brew, crystal clear, and full of rising carbonation.

Smell: Citrus and flower hoppopotamus, spices, cloves, some other fruit in there that I can't discern, maybe pineapple? Nothing to speak of in the malt department.

Taste: Very dry, the citrus and floral hops are gone, some fruitiness, banana, finishes with a little pepper flavor. The banana and pepper are a nice subtle combo, but still bummed I wasn't smacked in the face with more intense hop flavor.

Mouthfeel: Crisp, light bodied, well carbonated, nonexistent alcoholic aftertaste.

Drinkability: Surprisingly easy to drink from a strong Belgian at 8.5% abv. Nothing of this beer really bogs you down, which can be dangerous. I wasn't particularly blown away by this brew, the smell got my hopes up but the taste was kind of a let down. Would I drink it again? Absolutely, but I won't go out of my way for it. Give it a try, maybe I'm missing something, in which case please tell me and I'll be happy to revisit it. 8/10

Glass type: Duvel tulip glass
Serving type: Bottle, 22.4 oz.