Stone Levitation Ale
Brewery: Stone Brewing Company
Where: Escondido, California
Style: American Amber / Red Ale
IBU: 45 IBU
ABV: 4.4%
Here's a little jewel that I have been hoarding away for a while, so I decided to pop the top on this bottle of Stone's Levitation Ale this evening. I'm a pretty big fan of amber ales so hopefully this one won't let me down. Stone Brewing is not known for letting me down so I'll probably be easy on it even if I don't like it, which will be a fat chance.
This beer poured with the standard amber hue with a rich foamy head that stuck around for the entire glass. The malt complexity of this beer was nice and the hop presence was significant at 45 IBU. At 4.4% alcohol, most of my friends would scoff at this beer as unfavorable, but I was rather impressed with it. This beer would make an excellent cool weather drink... one that you can handle for the duration of the day.
As far as amber ales are concerned, this one will probably be in my top 5.
Rogue Captain Sig’s Northwestern Ale
Brewery: Rogue Ales
Where: Newport, Oregon
Style: American Amber / Red Ale
IBU: 80
ABV: 6.2%
Once again, slipping back to my old stand-by of some of the greatest beers in the world... Rogue Ales! Today's sampling from one of my top favorite breweries is Rogue's Captain Sig's Northwestern Ale. This is an American Amber that obviously pours with a rich red hue and nice foamy head as shown by my photo. The beer has an immediate floral hop nose created by Rogue's combination of Amarillo and Cascade hops in this brew. The color and lovely malt backbone of this ale is a result of the combination of 2-row, Munich, Carastan, and Chocolate malts in the grain bill. At 80 IBU, this beer obviously has a significant hop presence, but it's very nicely balanced with the rich sweetness of the darker malts. This beer has a medium body (just slightly to the ligher side) and is easily drinkable. As far as the style is concerned, this beer is definitely over the edge on the hop scale, but don't let that stop you from giving it a try! There is absolutely nothing wrong with bending the style rules when making a great beer such as this one.
Cheers until next time...
St. Rogue Red Ale
Brewery: Rogue Ales
Where: Newport, Oregon
Beer: St. Rogue Red Ale
Style: American Amber / Red Ale
IBU: 44 IBU
ABV: 5.1%
When I first started this blog and my beer tasting experiments, Amber Ales were one of my favorites. I love the malty flavor of this style and I hadn't really experienced very many varieties of the style. If I have learned anything about styles in the last year, it is simply that a style is nothing more than a general guideline for what a beer might be like. It's also a set of rules to follow if you plan to make competition beer, but that's beside the point. The taste and characteristics of American Amber / Red Ales has been quite diverse.
Today's sample is St. Rogue Red Ale from Rogue. As usual, I'm quite impressed with this beer. St. Rogue is dry hopped, and this may be the first sampling I have had of a dry hopped red ale. This beer is made up of a nice mix of 2-row and crystal malts followed by a nice helping of Chinook and Centennial hops to create great balance between the malt character and the citrus/floral characteristics of these hops.
We're gonna chalk up another score for Rogue Ales with this beer. I might just do a run on Rogues for the next few reviews as well. I have at least five more sitting here that are dying to be opened...
Olde Hickory Ruby Lager
Brewery: Olde Hickory Brewery
Where: Hickory, North Carolina
Beer: Ruby Lager
Style: American Amber / Red Lager
IBU: 20
ABV: N/A (Est. 4.0%?)
I'm glad that the Olde Hickory Brewery is offering a lot of their beers in bottles these days. It gives me the opportunity to include them in this blog. Since the OHB is the only brewery in my town, I want to make sure to share their goods with everyone here! I have quite a few more on hand, but today's sample is the Ruby Lager.
The Ruby Lager poured with a nice rich amber color and a foamy head that has a wonderful malty aroma with no pronounced hop aroma. This beer has a fantastic crisp flavor and a rather light body as well. It's definitely an easy drinker and I would also put this beer into the category of craft brews that I would recommend to a newcomer in the world of micro and craft beers. It's not too heavy or too high in alcohol and it is a great beer for that transition between the BMC world and the universe of real beer.
I'm going to try to work my way through several more OHB beers in the next few weeks. The Doppelbock is staring at me and calling my name!
Santa’s Private Reserve
Brewery: Rogue Ales
Where: Newport, Oregon
Beer: Santa's Private Reserve
Style: American Amber / Red Ale
IBU: 65
ABV: 6%
Christmas day is over and I'm totally worn out. I have had this beer on my shelf for a while saving it for this very specific and special occasion. I tossed it in the fridge this morning knowing that I was going to wind up my day by popping the cap on yet another Rogue. Santa's Private Reserve is a not your average winter holiday seasonal beer. In fact, it's not really going to fall into that category at all. Santa has had enough of the all-spice, coriander, nutmeg, clove, and whatever else might have found its way into other kettles. What Santa really wants after a long trip around the globe is a big fat malt bomb that starts the bitterness with a good helping of Chinook hops and finished with the fantastic aroma and flavor of Centennial hops. Rogue has come to the rescue and answered Santa's request with this year's Santa's Private Reserve. This beer poured with a rich amber color and foamy head followed by a big aroma of malt and Centennial hops.
On that note, I'm going to call it a day and finish this wonderful beer. If you haven't tried this one yet, you better get them while you can or you might have to wait until next year... seriously folk... this is a bad one to miss!
Shmaltz Brewing – Human Blockhead
Brewery: Schmaltz Brewing Company
Where: Saratoga Springs, NY
Beer: Human Blockhead Tough-As-Nails Lager
Style: American Amber / Red Lager
IBU: N/A
ABV: 10%
As promised previously, I picked up several more samples of the Freak beers from Shmaltz Brewing Company. During the process, I also picked up some of the Chosen Beers as well, so we have several of these on hand to taste in the near future. Their "Albino Python" and "Mermaid Pilsner" aren't available to me locally that I'm aware of, but I might be able to find them elswhere in the future...
Today's sample is the Human Blockhead Tough-As-Nails Lager. When I was examining the bottle in the store, the first thing I found out of the ordinary (besides the normally outrageous packaging) was the 10% ABV note on the bottle. That's pretty much over the top for this style of beer, so I was quite curious as to what it might provide in terms of taste. Most beers like this have a significant alcohol presence in the flavor when they come right out of the refrigerator, and this beer is no exception. My normal procedure on a beer like this is to let it warm up to 55° F before really digging in, which is what I did with this beer.
This beer poured with a rich amber color and a decent head that maintained its presence for the entire drink. The flavor of this beer just about knocked me down (in a good way!) This beer is what I'd call a 'malt bomb' with a fantastic mouth feel. According to Shmaltz, this beer is made up of the following malts:
- Munich
- Vienna
- Wheat
- Crystal Rye
- Pale Crystal
- Flaked Oats
- Rye
The flaked oats are most likely responsible for the nice mouth feel of this beer, but I'm simply unexperienced on the Rye portion of this grain bill. I'm probably going to have to do a little research on those ingredients. This beer, regardless of what went into it, has pulled me in as a fan of Shmaltz Brewing. The malt complexity on this one is simply outstanding, but I must warn you... Take it easy with this one... It will sneak up on you while you aren't looking!
I'm such a fan at this point, I'm going to have to see if I can get Santa to cough up a Coney Island Lager T-shirt for me this year!
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