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.

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...

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...

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! 

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!

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!

Well, here we go once again down that road of slick packaging! I'm a sucker for it. If your beer has a super cool label, I'm likely to try it.  The Shmaltz Brewing Company, as far as I'm concerned, wins the cool labeling contest hands down.  I was at the World Market in Mooresville recently when I spotted this little gem sitting among some other seasonal beers and wines in a rather subtle display.  It hasnt' been that long ago that I tried their Coney Island Lager simply because of the cool label, so I'm going to pick up the rest of their stuff that is available to me this week and get it in the tasting line up very soon.  The labeling on the two bottles is nearly identical, which is probably why I liked it so much. 

The Coney Island Freaktoberfest poured with a thick foamy head and, as noted on the bottle, a blood red color in the glass.  It's so red that I actually expected the Kool-Aid guy to crash through my wall when I took a sip.  However, on taking that first sip, the malty dominance of the blood red brew stood up and shouted instead.  This beer has a powerful caramel note.  I don't know what the grain bill on this beer looks like but I'm quite confident that there is a nice chunck of crystal malt in each batch.  I like the flavor of this beer so much I might just write them an email and see if they would be willing to give any tips to a home brewer on making it.  Some breweries will do that to some extent.  The last time I inquired about a recipe, I was given the list of malts and hops used in the beer, but no amounts or ratios and was left to figure it out on my own. 

The label on this beer also says "This is not an Oktoberfest... This is Freaktoberfest."  As far as Oktoberfest beers go, this IS a bit different in more ways than just the color.  The malt dominance of this beer is right on target with the Oktoberfest style.  There is something odd in the hop bill though and I'm not sure what it is.  This beer has very little hop aroma, which is also normal, but there is a definite hop bitterness, although not overpowering at all, in this brew.  From the bottle:

6 Malts
6 Hops
6.66% Alcohol
Blood Red Lager
Indulge your Inner Freak!

That 6 hop note and higher alcohol content is what sets this beer apart from a normal Oktoberfest.  Oktoberfests are traditionally not known for hops.  I'll send a note to Shmaltz Brewing and see what information I might be able to get them to give up on this brew...  In the mean time, I am headed up to Gail's Hops and Grapes to pick up some more of these brews for future drinks...

I'm not generally swayed in my beer purchases by fancy packaging, but I'll admit right up front that I purchased this beer because of the super cool label on the bottle.  So, that being said, today's sampling is Coney Island Lager from Shmaltz Brewing Company in Saratoga Springs, New York. 

Coney Island Lager pours a very nice amber color with an excellent foamy head that hangs around in a thinner form throughout the entire glass.  The beer has a crisp mouth feel and a good hop and malt balance with a light to medium body.  Comparatively, this is not a beer I would buy regularly, but it's not a bad brew at all. 

I picked this up yesterday on a run to Gail's Hops and Grapes.  I picked up five more brews that I'm excited about adding to my tasting regimen.  The next brew I'll sample is one that I have been putting off way too long, so stay tuned :)

As I have said in the past, you can't really go wrong with a Rogue Ales product.  I haven't worked my way through all the Rogue Ales yet, but I will eventually.  Today's sampling is Rogue's American Amber Ale.  This amber ale is a bit on the hoppy side at 53 IBO but it does have a nice malty finish to follow. 

Tonya and I made another trip to the World Market this afternoon, so I picked up another assorted six pack of beers to try.  I'm a bit behind on my beer tasting regimen because of school and work, but I'll get caught up soon enough.  If my count is correct, I currently have about 13 more brews ready to sample, and my Orange Blossom Special that I brewed recently is also about ready to taste for the first time.  It has been in the bottle for three weeks and it's probably ready to taste now, but I'll hold off another week or so and let it condition a little longer. 

I also ordered my Barley Crusher grain mill earlier this week and it arrived via FedEx this afternoon.  Since my mash tun is complete, my next brew will be an all-grain recipe.  I'm excited about finally getting to try all-grain brewing instead of extract.  Having the grain mill will give me a lot of flexibility in creating my beer recipes.  I won't be constrained to the grain bill used to make the malt extracts.  I will have a lot finer control of the flavor and characteristics of my beer.  I'll also be able to buy whole grains and crush them right before I'm ready to brew for maximum freshness. 

I scored another big hit this afternoon at Gail's Hops & Grapes. I stumbled across some New Belgium Brewing Fat Tire Amber Ale while browsing the cooler.  This is a beer that is not foreign to me, but I haven't had it in a long time.  I was surprised to find it in a local shop, so I bought a bottle.  Popping the top and tasting it reminded me exactly why I liked it so much when I tasted it originally in Colorado. 

From the bottle:

Fat Tire Amber Ale's appeal is in its feat of balance: toasty biscuit-like malt flavors coasting in equilibrium with hoppy freshness.  Named in honor of Jeff's mountain bike trip from brewery to brewery through Europe.

Fat Tire is still crafted following the original home brew recipe that Jeff brainstormed on this cycling trip.

5.2% ABV

The equilibrium mentioned on the bottle, in my opinion, is one of the greatest points about this beer.  A lot of amber/red ales that I try are a bit on the hoppy side, but since I prefer the balanced approach to this style, this beer sits on or near the top of my favorites list for amber ales.  I actually like this beer more than Ft. Collins Brewery's Retro Red, and I really do like the Retro Red a lot.  Colorado is definitely known for its beers, and I hope to make a trip out there sometime in the near future to attend one of the Great American Beer Festivals.  It probably won't be this year but I intend to be there in 2010 for sure. 

I also picked up another top shelf brew at Gail's this afternoon, so stay tuned for that one.  I have a mid-term on Thursday so I really shouldn't be drinking anything this week, but the top shelf will probably appear before Sunday...