Hop Slam Ale
Brewery: Bell's Brewery, Inc.
Where: Comstock, Michigan
Style: American Double / Imperial IPA
IBU: Off the Scale
ABV: 10%
Today's sampling is going to include a personal tirade about the state of craft/micro beers in America, but first, let's talk about this beer...
Bell's Hop Slam Ale is an American Double / Imperial IPA style of beer, which means two things. First, its stuff full of hops for bitterness and aroma, and second, it's got a lot of alcohol. At 10% ABV, you can consider a 12-ounce bottle to have a full 1.2 ounces of alcohol. That doesn't sound like a lot, but when you consider a shot of whiskey is 1.5 ounces, and that most whiskey is 80 proof, drinking a 10% ABV beer is like having just over two shots of your favorite liquor as far as alcohol content is concerned. It's not a beer to be consumed in large quantities.
This beer poured with the standard golden color and foamy head of a good IPA. The hop aroma is immediately present, without a doubt. This beer is also quite bitter, but it does have a fairly decent malt presence. As this beer warms up, the maltiness comes forward with a little more power, but the bitterness hangs on to the very end. As far as I'm concerned, you won't find a beer any hoppier than this one. Your hardcore beer enthusiasts will start to discuss a beer called "Pliny the Elder" in comparison, but it is a rather different beer than this one. It does not have as much of a malt backbone as the Hop Slam does, but it may be just a bit more drinkable in the long run...
Now, for my personal rant...
I am finding myself in a minority when it comes to the current state of affairs with American beers. Being in a taste minority in the world of beer really sucks sometimes. I'm jealous because a lot of the great craft brewers in the US are spending their time and efforts developing beers much like Bell's Hop Slam. These beers are all higher gravity (more alcohol) and high hops (more bitterness). For a person with my personal tastes in beer, this is a travesty. I'm a bigger fan of the maltier (sweeter) beers where there is a nice balance between malt sweetness and hop bitterness. I even like the sweeter beers where the hop presence is relatively minimal. I don't dislike the hop bombs with a ton of alcohol, but I'd usually choose a different beer when choices are available to me. Even thought I'm not personally happy with the current trends in the craft beer market in the US, I am VERY pleased that these beers are available and becoming more popular and easy to find on the store shelves. What this means to fans of craft beers is that our favorite brewers and beers are gaining a market share in a world that is still dominated by the yellow fizzy beers of the Bud/Miller/Coors manufacturing titans. It wasn't that long ago that a trip to any grocery or convenient store in North Carolina would yield exactly zero options for anything other than cheap yellow fizzy beer. It's getting a lot easier to find beers I love locally...
Until next time...
Founders Breakfast Stout
Brewery: Founders Brewing Co.
Where: Grand Rapids, MI
Beer: Breakfast Stout
Style: American Double / Imperial Stout
IBU: 60
ABV: 8.3%
I hate days like today. I have had a long work day and I was looking forward to having a good beer tonight. I came home and pulled the Founders Breakfast Stout that I have been saving for a while. I picked up a four-pack of these at Gail's Hops and Grapes last week. I'm a fan of stouts and imperial stouts. I love the richness of body and the roasted barley flavor dominance in most of them, but this particular choice is not good for me.
This beer poured the standard coffee-black color with an extra thick molasses-colored head. The aroma was definitely producing a coffee scent, and the label on this beer does boast double chocolate, coffee, and oatmeal, so I thought it would be fun to try. When I tasted this beer, there is only one word that comes to mind: ACRID. In my humble opinion, the coffee is overpowering in this beer. There is no essence of chocolate that I can detect and the roasted barley is present but it's simply overpowered by the coffee. My problem is that I'm not a coffee drinker at all. I can handle an occasional french vanilla cappuccino, but I never drink regular coffee, even with cream and sugar. To me, this beer tastes like what I would expect to find leftover in someone's coffee pot around noon or so after everyone had their morning fill. Once again, that's just me. If you ARE a coffee drinker, I would have to highly recommend giving this beer a whirl. I can't let myself underrate a beer that might be excellent because of my simple dislike of coffee.
This is only my second try of a Founders Brewing Co. beer, so I'll be sure to try some more in the future. I have three of these left if anyone is interested in trading me three other beers for them...
Small Craft Warning
It's 90 degrees outside, so I came back in and retired to the old blogging desk with a cold beer. Today's sampling is from Clipper City Brewing Company in Baltimore, Maryland. The Small Craft Warning Uber Pils is a very interesting brew. It has an excellent malt substance while still maintaining a pronounced hop punch. From the bottle:
Unofficially - the original American Uber Pils! American Uber Pils Small Craft Warning is a rich, golden bock lager with a big malt flavor and bountiful hop character. 7.0% Alc./Vol.
This beer maintained a nice lacing head throughout the consumption process. I'm very impressed with this beer overall. It may not be the greatest choice for a crisp thirst-quencher on a hot day because of its heavier body, but it's definitely a keeper.
Homebrewing Update:
I'm finally ready to try my first all-grain home brew. I finished building my mash tun, I bought my grain mill, and I ordered grains, hops, and yeast for my next brew. I'm planning to have a drop-in home brewing party in the very near future, probably on Saturday, June 27 between 1pm and 6pm. It will be an all-afternoon event for the brewing process, but you can drop by and stay as long or short as you want. I'll have my January Marzen, Orange Blossom Special, and CiderBock on hand for tasting as well as some snacks and munchies of various sorts. If you are interested in dropping by, let me know and I'll make sure to get you the details when I have them finalized, or hook up with me (John Setzler) on Facebook and I'll set up an event page for it there. If you are a brewer and would like to brew with me on this day, I'd love to have your company. I plan to host brew day drop-ins from now on in hopes of getting some of my local friends interested in home brewing.
Rogue’s Morimoto Imperial Pilsner
I'm on a roll with Rogue Ales. I haven't found one yet that I wouldn't drink again. I'm actually in love with a few of them and The Dead Guy ale is going to become a regular I think.
The Rogue Morimoto Imperial Pilsner is the most expensive bottle of beer I have ever purchased. At $15.99, it probably exceeds my ability to distinguish great beer from good beer, but I absolutely love the bottle. It's a work of art in its own rite. It's a 26oz ceramic swing-top bomber with the artwork screened right on it. When I look at bottles of wine, I see stuff priced from about $6 to all the way through the friggin' roof, so I sorta figure that $16 for a great bottle of beer is not all that bad. I'm no more of a freak for spending $16 than Joe Winedrinker is for spending $50+ for one he likes, right? :) Gail's Hops and Grapes told me that they thought it was one of the two best pilsners in their case, so I decided to give it a try.
With a recipe consisting solely of French pislner malt, sterling hops, free range coastal water, and Czech Pils yeast, this hefty pilsner rings in at 74 IBU and 8.8% ABV. From the website:
Golden in color with a dry hop floral aroma and intense hop bitterness supported by a big malty backbone which culminates into a hedonistic mouthful...
After I made the photo, I pulled the usual drill of transferring the beer into my pewter tankard to bring the temperature up to about 56 degrees before I really started enjoying the brew. The French Pils malts really come to life at this temperature. The hop punch of this beer also settles down nicely and starts to balance with the malty flavor without becoming totally subdued. I'll have to agree with the folks at Gail's that this is, without a doubt, the finest pilsner that I have ever had.
I still want to try one of the Rogue XS series brews, and the YSB may be my first attempt at that because I can buy it locally. I really want to try the imperial stout but I haven't found a source for it just yet...
Rogue Double Dead Guy
Friends are great things to have until they start suggesting $12 bottles of beer :) I have to take advantage of it though. It hasn't been that long since beers like this one were against the law here in North Carolina. There was a dark time when 6% was the maximum legal limit. Hickory, North Carolina is not the beer cultural center of the world. In fact, it's not the cultural center of much of anything. We are, however, fortunate enough to have Gail's Hops and Grapes, which caters to wine and beer enthusiasts with a rather nice selection of good wine and beer, including some top shelf options for those who are so inspired.
Rogue's Double Dead Guy Ale is my first venture into top-shelf beer. This is a 26oz / 750ml bomber of 9% ABV love. The bottle is beautiful, but I still can't wait to try one of the Rogue XS varieties in the ceramic swing-top bottle. I wish THIS was a swing-top bottle so I could drink half of it today and half of it tomorrow, but I suppose I'm going to be forced to suffer through the entire bottle tonight instead.
It's too cold right out of the fridge in the glass, so I transferred it to my pewter tankard and warmed it up to a good drinking temperature.
Tasting notes from the website:
Deep amber copper color. Buttery peanut brittle, orange blossom tea aromas follow through to a rich chewy and fruity full body with nice notes of caramel drizzled dried apricot and roasted grains and spice. Finishes with a long, tangy grilled grapefruit and chocolate fade...
My senses of taste are not quite that refined, but I can definitely enjoy this beer. Moving it to the pewter tankard significantly improved the aroma and flavor of this beer. At the colder temperature right out of the fridge, the alcohol level was quite evident on the palate, but at 55 degrees, the rich character of this beer came to life. I think I'm gonna end this post here and finish this bomber... It's really good stuff... :)
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