Big thanks go out to Kevin for the chance to try this BBC beer. Impressive, champagne style presentation with a THICK, gold foil on the neck of the capped, 750 mL behemoth! Pour gives a standard, mid brown IPA-like body but some excellent, thick, frothy head and lace that lingers. Solid looking. Nose gives a very distinct rye whiff right off the bat, and this builds even more with increasing temperature. The tastes do the same, with the spiced rye building over the course of the beer as the...
Notes on beers brewed by
Bluegrass Brewing Company
Dark Star Porter
Thanks to BEERchitect for the chance to try this one. 12 oz single from Lexington, KY, USA. Nice looking pour with the dark brown body, red highlights and an impressive pitted, rocky head about half an inch deep with plenty of lacing. Looks inviting and well put together. Typical mild, burned malts in the nose, nothing out of the ordinary. Thinnish mouthfeel (I like a creamy porter) with a lack of outstanding characteristics all around. A rather exaggerated bitterness in the finish too. Low...
Horse Piss Beer
Pour provides a big, fluffy pillow like head that is rather attractive. Decent density too. Some half decent lacing as well - of course this all fades very quickly to not much at all. The body is a sort of weird macro lager/Hefe misty combination. This looks rather good. Some dry sweetness with a little bitterness, but the mouthfeel is very watery and before you know it there's not much to distinguish this from say, a Miller Lite. Mild skunk is revealed in the aroma. Glad I tried it, won't be...
Jefferson’s Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout
Thanks go out to BEERchitect for the chance to try this one. 12 oz bottle. Dark brown body with no lacing and virtually no head. Don't really get this on a number of fronts. If this is 11% I'm a Dutchman. It drinks nowhere near that. Secondly this is amazingly light to drink - even to the point of having no body. Dry tastes with a VERY mild bourbon taste somewhere in the deep, deep background. I can't beleive that a beer that has the words, "Reserve", "Bourbon", "Stout", "Double" and "11%" in...
American Pale Ale
12 oz single given to me by BEERchitect - thanks! Not my favourite style, but I am happy to persist! Typically cloudy orange pour with some chill haze. The lacing is a sticky treat, much like a top quality IPA. Not much head though except a small covering of white foam. Plenty of sweetness with a bitter finish, pretty ordinary, but to be honest that's just the way I see (and often find) this style. It's very unoffensive, quite simple and rather ordinary but drinkable and OK. Good quality,...
Professor Gesser’s Mind Numbing Ale
Thanks to BEERchitect for the opportunity to try this one. 750 mL bottle with gold foil capped neck. Very big and bold pour with stacks and stacks of large head and plenty of wonderful lacing. Clouded orange body. Aroma is that of robust citrus hops and some significant sweetness. Good solid hop bitterness with some serious resinous grapefruit tastes. The malt backbone is significant and manages to hold the whole thing together. This is MUCH bigger than your average IPA and is getting into...
Hell For Certain
12 oz bottle, thanks to BEERchitect for the trade. Mild Belgian characteristics but this is NOT an authentic Belgian Dark by any stretch of the imagination. Pretty weak and insipid. Somewhat murky brown pour, Dubbel looking. Small head with no retention and no lacing. Sweet, bubblegum character. Dry finish with very thin mouthfeel. A little fruit - not much. Not good.
Mephistopheles’ Metamorphosis
Thanks to BEERchitect for the trade. Annoying carbonation on the opening of the impressive looking bottle. Wave afer wave of light bubbles waste a substantial amount of beer on the kitchen counter. Cloudy apple juice colored liquid (a lot of yeast sediment), not really what I am looking for in my Tripel's. Decent Belgian yeasty and mildly spiced aroma. A little bit of a honey cheerio grain/cereal smell too. Tastes are incredibly sweet even for my sugar loving palate. It ends with a huge...
Bluegrass Nut Brown Ale
Good stuff. On-tap at Mellow Mushroom, Lexington, KY - around $2 a pint! Dark brown pour that suffers from being served too cold, but after the beer wams all the attributes start to be enhanced and come through nicely. The temperature affected the pour making it look rather flat. After warming and with a little agitation we get what the beer should resemble Lovely deep color and excellent head and lacing. Lovely nutty sweet nose. A little edgier than say, Rogue Hazelnut, but it has any of...
Homewrecker
Thick gold foil on the neck of the capped 750 mL bottle. Thanks go out to BEERchitect for the gift. Cloudy, honey colored pour with excessive carbonation. The carbonation is too much for me, too much for the style and frankly a little annoying. Some sticky lacing and some foamy head but it is a little inconsistent. The carbonation imparts a prickly mouthfeel that I don't much care for. This is a VERY typical over-the-top American Double IPA. Huge, west coast style piney and resinous hops that...
Altbier
Thanks to BEERchitect for this offering. Mid amber pour with some lacing and a small head. Nice legs on the beer considering the relatively (I assume) low alcohol. Smell is really fruity. Surprising! I get mainly pears. A little dry for me in the mouth, but not to any alarming extent. The tastes are typically Altbier. Brown ale malts but more reserved than an English (or indeed) an American version. Fruit comes through a little in the taste, but not to any extent. Tiny hop finish. Tasty.