Jet black pour with a really dark, coffee colored head. Nose and tastes deliver a large amount of smoke, but the beer lacks the meaty, solid quality of many smoked beers and in that respect feels a little light. Tobacco features with some leathery components, but the beer lacks a sweet edge that really needs to accompany the smoked malts. Slightly too bitter for me and this beer frankly lacks the charm and subtlety of many other smoked beers. Frankly i was disappointed. Not up to speed for...
Notes on beers brewed by
Mikkeller
Til Fra (To From)
Opening this today (11/14/10) to commemorate week #300 of NBS. This is a bottle that I received as part of my 2007 Secret Santa package from BA nlmartin over three years ago. Seems like a good moment, occasion and decision to crack this one now. Price tag says it came from "Dilly Deli". 750 mL bottle with gold foil on the neck, a plastic "cork" and cage. Small pop on opening. Undated as far as I can see, but as I say this was given to me in 2007. Jet black body with a few reddish-brown...
1000 IBU
375 mL bottle, corked (synthetic) & caged. Green glass, thick dimpled champagne-style bottom. Green's on Buford, around $10 for the bottle (I think). Pour gives a murky brown color with a LOT of yeast floaties. Drab and dull in the mid-brown color. Quite unattractive, especially with the cascading floaties and the dirty dishwater appearance. Looks like a nasty, home-brewed, unfiltered Dubbel. Smell is surprisingly non-hop based. Quite neutral without much hint of the tastes to come. Some...
Funky E Star
Green's, Ponce de Leon, Atlanta, GA, USA. 750 mL, plastic (don't like that) corked, caged and foiled. VERY difficult to get the cork out - annoying. Getting the cork out produces a weak pop - disappointing. Disappointingly dark pour, with an amber hue. Head is also weak and leaves watery lace. No retention. Nose yields a little funk but a confusing, and unexpected sweet caramel note. The sweetness increases dramatically over time and the tiny funk recedes as the beer warms. The tastes are also...
Santa’s Little Helper 2009
750 mL, corked, caged and red-foiled affair. $12.99 from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA. Rich looking dark brown pour with a creamy, tan head. Some nice, creamy lace and a thin film forms on the surface and around the rim. A few cocoa notes and some Belgian yeast in the nose, along with a bit of hop presence. The beer doesn't deliver many (if any) typical Dark Belgian character. Outside of the look, it gives a slightly odd cocoa note (that I don't much care for) and is low on the advertised...
Tjekket Pilsner (AKA Czech-style Pilsner)
Well, what a strange brew. Let's start with the price. This was $9.99 for the 12 oz bottle from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA. I spoke with Kraig at length about this and he assured me that this was correct. Seems bizarre. The pour is a bit odd as well. Rather than getting a lovely, crystal clear, golden body we get a cloudy, butterscotch colored pour with a high bubbly head. To be honest, it looks more like a Hefe that anything else. Odd and not Pils like by any stretch of the imagination. The...
USAlive!
750 mL (synthetic) corked & caged, dimple-bottomed, brown bottle. Silver foil adorns the top. It came from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA a few weeks ago. Pour is a mid-orange body (slight haze) with a high, frothy, cream soda/float like head. Lace is random. Decent retention. The nose suggests (like the color) a dry-hopped IPA with some floral bitterness and a touch of brett. Drinkability is slow for me at first, but improves slightly as the bottle is consumed. The tastes replicate the nose. To...
Simcoe Single Hop IPA
11.2 oz bottle (that cunningly looks exactly like a 12 oz bottle) with 22/10/10 printed on the cap. Poured this one into the 22 oz Terrapin snifter. Large, two finger head that is retained OK and leaves some lace. Orange and significantly carbonated body with a lot of floaties. Light citrus note in the nose that is not really aggressive. In fact, quite sweet, tangerine like smells collect in the bowl of the glass. Pretty astringent hops in the taste and it finishes dry. There is not much to...
Black (黑)
Pretty interesting experience this one. Had a couple of bottles of it, one shared at The Brick Store with a few of the guys and one consumed on my own (BIG mistake). $14.95 from Bowling Green, KY, USA. (Plastic) corked and caged for the 375 mL? bottle. Pour is jet black and viscous. The head is non-descript, but it does leave some espresso colored lace. Nose is as expected with a fairly large dose of the requisite molasses, charred notes, malts and alcohol. The taste is where things get...
It’s Alive!
750 mL (plastic) corked and caged with silver foil. Green's on Buford, Atlanta, GA, USA. Not much of a pop on opening. Pour is a light, cloudy orange body and a smallish head. Head fades quickly to a thin foam and a light collar of foam. Mild brett and grapefruit combine nicely to give a nice stimulation of the palate. this is a consistent note throughout the beer. A very mild dry, bitter grapefruit aftertaste - good stuff. A very subtle Belgian IPA IMO. Very easy drinking with an extremely...
Not Just Another Wit
750 mL bottle, (plastic) corked and caged with black foil on the neck. Cork is devilishly difficult to remove. Green's on Buford, Atlanta, GA, USA. This one goes into the Duvel tulip with a HUGE, rocky head with wonderful retention and lace. Honey oranged cloudy body with some floaties complete the picture. Light floral hops in the nose; nothing overpowering. Carbonation seems low on the pour, but it has a little prickly nature in the mouth. This beer is definitely almost crossing over into...
Monk’s Brew (Monk’s Elixir)
750 mL (plastic) corked, caged and silver foiled affair. Green's on Ponce, Atlanta, GA, USA. I wish there was a real cork. This one has been in the cellar for a few months. Dark brown pour with a lovely head and that classic, spotty, creamy quad lace on the surface of the beer and on the glass. Into the Ommegang chalice. Wow, what a combo. Close to perfect in terms of the style, taste, mouthfeel and nose. Creamy body with very light and fine carbonation. Nose and tastes combine to give the...
Jackie Brown
Green's on Buford, Atlanta, GA, USA. I *think* that this was $5.99 for 1 PT 0.9 fl oz bottle. Well it is what it is - it's a pretty good example of an AMERICAN Brown Ale which basically means that it is way too hoppy and as a result loses all the charm of the original style which is all about smoothness and malt rather than bitterness. Nevertheless, a good example of that particular style. Slightly murky mid-brown pour which is also not to my liking. I much prefer a darker brown and more...
Santa’s Little Helper 2007
$14.95 from Green's on Ponce, Atlanta, GA, USA. 750 mL corked & caged affair with a red foiled neck. Poured into a small wine glass whilst on vacation in a villa on Hilton Head Island. Deep, dark Porter colored body. Close to jet black with some brown highlights. Nose and tastes are both VERY complex. There are all the requisite dark Belgian chracteristics. Plenty of dark fruits, figs and raisins; warming alcohol. The finish pulls the whole package together with a lovely mildly acidic note...
All Others Pale
500 mL bottle from Green's on Buford, Atlanta, GA, USA. $7.95 (or maybe $8.95) for the bottle. Pour is a lively one with plenty of bone-white head on top of the mid-orange body. A little sticky lace. A healthy dose of citrus/West coast pine in the nose and I think, "look out, this is going to be just too big!" Luckily the big nose is a little more tempered in the taste, and it seems to drink more like a diluted West Coast hopbomb. As the label suggests, there is a certain "green" feel to the...
Draft Bear
$11.99 from Green's, Buford Highway, Atlanta, GA, USA. Silver foil covered neck in the corked & caged 750 mL bottle. Nasty, synthetic cork - I dislike these. Partially poured into the 22oz Terrapin snifter - seems like the perfect glass for this beer. A slightly darker, golden pour with good head and some lace. I can't quite nail the nose, but it does seem a bit fruity. A little more bitter, but at the same time also a little smoother than the other Imperial Pilsners I have had. The malt...
Big Worse
12.7 fl oz bottle. $9.95 from Green's on Ponce, Atlanta, GA, USA. Silver foil, corked & caged - nasty synthetic cork has 14/06/11 inked on it. Deep orange pour into the Ommegang chalice. No head or lace as expected. Pretty typical - high alcohol, sticky mouthfeel, sweet, bitter hop burn in the finish. Like most American style BW's, this is not subtle and is just a little too aggressive for me. Would obviously cellar well and needs some ime to mellow and have the heat reduced IMO.
Beer Geek Breakfast
$11.99 Brawley's, Charlotte, NC, USA. 22oz bomber long before this came to GA. Inky, black pour with a generous, thick mocha head. Some lace. Bready (brown bread) nose with a little coffee, but not as much as I was anticipating. Mouthfeel and alcohol are quite reserved for the style, neither really coming on strong in body of the beer, but a little more alcohol in the finish. Coffee bitterness comes into its own as the mouthful goes down. Nice beer that I enjoyed but somewhat over-hyped I...
Black Hole
So I stroll into Green's, Ponce, Atlanta, GA, USA and take a look inside the Belgian walk-in and I see a bottle of silver foiled neck, Black Hole. It appears to be $9.95, and given that RIS is by no means my favorite stlye, AND I am really wary of the hype associated with many beers, I elect to pass. Anyway, off I go to The Brick Store, Decatur , GA, USA (10 minutes down the road) and Dave insists on cracking a bottle of the same for "research purposes". Pretty much exactly as you would...
Stateside IPA
16.9oz bottle, Green's, Buford, Atlanta, GA, USA. Overall, very, very tasty. Light orange pour, with (at first) what seems a high level of carbonation. After a few minutes of warming, this levels out to leave a very attractive sticky head and lace which is more reminiscent of a West Coast IPA. Mouthfeel is very, very light. Lots and lots of fruit in the initial tastes which eventually catches up to a hoppy finish, but nevertheless the large fruitiness is the key here. I like it a lot, but to...