Ubu is more than just an Adirondack

Evening all!

Tonight we begin the first of two reviews of the Lake Placid Brewing Company. Lake Placid Brewing Company is the culmination of two people who loved the craft of beer and took up residence in a small pub in (you guessed it) the village of Lake Placid.  The flagship beer of the brewery, Ubu Ale, will be the subject of tonight's review.  This is, literally, a presidential beer and I highly recommend checking out the Lake Placid Brewing Company website for the full story.  After reading it, I was excited to see what could be so special in this bottle (though, given the president in question and his taste in women, perhaps I should have approached it a little more cautiously...)

Now that you see the label of the beer (and if you know what an Adirondack village is) you know where I went with the title.  It's simple yet effective.  This is the flagship of the brewery and it stands on it's own two feet.  The label is a little 'busy' if I want to get picky.  A solid tone label with the Adirondack chair and the title would help it stand out a bit.  Now what's under the cap?

You'll notice the beer has little to no head.  I was somewhat surprised at that considering it's described as an English Strong Ale and I would expect a little bit more in such an ale.  The smell was very distinct to stat with, first with a molasses sweet smell with the scent of chocolate.  This quickly faded to the background and provided a hint of the smell for the rest of the tasting.

Upon taste, I was impressed with the smooth, rich, malt flavor.  Described by Lake Placid Brewing Company as deep garnet red but really looking more brown, it certainly delivered on the flavor I would expect with a beer of reddish hue.  It reminded me of dark chocolate; balanced in sweetness and bitterness that felt genuine.  When the beer is described as being complimented by just the right amount of English hops I have to agree.  Hardly over powering but certainly there in adding depth to the beer.  The beer left behind a stickiness which resembled a scotch ale both on my palate and in the glass but with less bite.  

This beer belongs beside you, certainly in an Adirondack chair, relaxing by the camp fire or as a colder day on the beach begins to end.  It's much more refreshing than it's darker hues would suggest, and it has a level of complexity which is astounding given it's relatively simple ingredients and description from Lake Placid Brewing Company.  The beer deserves a French on the PINTRS and I can't wait to drink the rest of them!

Hurricane Kitty Lacks a Category

Good evening all!  First a little admin news.  My blog was recently reviewed! Check out the review at The Kindle Blog Report to see the review.  Now, on to today's review.

We're sampling another brew from the Keegan Ales.  Last time I was more than pleased with their Mother's Milk and today we're trying Hurricane Kitty.

Hurricane Kitty is billed as an India Pale Ale (IPA).  Keegan Ales gives a great description of the beer's history and flavor, so I'll display that here:

"This brew is a coppery and heavily hopped India Pale Ale. Named after brewmaster Keegan’s grandmother whose driving earned her quite a reputation with local police racing her six children to and from a local Long Island beach ferry during the 1960′s, Hurricane Kitty is the undisputed family favorite. We try to make the hop bill read as aggressively as her driver’s record."


With a beer that has as rich a history as this one I was quite excited to see what makes Hurricane Kitty different than your run-of-the-mill IPA.

The aroma of the beer was nothing unexpected.  There was a tinge of sweetness along with some citrus backgrounds.  The Frosted Mug states the beer's head hangs around much longer than you'd expect.  Seeing this for myself was pretty interesting.  It's not a large head but it certainly hangs there and adds to the taste on the first swallow.  The color is a deep coppery color, so still nothing too surprising here.

About that first taste.  The IPA flavor is dead on with the exception of refreshness.  The beer has a very distinct bitter citrus flavor which will hang around your taste buds for awhile.  There's also the malt sugar flavor interlaced within this bitterness but it doesn't come through quite strong and is well overpowered by the bitterness.

This is definitely an IPA, but nothing else.  Where Mother's Milk was unique and flavorful, Hurricane Kitty is predictable and found lacking.  I don't hate the beer, so I'll be given it a US PINTR in the system.  I just wish there was something more, or something more unique, to enjoy.

Son of a Peach with a Pit

Hey brew lovers!  We're back with another iteration of Good Brew Hunting.  Our schedule is set and ready for new posts at least once a week so make sure to stay on top of us as the weeks go by.

This weeks review hails from the RJ Rockers brewery from Spartansburg, South Carolina.  If I rated beers on websites alone, RJ Rockers gets high marks for both website design and content.  I won't steal their thunder, but I highly recommend visiting the RJ Rockers website and perusing their various tabs.  I was really intrigued by their focus on sustainability.  The best beers are represented by wholesome natural ingredients and it seems like RJ Rockers really has an appreciation for the craft.  Now for the beer!

Today's selection is RJ Rockers's Son of a Peach American wheat ale, a Gold Medal winner at the Los Angeles International Commercial Beer Competition in the Fruit Wheat Beer category.  As is the case with their website, RJ Rockers deserves high marks for their bottle/label design.  That peach sure looks like an angry S.O.B. and it would really stand out when stacked aside an aisle of craft beer selections.

(Sorry about these angled photos, must have been that East Coast earthquake tilting my equilibrium!)

I was impressed when I popped the top of this brew.  The color of the beer in this picture really doesn't do it full justice.  It had a fleshier tone, dare I say closer to a peach color.  I was thrown off a bit by the amount of sediment I saw but I wasn't completely surprised.  A bit of sediment in an American wheat ale isn't all that strange, but it is something you will notice when pouring.  The aroma tempted me with the peach fruit ale I was promised on this label.  It had a wonderful sweet peach smell that was really more reminiscent of a dessert than just the fruit itself.

The taste...left something to be desired.  Maybe it was the smell that had me expecting more from this brew.  It certainly was complex, but I'm not sure it was complex in a good way.  It was a light beer and was certainly more of an American wheat ale than anything else.  Granted, that's exactly how it's sold on the bottle.  When you smell that aroma though you will most likely get stumped by the actual taste.  It just doesn't carry over the sweetness I would've expected.  There really is very little fruit flavor inside the beer but definitely had the light but noticeable aftertaste of a white or wheat beer.

This beer is going to get a US PINTRS rating.  It's a light summer beer that will appeal to the general mass, but I felt like this was a missed opportunity.  RJ Rockers had the chance to really make a fusion beer with very positive complex flavors working and it just didn't happen.  It's like an unripened peach;  refreshing but not nearly as good as it could be.  I look forward to more beers from this brewery thought as they have the right mentality for an American craft brewery that's sure to breed success.

120 Pulls a 1080

We've talked about Dogfish Head brewery before.  They've been able to establish themselves as a US-wide high quality craft brewery that happens to have a few alehouses (where I highly recommend sitting down and grabbing a bite with your brew).  They have a few of what they call "Occasional Varieties" in their beer selection.  The one we're tasting today is the 120 Minute IPA.  I highly recommend checking out the Dogfish Head video regarding 120 Minute IPA.

The labels from Dogfish Head are well done and each of their selections stand out well against each other. There's still not much style to the outside of the bottle, but it speaks of an gentlemanly elegance.  Does what's in the bottle match up?

You'll see I poured in a pilsner-like glass, which I knew was not for this beer's ilk. But I like continuity and you can see the fullness of the beer when stood up within this glass. If a beer could pour like molasses this one would have.  There was a syrupy-thickness to the pour which was further emphasized by the overpowering aroma as the beer was poured out.  The smell of this IPA permeated throughout my bedroom with a pungent, malty alcohol wafer that's sure to intimidate.  On to the taste.

And what a first taste it was.  If we're talking about beers who can TKO just about any other beer, this is it. There's nothing really like this beer, and you can tell from it's strength just how much an impact being aged a whole month with whole-leaf hops has.  My palate felt like this was a beer that had nuzzled up with a warm whiskey barrel and comes out wanting to show the kinds of mountains beers can climb. Syrupy, sticky sweetness which sits in your mouth (and a slap of hardcore alcohol which warms the blood) on every taste.

After a few sips, I switched the glass.  My glass selection is somewhat lacking but this particular martini glass worked great as I was able to keep the beer at just the right cold temperature I wanted. My recommendation? Find this beer, buy it, and age it a little more too. I love this beer as an after dinner drink.  Drinking this in a nice snifter glass, 120 Minute IPA belongs rick with that high backed dark leather chair with an ABV that can light it's own pipe. Complicated brilliance in a bottle, this commands a Scottish PINTRS score.  Be warned, this beer will kick your ass and not feel bad about it.

Stung By Uinta

So here's the thing about Utah.  There are some alcohol laws found in a few other states that key in on low-alcohol beers.  I'm usually turned off by low-alcohol beers because...well...I like alcohol.  I like it at a high content and I think you get your most refined but creative beers at the high alcohol beer level.  Uinta is going to try and prove me wrong today with HIVE Honey Stung Ale.

There it is.  Nice labeled bottle and if you can tell from the picture, it comes in a stouter bottle not the typical long-neck variety.  It stands it apart from all the other beers in the fridge (there are a lot in there, so it's important to stand out).  But what's on the inside?

Color is not the mead-like color you may have thought about in a 'honey' ale.  It's kind of like a tanned sandalwood color. The head is close to a summer ale (predicted that) but the color was certainly darker than expected.

Inside the bottle we have exactly what Uinta describes on their website; a bittersweet swallow.  This beer is highly carbonated in a very refreshing way.  It's bitterness reminds me of a copper/amber ale.  It leaves us off with a hint of sweetness that you have to go digging with your tastebuds to find.  When you compare this to a certain brewery's Honeymoon it comes up short. It certainly does impress for its 4% abv and for that we'll give it a satisfying, but not exceptional, US PINTRS rating.  Till next time!

Hippo over the River Saison

Tonight is a review from a brewery I have a love affair with River Horse Brewing Company.  Their website isn't as impressive as their beers.  I've grown quite fond of this gem along the Delaware River, and have high hopes for our taste this evening.

Each season,  River Horse Brewing Company does a different beer under its Brewer's Reserve label.  This season is a first tasting for me, they're Saison Belgian Style Farmhouse Ale.  This is a style of beer I've yet to taste so I decided to do a little research about what a saison farmhouse ale is all about.  According to Wikipedia, the saison ale originated from Wallonia, a French-speaking region of Belgium.  The beer was meant to be refreshing but local alcohol content so as not to easily intoxicate it's primary consumers, farmers.  It was meant to be just strong enough to prevent spoilage.  The US versions of saison ales are less concerned with the ABV content and more concerned with getting the hoppy base flavor just right.

The picture above doesn't do the beer's color justice.  The head is light and with a fizzy consistency.  It's got the sweet smell I'd expect from a honey ale or mead.  I was excited from the moment I poured it and was expecting the refreshing flavors of a Belgian wheat summer ale.

Wow, these flavors were complex.  It's hard to break down the complexity of all the flavors at work but I like to think of it as an explosion of spices and hops.  Lighter on spice than a Christmas ale which gets overpowered with nutmeg, but definitely a cavalcade of different spices at work here.  As far as getting a hop base right which is in traditional saisons, it's definitely there in force.  The two combine for something not quite light enough for a hot beach day but I look forward to coming home from a day of work and letting my body soak in the deliciousness that  River Horse Brewing Company has created with this saison.  I can't wait to stop by and hear the story behind this recipe from some of their staff.  This beer doesn't QUITE survive the test of all seasons that I'd like to see in a Scottish PINTRS, but it most certainly deserves a French rating. Till next time!

Going Several Rounds with Brawler

Hello everyone! Another installment of Good Brew Hunting coming at ya, this time sampling one of two brews I have from Yards Brewing Company, a Philadelphia-centric brewery with a lot of promise.  

Today's beer is Brawler, what's advertised as a craft beer in the style of English session ales.  WTF is an English session ale you ask?  Session ale is just your standard ale, in the case an English standard ale.  

Here it stands after the pour (mmm, I just love me the sight of a frosted glass).  The aromas are nothing noteworthy.  If you try REAL hard you may be able to detect a hint of malt.  It poured smoothly with a modest foam head.  The beer is described ruby in color but it's really a tarnished brass color; think the color of brass rings at an old-style carousel.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, go find an old-style carousel where they have brass rings and you'll have a simple but fun time. 


Tasting yielded a toasted malt flavor but without the sweetness.  More bittier than the classic American ale, but not offensively so.  The malt and bitterness bring out a light beer that could stand in the ring as a fall or winter selection.  Honestly, the beer has more flavor than most beers with an ABV of 4/2%.  It's always impressive when a beer can do more with less and in the case Yards Brewing Company deserves a tip of the cap for Brawler.  I feel comfortable with giving the beer a US rating on the PINTRS, and look forward to tasting some more!