Beer 265/365 – Sly Fox Royal Weisse

Style: Hefeweizen

ABV: 5.4%

Purchased at: Giant Eagle Market District – Robinson PA

What makes this beer different: Tons of citrus and banana flavor going on.

Will I be drinking this again: Yup! Actually bought a case for my birthday golf outing next week. Its on of the only decent wheat beers I can find in a can.

Grade: B+

7/31/2010: I am ashamed to say this is my very first Sly Fox beer. Ashamed because its a brewery from my homestate of Pennsylvania, and I like to try as many local beers as possible. Not sure why I waited until now, as they usually are pretty accessible at all the local six pack shops. I need to pick up their pikeland pils at some point also.

The nose of Royal Weisse is all about banana, with a squeeze of lemon. Lots of fruity flavor going on here. Mostly banana, but not fresh banana. It reminds me more of banana flavored candy. There is also a lot of tart lemon for a hefe. The body is about medium, but very well carbonated which makes this a good summer beer. If the banana flavor was a bit fresher, I would have bumped this up to an A-.

Picture of the day: This is actually a video. Justin Bieber gets what he deserves.

Beer 264/365 – Summit India Style Rye Ale

Style: Rye Beer

ABV: 6.3%

Purchased at: Extra in a trade

What makes this beer different: About the only Rye beer thus far that I actually liked!

Will I be drinking this again: Yes I still have another bottle in the fridge

Grade: A-

7/30/2010: I thought Surly was the only decent brewery in the land of 10,000 lakes? Apparently I was wrong because it seems as if Summit knows what they are doing in the brewing department. Okay this is my first beer from Summit but it is pretty damn good, especially considering rye beer isn’t one of my favorite styles.

The nose is very spicy, with a charred caramel hint. The flavor is burnt caramel, roasty malts, some spice and a nice punch of citrus hops. This beer is actually pretty complex. Creamy and much smoother than anticipated. Light flavors but mix together nicely. The sum is better than the parts on this beer.

Picture of the day: Google is all knowing.

Beer 263/365 – Köstritzer Schwarzbier

Style: Schwarzbier

ABV: 4.8%

Purchased at: Vintage Estate – Boardman OH

What makes this beer different: Like a slightly smoked lager. Very tasty.

Will I be drinking this again: Yes this was really good.

Grade: B+

7/29/2010: Schwarzbier as as style is a little bit different. It falls somewhere between a brown ale, and a porter. It is dark in color but usually not heavy in body. Also this is a lager, not an ale like a porter/brown ale. I had this beer sitting around for a few months now, and since its a lager I am sure it would have been even better if I would have drank it fresh.

The aroma of Kostritzer was mildly smokey and very earthy. For this being such a dark beer it is very refreshing, clean caramel malt, earthy, and toasted bread. Oh and a little tiny tiny bit of smoke in the mix. The mouthfeel is light and very well carbonated. This style can sometimes throw you for a loop since the color is so dark you expect the body to be real heavy, but this usually isn’t the case. Very unique beer. If you haven’t tried a schwarzbier, go find this as I think its pretty readily available.

Picture of the day: A quick history of my favorite animated TV show, south park.

Beer 262/365 – Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti

Style: Imperial Stout

ABV: 9.5%

Purchased at: On tap@Fatheads – Pittsburgh PA

What makes this beer different: First stout that I could actually taste chili’s in. But it works well!

Will I be drinking this again: Yes I have a couple aging in the basement.

Grade: A

7/28/2010: Earlier this year I made a post asking for feedback on how to sample all four aged yeti’s, but up until today I have yet to try any of them. I also wanted an excuse to go to fatheads to try their headhunter IPA, which was also amazing. I will go back down to drink it on its own soon so I can do a detailed review on it.

Chocolate Yeti is a very complex beer. The smell is full of roasted malt, and some bitter chocolate. The flavor starts with bitter bitter chocolate, sweet vanilla, some woody oak, and finishes off with a little bit of dry chili pepper flavor. Its a roller coaster of flavors with crazy twists and turns, but when the ride is over you are really glad you were on board. Medium mouthfeel, with only a little bit of carbonation. This really makes me want to crack open the other three yetis sometime soon (espresso, oak, and barrel aged). Try this beer if you get the chance!

Picture of the day: Best cubicle ever.

Beer 261/365 – Goose Island Nut Brown Ale

Style: American Brown Ale

ABV: 5.2%

Purchased at: Siciliano’s Market – Grand Rapids MI

What makes this beer different: Very flavorful for a brown ale

Will I be drinking this again: They are retiring the beer, so probably not.

Grade: B+

7/27/2010: I remember reading somewhere that this beer is being retired by Goose Island. Sad because before I even knew much about craft beer, this was one beer that I could easily recognize. I guess with the big beer fad going on lately they decided to focus on higher ABV beers.

Goose Island Nut Brown has a nice toasty smell, with some brown sugar in the mix. The flavor is really good; nutty, caramel, roasty, and I am even getting a little bit of chocolate in the finish. Very drinkable. Average mouthfeel and carbonation for the style, although admittedly I could never pick out the difference between an English/American Brown Ale as far as styles go.

Picture of the day: This chick needs a reality check.

Beer 260/365 – Sam Adam’s Holiday Porter

Style: American Porter

ABV: 5.90%

Purchased at: Jesus I don’t even remember, its been sitting in my fridge for a while now.

What makes this beer different: Sweet and almost buttery in a way

Will I be drinking this again: Won’t go out my my way for it, but it was good!

Grade: B+

7/26/2010: Christmas in July? Sure why not. I actually am running out of “non-agable-beer” to drink, so I decided to give this one a shot. I am pretty sure co-worker Tony gave this one back to me in January.

This beer smells like its on the more smooth/sweet end of the Porter spectrum. Too often I think porters can have that bitter coffee characteristics. The flavor is smooth milk chocolate, a little nutty, and a buttery flavor. The flavors are all pretty mellow, but work well together. Mouthfeel is about average. This beer goes down very easy, very solid, but not anything too original going on here.

Picture of the day: Not so much funny but pretty amazing. Cant touch this!

Beer 259/365 – Otter Creek Copper Ale

Style: Altbier

ABV: 5.4%

Purchased at: Sent to me by Jared.

What makes this beer different: Lots of mineral flavor, but that flavor isn’t as terrible as it sounds.

Will I be drinking this again: Probably not

Grade: B

7/25/2010: My first beer from Otter Creek! This is also my first beer from Vermont. I actually wonder how many states I haven’t tried beer from on my 365 so far? I know Idaho/South & North Dakota/Arizona… I don’t even know of any good beer from said states? Regardless if I don’t get all 50 states thats fine. After this year is up I plan on doing a 52 week blog, drinking one beer from each state, and from 52 different countries. This beer a day thing is getting rough!

This is my first Altbier, admittedly I don’t know much about the style so lets see what this beer is all about. The nose is.. minerally? Not sure how else to describe it. The flavor is pretty earthy, that mineral flavor rears its head, some sweet malt, and kind of bready. All that being said this beer is just average to me. Goes down pretty easy and tastes just good enough to drink another if I had one around.

Picture of the day: Hilarious misspelling.

Callout to my readers – Any good summer beers to recommend?

Believe it or not my summer beer stash is running a bit low. I have tried to seek out a lot of the summer staples; Gumballhead, Oberon, Typical American IPA’s etc., but I am running out of ideas. I am sure there is something I haven’t yet tried that is one of your go-to summer beers, so let me know! I am making a beer run one week from today and want to some recommendations. As a thank you, if I end up drinking your recommendation I will send you a high res version that you can use as a desktop wallpaper, or whatever you would like to use it for.

Thanks!

Beer 258/365 – Troeg’s Pale Ale

Style: American Pale Ale

ABV: 5.4%

Purchased at: Vecenie Beer – Millvale, PA

What makes this beer different: Very very bitter for a Pale Ale

Will I be drinking this again: Probably not, too bitter.

Grade: B-

7/24/2010: I drank this beer at a Pirates tailgate. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a die hard Pittsburgh sports fan, but I have all but given up on the Pirates. Actually I have been trying to avoid going to games completely as if me not going is really going to put a hurting on ownership’s pockets. The only reason I went to this game was because Steve Miller was playing a free concert afterward. But onto the tailgate, it was 97 degrees, and we were sitting on a black asphalt parking lot. I’m not exaggerating when I say this was by far the hottest I have ever ever been in my life. I just sat in my chair and didn’t move.

Usually I email myself notes on a beer through my blackberry as I’m drinking it, but it was way to hot for me to even move on this day. Therefore everything I am about to type is purely from memory. I can’t tell you what this beer smelled like because the air was so thick that nothing would penetrate the humidity. The flavor though was full of VERY bitter hops, with some pale malt in the background. It was well carbonated and relatively light which saved this beer a bit for me. Maybe I was just miserable from the heat, but this beer just didn’t do it for me.

Picture of the day: I see what you did there… also over here.

Beer 257/365 – Tyranena Scurvy Ipa

Style: American IPA

ABV: 6.5%

Purchased at: Sent as an extra in a trade.

What makes this beer different: Nice and citrusy, but the pine knocks it down a few notches for me.

Will I be drinking this again: They don’t sell in PA, but not so sure I would trade for this.

Grade: B+

7/23/2010: Apologies for the crappy picture. The only pint glass I had at the time has a huge label on the front of it, but it blocked out a lot of the light coming through. Just look at the bottom part of the glass for an idea of what the color should look like.

Scurvy doesn’t smell nearly as potent as most IPA’s do, only slighty hoppy. The flavor though was a bit more hoppy, a lot of citrus hops, and a nice dose of piney hops (my least favorite kind). You can also taste the orange added a little bit, with a lot of caramel malt. Overall Tyranena Scurvy is on the maltier end of the IPA spectrum, but the pine hop flavor knocks it down a bit for me.

Picture of the day: Do not press this button.