Beer 397/365 – Maine Beer Company Zoe

Style: American Amber

ABV: 7.2%

Purchased at: Sent to me by Jared in a trade

What makes this beer different: Very hop heavy for an Amber, but thats a good thing!

Will I be drinking this again: Due to lack of distribution, no.

Grade: A-

5/24/2011: So many changes in my life lately. I try not to post personal stuff on my blog too much, but over the weekend I had two family members pass away within an hour of each other. Needless to say my family is in a bit of shock right now, so as usual I missed my Monday update. I am still going update twice a week, I just don’t know if I can commit to solid days.

Love the simple labeling that Main Brewing uses on their beer. Each label is plain white, with the name, a short description, and a small drawing of a face. Immediately upon opening the beer you can smell how hoppy it is for an Amber, mostly on the citrus end. The flavor is great, and to be honest if I didn’t know any better I would assume it was a caramel heavy IPA. Lots of citrus hop, caramel malt, toffee, grassy, and bready. Very complex for an Amber, and very well done. Mouthfeel is a bit heavy for the style, but it works for all the flavors going on.

Picture of the day: I love Macs, but this is pretty funny.

Beer 319/365 – O’Fallon’s Hemp Hop Rye

Style: American Amber

ABV: 5.50%

Purchased at: 3 Son’s Dog’s ‘n Suds – Wexford PA

What makes this beer different: Very unique, lots of flavors and very earthy.

Will I be drinking this again: Maybe! I didn’t expect much from this but it was pretty unique and tasty.

Grade: B+

9/23/2010: I have only tried two O’Fallon beers in my lifetime, one of them is my favorite pumpkin beer ever, and the other tasted like a cherry tootsie roll gone wrong (Cherry Chocolate Beer). So who knows how this beer will end up. Regardless I appreciate that they were trying to be original by brewing a beer with hemp added.

The nose is very earthy and spicy for an amber which is usually a bit more tame in the smell department. The flavor has tons of caramel hops, and what I would call a sharp earthy nuttiness. Its not a smooth transition from flavor to flavor but I kind of like it for some reason. Mouthfeel is a bit full for the style, but a good bit of carbonation softens the thickness a bit.

Picture of the day: Firefox has encountered a problem.

Beer 254/365 – New Belgium Fat Tire

Style: American Amber

ABV: 5.2%

Purchased at: Sent as an extra in a trade

What makes this beer different:

Will I be drinking this again: Just an easy drinking beer, with not too much special going on.

Grade: B

7/20/2010: I would venture to say that this is one of the best selling beers to come out of Colorado. When I visited Denver a few years back this was one of the few beers I had actually heard of. At that time I was into craft beer, but not even 1/10 as much as I am now. I find it funny that a brewery named “New Belgium” has a best selling beer that isn’t even a Belgian. Odd.

More times than not a beer has different characteristics in the nose and flavor, but not this beer. The smell and flavor are exactly the same. Biscuit, toasty, and malty. Floral hops are way way in the background, but they are there. The flavors are nice, but nothing special. A tiny bit of a bitterness in the aftertaste. Medium mouth feel, with nice carbonation. This beer is the PERFECT gateway beer to convert your non-beer-snob friends into craft beer.

Picture of the day: Shes all that and a bag of chips.

Beer 232/365 – Dark Horse Rod

Style: Amber Ale

ABV: 7.2%

Purchased at: On Tap at Vintage Estate – Boardman, OH

What makes this beer different: The most herbal tasting beer ever.

Will I be drinking this again: Not sure if they are bottling it, but I would drink it again sure.

Grade: A-

6/28/2010: Dark Horse is hands down my favorite brewery for three main reasons. One, they brew awesome beer. I have tried almost a dozen different beers of theirs, and all were a B+ or better. Two, they turned down being in a Nickelback video (hate their music). Three, they don’t take themselves too seriously and have an good sense of humor when naming/describing their beer. For instance check out the sexual innuendo’s going on here in the description of the beer.

“Rod is a refreshing, medium bodied red ale brewed with aphrodisiac herbs for woman and men alike. Brewer Russ Beattie was working on his own version of Sex Panther, using passion flower, epimedium, damiana, and ginko to elevate the levels of spring time friskiness and brewmaster Aaron Morse decided that the best way to spread the love was via Rod.”

Rod smells toasty and herbal. The main event as far as flavors go, is no doubt some herbal funk. Can’t tell you what herbs exactly, but its herbal, almost like tea made with real tea leaves. A good bit of caramel malt going on, and finishes a little bit dry. Mouthfeel is a little heavy for an amber, but I think it needs the heaviness for the herbs to lay in. Very unique, but no it didn’t get me excited in that type of way hah.

Picture of the day: WOW, this girl has reached an entirely new level of stupidity.

Beer 220/365 – Stone Levitation Ale

Style: American Amber / Red Ale

ABV: 4.4%

Purchased at: Vintage Estate – Boardman OH

What makes this beer different: Its a little over par for what Stone is capable of IMO.

Will I be drinking this again: Maybe, but I would say probably not as it doesn’t offer something different.

Grade: B

6/16/2010: Stone is well known for using a boatload of hops in most of their beers, and they live up to their reputation with this beer. Well as far as the style is concerned that is. Regarding the style, I actually didn’t know where it fell in before I drank it. This actually almost feels like a lighter bodied hoppy brown ale to me.

Anyways, Levitation Ale smells hoppy and sweet. The taste is not nearly as forward as the smell. There is a good bit of hops going on, and there is this “toasted” flavor that I can’t put my finger on. Its the type of flavor I normally would associate with a brown ale. The beer finishes VERY dry. Maybe my palette is blown out from all these strongly flavored beers I have been drinking lately, but this one did not do a whole lot for me.

Picture of the day: The 20 worst names ever.

Beer 204/365 – North Peak Siren Amber Ale

Style: American Amber / Red Ale

ABV: 5.0%

Purchased at: From the Jolly Pumpkin Cafe

What makes this beer different: Watery and bitter

Will I be drinking this again: No way

Grade: C-

5/31/2010: I picked this up wayyyy back on New Years Day at the Jolly Pumpkin Cafe during my Michigan Brewery Tour. I am a sucker for any beer thats in these little grenade looking bottles. I’m sure this is partially due to the fact that I drank a lot of Mickey’s in college (remember that Nick?).

Siren Amber almost has no smell at all, very odd. I am sure its partially due to the fact that at this point its at the very least, 6 months old. The taste is bitter and medicinal. Some caramel malt there but its so subdued you almost don’t even notice it. Had a hard time finishing this beer to be honest, so I didn’t do the best job ever taking notes on it. But to summarize: avoid this one. I was under the impression this was brewed by the same people who brew Jolly Pumpkin, but apparently this is not the case.

Picture of the day: Ear-Plug Fail.

Beer 154/365 – Sprague Farm Rust Belt Ale

Style: American Amber / Red Ale

ABV: ???

Purchased at: My roommate Dave brought it back from the brewpub

What makes this beer different: Super sweet but a good dose of hops also.

Will I be drinking this again: They don’t bottle it but if I am in the area then yes

Grade: A-

4/11/2010: My roommate texts me on Saturday asking if I wanted a growler from this place called “Sprague Farms” up near Erie, PA. I honestly never heard of it so I had to check out their beers on BeerAdvocate. Turns out this Rust Belt is an A+ on BA, and as a lot of you know that’s hard to come by on BeerAdvocate. Although there are only 3 reviews on it. At $8 for a 16oz Growler it better be some good stuff!

Rust Belt is some thick brew! One of the thickest Amber Ales I have ever had. Robust, Syrupy and almost chewy. The flavor is pretty damn good. Not a whole lot of carbonation going on which just adds to the heaviness. Notice I usually touch on the flavor/smell first, but I had to bump the gravity of this stuff up to the top because it is just so off the scale. The flavor has a ton of sweet caramel/toasted malts. A nice dose of very floral/citrusy hops take a little bit of a back seat to the malt. Never thought I would say this but, this beer could have used a bit more hops to cut through the thickness/syrupy type flavor. That or have the beer be a little lighter, with same ratio of malt/hops. Overall though I was very impressed with this beer and have a very unique feel and flavor.

Picture of the day: Homer Simpson tells gives Tiger an earful.

Beer 75/365 – Tröegs Nugget Nectar

Style: American Amber

Purchased at: 3 Sons – Wexford PA

What makes this beer different: Not a ton of complicated ingredients, which makes it very crisp.

Will I be drinking this again: Yes

Grade: A-

1/22/2010: There has been a ton of hype behind this beer, and lots of discussion on Beeradvocate about how amazing it is. I was pretty excited to try this beer, especially because its #34 on Beeradvocate’s top 100. I usually find that I psyche myself out by getting overly excited for beer with a ton of hype. It’s almost like I expect it to taste like an angel gave birth in my mouth or something. Half of the time the beer doesn’t quite live up to the hype in my opinion.

This beer almost lived up to the hype. Don’t get me wrong it is a very very good beer, but again I expected it to be life changing. Again remember I am just recently being more open to IPA/hoppy beer. The smell is very hoppy, a bit of caramel, and some citrus. The taste is very clean and crisp, with hops upfront, and caramel malt behind it. The scale tips a tiny bit too much on the hop end for me, but not enough for me to dislike it. The taste is still very refreshing, and it impresses me that they get this much flavor out of a beer that’s this transparent. Very good beer, but one I need to be in the mood for.

Funny Picture of the day: The big bad wolf must be in cahoots with Al Queda.