Beer Review: Furniture City Stock Ale

Reviewing the Furniture City Stock Ale from Founders Brewing Company out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. This beer was brewed in celebration of the Grand Rapids Public Museum's historic beer exhibit in the fall of 2012.
Score: 75

Fall 2011 vintage bottle served in a Kate The Great snifter and enjoyed on 12/14/12. Big thanks to Shawn for the hook up!

Appearance: Pours a dark, clean amber color with a finger of off-white head that settles to a thin layer atop the glass. Awesome lacing and retention. 5/5

Smell: Stale hops, lots of malt and nutty caramel malt. Toasted barley grain and cocoa. Faint brown sugar too. 3.5/5

Taste: Very malty, though that is to be expected based on what Founders was going for. Carmel malt, and barley grain. Some nuttiness too. Faint roastiness. Where's the cocoa from the nose? 3/5

Mouthfeel: Medium-plus bodied, minimal carbonation. Despite the viscosity, this beer feels watery on the palate. Malty, but not really sweet. 2.5/5

Overall: Drinkable, but not good. Not bad, but nothing special.

Recommendation: It was nice to tick this beer, but it was not worth hunting down.

Pairings: Hershey's chocolate bar.

Cost: $6.99 for a 750 ml bottle.

Beer Review: Susan

Reviewing Susan from the Hill Farmstead Brewery out of Vermont.

Score: 87

Two week old 2L growler. Served in a stemmed Hill Farmstead snifter and enjoyed on 09/19/12.

Appearance: Pours a translucent sunset yellow color with three fingers of white foamy head. Really good lacing and excellent retention. Leaks a lot of streaky head along the side of the glass. 4.5/5

Smell: Orange, pine, sweet malt, citra pellets, grapefruit and a faint wood aroma. 4/5

Taste: There's lots of sweet tropical fruit and malt, but none of the necessary bitterness for an IPA. Oranges, grapefruit and mango. The citra hopping is clear. There's a faint bitter pine in the finish that needs to be more prominent. Tastes a lot like hoppy, unfermented wort -- somewhat underattenuated quite frankly. Not bad, but not that good either. Gets sweeter/maltier as it approached room temperature. 3.5/5

Mouthfeel: Full-medium bodied with decent carbonation. Super dry, almost cotton-mouthing. Bitter on the finish, sweet on the pull. 3.5/5

Overall: Missing the necessary bitter kick. This is a rare miss for Shawn Hill in my worthless opinion.

Recommendation: If you have to skip any Hill Farmstead IPA, make it this one.

Pairings: Thai food.

Cost: $25 for a 2L growler (including the cost of the growler).

Beer Review: Kabert

Reviewing Kabert, a collaboration between De Struise Brouwers and Portsmouth Brewery. This beer is a blend of Kate The Great and Black Albert.
Score: 89

Batch 42. Served in a Surly Darkness snifter and enjoyed on 12/14/12.

Appearance: Black in color. Pours a finger-plus of mocha head that settles to a ring around the glass. Awesome lacing and retention. 4.5/5

Smell: Muted port, cherry, and fudge. Dark chocolate, light oxidation and some alcohol esters. Faint roasted malt. Some dark fruit too. When it warms, some brown sugar comes out. 4.25

Taste: Cherry, chocolate and light fruitiness. Finishes with bakers chocolate and faint fruitiness. More port in the taste than the nose led on. The nose was more Albert-heavy, but the Kate shines a bit more in the taste. 3.75/5

Mouthfeel: Medium-plus bodied, just shy of medium carbonation that gives the flavor a little "fizziness." Sweet, but not as sweet as the aged Kate.  3.5/5

Overall: Better than the aged Kate and aged Double Oaked Kate we drank, but still very disappointing.

Recommendation: Worth drinking, but not worth the rarity.

Pairings: Steak.

Cost: $10 for an 11.2 oz bottle.

Beer Review: Double Oaked Kate The Great (2011)

Reviewing the infamous Double Oaked Kate The Great from Portsmouth Brewery out of New Hampshire. Wales bro!
Score: 87

2011 vintage bottle served in a Kate the Great snifter and enjoyed on 12/14/12.

Appearance: Ink black in color with a thin layer of beige head that settles to a bubbly ring around the glass. Good lacing, excellent retention. 4.5/5

Smell: Lots of fruitiness, dark fruitiness and then fudge. Much fruitier than the 2011 regular Kate we just drank. Some vanilla, but not much oak at all. Lots of red grape sweetness. The aged regular Kate lost a lot of its balance with nearly two years of age, with the vinous port qualities taking over; the Double Oaked Kate followed suit. Sweeter in the nose than regular Kate. As it warms up, more fudge comes through. 4/5

Taste: Quite sweet and vinous. A lot more so than regular Kate. Borderlines too sweet in my opinion. Lots of port and red grape sweetness, followed by mild vanilla and a hint of chocolate. There is ample fruitiness upfront too. Gets sugary-sweeter and fruitier as it warms. 3.5/5

Mouthfeel: Just shy of full bodied, low carbonation. Malty, fruity. 4/5

Overall: Fresh, Kate The Great lived up to its reputation. However, aged, it was nothing special. The aged Double Oaked Kate was not that much better. This was an extreme let down of a beer. It's good, but it is not very complex.

Recommendation: Save your beer; what you'll have to give up to acquire this brew is likely better than this brew (at least with nearly 2 years of age).

Pairings: Chocolate cake.

Cost: Unknown.

Beer Review: Golden Nugget IPA

Reviewing the Golden Nugget IPA from Toppling Goliath Brewery out of Decora, Iowa. Toppling Goliath is a relatively new craft brewery to the scene, but is making a bold early impression and making some exciting brews, such as Mornin' Delight (a CBS killer, if you ask me) and Zeelander (a super lemon-forward IPA).
Score: 94

Growler pour from a growler filled the week before FOBAB 2012. Served in a Founders snifter and enjoyed on 12/01/12. Shout out to my friend Mathieu LaFontaine for hooking me up with this brew as part of my "winnings" from the fantasy baseball beer league this past summer.

Appearance: Pours a light amber color that is clean and falls between translucent and transparent. Only a thin layer off head off the pour, which settles to a pencil-thin ring around the glass. Below average lacing, but excellent cling. 4/5

Smell: In-your-face lemon, pine and grapefruit! Not just a lot. I mean its like someone took a sledgehammer made of lemon juice, pine needles and grapefruit and whacked you upside the head. Ample doses of dank, resinous hops as well. Very West Coast IPA-esque. Candied caramel malt, mango and sweet non-descript tropical citrus too. The aroma on this beer is an absolutely intense beast; and I love it! It is much more lemon/pine forward than most IPA I have had. 5/5

Taste: The taste is more subdued than the aroma with less citrus and more maltiness, leading to a more balanced profile on the tongue. Upfront is caramel malt, grapefruit and lemon, with a strong piney backbone. The back half is bitter, resinous hops, pine and mango-y lemon. Lots of lingering piney bitterness with a dash of candied caramel. There is a faint amount of non-descript residual black pepper-like spice in the finish as well. Some dirty hops come out in the finish/aftertaste as the beer warms. 4.25/5

Mouthfeel: Viscous and oily! This is one of the more full bodied IPAs that I have had to date with a nice low level of carbonation that nonetheless gives the hops a good kick while leaving the bitterness on the tongue to layer. Very bitter, and the hops prickle the palate. 4.5/5

Overall: This one blew me away. The nose on this brew is absolutely unreal. This is one of the tastiest IPA I have had in a long time.

Recommendation: Hop heads need to seek this beer out, though it is likely too intense (in a good way for IPA fans) on the bitterness for the casual beer to truly enjoy. Toppling Goliath is a brewery you may not have heard of yet, but need to check out ASAP!

Pairings: Thai chicken pizza.

Cost: $13 for a 64 oz growler fill (if you bring your own growler).

Beer Review: The Devil Made Me Do It! Coffe Imperial Oatmeal Porter

Reviewing The Devil Made Me Do It! Coffee Imperial Oatmeal Porter from Tyranena Brewing Company out of Lake Mills, Wisconsin. Tyranena makes some of the finest porters in the country. If you have not tried the other beers in their Brewers Gone Wild! imperial series, then you are missing out.
Score: 96

Bottled 10/26/12. Served in a Leinekugel's Big Eddy snifter and enjoyed on 12/08/12.

Appearance: Black as ink. Pours a finger of tan head that recedes to a thin ring around the glass and patchy fog that covers most of the top of the glass. Above average lacing, good retention. 4/5

Smell: Tons of roasted coffee, hot cocoa, dark chocolate, oatmeal and raw coffee beans. There is some "molasses" that reminds me more of the complexities of the Diablo roast coffee from Intelligensia than actual, straight up molasses. Absolutely wonderful nose; rivals Founders Breakfast Stout in my opinion. 4.5/5

Taste: Tastes almost exactly like it smells, with a strong lingering coffee finish. There's a smooth unsweetened chocolate backbone behind the coffee. There is only a hint of that "molasses" character that I detected in the nose. Some 20 or 30 seconds after the swallow, there is still some coffee breath flavor floating on the palate. This one does everything you could possibly want in an oatmeal porter, and it does it excellently. 4.5/5

Mouthfeel: Just shy of full bodied with a low amount of carbonation. Slightly chewy, modestly dry finish. Slightly acidic, modestly bitter. Not overly so of either. 5/5

Overall: This one gives Founders Breakfast Stout and Terrapin Wake-n-Bake a serious run for their money. Cheers to yet another outstanding porter, Tyranena!

Recommendation: Fans of oatmeal stouts and coffee beers need to seek this one out while it's still on the shelf.

Pairings: Cranberry walnut biscotti.

Cost: $10 for a four pack.

Beer Review: Fat Head's Head Hunter IPA

Reviewing the Fat Head's Head Hunter IPA from Fat Head's Brewery and Saloon out of Ohio. This is one of my absolute favorite IPA's, and a review of a fresh bottle for the blog was quite overdue. Major thanks to Brian Callahan for hooking me up with some during FOBAB weekend.
Score: 98

I did not think to check the freshness date on the bottle, but Brian knows the importance of freshness with IPA. Served in a Stella Artois chalice and enjoyed on 11/18/2012.

Appearance: Pours a clean and modestly dark honey-orange, almost bourbon-like, color with a finger of beige head that settles to a thin layer. Has a nice, mildly effervescent appearance out of the bottle. Absolutely ridiculous lacing and retention. This is exactly what you want an IPA to look like in my opinion. 5/5

Smell: Huge doses of fresh citrus and grassy hops. In-your-face grapefruit, peach, lemon zest and tangerine. There is a hint of lime too. Faint caramel maltiness in the background, and an even fainter earthiness. 4.5/5

Taste: A bittersweet, bold hop bomb with good balance. Upfront, you get the sweet citrus -- grapefruit, peach, pineapple and a touch of lemon-lime flavor. This is followed by a sharply bitter counterbalance of grassy, slightly earthy hops on the back half. The finish is bitter with some lime rind flavor. Mild sweet caramel malt backbone. 5/5

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with medium-high carbonation that pops and sizzles the hops on the tongue. Oily and slick on the tongue. Bittersweet, leaning towards bitter in the finish. 5/5

Overall: Like a DIPA in disguise and single IPA in name only, hoppy ales rarely get better than this one. Fans of Bell's Hopslam will adore it.

Recommendation: Hop heads should absolutely seek this beer out, though it is likely too aggressive for casual beer drinkers and hop haters.

Pairings: Pad Thai for those who want to accentuate the spiciness, and roasted brown sugar coated pineapple slices a la Brazilian steak house for those who merely want to dwell in the doses of sweet citrus that this beer has to offer.

Cost: $9.99 for a four pack.