Beer Reviews

Post your beer reviews in this thread. Please post ONLY beer reviews in this thread and we'll have a seperate thread for responses to reviews. That way we can have as many reviews in one place as possible.
 
St. Bernardus Abt 12

This Belgium-style Ale has come highly recomended.

http://www.specialtybeer.com/beer,index,st._bernardus_abt_12.html

This is an Abbey style, specificly a "Dubbel" ( double) style ale. The dubbels are my least favorite of all the Belgian styles with the possible exception on white beers. Do I hate them? No, but there's just something about the specific tastes of dubbels that I find slightly unappealing. I wish I could describe it.

That said, I have to say that this is the best example of this style that has ever passed my lips. The 10% ABV brings a nice warming effect with the rich taste of this ale.

Enjoyable, but I doubt I revisit it anytime soon. I'm just not that big a fan of dubbels.

Price was about $8.50 for a 26oz bomber.
ABV 10%

Chuk's rating: 8/10 ( would have been higher if I was more into dubbels)
 
Trappistes Rochefort "10"

This is more like it!

I found this site with some detailed information:

http://users.pandora.be/gerritvdb/rochefort/English/RochefortIndex.htm

This ale is a dark brown color. It is highly carbonated, almost "foamy" like some bottle conditioned ales. There is a wonderful sweet, malty aroma.

The taste is very complex but not overpowering. It seems to glide over your tastebuds on a magic carpet. There's a lot of flavors there but they are not overpowering ... hints of chocolate and raisins. The whopping 11.3% ABV is well hidden behind the complex, yet delicate flavors. There is a wonderful alcohol warming effect. I drank it a little too cold. It would probably be a lot more flavorful if allowed to warm to near room temperature.

An excellent example of the Belgian "Quapdrupple" style and an authentic Trapist ale...made by real monks! Excellent beer!

Price was $5.69 for a 11.2 oz. bottle
ABV 11.3%

chuk's rating: 9.5/10

Pricey but worth the money when you want something "extra-special"
 
Piraat Ale 10.5%

belgian style strong ale

should be widely avaliable to most everyone, hence the reason i am going to review it. actually got this in a trade from someone in california (i can buy it locally) but he sent it to me anyway, so cheers!

this one reminds me of a less hopped version of duvel. it is golden in color and has very mild subtle fruity hints to match the belgian yeast strains that it is brewed with. should pair pretty well with hot foods, as it does have a little hint of spiciness to it.

to prepare to drink refrdigerate over night (so that it is very cold), take it out of the fridge, pop the top, and let it sit on the counter for 20-30 minutes. pour into a wide mouth goblet or a red wine glass. sip slowly, it is 10.5% abv and it will creep up on you if you arent careful.

not really the best beer i have ever had, hell not even remotely close, but it should pair well with the spicy foods, and since it is widely avaliable i reviewed it.

cost (in CA from this friend of mine) was 12.99 per 4 pack. locally it is 11.99 a 4 pack or around 4 dollars per single 11.2 oz bottle (markup!).

my rating: 7/10
 
A friend of mine owns a bar in Birmingham, and has recently brought to my attention a beer called cusquena, which I thought was from Kenya, but appears to be from Peru. I've just checked out their website, and they are represented by Chilli marketing, which is an omen if ever there was one.

http://www.cusquena.co.uk/

Anyway, it's nice. In many ways, not dissimilar to a lot of other bottled beers, like Budvar, etc, but a few of us are all agreed that it has a certain something.

Heh.... reminds me of a friend of mine who found an obscure Australian beer once... he had a fair few cans and wrote a letter to the company saying "I love your beer, it's great" and posted it to Oz. And promptly forgot about it. Until a few weeks later he got a letter saying "we're glad you like our beer, here's a voucher for a 6 pack on us"!.

Cool eh? He tried the same thing with Marlboro and Pablo Escobar, but neither deigned to send him any free stuff :P
 
arrogant bastard ale

yep, drinking arrogant bastard right now. last night, i went outside to take a leak - we are getting an additon on the house, and the new toilet isnt installed, yet they ripped our old toilet out - could have gone upstairs, but chose not to.. at anyrate, walk outside to piss, and forget that the last step off our new addition is about 15 inches, since it is not fully finished. turned my ankle, sprained the shit out of it, fell on my back, said the F word about 127 times, got some ice, advil, went to sleep. what does this have to do with this beer, you may ask yourself? that was last night. today it is still hurting, but hurting less thanks to the ale that is the arrogant bastard.

reddish color, tan head that goes to the bottom, states on the bottle: fizzy beer is for wussies, or something. yeah, if you are not willing to try beers that are beyond the typical macros in this country, you should avoid this one. for those with an open mind and a need for something more in their beer, this is a good starting point. pretty offensive hop flavor in it, but the malts balance the beer so much that you could almost gulp it. its fairly low ABV (7.2%) comes across a little stronger than you might think. ive caught a decent buzz thus far and i still have about half the bottle left.

comes in 22 oz bottles, this was 4.99. stone isnt distributed in all states, but i know its in TN, OH, NY, CA, CO, and some others. Got this one in TN.

pretty good stuff, should go pretty well with some spicy foods..
 
stone ruination ipa

stone ruination ipa is like taking the hops that make up arrogant bastard and multiplying them by 2. it is a little clearer, more yellowish orange color, but it has a powerful aroma of hops and some malts. mostly hops though. taste is powerful grapefruits, grass, straw, and wheat. very bitter, it actually is 100+ IBUs (international bitter units). budweiser is about 10 IBUs, so you do the math. not very powerful either, according to the bottle its only 7.7% ABV but as with other stone brews, I am not so certain. drinking the bomber (22oz) of it, certainly left me feeling right. i like this better than arrogant bastard, but its not as good as stones regular IPA which i havent drank in a while, but when i do i will certainly post some thoughts on it.

if you have already tried something like arrogant bastard, avery IPA, avery maharaja, or dogfish head 90 minute, and want to move onto something a little stronger, more powerful, and probably better, you should shoot for this one. at 4.99 a bomber, its a deal. one of my stand by beers, i usually get multiple bottles of it in TN to last me for a while. good stuff.
 
murphys irish stout

ok, so i figured i would drink something that isnt as full of hops and huge bitter flavors as the stone beers. last night while at the grocery store i thought about drinking some draft (draught) cans of murphys irish stout. this is a beer that is very similar to guinness, but i actually prefer this one more so. be careful when opening those nitro cans as they have the tendancy to overflow unless you start pouring immediately. make sure to have the glass sitting right beside the beer. pop the top, and pour. make sure you have a 20oz glass too because the beer is 16 oz plus you need some extra room for the awesome head that forms up on it. once you pour it out, let it sit for at least 2 or 3 minutes and watch it settle, very cool if you have never seen this done before.

body of the beer is black, and it leaves a thick creamy head all the way to the bottom of the glass. smell is full of roasted malts, coffee malts, chocolate malts, and there isnt too much of a hop presence in this beer. it is smooth and rich to drink, almost like drinking a cup of coffee with some cream in it. when you start drinking it, do not think that the beer is flat, thats just the nitro pour. the draft cans do not make huge CO2 amounts, so the beer will appear to be flat - this is the intended effect.

this is a great irish stout, that is not bitter, and this beer is actually one of the 2 or 3 that changed me into not drinking bud and miller as much as i used to.

id love to see some reviews from you guys, to see what you guys are drinking. i wouldnt want to see reviews of budweiser, coors, and that shit, lets hear about the micros you guys are drinking. soon ill put up a review of north coast old stock ale.

oh yeah, cost and avalaiblity - this beer is widely distributed, and it was 6.99 for 4 cans in my local grocery store.
 
chuk hell said:
Post your beer reviews in this thread. Please post ONLY beer reviews in this thread and we'll have a seperate thread for responses to reviews. That way we can have as many reviews in one place as possible.


crap, can't link to my beeradvocate.com reviews

;)
 
Skydiver said:
Yeah, but I don't want to flood the board with a few hundred beer reviews ;)

well i dont want to copy my beer ratings over either, thats why i just write up a few things specifically for this site...
 
st bernardus abt 12 special edition

st bernardus 12 is in the style of an abt/quadrupel beer, meaning it is ferminted 4 times. the abt style is used to describe this beer as well as other dark quadrupel ferminted belgian beers. quadrupels are generally a little lighter, but this beer, rochefort 10, westvleteren 12, etc, are all considered the abt style. this beer is not a dubbel as previously mentioned..

this beer was brewed to celebrate st bernardus' 60th anniversary, and thus the special edition tin that comes with the bottle. alcohol is boosted just a tad to 11%, and the hop varieties were changed with the brewing of this beer.

smell is fruity, figs, caramel, grapes, some hops, sugar, and sweet malty flavors. taste is similar with a surprisingly sour kick to it. do not drink this beer cold or you will get nothing from it. i refridgerated mine and then let it sit on the counter for almost 45 minutes before drinking it. this beer will blind you if you arent careful, as the 11% is not noticed at all, but when you get down to it, it is very similar to drinking a bottle of wine, less a few percent.

only comes in 750ml bottles, costs more than regular 12, its about 10.99 to 13.99 (ive heard different prices all over the country). if this was avaliable on tap, there would not be many beers that were better.

this one reminds me of the coveted westvleteren abt 12 beer, they even use the same water! this one is more like that beer than is regular 12. very nice stuff indeed. id recommend you to get a bottle if you see if before it is no longer avaliable in the states.
 
lagunitas freak out

frank zappa fans rejoice, lagunitas from california has made a beer that you can now relate to. the label is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the release of the album freak out. im not a zappa fan, but i have heard alot of his music, and everyone has different tastes. some things were cool, some were not, but i respect him as a musician.. oh yeah, this is supposed to be about beer.

the beer is a yellowish color with a head that lasts until the end of the beer. it is fruity and hoppy in smell with a little bit of bitterness and fruity flavors to the taste. finish is pretty dry, and this 7.3% IPA is certainly a thirst quencher. i drank this with some gumbo that i put some insanity sauce into, and the beer went pretty good with the spicy flavors contained within the sauce. overall its a good beer, and from what i understand its only around 3 - 4 dollars for a bomber. you guys in CA should be able to find it pretty easily. my bottle came from a friend in PA. i do know that you cannot find it or any lagunitas beer in NC.

very nice beer, smooth, certainly something i would recommend.
 
allagash four ale

so i have had all of the beers allagash has made except this one, because i was saving my one bottle for something (dont know what?).. but to my surprise when i went into my local store the other day, there was about 15 cases of this sitting there. i immediately bought one. instead of opening my older bottle, i wanted to open my younger one to see what it tastes like when fresh.

this is a belgian style quad ale, it has four kinds of hops, four kinds of malts, four kinds of sugars, and it is referminted four times. hence the name, four. it is brown with a tan head upon pouring from the bottle. the carbonation is not as lively as you might expect, and upon extracting the cork i thought i may have gotten a bad bottle - nah, it was great. dont expect the same fizz level of most beers, this one has some light carbonation which really fits well with the beer.

it is sweet and smooth, very easy to drink. its 10% alcohol, and you would never notice that until you are finished with the 750ml bottle, and you can tell you have had some stuff to drink :onfire: one of the better beers i have had from allagash, and this is quite possibly my favorite brewery in the USA. the beer also has the same yeast taste that is in every allagash since they use the same strain bottle to bottle.

10.99 per 750ml here.

sorry west coast guys, this beer is only on the east side of the usa.
 
pyramid curveball ale

there isnt much to say about this one. it is a kolsch style (german style) ale, that is brewed by pyramid in oregon. it is widely distributed, but perhaps not so much anymore because it is a summer release, and everyone knows that summer is no longer upon us. i got this one in a trade from someone that lives in CA, but i saw it locally in the summer months, i just chose not to buy it.

this is more like a beer, nothing special about it, it just tastes like what you would think of as regular beer. it has more flavor than bud, coors, and miller, and it would easily work just as well as a lawnchair / lawnmower beer.

here in nc this was 6.99 per 6 pack.
 
brooklyn black chocolate stout

most people that drink good beer or at least meander in the craft beer aisles at the stores know what brooklyn beer is. certainly most have seen brooklyn pennant ale, etc. garrett olivers masterpiece beer would be the stout that he is so well known for. i drank one tonight, though i have drank many a six pack of this beer in my life, this is one of the best starter imperial stout beers out there. its bold, its rich, its smooth, its like drinking liquid chocolate, and it will hold its own provided you have the patience to let it age for several years.

the beer is black, of course, and it has a nice tan head. make sure you use a snifter of some kind to really appreciate the nose that this beer has on it. its taste is smooth and rich and very chocolate like. there isnt much bitter hops noted but there is some bittersweet chocolate notes that blend very nicely with the rest of the beer.

this beer consistantly gets acknowledgement for being an awesome stout at a very nice price that will age very good. previous bottles state 8.5% abv, but this has probably been incorrect for some years as garrett's abv calculating machine was incorrect. the correct abv is about 10.6%. the best price is the cost and avaliablity. the beer is 7.99 a six pack here in NC, and it should be widely distributed all over the country.

if you dont have any in your fridge now, take the effort to find one, and please, do me a favor and sit a few bottles down for a year or 2 and see how it develops over time.

enjoy it at around 60 degrees (put it in the fridge over night, take it out for 20-30 minutes, pour, enjoy).
 
thirsty dog siberian night

this is another imperial stout, and its not nearly as widely distributed as the brooklyn is - but this one is very nice too. nice indeed, but a much different form of imperial stout. this one is a little heavier on the hops and roasted malts more so than the emphasis on chocolate like the BBCS was. this is more of session type imperial stout (if there is such a thing) because it does not have the high level of sweetness that most imp stouts do.

brewed in ohio and i believe on a limited basis, this is consistantly a high ranking imperial stout, and with good reason. it is actually fairly high filtered, so it might not age like the brooklyn will - but that is fine, because it does not need any age. its bold, heavy, rich, and dark. not really a beginner imperial stout by any means, but if you are into the dark side of beers and you want to give it a stab, by all means...

i am not sure if this is sold outside of ohio, it may be on limited release in virginia and PA and possibly michigan and indiana, but i cannot comment on that for certain. its pretty cheap - 10 dollars per six pack, and the abv is about 9%.

one of my all time favorite stouts, but as it has a limited distribution it is not something i can purchase every year..
 
victory storm king imperial stout

this is the imperial stout that single handedly threw me into the dark beer world and made me realize that there is alot more to beer than just bud, coors, sam adams, etc. this is a huge imperial stout, incredibly thick, and very rich and contains a nice malted backbone to help balance it out. it is fairly hoppy for an imperial stout, though not an offensive hop.

very dark in color, ages pretty good, cheap, high abv, widely avaliable, you cant beat it! smells like chocolate, hops, and rich roasted malts. there isnt really a whole lot to say about this beer, its just something you should drink to experience.

six packs are about 10 dollars, abv is 9.1%.

i usually buy a case or 2 of this every year so i can have it year round.

probably one of my favorite imperial stouts that is easy to get. should be all up and down the east coast right now in stores.
 
bells expedition stout

where should i start? this is an awesome beer, almost worthy of saying perfection. full of chocolate, roasted malts, some notes of cherries, a little bit of an alcohol presence. sadly, you guys on the west coast are out of luck, because it isnt distributed but in a few states. this beer will age for many years. i have some bottles left from 2003, some 2004s, 2005s, you get the idea. the best this beer gets is with a few years of age on it. it is great when fresh, but it is even better when aged. careful on the pour when you get near the end of the bottle, if its aged it will pour chunks of yeast and sediment into your glass.

this is the definition of a full body imperial stout. alcohol is fairly high, so if you can get this, be warned. its 11.5% abv. its so thick that you may not want to drink multiple bottles in a sitting. (i do, but hey, to each his own). it costs about 16.99 a six pack. if you cannot buy it locally and you dont mind paying a shipping charge, you can order it from khans fine wines. (google search for that, and it will come up).

bellsbeer.com click on find beer, and thats where it is distributed. this is also a seasonal beer, so you cannot buy it in the warmer months.
 
Back
Top