Lagunitas Hop Stoopid

4.3/5

AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 18/20

22 ounce bottle into tulip, bottled 1/9/2012. Pours slightly cloudy golden amber color with a nice 2 finger dense off white head with great retention that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Some decent lacing on the glass. Aromas of huge pineapple, orange, grapefruit, lemon peel, floral, and some herbal spiciness. Very nice and well balanced aromas; with good strength. Taste of big pineapple, grapefruit, orange zest, lemon zest, herbal spiciness, pine, tropical fruits, honey-like sweetness, and some breadiness. Good amount of bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of pineapple, citrus, herbal, pine, and some tropical fruits. Fantastic balance of bitterness and sweetness. Medium carbonation and body; with a slightly creamy and smooth mouthfeel. Quite drinkable at 8%, with only a slight alcohol warming after the finish present. Overall this is an absolutely outstanding and drinkable DIPA. Big fruitiness, with great balance, and smooth drinking. Glad I knew that this was a fresh one thanks to my regular store.

A fantastic DIPA, especially since it was freshly bottled. Lagunitas bottle codes their beer now, and I will definitely be picking up some more to retry because of that fact.

Southern Tier Un*Earthly

3.9/5

AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 15/20

22 ounce bottle into tulip glass, bottled 1/4/2012. Finally found one dated, so I picked this up. Pours very clear golden orange color with a great dense 2 finger light khaki head with incredible retention that reduces to a thick cap that lasts. Some decent lacing on the glass. Aromas of big grapefruit, orange, caramel, mango, pine, and herbal. Nice and well balanced aromas; quite sweet and hoppy. Taste of big orange, grapefruit, herbal, pine, caramel, tropical fruit, and spiciness. Nice amount of bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of herbal, pine, caramel, and citrus for a while. Medium carbonation and fairly full bodied; with a creamy and slick mouthfeel. Drinkability is limited; this is definitely a sipper at 9.5%. Some great balance of flavors with plenty of citrus hoppiness. Alcohol is fairly well hidden with only a warming on the finish present. Overall this is a very nice DIPA. Nice hoppy flavor balance and very enjoyable to sip on. This improved substantially as it rose above the recommended 42F temperature.

Very nice; but a bit boozy and a slow drinker. Definitely improves the more it warms up.

Tripel Karmeliet

4.5/5

AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 18/20

750 ml bottle into chalice, best by 3/29/2011. Pours slightly hazy golden straw color with a nice 1-2 finger dense off white head with incredible retention that reduces to a thick cap that lasts the entire glass. Decent lacing on the glass; with extremely ample carbonation streaming up and keeping a dense head going. Aromas of big pepper, clove, lemon zest, grass, coriander, biscuit, orange peel, herbs, and yeast spices. Fantastic and well balanced aromas. Taste of big pepper, herbal, lemon zest, clove, biscuit, coriander, orange peel, grass, and yeast spices. Fairly dry finish; but some lingering notes of herbal, citrus peel, biscuit, and yeast spices on the finish for a bit. Medium high carbonation and medium bodied; with a slightly creamy and slick mouthfeel. Fair amount of prickly carbonation initially that dies down in the glass. Very smooth and drinkable for 8.4%; with only a slight alcohol warming on the finish. Overall this is an incredible Tripel, as I was expecting it to be. Fantastic and unique flavors; with great balance, complexity, and smoothness. It has taken me far too long to finally try this one.

This is easily a high A beer. Even though this was past prime(though I haven't seen any 750 bottles that were past last years date). This holds up nicely even without that much yeast sediment in the bottle at all. I will be trying out some of the brown 12 ounce bottles to see how they stack up against this green bottle; but it will probably turn out to be the same verdict.

Weihenstephaner Korbinian

4.3/5

AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 17/20

500 ml bottle into tulip glass; bottled 1/10/2008, well over 4 years old now. Hope this goes well. Pours crystal clear very dark reddish brown color with a great looking 2 finger dense khaki head with outstanding retention that reduces to a thick cap that lingers. Some spotty lacing clings on the glass as well. Aromas of huge caramel, toffee, biscuit, molasses, light chocolate, roasted nuts, toasted malt, dark fruit, and light spiciness. Excellent and well balanced aromas here with good strength. Taste of caramel, toasted malt, biscuit, toffee, chocolate, molasses, light fruit, and light herbal spiciness. Minimal bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of caramel, biscuit, molasses, and herbal on the finish for bit. Medium carbonation and body; with an outstanding creamy and lush mouthfeel. Great balance of flavors; with big maltiness that is not cloying at all. Alcohol is nicely hidden with only a slight warming after the finish. Very smooth to drink for the gravity. Overall this is an outstanding doppelbock that has held up just fine over the years. I would like to try this fresher; but I will probably pick up more of these 2008’s because they are only 3 bucks.

A true example that doppelbocks aged great, even if they are in warm store shelves. Regardless, this is worth anyone's time; especially if you like doppelbocks.

Boulevard Long Strange Tripel

4.1/5

AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 16/20

750 ml bottle into chalice, bottled 04/24/2009; so this is pushing on 3 years old. Pours hazy golden orange color with a nice 1-2 finger fairly dense light khaki head with great retention that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Some nice lacing clings to the glass; with a good amount of carbonation streaming up. Aromas of big lemon, apple, orange peel, apricot, biscuit, toffee, pepper, clove, and yeast spices. Nice and very well balanced Tripel aromas. Taste of big apple, apricot, lemon, biscuit, toffee, pepper, clove, herbal, honey, and yeast spices. Lingering notes of citrus, biscuit, pepper, and spices on the finish for a while. Great balance of flavors, with no cloying sweetness at all. Medium-high carbonation and medium bodied; with a fairly creamy mouthfeel. Very smooth to drink at 9%, but is still a bit of a sipper. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a slight warming after the finish. Overall this is an excellent and well done Tripel that has held up nicely over the years. Nice flavor balance and smooth drinkablility.

This is quite an excellent and well done Tripel offering. This definitely held up better than the Quad I had from Boulevard that was the same age.

Saugatuck Singapore IPA

3.6/5

AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20

12 ounce bottle into pint glass, bottled 12/03/2011. Pours slightly hazy golden amber color with a nice 2-3 finger dense off white head with great retention that reduces to a nice cap that lasts. Some decent lacing left on the glass; with a good amount of carbonation streaming up. Aromas of big grapefruit, herbal, floral, orange, pine, some tropical fruits, and a bit of bread. Nice and well balanced aromas with decent strength. Taste of big pine, herbal spiciness, biscuit, caramel, grapefruit, orange, and light tropical fruits. Good sized bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of pine, biscuit, herbal spiciness, and citrus on the finish for a while. Decent balance of flavors; but the bready/herbal quality is a bit over the top for my liking. Medium carbonation and body; with a fairly creamy and slightly oily mouthfeel. A bit of prickly carbonation on the palate. Alcohol is well hidden with only a slight warming on the finish. Good drinkability for the level of alcohol. Overall this is a solid IPA. Has nice aromas, but the taste is quite a bit different.

A pretty solid IPA overall. A little too spicy and bready for my liking. Seemed to be more of an English IPA in style, even though it is listed as an American IPA. I will probably check out some other bottled offerings from this brewery in the future. I hear their porter is good.

Smuttynose Barleywine Style Ale

3.9/5

AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 16/20

22 ounce bottle into snifter, 2011 bottle; so it is probably about a year old now. Pours hazy reddish orange color with a nice 1 finger dense khaki head with good retention that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Some spotty lacing on the glass. Aromas of big caramel, apple skin, biscuit, grapefruit, pine, herbal spiciness, citrus peel, molasses, some dark fruit, and a bit of alcohol. Nice and well balanced barleywine aromas here. Taste of big caramel, orange zest, pine, biscuit, dark fruit, grapefruit, herbal spiciness, molasses, toffee, and toasted malt. Decent amount of bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of big caramel, citrus, pine, molasses, and herbal spiciness on the finish for a while. Medium carbonation and full bodied; with a very creamy and slick mouthfeel. At 11.6% this is most certainly a sipper, and I would expect it to be. Good balance of flavors and bitterness; with a nice malt forward profile. Alcohol is fairly well hidden with only a warming present on the finish. Overall this is a very nice and well balanced barelywine. Nice flavor profile and very enjoyable stuff.

Still a little hot right now; but this turned out to be a very nice barelywine as it got much warmer. Very enjoyable to sip on slowly.