AmberBock - Michelob Brewing Co.

Today's review leads us into the world of American mega-brewing. With Michelob, as with the other American giants, there seems to be very little attention paid to craft. These breweries tend to focus their efforts on volume and price, leaving me with very little to expect when trying their beers. AmberBock is bottled and advertised to entice cheap beer drinkers looking to take a step up to craft brewing. The campaign has a more refined and special air than generic american lagers and ales. So does Michelob step up the beer quality along with the ad scheme? Let's go inside.

Appearance: In somewhat dim lighting it looks to be a rich brown, almost walnut. The pour is watery, with an instantly vanishing white 1/3 inch head.

Smell: There is hardly anything at all to the nose. A very generic american lager smell is there, without noticeable malt, and very un-bock like.

Taste: From the malts, the taste pulls a bit of roasty nuttiness. There is a sweetness and a tiiiiiny bit of bitter sting from either weak hops or carbonation. The most prominent feature of the taste is the lack of flavor. A distinctly weak and watery vibe.

Mouthfeel: The carbonation passes straight through and it washes down like water. Again, very un-bock in character. Not bad as a meal accompaniment/beer flavored food wash.

Drinkability: In a word, nah. I will say that Michelob has stepped up from the regular bud/coors/michelob fare. This beer has a somewhat pleasant flavor deeeeep down. On the website Michelob claims to have a balanced beer here, but unless they mean balancing amounts of actual beer and tap water I would tend to disagree. AmberBock has failed to surpass even my outrageously low expectations of it. It is absolutely not what I want from a bock beer. It's not terrible, it's just not any good. I would rather drink this than other American macro-brew varieties, but I will not seek it out or buy it at any time in my life.
*Note to Michelob: please spend more money on brewing beer and less money on marketing beer.
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Links:
Michelob.com AmberBock Page
Beeradvocate Page
ratebeer Page

Ol' Red Cease & Desist - Erie Brewing Company

Another Erie Brewing Co. flavor is my feature flavor today. The beer journal proudly welcomes the Scotch Ale, specifically a Wee Heavy for today. Erie comes at you with Ol' Red - Cease & Desist. I selected this one because I tried a taste on tap last week at Stubbies and wanted to get deeper.

*As a sidenote, for the sake of my readership I'm going to try to write my reviews with more brevity and less filler. Maybe I'll take up novel writing to get out my suppressed Hemmingway, but the b.j. will be more brief for at least a hot minute.

Appearance: Poured glistening golden amber. Thin ale-y beige head came and went in a blink, with just a tiny remainder holding on for the duration.

Smell: Light nose of mostly caramel malt and a little alcoholic sting.

Taste: Surprisingly rich creamy caramel malt flavor. Tiny bitterness hidden by mild caramely sweetness. A fairly simple flavor hangs nicely with some alcoholic warming effect from the 10.1% ABV. Somewhat dry finish for the style, leaves on a refreshing note.

Mouthfeel: Creamier than it looked on the pour. It has the thinness of an ale but sticks nicely around the palette. 

Drinkability: I rather enjoyed this one. For 10.1% Ol' Red is very smooth. It's still not a chugger, but I found myself going through it with pace. I give a thumbs up, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the sweetness and malty taste of a British brown ale.

**I'll try to hit this one with an update if I have another shot at the tap at Stubbies.
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Links:
Ol' Red Cease & Desist Page
Beeradvocate Page
ratebeer Page

Hooker Imperial Porter - Thomas Hooker Brewing Company

The brew of the day is Thomas Hooker Brewing Company's take on an Imperial Porter. This is another brewery that I have heard mentioned, but had never previously tried any of their products. The website clearly displays their claim as "Connecticut's Beer" which on it's face seems quite bold. But for all I know they are the only brewery operating up there (though I doubt it). I've heard good words spoken in their favor, so I'll just let the beer speak for itself.

Appearance: Dark as hell. I'm pretty sure this beer actually poured into a black hole in my glass. My 8 LED flashlight with new batteries hardly cut through the black. As compared to the previous two beers this one seemed more visibly syrupy. A nice tight mousse-like tan head appeared and continued to lace throughout the drink.

Smell: I may have been handicapped by congestion, but I could just hardly decipher any nose at all. What little I could smell had an oak and alcohol mixture more reminiscent of some dark red wines I've tried than the porters I'm used to.

Taste: The whole of this beer proved to be as dark and mysterious as it seemed on the pour. An amalgam of flavors were present, but it was hard to distinguish particulars. I tasted defined hops, more oak barrel as the smell had foreshadowed, tiny bits of roasted malts throughout, tiny bits of chocolate and coffee, and a highly unexpected slightly sweet finish.

Mouthfeel: A good mix of carbonation and medium viscosity made the feel very nice. The beer swirled nicely around and I found it poised well between heavy and light. However, the feel appeared significantly thinner than the flavor indicated.

Drinkability: I don't know what to think about this one. I can't say that I particularly enjoyed it. I had very high hopes for this dark and robust looking beer, but it fell flat. The look and palate were somewhat stout-like, but the flavors were too clouded and unbalanced for my taste and the mouthfeel left me wondering where Hooker's cojones went. I'd like to try this beer on tap or cask. My overall assessment is that this Hooker Imperial Porter is an odd brew that might be overly ambitious and it has come out too big for it's britches.
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Links:
Hooker Imperial Porter Page
Beeradvocate Page
ratebeer Page

Fallenbock - Erie Brewing Co.

Surprise, I'm back! No, I didn't give up this beer journal after only one crack at it. It'll take at least two posts to kill this aspiration.

Today's brew is privileged to be the first bock addition to the journal, as well as the first doppel, the first by Erie Brewing Co. of Erie, PA, and the first that presents my opinion differing from that of the internet beer reviewing community at large. I've read some harsh pannings of Fallenbock, but I'll say it twice over, I like this autumnal doppelbock and enjoy drinking it even deep into January.

Appearance: Rich walnut body, a little red and fully translucent when held to light.  A nice, springy tan head appeared and covered the glass well. The head stuck around for a few minutes leaving a nice lacing behind for the duration of the drink.

Smell: The nose struck me as much darker than the beer looked. Malt and nut jumped out of the glass, with a little bit of a roasted scent behind.

Taste: The taste followed the scent in perfect form, nutty and a bit malty. A very light hoppy boost balanced the flavors well. The taste was very different from my expectations of a doppelbock. Overall very smooth and light taste with a little bit of chocolate leading to a sweet finish.

Mouthfeel: After getting accustomed to drinking stouts and porters this felt more like a legit lager. It's a bit on the lean side for a doppelbock, but pleasant. A pleasant amount of carbonation helped the feel a bit as well.

Drinkability: I liked this beer chilled and a bit more once at room temperature and breathing. A good mix of slight bitterness without being hoppy and roasted malty sweetness really make for a drinkable brew. I think the problem with the beer is an identity crisis. It suffers from being called a doppelbock. With the mighty doppel people expect a flavor worthy of a title like "OPTIMATOR", "LIBERATOR" or "MAXIMATOR", something that mashes the caps lock into oblivion for you. Truly the Fallenbock is much more a very subtle, nice, dark(ish) lager beer. I wouldn't say that it's not as good as other doppelbocks, it's just different. With an open mind and an open mouth Fallenbock proves itself highly drinkable.
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Links:
Erie Brewing Co. Fallenbock Page
Beeradvocate Page
ratebeer Page

Highland Oatmeal Porter - Highland Brewing Company

For my first post-hiatus beer review I knocked back a beer I thought I'd surely enjoy, Highland Oatmeal Porter. I had never before tried anything from the Asheville, NC mountain people at Highland Brewing Company, but I've heard the name passed casually a time or two.

*For the sake of reading simplicity I'll follow beer advocate's standard A/S/T/M/D format.

Appearance: This brew poured quickly into a dark brown pool (almost black until held up to light, highlighting some chestnut hue). The head was very little, loose, not apparent, and faded immediately.

Smell: The scent was roasty, a bit nutty, and reserved for a beer that appears so dark. More chocolate nose came out with a little breathing time.

Taste: Chocolate chocolate chocolate. The flavor starts out chocolately, some malt and a tiny bit of hoppy bitterness creeps in, and the finish is chocolately all the way. The bitterness only serves to give a dark chocolate-like bite. The hop flavor sits in the back and keeps it's mouth shut. It's there if you're looking for it, but easy to miss. I got none of the distinct oatmeal or coffee flavors I was expecting, but the lack of those wasn't disappointing, just surprising. I would have preferred a tiny bit more sweetness with my chocolate, as there was hardly any there to speak of.

Mouthfeel: The oatmeal was at play here, along with the porter part of the title. Much like this brew's oatmeal stout brethren, it went down as smooth as silk (and smoother than the soymilk kind). Unlike the comparable stouts the porter is light and watery. Low carbonation and thinness make for an interesting mouthfeel for this type of flavor profile.

Drinkability: Good beer for lots of occasions. I would love to find this on tap and grab a pint, or crack open a bottle every now and again while shooting some breeze. This isn't a beer I'd drink all night, or with a meal, but it's interesting and tasty. I will certainly try this one again in the future. I'm not overly impressed with it, but I think this was a solid brew to kick off my beer index.
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Links:
Highland Brewing Company Styles Page
Beer Advocate Page
ratebeer Page

Trying Again

As a comprehensive life review blogger I failed miserably. I reviewed a handful of things over a period of months, but come the long summer days I dropped off the blogosphere and my relic of a blog fell back into the abyss. Well, after an extended hiatus I'm thinking of trying again.

I have a new goal in mind, one which many 20-somethings can relate to: beer. I don't really drink liquor, and only use wine for cooking, but I've gotten in the habit of cracking open a brew whilst playing prep chef in the evening, and I can now safely call myself a semi-regular beer drinker. I am also growing into thinking of myself as a beer snob. I won't say I'm particularly knowledgeable, but I like to try new things and have certain likes and dislikes. Given the million different types of beer available on the market and the wide variety of flavors I occasionally have trouble remembering which beers I've tried. It's a slap in the face to buy a sucky beer for the second time because of a memory lapse.

If I can keep up my blogging, I intend to keep this as a catalogue of sorts. I will take brief notes on any new beers I try (when not hammered) and write down my thoughts here. Not only will taking notes and blogging about beers help me remember beers I like and dislike, but eventually I'll have a fair database of my drinking history and most likely a sad reminder that I could put a kid through college with the money I'm spending on beer.

To kick things off I got a mixed 6 of some interesting singles from Dorn's and I intend to get things rolling while I'm frying some catfish tonight.

Cheers!