Birdsong Brewing has released a few efforts that have made it into cans. One of their limited time engagements is their Mexicali Stout. This offering is bar none one of the best spiced stouts that we have ever tasted. The brewery utilizes coffee along with just a hint of chile spice to create something that is tasty, refreshing and will ultimately go well with a wide variety of cuisine as…
Barley wines are a very complex beast and seems like no two are exactly alike. It is this personality of style that makes us excited whenever we can get a new barleywine for review in NeuFutur. We’ve had strongly flavored/hopped barleywines and fruit based ones in the course of the last few months, so we were excited to see that Barrel Chested by Bloomington, Indiana’s Upland Brewing utilized bourbon barrels to…
There have been a decent amount of milk and coffee based stouts that have been placed on the market in the course of the last few months and a great many of them are fair to middling. The latest limited time engagement from Colorado’s Left Hand Brewing, Bittersweet is a beer that has a decent amount of twists and turns all while having a luscious and vibrant mouth feel. The…
The 2015 edition of Red Evelyn, Black Shirt Brewing’s imperial red rye IPA (india pale ale) has a distinctive and deep set of flavors that go far beyond what one typically expects when they belly up to a bar for a hoppy brew. The red side of things is given life through the inclusion of an ample portion of malt which shakes up the overall palette of this effort. Outside hints…
Dark Star is a Belgian styled imperial stout from Rhode Island’s Grey Sail Brewing, spending time in Buffalo Trace barrels. The effort goes and provides individuals with a deep, rich, and delectable set of flavors. The beer pours with a dark brown coloration and little to nothing in the way of head. The initial sip of this third batch of Dark Star heals him of chocolate, vanilla, and toasty malts…
The Imperial Stout style is provided considerable variation through the inclusion of adjuncts ranging from chocolate to bacon, to coffee and even mint. However, one of the earliest inclusions into the style had to be coffee and one of those first companies to go forth and craft something that blends together the bitterness and roastiness of a cappuccino with the thick mouth feel and the malty notes of a stout…
The process by which one brings draft beer home is a perilous one despite the technological innovations that have occurred over the course of the last decade. When one utilizes the brown bottle glass growler that has a screw off top, there’s a good chance that the carbonation and nuanced flavors of a beer will be lost by the time the one leaves the brewery to say nothing about the…
The Classic Saison by Tennessee’s Blackberry Farm Brewery has such a unique blend of flavors placed upon a wonderfully dry backbone that individuals that may not even like the Saison style will find something that they can appreciate. Hints of grains of paradise, pepper and the smallest taste of lemon can be discerned in the early goings of the Classic Saison on while a bready, yeasty body rises and falls…
The Russian Imperial Stout is a style that has a variety of different twists and turns to it and as a result no two efforts in that style will be absolutely alike. Hopworks Urban Brewery’s Motherland Russia Imperial Stout is thick with a dark brown to black coloration and a fair amount of tannish head that dissipates quickly. The beer hits individuals quickly with a variety of oaky and tobacco…
There is a tendency for breweries to come forth and create winter warmers or other spiced beers in the last quarter of the year to capitalize on the holiday season. As a result the shelves get stocked with a variety of beers that are roughly the same, meaning that they will be very strongly spiced, malt heavy and full of dark fruit flavors. Pike Brewing (Seattle, WA) has decided to…
New Holland has just released a Vanilla Chai variant of their popular Dragon’s Milk Reserve, pouring with a dark brown to black coloration. There is little if anything in the way of head, while the initial nose of the Dragon’s Milk Reserve Vanilla Chai is a little bit sweet and links together sugar with the titular elements. When one is able to take the first sip from the effort, what they will…
The Acres O’Green Irish Red by Colorado’s Lone Tree Brewing is an archetypal version of an Irish Red Ale, meaning that individuals will be immediately hit with a fair amount of malt taste with a little bit of sweetness at the end of each quaff. The beer pours with a delicious mahogany coloration and a fair amount of off white to tannish head with a slight amount of lacing occurring…
Brazos Valley Brewing’s (Brenham, Texas) milk stout Big Spoon is deceptively complex; the tendency for milk or sweet stouts to largely hit on one note and repeat that flavor ad nauseum over the course of the beer is great. Rather, as one continues to drink Big Spoon additional tastes play in the periphery. What is initially a sweet chocolate and lightly toasted malt affair changes when one starts to discern…
We have received Hopothermia from Alaskan Brewing. Hopothermia is an imperial India Pale Ale looking to bridge the gap between India Pale Ales and the hop bombs that typically come forth out of the West Coast tradition. This means that there is a strong hop presence to this beer but one that is moderated through a decent amount of wheat and malt elements. Hopothermia pours with a yellow coloration and a fair…
The hefeweizen style is one that a number of breweries do but only a few of them do well. There are a bevy of examples of where the beer ends up just being a wheaty mess and it really takes skilled hands to come up with something special in the style. Oregon’s Full Sail Brewing has create a Hefeweizen in their current Session offering. Session Wheat is our go to…
Powder Keg is a unique beer that is created by Bend Oregon’s Worthy Brewing which goes and shatters many of the conceptions that one will have regarding a Winter Ale. While other Winter Ales typically comes forth in a winter warmer format what Worthy has crafted with Powder Keg is immediately level imbibers with a hot burn that goes and keeps one refreshed and warmed from the initial opening of a…
Over the course of the last few years pumpkin beer has been all the rage and the simple fact is that the market is incredibly beyond capacity. With any brewery ready to reap incredible rewards by creating their own gourd-based beer it seems that every other effort that one sees in the fall season has something to do with pumpkin. As a result a great many of these are forgettable…
The porter style is one that can go so badly so quick and it seems like a great many breweries choose not to even offer a porter as the style proves difficult to do in a proper fashion. Green Man Brewery in Asheville, North Carolina has a porter on their year round offerings, representing one of the better porters that we have reviewed. The beer pours with a brown coloration…
Greenbush Brewing in Michigan has created a hybrid beer style in Distorter that links together the stout style with porters; Distorter pours with a dark brown to black coloration and a thick amount of tannish head that laces its way down a glass. This effort encapsulates the best of both worlds and creates a toasted, nutty flavor with a medium body that goes down incredibly easily. The beer steers away…
This year it seems as if winter ales have attempted to go myriad directions but have not seemed to really have an outstanding effort. Alaskan Brewing has created a Winter Ale that takes on a great many twists and turns of the old ale style without having to ratchet up the ABV of the beer.