Day 357: Heavy Seas Brewery Tour

I was up in Baltimore this weekend for a wedding and had some free time Saturday morning. My first thought was Brewery Tour. And since we were in Baltimore it seemed that Heavy Seas was the best choice. I invited along my brother-in-law and his girlfriend. My wife was part of the wedding party and was unavailable to go. The three of us drove down to the Southern part of Baltimore at 10:30 for the 11:00 tour. The tour is free, but you can pay $5 for a the glass you see above and 5 samples. They had 7 different beers on tap, but I have had most of them, so I started with something I was dying to try. They had the oak-casked version of Dubbel Cannon. It was simply amazing. Next I tried their Gold Ale, which was very nice. At this time they called for the tour to begin so I filled my glass with Peg Leg, their sweet stout. Man was it good! As you know I don't drink stouts often, but this one was so drinkable and smooth I could have had a six-pack. I took this on the tour with me which lasted about a half hour and was really interesting to see how a bigger craft brewery operates.

Most brewery tours I have been on have 3-6 Fermenting Vessels. Heavy Seas has 17! Freaking 17! They also showed us all the casks they have fermenting which was another 30-40 in number. This place was what I would love to eventually have. It would take a lot and business is not my strong suit, but it would incredible to achieve one day. We had a great time and I will put up more pictures once I get them from my future sister-in-law. I say this because she caught the bouquet later that night. Good luck guys! 

Day 356: Levitation Ale

Name: Levitation Ale

Brewer: Stone Brewing Co. (Escondido, CA)

Classification: Amber Ale 

Alcohol: 4.4%

Thoughts: I know, I know! Another Stone Brewing Co. Brew? Well, they make so many great beers. I envy their talent for brewing. And one quick note about Levitation Ale. While it says Amber Ale in the Classification section, I truly feel that this is an English IPA. It looks like one, it tastes like one and I honestly think it is one. Pours an amber to walnut colored body with reddish hues beneath the dense, tan head that slowly disappears to leave a thick, tacky lacing. Earthy hop aromas float from the glass, consisting of wood, pine, and citrus with secondary aromas of caramel malt. The flavor is a bit sweeter, focusing more on the caramel malt and citrus hops with the pine and woodnotes taking a back seat. It is an excellent beer. After 356 days I may have run out of things to say about beer. But this is simply excellent. 

Rating: 87/100

Day 355: Dirty Bastard

Name: Dirty Bastard

Brewer: Founder's Brewing Co. (Grand Rapids, MI)

Classification: Scotch Ale

Alcohol: 8.5%

Thoughts: Founders is out and out one of the best breweries in the world and while they have some amazing beers I would love to feature on the blog I can't get my hands on them. But I could get my hands on Dirty Bastard. I've had it before, but on draft, and knew what to expect. It didn't disappoint. It pours like a wine - thick, fluid and creamy. It is a nice cloudy mahogany color with a small, but dense tan head. If you have ever had a glass of Macallan 12 then you know how smooth and sweet and earthy that scotch smells. Well this is a less potent version of that. The taste started out on the bready side with some caramel added in. The hop flavors quickly come to the tongue and mellow some of the sweetness. First a more citrus hop flavor comes on the scene, shortly followed by the pine and more earthy hop flavors. In the end a somewhat piney and spicy hop flavor mixed with a smooth bread flavor are left to linger on the tongue. If you didn't know scotch starts off as beer, it is then distilled and turned into scotch. Well if Dirty Bastard was distilled it would be one of the finest scotches in the world, no doubt. 

Rating: 88/100

Day 354: Presidente

Name: Presidente

Brewer: Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)

Classification: American Adjunct Lager

Alcohol: 5%

Thoughts: As The Beer Year is coming to a close I wanted to get some beers that either have important meaning to me or ones I just really want to try. Presidente is of the former. I went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic when I was in college. I was in a tiny village in the mountains south of Puerto Plata building walls and what not during the day, and drinking this beer and playing dominoes at night. It was amazing to say the least. Up until that point in my life I was a bit of a fuck up, but it was during the consumption of this beer on that trip, looking out over a valley at sundown that I wanted to get my shit together. So in all honestly this beer isn't a great beer, probably mediocre at best. But sometimes it is the experience you have while drinking the beer that makes the memories, not the taste or the smell of the look of it. I'm sure every real beer drinker has a beer that they use to drink before they knew what they know now that gives them those feelings as I do with this one. What's yours?

Rating: 71/100

Day 353: Hoptimum

Name: Hoptimum

Brewer: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (Chico, CA)

Classification: Imperial IPA

Alcohol: 10.4%

Thoughts: This is a break away from Sierra Nevada's usual foray into beer. For example, the usual Sierra Nevada landscape is absent from the bottle and is replaced by a label that is specific to the beer. The other thing that this beer does is to use whole cone hops instead of the traditional dried hops. This makes the hops smell and taste more earthy than citrusy. And that is exactly what this beer is, an extremely hoppy, piney, earth-moving Imperial IPA. Instead of just giving you the description like I normally do you can look at the picture above to see how it looks, buy one to see how it smells and drink one to see how it tastes. I know, kind of a dickish thing to say on my part. But I really just want to make an analogy or two to tell how freaking pungent Hoptimum is. If IPAs were Imperial powerhouses  a regular IPA would be as powerful as Portugal and Hoptimum would be as powerful as Britain. They are both immensely grand, but Hoptimum has the Opium Trade on lock-down. 

Rating: 90/100

Day 352: Porkslap Pale Ale

Name: Porkslap Pale Ale

Brewer: Butternuts Beer & Ale (Garrattsville, NY)

Classification: American Pale Ale

Alcohol: 4.3%

Thoughts: I know this is the thoughts section so I am going to give you some thoughts. I am just too damn tired of writing these freaking reviews night in and night out. I am! There, I said it! However, I need to soldier on through these next two weeks and complete this Bad Mamma Jamma. I drank this Porkslap out of the can, so I am unsure of the pour or head or lacing qualities it may provide. But I'm sure they are adequate. The smell was all malts. Light, crisp malts, but the hops were completely non-existent from the aroma. The first couple of sips were a bit metallic so I let it sit for a couple of minutes hoping it would warm up a bit and that taste would go away. It did. See there's one thing I learned over the year. The flavor is about the same as the aroma. It's on the sweet side with fairly feeble hop flavors. Heavy on the bread with some toasted malt notes and some ginger ones as well. Then a few citrus notes lead into a very faint hop bitterness. This is a good beer to drink when you are looking for something cheap, but interesting. It isn't great, but it gets the job done. 

Rating: 78/100

Day 351: Dad's Little Helper

Name: Dad's Little Helper

Brewer: Rogue Ales (Newport, OR)

Classification: American Black Ale

Alcohol: 7%

Thoughts: Throughout this year Tyler's has been of great importance to my quest. They have been there with a great selection of beers, good food and at times good suggestions. This was another one. I was looking for something a little different and this is what the bartender suggested. It pours a very dark brown, that borders on black color, and shows the brown when held up to light. It has a huge creamy 2-finger tan head that faded slowly, leaving a layer of lacing on top. It smells of chocolate malt, roasted grains, caramel, cocoa powder, floral hops, herbs and piney hops/ I know thats a lot, but it really is in there. The taste has a nice hop bite mixed with some cocoa and chocolate malty notes. Added sugars balance this out a little, but this is about the only major flaw I could find. There's a big piney hop bite at the finish. The malts give this a porter-like flavor actually thats hopped up. I haven't had a lot of Black Ales or Black IPAs but this is a must have if you like this style. A tremendously good brew from Rogue here. 

Rating: 84/100

Day 350: Farmer's Tan

Name: Farmer's Tan

Brewer: Southern Tier Brewing Co. (Lakewood, NY)

Classification: Imperial Pilsner

Alcohol: 9%

Thoughts: If you've been following the blog you know I have had issues with Southern Tier, but I decided to give them a chance hoping the third time would be a charm. And to tell you the honest truth, it was. Actually, it REALLY was! Farmer's Tan is an amazing Imperial Pilsner that pours a delicious gold with a wispy, white head. The smell was bursting with grassy hops and light malts. It is certainly crisp and refreshing. There is a stronger hop presence than I expected. Sweet and fruity, the apple juice from the smell is definitely there. The finish is bitter from the hops. It is like a really good pilsner, just imperialistic. 

Rating: 87/100

Day 349: Freedom American IPA

Name: Freedom American IPA

Brewer: Natty Greene's Brewery (Greensboro, NC)

Classification: American IPA

Alcohol: 6.2%

Thoughts: FFFFFRRRRRREEEEEEEEDDDDDDOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!
 I can imagine William Wallace screaming this right now as his intestines are being removed. However, this Amurika! Where Patriots don't get treaded upon and the President is a Freedom-Hating Muslim! Maybe Sarah Palin would receive the same fate for her country as Wallace if it meant showing how much she loves Freedom. I'd like to ask her that. Regardless of how much I hate the Tea Party I must not judge this beer for naming itself Freedom. By the way, dumb fucking name. This fairly new brew was drunk from the bottle as there was no glass available at the time, but I could probably make an educated guess as to what it looks like. The smell was moderately hoppy with very little citrus or grassy notes. The malts had more of an impact on the smell than I am use to with an IPA. The taste has a bit of grapefruit and grassy hops, but for the most part it was dry and bitter. And not in a good way. While this is a pretty decent beer I wish I could have it on tap. I think that would cure some of the issues I had with it. 

Rating: 77/100

Day 348: HogWild

Name: HogWild

Brewer: Aviator Brewing Co. (Fuquay-Varina, NC)

Classification: American IPA

Alcohol: 6.7%

Thoughts: Gluttony is defined as the act or practice of eating or drinking to excess. Every once and a while I like to be a glutton. Downtown Durham has a bunch of places to do this, but we in the mood for a special dish we had only heard whispers of. It is called "The Pile" and it is served at Geer St. Garden, which is an awesome restaurant in itself on self. Not to mention, they have a pretty good beer list. "The Pile" is a bunch of french fries, bacon, fried chicken, and jalapenos smothered in melted cheese and served with creamy, melted cheddar cheese and gravy on the side (Picture Below). It is the greatest thing on Earth! I needed a solid beer to get through this behemoth of a dish. So I chose Aviator's HogWild IPA. It pours a amber/copper color with slightly reddish hues. The smell had a very sweet citrus contingent as well as an herbal tea note. The hops were more subdued in the aroma then in the taste. Speaking of which, smooth pale malt flavors kick things off before being joined quickly by herbal and slightly floral hop flavors. Midway through the sip the hops fade a bit, segueing into mild vanilla flavors. The vanilla carries through to a moderately bitter ending.  Overall this is an IPA that's slightly better than middle-of-the-road. Not worth writing home about but certainly worth a shot.

Rating: 83/100

Day 347: Existent

Name: Existent

Brewer: Stillwater Artisanal Ales (Baltimore, MD)

Classification: Saison

Alcohol: 7.4%

Thoughts: Sometimes when I am shopping for beer I get a little tingling in my bollocks and I reach for something really good. I want a challenge because it really does give me a whizzing feeling that I really enjoy. It is something I get when I listen to an artsy album or watch an artsy film. It is an very introspective feeling. I am going to call it the "Artsy Whiz" from now on. Stillwater Artisanal Ales is one of these breweries that give me the Artsy Whiz by just looking at it. I chose Existent, which is labeled on the bottle as an American Farmhouse Ale. Farmhouse Ales are another word for a Saison, but as you can tell by the picture it looks like no Saison you've ever seen. This dark Saison pours a dark brown color that is murky especially when the light catches it. The head is beige, bubbly and thinly dispersed with some decent trails of lace. The initial aroma smells roasted like coffee and chocolate as expected based on the looks of this brew. It carries a very dry and earthy aspect to it. Through the middle are peppery accents from the yeast along with a lemony citrus aspect that is quite interesting. This brew has a rustic feel and taste to it. The flavor is long and fades to mostly chocolate bready malts with some herbal, lightly funky Belgian yeast. A masterful brew! It drinks very complexly but flows lightly over the palate. I will admit it doesn't taste like many other Saisons I have tried, but I am going to give far more dark Saisons a try. The other piece of trivia is the man on the bottle is non other than Fredrich Nietzsche. He once famously said, "...and if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." Well, this is definitely an abyss worth staring into. 

Rating: 92/100

Day 346: Longboard Island Lager

Name: Longboard Island Lager

Brewer: Kona Brewing Co. (Kailua Kona, HI)

Classification: American Pale Lager

Alcohol: 4.6%

Thoughts: At the restaurant this evening, as we were being seated, we realized that Tyler Hansborough himself was sitting at the table next to us. If you don't know who that is then that's probably a good thing, but he played basketball for UNC and now plays for the Indiana Pacers. He's what I would call an "Uber-Douche". I even started a Facebook group in college called "Hansborough Haters". Do I regret it? A little. But do I agree with the 100s of people that joined? Yes. The feelings I have toward him aren't as bad as when he played for UNC, but nonetheless I had to resist the urge to Gerald Henderson his ass. What does this have to do with beer? Not a damn thing. Why am I asking so many questions to myself and then answering them? I'm a bit clueless too. Anyways, this Kona Longboard Island Lager wasn't half bad. A bit dry, but still good enough for my palate. 

Rating: 79/100

Day 345: HopDevil

Name: HopDevil

Brewer: Victory Brewing Co. (Downingtown, PA)

Classification: American IPA

Alcohol: 6.7%

Thoughts: There is a Devil in all of us. Some more then others. However, there should be a lot of HopDevil in everybody! Because this beer is just damn good. It pours a dark golden amber color with a massive tan head. The smell is dynamic! Big citrus! Big Malts! Big Hops! An extremely enticing, enthralling aroma for any style of beer. I expected an over the top hop-monster of a beer. I mean this bad mother is called HopDevil. So you expect it to be devilishly hoppy. But it wasn't. Usually I would say that would be a bad thing, but not on this occasion. HopDevil is super well balanced. Don't get me wrong the hops are still a bigger presence then the malts, but the taste seems to be evened out enough to not make this overly fruity, overly malty, or overly bitter. This is another BeerAdvocate beer that has been rated 100. I don't quite think it is that good, but the craft in this beer is damn near perfect. 

Rating: 89/100

Day 344: Spring IPA

Name: Spring IPA

Brewer: Fullsteam Brewery (Durham, NC)

Classification: American IPA

Alcohol: 7%

Thoughts: The wife and I went to Fullsteam last night for some beer and board games. I ordered the new Spring IPA and then we sat down to play some Scrabble. It is my game of choice, I think I'm the greatest, despite the wife proving me wrong on multiple occasions. However, on this night ... I  REIGN SUPREME! It was just an awesome evening in an awesome hang out spot and to exclaim my happiness I did what most self respecting human would do these days, I tweeted about it. And I got a response from Sean Lily Wilson, the owner of Fullsteam. Not to sound too cool for school, but this isn't the first time we have had a twitter conversation. Anyways, the point is that he went and read some of my blog posts and read the one I had a week or so ago about Chatham County Paw Paw. He certainly agreed it wasn't Paw Paw, and even said he thought it might have been someone else's beer. But it lead me to believe that the beer I had that night was not Rocket Science IPA, but in fact this very Spring IPA. It poured a fantastic clear amber color with a wispy, ghost-like head that managed to linger around the glass quite nicely. Something I did not realize until Sean pointed it to me is that this IPA is brewed with kumquats. I have eaten a few in my life time, but not enough to tell the taste distinctly or the smell for that matter. However I assume it was in both. The other thing that was in both the aroma and taste was a really fine citrusy hop note. The malts were subtle, but the best part was how balanced everything was. The bitterness was subdued, which worked out well in my opinion. I really like this beer. They have, I believe, 3 IPAs now. Rocket Science, One Hop and this Spring IPA. All are totally different, and all are totally awesome! 

Rating: 87/100

Day 343: Duck-Rabbit Brown Ale

Name: Brown Ale

Brewer: Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery (Farmville, NC)

Classification: American Brown Ale

Alcohol: 5.6%

Thoughts: Duck-Rabbit claim to be the "Dark Beer Specialists" and so far every beer I have had from them is dark and it is special. I am really hoping that this American Brown Ale is no different. It pours a deep, murky chocolate brown with a thick, bubbly crown of a head. In the picture this looks like a Schwarzbier because of deep the brown is. The aroma is mainly toasted malts and toffee, but their is a real hoppy undertone that you don't usually get with brown ales. Usually a brown ale consists of malts, malts and more malts. The hops continue into the taste as they surprised me with how noticeable they are. To me they were in both the forefront of this beer and the follow through. In between I sensed the traditional heavy, sweet malts and toffee flavors. This beer is just like the other ones that Duck-Rabbit brew. Dark, quality, classic and really tasty. I know Duck-Rabbit is probably limited to the Southeast, maybe not even that far out, but if you have a chance to grab one of their beers I recommend it. In the words of Omar from The Wire, "I surely do."

Rating: 86/100

Day 342: Stiegl Pils

Name: Stiegl Pils

Brewer: Stiefelbrauerei zu Salzberg (Salzberg, Austria)

Classification: German Pilsner

Alcohol: 4.9%

Thoughts: Wow, twist off... for a European beer that's sad! At least there's a somewhat bottle code on it, reading 03121 so not sure if that means drink by march 2012, or something else. I hope not, its freaking June! And green bottle... come on! I'm not expecting much from this with all that jazz! Pours a bright, clear golden-yellow color, topped with just over a finger of foamy pearl-white head. Smell is a bit floral, I can detect malt and yeast, and some floral notes, and a touch of grass. The taste is much sweeter than I expected, almost like apple juice. That's a huge distance from a traditional pilsner. Green apples, honey and some floral notes. It finishes malty, like a honey wheat bread. Overall a rather delectable, very European style of beer. I rather liked it. It has my recommendation. 

Rating: 82/100

Day 341: High Roller IPA

Name: High Roller IPA

Brewer: Big Boss Brewing Co. (Raleigh, NC)

Classification: American IPA

Alcohol: 6.75%

Thoughts: This is probably the last Big Boss brew I will have on The Beer Year. It is the last of the mainstay beers that they produce that hasn't been on the blog. High Roller pours a dark, hazy copper color with a beige cloud-like head. Smells deeply of hops. A fresh, resinous, juicy mix of citrus and pine. In the taste there is a healthy dose of hop oils that coat the tongue. It is a little heavier on the bitter pine notes, but the sweetness balances the bitterness very nicely. The carbonation is well done, not too much and not too little. It seems to work well with the amount of bitterness in the beer. All in all, its a pretty damn good beer. A real classic IPA. 

Rating: 86/100

Day 340: Dark Horse Amber Ale

Name: Amber Ale

Brewer: Dark Horse Brewing Co. (Marshall, MI)

Classification: Amber Ale

Alcohol: 5.5%

Thoughts: This American Amber Ale reminds me more of a Belgian ale. It pours a dark orange tinted amber color with a moderate off-white head. It smells of peach and Belgian yeast. It is not one that I would have recognized as an Amber Ale smell. Taste-wise it keeps me coming back. There is a taste of spicy pepper, clean citrus, and fruity banana. There is a light hoppiness and sweetness to this as well. There is a moderate to fine carbonation that lasts. Overall this is a great beer at a reasonable price. Dark Horse is a new brewery to me but I really would like to try more of theirs. I would really like to try these beers fresh from the brewery if I'm ever in Marshall, Michigan. 

Rating: 82/100

Day 339: Heineken

Name: Heineken

Brewer: Heineken Nederland (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Classification: Euro Pale Lager

Alcohol: 5%

Thoughts: Heineken holds a warm spot in my Beer Heart. I had my first one when I was 18 in Ireland in a tiny town north of Dublin called Howth. Howth is single handedly the most beautiful place in the world in my eyes. I also had plenty of them when I was Amsterdam during a Spring Break trip. In both cases Heineken was just perfect. It was cold, crisp, refreshing and tasted great. However, I shouldn't really count the Amsterdam ones since I was high out of mind the entire time so the taste was probably "enhanced" a bit. My history with Heineken doesn't end there. A few years ago I really wanted to get one of their DraughtKeg Beertenders. I was never able to buy one because I was a poor college student. Then on my wedding day, a few minutes before it started, I got a card brought to me by my brother from my soon-to-be wife. She had bought me one as a wedding gift to me and it would be waiting for me at our apartment after the wedding was over. I've only used a couple of times, but it is pretty awesome. I have an awesome wife! I'm not actually going to review the beer, but I'll just say it is so-so in the States and really good in Europe. 

Rating: 75/100

Day 338: Pennant Ale '55

Name: Pennant Ale '55

Brewer: Brooklyn Brewery (Brooklyn, NY)

Classification: English Pale Ale

Alcohol: 5%

Thoughts: I am a massive baseball fan. I mean huge! And my team in none other than THE New York Yankees. I grew up getting bed time stories from my grandfather about him watching Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as a child. My dad told me stories of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris from when his father would take them to them games. I grew up on Jeter. So a beer based on the Brooklyn Dodgers winning the '55 NL Pennant and eventually their first World Series win is a cool idea to me. Just one problem. It's an ENGLISH Pale Ale! What?!? Come on Brooklyn! This should be a nice simple American Lager or an Amber Ale. Anyways, Pennant Ale pours a light, cloudy mahogany with a head that reminds me of memory foam. The smell is heavy on the British malts which give of a bready, grainy aroma. The hops are absent from the nose, but they show up a little more in the taste. First sip is sweet, but the aftertaste brings out the sourness of the fruit.  There's a little malt profile there to balance things out, but this beer is pretty tasty. This beer makes more sense in your mouth then it does on paper though. I need to apologize to Brooklyn Brewery because this beer would make total sense at a baseball game in the mid-50s. Well done. 

Rating: 83/100

Day 337: Sol

Name: Sol

Brewer: Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma (Monterrey, Mexico)

Classification: American Adjunct Lager

Alcohol: 4.5%

Thoughts: Look at that jerk who ruined my picture! Luckily Sol is super easy to drink and I was soon able to drown my sorrows in crappy Mexican beer. Twas' a good evening!

Rating: 64/100

Day 336: Stone IPA

Name: Stone IPA

Brewer: Stone Brewing Co. (Escondido, CA)

Classification: American IPA

Alcohol: 6.9%

Thoughts: I have seen more and more restaurants catching on with the "Craft Beer Craze" that is really taking hold of the US Beer Market. I love it because I can eat at most local restaurants and get a good beer with my dinner. Usually Stella Artois is the best I could get. At dinner I was able to order the glorious Stone IPA. I mean look at the picture above! It seems as if there is a holy glow peaking out from the golden sheen and foamy head that is this beer. The smell is tremendous! It has big, bold malts and deep, fruity hops that are of the upmost quality. The nose is so grand and intense that it tickled my sinuses. After a few nice solid gulps of this silky, smooth golden elixir I knew I was tasting a bit of heaven. It follows the structure of the nose with more sweet malts and tons of citrusy hops. There enough hops here to choke a whale, and they are the perfect amount of bitter. This is just an amazing IPA. I feel like Stone makes only amazing beers. It's kinda unfair to the rest of the breweries. 

Rating: 89/100

Day 335: Chatham County Paw Paw

Name: Chatham County Paw Paw

Brewer: Fullsteam Brewery (Durham, NC)

Classification: Belgian Strong Pale Ale

Alcohol: 8.8% 

Thoughts: The guy at the bar said this was Chatham County Paw Paw. However, I was under the assumption that Fullsteam was out of Paw Paw for now until the Paw Paws grow back during the summer. Also, this did not taste like a Belgian Strong Pale Ale. It was much more hoppy and the yeast was much more soft. So we are going to play a game called, "What's That Fullsteam Brew?" After I finished the beer and research was done I concluded that this was probably Rocket Science IPA, which I have had on the blog already. But in spite of that I am just going to rate this from a past experience of Paw Paw I had before I started The Beer Year. 

Rating: 83/100

Day 334: Easy Rider

Name: Easy Rider

Brewer: Terrapin Beer Company (Athens, GA)

Classification: American Pale Ale

Alcohol: 4.5%

Thoughts: Terrapin was one of the first breweries to be on the blog and now that I am only about a month away from finishing I feel that it is only right to have them once again. They have produced some memorable beers that I have tried over the year. I consider them in my Top 10 favorite breweries, which I will have at the end of the year. Easy Rider pours with a small head of white foam on top of a perfectly clear, dark golden body. The head settles quickly and leaves good lace in the glass. This had that certain something that all the great hop bombs possess: Strong, fresh hop compounded with a good bit of wheat in the nose. It's sort of like a hopped up fresh clean cotton scent. Easy Rider releases its flavors in distinct waves. The initial taste is dominated by hops and sweet orange flavor, mixed with a bit of lemon. Around the middle the nutty malts start to peek out from the citrus candy flavors. The finish is nearly entirely specialty malts. It's a woody, sawdust-like, astringent malt finish. The feel is creamy and smooth and it coats your mouth and tongue and throat with tons of flavor. Another batter up for Terrapin and another hit. 

Rating: 85/100

Day 333: Gold Standard Export Kellerbier

Name: Gold Standard Export Kellerbier

Brewer: Brooklyn Brewery (Brooklyn, NY)

Classification: Keller Bier

Alcohol: 6.5%

Thoughts: Keller Bier is a completely new style of beer to me. That's sort of the main reason I ordered it. But also because this is what Brooklyn Brewery does best, their experimental beers. Keller Bier is a style of beer that dates back to the middle ages before all this fancy-schmancy machinery and technology was created. The beer is actually exposed the entire time it is being brewed, rather than being in massive metal drums. This allows the yeast to mature better giving it lots of nutrients and vitamins, a.k.a., this beer has some nutritional value to it. So drink to your health! It pours a bubbly, slightly hazy gold color with greenish hues. Yes, I said greenish hues! The head is straight carbonation and is very thin and wispy. The smell is very light with hints of grain and yeast doing much of the heaving lifting. The first thing I thought of when this beautiful babe hit my lips was, "This thing is straight out of Europe". I mean if you could take a bite out of Munich, this is what it would taste like. Lots of musky malts, dry grains, grassy hops and a great light refreshing note. It is clean from the first sip to the last sip. This is the best beer I have ever had from Brooklyn. That should be saying a lot right there. 

Rating: 88/100

Day 332: Pilot Mountain Pale Ale

Name: Pilot Mountain Pale Ale

Brewer: Foothills Brewing Co. (Winston-Salem, NC)

Classification: American Pale Ale

Alcohol: 4.8%

Thoughts: Through my work I was given tickets to a Durham Bulls baseball game recently. The tickets were a few rows behind home plate and they came with passes to the MVP club, which is free food (ribs, potatoes, and veggies) and free drinks (beer, beer and more beer). However, the best part of going to a Bull's game is that they have an amazing beer selection at the park. Carolina Brewery, Natty Greene's and Foothills all have stations there. Not to mention, All About Beer's World Beer Fest (Fall Edition) is held as this ballpark every October. With so many beers to choose from, I was in heaven. I ended up getting Foothills' Pilot Mountain Pale Ale. The head was really thick on the pour so it was tough to get a great reading on how smooth this pours, but it seemed to have a bit of a pinkish-golden hue to it. The aroma was very typical for a pale ale. Lots of pale malt and fruity, dry hops. These hops seemed a little more earthy than usual though. The taste was really smooth and dry with a killer biting aftertaste and a wicked big malt wallop. I thought this was a really good example of an NC Brewed ale, because of its quality and structure. I would definitely recommend it. Also, I thought about using a lot of baseball metaphors to describe this beer, but this blog is all about class and that would be a tad tacky. 

Rating: 84/100

Day 331: Razor Wit

Name: Razor Wit

Brewer: Highland Brewing Co. (Asheville, NC)

Classification: Witbier 

Alcohol: 4.5%

Thoughts: I've just noticed that this is my 4th Wheat Beer in a row. But there is good reason for this. It's summertime. As the days get brighter so do the beers. Porters, Stouts and Dubbels go away and Witbiers, Saisons, and Hefeweizens come out to play. This Witbier is simple and straightforward. The pour is copper and the head is foamy and off-white. The nose is full of citrus, spice, and life. It is a great smell on a warm summer evening. The taste follows the same stream of thought. The citrus is bright and the hops are fruity. Highland uses fresh wheat and lots of clove to act positively with the Belgian Yeast. Of all the Wheat Beers I have had this week this has been the best. If is really well brewed from the first sip to the last. 

Rating: 86/100

Day 330: Somersault

Name: Somersault

Brewer: New Belgium Brewing Co. (Fort Collins, CO)

Classification: American Blonde Ale

Alcohol: 5.2%

Thoughts: I have said this before and I am going to say it again, beware of the perfect score. Nothing is perfect in mind, everything can be made better. Especially beer, because unless the look, smell, taste and feel of your beer puts you into a state of euphoria that would last forever, it ain't perfect! This beer, Somersault, got a perfect score from BeerAdvocate.com. I'd like to go ahead and call "Bullshit" on this one. While this is a great beer, and it is, there is no way that a Blonde Ale could be perfect. They aren't complex enough and they aren't interesting enough. And I feel bad for this beer because that is such a burden to carry. For the rest of its existence this beer will have to live with the notion that someone claimed it to be perfect. This is like a "Jesus Beer". And while the radiant copper-gold color and the sharp sweet smell and the fantastic floral and citrus taste are all great, it's just not perfect. And neither is my punctuation. Far from it. 

Rating: 86/100

Day 329: Woody Creek White

Name: Woody Creek White

Brewer: Flying Dog Brewery (Frederick, MD)

Classification: Witbier

Alcohol: 4.8%

Thoughts: Finally a really good beer from Flying Dog! Woody Creek White is a Summer Seasonal that Flying Dog offers and it is really tasty. This witbier pours a muted gold that is somewhere between yellow and orange in color. The light, billowy white head looks like a floating cloud on top of this beer. It smells of banana, wheat and clove, but all in a very fresh way. It doesn't seem like its been sitting in a bottle for months. The taste is very citrusy with a touch of banana, and a hefty dose of pepper and coriander to give it a spicy kick. Not to big of kick, but a good sized one. Wheat and Belgian yeast round out the rest of the flavors. This beer turns out to by an "Anytime, Anywhere" beer. Meaning I'd drink it anytime, anywhere. 

Rating: 85/100

Day 328: Hell or High Watermelon

Name: Hell or High Watermelon

Brewer: 21st Amendment Brewery (San Francisco, CA)

Classification: Witbier

Alcohol: 4.9%

Thoughts: I've been trying to get my mitts on this mother-humper for a long time now. I could never find in a store and never get to a bar that had it on tap. But I finally found and it it could not have happened on better day. It's June 1st, which means summer is officially underway! I decided to drink this beer straight from the can since that is what I do with all my canned beers. I mean, if the brewers cared what the beer looked like then they would have bottled it. The smell and taste are practically identical. The wheat malts are bready and a bit short of being fresh. The hops are tart and really dry. The carbonation tickles the nose on the smell and the throat on the taste. It is a very bubbly beer. Then comes the watermelon, and it comes in way late. All these other things happen and you are waiting for the watermelon to kick in, and right before you give up it shows up for the last dance. It twirls sweetness and fruit together on your palate like a cement mixer creating a very unique sensation. I don't think this is a great beer, but it is a successful one. I would whole-heartedly recommend it, but with a warning: it's not perfect.

Rating: 80/100