ALERAISERS

The Beer Of the Week for the week of 01/27/2011 is:

Abbaye de Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy’s Trappistes Rochefort 10

This weeks BOW comes as a result of my being in the saving stages of a trip to Belgium to tour the Abbeys.  Due to my last couple trips to “The Brick Store”, Ive really been diggin’ the Belgian beers lately; thus reviving  plans for a European beer-lovers vacation and renewed interest in everything Trappist.

The Trappistes Rochefort 10 pours dark brown in color with typical Belgian off-white head that dissipates much quicker then most Belgian ale head.  The aroma is intensely sweet with definitive dark fruit aromas and hints of vanilla, candy sugar and Belgian yeast.  The tastes is complex.  Strong and sweet.  Dominated by dark fruits and caramels with a candi-sugar sweet tranistion that mellows into a slightly less sweet, less fruity, dry finish.  It is thick and smooth across your tounge and has moderate to high carbonation.  This ones on the sweeter side of Belgian Ales that Im into, but still is an excellent, must try beer.  At 11.3%, it makes a nice night cap or “sip by the chiminea on a cool night” beer.

3.9/5.0

Purchased at Twenty-nine Package on Lawrenceville Hwy in Lilburn, Ga

The Beer of the Week for the week of 1/20/2010 is:

Brewery Ommegang’s Cup O Kyndnes

HAPPY NEW YEAR!?  SO….Im a little late.  My new found affection for Scotch Ales, my appreciation for everything Ommegang and the fun little quotation on the side of this bottle had Brewery Ommegang’s Cup o Kyndnes all lined up for the perfect New Year’s BOW, but….well I got distracted.  So pull up your kilt, strap on your gillies and lets get it done now.

“An wil tak a cup o kyndnes yet, fir ald lang syn“

(A traditional new years toast)

–Robert Burns

From the Bottle: “The Belgian-Scotch brewing connection dates to World War I when thousands of Scotsmen spent years in Belgium.  To satisfy their new customers, Belgium brewers learned to brew Scotch-style ales, and the style became a new and significant part of the Belgian brewing tradition.  This fine Ommegang ale users heather tips and a wee bit of smoked malt to bring the taste and aroma of Scotland to the forefront.”

Cup o Kyndness pours an opaque brownish color with great offwhite head that laces your glass as it slowly rescinds.  The nose is mostly malty, dark fruit aromas with hints of smokiness and belgian yeast.  The taste begins much like you’d expect from a Scotch Ale, malty and molasses-y sweet, but it quickly develops into firewood smokey, sweet and finishes kinda earthy, herbal well-balanced sweet.  This beer is light to medium bodied with so, so carbonation.  This isn’t your typical big, malty Scotch Ae, but you can definitely hear the bagpipes warming up in the background…and its exactly what you might thing a Belgian-Style Scotch Ale might taste like.  It is an excellent beer to start off the year with, and one I recommend grabbing if you see(LIMITED RELEASE).

3.9/5.0

Purchased at Green’s Beverage on Ponce  de Leon in Decatur, GA

So…I guess I havent been too naughty this year…

Hope every one had a safe and merry Christmas.

–High Gravity

The Beer Of the Week for the week of 12/22/2010 is:

De Dolle Brouwers’ Stille Nacht

This weeks BOW is a beer Ive been looking for since the summer, but found just in time for Christmas.

From their site:  ”Stille Nacht (Silent Night) is a prestige beer from De Dolle Brouwers, brewed for Christmas. It has the highest density of any Belgian beer (27°Pl). It has been boiling for many hours, brewed with pale malt with white candy sugar in the kettle. The Nugget hops gives an extra bitterness to balance the extreme sweetness due to the density. The taste triangle is completed with some acidity of the fermentation. It is a very interesting beer to age. We have samples of every bottling we have done so far and aging hasn’t decreased the quality of this beer. Keep some samples at 10°C and mark the year on the cap with an alcohol marker. Cheers!”

This beer poured a cloudy  faded-orange-ish-brown color with a couple fingers of off white head.  The aroma is of Santa’s lounge…Orange peel, dark fruit and candy sweetness fill your nostrils with undertones of toffee, caramel and the slightets hint of booze…yeah, even Santa has to kick back every now and then.  The taste is of Mrs. Claus’s candy shop…candied sweetness, and syrupy front with a really nice citrusy bitter transition to a warming boozy finish.  This beer has good body and a thick-ish mouthfeel and good carbonation.  This is an excellent Belgian Seasonal Christmas beer youre gonna wanna ask Santa to add to your stocking, and at 12%ABV your gonna  “Sleep in Heavenly Peace!”

4.2/5.0

Purchased at Greens Beverage on Ponce de Leon in Decatur, GA

The Beer Of the Week for the week of 12/18/2010 is:

Wells Bombardier

This beer pours a nice, clean reddish-orange with one finger of tan head that doesnt hang, but does leave decent lacing.  Its aroma is faint, mostly fruity with subtle hints of caramel sweetness.  The taste is a very balanced malty sweet that transitions to a faint rasiny, dark fruitiness and finishes with nice bitter tang.  This beer is crisp and clean with medium to light body and low carbonation.  This beer is simple but incredibly “drinkable,” to steal a term from those wannabe beer makers out of South Africa.  I can easily imagine sitting down in an English Pub, downing these bad boys all day and catching the latest soc….er football match?  Great beer.

3.5/5.0

Purchased at Green’s Beverage on Ponce de Leon in Decatur, GA

The Beer Of the Week for the week of 12/29/09 is:

Allagash Brewing’s Black

“…Well, I’m back
Yes, I’m back
Well, I’m back, back
(Well) I’m back…”

…with Black, a Belgian Style Stout by Allagash Brewing.

From the site:  ”Allagash Black, our new Belgian style stout, is brewed with German 2 row barley, Torrified wheat and oats, balanced by a large addition of Belgian dark candi to give the Black a full and silky mouthfeel. Roasted malts give this stout its classic chocolate, toast and malty taste, and contribute to chocolate notes and a hint of roasted coffee in the aroma. The Black is fermented with a Belgian yeast strain and refermented in the bottle with the methode champenoise to make this beer truly unique.”

This beer pours a few shades short of midnight, with foamy cream head that lasts.  It smells of charred malts, belgian yeast with hints of dark pitted fruits and coffee. Up front it tastes of dark roastedchocolate malts and Belgian yeast; with a chocolaty, not so much hoppy, bitter, dry middle; and a sweet , dark coffee finish.  It has a silky smooth feel across you tongue and good carbonation.  This is a great dark, wintery beer.  Its not super sweet and syrupy like a lot of malt forward beers; nicely balanced for scratching dark beer itch.

3.9/5.0

Purchased at Twenty-nine package on Lawrenceville, Hwy. in Lilburn, GA

The Beer Of the Week for the week of 12/02/10 is:

Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout

Alright, alright…please forgive for the last few weeks.  Life has been a little hectic and Aleraisers took the brunt of it.  Two weeks ago I started a new job…yeah, thats right Im not hip enough to sit at home, live off the man, and blog all day; last week was Thanksgiving, and I was busy…well, giving thanks; so this week I was ready to get back on track…until I realized I left my camera at work.  SO…Id like to apologize to Bell’s for not giving them them the same artistic treatment the BOWs normally get and to all three of my readers for failing.  Ill do better next week.  So…on to the review…

From the bottle: “Brewed with a blend of 10 different malts, Double Cream is an incredibly rich stout composed of dark, sweet, and smooth tones intermingled with a soft, roasty finish.”

The Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout pours obsidian dark with thick foamy brown head.  Its aroma is of coffee and bittersweet chocolate with notes both smokey and nutty and a slightest hint of burnt toast.  There are obviously some dark complex malts at work here.  The taste is very malt forward.  Bitter chocolate and coffee jump out, and then dark roasted malts carry you to a chocolaty bitter sweet, vanilla finish.  It has a medium mouthfeel, not quite what I expected from this super dark, malty stout, but definitely smooth and creamy with good carbonation.

This is yet another excellent beer from Bell’s Brewery, great for the holiday season.

3.9/5.0

Purchased at Package Twenty-Nine on Lawrenceville, Hwy in Lilburn

The Beer Of the Week for the week of 11/11/2010 is:

Oskar Blues Brewery’s Ten Fidy Imperial Stout

This weeks BOW comes from my favorite brewery at the moment, Oskar Blues.  Ive had my eyeballs on this big malty bad boy for a little while now, and since Ive been on a big malty kick lately I decided to pull the trigger.

From their site:  ”Ten FIDY Imperial Stout – This titanic, immensely viscous stout is loaded with inimitable flavors of chocolate-covered caramel and coffee and hide a hefty 98 IBUs underneath the smooth blanket of malt.  Ten FIDY (10.5% ABV) is made with enormous amounts of two-row malt, chocolate malt, roasted barley, flaked oats and hops. Ten FIDY is the ultimate celebration of dark malts and boundary-stretching beer.”

This beer pours dark….we’re talking motor oil from suburbia teenage girls car, ace of spades, or maybe even black hole…dark!  It has a small chocolaty brown head that quickly faded into the darkness.  The aroma is of dark roasted coffee and chocolate.  It is definitely a little hot at 10.50%, but I like that in the big maltys.  It tastes YUUU-MEE.  Some seriously dark and chocolate malts impart their corresponding that parallel a molasses-like sweeness, but the 98IBUs leave a nicely balanced and dry finish.  The mouthfeel is thick and smooth; you might think that if you flung it at the wall it would stick and slowly drip to the floor like syrup.  This is a real beer drinkers stout, not for the faint of heart, but one you’re gonna wanna try!

4.4/5.0

Purchased at Package Twenty-Nine on Lawrenceville, Hwy in Lilburn, GA

The Beer Of the Week for the week of 11/04/2010 is:

Founders’ Backwoods Bastard

So anyone who follows the BOWs on Aleraisers has probably noticed that Im knee deep in my winter infatuation with dark malty beers.  One of my favorite sources of late has been the Founders’ Brewing Company, so when I found the Backwoods Bastard, an “ale aged in oak bourbon barrels,” it was a natural selection for BOW.

From the site: “Expect lovely, warm smells of single malt scotch, oaky bourbon barrels, smoke, sweet caramel and roasted malts, a bit of earthy spice, and a scintilla of dark fruit. It’s a kick-back sipper made to excite the palate.”

This beer pours dark brown with a thin khaki head that dissipates quickly.  People who know me, know my second favorite cold weather, sippin’ by a wood fire drink is scotch, and thats exactly what this smells like.  Sweet, malty, charred oak notes dominate with hints of vanilla and alcohol.  It tastes much like it smells…hints of risidual sugars from the charred oak barrels, hints of the bourbon that filled them, slight pitted fruit flavors with a sweet vanilla finish.  It has an almost syrupy mouthfeel and mild carbonation.  This is a great barrel aged beer.  It is super rich, and has a definite single-malt character, so it may not be for everyone, but for those like me its a great choice.

3.7/5.0

Purchased at Twenty-Nine Package on Lawrenceville, Hwy in Lilburn, GA

The Beer Of the Week for the week 10/28/2010 is:

Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale

Every year when the leaves start to change, and the grocery stores start assaulting our belts with the candy aisle, I usually end up giving a new Pumpkin Ale a try.  Most of them are so-so, but leave it to DFH to brew one that stands out.

From their site: “A full-bodied brown ale with smooth hints of pumpkin and brown sugar. We brew our Punkin Ale with pumpkin meat, organic brown sugar and spices. This is the perfect beer to warm-up with, as the season cools.”

The Punkin Ale pours a crisp orange-y, brown color…almost like a glass of sweet tea.  It has nice foamy, off-white head that has some decent staying power, but didnt have much lacing.  Its aroma is very much of granny’s punkin pie…lots of spice note with an underlying sweetness. The flavor is malty sweet, with strong spice notes that balance nicely against the bittering hop flavors.  It finishes crisp, sweet and spicy, and its smooth and creamy with medium body and light carbonation.  Overall, this is a really good seasonal beer, thall leave you wanting more.

So this year before you humiliate your kids by stuffing them into a ridiculous costume and parading them around the neighborhood here’s a little something to help (you) with the festivities.

3.9/5.0

Purchased at Twenty-nine Package on Lawrenceville, Hwy in Lilburn, Ga