Tales of ales from the heart of Ohio to the ends of the Earth
Scotland is a little too far north to be ideal for growing hops. So Scottish beers are generally more lightly hopped, and hence maltier, than their English cousins. They come in various distinctions depending on their alcohol content, the strongest being called a Scotch Ale or Wee Heavy. In his book "Tasting Beer" Randy Mosher... Continue Reading →
Tonight I’m reviewing two highly regarded midwest Porters. I just posted a review on Edmund Fitzgerald Porter by Great Lakes Brewing, a beer I consider to be the standard against which all Porters should be measured. In this post I review Founders Porter and compare it to Edmund Fitzgerald. Since both Porters are tasty, easy... Continue Reading →
Tonight I’m reviewing two highly regarded midwest Porters. The first one is a long time favorite of mine and a beer some consider to be the quintessential Ohio beer, Edmund Fitzgerald Porter by Great Lakes Brewing. Edmund Fitzgerald occupies the #7 slot in the RateBeer.com top 50 Porters in the world. To lend further validity... Continue Reading →
Bell’s beer is one of the best known and largest craft breweries in the country. Famous for big beers like Hopslam and Expedition Stout, the Amber Ale is one of their oldest and most conventional offerings. Even though it is available year round and has been brewed since 1985 I’ve never tried this beer. In... Continue Reading →
Tonight I’m drinking Summer Pale Ale by Indigo Imp Brewery, which is located in Cleveland. The interesting thing about Indigo Imp is they use open fermentation for brewing all of their beers. Quoting from their website “With open fermentation, each batch may be influenced by wild yeast in addition to the yeast added by the... Continue Reading →
Tonight I’m reviewing Pepe Nero, one of Goose Island’s Belgian-style beers. I had a sample of Pepe Nero at this summer’s Columbus Beer Festival and made a note at that time to come back and try this beer. I can promise that not all the mental notes I made at the beer festival were still... Continue Reading →
Saison Dupont is the considered to be the quintessential Saison. Here I review the standard Saison Dupont (the small bottle in the picture above) followed by a review on a dry hopped variation on the standard offering (the large bottle). The yeast used to make Saisons is thought to be related to red wine yeast,... Continue Reading →
Beer: Resin Brewery: Six Point Brewery (NY) Style: Double IPA (9.1% ABV) Rating: 7.5 Notes: I’ve got some pretty good beers left over from the IPA challenge a few weeks back that I need to drink before the hops fade. Tonight I’m having a go at Resin by Sixpoint Craft Ales in Brooklyn, which is my... Continue Reading →
This is (probably) the last pumpkin beer I’m going to review for the season. I’ve saved what promises to be a good one for last, Frog’s Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale by Hoppin’ Frog Brewery in Akron. This beer took home a gold medal from the Great American Beer Festival in 2011 and finished #3 in... Continue Reading →
One of the things that beer geeks pay attention to are special releases of highly sought after beers. There are various styles of beer that are released seasonally, like pumpkin beers or Christmas beers, but here I’m talking about something at an entirely different level. There are some beers that once they hit the... Continue Reading →
Beer: Marriage Parfait Brewery: Boon Brewery (Belgium) Style: Geuze (8.0% ABV) Rating: 7.5 Price: $6.99 for a 13 oz bottle Notes: I’m working on a future piece on sour beers, which is a style that is less familiar to me than many others. So for the sake of research I decided I better update my knowledge... Continue Reading →
Fatheads makes great IPAs. That fact and the cool label were too much to pass up when I saw Spooky Tooth in the beer aisle a couple of weeks back. So I decided to pick up a 4-pack and include it in my profile of pumpkin beers for Halloween. Vitals Brewery: Fatheads Brewing (OH) Style:... Continue Reading →
Beer: Anti Hero IPA Brewery: Revolution Brewing (IL) Style: American IPA (6.5% ABV) Rating: 7.25 Price: $9.99 per 6 pack Notes: I’ve got a couple of cans of Anti Hero IPA left over from the IPA blind taste test challenge, where it went down in Round 1 to the eventual champion, White Rajah. So I... Continue Reading →
Beer: MO Brewery: Maine Brewing (ME) Style: American Pale Ale (6.0% ABV) Rating: 8.5 Price: ? Notes: I’m kicking back on a Saturday night watching the ALCS and getting ready to watch the Oregon State – California game. It’s a great time to try a new beer for the first time, and I’ve got one... Continue Reading →
Boulevard beers have officially arrived in Ohio. Based out of Kansas City, Boulevard was purchased by Belgium's Duvel Moortgat in the fall of 2013. Duvel also owns Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York, and the combined sales of Boulevard and Ommegang make Duvel the 8th largest craft brewery operation in the US. When the acquisition happened... Continue Reading →
Beer: Surette Provisional Saison Brewery: Crooked Stave (CO) Style: Saison (6.2% ABV) Rating: 6 (on a 1-10 scale) Price: $4.99 for a 12 oz bottle Notes: I’m reviewing another American made Saison tonight. This one, Surette Provisional Saison, is brewed by Crooked Stave out of Denver, CO. They are best known for Belgian style wild ales. The Brewery... Continue Reading →
This is beer #2 in my series of reviews on the pumpkin beers. In this review we take a closer look at a pumpkin beer that is new this year, Warlock by Southern Tier. Most of you will already be familiar with Southern Tier's Pumpking, which happens to be one of the most popular... Continue Reading →
Beer: Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale Brewery: Smuttynose (NH) Style: Pumpkin Beer (5.8% ABV) Rating: 7.5 (on a 1-10 scale) Price: $8.49 per 6 pack (Giant Eagle) Notes: With fall upon us I’ve taken it upon myself to do some research and reviews on Pumpkin beers. Some were already on my radar, but some only surfaced after... Continue Reading →
Saisons are a Belgian style of beer sometimes called Farmhouse Ales. Traditionally they were brewed in the winter and consumed by the farm workers over the summer. Like many Belgian styles, the Saison style spans a pretty wide range. The description of the style as given on Beer Advocate is: “This is a very complex style;... Continue Reading →
Beer: Gumball HeadBrewery: Three Floyds (IN)Style: American Pale Wheat Ale (5.60% ABV)Rating: 8Price: $11.99 per 6-packNotes: Last night I reviewed A Little Sumpin Sumpin Ale by Lagunitas an oft cited example of a hoppy American Wheat Ale. Tonight I review another example of this style, Gumballhead, by Three Floyds Brewery. Three Floyds is a quirky,... Continue Reading →
Pat's Pints 