St Patrick's day surprise - McSorley's Irish Black Lager

Bonus Review Alert! Bonus Review Alert!


Ok, so I normally do my reviews on Friday, the first two were on Saturday but the norm has become for me to do it on Friday. But I thought today would be a great day to post a special review, it being St Patrick’s Day and all, I would go a get an Irish beer and give it a review. Well, when I did some research on some Irsih beers, I became disappointed, you see, St. Patrick wasn’t Irish, had no ties to beer and Patrick wasn’t even his real name. Well now I had to find out the real deal, why the Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (more so than the rest of the world), what was his real name and why March 17th. Maybe I missed this in grade school or sleep through it in high school, either way that was a long time ago, so I venture on.

So, you can check out the real story here or here or even here. Just think, If I were writing reviews in the 80’s or 90’s I would have to go to the library or at least find the encyclopedia to find out all this cool information, but not in this age of the internet. Hey, will my kids even know what a library is? Anyway, this isn’t a history blog; oh no it is a blog about beer so here we go with:

McSorley’s Irish Black Lager (Product of the USA), St Patrick wasn’t Irish so why should this beer be?

It pours black just as advertised but with little to no head which is odd for any Irish style beer but maybe my glass was dirty. Not dirty as in yuck, don’t drink out of it, but just not beer clean. Dish detergents, especially dish washer detergents can ruin a beer head. So maybe this one snuck in the dish washer when I wasn’t looking. The sniff gives me a familiar scent but one I can’t quit determine, I then pick up a little bit of roasted malts, and maybe a slight hint of liquorice. The initial taste and mouth feel are a very strange sensation for a beer, almost cola like just before the liquorice hits you at the very end. I’m not that familiar with a Black Lagers so I also picked up the Sam Adams Black Lager and will compare the two. Unlike must black/dark beers this isn’t landing heavy on the ol’ stomach, which is nice, although I don’t think I could drink more than one or two per sitting.

This beer works for me as a nice mid-week surprise review. Thanks St. Paddy even if you didn’t have any big historic connection to beer. Cheers everyone!



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UPDATE: OK, so a few readers are saying I left them not knowing my opinion of the beer. Let's just say I will not go out of my way to get it. If it is all someone has to offer me, fine, I'll drink it. If they have anything else I'll probably opt for the other. Sorry McSorley, this was just kind of a flat, non-interesting beer.
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Dogfish Head Punkin Ale!

What’s up PUNK!


That’s right, I said it, whatcha gonna do about it. Nah, just kidding, that’s this week’s brew.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

I know it may seem a little out of season to be doing a pumpkin infused ale but I’m one that loves when a brewer gets creative and adds all sorts of stuff to their beer. I guess that’s the brewer in me coming out. So, I had to pick this up when I saw it the other day when I was making me a mixer six pack. Also had to squeeze it in before it got to warm to be drinking this type of beer.

Now, I was a little disappointed in the lack of head it produced as I poured it and that may be due to the age, not real sure if it is out of date or not. The color though was a beautiful rich orange-brown that let you know you were going to be drinking beer full of flavor. The all important first scent gives you a small amount of nutmeg followed ever so slightly with pumpkin. The first taste gives a bit of the allspice followed by the pumpkin. Now, I can usually pick up on cinnamon any time it is used in anything but even though the label says it’s in there I don’t get it. This beer does an excellent job of hiding the high alcohol content (7%) with all the flavors mixed in. The only way you know it is high in alcohol is the warming sensation you get as it makes its way to your belly.

I will definitely look for this again this fall so I can enjoy it sitting by the fire pit in the back yard or the camp site. If you’re like me and not scared of a lot of spices and additives in your beer, give this one a shot. If you’re a hophead this may not be beer for you as there isn’t a real noticeable amount in here. Either way this is a good beer but that is what you would expect from Dogfish Head. I have another one of their beers that I will be reviewing in the near future, India Brown Ale. This is probably my favorite Dogfish Head beer; I’ll leave the details for later. So long PUNK! See ya next week beer friend.

P.S. If you can’t wait till next week, check out a blog I found this week, 365 days… 365 beers. That’s actually what I wanted to do with this blog but the thought of a different beer everyday for a year scared me, writing about it actually, the drinking would have been no problem.

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Ellie's Brown Ale

OK, so this was a sad week for me, while I was out of town, my love died. No, not my wife or kids, my “BEER FRIDGE”, sorry Tricie, but you know how it is. I’m still not sure there isn’t a conspiracy going on in the house but we will see who has the last laugh. Also, no one, not one single person even attempted to guess last week’s bonus. So, am I to gather A.) No one reads my ramblings or B.) I’m a bigger beer geek than the rest of you? OK, so here it is. The movie “Friday” is all about getting high, or weed, marijuana. An IPA is loaded to the hills with hops and ….. hops are a distant cousin to marijuana. Ok, you can say it; I’m a geek in more ways than one.


Now on to the real reason we all have stopped by:

Ellie’s Brown Ale by Avery Brewing Co. out of Boulder, ColoRADo. (Is me or have people all of a sudden started to emphasize the RAD in Colorado)?

Why is it that Colorado has so many craft breweries? Makes me think I ought to move there but then I would miss my UGA football, can’t have that now can we.

This beer pours a nice deep brown almost black with a thin cream colored head that doesn’t even stay around long enough for the first taste, although it does leave some nice lacing on the glass. The smell is a mixture of hops and burnt oats, burnt being good and not like grandma’s toast. Kind of reminds you of the neighbor who is always burning his leaves at the end of fall. All seems right in the world every time I get that smell.

The first taste hits you with a slight bitterness followed by a hint of sweetness then more bitterness. My guess is the initial bitterness/sweetness mixture is from the malts and the second stage of bitterness being from the hops making a very interesting mixture that is very easy to drink. I swear I am going to review a bad beer, the law of averages says I have to right; I just have not found it yet. And trust me, they exist, I have had them before, just not since I started this project.

The picture on the label is of a chocolate lab, which I think is fitting, who doesn’t love a chocolate lab. I think most moderate to serious beer lovers will like this too, nothing that will jump out at ya but complex enough to remind you this ain’t a St. Louis brew, if you know what I mean bud.

I know you don’t drink, I know this, but I’m gonna give you a good beer. Cause it’s Friday, you been working a looong week, and you ain’t got shit to do! So relax and enjoy my beer friend.



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Ranger India Pale Ale - New Belgium Brewing

“I know you don't smoke weed, I know this; but I'm gonna get you high today, 'cause it's Friday; you ain't got no job... and you ain't got shit to do.”


Bonus points to anyone who can tell me what this awesome quote from the movie Friday has to do with this week’s review. So with that I bring you week 7 and

Ranger India Pale Ale (IPA) by New Belgium Brewing

First let me say like I’ve said here before I’m not a fan of IPAs but figured I needed to at least review one. Now, New Belgium Brewery is one of the best in the craft beer market so I expected a very good quality beer.

The initial sniff lets you know immediately that you’ll be drinking a hoppy beer. I know, that’s kind of redundant, IPAs are brewed that way. You see, back when the British occupied India, British beer would get stale by the time it reach the soldiers stationed in India. Hops being the natural preservative they are (which is why they were initially used in beer) brewers decided to add massive quantities so the beer would stay fresh until its final destination in India, hence the name India Pale Ale. Ok, back to this particular IPA, it poured a very thin head but did manage to stay for the duration of the review. It has a nice golden translucent pour and if you use the New Belgium tulip glass with the bicycle etched in the bottom, you get a nice display of continuous bubbles floating to the top. The first taste gives you a good kick of hops buts gets surprisingly smoother as you continue to drink it.

Now with not being a fan of IPAs, I could probably only drink one maybe two of these every few months, but that is better than some IPAs which I can barely finish. This is as expected, a quality beer from a quality brewery, a hoppy beer in a hoppy style. So if you are the fan of IPAs, this is a good grab but if you are not a fan of hops, stay away from this and most IPAs. Have a good week beer freinds and lets all try something new.



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Yuengling Bock Beer

Week 6 brings us “America’s Oldest Brewery”, yes people that would be Yuengling. American made since 1829, like baseball and apple pie, this beer is American! But I’m not reviewing the Traditional Lager, nope; I bring you Yuengling Bock Beer.


The first sniff brings a slight sweetness, hints of caramel mixed with subtle hop tones. It pours a deep red/brown with a nice off-white. Upon tasting you definitely pick up the caramel sweetness but it is surprisingly followed by the bitterness from the hops, making for a deliciously balanced beer. I’ll admit, Yuengling Traditional Lager is probably my favorite everyday beer. It has color, mouthfeel, and character not usually associated with your “normal” American lager, but lacks real “craft beer” characteristics, making it ideal for multiple consumption. So, to say I was expecting the Bock Beer to be mostly the same but just a bit heavier is an understatement. Boy was I was pleasantly surprised; this beer comes across as a real craft beer. It is just complex enough to keep one interested but not too much so that one gets over whelmed.

When I first tried this beer a few years ago on draft, I did some research and Yuengling said “it was a tribute to how beer used to be” and that “it was not going to be bottled and sold outside of bars or restaurants”. I guess they decided America needed to know how real beer used to be. I sure am glad they did. This is a nice little treat to enjoy at the end of a long day, or week.



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Samuel Adams Noble Pils

Ok, so I realized this afternoon I was in a bit of a pickle; for those of you not familiar with baseball or not from the south, that means jam, tight spot, trouble, you get the picture. It was the blizzard of 2010 in Macon GA and I had no beer. Actually, that’s not all true, I had three different versions of an IPA but I’m not a fan of IPA so I was leaving them for when one of my wanna-be beer connoisseur friends comes over and says “hey man, what kind of weird beer you got today”. See, a true beer connoisseur would never say weird and beer in the same sentence. But back to my ‘pickle’, I decided I better run up to the store real quick and get some beer, some to drink and some to review.

Then I saw it, screaming at me with neon lights like we were in the Red Light district of Amsterdam.

Samuel Adams Spring Seasonal - Noble Pils 

I know what you are thinking, has he lost his mind, it’s snowing outside and he is going to get a spring seasonal beer. Yep, I was and I did, boy did I find a winner. The scent of hops galore, the slight scent of summer, I could hardly wait. It pours a beautiful deep gold with a nice bountiful head. Ah, and the first swallow, one were you have to wade your way through the creamy head; it actually gave me a beer stache…got beer? Immediately I get the nice crisp clean taste of a pilsner, then the bitterness from the hops, even a slight citrus tang on the sides on my tongue. I found the motherload!

This beer boasts of being only one of a select few that use all five noble hops ("The German hop varieties in Noble Pils are: Hallertau Mittelfrueh, Tettnang Tettnanger, Spalt Spalter, and Hersbrucker Hersbrucker. The Noble hop variety from Bohemia in the Czech Republic is Saaz.") h/t The Beer Advocate. Each one of these adds a nice floral/citrus character to this beer, making it ideal for those warm summer days and why I felt it was perfect to brighten up my snow filled day. I even picked up one of those California Pizzas, conveniently located right next to the beer aisle.

Once again The Boston Beer Company aka Sam Adams hits a homerun, so if you want a head start on spring or summer, go out and give this beer a spin. If you’re not completely satisfied, I’ll take your leftovers.



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Celebrator Doppelbock

Ok people, week four brings us a beer I have been waiting for a reason to try. No not just any ol’ night, something with a meaning, something special, aw crap, who am I kidding, any new beer is reason enough to try it.


So what we have is

CELEBRATOR DOPPELBOCK by Ayinger Brewery, product of Germany.

Pours a dark brown not quite black, could probably pass for a cola if I threw some ice in there. *Don’t do that kids, it ain’t right, it just ain’t right; there are other more appealing ways to get your beer cold. The head forms thin and disappears quickly, too cold, too much alcohol??? Maybe too cold but not too much alcohol, it is a doppelbock remember and 6.7% alcohol by volume is not overly high, especially in this day and age of “High Gravity” craft beers.

At first sniff you definitely pick up on the scent of alcohol that any good doppelbock will give. First taste comes as just an ordinary beer might, then you get the warming sensation as you swallow, almost like a sip of bourbon but not as harsh. I struggle to find any hint of hops or over powering malt flavors.

This being a German beer I am sure it will change flavors as it warms while I drink it down. So I let it sit for a moment or two to allow the flavors to release themselves. More alcohol is what I get, which I’m not saying is a bad thing, just making notes here. This is not really a gulping beer, but most of those are American Lagers (lawnmower beers) anyway and you wouldn’t expect that from a German doppelbock. Just a nice sip every now and then while you relax, like you would bourbon on a cold winter night.

This is not for the beginner or even the trendy. Nope, this is for the person that really likes to see what beer can bring. So, if you are up for the challenge, go grab one and enjoy, but remember, it’s not a race so relax.



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