Great Divide Hibernation Ale Review: Can Ryan Find Anything in this Beer to Complain About?

Hibernation Ale: Is year round
too much to ask?

Great Divide Brewing Company has produced an outstanding strong English-style ale with Hibernation. This beer is truly difficult to complain about, but I'll try. The beer pours a dark brown with a light tan head, which dissipated cleanly. The aroma was a nice balance of maltiness and hops, quite pleasant. Failing to disappoint, the Hibernation also balanced well on the tongue, but with a bit of a bitter, hoppy punch. I found something to complain about! Supposedly, Great Divide dry hops this beer, but I didn't detect the usual strong hop aromas that come from dry hopping. Another thing that I don't like: Hibernation is a winter seasonal. Do not buy this beer if you value strong dry-hopped aromas or if you like good ale!


-Ryan

Style: English Brown Ale
ABV: 8.7%
Availability: Nationwide with a few exceptions, such as Utah, which hates beer and America

Wisdom from the Beer Snarks

Miller Lite cannot claim to be "triple hops brewed" until we can taste hops.

The Beer Snarks attempt to inspire (insult) you to drink craft beer

Let me begin by saying something nice about macro lagers. You should sit. Coors, Budweiser, and Miller Genuine Draft are incredibly consistent. The taste, color, and smell never change from can to can. Every time you open a nearly freezing can of one of the Big Three macro brews you get exactly the same experience. Congratulations to the brewmasters. Consistency is difficult, and they have mastered it.

Thankfully, America is a land of extremes. Thousands of American craft brewers make the best beers in the world, in a dizzying array of varieties. However, the standard lagers of the international brewing giants SABMiller, AB InBev, and Molson Coors dominate the market in the US and around the world. How do we account for this situation? Marketing plays some role without doubt. Who would drink Coors Light were it not the “Coldest tasting beer in the world?” Who would drink Budweiser if it did not come from the urethra of a Clydesdale? Who would drink Miller Light if it were more filling, not less? Probably no one.

America’s obsession with macro lagers is not due solely to marketing marketing, complacency plays some role as well. Most beer drinkers have grown accustomed to the American Pilsener style. It tastes familiar, gets them drunk, and doesn’t cost too much. Most Americans are also too lazy and too unadventurous to try something new.

Unless you are a frat boy looking to get drunk as cheaply as possible, put down the Miller. The true path to the High Life does not involve aluminum-clad fizzy water. Start experimenting with some craft brews. Go to a local brew pub, Bev Mo, Total Wine, or even the supermarket and pick out a beer that you haven’t tried before. Be adventurous. Craft brewers are artists and craftsmen. They make incredible beers from the classic to the radical. You will find a beer, possibly dozens, that you like. On the other hand, macro breweries have worked for decades to design their products to offend as few people as possible. Would you rather drink a beer that you are used to or a beer that you love?

I am not telling you to drink craft brews because of any devotion to Gaea-centered, organic hippiness. I am not telling you to drink craft beers because I want you to support small, fair-trade, sustainable eco-breweries. I am telling you to drink craft beer because it tastes better.

-Ryan

Wisdom from the Beer Snarks

Never trust a man holding a light beer.

Koshihikari Echigo Beer Review: A Drinkable Beer from Japan, If You Can Stomach the Price

Koshihikari Echigo Beer

Echigo Beer Company, Nigata, Japan

http://www.echigo-beer.jp/

Echigo Beer: Not as
bad as you'd expect.

I have never had a Japanese beer that I enjoyed. Ever. The Japanese are to beer what the Germans are to sashimi. There is no denying that the Japanese have a predilection for tasteless, dry lagers. They seem to make nothing else. They have no business in the beer business, which is why Echigo Beer was such a surprise. It definitely was not as horrible as I expected. The pale straw colored, lightly carbonated lager was sweet on the tongue and dry on the finish. The interplay between the sweetness and the dryness made for a more pleasant drinking experience than expected from a Japanese beer. The beer was still nearly body-less, however, with no head. If Japan began to make beers only of this quality and higher, the country could eventually, possibly crawl its way out of the League of Shame. Not at this price though, the beer cost me $8 for a 12 oz. bottle at Tokyo Table in Irvine, CA.


-Ryan

Style: Rice Lager

ABV: 5%

Available: California, Arizona, Nevada, Massachusetts, New York City

Beer Valley Leafer Madness Review: A Taste Bud Ass Kicking

Leafer Madness

Beer Valley Brewing Company, Ontario, OR

http://www.beervalleybrewing.com

Leafer Madness: A nice taste bud
ass-kicking if you can get it.

Leafer Madness is quite possible the bitterest liquid I have ever drunk. I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, the name practically shouts that some serious herbage was involved in the brewing of this beer. The beer exploded from the bottle, soaking me and the floor. Once I got it into a glass, Leafer Madness poured a deep golden color, but somehow confused my taste buds into thinking that some roasted grains lurked under the bitter barrage of more than 100 IBUs. The bitterness stayed with me after each sip. Don’t start an evening of beer tasting with this beer; you won't taste anything else for the rest of the night. The head was long-lasting and tightly woven with tiny bubbles. The aroma provided a hint of sweetness and a gale of American hops. At 9.0% ABV, this beer puts lightweights like me on our asses.

-Ryan

Style: Imperial IPA

ABV: 9.0%

Available: Total Wine, Bev Mo, and specialty shops on the west coast only

Moonlight Brewing Death and Taxes Lager Review: Death and Taxes? Yes please!

Death and Taxes Black Lager
Moonlight Brewing, Santa Rosa, California
http://www.moonlightbrewing.com/

Smoked, dry, lightly sweet, and smooth. In a word, delightful. I was gulping without realizing.  Perfect for sitting on the porch, or watching a football game, or watching a football game on your porch if you are so inclined. I'm happy to report that Moonlight Brewing has put out a very nice Vienna lager that I would easily order over Negra Modelo. Well, that is to say when the opportunity presents itself of course.

-Jesse

Style: Dark Lager
ABV: 5.0%
Available: On tap in coastal Northern California only

Coopers Pale Ale Review: Another Aussie Export We Could Do Without

Coopers Original Pale Ale

Coopers Brewery, Adelaide, Australia

http://www.coopers.com.au/

My least favorite pale ale ever. No hops character on the nose or the tongue. The beer tasted quite a bit like a light lager. The color was a cloudy straw, and the head was thin and dissipated quickly. Coopers Original Pale Ale is bottle-conditioned, but I didn’t get much from the presence of the yeast either. I expected more after tasting the entirely drinkable Sparkling Ale from Coopers. Coopers Brewery has been around a long time, and it brews the right way, but I didn’t love the Original Pale Ale. I suppose that one could use this beer to train drinkers of macro lagers to be more adventurous, but if I am honest, I’d rather have a Budweiser. That is not a ringing endorsement from me.

Style: Pale Ale

ABV: 4.5%

Available: Total Wine

-Ryan

Victory Brewing Company Golden Monkey Review: It's no IPA, but I'm Learning

Golden Monkey
Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, PA
http://www.victorybeer.com



Victory has a neat little Belgian whatchama in their Golden Monkey. Yes, I'm out of my element. My taste is a product of the Pacific Northwest, and it's hop obsession. I haven't traveled through the Low Countries nor have I been schooled in the nuance and interplay of sour sweet acidity that heralds the your entry to the "Disneyland of beers." Go easy; I'm a child of divorce. Golden Monkey is an exceedingly clear liquid, even compared to Budweiser. The best advice I can give is don't start with this one unless you are entertaining western European guests or end with it either, as the aftertaste is not what you'd want to go home with.  Me personally? I want to snuggle up with a beautifully balanced IPA before bed, but I digress. I suppose the final word I have on this one is "try" it. I assume that little Belgian boys and girls had to try it at one point before they got so damn sophisticated, so that's my advice to you.

-Jesse

Style: Belgian Tripel Ale
ABV: 9.5%
Available: Victory's beers are distributed in roughly half the states in the Union and sold by Bevmo.

Sierra Nevada Estate Ale Review: Beer for Beer Snobs

Estate Ale

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Chico, CA

http://www.sierranevada.com/

I have a theory that the more difficult opening a beverage is, the better the drinking experience inside. Cheap wines often come in bottles with screw tops, allowing us to get drunk quickly. More expensive wines invariably come corked, and getting the damn cork out of the bottle is sometimes the most difficult part of the day. Beer follows a similar pattern. Tasteless, yellow fizz comes in cans with tabs. Sure the beer smells of aluminum, but think how easy it is to get it out of the can! Twist-off caps are more difficult; we must twist, burning up a calorie that we have carefully stored through drinking beer. The best beer usually comes from bottles with pop tops. Pop tops require a tool -- only humans, with our opposable thumbs, can get to the beer inside. 

None of these packaging choices was complicated enough for Sierra Nevada’s Estate Ale. Each is too easy. We cannot properly appreciate a beer like Estate Ale without struggling to open it. To assure that we do respect the beer, Sierra Nevada dipped the sealed bottle in Kevlar-reinforced wax. The damn thing is nearly impossible to open. Getting the top off took patience and a chainsaw. My wedding took less planning.

Once I got the bottle open though, the experience was magnificent. Fresh grapefruit aromas met my nose even before I began to pour. The Estate poured a golden color with a nice, off-white, lingering head. The flavor was well balanced with sweet, toasty malts and citrusy hops mingling nicely. 

Those beer drinkers who find IPAs to be frequently too bitter should still be able to enjoy this ale. Estate Ale is also 100% organic for hippies.


-Ryan

Style: Ale

ABV: 6.7%

Available: Total Wine