I have to admit it: even when I posted that I didn't know what to expect from Jolly Pumpkin Ale, I sort of already knew.  When I saw that they put out a Flanders Red style sour, I knew that's what I'd end up drinking...despite my self-deception.  I think one of the most interesting aspects of Jolly Pumpkin's beer is their incorporation of local wild yeast and the use of barrels for souring.  From what I understand, they don't pitch wild yeast in their beers at all.  That is to say, they don't buy cultured wild yeast from a company to put into their beer.  That's a fun and interesting approach that is, in part, responsible for the fact they have a cult following.  At any rate, I had to try the La Roja. The Pour: You can see for yourself (above) how lovely the pour and head really were.  Of course, I picked a glass that was particularly conducive to maintaining head and was evocative of a lambic glass.  The head was well retained and had a nice, creamy, off-white hue. I'd call the body, which had a nice touch of haze,  a copper-orange.  I'd also like to note that ...

Many of you know that I normally don't go after an IPA.  I find rye beers interesting, though, so I struck a compromise.  Hop Rod is a Rye P.A. of sorts, and it's not something I would normally pick up.  However, since it was "Gamble with us Saturday," I decided that this might be just the beer for the occasion—and who knows, I might be able to find out whether or not it was actually a good beer.  I've reviewed one or two other things by Bear Republic, and they've been okay but not great, so I was hoping that my gamble wouldn't turn up to be snake eyes. The Pour:  I'm assuming it's due to darker rye malts that this beer was a slightly darker version of an IPA.  Not black or brown, just deeper.  A touch of haziness was part of the overall appearance of Hop Rod, while the body was active and propped up a stable head, which incidentally, left very nice lacing as I drank it. The Nose: Ever ubiquitous and perhaps starting to grow on me (to an infinitely tiny degree), grapefruity hops were a part of the nose. The citrusy nose was under-girded by a touch ...

I know that some among us can't get Jolly Pumpkin's stuff.  I live in Cali, and Jolly Pumpkin is in Michigan, so I've never really seen anything from them...except recently.  I'm curious to try their products and find out about the brewery, which means I thought this would be a good format.  Any of you who can find a Jolly Pumpkin beer could pick one up, drink it, and tell us about it.  I figure that you'll have a better chance finding some Jolly Pumpkin beer rather than a specific one.  I've got two options, so I'm going to pick one and review it. Sip with us Saturday and tell us all about how jolly this beer made you.

By now, I'm sure many of us have seen that there has been a sort of call to arms to purchase, rent, or peddle the Beer Wars movie.  So, what are we waiting for?  Look, there are aspects of the movie that we could all site as being selective, whatever other criticisms we might have.  But I think the thing that we can all agree on is that monopolies are bad unless you are playing the Parker Brothers version and land on a fully loaded Free Parking spot. Here's the thing: the basic message deals with the fact the all aspects of the market place are dominated by the big boys. Distribution independence is a rare commodity, and everyone is in bed with the big players.  I wish that I was simply being hyperbolic like I love to be, but the issue is real.  I remember a while back that a certain other website was grousing about not being able to get Stone while they were planning a new facility in Europe.  But maybe the fingers could have been better spent pointing right down the street at Budweiser.  Either way, fair distribution and a level playing field are veritable impossibility. Have you ...

As I mentioned previously, I interviewed the Bruery a while back.  When I went to interview them, I brought a bottle of Dark Lord and an extreme beer that I brewed.  We tried both of those and a ton of other beers in the Bruery's line-up before I tried Black Tuesday and knew that it was good but I didn't have the chance to really get a good feel for it.  So, when my thirtieth birthday hit, Dan, who went to Black Tuesday release with me, brought the bottle he had gotten.  It was very gracious of him and I'm glad to have such a sharing friend.  Anyway, we tried it first so that there would be no mistaking what it tasted like.  After the much anticipated waiting time and not so great experience in the waiting line for the beer, I tasted it and here is what I thought. The Pour: I felt like I was sitting underneath the car changing my long overdue oil.  This baby is black, really black.  A nice dark tan head comes to the surface of this viscous bubbling caldron of a beer.  The beer likes to stick to the glass and could be said ...

Awhile back we received an e-mail informing us about a beer festival in Arizona.  Essentially, the e-mail ran along these lines: "If you are so inclined, please promote this event on your site."  I've gotten a recent stream of e-mails telling us about this beer dinner or that event, and I want to scream when I get those sorts of messages.  I normally think about the fact that if I wanted an update, I'd sign-up or find out.  But this e-mail was a little different, so I decided that it couldn't hurt a thing to promote the drinking of craft beer and aid in the raising of money in the meantime. I have to say that many of our fellow beer site people really set the bar high when it comes to embodying the altruistic attitude of beer brotherhood.  Because of this, I'm compelled to get the word out about The Great Arizona Beer Festival.  The date for the festival is March 6-7 with a pub-crawl preceding it by two weeks, which is Feb 20.  More relevant information can be found here.  If you live in Arizona (or close), see if you can make it out.  This is where you buy ...

I realized that I've had this review sitting in my notebook for about 3 months or so.  I think it was even before I interviewed The Bruery. Since that time, the Bruery is no longer making this brew. Issues with shelf-life and other factors played into their discontinuation and replacement of Black Orchard.  Rugbrod is the beer replacing it. As a result, I don't know how relevant this review will be.  Maybe it will make it into the eventual annals of folklore.  Either way, for those who are wondering what the beer is (or was like), I'm going to do my duty and review this beer posthumously. The Pour: I wish I could say this beer was the color of a graveyard at night because it would help the metaphor of its death.  But this beer poured like a robust porter and had a light brown head, which was fluffy and billowed.  Whatever other problems the beer might have had, the bottle conditioning was not one of them.  It looked very nice. The Nose: At 5.7% ABV, the alcohol was undetectable in the brew.  What was detectable were the iron-like metallic tones, the powdery yeast, and some spice from that same yeast. ...

At 55 IBUs (International Bittering Units) and 6.4% ABV, this is a comparatively small IPA, at least for American versions.  Maybe it's more normative for what I like IPAs to be.  I picked  Red Chair IPA up at Bevmo many moons ago and have just now gotten around to writing a review for it--why good notes are important.  Okay, now that you know what not to expect (i.e., a huge IPA), let me tell you what you can. The Pour: A maple, copper body placed this firmly within the acceptable colors of what an IPA should look like.  A nice, off-white, slightly yellow-tinted, finely carbonated head sat firmly atop the active body.  What a lovely sight, especially when the wonderful lacing of the head became visible after some sips. The Nose: Atypical of many Northwest brews, the nose was not chalked full of extremely citrusy hops.  They were floral; there's no mistaking that aspect of the brew.  However, they were much more tropical fruit and melon in aroma than pine sappy or grapefruity characteristic of many IPAs out there.  It was a very refreshing aroma, indeed (and in more ways than one).  I did catch a slight off aroma which was almost ...

At 68 IBUs and 8.1 % ABV, this is a Big Bear of a Stout, indeed.  Sometimes drinking a bomber of something like this can take a bit of time, but I had plenty of time to savor this bear and hibernate.  Check out the list of beers these guys make/have made.  Crazy long list. The Pour:  To be honest, this beer simply wasn't as dark as I expected it to be.  It was dark, but light pierced through the body.  However, a creamy, light brown, and stable head rested neatly on the robust porter colored body. The Nose: Plenty of hops came through on the nose.  Personally, I'm not a huge fan of large hop aromas for a stout, but this wasn't too bad at all.  Hints of powdery yeast and iron-like metallic qualities were part of the nose.  Caramel, chocolate, and bits of coffee also played a role on the nose.  A treacle/honey tone was also detectible.  Sweeter malt aromas told me that the beer would have a fair amount of balance for all its bigness. The Taste: The sweetness and caramel were perhaps the first impression that I had of Big Bear.  It wasn't long after the beer hit my ...

With the super bowl, a near religious experience for many Americans, in mind, this weeks Sip With Us Saturday beer is an easy to find, low alcohol, session beer:  Samuel Adams Noble Pils.  This beer is only 5.2% ABV, and is new to the market, the result of the public's voting it in during Sam Adams' 2009 Beer Lover’s Choice election.  It is intended to replace the White Ale as the seasonal Spring beer. Sam Adams describes Noble Pils as: Samuel Adams® Noble Pils is brewed with all 5 Noble hops for a distinct hop character and fresh taste.  Deep golden in color with a citrusy hop aroma, Samuel Adams Noble Pils is a traditional Bohemian Pilsner.  The honeyed malt character from traditional Bohemian malt is balanced by delicate yet pronounced citrus, floral, and piney notes from the Noble hops. What struck my attention in reading the description is that Sam Adams nonchalantly proclaims that there are a definitive five noble hops.  In reality, only two hop varieties are nobly agreed upon as "noble," those two hops being Czech Saaz and Tettnanger.  Some also are gracious to include Spalt and Hallertau.  I do not know what fifth variety Sam Adams includes, but I ...