That said, Delirium Tremens is not just a vicious medical condition, it’s also an incredibly awesome name for a beer. A beer we’re reviewing here today at The BeerFathers. A beer we’re happy to report led to none of those symptoms, though it did lead to us writing a very bad adage.

Delirium Tremens comes from the Brouwerij Huyghe in Belgium, which makes a variety of other beers in the Delirium series including Delirium Nocturnum and Delirium Noel (aka Delirium Christmas), both of which are darker than their brother.

Delirium Tremens weighs in at 8.5% ABV in an 11.2 oz bottle (it also comes in a 750 ml bottle as well). It’s a great looking bottle – speckled white glass with a light blue foil over the cap and neck and little pink elephants all over the bottle (seeing pink elephants is a euphemism for a drunken hallucination cause by, you guessed it, Delirium Tremens). You can’t miss it on the shelf.

For this review dad and I used a snifter glass and got a starting beer temperature of 55.2 F. Opening the bottle got us a foaming cascade of beer so we quickly got our initial pour into our glass resulting in a large 2″ frothy white head that left no lacing as it dissipated quickly. The color is a hazy straw yellow and there is a lively amount of carbonation in the beer. There’s a good bit of flotsam and jetsam in the beer as well – enough sediment actually that it reminds us of the Brasserie Des Rocs that went a little overboard in that department. We’re more okay with it now than we were then though.

For our aromas we got biscuit, honey, citrus (both lemon and orange), yeast, light bubble gum, coriander, light ginger, peach, pear, light pepper, light apricot, spices and a hint of white wine. It smells a lot like a Duvel and that’s not a bad thing at all.

For our initial flavors we got a moderate to heavy sweet followed in the finish by a heavy sweet, very light bitter and light tart. For our tastes we stayed pretty true to the smells – biscuit, honey, citrus (lemon and orange), yeast, light alcohol, ginger, peach, pear, light pepper, light apricot, spices and a light white wine. There’s lots of light fruits in this bad boy with lots of nice light notes combined with a good heavy sweetness. It’s tremendous.

The finish length is average, the mouthfeel is creamy, the tongue hit is in the very back and there’s not much body lacing to speak of. On our patented malt to hop scale it comes in 3 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side. Very sweet indeed.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance, harmony, memorable and buy again. The only no was to wow factor. Repeatable is a questionable yes too – nothing taste-wise would keep us from repeating it, but the alcohol content might.

Do we recommend it? An emphatic, drunken, falling down yes. It’s perfect as it warms and a very enjoyable beer experience. We’d like to say there were no reportable symptoms of the alcohol but we were feeling pretty good after this one, perhaps because we consumed it rather quickly due to the extremely pleasant taste. That said the alcohol did yield one side effect – a little adage parody we wrote: Delirium at night, malt lover’s delight. Delirium in the morning, malt lovers take warning.

We apologize for the adage. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.

Jerry: Yeah. He’s been off the wagon for two years.

George: “Off the wagon”?

Jerry: I think it’s off the wagon.

George: I think it’s on the wagon.

Later…

Elaine: One drink like that and he could fall right off the wagon.

George: Told you.

Then…

Jerry: Oh, wait a second, I believe we have a heckler ladies and gentlemen. Hey Dick I don’t know what your problem is. It’s not my fault you’re back on the wagon.

Dick: It’s off the wagon.

Jerry: In the old days how do you think they got the alcohol from town to town?

Dick: I don’t know.

Jerry: On the wagon. Don’t you think they broke into a couple of those bottles along the way?

Dick: You can’t drink on a wagon it would be too bumpy.

Jerry: They had smooth trails. What about the Cumberland Gap?

Dick: What the hell do you know about wagons?

Jerry: I know enough not to get on them.

For the record and for your edification, “On the wagon” means abstaining from alcohol, something your BeerFathers have most definitely not done. This whole thing was a just segue to distract from the fact that our last written beer review was over 5 months ago. Consider yourself distracted and off the wagon.

So the Mother Earth Weeping Willow Wit, huh? Actually it is quite a good beer. It’s the first Mother Earth Brewing product we’ve tried and we were very impressed. It’s made here in Son Beer Love’s own backyard, so to speak – Eastern North Carolina.

The Weeping Willow Wit comes in a 12 oz bottle and costs $1.79/each. It weighs in at 5% ABV, though that number is not listed on their bottle or web site. We’re basing that off what we see at Beer Advocate. Interesting that they don’t list it as most American craft beers go overboard in giving ABVs, IBUs, Platos, specific gravity, etc. Our bottled on date was 8/10 (we actually reviewed this on 5/12/2011). For our review we used a weizen glass and on our initial pour we got an average 1 1/2″ foamy white head that dissipated quickly and left no head lacing in the process. There was a soft amount of carbonation and a good hazy straw/yellow body. Looks really good. Our initial temperature was 45.4 F.

Our initial aromas came in with a light biscuit, straw, wheat, lemon, lavender, mint, orange zest, yeast, light bubble gum, clove, light ginger, coriander, and pepper. A great witbier formula. We noticed some distinct aroma differences when we got a good swirl going that produced more orange notes compared to sitting still where we got more lemon notes.

For our initial flavors we got a light sweet and a very light bitter followed in the finish by a very light sweet, light bitter and very light tart. Our initial tastes ran pretty true to the aromas – a light biscuit, straw, wheat, lemon, light mint, orange zest, light yeast, light bubble gum, clove, ginger, coriander and pepper. Very refreshing.

The finish length is short, the mouthfeel is oily, and the tongue hit is in the front. The body lacing is fair and on our patented malt to hop scale it comes in one click to the left of balanced on the malty side. Not too sweet – just about right.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance, harmony, value, and buy again. We got a no for memorable and wow factor. It’s good – just not the best we’ve done.

Overall the Weeping Willow Wit is a very interesting beer. We found it intriguing that swirling it almost made it more hefeweizen like. Swirled and unswirled it smells like two different beers. Must be something with mixing up the yeast. It reminds us of our beloved Celis White, though not quite as refined. Is it as good as a Hoegaarden? No. Is it better than a Blue Moon? Yes. We definitely recommend it. Serve it around 50 to 55 F and you should really like what you get.

It’s the apple version though, first created in 2002, that is their most popular. So popular, in fact, it has transcended the word “ephmere” by being distributed year round. It’s also the only version they sell in the United States. At the time of this posting black currant was the only other version on the market and it’s only sold in Canada.

Unibroue Ephemere Apple is described on their site as a white ale brewed with apple must. Apple must, in case you didn’t know, is a German variant of cider (don’t feel bad, we didn’t know that either). The bottle actually states “ale brewed with apple juice, coriander and curacao.” Ephemere weighs in at 12 oz with a 5.5% ABV. For our review we used a tulip glass (as recommended) and got a starting beer temperature of 43.9 F.

Our initial pour gave us an average 1 1/4″ fizzy white head the left no head lacing as it dissipated quickly. There was a tremendous amount of carbonation – quite fizzy actually – and the body was fairly clear at first, but clouded up once we got the whole bottle in the glass. The yeast is in there. The color was a very light straw.

For our aromas we got caramel, wheat, floral, light orange, green apple, light banana, light pear and a light vanilla. The green apple dominates and it’s a lot like the smell of opening a green apple Jolly Rancher. Once you get over the Jolly Rancher it starts to resemble a caramel covered apple. It’s one of the most interesting smells we’ve found on a beer.

For our initial flavors we got a moderate sweet and light tart, followed in the finish by a light sweet, very light bitter and moderate tart. For our tastes we got light caramel, light wheat, orange, green apple, coriander, light pepper and light vanilla. The orange notes are in the background but come in similar to what you’d find in a witbier (more of the zest/rind).

The finish length is short, the mouthfeel is oily, the tongue hit is front and middle and there’s no body lacing to speak of. On the malt to hop scale it’s fairly well balanced right in the middle – it’s not really malty or hoppy in the traditional sense of the word, thus it’s balanced.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance, harmony, memorable and buy again. Our only no was to wow factor. It’s not a wow, per se, but it’s unique.

Ephemere definitely seems to have more of a granny smith apple base than any other kind of apple and that’s okay with us. Very tart. It’s not an everyday beer by any means, but it could be a rare treat from time to time. It would work quite well in the hot summer months and the ladies might enjoy it year round. It’s quite refreshing.

You might be wondering why we gave it a 5 out of 10 when our bottom line notes and the review in general read so favorably. Well, there wasn’t enough depth and flavor in it for us to give it a higher rating. It’s well-crafted, but just a little too light for our tastes. It would compare quite favorably to a pomme lambic.

Overall it has the textbook Unibroue uniqueness that makes all their beers so great, but we’ll stick with some of their headier offerings.

Sapporo Reserve is touted on the can as an “all malt beer” though if it was really all malts and didn’t have the yeast, water and hops that literally created and defined a beer we’d probably be quite disappointed when we opened the can and just dried barley fell out. So we’re guessing “all malt” does not mean what they think it means. That or something is lost in translation, like the instructions for putting your bookcase together (“Happily insert slot A with regards to cam B while flange dowel anti-clockwise”).

For our test we poured our 650 mL (22 oz for those not versed in the metric system) can of 5.2% ABV Sapporo happily into a regular British pint glass. We got a starting beer temperature of 45 F.

Our initial pour yielded an average 1 1/2″ frothy white head that left virtually no lacing as it dissipated quickly. There was a medium amount of carbonation to the sparkling clear yellow/gold body of the beer.

Our initial aromas were barley, grain, very light floral, light soap and light corn. We’ll grant them that there are a lot of malt smells in there.

Our initial flavors came in with a light sweet and very light bitter that evolved in the finish to a very light sweet and light to moderate bitter. Our tastes came in with barley, very light lemon, light ginger and light corn. Overall the whole beer is very light on the nose and taste. Crisp and clean for sure, almost to a fault.

The finish length is short to average, the mouthfeel is dry, the tongue hit is front to middle and there’s no body lacing. On our patented malt to hop scale it comes in just a click to the right of balanced on the hoppy side.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable and balance, while getting a no for harmony, memorable, wow factor and buy again.

Overall it reminds us of one of our favorite obscure quotes from our all-time favorite Christmas movie A Christmas Story: “This wine’s not bad. It’s not good either.”

Sapporo Reserve is crisp and clean, yes, but so is water. Unlike water though, Sapporo has enough hops to know it’s beer, so that gives it an edge over water. It’s actually fairly hoppy for an “all malt beer” like it touts itself. It would be highly sessionable as long as you don’t let it get too warm.

The best part about the beer? Seriously, it’s got to be the can. The can is an absolute beast of a steel can. You can’t crush it with your hand and if you tried to crush it on your head like real men did in the 1950′s and 60′s you’d quite possibly knock yourself out. Even Agent Gibbs probably couldn’t figure out what did you in after you bludgeoned yourself to death with the mighty steel vessel.

The second best part about the beer? Probably the 22 oz size. A really great, perfect single serving size.

If you’re at a Japanese Steakhouse where they flip the shrimp into your shirt pocket against your wishes, it’s not a bad beer to get. You can feel a lot better about yourself ordering up a Sapporo than a rank American domestic. Is it craft beer? Technically they might make too much of it to fit the definition of craft beer, but we’ll spot you this one.

The Carlsberg Group actually has a tremendous history of innovation – in 1875 they set up the Carlsberg Laboratory to figure out how to improve the quality of beer. It was here where they figured out how to consistently produce beer (a daunting problem before this time). It started with a revolutionary understanding of the nature yeast and expanded on Louis Pasteur’s findings that yeast are actually living organisms. They discovered that yeast was composed of different kinds of fungi and that the yeast culture could be cultivated. From here they isolated a single yeast cell and developed a pure yeast culture which became the key to consistent, repeatable batches of quality beer. What’s so great is that instead of keeping this method for cultivating pure yeast a secret they shared it with brewmasters all over the world. This Carlsberg yeast is still used in most of the lagers available on the market today.

Additionally they created the first formal fermentation device in the world to break down yeast into alcohol and carbon dioxide, giving us beer with alcohol and carbonation. Fermentation of course happened before this, but mostly consisted of storing beer barrels in caves and letting the magic happen inside. They also invented the pH scale that is used in all of science to measure how acidic or basic a liquid is. Who knew when you were studying the pH scale in science class that it was based on research from a brewery? Beer is all around you my friends.

Carlsberg Beer, the one we’re reviewing here, is their flagship beer and has been brewed since 1904. It’s exported globally all over the world. For our review we used a standard pint glass to hold the contents of the 11.2 oz green bottle that sports a 5% ABV. We got a starting beer temperature of 43.0 F.

The pour yielded an average to large 2″ foamy white head that left a fair amount of head lacing. There’s a soft amount of carbonation and a brilliant gold color that’s clear in the glass. Exactly what you’d expect from a pilsner/pale lager type beer.

Our aromas came in really clean – light hay, light honey, lemon, light yeast and light ginger.

Our initial flavors came in with a moderate sweet and very light bitter that evolved in the finish to a light to moderate sweet and light bitter. Our tastes came in with light honey, lemon, light yeast and light ginger. Overall it’s a very delicate beer on the palate.

The finish length is short, the mouthfeel is dry and the tongue hit is in the middle. There’s a fair amount of body lacing left on the glass over the course of drinking it and on our patented malt to hop scale it comes in perfectly balanced.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable and balance. We got a no to harmony, memorable and wow factor. We got a maybe to buy again.

For a green bottle brew, Carlsberg Beer isn’t too bad. It’s got a nice sweet taste that continues to taste good as the temperature gets into the 50s. It’s better cold, but it’s well-crafted and doesn’t completely fall apart as it warms. Our preference would be to do it cold and drink it quick for maximum enjoyment.

Final verdict: It’s got a good profile and could be a good everyday beer for somebody. The BeerFathers probably aren’t their target market though.

Great back story for the Jockamo – the name comes from the tribes of Mardi Gras Indians who have marched in New Orleans since the 1800s. The word Jockamo is referenced in the popular New Orleans Mardi Gras song we know as “Iko Iko” that was originally titled “Jock-a-mo.” It’s a wordplay on the lyrics “Jock-a-mo fee-na-ne” that are repeated multiple times during the song. The song has been covered by countless artists, most famously by the Dixie Cups, but also by New Orleans artists like the Neville Brothers and Dr. John, as well as more mainstream artists like Cyndi Lauper, the Grateful Dead and the Dave Matthews Band.

The 12 oz Jockamo IPA bottle weighs in with a solid 6.5% ABV and sports a weighty 52 IBUs. It’s also got 190 calories in it, but we know you don’t care about that. For our review we used a British pint glass and got a starting beer temperature of 50.4 F.

Our initial pour gave us a large 2 1/2″ foamy off-white head that left a good amount of head lacing as it dissipated. There’s a soft amount of carbonation and the beer itself is a sparkling clear – a very clear amber/orange color.

For our aromas we got a light caramel, nutty, citrus, floral, grapefruit, pine, light yeast and a light pineapple. Not overly complex by any means and the aromas are what you’d expect from the Pacific Northwest hops they use (Willamette and Columbus hops).

For our initial flavors we got a light sweet and a light to moderate bitter that evolved in the finish to a very light sweet and a moderate to heavy bitter. You’d expect this in an IPA – a ramp up in the bitterness and a drop in the sweetness as the malt backbone gives way to the hoppy hoppers. For our tastes we got caramel, a light nutty, citrus, floral, grapefruit, pine and light yeast. Again, not overly complex, but clean and simple.

The finish length is average, the mouthfeel is watery and the tongue hit is in the middle. There’s no body lacing to speak of and on the malt to hop scale it comes in 2 clicks to the right of balanced on the hoppy side.

For our bottom line notes we got yes to drinkable, repeatable and balance. We got no for harmony, memorable and wow factor. We’ve done too many IPAs for this one to really pop at us. For buy again we put maybe – it’s a solid beer for sure – but we’re just not hopheads who seek out IPAs.

Overall, the Abita Jockamo IPA is a very well crafted beer. It stays true to where it starts as it warms, easily passing the 60 degree test and not “nastying out” like some beers as they lose their cold. The mark of a quality crafted beer is the ability to survive temperature swings, and this one’s got it. If you’re a hophead you should seek it out – it’s a good IPA with a good ABV that borders on being sessionable. Along with our other Abita favorite Turbodog it’s a part of their year-round lineup, so you know it’s a solid performer.

Of course all Sam Adams beers come from the Boston Beer Company located in Los Angeles, CA. Kidding. Of course they’re in Boston. And in terms of the craft beer battle the Boston Beer Company is winning about as much as the Patriots (that’s a lot).

For our review of the Honey Porter we used a British pint glass and our 12 oz bottle yielded a 47.1 F starting temperature. The ABV has changed over time on this bad boy – for our review we were at 5.25% ABV, but on the Sam Adams web site it’s now officially listed at 5.5%. RateBeer and BeerAdvocate vary as well, coming in at 5.25% and 5.45%, respectively. Either way, it’s at the top end of a sessionable beer, but it still classifies as sessionable.

For our initial pour we got a large 2″ frothy light brown head that left a good amount of head lacing as it dissipated quickly. There’s a little bit of carbonation and the color comes in kind of a ruby brown that’s dark and translucent.

For our aromas we got a light chocolate, honey, roasted malts, alcohol, black licorice, light raisin and a light smokiness.

For our initial flavors we got a moderate sweet and a light bitter followed in the finish by a light sweet, light to moderate bitter and a light saltiness. For our tastes we got chocolate, honey, roasted malts, black licorice, soy sauce and a light smokiness. The smokey flavor rolls in at the end and adds just a little bit of that salty hint. Very nice.

The finish length is long, the mouthfeel is creamy, the tongue hit is front and middle. There’s not really any body lacing to note and on the malt to hop scale it comes in 1.5 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side.

Bottom line notes shape up pretty well: yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance and buy again. No to memorable and wow factor and a so-so to harmony. “So-so” is a highly quantitative scientific term so don’t bother looking that one up.

It’s very good as it warms, passing our 60 degree test with no issues. The finish is very interesting as well – there’s really two distinct finishes to it – an immediate finish that’s more sweet and less bitter, followed by a late finish where the sweetness wanes, the bitterness creeps up and the smokey notes roll in.

Overall, the Sam Adams Honey Porter is just a solid, nicely done beer. It would go great with BBQ – think more along the lines of brisket than pork though. It’s not a traditional porter by any means, as referenced in the beginning, but that’s what makes it unique. It’s actually quite understated as Sam Adams beers go, but it’s a treat nonetheless.

Highland Brewing Company is well-known and respected for their craft beers, and the city of Asheville itself is known for it’s respectable and quirky beer community. Today we’re hitting up the Highland Oatmeal Porter, one of our favorite brews from Highland.

The Oatmeal Porter comes in with a 5.8% ABV and 32 IBUs. It’s packaged up in a 12 oz bottle which we poured into a British pint glass for our review and got a starting beer temperature of 54.5 F.

Our initial pour gave us an average 1 1/2″ frothy light brown head that dissipated quickly and left a decent trail of head lacing. There was a little bit of carbonation to the almost black body. Upon closer inspection though it’s actually a dark ruby brown color that, though dark, is clear.

For our aromas we got chocolate, oatmeal, coffee, roasted malts, light toffee, black licorice, and smoke. A vigorous swirl gave us a new smell – some nondescript dark fruits hiding deep in the depths of the head.

For our initial flavors we got a moderate sweet, light bitter and light salty that evolve in the finish to a moderate sweet, moderate bitter and very light salty. The tastes come in with coffee, oatmeal, roasted malts, black licorice, smoke and some more of those dark fruits (still unidentifiable).

The finish length is average, the mouthfeel is creamy, the tongue hit is middle to back and there’s a fair amount of body lacing. On our patented malt to hop scale it comes in one click to the left of balanced on the malty side.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance, harmony and buy again. We got a no for memorable and wow factor – it’s very good but it’s not revolutionary.

Overall, the Highland Oatmeal Porter is well-crafted and a nice treat. Not the most complex beer we’ve had by any means, but very good. It’s got a rich mouthfeel to it – nice and creamy – a bit of a lip smacker. The oatmeal really complements the porter style well and gives it a wonderful texture. It gets really good as it warms too – even at room temperature – it enhances the character of the beer really well. In that regard it totally passes our 60 degree test.

If you can find it, it’s totally worth picking up a 6 pack. If you like the dark meat you won’t be disappointed!

Our pale ale for this review comes from New Yorker Brewing, the East Coast spawning ground for the Kirkland beers. Our best by date was January 3, 2011, and the review commenced and finished on December 30, 2010, right before the New Year was rocked in by an early bed time.

The 12 oz bottle came in at 5.4% ABV and 35 IBUs – the most bitter of the bunch from the Kirkland series. For our review we used a British pint glass and got a starting beer temperature of 43.7 F.

For our initial pour we got an average 1 1/2″ frothy white head the left no head lacing as it dissipated quickly. There was a lively amount of carbonation and the clear body presented with a golden amber color. Quite nice.

For our aromas we got light caramel, light honey, generic citrus, light floral, grapefruit, light orange, pine, yeast, light butterscotch and some general spices. Not a bad bouquet – heavy on the hop aromas as you’d imagine given that it is a pale ale, specifically an American pale ale (put “American” in front of just about any beer and add 20% more hops, as a rule of thumb).

For our initial flavors we got a light sweet and a moderate bitter that shifts in the finish to a very light sweet, light acidic and a heavy bitter. The tastes came in fairly true to the aromas – light caramel, light honey, generic citrus, light floral, grapefruit, orange, pine, yeast and light spices. The orange and pine are the predominant tastes.

The finish length is long, the mouthfeel is oily, the tongue hit is in the front (surprisingly) and there’s virtually no body lacing. On our patented malt to hop scale it came in two clicks to the right of balanced on the hoppy side.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable and value. We got a no to balance, harmony, memorable, wow factor and buy again (which is tricky – more details below). We got a maybe for repeatable.

Ultimately, the Kirkland Pale Ale is a little like green eggs and ham to us. We just don’t like it. It’s less about the beer and more about the style though – we’re not big American pale ale guys. It does get some good sweetness to it as it warms, but not enough for our tastes.

As for the buy again factor – it’s a paradox. You have to buy it again to get any of the other Kirkland beers. We’d love to see Costco take it a step further and start offering the beers individually as 6 packs, or single style 24 packs. That would really hit the spot for us.

Overall though, you just can’t go wrong with the whole Kirkland box set. It’s 4 pretty sessionable beers and it’s a wonderful way to get people trying new stuff. The four 6 packs concept is really nice. For us though, the Kirkland Pale Ale just doesn’t quite ring true. Remember though that the 24 pack comes in at $18.99, or 79 cents a bottle, and you’d be hard pressed to find a better pale ale at the price. If you like pale ales, give it a try. If you don’t buy the box set anyway and surprise a hophead friend with a surprise 6 pack of the stuff.

Our amber ale for this review comes from New Yorker Brewing, the East Coast home for the Kirkland beers. Our best by date was January 3, 2011, and we did this actual review on December 23, 2010, right before Santa Claus came to visit our houses and drop off even more beer.

The 12 oz bottle came in at 5.7% ABV and 25 IBUs. For our review we used a shaker glass and got a starting beer temperature of 44.4 F.

For our initial pour we got an average 1″ creamy off-white head that dissipated quickly and left virtually no head lacing. There was a soft amount of carbonation and a clear body that’s copper in color – like a 1994 penny.

For our aromas we got caramel, dark amber honey, toasted malts, grapefruit, light orange, light resin, dough, light clove and a light metallic. The metallic wasn’t off-putting, but it was there.

For our initial flavors we got a light to moderate sweet and a very light bitter that evolved in the finish to a light sweet and a light bitter. For our tastes we pulled out caramel, dark amber honey, toasted malts, light grapefruit, light orange, light resin and clove. There’s a slight metallic taste to the finish as well.

The finish length is average, the mouthfeel is oily, the tongue hit is in the front and there’s no noticeable body lacing. On The BeerFathers’ malt to hop scale it comes in one click to the left of balanced on the malty side – a good sweet spot.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance, value and buy again. We got a no to harmony, memorable and wow factor.

Overall, it’s a solid, well done beer. The dark amber honey is a very nice touch and gives a really great backbone to the brew. It definitely gets better as it warms though – the malts get stronger and it smooths out a bit. We’d recommend drinking it closer to 55 F than 45 F. It does pass our 60 degree test as well if you let it get that warm – our last taste came in at 65.5 F and it was delicious.

Overall, the Kirkland Amber Ale is one of the best in the bunch for us in the 24 pack. As with most of the Kirkland beers, the price is absolutely unbeatable for the quality of the beer you get. The most resounding “yes” we’ve ever put to value, based on the 79 cents a bottle you spend for the case. Even if you only like half the beers, it’s still a good value. We think you’ll be like us and really like two of them, and be okay with the other two. It really depends on what you like in a beer (hophead or malt madman?) to determine which of the two you’ll like. For us (malt madmen through and through), the Amber Ale and the German Lager are the best in the bunch.

Our hefeweizen for this review comes from New Yorker Brewing, the East Coast hub for the Kirkland beers. Our best by date was January 3, 2011, and this review was done on December 9, 2010, so we beat the clock. Of course drinking it after the best by date is okay too – these are well crafted beers (in case you were wondering).

Our 12 oz bottle of hefeliciousness came in at 5.5% ABV and 26 IBUs. For our review we used a Weizen glass (because that’s how you do hefes, our friends). Our starting beer temperature was 43.7 F.

For our initial pour we got a large 2″ rocky white head that left no head lacing as it dissipated slowly back into the glass. There was a lively amount of carbonation to the brew and the body was slightly hazy and a nice golden color. Good start.

For our aromas we got wheat, light floral, lemon, yeast, light bubble gum, banana, clove, light pepper and also a light metallic.

For our initial flavors we got a light sweet and very light bitter, followed in the finish by a very light sweet and a light bitter. For our tastes we got wheat, lemon, yeast, light bubble gum, banana, clove, light pepper and a touch of metallic on the finish. The predominant tastes in the profile are yeast, lemon and metallic.

The finish length is average, the mouthfeel is oily, the tongue hit is in the front and there’s no body lacing to speak of. On our malt to hop scale it comes in almost balanced – a half click to the right of balanced on the hoppy side.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance and value. We got a no to harmony, memorable, wow factor and buy again.

The beer is much better colder than it is warm – the metallic edge ramps up quite a bit as it warms up. Alas, it did not pass the 60 degree test. We’d recommend drinking it around the lower 40′s rather than the upper 50′s in terms of temperature. We’d also recommend drinking it fast to ensure it doesn’t warm up.

The Kirkland Hefeweizen is a deceptive beer – the cooler profile in the 40′s is drastically different from the warmer profile. For grins we did a second one quickly that stayed cold (we didn’t spend 45 minutes analyzing it to death like we did the first beer) and it was a much better experience. We actually got some floral notes in the taste we didn’t get when it was warmer. If you kept it cold it could almost turn our rating up a notch or two to a 4 or even a 5. Alas, we rate the beers going from cold to warm as a test to see how well they are crafted. Good hefeweizens can hold in there around 60 F.

All the elements of a hefeweizen are in this – yeast, lemon, banana, pepper – but they just don’t sing to us. Overall it’s a bit thin and just not that refined. Of course, for the price it’s still a heck of a value – the Kirkland 24 pack comes in at $18.99, or 79 cents a bottle. You’ll likely spend $7 to $8 for a 6 pack of Pyramid or Widmer hefeweizen, and this is just as good as those. Bottom line – you can do better, but this really isn’t that bad.

It’s one of four beers that come in a 24 pack that you get at Costco of all places. The 24 pack includes a 6 pack each of the German lager, a hefeweizen, an amber ale and a pale ale (for more background on Costco, Kirkland and their contract brewing situation, check out our previous post on Costco entering the craft beer business).

For this review our bottles come from New Yorker Brewing. Our best before date was January 3, 2011, which was good as we actually did this review on December 2, 2010. Our 12 oz bottle of German lager has a 5.5% ABV and 22 IBUs. We used a shaker glass for our review and got a starting beer temperature of 46.4 F.

For our initial pour we got an average 1″ foamy white head that dissipated quickly. There was a medium amount of carbonation and the body was a clear sparkling amber golden color. Quite a good looking brew.

For our aromas we got a light biscuity short bread, light caramel, light cereal, light toasted malts, honey, floral, light grass, orange, light pine, light ginger and a little bit of soapiness.

For our initial flavors we got a light to moderate sweet and light bitter, followed in the finish by a very light to light sweet, a moderate bitter and a very light saltiness. For our tastes we got some more of that biscuity short bread, caramel, light cereal, light toasted malts, honey, floral, grass, orange, pine, light ginger, soap and some metallic. The taste is fairly true to the aroma, with some notes coming in a little more potent.

The finish length is average, the mouthfeel is oily and the tongue hit is in the middle. There’s no body lacing to speak of and on our patented malt to hop scale it comes in almost balanced – just a 1/2 click to the right of balanced on the hoppy side.

The bottom line notes are good – yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance, value and buy again. No to harmony, memorable and wow factor.

Overall the Kirkland German Lager is a nicely done beer. It’s well crafted and passes our 60 degree test. The sweetness edges up as it warms – what we thought was a light sweetness when it was cooler (under 50 F) we realized was really a moderate sweetness once the cold mask came off. It’s actually a very good beer to drink around 55 to 60 F. We were tasting ours around 57.7 F and it was spot on.

This may be the best example we have of value in a beer. Really – the price is ridiculous – $18.99 for a 24 pack, which comes out to 79 cents a bottle. You won’t find a better value anywhere for the quality of the beer.

Our final take: it’s a very good once-in-a-while beer, especially if your whiles aren’t too far apart. Perfect if you’re having some friends over and want to share something nice. The BeerFathers approve.

Anyway, today we’re reviewing the Kingfisher Premium Lager that comes to us from the United Breweries Group in Bangalore, India. They say on their own web site they are the world’s no. 3 spirits company and we tend to believe them because their chairman looks a bit like The Most Interesting Man in the World. Kingfisher is reported to be the no. 1 selling Indian lager in the entire universe and is also reported to be the best selling lager in India.

Kingfisher comes in a green 12 oz bottle with an ABV of 4.8%. For our review we used a standard British pint glass and got a starting beer temperature of 41.4 F.

Our initial pour gave us an average 1 1/4″ fizzy white head that left no head lacing as it dissipated quickly. There’s a soft amount of carbonation and it’s a perfect yellow color and completely clear – no haze in this glass.

For our aromas we pulled out a generic grain, light honey, corn, light floral, light lemon and a hint of popcorn.

For our initial flavor we got a moderate sweet and for our finish flavors we got a light sweet and a very light bitter. For our tastes we got only light grain and honey – that’s pretty much it. Honey is the main taste, and though simple the taste is much better than the smell – there’s a surprising amount of sweetness in the taste we weren’t expecting.

The finish length is short, the mouthfeel is oily, the tongue hit is in the middle and there’s really no body lacing to speak of. On our patented malt to hop scale it comes in 2 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance, memorable and buy again. Our only no’s were for harmony and wow factor.

Is it a simple beer? Yes. Most pale lagers are. But there’s more to it than that. Compared to an American pale lager (think Bud, Coors, Miller) it isn’t dominated by a watery mouthfeel and taste. It’s more yeasty and malty with a really nice sweetness to it. The sweetness in it could work well with the curry in Indian food or even Tex Mex style Mexican food.

For a lager, as it warms, it keeps it’s chops about it without nastying out. We actually wouldn’t mind a few more of these. It could be a good change of pace beer, especially for us as we don’t do many lagers. Though it’s in a green bottle there’s no skunkiness and no soapiness to it.

Overall Kingfisher is just a nice lager with not much hoppiness – and The BeerFathers approve. At this point, we’re actually prepared to say this is our favorite pale lager.

The Drifter Pale Ale comes from Widmer Brothers Brewing out in Oregon, the land of the Pacific Northwest hops. The 12 oz bottle sports a 5.7% ABV and 32 IBUs. We used a British pint glass for our test and got a starting beer temperature of 45.9 F.

For our pour we got a large 2 1/4″ foamy off-white head that left a fair amount of lacing as it dissipated slowly. There is a soft amount of carbonation to the clear amber body.

On the nose we pulled caramel, honey, floral, grapefruit, tangerine and ginger. A really strong nose dominated by the grapefruit that we’ve come to associate with Summit hops.

The initial flavors come in with a moderate sweet and a light bitter that evolve in the finish to a light sweet and a moderate to heavy bitter, along with a light tart. The taste comes in fairly true to the aroma with caramel, honey, grapefruit, tangerine and ginger. The floral notes don’t pop through in the taste for us – probably too delicate to overcome the grapefruit and tangerine flavors from those Summit hops. The grapefruit in the taste is strong, but not overpowering. Overall the taste is more subdued than the smell.

The finish length is average to long, the mouthfeel is oily and the tongue hit is in the middle, but also works up to the roof of the mouth. There’s a fair amount of body lacing and on our patented malt to hop scale it comes in 1.5 clicks to the right of balanced on the hoppy side.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance and memorable. We got a no to harmony, wow factor and buy again. We say we wouldn’t buy it again for ourselves because we don’t normally seek out pale ales, but we definitely would recommend it to someone who did like that style.

The Summit hops really jazz things up with this one. The press release that came with the beer reads “Most pale ales are brewed with Cascade hops. Ours is truly an original, made with Summit hops known for their delicate flavor and undertones of tangerine, mandarin orange and grapefruit.”

As unique as it is we fully expect others in the marketplace to try to copy the style. The hops don’t bite too hard, but they do hang around for a while on your cheeks and the roof of your mouth. For us, two well known malt madmen, we can say this – it’s a very good summer beer. As American pale ales go the Drifter Pale Ale is pretty unique. For a Widmer beer – we’re very impressed (we weren’t very keen on their hefeweizen). It should run around $9 or $10 for a 6-pack, so the price point is pretty spot on. If you’re a hophead you should feel right at home.

It is actually in Bavaria (this will shock you) that they established the Reinheitsgebot, or Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. This law states that the only ingredients that can be used in the production of beer are water, barley and hops. This was a particularly harsh law as the penalty for making impure beer was death. Not really, but the brewer who used other ingredients could have the questionable beer confiscated with no compensation. Let’s put it this way – Sam Calagione wouldn’t last 10 minutes over there. Again, this has nothing to do with this review.

The beer at hand today is Bavaria Holland Beer, also known as Bavaria Premium. It’s brewed by Bavaria Brouwerij in the Netherlands. I have no idea why it’s called Bavaria beer if it’s brewed in Holland, it’s just the company brand they put on the beer. A smart move no doubt – associating a stand out product (Bavaria beer) with a mediocre product (Holland beer). It would be like Chrysler calling themselves BMW Chrysler. Or tofu calling itself porterhouse tofu. Okay maybe it’s nothing like that. What we’re saying is don’t be fooled by the name – Bavaria Holland beer has little to do with Bavaria in terms of the beer – it’s more like your traditional Holland beer than the good stuff that comes out of Bavaria. And that just makes us sad in our hearts.

So, on to the review, eh? Bavaria Holland Beer (that would be like calling it Mexican United States Beer, no, wait…) comes in a 12 oz green bottle with an ABV of 5%. We got ours at Cost Plus World Market. For our test we used a British pint glass and got a starting beer temperate of 45.9 F.

You get an immediate bubbling carbonation when you open up the bottle. For our pour we got an average 2″ foamy white head that left a good amount of head lacing as it dissipated quickly. There was a medium amount of carbonation and the body was a clear sparkling yellow/gold color.

The aromas come in with barley, hay, lemon, pine, yeast, light ginger and a light skunkiness. It smells an awful lot like a Heineken and that’s not a compliment.

The initial flavor comes in with a light to moderate bitter that evolves in the finish to a light to moderate sweet and a light bitter. The tastes come in with grain, lemon, resin and some more of that skunkiness. We’re unsure how they get the whole skunk into the bottle with the small opening, but they do.

The finish length is average, the mouthfeel is watery and the tongue hit is in the middle. There’s a fair amount of body lacing left on the glass as you work through it. On the patented BeerFathers malt to hop scale it comes in one click to the right of balanced on the hoppy side.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable and balance. We got a no to harmony, memorable, wow factor and buy again.

Overall we’re not impressed. The taste goes hop-sweet-hop giving an odd 3 step taste to it. The malts are super thin. If you like pilsners (we notoriously aren’t huge pilsner fans) this is a mild example of one that makes you appreciate something like a Pilsner Urquell an awful lot. About the best thing we can say is its mild enough to be a textbook session beer, but there’s a lot of other beers we’d rather go to first in that category. This beer deserves to be on the shelf, so if you see it on the shelf at your local beer store just leave it there.

The Helles (German for “bright”) style of beer has an interesting history going back to the 1800′s when the Czech pilsners were starting to become popular. The Munich brewers were worried that Germans would start favoring Czech beer over their own German beer so they created the Munich Helles Lager. The Helles shared some of the same spiced hop notes as the Czech beers but had more malt backbone to balance it out. Problem solved. The style lives on today with some great Helles beers coming from Paulaner, Hofbrau, Lowenbrau, Spaten, Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr and the usual cast of Munich greats.

But back to the beer at hand. The Shiner 99 Helles Lager comes in with an ABV of 4.99% (or “5″). It packs 18 IBUs into the 12 oz bottle. For our review we used a tumbler glass and got a starting beer temperature of 46.6 F. As always, all Shiner beer comes from the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, TX.

Our initial pour gave us an average 1 1/2″ foamy white head that left no head lacing as it dissipated quickly. It’s a got a lively amount of carbonation to it and the body was a clear sparkling golden color.

For our aromas we pulled out hay, lemon, yeast, pepper and spices. For our initial flavor we got only a moderate sweet that evolved in the finish to a light sweet, light bitter and light acidic. For our tastes we got a light biscuit, lemon, light pear, light pepper and a touch of corn as it warms.

The finish length is short, the mouthfeel is dry and the tongue hit is in the middle. There’s no body lacing as you drink it down and on the malt to hop scale it comes in one click to the left of balanced on the malty side.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance and buy again (though that would be impossible now that it’s not on the market anymore). We got a no to harmony, memorable and wow factor.

The hops are just right in this one – the Hallertau hops out of Germany are mild and nice. The taste is not too far off from an actual Munich style Helles (American beers tend to be more hopped up even if the style is the same as their European counterparts).

It’s a tasty gulper of a beer – a perfect session beer actually. We found as it warmed it was still good even at 60 degrees – it didn’t fall apart like a lot of American hefeweizens, for example. The hops do come out a bit more as it warms, a noticeable shift from the more malty edge we felt it had as it was colder. No matter, it’s a well crafted beer and a welcome treat from Shiner, who is known so well for their Shiner Bock.

Though the Shiner 99 is off the market now there’s always a chance they could bring it back – the Shiner 97 Bohemian Black Lager (their Schwarzbier) proved so popular that they made it a permanent part of their lineup. Keep your fingers crossed because this one is pretty good.

Nephew/Cousin Beer Love, after a 5 year residency and a 1 year fellowship way out west in the land of the Cowboys, Rangers and Mavericks, has returned “home” with his wife and amazing brood to the medical center as an Assistant Professor where he spent so many years. On this past Labor Day he had a cook out to celebrate his youngest daughters birthday. Father Beer Love had to work late so Dr. Nephew/Cousin Beer Love prescribed a late supper and even filled the prescription and sent it directly to the house. A perfectly grilled burger (bovine, not fowl), a perfect bratwurst (porcine, not fowl), a big slice of birthday cookie (nice touch) and a Samuel Adams Black Lager. As you can see he was raised with proper values.

Needless to say the Black Lager hit the spot. Interesting, because several years back while our beer palates were still maturing Father Beer Love tried it and didn’t think too highly of it. Now, it’s just perfect. My how times have changed.

On to the review. The Sam Adams Black Lager (which as you may have guessed is a schwarzbier) comes in with an ABV of 4.9% and an IBU of 20. Of course it’s one of the many beers that comes from the Boston Beer Company and it’s a part of their Brewmaster’s Collection. For our test we used a British pint glass and got a starting beer temperature of 43.9 F.

For our pour we got a large 2″ frothy medium brown head that left virtually no head lacing as it dissipated slowly. There’s a soft amount of carbonation and the body clarity is clear, but very dark. The color is pure black with some hints of ruby around the edges.

For our sniffy sniff we got some good notes – caramel, light chocolate, nutty, toasted malts, light leather, yeast, brown sugar and cream.

For our initial flavors we got a moderate sweet and a light bitter that moved over to a light to moderate sweet, light to moderate bitter and very light salty in the finish. For our tastes we got chocolate, coffee, toasted malts, grass, pine, yeast, light charcoal, cream, very light smoke and a light soy sauce. A good flavor profile for a schwarzbier. The chocolate really jumps at you in the taste. The light bit of smoke/salt on the finish is a nice touch and the coffee jumps out a bit on the finish as well to give it a slight bitterness, while still staying sweet.

The finish length is very short, the mouthfeel is creamy, the tongue hit is in the middle and there’s no body lacing as you work your way through the glass. On our patented malt to hop scale it comes in ever so slightly to the left of balanced on the malty side – just a 1/2 click away from balanced.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, repeatable, balance, harmony and buy again. We got a no for memorable and wow factor – it’s a good schwarzbier, but our socks were still on afterwards.

It’s worth noting that Father Beer Love was working with one that was within it’s enjoy by date while Son Beer Love was working off one that was a year and 4 months over. The notes remained the same with the slight difference that the older one Son Beer Love was working on had a slight metallic smell to it.

As the Sam Adams Black Lager warmed up into the 50s and beyond the taste was still good, but we thought this one might be better to drink a bit cooler – maybe around 45 F – which might make it slightly more refreshing. Shouldn’t be hard to do as you’ll find it’s a gulper. Don’t let the way we dissect beer and let it warm up 20 degrees during the process mean you have to do the same. You will want to knock this out quickly because it’s so tasty. And don’t be fooled by our statement – it does pass the 60 degree test and is a superbly crafted beer. It’s a moderately complex taste and it’s very good.

Overall we definitely recommend it. It’s got the lightness of a lager with some stout notes to it and it’s a very good marriage. We find the whole category of “dark lagers” a good place to go when you need something you know you’ll probably like. And as we like to say “May the schwarzbier be with you.”

The Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA comes to us from the fine folks at Dogfish Head Craft Brewery up in Deleware. It was sent to us as a gift from one of the fine vendors Son Beer Love does business with in his day job. It’s got a completely unassuming front label – just a picture of a hop leaf, the name of the beer and a statement that it “Ages Well.” The last part remains to be seen as we’ve cellared a bottle to have in a decade or so. The back of the label reads “What you have here is the holy grail for hopheads. This beer is continuously hopped over a 120-minute boil and then dry-hopped every day for a month. Enjoy now or age for a decade or so.”

The ABV comes in at a hearty 18% and the IBUs come in at an impossible (literally) 120. It’s a 12 oz bottle of mouth wallop for sure. Though not noted on the bottle, we feel like our batch is likely from 2009.

We thought about live blogging this as we reviewed it, but at 18% we thought our review might go something like this:

First sip: Sweet edge, strong alcohol presence.

Second sip: Nice notes of floral, caramel, etc.

Thir3d sip. Toff3e notez, aromza, sippy sip.

444444444444thhhf stepppp…… Glarfneck spoo.

After thinking through what a 12 oz bottle of 18% ABV beer might do to us we decided that splitting the bottle was the intellectual choice. Just so happened that Father Beer Love was in Charlotte visiting Son Beer Love (that’s a lie, he was in Charlotte visiting Granddaughter Beer Love).

For a little primer into the beer, check out this quick video of Sam Calagione talking about the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA:

For our review we used a snifter glass which wound up being perfect for tight swirls and catching lots of aromas. Also for feeling all fancy like. We got a starting beer temperature of 51.3 F. We used some sandwich thins and water to cleanse our palates in between sips.

Our initial pour yielded a small 1/4″ creamy off-white head that left a fair amount of lacing as it dissipated quickly. There was no discernible carbonation and the body clarity was a bit hazy. The color was a brilliant amber/orange.

For our aromas we grabbed caramel, toasted malts, citrus, grapefruit, grass, orange, pine, resin, yeast, alcohol, apricot, fresh ginger, dry sherry and some general spices. Of all the smells grapefruit comes out the strongest. It smells super hoppy and may literally have the biggest nose on a beer we’ve done or can recall. The strength of the smell is outrageous and is only further concentrated by our snifter glasses. We’re notoriously not hopheads, so we’re not sure we’re going to like what comes next.

What comes next is the taste. We hold our snifter glasses like we’re 14th century aristocrats and take a sip. Initial flavors are a heavy sweet and a light bitter. The finish flavors are a moderate sweet, moderate bitter, very light salty and a very light tart. Our heads turn sideways like a dog that has just seen you juggle. Where’s the mouth punch? The tongue burning? The taste buds dissolving? It’s not there.

What is there is caramel, honey, toasted malts, toffee, floral, grapefruit, pine, resin, apricot, brown sugar, butterscotch, fresh ginger, dry sherry, spices and a touch of vanilla. It’s quite the taste profile and it has a surprising amount of sweetness to it. It’s a great sweetness for two malt madmen like ourselves. Wow. The alcohol, also surprisingly, isn’t around in the taste.

The finish length is long, the mouthfeel is buttery and the tongue hit is in the front. There’s a fair amount of body lacing as we drink it down and on our patented malt to hop scale it comes in 1.5 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side. It may be an Imperial IPA, but that malt backbone is so strong that it brings it to the malty side of balanced. You can’t possibly fathom how odd that is to us.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, balance, harmony, memorable, wow factor, value and buy again. Our only no was to repeatable, which most 18% ABV beers aren’t going to score well on.

By the end of the review our beer was up to 67.1 F and it tasted even better than it did when we started. This one passes the 60 degree test with flying colors. Start out around 55 degrees or so and you’ll be in good shape as you sip it throughout the evening.

The Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA just blew our minds, in a good way. It’s nothing like we expected. Well, the smell was, but the taste so wasn’t. The smell is completely dominated by hops and the taste is completely dominated by the malts. The hop shock is smell-based only. We wound up calling it “A Malt Lover’s IPA” and we think that is the perfect description of it. We struggled with whether or not it was a 10 and in the end we decided to settle on a 9. When we try the bottle we’re aging we may come back and change our minds.

Thanks to our friend Dave for sending us this treat. We look forward to more!

Also – for comparison – check out our review of the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA.

It’s brewed by the Carolina Beer Company, located about 30 minutes north of Charlotte in Mooresville, NC. They’re probably best known for their Carolina branded brews like Carolina Blonde and Carolina Strawberry Ale, but for our money their Cottonwood line of ales and seasonals is where the magic happens.

The Cottonwood Pumpkin Spice is a fall seasonal for them and comes in a 12 oz bottle. You’ll find varying reports on the ABV with BeerAdvocate listing it at 4.5%, RateBeer listing it at 5.1% and Carolina Beer’s own Pumpkin Spiced Ale page listing it at 6%. The likely scenario is that the ABV has changed over the years and has probably gradually crept up into that craft beer sweet spot of around 6% to 8% that a lot of the craft beers you find these days tend to have. More ABV rarely presents a problem for the craft beer segment, who we dare say tend to be a bit more responsible than the rank American domestic segment. Ever wonder what percentage of DUIs are a result of craft beer versus domestic beer? That should probably be a line on the police report, but we digress.

Our starting beer temperature came in at 48.6 F and our initial pour gave us a slightly larger than average 2″ fizzy off-white head that left no head lacing at it dissipated quickly. It’s got a nice lively amount of carbonation and the body clarity comes in fairly clear while the color is pure amber orange.

For the smell we pull some great aromas – light caramel, brown sugar, cinnamon, clove, ginger, maple syrup, nutmeg and some other fanciful spices. There’s no real pumpkin that pops out in the smell – it’s just all spices that dominate the nose. Just a wonderful aroma.

For our initial flavor notes we get a light sweet and a light tart that ramps up to a light to moderate sweet and light to moderate tart in the finish. The tastes come in with brown sugar, cinnamon, clove, ginger, maple syrup, nutmeg, pumpkin and some more spices. Though the pumpkin wasn’t prominent in the nose it’s definitely there in the taste, but it’s not overdone like so many of the other pumpkin beers we’ve had.

The finish length is average, the mouthfeel is oily and the tongue hit is front to middle. There’s not really much in the way of body lacing and on the patented malt to hop scale it comes in 3 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side – one click away from a malt explosion.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, balance, harmony, memorable, wow factor and buy again. Our only no was to to repeatable (more on that later).

We really like the spice dominance in this one. It’s like a pumpkin pie in a glass. The best pumpkin beers we’ve done hedge more towards pumpkin pie smells than jack-o-lantern smells and though that may be a personal preference, we think it’s the right path to go down.

With the Cottonwood, it’s another case of a beer really hitting the season it’s made for – it’s truly a great fall/winter seasonal beer. Thought it’s not a great session beer (the spices could be a bit much to do multiples of in a sitting), it’s a tremendous first beer. It’s extremely pleasant and a lot of fun to drink. The spices make the beer, they’re not just innocent bystanders like so many other pumpkin beers. If you’re in an area where you can get Cottonwood beer and it happens to be fall, the Pumpkin Spice Ale is definitely worth a 6 pack or two.

The Noel Des Geants is brewed by Brasserie des Geants (formerly Brasserie des Legendes) in south Belgium. The brewery is actually located in a medieval castle in the town of Irchonwelz. The town is famous for its annual giants parade so the brewery has a gate that stands high to allow an occasional giant to pass through. How awesome is that?

The beer is unpasteurized, unfiltered, bottle-refermented, weighs in at 8.5% ABV and comes in an 11.2 oz bottle.

For our review we used a snifter glass and got a starting beer temperature of 49.1 F. Our initial pour yielded a small 1″ frothy light brown head that left no head lacing as it dissipated quickly. It’s a dark gem of a beer – a nice opaque ruby brown color that sports a soft amount of carbonation in it.

For our aromas we got biscuit, honey, earth, yeast, cinnamon, clove, dark cherry, date, nutmeg, sugar plum, raisin, vanilla and some other nondescript spices. The dark fruits really pop in the smell.

For our initial flavors we got a heavy sweet, light bitter and moderate sour. Our finish flavors came in with a moderate sweet, moderate bitter and moderate sour. Sweetness drops and bitterness increases as you go through your sipping motion. For our tastes we got honey, clove, coriander, dark cherry, pepper, sugar plum, raisin and some more nondescript spices. Not all the aromas come out in the taste, but it’s a great taste nonetheless.

The finish length is long, the mouthfeel is creamy and the tongue hit is on the front and sides. There’s no body lacing left on the glass as you quaff it down and on the malt to hop scale it comes in 2.5 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side. That’s a really nice malty sweet edge.

For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, balance, harmony, memorable, wow factor and buy again. The only no was to repeatable as one was enough.

The Noel Des Geants is loaded to the gills with dark fruits, so if you like beers like Chimay Blue or Trappistes Rochefort 10 you’ll like this one. It brings something new to the table though – a prominent sourness. Along with that there’s a very pronounced sugariness to it that hits the spot and adds to the complexity of the beer. It is an absolutely perfect Winter/Christmas seasonal beer – you want to cozy up to it and take your time enjoying it, because it’s a treat. Highly recommended.