This weekend we tried a few new beers. We also sampled more of our aging Belgian Golden Ale, which is getting very nice. It was a time to sample rather have a lot of anyone thing thanks to the evil beeper. 🙂
These first three were got at my local Giant grocery store. They recently opened a beer section thanks to the relatively new Pennsylvania law. .
Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale – Yes, it’s *that* Morimoto if you are a fan of Iron Chef. The ale is extremely light in feel, though a dark amber in color with a frothy pale head. The percentage alcohol is 4.8%. I really don’t taste anything particularly soba, aka buckwheat, in this ale (love buckwheat pancakes and the noodles). But it would make a great refreshing beer for a hot sultry summer day. I wonder what a shot of yuzu would do for it. There is a stronger version of this called Black Obi, which I would like to try.
Elysian Bete Blanche – This is a Belgian style tripel. I’ll have to say that I think our Belgian style ale is just as good. This one has 7.5% alcohol. To me, it smells like cream soda, which is different from our own which has a very strong spice aroma. This one isn’t as sweet as some triples can be and I can taste some of the vegetal notes of the hops.
Souther Tier Choklat Stout – We don’t like sweet beers much but Southern Tier has some rocking ones. The first we tried was their Crème Brulee Stout. It’s truly a desert beer, with a rich caramel taste and much vanilla like a good real crème brulee. It would probably make an excellent beer float with some homemade vanilla ice cream (or maybe coffee ice cream!). The Choklat Stout smells like a Tootsie Roll, tastes like true chocolate, and the flavor is rich and decadent. It’s dark (no kidding) with a short-lived head and ABV is 10%. Definitely one of the better chocolate beers and pretty much in line with sweetness with most imperial stouts that I’ve had (Rasputin, etc). They have one more in their Blackwater Collection, Plum Noir. I must try it! I used to drink so much Fuki Plum Wine when I was first in the SCA. Supposedly this stout won’t be very sweet at all, which will be very nice for the summer.
I see from the comments on Southern Tier’s website that mixing this with the banana bread beer is supposedly good. That beer is okay but I prefer a hefeweisen for my banana hit in a beer.
After the beeper went away this week, we got a sampler case of Magic Hat. Working through it right now.
Ticket to Rye – First let me say, what an friggin’ annoying website. There can be too much screwing around with websites, with every damn thing moving. Oh well. Ticket to Rye is a rye IPA. It’s amber red. Strong hops on the nose but not as much on the tongue. 7.1% ABV makes it a little strong but I don’t notice it much.
Saint Saltan – This one isn’t up on their website, so the link’s to beer advocate’s review. It’s a gose-style beer, which means it has salt in it. Lot of folks don’t think it’s a good example of a gose, but I have no idea since I’ve never drank any other. I’m guessing this would be a good starter into this style for the average American. It’s a little odd for me but not bad at all. I didn’t really taste the salt, but more the herbs used to brew it. It tasted very much like Dogfish Head’s Ta Henket, though I don’t think Ta Henket has salt in it. I think this would be a good summer beer when you’re sweating profusely and the low, 4.6% ABV would make it so. I put a squirt of lemon juice in it and that seemed to be a good thing. 🙂
Our very nice distributor, Oakhurst Beverage (they’ll do their best to order us all sorts of crazy things) gave us a couple of samples to try of a new brewery in Pennsylvania, Susquehanna Brewing Company up in Pittston, PA (up near Scranton).
6th Generation Stock Ale – Nice ale. Nothing too unusual about this one but sometimes that’s a good thing and would definitely appeal to those who aren’t as busy looking for different experiences as we are. As it warms from refrigerator temps, the floral notes of the hops come out nicely.
Pils Noir – A lot of brewers seem to have decided to make one of these dark pilsners (schwartzbier). Again, nothing exceptional but a good beer none the less. Both I think are good intros to craft beers for people who have only drunk the mass produced ones, which means my less than adventurous relatives. 🙂
Club Schadenfreude 
My choice of beer is limited since I don’t brew. I have malt and spirits and that’s it for me
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It used to be really limited here in Pennsylvania. So, tell me about your malt and spirits that I will likely never be able to try. 🙂
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Since am ignorant about beers, i have just googled the type of malt it is here.
Spirits, I think I can stand most.
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After having three or four chocolate stouts, all of which I’ve hated, I simply stopped ever drinking them. I don’t think I’ve had one of the really big mass produced beers in ages (I don’t know what level of production makes something mass produced), and I went through a phase of trying a lot of different microbrews. As it happens, when the whole microbrew craze first hit about twenty-five years ago (wow, does time fly) I had a friend who was a brewmaster.
I tend to avoid the more bizarre beers, but a while back one of my favorite comic artists, Charles Burns, did a series of labels for some beers, the twelve brews of the appocolypse, or something like that. I wanted to get all of them, but I could only find three.
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I know, bizarre to think it’s been so long since microbrews started, same with how long it’s been since I’ve been to my first microbrew pub, Applachian Brewing Company.
my stance with chocolate beers is “this is not a beer, this is something completely other” Then I drink it. 🙂 Same with mass produced beer. It’s not a craft, so what? I will say that my husband once gave me a Mickey’s Big Mouth. That was indeed pretty crappy beer.
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