Of Monks and Ale.

Last week I was happy to find my local beer purveyor had in stock the new Spencer Trappist Ale.  This is the first Trappist Ale brewed in the USA and even more amazing, it's brewed right here in Massachusetts.

Spencer Trappist Ale

Only since December 10th, 2013 has the Abbey been making ale, it is certified as the first Trappist brewery in the United States.  This is the same Abbey that makes the delicious Trappist Preserves line of jams and jellies.  Those monks keep themselves busy!

The Spencer Trappist Ale is a blonde and comes in at 6.5%.  It's not cheap, a 4 pack was nearly $20, so I settled for one 12oz bottle for $4.95 (I believe, it was about $5).

I would say that it's good, but it's not $20 good.  I'm glad I got to try some, but also glad I didn't shell out for the 4 pack.  I found the ale to be nicely crisp, fruity and maybe a hint of citrus, although that last bit was disagreed upon by the folks I shared it with.  It's a good introduction to Trappist ales, if that's something you are not familiar with.  I do hope that after the novelty dies down that maybe the price will too, because otherwise, I won't be drinking this very often.  

It's worth trying, certainly, and I do want to support a local industry...but, it's not cheap.

Brew Blast: Moa Brewing

I ran into this beer at the store I pop into on my way home from work, when I need to refresh my beer reserves.  It caught my eye because it was called Moa, since I've been to the land of Moa, beautiful New Zealand, I was intrigued (it's also got an eye catching black label and Moa embossed on the glass).

Moa Brewing: St. Josephs

St. Josephs is a Belgian style tripel, it's 9.5% alcohol and ran me $5.95 for a 12.7 oz corked bottle.  It's got a beautiful golden hazyness and creamy head.  It's a solid Belgian tripel style, tangy and sweet and a bit bitter.  It's very easy to drink, but this is also not a "I'm at a bbq!" kind of easy to drink.  I wish I could describe it better but my taste buds are not up to the task of such refinery.  It's a very affordable fancy beer, it's very tasty.  Now just trust your Uncle Good and go out and buy some!

Brew Blast: Old Fezziwig

I've been saving the two precious bottles of Old Fezziwig for a couple of weeks, I meant to have one on Christmas, but was too full after finishing a bottle of St. Bernardus.  Then I meant to have one at New Years, but never got around to it then either.
Well, today was a snow day so I decided not to wait any longer because if I blink again, it'll be Spring.

Samuel Adams: Old Fezziwig Ale

The last of the Sam Adams Winter Mix pack, this is one of my favorites.  I think it's just about become a tradition for me, a tasty festively spiced ale that tastes of Christmas.

Orange peel, cinnamon and ginger, oh my.  The alcohol percentage is 5.9%.  It's crisp and refreshing and somehow warming.  It's something I can easily imagine the titular character serving up at his Christmas party.  I think part of the appeal of Old Fezziwig is that it's limited, you only get 2 so you have to be sure to enjoy them.  I guess you can buy as many mix packs as you want, but that seems to cheapen the idea.  I like that I can only have a little bit a year, it makes it special and it makes me appreciate the ale that much more.

So, yeah, tradition.  Delicious tradition.

Happy New Year!  

Brew Blast: Cherry Chocolate Bock

I'm back again with more beer!  

Samuel Adams Cherry Chocolate Bock

This is another special seasonal from Sam Adams that you can find in this years Winter Mix pack.  It seems that this year the brewers at Sam Adams decided to add cherries to their usual chocolate bock and the result is as tasty as you'd imagine.

It smells like maraschino cherries and tastes a bit like a cherry cordial.  It's not as sweet as you might expect from that description, I'm guessing since they used cocoa nibs instead of full on chocolate.  It's very smooth and goes down easily.

The whole mix pack usually runs around $13-$15, but there's generally one 2 of each beer.  Luckily this year is, so far, filled with lots of tasty treats, unluckily, you only get 2 per box and no way to get it otherwise, unless you find a pub with it on tap.  The bock also is an average 5%, nothing wrong with that.

Brew Blast: Christmas Ale

I picked this up a few weeks ago and put it under the tree for myself to save for Christmas night (I figured I'd need a stiff brew after the day with family ;)

St. Bernardus Christmas Ale

This is a Belgian Abbey Ale, the St. Bernardus brewery started in 1946 and according to the label is made using artesian water pumped from a depth of 500 feet (fancy!).  The bottles can be aged up to 15 years, so if I had a cellar, I'd give it a shot, although I doubt I could wait that long to drink it.

This ale is very dark with a sweet fruityness.  The head is very thick and creamy as you can surmise from the picture.  I quite enjoyed it, but it took me a good while to polish off the bottle alone.  It's a hearty drink and considering the bottle is 1 pint, 9.4oz, there's a lot to enjoy, not to mention it's a whopping 10% alcohol.  I think $15 was a fair price for that much yum. 

Brew Blast: Gingerbread Stout

The holidays provide ample time to try all sorts of seasonal brews and this year I got to try a whole bunch.  

Samuel Adams: Merry Maker

Wow! What a difference from last years recipe!  I believe this was first available last year as a special seasonal.  I was disappointed to find it way too sweet and not enough gingerbread taste.  I decided to give it another shot this year and found that they have tweaked the recipe to perfection!  

Merry Maker smells and tastes like gingerbread and molasses, it's sweet but well balanced with some clove and cinnamon.  I was absolutely satisfied and this beer lives up to it's name.  Delicious!

The bottle was $6.99 and 9%.  I hope they don't tweak anything for next year, I think this is a keeper.

Brew Blast: Juniper IPA

Realizing that it was nearly Christmas and I had not had any Old Fezziwig, I grabbed a Samuel Adams Winter Mix pack on my way home from work and remedied the situation.

One of the new beers this year is:

Samuel Adams Juniper IPA

I was excited for this one.  I do enjoy juniper and I'm pretty satisfied with this.  It's a pleasant IPA, not too hoppy but definitely an IPA and the juniper adds a bit of Christmas to the mix.  It's lightly sweet, which according to the label is due to the berries themselves.  TinyDoom took a sip and declared it "too poisiony", she's against hoppy beers, I can't entirely disagree, I'm very particular about IPAs.  This one I find very easy to drink and is not so bitter that I feel like I need a glass of water after my drink.  

Juniper IPA is a welcome addition to one of my favorite seasonal mix packs, I'm sorry to see the Holiday Porter absent this year, but the addition of Cherry Chocolate Stout might make up for it.  I'll let you know!

Brew Blast: Fireside Chat

Continuing the beers I bought myself for my birthday, I present to you a nice winter spiced ale:

21st Amendment Brewery: Fireside Chat

This San Francisco based brewery always has cans and the art is always fantastic.  I've had a few of their beers and some have been better than others.  Bitter American, their IPA was very drinkable, but I found their Summer Seasonal, "Hell or High Watermelon" a bit too sweet, but I digress, we're not talking about those today.  Today is about Fireside Chat, a pleasant hearty ale, perfect for a cold winter night.  It's a rich drink, nicely spiced (including chocolate nibs), with a malty caramel sweetness.  

I would say this is my favorite from 21st Amendment, at least so far.  It definitely makes me want to try more from them.  

I don't remember exactly how much the six pack was, under $10 at least and the ale clocks in at a respectable 7.9%.  

Brew Blast: Winter Welcome Ale

We're well into my second favorite beer season, Winter!  Today I have a delicious ale from one of England's oldest breweries:

Samuel Smith: Winter Welcome Ale

Sam Smith doesn't make a bad beer, they've been around since 1758 so they know what they're doing.  I picked this up locally for about $4 for a pint, it clocks in at 6%. 

Malty, a bit creamy and smooth, lightly spiced and a bit of a toffee aftertaste.  This is a lovely ale to sip by a fire and a great winter beer.

I should come up with a rating system for these posts, if I do, this would score highly.  It's probably not too difficult to find, so seek it out and enjoy!

Brew Blast: Field Mouse's Farewell

After a brief break (i.e.-I haven't had any new beers), Brew Blast returns.  I literally just got home from the store where I spent some of the birthday gift card that has been burning a hole in my pocket, on beer.  I picked up a few things for the blog (yeah, that's the ticket) and now I present the first:

Pretty Things: Field Mouse's Farewell

Pretty Things is a local brewery that makes some pretty interesting beers.  Their bottle artwork is pretty eye catching and generally quite beautiful.  Their beers tend to be artful also, sometimes a bit too artsy for me, but they rarely disappoint.  

Field Mouse's Farewell is their Amber Saison seasonal.  I'm not big on saison's, for some reason they tend to give me instant and harsh heartburn, so I try to stay away from them.  I didn't realize this was a saison when I bought it, I was kind of swayed by the charming art and name.  

That said, I have been drinking this for the past few minutes and so far so good.  It's citrusy and has a lot of orange spicy-ness, it's a hearty tasting brew, but I find saisons often are.  A pint bottle runs about $7 and is 7% alcohol.  It's pleasant and a bit sweet, but not overly so, with a hint of hops.  

I'm finding it hard to say anymore, since I'm not big on this style, but I am enjoying it, so I give it a thumbs up.  

Marvel's Animated Abundance

After seeing Thor: The Dark World this weekend, I thought I'd finally type up a post I've been tossing about in my brains.  Reviewing Marvel's current crop of cartoons.  (Thor 2 was a lot of fun by the way, go see it!)

First up, I'll talk about the first of the new cartoons, Ultimate Spider-Man:

Cinematic Titans

This past weekend, Sunday to be exact, TinyDoom and I went to see Cinematic Titanic, who are on their final tour. 

Blog Match Team Up!

Head on over to The Ladies of Comicazi today to check out TinyDoom and I reviewing "The Adventures of the Galactic Wrestling Federation"!

Available NOW at Comicazi, Davis Sq. Somerville!

Brew Blast: Dry Hop Cider

TinyDoom and I ran into this cider at our local market's Cider and Meade tasting recently, we tried a great many tasty ciders of all kinds but purchased only a few.  This is the first I'm going to review! (ooh, I made a rhyme!)

Woodchuck Hard Cider Cellar Series Dry Hop

I was not surprised to like this, I have not had a Woodchuck cider that I didn't like.  Their Fall cider is maybe my absolute favorite, but that's another post.  

The Dry Hop ran $5.95 for a pint bottle, it's 6.9% so hearty for a cider.  Their ciders are fairly sweet, but pleasantly so, they are very easy to drink and this is no exception.  Hops are not something you usually taste in cider, honestly I'm not sure it's really a normal ingredient, but maybe it should be.  The hops enhance the apple taste and bring in some citrus, I get mainly grapefruit (which on it's own I'm not a fan of but it works here).  It's nicely balanced, one of my problems with hoppy beers is that I can only drink one before my mouth is dry and I'm looking for something else to drink, but this is a nice blast of hops without drying you out, this is something I could have a couple of in a row.  ...which I would, but we only bought this one bottle :(

Green Arrowed!

Hidely-ho Halloweeno's! Hallowinos?  Maybe I'll stick with the first one.  Anyhow, it's HALLOWEEN! The best day of the year!  A couple of weekend's ago was Comicazi's (our local comic shop) Halloweeniversary, the party that TinyDoom and I plan all year for.  This past year we decided to go with a DC theme, since last year we went Marvel.

Green Arrow and Speedy!

Brew Battle Wrap Up

I was hoping to find a few more of my favorite pumpkin beers to review, but alas, the season is passing and they are no longer available.  I searched high and low for one more bottle of Southern Tier Pumking (which would be my favorite), but it's all gone.  Oh well there's always next year.

So, I guess I have given my thoughts on the individual beers that I had a chance to taste and blog about already, so I'll just get to numbering them.

*insert drum roll here* ...and the big winner is:

1. Southern Tier Warlock
2. Samuel Adams Fat Jack
3. Brooklyn Brewery Post Road Pumpkin Ale
4. Saranac Pumpkin Ale
5. Cambridge Brewing Company Great Pumpkin Ale
6. Shipyard Pumpkin Head

All good beers, some gooder than others.  If you are new to pumpkin beers I recommend starting at the bottom of my list and slowly working your way up.

Let me know what you've tried and what beers you've had that I didn't review, I'm always looking for new pumpkin beers to try.

If there's any interesting non-pumpkin beers you've had lately that you think I should try, let me know!

See you next time bloggouls!

(bloggouls? I actually went with that? wow)

Brew Battle: Warlock

I don't know if anyone is enjoying these posts as much as I am enjoying "researching" them, but either way, on to the next brew!

I have a beer from what has become one of my most favorite breweries, Southern Tier.  I have sung the praises of their Pumking, though not reviewed it yet (I haven't been able to find it lately and worry that the season has passed), but luckily they have another pumpkin beer, this time it's a stout!

Southern Tier Warlock

This is the first time I've had this and Wow, it's absolutely delicious! It's an Imperial Stout, 8.6% alcohol and cost $8.95.  The bottle says it uses 4 different malts and 2 kinds of hops.  It's got a strong caramel profile and a nice roasty-ness overall.  It's not strongly pumpkiny, the caramel overpowers it a bit, but it all balances out nicely.  It's pretty sweet and a heavy drink, which is exactly what I love about these types of beers.  This is a great cool October night drink.  I may need to stock up a bit to be sure to have one available for Halloween night.

Warlock has jumped into my top pumpkin beers, I'm looking forward to doing a final summary and see just where it falls.

Brew Battle: Great Pumpkin Ale!

BREW BATTLE IS GO!

Today, for you, I have a local brewery's pumpkin offering.  I have two pictures this time around because I had the beer (again, I make these sacrifices for you, my friends) on tap recently at Za.  

 That's a great looking label.

Cambridge Brewing Company: The Great Pumpkin Ale

Cambridge Brewing is located in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA, it's a bit of a pain to get to if you are local, but worth the effort.  They have a brew pub with good food and great beer.  I went there as part of my bachelor party, we had a few beer towers to kick the afternoon off right.

But I digress, The Great Pumpkin is a good pumpkin ale, but again, maybe not in my top 10 overall.  It's a tasty, but a bit light.  I guess if you don't like a taste whallop, like I tend to, then it might be right up your alley. This pint ran me about $6, so pretty standard for a draft pint and it's 4.4%.

It has a mild hoppy and citrus start and a smooth yammy body.  The pumpkin taste lingers at the end, but overall it's a bit on the light side.  I think I'd like this beer more if it was a bit deeper, but to each his own, not all pumpkin beers need be heavy brews.  This is one of the better light pumpkin ales.

Let me know what kind of beers you guys like, I'd like to get a feel for what other folks prefer.

Brew Battle: Saranac Pumpkin Ale

Before we get to the party, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out the new header for the blog, I decided to update it this morning.  I think it's less clumsy looking than the previous one.  Okay, enough patting myself on the back, here we go!

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Brew Battle returns, again, yes, I bought a lot of pumpkin beer, no I don't have a problem...unless you count not enough time to drink all the available pumpkin beers a problem, and I do.  LET'S GET TO IT!

Saranac: Our Pumpkin Ale

Saranac, from NY, is one of my go-to's.  I have yet to find a bad beer out of this brewery.  I have had this before, but I had not seen this jug style bottle before stumbling across it in my local shop.  It's a quart of brew and only runs $4.99!  What a deal (he said in a Zoidberg voice)! This beer clocks in at 5.4%, so slightly above average.

It's got a lovely red color, a bit of a caramel sweetness up front and a bit of a cinnamon pumpkin finish.  It's sweet, but not cloyingly so, I would say it's very easy to drink.  It could be more pumpkiny but it's a very nice cool weather beverage. It also comes in a pretty cool bottle, which is temping to keep and use as a seasonal decoration.  I had previously had this in the Fall 12 pack mix, so it's nice to see it available on it's own.

That's is for now, stay tuned for my next pumpkin beer post...coming soon, since I drank the beer last night and just have to type the post up ;)

Brew Battle: Pumpkinhead

I'm drinking a pumpkin beer, so that can mean only one thing: IT'S BREW BATTLE TIME!

Next up:

Shipyard Pumpkinhead

This is a popular beer, I know a lot of people that are very passionate about Pumpkinhead.  Personally, I enjoy Pumpkinhead but it's not one of my top favorites, not to say I don't like it, because I end up drinking it often enough.  Although drinking it often is usually because it tends to be one of the few "craft" beers on tap (unless you find yourself in a very good bar).  Bars often offer it with a cinnamon/sugar rim for your glass, while I have been known to partake of the sugar rim, I question whether a properly made beer needs any bells and whistles.  But a bit on that later.

Pumpkinhead is pretty light, it's a light color, light alcohol percentage at 4.5% and relatively inexpensive, I think I paid maybe $8 for a six pack.  It's sweet and a bit tart, it's pleasantly crisp and finishes with cinnamon and pumpkin, lightly.  This is a good beginner's beer for those dipping their toes outside of the Bud pool and into the neighbor's deep and mysterious pool.  
So, getting back to the cinnamon/sugar rim, if it's offered, go for it.  I think it definitely enhances the pumpkin pie in a glass thing.  But.  I kind of wish it wasn't necessary, the beer could be a bit more complex in it's profile, but to that effect, if I want a more complex beer then perhaps I should be drinking one.

Well, I guess I'm done arguing with myself.  

In conclusion, it's a good easy to drink beer for a cool fall day.  Despite it's short comings, I wouldn't kick it out of my bed...but I'd be thinking of another seasonal beer while we snuggle.