Beer Associate
Being born and raised here in New Jersey, I need to give it up to my local brewery, Cricket Hill Brewing Co! I recently got a bunch of their Reserve Ale series bombers in my store and this one right here was the cream of the crop; Cricket Hill Reserve Ale Series Russian Imperial Stout! Some of my best nights have been at Cricket Hill listening to the great Reverend Rick preach about beer! Not to mention I am an huge fan of the style so obviously it was a no brainer taking his home.
This brew pours a nice dark color, not oil black, somewhat see through and leaves a small sliver of tan head which disappears pretty quickly.
The aromatics of this beer are really fantastic, a lot of coffee up front with light backtones of semi-dark chocolate. A very mild hop aroma lingers in the backround.
The taste is nice, delicious amount of coffee lingers in the middle of your palate followed by a tinge of sweetness from the chocolate flavors. One of my favorite things about this brewery is that they brew under the German purity law, Reinheitsgebot. Meaning that all these amazing flavors I’m getting are all naturally occuring flavors, not added but the fact that these flavors come out organically in this beer just makes them that much more enjoyable.
The mouthfeel on this brew is lighter, considering the style. Definitely a lighter RIS than say an Old Rasputin from North Coast Brewing Co. which is much denser and thick. The initial taste of coffee is fantastic and the residual taste you get is dynamite as well. Bursting at the seams with great coffee/chocolate flavor! But overall this Cricket Hill offering is a very good beer and out only for a limited time so if you can get your hands on a bottle I’d do it quick!
So a while back I saw this label and I saw that it was by Uinta Brewing Co. I was a bit bummed because I thought that this beer wouldn’t make it to NJ. First time making it so I thought it’d stay local and they would see how it did. But a few weeks ago a rep came up to me and told me that it would be coming in! I was so stoked I actually picked up two bottles the day it came in. I’ve had some bourbon oak aged pumpkin ales and I wasn’t crazy about them, but Uinta has impressed the hell out of me with their Crooked Line so here we go, Uinta Crooked Line: Oak Jacked Imperial Pumpkin Ale!!
highly anticipated brew pours a deep brown/ruby color, with about half a finger of head. Dark in color, but completley see through.
Smell is of sweet malt, pumpkin and spices. Light oak which I’m sure will come out a lot more in the taste along with all of the bourbonieness. The dominant smell is mostly of pumpkin spice, a trait I’ve found that in most of these bourbon barrel aged pumpkin beers is that pumpkin spices can really dull down the boozy traits of these beers.
Again in the taste as well! A good amount of pumpkin is there but the spice is dominating in taste where as you can taste the oaky bourbon but it’s all on the back. Cinnamon and nutmeg are very evident. A good amount of bready malt comes out in the middle. As for the end the bourbony oak leaves a nice aftertaste in your mouth.
Mouthfeel is fantastic, meduim bodied, not too much girth which leaves so much more room for all of these flavors! Carbonation is also there, a decent amount but not too much so it lets you taste the brew without too much interference on your palate.
Overall, I love bourbon and I love pumpkin beer. Putting the two together creates this perfect harmonic ale that is this brew. Uinta your Crooked Line has impressed me time and time again, keep them coming!
Okay so let me start off, I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted a review, I am going to be more consistent with these I promise.
So Fresh Hop season has kicked off, and I don’t know about anyone else but I love Fresh Hop beers. And what better of a way to start off the season with Great Divide Fresh Hop pale ale.
This brew pours a rich copper color, with about a finger of pure white head. The clarity is magnificent, you can see right through the glass.
Amazing earthy and citrusy hops are instantaneous on the nose, one of my favorite qualities of a fresh hop ale. Small hints of caramel are in there as well which compliment all the hops quite well.
The taste is phenomenal like fresh cut grass, great earthy notes mixing in with citrusy hops. A touch of caramel. The finish is great and smooth, leaving a nice hoppy taste in your mouth. Mouthfeel is great, medium bodied, bitter taste but that’s from all the fresh hops.
This brew is fantastic, if they made this beer year round I would drink it every single day. Freshness here is the key, I can’t see this beer aging well considering it’s medium body and 6.1% ABV. You want these hops to come out fully and brand new, that’s the entire concept that is the Fresh Hop pale ale!
Ok so this is my first collaboration beer that I’m reviewing. For those of you who don’t know what a collaboration beer is, allow me to enlighten you a bit. In the market that is beer, the people that should be competing against eachother for business actually get together and create something very limited and special. Each of the brewers from the breweries get together and brew a unique and usually a one time deal beer. In this collaboration, Ommegang and Brasserie D’Achouffe got together to make Gnomegang. For those of you who don’t know, I went to college up by Ommegang, and lived off kegs of Rare Vos at my fraternity. So I was really excited when I saw this on the shelf that I had to grab it!
The beer pours a nice golden, hazy color. The head is a beautiful, clean white. Nice and tall measuring out at about a finger and a half. The haziness in the color indicates a nice amount of spice which is typical of the Belgian style blonde ale.
Aroma is also quite fantastic, first a lot of spice comes, but upon further smelling, you get a lot of citrus in there as well which blends quite nicely with the spice.
Taste is a bit on the heavier side for a blonde, but that could be due to the higher alcohol content. A very lively beer, fruity, spicy and with a nice dry finish. A lot of tropical fruit playing around in there along with the zesty spice, including hints of banana, lemon and orange. Which all together makes for a great brew!
Mouthfeel is really great. You know how a lot of beers you can’t taste a whole lot in the mouthfeel because of the carbonation? Well this beer has gotten past that, the carbonation is near perfect. Very subtle hint of hops, which are overwhelmed by the amount of spice and then the nice long dry finish.
Ok these two breweries are both owned by the same company, if they don’t make this again I’ll be upset. I’m not normally big on Belgian beers, but this one hits the spot in such a great way. The spice isn’t overwhelming like I find in most Belgians. I really hope they make this again. If you have not had this and you’re a bit skeptical of Belgian beers or if you love them, definitely track this down and give it a go, it’s fantastic!
Ok, so for all you people out there who are repulsed by the idea of oysters brewed with their beer, keep an open mind!! It is truly a great thing when done the right way! And Flying Fish’s Exit 1 Bayshore Oyster Stout hit it right on the head!
The appearance consists of a very slow syrup kind of a pour, followed by a small dismal tan head which goes away pretty quickly. Leaves some nice lacing along the rim of the glass though. As for the clarity, it is nonexsistent. You literally cannot see through this beer at all, black as night.
The aroma is great, very sweet, chocolate, malty smell. A subtle sea smell, nothing to specific, but the sea smell is definitely there and contributes to the aroma in a big way, mixing with the sweetness quite well.
The taste is a lot more distinctive as opposed to the aroma. Robust, roasty maltiness comes first, followed by a sweet milk chocolately taste. On the finish is the mild yet present taste of oysters; it’s a lot easier to taste the actual oysters in the finish.
Moutfeel is medium/full body. Being a stout I’m leaning moreso towards full body. Very minimal carbonation. The oyster flavor in the beer is still mild, I feel like if it was anymore it would indeed make the beer intolerable. Flying Fish got the perfect amount of oyster in this brew to call it an oyster stout.
Drinkabiltiy wise? I’d definitely have this beer again. Perhaps even age it a few years, it’s 7% ABV which would make it okay to age for a year or two. This is the first oyster stout I’ve ever had, even though they’re hard to come by, I can’t wait to try more! Keep an open mind my readers, beer can be made with anything and oysters are no exception. A crazy idea in a brew could lead to brilliance just like this beer did! If you manage to find one, go get it and drink it!!
I have had a huge craving for an IPA recently so I picked this little number up. This brewery has just come into New Jersey and is becoming the newest and most promising brewery I’ve seen in a while. I was very happy with this one, they started off with their reserve porter and their 14th anniversary beer in NJ first and they did very well because then they released Double Jack; the double IPA. And I know I’m supposed to save this until the end but, this one blew me away.
The appearance is nice; pours about a finger and a half of head, which goes down very slowly leaving a nice amount of lacing around and within the glass. A clear, deep golden color which is great for a double IPA, appearance checks out.
Aroma is where the style starts to really show itself. An amazingly strong grassy, hoppy aroma. Notes of citrus and a little bit of pine as well. In the undertones you can detect a small amount of malty sweetness which compliments the smell very nicely.
The taste in my opinion is the best part of it all! It is electrifyingly hoppy in the best way possible, jolting your taste buds in the most euphoric way. Grassy upfront with some mild grapefruit tones. Medium/full body, it’s hard to tell with the ABV being as high as it is. If I had to take a guess I’d call it medium but I know some people would consider it full, so for the sake of arguement lets say that it’s somewhere in the middle. For the finish the malty caramel notes are just a fantastic way to end it.
The mouthfeel isn’t all that different from the taste, the strong grassy hop taste is very strong and pronounced. While observing the mouthfeel I noticed that the ABV isn’t well hidden, not the worst thing in the world and also is typical of a double IPA, they’re not meant to have low ABVs. A double IPA is supposed to be instense and hoppy which is something this beer has in spades.
As for drinkability, I would drink this beer a million times over. Firestone Walker has come up with one of the best double IPA’s I’ve ever had. The style is head on, with the grassy hop notes along with the ending caramel sweetness. This beer I reccomend to any “hop-head,” and I look forward to more of their beers coming into New Jersey!
This is a wild yeast ale brewed with raspberry puree and aged in oak barrels. I love Weyerbacher and my friend and I at work keep talking about how we want to know what it’s like, so when I got this on my birthday I was estatic. This is a beer that is brewed by Weyerbacher once a year ever since 2008 and is released in very small quantities.
Appearance is not very impressive at first glace, no head what so ever, just a small amount of lacing at the rim of the glass. Color-wise, it’s a pink ruby hue over a musky amber brown backround.
The aroma took me by suprise at first, but after taking a few sniffs, I could break it down a bit better. A strong scent of raspberry tart hits the palate first, followed by a small hit of vinegarette dressing. I assume the vinegar smell is from the wild yeast that’s used in the beer, giving it that kind of a funky smell. It smells very dry, similar to a dry cider.
The taste is very acidic. Medium body with very light carbonation which lets me taste what’s in the beer a lot more clearly. The acidity hides the high ABV very well. The wild yeast adds not only to the aroma, but perhaps even moreso to the taste. Makes for a very complex brew, but mixes very well with the raspberry tart. Along with the wild yeast and the raspberry tart, there is also a strong presence of oak in the beer. Not as strong as the raspberry tart but lets the beer finish very nicely. Between these three different tastes, it makes for a very complex brew.
Mouthfeel is really great, between the raspberry tart and the wild yeast, as well as the oak finish, the really mix very well together. The oak barrel aging, which is normally reserved for a heavier beer, they put in a fruity, sour, wild yeast ale. Definitely a different mouthfeel, but they mix in a very unique way which is very
Would I drink this beer again? Absolutley. The way the flavors and the wild yeast all blends together makes for a very complex and unique beer. With a wild yeast brewed beer, it’s hit and miss, sometimes it’s fantastic and sometimes it just doesn’t work out, but it was right on the pinpoint in this beer. However, I can tell you this is not a mainstream beer, this is a great beer for someone who has an experienced beer palate and is looking for something new to try. Not for a new beer drinker looking to get into craft beer, they might get the wrong idea.
I just came back from the Southampton Publick House Russian Imperial Stout Release party, and let me tell you, for my second beer release party in my life, it was epic.
Me and my buddy got there about 2am the morning of, and crashed until about 6:30am. Woke up and went straight to the brewery, got there about 7am. There was a line already! Turns out I was #49 to show up for this, which is shocking. Even more shocking, people were there at 4am just to be first, and even more amazing, the people behind us were from PA, they woke up at 3am to drive to this. One word, dedication. The people I met at this place were all beer geeks just like me! Great people to talk to, and waiting in line wasn’t that bad despite the cold, time flew just talking about and drinking our favorite brews in the snow.
So 9am rolled around and the line started moving, they handed out slips, which had numbers on them, which told you where you were in line as well as a list of all the beers that were available, some brand new and some were the year round beers but they were vintaged which is awesome. The list of beers and the bottle limit per customer goes as follows:
Russian Imperial Stout 750ml: 4 per Customer
Old Herb Barleywine 12oz: 3 per Customer
Saison Faucille 750ml: 1 per Customer
Peconic County Reserve 750ml: 1 per Customer
Black Saison 22oz: 2 per Customer
Abbot 12 2010 : No Limit
Saison Deluxe 2010: No Limit
Cuvee des Fleurs 2010: No Limit
Grand Cru 2009: No Limit
Triple 2007: No Limit
So safe to say, there was a lot to choose from, I’m not going to share prices with you all, because…well I don’t want to be reminded of how much I spent there, twas quite a bit but all worth it.
Alright so back to the story here, we got our sheets at 9am. Then we came back at about 11, when the brewery opened. Guess how long the line was!? Really long but it was irrelevant because being #49 I got to jump pretty much the entire line, imagine all the dirty looks I got as I went past all these people who weren’t sure if they were going to get the beer that they wanted. But to hell with them, they probably slept in!
Finally got to the door and they handed me the sweetest snifter glass (for free!) which was great then walked in and the place was packed. Waited in like with a Russian Imperial Stout in my hand which was delicious in every way humanly possible. I’ll have a review up for you guys soon. Finally got to the front where you pay for everything and the pretty blonde girl up front convinced me to get a t-shirt and another glass. Damn smart marketing people over at the Publick House….But I got my case and pretty much the entire day was made for me.
We decided the taproom was crammed and went inside the eating area and had some lunch, as well as enjoyed all of the rare stuff on tap! Including the barleywine, saison black, saison faucille and the RIS! They didn’t have the Peconic County Reserve on tap which I was a bit bummed for, but it was a great time. I got a lot of my favorite brewery’s rare beer, got to meet and talk to a lot of great people. If you guys are around next year you should all come and meet me! I’ll be there! Southampton Publick House, if you read this ever, kudos, you know how to throw a good release party and brew some damn fine beer!
Ok so this brewery some of you might not know as well, but this is my local brewery, the brewery that I go to on a constant basis, I’m headed out there next weekend with some people for their big russian imperial stout release party.(Don’t worry I’ll be reviewing that one for sure!) But this is the Publick Houses’ Imperial Porter, their winter seasonal brew. This is actually the first time I’ve tried this beer so you’re getting my initial reaction here.
Appearance wise, this is your typical porter, a bit more than a finger of head, perhaps a finger and a half. The color of the head is nice and tan which contrasts very well with the deep dark color of the beer itself. The beer is impossible to see through, the color is too dark, even when held up to the light. This is indicative of a porter or stout, in this case a porter which is a very heavy beer.
Smell is a bit more complicated, a lot going on. Coffee and mocha come off initially followed by a roasty notes and molasses.
The taste is complex and hard to nail down exactly what’s in it. First thing that I tasted was the roasted malt, which gives the porter a very robust persona. The ending note is really great, a taste of beautiful dark chocolate leaving you with that nice taste on your tounge. All of these tastes mesh together in a very unique way, not too much of one, they balance themselves out quite nicely.
The mouthfeel is great, incredibly smooth at first then ends on a bit of a fizzy note, not my favorite part of the beer but it’s because of the higher ABV; small price to pay for that nice buzz. The flavors are just jumping around my palate giving the porter some really great complexity.
Drinkability is easy, for all you beer drinkers who just started out, plain and simple this isn’t for you. Porters are an aquired taste, simple as that, same as stouts. Your palate needs time to get used to something that big and heavy. As for all you “seasoned” beer drinkers, this is great. Medium bodied and just bursting with flavor, a great beer for those cold chilly winter nights that’ll just warm you right up!
Okay so I was at a store in Jersey City and I couldn’t believe they still had it, so I had to get it, despite it being very much so out of season. Southern Tier Pumking is one of my favorite pumpkin beers so I couldn’t resist buying it.
Appearance is a great golden orange color, reminiscent of October and pumpkins. Pours a solid finger of head which takes a while to go away which shows it’s durability.
The smell is a tough one because upon smelling the brew, you get one thing and one thing only, warm pumpkin pie. If you don’t believe me try it for yourself, I kid you not, warm pumpkin pie. The only downside to this is that it’s practically impossible to smell anything else in the beer. I got a little hint of spice after some serious smell concentration, but the pumpkin pie smell is extremely dominating.
The taste makes up for the smell, in the taste you can break it down a lot more. Right off the bat, all that spice I was missing in the smell, it’d smack you in the face is you weren’t drinking it. Next comes the taste of pumpkin along with a small hint of caramel which gives it a pleasant sweetness.
As for the mouthfeel, I didn’t get much more out of it than I did from the taste, just the spice is overwhelming almost, but not in a bad way, it’s just very noticeable. Now this is an imperial pumpkin ale and you can see that in the mouthfeel by the consistency of the beer. Higher ABV beers tend to have a more viscous texture. Very thick and syurpy; which lets you savor the beer instead of just pounding it down.
Drinkability is simple, I think this pumpkin beer is great. It is one of a kind, no other pumpkin beer actually smells and tastes like pumpkin pie. I reccommend this beer to anyone, including new beer drinkers who are skeptical about the style and looking for a good place to start. It goes fast around the fall season, it was sheer luck that I got this, usually it’s the first pumpkin beer to sell out so pick it up this coming fall!
