Tim N.'s Taste Notes

Should note that I cellared this for about a year... Calling this beer a fruit beer is like calling Michael Jordan an athlete. It's true, but it really doesn't do it justice. Brownish-red with a medium head and fantastic lacing. Smells sweet with clear berry undertones. Medium-sour with a balanced maltiness. Tastes of raspberry and cherries, but not overly so. Dry with a subtle woodiness. This is much closer to a traditional Lambic than to the American fruit beers that so many American breweries serve today. Fantastic!

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Mild hop aroma and not very bitter for an Imperial IPA, but the floral hop flavor is excellent! Nice malt base. Love it.

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Cape Ann describes this beer as "silky and smooth" and that's no exaggeration. A murky Barleywine with a bold combination of flavors. Tea evident throughout is accented sharply by high alcohol burn and smokiness. Little lacing or head present. This is a bold beer not for the faint-of-palette.

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Amber color, with good head and head retention. Malty backbone with a citrusy hop profile. Mid-range bitterness for an IPA. Excellent!

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Sam Adams revolutionized the industry 25 years ago. They're doing it again with Griffin's Bow. Simply fantastic. It's nice to see such a big beer that isn't a stout or an IPA. You could call this an Imperial Blonde.

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A solid IPA from a great brewer. Very citrusy.

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On the hoppy end of the spectrum for a pale ale, but balanced by its maltiness. Not bad at all!

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Sweet, porty, and worth every penny.

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A fantastic pale ale. Biscuity German malts and a floral, citrusy hop bouquet make this beer an excellent, sessionable addition to Victory's offerings. I love it!

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I'm not sure if it's my fondness for ESBs or the way this beer builds on the style without being enslaved to it, but I absolutely love it. Great hop character, biscuity malt complexity, and a sweet, sticky finish make this an extremely enjoyable beer! I also love the aroma - nice, citrus-hop bouquet with a definite breadiness to it.

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Delicious! Malty like a Belgian Dark Strong Ale with a very understated smokiness. Paired extremely well with BBQ. Could definitely benefit from bottle aging or casking.

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Citrus tang and delicious hop bitterness. I loved it!

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A mild-mannered brown ale with a translucent, nut-brown color, medium body, and toasty finish. I liked it.

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Malty, sweet, and biscuity. One hell of a Maibock.

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Light, airy, and smooth. Subtly sweet. Wait until this beer warms up a bit.

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Nice espresso notes, great color and smooth texture. I wish there were a bit more hop presence, but it was a pretty good example of the style.

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Alcohol burn + cloying sweetness = not Stone's best work.

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This beer is a statue of complexity. The first thing I noticed about the beer is its color; the beer has a beautiful golden-orange hue I was immediately surprised by. I usually care much more about a beer's taste than its appearance, but this was gorgeous. The aroma is similarly memorable. The smell was simultaneously dry, spicy, and citrusy, with hints of the Thai Basil mentioned on the label and obvious belgian yeast notes. The mouthfeel was excellent; perfect carbonation (aggressive, but not overly so) and some really fantastic lacing. This beer's taste deserves its own paragraph, perhaps because I found it so hard to come to terms with. It certainly wasn't bad: even without the appearance and aroma, the taste was enough to leave me wanting a second glass. But it felt a bit... overcrowded maybe. The dry spiciness typical of most Belgian Tripels was only a backdrop for this beer. The citrus notes were extremely noticeable, but they weren't really the main flavors either. The basil was definitely there, and unlike some other brewers I won't mention, The Bruery knows how to use basil well. There was even a slight graininess to it that my imagination might attribute to the rice mentioned on the label. I think the combination was what surprised me. It certainly didn't seem off balance or overpowered. I guess what bothered me is that nothing really stood out on its own. But that isn't a bad thing, per se. I'd call it troublingly delicious, actually.

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Cloudy, little head, rather subdued for a barleywine.

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