Guy's Weekend, Part 1 of 2

My first beer trip of 2010! The destination for this guys weekend was none other than the number one beer bar in the world: Ebenezer's Pub in Lovell, Maine. Of course, there were a couple of stops along the way. Here are a few new beers sampled the night before at Great Lost Bear, as well as rundown of the beers from my first visit to the very homey, Bray's Brewpub of Naples, Maine.

Allagash Burnham Road
Sample -- Great Lost Bear, Portland
brace yourself -- this was terrible! i never thought i would say such a thing about allagash. this smoked beer has an unmistakable cloroseptic spray taste... which does not work for me.
Score: 2

Freeport Black Gold Porter
Sample -- Great Lost Bear, Portland
my first beer from freeport brewing! aroma is of coffee, while vanilla defines taste. sweetness is balanced by some roasted bitterness. smoothness completes this porter. very good, i thought.
Score: 8

Gritty McDuff's Red Claws Ale
22 oz -- Portland, ME
a cheap bomber. sweet malt has darker coffee note. overall, fairly bitter though. not going to come rushing back here.
Score: 4

Run of the Mill State Budget Red Ale
Sample -- Great Lost Bear, Portland
reddish in color with note of coffee in malt. i ordered intending to get run of the mill's ipa, so this was a bit of a letdown.
Score: 5

Bray's Brewpub Brandy Pond Blonde Pale Ale
Sample -- Bray's Brewpub, Naples, ME
i've tried to order bray's before, but never had any luck. what i was really looking for was their Yammityville Horror Sweet Potato Ale. but maybe next time. my first beer was their blonde ale, creamy but very watery too. grainy wheat / corn taste.
Score: 4

Bray's Brewpub Causeway Cream
Sample -- Bray's Brewpub, Naples, ME
nitro pour, which is always nice. muted, bland taste but hops at finish redeem this beer. went very well with my pastrami sandwich.
Score: 6

Bray's Brewpub Mount Olympus Special Ale
Sample -- Bray's Brewpub, Naples, ME
"hopped like IPA but with darker malts," according to menu. good head, hopped nose... husky bitterness that builds. little watery but smooth. kind of sloppy.
Score: 5

Bray's Brewpub Red Eye Pale Ale
Sample -- Bray's Brewpub, Naples, ME
don't know if this was the dregs of the keg, but had absolutely no head. this beer rallies though. forceful bitterness and... taste of spruce! sticky with slightly thin mouthfeel. probably my favorite offering.
Score: 7

Bray's Brewpub Smokehouse Brown
Sample -- Bray's Brewpub, Naples, ME
my friends liked this beer, but i couldn't do it. cloroseptic taste brought me back to the previous night's disaster of allagash's burnham road. for the record, the smoke materializes as pulled pork.
Score: 3

Naughty or Nice

Homebrew number ten continued my recent streak of seasonal beers; this was a stout for those cold winter days. As I mentioned before, rather than play it safe after the disaster of my first stout, I decided to double down. This would be a milk stout. With chocolate, lots of it, and cherries. And chili peppers too! I know I lost a lot of people with that last one, but to them I say, try a bar of chocolate with chillies inside sometime. They belong together.

But it didn't stop here. At some point Dan suggested, mostly in jest, that I should put a cherry in some of the bottles, a chili in others... and not tell people which is which! Brilliant! Naughty or Nice was born. In many ways, this homebrew was more of an adventure than a beer. Totally worth it though.

Josh's Homebrew's Naughty or Nice
Bottle -- Brockton
incredibly explosive on pour, especially when the cherry gets caught in the neck of the bottle... which happens every time. sadly, some beers saw more of my kitchen ceiling than a glass. so it goes. big creamy tan head once you get it out. chocolate, cola, and somewhat peppery nose (more black pepper than the spicy variety though)... and chocolate cocoa powder again dominates the flavor. i was both surprised and pleased to pick up the cherry flavor throughout. you will get some heat that builds in the back of your throat, but overall fits in well, i think. however, when there is a jalapeno in the bottle in place of the cherry, it gets downright spicy. as my dad said, you need a beer to wash down this beer. so there are worse things. lively, as you might expect. medium bodied, not heavy, but also not a session beer for all the powerful factors at work. this was a really fun, interesting beer, but certainly not my finest work.
Score: 4

From British Columbia to Boston

AleSmith Horny Devil
750 ml -- Luke's, Rockland
very nice looking beer with lacing that goes the distance... yeasty aroma is quite fresh... a trappist yeast apparently... flavor is spicy and bready too... hides the 11% very well. as good as you would expect.
Score: 9

Central City Red Racer IPA
Can -- RSVP Discount Beverage, Portland, ME
from british columbia. it seemed like they fit every flavor of hop into this little can -- grapefruit, piney, citrus, you name it. some bready malts but maintains robust bitterness. sticky mouthfeel but leaves me wanting more. as good as (or better than) dale's pale ale.
Score: 10

Lagunitas IPA
Bottle -- Luke's
i was suprised to see this unrrated. pretty cut and dry ipa: clean and hoppy. nice.
Score: 7

Narragansett Lager
Tall boy -- Great Lost Bear, Portland, ME
this one i know i have had before, but was unrrated. $1.99 for a tall boy, so that is something. old school can says "made on honor. sold on merit." i like that. sweet corn you expect in an adjunct lager. quite grainy, with some hops peaking out at finish. very crisp, clean taste. as far as these regional macro alternatives go, i thought this held up pretty well.
Score: 5

Rogue Yellow Snow IPA
Sample -- Great Lost Bear, Portland
the clever name led me to expect another over-marketed rogue beer. loved it though. great lacing on pour and the grapefruit hops are just fantastic. wonder if i would have rated it this highly had i still been on the west coast, or am i just missing real ipa's?
Score: 8

Samuel Adam's Noble Pils
Bottle -- RSVP Discount Beverage, Portland
my wife was crushed to hear this would be replacing her beloved white ale as their spring seasonal. got to say, i do like this a lot better though. surprisingly assertive herbal hops and crisp mouthfeel. still not sure why it debut's in february though...
Score: 7

Sierra Nevada Glissade Golden Bock
Tap -- Chili Head BBQ, W. Bridgewater
had never heard of this beer until i saw it on tap at chili head. when they told me it was a golden bock it sounded kind of like an oxymoron to me. apparently, this is a helles bock though. hoppy nose with sweet body. nothing special.
Score: 5

Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale
Sample -- Ebenezer's Pub, Lovell, ME
clear, light color... something is floating at bottom, probably spices... pretty sweet taste with slight twist at end. never could put my finger on it.
Score: 7

The People's Pint Pied pIPA
22 oz -- Cambridge
i was excited to finally find this beer. can't say it matched expectations though. pretty bitter, without the hop character you crave in an ipa. i will probably give them another shot at some point, but this is a pass.
Score: 4

Victory Wild Devil
750 ml -- Washington, D.C.
a belgian ipa with more than healthy carbonation. funky yeast cuts bitterness. thanks hil and franklin for a pretty cool christmas gift!
Score: 7

Agree to Disagree

A few weeks back I mentioned that I should do a post about my most overrated and underrated beers. Which begs the question: overrated and underrated by who? I have said it before, but I find Beer Advocate to be a tremendous resource for my research needs. It is interesting to see what the broader beer community thinks of a beer, and their reviews have helped me pin down an unidentifiable flavor or aroma. That said, sometimes I have to agree to disagree with you other craft beer drinkers out there.

Most Overrated

Bell's Java Stout

BA Rating: A-, Josh's Rating: C+

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA
BA Rating: B+, Josh's Rating: C+

Rogue Brutal Bitter Ale
BA Rating: A-, Josh's Rating: C+

Sam Adams Chocolate Bock
BA Rating: B+, Josh's Rating: C-

Southern Tier Jahva
BA Rating: A-, Josh's Rating: B

Most Underrated

Cape Ann Fisherman's Brew
BA Rating: B, Josh's Rating: A-

Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
BA Rating: B+, Josh's Rating: A+

Geary's Pale Ale
BA Rating: B, Josh's Rating: A

Olde Burnside Ten Penny Ale Reserve
BA Rating: B, Josh's Rating: A

Widmer Hefeweizen
BA Rating: C+, Josh's Rating: A-

A few ups and downs from DFH

I have been working my way steadily through Dogfish Head's whole line of beers. Three more to add to the list.

Dogfish Head Burton Baton
Bottle -- Luke's, Rockland
a double ipa. big hoppy nose, and a flavor that matches. very enjoyable. worth the price? that is another question. but yes, yes it is.
Score: 9

Dogfish Head Shelter Pale Ale
Bottle -- Luke's
dogfish's answer to bud. malts are fruity and sweet in nature. raw sort of bitterness. not great.
Score: 4

Dogfish Head Squall IPA
750 ml -- Luke's
an unfiltered and bottle-conditioned version of dogfishes 90 minute ipa. i had avoided this beer for a while assuming it would be ridiculously expensive, but it was only around $5. Beer Advocate notes that this was "Brewed to honor the Rogue Gallery in Portland, Maine, who will also be releasing a DFH designed clothing line in the summer of '09." so that is interesting. candylike sweetness that surpasses the 90 minute, but still falls short of the 120. not my favorite of their beers.
Score: 6

Some amazing Belgians

In preparation for a trip to the #1 beer bar in the world, I am starting to fill in the numerous gaps in my Belgian beer knowledge. Expect for a few more of these entries upon my return from Ebenezer's. Lovell, Maine, here we come!

Lindemans Kriek Lambic
Bottle -- Blanchard's, Brockton
"malt beverage with black cherries added." well, that makes it the most expensive malt beverage i have bought. has a pleasant sourness that i am starting to really enjoy in my beers. i liked this quite a bit better than their framboise lambic.
Score: 8

Orval Trappist Ale
Bottle -- Luke's
fascinating billowy head. smell is very funky, acidic, tart, and wine-like really. one of most unique aromas i have ever encountered. flavor is much softer than expected: lemon, tart, and phenolic. incredibly smooth. the kind of beer you could write a 1,000 words on, no problem. but i will spare you and just say you have to try it.
Score: 9

Saison Dupont
Bottle -- Luke's
different sort of yeast for sure, but tasty. lots of flavors happening here, which makes for a very bold beer. refreshing too.
Score: 8

St. Bernardus Abt 12
Bottle -- Luke's, Rockland
this quad comes in at #24 in the world, according to beeradvocate. cherry-alcoholic smell lasts from start to finish. dark fruit, vanilla, and alcohol, but i actually enjoy the taste of it. a beer that lives up to the hype.
Score: 10

St. Bernardus Witbier
Bottle -- Luke's
beautiful pour with good ammount of carbonation. spicy with a dry yeast. very crisp -- one of the things i like best about witbier's. this beer inspired me to brew a wit next. two perfect scores in a row... that is impressive.
Score: 10

St. Feuillien Tripel
750 ml -- Maine
i was starting to become biased against tripel's for its in your face alcohol levels and sometimes heavy maltiness. this was a tripel how it was meant to be though: bright gold with a thick head, spicy, bitter, and fruity (in that order), and light drinking. excellent.
Score: 9

Trappistes Rochefort 10
Bottle -- Cork's, Mansfield
another quad that comes in at number 18 overall. lots of dark flavors: plums, raisins, and caramel malts. drinks pretty smooth too. warming alcohol takes its toll. gotta say, i preffered st. bernardus' abt 12...
Score: 8

Westmalle Trappist Tripel
750 ml -- Luke's, Rockland
fruity, yeasty flavor. 9.5% abv is well-placed. chalky mouthfeel makes a real impression, very textured. as good as advertised.
Score: 10