Deschutes Chasin' Freshies (2014)

Every autumn, many breweries harvest hops either grown onsite or at a farmer they collaborate with and brew a fresh-hopped beer, which means that they are added to a beer within 24 hours of being harvested. I don't care for cold weather or winter. In fact, I so loathe winter that I don't even really like autumn, simply because it means that winter is right around the corner. There is one thing to celebrate during the autumn, however, and that is harvest season. Harvest season means fresh-hopped beers. That is the one bright, shining light to this time of year.

Every year Deschutes changes up the hop variety in Chasin' Freshies, and this year's release features Mosaic hops, one of my favorite hops. I have heard a rumor that there is going to be a shortage of Mosaic next year, so I plan to drink and brew with it as much as possible. It is a beautiful, complex hop with a distinct aroma and flavor, and I think it elevates most beers to a new level.

This pours a beautiful light straw color with no chill haze and tight carbonation bubbles rising rapidly through the beer. When I initially poured this, it had a moderate white head with loose, soapy bubbles that has now diminished to about a half finger. The aroma on this! For the love of all things fresh, this smells absolutely amazing. Passionfruit and guava and grapefruit and grapefruit zest hit my nose. There are some light crackery notes in the aroma, but it's mostly a showcase of the hop. I can wait no longer; I must have this in my mouth immediately. It is as good as it smells, for certain. There is a faint pine to go along with the copious passionfruit, guava, and grapefruit that were present in the aroma. There is a slight black peppery note toward the back end of this that is a welcome little surprise. Notes of cracker float in and out of the flavor. Dudes. This. This is good. It has a light body and soft mouthfeel. I think I'll go sneak some of Nathan's and hope he doesn't notice.

5/5 caps

-Jennie

Really, dear? On the eve of the celebration of my day of birth, you're threatening to steal some of my half WHEN YOU HAVEN'T EVEN FINISHED YOUR OWN?!?!?! Wow, it must be good. Jennie hasn't threatened to pilchard beer in a while.

This has had time to warm while I showered and Jennie took lead. As I slide back into this chair, ear buds blaring music, I gaze at this beer. It's a clear light straw color with a small amount of white head sticking around, much less than when it was poured. Still some carbonation bubbles floating up.  This 7.4% ABV, 65 IBU fresh-hopped IPA has been calling my name all day. I've been longing for this today, despite never having it. It's like the desire to have the open road in front of you while not really knowing where you're going, but never looking back. The aroma on this is a huge blast of hops. Tropical fruit, grapefruit, and some faint pine climb into your nose and start a mini-mosh pit, enticing you to stage dive into it and join the pit. "Get in the pit," you hear tiny voices saying, beckoning you to be one with the hop aroma. I don't need much convincing with a fantastic aroma like this, but I always wonder if it's angelic voices telling me to join the hops, or if the sound is coming from the sirens, leading me toward the rocks. Upon the first sip, I can tell it's divine voices calling to me. Slight pine and grapefruit with slight bitterness initially, then a big juicy blast of tropical fruit that quenches the bitterness, leaving a refreshing feeling. The juicy notes fade as grapefruit and building bitterness takes the forefront. This drinks more like a session IPA than a 7.4%. The little cherubs with hops for heads sing the praise of Hopsus with each sip, giving a refreshing blast, leaving the mouth sticky with hop oils.

This is fantastic and a great way to forget the potential of snow tomorrow (only in Ohio can you have a high of 65 then it drops 30 some odd degrees and gives you snow). Do yourself a favor and give praise to Hopsus by going out and purchasing some.

5/5 caps

-Nathan-

Food pairing: Colorado enchiladas (you know, with pork and the green sauce)
Cheese pairing: Fuck it, go for broke. A damn good quality Asiago.
Music pairing: Neil Young, "Harvest Moon"

Fat Head's Hop Stalker

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"Deep in the Yakima Valley, our hop-obsessed Head Brewmaster went commando in seach of his prized nuggets. His mission: Capture the freshest hop flowers he could sneak up on. Then he wet-hopped this bad-ass brew for a deliciously dank IPA. Out of the wild emerged The Hop Stalker."

"Pour it slowly, Unfiltered beer captured inside, go commando, drink it fresh"

All the text on the 16 ounce can of this 7% ABV, 80 IBU, wet hopped IPA seems so inviting to go Gonzo. Go commando, I take that as a challenge to go balls to the wall. Challenge accepted, Fat Head's.

This barely fit into a pint glass (makes sense as 16oz is a pint) with a nice golden amber color with small amount of white head. Very little head, which is fine with me, as it leaves more space for the wet-hopped liquid. You can see tiny bubbles constantly rising through this crystal clear beverage. The aroma on this is dank, like, well, Colorado knows. There is also a nice citrus aroma that washes over, with hints of slight spice to lend for a very hop heavy aroma. It's the season of wet/fresh hop, and I personally don't feel like going into that debate once again (Google it or check our prior reviews on such beers as Sierra Nevada's Estate or Founder's Harvest), we did that too much in previous reviews.

The initial sip on this is an initial blast of unadulterated bliss for hop heads like myself. This is so hop heavy I'm in my own version of Heaven, holding hands and skipping hops across beer vats with Hopsus. Sweet Jesus, if you aren't a religious person, and you're a hop head, this will make you believe in some sort of higher power. That higher power is Hopsus, btw. So the initial sip is just face melting, tongue rocking hops. There is citrus and pine and and and and and. There are so many different flavors coming from this, the taste bud to recognition process is overwhelmed. Dank at first, but instantly kicking into grapefruit, pine, mango, pineapple at times.. Flavor of the hops changing in less than a second between the color wheel, so-to-speak. The malt flavors are not noticed in this, to where this would be classified as "unbalanced" for those who do not have the same love, nay, lust for the Humulus. Dank, tropical, grapefruit, pine, citrus zest, fuck.... I can't type as fast as the flavors are changing. Even after this has been swallowed and copious amounts of hop oils are still around your tongue, gums and cheeks; the flavors are still shifting, running the gauntlet. The drinkability is decent, drinks like a typical IPA, but the palate wrecking oils makes this more of a sipping beer. The mouthfeel on this makes me have a semi-chub. Fuck it, I'm not even going to lie. I'm half-mast drinking this. The mouth puckering oils that are running rampant around are something spectacular. Hopsus, you have let your glorious light shine, and your light has landed on my tongue. With this drink, I accept you into my world, with this swallow, I realize you're all powerful and all knowing. May Hopsus be with you, and also with you.

All religious experience from drinking this beer aside, it's fucking good. Do your taste buds a favor and find some. If Fat Head's isn't distributed in your area, I've heard rumors that people do beer trades, and there may be Facebook groups for trades, for all you social media fiends.

5/5 Caps .... cause FUCK YEAH!
-Nathan-

I am not even sure how to follow that. Well, other than to drink it. And to hope that they introduce themselves in Portland in the next few days with this beer, because we like Portland people, and they should have this beer. And no, I haven't tasted it yet. Nathan wants to stare at me creepily when I take my first sip, so I may be procrastinating a bit.

This is a wonderful, clear golden color with some moderate white foam sitting atop it. The aroma is wonderful: heavy with tropical fruits, such as passionfruit, mango, guava, and a hint of a spice note. The taste? Oh yes, I just called Nathan over to witness the expression on my face. He ended up crawl-scuttling across the floor because he had banged the hell out of his foot on the coffee table. Eh, tall guy/Bigfoot problems. Apparently, I did not disappoint. He wasn't lying about the Color Wheel Effect: it's fast and hard. Prepare yourselves. I'll try to take you through each spoke of that wheel, but as my beertner could not, I give no guarantees. Passionfruit, guava, mango, grapefruit, caramel, pineapple, fermented pineapple (ever had 2-day-old cut-fresh pineapple? Only it's not bad here). I don't get so much dank out of the initial sip; it's more of the mega-coaster at Cedar Point as you are chugging up that first hill, waiting for the bottom to drop out of your stomach. And as soon as I say that and take another sip, there it is, right out of the gate. It's 4:20 somewhere, right?!? Holy hell, this is fantastic. This is palate-wrecked in a good way. This has a medium body: not too thin, not too malty, like Goldilocks' search, just right. Moderate carbonation, and Nathan was right about the hop oils lingering on your tongue long after you swallowed (in a side conversation). Yes, that is what she said, in fact.

Also, a fair warning: Nathan mentioned that people do beer trades. We are definitely cough cough not among those people. And he isn't coming off the last beer we have (as one most certainly is not earmarked for a trade).

5/5 caps
-Jennie

Food Pairing: fucking whatever you want cause your palate is destroyed!
Cheese Pairing: see above
Music Pairing: Bob Marley, "Three Little Birds" because with this beer, everything is, indeed, going to be all right.

Great Lakes Nosferatu

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Tonight was trick-or-treat in Columbus and many other communities. If you have little ones, I hope you enjoyed it as much as they did and that everyone stayed safe. Do you dress up to take the kids out? I do. Or do you prefer to stay at home and pass out candy? I used to dress up for that, too, before I had a kid of my own. I love both; this is one of my favorite nights of the year. In that spirit (ha! See what I did there?), we bring you our final installment of the autumn seasonals, Great Lakes Brewing's Nosferatu, an imperial red ale. It has been a few years since I have had this, and I'm looking forward to drinking it again. Out of a martini glass, because, well, it's imperial and because I have Halloween-themed martini glasses. Of course I do. You know you are jealous.

This pours a lovely color that is more amber than red. It had a teensy little bit of cream-colored head that did not stick around long. The nose on this is lovely. Caramel and toffee predominate the nose, with some faint citrus notes popping in from time to time. The flavor is pleasant, heavy on the caramel notes with some generic citrus and perhaps some pineapple coming to the table in the middle, and finishing slightly bitter and earthy with a note of pine that is borderline metallic. This is thinner than I would like in body for this style of beer, but it's not too thin. It is well-carbonated, and my mouth is left feeling a little sticky from the hops. The 8% ABV is not noticed in the taste.

Overall, while a great beer, it's not quite McCarthy's Bane. That beer was a game-changer, a category-killer for me. This is actually pretty close to that, just a little less hoppy and a little thinner in body. But hey, Nosferatu is made just up the road in Cleveland, who is having a big night of their own with the return of prodigal son Lebron James. As a vigilant supporter of the Ohio craft beer scene, I'll gladly drink this when I can find it.

4.25/5 caps

-Jennie

Nosferatu, named after one of the first Vampire movies (you came blame Twilight for the decline of quality).  Aptly named as we head into tomorrow being Halloween. This season is probably my favorite adult season. Sure you have Saint Patrick's day where we all celebrate being Irish (whether we are or not), we have Cinco de Mayo where we all celebrate being Mexican (whether we are or not), but what do we celebrate on Halloween? Our Scottish heritage of guising? Our witch/Salem Witch Trials heritage? No. Being drunkards with imaginations. You get to be creative around this season. Sure, I...er... I mean people enjoy the sexy cop, sexy devil, sexy cat; but I actually enjoy more of the unique costume ideas. My one buddy dressed as the "Aliens" guy from History channel the same year another friend dressed as "Mr. Mayhem" from the Allstate ads, a lot of creativity instead of the same typical "Oh, I'm a zombie, I'm a vamp" humdrum. Enough jibber jabber, time to get onto the beer review, fool (do kids still dress as Mr. T? I've been so out of the trick-or-treat circuit...).

As I watch Louisville have a dominating lead against FSU, and allow a comeback, I need this 8%. I'm indifferent to Louisville, but I can't stand FSU for reasons I will not get into on here. This isn't a sports blog, this is about beer. You readers put up with enough of our random banter without having to have me drag sports into the equation.

This pours a nice reddish amber with a small amount of cream colored head (that has lasted around through my intro/babble). The aroma on this is, as my lovely partner-in-basically-everything stated, caramel and toffee heavy with some citrus coming through. The flavor on this is caramel up front, faint nondescript citrus hops with a building bitterness toward the middle. As the bitterness builds, there's almost a chocolate note that pops for a second and leads to a earthy/metallic note. The bitterness/earthy/metallic phase drops out and gives way to a caramel/citrus/tropical finish that rides out for a bit, leaving a slightly sticky finish around the cheek and gums. Not sure at this point if it's hop resin or sweetness or a combination there of... I think after another sip it's a combination. Eh... It's hoppier than most red ales I've had (sans the Trump Card of Red Ales, aka McCarthy's Bane), but, as a hop head leaving my personal bias aside, it's good. For a red ale, one of my least favorite categories, it's great.

Side note before my rating, my last time drinking this was at a bar that focuses on craft beer (Bob's Bar if you're ever in Columbus). I was drinking this and shooting pool and playing darts with my then neighbor (we both have since moved). It brings back good times when things weren't so hectic and the world seemed like a happier place (this was 2008).

4.3/5 caps

-Nathan-

Food pairing: Whoppers straight out of the Halloween candy stash (when a food makes a beer even better, as this does, you have to!)
Cheese pairing: Chevre
Music pairing: "Nosferatu Does a Hefty Dance" by Pinkly Smooth

Southern Tier Warlock

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I am trying to refrain from hopping (ha! See what I did there???) on a soapbox about the term Warlock. Male witches are simply that: male witches, unless we get into a discussion of ceremonial magicians, and that is a whole different category. But we are here to discuss beer, and to keep any religious/lifestyle nomenclature out of it, so I won't go full rant on you. In case you were wondering, I identify as a witch. Not Wiccan, some Pagan, definitely kitchen witch. No, I don't have any warts. No, my skin isn't green (unless I'm wearing green makeup as part of my Halloween costume. Or unless I am bruised and going through the inevitable cycle of rainbow colors). No, I do not worship the devil, if you mistook today for 1692. Yes, the snozzberries taste like snozzberries, just in case you were wondering. This is, quite simply, one of my favorite weeks of the year, hence the pumpkin beers.

This is an imperial pumpkin stout, the darker version of Pumking. I love so many of Southern Tier beers, although Pumking isn't one of my favorites. Not just of theirs, of pumpkin beers. It's too sweet for my taste, but since we haven't properly reviewed it, perhaps I should leave a little mystery? Something to whet your thirst for more? Should we just get to this 8.6% ABV pumpkin stout already? Yes??? Well, then, shall we?

This is supposed to be poured into a goblet. I have goblets, but I did not consider using them until after pouring this. It is an opaque, brownish-black color with a modicum of khaki-colored head that quickly dissipated. The aroma is pleasant: when I first poured it, it was heavier on the pumpkin spice, to the point where I thought "instant palate wrecker". It has had a few minutes to warm, as I moved on and off my soapbox, and now the aroma is more creamy vanilla with pumpkin spices and dark chocolate. Ooooh, I am so making a beer float out of this, and I have the perfect ice cream for it. But we will get to that once I am done dissecting this beer. This goes down dark and smooth. It hits your mouth with a punch of vanilla and toasted walnuts, fading into chocolate mocha, then a left hook of clove and ginger and cinnamon, then a big bite of alcohol booziness, then more with the pumpkin spices, this time around with a little more nutmeg. You can tell there is pumpkin used in the brewing process, but it does not dominate in the taste. The mouthfeel on this is smooth and round, yet it is moderately carbonated.

OK, time for the ice cream... For this particular beer, I have chosen a scoop of black walnut ice cream.

The black walnuts kind of tame down the spiciness of this beer and totally mellow out the end of this. It would also be good with a high-quality vanilla ice cream, but I like how the black walnuts play with the early nuttiness in this. My overall opinion of the beer is that it's good, but a little heavy on the spice.

P.S. I am lowering my rating because it has now been an hour since I last drank this and my taste buds seem singed. Even palate cleansers have not helped remotely. You know the Hot Pocket Effect? Yeah, that is happening in my mouth. After an hour. Not cool (no pun intended). It's enjoyable going down, but a little bit goes a very long way.

3.7/5 caps

-Jennie

Earlier today, I sent a text to Jennie about needing high alcohol beer to assist me in the shitty day that has bestowed itself upon me. I had no idea that I'd be doing 2 beer reviews tonight. It works. It helps wash away the agony of factory work. It makes me wish I was working full time at the brewery I've been volunteering for.

I'm kind of glad this is our last pumpkin beer to review. No offense to any brewery at all, I'm just over the market flood of everything pumpkin; coffee, ice cream, donuts, cake, candies, beer, so on. Side note, yesterday we saw a Christmas display at the local big chain grocery. Today, Great Lakes Christmas Ale released, Thirsty Dog's 12 Dogs of Christmas is out already... for fuck's sake people, it's not even Halloween yet. Fuck it, I'm just going to start buying Easter candy now.

This is dark, nay, black as the night sky. Any head that was once on there is now just a distant memory, much like proper timing of holiday decor in the sales world. The aroma on this is big. Boozy tones blend themselves with your spices and pumpkin, distant notes of dark malts, almost chocolate. The flavor on this is strong. It's your liquid pumpkin pie style beer, with darker roasted malts giving roasted and chocolate flavors to this. There's a slight charred-like bitterness toward the back end to give a reminder that this is actually a beer and not a dessert. There are some boozy notes on that start taking hold from time to time, leaving a numbing feeling in the mouth, like smoking a clove cigarette/cigar. This is definitely a sipping beer, not your College Football Season Beer Pong League sort of beer. This is a heavy, filling beer, like a meal in a bottle. Palate is still wrecked, sigh. I'm glad we saved this for the 2nd review of the night.

Had I not been burned out on the market flood of everything pumpkin, I would be willing to buy a second bottle, but at this point, I'm done. It's time for the over flooding of winter/Christmas/Yule ales. Sigh. I'm glad we have about 3 cases of things to review so we can sit this season out and not get into the epic debate of which Christmas ale is the best (btw, it's Flying Monkeys Smashbomb Atomic IPA).

3.9/5 caps

-Nathan-

Food pairing: Black walnut ice cream
Cheese pairing: Habanero cheddar, because one's taste buds have never been singed enough to bring them back to normal
Music pairing: Omnia, "The Raven"

Rivertown Pumpkin Ale

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We continue on our trek of enjoying pumpkin beers during the appropriate time to enjoy pumpkin beers. Fuck me. I realized this is the 2nd Rivertown beer we've reviewed (the other being Blueberry, which we panned). Rivertown puts out fantastic beer. I could have sworn we reviewed the Roebling, but apparently not, we'll have to make that happen soon. They recently posted on Facebook about going in a different direction in 2015, more sours and Belgian style beers, along with keeping the favorites.

Rivertown is out of Cinci, they, in my mind, are the only Rivertown. There has been another company named Rivertowne that has been distributing here since summer. I have yet to have any Rivertowne beer, although they have a pineapple beer that people tout about, but we're here to review this beer.

We mentioned this beer during the Blueberry review. We've had it before, and enjoyed it over the last 2 years (seasonally, of course), I don't know why it took us so long to review it.  This pours a deep amber color with some off-white head. The aroma on this is pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg mostly, faint clove), sweetness (they brew this with molasses), and faint pumpkin. The flavor on this is what I want in a pumpkin beer. It's perfectly balanced between the sweetness and the pumpkin flavors without letting the spices take over. It's smooth drinking with a slightly malt sticky back end. The 5% ABV will allow you to drink more than one without doing damage and the balanced flavor won't wreck your palate to anything else you may be enjoying. You can still tell you're drinking beer without tricking your mind into believing you're enjoying a dessert.

4.6/5 caps

-Nathan-

Actually, I had Rivertowne (with an E) Pumpkin at a recent homebrew competition. One of the judges brought some, and his lovely wife shared it with me. Without doing a full review on that, as I'm here to enjoy another pumpkin beer by a similarly-named brewery, it was decent. I prefer this one. But apparently it was decent enough for me not to flag down Nathan or my other pumpkin beer-loving friends to share it.

This one is my go-to pumpkin beer. It's readily available in Columbus, and it's delicious. I always try to save some for Halloween night; it has become a personal tradition. Perhaps next year we will make our own pumpkin beer, but until we do that, I'll happily support the semi-local beer scene, or at the very least, the burgeoning Ohio beer scene.

This is a medium amber color with a little bit of barely-beige head remaining atop the beer. The nose on this is mostly nutmeg, with some pie crust (yes, you can actually smell some pie crust in this!), complementing cinnamon and just a hint of clove and even fainter pumpkin wafting past my olfactory nerve. The flavor is a bit more pumpkin-forward than the aroma, with the cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove all coming in and out of play as I drink it down. It's not overly sweet, unlike many pumpkin beers, and it is well-balanced as far as the pumpkin and spices go. The molasses lend a nice, dark flavor to the beer. It is nicely carbonated. The aftertaste is all cinnamon, once again.

In a horizontal tasting, I am not sure which pumpkin beer I prefer. The Schlafly was good, but a little "hotter" on the back end. This is more well-rounded to me. This one might have a lighter body, but not by much, and if you are drinking more than one, that's quite fine. After all those spices, however, my palate is pretty wrecked.

4.6/5 caps

-Jennie

Food Pairing: New York-style cheesecake
Cheese Pairing: A sage Derby
Music Pairing: "I Like It" by Foxy Shazam (also from Cinci)

Schlafly Pumpkin

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It's official: we are smack dab in the heart of pumpkin season. Pumpkin everything is upon us, if you happen to be living under a rock. Pumpkin cookies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin scones, pumpkin spice lattes, and, of course, pumpkin beers. I don't know about where you live, but Ohio released pumpkin beers in early August. August! It reminds me of shops that decorate for Christmas before Halloween. It drives me bonkers.... namely because, by the time I get around to wanting one, as the weather turns to those crisp fall days, pumpkin beers are gone. Never fear, we have been stocking up for the last two months, and have a few to bring you. This one, however, was a nice surprise in a recent trade, as it is not distributed to Ohio, and it is a fantastic pumpkin beer. We enjoyed it when we were in Illinois a couple years ago to move my dad out here.

Pouring a deep amber, almost garnet color, the chill haze has now lifted and a bit of off-white head still remains atop my beer. The aroma is liquid pumpkin pie, with cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, brown sugar, and pumpkin wafting into my nose. Oh, but wait, this is so much better than the aroma! This a beer in which the pumpkin shines. You can tell Schlafly does not skimp on the pumpkin in this, as it hits you first and stands ahead of the spices in the beer. The pumpkin hits you first, then the cinnamon, and the clove and nutmeg wait until the pumpkin is done playing on your tongue before making their appearance. There is a decent bite from the alcohol (8%) at the very end. The aftertaste is almost like one of those cinnamon disk candies. This is fairly well carbonated, and soft enough to make me wonder whether there is some lactose in here, and there is almost a creamy flavor to it.

This is a wonderful example of a pumpkin beer. I tend to enjoy them, but I know several connoisseurs who do not. I would challenge them to try this, widely regarded as one of the better pumpkin beers on the market, to see if this could be a game-changer.

4.6/5 caps

-Jennie

After a rough day at work, my initial game plan was just to get stupid drunk off massive amounts of high ABV, cheap swill (read: FUCK MY LIVER! IT'S FORTIES NIGHT!). I decided against this preliminary thought, as there was the opportunity to enjoy good beer and review. Well, so here we are, after a rough day, opening the Frank Turner cd I ordered off Amazon, plugging it in and listening to it while, once again, staring at a computer screen. As if I didn't get enough of the staring at a screen for 8 gruesome hours today. It's funny to think that the thing that makes you feel shackled can also be a form of release and freedom.

I gave Jennie the opportunity to review this first while still getting my bearings about my day. Since then, this has had time to warm up. This has zero chill haze now, with a rich amber, light garnet color. This has a small amount of the off-white head still lingering around, much like the work day lingers, only the off-white head is welcome in my world. The nose on this at this point is your pumpkin pie spices, but you can actually smell pumpkin in this (unlike most that just seem to be the spices). There's something almost creamy about the aroma, as weird as that may sound. Also, welcome hints of booze. Whoa... The flavor on this... It's like eating a good homemade pumpkin pie. Pumpkin still predominant at this point with a nice blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove; none of which over power the other flavors. Faint hints of brown sugar and cream make themselves known at first, but only for a short amount of time, much like a limited run of your favorite sandwich at a fast-food restaurant, gone too soon. Nice full mouthfeel like you just took a bite of pumpkin pie, to boot. I get where Jennie said the back end is like the cinnamon hard candies. I also see where she said the ABV is noticed. Neither are deterrents from this beer  for me despite my 'eh' feeling toward cinnamon flavored things; gum, liquor, graham crackers, candy.

If were were scoring this through a BJCP score sheet, this would have the check mark of "I would pay money for this beer" in the Drinkability section.

4.6/5 caps

-Nathan-

Food Pairing: Pumpkin Ravioli in a sage cream sauce
Cheese Pairing: Butterkasse
Music Pairing:  "This is Halloween" (from The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack)

New Belgium Tour de Fall

 

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I hope everyone's livers survived GABF 2014. We did not go, but we did await with bated breath for the results to be announced. Congratulations to all the winners, both those we know personally and those we don't. If you are in the Columbus area, the Daily Growl in Powell is hosting an event Wednesday evening featuring Ohio's winning breweries, with Columbus Brewing's Bodhi and Creeper, JABF Wooster's Hefe, and Spooky Tooth from the awesome people at Fat Head's. Tonight, we feature a beer from New Belgium, which is not local to us. It's one of the major craft breweries in the US, though, and I have a particular affinity for them, as their CEO is a woman who helped found the company. New Belgium's cellar manager is also a woman. Considering that women were likely the first brewers, women are just now really up-and-coming on the craft brewing scene. That is not to say that we don't brew great beer, nor do we have undeveloped palates, nor that we are not a part of the brewing scene; I don't know about your hometown, but I am a part of many pages and groups that encourage women in beer. We are just in the vast minority in the craft beer industry, for the most part. Hooray for girl power! 

Also, if this post shows up weird, Blogger is acting up tonight. It looks weird on my monitor and it's bugging me. Mercury has only been in retrograde for two days. Harrumph. 

All grumping aside, here we have NB's fall seasonal, Tour de Fall. It's a pale ale. We actually picked this up in Champaign, Illinois, on our way to Peoria for my father's memorial service. We had stopped for gas, and it was much later than we wanted to be arriving in town. The gas station also happened to have a liquor store attached, so we decided to pick up some beer to enjoy once we checked into the hotel. 

This pours a beautiful deep golden color that initially had some chill haze. I had a bit of writer's block that allowed that to clear up perfectly. There is a small amount of white head that remains atop the beer. The aroma is pine and earth, tropical fruits, and straight up Amarillo hops that were used to dry hop the beer. Taking a long sip, my palate is greeted with malty sweetness that is quickly followed by that earthy tone, a longer note of pine, and a bitter finish. It's a lighter, well-balanced beer, and a good example of a well-made pale ale. A different sip yields a completely different beer: tropical fruits and caramel sweetness and some bready flavors with just a tinge of earthiness. There are plenty of Cascade and Amarillo hops in here, but I don't mind the presence of either (I'm iffy on both, but let me note that is just a matter of personal preference). It has a very round mouthfeel. 

Overall, I think this is a great example of an American pale ale. It's also quickly become one of my favorite beers from New Belgium. 

4.3/5 caps

-Jennie

After a long day at work, sending a birthday email to my step-dad, texting my dad, and being involved on a meme war (for fun) that now has roughly 320 different memes clogging up my friend's wall on Facebook, it's good to sit down for some good beer.  This has had time to warm, between the technical difficulties and Jennie's portion of the review. Speaking of warming up; Ohio, get your shit together. Your weather here in the last week has been more fickle than a teenager who's trying a last ditch effort on planning an after-prom party and realizing the guy under the bridge who normally buys you alcohol, if he can smell your hair, was arrested last week for public indecency while he was waving his penis in public, yelling about the turkey sandwich that he had 6 years ago before the aliens came and stole his Casio, leaving him a weird marking on his arm, which he calls "Bucky." Yeah, try and proofread that shit, yo. I like to throw things in like that to see if people are actually reading the second part of the review.... I expect feedback...

This is a nice golden copper color that still has a small amount of head hanging around, much like the image that's in your head from the previous paragraph, only not as offensive. No, this lingering is welcome. It appears to still have some decent carbonation, as I still see some bubbles coming up. Speaking of still seeing things, you're still imaging the previously mentioned image in your head, aren't you? The aroma on this is caramel, tropical fruits, and pine with some faint earthy notes. The first sip is rather malt forward with caramel and biscuit notes with faint hop characteristics that were noticed in the nose. It slowly builds with the hop flavor, never becoming a hop bomb though. There is some grapefruit that hangs around on the back end after this smooth drinking liquid has gone down your throat. This finishes slightly sticky from the hops, but again, never becoming a hop bomb. This apparently is only 38 IBUs, but could be a little deceiving, as it seems around 50, but that's just my opinion.

According to New Belgium's website, there has not been any food pairings submitted to them for this beer, we may be the first ones. In fact, we'll even submit a music pairing, because we go above and beyond, as those are the kind of people we are.

Overall, a good beer. If you're able to obtain this, please do, you will not be disappointed.

4.3/5 caps

-Nathan-

 

Food pairing: Grilled bratwurst (that has previously been boiled in beer and onions)

Cheese pairing: a good, creamy Farmer's Cheese

Music pairing: "Bicycle Race" by Queen