Brewing up our first all grain batch and it’s an APA. We’ll keep you posted on how it turns out.

Sierra Nevada has released a set of limited addition beers which we have found to be available at Rollin Oats in St. Pete. Among the list is the Juniper Black Ale, black as a stout with a nice chocolate flavor but as light and crisp as an ale. At 8.5 ABV it makes you feel nice and more. Get it while it’s around and stash it for the winter.

As I’ve said before, I love oak aged beers.  I also love the majority of beers I’ve had from Southern Tier, so I definitely wasn’t going to pass this one up, and it’s reasonably priced ($7 in stores).

It pours orange-brown with minimal head.  There’s a deep hop aroma, piney and grassy, with notes of alcohol.  Body is smooth with light, shimmering carbonation.  You taste hops immediately, and the malt sweetness is fades after the initial.  The aftertaste is all piney, sweet citrus hops, and you can detect the tropical oak flavors if you look for them.  This is a strong beer, and you’ll taste some alcohol – at 11% it’s unavoidable.  But, it’s very balanced in these flavors, similar to the Great Divide 16^th ann – although it seems a bit hoppier.

This is a fantastic beer overall – I will have to revisit the regular UnEarthly to see which I enjoy more.  But, I feel that this is a once-in-a-while sipper, meant to be enjoyed with only the best of your craft bear enjoying friends.  I wouldn’t pair this with anything other than cool weather and a comfy chair.   Cheers!

Rogue ales are, appropriately, unpredictable when it comes to my enjoyment of them.  If there’s one thing they do right consistently, it’s stouts – their chocolate stout is one of the best in the world, and I had high expectations for the double chocolate stout as well.  Fortunately, Rogue again delivers a delicious stout.

This beer pours like old engine oil, with almost no transparency.  A minimal brown head fades quickly.  The aroma is of dark roast coffee, dark chocolate, and some mild earthy hops.  The mouthfeel is thick, with minimal carbonation.  It’s bittersweet throughout, with hops and roasted coffee standing out in the aftertaste.  I taste a fair amount of alcohol, which is expected in the imperial/double stout style.  It’s not overbearing though.

This is a great desert beer, perfect to share with a friend.  This would pair well with some sweeter cheeses, even chocolate chip cookies.

Cheers!

Part three of Sierra Nevada’s Anniversary Ales is a black barleywine, a new style in the world of craft beer.  This year has revealed a share of black IPAs, for example Southern Tier’s Iniquity IPA, but this is the first black barleywine I’ve seen.  I love a good barleywine, and a good stout, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong with this ale–I was not disappointed.

The cork popped very loudly and accordingly the beer  poured with a giant head.  This pours dark, dark, dark, black with a hint of red when held in the light.  The aroma is something intriguing and unique.  You can detect chocolate and coffee notes as in a typical stout, but it competes heavily with a giant hop aroma.  The taste is just as baffling–but quite satisfying, with a strong alcohol kick in the finish.   It’s tough to say whether this is more of a stout or barleywine, as both sides are equally represented.  You could say that this is a super-hopped stout–hop-heads and imperial stout fanatics will love this beer.  I know I did.

Dogfish Head is one of those craft breweries that consistently pushes the envelope when it comes to beer, and I’m always excited to see what they’ll come up with next.  So I was not too happy when I saw that their newest adventure was to use tea in a beer! (I HATE tea)  This beer is listed as containing black chai tea and juniper berries, brewed in a Flemish style (which also made me nervous).  But, I’ll try any beer once, so here goes!

This definitely tastes like a dry, slightly tart pale Belgian ale, with aggressive carbonation and a citrusy aroma.  It pours orange-yellow with a foamy head.  There’s definitely some lemon kick, and a slightly funky aftertaste, but thank goodness, there’s no real noticeable tea taste.  This sits at 9%abv but doesn’t have much of a detectable alcohol kick.  This is more along the lines of a very dry saison, and fans of unique Belgian and Flemish ales should give this a try.  Otherwise, I can’t recommend it for very wide audience.

Most people can imagine a standard American Lager, the good ones not the water ones. Clean, crisp, and most of the times devoid of any real flavor or alcohol kick. Now, imagine a good Pale Ale, hoppy aroma with a bitter snap, nice blend of alcohol with a mild to strong bitter after taste. Now make those two styles have a baby and you have Farmer’s Tan Imperial Pale Lager by Southern Tier.

This Frankenstein is no monster, in fact it smells just like a pale ale with great malt character. With the lager yeast and and the 9.0% ABV (now that is a kick) the alcohol isn’t over powering, its more like a nice stocking cap for your heart. This big bottle pours with a nice Golden Amber color and tops off the glass with a nice white head. There is still a lot of hop aroma and flavor in this one, enough to please any hop head but they just don’t stick around for an extra long stay.

Being from Saint Louis and growing up smelling Anheuser Busch brewing beer, Farmer’s Tan really reminds me of what I always imagined Bud would taste like as my folks drove me past the brewery. I drink a lot of Pale Ales and IPAs but I will go as far as saying this might be the best Pale I have had in a long time. One of my complaints about the style is that you can drink a couple and then you loose track of the malt character and your palette is wrecked. I had two glasses of Farmer’s Tan and have to say I was in malt heaven the whole time. Southern Tier knocked this one out of the park when it comes to a good beer with a great flavor balance. I would love to brew a home version of this one sometime. Perhaps I will call Southern Tier up and ask for the recipe, but until then I highly recommend you give this one a try. Hurry though, its a seasonal and that means you could miss out.

When I think back on the first “good beer” or, craft brew as we know it, I ever had, I get great vivid flashbacks. I was at my sisters place in Boston, I was probably “21″ and it was a beer she had raved about. My sister lived in Boulder, Colorado for years and she had a stash of Fat Tire. I had my first sip that day and I was in love.

Flash forward nine years and I still am in love. Fat Tire — another beer from New Belgium I got when visiting my girlfriend’s parents — is delicious. The label says it has toasty, biscuit-like malt flavors and that’s as true as the sky being blue. It’s really not like any other ale I’ve had and really has a distinct taste, almost buttery at times.

It’s an Amber Ale that I could drink all day, especially in the summer, or crack just one and watch a baseball or football game.

Hell, even better, it’s perfect for just reminiscing.

For those of us who live in Florida, and actually many other states, getting to taste beers from the delicious New Belgium brewery is nearly impossible. It’s sort of like seeing the Loch Ness Monster. Well FU Nessie, because I’m locked and loaded with beers from the Colorado brewery.

On my way to Amelia Island with my girlfriend we decided to pop over the border into Ga. and stock up. We got a nice variety and I’ll be reviewing all of those here, but let’s start with the Ranger IPA.