Category: food

From the bottle:

An unfiltered, unfettered, unprecedented brown ale aged in handmade wooden brewing vessels. The caramel and vanilla complexity unique to this ale comes from the exotic Paraguayan Palo Santo wood from which these tanks were crafted. At 10,000 gallons each, these are the largest wooden brewing vessels built in America since before Prohibition. It’s all very exciting. We have wood. Now you do too.

From the notes:

Thick head, tannish quickly dissipated, dark colored almost caramel reminds me of root beer. Smells of cut wood with subtle candy sweetness. You can taste the alcohol in this beer. Reminds me of a stout, toasted molasses, malts, and spiced wood tastes. Bittersweet finish.

This is a uniquely flavored beer. I’ve never tasted anything like it. While I was drink and taking notes I kept finding myself searching for words to describe the complex smells an tastes I was experiencing… Woody and spiced came up a lot. But I think both of those words fail to encapsulate what is going on with Dogfish Head’s Palo Santo Marron. In the end I don’t think this beer is for me, despite the taste I don’t see myself drinking this beer regularly in the future. I do recommend that everyone give it a try though!

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From the Ayinger Brewery website:

A beer that has a dominant malty taste. This beer’s origins in a monk’s recipe are reflected in its heartiness. The Pope of Beers, Conrad Seidl, describes it as: “Almost black with a very slight red tone, a sensational, festive foam and truly extraordinary fragrance that at first summons up visions of greaves lard. The first taste is of mild fullness with an accompanying coffee tone, which becomes more dominant with the aftertaste. There is very little of the sweetness that is frequently to be tasted with doppelbock beer.” The Ayinger Celebrator has been ranked among the best beers of the world by the Chicago Testing Institute several times and has won numerous platinum medallions.

From my notes:

Smells like caramel, malty almost like bread. This beer is a rich brown color with thick tan head that sticks around. Tastes of chocolate and again breads, dark ones (rye, etc…) finishes with a gentle, lingering  roasted bitterness.  This is a smooth, full bodied beer with low carbonation. Good!

I’ve only ever seen this beer at high end groceries and beer shops but it’s well worth going out of your way for if you appreciate bock (and double bock) style beers. Highly recommended!

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From Anchor Steam’s site:

 Brewed strictly according to traditional brewing methods, using only natural ingredients — water, malted barley, fresh whole hops, and yeast. Old Foghorn is based on traditional English barley wines. Old Foghorn is highly hopped, using only Cascade hops. It is fermented with a true top-fermenting ale yeast. Carbonation is produced by an entirely natural process called “bunging,” which produces champagne-like bubbles. Our “barleywine ale” is dry-hopped with additional Cascade hops while it ages in our cellars.

From my notes:

 deep, rich, red color. Thick, darkish, head that quickly evaporates. This beer smells of fruit: citrus and maybe plums. Taste starts sweet and malty, then mellows into bitter. Would be excellent except for the subtle medicine/metallic tastes that this barley wine has.

I haven’t drank a lot of barley wines and I felt safe trying Anchor Brewery’s take on them for a first try. This was a decent beer with a nice mix of malt and hops. I’d being recommending it to you right now if it wasn’t for that medicine taste. The last thing anyone wants to taste when their downing a brew is Robitussin! Despite all this beer had going for it that ruined it. Maybe I got a bad batch, maybe there are other good barley wines out there? I just don’t know… If you happen to know of a good one though please recommend it below!

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From their site:

An amber lager crafted with a blend of five specialty malts and the finest Bavarian hops. Rich, robust malt character and a long lingering finish. Reminiscent of beers produced by Munich’s breweries for annual Oktoberfest celebrations.

From my notes:

This is a beautiful dark amber colored beer with a nice amount of head.  Feels light in the mouth with medium carbonation. Smells malty with a hint of fruit. Has a nice roasted (not burnt) mellow malt taste, with flavors of nut, spice, and caramel. Has a slightly bitter aftertaste, doesn’t linger.

A perfectly good Märzen great to have around Oktoberfest. Märzen is the official beer of Oktoberfest and this is a fine example of it. Nothing shouts out that this is an amazing beer, but you wouldn’t have nay problems knocking back a couple of glasses. Sudwerk’s is my town’s local microbrewery so you might have a hard time getting a hold of this beer. There is now a Sudwerk’s in Fulsom, CA for those located in southern California. I don’t think this is a beer worth seeking out but if you see it on the shelves it’s worth picking up a six-pack.

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