Old Stock Ale (North Coast Brewing Co.)

This is one of those beers that you can put away and forget about for years if you have the patience. I don't have the patience right now, although I'll probably grab some of these at some point and put them in my cellar (a.k.a my closet). Everything North Coast puts out is solid so I will hold this one to those sort of high expectations.

Weighing in at 12.5% alcohol, the Old Stock Ale is a heavy looking beer as it comes out of the bottle. Once its made its way into the glass its a very rich dark auburn brown color with wisps of redness. Not much head on this one and the carbonation level is minimal as far as I can tell. Its a great looking beer.

Smell is very rich and sweet brown sugar and dark brown bread accompanied with dark stewed fruit. Some apple cider vinegar notes are present as well that lead to some red wine characteristics. This is another very complex beer as far as smell goes. So many strands to pull apart!

Taste is absolutely delicious from the first chewy sip. Very balanced. Sweet malt tastes combine with some toasted dark bread and some more bitter notes quite well before the alcohol dryness hits you at the end. The sweetness and the bitterness play off each other nicely and the warming from the alcohol is a nice little feature as well. You'll definitely want to give this beer a chance to warm up a bit so you can experience all the flavors it has to offer. You'd be crazy not to love a beer with such complexity and strength.

BEER FACTS

Name: Old Stock Ale (2008 Vintage)

Style: Old Ale

Brewery: North Coast Brewing Company

Location: Fort Bragg, California, USA

Container: 12 oz. bottle

Malts: Maris Otter

Hops: Fuggles & East Kent Goldings

ABV: 12.5%

IBUs: 36

Harbor Lighthouse Ale (Bar Harbor Brewing Co.)

I had to grab a bomber of this before they are all gone. This is one of the three beers that is now available in six-packs and brewed by Geary's and once the big bottles from Bar Harbor are gone they're gone.

The first thing that will surprise you is the very low alcohol content. This one is a flyweight, weighing in at only 3.2%. Not a bad looking light beer though. It pours a dark amber to ruby red color with a big soda type head that is made up of decent sized bubbles. The head clings to the glass quite well and once it settles their is about a quarter inch of foam still hanging on.

The smell is malt sweetness, some honey, maybe a little grainy and slightly syrupy. Not a whole lot of strong smells with this one.

Taste is pretty thin. Big sips of this beer are in order. I don't do that very often. I taste some slight malt, some breadiness and that is really about it. This is the type of beer that defines the term "session ale". You can drink lots of this in one sitting and probably the only thing that'll slow you down will be how full you get on liquids. 

Much like the Weenie Rocket IPA (another mild, low ABV ale) from Portsmouth Brewery, the Harbor Lighthouse is a refreshing beer that can be consumed as a thirst quencher on a warm day here in New England. Maybe six-packs aren't a bad idea with this one. 

BEER FACTS

Name: Harbor Lighthouse Ale

Style: British Mild

Brewery: Bar Harbor Brewing Company

Location: Bar Harbor, Maine, USA

Container: 22 oz. bottle

Malts: ?

Hops: ?

ABV: 3.2%

IBUs: ?

Brewed in Maine

Weenie Rocket IPA (Portsmouth Brewery)

Fine, so techinally it's classified as a mild and the bottle does say "American Mild" on it, but this beer is more affectionately known as "Weenie Rocket IPA". That is what you'll see it called at the brewery and that is what I had to ask for a glass of this past weekend. Makes you wish they had to come up with a real label for it! Regardless of its name, I really enjoyed it on tap and made sure to grab a bomber at the bottle shop before leaving Portsmouth.

Pours a slightly hazy straw color with a great carbonation level and a very nice looking head. Pretty much a perfect looking pour for a refreshing summer time beer.

Smell is grassy, hoppy, a bit bready and some sweetness (lemonade perhaps?).  

Taste is very crisp and refreshing. I don't know what other way to describe that initial pleasure I get from a big sip of this beer. Nothing is overpowering at all. There are citrus, apple, sour malt and some light sugary notes.

Weenie Rocket is obviously not at the same level as its big, bad brother the Bottle Rocket IPA but what makes it different is its shear drinkability and it does hold its own with quite a bit of hoppiness. I was thinking of how this could be the perfect session beer for a long, lazy day in the backyard with the grill going. Its nice and hoppy, crisp and refreshing and its not high in alcohol content. Overall, its an amazingly drinkable light beer. You can't do much better than this in the sub 5% category!

BEER FACTS

Name: Weenie Rocket IPA (a.k.a. American Mild)

Style: English Pale Mild Ale

Brewery: The Portsmouth Brewery

Location: Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA

Container: 22 oz. bottle

Malts: ?

Hops: ?

ABV: 4.8%

IBUs: ?

Palo Santo Marron (Dogfish Head)

Palo Santo means "holy wood or tree"  in Spanish. The tree itself is native to the southern region of South America and has been used to ferment wine in Paraguay. Its also got quite a few medicinal qualities as well. Dogfish Head got pretty damn creative, once again, and imported a bunch of it and built some pretty massive tanks in which to ferment and age this very strong brown ale. 

The label reads:

"An unfiltered, unfettered, unprecedented brown ale aged in handmade wooden brewing vessels. The caramel and vanilla complexity unique to this beer 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."

Pours dark, thick, very viscous and pretty much black in color. Reminds me very much of an Imperial stout. At 12% its hard to imagine still having a brown color for this ridiculously strong and complex "brown ale". The head is miniscule and quick to go away. While it does last its a nice coffee color with big loose bubbles. After settling its a very thin lace of off white hugging the top of the glass.

Smells of rich malt, dark roasted coffee, alcohol, and burnt sugar. I really don't know what to look for when it comes to the smell of Palo Santo. That is a bit of a mystery and I hope it is unraveled when I pour some of this into my mouth. 

My god that is good stuff. Sooo smooth and instantly warming! I love it. Tastes of dark toasted malt, bitter coffee along with some tangy sweetness. I definitely get the alcohol kick at the back of my tongue. Its got some qualities that are similar to a red wine, its a hearty strong beer with a bit of a dry fruit flavor at the end of each sip (this is definitely one you'll want to sip). 

Dark, rich and mysterious. Palo Santo Marron is a hell of a strong and complex beer. At 12% its a beer that you'll want to savor and enjoy all its different elements. Cheers to Sam Calagione on another amazingly unique beer from Dogfish Head!

Check out the video made about the first full-production batch of Palo Santo Marron by going HERE!

BEER FACTS

Name: Palo Santo Marron

Style: "Holy Tree" Brown Ale

Brewery: Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales

Location: Milton, Delaware, USA

Container: 12 oz. bottle

Malts: ?

Hops: ?

ABV: 12%

IBUs: ?

Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale (Stone Brewing Co.)

How do you make an Arrogant Bastard more Arrogant? Stick him in an oak barrel and make him wait there until he's really pissed off before letting him out. I know that sounds ridiculous, but how else do I explain the reasoning behind aging an already great beer in oak barrels? (UPDATE - Its not aged its "oaked" by throwing oak chips in during the fermentation. - thanks Steve from Summer of Beer for letting me know about that!) I grabbed a six-pack of the Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale so that I could compare the two, so here we go...

The "Oaked" looks a bit more reddish when it pours. Its a nice dark brown with hints of ruby redness. The head is an off white that is about a finger in thickness and sticks around for quite some time before deciding to go away.

The smell is strong and hoppy, much like the "Original". However the hop smell is not as intense and is accompanied by a subtle malt sweetness that wasn't quite as apparent before. I also get some caramel and definitely some baking vanilla from the wood.

Tastes smooooooooooooooooth. Definitely smoother and silkier than the original non-oaked version. The fresh, astringent hoppiness is replaced by a slightly bourbon-esque bitterness mixed with vanilla notes and alcohol dryness. 

Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale is full of unique flavors and is a drinking experience unlike most others. If I had to choose, I would go for the original since I am more partial to fresh hops than I am to barrel aged whiskey/bourbon tastes. Have your own taste test sometime and find out if you're "worthy".

To learn more about wood-aged beer go HERE!

Beer Facts:

Name: Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale

Style: Barrel Aged Strong Ale

Brewery: Stone Brewing Company

Location: Escondido, California, USA

Container: 22 oz. bottle

Malts: ?

Hops: "Classified"

ABV: 7.2%

IBU’s: "Classified"

Arrogant Bastard Ale (Stone Brewing Company)

This is the one and only Arrogant Bastard Ale from Stone Brewing Company out of Escondido, California. This is the beer that your friends have talked about for years and it will not disappoint to all those worthy of its hardcore mix of malt and a boat load of hops.

One line from the famous label reads, "This is an aggressive beer. You probably won't like it." How is that for an invitation? Worked for me...

Pours a nice dark mahogany color with a beautiful yellowish head that quickly takes up the space at the top quarter of my glass. Its a sight to behold really, such a rich color in a liquid and such a perfectly formed head on its top. The head is tight and slowly begins to leave little islands of foam floating atop this inviting elixir.

The smell is arrogant. Well, not really. Its more like super fresh, piney hops that almost sting your nose. Its slightly grassy mixed with hints of malt sweetness mixed with the acidic bitterness of citrus, both orange and grapefruit.

I have to drink this. First taste is sharp! Its astringent, its hoppy, its got some serious bite! It slowly becomes smoother and provides that nice hop fix that draws me to beers like this. There is not a lot of malt backbone to the Arrogant Bastard, but you know what? Who cares? It doesn't need to be a well balanced example of anything. Its supposed to be what it says it is...aggressive! The hop bite and the alcohol warming are a nice combo. Its nice to be a bastard. Personally, I like to call this a strong, dark IPA from the West Coast that has no equal.

Beer Facts:

Name: Arrogant Bastard Ale

Style: Strong Ale

Brewery: Stone Brewing Company

Location: Escondido, California, USA

Container: 22 oz. bottle

Malts: ?

Hops: "Classified"

ABV: 7.2%

IBU’s: "Classified"

Slick Nick Winter Ale (Sebago Brewing Co.)

I know, I know...Why the F are you reviewing a winter ale in April? Well, for those of you who don't live in Maine, its still sort of winter up here! That and this beer is just now getting pulled from the shelves and thus its a great deal at the package stores around town. I've also never had it!

Slick Nick is stylistically considered a "Winter Warmer". Winter Warmers are higher alcohol, malty (more than hoppy) ales that are released during the winter months. This one fits those characteristics quite well, its the strongest beer Sebago brews, and considering that winter lasts from October until the end of April, this one is around for awhile up here!

Pours a very dark brown color with very little head. Its a thing ringlet with some cloudiness on the top of the beer and that is about it. It smells stongly of malt, it actually smells a lot like spent grain. There is also some sweetness and hints of syrup but not much else. 

Taste is rich. Its a big mouthful of malt and some syrupy sweetness. This is definitely an apres ski brew and not one you'd enjoy at the beach. It has surprising bit of hop bite in the aftertaste. It works well, it does provide a bit of balance to the strong, sweet maltiness this exudes.

As much as I am happy to get a chance to try this beer, I am also very happy to see anything with the word winter get taken out of the coolers and off the shelves. Its time for a different season. Not a bad beer, Slick Nick we'll see you again in about 7 months! Which will come too soon...

BEER FACTS

Name: Slick Nick Winter Ale

Style: Winter Warmer

Brewery: Sebago Brewing Company

Location: Portland, Maine, USA

Container: 12 oz. bottle

Malts: Caramel 60L & Black Patent

Hops: Tettnanger and Northern Brewer

ABV: 6.2%

IBUs: ?

Brewed in Maine

Brother Adam's Bragget Honey Ale

Atlantic Brewing Company, in Bar Harbor, found a great namesake for this outstanding and unique beer.

Brother Adam was born Carl Kehrle in Schwaben, Germany in 1898. He entered the Benedictine Abbey of Buckfast (England) at the age of 11 (due to an overprotective mother and/or apparent health problems). At 15, too young for re-construction work on the Abbey, Brother Adam was sent to the Abbey's apiary. This would be the beginning of a long (Brother Adam worked at the apiary until he was 93!) life of dedication to the study and breeding of honey bees and invaluable contributions to the beekeeping industry (in the UK especially).

A braggot is a style of ale that originated in Wales quite some time ago (1,000 years according to the bottle) brewed with equal portions of both honey and barley (originally it was just honey and hops). This one was brewed with over 2,000 pounds of Maine honey in the boil so you can imagine that with that much honey and an equal amount of malt that this is going to be one high alcohol yielding and rather complex beer and you'd be right.

Brother Adam's pours like a dessert wine leaving that familiar sheen on the side of the glass that a strong alcohol or wine leaves. Its a nice whiskey color in the glass with a thin head and medium amounts of carbonation bubbles.

With a ridiculous amount of fermentable sugars coming from a ton of honey it is not surprising that this is a strong beer. It smells very sweet. However its not an overwhelmingly rich beer. Its sweet, yes that can't be argued, but its amazingly balanced. I get hints of vanilla, brown sugar, alcohol for sure and orange. Not sure where the orange comes from, that could just be a flavor I can't distinguish.

I really like this beer. I was hesitant to pick this up for a long time because I didn't know much about it. I'm glad I looked into it and grabbed a bottle since it was a worthy investment and a real treat. This is a sipping beer. If I had a fireplace and a comfortable chair I would be all set!

BEER FACTS

Name: Brother Adam's Bragget Honey Ale

Style: Braggot

Brewery: Atlantic Brewing Company

Location: Bar Harbor, Maine, USA

Container: 22 oz. bottle

Malts: Pale + Maine honey

Hops: Target

ABV: 11.8%

IBUs: ?

To read more about Brother Adam go HERE!

Brewed in Maine