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I promised some reviews this week so I better make good on that.  So here I am with another cider review.  I’m actually really excited about this one.

I first saw Crispin’s Stagger Lee on my friend Casey’s Facebook as he posted a picture of it.  This cider is a blended cider of three different varieties including one of them being aged in rye whiskey barrels.  Cider in rye whiskey barrels?  I’ve never heard of such a thing.  But now I have an I must try it.

From what I’m told it is only available in Total Wines in South Florida.  Additionally my first trip to the store to try to find it turned up fruitless as it was not in the single bottles section with the other ciders.  It was actually in the package cider section.  Kind of strange when it is being sold as a single bottle.  But what do I know.

I popped the cap and poured the beer into my shaker pint.  It is a very cloudy gold color.  I can see sediment floating all over the place in there.  No head but that is common in ciders.

The scent is definite ripe apples upfront.  But you do get slight notes of wood and whiskey in the back end.

The taste gives you whiskey right up front and then turns into sweet apples.  The finish has a slight alcohol burn to it as the whiskey taste comes back for one final appearance.

I was blown away by this cider.  The complexity that the whiskey barrels adds to this is incredible.  Usually I look at ciders as a session drink but this is a sipper that deserves the respect to be savored.  Plus at the 6.9% ABV it will sneak up on you if you aren’t careful and take advantage of you the rest of your evening (or afternoon okay).

To say that Crispin is doing outstanding things with cider would come nowhere close to how true that statement is.  They are truly a craft cider maker.  From different yeast strains to spirit barrels I can’t help but enjoy and look forward to everything they do.

If you like or love cider you absolutely must try Stagger Lee.  You won’t be disappointed, I really mean that.

Grade - A

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It’s been awhile since I reviewed a beer.  In actuality this is exactly what I want.  I am going to start cutting back on the amount of reviews and focus more on South Florida beer news and events.  Don’t worry you will still get reviews here and there like this one but probably only one a week.

Last week I was sick for a bit and went a good number of days without a beer.  No shakes, no cravings.  That’s always good.  But before that I occurred I was able to have today’s beer, Tocobaga from Cigar City.

I first had this beer awhile back at a Cigar City tap takeover and believed I fell in love at that time.  Red ales I think are a highly under appreciated style.  Not many breweries make them but the ones that do always seem to do a good job.  This was draft only until a few months ago when CCB released it in 750 bottles.  But news broke last week that they would be going to 12 oz bottles as well as 12 oz cans.  I will give you a minute to jump for joy, go ahead.

The hazy reddish orange brew sits nicely in my Cigar City snifter with a nice sized white head on top.  It slowly disappears into the liquid and leaves a slight bit of lacing around the glass.

The nose bursts with citrus like hops.  A lot of grapefruit and orange in there.  Quite a moderate amount of malts in the nose as well.

Not much different in the taste.  The hops come at you first.  They are slightly earthy along with the citrus notes.  I’d say there is even some tropical fruit tastes in there as well.  This has become common in their hoppy beers.  A caramel malt backing is present and gives some balance to things.  But the hops are first and foremost.

This beer would go very well with a nice cut of steak.  Really I would say most flavorful meats would fit quite nicely with it’s robust flavor.

This is everything I remember about the beer upon my first time having it on tap.  Lots of big hops in there with enough malts to not let it slide overboard.  And the news of it coming to smaller bottles as well as cans is just music to my ears.  It’s going to make this beer a go to some point down the road.

Grade - A-

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The baseball playoffs kicked off yesterday.  The Rays beat up the Rangers more than Jon Jones does to his opponents.  The Tigers and Yanks were rained out but today is the big day.  My Phils start the march towards reclaiming our World Series title as we take on the Cardinals.  May the best team that wears red and is from the city named Philadelphia win.

And with good baseball coming up it demands the need for good beer.  I’m starting things off with Liefmans Goudenband.  I mean look at it.  This Oud Bruin is dressed for the big time.  A nice blue paper cover makes it stand out from the rest.

I popped the cork from the bottle to find the year 2010 on the it.  Score!  This one is already around a year old.  I’m liking the sounds of this so far.

It pours a reddish brown color into my Bruery tulip glass.  A good sized tan head sits on top and slowly disappears back into the liquid.

The nose is not as in your face as I thought it would be.  I guess the age helped there.  Definite smells of vinegar and cherries in there.  A little funk as well is present.

In the taste you get more vinegar and cherries but other fruit flavors pop up as well.  I get hints of grapes and green apples, even a slight bit of lemony.  It then gets a bit funky and woody to finish off.  The body is pretty thin.  I was expecting it to be a bit fuller.

Wonderful sour and to think this has been sitting on the shelves for a year.  Oh well more for me!  And at around $8 for a 750 ml bottle I think there is little wrong with this beer.

If you enjoy sours and have yet to try this one then you absolutely must take a look for it the next time you’re in your beer store.  You probably won’t know how old yours is until you pop the cork but I can’t imagine you would be disappointed by a new bottle of this over and aged one anyway.

Grade - A-