Mike Loves Beer

This Friday is the 93 Rock Best Damn Brew Review at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, FL.  There will be over 200 beers to try along with food and music.  The event is from 8 pm until midnight.  Advanced tickets can be purchased for $20 at all South Florida Total Wine stores or you can pay $25 at the gate.  For more information, directions and list of the beer being poured head on over to their official page.

I will more than likely be there and might be volunteering with the pouring, still waiting to hear back if they need help. So if you are going I hope to see you there.

Posted February 24th, 2010 by Mike | Tags: Best Damn Brew Review | Category: Announcement, Beer News |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Name – Nostradamus
Country – Belgium
Type – Belgian Strong Dark Ale

Appearance – Pours a deep red color that borders almost to brown.  Small bubbly tan head is gone pretty quick.

Smell – Grapes, cherries and other dark fruits.  A little boozy on the nose.

Taste – Sweet dark fruits and candy sugar along with a bready type malt presence.  A bit of an alcohol burn at the end and a little more so as it warms up.

I sampled this at the Boca Beer Lovers Meetup at the Lodge in January and enjoyed it so I grabbed a bottle of it.  It’s pretty much what you would expect from one of those labeled Belgian Brown Ales.  Dark fruits with the sweet candy sugar and a bit of an alcohol bite.  Good solid brew.

Overall Grade – B

Posted February 24th, 2010 by Mike | Tags: Brasserie Caracole | Category: Belgian Strong Dark Ale, Grade B |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

The below video is an interview with Cigar City head brewer Wayne Wambles at an event the Rattle n Hum bar in New York City.  They had 24, yes that is correct, CCB brews on tap that night for this event.  Are you jealous?  I know I am.

Posted February 23rd, 2010 by Mike | Tags: Cigar City Brewing | Category: Beer News, Fun |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Name – Shiner Bohemian Black Lager
Country – United States
Type – Schwarzbier

Appearance – Poured an almost opaque black color but some light came through.  A big slightly tan head was present from the pour but was gone very quickly.

Smell – Not much going on here but you do get some roasted malts.

Taste – Smooth roasted malt flavor with a hint of coffee and a bit of a sweetness going on as well.

Not many people I know like black lagers but I do.  When word came out that Shiner was back in South Florida I only wanted to try one of their beers in particular and this was it.  It’s not gigantic and bold like you would expect from something with the same color but it’s not really suppose to be.  It’s a nice lager with some good roasted flavors in there.  Not everyone’s cup of tea I know but I really liked it.

Overall Grade – B

Posted February 23rd, 2010 by Mike | Tags: Spoetzl Brewery | Category: Grade B, Schwarzbier |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Name – Sierra Nevada Glissade Golden Bock
Country – United States
Type – Maibock

Appearance – Pours a crystal clear light orange color with an almost finger wide white head that disappears very quickly.

Smell – The nose is very faint.  Some malts with a bit of earthy hops.

Taste – Sweet, bready malts pretty much through out and a hint of hops in there.  Very crisp finish.

It’s great seeing Sierra Nevada doing new things.  I know some geeks felt they just got so comfortable with what they had we weren’t going to see new things from them.  But they are definitely doing a good job with the new things.  Nothing crazy here on Glissade but it is a very nice and refreshing bock.  This could be a summer seasonal as well as a spring one.

Overall Grade – B

Posted February 22nd, 2010 by Mike | Tags: Sierra Nevada | Category: Bock, Grade B, Maibock |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

There is nothing like getting a small group of people that love beer together and talk beer.  Well actually there is one thing better than that, add in that these people will be sharing and drinking beer as well.  This is exactly what I had the great pleasure of partaking in last night.

Thanks to Ed Roberts, of the Fort Lauderdale branch (formerly of the Boca Raton and Boynton Beach stores) of Total Wine and More, he assembled a bit of a who’s who of South Florida beer people.  Four people from three different beer blogs including Kelly (Cerveza Chica) and Phil (The Ferm) from Dos Beerigos, Rob from Daily Beer Review and myself.  We had Adam and Ian from South Florida’s number one craft beer distributor Fresh Beer.  Pam, aka Brew Slueth, who is a home brewer as well as an artist that makes things out of bottle caps.  And finally Jonathan, the creator of the Boca Beer Lovers Meetup group.  And we all came together at the Total Wine and More in Pembroke Pines, FL.  And let me just say that it was a hike to get out there but absolutely worth it.

Props on the Photo to Phil

Everyone brought brews to share with everyone and to say the lineup was impressive would be a major understatement.  The victims that were set up and knocked down were Magic Hat Howl, Left Hand Smoke Jumper, Ian’s Homebrew Imperial Raspberry Stout, Bell’s Hopslam, Cigar City Bolita Brown (the infected batch), Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence, Lozen Boer, Mikkellar It’s Alive, Ridgeway Seriously Bad Elf, Bourbon Porter Homebrew (courtesy of Chung at Coffee District, Kevin at Funky Buddha and Chris), Avery Maharaja (2007), The Bruery Two Turtle Doves, Dogfish Head Squall and Canteen Gueuze (2008).  It’s really difficult to pick a favorite from the bunch.  Both the home brews were outstanding.  I loved the CC Bolita Brown’s funkiness.  The Maharaja really became a smooth balanced IPA with the age that was amazing.  And the Canteen was a great way to end the night.

But besides the beers we talked about a wide range of beer related topics.  Adam and Ian taught many of us about the laws that go into a brewery coming to the state of Florida and getting a distributor in each particular area.  We all talked about the growler bill that is trying to get passed into law that would legally allow brew pubs to sell growlers.  And we all shared stories about what got us into craft beer and some of our experiences.

This was truly one of my favorite moments in my time of experiencing craft beer.  I’ve been to numerous festivals, beer bars, dinner pairings and so forth but this was just really awesome.  This helped reassure to me how much I love the craft beer community.  They are about unity and celebrating craft beer and trying to bring it closer to light to a larger range of people.  I really never thought that in my almost 2 years of blogging about beer that I would be at this point where I am meeting with other beer folks down here, including ones in the business, and being able to talk about something we love.  I’m very happy that everyone also agreed that we should continue to do these meetings and it looks like quarterly with rotating locations.

Posted February 21st, 2010 by Mike | Category: Fun |  Email This Post | Comments (4)

Name – Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen
Country – Germany
Type – Rauchbier

Appearance – Poured a very dark red with some almost brown or black areas in the middle.  Finger wide off white head that disappears quickly.

Smell – Woah! Smoke hits you as soon as you pop the cap off the bottle and start pouring.

Taste – Very smokey flavor with hints of roast malt and black licorice.  The smoke flavor lingers in your mouth for quite some time after sipping it.

This is my first rauchbier and I kind of new going in that this would be intense.  Even with my expectations of a smokey beer I was still caught off guard by it.  I think you really need to drink this while eating some good barbaque to really appreciate it to it’s fullest.  I just had it by itself and struggled through it.  That was a bad call on my part.  Next time I pick this up it will be in a plan for some good food off the grill.

Overall Grade – C+

Posted February 19th, 2010 by Mike | Tags: Schlenkerla | Category: Grade C, Rauchbier |  Email This Post | Comments (5)

Name – Hairy Eyeball Ale
Country – United States
Type – American Strong Ale

Appearance – Pours a mostly clear deep red color with a very thin off white head that leaves some lacing on the glass.

Smell – Quite a malty nose.  Sweet caramel can be picked up and a slight hop smell

Taste – Sweet caramel and malts up front with a bready like hop flavor.  There is a boozy bite at the end that gets strong as the beer warms up.

The winter offering from Lagunitas is one I missed last year.  I actually did not even find this at my local beer store but had to go to another branch south of me to actually find it.  Most American Strong Ales I have had are big and hoppy but this one has a lot more malt to it and sort of evens things out.  I enjoyed this quite a deal with a dinner I made of chopped steak sauteed with onions and hot peppers served inside a bell pepper half and drizzled with hot cheese sauce.  Great pairing and a really good beer.

Overall Grade – A

Posted February 17th, 2010 by Mike | Tags: Lagunitas | Category: American Strong Ale, Grade A |  Email This Post | Comments (2)

Name – Saison Rue
Country – United States
Type – Saison

Appearance – Poured a pretty cloudy amber color with a gigantic white head.  You couldn’t avoid it even if you tried.

Smell – The nose is very complex and very different.  There is a funk there.  Not like sour fruit funk but farmhouse type funk.  Rye can be picked up and there is some apple like smells as well.

Taste – The taste is quite funky as well.  Grass, hay and rye are strong.  There is a sour apple sweetness in there a bit but the funk totally controls this.

I sampled this about a week before the Bruery hit shelves down here and really enjoyed this.  Then when I got a full bottle it was completely different.  The funk of this one is strong and I’m not talking George Clinton.  I guess I was really caught off guard with this.  I also was a little congested when I had the bottle so I don’t know if that played a part.  I’ll try it again in the future just to see if it was different with the bottle I had.

Overall Grade – B-

Posted February 16th, 2010 by Mike | Tags: The Bruery | Category: Grade B, Saison |  Email This Post | Comments (4)