Mike Loves Beer -

Brooklyn Sorachi Ace

July 12, 2010

Name – Brooklyn Sorachi Ace
Country – United States
Type – Saison

Appearance – Poured a cloudy straw yellow color with a big fluffy white head.

Smell – Yeasty with hints of citrus and some pepper like spices.

Taste – Again pretty yeasty with a bit of a funk that you would expect from a saison. There is some citrus like hops, I’m guessing the Sorachi hops. Some spice along with it. Pretty dry to style.

Ah the Sorachi Ace from Brooklyn. It originally started as just kegs and now they have bottled it. It uses the rare Sorachi hop that originated in Japan. I wish I could say I can taste the hop used in it but I’ve never had anything with this hop variety before so I don’t know. I thought it was a really well balanced saison with a little bit of all the aspects that you come to know of the style. Dry, some funk, yeast, citrus. It has it all. If you can still grab some of this that I absolutely say go for it. This hop variety is not used all that often so think of it as a special treat.

Overall Grade – B+

Rogue XS Imperial Red Ale

July 10, 2010

/ Beer Review /

2 Comments

Name – Rogue XS Imperial Red Ale
Country – United States
Type – American Red Ale

Appearance – Pours a very deep red, almost brown, color with nice creamy looking tan head. There was a bit of lacing on the glass.

Smell – Maltier than I expected it to be. There are hops present in the nose but the malts and caramel like smell come forward way more.

Taste – Ah here are the hops. Nice earthy type of hops with still a good amount of malts.

The next in the 8 oz XS bottles to hit shelves down here is the Imperial Red. If you remember I was disappointed in the Imperial Stout when I tried that. And Rogue does have reputation with me as being a major hit or miss brewery. I either love it or hate it with most of their beers. This one I haven’t wanted to try for quite awhile but couldn’t bring myself to buy the $18 ceramic bottle. Now the nice like 8 oz bottle isn’t cheap at around $4 or $5 but I can convince myself on that more. I love big red ales so I was expecting a hop attack but just never got it. Is the bottle not fresh? I don’t know. While I enjoyed it overall it just wasn’t up to what I come to expect from something that is classified as an “imperial” anything. If someone can tell me that it’s way hoppier fresh than I will believe you but this just kind of fell flat for that purpose of having imperial in the name.

Overall Grade – C

St. Victorious

July 8, 2010

/ Beer Review /

2 Comments

Name – St. Victorious
Country – United States
Type – Doppelbock

Appearance – Poured a very clear reddish/brown color with a very thin bubbly head that was gone almost immediately.

Smell – Pretty bready with dark fruit and caramel present.

Taste – Sweet cherries mixed with a lovely caramel taste. There is bread like notes to it as well and as you would expect plenty of malts.

Got this in a “mini trade” of sorts with Phil. He gave me this for a bottle of 1554. This is a really nice doppelbock right here. The color of it alone is pretty awesome. If it only had more of a head to it the appearance would have been one of the best ever. The taste and smell are pretty dead on to the style and makes it very enjoyable.

Overall Grade – B+