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    Marshal Zhukov’s Imperial Stout

    November 12, 2009
    / Beer Review /
    11 Comments

    Name – Marshal Zhukov’s Imperial Stout
    Country – United States
    Type – Russian Imperial Stout

    Appearance – Poured an inky black with a bit bubbly brown head.

    Smell – Sweet chocolate, some roasted malts and a bit of coffee.  A little bit boozy as well.

    Taste – The sweet chocolate taste is up front followed by a slight coffee tasted that turns roasted.  A slight alcohol bite at the end that also has the chocolate taste come back for the finish.

    This is my first review of a Cigar City brew.  Based out of Tampa, Florida but not distributed down here in the south of the state I picked this up while in Orlando over the weekend.  CCB has been quickly gaining a reputation in the craft brewing world for their brews and their barrel aged variants of them.  Zhukov’s is a brilliantly well rounded RIS.  All the flavors come together nicely and one does not over power the other.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it’s the best Russian Imperial Stout I’ve had to this point.  There I said it.  And with that statement I am going to give it the ever elusive grade.

    Overall Grade – A+

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    Pangaea

    November 11, 2009
    / Beer Review /
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    Name – Pangaea
    Country – United States
    Type – Belgian Strong Pale Ale

    Appearance – Pours a bubbly but clear copper, amber color with good size white head but it disappears pretty quickly.

    Smell – Ginger, some spices and a little bit of a citrus type smell.

    Taste – There is a sweet citrus taste of orange and lemon up front that is met with ginger.  Some other spices add to it as well with a slight malt flavor at the end.  Good Belgian yeast taste through out.

    I’ve been looking forward to trying Pangaea for quite awhile.  I really like the idea behind it that they use an ingredient from each of the continents (water; for those wondering what is used from Antarctica).  A pretty good straight forward Belgian style pale ale with the addition of the ginger to it.  As with a lot of the Dogfish Head big bottles very good but a little expensive to have time after time.  But if you feel like indulging yourself with the holidays coming up I would say give this one a try.

    Overall Grade – B

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    Founders Centennial IPA

    November 10, 2009
    / Beer Review /
    2 Comments

    Name – Founders Centennial IPA
    Country – United States
    Type – American IPA

    Appearance – Poured a clear amber color with a big white head that left lacing on the glass.

    Smell – Very subtle hop aroma.  Kind of pine like and earthy.

    Taste – The hops on this are really funky.  I can’t quite describe it but the piney and earthy hops are just not mixing well here.  There is a caramel like malt backing to it but the funk of this hop profile just lingers around well after sipping it.

    I don’t know if something just happened to these beers on the delivery to me or maybe this was a bad batch or even I just don’t like the way it tastes but I really didn’t care for this one at all.  Just something about the profile of hops in this one did not sit well with me and I am a self admitted hop head.

    Overall Grade – D-

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