Beer Name: Sour Cherry Porter
Brewery: Rivertown Brewing Co.
Beer Style: The name says it all.
ABV: 9%
Size: 22 oz. bottle
Beer Advocate: 86
RateBeer: 87
Drinking gets you drunk… and we film ourselves drinking… it was only a matter of time until we did one of these reviews where we were a little drunk. Enjoy our review of a sour made right here in the heart of it all, Rivertown’s Old Sour Cherry Porter.
Beer Name: Oompa Loompa
Brewey: Fat Head’s
Beer Style: Chocolate Cream Stout
ABV: 6.5%
Size: 12oz Bottle
Beer Advocate: 82
RateBeer: 80
Well, hi there! Long time no see. I have been M.I.A. for awhile and for that I would like to apologize. I’ve missed all of you very much, and I will try my best to not be gone for so long again. Also I would like to say welcome our newest contributor Mr. Samuel Lewis: I’ve enjoyed your first two posts and am looking forward to the ones to follow!
Today was very solid: I got to sleep in and go beer shopping with fellow Ohio-Beer blogger BubOhioBeer (also he shared one of his KBS with me!). Bub and I hit up one of my new fave beer stores, Ale Wine and Spirits in Powell. Now, I’m a Twitter nerd and follow many Ohio breweries, so when I saw that Fat Head’s was releasing their chocolate cream stout Oompa Loompa, I immediately went on a hunt to find it. At last, today while perusing the beer selection at A.W.S., I finally found my golden ticket – so to speak – and picked up a sixer of the stout.
My excitement for this beer was really unbridled; I guess I just figured that my love for Fat Head’s and stouts would be a match made in heaven. I even rewrote the lyrics of the Oompa Loompa song on the way home. (Sidenote: If you’re not familiar with the song, click here first.) It went: “Oom-pa, loom-pa, chocolate cream stout. Open this bot-tle and pour it in my mouth.” Catchy, right? But, like most things in life, the beer didn’t quite fulfill the hype I had built it up with.
As you can see in the picture, the beer was poured in a tulip glass and produced a bubbly, khaki-colored head which left very little lacing during drinking. The aroma was mainly sweet dark chocolate with faint hints of vanilla, but nothing too overpowering. The taste was very similar, with notes of the chocolate up front with a roasted malt and mineral taste coming in at the end. I really didn’t pick up the vanilla, and the thinness of the beer was kind of disappointing. Usually with a cream stout the texture is more…well…creamy, but Oompa Loompa felt more like a thin porter.
If you couldn’t tell, I felt a little let down by Fat Head’s, but they’re still one of my favorites and I’m looking forward to whatever they bring out next!
Ratings
Sessionability: Oompa Loompa didn’t pack that big of a punch in the form A.B.V. or taste, but I could drink several of these and be fine. 4-pack.
Overall: This beer just let me down; I was expecting so much, and in my opinion it failed on most fronts. 2-pack.
Best Consumed: I’m not really sure. I guess on a sort of cold day, maybe with some dessert.
You be the judge. The first two people not related to the site to retweet this review, I’ll send a bottle to you. No joke.
Post by SJLOhioBeer
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Beer Name: Alchemy Hour
Brewery: Great Lakes Brewing Company
Beer Style: Double India Pale Ale
ABV: 9.4%
Size: 12 oz. bottle
Beer Advocate: 96
RateBeer: 99 overall… a 97 in Double IPAs
I was wandering through the local “go-to” bottle shop, browsing the usual suspects and learning about some new ones (sliding both into an abandoned, cardboard 6-pack carrier) when I had grown bored and decided to stroll my way to their deli. Along the way, I came across an aisle display that was a beer and wine smorgasbord, which had a few, unopened cases of this brightly colored (teal and orange) box I had never seen before. The box read “Great Lakes Brewing Co. Alchemy Hour Double IPA.” The box immediately hooked me; a brand new, double IPA from an Ohio brewery? “Yeah, I am buying this,” I thought. Immediately after, it hit me, “I will be the first person to purchase this beer from The Anderson’s Store.” I took the 4 pack of Alchemy Hour, along with my 6 pack of random IPAs and stouts, and bolted to the checkout register.
I poured Alchemy Hour into a tulip glass where it was a mostly clear, honey gold/amber color. I poured carefully and was given about 3/4 a finger of off-white colored head. The head stays around a good while and the lacing is also persistent, leaving noticeable streaks of white down your glass with every sip.
Immediately after the pour you’re hit with an overwhelming amount of sweet, tropical/citrus fruit smells (if I had to put my finger on it, I would say pineapple, tangerine and mango) with maybe a little bit of honey to ease the sour and then you are given a little pinch of earthy/grassy hop aroma that reminds you “this is a Double IPA, not a CAPRI SUN.” The sweet scent of fruit followed by the slight bitterness is really quite a nice, balanced aroma.
The taste of this beer gives you a little bit of a surprise; the citrus fruit and honey are very prominent but the earthy and floral hops seem to take the reins of this beer… and for me, that curveball was enjoyable. The immediate and giant bomb of fruit and honey with a little bit of earthy bite in the aroma seemed to be a precursor for the same in taste, but that’s just not the case. Earthy, floral and a slight bit of piney hops really dominate the back end of this beer. The little bit of alcohol you can taste (I was surprised with how little alcohol you could taste in this with it being almost 10% and all) at the finish of your sip would be hidden with more hops on the front end and more fruit on the back. However, Alchemy Hour is not nearly as sticky as I imagined it to be. In fact, I was a bit taken back by it’s mouthfeel. It has a pretty decent amount of carbonation but had an almost creamy quality to it.
Overall, this is the best product that Great Lakes Brewing Company has put out (or at least that I’ve had). I enjoy GLBC’s other India Pale Ales (Commodore Perry and Lake Erie Monster) but I really think this one blows those 2 out of the water and is pretty darn close to being an elite DIPA.
Ratings
Sessionabliltiy: 4-pack. The aroma alone is enough to keep coming back for one, after another, after another. But then, when your palate is expecting sweet fruit and is then hit by hops you wonder, “how’d they do that!?” and you find yourself falling further down Alchemy Hour’s rabbit hole.
Overall: 5-pack. Like I said before, I really enjoy this beer and I think that GLBC is on the cusp of having one of the best Double IPAs around.
Best Consumed: I am really hoping for an exceptionally warm day in the next few weeks to enjoy this beer with a giant, juicy, still dripping pink, lean, grass fed beef burger… or maybe even a steak burrito… or even better, steak and chicken kebabs!
* Note this post is not by MattOhioBeer It is the first submission by the newest member of our team Sam or SJLOhioBeer if you’re nasty.
Beer Name: Bumble Berry Honey Blueberry Ale
Brewery: Fat Head’s
Beer Style: Fruit Beer
ABV: 5.3%
Size: 12 oz. Bottle
Beer Advocate: 84
RateBeer: 68 (overall) 92 (in fruit/vegetable beers)
A few weeks ago I was enjoying an evening out with BubOhioBeer at The Daily Growler in Columbus when I discovered this tasty, little delight. Actually, this beer is kind of the entire (well maybe just the initial) reason I became an active member of this blog… but that’s another story for another time. The Daily Growler’s twitter feed (@MyDailyGrowler) indicated that they had this beer on one of their 60 taps. I read a little about it and decided “hey, that might be worth trying” …so I did. After a couple different servings of this beer (not all that one night with Bub, but over the course of the few weeks since) and many different mixed feelings about it, including initial delight followed by disgust about half way through the first pint, I’ve really grown to enjoy this beer.
I poured this fruit ale into a British (hence the HARP print) pint glass. The appearance is a light, hazed gold (almost like honey) with very little eggshell colored head that dissipates very quickly and you’re left with a thin cap without any lacing on the glass. After pouring, I thought “this really has a lot of carbonation, much more than I remember it having” but that too quickly dissipated and was left with the moderately carbonated (at best) fruit ale I had come to admire.
The smell of blueberries and simple sugar syrup seems to just erupt out of the glass. Behind the blueberry and syrup smell you get subtle hints of graham cracker or a really rich, sugary bread with a little bit of citrus. It truly smells like blueberry pancake or muffin mix. The taste is almost identical to the smell with the addition of pale and sweet malts… but even those are very subtle. The blueberry flavor is the first thing that hits you, and combined with the syrupy, sugary sweetness of the honey in the beer, may be overwhelming and a bit of a turnoff for some folks. This fades quickly and you’re left with that blueberry pancake flavor I’ve been ranting about for a paragraph.
Overall, I think this beer is better than Beer Advocate and RateBeer give it credit for… BUT the 92 it gets in fruit/vegetable beers by RateBeer is well deserved. It packs a lot of flavor into one beverage but those flavors don’t work against one another and the beer isn’t overly complex. It’s a good break from heavier beers (I do love me a double IPA) and a fantastic beer for people who really can’t get into darker or heavier beers. If Willy Wonka were to ditch the candy factory and start up a brewery, I imagine this would be one of the first things he concocted… bottled, blueberry pancakes.
Ratings
Sessionability: 5-pack. Had I written this review in late June at the beach or poolside, I’d have given it a 6-pack. Very intriguing and sweet taste accompanied by low ABV make this a very refreshing, warm weather beer that I think you’d sweat out before it made you intoxicated.
Overall: 3-pack. I hinted that I’m a fan of heavier beers and that’s really the only thing holding this back. This beer accomplishes exactly what Fat Head’s had in mind and will probably become the new favorite of those who try it and are on board the Leinenkugel Summer Shandy express.
Best Consumed: Warm weather at the beach or at a poolside BBQ. Grilled chicken salad and some lightly seasoned fries would complement this nicely. With a dessert, this would be fantastic with oatmeal cookies… or this could even be your dessert.
Hey drinkers in the Columbus area, it’s that time of year again, time to put your beer drinking pants on and head down to the 3rd annual Columbus Winter BeerFest this Friday and Saturday (Jan 11&12) at the Columbus Convention Center. 300+ beers to try from local and global breweries. We covered the Summer Beerfest and had a blast, check out our event review for Drinkup Columbus here and our review of the beers here. If you think you might be interested in attending (and you should be) head on over to their website for ticket information.
Beer Name: Silk Porter
Brewery: Hoppin’ Frog
Beer Style: Porter
ABV: 6.2%
Size: 22 oz. bottle
Beer Advocate: 86
RateBeer: 97
If you are a regular reader of this blog then you might have seen me write about how I will drink a heavy stout/porter regardless of the time of year; that being said, when the weather and the leaves start to turn, that need for dark beers becomes all the more insistent. So when on my last trip through lovely NE Ohio I saw a bottle from Hoppin’ Frog that I hadn’t seenin Columbus before, I had to have it.
Silk Porter is aptly named at least on appearance; it is shiny black in color, and it has no noticeable head which makes it look as though it slides up and down the glass… like silk (get it). The nose brings some coffee notes as well as a bit of dark malt sweetness and maybe a hint of chocolate. The mouthfeel on the beer also reminds me of silk. It is exceptionally smooth with just enough carbonation to make it not fall flat on the tongue. Unlike the smell, the beer’s taste is mostly of sweet chocolate with light notes of coffee. The nose did foreshadow the nice amount of sweetness found when drinking this beer.
This beer is very very drinkable for a porter; it is smooth, chocolate, coffee, and (yes) silky. If I had one criticism, though it would be that it may be lacking the bitter coffee/chocolate taste that I enjoy so much in stouts and porters. That said, I think this would be a great beer for those trying to convert someone who is afraid of stouts/porters to the dark side.
Ratings:
Sessionability: 6-pack. There might be only one or two dark beers that I would consider more drinkable and also interesting enough to make me want to have more than a couple.
Overall: 5-pack. Not the most exciting beer that I have ever had, but it is not even an ounce bad.
Would Best Be Consumed: Crepes with strawberries and cream.
Beer Name: Cardinal Ale
Brewery: Ohio Brewing Company
Beer Style: Irish Red
ABV: 5%
Size: 12 oz. bottle
Beer Advocate: 79
RateBeer: 36 (ouch)
From time to time, I have to travel for my job. This is not usually something I dread, mostly because I like to visit new restaurants and drink new local beers. This past week I got sent to lovely Akron, Ohio; I had intended to visit Thirsty Dog, but, sadly, scheduling conflicts made that impossible. It may have been a stroke of luck, however, because I ended up having a great meal at the Lockview in downtown Akron (great beer, great food, great company).
Anyway whenever I travel, I try to stop at a beer store and see what local gems I can find. I walked into a Giant Eagle on my lunch break and found two 4-packs of Fat Heads Head Hunter IPA which kicks some serious ass; and sitting next to it was a 6-pack of Cardinal Ale from Ohio Brewing so I picked it up as well.
I have never had anything by Ohio Brewing, and this Cardinal Ale, seemed like a perfect beer in name for an Ohio-lover such as myself. Upon grabbing a bottle out my fridge at home, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t realize it was an Irish red (I know Cardinal should have been a tip-off but…). I am not generally a fan of reds, but I already paid for it so I decided to give it a try anyway. The beer poured to an amber color with a slight red tint, with a crazy amount of cloud-like head – crazy as in I had to pour it 5 times to get it all in the glass. The nose of this beer holds a one of the things that turns me off of reds, a malt smell that almost smells like dirt to me; It is not as prevalent as I have experienced with other reds, but it still is there. There also can be found a very slight piny hop aroma. I expected the dirt taste to be super overpowering since I caught it on the nose but I was pleasantly surprised that malts and carbonation were what stood out to me. There is a good level of sweetness, and even a nice bite on the back-end.
Ratings:
Sessionability: 3-pack. I can see how a person who likes red would like this beer and find it to be very drinkable, and while I think it is more drinkable than most reds, I would get tired of it quick.
Overall: 3-pack. But I would give it a 5 for style if I ranked beers that way.
Would Best Be Consumed: I could see this being good with some fried chicken.
Beer Name: Helles
Brewery: Moerlein Lager House
Beer Style: Helles
ABV: 5.2%
Size: 12 oz. bottle
Beer Advocate: 78
RateBeer: 32
I have a bunch of vacation days remaining this year, so I took a couple to celebrate my mom’s birthday this past weekend. Unfortunately my dad wasn’t feeling well, so they had to leave earlier than expected, which left me with an entire day at home with nothing do to…the perfect opportunity to drink some beers.
I found this beer in the back of my fridge…and sadly I cannot even remember when I purchased it. I’m sure it was sometime over the summer, but I’m not entirely sure when…so I wanted to be sure and drink it before it wasn’t good anymore.
Moerlein states lists their Helles as “Brewed to the same standards that made Moerlein the first American beer to certifiably pass the Reinheitsgebot Purity Law, this Münchner-styled Helles is a remarkably balanced lager featuring a lightly toasted, yet defined malt character, and a touch of hops for a clean finish.” While I didn’t get much of the “lightly toasted” taste, I really don’t think any of this is an exaggeration at all.
The Helles poured very smooth and left little head behind. It smelled exactly as I would expect a true Helles to smell – very light and sweet. Helles is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite style of beer, because I tend to like lighter beers that have a clean/crisp/refreshing flavor with little aftertaste or bitterness on the back-end. This Helles delivered exactly that…though there was a little more bitter taste on the back-end than I expected, it was still very pleasant.
Without a doubt this would make a good cookout/tailgating beer. It is something you can drink all day and it will easily quench your thirst. If you like Helles style beers, give this one a go. I’m sure I’ll pick it up again in the future.
Ratings:
Sessionability: 6-pack. You could easily drink these all day in the summer.
Overall: 4-pack. Good, not great. While I enjoyed it, and will likely pick it up again in the future when I’m craving a Helles style beer, I wasn’t “blown away” by it.
Would Best Be Consumed: Anytime.
As the summer slowly winds to an end, there are few events in Columbus outside of Ohio State football that I actually get excited about. For the past three years. the one thing I truly look forward to is the Columbus Microbrew Fest held every year at the North Market – now in its 6th year. Typically the festival is held indoors with beer from Columbus breweries; but not only was this year’s Microbrew Fest held outdoors, the lineup was expanded to include other breweries in Ohio. The one thing that really set this local beer fest from other big festivals held in Columbus is the fact you actually get a chance to speak with the people who are responsible for making beer and who really care about their product (brewers, owners, etc) instead of distributor reps or volunteers. Local staples such as CBC, Barleys, and Elevator were present, and the Columbus beer scene also welcomed a few newcomers to the festival: Hoof Hearted Brewing, Zauber Brewing Company and Four Strings Brewing Company - each bringing multiple samples for festival goers to check out.
Admission to the fest was only $20 which included a souvenir pint glass, 10 tasting tickets, and a $5 coupon good at any shop in the North Market (additional tickets were also available for 50 cents as well). I started off by checking out a brewery from Ohio that I have never heard of, Great Black Swamp Brewing Company. I went with their Black Frog Stout which wasn’t anything special, but overall not a bad beer. After that I spent a little time and a majority of my tickets at the Neil House Brewing stand; you saw in our last post we all really enjoyed their Milk Stout, so I needed to get my hands on some more. Neil House also offered a Imperial Bourbon Barrel Stout that was my favorite of the fest. Right next to the Neil House stand were Hoof Hearted brewery where I tried three of their offerings Permafrost Wheat Porter, Musk of the Minotaur IPA, and Permafrost Coffee Chipotle Porter (which had a lot of different things going on; the peppers offered a slight burn but mostly a roasted flavor that accented the coffee and chocolate you typically find in a porter).
Zauber Brewing was up next for me and I was a little let down. When I saw via Twitter that they had brewed an IPA, I was excited and made sure I was there right when the fest started on Saturday, but alas they were out. So I sadly moved on to the next stand (I had previously had their beers so I saved my tickets). My second-to-last stop was at the Elevator Brewing Company stand where I ran in to my beer rep, so I spent most of my time there because my pint glass of Wicked Goat seemed to be bottomless. Wicked Goat is their 3 Frogs IPA aged in Woodford Reserve barrels for nine months, and it is the last in their barrel-aged series. I know I’m getting this when it comes out, so I’ll hold off a review until then (plus they said the beer was incomplete; it’s going to be dry hopped before they bottle it). My last beer was at the Mt. Carmel Brewing stand where I had my second favorite beer, 3rd Shift Imperial Coffee Stout. It had a solid roasted espresso taste and it followed that with hints of vanilla and chocolate.
Matt also had a chance to visit the fest this past Friday; we haven’t really talked about it, but hopefully he got his hands on some good beers.
Here are some of his thoughts.
Overall, I really enjoyed the fest, even though it was very packed on Friday night and the required tickets needed for beers differed between map and the stands at times. The best beer I tried there for the first time was the Permafrost Coffee Chipotle Porter by Hoof Hearted. This is a beer I would drink and drink, well balanced and full of flavor, and the chipotle added that little kick that made it super unique and fun to drink. I wish they would have had the standard version available for comparison, but it wasn’t available Friday night.
Coming in a (very) close second for me was CBC’s Creeper – holy shit, these guys can make an IPA. My love for Bohdi has been documented and I was expecting Creeper to not be nearly as good, but I was wrong. It was very close, a little less floral and grapefruity than the Bohdi, with a little bit more lingering bitterness.
Others I enjoyed were Mt. Carmel’s 3rd Shift Coffee Stout, Neil House’s Imperial Bourbon Barrel Stout, and Hoof Hearted’s Musk of the Minotaur.
Brewery: Chrisian Moerlein Brewing Co.
Beer Style: Maibock
ABV: 6.5%
Size: 12 oz. bottle
Beer Advocate: 82
RateBeer: 80
I’ve been absurdly busy for the past several weeks…so I had one goal for this past weekend: to do as little as possible. It was 100% mission accomplished, but I felt a little guilty for not doing anything at all, so I decided to review a beer. Terrific end to a relaxing weekend.
Moerlein describes their Maibock as “a well balanced Maibock characterized by spicy and floral noble style hops.” It’s a deep golden lager, what is called a “blonde bock.” It was created in commemoration of Cincinnati’s Saengerfest choral celebrations which began in 1849. This celebration lead to the construction of the Music Hall in 1878.
The beer pours a dark gold color with little head. It smells very sweet with a hint of caramel. The taste was almost exactly what I expected from the smell – light, sweet and crisp, with a hint of caramel (and a slight bitter aftertaste that I didn’t expect, but it fades quite quickly). The carbonation was very light and barely noticeable.
I’m fairly new to the Cincinnati region, and honestly I had never heard of many of the local breweries, but I continue to be pleasantly surprised. Kudos to Moerlein for a delicious Maibock.
Ratings:
Sessionability: 5-pack. Light, crisp, and refreshing. You could drink this all day and continue to enjoy it. The 6.5% abv could cause problems after a while though.
Overall: 5-pack. Very good. I would go 4.5 pack if we did half-ratings, but since we don’t I feel this is worthy to round up. Very sweet and caramel-y taste that I enjoyed.
Would Best Be Consumed: Any time during the spring or summer.
