LIke pilsners? Well then you're going to love this classic example of a German Pilsner. Freaking delicious. Great clean Pilsner aroma without any hint of adjuncts--just pure clean malt. A great light body. A fantastic dry finish. This beer demonstrates just how good a lager can be.    

This beer starts off with a great fluctuating and enticing dark color. You look at it once and it's black. You look again it's a rich brown color. You take a sip and you swear you see a hint of red. TThe head is thin and a great contrasting off-white color. I ver much like the look of this beer. The aroma? Well just a sniff and I am very interested. Lots of great Mexican Chocolate aroma with hints of chili and dab of cinnamon. I have a bit of a "hell yeah" moment with my nose stuffed into the glass. I am very much a fan of Mexican Chocolate. If you happen to not like it, well don't pick this beer up. Now, what about the taste? The mexican Chocolate flavors role through your mouth like a mariachi serenading a lost lover. Delicious. This beer is very much in line with the excellent Mexican Chocolate Stout from the Copper Kettle Brewing Company, but with a slightly lighter malt background. The body is also fairly light considering the 9% ABV and I think that's a perfect match up with all of these great flavors. This is a beer to go out of your way for.  

This is one heft two-fisted punch-in-the-face malt bomb of a beer. Tons of body in the aroma. One sniff and you feel like you're inhaling straight barley syrup. The carmel malt flavors dominate the aroma, but, oh baby, there's some hop action too. My first thought while drinking this beer is: yum. My second thought is: I like the Arrogant Basted Ale more. While I love the flavors in this ale it feels ever so slightly over-the-top. I am sure an aged version of this ale might beg to argue this point, but a fairly fresh batch is a bit warm and so hefty that it's better to find a friend to share the bottle with. Given all that, this is an an excellent beer that is as well crafted as any beer you can find from Stone. 

New Belgium describes this beer as having a "celestial orange hue" ... well it's orange all right. Well like a dark reddish orange. Celestial? Yeah, sure, why not? It's like staring through a telescope at the very surface of Mars. Never mind, that's pushing it. There's an interesting saltiness and a mild tartness in the aroma. The body is very light. As you can see by the stats it's a highly attenuated beer finishing at 1.011. The wild brettanomyces plays a subtle background role. This is not a La Folie and your mouth won't pucker up with each sip. A lot of malt flavors come through. You can taste some caramel and soft oat flavors. The lemon additions are much more mild than i anticipated, but I am cool with that. This is an excellent beer to share with a friend who wants to try a sour, but isn't sure that they will like them.

Whoa. Just look at that label. I think label with it's grinning evil set of white teeth says all you need to know about this beer: you're about to get your ass kicked, but you'll probably like it. There is what I think is technically refereed to by brewers world wide as a "shit ton" of malt in this brew. I also wonder if dentists fear the thick malt sweetness coating each of your teeth, but that nice image of The Beast's pearly whites on the label help counteract that feeling. There are six varieties of hops in this beer, which is interesting because they're hard to pick out of the flavor. And with such a high starting gravity the bitterness from the hops is still somewhat minimal. You only need one in a sitting and you can easily share a 12oz bottle with a friend and not feel short-changed. A tasty creature lurks in this bottle.

A dark brown almost black beer with a fluffy healthy head of light brown foam. Nice. The beer settled nicely and is crystal clear as you pour. There's a rich chocolate malt aroma with a decent estery twist. Maybe a bit of black pepper and clove? The first sip has some alcohol warmth--this would age out nicely given another year or more in the bottle. Damn, maybe I should have saved this. The body has some nice dark malty heft. This would be a good bottle to share with one or two people. Pretty syrupy sweet. Maybe a bit too sweet. Again, another reason to hold on to this bottle for a while before cracking it open. There is some earthy flavors, but the maple doesn't stick out as a flavor as much as it seems to stick out in the viscosity of the body. The finish has a lot of roasty flavors with a hint of smoke and bitter chocolate. A great beer that will be even better in another year. 

A malt centic English Pale Ale that his just a slight hint of English hops and mild bitterness. There is some caramel/malt sweetness in the aroma. The mild ABVs of this beer make it a nice beer to relax with and enjoy more than just one. The malt character come to life as you let this beer open up and warm just slightly.

This crystal clear Kolsch is a light golden color with a brilliant white head. The foam claws to the sides of the glass nicely. There's pale malt, corn/DMS in the aroma with a splash of noble hops that reminds you this isn't an everyday American lager, but it isn't that far removed either. The body is light and refreshing with a dry finish. Not a lot going on. I was hoping for a bit more noble hop character but the hop flavor is rather tame. Still, a laid back beer that can be easily enjoyed.

Before I start, I just have to say upfront that I don't get this whole vanilla porter thing. I know a lot of people love these beers, but I find the combination of vanilla and roasted/chocolate malts off-putting. And I don't like it much here either. To her credit, Ravell has a mild vanilla flavor which I think helps the overall profile of the beer. The roasted malt flavors take over the subtle vanilla flavors leaving me with a so-so porter. Blah. She does look pretty in the glass. Now if you like vanilla porters just ignore everything you just read.

This wheat/IPA hybrid has an inviting grapefruit aroma jumping out of the thick white foam. The simcoe and amarillo hops stick out from the dry-hopping. The bitterness is much lighter than the aroma suggests. This is a beer to sit and enjoy hop flavors and not alpha acid bombardment. But this a a rather light bodied beer and the malt doesn't do a great job of balancing the hop flavors. You get a bit of sweet bread/malt flavor and not much more. I think this is an odd choice for the winter edition of Magic Hat's "IPAs on Tour" series. The lightness of the ale and the sweet wheat backbone seems more appropriate for the hot summer months than a cold winter day.