Day 70 (10/2/2011): Lips Of Faith Clutch Collabeeration by New Belgium Brewing Company

It's been a while since I was so torn about whether or not I liked a beer. Sour stouts are a weird thing: either they aren't tart enough and they just taste like a weird stout or they are too tart and the flavors don't mesh. I'd say this one was a little more closer towards the former than the latter, but it was just tart enough to keep things interesting.

The smell was largely a straight-up stout, with roasted malts, some coffee, cocoa, and a little tartness in the background more reminiscent of fruit than wild yeast. The taste was tart up front followed by a strong sweetness, cherries and dark fruit, vanilla, and (strangely enough) an oakiness or other wood flavor. The body on this one is more full than I expected and the 9% is pretty much completely hidden.

I don't think I knew where I stood on this until I had pretty much finished the bomber. It is a tremendously unique beer and, frankly, one that I really enjoyed. I would have liked it slightly more sour or more "brett-sour" than fruity tart, but it was still really good tasting. At less than $8.00 a bomber, it's not a bad deal either.

Style: American stout
Beer Advocate: B
Ratebeer: 95/73

Day 58 (9/20/2011): Sierra Nevada Stout

Context: An uneventful day at work, a good run, and I finally got time to rack the American wheat I've had sitting in the primary forever onto some mango. Overall, I can't say there's much to complain about.

Beer: Sierra Nevada continues to impress. This one smells like chocolate and roasted malts. Perhaps a little coffee. The taste of this is wonderful and only improves as the beer warms. Like the nose, you get a good deal of chocolate; to a lesser degree, roast; and to an even lesser degree; coffee. It finishes with a slight earthiness which must be the hops. In a pleasant surprise, this stout is actually much more full-bodied than I expected. It's not syrupy or anything, but the body has a weight to it which more than balances the medium carbonation.

This is another outstanding offering from Sierra Nevada. I would put it in my top five non-imperial stouts that I have tried before. Just like their brown ale, Tumbler, there is nothing which jumps out at you and grabs your attention, but it is still undoubtedly enjoyable. In the world of the tortoise and the hare, where the latter consists of expensive, mega-hyped, barrel aged, >10% imperial stouts, Sierra Nevada keeps chugging along with a steady, workmanship-like approach to brewing and selling high-quality, low-price beers. Frankly, I'm ecstatic that I can run to pretty much any reputable beer store (and most grocery stores) in the country and pick up a six pack of this. I give Sierra Nevada Stout an A.

Style: American Stout
Beer Advocate: A-/A+
Ratebeer: 95/94

Day 52-56 (9/14 - 9/18/2011): Getting caught up with reviews!

As I said earlier, I really need to get caught up on reviews. I'm going to blow through five days really quick here so I can get back up to date and write some more thorough reviews for you all. Here we go!

A surprisingly tasty milk stout. It's on the sweeter side and is a tad bit thin, but there are a ton of stouts this beats every day of the week. Bonus points for being packaged in a pint can and for being locally available. Not going to blow anyone away, but I wouldn't mind if someone handed me one. B.

They promise hops and that is certainly what you get. I didn't particularly care for this at all, but I think my bottle was old. Bitter and astringent; the hops don't particularly taste good and doesn't transition into the malt finish well. It overall was a trainwreck of flavors in my mouth. I'll try again when I can be assured of a fresh bottle. C-.

Somehow my first ever pumpkin ale and I picked a good one. I even had an appropriate glass for it. Poured the most ridiculous head I've ever seen. It was as close to stiff whipped cream as you could imagine. I actually had to take it off with a spoon so I could drink the beer. The typical pumpkin spice scent and taste is there, but it's not obnoxious and is countered well with a good hop presence. A very good beer and if all pumpkin beers I get to try are this good, I'll be disappointed I took this long to try them. B+.

(Also, I had a Founders Breakfast Stout this night and it is my belief that it is much better from a bottle than draft. Coffee in a beer!)

A solid barleywine. It nails the style points, but doesn't really do much creative to put it among the upper tier. A good balance of sweet caramel malt and citrus hops work together to make this barley wine American. Some maple syrup and vanilla flavor is also there. Perhaps the most amazing thing is that though Old Horizontal is 11%, the alcohol is hidden masterfully. I'd love to hang onto a few bottles and see how it tastes after the hops fade a bit. B+.

This was a nice, balanced stout. Not too sweet, not too much roast. Gets better and better as it warms up. I enjoyed this much more than Deschute's Black Butte Porter. It's not going to blow your mind, but sometimes beer is just for drinking, not ruminating over for hours. I wish I could get this here. A-.

There we go, folks. All back up to date. Hopefully things will calm down a tad and I can get back to daily updates. Can't promise, but it's worth a shot!