Day 68 (9/30/2011): Milk Stout by the Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery

I was actually quite disappointed in this one. I'd heard a good deal about it and read that it represented the style well, but boy was it ever boring. Just nothing jumped out at me to make me pay attention.

The smell is largely coffee, with a good amount of roast and a hint of sweetness yet to come. The taste is pretty much a well-sugared iced coffee: sweetness up front leading to the coffee found in the smell. Strangely, there is no lingering aftertaste at all. It's been a long, long time since a beer didn't leave a lingering memory on my palette. What really let me down was the feel of it. While the have got the creamy carbonation down, the body of the beer is terribly thin. It's almost like drinking skim milk. Certainly it's not the mouthfeel I typically expect from a milk stout.

Overall, too one-dimensional with the coffee aspect and way too thin. Was more like a watered down coffee stout than anything. I give Milk Stout by the Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery a C+.

Style: Milk/sweet stout
Beer Advocate: B+
Ratebeer: 94/98

Day 60 (9/22/2011): Cherry Chocolate Stout by Stone Brewing Co.

Not particularly impressed with this one. The cherry flavor was not integrated well at all, in my opinion. It almost tasted artificial, though I'm aware that it is not. There is also a good bit of tartness in the flavor which is a byproduct of the roast and the cherries. I could've done without the tart flavor; it was really odd when mixed with the chocolate/cherry sweetness. The beer definitely gets partially salvaged by the smell, which got better and better as the beer warmed. Think chocolate covered cherries. I was hoping that the taste would improve with it, but no dice. A valiant effort, but not particular good, especially at almost $4.00 a bottle. I won't be revisiting this one. I give Cherry Chocolate Stout by Stone Brewing Co. a B-.

Style: Milk/sweet stout
Beer Advocate: B
Ratebeer: 98/98

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!