Lucky Bastard Ale 2-19-2011

Ze Beer? Lucky Bastard

Ze Style? American Strong

Ze Maker? Stone Brewing

Ze Content! 8.5%
Serving type: 22oz bottle

I’ve had this bottle laying around for about a month and a half, waiting for the right moment to drink. Before I opened this bottle I was going to blog on an American Stout, a stout which I’ve had before, and enjoyed. But when I smelled and drank this stout, it was nothing like I remembered. My beer went bad, and it was my fault, I had it lying around for about 6 months before drinking. Some beers just weren’t made for aging. So I thought to myself, Holy Crap! I have a bunch of bottles that may be just as old or older, I guess that’s what you get for trying to prolong the life of a beer, just by “waiting” So what beer did I go for first? Lucky Bastard, Oh yea… didn’t want this one going bad, let’s enjoy…

This beer poured a very solid and consistent deep amber color, with a decent 2 inch fluffy head. Retention was nice at about a minute and a half to two minutes as it left wonderful lacing around the glass. A fresh hop smell, very piney with a citrus grapefruit rind hint; smells a bit oily but heavy on the hops. A wonderful sticky resiny taste as the grapefruit sweetness hits your mouth, right before the bitter hops clean it up. Incredibly smooth on the palate, not to overwhelming on the hops, but still very present throughout this beer. The malty sweetness is surprising up front, backed up with the citrus sweetness, very nice and easy to drink for the standard hop head I’d say. But for those not accustomed to copious amounts of hops, it may be a bit much. The finish has a slight but hidden ethanol taste but the oaked quality of this beer is very nice. I do wish I had more of this lovely liquid, but I do believe this was a one-time deal, for shame.

Would I PAY for this beer? Hells yes, I would. But unfortunately as I mentioned above, I don’t think it’ll be coming back. Maybe a later anniversary? One can only hope.

Overall Rating: A

Cheers,
-Ze Beer Guy

Sancti Adalberti Miraculum Novum 2-18-2011

Ze Beer? Sancti Adalberti Miraculum Novum
Ze Style? Belgian Tripel
Ze Maker? Brouwerij De Prael
Ze Content! 7.5%
Serving type: 335ml bottle

So, I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog, and I know I keep saying I’m going to do more in a more timely fashion, but it hadn’t occurred to me just how much time it takes in the scheme of things to continuously keep a blog updated. Well, I can say ill do better, but why? When we can just wait to see if I post instead :D. Anyways, my buddy Matthew brought this beer back from Holland from his last trip out in that area. And alas, here it is in my glass and now my blog. Thank you Matt! We both had this beer, on the day we brewed out first batch of beer together. Well, I look forward to drinking more beers again, and sharing my thoughts with all of you soon! Enjoy.

There was little head retention and not much head on the pour. Decent carbonation, a very cloudy orange color. On the pour you can smell the yeast, and the bottle had a large amount of sediment yeast on the bottom of the bottle now clearly present on the bottom of my glass. Coriander and lots of yeast on the nose, a touch of sweet sugar, not dark. a small bit of clove gives this a little bit of a spiced nose with just a bit of as banana ester, similar to a Bavarian style wheat beer. Very smooth medium body with just a small amount of creaminess. After a few sips you can begin to taste the trace amounts of ethanol on the back end. that sugary sweet falvor is a bit more flavorful in the form of a apricot/orange taste. Not much complexity to this Dutch beer, but hey it’s no Heineken or Amstel.


Would I PAY for this beer? Yes, I would, but I think I would prefer to try this on tap or on location in Holland. To get a fresh taste of this beer, and truly experience what it has going for it.

Overall Rating: B-

Cheers,
-Ze Beer Guy