Review: Marshal Zhukov's Imperial Stout

One of Cigar City Brewing's seasonal beers is a Russian imperial stout* named after Georgy Zhukov, whom Encyclopedia Britannica calls "the most important Soviet military commander during World War II." If you are a student of history, I suggest you read about his fascinating history at your local library.

I bought a 750 mL bottle of this beer, which they release in August, at the brewery during a recent visit. They charged $10, which is cheaper than you would pay at a store and all the money goes to the brewery.

Cigar City suggests you age the beer a few months and drink it during the cooler temperatures of winter, although in Florida "cold" is a relative term. But I couldn't wait until winter to drink this beer, so here's the early review.

The review

It pours very black with a deep brown head and smells of roasted malt with hints of molasses and alcohol. This is a rich Russian imperial stout, but it's not cloying. Flavors mix to make a typical complex taste. The body is wonderfully slick.

Overall this is a fine RIS and another good beer from Cigar City. It's a seasonal release, so get one while you can.

I should have bought a second bottle of this fine beer. Perhaps I'll be able to find one here in Sarasota?

*As I've written before, imperial stouts were originally brewed in England and shipped to the Russian court. They are a lot stronger than regular stouts.

Review: Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale

I bought a 32-ounce growler of Cigar City's Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale at the brewery when I visited it on Oct. 2. I drank the beer several days ago.

The review

It pours a deep brown in color with a large sticky head. The smell is of toasted and roasted grain: coffee, molasses and chocolate notes.

The roasted smell carries over to the taste. Bread flavors mix with light tastes of chocolate and espresso.

The body is nice and creamy, probably thanks to the oatmeal.

This is another good beer from Cigar City and one that's the most approachable and balanced. Jai Alai IPA is my favorite Cigar City beer, closely followed by Improvicasion.

As far as I know this beer is only sold in kegs. They told me at the brewery that since they bottle in 750 mL bottles only, they would not be able to price this beer low enough for it to sell, considering it's their most "normal" beer.

Review: Imperial White

Imperial While is from Samuel Adams' sort-of new Imperial Series. They're brewing four bigger beers year-round and selling them in four-packs.* The beers are: Imperial White, Imperial Stout and Double Bock. They also make a seasonal Imperial Pilsner, though they don't consider it part of the Imperial Series. All of these are very good beers and are some of SA's best. I'll post reviews of the other beers in the future.

I bought this four-pack at the Publix on University Parkway in southern Manatee County. That Publix has one of the grocery chain's best beer selections.

Check out this post for background on witbiers, or wheat beers. Basically, they are like German wheat beers -- meaning they are brewed with wheat as well as barley malt -- but also have coriander, orange peel and other spices added.

The review

It pours a cloudy copper in color after swirling the final ounces in the bottle. The head is thick, but not huge. It has a light banana and clove aroma, which are aromas typical of this style of beer.

The taste is very good. Big spice flavors like clove mix with sweet malt flavors and yeasty notes to make a super wheat beer. It's like a hefeweizen, but jacked up. The high alcohol is quite noticeable in the fusel flavors.

The body is also great: Smooth and creamy and slick.

This is a very good beer and one of Samuel Adams' best. I highly recommend it. Seek it out.

*Each four-pack sells for about $10, which is fine except that SA used to sell their Double Bock for the same price as their regular beer (about $7) in six-packs back when they only brewed Double Bock seasonally. Dollar, dollar bill, ya'll.

Review: Jai Alai IPA

Cigar City winning a gold medal for its barrel-aged Jai Alai IPA made me want to try its draft-only cousin. I've only heard good things about it and as a hophead I was feeling the urge after reading Cigar City's description:

Jai Alai IPA is a monster interpretation of an American IPA. In fact, it is so big that it equals the alcohol of some double IPAs on the market. Our IPA uses 6 different hop varietals, with Simcoe hops only being used for dry hopping. The rest of the hop additions are blended at different IBU's (International Bittering Units) in groups of three hops per addition in order to create more hop complexity.

The ever-helpful Kat told me that the Cock & Bull Pub had it. So I headed over there on Tuesday night and it was still available. Cock & Bull publican Howie Hochberg tells me that Jai Alai is only sold in 5-gallon kegs (compared to 15.5 gallon "regular" kegs). So it can sell out quickly.

From my notes:

It's orange -- almost red -- in color without much of a head and an intense hop aroma. The taste is great. Hops, hops and more hops. The hop flavor is almost juicy and fruity. This really reminds me of IPAs from San Diego. The body is light.

This is a wonderful beer and the best of the four Cigar City beer's I've had. I can't really do justice describing its hoppy flavor: You just have to try a sample to see what I mean.

I can see why its barrel-aged cousin won that gold medal.

And Cigar City, I have a two-word request regarding Jai Alai IPA: bottle it.

P.S. The Cock & Bull also had Cigar City's Maduro brown ale (another brew I haven't had) on tap, but since I was driving I didn't want to have a second beer. Next time, Maduro, next time ...

Full Sail IPA is just a great beer

A quickie post today. It's been a few months since I bought Full Sail IPA. I picked up some last week and was reminded how good it is.

It's bitter and hoppy in that great West Coast way. Drinking it reminds me of my visits to Oregon, where Full Sail is brewed. Plus it's usually less than $8 a six-pack, which is a bargain for beer this good.

And Full Sail is employee-owned, which is also pretty neat.

My notes:

Great hoppy aroma: citrus and herbs. The hoppy aroma carries over to a nicely bitter flavor, this isn't balanced at all, but that's the way I like it. Hop flavors abound, of course, with a nominal amount of malt flavor. It has a nice, slick body with plenty of heft. Easy to drink and pretty easy on the wallet.

This is the best of the Full Sail beers (Amber, Pale Ale, Session Lager) available in Florida on a regular basis. For hopheads, this is a great default beer.

A final note: Full Sail has best-by dates stamped on their bottles, which is a good way to tell if the beer is fresh, this is one beer you don't want to drink when it's old because the hop flavors will mellow. For more information on fresh beer, check out this previous post.

Review: Improvicasion

Cigar City likes to make interesting beers. Their creativity reminds me of Dogfish Head.

They call Improvicasion an "oatmeal rye India-style brown ale." OK, I haven't had one of those before.

Oatmeal makes beer creamy and adds slickness to the body. Rye, according to Brewingtechniques.com, adds further complexity to beer's malt flavor. It doesn't make beer taste like rye unless a good amount is used. And the India part makes me think they've used more hops than you would normally use in a brown ale.

Here are my notes:

Pours almost totally black with a big frothy brown head. The hoppy aroma was surprising for a beer this dark. It's quite floral. The taste is also all about the hops, with big citrus notes that mix with a chocolate malt flavor. It's bitter and malty and very nice. The body is creamy and works great with the chocolate flavors from the malt.

This one is for hopheads and brown ale fans. Think of it as a brown ale mixed with an India Pale Ale.

This is another great beer from Cigar City. I've had three of their dark beers; I need to try a pale one now.

Review: B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal-Imperial Stout

This is the third of three Hoppin' Frog beers* I bought recently, seeing as they are new in Florida.

As I've written before, imperial stouts were originally brewed in England and shipped to the Russian court. They are a lot stronger than regular stouts. Hard drinkers, those Russians. B.O.R.I.S.** is 9.4 percent alcohol and won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in 2008.

Pours all black with a chocolate-brown head that almost instantly reduces to just a ring in my glass. It has a light aroma of roasted malt and alcohol. The taste is creamy and chocolaty, with big alcohol flavors that are overpowering the malt. A very nice body, no doubt thanks to the oatmeal and high alcohol.

This is a decent imperial stout, but there are better -- and cheaper -- ones out there. Check out North Coast's Old Rasputin and Brooklyn's Black Chocolate Stout (that's only a winter release, though) for excellent examples.

After trying all three Hoppin' Frog beers, my opinion is their beers are very overpriced at $9 to $12 a bottle. This 22-ounce bottle was $10 at Total Wine & More.

*Check out my reviews of Mean Manalishi Double IPA and Hoppin' To Heaven IPA.

**Hoppin' Frog says B.O.R.I.S. stands for Bodacious Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout.

Review: Bolita Brown

When I see Cigar City beers in stock at a store, I pick one up: They bottle in very limited amounts and when something's gone, it's gone.

I picked up a 750 mL bottle of Bolita Brown, one of Cigar City's seasonal beers, for $10 at my go-to beer store, Total Wine & More. I find myself going there a lot more than to Whole Foods, even though that store is right near where I work. For one, Total Wine's prices are usually better than Whole Foods and they have a larger selection, though Whole Foods frequently has beers Total Wine doesn't.

According to the label, the name of this beer was decided by a contest and refers to the old Ybor City lottery game called bolita, or little ball. The illegal game was often fixed, they say.

Back to the beer. From my notes:

Almost black, this beer lets just a bit of deep ruby light through. It has a nice light brown head. A big aroma of roasted malt: coffee, toffee, caramel and chocolate. The taste is super creamy, like a nutty, roasted malt-coffee shake, but not as sweet as that sounds. It's just really good. The high alcohol level is almost totally hidden. A wonderful body: glassy and slick.

The second Cigar City beer I've had. This one is excellent. I enjoyed it a bit more than their 110K+OT. I'm looking forward to drinking my bottle of Improvicasion, which Cigar City calls an oatmeal rye India-style brown ale.

Review: Sah'tea

I had to buy a bottle of Dogfish Head Sah'tea ($14 for a 750 mL bottle at Total Wine & More) after reading about Dogfish Head brewing it in The New Yorker. It's a modified sahti, which is a Scandinavian style that, according to BeerAdvocate, dates back to the 1500s. The malted grains were boiled in wooden vessels that had heated stones dropped into them. The wort was then poured into another vessel that was lined with juniper branches, which served as a filter while infusing the wort with juniper.

Dogfish Head used hot rocks and juniper in Sah'tea, but, in their typical iconoclastic style, added more herbs and spices to compliment the beer. According to The New Yorker, they added cardamom, coriander, ginger, allspice, rampe leaves, lemongrass, curry powder, and black tea to the Sah'tea test batch at the end of the boil. I'm guessing a similar mixture is in this batch.

My notes:

A cloudy golden color without really any head to speak of. The smell is sweet, tea-like herbal and spicy and very nice. The taste -- as the smell -- reminds me of Belgian beers. Lots of spice and herbal flavors are working here, but the beer isn't cloying: the chai tea and juniper are under control. It's been a while since I had a beer with juniper in it, but this beer reminds me that juniper berries are good stuff. The high alcohol level is totally hidden: I don't detect it at all. It has a slick and smooth body, which I would expect from a 9 percent beer.

This is a great beer and another winner from Dogfish Head. Their Theobroma slightly shook my faith, but Sah'tea has restored it.

For tea fans especially, I highly recommend this beer. Though at $14 per bottle, it will remain an occasional treat for me.

Review: Mean Manalishi Double IPA

Mean Manalishi Double IPA from Hoppin' Frog Brewery in Akron, Ohio, is one of the most expensive I've had: $12 for a 22-ounce bottle at Total Wine & More.

The Double IPA is my favorite style of beer. They are very hoppy, very bitter and usually pretty strong. Mean Manalishi is 8.2 percent alcohol.

From my notes:

It's ruby in color with a sticky off-white head. Big aroma of hops: citrusy. A big citrus hop flavor with an equally big bitter bite. I'm also noticing big alcohol notes. Oily and slick body.

This beer was not the hops assault I was expecting, considering Hoppin' Frog says it's 168 IBUs.*

It's a fine Double IPA, but at this price there are better, cheaper alternatives. One that springs to mind is Lagunitas Hop Stoopid, which is less than half the price for a 22-ounce bottle.

*IBU stands for International Bitterness Unit. The higher the number, the bitterer the beer. Hops make beer bitter. For reference, Budweiser has about 8.5 IBUs, according to that dubious source, Wikipedia. I've read that the human palate can't detect anything beyond 90 IBUs, so this beer is probably overkill.

Review: Cali-Belgique

I was happily surprised to see a note on BeerAdvocate that Cali-Belgique from Stone was in stock. I heard from friends that this beer started out as a one-off, but was so popular that Stone is brewing it year-round. A 22-ounce bottle was $6 at Total Wine & More on Aug. 20, but I heard it was part of a special order, so don't be surprised if they are out of it.

Stone calls this a Belgian IPA, which, according to BeerAdvocate, is a style Belgian brewers started making after having hoppy American beers. The key to these beers is Belgian yeast, which adds its special spicy, earthy -- even funky -- notes to beer. So now Stone makes a Californian (Cali) version of a Belgian (Belgique*) beer that was inspired by hoppy American beers like Stone's regular lineup. You can call this the circle of life.

From my notes:

What a beautiful beer. It's bright gold in color with a large sticky white head. The aroma spicy and lightly hoppy. It has a similar taste of spice and general Belgian beer flavors. Mild levels of hops for a Stone beer, which takes little getting used to. But after wrapping my mind around it I like it. There is still a good hop presence, but it a non-Stone way.

Overall this is a very good beer and a neat departure for Stone from their normal hoppy brews. This is a beer to seek out.

*Note: You may see this beer labeled Cali-Belgique or Cali-Belgie. Why? As usual, Stone writes a lot of notes on the back of the bottle. They explain that they don't want to alienate Belgians, some of whom speak French, some of whom speak Flemish. So about 50 percent of the bottles are Cali-Belgique and 50 percent are Cali-Belgie.

Review: IPA "Finest Kind"

The Smuttynose Brewing Co.* from Portsmouth, N.H., is a relatively new arrival in Florida.

But I remember having their beers years ago at the Cock & Bull Pub when it was still on Main Street in Sarasota. I guess they stopped distributing at some point but decided to come back. Welcome back!

They call their India Pale Ale "Finest Kind." I don't know why. But I can say that this is some fine beer.

From my notes:

This beer pours golden in color with some sediment and a big head that reduces to a layer of foam in my glass. It has a light aroma of bread and hops. The taste is nicely hoppy and bitter, with a light malt touch. It's quite bitter, actually. Good smooth body.

Overall this is a fine IPA and I can see why it's highly rated. This is a beer made for fans of hops, but it's not too extreme for the rest of the beer world.

*You have to love their logo: a smuttynose seal.

Review: Sparkling Ale

When I saw this bottle of Bell's Sparkling Ale on the shelf, I thought it was a low-alcohol beer like Cooper's Sparkling Ale. But at $2.50 per 12-ounce bottle, I realized it must be something different. Reading the label set me straight. This is a Belgian Tripel, a strong golden ale usually brewed with coriander and dried orange peel. Bell's is almost 9 percent alcohol. They say this is their take on a glass of "bubbly."

From my notes:

It pours a nice golden color with a big head that quickly reduces to a ring of foam in my glass. It has a fruity and lightly spicy aroma. Nice. The flavor is lightly spicy and rather sweet, with light malt notes and a light flavor of alcohol. The body is nicely fizzy.

Overall this is a pretty good Tripel.

But if you want to try a great Tripel, check out Abbey Triple from Sprecher in Milwaukee. I bought a bottle at Total Wine & More in March. Great stuff.

Review: 13th Anniversary Ale

Stone makes some mean beers. They're not for the craft beer newbie.

As I've written about before, I'm very excited to have Stone's 13th Anniversary Ale after reading their comments that it's the hoppiest beer they've ever made. That's like Barrett Rifles saying they've made their biggest gun yet.*

From my notes:

It's very, very deep red with a big foamy light brown head. The aroma is hoppy, of course, and even spicy. A depth of hops, if that's such a thing. The strength of the beer must be controlling some of the hops, because this isn't slamming me with hop aromas. The taste is barleywine-like. Big, warming malt flavors (toffee, caramel, biscuit) combine with huge hop flavors (spice, citrus, floral) to make a really big, hoppy beer. A smooth and creamy, even oily, body. Slick.

You might as well call this a barleywine, and this is a good one. Seek it out.

I bought two 22-ounce bottles ($7 each) at Total Wine & More on University Parkway. I'd be surprised if it's still in stock, though, because I hear they only had one case of 12 bottles.

*I see that Stone uses 4.5 pounds of hops per barrel with this beer. Samuel Adams used 6 pounds of hops per barrel for their LongShot Double IPA. Take that, Stone! And for those keeping score at home, a beer barrel holds 31 gallons.

Review: Hoppin' To Heaven IPA

Hoppin' Frog Brewery from Akron, Ohio, is another new arrival in Florida. It seems we're getting a lot of new beers these days! As our former president said, "Bring 'em on!"

I bought one of each of their three beers that were available at Total Wine & More off University Parkway. These beers had better be good, because they are expensive. From $9 to $12 per 22-ounce bottle, to be exact.

Tonight I decided to drink their Hoppin' To Heaven IPA. My notes:

Pours a lovely deep copper in color with a sticky head that quickly turns into a thin layer of foam. Very strong citrus and earthy hop aroma. The taste is -- no surprise -- very hoppy. Big hop flavors mix with a honey sweetness and earthiness and finish with big bitterness. The flavors are so big I'd almost describe this as a Double IPA. A slick and oily body, thanks to the hops. Overall this is a very nice hoppy IPA. An Ohio beer that reminds me of California.

This is an excellent beer. Though at $9 per bottle, this isn't one I'll be buying often.

Review: Theobroma

Dogfish Head likes to brew "high concept" beers. Like Pangaea, which uses ingredients from all the continents, including water from Antarctic icebergs.

Here's their description of Theobroma:

This beer is based on chemical analysis of pottery fragments found in Honduras which revealed the earliest known alcoholic chocolate drink used by early civilizations to toast special occasions. The discovery of this beverage pushed back the earliest use of cocoa for human consumption more than 500 years to 1200 BC. As per the analysis, Dogfish Head’s Theobroma (translated into 'food of the gods') is brewed with Aztec cocoa powder and cocoa nibs (from our friends at Askinosie Chocolate), honey, chilies, and annatto (fragrant tree seeds).

I love beers like this and have always been impressed with Dogfish Head. So I had to pick up a 750 mL bottle when I saw it at Total Wine & More. It was $14, expensive.

So I opened it tonight. I'll spare you my detailed review, which you can read here.

After drinking about eight ounces, I was getting a bad feeling in my stomach and did something I've never done before: I poured the rest of the glass down the drain.

I hate to give a bad review to a beer from such a great brewery, but this beer was bad. The flavor is mainly of bad chiles and a bit of cocoa.

I'm thinking of trying to get a refund from Total Wine. But I think the beer was exactly as Dogfish Head intended it and not spoiled. Should I just chalk it up to experience?

Review: Z Lager

Fort Collins is a new arrival in Florida. Total Wine & More stocks several of their beers. I had to pick up the smoked one, Z Lager.

Smoked beers are a fairly old style, since historically all grain was malted over wood fires, imparting a smoky flavor to the grain. The first time I had a smoked beer (Rogue's Chipotle Ale) I thought it was the worst beer I'd ever had. But the smoky flavor grew on me and now I love the style. The level of smoke flavor varies from brewery to brewery.

My notes:

This pours a nice copper/mahogany in color with an off-white head that reduces to a thin layer of foam.

Its aroma is lightly smoky.

The taste is also lightly smoky, with a nice malt flavor. It's balanced and not a big smoky mess.

Smooth and creamy body.

Overall this is a nice smoked beer that's subtle enough to be a beer to drink regularly and introduce people to the style.

Review: Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale

Fresh hop beers are relatively new. Instead of using dried hops, brewers use hops right off the vine, which gives the beer a more resiny and floral hop aroma and taste. You have to be quick, though, because hops degrade rapidly in a few days if they aren't dried. I've seen more western brewers do fresh hop beers, I'm guessing because American hops are grown in the west, particularly Washington. Rogue has brewed a fresh hop beer, Hop Heaven, where the hops were picked only hours before being thrown in the brewing kettle.

Fresh hops are only available in the fall. But Sierra Nevada decided to do a fresh hop beer in the spring/summer. To do that, they went to the southern hemisphere. They use fresh hops from New Zealand in this beer. Hence the name: Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale.

I don't consider this a true fresh hop beer because Sierra Nevada dries the New Zealand hops before shipping them to their California brewery. On the 24-ounce bottle's label, they said the hops were picked, dried, shipped and used in a little over a week's time. But still, the hops are dried and aren't truly fresh.

This is the second year Sierra Nevada has brewed this beer.

From my notes on the 2008 brew:

An almost-glowing copper in color with a large foamy head that is rock-solid.

The aroma is all about the hops: It smells of citrus, and, well, hops.

The taste is nice and bitter and hoppy, with just enough malt flavor to provide a slight amount of balance. If you aren't a hophead, though, this might be a bitter bomb.

The body is fine -- possibly even a little light.

Overall, this is a fine fresh hop ale. Probably for hopheads only, though.

I think the 2009 "vintage" isn't quite as bitter as the 2008 brew. It has a real depth of hop flavors and bitterness, but it isn't shockingly bitter. But then, my taste buds may have been further ruined by a year's worth of drinking primarily hoppy, bitter beer.

It's still a lovely hoppy beer. And the 24-ounce bottle looks like a bottle of malt liquor, albeit one that costs $5.49 at Total Wine & More.

Review: Hop Ottin' IPA

It's been years since I had Anderson Valley brews. I visited their brewery in Boonville, Calif., in 2003 during a beer pilgrimage. It's a couple of hours north of San Francisco. And yes, there's not much there. A lovely rural area. They are a recent arrival in Florida, which is great.

Anderson Valley's beers have an illustration of a bear with antlers on them. The label says "The legendary Boonville beer." Bear + deer = beer. Too cute.

California breweries love hops. Not just to make beers bitter, but to give them lots of hop flavors. Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery in NYC, even suggests calling Double/Imperial IPAs "San Diego Pale Ale," after the city that really developed the style.

I bought Anderson Valley's Hop Ottin' IPA during a recent trip to Total Wine & More.

My notes:

A deep copper in color with a big foamy head. Nice.

The smell is all hops. Big citrus and floral aromas.

The taste is wonderfully bitter and hoppy. There's a bit of malt balance, but only a token amount. But as I've written before, who cares? Hops, hops and hops. A real depth of hops, likely from several varieties.

A slick and oily body.

Overall this is a great American IPA. It's very much an example of California's love of hops. A must-have, even at a bit more than $10 a six-pack.

Bigfoot barleywine on draft

Fellow BeerAdvocate member DoppleThis reports that the Mellow Mushroom in Citrus Park (map) has a keg of 6-month-old Sierra Nevada Bigfoot barleywine on tap. A barleywine is a strong ale and one style of beer than can be aged. Bigfoot can be aged for years.

Bigfoot is a monster of a beer: bitter, sweet and alcoholic. It's very agressive and will be a shock the first time you try it. I love it. It's one of my Top 10 beers. Sierra Nevada only releases it around the new year and dates each year's release on the bottle caps and labels to help those who age it. The beer also seems to vary slightly from year to year.

I prefer to drink Bigfoot fresh because that's when its huge hop flavors are the strongest. Over time the beer becomes more mellow and balanced, and who needs that?

My notes on the 2009 vintage:

Pours a deep copper in color with a sticky off-white head that leaves chunks of lace in my glass.

It's got that barleywine smell: Citrus hops mix with toffee and caramel notes and a hint of alcohol. Nice.

The taste is perfect. This is what I think of when I think barleywine. It's bitter and malty with lots of hop flavors and a nice warming finish. It is not just a bitter beer: This has depth.

The body is thick and smooth and almost chewy with its heft.

This is one of my most favorite beers. I could drink nothing but this for the rest of my life.

If you're in Citrus Park, check out the Mellow Mushroom and have a glass of Bigfoot.