Du Claw ~ Bare Ass Blonde Ale

Had a tasting at the local shop and picked up two different brews from DuClaw, The one I am reviewing is the Bare Ass Blonde Ale. Its OK but nothing to really go crazy about. Good beer.

Style: Blonde Ale

Taste: Hints of the hops but clean

Color: Amber in color

Aromatics: Not heavy in aromatics

Rating: 5 out of 10 Beer Glasses

Alcohol Content:   5% by 12 FL oz.

Bare Ass Blonde Ale

This is a beer you could have with friends just hang'in out, grill'in and enjoy on a warm spring day with burgers and what ever else is your grilling flare. I could see having a few of them on such an event. Nice balance over all.

The Cap

Innis & Gunn - Bourbon Aged Stout

I received this as a gift set (3 different beers with a custom glass) but the fact is I have had them before and LOVE the beers from Innis & Gunn due to the Oak aged process that is employed with this one and some others. As described by the bottle, Stout aged over bourbon oak chips....well nice job cause this is a great tasting beer for me. I am sure that you will find it at least worth a try.

Style: Stout

Taste: Crisp, clean, hint of bitter,

Color: Dark brown

Aromatics: Woody

Rating: 8 out of 10 Beer Glasses

Alcohol Content:   7.4% Fl. oz.

Bourbon Aged Stout

This is really a good tasting beer and as you allow it to get closer to 55 degrees the flavors and aromatics come to life in a good way. The way the glass is made lends it self very well to picking up the pleasant smells that are released from this beer. The flavors last a good while in the month and just add to the enjoyment I had trying this one again. It looks dark but this is not a heavy beer and what you may think of from a stout, it goes down really well. They sell this in a larger 32 oz for about $6 and I feel that is a great price for a great beer like this one.

The Cap

Leinenkugel - Canoe Paddler

Let me start by saying that I have a love for this brewer and the fine work they do with their beers. I have yet to have something from them that is crap....Its one of my go to beers and in the resent past they are putting some very interesting styles and flavors of beers out in the market place. 

Style:                                  Kolsh-style with Rye (so they have on the bottle)
Taste:                                 Simple Crisp beer, hint of bitter from the hops
Color:                                 Light
Aromatics:                      At cold temps not much here, 
Rating:                              6 out of 10 Beer glasses
Alcohol Content :         Not listed but I suspect it to be in the 4 - 5% range 12 Fl oz

This one for me would be better later in the year, close to spring. Again as always I did not find anything to complain about from good old Leinenkugels, Thanks Ron and Paula for introducing me to these guys, they rock. This is a smooth and easy to drink beer. I could sit down and have two or three with no out feeling overly full as can happen with some beers on the heavy side; of which this is not in that category what so ever. Its been snowing in these parts for weeks which is why you see the snow around the bottle, thought that might be interesting. Well until tonight, see you later. :) 

The Cap

                        Canoe Paddler

https://leinie.com/default.aspx#landing 

Harpoon ~ Chocolate Stout

Ah.......Tuesday after a full day is best when capped off with a pleasant tasting and easy going beer. So I took the cap off this little 12 oz'er and let it sit for 15 minutes after taking it out of the frig, something I would recommend anyone do when trying something new. The beer should be at about 50 - 55 degrees, in general. 

Style:                                     Stout

Taste:                                    Creamy, chocolate not too heavy, great tingly finish

Color:                            Very dark but clean    

Aromatics:                  Chocolate, rich and full 

Rating:                          7 out of 10 beer glasses

Alcohol Content:        N/A on bottle which is 12 FL. oz. 

Harpoon Chocolate Stout

 This is a limited Edition, or so it says on the bottle. I do hope they make this style again year over year as its really a nice beer for this time of year. The chocolate really comes out in both the smell and taste of the beer. I did enjoy this one quite a bit. I picked this up as a 6 pack a few weeks ago at about the $10 range and it was worth it. This beer had a very good long lasting taste and feel in the month. The tingling lasted for sometime longer then most beers. If you have or do try this one, drop me a line and let me know what you thought? Happy tasting :). 

The Cap

New Castle ~ Cabbie - Black Ale

With great friends tonight and picked up a 6 pack of this beer to try. I saw a few Black Ales today and look forward to trying them all....very soon in the following month.  

Style:                                Black Ale
Taste:                               Very nice and clean, the beginning of heavy 
Color:                               Dark in color with a nice clean head on it 
Rating:                             6 out of 10 Beer glasses
Alcohol Content:         4.2% - 12 fl oz.

New Castle Cabbie

I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I was not on the expensive side, about $8 a 6 pack but has a nice taste. I have had a few different styles from New Castle and they have all been quit good as a go to beer to most folks. The Cabbie however starts to get into the darker and heavier style, of which I enjoy. Not overly dark and at the beginning of the stout and porter range. I feel this is a good entry point into those styles for people to try. Its not an over powering beer filled with tons of flavor which is why I kept the rating at 6 but a nice all around beer.

The Cap

Let me know what you think? Happy and safe tasting to ya....

Spaten ~ Lager

This past Friday,

This Friday the 31st I have the chance to try this one at a friends house so I have to apologize for the image, I'll work on doing a better job of gathering my images in the future but that does not take away from the joy of trying another beer. 


Style:                                Lager
Taste:                               So So......
Color:                               Light with little head 
Rating:                             5 out of 10 Beer glasses
Alcohol Content:         N/A - 12 fl oz.

Spaten

Over all this was an OK beer not bad but not great for a German beer, I was expecting a little more. I should be fair as it is a lager and for a lager an average beer. More of a late spring and early summer beer in my opinion. 

The Cap

http://www.spatenbeer.com/spaten.html

Heavy Seas ~ Powder Monkey

Happy Sunday

Superbowl and beer.....enough said. So I popped the top on this one and wanted to see how it was. I liked it with my wings. I did drink this one cold out of the frig. It went down nice and fairly quick. Too bad this beer will not help Denver score some points.....my goodness.

Powder Monkey

I picked up this beer up at the wine works when they had a rep from the brewer there. I sampled  a few others that I will write about. If you like IPA's this one should satisfy you a touch. It does not have as much kick as an IPA in terms of the hoppyness but its along the line.  

Style:                         Pale Ale
Taste:                        Its a bit hoppy at the start.   
Color:                         Light reddish / a medium head 
Rating:                      6 out of 10 Beer glasses
Alcohol Content:  4.8% - 12 fl oz.

The Cap

http://www.hsbeer.com/