Sierra Nevada Brewing Company - Torpedo Extra IPA

I was looking through my fridge yesterday and stumbled upon a bottle of Sierra Nevada's Torpedo. I had gotten a few bottles a while ago and apparently forgotten to drink one of them. Somehow, I had also forgotten to review one of the other bottles, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to review this one.

First, a little back story on this beer. Torpedo (great name) Extra IPA is named after a process that is entirely unique to the Sierra Nevada Brewery. Looking for a better way to dry-hop their beers, Sierra Nevada developed a machine called the Torpedo that injects whole hop cones into the batch and capture all of that wonderful hop flavor.

Torpedo pours pretty dark for an IPA. The color is a slightly reddish deep golden color with a massive three fingered eggshell colored head. I got the usual Sierra Nevada floral hops in the smell but the beer also had some unexpected elements. I picked up a hint of funk and wet hay and even some marzipan. Not your average IPA smells.

The taste is solid IPA taste without being overpoweringly bitter. In other words, a great IPA. The taste starts with some piney hops and then moves on to a peppery bite with a little grapefruit. The finish hints at that sort of funkiness that I picked up in the smell and is full of hop resins, more citrus hops and a little bit of smoke. All in all, this is yet another great beer from Sierra Nevada and one that's worth picking up if you love IPAs.

Final Grade: A-

Great Divide Brewing Company - Old Ruffian Barley Wine

So, the other night I had a strange dream. A beer dream. I was in some restaurant and they happened to have a beer I've been wanting to try for a while, Great Divide's "Yeti Stout", on tap and I tried it and it was delicious. I could taste very nuance of flavor and even remember thinking to myself that the beer was better than The Abyss. I know- blasphemy. And while dreaming about beer may be bad news for my future sobriety, I think it signals a change for me in that beer has become more than a hobby. They say that the best way to know you're really picking up a new language is that you start to dream in it so maybe the same goes for beer. So could this possibly signify the shift of beer in my psyche from "interest" to "passion"? I don't know. But it made me really want to try Yeti.

So what does this have to do with a beer called Old Ruffian? Great Divide, the brewery that makes Yeti, also makes a barleywine called Old Ruffian. We happened to be in North Park for Brian's birthday the other night and the place we were at had this one on tap so I decided to give it a try. Barleywines aren't typically beers that I try a lot, but I was pretty curious about this one.

Old Ruffian pours a deep ruby and chestnut color with a few specks of foam on the top. The smells are dominated by malts but hint at some hops as well.

Malts dominate the flavor, but again, the hops add a nice touch. Flavor-wise, this beer reminded me of a much, much better Arrogant Bastard. There was some nice caramel sweetness from the malts and the hops that Great Divide used had some nice pine flavor. This beer was incredibly balanced and helped to keep the 10% alcohol in check. Next on the list: Yeti.

Final Grade: A

The Lost Abbey - The Angel's Share (Brandy Barrel Aged)

As you may remember, The Lost Abbey is the brewery that makes good vs. evil beers. One of their "good" beers is one called Angel's Share. As you may or may not know (I didn't until my friend Brian told me), the "Angel's Share" is a term given to the alcohol that evaporates through barrels during the fermenting process. What I didn't know until doing a little research is that the average barrel of fermenting alcohol loses 2% of it's alcohol each year. This particular beer is a hefty 12% and classified as an American Strong Ale. It's usually pretty hard to find, but Toronados happened to have it on tap this weekend. Score!

The beer pours a flat looking black color with milk chocolate colored tinges on the edges. The smell was all raisins and pretty overpowering. As the beer warmed a little, I could definitely detect some brandy and maybe even a little bourbon.

While the smell is a tad one dimensional, the taste of this beer is not. There is a lot of raisin here, but it's paired with some dark fruits (fig and plum) and there are also hints of toffee and leather. There's also a hint of carbonation that keeps the beer from being too syrupy. In the end, it was still a little too syrupy for my taste, but the end result was a pretty well balanced beer. I'm definitely looking forward to enjoying more of The Lost Abbey's beers in the near future.

Final Grade: B+

Goose Island Beer Company - Bourbon County Brand Stout

For a while now, I've been wanting to try a beer from Chicago's Goose Island Beer Company. They make quite a few beers that make their way our here (Matilda, Sofie, Demolition) and a few with names that make me wish they made it out here (Goose Appeal, Foxxy, Bourbon Barrel Aged Extra Naughty Goose). One that I had heard a lot about was their Bourbon County Stout, a bourbon barrel aged double stout weighing in at a hefty 13% ABV. Finally, I picked up a couple to try- one for now and one for a little down the line.

Bourbon County Stout pours like motor oil. No matter how aggressively I poured, there was no head to be found. A few milk chocolate colored bubbles make their way onto the slick black surface but quickly disappear. This beer is intimidating to look at. Just a thick mess of black in a glass. The smell of it just about knocked me out. I made the mistake of taking a pretty big whiff and it was pretty much the equivalent to taking a big whiff of Jim Beam. For at least the first 15 minutes after the beer was poured, the only smell I could pick up was pure bourbon. As it warmed there were hints of fig and raisin, but they were pretty faint. The smell reminded me way more of Old Ales like Adam and Coton than a stout.

I was glad when I took my first sip that the beer didn't just taste like bourbon. In fact, the taste was remarkably complex. The bourbon is definitely there, but it's mellowed a lot by notes of milk and dark chocolate, molasses, and some vanilla. The alcohol is definitely evident and makes it hard to do much but sip this beer. The finish leaves that dry and heavy bourbon flavor on the tip of your tongue. The consistency is probably closer to honey than to a lot of beer and it works well with the flavor profile. I'm really excited to see how the other bottle of this one ages and I'm thinking that the bourbon won't be as harsh in about a year or so.

Final Grade: A

Kiuchi Brewery - Hitachino Nest Extra High (XH)

Last night, I cracked open a bottle of Hitachino Nest Extra High (XH). This was my second experience with Kiuchi Brewery, having tried their Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale a few months back. As with the Red Rice Ale, this beer has one of the better labels I've ever seen, adorned with their trademarked chubby owl that looks like he's had a few Red Rice Ales too many. The profile of this beer is totally different than the Red Rice Ale. This one is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale that is aged in sake barrels. Needless to say, this one should taste like nothing I've ever tasted before.

As soon as I popped the bottle, foam came gushing out and it was tough to control. After pouring, the head continued to rise and by the time the whole beer was in the tulip, the head was still out of the glass. The coloring was a light reddish brown with an enormous tan head that took about 5 minutes to settle to a light cap. The smells in this one are really interesting. I picked up some oak from the sake barrels, some sake, a little spiciness, cinnamon and some nuttiness as well. Nice.

The tastes in this beer are as unique as the smells. The beer is surprisingly sour and has hints of apple cider vinegar and tart green apple. There's a little sweetness upfront, but the finish is dry and tart with some sake flavor thrown in. I read one review that said that this beer tastes like a "beginners sour beer" and I think that's pretty accurate. The beer isn't full on sour, but it has hints of brett and a nice tartness to it that borders on sour. This is a really fantastic beer and maybe the best Japanese beer I've ever had.

Final Grade: A

North Coast Brewing Company - Brother Thelonious

One of my favorite breweries in California (outside of San Diego) is North Coast. Makers of beers like Old Rasputin, Scrimshaw, Red Seal and Blackhart, North Coast has a pretty solid lineup. One of their beers that I had yet to try was one called Brother Thelonious- a Belgian Strong Dark Ale named after jazz musician Thelonious Monk himself. A portion of the proceeds go towards the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and I'm all for beer with a cause, so this one was intriguing. Brother Thelonious is done in the same style as beers like Chimay and the Trader Joes Vintage Ale, so I'm expecting to see a nice yeast profile and spiciness in this one.

The beer pours a dark brown color and ruby color with almost no head. The smells of this one definitely piqued my interest- some nice malt smells, brown sugar and maple.

Just as I was hoping, the yeast is one of the strongest elements of this beer. It gives the beer a creamy mouthfeel that worked well with the malt sweetness. I didn't catch a lot of the maple or brown sugar that I picked up in the smell, but the malt sweetness was enough to make this one enjoyable and keep it from being one dimensional. The only thing that bothered me a bit with this one was that I felt like the alcohol was a little too present. At 9%, this isn't a weak beer, but it burned going down like something much stronger than what it was. Still, another good beer from North Coast, albeit not their best.

Final Grade: B+

Stone Brewing Company - Lukcy Basartd

First of all, no, that's not a massive typo there in the title. That's just Stone being Stone. For a while now, Stone's ad campaign has focused on telling people that they're wusses and there's no way they'll be able to handle a Stone beer. Whether that's true or not is a different story, but Lukcy Basartd is another beer from Stone that uses the "You're not worthy" slogan. This beer is a once a year brew that is a blend of three of Stone's better known beers- Arrogant Bastard, Oaked Arrogant Bastard and Double Bastard. Going into this, I had no idea how this was going to taste. Three strong ales mixed into one?

Lukcy Basartd pours a deep reddish brown color with a slightly off-white head. Looks-wise, this looks very similar to Arrogant Bastard. The smell is similar as well, with a strong hop smell that is uniquely Stone and some bready malts along with some citrus that I thought smelled a lot like tangerine.

As far as taste goes, Stone might be on the nose with their "Hated by many, loved by few" slogan. This is a tough beer to "like," but it's still well made. There are some strong pine hops and a thick, chewy malt backbone with a finish that tastes like aspirin. I can't say I was a huge fan of this one as the taste was a little too one dimensional on the bitterness side. It's still a good beer, but I'm afraid I may still be too "wussy" to meet Stone's standards on this one.

Final Grade: C+