The Beer Cellar

Kane Brewing - “A Night To End All Dawns”

New Jersey has a beer to compete with some of the best. New Jersey has a brewery to compete with the powerhouses. Its name is Kane in Ocean NJ, and owner Michael Kane really knows how to run his business.

“A Night To End All Dawns” will change your idea of good local beer (if you’re from NJ). This is spectacular, this is what a beautiful, adult beverage surely tastes like.

Initial Look/Smell/ Appeal: A dark (as night, *sorry, couldn’t resist) black pour- one so dark you can see your reflection in the glass- is accompanied by a tan head. Stick your face in the beer, and the alcohol burns the nostrils.  A huge bite of bourbon and champagne bubbles hit the tongue right away. Initially, no hints of candy or sweetness. Only strong bourbon musts.

Then WHAM! the Uniqueness of this brew emerges. Flavors of dry vanilla, rich caramel, toffee and of course tingling bourbon finish off the initial sips. Then they continue, creating a menagerie of lingering taste effects. Soon your lips get sticky, and the caramel/vanilla musk merges with the dry aromatic alocholic carbonation. The experience is reminiscent of paring a wonderful shiraz with very dark chocolate. It’s as if dark fruits and perfectly burnt sugars blended with spicy cocoa and rich creams.

Which leads to my next point. Adding to the complexity of “A Night” is the roasted body. The Textures & Thickness is a well thought out balance of thin with thick in a way that can only be taken pleasantly. You can drink this like wine, feel it like champagne, have it linger like bourbon, and regurgitate its flavors like beer (which is a good thing!!!). A perfect marriage of many elements I love in all those styles of beverages to imbibe.

Overall Sessionability: This beer is easily drunk alone. And you will be. (Drunk that is). At an easy 13%, this selfish beer will have you asleep by the fire. Always a strong end to a quiet night. 

5/5

Final Note: I have heard that this beer is meant to be kept in refrigeration temperatures. I heard this is because of fears of overcarbonation/ the cork flying off. I bought my bottles at a liquor store which I found out refused to refrigerate the beer. So I was surprised as to not encounter a flying cork. The carbonation was perfect, with a strong thick, 1 minute long retained head. 

There’s never been a better time to love beer

Cyber space (sounds old) is the best friend to the beer lover. In an age of social apps like untappd and ratebeer turning each beer snob into a bonifide critic, there is no excuses to drinking alone.

We dont do bars anymore. At least as the main forum for discussion of our favorite pasttime of craft beer. Now, beeradvocate, homebrewtalk, homebrew clubs, even the homebrew stores are both instructional and entertainment. At least for me. I oogle over beersmith. I salivate at philly tapfinder and the beeradvocate forums
I get excites when my favorite brewery retweets my posts @vivalabeergeek.

It’s a beautiful age to love beer.

Three Heads: Skunk Black IPA

If you know me personally, you’ve probably heard me talk about Rochester, NY at least once. I went to school there, I bought craft beer there (for the first time), & I enjoyed a few too many Genny Cream Ales. So when my local beer store (whose manager is a good friend of mine) was the first and only store so far in the region to have Three Heads beer in stock, I was ecstatic. Their beers are simple, tasty & cheap, and their labels are clever and creative. Plus, I never had a chance to try their beers fresh in Rochester because they did not open until I left the little city in 2011.  

So I’ve had the ‘Java Sutra’ (a nice grain forward Coffee Porter brewed with Boulder coffee [another Rochester great; This time a local coffee vendor]), and I tried Loopy (an oatmeal red ale) and both were killer. I had high hopes for Skunk as well. Black IPAs tend to be solid, but predictable to me. And with a name like ‘Skunk’ this little fucker has to have some spunk.

Initial Look/Smell/ Appeal:  Skunk pours a dark brown/black with a very small head and medium lacing. There is a fresh, but clean aroma on the nose: average in aromatics, even after the first sip.  First taste brings forth unadulterated malty/boozy/burnt bitters. No skunked beer here *har har.*The aftertaste is immediate and contains enough of unique bitter mint hop bitterness to stop you from jumping right into a second sip…

Uniqueness of brew (flavors): …By the second sip- which was taken after the beer was allowed to warm up to around 40 degrees- I was again expecting a more complex & upfront flavor palate. Maybe some more herbal notes, or even a more floral aroma? Instead I experienced again the strong hop umph from the first sip. But this flavor is none of those pines or citrus flavors of your traditional IPA. Instead, I was slightly stung by where licorice & burnt dried raisins meet old mint-leaves & molasses. Yet, there is little bittersweet about the beer; instead it’s a perplexing concotion of new hop flavors. But I think this questionable cocktail is what makes this beverage so enjoyable and easy to drink.Like the elusive skunk, I’m confused as to what really to categorize “Skunk” as. This is a good new alternative to the traditional IPA, Black IPA, and even to some of the Scotch ales & winter warmers that are starting to get a little stale by this point in March.

Textures & Thickness (body): What would “Skunk” be like with a thicker body? What about the addition of Lactic Acid for water clarity, or even oats for texture? I’m not sure what I think this beer needs, but I was wishing for a little more in this area. 

Overall: Though something feels to be missing in the start and the finish here, because I cannot properly put my finger on it, is it fair to dislike this beer? Hell, no. It’s a very sessionable 6.5% dark alternative for the spring into…spring. I think part of the problem is we are still seeing 35 degree temperatures this March in NJ, and I am still craving the hefty dark, oaky beers. Give me another one of these bottles in May, and let me sit out on the porch and see. Until then, if you want to try something, a little weird (in the best of ways), try a “Skunk.” It’s good to be different.

8.5/10

Traquair House Ale: Stuffy beer from (probably) a stuffy old house in Scotland

Official Site
7.2%
Wine Enthusiast #2 Top Beer 2012, 97 points Rate Beer.

A Little Introduction: Let me tell you, we’re celebrating St. Paddy’s Day. Well most of you are. I’m at home taking photos and drinking a Scottish beer. Because, let’s be honest, Guinness is only good in Ireland, not in the US. And there are no truly exceptional Irish-style ales or lagers in the States. Sure, you may put green food coloring into a shitty beer, but in the end it’s still just a green shitty beer. Probably makes your piss look like gatorade, and smell worse than asparagus.

I have an unnecessary penchant for the UK & Scotland. Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal stout blew my mind the first time. And, the Old Toad in Rochester, NY holds a warm place in my heart. Additionally, I look at many of our (American) craft beers styles- barleywines, ales, stous, etc- as only improvements on the unique pub styles of the UK and Ireland. And yes,  the English and the Scottish don’t make the high quality styles found in Belgium & Germany, but their beers have a unique aura. I drink them for the everyday ‘pastoral’ experience. They’re full of earthy, warm, and weird flavors. And they were my gateway into better American Craft beers.

So, I found Traquair house ale: a beer from a really friggen old house aged in oak barrels. Sounds great right? I’m sorry, but I was disappointed.

Initial Look/Smell/ Appeal: Pours a molasses brown with a thin head & big bubbles. Smells faintly of bread and fruit, which opens up as the beer reaches room temperature. However there are no strong pungent aromas at any time. Not at least until you take a sip, wherein a strong pungent tart sweetness- a product of their brewing processes- hits the tongue and leaves an almost astringent aftertaste to bitter prunes and old fruitcake. This unappealing sweet-sour concoction is borderline irregular for the brew. Because the beer is so thin (more on this later) I am not sure if I’m supposed to enjoy or to hate the almost-vinegary tastes.

Uniqueness: Other than unpleasant characters in the experience, there is only little to no oak evident in the overall beer. I expected way more of this Scoth Ale/ Wee Heavy. Flavors of thick malts with tinges of warming alcohol typical to me of Scotch Ales never came through.

Textures/ Thickness: Simply overly carbonated with none of the thick and ass-kicking textures I expected. Sure, the beer had a great clarity, but it was too easy to drink, with very little redeeming mouthfeel even after the beer was brought to room temperature.

Overall Quality of the Session: I’d like to point out that this beer does open up a little as it warms up; the irregularly placed tartness of the beer (this is not meant to be reminiscent of a sour, and if it was, it was done wrong) still remains, but at room temperature there are more sweet malts present. But at room temp, the beer remains light, delicate, and without the warming mellow characters I expected of a Scotch Ale. Maybe the addition of softer water and/or lactose or more oak would push this beer to be more than just a stuffy attempt to be a wine drinker’s party beer. [For the record, screw what Wine Enthusiast says about beer.] I’m sorry, but I’m not impressed. And maybe (on this St. Patty’s Day) like Guinness, I will find this beer to be more rewarding once I travel the 3,000+ miles to acquire it in Scotland. Sorry, that’s not happening anytime soon.

5/10

Goose Island: Bourbon County Brand Stout!!!

15% ABV 
Official Site

Inital Look/ Smell/ Appeal: Nothing is more exciting than pour a dark brown, perfectly thick headed, and rich, strong love-affair-of-a-bourbon-barrel-aged stout and knowing that this is a beer, year after year, one can enjoy. It’s a holy thing I think. Bourbon County Brand Stout ( abbreviated in the beer world as BCBS) from Goose Island is reverly-inducing. Eternally telling the sipper that life can be good. This beer, on its initial sip, opens up with a crescendo of sweet candy that hints at white chocolate and spicy mocha. Then you’re hit with a huge bourbon tickle. Well more like a masochistic punch in the fucking mouth.

Uniqueness: BCBS is really one of the most trademark, fairly available, examples the style. It is the rule of thumb to start your first experiences with bourbon aged stouts. From here, you will try smokey, funky, super sweet, floral, pungent, heavy, effervescent examples of bourbon aged beers - the list goes on and on. BCBS is a gateway drug into BA (barrel aged) barleywines, BA porters, BA ales, and BA funkified renditions. Prepare to pay away your paycheck in experiencing more barrel aged beers from here. They will be hard to come by, and even harder to give up.

Textures & Thickness (body): Imagine the best heavy comforting warmth emanating from a super smooth, ending is velvety enriching body. This beer instantly warms the mouth, throat, and soul. It is a tonic like concoction of bold variety. You can tell its a huge mouth feel, but, as the drinker, you’re not going to be overwhelmed. It’s like the ideal cup of coffee.

Overal Sessionablity: This beer is certainly a sipper.But you may find yourself overwhelmed by a strong desire to affix on swashing the black liquor through every pour and every crevice of your mouth. It will sit on your tongue and break your heart when it’s not in your stomach. By 6 oz in, you will feel the 14% abv. Not just in your head, but also in your fingers, and in your face. 

I don’t know how, but Goose Island has built- by combining dark malts, beautiful yeast, soft? water, and time- a beer that will be sought after by freaks like me.

Notes on aging: It’s 3 or 4 months since this beer came out, and since my first bottle of it, this bottle has opened up with a heftier bourbon than the one I drank in December. You can tell there has been a change to the malt freshness, only in an interesting way (nothing bad). I wonder what I may experience with this beer, 1,2, or maybe 5 years from now. Hopefully it will age without oxidizing or without too much candy flavors.

Overall rating: 9.75/10 (I can’t give a perfect rating until I experience this beer in 2+ years)

All Day IPA from Founders

“All Day IPA” - 4.7%, 42 IBU
http://foundersbrewing.com/our-beer/all-day-ipa/?av-submitted=true

Initial Look/Smell/ Appeal: “All Day has a perfectly clear yellow color, a beautiful looking amount of carbonation, a strong sweet-hop flavor, and a punctuating bite. Like biting into a tart minneola orange.

Uniqueness: The beer is simple.The beer is clean. But these are great qualities to be had for a drink you’d love to go to throughout the spring and summer. If there was too much bite, I’d avoid this one. It’s like the idea that I love French cinema, but most of the times I’m watching “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” on Netflix.

Textures/Thickness: Like stated, this brew is very clean. But it has the same style of body as Troeg’s Nugget Nectar. For you unfamiliar with NN, think of a nice bodied glass of lemonade (minus the lemonade flavors) Not too thick, but just the right amount of juiciness remains on the tongue.

Overall Quality of the Session: All Day wasn’t lying. I could sit back with this one. Not in the stupid, ‘let’s chug till we vomit’ way. More like this can make a believer outta any hop-head that maybe not every beer needs to kick you in the ass. Few brews do that.
— I will admit to being highly surprised by the simplistic enjoyment in a beer I expected to upset me. I drank a Goose Island ‘Bourbon County Stout’ right before so my palate was kind of just ready for filler. This beer   was deviously drinkable. At 4.7% it’s not really a session beer, so kick back three of these and you shouldn’t drive. 

In the end I’d shell out 10 clams for a beer that can make any sunny day even better. 9/10