Keegan's Ales: Mother's Milk

Keegan Ales out of New York's Hudson Valley produces some unique brews including this dark cream milk stout. I enjoyed this beer alongside some spicy collard greens and a pulled pork sandwich.

"Hints of oatmeal, chocolate and of course, milk make this brew have a remarkably smooth and silky finish, a classic example of the style."

http://www.keeganales.com/

Smuttynose Brewing Co., New Hampsire:

While in New York this past March I picked up a six pack of Smuttynose for the first time. I selected the beer mostly due to its quirky image of the two old pals lounging on the front lawn enjoying a cold one, it seemed to spark memories of past fishing trips and opened my imagination of what I hope my future holds. This beer and the brewery has quickly become one of my favorites and I wish that I could find their beers more easily on the west coast.

Check out their website:
http://www.smuttynose.com/
for some great photos of dogs, videos of ice standing contests, great links relating to craft brew and more info on their most excellent beers.

A+

Eel River Brewing Co: Organic IPA

Eel River Brewing Company is centrally positioned along the Pacific Coast Highway where redwood forests stretch for miles – and the roots of micro/craft brewing is well rooted.

We typically buy ERB Beers in the variety case from Costco. I am not the biggest fan of all of their beer styles, but I like that they are certified organic and this IPA is well balanced and perfectly drinkable with its smooth character.

"Pale and crystal malts come through with a malty caramel sweetness, balanced with aggressively clean burst of fresh hop flavor in the middle palate without lingering bitter astringency. A strong floral and citrus character from generous dryhopping blends with strawberry esters from our house yeast strain for an inviting and satiating aroma."
Original Gravity: 16.0 P
Alcohol: 7.0% by volume
Color: Deep Copper

Sapporo, the oldest beer brand in Japan

Sushi dinner on Valentine's day with a Sapporo in hand.

"Sapporo, the oldest beer brand in Japan, was first brewed in Sapporo, Japan in 1876 by the German-trained brewer Seibei Nakagawa. From the beginning, Sapporo was a favorite among beer lovers – a crisp, clean taste they appreciated and an advanced brewing process they respected."
-Sapporo's Website

Karl Strauss Brewing Company, San Diego: Full Suit Belgian Style Brown Ale

Another quality craft brew coming out of the San Diego area, Full Suit is a winter seasonal ale and the name plays off of the region's surf culture.

"The frigid North Pacific Current rolls in, generating first-class swells and mild hypothermia. While a few brave souls zip up and paddle out with no hesitation..."

Stats:
Alcohol by Volume: 6.3%
Color: 35 SRM
Bitterness: 24 IBU

I enjoyed this beer and am looking forward to trying some of the brewer's other styles.

Port Brewing Co.'s Wipeout IPA

"This one is dedicated to everyone who has gotten up at the butt crack of dawn, headed towards the shores and found it 4-6 feet and offshore only to find 30 of your “buddies” have already claimed the peak."
-Port Brewing's Website

10 Barrel Brewing Co

To round off our Bend trip, here's the sampler platter from 10 Barrel Brewing Co. From the Irish Red, to the Apocalypse IPA, to the India Session Ale, I couldn't leave a single one off. Here's the stats on the IPA: 4 varieties of hops, 3 malts, 6.5% alcohol, and 65 IBU's.
- BJ, Posted from my iPhone

Grunkles IPA

Straight from the Deschutes Brewery in Bend, this slightly malty IPA isn't as hoppy as I usually drink, but tasty nonetheless.

- BJ, Posted from my iPhone

RJ Rockers Patriot Pale Ale

This is an American Pale Ale. It has the classic citrus hop flavor and aroma profile that one would expect as well as the grapefruit like bitterness. I enjoyed this APA quite a bit, but my one critique is that it seemed to have some grain in it that to me comes off as sweet. It also looks darker than a lot of APA's I've had, which probably comes from said specialty grain. I can't pinpoint the flavor, but I've also tasted it in other beers and to me it subtracts from the overall appeal of this beer. I'm sure it's delicious to someone else's palate, but to me, this was just okay. I'd drink it over a lot of other beers, but it's not quite top shelf for me.
-Taster Be

Highland Gaelic Ale

This comes from a brewery a bit north of me. I like some of the other offerings in their lineup and decided to give this one a whirl. The color is amber and flavor is mainly malt, with light floral hops.  I'd call it a pale ale, but definitely not like a west coast style pale ale. It's a nice subtle beer that doesn't try to be over the top with any malt or hop flavors.  A nice, balanced, real ale.
-Taster Be

Lakefront Brewery Fuel Cafe Coffee Stout

This was a nice coffee-infused stout brought to me thanks to my beautiful wife through a beer of the month club (indirect thanks to Tyler's post here). It's appearance was black as expected and the flavor was great- it had the classic roasted, chocolate, smoky flavors of a normal dry stout with a nice coffee flavor and aroma coming through as well. What I liked about this brew was that it finished nice and dry- not too sweet. I also sampled their IPA, and it was mind-blowingly delicious. I'm beginning to really like the Columbus hop. I recently learned a new word to describe its flavor that I found amusing: cannabinoid. Delicious.
-Taster Be

Drake's Brewing Company, San Leandro, CA

All around very good beer.  I really liked this IPA from Drake's Brewery Company from the label design on the bottle to the description of the modest, industrial neighborhood brewery located in San Leandro.  This beer had a strong hoppy flavor with slight citrus undertones and a mild bitterness that had a great after taste.  They've been brewing for over 20 years and this is Drake’s flagship beer, an India Pale Ale. The brewer description notes: "Copper-colored from additions of light Crystal malt, and body-building Caramalt, carry the malt weight of this hop bomb. The hoppy aromas of pine and grapefruit are delivered from the abundant Columbus and Cascade hops." Very worth while and I hope that I can visit the brewery sometime soon until then I will open another bottle.

Dogfish Head, Milton, DE

This winter seasonal is fantastic.  Dogfish Head's Chicory Stout is delicious with a big roasty character.  I typically don't go for the coffee infused beers but this one worked for me.  I thought it was all that it claimed to be except for it notes a "bone white head" although it had a nice head and cascade is was a chocolate color.  I enjoyed this brew with a chicken pot pie and thought I was in heaven.

Flying Dog Brewery, MD

 "Good people drink good beer." - Hunter S. Thompson
Flying Dog Brewery

Hale's Ales, Seattle, WA

Late night at the Zoo bar in Seattle I enjoyed the Kolsch German Style Ale from Hale's Ales, with an old friend and his lovely fiancee was behind the tap handles so this one's on the house.  Hale's is a great brew-pub and restaurant in Seattle they serve up some mean European style food and brew, I always go for he Corned-beef hash and potatoes and this Kolsch was bright in color, easy to drink and cold.  I hope a European vacation is on the horizon but this particular evening had all the finest flavors while staying on a shoe string budget.

Maritime Pacific Brewing Co., Seattle WA

I had a couple quick trips to Seattle in late January and early February and the weather sucked but the beers made up for this small set back.  During my stay I visited one of my favorite brewery tap rooms, Maritime Pacific Brewing Co's "The Jolly Rodger" in the Ballard neighborhood and enjoyed the Flagship Red Alt Ale along with a pile of clams and mussels.  This is the first beer brewed at Maritime Pacific and remains one of its best.  Becky and I enjoyed the privilege of polishing off a pony keg of this nectar a few years ago. Red amber in color, smooth and malty you'll never grow tired of this session brew.
-Kbaer

Grand Ivey Brewery's Kimosabe Ale

So, this was my first homebrew of the season, and it was a bit of a mashup between a Belgian Dubbel and an American Pale Ale. It came from two one gallon kits that my brother-in-law got me for xmas and I was a lazy man and didn't want to spend the time to make them separately for 1 gallon each, so I mixed em and made up my own hop schedule. Brew day was full of flaws with mash temperature and the barley was probably pretty old since it came ground in the bag. Whenever this type of thing happens I always try to relax and remember that whatever comes out of this will still be beer. But enough of the beer nerd-dome.
Results: An amber-orange colored ale which has some really strange fruit taste going on and almost no bitterness. I gave a bottle to my BIL and he said it tasted like juice to him. So, this one goes down as a fail. But hey, it's still beer!
- taster Be
P.S. What do you all think of making a chart of number of beers we've tasted by style? It might encourage some branching out of our comfort zones.

Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA, Flying Dog Brewery; Frederick, MD

"We were in Bethesda, somewhere on the edge of the beltway, when the drugs began to take hold..."

 So I really like this brewery called Flying Dog.  Besides the fact that they make great beer, they use artwork from one of my all-time favorites, Ralph Steadman.  The deal with Steadman is that he was a normal British political cartoonist when, at some point in the 70's (late 60's maybe?), he flew out to Aspen, Colorado to illustrate for a young Rolling Stone journalist named Hunter Thompson.  As one can imagine, hanging out with Thompson can have its effects, and Steadman's artwork became more and more, shall we say, influenced?

Anyway, I was really surprised to find out that this brewery is nearly in my backyard (Frederick, MD).  I would have figured a more likely location to be one of Thompson's old haunts like Aspen, or Los Angeles, or Barstow (on the edge of the desert...).  Especially considering they use Thompson quotes like crazy and even have an imperial porter named for the guy.  But I guess Frederick is as good a place as any.

Raging Bitch is one of the newer Belgian-American hybrids, and a really nice example.  The Belgian yeast gives the brew that distinctive banana-y (is that even a word?) scent from the loads of esters and amides (I think, anyway).  It has a super malty body.  So malty, in fact, that the 60 IBUs barely make a dent.  Really nice flavor, and the 8.3% ABV is sneakily hidden.  Great brew, although I think Stone's Cali-Belgique still has the crown in the hybrid category.

-ty

Speakeasy Ales and Laggers, San Francisco, CA

This IPA called Big Daddy IPA from Speakeasy was pretty damn good but maybe not as big as it claims to be. I enjoyed this beer quite a bit but found it to have a clean, almost light taste, not the biggest hop flavor that I've ever tasted. I found myself throwing them back like water, cloudy, foamy, sweet and and old school gangster style water that is.

Get in the game, folks.

It's really disappointing to come home, crack a cold one, and log onto your favorite beer blog - only to find that no one else is drinking.  Kent and Becky post this image 'cause we're hard core.  Cheers!