7th inning stretch

Thoughts on the game so far:
1) Webb is a dominant pitcher. Probably should have guessed that ahead of time from the Cy Young he's won.
2) Bronson Arroyo and Chris Welch's JTM commercial is horrible.
3) I'm shocked to find out that there is an online dating website called "farmersonly.com" because "city folks just don't get it." I can only hope that farm animals are not involved.
4) Founders Dry Hopped Pale Ale is an adequate beer. Nothing exceptional, but highly drinkable. My least favorite Founder's so far. 2.8/5

Play Ball

Another year, another Edwin Encarnacion error. Reds off to a slow start so far. Am eating peanuts and drinking a 22 of Barrel House Cumberland Pale Ale, which is a Cincy beer. Supposedly an IPA, but tastes like a ball-park lager to me. Ridiculously fizzy...I can't get more than about 1/2 the glass full before it volcanos over the top no matter how carefully I pour it. I would honestly rate it pretty poorly except for the fact it tastes just like a Riverfront Hudy-delight, which is perfect for watching the game right now. Nostalgia rating: 4/5. Actual rating: 1/5. Go Reds!

Opening Day.

The Reds are going Wire-to-Wire again this year. Watch out.

Rye time is the right time

Finally followed Barry's advice and found a Rye to try on Saturday. Two Brothers Cane & Ebel. It was good. I liked it. I'd have another. 3/5.

Is Barry Dead? I'm concerned.

Friday night at the Shoreline was pretty fun. Sadly, they were out of the Rye beer. On the plus side, all my beers were free. So, I sampled most of what was available. Highlights included the 'Don't Panic!" English Pale Ale, and the "Bavarian Bombshell" Schwarzbier. I've decided I like Schwarzbiers...black as night and really smooth. That was what I and everyone else drank most of the night. The IPA's (they had 2 different ones) were ok but nothing special. After a night of all the free beer I could drink, I opted not to go to 3 floyds the next day when I found out the only growlers you can get there are the 4 beers you can readily find in bottles (alpha king, rob the bruce, gumballhead, and pride and joy). I really wanted a growler of Alpha Kong. Oh well.

Bring on the barley wine

This one is good as have all Southern Tier beers have been. Caramelly and sweet balanced with lots of hops. I usually don't like barley wines, but I like this one. 3.8/5. Can you non-WI residents get Southern Tier?

How have I lived in Madison for 8 years and not eaten here

Smoky Jon's #1 BBQ - By far the best ribs in Madison. Probably the best ribs I've ever had. We will return and I will take Chris and Pete there when you visit.

Overtime means extra Raftery

Wish XU could have ended this in regulation ...overtime now. Boo-urns.

Had another Colorado beer tonight: Avery IPA. Not great. Very pale and was reminiscent of a hoppy Bud Heavy. Not the best by any account but did feature a cool old-school map on the lapel. 2/5.

Also had a Hopslam and can re-confirm that it, is in fact, the nectar of the gods.

Tomorrow I hit the Shoreline Brewery for a Steepwater gig where I hope to try their ridiculous rye, and Saturday I might stop by 3 Floyds again and see if I can try an Alpha Kong Sextuple, hopefully in growler form.

Victory 12

Pretty solid belgian from Victory. As it warms up I hope it will improve. I will withhold my rating for a few minutes.

I will not refrain from complaining that CBS is showing UNC v. Wash St. here instead of XU v. WVU. It's over 8 minutes into the UNC game and the score is 10 - 10! Boring.

Apparently XU is raining 3's.

Edit: I guess this is a solid beer. 3/5. I'm beginning to think I don't really liike the Belgian beers I've tried.

Great Divide Pale Showdown

Got two Great Divide beers the other day to see if it was worth hitting their brewery in a few weeks when I'll be in Denver for a conference. I think it will definitely be worth it. Both were very good. The first was a Denver Pale Ale which I guess is actually an english pale ale, but tasted a lot like an APA to me. Very tasty. I could see myself taking down quite a few of these on a nice summer day. Very refreshing, good flavor, good beer. 3.9/5.

Next up was a Titan IPA. Another good one. Much hoppier than the Denver, but not *super* hoppy. Another good beer, but I didn't like it quite as much...maybe because all the IPA's I've had lately have been monster Imperials and this didn't blow me away the way those tend to. 3.6/5. Two thumbs up for Great Divide...the next ones I want to try are the Hercules and the Yeti.

Ohhhhhh Raspy...

The main event for the evening. My battle with the Czar. Avery Czar Imperial Stout to be exact. In looking it up to post that link, I found that the bottle I had (the 2004 batch) was the strongest batch of the last 8 years or so. It definitely tastes like it. I'm currently going head to head with this and loosing desperately. I feel somewhere between Pete vs. Raspy and Pete vs. Barry in his desperate attempt to argue the existence of Neil Ramsmootch. Like Napoleon marching to Moscow, I have met my match here. This is one serious Imperial. I'll finish it tonight, but only because I have a few hours and Katie helping.
3.5/5

Assorted Cheeses

Pictured here I believe are some kind of Greek sheep cheese, "butter" cheese, peppercorn Asiago, and aged Vermont cheddar. All were pretty good.

Boston Swill

This has been in the fridge since the Super Bowl. We opened it because BeerAdvocate suggested a brown ale with cheddar cheese. This was the only one we had in the fridge, so I though what the hell. Should have left it in the fridge. Swill. Moderately choke-down-able in a pinch. Sam Adams Brown. 1/5

Like a spring day in Paris

Lots of entries today. Had a trip to the beer store today and tonight Katie and I decided to do a beer and cheese sampling dinner. The first entry is from one of my new favorite breweries: Two Brothers Dumaine DuPage. This is a biere de garde or French country ale. Not much to say about this...pretty good mellow ale. Kind of like a mild APA. It went well with cheese. I liked it, but there wasn't really anything memorable about it. 2.5/5

Meh

Forgot to post this one a few days ago: Corsendonk Abbey Brown. The day I bought this, there were two Corsendonk's next to each other on the shelf. I brought both up to the checkout. One was $11.50 for a 12 oz, one was $3.00. I decided the 11.50 was a bit rich for my blood and went with the cheap one. Either I choose poorly, or I escaped an expensive disaster. I wasn't too impressed with this one. Sort of had a cider kind of thing going. Nothing gross but nothing very special either. 2.2/5

Aprihop

Drinking a Dogfish Aprihop. Not bad, but not good enough to warrant a picture. It smacks of Raison. Very fruity. Kind of medicine-y. Not very good. 2/5. Can't recommend.

When are we getting together in IN?

The power of Oak

Finally an Indiana beer that doesn't blow. Barley Island Bourbon Barrel Oatmeal Stout. As soon as this beer warmed up a bit, all the flavor started to come out. It smells like it came out of a bottle of Makers or Beam, with a little hint of root beer float. Tastes great...hint of vanilla is present and serves to sweeten things up in a way that compliments to oaky bourbon flavor. Another Oaken victory. I'm becoming a bigger oak fan than the monster squirrels tormenting Harper in the yard at the moment. One of the best stouts I've had in awhile, despite having one of the lamest labels ever. Can't judge a beer by it's label, as has been proven to me time and time again. 4/5.

Otto's for Easter

Partway through a growler of Otto's DD-IPA. (That's Double D IPA) Hitting the spot on a warm Easter sunday. Homer would approve.

Wheat^3

A few days ago I tried to discern if glass shape affects flavor. I could not tell. Thoughts?

In the picture are three glasses of Sposborth Wheat, which is decreasing, despite its not stellar flavor. (And probably due to its stellar alcohol percentage...) My sister Marie was here this weekend. She described the Wheat by stating, "Wow. That tastes like beer."

Editor's note: In the picture, the glass on the right contains mainly the dregs, with all the yeast.

Ides of March

= ?

Watching the UT vs. Butler game, I'm reminded of one of my least favorite aspects of March. Bill Raftery is officially one of my most hated human beings ever to have darkened the planet earth with his presence. If you need a reminder, click the link above and peruse the list of memorable quotes. I loathe you Bill.

Took the Barleywine plunge

Finally cracked the wax off the 3 Floyd's Behemoth (2008 edition) last night. Still haven't decided how I feel about it. Definitely not suffering from a lack of flavor...there are about 2 dozen flavors fighting with each other in there. My overwhelming impression was kind of an IPA mixed with craison-juice, which sounds grosser than it tasted. I think I liked it, and would have it again, but it wasn't my favorite thing I've ever tasted. I'd rather have a Hopslam or a Belgian strong anyday, especially given how expensive this was. I'm going to hold off on rating it until I try a few more barleywines and get a sense of what they are.

I think that Founder's must be a good brewer

This tastes a lot like the Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, but the alcohol is not quite so noticeable. This was smooth and vanilla-y with lots of good oak and bourbon flavors. 4.7/5

Anyone heard of or seen this?

Looks like a new 3 Floyds.

The return of flavor

Leaving the tasteless sugar-water category behind me, I've moved on to a Boulder Beer Mojo Risin' Imperial IPA. This was much better. Very hoppy, pretty straightforward hopped-out IPA taste. Another one I'd expect Barry to like a lot. Of the beers I've had lately, it is probably most similar to a Dreadnaught. Pretty good, not my favorite, but mostly because it is a little bit too far on the hoppy taste spectrum for me, not because there's anything wrong with it. Highly potable if you can get by the frightening similarity to the word "raison" in the name. 3.4/5

Edit: Katie's opinion of this is that it "reminds me of an Oriental rug." I have no idea what to think of that, so make of it what you will. I'm not even sure that is still the preferred nomenclature.

Utter Disappointment

Oh, you've screwed me again BBC. Got a growler of the newly unveiled Bloomington Brewing Co. Belgian Pale Ale. The first disappointment was the pale-ness. Last spring they had a Belgian strong dark. The larger disappointment was the utter lack of any flavor beyond bland sugar water. Attempts to improve said taste with fruit yielded additionally poor results. This tasted like a Blue Moon that was dilluted down with water to feed to a 4 year old. Also has a slight "summer shandy" quality to it, and not in a good way. I deem thee swill. Lucky for me I still have 2/3's of a growler taunting me. In the meantime, I'm switching to something that has some semblance of flavor. 0.5/5

Query: What is the appropriate tipping policy for a growler? I've been struggling with this lately. On the one hand, I'm buying it and carrying it out, so it seems no tip should be necessary. On the other hand, the bartender is doing just as much if not more work than they would if I ordered a pint. I tend to compromise and leave a dollar or two, but it feels sub-optimal to me. Thoughts?

How do you rate a strong Belgian?

I always have this problem, because no matter what I think at the beginning, by the end I think it's great. This particular one, an Avery Reverend Quadruppel, I would have initially called subpar. In Katie's words, it had a strong taste of butter. Now that I'm sitting here done with it, all ill feelings are forgiven, and I just want some more of it. In the immortal words of Homer: "they smell good, they look good, you'd step over your own mother just to get one! But you can't stop at one. You wanna drink another woman!"
I blame the Belgian candy sugar and its addictive properties. I think the fair rating is: pretty good but not the best. I'd hit it again so I guess I'll give it a 4/5. I'm glad this got a passing grade, because there is a whole shelf of Avery's at the store I want to try. Next up is the Czar which is waiting in the fridge for the weekend.

Abita Jockamo IPA

I like this beer. It is the best Abita I've tried and a damn fine IPA. 4/5. It's eerily similar to Two Hearted. Little cheaper too. What does rye taste like in beer? Maybe this has it.

Go BELMONT!

Also, Go BANANA!

Proposition: labels

So, I had a thought in reviewing our old posts: Let's try to include labels of the type of beer we're reviewing (ie: IPA, Imperial IPA, Stout, etc.) and our name so that if we later want to look up all the IPA's that have been reviewed or all the beers reviewed by a particular person, we can just click on the label? We could also do Brewery names. I'm envisioning this being useful when making a shopping list of things you want to try. Good idea/Bad idea? Useful or too much work? I'll volunteer to go back and label the old posts if there is interest.

No Rest for the Rye Guy, Redux

Hop Rod Rye from Bear Republic is hoppy and rye infused in a strange way that bubbles on the tongue and makes the mouth tingle. It's very odd. Pours to nice amber with a quickly dissipating head. The best way that I can describe rye is that it is bitter in the way that a hop would punch you in the kisser and a leather belt braised in bitter malts would finish you off. It's abrupt and very spicy. It's also tasty as hell. Abrupt, spicy, and very bitter... good for you.

4.2/5

Hop to it

Two Brothers Hop Juice. Before I get to descriptions, let me point out that the label of this beer features a pair of pliers squeezing out every last drop from a defenseless hop. In other words, Barry's dream beer brewing process. I think this is a beer all of us would like. Katie even liked it. Make no mistake, it is very hoppy, but stops at the very brink of the point where it ceases being an enjoyable taste for me. In other words, I wouldn't want it any hoppier, but as it is it is very good. There isn't much other flavor there...not much caramel, or honey or anything like that which I've become used to lately. It tastes exactly like it's named, no more-no less. Bright orange amber color, almost red. Smells fantastic. Smooth and refreshing. A good beer. I also like that it is 100.1 IBU's because that extra tenth makes all the difference. 4.2/5


PS...to our resident brewers, can anyone explain the Plato scale to me and its relevance to beer? For reference, this is a 22.7 Plato beer.

Duane...true or false?

You would happily do this to a co-worker? Also, the new Chester Cheetah is way better than the old version.

Hoppe is so-so

The Southern Tier Hoppe Imperial Extra Pale Ale is pretty ok. I would describe it as a poor man's Alpha King. Lots of Amarillo hops, but not too hoppy. 3.5/5

All hail the Storm King!!!

I'm becoming more and more a fan of the Victory brews (and I haven't even had HopDevil yet). The Storm King is an outstanding Imperial stout. Massive malts and nice Pacific Northwest hops. 4.4/5

Steam Has Arrived

It's really dark red, bitter, slightly hoppy, and finishes very abruptly. Head dissipated almost immediately, good bubbles along glasss. K doesn't much like it, I'm not as down on it. A first attempt....I expected greatness.

Dragons are cool

New Holland Dragon's Milk. I guess this is an English Strong Ale, but to me it tastes almost like a milk stout with a little more of an alcohol taste. Pretty good, but a little bland and flat. Highly drinkable, but nothing overly special I didn't think. 2.9/5

Guest review by Katie:

I remember days of yore, when Chris and Duane and friends would troop out to Food Lion and fill three carts full of OE, Hurricanes and, of course, Colt 45 when they had a few extra pennies. We would drink that malt liquor and pretend it was good.

If I ever get nostalgic for those days, but don't want to re-live the fodie hangover, now I know I can reach for a nice, 12oz Coopers Brewery Sparkling Ale, possibly the worst swill I have ever imbibed. I don't know if it reminds me more of drinking a King Cobra or the taste in my mouth the morning after drinking a King Cobra.

Chris says it reminds him of a skunky Fosters. It does have a kangaroo on the label.
Has anyone ever had a good Aussie beer?

You (Barry) deserve one

I sure could go for a Hopslam right about now.

Silly Rye Guy

So, rye is the flavor of the week. What's the soup d'jour? Ah, that's the soup of the day. That sounds nice, I'll have that. Anyways, after my rye porter this weekend, it's on to Founder's (very underrated Michigan brewery thanks to Bell's) Red Rye. Deep, cloudy red pour with an even half inch head that remains throughout the beer. Hops very noticeable on the pour. Deep sips leaves dry, bitter, tongue numbing sensation of rye (still underappreciated) both upfront and in the aftertaste. Hops present but not overwhelming. Malty backbone with notes of caramel and sweet slickness. Very drinkable. Biggest drawback is that red beers suck, and there's a bit of red here. Tasty. I'm giving the hops and rye the benefit of the doubt.
4.2/5

Mead...not just for Trapper Keepers anymore

So, tonight was mead night, or more accurately "Braggot" night which as far as I have read is basically a mixture of mead and beer. Two Brothers' Heliocentric. It took a bit of getting used to, but I really liked it in the end. Very smooth, very honey-ish. Kind of reminiscent of something like a Leinie's HoneyWeiss but more smooth and more honey flavor with a hint of wine-iness. Definitely a room-temperature beverage...it wasn't good at all when I had a sip while it was still cold. I would partake of it again-possible beerfest candidate. 3.8/5

Happy St. Patty's

Trip to Tyranena

God lord! Tyranena's Dirty Old Man Imperial Rye Porter aged in Bourbon Oak Barrels is silly smooth, combining all that is good in a porter, chocolate, vanilla, and a slight burnt taste, with the bitter, unmistakable taste of rye, which is vastly underrated. Combine these flavors with the taste of bourbon, and you have yourself one of the finest porters I have ever tasted. Deep black in color, with a minimal, pillowy white head, this beer is eminently chuggable, despite it's complexity. Damn straight Tyranenea. 4.4/5

Just to keep this hoppy, Warrior IPA from Left Handed tastes of clean hops (harvested once a year) and deep caramel notes. Also sluggable, but I prefer IPA's that reek more of citrusy, aromatic hops, than their caramel counterparts. Very tasty, but not elite. 4.1/5

Clark's wedding

Nothing too exciting in Texas. Carey and I and Ta-al were there and no one else that I knew. Some reasonably good beers were had, but nothing special.

Ziegen Bock - This is some A-B creation that I think was made to rival Shiner Bock, but it is pretty tasteless. 2.3/5

Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA - There don't seem to be any good local beers here, so I went with a classic. Although this is the first time I had tried it. This was a very tasty IPA. 4/5

Victory Golden Monkey - a good tripel. Kinda tastes like bananas. 3.8/5

Bud Light - Why do weddings have drinkable wine and terrible beer? I think it is a conspiracy. 0/5

Clipper City strikes again

I'm becoming a big Clipper City fan. This was the Clipper City Heavy Seas Holy Sheet which is an Abbey style dubbel. Very dark and has a lot of caramel, sweet, almost fruitiness. Also has a tiny hint of smokiness. Not the best Belgian I've ever had, but very solid and enjoyable, which seems to be my description of all the Heavy Seas stuff I've tried so far. They don't knock your socks off, but they've all been good, kind of safe & mild examples of their respective styles...definitely good options to introduce someone to each genre. So far of the 3 I've had, I think I liked the Imp Stout best, the Hop^3 next, and this 3rd best. I'm going to get whatever other types they've got on my next trip. I'll give the Holy Sheet a 3.9/5

Speaking of Chili

The hoppiest beer ever known to mankind

As a sign that the apocalypse is upon us, or my taste buds are evolving, I did not hate this beer. In fact, it is pretty damn tasty. Founder's Devil Dancer Triple IPA. I quote: "More IBU's than any brewery has documented, more than you would believe and dry-hopped for twenty-six days straight with a combination of 10 hop varieties." Supposedly 200+ IBU's and 13.5% alcohol, this beer was purchased entirely to test my own manhood. I consider the experiment a success, and would recommend this one to the more adventurous types out there. I won't say it was as enjoyable as the Goose IPA, but still good. 3.9/5.

It's Skytime time

Chili: 5/5, a perfect score. This was an excellent batch. Notable recipe variations include the use of fettuccine rather than spaghetti, doubling of the recommended tomato paste amount, and excessive inclusion of high quality chocolate chips.

Flying Vegetarian Burritos, Brothers

I may have just made the tastiest dinner, of all time. What you do is make a usual vegetarian burrito. The special ingredient is lamb, pan fried with a slice of bacon.

To make this slightly beer related, the meal was accompanied by another Harpoon IPA. Spicy, light. A worthy match.

Idea - Dumb or Genius or Both?

While listening to 670 The Score on my drive home today, I heard an idea I found humorous. Four dudes created a bracket, seeded into four divisions like the NCAA, and seeded the lamest, stupidest, or more aggrevating things they could think of. Each person had a region and the others voted on who advanced.
Examples include: #6 seed Gary, Indiana vs. #11 Butterscotch
#4 woman with kankles vs. #13 Grease 2
#5 mosquitos vs. #12 paper cuts
and
#14 Stuart Scott vs. # 3 Bozo
Seeing as we are all sarcastic and humorous individuals, I see great possibilities in this playoff system.

Barry's Fav

Quoting the ipa-master, "When Imperials Drink this Easy, Head for the Hills." Everything Barry said in his review I will echo. In comparison to the Hopslam, I would say this is a little hoppier, with some fruit flavor rather than honey flavor. Both are excellent. I think I'll rate it a hair behind the Hopslam and a hair ahead of the Oaken Bastard, which I guess is about a 4.7/5 for the Goose Island Imperial IPA. Well done Goose Island. All these goose special reserves are fantasic. This is a top contender for my sweet 16.

Chili is simmering...review to follow

New Stock-up day

Lots of exciting new selections in B-town. Barry will be proud that my next set of reviews is set to be very IPA-centric. I've also managed to sneak in some Belgians for Duane, some honey beer for Pete, and some Oaked beers for me. Lots of Colorado beers to be had, and new entries from New Holland and Clipper City which I have been liking lately. Also on the menu for tonight is some homemade chili. Happy Friday to all.

Dinner beers at Brasserie V

Brasserie V is the newer Belgian-focused gastropub in Madison. I think Barry has been there before. It is kinda on the pricey side (both for food and booze), but it is worth a treat every once in a while.

Today, we had:

Struise Mikkeller - This beer is a collaboration between the very excellent Struise brewers of Belgium and the supposedly excellent brewers of Mikkeller of Denmark (never tried their beer before) This beer is a Imperial IPA with 130 IBUs, which I think is the highest IBU beer I've ever had (Dreadnaught is 100 IBU). Surprisingly, it was not pucker-your-face bitter. In fact it was remarkably smooth. A good example of have a Belgian style ale can actually blend with the Double IPAs in a good way. 4.3/5

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout - Man, I've really come to like the imperial stouts. Black as oil. Very strong bourbon/alcohol smell. Very smooth and tasty. 4.2/5

Val-Dieu Grand Cru - run of the mill Belgian strong ale. 3.5/5

Smuttynose Baltic Porter - Carey had this one. It was quite tasty. It had no "dirt" taste as the 'bad' porters and stouts do. Tasty. 4.1/5

Jenlain Ambree - This was an OK French beer. That is almost an oxymoron. Copper colored and sweet. 3.4/5

Sposborth hearts APA

Only to give you guys an idea of the scale to which the makers of Sposborth like to make APA, I submit the following picture. Over the course of the last year Matt and I have bottled 8 five gallon batches of American Pale Ale (and have made another 2 five gallon batches yet to be bottled). Clearly we like the APA. Matt has the wherewithal to store beer for the long haul, and we did a big taste test last Friday night. This was extremely fun. The flavors/intangibles were diverse.

Matt poured the selections out and numbered them from 1 - 8. He turned his back and I mixed them up (keeping track of the changes) and then we sampled. We rated each on a scale of 1 - 10 for flavor, aroma, head/carbonation and overall quality. Then we compiled the results and compared against our memory of brewing the batches. somewhat surprisingly we rated the partial mashes highest. And alcohol content was also a good predictor for which we preferred.

Sposborth Wheat

Well. It's hard to rate one's own beer... badly. But I'm not sold on the Sposborth Wheat. The recipe may need adjustment. There is a strong out of place flavor. Imagine you put a slice of lemon in an amber wheat. Fine. But now imagine squeezing an entire lemon into an amber wheat and that is what this tastes like. I don't dislike it. For example the mouthfeel is soft, the carbonation is spot on and the alcohol level is high. Moreover there is no detectable 'homebrew flavor', and so I think we did it right, but I will wait until BBF (Bloomington Beer Fest) to hear your experienced opinions.

To me it is a very weird flavor, one that you only want occasionally, not unlike that smoked Rogue beer which tastes like a son of bacon/smoked cheddar.

BBC confusion...

Well, I found out tonight that I've been needlessly avoiding pretty good beer the last 4 years. Turns out the Bloomington Brewing Company is solid, and not to be confused with my LONGTIME nemesis the Bluegrass Brewing Company which consistently suckers me back in time and time again to buying sucky beers. I mean, when you put a giant bear on a tripel and name it Mephistopheles Metamorphosis you expect it to be good...don't make that mistake. Their Homewrecker double IPA is also dreadful as is their imperial stout. But, enough about Bluegrass, this is a Bloomington BC post.
Katie got a sampler, so we got to try everything they had on tap today. Next week is the debut of their Belgian, so I'll probably go back and pick up a growler then. We had: Quarryman Pale Ale, Ruby Bloom Amber, Big Stone Stout, Java Porter, and B-town Brown. In addition, I had a pint of the Quarryman. My assessment is as follows:
The Stout was kind of average but good...Guiness-y. The Ruby Amber was surprisingly really good, especially since I don't usually like Ambers that much. The Brown was also good, but not what I was in the mood for. My favorite was the Quarryman which was a nice light, summer-backyard-hot-day pounding beer. Reminiscent of a good Sposborth APA. I'll be getting us a growler of that for sure. The Java Porter was pretty gross and I think I'll be taking a Porter break for the foreseeable future.

Harpoon IPA

Good. 3/5. Lots of lager flavor with the aroma of a usual IPA. I have the feeling they used a lager yeast, but maybe fermented at ale temperatures.

My boycott of Vermont beers lasted about a week.