Nighttime ale

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: NightTime Ale

• Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company (California)

• Style: Black IPA

• ABV: 8.6%

• IBU: 73.4

• Pour Color: Black as night!

      NightTime Ale poured black as night. Light had no business even trying to pass thru this one. The head even had a dark shade to it showing how much dark malt was in it. The lacing lasted most of the glass as it fought valiantly against my follicles. The scent of the hops had a nice pine citrus mix. The bouquet was rounded out with roasted caramel scent. First sip was a explosion of flavors. The hops and the malts were way over the top but only got better as the face swallowed. The malts come thru as a slightly sweet flavor but the roasted malt bitterness really just added to the hops. Citrus and pine tried to over whelm but the malts held there own. Great great beer!
      Lagunitas.... Ohhh how do I love thee... Let me count the ways! Very few beer companies knock it out of the park nearly every beer you have. That's what Lagunitas does. There hop heavy beers are amazing and the back bone of there business. It's beers like night time that make you realize that Lagunitas knows it's niche but can also cross over into dark stuff. Yeah it's still hop heavy but it also makes you think of chocolate and coffee more then most straight up malty beers. Kudos again to one of the breweries that makes me love drinking beers!

Rating: *****

Hopportunity Knocks

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Hopportunity Knocks

• Brewery: Caldera Brewing Company

• Style: IPA

• ABV: 6.8%

• IBU: 100

• Pour Color: red and light travels thru.

      The pour brought about a redish colored pour. The head was a good size and laced the glass most of the way down. The scent off the top was kind of unsettling. Smelled like sweet resinous smell but the malt blend had a funk to it. The flavor had a hop presence like a IPA should. Those hops came through as a artificial alcoholic flavor more then a real bitter kick. The malts were over bearing and seemed to have a slight smoked flavor that was way out of place. Really a weird IPA. 
      This beer may be one of the worst IPAs I've ever had. It's a IPA cause of the 100 IBUs yeah.... they chose to bury the IBUS with a absurd blend of malts that didn't just try and balance the beer but tried to take it over. On top of that the scent off the top was just about stomach turning before I took a swig. The date on the can said canned 4/15/15 so I would expect 120 day window would still be good for freshness. Really really disappointed by this beer and wouldn't get it again ever. 

Rating: 

Hoppy Boy

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Hoppy Boy

• Brewery: Twisted Pine Brewing (Colorado)

• Style: American Pale Ale

• ABV: 5.7%

• IBU: 50

• Pour Color: Dark golden color.

      A sweet malt and hoppy scent off the top. A nice golden color a little darker then most pales. The head was a good size and stuck around for a good few splashes into the follicles. The flavor of this one is much sweeter then most pales I've had. Almost a sweet orange flavor to it. Very ballenced for being a pale.
      It says balance is the key but this one is on the hoppy side. I disagree with that statement. This one was really sweet and seemed to hide the hoppy bitter I expected and wanted. I could see this being a gateway beer for someone but it's not a really hoppy beer. I even would say the malts were the star of this beer making for easy drinking. It just didn't strike me as a pale ale though. Good but not anything I'd go out of my way to find.  

Rating: **1/2

Even Keel

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Even Keel

• Brewery: Ballest Point (California)

• Style: Session IPA

• ABV: 3.8%

• IBU: 40

• Pour Color: Dark golden color maybe even a bronze that allowed light thru.

      The face poured this one and the smell hit me quick. A nice citrus grassy scent off the top. The head was two fingers high to begin with and disappeared rapidly. The color in the glass was a bronze shade that allowed light thru. I imagine some kind of caramel malt is used to get that shade in a session ipa. It also had a nice little bit of hop haze to it. The flavor gives you a slight sweet taste of malts that coincides with a bitter almost tangerine, orange, grapefruit flavor. This beer is able to pack a punch that most session ales can't. A good beer to have a few when you can't get smashed. 
      I went to a tap take over from Ballest Point at the basin pub in my area of New York. They had alot of big beers but I had to drive home and I live a half hour away at the very least. This was the beer that got me through. Full of flavor and a real low ABV. Up till that night i didn't give many sessions a chance cause they were just so laid back. This one actually packs the flavor IPA drinkers are looking for. 

Rating: ****1/2

Not Your Fathers Rootbeer

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Not Your Fathers Rootbeer

• Brewery: Small Town Brewery (Illinois)

• Style: Spiced Beer

• ABV: 5.9%

• IBU: ?

• Pour Color: A very dark brown that keeps most light at bay.

      As the face poured it I didn't see much characters of a beer. The head disappeared instantly. The color was dark brown and let little light pass thru it. The scent off the top wasn't beer either it was a mix of spice, vanilla, and a little alcohol scent. The flavor was almost exactly like the rootbeer barrel candies. Slightly sweeter and with a deeper vanilla tone. The body of the beer was really thin and over carbonated compared to most beers. This isn't a beer drinkers beer this is a soda pop with alcohol in it.
      The question you have to ask yourself is do you want soda or do you want beer. This doesn't drink like a beer. It doesn't have the body and it's way more carbonated then most beers. But it delivers on what it sells on the label. A nice clean tasting rootbeer that has a little more vanilla then most other rootbeers. As long as you know what your getting into this isn't a bad beer by any means. If you really want to call it a beer. Really torn on the rating of this one cause I love it for what it is but it's not beer to me. Really really good though.

Rating: ****

Total Domination

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Total Domination

• Brewery: Ninkasi Brewing Company (Oregon)

• Style: IPA

• ABV: 6.7%

• IBU: 65

• Pour Color: A nearly see thru dark golden color. 

      The scent as it poured was a piney slightly sweet scent. The golden darker color had a good haze to it showing it was hoppy and unfiltered. The head on the top of the beer was fluffy and faded down quick. It did leave lacing down about half the glass before totally dissipating. The flavor was a little off to me. The bitterness of the hops came across as more of a peel bitter. It also had a slightly sweet and sour backing that was weird. As you swallow this on though you get a strong alcohol taste for a few seconds and it echos for awhile. Very strange beer that I probably wouldn't go out of my way to find. 
      This really wasn't my favorite beer. The bottle didn't have a best by date or born on date. So the sour flavor I got off it could have been it sitting to long. That sour flavor really was off. This experience alone would make me personally shy away from taking a swim in Ninkasi beer from now on. Luckily this isn't my only experience with ninkasi and I know they have other beers that are good. Maybe soon I'll get a fresh IPA from them and it'll change my mind but for now Total Domination isn't a accurate description of what was in this bottle.    

Rating: **1/2

Captain Banana

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Captain Banana

• Brewery: Three Heads Brewing (New York)

• Style: Unfiltered Wheat

• ABV: 6%

• IBU: 18

• Pour Color: A very hazy gold to dark yellow color. Little light gets thru. 

      A decent head as we started to eye each other up. The color was a nice full bodied gold. You can tell this beer was not filtered in the slightest. I hit the foam full force and bested it. A nice wheat flavor to this beer. Almost a slight sour dough flavor to. The banana that they advertise on the side of the bottle gives it a slight sweetness and evens it out nicely. The banana comes through as a slightly under ripened banana. A really nice wheat beer through and through. 

      Captain banana is another great logo and story from three heads. Luckily it's also another good beer. You can tell right from the get go that if you don't like unfiltered beer this isn't down your alley and the wheat flavor is gonna be heavy. The balance that the banana brings to the mix is what makes it a easy sipping beer. Great beer to take a swim in and make my return to beer reviews! Glad i got to try it with some cookie dough at hometown throwdown at lovin cup recently!!!!

Rating: ****