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: ****

IPA

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: IPA

• Brewery: Full Sail Brewing Company (Oregon)

• Style: IPA

• ABV: 6%

• IBU: 60

• Pour Color: A golden color that is nearly see thru.

      The pour brought a good head that was fluffy and full. Competed with for about half the glass but my follicles beat it down. The color of the beer was a golden shade and seemed pretty well filtered. The scent off the top is very full of citrus. The taste was full of lemon and grapefruit. It's almost a citrus fruit peel bitterness. It still has a great balance that works. A really interesting and as the say tasty IPA. 
      This is a great IPA. Hoppy and full of flavor in the right way. It's completely citrus flavored though. No hop spectrum but that citrus flavor. That comes across this mustache as a nice refreshing beverage. Not really every hop heads dream though. I'd grab this on hot days any day. Not really a cold weather beer for me though!

Rating: ****1/2

Milk Stout Nitro

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Milk Stout Nitro

• Brewery: Left Hand Brewing

• Style: Milk Stout

• ABV: 6%

• IBU: 25

• Pour Color: A dark nearly black pour that lets little if any light thru

      This one had a eventful pouring as it has nitrous in it. The head came up nice and fluffy. A very creamy feel to it and it lasted for most the glass. The scent off the top was a nice roasted chocolate malt verity. The nitrous and milk give this beer a great feel in the mouth. The flavors are rather watered down though. A roasted/sweet flavor is really the most dominant tastes. You also get tones of coffee and chocolate. A nice milk stout that really has the body you want just not as strong of a flavor profile.
      Pouring a nitros beer is always so much more fun then a normal beer. The cloudiness that seems to settle out but really just builds the head up. It also adds the right carbonation to a milk stout in my opinion. Creamy, fresh, and light this beer really is good. I just wish they went further with the flavors cause it's slightly boring for my taste buds. I'd probably buy this again if I was hanging with a Stout drinker though.

Rating: ****

Red IPA

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Red IPA

• Brewery: Saranac Brewing Company (New York)

• Style: IPA

• ABV: 6.0%

• IBU: 63

• Color: A dark amber that can easily be seen thru

      The head of this beer was real fluffy from the get go. Easily distinguishable as a IPA as soon as you smelt the top. A nice citrus grassy smell. The color was obviously a red ale with a dark amber tone to it. Lacing began at the top and started tracing down as I bathed splash after splash. The bitterness is there for a IPA but it has a nice back bone to the sips. Hops are of course the star though. Citrus, grassy, and pine flavors are all easy to find. These flavors also echo long after the bathe and sip are over. Really one of the better spring seasonals I've had.

      Wow. Let me start by saying if you want a great 12 pack, you should get the 12 beers a springing from saranac. It's basically a IPA love triangle in that thing, plus a few more hop heavy favorites. This is the one I think is the best of the bunch though. The yeast flavor that most of the Saranac beers have, maybe it's a house yeast, don't blend this well. The yeast just fills out the flavor profile as you get a strong dose of bitter hops and slightly sweet malts. A IPA loving mustache like me can't help but love this one! Maybe this one will go full time soon like the White IPA!

Rating: *****

Tweason'ale

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Tweason'ale

• Brewery: Dogfish Head Brewing Company (Delaware)

• Style: Fruit/Gluten free Beer

• ABV: 6.0%

• IBU:15

• Pour Color: A dark golden color almost a bronze. Light travels through.

      Seeing this one poured was strange. Very carbonated compared to most beers. Also had no head what so ever. These I'm sure are a constant when you're making a grain less beer. The scent of this one was so weird. You get a yeast and a slight raisin scent. The taste is very strange too. The yeast is a strong part of the flavor. It also does have a slight malty flavor to it. A wheat flavor comes through with the raisin tone. The honey made this one slightly over sweet. The strawberry came through slightly but not very much. I found it drinkable and better then some beers that over do the fruit flavor.
      This is my first venture into gluten free beer. This mustache has a strong tolerance to gluten in most it's forms. The Face chose this one cause he has friends who can't drink beer. A strange blend of flavors in this one. Probably not the type of thing I'll be soaked in again. Although I get told all the time gluten free beers suck and are undrinkable. This one I actually found to be decent.

Rating:**

Demo

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Demo

• Brewery: Magic Hat Brewing (Vermont) 

• Style:Black IPA

• ABV: 6%

• IBU: 45

• Pour Color: A black as night beer letting no light through

      The pour was quite dark and the head fluffed up. Didn't go down to quick either. The scent off the glass was caramel and toffee no real hint of hops. The taste of this beer is deep and malty but has a nice sweetness. Chocolate and coffee pretty much tell the story of this one. The hops for a black IPA really are absent. A really good dark beer though.
      A decent beer all and all but not really a black IPA. The bottle claimed a IPA on tour. Closer to a porter but another beer that I enjoyed from magic hat. #9 used to be the only beer I enjoyed from em, but next time I need a coffee porter I'll grab another of these.    

Rating: ***1/2

Chocolate Stout

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Chocolate Stout

• Brewery: Rogue Brewery (Oregon)
  

• Style: Stout

• ABV: 6.0%

• IBU: 69

• Pour Color: Black through and through.

      Reading chocolate I'm scared this one might be sticky and sweet. On the pour it almost is black as melted chocolate. Even the head takes on that brown color of this beer. Smelling it doesn't give you a strong chocolate scent. A sweet scent comes off the glass but mostly you get coffee and roasted barley off the top. Tasting this you realize that this is a real stout. Thick and bitter it's a real dark beer. The taste you get of chocolate comes through  but it's a dark dark chocolate taste. This is a great beer, not just a novelty. 
      I'm a big fan of what Rogue does with dark ales. One of my favorite dark beers is the Mocha Porter. This one is a new favorite now. Dark, thick, and really bitter this beer gives you all the tastes a stout should and only comes in the 22oz. What more could a mustache wish for?

Rating: *****

Vanilla Java Porter

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Vanilla Java Porter

• Brewery: Atwater Block Brewery (Michigan) 
  

• Style: Java Porter

• ABV: 6.0%

• IBU: 12

• Pour Color: A brown color once poured in the glass.

      Once opened and poured this one gives off that great coffee scent. A nice tone of chocolate comes off the glass too. The head didn't really come to fruition but left a creamy foam on the top of the beer. As it splashed up the vanilla was all I could taste at first. A strong taste of extract more then anything. After the first few sips the coffee and chocolate taste come forward with a nice roasted smoke. The vanilla really is the only down side of this nice full bodied beer. 
      Michigan checks in with this one. Really bold flavors and a thick full bodied beer. I found the vanilla to taste to extract like though. Maybe if it was toned back it wouldn't have almost a maple end to it. Pretty good overall if your looking to drink one. Two or Three may get a little heavy on a mustache.

Rating: ***

Black IPA

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Black IPA

• Brewery: Otter Creek Brewing (Vermont)
  

• Style: Black IPA

• ABV: 6.0%

• IBU: 60

• Pour Color: A dark pour that can't be seen through, black.

      Nice citrus and pine scent out the bottle. On pour, it was black, letting little light through. The head held for a few seconds but not too long. The scent off the glass is a slight roasted scent and the pine and citrus scents of hops. The taste is where it gets really good. It splashed up and I got a nice bitter taste of hops. Once my follicles got used to that it was easy to taste the coffee and roasted barley flavors. Really really delicious smooth porter feel with the hops of a IPA. This is by far the best of the four I got in the Otter Creek sampler. 
      Black IPAs seem to be coming out more and more each day. If done well these are some of the best beers out there. Why settle for a IPA or a porter when you can have both? That nice roasted flavor and bitter hop make for some great mixes of tastes. Otter Creek happens to have a real good one too. So go try it.

Rating: ****1/2

Fisherman's IPA

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Fisherman's IPA

• Brewery: Cape Ann Brewing (Massachusetts)

• Style: IPA

• ABV: 6%

• IBU: 64

• Pour Color: A copper colored, slightly murky

      As the Face poured this one it had a slight murkiness and almost the color of a red ale. The scent is the hopiest part of this one. The head disappeared quick and was no match for me. At first taste you realize this, IPA, is very different then most. This one has a real malty taste and real earthy tones. Bitter like most IPAs, it also has a strange malt sweetness.  It really tastes more like a hoped up red ale then most American IPAs. This one is a decent IPA but definitely was not what i was expecting.
      While siping this one the bitterness is there. That part is what you expect in a IPA. The malty sweetness though is strange. Almost a over sweet Cascazilla. It really didn't make me curl much.  If I saw a Cape Ann beer in a glass again I wouldn't stray from being soaked in it though.

 Rating: ***

Fire Rock

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Fire Rock

• Brewery: Kona Brewing Company (Hawaii)

• Style: Pale Ale

• ABV: 6%

• IBU: 35

• Pour Color: A amber slightly cloudy shade

      The head of the beer was quick to shrink after it was poured. As I get close a slight hint of hop hits the nose. First sip and a mild hop flavor is tasted. For a pale ale this one is mostly malt. Not much thickness though, as it washed back off my hairs easy. A real earthy pale. As far as the hops goes don't have to fear this fire rock like the real thing.
      How can you pass up trying some beer from the big island. Especially in winter just dreaming of that tropical paradise. You don't see a lot of craft beer from Hawaii, but Kona really does have some good stuff. I myself would prefer a Long Board Lager to this one. Overall an ok pale ale though.

Rating: ***

White IPA

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: White IPA

• Brewery: Saranac Breweries (New York)

• Style: White IPA

• ABV: 6%

• IBU: ? 

• Pour Color: A cloudy golden color. 

      The head of this beer was thick and kinda creamy. The smell of this one is complex. You smell the hops of a I.P.A clearly. On top of that you have the scent of orange that you would expect of a white ale. As it splashed upon my follicles, I felt, I was in a liquid orange peel. You have a bitterness and a citrus flavor all melding. Think of a hoppy orange slice that you also bite the peel of. This one is an original and interesting beer. At least for a majorly distributed brewery.
      Saranac was the first beer that I could find that did a mix of flavors. They call it a trail mix. I used to take the black forest lager outta one six pack and swap it with the IPA from another. This is not their IPA though. Although good it's originality out weighs it's actual quality. This one really is a nice mix of refreshment and bitterness.

Rating: ****1/2

60Min IPA

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: 60 Minute IPA

• Brewery: DogFish Head (Delaware)

• Style: I.P.A

• ABV: 6%

• IBU: 60

• Pour Color: A transparent amber color

     The head started out high and fluffy after a sip or two it disappeared though. Real easy to stay curled through. You can clearly smell the hops right out the bottle and that doesn't stop after a taste. The mix of hops is nice and crisp. Unlike other beers I have reviewed, this one doesn't stop with the hops. Even after the swallow a strong hop taste is present. Chewing down hops is easy for a mustache like me so this one is really a delicious beer.
      Dogfish head was the first beer company that made me wonder if there is a hop limit to the madness. The 60min is so great I thought why not try the 90min. That one was good to. 120min and boom! That one took drinking once or twice before I could enjoy it fully... Drinking that beer is a chore in itself. This one though is the most refreshing and easy sipping version of the dogfish head I.P.A. variety.

Rating: ****1/2