!Pliny The Elder!

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Pliny the Elder

• Brewery: Russian River Brewing Company (California)

• Style: Double IPA

• ABV: 8%

• IBU: 100

• Pour Color: A hazy bronze to copper color.

      This pint poured out with a good head and a real hop haze. About two fingers of head that fought the good fight. Eventually i bested it and but each sip left residue of where it had been. The scent off the top was a bouquet of fruit and pine. Pineapple, grapefruit and pine needles all hit you to make a amazing mix! The mix comes through on flavor too. A slight sweetness of the malts try to even it out but the hops are on display. The most amazing part of this beer is the after tones. The echos of citrus peel stay with every follicles in-between sips. Long, Long, Long after each sip! Prost!, Russian River!
      That's right, me, the hop headed mustache, got to swim in a very special bottle of the Pliny elder... I don't know what else to say but AMAZING! This is my unicorn. It took me for a ride and a half. It was just everything I expected and more. Then I hit the bottom of the bottle and now I'll be chasing this beast again. By far the best double IPA I've ever had!

Rating: *****

Hop Rod Rye

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Hop Rod Rye

• Brewery: Bear Republic (California)

• Style: Rye P.A.

• ABV: 8%

• IBU: 80

• Pour Color: A hazy reddish color to this one that lets light thru.

      Pouring it came out to have a nice see thru hazy light red color.  The head held up nicely through most the glass. The scent off the top is a spicy rye. That mixes well with a citrus hop mix that makes a nice bouquet. Slightly thicker feel in the mouth then I expected. The rye is strongly present on the taste and holds up well with the hops. A nice orange and grapefruit mix is what the hops amount to in taste. This beer is actually really bitter to with a little alcohol taste. All and all though really well ballenced!
      I love me a good rye p.a. and this one delivers. Unlike another one of my favorites, Ruthless Rye, this one I can find year round. It's hard though to say which I like better. This is a little thicker and heartier though and is a much better winter beer. You can't get much better then rocking back and fourth on a sea of this one in a pint glass. Heaven for a drinking mustache like me!

Rating: *****

Winterbraun

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Winterbraun

• Brewery: Lost Coast Brewing Company (California)

• Style: English Brown Ale

• ABV: 8%

• IBU: ?

• Pour Color: A brown red color

      Ok head on this one not to fluffy but held for awhile. The scent off the top was coffee and chocolate. You also get a full smell of the high alcohol in this one. The color is a brown to red. The taste is a mix of caramel sweetness. Coffee and chocolate bitter flavors too with a little bit of smoke. The alcohol isn't really in the taste. All and all this is a really malty sweet beer that has little balance to it.
      So this one is beloved by many. I unfortunately don't feel the same. It's just to sweet for me being a mostly malt beer. The chocolate and the smoke I like in dark beers is there but really no bitter to be found. As a hop lover mustache, a bath in this just was just to sweet. Really a good dark beer even though it wasn't in my wheel house!

Rating: ***

2XMas Ale

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: 2XMas Ale

• Brewery: Southern Tier Brewing Company (New York)

• Style: Spice Beer

• ABV: 8.0%

• IBU: 

• Pour Color: A nice seasonal shade of Christmas red.

      Wow! This one poured out and didn't have much of a head. The color was a nice  almost burgundy. Easily seen through and it let light pass easy. Not to carbonated looking either. I started by pouring this in a pint glass. Didn't seem right so I switched it up to one of my goblets. The scent off the top is intense. Orange, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger all of which come right up and bite you in the nose. The taste is the same thing a huge amount going on! You sip and orange hits you with a ginger and cinnamon bite. The spice combination of flavors. It really reminds me of a eggnog mix of spices. The malts make it quite sweet and not really bitter. Although the alcohol in this one isn't hiding at all. This is really a fairly tasty fun seasonal that I would have again and again each year!
      This is one of the most strange beers I've had as a seasonal. Extremely spicy and different. As far as the holidays go I feel this encapsulates it. You want the classic feel and flavor of the holiday of course. You also finding yourself wanting to get sloshed when the relatives are round. This has you covered in both cases with the 8% ABV! Wow strange but actual I enjoyed the swim in it a lot!

Rating: *****

Third Voyage

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Third Voyage

• Brewery: Sam Adams Brewing Company (Massachusetts)

• Style: Imperial IPA

• ABV: 8%

• IBU: 80

• Pour Color: A nice clear amber color.

      This was a nice fluffy headed beer as it poured. Higher then two fingers the head grew quickly. The scent off the top was that of a nice roasted malt and a nice grassy hop. The color came out a nice see through amber. Tasting it, gives you a nice range of flavor. The malts are a sweet caramel flavored. It also got a nice wheat taste. The hops though are the star of this one. Three different cascade hops give it a strange range most wouldn't expect. You get spicy, fruity, and grassy notes from the hops that all mix for bitter echos after you swallow. A really really good double IPA. 
      This one I was looking forward too. I love cascade hops more then most! That is the hop that really gets me curling. This one chooses to use cascade from 3 different places on earth and really uses them well. I found this beer to be ballenced and fairly smooth for a imperial ale. This perhaps is my new favorite from Sam Adams!

Rating: ****1/2

Old Chub

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Old Chub

• Brewery: Oskar Blues (Colorado)

• Style: Scotch Ale

• ABV: 8.0%

• IBU:85

• Pour Color: On pour a dark red almost brown, No light passes through

      Right out the can you begin to pick up on those scents associated with other scotch ales. Caramel is there and almost a fig scent on top of it. The pour was a very murky red that is not see through at all. The head was much smaller then I expected and disappeared quickly. As the beer soaked me I realized I was in a malt dream. Sweet and full bodied because of the malts this one has a real nice feel to it. A sweet almost roasted flavor is the main flavor. A nice raisin or fig taste is there too. Finally this beer doesn't have that alcohol taste at the end that some do. Most scotch ale have that almost scotch taste to it. This one though really didn't have that last bite. All and all really strange but wonderful brew that I liked. 
      Kinda feel weird drinking, and liking, an Old Chub... This one though has a complexity and mixture of flavors I haven't found before. Most scotch ales taste like what all the other scotch ales taste like. This one wasn't like that. It had some of the flavors you expect from a scotch ale but, it's a full bodied beer that has a easy drink ability that you can't dislike. If it's next to dale's on the shelf again the Face will be picking it up for me! 

Rating: ****

Deviant Dale's

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Deviant Dale's

• Brewery: Oskar Blues (Colorado)

• Style: Imperial IPA

• ABV: 8.0%

• IBU:85

• Pour Color: A bright amber not quite golden but see through

      Deviant comes in the tall boy can delivering the fresh taste you crave. The deviant has a slightly stronger scent to it then Dales Pale. The hops come forward quickly backed by the malts. The head is tall fluffy and thick. Now on taste comes a interesting orange taste to this one. Both sweet and bitter it's got a nice balance. It also has a linger that lasts. All that hoppy goodness echos lowly forever. I don't know if I should curl tighter or droop lower. Deviant may have given me a wedgie and made off with my wax. It was worth it though!
      I think I said this before. Dale's may be the best beer on the market as far as I'm concerned. Deviant has a lot of the things I love about dales. It also has a higher alcohol kick. Dale's easy drink ability still pulls it ahead slightly for me. Still an amazing imperial IPA.

Rating: *****

Hop Stoopid

even the picture got stoopid

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Hop Stoopid

• Brewery:Lagunitas brewing company (California)

• Style: Imperial IPA

• ABV: 8%

• IBU:102

• Pour Color: A transparent golden color

      I saw the bottle for Hop Stoopid and went, great Face is gonna try and make me drink malt liquor. I was wrong! This is just a pool of hops. Upon pour you smell the pine scented hops. As it splashes up I'm deep in a see of bitter brew. It's frightening how bitter this is while being fairly easy to drink. The hops give this one a nice pine taste. Ohhh and this one echos that bold flavor long after the swallow is gone too. Another hop chewing section with this one but who can complain?
      I see more and more high ABV wine coolers in the local store then ever. Those nasty drinks that have a 8% label but taste like crap. This is one of the easiest drinking Imperial IPAs I have had. With real flavor and a high ABV it's a good thing I could only get a 22oz bottle. This one you could get into trouble with real quick. After half the bottle i'm glad this wax is holding me up.

Rating: ****1/2