Grumpy Monk

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Grumpy Monk

• Brewery: Samuel Adams Brewing Company (Massachusetts)

• Style: Belgian IPA

• ABV:5.7%

• IBU:55

• Pour Color: Clear golden color to this one. Light travels through easy

      So the Face got one of the hopology samplers Sam Adams put out. As a hop loving freak you know I was excited. Drowning in piles of hops don't scare me! So the Belgian style was the first I pulled out. The head was fluffy and the color was a golden.  It had a very mellow flavor of the orange peel and clove that you would expect. Really mellow though. The hops also had a slight citrus and pine but also was extremely mellow. This one really didn't strike me as special. This would be a good introduction to Belgian IPA but that's really all.
      This one struck me as neither great Belgian or great IPA and even these two styles mixed this wasn't the best. I've had Belgian IPAs that have blown me away. With this one they didn't go hard enough Belgian so it seems kind of watered down. The hops weren't really that pronounced either. It's a good IPA to get people into it that don't like them.  It really seems IPA, in name only, cause the hops really are on the light side!

Rating: **1/2

Dark Depths

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Dark Depths

• Brewery: Sam Adams Brewing Company (Massachusetts)

• Style: Black IPA (Baltic IPA)

• ABV: 7.6%

• IBU: 55

• Pour Color: A clear red color when held up to the light!

      The pour came out much lighter then most dark IPAs. A head came up quick and sat at the top for awhile. It was easily two fingers high. Smelling the top of this one you get a sweet roasted caramel and almost a grapefruit hop scent. On the sip you get a mix of coffee and caramel malts. The hops come through slightly while in mouth but disappear quickly once swallowed. This is really a dark beer before a IPA and really only hits a pale ale bitterness to me.
      This one to me really seemed to mislead the drinker. If I was trying to get one of my Guinness drinking buddies into a hoppy beer I would go with this one. Much more a dark beer then a IPA really. The hops just are in a sea of malt flavor and aren't enough to get a avid IPA drinker excited. This one I would swim in again but it's not the first one I'm reaching for!

Rating: **1/2

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

A Dark Night In Munich

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: A Dark Night In Munich

• Brewery: Samuel Adams Brewing Company (Massachusetts)

•  Brewer: Corey Martin

• Style: Munich Dunkle Lager

• ABV: 5.9%

• IBU:?

• Pour Color: Dark ruby red tone to it, light passes through easily.

     The Face popped this one open and it poured perfect. A nice high head that stuck around only a short while. The red color of this one really makes for a gorgeous look in a pint glass. The scent off the top was a caramel malt scent, not much hops. A yeasty bready scent off the top to. The taste out the glass was another malt explosion. A nice mix of caramel and chocolate makes up most of this one. The yeast spice is a nice element too. Also a nice earthy blend of hops balances this one away from being to sweet. Really a delicious blend, of flavor, with a slight over carbonation to me. I'd bathe in it again just about anytime though! 
      Being the Face is also a home brewer it's no wonder this would show up in front of me. Corey Martin did a great job for a beer that any mustache should love. The head disappeared quick and the sweetness of this one doesn't leave me sticky. On top of that it's at a 5.9% ABV. I dare you to find another Dunkle lager like that. This one was a no brainer. Delicious and created by a home brewer, what more could you want? 

 
Rating:****

Harpoon Raspberry Wheat

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Harpoon Raspberry UFO

• Brewery: Harpoon Brewing Company (Massachusetts)

• Style: Raspberry Hefeweizen

• ABV:5.1%

• IBU:10

• Pour Color: Dark red and murky.

      Looked very thick on the pour. Murky and unfiltered  as advertised. This mustache expected a lot of flavor out of it. The head was gone quickly and left no trace. The scent off the glass was a strong sweet raspberry scent. Upon hitting the follicles I began to wonder if we had messed up. This one was so sweet that it could have been a soda. The malts are a light after taste when you swallow. Not my favorite beer.
      This one is so strong in raspberry that I would only recommend it to non-beer drinkers. No real hop character or strong malt flavor. Just a strong sweet taste of raspberry. Not the kind of thing this mustache likes.

Rating: **

Noble Pils

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Noble Pils

• Brewery: Samuel Adams Brewing (Massachusetts)

• Style: Pilsner

• ABV: 4.9%

• IBU: 34

• Pour Color: A bright golden color that is easily seen through

      On pour this one got a fluffy head that hung around for a good while. The nice golden color is perfectly clear. The scent, is a slight sweet malty scent, and a nice hop tone to it. The hops in this one come straight at ya on taste. The curl got a little tighter as this one hit me with pine and earthy tones. The malt is in the back slightly sweetening this one up. Really a great pilsner any one should try.
      Sam Adams puts a lot of stock in the "noble hops". These are grown where it's the best hop growing condition. There pils though is helped by this pickyness.  The hops in question some times don't make a great IPA, but a hoppy pils like this is perfect with em. I look forward to spring cause I've grown accustom to sam's noble pils. Now that it's a year round beer the Face gets it all the time!

Rating: *****

Whitewater IPA

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: WhiteWater IPA

• Brewery: Samuel Adams Brewing (Massachusetts)
  

• Style: White IPA

• ABV: 5.8%

• IBU: 60

• Pour Color: A golden color with a heavy haze, the light makes it glow

      The pour came out a golden color that was very cloudy. The head disappeared just as fast as it appeared. The scent off the glass was a citrus apricot mix.  The taste of this one is extremely hoppy. Pine and Citrus notes jump out at you. The apricot comes through as a slightly under ripe flavor due to the citrus notes. The white aspect really is just the color not really any kind of spice kick or anything. All and all a decent beer.
       This beer reminds me of a White IPA from Saranac. With a strong fruit backing, and strong hop character, they are a lot alike. With this one though Sam Adams decides to get into the over saturated apricot beer market. A decent offering but I personally would go for a Aprihop from dogfish before this one or even the before mentioned Saranac white. In any case this is good beer.

Rating: ***1/2

UFO Hefeweizen

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name:UFO

• Brewery: Harpoon (Massachusetts/Vermont)

• Style: Hefeweizen

• ABV: 4.8%

• IBU: 19

• Pour Color: A very murky yellow color

      This one was a golden color with a nice thick fluffy head. It didn't last long and then i saw the murkiness. A splash of this one and you don't get what you expect. With most unfiltered beers you have a thicker body. The UFO doesn't seem to have that quality. It's quite light in body in fact. On top of that the flavors of the normal Hefeweizen isn't really that strong. I would consider this one more of a wheat beer then Hefe because of it's really light character.
      The other Hefeweizen I reviewed was Dreamweaver. That one went heavy on flavor and blended it well. This however is a different animal. It blends it's flavors well but they are really more subtle then I personally like. My follicles forgot this one soon after it splashed up, and that usually doesn't happen. I could see the face grabbing this on a hot day but that's about it for such a mellow beer.

Rate: ***

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: ***

Celtic

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Celtic Ale

• Brewery: Harpoon (Massachusetts and Vermont)

• Style: Irish Red

• ABV: 5.4%

• IBU: 25

• Pour Color: A dark red color fairly see through

     The Face grabbed some Celtic for the review today. The pour looked almost the same as the Great Lakes Conway's Irish Ale. Light red and no cloudiness to it. The follicles tensed up as the Face lifted it to me in excitement. I'm learning to like red ales as I'm going. The head was big and fluffy on the pour as you can see in our photo. The taste however is quite balanced. Celtic doesn't bring out a sweetness like Conway's and presents an interesting contrast.
      Red ale number two leading up to the holiday. Really two different beers in the same style and one I'd order any day of the week the other just for the saint paddy's day. Great lakes has a more interesting beer with bolder flavors. All things considered I'd probably order a Harpoon IPA before either anyway. 

 


Rating: ***1/2