So here it is, Wednesday night June 6, 2012 – I believe tonight is the night that I catch up with my blog finally. I’ve been trying for a few weeks now and it has been difficult. Summer/life/work has all challenged me and gotten in my way. Yet, I’m attempting to prevail and still pull this challenge off. School is almost over for my 6 year old and soon she will be a 2nd grader! Yikes, they grow up fast! My 3 year old is turned 4 in just 7 days! And that is very exciting and Mountour Day at Kennywood Park is this Saturday! All very exciting stuff going on here around 365 Beers! I have been trying to keep up with my exercise routines as well lately. It does not seem to be helping with weight but I do feel a bit more energetic lately for sure. The house showings continue on and on. Enough about me – on to the beer:
6/2 – Breckenridge Brewery – Avalanche – One of my readers asked if this is how my second daughter got her name. The answer is not “directly”. My wife and I actually had the name Breckin picked out for a boy; oddly enough I could never imagine having a boy named Breckin! Brecken fits my daughter so perfectly. Of course, I love the city of Breckenridge and a lot of what Colorado has to offer, one of those things being this brewery. This beer pours a nice golden amber in color into the glass. It leaves a nice light white film of head on top of the beer in the glass. This beer has a very copper almost penny smell coming from the glass. I also get a little dough or flour type smell from the glass as well which is interesting. The feel on the tongue is an even swish of goodness. It crosses from the front to the back of my tongue leaving interesting notes of flavor throughout my mouth. The carbonation explodes in your mouth with a great bursting mouth feel for sure. The flavors come through with an initial spicy citrus fruit. The notes of caramel and butterscotch seem to come to mind as I sip on this Amber beer. The finish is sweet and leaves you begging for that next sip. In all this beer was extremely drinkable. I actually attempted to use this beer in a beer cocktail Saturday night. I used 6 12oz cans of Avalanche, 1 oz of pineapple juice and 6 or 8 oz of Galliano. It was different. It was neither my best beer cocktail, nor my last but I don’t think I would suggest you “waste” this beer on that cocktail. It wasn’t worth it in my opinion.
6/3 – Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh – Lager – ½ liter draft – crisp yellow light and refreshing. This was a perfectly brewed beer. I had this at the Pittsburgh Hofbrauhaus with a few light munchies for lunch. It was a great lunch with the family and great place to relax. I do not have a great deal to say about this beer in general. It was medium bodied beer that was enjoying to the last sip. It paired well with appetizer plate of sauerkraut balls, fried pickles, potatoes cakes, and pretzels. I love going to this restaurant and wish we got there more often. Their beers are some of the finest beers I’ve sampled in my opinion.
6/4 – Ayinger Brewery – Brau-Weisse – I picked up a huge strawberry ester smell from the glass. This was a huge smell as I could smell this from the pour with my nose nowhere near the glass. This beer has a little bit of a sour or bitter bite to every sip. This added to the refreshing nature of this beer. It really was a nice balanced wheat beer with the hops where the yeast of this beer steals the show. What you see from the picture on the left is the nicely poured beer in the middle with the bottom of the bottle – yeast collection – in the left most glass. I got the idea from Affligem and Draft Magazine as they are having a contest to go to Belgium. As part of this promotion they are also giving a select few people a pouring tray with two Affligem Blondes ( I was a lucky select ant). It may be in bad taste that I’m reviewing a true German Bavarian beer and mentioning a Belgium tour and beer. To the true purists out there go my apologies. I find greatness in so many beers I hope not to offend too many people. In their tray they suggest pouring the beer gently at first and saving the bottom and presenting as in the picture for the drinker to decide whether to completely ignore the yeasty goodness, drink it separately or add it to the original brew as it does have an effect on the taste of the product. The yeast definitely gives the texture a bit cloudier, dusty texture in your mouth. It almost mellows out the carbonation a bit and lies on top of it when drank in such a small portion by itself. In my opinion when poured together, it gives this beer a nice even keel of bitey fruity esters, and cloudy rich yeast goodness. The bananas flavors ring from this glass.
6/5 – Victory Brewery – Lager – This beer pours light with very little to no head on the glass. It has a very bright smell of earthy grassy notes. I get a bit of citrusy spiciness bite in the front of my tongue. It was a medium to light bodied beer. It was a nice bright lager with a huge drinkability. There isn’t really much excitement to speak of here but just all together a good well built beer. The balance of earthy hops and caramel malty hop really make this an easy drinking well balanced bright beer. I want to thank Victory for another fine craft beer to sit and enjoy any time of year.
6/6 - Cerveceria Modelo - Negra - OK, I'm not going to try to hard to find your site any longer. If I don't find your website on the first page of GOOGLE with like your name in it - I'm done. I don't do this for a living and besides a few free beers and a product or two from promo sites I've made no money or extras on this journey. So, I am not going out of my way at this point to find you. This is one of those beers. I see it is part of a group and may even some how be related to InBev in some fashion. Anyway, lets just review this beer and be done for the night and all caught up - shall we? This is a Munich Dunkel Lager (thank you beeradvocate.com for that assistance - I thought it might be on first sip but wasn't entirely sure) brewed in Mexico. It pours a darker amber or light Pepsi color in the glass. There is a thin almost not present head on top of the beer. The carbonation flows heavy through the internal parts of the glass. I get a cherry coke type smell from the top of the glass (I must really be craving a soft drink). The body is a medium to heavy mouth feel. It comes across with burnt/dark malt grains through the drink. There is a really tart bit to the dark malts that you drink. I have had this in the basement for a bit so it has definitely aged maybe a bit longer then it should. I could see sitting around sipping a glass of this some night or maybe this complimenting a nice steak cooked on the grill for sure. It may even be nice for cooking in a marinade of some sort. It does have some underlying complexities in the flavor but the over all opinion is dark, roast, burnt malts.
As usual, thanks for reading my blog. Thanks for being patient while I caught up. Lets see if I can keep caught up over the next few weeks. Have a great night.
As usual, thanks for reading my blog. Thanks for being patient while I caught up. Lets see if I can keep caught up over the next few weeks. Have a great night.
