Category: Beer

Profiled by Maria Devan

Cheers you all! I have done a few chores today but whoop dee doo it’s Saturday; The Day of the Dark and I have Ithaca Beers Anniversary 18 to celebrate. This beer is a Baltic Porter and the now old bjcp said that this style represents the idea of the imperial porter. To many that means that there is a difference between stout and porter when the abv gets above a certain point. 8%. It uses a variety of malts and is very complex. This style is “influenced by the russian imperial stout” and is “full bodied smooth and has a well aged alcohol warmth.”

Ithaca Beer Anniversary 18

This beer pours like liquid velvet. In fact when I first saw it I thought of red velvet. The colors are stunning and rich. Browns, chestnut with it’s red highlight. A moment of red velvet color can be observed in this beer. It also appears to be black, pitch black. Outstanding.

The nose is roasty but also has lots of earth. The vienna malt seems to give it a silken sweetness. Coffee and vanilla. Light cocoa and a smoky quality that is so earthy it smells almost sweet. You might miss it if you don’t give the nose a chance to open up. Cherry fruit in the background. That is from the special B and the kiln smoked cherry wood malt.

Robust flavor on a silken carpet. Roasty earthy malt. Sharp well defined flavors but not harshness and nothing burnt or astringent. Cherry and dark fruit. Wood does not overtake the nose or the palate but it does provide a lighter bearing. As though this dark portrait is being painted with a lightness deep inside. It has a delicate crispness overall that I find expert and outstanding. The smoke adds depth and fullness without adding the flavor of meat. I am amazed at the soft enveloping fullness. Hops show up at the very end to finish with a light herbal sweetness and a perfect bitterness. They come just a little bit forward at the very end but not so much that you would call it hoppy. This is impeccably balanced. There is no roughness it lingers long and dries out lovely.

Congratulations Ithaca on your Anniversary 18! Stunning!

4.5

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

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Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is a great beer writer. That’s Maria in the middle. The other two are not, but they are lucky to have her as a friend.

Written by Franz Hofer

With the popularity of craft beer at an all-time high this holiday season, it’s no surprise that all manner of purveyors have stepped up to offer you an array of beer-related wares. Need yet another item to add to your wish list? Still wondering what to buy for the craft beer imbiber in your life? Tempest’s annual holiday wish list has you covered with more holiday gift ideas than you can shake a tankard at. No beer-scented soap, though. (Just the thing you need when you wake up with a holiday hangover: a shower with beer-scented soap.)

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

Profiled by Ken Carman

Big rock head combined with some pillow, a slightly brown head holds and holds. Deep obsidian: 38 srm or more.

Peanut butter nose, but slight, some chocolate malt, slightest hint of roasted barley at best.

Taste is peanut butter, followed by darker malts. Could use a hint more roasted barley: just make sure “stout.”

Mouthfeel is full and a tad slick. Complex mix between a slight stick to the roof of the mouth peanut butter sense.
Peanut butter focus too high, though not excessive. Just needs more stout character. Not much: slight.

Says “export stout:” if export you definitely need more. Millie said there’s lactose, I’m guessing that’s the chocolate… did they add milk chocolate or just malts? That may explain lactose sense. All I got was maybe chocolate MALTS.

Not enough reviews on BA to assess: what was listed varied quite a bit. Nothing noticed via Google listed for Rate Beer.

This is a pleasing, quite drinkable, quaff. But needs more to be as claimed.

4

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

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What you see to the left is NOT Ken Carman. It’s two lucky guys: lucky to know Maria Devan. “Ken Carman” is a screen name for Scooby Doo. RU Row, wes not tellin the truth again!”

Written by Franz Hofer for A Tempest in a Tankard

It was only a matter of time until a new generation of German brewers started heeding the siren call of hops, spice, and everything nice, even as they continue to craft their beers within the relative confines of the 500-year-old Reinheitsgebot (Beer Purity Laws).

David Hertl is one such representative of this new wave of brewers leavening tradition with innovation. The resident beer sommelier at Bamberg’s main craft beer emporium, Hertl also happens to be a young brewer who hails from a family of Franconian winemakers.

Want to read more? Please click…

HERE

Profiled by Maria Devan

Pours not quite clear. Darkest browns with blackened hues that show a ruby tint under a haze. Scant head of tan foam that falls but leaves a film and shimmering clinging bubbles.

Scent is boiled peanuts. Earthy coffee. Roasty sweet. A hairy little bit of noble hop on the nose.

Taste is good. A touch of caramel type sweetness that underlies a very roasty malt that has a bit of bitterness to it. Nutty rather than fruity and finishes with a moderate hop flavor and bitterness.

Excellent.

4

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

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Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY. She reviews beer for the professor, and other sites, and does regular Sunday sampling. She lives on top of a hill, so she doesn’t need jet powered roller skates to get down, but the professor bets they’d help to get back up that hill somethimes.

Profiled by Maria Devan

4

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

_____________________________________Beer HERE

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Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY. That’s Ithaca: home to Ithaca Brewing and Bandwagon. She writes about beer frequently, so that means she samples a lot of beer. The professor is jealous.

Profiled by Ken Carman

Nutmeg and orange peel with faint hint of what way in the background. Pale malt up front, but even that is faint.

Mouthfeel: very light on the body, final (FG) gravity-wise. Little to no wheat or cinnamon. But otherwise spices dominate very slightly. Swallows almost as if it’s water. Slight, abrasive abv due to lite malt.

Appearance: tad wheat foggy, very pale gold, big small bubble head in small glass, but goes flat quickly. Pillow head, big at first but fades fast.

Flavor: spices slightly up front with light malt background. Wheat way in background.No hops sensed.

This is a lawnmower beer for a non-lawnmower season. Good, but sell-able? We’ll see. Not impressive. For light quaff, not bad, but boring.

42 and 29 Rate Beer. 79/78 on BA.

Great level entry Christmas beer for those just coming to craft from Bud and Miller. For craft beer folks: not so much… like weak tea.

3.8

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

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That’s NOT Maria Devan. That’s Ken Carman to your left. Can’t you tell the difference?