Category: Beer

Written by Tom Becham

I’m reviewing two beers today, and once again trying to step outside my comfort zone. Both reviews involve beers with added citrus in one form or another. Those who know me best know that I frequently say I am of the NFC school of beer: No F**king Citrus. But in truth, that only applies to adding citrus to a beer, post-market. I refer, of course to things such as adding a lime to Corona, or a wedge of orange to Blue Moon. First, if a beer is decent, it doesn’t need embellishment of that sort. Secondly, it seems faintly sacrilegious to me to alter a beer from what the brewer intended it to be.

However, if a beer is specifically brewed with such ingredients, that is a different thing altogether. Aficionados of the Belgian Wit style know that the curacao peel with which it is made really sets it apart. So it is with the following two brews.

First on the block is Lorenzini Double IPA from Maui Brewing… Continue reading “Tom Becham Reviews”

Profiled by Ken Carman

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

84 at BA.

83 at RB.

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

Taste is peanut butter, followed by the ghost of darker malts lingering in the background. To be honest to be more a “stout” could use just a hint more roasted barley.

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, a bit out of balance: though not excessive. Just needs more stout character. Not much: slight.

Says “export stout.” EXPORT? Hell, no. More a dry sweetened by…? …and peanut butter. Millie thought the sweet was lactose, I’m guessing that’s the chocolate… did they add milk chocolate or just malts? That also may explain a lactose sense. All I got was maybe chocolate MALTS.

Coffee? WHERE? Maybe slightest hint at best?

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.”

___________________________________Beer HERE

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Ken Carman was born of a deity named Bill many moons ago when his wife Winnie was fermenting well at the time. That’s what they called it then, “fermenting,” though the yeast from same said vessel is really NOT suited for brewing. He is a beer judge, beer writer and reviewer of brew-based business, beer commentator and just a strange dude. He was a leprechaun last Halloween, and he could never get the green ink off.

Profiled by Ken Carman

Pale Ale fermented with Belgian yeast and two forms of Brett.

Tons of head that fades fast: pure pillow. A hazy gold/yellow. SRM probably 4-5.

Almost no aroma with just a hint of brett mix in the background. But I can forgive that because this would be the perfect crossover beer for those shy of the funk, but liking a good pale ale. The balance, otherwise: superb.

This is the best of both worlds. Obviously there’s a fine pale ale there with subtle, fruity, hopping: tad grapefruit, but the slight horse saddle, slight barnyard sense provides an earthy sense that makes the quaff more complex. Maybe some pepper phenolics. There’s also the slightest hint of rhubarb. This is NOT a high grav beer: low side of moderate at best. Mostly pale malt. As it warms the grapefruit fades, bitter rises a tad and some herbal

Perfection.

For a guy who is high grav focused, that’s even more a compliment.

4.7

No rating on BA yet, or found via google for RB. It’s a new brew.

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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Ken Carman was born of a deity named Bill many moons ago when his wife Winnie was fermenting well at the time. He is a beer judge, beer writer and reviewer of brew-based business, beer commentator and BEER GOD. Do not challenge the one who ate too many hops one year, hence the green pigment you see to the left!

Profiled by Ken Carman

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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Ken Carman was born. What you wanna know MORE? Ken was born male. MORE? Picky ain’t ya? Can’t you just leave a Certified beer judge, columnist since 1972, entertainer and educational service provider who lives in Tennessee and the Adirondacks, author of Autocide, a farce and fictional version of the auto industry in the year 2020, alone? Why should we tell you? Oh, wait. We jusy did. NEVER MIND.

Profiled by Maria Devan

Cheers you all and a Happy Easter to you and a Happy New Beer Sunday. Today I am drinking Southern Tier’s 2XONE. This is ST’s single varietal and that means they use only one type of hops and one type of malt in this beer. This year it’s equinox hops and I really like them. In fact I want to see these hops in saisons.

Pours orangey golden and with a slight haze. In the more shaded light it is a tangerine orange. It’s a very delicate color and it reminds me of candy or of an orange freeze pop. Fat creamy head of bone white foam that fell slowly and left lace.

Nose is sweet and soft. Then out peeks some floral herbal and fern. Earth and fruit. taste is dry soft tropical fruit that is juicy like nectar. Herbal like prickly leaves. Mouthfeel is deceptively light as there is a lovely biscuit malt in this that simply melts in your mouth. Finishes like some kind of exotic desert fruit. light as a feather, mysteriously dry, juicy thin nectar, bell pepper.

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.”

___________________________________________Beer HERE

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Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY, atop a steep hill. Except when one time on St. Patty’s Day when leprechauns tried to slap skates on her and roll her down the hill, she only walks down it. She has been reviewing beer for many years, even with many homebrewers and other beer critics across the nation, on the web. She’s known as “The Girl Next Door” in her You Tubes. We are very lucky to have her here at PGA.

Written by Ken Carman

The Topic: On His Way to Grand Master… Tim Belczak

 A few years ago I realized, while on tour, that there was a competition down the road in Niagara Falls during the same time I was usually performing in northeast Ohio. Being a native New Yorker, who has been living in Tennessee since 1978, brewing since 79, I wanted to share my own passion for homebrewing and judging with other equally passionate folks, so I drove north to the AWOG competition: Amber Waves of Grain. I think it was at the third AWOG where I judged with Tim Belczak. A short while latter, for the first time, we met again at King of the Mountain and NY State Fair.
 You really need to stop following me, Tim. I won’t get a restraining order… yet.
 Or am I following you? I hope you don’t get a restraining order. Besides, as Millie might say, tis tough to restrain me. Bet Cheryl has NEVER said that about you.
 Well, in one way, many of us are following far behind, for in such a short time here is just part of what Tim has achieved…

Milestones:
Recognized: 1/9/2014
Certified: 4/1/2014
National: 3/18/2015
Best scores:
Written: 83
Tasting: 90
Total: 87

 Yet, despite the speed with which Tim has been ascending… did I see a hint of a halo last time we met, or was that just the rim of a competition sample glass? …most interviewers might consider interviewing a Grand Master judge, or even Master, instead. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary”