Category: Beer

Profiled by Maria Devan for the Professor

This poured a light straw color yellow with a peachy blush on it. It started with a fat white head that fell a bit too fast and left a thin ring and sheets of lace to look at.

Nose is darn good with a nice fruity peach, soft and ripe. Grapefruit and the zest of that fruit. There’s a bit of earthy coriander on the nose that does not overpower the sweet and tart fruits. Malt is a light sweet grain that has a touch of honey on it. Just wonderful and herbal. Aromatic.

Taste is pretty good too. There is a tart grapefruit and a soft ripe peach in the background. The malt is honey kissed and light. A nice little grain sweetness. The lactic sour from the yeast is perfect and the spice does not outdo the fruit. It’s tremendously dry. Strips the palate actually and finishes a touch thin and watery. Mouthfeel is effervescent and dry. It’s tart and while the grapefruit seems to compete with the peach for center stage the grapefruit and the tartness wins. This one would have been very very refreshing except for a parching dryness.

Saranac continues to surprise with offerings that seem to be getting better. This one fell short only in the fact that the dryness was overdone and detracted from a fuller mouthfeel. I asked myself two questions while rating this beer. If this had come from stillwater as a saison instead of saranac would I have liked it better? And is that thinness really as bad as all that in a witbier? You be the judge.

Serving type: bottle

aroma – 10
appearance – 2
flavor – 12
mouthfeel – 3
overall- 7

Serving type: bottle
On the PGA scale a 3.

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

Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.

One evening two BJCP judges sat down with five Porters, all robust: one “British” except…

When I was in one store I asked if they had any Porters and they said, “We have Sue!” I had forgotten Sue: by local Yazoo Brewing, was a smoked Porter. Our saving grace was we agreed to look at these porters as if there may be style issues we did not know about, like maybe if one was a Baltic, but not mentioned on the bottle. I have found Beer Advocate and Rate Beer aren’t always accurate when they list style, and sometimes even brewers don’t list it. Odd, I know.

We also thought this might educate the palate: see what we pick up on, and what we don’t. I think we got most of it, without actually knowing certain specifics. Yes, we could have investigated further before the sampling, but we wanted to be sure this was done in a blind manner: the less either of us remembered through looking up facts about each beer the better. Neither of us knew which was which when it was actually served. This was via an “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” “E” on each sample: the only designation. Bottles were kept away from the sampling area.

The results were somewhat unexpected…
Continue reading “Beer Profiles: 5 Porters”

Profiled for the Professor by Maria Devan

Pours a beautiful hazed orange color with a cantaloupe or melon hue. Just wonderful to look at. Not a whole lot of lace from my lazy pour and it fell fast to a thin ring.

Nose is vivacious and has plenty of exotic tropical fruit. Sweet and juicy. There’s a touch of malt that hints at bread and offers just a light sweetness on the nose. No alcohol on the nose, but a nice bit of earthy coriander. The scent of orange is deep within the beer and is an all around orange fruitiness.

Taste is wonderful. This beer offers a tremendous fruit sweetness with lush tropical fruits and an all around orange flavor too. The malt suggests bread but does not become too heavy or too bready. Wonderful mouthfeel on this that is due to that malt. The coriander is earthy and gives it depth. There is a nice yeast dryness that takes the mid palate just as you are beginning to swoon from all that wild tropical flavor.

Then it finishes with a sweet and warming alcohol that has a spice and pepper of it’s own. Lingers sweet and fruity in the aftertaste.

This beer is a delight!

On the 1-4 PGA scale this is a 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

Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.

Profiled for the Professor by Maria Devan

Pours what looks at first glance to be a murky brown. Rather nondescript with a finger and a half of loose bubbles that popped like soap bubbles pretty quickly and left a ring. Soapy lace as it drinks.

Nose is half hearted. There is a light twang of vinegar that dissipates quickly, plenty of wood and earth and some very light cherry. Funky and has a scent deep in the nose that that smells like “sour.” That vinegar twang comes back only lightly as it warms.

The taste is also very light. It has a tartness but it’s not terrific. It has cherry but it’s too light and not deeply sweet. There is some acidity but it’s not lively and it doesn’t create tension with a bright acidity. The sour and funk give it a bit of depth and there is a light cracker taste from the malt.

It becomes more interesting as it warms and drinks easily with nothing to frighten anyone who is shy of sour beers. As you drink it achieves a wine like sweetness in the middle that is quite nice.

Mouthfeel is bubbly and light without a malt presence except as a blank canvas. I was a little disappointed in this one but it’s not a bad beer. It lacks complexity. Serving type: bottle.

Rated at a 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

Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.

Courtesy beermenus.com

Such impressive credentials.

What a shame.

Tons of pillow head, long lasting with nice lace which fits well with the style. Light yellow just a hint of haze, a tad off for the style. Head clings to side of the glass, desperately.

A bit of pepper in the aroma with pilsner malt and some candy sugar sweetness, also citrus: grapefruit-like. Could be hops, more likely some hops but more spices like cardamom. The pepper is the expected phenolic in the style.

Mouthfeel: just a hint of harshness one might find from white candy sugar. Light carbonation in mouthfeel. I would not call this “smooth,” or “creamy.” Does finish medium dry, as expected.

The taste, to be honest, is a bit harsh, but as it warms out smoothes out a tad. Pilsner malt up front. Behind that: alcohol, slight bitter. No hop aroma or flavor. More bitter than sweet, and this is part of the harsh, but I also suspect the abv has been pumped a tad by sugar more suited to a triple.ABV highfor style (9.5) which could also be the sugar. There’s meant to be a sweetness here, for the style, but it’s covered by the harshness.

To be honest this has a style issue: they went too far into being a tripel due to the white candy sugar-like haeshness. not bad. But a Blonde? Eh, no.

I’m really out of the mainstream here. 92 on Beer Advocate. 97, and 95 for style on Rate Beer. I really think they’re missing the style differences here.

3: slightly on the low side of.

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_______________________________

Profiled by Ken Carman for the Professor

19 colonies of BEES, not colonial America.

Pours with a slight bubble head: rock, that goes away fast. Color: gold with great clarity. On the mead scale White, 55, 30mm.

They told me at The Filling Station this was “Sweet.” This is closing in at almost medium. Slight carbonation, so it still qualifies as a still. Aroma is Orange Blossom-ish with some Wildflower floral.

Mouthfeel: full body with a harsh top of the roof of the mouth sense… tannin-like. And this is where it falls in the flavor too. There’s a harsh, abrasive taste that I would guess is a higher alcohol. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not “alcoholic” for a mead, just the wrong type of alcohol. Usually that means a yeast/fermentation problem, perhaps fermented too warm. There’s also a carbonic sense from the carbonation that’s a bit off putting. While the tannin-like comment indicates some fruit addition, it’s more likely it’s a combination of the carbonic sense and higher alcohol that drives it into edge of undrinkable, and just a hint problematic.

There’s also an alternate explanation here… too little alcohol can cause harshness and astringency. Either way I believe this is alcohol related. And it’s a balance thing.

11 at Rate Beer, 3 for style. 78 at Beer Advocate.

Just barely a 3. And I only did that because there’s good there that’s, unfortunately, out of balance with the problems.

Welcome to the PGA rating system: one glass “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.”