Arcadia IPA

Arcadia Ales
Battle Creek, MI

APPEARANCE: 2/3
Orange-copper color, cream-colored head that fades. Hazy. Big bubbles and lots of them.

AROMA: 2.5/4
Clean, crisp nose. Some citrus, sweet and sugary. Malty, not much hop aroma–needs more. Smells like a lager, not an IPA.

TASTE: 6.75/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 2.5/4: Hop flavor, bitterness at finish. Sweet pineapple up front. Nutty, a little piney. Some kind of chemical taste.
Aftertaste: 2.25/3: some sourness, bitter finish lasts. Hop flavor fades quickly.
Mouth-Feel: 2/3: Very bubbly. Slightly astringent, fairly thin. Something of a soda pop quality.

OVERALL: 1.5/3: It's okay; there are better IPAs out there. Flavor is odd and yet forgettable. Don't get us wrong–we'll drink it (and be thinking of superior IPAs while we do).

TOTAL: 12.75/20–I'll Try A Pint

NOTES:
Matt: Bummer–a new IPA in town, and it's just not great. Any flavor fades quickly, to astringent bitterness. I wouldn't buy it again.
Ben: Disappointing, I expected more (more hop aroma, more hop flavor). Not a fan of some weird flavors; not terrible, but a forgettable beer.

100th Review Spectacular: Boulevard Irish Ale

Boulevard Brewing Company
Kansas City, MO

APPEARANCE: 2.5/3
Red-brown color. Crystal clear. Thin head. Nice, if typical.

AROMA: 3/4
Clean, very sweet–brown sugar, subtle nuttiness. All malt, no hop aroma.

TASTE: 7.25/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 3/4: Malt dominant. Brown sugar. Some nuttiness, some woodiness, some grassiness. Lots of 'ness.
Aftertaste: 2.25/3: Sweet, fades to subtle hop bitterness (which is nice). Clean finish.
Mouth-Feel: 2/3: Sweet, bubbly, very refreshing. Body appropriate to style.

OVERALL: 2/3: Classic malty Irish Ale–a good spring session beer. A popular Boulevard offering, and rightly so.

TOTAL: 14.75/20–I'll Try A Pint

NOTES:
Matt: A good Irish–I don't love the style, but it's a nice reminder that spring is coming, and it's nice for a change. Not bad.
Ben: It's always worth picking up a six of this Boulevard seasonal when it's available. Far superior to Killian's.

Avery Salutation Belgian-Style Golden Ale

Avery Brewing Company
Boulder, Colorado

APPEARANCE: 2.5/3
Hazy orange-gold color. Rocky, white, lasting head.

AROMA: 3.5/4
Alcohol nose. Citrus, honey, peppery, pineapple. Very floral, fruity.

TASTE: 8/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 3.25/4: Wow! Big! Alcohol. Malt, lots of hop. Orange blossom, candy corn, lemongrass. Complex.
Aftertaste: 2.25/3: Sweet, fades to bitter finish that lasts. Alcohol is noticeable.
Mouth-Feel: 2.5/3: Full, fills the mouth. Complex. Alcohol is there, but not offensively so.

OVERALL: 2.5/3: Heavenly? Sinful? Probably a bit of both. A good sipping beer–easy to drink, but at 9% ABV, be careful! Avery does it again.

TOTAL: 16.5/20–Pour Me Another

NOTES:
Matt: We kept coming back to "big." Full, complex, extremely satisfying. A good sipper–you won't be disappointed.
Ben: Big and deceptive. At 9%, this one can sneak up on you. Lots of flavors going on–good paired with fish or fruit.

Anchor Bock Beer

Anchor Brewing Company
San Francisco, CA

APPEARANCE: 2.25/3
Deep mahogany-brown. Thin, almond head that rings the glass. Dark, pretty.

AROMA: 3.5/4
Very malty. Vanilla, caramel notes. Woody, nutty, subtle roast. Prune? All malt, no hop aroma (appropriately). Should be sweeter.

TASTE: 6.25/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 2.75/4: Sour up-front, fades to bitter. Coffee, burnt finish.
Aftertaste: 1.75/3: Roasty, BITTER. Burnt coffee, prune notes buried under the bitterness.
Mouth-Feel: 1.75/3: Light-bodied, weakly carbonated. Almost watery–very thin.

OVERALL: 1.75/3: Relatively true to style, but too bitter, weak and thin. Could use more body, more malt, more sweetness.

TOTAL: 13.75/20–I'll Try A Pint

NOTES:
Matt: Decent, not your typical bock–the sour notes set it apart. Still, I can't see me wanting more than one. Really roasty and bitter–okay, but kind of weird.
Ben: Good for something different, but thin and a little bitter. Could be a good session beer, good for a rainy spring afternoon. The flavor didn't live up to the promise of the great aroma.

Avery Anniversary Ale 16: Saison

Avery Brewing Company
Boulder, Colorado

APPEARANCE: 2.25/3
Pretty, straw-gold. White head, big bubbles, steady stream. Head fades quickly.

AROMA: 3.5/4
Grapefruit, honey. Floral, peppery, earthy.

TASTE: 7/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 3/4: Citrusy. Alcohol noticeable. Sweet hop at finish; hop dominant.
Aftertaste: 2/3: Hop bitterness, spice. Some sourness. Cream, subtle peach. Bittersweet finish at the very end, fades quickly.
Mouth-Feel: 2/3: Light-bodied, effervescent. A bit thin. Very bubbly, probably too much so.

OVERALL: 2/3: Fleeting–fades quickly. An okay saison, but there are better ones out there.

TOTAL: 14.75/20–I'll Try A Pint

NOTES:
Matt: It's all right; less substantial than I'd hoped for. Lacking the really earthy notes I love in a good saison.
Ben: Missing the pepper notes one would expect. The aroma built expectations the flavor just didn't deliver on. But not bad.

Avery India Pale Ale

Avery Brewing Company
Boulder, Colorado

APPEARANCE: 2/3
Pale gold, really clear. Light in appearance–less substantial than I'm accustomed to. Big-bubble head.

AROMA: 3/4
Hoppy nose. Grassy, citrusy, grapefruit. Some sweetness there.

TASTE: 8.5/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 3.5/4: Hop! Hop flavor up-front. Grapefruit, pine. Light malt, subtle malt sweetness, but hop is dominant.
Aftertaste: 2.5/3: Sweet to open, fades to bitterness at end–lingers, but pleasantly so.
Mouth-Feel: 2.5/3: Light-bodied, effervescent. Bouncy, fruity, nice.

OVERALL: 2.5/3: A really good, hoppy beer. True to style–if you like hops this is definitely one to try (it's awesome with pizza, trust us).

TOTAL: 16/20–Pour Me Another

NOTES:
Matt: I love the session-style drinkability of this! Light-bodied, I could have several. Everything I love in an IPA, and not heavy.
Ben: Avery is becoming a preferred brewer for us; good on a hot summer day, a crisp autumn day, a blustery winter day, a rainy spring da–oh, you get the picture. Always a good choice.

Schlafly Dry Hopped APA

The Saint Louis Brewery
St. Louis, MO

APPEARANCE: 2.5/3
Orange-honey color. Clear. BIG head, tons of bubbles. Creamy, rocky head.

AROMA: 3/4
Hoppy, pine, grapefruit. Pleasant.

TASTE: 6.75/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 3/4: Lots of hop flavor. Malty, too. Nutty, caramel notes and grapefruit-citrus.
Aftertaste: 2/3: Bitterness at close–lasts, but is pretty mellow. Slight astringence.
Mouth-Feel: 1.75/3: Full mouth feel. Effervescent, maybe a touch too fizzy.

OVERALL: 2/3: Not bad, a decent offering–a nice, unassuming, hoppy APA.

TOTAL: 14.25/20–I'll Try A Pint

NOTES:
Matt: Not overwhelmingly hoppy, but probably a good gateway beer for craft beer newbies. I remember just loving this when I first started drink craft beers.
Ben: A decent brewery, better than its big brother. Better on tap, but not at all bad out of the bottle.

Left Hand Fade to Black, Vol. 2—Smoked Baltic Porter

*Note: Fade to Black is a series; each year the bottle is the same, but the contents change. Each year's beer is noted in relatively small type on the neck label.

Left Hand Brewing Company
Longmont, Colorado

APPEARANCE: 2/3
Deep mahogany color. Opaque. Nice espresso head that faded fast, tiny bubbles.

AROMA: 3/4
Roasty–subtle smoky nose, burnt coffee, dark chocolate. No discernible hop aroma.

TASTE: 7.25/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 2.75/4: Hop bitterness at front. Malty. Chocolate, subtle prune. Could use more hop bitterness.
Aftertaste: 2.25/3: Sourness that fades to a roasted, nutty finish. Smoky.
Mouth-Feel: 2.25/3: Full mouth. Noticeable sour tones, but not puckering.

OVERALL: 2.25/3: A mostly standard dark porter, though the sourness gives it a twist. One quibble with the branding–it's not well expressed that this is part of a series, something that changes from year to year. If you miss the type on the neck label, you might overlook that this isn't last year's beer.

TOTAL: 14.5/20–I'll Try A Pint

NOTES:
Matt: I like it as much as any porter I've had recently, but it's not mind-blowing (admission: I'm not a huge fan of the style).
Ben: A good porter, could use more smoky flavor. This was a disappointment after last year's excellent stout.

Avery "The Kaiser" Imperial Oktoberfest Lager

Avery Brewing Company
Boulder, Colorado

APPEARANCE: 2.75/3
Orange-red-copper. White head that rings the glass. Crisp and clear (as an Oktoberfest should be).

AROMA: 3.25/4
Clean–sweet cream, candy corn. Very little hop aroma.

TASTE: 8.25/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 3/4: Very little hop. Caramel apple, apple juice notes.
Aftertaste: 2.25/3: Very malty–sweet but not cloyingly so. Subtle bitterness at finish.
Mouth-Feel: 2.5/3: There's some alcohol here–big, smooth, a full-mouth beer.

OVERALL: 2.25/3: Nice. A big, sweet beer. Dances on the edge of cloying, but pulls it back. I don't know why we overlook Avery, because they make good beer.

TOTAL: 16/20–Pour Me Another

NOTES:
Matt: The best Oktoberfest I had this year; a bit sweet for my taste (most Avery products we've tried tend to be), but very nice for the style.
Ben: Very clean, very sweet, very big. As Oktoberfests go, it's definitely worth a try (and get it while you can, there can't be too many more out there).

Green Flash Grand Cru

Green Flash Brewing Company
San Diego, CA

APPEARANCE: 2.25/3
Thick espresso-colored head. Deep brown color, almost purple. Opaque.

AROMA: 3.25/4
Roasty. Chocolate, vanilla, coffee, brown sugar, licorice. Wow. Unique, very little hop aroma.

TASTE: 7.75/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 3.25/4: Prune/plum, raisin. Burnt coffee. Sour cherry at front, hop bitterness at close.
Aftertaste: 2.25/3: Lasting roasty bitterness. Sour to bitter.
Mouth-Feel: 2.25/3: Really big, but very smooth. Alcohol is well-masked. Weakly carbonated, which was appropriate.

OVERALL: 2.25/3: A unique, complex beer. Roasty, sour, sweet, wow–a lot going on here.

TOTAL: 15.5/20–Pour Me Another

NOTES:
Matt: Really nicely balanced, so much so that it doesn't seem as big as I know it is. Complex and weird, but I really enjoyed it (more than Ben, I think) .
Ben: Complex–it almost defies description. Roasty yet pruny yet coffee yet chocolatey, big and warming. I don't love it, but I don't hate it either.

Choc Basement Batch Pale Ale

Choc Beer Company
Krebs, OK

APPEARANCE: 2.25/3
Clear, copper colored. Thin white head. Effervescent.
AROMA: 3.25/4
Citrus, Cascade hop. Malty, subtly nutty.

TASTE: 7.5/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 3.25/4: Lots of hop flavor up-front, bitter at the finish. Malty, nicely-balanced. Probably too hoppy for the style, but you know us–we're not complaining.
Aftertaste: 2/3: Fades to a slightly astringent bitter finish–a tad too bitter.
Mouth-Feel: 2.25/3: Starts sweet, quickly shifts to lasting bitter. Refreshing.

OVERALL: 2.25/3: The packaging of this uknown-to-us beer struck us as cheesy; the beer itself defied our expectations. A good, hoppy session pale.

TOTAL: 15.25/20–Pour Me Another

NOTES:
Matt: Probably benefited from low expectations–it's the "My Cousin Vinny"of beers. Still, an extremely drinkable, hoppy pale.
Ben: I was pleasantly surprised–a good session beer. Oklahoma officially can make good beer.

Boulevard Double-Wide IPA

Boulevard Brewing Company
Kansas City, MO

APPEARANCE: 2.5/3
Thick, foamy, rocky head–big bubbles. Deep copper/mahogany color. Hazy, could be less so.

AROMA: 3.5/4
Hop! Citrus–orange-grapefruit. Piney, meadowy, very sweet.

TASTE: 7.5/10
Hop/Malt Balance: 3.25/4: Malt balances hops well. Strong orange, grapefruit flavors. Hop aroma and flavor hit you up-front, last through the bitter finish.
Aftertaste: 2.25/3: Citrus lingers, slowly moves to a bitter finish that doesn't last. Finishes smooth.
Mouth-Feel: 2.5/3: Big. The alcohol is masked well by hops, but it's there. Very clean.

OVERALL: 2.5/3: A big, very hoppy beer. Lots of citrus throughout. Another nice Boulevard Smokestack offering!

TOTAL: 16.5/20–Pour Me Another

NOTES:
Matt: Big, hoppy, bouncy, clean–what's not to like? Bravo, Boulevard!
Ben: When I first tried this years ago I was unimpressed. I'm glad I gave it a second try–once again, a solid offering from our hometown brewery.