Guinness: Foreign Extra Stout

Let me start off this review with simply stating that when it comes to Arthur Guinness, I am quite a fan. It seems as though Ireland and England get so many different brews from this company on a regular basis. When my brother was over in Wales doing some Archeological digs, he wrote to me about Guinness Red and how it was different in this way and that way, etc. However, us Yanks over here in the United States have been stuck with the same (delicious) Guinness Draught and Extra Stout for so long. Granted, I am a huge fan of Smithwick's as well and it is single-handedly because of me that a Blacksmith is on the menu at the Brea Yard House. The last thing I want to do is to sound pompous, so that is neither here nor there. Harp is great as well but since I have broken my "creature of habit" form when it comes to beer, I always want to try something new. I was more than excited when the 250 Anniversary Stout was released a couple years ago that I called and drove all around trying to be the first one to have his lips touch such a brew. I wound up finding it in Irvine, and my 250 Anniversary Stout collection of signs, glasses, and labels began and today has become pretty impressive if I may say so myself.

Naturally, you can imagine my excitement this morning when I was scouring BeerAdvocate.com for a beer to get and review tonight. I was having trouble, though, considering when one reads about beers, it does not necessarily mean he/she will be able to find it. My buddy Brandon also mentioned how when you see a beer in person, it speaks to you and it can do no such action online with a .jpg of the brew. I could not agree more so I decided to end the search online. However, then I saw that Guinness was releasing the Foreign Extra Stout in the United States starting on October 1. I made it my mission today to find it. Needless to say, I was successful. Let's review some beer, shall we?

Photo courtesy of BeerAdvocate.com

Before I review this beer, let me just mention that the goblet above leaves me at a loss of words in terms of its awesomeness. I have now made it my mission to acquire that goblet by any means necessary, if it even exists. The beer: It pours black, with almost no translucence. The only light you see through this beer is at the very top, directly underneath the head if you hold it at above your head but under the light source. The head is a dark khaki color, pretty much like a cappuccino, and dissolves down leaving very little lacing on the glass.

The nose has lots of roastiness and smokiness. I was actually surprised by the amount of smokiness on the nose of this beer. You can smell some alcohol on the nose, but that has never scared me away from any beer. Upon sipping, and swirling it around the tongue, I get flavors such as dark chocolate, roasted malts, smoke, and hints of caramel and alcohol. It is medium bodied. Not too heavy, not too light. The finish is my favorite part of the beer. It's a bitter, dark chocoalty finish which is obviously due to the hops. To me, there is nothing like a brew from across the Atlantic with a bitter finish. For a beer that ranks in at 7.5% ABV, this is a relatively smooth brew in my opinion. However, I have come across a number of people who say that they do not like "hoppy beers." I think I would have them try this to see if it is the bitterness they do not like, or if it is the grassy/green/earthy hoppy flavors and aromas that have become ever so popular in Northern America in the past couple of years.

I like this beer a lot. I had some preconceived knowledge in regards to this beer because I always wondered why we never had it here. It was available here in the early twentieth century, but then after Prohibition in the United States, Guinness said, "Screw it," and never sent it back over here. It was available in a number of other places around the world, and finally we can purchase this beer here yet again. Hopefully, it is here to stay. Will I buy this beer again? Yes. On the other hand, a 4-pack runs close to $10.00 and the beers are 11.2 oz. All in all, this was a great experience with a great beer. Good job Guinness on sending it over here to us Yanks again. Now if we could only get some original Guinness Porter brewed like back in the mid-to-late 1700s (and possibly the 250 Anniversary Stout re-released). What do you say?

Black Tuesday

So, today is a big day for The Bruery in Placentia. Today is an event they have been looking forward to all year long. Today, my friends, marks the release of their Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon Barrels. It ranks in at 19.5% ABV, and it is called Black Tuesday.

Now, while this is a big day for the brewery itself, it is also big for beer fans. They get a chance to grab one of these epic beers...or do they? Actually, most of us will never get our hands on such a beer. While I have one from last year, I was lucky enough to have Kenny at Hollingsheads hook me up with one. I did not get it from The Bruery themselves, mainly because they create their own demand by making this one of the toughest beers to get your hands on.

Here's the deal: tickets went on sale for the Black Tuesday Release Party a while back. Naturally, the tickets sold out in a very short time. However, while I think it was smart on The Bruery to make two separate celebrations to fit more people, there were other things that I felt could have been handled better. Naturally, they do not care what I have to say and I am OK with that. I just feel I need to vent my frustrations here.

First, there were three separate tiers in ticket purchases. The first one was the cheapest at something like $75.00, and you got one bottle of Black Tuesday to take home with you. The second, which I do not remember the price, got two bottles. The third, again I'm blanking but I know was over $100.00, got three bottles to take home. Keep that in mind: three bottles to take home. Let's say that a group of four friends were able to get tickets and bought the most expensive ones. This would mean that between the four of them, they are taking home an entire case of this epic beer to keep for themselves. Does this seem right? Absolutely not. 

Next, some members of the Reserve Society did not even get tickets to the release party. The Bruery Reserve Society is its own exclusionary creation that can only be joined once a year. For a number of hundreds of dollars, you get a free sweatshirt and the opportunity to get epic beers from The Bruery that they do not bottle for the public. Nothing like excluding a number of your fellow beer lovers by making these beers only available to those who can shell out $200.00 around Christmas time. With that being said, some of these people didn't even get tickets to the Black Tuesday release party and are quite lucky that they are guaranteed a bottle with the purchase of their membership.

So what do I personally think they should have done differently? I don't think they should have given the option to get 3 bottles of this epic beer per person. The bottles should have been sold at the counter with a one bottle limit per person. That way, more people get to experience your beer and it doesn't wind up on eBay for $200.00 a bottle. Is that really what you want your brewery to become? If so, then you are doing your job and quickly making your beer and brewery more exclusionary than welcoming.

I love The Bruery's beer. I always will. I think they know what they are doing there and I will never stop drinking it. However, there are a number of beers of theirs that I haven't had because they have created their own demand by making certain things only available to certain people. These certain people, by the way, are more often than not the same people since they have the money to shell out every year to be a part of the Reserve Society. Am I at The Bruery almost every week? Yes. Do I support them in any way I can? Yes. Will I get my hands on a bottle of Black Tuesday? Nope. Are a number of people going to have up to 3 bottles a piece? Yes. Someone should really take a step back and analyze that. Beer is to be shared, not hoarded and selfishly held onto or sold for profit.

Today is a big day for The Bruery. Today is Black Tuesday! Sadly, for beer lovers, it is more like the Black Tuesday experienced in 1929; only a handful of people will end the day prosperous. 

Moonshot: Kallman's Brew

I am a huge, and I mean huge, fan of the documentary Beer Wars.

Beer Wars Trailer

Through that film, I was introduced for the first time to Rhonda Kallman. She helped Samuel Adams and their Boston Lager take off. Eventually, there was nowhere else for her to go with the Boston Beer Company so she left to start her own brew (why she did this, no one will ever know). I watched her struggle to sell her beer to every single person she could. From local bars to private investors, she struggles to get her beer off the ground. I see her kids crying that she is going out every night with her big fake breasts practically begging to burst out of her thin Old Navy orange-red hoodie. I see her attempt to get support from Jim Koch (Mr. Samuel Adams), and eventually trying to sell out to the big three. I watch her terrible day-by-day existence and, quite honestly, feel terrible for her. Then I transport myself to tonight...when I strolled across her beer, Moonshot: Premium Beer with Caffeine, at the local Total Wine. I cannot help but purchase a six-pack to support this woman I feel so close to...

I hate to say it, but this beer is absolutely terrible. I don't like to riddle my beer analyses with personal opinions, but with this brew, and all I've emotionally put into it, I cannot help it. It pours a despicable light straw color with a very Styrofoam-white minimal head to it that leaves the glass within the matter of less than 20 seconds. What does this mean? This means you are looking at a light lager with a shit ton of carbonation. Straight up. A light lager, that apparently, is now riddled with caffeine. Upon tasting the beer, it did not impress at all. In fact, it did quite the opposite. My buddy Travis, my brother Andrew, and myself were all disappointed in the all-around quality of this beer. It had a slight fruitiness to it that left the mouth rather quickly and left a watery flavor to it that was anything but delicious. My friend Travis described this as a "filler," meaning a beer that you'd drink in between your delicious, epic beers to keep you awake.

What does this really mean? I know you are wondering the same thing we all were. Here's what I think...why in the world would any of the big three, or even Jim Koch, sign on to promote a beer such as this? The answer is pretty simple. None of them would, mainly because there is nothing original in this guy. It is 4.8% ABV, a light lager, and quite honestly not very good in flavor. See, Guinness is rather similar in ABV but it is not only delicious, but it is the best beer for you if you are trying to lose weight (if you don't believe me, look it up). This is low, shitty in flavor (it really just tastes like an MGD 64 with the flavor of an artificial, highly caffeinated sweetener), and quite honestly just dissatisfying. Why would Jim Koch support Rhonda and contribute to a beer that is so similar to the shit that is produced by the big three when he is producing things like Utopias and the ever-so-delicious Double Bock. He's creating and finding new brews every year through a home-brew competition...the last thing he would possibly want is something lacking in originality in terms of flavor and complexity. Going along with that, the big three don't need to throw money away into something they can create themselves (which Anheuser-Busch did with B to the E and eventually failed). So they will focus on their main brands and continue to spend their money where it is needed most; money spent on advertising their top sellers during a continuous string of sporting event commercial breaks. Why pick up a brand that's not even off of the ground yet? It just goes to show you how through one viewpoint, you can feel sympathetic, and even empathetic, for Rhonda. However, after knowing what this brew tastes like and what she's asking from these people, there are other sides to the brewing industry.

Quite honestly, the brewing industry is a tough world. Beer Wars really made me feel bad for this woman and her struggle to pick herself up off of the ground after leaving Samuel Adams. Yes, she took Boston Lager from the east coast of the United States to the west. However, that was a different style of beer that no one had ever seen, nor tasted, before. This Moonshot shit is no different than any of the other, excuse my language, crap out there. You look at something like Sam Adams Light and compare it with any other light beer on the market, and it has such a strong flavorful profile for a "light beer." Then you compare it with Moonshot, and Moonshot doesn't even get off the ground through juxtaposition.

I'm sorry Rhonda, I really am. I really wanted to like your "brain child," but it fell way short of the moon.

Official Post: Great Divide Brewing Company

I have had the blessing of discovering the Great Divide Brewing Co. from Denver, CO. I've only had this one delicious brew from them so far, yet it is a good one. The beer I am speaking of is their Hibernation Ale - English-Style Old Ale. For those less-informed, old ales tend to be very malty, not too bitter, but usually rank high on the ABV (Alcohol by Volume) scale. This one is 8.7%.

This brewery's beer has only recently been distributed in Southern California. By recently, I mean within this past month. Since old ales are very similar to barley wines, I somewhat knew what to expect with this beer. However, as with any beer I've never tried, I tend to keep an open mind. This was absolutely delicious. Roasted malts, molasses, and toffee on the nose. Thin, off-white head with a deep mahogany color to the brew. On the tongue, there is some sudden alcohol with some roasted malts, toffee, and a sweet finish. After taste is somewhat like dark chocolate, and while being a bit bitter, not too much. I would definitely buy this again. The bottle says, in terms of pairings:

"Roomano, an aged hard Dutch cow's milk cheese, grilled beef tenderloin, apple crisp with ginger ice cream."

Take that for what it's worth. Actually, this is my first typed out review of a beer. Congrats folks. You just experienced history. More are obviously to follow. That's all I suppose. I might post another one tomorrow after I head to the Bruery and get a bottle of 3 French Hens...