Smuttynose “Gravitation” Quadrupel Ale (New Hampshire) – Accomplished. Even though it manages to give what is always a very, very heavy style of ale life and lift. Still, it’s a bruiser, so drink carefully. Spice abounds. (3/09)
beer
Here’s mud in your eye
Otter Creek “World Tour” Mud Bock (Vermont) – Billed as a seasonal ale, which is wise, because this is incredibly heavy, overwhelmingly spicy, and tastes of grade C syrup boiled down to a balsamic concentrate. Mud, indeed. (3/09)
Otter Creek “World Tour” Otter’s Dubbel (Vermont) – While I wouldn’t exactly call this beer “lively,” there’s a certain verve to it, despite the weighty baked apple and stickiness inherent in the style. Or maybe it’s just overly light. I do like it for a while, but each glass after the first is progressively less interesting, and that’s never a good sign. (3/09)
Badale
Les Brasseurs de Gayant “La Goudale” Bière Blonde à l’Ancienne (Flanders) – Boring, boring, boring. I wasn’t aware they could carbonate tedium. (3/09)
Les Brasseurs de Gayant “La Divine St-Landelin” Bière Dorée (Flanders) – All acute angles and upthrust pinkies, yet worth a guzzle when refreshment is a more immediate goal than taste. (3/09)
Hoeven hoof
Koningshoeven Bock (Netherlands) – Powerful and metallic, but perhaps overly jacketed. The expected density is not overwhelming, but the beer never really goes anywhere interesting. (3/09)
Karmeliet-Kynes
Bosteels Tripel “Karmeliet” (Belgium) – A really good beer with just a little bit too much sticky toffee pudding, which keeps it from truly soaring. A shame, because there’s a lot to like here. (3/09)
Catamount to much
Harpoon “100 Barrel Series” Catamount Maple Wheat Ale (Massachusetts) – There’s an odd sleight-of-brew here, in that the maple is less present as a flavorant than as a weight-lending agent, which means that the resulting ale moves into the heavier realm of (say) Scotch Ale rather than a non-traditional wheat. It’s quite intriguing, and I like this a great deal. (3/09)
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup
Long Trail “Brewmaster Series” Coffee Stout (Vermont) – They got the coffee part right, lending just enough of it to meld without dominance. Unfortunately, the stout portion is a little lacking; it’s wan, without the heft it needs to bring enough substance to the mix. Just OK. (3/09)
Bar-beer-cue
Harpoon “100 Barrel Series” Rauchfetzen Ale (Massachusetts) – Light on the smoke, and fairly insufficient otherwise. It’s an easy quaff, but it doesn’t mean anything. On the positive side, it’s more drinkable as a standalone than most brews in this style. (2/09)
Pistol, pistol, pistol
Unibroue 2004 “Trois Pistoles” (Québec) – Tastes denser than it did in its youth, with more of a chocolate liqueur, spice-laden character than it originally possessed. Still quite heavy. Did it benefit from age? Well, it changed a bit. But is it better? I don’t know. (1/09)
Unibroue 2004 “La Fin du Monde” (Québec) – Unlike the Trois Pistoles, this beer did not benefit from a few years’ aging. Lemony and completely swimming with lees, this has tarted up but has also lost the layered richness that defines it. (1/09)
Wolaver & play dead
Wolaver’s (Otter Creek) “Will Stevens’” Pumpkin Ale (Vermont) – One of the better pumpkin ales I’ve had in many a year, because while it tastes very clearly of pumpkin, it neither lets its spice run rampant nor forgets that it is still supposed to taste like an ale; too many beers in this category taste like mulled pumpkin mead. Not for the purist, perhaps, but a great deal of seasonal fun. (10/08)