Tuesday, October 23, 2012

This One Goes to 11....and Nearly Gets a Perfect 5!

Alright people,

Those of you in the craft beer community are probably familiar with Bell's Brewery. Hell, the rest of you probably are too if you've ever had an Oberon. Well, anyway, for those Bell's fans out their, seems like about once a year they come out with a "Batch" series beer. It's a special beer they make to commemorate the milestone batches that come out of their brewery. The past few years they've hit Batch 9,000 and Batch 10,000. They have been fairly easy to come across or trade for, but for me, they never really sparked my interest. Then came Batch 11,000.

With the 11,000th batch from Bell's, they decided to do away with the Batch series. For #11,000, they decided to give it a new name, and any musician out there can appreciate the name they gave it; This One Goes to 11 Ale.

I liked the cool marketing idea with this one, and when I found out it was going to be an Amber/Red Ale, I figured I go get some. To give a little background for my 'excitement' you'll have to rewind a few years. I was at my buddy Brandon's house (and hopefully he'll be writing here in the near future), and he tossed me a beer with the warning, "Watch out, this one's a little more stout." Well, turns out that beer was a Budweiser American Ale.

I know you beer nerds out there are laughing now. It's not stout, but it does have a discernible hop profile, and that was more than our Natty Lights ever had. From that beer on, I was looking for new beers to try all the time.

Fast forward to today, and I am sad to announce that American Ale has been retired. I'm sad to see it go, but I do own a neon sign with the logo, and maybe now its value will go up.

Back to the Bell's beer. Once I cracked and smelled this beer, I was reminded of my old American Ale. This got me excited because the red ale is a style that I've kind of forsaken for bigger beers. But seeing as 11 weighs in at 11% ABV, this is a big beer. I was not disappointed with the beer in the slightest. In fact, in my review, I almost gave it a perfect score. According to the Bell's website, there is a complex mix of 5 or 6 hop varieties in this one, but what got me excited was the similarity of the hop profile to cascade hops. Not being a hop head, I usually can't identify, or even name, hop varieties in beers, but this one screamed cascade to me. Oh well, I was wrong, but this beer is delicious. Of course it has a great caramel malt bill being a red ale, and of course there is some underlying sweetness, but the mix of sweet and bitter flavors puts this one over the top. Go out and get some today!


Until next time, cheers!
-Chris

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