Chocolate Milk Time!

Alright people,

Well, I know it's been a long time since my last blog post, but beer is still beer, and I'm here to talk about it, and a few other things.

First, the Reds failed miserably in their postseason game, and I'm finally over it now that they fired Dusty and hired a new manager. The Cardinals lost in the World Series, and subsequently gave me much relief.

Goose Island released their Sisters this past week. There were two new ones, Gillian and Halia, to go along with Lolita and Juliet. If you don't know, Lolita and Juliet are wild ales that are both considered sours. Gillian and Halia are farmhouse ales that are aged in wine barrels with strawberries and peaches respectively. I was able to run down a Juliet and a Halia. I had the opportunity to purchase the other two, but at a fairly high markup, so I skipped.

On to the beer of the night; 4 Hands Chocolate Milk Stout. 4 Hands has become somewhat of a consistent brewery appearing on this blog, and this beer is their seasonal for the fall. It combines two of my favorite styles, milk stouts and chocolate stouts. So let's take a look at this beer a little more closely.

This one starts off looking big and black in the glass with a somewhat sizable head. Lacing on this one is very good. The scent and taste of this one is pure chocolate; semisweet for most of the smell and drink, but still sweet enough to provide a very distinctive flavor. Light in alcohol and fairly high in carbonation, this beer is a little out of norm for me for stouts, as I like imperials, but that makes it very drinkable. Check out my full review here.

Overall, I liked this beer. Chocolate milk in a beer? Yes please. Until next time, cheers!
-Chris

Anchor and This Week

Alright people,

Well, it's been a few days since I've written here, I guess the second week of work got to me. Anyway, last weekend I was able to grab a 6-pack of 6 different Anchor beers. I've already had their flagship Steam Beer, so I grabbed 6 others. Today we'll be talking about Liberty Ale, Porter, California Lager, and Brekle's Brown.

Let's start out with the Liberty Ale. First off, this is an IPA, but I grabbed one bottled in February, so it probably wasn't the freshest. For an IPA, or even a pale ale, this was rather light in the hops bitterness category. The body wasn't too bad, high in carbonation, yet lighter across the palate. The pour and scent of this one really outperformed the taste. Not a bad beer persay, probably much better when it is fresh. Check out the full review here.

Next up, Anchor Porter. This one starts off looking great, and interestingly enough, smelling more like a bock or a bark Belgian beer than a porter. Lighter in the roasted malts than most, the scent and the taste have more of a dark fruit flavor going on. For a porter, this is rather light feeling on the tongue. Smooth and easy to drink, this is another solid offering from Anchor. Check out my full review here.

Betting third in the Anchor lineup is their California Lager. This was a rather simplistic beer. To me, this is the craft version of a Budweiser. On the light side of scent and flavor, crisp and clean flavors on the tongue, and a simple, yet refreshing flavor profile. This lager was somewhat grainy in flavor, leaving impressions of corn and grassy flavors. Very easy to drink, and quite smooth, check out the full review here.

Last up for this post, we have Anchor's Brekle's Brown Ale. This beer pays homage to one of the first brewers at Anchor, and is touted as an all malt, single hopped brown ale, with the single hop being the citra hop. Good looking pour in the glass, but the scent and taste of this beer is unique. There are definitely dominant notes of the citra hop bitterness in both the smell and taste. If I had to define this beer, I'd say it's a brown IPA, because it displays roasted malts and hops bitterness. Check out my full review here.

Well, that's that people. This week is St. Louis Craft Beer Week, and I'm going to try to hit up an event or two. Last year, this was a great chance to get some limited and rare beers at local bars, and I'm hoping this year will be the same. I'll be sure to take some good notes on new beers I try and report back to you, my loyal 26 readers. Until next time, cheers!

-Chris

Some Local Beers

Alright people,

So, if you have read the blog for a while, you'll know that my New Year's beer resolution was to drink more local beers. At school, I was able to accomplish this with help from my friends at Lafayette Brewing Company. Now, I'm moved to St. Louis. A little while ago I told you about my trip to 4 Hands, now I'm going to talk about Urban Chestnut.

Urban Chestnut is a newer brewery in St. Louis, and they specialize in traditional German beers, but they also try to put some American twists on these beers. I've had their 2 flagship beers, Winged Nut and Zwickel before in Indiana, but tonight, we're going to talk about two of their new beers; STLIPA and Schnickelfritz.

First off, we have a traditional hefeweizen, Schnickelfritz. This is part of their Reverence Series, in which they make traditional styles and pay homage to brewers of the past. This is does just that with the classic spices and light wheat flavor of a hefe. What's different about this beer, in my opinion, is the balance between wheat and spices. Most hefes' spices are aggressive and overpower the wheat to a certain extent, but the spices here are mellowed and balance very well with the wheat. An incredibly light beer in body, this is very drinkable, but the carbonation is way up there. Check out my full review here.

Next, the Urban Chestnut STLIPA is a part of their Revolution Series. This series of beers allows some creativity on the part of the brewers in order to bring a modern American twist to their lineup of mostly German style beers. As the name would suggest, this is an IPA, a double as a matter of fact, that is named for the brewery's hometown. Huge hops start this beer out in both smell and taste. I was reminded quite a bit of Resin by Sixpoint while drinking this beer, simply because the hops were so aggressively resinous. Instead of floral or pine-like hops, these were just very aggressively sticky and bitter. This was a true hop-head's dream in a glass. Check of my full review here.

All in all, I like Urban Chestnut's beers. I want to get into some more traditional German style lagers. I forgot how smooth they can be! I aim to make a visit to UCBC's biergarten in the coming weeks, and hopefully I'll get around to writing about it. Until next time, cheers!
-Chris

4 Hands

Alright people,

So last week the lady friend and I took a little trip into the downtown area to check out 4 Hands Brewing Company. 4 Hands is a young brewery, being only 1.5 years old, but I think they are making a name for themselves. If you've heard of these guys before, my guess is that you've heard of one of their saisons; Pyrus and Prunus. While at the small tasting room/pub/brewery, I had a pint of the Pyrus Saison. This saison is supposed to have flavors of pear, white peppercorn, and orange zest that were added while brewing. Frankly, I get a small amount of spiciness, and almost no fruit.  That being said, this is a very approachable, very good saison. I would recommend anyone looking to try the style to try this beer.

Courtesy of 4 Hands Brewing Co.

Anyway, we took the tour they offer (Saturdays at noon and four), and it was fairly interesting. All of their operations are in one room of the older, industrial building they inhabit. I believe their brewing setup is a 15 BBL system, all grain. Very small bottling line right in the middle of the room. They fill 6 bottles at a time then hand package into cases, which we were told they have to hand glue shut. The most interesting part of the tour is the barrel-aging area in the back corner. Not a big operation, but they probably have 25 barrels, mostly wine barrels, aging mainly stouts and wilds. They mentioned one of their BA beers, Cuvee Ange, which is a wild, aged in red wine barrels with raspberries and blackberries. I personally can't wait to try to get my hands on this stuff.

Back to the tasting room/pub, I really enjoyed the decor. A chalkboard on the wall describes their commitment to sustainability, which includes recycling brewing products, but more importantly, where all of the interior materials came from. The bar top, tables, chairs, bar foot rest, and outside tables are all made of materials they took out of their current building when they moved in. Really a cool part of this brewery.

Since I'm talking about 4 Hands, I figure I'll include a review of one of their core beers; Reprise Centennial Red. The beer's label touts that the beer is made using only one hop; the Centennial hop. It's an interesting take on an everyday beer style. Pours and smells basically like any other red ale you've had, but the use of one hop makes this one a little different. Instead of being malty and then hoppy like most reds, this one is balanced with malts in the beginning, but the hops are less bitter than most on the back end. The hops provide a somewhat muted, and maybe even musty, mild bitterness. Anyway, this is a solid, somewhat unique everyday beer or 4 Hands. I can see this beer having a loyal following for regulars.

Well, there she is....two posts in two days. Enjoy it while it lasts people! Until next time, cheers!
-Chris