Day 692: Bohemia Pilsen

I should be in State College for the PSU vs. Illinois game, but I'm not and it blows. In light of my shitty situation, I give you a shitty beer review.

It's the Bohemia Cerveja Pilsen--a pilsener from Brazil. It poured a bright, clear gold color with a medium white head. It has lots of grains in the aroma with some grassy hops. The flavor is exactly what I think of when I drink mass produced beers. Sweet. Grainy. A little watery. White Bread. None of those are compliments.

Beer stats
Style: Pilsener
ABV: 5%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Poor

Previously reviewed from Bohemia
None

Day 688: Rogue Voodoo Doughnut

Several weeks ago I found out that my local Whole Foods got in a shipment of the Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate Banana  Peanut Butter stout. I like Rogue's beer. I really like Voodoo Doughnuts. And despite having heard from many people that the first iteration of the Rogue/Voodoo beer was a terrible, smoky mess, I could not resist the siren song of a stout with flavors of chocolate and peanut butter. (See evidence here, here and here.)

Can someone come over and rake all those leaves?
Mr. Blog and I are too busy drinking beer.

It poured an almost black brown color with a deep tan, full head. It smelled strongly of bananas that faded nicely into strong dark chocolate aromas. As it sat on the table next to me, I could easily smell the chocolate scent wafting over to me. I took a sip and my first thought is that it is kind of watery. Another sip. Yup, watery. There's some chocolate in the flavor but it's light compared to the smell. There is a lot of coffee, which I wasn't expecting. There was also something perfumey in there and I can't describe it any better than that. Sadly I'm not getting any peanut butter and I had to work hard to get any banana. I wavered between rating this one average, but the more I tried to drink it and then sleeping on it overnight, I decided that it was getting a poor rating. 

Beer stats

Style: Stout

ABV: 5.3%

IBUs: Unknown

Rating: Poor

Previously reviewed from Rogue

Beard beer, more Beard Beer, Eugene City Brewery Honey Orange Wheat Ale, Juniper ale, the sampler 

Day 539: Frankenmuth Batch 69

I'm out of words. No pearls of wisdom today. If that's disappointing, prepare yourself for more disappointment. Today's beer is the Frankenmuth Batch 69 IPA. It's an American IPA that claims to taste of citrus, flowers and pine.

I drank this at a decidedly unbeercentric household so no appropriate glassware. It poured a bright deep golden color with very little head. What was around was white. It didn't smell of anything in particular and it was very malty without any discernible hop profile. Given the description from the bottle, I was expecting lots of hop in there. Instead I got lots of sweet, lots of orange and not much else.

Overall it was a real disappointment. Even more so because Frankenmuth is one of Michigan's oldest breweries--hailing all the way back to 1857. It's located in Frankenmuth, Michigan, which is known as Michigan's Little Bavaria. With that kind of reputation, maybe I would have been better off with one of their pilseners or dunkel lagers. Alas this was the only option available to me at the time.

Beer stats
Style: American IPA
ABV: 6.9%
IBUs: 69
Rating: Poor

Previously reviewed from Frankenmuth
First out the limo! (And maybe the last...)

Beer 339: Cosmos Brewery Chang Beer

One of the benefits of working in a place that has a movie theater is seeing this throughout the day:

Daniel Craig = HOT!!!  (source)

Still not sure if I can commit to it in the theater.  Me and 142-minute films tend not to get along well.  Something else that I don't get along well with?  Chang beer from Cosmos Brewery Co., Ltd.  It's brewed in Thailand (5% ABV) and marketed as Thailand's award winning beer. 

It poured a slightly hazy golden color with very little to no head and what was there disappeared rather quickly.  It smells like rubbery beer and corn.  In fact, it's so flavorless that it's not actually that bad.  If you explore the Chang website at all, you'll note it's all about Thai food and Thai scenery.  The website makes it look like an awesome beer.  I'd say it's similar to Piton.  (Reviewed here.)

 

What I got the biggest kick out of is the tasting notes from the Chang website:

Golden honey in colour, Chang beer has a complex aroma - a smoky, peaty blend of sweet green apples and vanilla - and a beautifully balanced flavour which is crisp, smooth and incredibly refreshing.

Wow. I did not get any of that and based on other reviews I read, the copywriters are smoking some really good weed in Thailand because no one got any of that. I will admit that it is smooth, but water is also smooth.  This is a sad, sad beer.

Cheers.

Beer 336: RJ Rockers Bell Ringer

This is a personal low. Two beers in one week that make me want to go yarf. I'm a big fan of the American strong ale. I like my beers big and flavorful. Sadly what's delivered in RJ Rockers Bell Ringer ale is a big beer (8.5% ABV) and confusing flavor.




It poured a light mahogany color with a light tan head that quickly fizzed away. The smell started things off on a positive note -- nice and earthy with some caramel malts. It all went south with the first sip. The alcohol is overwhelming. All I got was an astringent alcohol, not even a nice warm boozy alcohol. If I concentrated enough I could find some lovely bananas foster flavor in there but I was working hard to get there. I detected some orange flavor as well. Overall it was chalky, thin and entirely too boozy. This is a poor beer.

Cheers.

Beer 334: Gritty's Best Brown Ale

A bottle of Delsym, box of Mucinex D, a course of prednisone and a small inhaler later, I'm still sick. And tired. Sick and tired. Ha. And I'd love to have the last week of my life back. But thank god for doctors who don't need to see you before prescribing more drugs. I'm happily curled up in my pajamas with the first dose of antibiotics on board!

All this drug consumption is definitely cutting into my drinking time. Suck it, cold. I've got work to do.

At least I didn't waste a good beer on my drug-addled self tonight. I would not recommend Gritty's Best Brown Ale by the Gritty McDuff's Brewing Company out of Portland, Maine.


It poured a reddish mahogany color ale with a tan head. The aroma is rich malts and very buttery. The flavor on the other hand is nonexistent. It's very thin and water like. There's a strange rubbery chemical thing happening. If I think about it really hard, I could make myself taste that buttery malt. But then it disappears and I'm left with a thin, watery blech in my glass.

This is a poor beer. It's so bad that I have to think there's something wrong with it, right? I guess I should be on the look out for other Gritty McDuff beers to see if there are redeeming ones.

Cheers.

Beer 316: Shipyard Brewing Co.'s Pumpkinhead Ale

Things I found in my purse after cleaning it out today:

- 14 paperclips
- 6 balled up receipts
- 5 ponytail holders
- $3.62 in change
- 3 empty prescription containers
- about 25 business cards that escaped from their holder
- about 50 menu cards
- bracelet, necklace and ring
- rusty binder clip (how did it get rusty?)
- enough Band-Aids to start an urgent care center

This was in addition to the usual wallet, keys, notepad, make up bag. And I wonder why my shoulder hurts when I carry my bag for awhile.

How do I reward myself for getting that bag cleaned up and organized? With a subpar beer. Sometimes, Marcella, sometimes...

I'm going into this whole pumpkin beer season with a bit of bias. I'm not a fan of pumpkin pie, but I do enjoy pumpkin roll. So I figure that I'm bound to enjoy one of the pumpkin beers currently lurking in my fridge, right? Wrong.


I went with Shipyard Brewing Company's Pumpkinhead Ale. It poured a deep golden color with very little head. It smells like a pilsner with fall spices. But both scents came across very distinct and not very appealing. The taste is very disjointed. It starts out very bland, almost corn flavored and turns to overwhelming pie spice. Nutmeg, cinnamon...not good at all.

This is a poor beer. Cheers to hoping for better luck tomorrow.