Beer Club Volume Thirteen - Oktoberfests, Part II

***Editor's note - Yeah, I suck at keeping this thing up. I'll try to do better once I get caught up with the next three! ***

The anniversary event, a year in the making had finally arrived. As I stated in August's write up, I can't believe we made it this far. I can barely hold a fantasy football league together from year to year, let alone a monthly beer club.

Don't get me wrong, people love to drink beer. They just don't always like to have it structured and that's one thing this beer club's control freak leader requires, structure. I've had lots of ideas that I've had to politely (and sometimes not so politely) turn down because they don't fit my vision of the club. Yeah, I really do take it that seriously but it has worked so I'm not fixing what's not broke.

It was only fitting that we had record attendance to celebrate our anniversary. Initially we tied it with ten of us but Paul U decided he couldn't miss it so he showed up late to give us eleven people.

Since I'm playing catch up with the blog, this will be a shorter entry but here's the lineup (with stats) that we all enjoyed (not counting some extra credit beers!):

• • Samuel Adams Octoberfest (5.3% ABV, ~ $.122/oz)
• • Schell's Oktoberfest (5.5% ABV,~ $.11/oz)
• • Victory Festbier (5.6% ABV, ~ $.138/oz)
• • Spezial Rauchbier Märzen (5.3 % ABV, ~ $.296/oz)
• • Great Lakes Oktoberfest (6.5% ABV, ~ $.138/oz)
• • Coney Island Freaktoberfest (6.66% ABV, ~ $.27/oz)
• • Two Brothers Atom Smasher (7.7% ~ $.327/oz)
• • Odell Woodcut Number 4 (11%, $25/bottle, ~ $.98/oz)

The finale of the lineup was far and way the most expensive bottle we've ever cracked for Beer Club but considering how cheap most Oktoberfests are and that this was a special occasion, it was definitely in order.

It was also the first time that we had a beer on tap since I had just picked up a keg of the Schell's Oktoberfest. The keg went over very well not just at Beer Club but also at Isenberg Freedom Fest a couple weekends before.

It was another great month for me because none of the of the beers seemed to be an overwhelming favorite and most seemed to have different fans. I like to see that because it means that Beer Club is accomplishing its goals of exposing several different people to several different beers to find out what suits each person.

The Odell of course, blew everybody way. Thankfully it did because I'd have been pissed about dropping $25 on a bottle that nobody liked!

Well, with the way the time is flying by I think we'll be celebrating two years of Beer Club before we know it. That's not a bad thing at all...

Sam Adams Longshot

I'm not sure how I missed the first however-many-of-these there have been, but a few months ago I heard about Sam Adams annual Longshot competition. In a nutshell, it's their contest for home brewers to see who can submit the best beers with the winners being produced and sold in six packs. The most recent winners were an old ale and a barleywine with saison brewed by an employee of Sam Adams being the third beer.

I recently came across a six-pack containing two of each of these beers and since I absolutely loved the concept and spirit of the competition I had to pick one up and check them out. I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts about them and post this entry to help spread the word about the competition in case you've been in the dark about its existence like I was.

The first one I tried was the lemon pepper saison created by Samuel Adams employee Jeremy White. It was a very effervescent beer with a pretty clean, crisp flavor. The spices (especially the coriander) in the beer made it come off as more of a witbier to me than a saison but it was still a pretty good beer.

The next beer was an old ale created by Michael Robinson. This style isn't one I'm too familiar with (Hibernation from Great Divide and Old Curmudgeon from Founders are about the extent of my experience) but I really enjoyed this beer. It was slightly boozy (to be expected from the 9% ABV) but it the main aroma and flavor that came across to me were the dark fruit notes. It was surprisingly easy to drink for such a big beer.

The last beer I tried was a barley wine from Ben Miller. Before I tried it, I thought that it was curious that they would have chosen a bit more variety for the winners because the old ale I had just finished really reminded me of a barley wine as well. But the barley wine really came off as completely different to me than the old ale before it. The aroma didn't do much for me, it was pretty weak but once I took a sip I got quite a bit of flavor. It also had some dark fruit elements to it but the big thing I noticed was the hops profile. As I swallowed I noticed these flavors were accentuated in the finish. It was like a three part process with each part growing and showcasing what the beer was all about.

I enjoyed all three beers but if I had to pick a winner I'd go with Michael's old ale by just a nose over Ben's barley wine. I think I'm going to cellar the remaining bottle of each and see how they develop with some time and I'm going to pick a nice hot summer day to crack the other bottle of Jeremy's saison.

So, this is just one more thing to inspire me to brew my own beer one of these days. Well, that and Josh, Matt and Brett doing their best to recruit me. I told them that maybe next year's sixers will look like this:

Once I do take the plunge into making my own beer I'll do my best to get on there. If I'm as good at brewing as I am at buying beer and drinking it, I'll be a shoe-in to be on this package in the future!

Beer Club, Volume Six - Bocks!

I decided to go with Bocks for this installment of Beer Club in honor of Bockfest at Schell's Brewery in New Ulm. It ended up being doubly important this year because sadly my streak of seven years at Bockfest was broken this year. At least I had a good lineup of beer to help me feel better about it.

Rather than focus on one of the specific bocks like dunkler bocks or doppelbocks or heller bocks, I decided to throw a couple of each in there to give us an idea of the differences between them. Due to illness, vacation, forgetfulness and out of town visitors, we had the smallest group yet but the three of us made the most of it.

The first two beers we did were dunkler bocks, Sam Adams Chocolate Bock and Schell's Bock. I've been sitting on a couple bottles of the Chocolate Bock for awhile now and figured it was as good of a time as any to crack them. Schell's is the bock that always comes to mind for me because it's the one I've drank the most of in my life (even if 95% of it has come on seven specific days!)

The Sam Adams was unique, definitely chocolate chocolate and more chocolate. Not that it was overpowering, but it was definitely the main flavor in the beer. To me it tasted like a coco powder more than the chocolate I've tasted in other beers and I don't mean that in a bad way. I'm wondering if it was because they use coco nibs. I'm not even sure what they are but I know this is the first beer that I've had with them. Guess I'll find out when I finally try the Dogfish Head Theobroma. The Chocolate Bock was a decent beer but I'm not sure I'd run out to search for more of it at $10 a bomber.

The Schell's was as I always remember it, a perfect example of the style. Bocks to me are similar to brown ales and amber ales in that I can sit down with 5 different ones and notice that each one is different but have a hard time describing the exact differences. Another way to put it is that I know what bocks are supposed to taste like and this beer is the standard for me.

Next we moved to the two heller bocks - Sierra Nevada Glissade Golden Bock and Dead Guy Ale from Rogue. I've never had a heller bock before so I wasn't really sure what to expect. Well, technically I had the Glissade at a Sierra Nevada tasting a couple weeks ago and thought it would be a cool change of pace to throw in the line up. It has a light golden color with a nice pillowy white head. Aroma is bready, malty as is the flavor which also has some spicy and hoppy notes. Nice clean finish with a small hops bite.

The Dead Guy was a bit of an anomaly to me. I knew that bocks fell into the lager category but Dead Guy is advertised as Dead Guy Ale, not Dead Guy Lager even though most resources I've seen call it a heller bock. After some research and a few messages back and forth with Rogue, I'm just going to go with it being a hybrid, heller bock style ale. This is one I'd like to drink isolated from Beer Club to get a better handle on what I think of it. I know I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it. I'll update my thoughts on this beer in the comments section.

The last three beers on the list were doppelbocks. For a quick history lesson on these and to find out why so many of them end with -ator, click here.

First up was Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock. This beer is rated as the number one doppelbock on Rate Beer and it's easy to see why. This is a fantastic beer. Deep brown pour with a big creamy tan head. Sweet & roasted malty aroma and flavor with a sweet caramel finish.

A random entry to the night was Boulevard's Seeyoulator. I stumbled across this beer a couple weekends ago and picked it up because of the cedar aging. It wasn't till I was home that I even realized it was a doppelbock and decided to use it for Beer Club.

It was fantastic. Caramel color, LOTS of lively head, fantastic lacing. I poured the first glass quickly and down the middle like I do for most small samples and got a ton of head. I tried pouring more slowly and off to the side on the next two and still got quite a bit of head. Not a ton of aroma, sweet and malty is what does come through. Flavor is sweet, fruity, malty with a chewy mouthfeel. The cedar does come through in the flavor as well. Very cool beer, pretty unique for a doppelbock.

The last doppelbock was the Sam Adams Imperial Double Bock. It's a nice big chewy beer with a bunch of intense good flavors in it. Very sweet and smooth considering how much is going on in it.

We wrapped up the night with attempt at poking our bocks. You heard me right. If you've never been to Bockfest in New Ulm, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Well, at Bockfest they have campfires set up to huddle around if you get too cold. They also keep hot pokers in these fires and if you ask, they'll "poke" your bock by sticking one right in the middle of your brew. This caramelizes the sugars in the beer and makes it sweeter and a bit smokey.

I procured a metal rod from Home Depot and we fired up the burner from my turkey fryer and gave it a try. It didn't come out exactly like it does at Bockfest but it was a pretty good attempt for our first try. I'd guess that there's a bit of "seasoning" on the pokers down at Schell's, something like a cast iron skillet acquires after many uses. It definitely had a reaction and gave everybody a good idea of how it works.

I think my favorite of the night would have to be the Celebrator. It's number one for a reason and I can't argue with it. The Seeyoulator was nipping at its heels for me though. I really liked the depth that the cedar seemed to give it.

Over the weekend I also tried some Paulaner Salvator and a bottle of Widmer Brothers' Reserve Cherry Oak Doppelbock. I found the Salvator to be a solid beer but if given the option, I'd go for the much more economical Schell's Bock and enjoy it just as much.

As for the Widmer, it was phenomenal. As I always say, give me any combo that involves imperial stout, bourbon, oak aged or cherry and I'm all in. This stuff was awesome. It bummed me out that I waited so long to try it because I figured it was all gone. I was lucky enough this week to track down a couple more bottles of it before it completely disappeared. I'm going to hold one or both bottles for awhile and see how they age.

I'm already looking forward to next month's Beer Club, I'm leaning towards doing Trappist Ales after discovering that Chimay makes cheese. If you have any advice on Trappists, please let me know. Until then - Cheers!

Beer Club, Volume Four - Winter Beers

Welcome to yet another episode of Beer Club where the style picks itself. With all the winter beers and Christmas beers coming out I figured it was obvious choice if we were ever going to do them.

November/December was an insanely busy time for me so I put pretty much the entire lineup in Alvey's hands and this is what he laid out for me:

Samuel Adams Winter Lager
Well, OK, not this one. I bought a Sam Adams variety pack for the Toyfest party and had some of these left over and since it's very available (even on tap in the Twin Cities) I thought it was a good starting point. This one was OK, but pretty much just OK. As I stated in my review, it was better than a fizzy yellow beer but for the most part it was a pretty small beer for what I expected. I'd definitely drink it if I saw it on tap and the rest of the options were macrobrews.

Summit Winter Ale
It took awhile to get one of my favorite local breweries in the Beer Club lineup but I finally got it done. To me this kind of tasted like a winterized version of Summit EPA. It was hoppy just like Summit EPA but some twists and turns to make it different.

Bells Christmas Ale
One of my biggest surprises of the night. This was a fruity beer, both in aroma and flavor. I couldn't really put my finger on exact flavors but it reminded me of a fruity candy wrapped up in a beer (and somehow not in a bad way). I really liked this one.

Anchor Christmas Ale
To me, this was the quintessential winter/Christmas beer in the lineup. Lots going on in the way of flavors in a aromas, plenty of good spices to make you think of this time of the year. I also love the concept of changing up both the recipe of the beer every year and the labels. I guess it could suck if you found one you really liked but maybe they could go the route of Schell's Snowstorm if that happened.

Southern Tier Krampus
This one was a style that I don't really seem to gravitate towards but considering that it was a pretty decent beer. I appreciated the hoppy fruity nature of the beer and that made it something that I'd try again if I had the opportunity.

Ridgeway Insanely Bad Elf
This was hands down the star of the night for me. It was one of my first real experiences with a barley wine and apparently I could be a big fan of them. It was very boozy and slightly fruity but also had a sweetness to it that I really liked. I definitely look forward to trying more barleywines in the new year.

This month's Beer Club was a bit different for us in that we had several different styles of beer and it was tough to know what to look for. It was still a good choice because it gave us all ideas of what to drink over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

I know this is a couple days after Christmas but I hope you all had a great one (or a great whatever you celebrate) and have a fantastic New Year and a great year to come.

Beer Club, Volume Three - Imperial Stouts

The first two themes of Beer Club just kind of picked themselves and the third month did the same. As you can see from the Darkness Day post (Darkness Falls Across the Land), I was able to acquire some of the fantastic Russian imperial stout both for my personal stash and for Beer Club so imperial stouts were the theme for the month.

Unlike IPA month, I relied heavily on advice from Alvey at the Four Firkins to fill out my lineup here. He had recommended most of the beers we tried, both prior to Beer Club's existence and specifically for imperial stout month of Beer Club. He has been a huge help for us every month.

On to the beers -

Samuel Smiths Imperial Stout

The first beer was one that Alvey recommended to me a long time ago and I decided to just save for Beer Club so that I wouldn't always know what's in store for the meetings. It went over very well and seemed to me to be a very good starter imperial stout for people and it's a great value as well.

New Holland Night Tripper

I honestly don't know what made me buy this one when I did but it may have very well been the label, I think it's pretty cool. This one also went over pretty well, I actually thought it was like a very miniature version of Darkness. Not that it's in the same league by any means but it seemed to have a lot of the same characteristics of Darkness in a much smaller way.

Samuel Adams Imperial Stout

This is a beer that I had before but didn't particularly care for. I still had two bottles left from my original four pack so I thought I'd put it in the lineup to get everybody else's opinions of it. Paul was the only one who really liked it and I think the biggest issue with everybody else was the same problem I had with it - too much of the anise flavor. It didn't stick out like a black licorice sore thumb a la Jagermeister but it just put a bad taste in my mouth. Pun intended. Oh well, this is truly an example of "to each his own."

North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout

One of my very favorite beers, this is one of the first imperial stouts I ever bought thanks to Alvey's advice. I loved it then and I loved it the night we had it at Beer Club too. This beer is fantastic and may be the best value of any craft beer out there. You can usually get it for around $2.50 or less per bottle but I've seen four packs as low as $8 and once bought a four pack on sale for just over $6. It's worth whatever you pay for it. I'll need to re-rate this at Rate Beer one of these days because for as much as I initially loved it, I still under-rated it. Can't wait to see how this stuff cellars.

Victory Storm King Imperial Stout
This is a massive stout. Very robust flavors and incredibly hoppy for a stout. I was surprised to try a stout that had this level of hops in it. Another solid choice.

Bells Expedition Stout

The late comer to the party. I had heard lots of good stuff about this and it became available at the Firkins just a few short days before Beer Club so I added it as a last minute entry. This was a very complex big beer (notice the theme here?) and something to warm you up and make your tummy happy.

Surly Darkness

What more can I say about this beer that I haven't already said? This stuff is truly the nectar of the gods. It might be the gods of the underworld but damn is this stuff unbelievable. I've never had something with so many distinct flavors (coffee, chocolate, raisins, cherry, etc) that you can pick out by themselves yet blend together so well to give you a little taste of heaven on your tongue. This is the reason that we had imperial stouts for the theme this month and beers like this are the reason that I care enough about beer to spread the word to anyone who will listen. I hope you've had the pleasure of trying this beer and if you haven't, do whatever you have to do to get your hands on it.

This is the expression you have whenever you're drinking Darkness

Beers like the ones in this lineup are the reason that imperial stouts are nipping at IPA's for the top position on my favorite style list and to be honest, they might just be tied. There are no losers in a competition like this.

Sam Adams Imperial Stout and the weekend review

Saturday night after the Renaissance I had a Hop Juice and then switched to some Bacardi Anejo with a Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA as a night cap.

Sunday my only beer of the day ended up being a Samuel Adams Imperial Stout that I've been looking forward to trying for a few weeks now. After how much I've really loved the stouts that I've tried, I figured this one would fall right in for me. I was disappointed.

I was a little bit nervous when I read that anise was one of the flavors in the beer because black licorice is one of my least favorite flavors in the world. I'm not sure if that was what I didn't like about it, but there was one flavor that lingered for me that I couldn't put my finger on that made this not so drinkable for me. I finished it and it grew on me a bit (I started drinking it a bit colder than I ideally should have which probably didn't help) but I don't see myself buying it again.

Here's what I wrote on Rate Beer where I gave it a 2.6:

12oz bottle from the Crystal Liquor Barrel. Poured deep black color, not too thick. Quickly fading light brown head. Aromas aren’t too powerful, slight chocolate and coffee notes. The malted barley really comes through in the taste as does the coffee and chocolate, again in a non aggressive way.

Today the beer of the day was a Bell's Two Hearted Ale. That has to be one of my five favorite beers right now along with Furious, Stone's IPA and a couple others that I haven't thought of yet. I'd like to finish by saying it's good to have a Monday included as part of the weekend review. Life is good.

Officially Rating an Old Favorite

Last night I stopped by the Liquor Barrel to pick up a bottle of the Rogue Somer Orange Honey Ale for LeeAnn and figured I'd pick up an extra couple for myself. I also noticed a Half-E-Weizen (MoM Hefeweizen) from Rogue so I grabbed a bottle of that to try.

I saw they still had the Horizon Red Ale from Summit too so I bought a six of that since it's so popular and hard to find. It grew on me the last time I had it so it's getting another try. was reading about the Imperial Line from Sam Adams and bought a four pack of the Imperial Stout. Looking forward to trying this one day soon.


I swung by Buffalo Wild Wings to try their new flavors and when I got home I decided to pair them with a Two-Hearted Ale. Draft Magazine was right, it was a fantastic pairing.

After that I went to Mainstreet and instead of my normal Furious fest I decided to do official tastings and ratings of a couple beers that should have been rated long ago.

We'll start with the second beer I rated, Newcastle. I hate to say it but it really fell flat. I expected it to be a lot richer with more flavor and since I came around last year and started liking it, I was really disappointed. It didn't hold up at all to the stuff I've been drinking lately. It had no aroma at all and the taste was just not really there. I gave it a 2.2 on RateBeer:
Pours deep brownish red color, little to no aroma. Very small flavor, a slight malt note and a bit sweet. Overall not a very flavorful beer.

The other beer I rated was Guinness Draught. As you can see I had one at home just the other night but decided not to rate it because it has been in my fridge for a few months and I wanted to go with it on tap to get a better feel for it.

This beer held up much more than I anticipated. It has been my favorite beer to pour ever since I poured one with the widget and getting it on tap doesn't disappoint. Easily the best looking beer out there and the aroma, while not too strong is very nice. The thick creamy head gives it great mouthfeel and while the flavor itself is a bit weak, it's still money. Very low ABV (4.1%) and its ability to fill you makes it a great beer if you want to have a few but still need to drive home as well. Guinness belongs in the Beer Hall of Fame. I gave it a very solid 4.0 on RateBeer.com:
Guinness is the beer that I wish I could give a 20 for appearance. When they put that cascading beauty in front of me I could watch it for hours if I didn’t want to drink it so badly. It pours a deep brown color and cascades like a waterfall. Thick creamy head with coffee and chocolate in both the aroma and taste. Very smooth mouthfeel and goes down without effort. My only knock is that it could use a bit deeper flavor to it but overall this is a classic beer.

Cheers and happy Friday!
Mike