Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 7
Location: Draft at Rock Bottom - Chicago, 6/25/14
Aroma: The nose is sweet, plenty of Belgian yeast, some spice, and a bit of hops
Appearance: This one pours a clear gold-orange color, with a white head and streaky lace
Flavor: This beer is sweet up-front, plenty of spice, and enough bitterness to keep it balanced
Palate: The body is medium, it has a lively carbonation, with a long, spicy, somewhat dry finish
Overall Impression: From a Ratebeer perspective, how is this not the same beer as the Orland Park one? Anyway, there is way too much carbonation here. This beer is okay, but it isn't great at all.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Sampler at brewpub. Apparently, this is supposed to be a smoked porter, but I could not tell while I was drinking it. Dark brown, tan head never fades. Lightly astringent alcohol leafy barrel with brown leafy malts. Alcoholic but too much sting or burn. Eh.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5
Sampler at the brewpub. Medium hazy gold-amber. OMG, alcohol syrup sugar smells like cheap grape vodka, fusel out the wazoo. Flavor has been striped of hops. Just astringent barrel alcohol wine beeriness. Aftertaste is really astringent. Just yuckiness.
Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 3 | Flavor - 1 | Texture - 2 | Overall - 1
Cask at the brewpub. I am pretty sure this was a super old cask or someone vomited in here but I’ll rate it either way. Super cloudy dirty looking gold. This cask has been out took long. Ugh. Super flat and warm. Aroma is highly off putting extremely rotten apple and pesticide maybe, barf. Oh my god, the flavor is so disgusting. Cringe worthy. One of the vilest thing I have ever consumed.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Sampler at the brewpub. Color is clear gold, light bubbles race up the body. Aroma is strong and as expected with moderate banana and backed up by mild yeast dough. Sweetness there but not near sickening. Flavor more balanced by a stronger but not abrasive carbonation. I think this level of carbonation works great here. Much less sweetness and ester craze in the flavor. I am a lot more tolerant of Belgian styles and esters and sweetness than many others.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Sampler at source. Very dark brown color, not black. Thick head never fades, thick lacing as well. Aroma is strong with the hops. A mix of pine and citrus, not bitter.flavor is way flabby, not heft to the malts and the hops become generic. Just a light bitter touch at the end of it. It feels like the rug got pulled out from under me. Weird.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Pilsner goblet at the brewpub. Copper-amber color, clear. Aroma is all hops, I would have no idea this is meant to be a doppelbock. So lets pretend its a hoppy amber lager instead. The hops are all fruit punch hops. Clean low malt character behind that. Flavor is similar, slightly less bright and a bit of mild hop bitterness sneaks in. The bitterness grows a bit in the aftertaste. Long bitter fruit punch. Still no malt. Its not a doppelbock, maybe that’s the shenanigans.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
My 1700th US rate, woooo!!!!!. Sampler at brewpub. Very hazy amber color. Its the second haziest beer in my sampler (only behind the Wit). Aroma is all sweet and spicy rye, clobbers you over the head. Not my bag of tricks. The aroma is muddled, some esters from the yeast. Flavor is similar and nowhere as clean as the other beers in the sampler. Just too much rye and sweetness for me, sweet rye bomb.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Sampler at the brewpub. Definitely no butter in this batch. Pale gold to dark hay color. Aroma is muted hops, a mix bag, a little bit of this and that but nothing in particular stands out. Malt is a bit dusty. Flavor is similar with a moderate-mild bitterness coming through. Finish comes fast and easy. This is a decent Golden/APA hybrid (frankly, if I were to reenter this beer I would put it in as an APA). I just wish the hops were more directive.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Sampler at the brewpub. This version uses Simcoe instead of Chinook and also comes in at 9.2 abv and 85 IBU. Dark golden color, halo lacing but not sticky at all. Aroma, SMACK on my nose with a strong hop mix that speaks to my inner hop-soul. Its all sweet mango tropical fruit sugar hops. There is just a hint of a little bit of grass underneath that. But I love this nose. It was made for me. Flavor loses some of that tropical punch due to a moderate- strong bitterness. Bitterness particularly takes over in the aftertaste by pushing such me of my tropical flavors out. Still a nice mix if you are looking for hop bitterness. Nicely lean malt behind all that.