Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 7
Pine, lime peel, and biscuit malt aroma. Golden yellow with moderate white head. Moderately sweet orange, lime, biscuit malt, and moderately bitter pine and citrus peel flavor. Good body. A nice, solid IPA.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
12 ounce can into tulip glass, canned on 12/1/2017. Pours slightly hazy medium orange/amber color with a 2 finger fairly dense and rocky off white head with fantastic retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lasts. Nice thick foamy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of big grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, citrus peel/rind, peppercorn, pine, caramel, toasted biscuit, herbal, and floral/grassy earthiness. Very nice aromas with good balance and complexity of citrus/earthy/pine hops and dark/bready malt notes; with great strength. Taste of big grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, citrus peel/rind, peppercorn, pine, caramel, toasted biscuit, herbal, and floral/grassy earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, citrus peel/rind, peppercorn, pine, caramel, toasted biscuit, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a while. Very nice complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/earthy/pine hops and dark/bready malt flavors; with a great malt/bitterness balance, and no lingering hop astringency after the finish. Light-moderate increasing dryness from bitterness. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/bready/sticky, and lightly resinous/rindy balanced mouthfeel that is great. Minimal warming alcohol for 6.2%. Overall this is a delicious IPA. All around nice complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/earthy/pine hops and dark/bready malt flavors; very smooth and easy to drink with the modestly bitter/drying finish, not overly aggressive. Definitely Chinook, and probably Columbus as well. Very juicy, vibrant, dank, and earthy hop complexity; nice bready malt backbone, with minimal residual sweetness from lingering dryness. A very enjoyable offering, and really well made classic style Midwest IPA.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5
Large draft at the Bootlegger’s Bar at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. The pour is a hazy yellow with a smallish white head. The aroma is fresh Hefe notes of clove, wheat, banana and general sweetness. The taste is lemon citrus, wheat grain, banana bubblegum sweetness and a touch of the clove towards the back. The palate is is medium bodied, unfiltered mouth feel and sweet clove lingering finish. Nice beer for the ballpark.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4
Orangish looking brew, ironically from the same color can. Smells a little old euro and punctual. Big strong english aged feel to it. Difficult at first but then old euro thang gets tongy, I mean tangy, I mean...... Ends up being a little more than difficult if you can figger that out. Probably would not try again but glad to have had the chance.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
From Aug 2008
I got this in a trade with zapata. Thanks Ben!
It pours a fairly dark brown with lots of reddish highlights. A small head of foam after the pour and it was mostly gone shortly after. There is a bit of lacing.
The smell has a nice sweet malt-roasted malt nose with some fruitiness on the side and some chocolate more up front. Good nose.
The taste is a tad less sweet than the nose suggested but dang, it's tasty. There's toasted malt with some chocolate sweetness, some toffee, some chocolate bitterness, just a touch of caramel, in a nice medium bodied liquid that finishes slightly bready, lightly bitter. A very nice flavour complexity here and pretty darned drinkable for the style.
Well, so far, I've been pretty impressed with what Christian Moerlein is brewing and I'm kind of surprised that there aren't more reviews for their beers. People, you're missing out on some good stuff.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
From Aug 2008
I got this in a trade with zapata. Thanks Ben!
It pours a clear dark amber with a finger head of foam that quickly shrinks to a fine layer. Good lacing.
The smell has some caramel sweetness to it along with some slight floral hop notes. It's on the light side but it's good.
The taste is nice! Good caramel sweetness with some biscuit and some grain and I find this is a malt based APA. A few more sips in and the Fuggles hops push some good semi bitterness into the mix. Result. A very tasty and very balanced Pale Ale indeed! Love it and I don't think that there are enough of these types around.
Medium mouthfeel and lightish carbonation help to really bring out the flavours. It finishes on the bitter and dry side. And, drinkability is very good. It's 6%abv but I *know* I could drink 2 or 3 of these at a sitting.
Here's another interesting and tasty brew from Christian Moerlein. I'm very happy that I decided to seek some out.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
From Aug 2008
I got this bottle in a trade with zapata. Thanks Ben!
This pours a clear red brown with a 1finger head of foam. Some lacing here and the foam is not shrinking very fast at all. 1 lovely brew in my glass.. The colour, I think, is spot on for a Dunkel.
The smell has notes of roasted malt, some sweet malt, and some good hoppiness that smells very fruitlike.
The taste is very nice. Some nice sweet malt notes with a touch of roasted malt, some light nutty flavour, and a decent amount of hop bitterness in the background to take the edge off the sweetness and put this in a very nice balance. Yum. There's also a touch of earthiness right before the finish which itself is slightly sweet. Again. Yum, and a very nice brew to sit with and session with.
Imo, this is a great example of the style, a style that I don't have a lot of experience with but the ones I have tried generally are too light in the flavour department. Not so with this one. Highly recommended!
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
From Aug 2008
I got this in a trade with zapata. Thanks Ben!
It pours a clear light orange with a small head of foam that quickly settled down to a fine broken layer.
The smell is on the sweet side with notes of biscuit and caramel but I also get a bit of citrus.
The taste is of grain, roasted malt, some caramel, some biscuit, and a slight bit of citrus bitterness. Interesting flavours and I feel it's pretty true to the style.
Lightish mouthfeel and the carbonation is medium, it finishes on the bitter with a slightly tart side. Pretty good stuff and it's an easy drinker.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5
16 oz willebecher draft at the Moerlein Lager House in Cincinnati, Ohio. The pour is a clear golden orange with a small foamy white head. The aroma is citrus and sweet apple fruit malt. The taste is the Blood Orange citrus and sweet fruit malt. The palate is medium to light bodied with soft carbonation and a pleasant Blood Orange fruit in the finish with some mineral.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Refrigerated 12 oz. aluminum can poured into a cup. Hazy golden with small white head. Aroma is light herbal hops, low body, low carbonation, and little lacing. Taste is light herbal hops.