Mellody Brewing Ryeghteous Brown Ale

Another in Sean Mellody's Tasting Jawn is his Ryeghteous Brown Ale. The style is what you'd expect (mostly) in that it's a brown ale brewed with rye along with some smoked malt (update: no smoked malt). I'll note that if Sean is interested in making this one of his flagship beers, he's going to need to change the name. Sixpoint has already sent a cease & desist letter to one brewery so they definitely won't let this stand.

Smelled of toasted nuts and roast. Not much from the rye or the smoked malt but the smokiness may have blended into the roast. Body followed with more roast and more toasted nuttiness with a bit of cherry fruitiness in the finish. The roast was aggressive but not too aggressive. If you've ever had Cigar City's Maduro Brown Ale, it's pretty similar to that. My wife is a big fan of brown ales and liked this which is a good sign. Very pretty beer too, nice clarity. It doesn't really affect the flavor but it's still nice.

Of the three beers he gave us this time, I am your Patersbier, Sour Cherry Patersbier, and Ryeghteous Brown, I liked this one the most. Not terribly surprising, though, since this is the closest to my preferred styles but still.

Goose Island Nut Brown

After voting last night, Jo and I decided to go out for a quick dinner. When we saw the Goose Island Nut Brown on the menu, she told me I should order that since I'd been ignoring her demographic, people who like brown ales.

Nice nutty nose, quite pleasant. Hazelnut beginning with a light roast in the middle following it. Some more nuttiness in the finish and aftertaste. This won't blow your socks off, but if you like brown ales that are more nutty than burnt it was quite a good example. And that's my brown ale post for my wife and probably the last one for a while since I rarely drink them. Should fulfill my quota for now though.

Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown

The fourth release in Founders special release series (I can't remember the name at the moment) was Frangelic Mountain Brown, a hazelnut coffee brown ale. Unlike the previous two, this wasn't barrel aged or anything like that so some people weren't as excited about this one as them it seemed. I thought it sounded cool though and was happy to get a bottle.

Very big hazelnut nose with some coffee too. Decent body, not too thin considering it's a brown ale at its base. Nice and nutty with some coffee coming up in the back. Slight roast too but it's mostly covered by the strong hazelnut coffee flavor. Honestly, it tasted straight like a cup of hazelnut coffee and I thought it was pretty great.

Weyerbacher Whiskey Barrel Aged

This is the latest in Weyerbacher's Brewers' Select series. If you didn't know, they name each beer in the series after the military alphabet. Once getting to Whiskey, it only made sense to make a barrel aged beer. However, since you apparently can't name a beer after another alcohol according to the TTB, they added Barrel Aged to the name to avoid the issues. Makes the name a mouthful, but, whatever, laws. The beer itself start as a brown ale and spent about 2 months (I think) in whiskey barrels.

Light bourbon, some vanilla, and slight dark fruit in the back of the aroma. Body was thicker than I expected. The flavors began with a mix of bourbon and dark fruit with some vanilla in the finish. Basically the same as the nose. Got a little bit of graham cracker in the finish after a bit, mostly a result of the bourbon. The dark fruit came out a bit more as I got more used to the bourbon and drank more. Pretty good beer from Weyerbacher. Be interesting to see what is up next for X-Ray.

2010 Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

This one has been sitting in my refrigerator for a while so why not open it on a random Thursday. This was a nearly two year old Palo Santo Marron from Dogfish Head.

Huge caramel nose with a little bit of smokiness in it. Really nice body, nice and thick. Caramel sweetness started things off with a nice fruity finish. More of the interesting woody smokiness throughout. Hid the 12% ABV really well though I'll be the first to admit I don't notice alcohol much anymore. Pretty terrific and delicious. Just a great complex beer that continues to get better every time I drink it.

Second Visit to Tired Hands

Last weekend I took my second trip to Tired Hands in Ardmore. This time I did it on a Saturday so I could spend a bit more time there than when I visited on the Wednesday during beer week. Once again the trip from Philly on the R5 was super easy and it's maybe a five minute walk from the station. Super convenient for those of use that find getting to the suburbs a pain in the butt.

When I arrived I ordered a glass of Tabel, a 3.8% saison. Note that even though I insisted in saying the name like table, it's apparently pronounced ta-bell. So if you don't want Jean giving you funny looks, you can say it properly now.

Philly Beer Week Day 5: Founders & Funky Buddha

After my day of rest (hah!) on Monday, Tuesday was planned to be a long day. I had lunch at Jose Pistola's, a stop at Kite & Key, and then finally Prohibition Taproom. Maybe seems like a lot for a Tuesday, but Philly Beer Week! Woo! Okay, okay, I'm a little crazy, I know.

The first stop of the day was the Founders lunch at Jose Pistola's. They were going to have CBS, two years of KBS, Curmudgeon's Better Half, and a few others. To say it was going to be popular isn't giving the crowd the credit it deserves. I arrived about five minutes before opening and the crowd was already like forty or fifty people long.

For those that don't know Jose Pistola's, the entrance is over past the green sign in the middle so pretty far from where I was standing. Lucky for me, my friends showed up at about 11:10 and were twenty to thirty people ahead of me. Pays to have friends who took the day off, I guess.

Nodding Head Monkey Madness

Okay, before explaining anything, let me just drop this right here.

Have I set the scene? I think I have. And yes, the assistant brewer Fava is inside.

So this past weekend was another Second Saturday event at Nodding Head, this time named Monkey Madness. The theme for this was beers with lemongrass and ginger, following along from their world famous Monkey Knife Fight (or at least it should be world famous, best name ever). Along with two variations of that beer, they brewed a couple others using lemongrass to round out the lineup.

Nodding Head 12 Beers of Christmas

On the second Saturday of December, Nodding Head held an event called 12 Beers of Christmas. They've been doing second Saturday events for quite a while now and they always have a few special beers for each event. For this one, they had 2010 Sledwrecker, Phunkywine, and some Grog aged in a JW Lees barrel. There were also quite a few others as they had like 12 beers available so it was quite an afternoon. When I arrived, things were slightly busy but there was plenty of room to stand.

Knowing I'd end up ordering all the beers I wanted anyway, I decided to start with the JW Lees Grog as it was in a small firkin sitting on the bar so I felt like it had the highest chance of kicking at some point.

Blue Dog Wealth of Riches

Sometimes I think I may have issues with my obsession getting the better of me, but then I just shrug and get over it. This past Saturday was definitely one of those times when I decided to head out to Chalfont, PA to go to the Blue Dog tavern. First, if Google maps is telling you it's going to take two hours by public transportation, it's probably right. Second, if you are going to the suburbs and Google maps says you need to walk a mile from the train station, there probably aren't going to be sidewalks and so people are going to look at you like you're a psycho when you're walking down the side of a road on the shoulder. Oh and some of the sidewalks do this.

A Small Bottle Share

I had some friends over this weekend and and they brought a couple of bottles over to share. We started with one of my bottles, a Captain Lawrence Smoke from the Oak. This one was an Imperial Smoked Porter that was aged in wine barrels.

Very smoky aroma with a slight hint of red wine. On my first sip, the major flavor was smoke. Not harsh, more pleasant campfire. The wine part of it though sort of came and went and was sort of interesting. Not bad, just interesting. The major issue is the barrel flavors and the smoke flavors didn't blend well. Luckily, they didn't clash either but without the blending the beer just doesn't come together. Also, even with the smoke not being overwhelming, I'm not sure how a big glass of it would have gone down. I have bottles of rum barrel and apple brandy barrel and hope their flavors blend a bit better and cause the smoke to relax some.

Philly Beer Geek Semifinals at the Manayunk Brewery

After my triumphant win (okay okay stumbling win) at Time Restaurant in the Philly Beer Geek contest, I was on my way to the Manayunk Brewery for the semifinals on Tuesday May 24th. I was pretty excited since I figured I'd get to meet a lot of cool people, the beer at the brewery is pretty good and I don't get there often enough. As I said yesterday, though, the contest didn't go so well for me but I'll get to that in a bit and the night itself was fun up until the end anyway.

Troegs Rugged Trail Nut Brown Ale

Part of cleaning our old apartment in preparation for the move to the new house was looking through our beer fridge and tossing some of the older beers that got buried in the back.  However, when I came across the year and a half year old Troegs Rugged Trail I couldn't bring myself to dump it without giving it a chance because the beer is now discontinued and so when else would I get a chance to write about it?  It's not a beer for aging, but I figured since it was in the refrigerator for most of that time there was still a chance for it to be good.

Roasty and hazelnutty aroma.  Very nutty.  I couldn't find any signs of cardboard or off flavors resulting from the aging which was good.  First sip the flavors were very mild.  Some vanilla sweetness, but the roast and nuttiness were very muted compared to the nose although there was a little more of both as I made my way through the glass.  It had been a long time since I've had Rugged Trail as it's been discontinued for quite a while now but I remember it being a bit stronger tasting.  Still, for a one and a half year old 4.5% brown ale, this held up remarkably well.  The flavors were muted but not off and I had no issues finishing the whole glass so that's a win in my book.

Nyuk Nyuk Nyut Nut Brown Ale

The brown ale was the third of the original bottles my friend Pete gave me a while back.  The Black Double IPA was quite good while the Dark Sour Wheat was, well, slightly bizarre (and probably a result of infection.)

Pretty great nose on this actually.  Malty with a decent amount of caramel.  Unfortunately, the smell was a bit more impressive than the flavors.  A little bready, a small bit of tanginess and a few raisin and plum notes initially.  Very little caramel flavor compared to the nose.  The other slight oddity was that Pete called it a nut brown and, well, it really wasn't. Sorry Pete!  Still, it was way better than the Abita I drank the other day so Pete's better than some production breweries at least.

A Groggy Afternoon at Nodding Head

This past weekend, Nodding Head held their fourth Second Saturday event.  This time it was named "Groggy Afternoon" and consisted of variations on their brown ale, Grog.  They put the Grog into three different casks and added different ingredients, ending up with Mole, Cherry, and Mocha.  They also had the Grog D'Oer, an oak aged version fermented with a Belgian yeast from the De Dolle brewery in Belgium, and a shot of rum mixed with sugar and some other stuff (get it?  Real grog!)  I wish I had gotten a picture of him, but one of their brewers also put on a sailor's hat and white shirt as his "costume" for the event.

Thursday at Nodding Head

I needed to kill some time while waiting to meet my wife for dinner so I thought what better way to do that than spend an hour reading at Nodding Head and enjoying some beer.  I did a little research using Philly Tap Finder but decided I really wanted to try the Belgian Chocolate Stout so headed to Nodding Head.

Weyerbacher November

Last night I opened my last bottle of Weyerbacher November, a coffee-infused Brown Ale. 

I wrote about it once before on Thanksgiving but after three months it's a much more balanced beer.  Some coffee in the nose is still prevalent but it's not nearly as sharp.  Nice mouthfeel on it.  I still got some notes of coffee but overall it was really well balanced with the brown ale base as the coffee has faded a bit.  As I made my way through it, the coffee flavors started building but they never turned bitter and were just pleasant.  This is drinking really well right now and I wouldn't wait much longer if you have any sitting around.  November was the last Brewers Select beer to be made and it's been a few months since its release.  Curious what the next one is going to be and when it'll be available.

Bavarian Barbarian Headbangerz Brown Ale

After resting a little from our New Years trip, Jo and I opened the growler of Headbangerz Brown Ale we got at Bavarian Barbarian brewery.

It had a sweet and malty nose with some bready notes.  Very inviting if you like sweet browns like Jo and I.  Tastes a little nutty, some sweetness. No hops to be found.  Mouthfeel is pretty great, nice thickness.  A little caramel started coming out as it warmed up.  Reminded me almost of a Belgian Dubbel but without the Belgian yeast.  We both really enjoyed this one and it's yet another Bavarian Barbarian beer I've liked.  If it was available in bottles around here we'd definitely pick some up.  Mike, the brewer, is aging some of this in some bourbon barrels and I can't wait to see how that turns out.  Most likely delicious.  If you're ever in Williamsport definitely stop in, say hi and have a beer.

Duck Rabbit Brown

I had the Duck Rabbit Brown Ale recently and it continued to hold up their tradition of making great beers.

Nice roasted and nutty aroma.  A big toasted flavor comes in the first sip and is followed by a pleasant sweetness.  Some bitterness in the aftertaste, but only a little and it doesn't linger like an IPA or anything.  I thought it started similar to the Cigar City Maduro but the sweetness makes it end very differently.  Drinking more, you get a flavor similar to hazelnuts.  Yet another great beer from Duck Rabbit.  I cannot wait to try their Barleywine.

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

I drank a Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron the other day, a sort of brown ale.  I say sort of because it's aged in a giant wooden tank at Dogfish Head made of Palo Santo wood, is quite a bit stronger than a normal brown, and really doesn't taste anything like one.

I liked the look of this beer a lot; deep brown with minimal carbonation.  Considering it's 12%, no real surprise that the major smell I got was an alcohol sweetness.  Initially, I mostly tasted some sweetness but surprisingly without the alcohol I smelled.  Some warming alcohol appears in the aftertaste, however.  As it warmed up, I got some plum flavors, a little vanilla, and some caramel lingering on the tongue.  The vanilla really started coming up and it got more and more tasty.  Goes to show how much a cold temperature can mask flavors in beer.  Some people think this is too hot (meaning it tastes mostly of alcohol) fresh but I quite enjoyed it.  Quite pleasant with dinner as well.