The Beer Critic

Brewery Website: http://www.brooklynbrewery.com

Type of Beer: English Ale

Alcohol Content: 4.5%

Beer Review -

Appearance: Color is a crystal clear, pale golden yellow. Poured with a fizzy one finger head that dissipated quickly leaving little to no lacing.

Smell: This beer has a soft and clean bouquet. Along with some subtle hoppiness there is a nice amount of doughy/biscuit scent. Just what you would expect from a refreshing summer beer.

Initial Taste: Very nice and clean with a perfect balance of slightly bitter hops and sweet bready malts. Along with a great combination of sweet and crisp there is good amount of lemon. The lemon adds a  nice zest to the beer making it quite refreshing. Very little aftertaste.

Thoughts: Crisp and clean this beer hits the spot on a hot summer afternoon. Brooklyn Brewery have a great job at making a beer that is light enough for good drinkability yet flavorful enough to not get boring. While I’m not usually a big fan of lemon flavored beer this one made the grade. The lemon was only strong enough to add that refreshing zip that makes this so good for dealing with summertime heat. And down here in SW Florida….there is plenty of that. If you like summer style beers you owe it to yourself to check this one out. Cheers!

Brewery Website: http://www.brooklynbrewery.com

Type of Beer: American Amber Lager

Alcohol Content: 5.2%

Beer Review -

Appearance: Clear golden-amber color with medium carbonation giving a beautiful fluffy white head that leaves behind walls of lacing.

Smell: Smells just like what you would expect an American craft lager to smell like; clean beer essence with sweet malts and some flowery hops.

Initial Taste: The first flavor to cross the tongue is bready malts followed up very quickly with a hop bite with some grainy finish.  There  is a nice contrast between the spicy hops and sweet malts yet the balance seems to be pretty hop heavy. The aftertaste is bitter, crisp, clean and refreshing.

Thoughts: This lager is the flagship beer for the Brooklyn Brewery. This is their interpretation of a Vienna style lager. It is complex yet smooth enough to be a session beer without question. I do have to say that there were a little more hops than what I expected to find in an American style lager. This is not a bad thing…just something out of the ordinary. The positive thing about making this beer hoppy is that the bitterness helps to clear the pallet and leave you longing for more beer! Always a good thing. If you’re a fan of Brooklyn Brewery then you must check out this lager. Like the rest of their lineup, this lager does not disappoint.

Type of Beer: Imperial Stout

Alcohol Content: 10.6%

Beer Review -

Appearance: Pours a really cool ink black with a thick , brown, two-finger head that has great retention. Lacing is very good.

Smell: This is a very strong smelling beer. Right off the bat you can easily pick up on the chocolate notes that smell like dark chocolate coffee beans. The chocolate/coffee bean smell finished with alcohol esters.

Initial Taste: Very full bodied and creamy. What a flavor! Sweet chocolaty malts mix with strong coffee bean flavors. Some alcohol taste but for having almost 11% alcohol you can hardly tell.

Thoughts: Very interesting beer. The unsweetened chocolate notes make the beer taste more like espresso than chocolate. There is still a nice chocolate flavor there that helps balance the bitter flavors of the burnt malts and hops. This is a very high alcohol content beer with an abv of 10.6% but you really can’t taste the alcohol. However, there is a nice throat and chest warming sensation when drinking this beer. I highly recommend this beer to anyone who likes chocolate stouts. This is by far the best chocolate stout I’ve ever had. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout represents the very best of this style of beer.

Type of Beer: Pumpkin Ale

Alcohol Content: 5.00%

Beer Review -

Appearance: Bright orange, cloudy, two finger head.

Smell: Smells like someone is baking a pumpkin pie! Spicy, some pumpkin scent and slight hops.

Initial Taste: Spicy with pumpkin pie flavors – allspice, coriander, cloves.

Thoughts: My second favorite pumpkin beer behind Dog Fish Head’s Punkin Ale. The smell is something everyone should experience. The taste is that of  a spicy pumpkin pie with a nice hoppy finish. There are enough layers to this beer so that each time you take a drink new spices are tasted. We noticed with the amount of flavor this beer puts forth we couldnt drink more than a couple. Overall a superb pumpkin beer! Highly recommend.