Brewery Website: http://www.atlantabrewing.com
Type of Beer: Amber Ale
Alcohol Content: 5.70%
Beer Review -
Appearance: Unsurprisingly the color of this amber ale is…amber! Clarity is about 100% and poured with a nice two finger white head that didn’t hang around long leaving behind some fairly decent lacing.
Smell: Not a whole lot going on with the smell on this ale. Toasted caramel and bready malts dominate the nose. Quite a sweet and light smelling beer. There is a very slight earthy hop smell on the end.
Initial Taste: Starts off with nice toffee sweetness picked up from the caramel malts along with soft bread-like yeast flavor that helps mellow out the sweetness. The light flavors that kicked this beer off gave way to a slight bitter hoppy profile. The earthy bitterness continues to the finish leaving you with a somewhat dry aftertaste.
Thoughts: There is actually a story behind this beer. Laughing Skull beer was a special beer brewed by Red Brick Brewing (formerly Atlanta Brewing Co) for The Vortex restaurant in Atlanta. The beer was discontinued in 2005. However in 2009 after a few years of upset beer lovers and letters to the brewery Red Brick decided to bring this uniquely named beer back to the market. However this time it has been released as an Amber Ale and not a Bohemian Pilsner like the original. Sadly this beer is only available in the Southeast. Red Brick states that since it’s re-release this beer has been their biggest seller. There is good reason why this beer is so popular, the flavor is sweet, mild and pretty well balanced with a nice earthy hoppiness. There is not offensive about this beer, just a nice (low flavor) ale that makes for great drinkability. So as an Amber Ale there are much nicer beers out there but as a session beer, this does just fine. I recommend.
http://www.smithwicks.ie
Brewery Website: http://www.starrhill.com
Type of Beer: Irish Red Ale
Alcohol Content: 4.80%
Beer Review -
Appearance: The color is a deep red honey. Clarity is great but the color is just a bit too dark to see through. Poured with a nice two finger fluffy off-white head that dissipated to a film that lasted during drinking leaving little to no lacing.
Smell: As in true Irish Red Ale style the smell is sweet and malty. The first scents that come wafting through are caramel and bready malts followed by subtle dark fruits. There are little to no hops in the nose of this beer making it smell like quite the malty Irish brew.
Initial Taste: Like the smell the flavor of this beer light and sweet. The smell is mainly sweet malts and toasted sugar. Even though this is predominately a sweet malty beer there is still a nice hoppy bitterness that helps cut through the malt and balance the beer (with the scales still on the malt side). There is a slight graininess to the beer as well which plays nicely with the other flavors. The finish is slightly sweet and yet dry enough to make this a great session beer.
Thoughts: Irish Red Ales have always been hit and miss for me as the balance of malt and hops can easily become one-sided on the side of the malts amking the beer overly sweet for me. Thankfully the brewmasters over at Starr Hill have come up with an award winning recipe that maintains a strong malty sweetness and has enough hops to help balance the scales. This beer has won the Silver Medal at the 2005 Great American Beer Festival, which is quite an honor. The beer is well rounded and what I believe to be a fantastic session brew due to the sweet yet dry finish that leaves you looking for the next bottle. I highly recommend this beer to malt and ale lovers alike.
http://www.smithwicks.ie
Brewery Website: http://www.lagunitas.com
Type of Beer: American Amber Ale
Alcohol Content: 5.9%
Beer Review -
Appearance: Color is a beautiful copper, rich and bright with a slightly hazy complexion. Poured with a two finger head that receded quickly leaving good lacing.
Smell: Talk about a sweet smelling beer, this puppy is bursting with malty goodness. The dark malts give a nice toasted brown sugar and chocolate sweetness and we can thank thse crystal malts for the delicious toffee smell. I also noticed there was a bit of a spicy raisin finish. One of the best smelling beers I’ve reviewed.
Initial Taste: While not as intensely sweet as you might expect from the smell, the malts certainly make themselves present. On the first sip, toasted brown sugar and caramel flavors cover the taste buds. The sticky sweetness slowly slides off the tongue making way for the hops with a touch of lemon and pine. The finish is well balanced (a little on the sweet side) and a bit dry giving this beer good drinkability.
Thoughts: After smelling this beer you almost half expect to taste a heath bar when trying this copper style beer for the first time. However, this beer does not disappoint. Lagunitas has a great reputation for delivering quality full flavored beers and Censored Ale is just that. With only 25 IBU’s the hop presence is pretty low. And even though this is probably the sweetest beer that Lagunitas has brewed they have done a good job with building the sweetness and still keeping the drinkability of a lighter beer. I highly recommend to sweet lovers and hop-heads alike.
http://www.smithwicks.ie
Brewery Website: http://www.flyingdogales.com
Type of Beer: English Barleywine
Alcohol Content: 10.5%
Beer Review -
Appearance: Big rocky head with great retention, color was a very dark amber. Nice clarity when held up to the light. Lacing was ok but dissipated quickly.
Smell: Sweet…really sweet. Malt dominates the scent here. Once your nose get’s used to the heavy malt sweetness you can pick up some yeast and dark fruits. Sadly the alcohol does not go unnoticed with pretty strong alcohol esters finishing off the smell.
Initial Taste: Starts off pretty smooth then quickly becomes seriously malty sweet. The seriously vicious malt carries some fruity undertones and alcohol esters. What hops are in this beer are almost completely smothered by the strong malt sweetness, however, there is a slight hop bite that gives a faint relief from the sweetness. The finish is syrupy sweet.
Thoughts: Not being a huge fan of the barley wine beers I did not enjoy this beer as much as a fan of style would have. That being said I have great appreciation for the work and time involved in making such a beer. This particular barley wine (which is an award winner btw) is the only one of it’s kind offered by Flying Dog Brewery. They age this beer three years before it’s bottled for sale. Because this beer has such a high alcohol content you can keep this beer for a long time and it will only get better with age (like a wine). The flavor is seriously sweet and strong. Drinkability is pretty non-existent as after one of these I had a hard time recovering my battered taste buds. If you like strong ales and highly flavored barley wines then you are in luck, no doubt you will enjoy this beer.
http://www.smithwicks.ie
Brewery Website: http://www.smuttynose.com/
Type of Beer: Belgian Pale Ale
Alcohol Content: 5.8%
Beer Review -
Appearance: This beer poured a deep straw yellow with a hazy complexion. There wasnt much head, maybe one finger and settled pretty quickly leaving ok lacing.
Smell: The smell is light and enticing. It’s clean and yeasty with some citrus and alcohol esters. Enough malt is present to make this a sweet smelling beer.
Initial Taste: What a nice beer. Flavors of grain, bready yeast and fruit are the first to hit your tongue. A nice clean citrus follows the bready yeasts cleaning the palate for the sweet malts. Some spices are present but are so soft they blend into the other flavors. What a wonderfully balanced beer. Flavors are clear and flavorful.
Thoughts: I always enjoy supporting a beer from my hometown especially when its made by a brewery as talented as Smuttynose. While New Hampshire isnt known for great beer Smuttynose is one of the top rated craft beers out there. These guys continue to make incredibly tasty beers and Star Island Single is no slouch. This beer is a great balance of flavor and drinkability. It has just enough flavor and sweetness to keep your tongue happy but finishes dry and crisp to leave you wanting more. While this isn’t the greatest representation of the style (Belgian Pale Ale) I recommend this as a session beer.
http://www.smithwicks.ie
