Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Rating: 6.9
Brewery: Dogfish Head (Milton, DE)
Glass: Pint
ABV: 12%
Seller: The Foodery (Philadelphia, PA)
When Enjoyed: 10 February 2009

This is the continuation to the comparative rating of brown ale displayed in their distinctive way by Brooklyn Brewery and Dogfish Head Brewery. Where Brooklyn's Brown Ale demonstrates a modest, but solid representation of the Brown Ale style; Dogfish Head creates a Brown Ale focusing on the experimental.

Dogfish Head as a brewery focuses on creative artistic flourishes of standard beer styles that people have become used to. However these are anything but ordinary. Dogfish Head takes pride on using unusual ingredients and brewing methods to create drastically different and creative tastes on different styles of beer. Palo Santo Marron for the Brown Ale is no exception. The description from the bottle itself explains its unique brewing process. "The caramel and vanilla complexity unique to this ale comes from the exotic Paraguayan Palo Santo wood from which these tanks were crafted. At 10,000 gallons each, these are the largest wooden brewing vessels built in America since before Prohibition." This kind of eccentric brewing has become much of the norm for Dogfish Head. Always leading to interesting and complex tastes, this offering however falls short in terms of a brown ale.

While experimentation is appreciated in the creation of new craft brews and tastes, this offering seems to have gone too far. It tastes little like a brown ale and often the taste is too complex and conflicting to be greatly enjoyable. The overly strong alcohol content also seems to kill some of the lighter tastes usually present in brown ales and takes a deep caramel and vanilla flavors that often seem to work against each other during drinking. A little less would have done a lot more for this beer and given it more of a brown ale taste that was expected. This beer seems to be the opposite offering of the Brooklyn Brown ale in that it is incredibly interesting but not always eminently enjoyable.

Brown Ale

Rating: 7.7
Brewery: Brooklyn (New York, NY)
Glass: Pint
ABV: 5.5%
Seller: The Foodery (Philadelphia, PA)
When Enjoyed: 07 February 2009

Consider this week to be round one in a set of comparative ratings between two breweries that consistently stand in comparison against one another; NYC's Brooklyn Brewery and Delaware's Dogfish Head. This week will pair off reviews of each brewery's brown ale, today, Brooklyn's classic Brown Ale. Harry will be posting later with an assessment of DFH's storied Santo Palo Marron.

Brooklyn Brown may be considered by some to be Brooklyn's flagship ale. Brooklyn, philosophically speaking, strives to create genre defining ales, steering clear of wacky ingredients, extreme techniques and much of the madcap artistry that draws people to DFH. Instead Brooklyn has sought a sobering (see what I did there?) approach, concentrating on getting the right balance of malts, yeast, water, hops and barley so as to conjur a stylistic form. In European terms, they look towards the British and the Germans much more than the Belgians, Dutch or French. All that said, Brown Ale may be Brooklyn's by the book attempt at a classic English style.

This beer starts off great. Poured into a pint glass, it has an embracing dark brown color that toes the line with a porter. It hits you with a smooth, almost creamy malt front end. The hops come through ever so slightly in the middle and it leaves you with hints of chocolate and coffee. Indeed, this is a beer that hits all the right notes on that first sip. The question then is, where does this beer go from here?

That is exactly where this beer trails off. As nice as those particular notes and flavors are, it all seems pretty standard. Brooklyn seems to have gotten so caught up in making a standard bearing classic that it left out some of the muscle this beer should have. I might also point out, this is an incredibly safe beer. Not to doubt the brewing talents of Brooklyn (to be sure, they are some of the brightest American brewing minds), but the degree of difficulty on this type of Brown Ale is quite low. How can you really go wrong with dark malts, coffee, chocolate and a lowish ABV? You can't really, and that is why this beer is eminently enjoyable, but not really all that interesting.

Lager

Rating: 7.8
Brewery: Yuengling (Pottsville, PA)
Glass: Pint
ABV: 4.4%
Seller: The 13 Original Colonies
When Enjoyed: Just about every evening

Growing up near Philadelphia, there are a few things you inherit as a cultural birthright. Beyond undying allegiance to the area sports teams, we are brought up with an allegiance to either Pat's or Geno's, a special appreciation for Sylvester Stallone, and a general disgust for most things New York. Yuengling is such an inherited object. As a child, I knew that drinking was wrong, but I also could comprehend that Yuengling was something special. When there was beer around my house or at a party or a ballgame, it was Yuengling. Once I was within shooting range of 21, it didn't take long to appreciate Yuengling, even though I was at school in a state that didn't have it.

For those of us who grew up around it, Yuengling has defined what a Lager means. Now, Lager is not just a style of beer, it is a broad name for a brewing technique that encompasses many different styles, like Pilsner or Bock. Ask for "A Lager" in Chicago or LA and the bartender will give you a deranged look. Ask for "A Lager" in Philadelphia, you will receive Yuengling. This happens not because Yuengling is "America's Oldest (surviving) Brewery" or because it is brewed in Pottsville, which is at this point a suburb, but because to most of us, it does define what a lager should taste like. It is refreshing, but not watered down and has enough body to give it the heart it needs to stand out amongst the PBR's and the Budweiser's of the world.

Ubiquity alone is not a qualification for a good beer. Yuengling, despite having an unassuming taste, has endeared that very taste into the mouths and hearts of millions in the 13 original colonies. It hasn't achieved this through advertising (in fact they just started their first-ever TV ad campaign, "Yuengling, Lager's first name"), but simply by providing what the people want, and in this case, the people's taste can't be discounted. Yuengling is an Amber Lager, served in a green bottle or on draught and unmistakably has a distinct body to it. It certainly is a refreshing beer, but one that you don't mind chewing over from time to time. At 4.4%, you can spend an evening with a six-pack and feel very good about yourself. One needs to be careful not to over analyze the taste, because it is really important that this beer remains free of pretensions, otherwise we stand to disrupt the superb balance of aesthetics and populism that this beer offers.

Cappuccino Stout (Limited Release)

Rating: 7.1
Brewery: Lagunitas (Petaluma, CA)
Glass: Pint
ABV: 8.29%
Seller: Blue Dog Tavern (Chalfont, PA)
When Enjoyed: 04 February 2009





Another Stout to be tried. This one is a Cappuccino Stout, which is a Stout that has coffee flavorings. In general this type of Stout tends to have a mixture of tastes where it often goes back and forth between tasting like a Stout and tasting like a coffee. Lagunitas's version however has some tricks up its sleeves.

The first to be considered is the alcohol amount. At 8.29% this is about twice as strong as other Stouts are. While the alcohol amount is increased this also has a very strong impact on the taste of the beer. This Stout is much more bitter than other Stouts. This Stout seems to be more of an Imperial Stout than a Stout. An Imperial Stout is one of a higher alcohol content and tends to be more bitter than the milder taste of a Stout. However, this Stout also has the coffee taste that comes in short bursts. The color is a very dark color but when held up to light shows a dark red as well. The head is relative small and not full of flavor compared to that of other Stouts. The main taste comes from the beer itself which is mainly bitter with coffee tastes sneaking in every now and then.

In terms of the main thoughts about this beer, personally the beer seems to be labeled as the wrong style. This hurts its value, because drinking this while thinking it's a Stout and getting the taste of an Imperial one makes for it to be slightly less enjoyable. However the main feeling that reflects its score is its bitterness. While bitterness marks the Imperial Stout style, this specific beer seems too bitter. While bitterness in a beer can be enjoyed, it usually requires a variety of other interesting tastes to go along as well. This beer seems to only have the bitter taste of the beer and the occasional coffee taste that has some bitterness with it as well. It's hard to fully enjoy the whole beer (1 pint 6 ounces worth) much less think about going to multiple of them in the same night. That is the main thing that hurts its value as a beer.

Prima Pils

Rating: 4.9
Brewery: Victory (Downingtown, PA)
Glass: Pint
ABV: 5.3%
Seller: Blue Dog Tavern (Chalfont, PA)
When Enjoyed: 01 February 2009

Victory's take on the Pilsner is a much different approach than most breweries take. Pilsners are usually marked by their light and crisp flavor with a small amount of hops introduced. Generally when looking to a Pilsner is to enjoy something light and crisp in flavor with a small amount of hops. However Victory takes a spin on the traditional view of the Pilsner.

This is easy to see as soon as it pours from the bottle. Instead of the typical gold color of a Pilsner, Prima Pils pours out as a more greenish-orange tint to the typical gold that is used to being seen. This color difference can be contributed to the higher amount of spices and hops being used in this beer. The increase in spices also comes out strongly in the aroma of the beer. At least Prima Pils warns the drinker enough of the difference in taste that is coming.

Upon tasting, Prima Pils starts off with the crisp flavor expected from a Pilsner, but then rapidly changes to all of the other flavors of spices thrown into the beer. While innovation is appreciated in the field of craft brewing and this is an innovative take on the Pilsner it doesn't seem to add to the quality of the beer. While it's trying to create a more interesting taste on a style that has a pretty standard taste, it seems to carry it too far. The final product seems to taste almost entirely of different spices that overpower the crispness and the hops of a typical Pilsner. While the innovation is there the final product leaves more to be desired. This beer is an example of pushing the envelop too far where instead of a spiced Pilsner, Victory has created a beer that tastes more of spices than anything else.