Extra ESB - 471 Small Batch

Rating: 7.1
Brewery: Breckenridge Brewery (Breckenridge, CO)
Glass: Pint
ABV: 7.8%
Seller: Blue Dog Tavern (Chalfont, PA)
When Enjoyed: 15 April 2009

The ESB, or Extra Special Bitter, is definitely a style that is getting harder to find in the tanks of American Microbreweries. The style in many ways is the non-colonial version of the IPA, medium-high bitterness with a stiff malty backbone with a blend of session-y working man attitude. In my opinion it tends to stick in between the IPA and other session beers, like Red Ales or French variants like Saison or Biere de Garde. This limited run offering from Breckenridge Brewery though has a distinct American character.

For starters the hop blend in this ESB leans a little heavier on the crisper American varieties (like chinook) than the British ones (like fuggles). Furthermore, they amped up the ABV a bit thus making it an "Extra Special" ESB. While the ABV comes as a surprise, certainly pegged it lower than that in a tasting (and 7.8% is still not too terribly high, just higher than than the style usually comports).

The pour comes out dissapointingly flat, however and the head is not very thick, though it has decent retention. Which brings me to the paradox of this beer, for an ESB its got plenty of bitter, but not much that is 'extra' or 'special'. The only surprising thing about this beer is the ABV, and even that isn't close to jaw dropping. While a solid beer by any measure, stacked up against similar quality beers in its session or IPA cousins, I'd choose the other beers.

Blue Star

Rating: 7.2
Brewery: North Coast Brewing Company (Fort Bragg, CA)
Glass: Pint
ABV: 4.5%
Seller: The Foodery (Philadelphia, PA)
When Enjoyed: 26 February 2009

So we here at the Responsible Drunk might have gotten a bit ahead of ourselves here. Tired of the cold weather we decided to try a summer beer a little early. Wheat beer tends to be a summer seasonal beer, best for relaxing and having a drink in the hot weather. This is generally because of it light, crisp and not too complex flavor. Wheat beers tend to focus on having a very crisp and light wheat flavor that can be complimented by a small dose of citrus flavor, although not required.

Blue Star fits this style very well in making a light crisp beer that isn't very complex on taste. The initial taste has a very crisp wheat flavor. While being crisp, Blue Star is also very smooth and doesn't have the hoppier or maltier taste of other beers. The initial taste fits the style perfectly and creates the beginnings to a great wheat beer and summer drink.

However, Blue Star doesn't pan out after that. The crisp initial taste becomes bland by the time the aftertaste arrives. The flavors of the beer die off a little too quick and make the rest of the taste relatively bland for a beer in general. If there was more to the beer than the initial taste it would have made for a great wheat beer and summer drink. Instead it's taste towards the end of drinking and aftertaste left a bit to be desired.

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.