Local 2

Rating: 8.4
Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery
Glass: Chalice
ABV: 9.0%
Seller: Blue Dog Tavern (Chalfont, PA)
When Enjoyed: 11 April 2009

A new round of our continuing series of Brooklyn vs. Dogfish Head. In this round we've stepped up to the bomber class, today we have Brooklyn's latest installment in their bottle-conditioned series, a strong Belgian Ale called Local 2 and later we'll review Dogfish Head's berry fruit beer, Black and Blue.

The best way to sum up this beer is that it is a dark ale for white ale drinkers. Very rarely does a bold, malty, black as night ale have the adjective refreshing attached to it; this is one of those rare times. Typically, ales this dark are dark for a reason. Brewers like to showcase malt blends that pack lots of nutty, woody bready flavors together that make a high ABV beer enjoyable. Here, Brooklyn has toned down the ABV and added a citrus twist vis a vis an infusion of locally grown honey and hint of orange peel; flavors that are traditionally found in witbiers.

The up front citrus definitely softens the malt character a great deal, allowing it to finish smooth and without any alcohol or bitter aftertaste. In a way, the citrus flavors trick your brain into thinking this beer is a lot less heavy than it is. The downside to all this is, if you are a malt purist you have to dig real deep to get to the malt and yeast flavorings of this beer. While the beer is refreshing, surprising and mellow, it actually isn't all that complex. From the purist perspective, this might be a beer that would dissapoint a Belgian enthusiast but surprise an American one.

This certainly signals some exciting things on Brooklyns horizons. Along with a new line of reserve series, a double IPA and an Old Ale that are coming to a tap near you, Brooklyn is starting to dip its toe into the genre-bending tradition of American experimental brewing; a tradition that is mostly dominated by extreme beer types of the Dogfish Head ilk. That said, I would not be expecting a sextuple IPA's in the future for Brooklyn. Head Brewmaster Garrett Oliver is a man grounded in tradition and while willing to experiment, will do so with a firm grasp on classic tastes and a commitment to placing them in new contexts (ala Local 2) rather than just exploding our taste buds with Hop-Bombs.

Philly Craft Beer Fest - The Review Part One

Oh wow guys, so sorry this is about a month late, but this was so good I needed to take a month to think about how good it was and put it into words. Quite honestly, this was the best forty five dollars you or I or anyone could ever spend. If you have a beer loving loved one in your life, purchase them tickets for next year's fest. It will surely please them mightily.

The Responsible Drunk official Beer Fest Festivities began bright and early at 11 AM at my place for a special breakfast of eggs, bacon and a solid wheat beer, which in this instance was the lovely German variety Franziskaner. After boarding the train to go to the fest we quickly realized that most of the city had the same idea. If you weren't going to beer fest, you were probably going on the Erin Express and thus riding the R6 at 11.30 AM with a nalgene full of Coors Light. Way to go Philly! World Fucking Champions indeed!

On to the fest. Basically, organizers FTW here folks. In essence the organizers found the perfect balance in the beer to people ratio that bordered somewhere between that of a Wednesday night frat party and a swinging local bar on a Saturday, only increased the scale by a factor of 10 and set it in the lovely Philadelphia Naval Yard facility. To give you a feel for the room, it was about a football field long, sides lined with beer and just the right amount of people. To be honest, Harry and I waited in exactly one line all day. That translates to about 4 hours straight of beer sampling from that nifty 6 oz souvenir glass (do the math).

And boy was that glass raised a lot that day. One beautiful if too-obviously macho thing about beer fest is the organic crowd cheer that I like to call the beer-wave. If you are at beer fest and the dude next to you raises his glass and starts bellowing, you and all around will be impelled to mimic his bellowing until the entire building is bellowing along with you. Then you all drink and for a moment, all is right in the world.

When you are trying over 25 new beers in one day, it can be a little hard to get a handle on what you liked and didn't like, what is good and what is not. There were a few newsworthy highlights, and I'd like to run them down for you all here:

Yuengling Bock - Our beloved hometown brewery has begrudgingly given into the seasonal beer craze and brewed its first new beer in 180 years. I say begrudgingly because if you go into this beer expecting much more than a glass of Yuengling, well, you will be dissapointed. Yuengling Bock is basically a darker, ever so slightly maltier version of its Amber predecessor. In this way, Yuengling has nodded to the movement of craft beer without succumbing to any of the pretension, and in essence pulling one over on the non-local beer-o-philes.

The Bruery's Saison Du Lente - This California Belgian influenced brewery does a wonderful job of mimicing styles from across the pond. I particularly like a good saison because the philosophy of a table beer is something that I think is lost on a lot of craft brewers, especially in the sweep of monster beers that has nearly taken over the industry in the last few years. This one is light, crisp but maintains a satisfying maltiness. It makes a great anytime beer.

Blue Point Brewery - This brewery from out on Long Island had a really solid representation with a Toasted Amber Lager and a RYPA (IPA made with Rye). The RYPA especially stood out because it seemed to be a popular style across the board at the fest and in my opinion this topped them all.

Alright, this is part one of four. Stay Tuned for Harry's analysis and then a recap of our epic post-fest bar crawl!

Old Man Winter Ale

Rating: 8.1
Brewery: Southern Tier (Lakewood, NY)
Glass: Pint
ABV: 8%
Seller: The Foodery (Philadelphia, PA)
When Enjoyed: 6 March 2009


Brewers attack a winter ale in a variety of ways. Some go for a spicy, hoppy amber, like Goose Island's Lake Effect, to warm our souls and tantalize our taste buds. Some go malt crazy and produce a stout that packs in the coffee and chocolate, to complement the tons of coffee and chocolate we're already consuming during the holidays, Lagunitas' Cappucino Stout comes to mind. Southern Tier's Old Man Winter is certainly in the malty category.

Stylistically speaking, Old Man Winter might fit the loose definition of a porter, but it's makers have stuck in the Old Ale category (an even looser affiliation). It is very dark, the malts are prominent, but it doesn't carry the same density as a stout. It has a smooth pour, with some measure of carbonation, but not too jumpy. The head is thick and brown in color. The real star is the flavor. The malt complexion here is one that cuts both sweet and bright, with a hop content that is relatively high. The hops here are what really defines it as an Old Ale, allowing for the right bitter cut to a dark ale, and acting as a preservative that will allow it to age with some amount of grace. It is probably worth cellaring half of your six pack, if you're into that kind of thing.

The ABV is also on the high side, and with cellaring that will increase further. The real skill of the brewers comes with the unrecognizability of this beer's strength. We were both quite sruprised to find out this beer was at 8%, the alcohol taste is practically non existant. While there is nothing terribly suprising about this brew, there are certainly more interesting Old Ales to be found, Old Man Winter is sure to please on a cold winter night in.

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.