Heavy Seas Gold Ale

Clipper City Brewing Co.
Baltimore, MD
Heavy Seas Gold Ale

A slow, slightly glugged pour yields little in the way of head, though a lacy white honeycomb sits on top of this mildly carbonated ale. The clarity is just this side of glassy. There is some blush through the middle of the glass, but the color is otherwise a wonderfully tawny gold.

The nose is biscuity – warm bread crust and honey on top of some slightly floral hop perfume. A light vegetal smell sits beneath the slightly murky lupulin layer.

The mouthfeel is nice and even; soft at first as a mild ale should be, but opening up towards the back of the swallow with sweet tangerine and mandarin that carries just a faint tart pop. The finish hangs on for just a moment, coating slightly, before gradually dissipating into a slightly malty sponginess.

Again, this is a mild, though not entirely quiet session ale. I’d sit down with a couple more of these in front of me.

Lake Placid Ubu Ale

Lake Placid Brewing Co.
Utica, NY
Ubu Ale

As evidenced by the Lake Placid URL, it is clear this is the flagship brew. Advertised as an English-style ale, it seems like it’s going to be a take on those flattish British brews. However, a dense head the color (and size) of toasted marshmallows inflates quickly, and subsides slowly, leaving craggy lacing down the sides.

The color is nearly entirely opaque. It’s not quite black, but really a dense garnet that issues just the slightest cola-brown tints at the edges. The nose is perfectly balanced. Malt comes through as slightly powdery cocoa with a touch of baking bread. The hops are slightly citric along with some faint pine.

The mouthfeel is excellent – very full with fine carbonation. The first part of the sip is perfectly smooth, but roasted flavors come out without adding any char bitterness. That transitions into some resinous pine hop notes that are combined with a touch of grapefruit. There is no metallic unevenness, nor twang of alcohol. This is an awesomely even brew.

Woodstock Loon

Been down so goddamn long…

Looks like it’s up to me.

I apologize to all the BYC followers and fans out there – it’s not that I haven’t been drinking, I’ve just been lazy. Or maybe, not lazy in that I’ve been out of the house and thus not reviewing. Regardless, I owe reviews, so here we go.

In honor of Halloween and all you loons out there:

Woodstock Inn Brewery
North Woodstock, NH
Loon Golden Ale

Another Shipyard contract, Woodstock also makes Pemi Pale Ale, reviewed last February.

A puffy, pure-white head jumps up above the beer, accelerated by extremely active, fine carbonation. The clarity is excellent and the color is beautiful. It is a truly lustrous gold, with faint tints of ruddy straw glinting in the light.

The nose is malty, but on the dry side with honey and pepper emanating through the sweet, bready body. The mouthfeel is good – it starts of with some heft and thins out nicely with the help of all that delicate effervescence. Like the aroma, the flavor has trouble deciding whether to be sweet or dry, which actually proves to be more interesting than incomplete. There is an initial soft grassiness which doesn’t really bite, but segues nicely into a buttery finish, like morning toast.

The finish is clean and not cloying. This brew is a fine session ale with some complexity. More impressive, I think, than their Pemi.

Saranac India Copper Ale

Matt Brewing Co.
Utica NY
Saranac India-style Copper Ale

A rocky head emerges out of the bottle – off-white with just a hint of yellow and orange – and it exhales quickly, dropping down towards the top of the brew. That brew is deep mahogany and more red than brown, darker than amber or copper, and the clarity is low. It is translucent, but by no means clear.

The nose is a nice chalky mix of grassy yet earthy malts that exude a bit of sweetness and hops. The malt is subtly sweet, allowing the green florals of the hops to emerge and complement that grainy background.

The mouthfeel is full and immediately even. Hops kick in first, biting into the tastebuds a bit with some tart citrus that is strong but is not astringent. The malt body soon comes forward, evening things out across the tongue with a sourdough tartness and chewiness. However, right at the end, that sourdough just becomes sour leaving a flavor like Pine-Sol in the mouth.

I ran into this issue with Saranac’s Rye IPA so I hope it’s my problem and not there. The way the label boasts that this is a malty take on a classic IPA makes me want something more akin to a Cascade Dark/Black IPA, or even a hopped-up amber like Boulder’s Flashback. Not what I was expecting though the aftertaste that I found bracing gets milder with each sip.

Uinta Hive

Uinta Brewing Co.
Salt Lake City, UT
Four+ Hive Ale with Honey

While I’m awfully skeptical about the prevalence of crappy products with honey added, it makes sense in beer, what with brewing’s relation to mead.

The pour is lively, with a very tightly-knit, cloudy white head that has just the faintest hints of orange. The head is active and the surface teems as fine carbonation swells up throughout excellent clarity.

Less yellow than I expected, this really looks like a jar of honey – amber thinned out by marigold and some faint dun tones. As the head recedes to just below a half-inch, it clings to the inside of the glass like a wet sheet.

The nose is wonderfully malty and reminds me of East Anglian pubs – there is an earthy smell of wet wood, flour batter, hay, and a little bit of lemon zest.

The feel is quite good – the frothy head helps – and cereal grains show up first, though more thinly than the smell originally let on. There’s an interesting moment when the (very) faintly sweet honey mixes with the grassy hops; it’s not a battle between the two, but they don’t necessarily get along at first. Rapidly though, the honey becomes less sweet, and more floral while the hops become a bit more like lemon soap.

All in all, a pleasant brew, and an impressively delicate session ale (not lager!). While I might not seek it out as something incredibly complex, it is interesting enough, and infinitely refreshing.

Yards Extra Special Ale

Yards Brewing Co.
Philadelphia, PA
Extra Special Ale

An orange-tinged tawny head pops up quickly to over half an inch and remains rocky and full. Through excellent clarity, the beer is toffee-amber with just a bit more strawberry blond than brunette throughout. The effervescence is extremely lively and fine.

Roasty cereal malt is predominant in the nose – there’s an impressive amount of smoke and char.

The mouthfeel is very full and the head has settled down a bit, adding a creamy touch. That initial smoothness ramps up quickly as the smokiness kicks in and hits the back of the palate with a bitter, if slightly metallic, hop twang that spreads out gradually. After a sip or two, that sere quality softens a bit and provides a nice finish to what is otherwise a very malt forward brew.

Good stuff here. A beautiful coating of lace is a final boastful salvo from what is a full and interestingly complex ale.

Sweetwater Georgia Brown Ale

Sweetwater Brewing Co.
Atlanta, GA
Georgia Brown Ale

An inch of head pops up over this lively brown beer and settles to a full finger of khaki turbulence. Already, a lacing is starting to form. The color is certainly brown – dark garnet meets oxidizing apple flesh. Barely translucent, this brew is a sexy slurry of vermillion and mud.

The nose is flour-soft with fine cocoa powder and honey cereal aromas emerging amongst slow blooming florals and citrus.

The mouthfeel is not overwhelmingly full, but it is by no means thin. It is even and smooth. Milky cocoa mingles with some slightly soapy lemon flavors that don’t have quite enough zing. Neither the malt nor the hops seem to want to take over, which is fine and leads to balanced sipping, but in this case, the sip is relatively boring until the end when a bit of sweetness spreads across the palate, and the green florals open up a bit.

As labeled, it’s “easy drinkin’” and “smooth as a Bill Clinton apology” – it’d be great with some charred barbecue which might help bring out some more of the roastiness.

Stegmaier Winter Warmer

Lion Brewery
Wilkes-Barre, PA
Stegmaier Winter Warmer

I’m a little embarrassed to find some winter seasonals still lurking in the beer hold – it means I’ve not been posting (or drinking) enough. That said, spring has yet to rear it’s much anticipated head as of yet so a Winter Warmer may be just the ticket this evening.

Perfect clarity shows some very slow carbonation ascending to a quarter-inch of jaundiced tan head. The color is a spectacular garnet with slightly burnt ruby tints.

The nose is mostly malt, but spicy: cinnamon, nutmeg, and dried clove, as well as caraway bread and soft toffee.

The mouthfeel is excellent – full and complex. It starts off immediately with very chewy bread crusts which turn appropriately tart as though you’d just added some rind-heavy marmalade to your toast. What hopping is present is subtle, but it’s not missed as a docile alcohol warmth slowly awakes and adds just the right amount of tang.

I would not have believed this was a 7.2% beer. Very drinkable, very well-balanced, and not as cloying or palate-destroying as some bigger seasonal ales can be. Lion rarely disappoints. Kitty’s got claws!

Kitty also has rebus!

Fire Island Lighthouse Ale

Fire Island Beer Company Ocean Beach, NY Lighthouse Ale The first dual review: A New York brew as rated by Max, and then me. Chalk up my unremarkable photo to the unremarkable Lighthouse Ale. Out of the bottle, the writing is on the wall early for this ale as a warm reddish hue gives way to a thin, lacy head that looks like a damaged doily.

Lighthouse Ale

The mouthfeel is like an eager puppy, leaping into your arms only to pass out with exhaustion minutes later. The initial taste is a dense, rich caramel with orange and clementine accents, but what is so amazing about this ale is how quickly any real taste evaporates in a second flat. The finish is non-existent for an ale and it gives off almost has a soapy whisper as it goes down. What is tragic about Lighthouse is that it is a local brew which I hate to pan, but also that, with a little more care put into finishing, it already has the density and color to be a nice session beer at 5%.  Alas, it doesn’t, and in fairness, I got this brew as my four-year-old son told my wife to buy it at the supermarket because it has a (rein) deer on it, and he loves Rudolph.

My turn.

A quarter-inch, orange-tinted head expires rapidly, deflating to a nothing more than a matrix of exploding carbonation. That carbonation is lively and visible through a slightly gauzy, but transparent copper and maple syrup brew.

The nose gives off mostly malt – graham cracker, some sweet cinnamon-and-sugar, and the slightest hint of toast with orange marmalade. The mouthfeel is quite good – a creaminess melds surprisingly smoothly with all that frenetic effervescence.

The creamy body makes feints at a similarly milky taste, but splits in two. Initially, some sweet malt pops it’s head out, intimating at French bread crust, but breaking away just as messily. The other flavor is a bit of stone fruit, but there is no richness that one might expect from such ale tones.

The finish has a hint of hops with a bit of mint and lemon, but is actually pleasantly smooth. However, that smoothness would be more impressive if the beer offered more to the palate from the start.

Sierra Nevada Tumbler

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Chico, CA
Tumbler

Touted as an “Autumn Brown Ale”, I figure that, now that it’s September, it’s suitable to try. Also, I’m sitting on Nantucket Island, waiting for Hurricane Earl to come test the abilities of the area roofers, so I figure it’s a good time to settle down with a good beer.

The pour is not too lively, but bubbles up with a beige head which hangs around at a little less than a quarter of an inch. Lively carbonation visible through good clarity keeps it going.

The color is a fine light cola brown with some garnet touches when held to the light. There is a nice chocolate color but just enough red in the background to make me think that this won’t be too roasted or cocoa-like.

The nose is a nice amalgam of malt and hops – slightly sweet milk chocolate comes through at first but with some great grass and pepper hop character. Even after five minutes or so, the layer of head has persisted, with some slight dissipation showing a nice ability to cling.

The mouthfeel is spectacular – simultaneously smooth and effervescent. The start is all creamy malts with a silky, milky body but it gives way to a nice little tang that has some very light florals and a touch of grapefruit under what is otherwise a very snappy, slightly metallic end.

As usual, Sierra Nevada comes through with flying colors, and they’ve steered away from their usual Cascade hop body. Only good things out of Chico.