and sometimes…

July 5, 2019

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Like you, I love to read beer reviews in order to figure out what to try next. And most times the reviews are sparkly praise. Most times… This will not be one of those.

Sadly, a lot of today’s craft beer is, well,, off the mark. Almost feels like we are in a zone of indecision or in a mode of exploration of new fads that just aren’t panning out. But the reviews of these beers are still just as sparkly. And I find that very disappointing. If crap is crap, call it crap.

For example, today I had a Bourbonic Plague from Cascade brewing. If you were looking up reviews for this beer you would be led to believe that this is one of the greatest beers ever created.

And that was basically the line I was given when I asked about it. Oh its phenomenal, you gotta have one… Ok so I did.

bourbonicplague

Whoa..bad pic

Bourbonic Plague- Sour Porter aged in Bourbon barrels with spices. At $15 a 9oz pour I was fully expecting to be amazed. I was not. What I got was a small snifter of raisin water. That is about the only description that fits this.. beer.

Smells like raisins, tastes like prunes. No spices, no Bourbony effects, barely enough sour to be called a sour.  Almost dead flat, murkey looking. Even the +10% wasn’t noticeable.

I half heatedly joked about the bartender coming back and tell me that they were kidding and giving me the real beer. But nope. This is it.

I started looking at some of the reviews for this and had a thought. Are people praising up this beer so they don’t get embarrassed by the fact they paid a lot of money for a very poor beer? There almost can be no other explanation.

As always,  what ever a review a beer needs have, it what I’m gonna give. Whether its good, bad, or mediocre, its gets what it deserves.

I feel dirty even giving this a 1/5

Ten Fidy draft

May 19, 2019

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I had time to get one more in during #GBCBW Green Bay Craft Beer Week.

Gonna go with the Ten-Fidy by Oscar Blues. American Imperial Stout 10.5%

The small snifter tap pour came about as lifeless looking as you could make it. No head. No signs of carbonation or cascading pre show. Just a black blob with a swirl of an oil slick.

However. Just as it’s sitting there I’m starting to pick up lite chocolate and bits of caramel malt. The pour feels a bit cold so I’m gonna let warm it a bit.

I don’t really get much in the roast Dept. Light coffee, dark chocolate with just background burnt roast. A heavy sweetness is more prominent than any roast. For a self proclaimed American Imperial Stout I was sure expecting alot more of everything. But everything we do get is appealing.

The mouthfeel is pretty much what you see is what get. Lifeless. Heavy. Almost no carbonation. It sits pretty heavy on the tongue. And that makes it very hard to look past the sweetness. Like the aroma, the lite slightly burnt roast, chocolate, and caramel notes are smothered by the sweetness. It’s not heavy heavy sweet,, but it is what you are forced to focus on.

Slight dank hop taste is subtle, but there. But the bittering charge is noticeably low again letting the sweetness dominate.

I would probably put this more as a dessert stout. As it’s good as a single, a bit sweet to have more that one at a time. Being labled as an imp stout, descriptors like, notes, light, subtle shouldn’t be here as much as they are.

Disappointed in this one. Heard decent things about it. I am going to look for the can version. But until then 3/5.

Good Dog Porter

May 17, 2019

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We have another local beer today. Good Dog Porter from Zambaldi Beer.

A tall shaker pour from the nitro taps of Need Kelly’s Pub. A short cascade show as the pint arrives, leaving behind the tell tale nitro head. A bit thin but stays right to the end.

As per that nitro head, the aromas are concealed. But a cautious swirl does reveal just the slightest hint of roasted malt. Somewhere between a roasted barley and a black Pat. Grainy is about all I can really say about the nose of this. No hop, nor yeast comes through.

From the lack of nearly anything in aroma, I was hoping the taste would make up it. But sadly, I cannot say that it does. Very grainy, like victory malt overdose, and very light roasty with a very black patenty feel.

Dry on the tongue, yet does have a decent body from the nitro. Bittering is not noticeable at all, which is ok here because the black malts help out a little.

Just for a second, I got a flash of hops but so faint, as with nearly everything about this beer. I don’t wanna say watered down, but more like a shadow of a beer.

It’s not bad by any means, but just too subtle in everyway. Low aroma, low taste, low carbonation, low hop. It just needs something… anything. somewhere.

I personally think this beer suffers being on nitro. Everything about it is masked and hidden. Maybe a Co2 push through a regular tap would let it open up?

But as it sits right now in from of me, I can only manage a 2.5/5 and that might be a bit high.

Black Ale.. um what?

February 14, 2019

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Escanaba Black Beer from Upper Hand is not quite a stout, but had to put up some info about it just to maybe ease my mind. But let’s dive in any way. Keep in mind this will be longer than normal, as you will see why.

These are canned beers. Which I like. We all know the benefiet of packing cans for road trips.

Opening the first can I was greeted with no hiss or normal opening sound you would get from a can. But it did pour decent enough. Ended up with a very thin light tan head that did not stick around very long at all. A few seconds at most. Still no signs of life. No carbonation bubbles, no cascading show. Just a very dark brown mass.

(I would have thought if you put black ale in the name, the beer would be black)

In the aroma though there is some nice roast coming thru, and a bit of the dank hop. I think I was expecting the opposite. More hop less roast, but it does work. Some grainy notes along with some sweet sugary notes finish it out. So far so good I’m thinking.

Here is where I’m looking for easing my mind on this beer. The taste. What in the hell happened? I can only describe it as an old minnow bucket. I mean it was really bad. There is no way a pro brewer would (or should) let this out into the wild.

But.. in this cans favor,, there was quite a bit of that dank hop action and roast notes to play against the minnows. But also as I expected,, it was nearly dead flat.

I thought to my self that this must be a single can issue because..damn. But couldn’t force my self to try another right away.

The next day I had enough guts to try again. This time we got a nice pour with that tannish head that stuck around this time. Not a thick creamy head.. but decent.

Same roasty danky grainy aromas as the first can, but very much livelier looking. But as we get to tasting, still get a twang of that minnow.

Now is that stuck in my head from the first? I dont think so as it started getting more pronounced as it wamed up. But again hoppy and roasty.. but almost a chocolate thing. Almost. Like that plastic taste you get if you were to mix a pack of hot chocolate with 4x the amount of water.

While yes I would say this is better than the first can,, I still would not call it good.

Day 3. So I opened another can of this today.

From past experience I figured I would not waste a glass on this, and just drink from the can.

Opens with decent carbonation and smells the same as the other three. Same minnow taste. But everything else about it seems like a different beer. Its thin.. its sweeter. Like a faint sugary koolaid (Sweeter is getting further away from what most would call a black ale.) The hops taste far less than the last 2. Could this be from not opening up from a pour? I dunno.

So what I’m left with is 1- 6 pack. 3 beers drank. 3 completely different beers. That is some poor quality control. I think the best out of the 3 was the second one I had,, but thats not saying a whole lot.

Would I call this a Black Ale? Maybe the second one. Would I call this a stout? No. Porter? You could convince me that the 3rd one was porterish I guess.

I’m not sure this is happening with this companies other beers or even other 6 packs of this brand… but I am pretty sure I will be skipping over these guys from now on.

Due to a generally bad taste and crazy bad consistancy I really have no choice but to give the lowest score I can for this beer.

If you have tried this beer and have a better review of it please let me know as I want to believe this was just a one off problem 6er. (I have not yet tried the other 3 cans. I will be bringing these to our next beer meeting to get a grip on what’s going on with them)

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