Cup O Kyndness

Well for this one I'm reviewing one of those weird hybrid beers that some people see and go huh? Especially since you see this one brewed by a fair amount of Belgian brewers as well though. This is Ommegang's shot at making a Belgian-style Scotch ale. For those who are not familiar Ommegang is one of those American breweries that make strong specialty Belgian style brews, typically named as one of our extreme breweries on par with Lost Coast, and Dogfish. Now for the brew, Belgians typically brew their own specialized type brew each one kind of having an individual spin on a wide variety of styles with their own specialized yeast. Now besides IPAs being brewed recently in a Belgian style, there was only one foreign style ale that the Belgians would tackle, that being a Scotch style ale. The bottle on this one gives you a brief history lesson, basically Scottish troops in WWI missed their maltier beverages so the Belgians incorporated this style into their fold with the major difference being the use of the Belgian yeast. One of my favorites of these is the one brewed by Bison, this one by Ommegang is a different taste though. It has a wonderful sweet smell to it. The smell accompanies the taste in that it is not as malty as a lot of other scotch style ales typically are. This one leans more toward the sweet, toffee flavor kind of side, with a slight floral aftertaste that comes from the addition of the heather added to the beverage. Other than that the brew has a slight hint of the taste typical to brews made with a belgian yeast, that has a bit of a sharper bite to the brew. If it was food think of the difference between cheddar, and sharp cheddar, and for those of you who don't like cheese, besides the fact that you may not be human I do not have a comparison readily available. Of course being made in a Belgian style this scotch type brew has a higher amount of carbonation. It's also not as strong as a fair amount of scotch ales as it only weighs in at about 6.6%alc. Think of a scotch style ale with a bubbly make up of a brew closer to like champagne, or Belgian Tripel style ale. Is it worth with it? Well like I said I like the maltier flavor, over subtle sweetness so I would go for something closer to the one made by Bison. For everyone else this may be the kind of brew your looking for. It also makes the nice bridge over to the wacky world of Scotch ales from Belgians. I purchased this one from 99 Bottles, but I've also seen it at the Beer Junction so I'll go out on a limb and say it's pretty readily available. I definitley fully encourage people to try this ale that bridges the cultural divide that is Belgium, and Scotland.

I Hardcore You Imperial IPA

Well I'm back ranting on a brew collaboration by two of my favorite European breweries, who seem to pop one out every six months or so. Mikkeller, and BrewDog have brewed a couple of great collaboration beers I've tried, one of my favorites being the one they also collaborated with Stone in San Diego. The Imperial Stout was also very well done. This one I was really interested in because these two breweries tend to pump out beers that are closer to modern beer tastes, where if you've had any of the traditional like European IPAs and other brews have a definite different taste. Basically every tradtional brew tastes like it was brewed for a nitro tap, which is really awesome in it's own way. Only a handful of the newer breweries over there brew beers that taste closer to what alot of the American brewers are making. This collaboration is the birthing of this newer style by Mikkeller (Norway), and Brewdog (Scotland). The beer was actually brewed by the Mikkeller brewers at Brewdog, I know a little confusing and my writing probably does not help. This one is an Imperial IPA that has a nice strong hoppiness to it. Now tasting the brew it seems like it would have a strong hoppy smell to it, though actually it smells very smooth. It was not the knock down hoppy smell that you get with some Imperial IPAs. If you were comparing it to an American IPA I would say it's close to what a Supergoose would be, though slightly stronger, with a sweeter taste from a higher alcohol content. This one weighs in at about 9.5% alc. The brew was around seven dollars so it may not necessarily be worth it for the beer since it's nothing that will stand out really too much from other strong IPAs that are more readily available and much cheaper. Now the other rub to this, I picked this up at John's market in Multonomah Village in Portland OR, and I have not seen it anywhere around this area so it's not readily available it seems in this area. If you do it has kind of sea green label with like some 'Giving Tree' style illustrations of something that is an allusion to Adam & Eve if I had to judge, with the I Hardcore You scribblings in the tree. In closing argument though a stellar Imperial IPA, but may not be worth it. If you have some money burning a hole though I definitely say pick it up.

Humboldt Brown Ale

Well once again it's been a little while since I've eeked out one of these wonderful beer related ramblings, and what better way to start out than first reviewing a beer I felt was definitely not worth the money. The beer being Humboldt Brown ale brewed with hemp. Why brewed with hemp? Well I don't know if it was just an exercise in another type of bittering agent in the brewing process or what, but I can say at least from my perspective it was not worth it. The beer has a nice slightly floral smell about it if you first get a wiff, nothing that's going to jump right out of the bottle and bite your nose. Now this ale is stated as being a brown ale, but it tastes extremely light. Like it makes a blonde ale look like it's packing a pair, and giving a mikes hard lemonade a run for it's money. For all those who love the latter drink I would apologize, but I've tasted it so I'm not going to. As a rule of thumb for a brown ale I'd choose one widely available with a decent taste. So let's compare it to a Moose Drool, while I taste a slightly sweet, small amount of maltiness, basically it has a good definite flavor. This one tastes very light with a slightly floral taste as well, but nothing that even comes close to say a heather ale. I'm all about trying some kind of new flavors in the brewing process, but I'm big on a strong definite flavor. I want it to have a taste something stronger than a Pabst Blue Ribbon. If this was a super hippie exercise with yet some other lame attempt to just add hemp to something for the sake of it being hemp, please stop. Hemp may be good for many things, that doesn't mean you throw it into whatever food or beverage imaginable. If it's summer time this could possibly be an ale for you, it's extremely light to drink, and it ways in at about 5.7%alc so it actually weighs in a lot stronger than it tastes. Now I know my taste buds are not necessarily the linch pin for societies taste so if your interested this beer is fairly widespread. I bought this one at Top Foods, but I've seen it at Fred Meyer, and just about every specialty beer store. Also on the other hand I do not believe it was that expensive for a microbrew, so if your trying to save may be one to try. For me though this beer was a big flop, a brown with a strange flavor I had some high asperations, that crashed like a fiery plane wreckage. For those of you who are super hemp fans, it may be your holy grail.