Review – Hoppin’ Frog: Hop Heathen
Hoppin" Frog brewery is in a nondescript building right across from the famous Goodyear blimp dome, and while their building is plain their beers are nothing of the sort. Big, flavorful beers like Boris and Hop Dam, even their Shandy is a bigger version of that style. So when they announced that they were going to do a Black IPA I got pretty excited. So on April 6, Hoppin' Frog released Hop Heathen. One of the things I like about Hoppin' Frog is they like to celebrate their releases. It shows their enthusiasm for what they do and helps celebrate their customers. With this release they asked everyone coming in to give their best 'Heathen" face, and they are going to upload them to Facebook sometime. 
Hop Heathen is little different than most of the black Ipa's I've had so far. The hops are there for sure and it sits closely to the East Coast style with the hops and malt being a balance rather than all hops, and for me that's good. The difference is the malt, it has a taste close to what you might get with a scottish brew. At first it was slight setback, but as I finished my first glass I really appreciated it. Like with many beers from Hoppin' Frog they set out to do something that's their own, which is what we expect from them. Different, but high quality and good, good beer.
wylie green
How beer saved the world – Infographic
I often love Infographics. Concise, to the point and often a touch of humor. Here is one from Online Bachelor Degree for what I guess is just to try and bring traffic to the site. This one is well done and certainly illustrates well the main point of beer history.
Created by: Online Bachelor Degree Programs
Review – Dogfish Head 75min IPA
Big, big head.
Craft beer can become a lot like a hobby. There becomes this desire to try and get them all. That it is beyond a mere culinary experience, or at least that is how we justify it to ourselves. I would say we are in a better position when it comes to other collectors. There is an excitement when it comes to finding a rare bottle or figurine, but ours is twofold. One is the discovery, and the other is the actual ability to enjoy the contents. Sometimes I have a hard time drinking a bottle if it is something I might not see again for another year. I want it to be a special occasion, or I want to share it, but I want it to last. With all that comes Dogfish Head's 75 min IPA. A blend of their 60min and 90min, they then add maple syrup and bottle condition it. What you get is their big IPA flavor tempered with the sweetness of the maple syrup. A nice mouthfeel, that straddles the line between crisp and creamy. Really, everything you love about Dogfish Heads IPA's, but more. This is a beer I can't recommend enough if you are lucky enough to get it. This is a fairly small release, so if you see it, get it.
wylie green
Review – Victory Helios
On occasion, you enjoy an ale that sends your thoughts elsewhere, to a happy place. I recently had this experience while enjoying a Helios Ale from Victory Brewing Co. Helios is a saison/farmhouse ale, 7.5% abv, and good! Helios begins with a crisp lemon citrus aroma, very smooth on the palate, very mild hops, lemon peppery finish. While enjoying this brew I couldn't help but think of grilling, relaxing in the sun, having a great time outdoors. Enjoy the oncoming Summer friends, Cheers!
Richard Kedall
http://victorybeer.com/beers/helios-ale/
Review – Ta Henket
The evolution of ale brewing is a wonderful thing! The reason I am saying this, bad experience with an " ancient ale". Ta Henket by Dogfish Head is an ancient ale that should have been left in the ruins of Egypt from whence it came. To make a quick description of the flavor, moldy, yeast water, that's it! Simply a let down from DFH, there is a reason for progression, to get better, this ale is a regression not worth reviving.
Richard Kendall
Review – Bells Hopslam
Bells Hopslam is one of the top beers in the country and for me the beer that brought me into the hoppy side of beers.
Remember your first beer that sold you on craft beers, are you still drinking it? Is it still a favorite? For many of us we get introduced into craft beers with what is often called entry-level beers. Which is great! That doesn't make these beers bad, they're usually lighter on flavor so as to not shock you from the flavorless world of the major beer players offerings. To bring this back to me, many of those first beers are beers I haven't revisited in a long time.
A classic introductory beer is Sam Adams Boston Lager. You can find it everywhere and it has gained a reputation as a flavorful beer compared to Bud, Miller and so on. It was a beer I had early on and it helped bring me into the craft beer world. I remember how big that beer seemed after my normal beers at the time. Forward a few years at a restaurant where the only good beer they had was a Boston Lager. I got it and was blown away by how light the flavor was. I had moved on, and I'm not discounting the beer at all, it still has the quality you don't get from the big three, but I had changed and the question I had had with Hopslam after years of being removed from my introduction into hops was would I feel the same about it.
Three years later and I am just has happy to have a Hopslam as when I had it then. I have had many other DIPA's since then, some as good or close to Hopslam, but there will always be a nostalgia with Hopslam that will make it hard to dethrone it in my mind as the best DIPA on the market. As far reviews go, this isn't much of one, except I highly recommend it and it will be a reason I look forward to the new year each year.
Episode 14 – Back to Reviews
The Brewreviews
Episode 14
Founder - Imperial Stout
In this episode of The Brewreviews we go back to our roots. Reviewing. We are moving our previous show format to a new podcast to be called "andBeer". So listen as we drink a Founders and talk about the industry.
Beer and Love...
Review – Tranquair House Brewing: The Lairds Legacy
The winter is a wonderful time of year for dark, hearty, stick to your ribs brews. I don't know if it is some deep rooted primordial instinct, or just a personal fondness of dark ales in the winter that drives my desire for something a little more hearty. Recently I discovered a wonderful scotch ale brewed by Traquair House Brewery named The Lairds Legacy. This brew is deep chocolatey brown in appearance and has a rich, malty aroma. Initial taste undertones are of smooth chocolate followed by a hint of black licorice on the finish. Smooth, deep, and layered , are words I would use to describe this ale. The Lairds Legacy is not widely available and is a little pricey, however, well worth the price for the glimmer of warmth and happiness this ale provides in these gloomy months! Cheers!
Rick Kendall
Craft Brewers Alliance is now….
Craft Brew Alliance. CBA is the parent company of Widmer Brothers, Redhook, and Kona Brewing. Why the change in the name?
"Consistently defying the odds proudly makes us who we are. Different brands. Different stories. One conviction: Craft Brew."
It sounds like branding, which is fine, but I don't see any reason to expect anything different from these breweries. At the end of the day I don't really care if they decide to re-brand or try to clarify their business by changing it up, but the logo is my only point of this article. The logo is just not good. They say it combines all the aspects of the three breweries and the A is elevated to represent the importance of the Alliance.
What does this mean!!!
It's in superscript! This is not something that is normally considered a position of power. It's used to denote a reference in many cases not a way to indicate 'power'.
You’ll notice that the new CBA logo borrows elements from each of our brands and has an elevated “A” that indicates the power of our alliance
I'm not going to harp on this really, I mean, what do I care. In fact, who is going to care about this, nobody really knows about CBA except beer insiders. I just wonder why? Re-branding usually happens when sales are dropping and a bit of marketing magic is needed. As long craft beer continue to gain and the majors decline, I'm ok. So go ahead, re-brand if you feel you need to, just focus on what matters, good beer.
Wylie Green is a beer romantic that is thankful his wife will go out and surprise him with beer in exchange for... well you know.
Review – Elevator Brewing: Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout.
October 2011, I was at a beer event at a local high end grocer and Elevator Brewing had their Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout as their special keg for the event. The resulting beer had maybe the best nose any beer I had ever had to that point. Chocolate, coffee, bourbon blended in such beautiful notes. Then, I tasted it. Bourbon, all bourbon. I had been deceived. Move forward to New Years. Upon visiting the same store, they had put the keg back on their tap system 3 months later. Was three months long enough? Would it have changed the profile by then. The answer is yes. The harshness caused by the bourbon was gone, the full complexity of the beer had come out. The coffee flavors, chocolate, char and some slight hop spiciness, truly an unbelievable beer. This was a great lesson in ageing and how complex beer can be.
Here's a link to their site and the other beers they have to offer.
http://www.elevatorbrewing.com/menus/beer-list/
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