Beer Review: Rising Tide Daymark

Beer: Daymark
Brewer: Rising Tide Brewing
Source: 22 oz bottle
Rating: *** (7.6 of 10)
Comments:  This is the first beer I sampled from the January selection of the City Feed & Supply New England Craft Beer Share.  This American Pale Ale is the flagship of the Portland, ME  brewery.  The beer presents as a hazy, tangerine orange with lots of tiny bubbles.  The aroma is grassy and spicy.  The flavor is bitter with a tingly kick and a spicy aftertaste.  After drinking there is splotchy lacing and still a lot of bubbles with a lot of foam left behind.  This is a complex and unique beer and definitely one I’d like to try again.

My wife Susan adds that the likes the aftertaste and that the froth is kind of nice.

According to my City Feed notes, “The rye is malted by Valley Malt, a malthouse in Hadley, MA (and one of the only malthouses this side of the Mississippi River) especially for Rising Tide.”

Beer Review: Harpoon Winter Warmer

Beer: Winter Warmer
Brewer: Harpoon Brewery
Source: Draft
Rating: ** (6.4 of 10)
Comments: Boston’s best brewery presents this seasonal beer each winter.  The beer pours a deep copper color and gives off a musty caramel aroma with a hint of spice.  The taste is malty sweet with a whiskey finish.  The dissipates quickly and leaves no lacing.  Otherwise a nice, warming beer for the season

Beer Review: The People’s Pint Farmer Brown

Beer: Farmer Brown
Brewer: The People’s Pint
Source: 22 oz. bottle
Rating: *** (7.2 of 10)
Comments: Yet another Massachusetts’ beer, a brown ale from a Greenfield, MA brewpub.  The beer presents a deep amber with a thick head.  It gives off a creamy chocolate aroma and there’s a chocolate hoppiness to the taste as well.  The only downside is that the flavor gets a little weak and watery at the finish.

Beer Review: Harpoon White IPA

Beer: Harpoon White IPA
Brewer: Harpoon Brewery
Source: 22 oz. bottle
Rating: *** (7.3 of 10)
Comments: Boston’s Harpoon Brewery continues their 100 Barrel Series with this Belgian IPA, a blend of a Belgian Wit with an American IPA.    The beer is cloudy and golden in appearance with a thick golden head.  It gives off a floral aroma and the taste is of bitter spice with orange and citrus flavors.  Another good beer from the Bay State.

Beer Review: Jack’s Abby Jabby Brau

Beer: Jabby Brau
Brewer: Jack’s Abby Brewing
Source: Draft
Rating:  ** (6.3 of 10)
Comments:  Yet another new Massachusetts’ brewery, this one from Framingham, created this session lager.  The deep golden lager has a floral hoppy scent and offers a dry, bitter taste.  It has a malty finish to wash away the bitter hops and is a nice, drinkable beer.

Beer Review: Brooklyn Oktoberfest

Beer: Brooklyn Oktoberfest
Brewer: Brooklyn Brewery
Source: 12 oz. bottle
Rating: ***(7.9 of 10)

Comments: Another beer for the season, this is Brooklyn’s take on the traditional German Märzen style of beer.  It’s a deep amber beer with a nice sweet toasty aroma.  The taste is a pleasant malty caramel with a bitter finish.  A nice beer for an autumn night.

Related  beers:

• Brooklyn Lager

Beer Review: Long Trail Harvest

Beer: Long Trail Harvest
Brewer: Long Trail Brewing Co.
Source: Draft
Rating: * (5.9 of 10)

Comments: This is an attractive copper brown ale with a thick head, but I was a disappointed by the taste.  It was weak and flat with a few hints of chocolate.  I expect something heartier from a beer of this type.  Oddly enough, I’ve tried this beer before from a bottle, and I liked it a lot better.

Related Beers:

• 6.9 – Long Trail Belgian White
• 6.9 – Long Trail Blackberry Wheat
• 6.9 – Long Trail Double Bag Ale

Beer Review: Charlie’s BBC British Ale

Beer: Charlie’s BBC British Ale
Brewer: Berkshire Brewing Company for Charlie’s Kitchen
Source: Draft
Rating: *** (7.1 of 10)

Comments: This is a special beer on tap at Charlie’s Kitchen at Harvard Square and I may not have the name right, so please correct me if you know better than I.  This is a chestnut brown and surprisingly highly-carbonated ale with a malty aroma.  The taste is mellow and nutty and very dry with no aftertaste.  I had this beer in the beer garden with Craig who noted that it would make a better mid-autumn beer.

The Beers of Amsterdam

Here are a few beers I sampled on our recent travels in Amsterdam (not counting the six-pack of Grolsch I bought at the Albert Heijn store).

Beer: Hertog Jan Pils
Brewer: Hertog Jan Brouwerij
Source: Draft
Rating: ** (6.7 of 10)

Comments: A bright gold beer with a must pilsener aroma and a crisp, dry taste.  Foamy lace lines the glass.  A nice, drinkable beer.

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Beer: Wieckse Witte
Brewer: De Ridder Brewery
Source: Draft
Rating: ** (6.3 of 10)

Comments: This is a cloudy, blond beer with a citrusy aroma and a dry, fruity taste.  The head evaporated quickly and did not leave much lacing.  Not my favorite style of beer, but not bad.

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Beer: Budels Pils
Brewer: Budelse Brouwerij B.V.
Source: Bottle
Rating: * (5.8 of 10)

Comments: “Just Beer,” a pilsener with a foamy, flat, golden appearance and a dry, grainy flavor.  The beer retains its carbonation and leaves a light lacing on the glass.  An OK, everyday beer.

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Beer: Hertog Jan Springbier
Brewer: Hertog Jan Brouwerij
Source: Draft
Rating: *** (7.0 of 10)

Comments: A deep amber beer with a fluffy head.  The scent is musty, like cannabis, or perhaps the scent pervades everything here?  Sweet & malty with fruity highlights.  Sporadic lacing lines the glass and the head disappears quickly.  A decent beer for the season.

Beer Review: Rogue Shakespeare Stout

Beer: Shakespeare Stout
Brewer: Rogue Brewery
Source: 22 oz. bottle
Rating: **** (8.9 of 10)
Comments: Rogue Brewery is one of the most creative and competent craft breweries out there, one which I had the delight of visiting way back in 1997.  I hadn’t had a Shakespeare Stout in a while and decided it would be worth revisiting.  Oh, is it worth revisiting.  This is a dark, dark stout with a foamy tan head.  It’s tastes like bitter chocolate with hints of stone fruits and licorice.  The beer is smooth and velvety on the tongue.  Good stuff! Yum!

This is as a good a place as any to link to a great blog post about Beers Named After Books and Authors.