Element Brewing – Altoberfest Review

Element - Altoberfest 2All You Need to Know

Brewery: Element Brewing
Style: Alt Oktoberfest
ABV: 8.35%
Cost: $11.49 (24oz)
Glassware: Pint or Mug
Temp: 45°F (280.35 Kelvin)
Availability: Fall
Purchased@: Westbrook Maine Bottle Shop

Quick Take: I’m not the biggest Alt fan, but do like a quality Oktoberfest, and this beer pulls in both directions (as you’d imagine). This is one for Alt fans close to the brewery or that have easy access to Element beers. For me, it’s not worth going out of my way to score one, but if I happen to be in Element’s neighborhood with a hankering for beer, I might pick it up.

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DBR Beer Year in Review (Part 1 – The Beers)

dbr 3Ah 2014, a year of much stuff, many things, and plenty of beer. It is the year that I transitioned from a purely video beer blog to a Web site featuring beer and brewery reviews, taking on a major commitment to the beverage that I love. This commitment will continue into the new year with plans for more brewery and event reports/reviews, plenty of thoughts on brews both new and aged, and a few new features I hope to get off the ground.

But now is the time to reflect on the beers of drinking past, and to that end I’ve compiled the list of my favorite beers of 2014. These are beers that not only impressed me with their quality over all other beers I had last year, but are the ones that I will be looking forward to in 2015 as well.

Continue reading “DBR Beer Year in Review (Part 1 – The Beers)”

Bell’s Brewery – Venus Review

VenusAll You Need to Know

Brewery: Bell’s Brewery
Style: Blonde
ABV: 7.5%
Cost: $3 (12oz)
Glassware: Pint
Temp: 45°F
Availability: Limited
Purchased@: Hunger-N-Thirst

Quick Take: Venus tries to take the concept of the blonde and turn it into something you’ve never experienced before. In that regard, it’s successful. In making it a beer I want to drink again, it fails miserably. There is an audience for it, but I can’t say for certain who it is. All I know is that if this is what peace tastes like, I’ll take war every time.

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Last Week in Untappd – 12/8 – 12/14

A weekend made of an early family Christmas in Wilkes-Barre, PA and a night game of Eagles football viewed at a local brewery didn’t yield a lot of high profile Untappd (DrewsBrewsReviews) check-ins, but I had a few good ones this week. I shuttled some recent favorites up with me, Big Lushious and Bourbon County Stout, and hit my favorite local beer place, Sabatini’s Pizza, for whatever treasures lurk in their two fully stock coolers. This time, Sabatini’s was beyond my expectations as I got a personal tour of their amazing beer storage area and I’ll be reviewing the fruits of this trip in the coming weeks. Huge thanks to Lindo for showing me around and selling me some extremely rare beers. But that’s for another week. Here’s last weeks best:

7 SwansThe Bruery – 7 Swans-A-Swimming
Location: Bar
Style: Quad
Score: 4/5
Original Comment: Peaty raisin, plum, astringent alcohol aroma, soft, dark, dark fruit, toffee,not quite candied sugar sweet, dry, plum finish, no heat at all

Additional Comment: This is a case where sticking to the traditional elements of a style, in this instance a Quad, yielded some pretty great results. There isn’t huge depth past the layered sweet of plum, raisin, dark fruits, and toffee malt, but it’s a tasty sweet that isn’t cloying. Not a lot beyond the traditional Quad flavors, but also not a lot of heat. As a matter of fact, this hid the 11% ABV completely. No hot coal in the stomach, no chest warming, and no real indication of alcohol beyond the heavier mouth feel. Smooth, straightforward Quad that tastes as if it already has a few years on it. Good stuff and reasonably priced ($14).

Continue reading “Last Week in Untappd – 12/8 – 12/14”

3 Fonteinen – Oude Gueuze Review

3 Fonteinen Old GeuezeAll You Need to Know

Brewery: Drei Fonteinen
Style: Gueuze
ABV: 6%
Cost: $22 (750ml)
Glassware: Flute/Champagne
Temp: 55°F
Availability: Year Round
Purchased@: Hunger-n-Thirst

Quick Take: I’ve never had a beer that marries an aroma and taste so perfectly like Drei Fonteinen’s Oude Gueuze. Amazing follow through creates a near perfect sour/barnyard Gueuze that goes to the precipice of excess and lets your taste buds dance along the cliff edge. This is my current sour benchmark and the absolute pinnacle of sours for me, even over Cantillon.

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