Category: Beer Reviews

Reviews of Beers – (Surprise!)

Last Week in Untappd – 12/1 – 12/7

Posted on by Drews Brews Reviews

After that butt-kicking that was the Untappening, I took it a little easier this past week. Or so I planned. I had a pretty big beer on Wednesday (full review coming up soonish) and a beer-filled and rather painful football Sunday (being a Philly sports fan, I’m used to it). Thankfully, the sting of loss was soothed by the salve of new to the area big beers and a couple long journeyers via Kentucky and Maine. Big thanks to all the sharers for kindly including me on the pours. Here’s the most noteworthy of last week:

TweakAvery – Tweak
Location: DBR Manor
Style: Imperial Stout
Score: 3.5/5
Original Comment: Bourbon, coffee, malty RIS aroma. Syrupy, medicinal body/finish. Sweet, heavy malt and mild coffee, choco, char. Needs age

Additional Comment: Booze and syrupy thick malt dominates  Tweak, weighing heavily on the delicate touch of char, coffee and tobacco. Usually, I don’t consider those flavors to be delicate, but the medicinal alcohol is such a bruiser that everything else is dainty in comparison. I like the base beer, Mephistopheles, and the additions make it even better, but the bump up in alcohol makes this tough to drink young. This has potential to be aged into perfection, backing off the heat and blending into a luxurious coffee RIS with bourbon, deep, dark sweet malts and char. It’s a theory I plan on testing. As it stands, the balance is so firmly slammed down on the boozy heat side that the small pour I had is enjoyable, but enough.

Continue reading “Last Week in Untappd – 12/1 – 12/7” →

New England Brewing – Gandhi-Bot Review

Posted on by Drews Brews Reviews

Gandhi BotAll You Need to Know

Brewery: New England Brewing
Style: DIPA
ABV: 8.8%
Cost: ???? (12oz)
Glassware: Pint, Tulip, Teku
Temp: 50°F
Availability: Varies through Year
Purchased@: Beer Trade

Quick Take: If you like a lite tropical fruit front and a basic malt body that keeps the fruit from hitting too hard, Gandhi-Bot might be the DIPA for you. It’s one I could see getting a case of for summer drinking and appreciating what it has to offer. It’s almost a session DIPA that has a spectacular aroma, but lacks the follow-through, resulting in a simply good, not great, beer.

→Full Review

Last Week in Untappd – 11/17 – 11/23

Posted on by Drews Brews Reviews

This was actually a busy beer weekend for me, but I stockpiled written beer reviews that will release over the next few weeks rather than check them in with a few brief comments. So, Untappd (drewsbrewsreviews) is a little light on check-ins. That will change with the impending Black Friday event at Capone’s unleashing the flood of fantastic beers that will surely culminate in the Untappening. I look forward to highlighting the best of my favorite yearly event, so that’ll be ready next week. In the meantime, here’s what I checked in the week past.

Narwhal - BBASierra Nevada– Narwhal (Bourbon Aged)
Location: Bulls Head Pub
Style: Imperial Stout (Bourbon Aged)
Score: 3.5/5
Original Comment: Buttery bourbon, vanillian, roast aroma, med mf, dark malt, chocolate/vanilla, raisin/plum finish, lingering heat. Decent, but too expensive.

Additional Comment: My “too expensive “comment is slightly disingenuous as I didn’t actually pay for it. A friend of mine did and was kind enough to share some with me. Plus, this was also purchased at a bar, which comes with a markup. That said, there are very few beers I will pay $30 for, and this is no where near one of them. A price around $12 – $15 seems about right based on what I had. Narwhal is on the lower end of imperial stouts I enjoy, I like mine on the heavier, near Russian Imperial levels, and Sierra Nevada’s imp stout is too thin and dark fruit heavy for my tastes. Obviously, if Narwhal is your jam, I can’t see you disliking a bourbon barreling of it. The difficulty in landing a bottle, at least around the Lancaster PA region, makes this a buy it when you see it beer. Mostly likely you aren’t going to see it again anytime soon.

Continue reading “Last Week in Untappd – 11/17 – 11/23” →

Southern Tier – Pumking (Rum Barrel Aged) Review

Posted on by Drews Brews Reviews

RumkingAll You Need to Know

Brewery: Southern Tier
Style: Pumpkin Ale (Rum Barrel)
ABV: 10.7%
Cost: $18 (24oz)
Glassware: Snifter, Goblet
Temp: 45°F
Availability: Limited
Purchased@: The Fridge

Quick Take: Southern Tier took a very popular and minorly flawed pumpkin beer, one that I’m quite fond of I might add, and made it better. The use of rum is an intelligent and well-considered addition that doesn’t really turn the beer into something entirely new, but enhances the flavors that are already present. For fans of Pumking, it’s a no brainer and worth trying, even at $18 a bottle. If you never understood the hype or prefer a meatier pumpkin beer experience, this might not change your mind. My personal opinion is that the rum is so well-integrated, it seems like it was always there and exactly what Pumking should be. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to standard Pumking after trying this, but given how difficult it is to find, I might not have a choice.

→Full Review

Against the Grains – Mac FannyBaw Review

Posted on by Drews Brews Reviews

Mac FannyBawAll You Need to Know

Brewery: Against the Grain
Style: Rauchbier (Bourbon Aged)
ABV: 8.5%
Cost: $19 (24oz)
Glassware: Snifter, Teku
Temp: 50°F
Availability: One Off
Purchased@: Pinocchio’s Beer Garden

Quick Take: Mac FannyBaw is brewed as a 750ml monument to smoke and tangy malts. Pushing the smoke cloud to the side, regular beer drinkers will find a fine, but unremarkable ale. Unfortunately, this is a niche beer that probably won’t satisfy that niche. I appreciated it for being different and find it to be an ok beer, but it can’t live up to the high cost of entry.

→Full Review