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 You tend to change favorite beers frequently, and you're the type most likely to take a "beers of the world" tour. When you get drunk, you're fearless. You lose all your inhibitions. You're just as likely to party with a group of strangers as you are to wake up in a very foreign place. |
Name: Lagunitas: Imperial Red
Brewed In/Type: Peteluma, CA / Ale
Bought at/Price: Sandhu Wine and Liquor (San Ramon, CA) / $2.99
Dennis: Another of the lagunitas family I brought back with me from CA, this one shares a very similar (i.e. identical) hop backbone with it's Maximus brother. But manages to balance the malts and hops out a little better. Where Maximus was all extreme hops up in your face, this is more like diet extreme hops all up in yo face. Basically it's just much better done and probably if these two combined into one balanced beer you'd have this. Oh yeah, and 7.7% don't hurt....but I would have liked to see the hops toned and mellowed even more.
Jen: Okay, so I really don't think that Lagunitas is that great of a brewery, now having two of their beers. This one, however, is better than the previous one. This one brings the hoppy bitterness to a well rounded ending with a nice backbone of caramel malts. You get a mouth full of hop taste from the get-go, but you are able to soon forget it after you swallow, because your palette is cleansed with malts. Drinkable, yes, cheap, yes, worth it, yes, will I purposefully purchase it again, probably.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
There's an interesting article over at the Publican, regarding restaurants and beer line cleaning.
Or should I say the lack of it?
The thing that kinda gets me about this is, when you go to other sites like beeradvocate, or ratebeer, there's always a feeling of superiority when somebody has had a brew in a bar/pub/restaurant. This has always kinda bothered me because when I'm out to eat, I always feel like my senses are being dulled. To much talking, different foods, smells, just a whole lot of white noise. Plus when your with friends and doing things, sometimes it can skew your feelings about something.
Jen and I have always tried to do the review the same way. We don't eat before, we don't usually drink anything before hand, and we always try to drink out of the bottle (unless we're splitting it and need to pour it). And now reading about this has me wondering, how many reviews in the field might have been unknowingly influenced by a situation like this?
The Chicago Tribune has an article today about Bell's Brewery pulling out of the IL market.
Here's a link to a wikipedia page since the Tribune's page died a while ago.
Long story short, Bell's feel that it's distributer Chicago Beverage is screwing it over pretty much, for more profitable macro brews, so it's only recourse really was to pull out of IL totally.
Bell's has always been one of those hit or miss brewery's for us, and the price's have always been a little high. But the funny thing is until we thought about it and went through the list we didn't realize how many of the brews we'd miss.
And a few others' we haven't reviewed, including their sparkling ale.
Name: Sprecher: Abby Triple
Brewed In/Type: Wisconsin / Tripel Ale
Bought at/Price Binny's / $6.99 4pack (pints)
Dennis: I really expected something more along the lines of a traditional belgium triple, or at least somewhat like american versions. I don't know what much to say about this beer, except that it wasn't what I expected....which was something good. The aroma is rich, fruity, and sweet. The taste is also rich, sweet and somewhat banana-y to me. Over all honestly, it just doesn't work for me, comes across way to mapley or almost even like almond syrup. Really, just a big let down.
Jen: This is a brew that has a high yeasty taste to it along with some slight tastes of malts. I get some frutis to it, but ones that have been coated in sugar. It is quite sweet and has a bready taste to it. It is almost no carbonation to it and seems flat. Not really done that well, and I find myself getting bored with it fast.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Name: Lagunitas: Maximus
Brewed In/Type: Petaluma, CA / Double IPA
Bought at/Price: Sandhu Wine and Liquor (San Ramon, CA) / $2.99 22oz
Dennis: I brought this back with me from CA recently, at the recommendation of a co-worker. And I have to say this is definatly a good brew for hop lovers. From the aroma to the taste to the exhale your gonna get 100% hops outta this beer really. Although the label says it's a double IPA I think that at 7.5% alcohol it is weighing in on the light side, but if you want to judge a beer by it's taste you certainly wouldn't mistake this for Sierra Nevada. Definatly recommened for fans of the hop, but only die hard ones.
Jen: This is fairly close to what I was expecting, however, I find it to be somewhat "weak" for a double IPA. It has a very nice citrus hop flavor, with a mild malt backbone; just enough to keep the hops in check. It is very tasty, but I don't think that this can even compare to other IPA's that I have had in the past, and purchased again. Drinkable, but mild and almost weak in my opinion.
Rating: 3.25 out of 5