Tasting Notes: Bell's Double Cream Stout

Brewery: Bell's Brewery
Style: Cream Stout
ABV: 7.5%
Date Poured: September 2008

One last Bell's beer to try in this flight. This time, a winter seasonal, a cream stout.

Pours jet black with a creamy dark brown head. Strong aromas of sweet dark malt. Creamy dark chocolate with hints of coffee.

There's some alcohol evident in the flavor but lots of creamy dark malt underpinned with the earthy dark chocolate and roasted coffee. An incredibly smooth mouth. Downright velvety. The roasted coffee flavors linger in the finish and aftertaste.

A little bit of everything in this one but it is still undoubtedly a cream stout. Very nice and very drinkable.


Bell's Brewery

Tasting Notes: Bell's Cherry Stout

Brewery: Bell's Brewery
Style: Cherry Stout
ABV: 7.0%
Date Poured: September 2008

After blasting Bell's Hopslam, I though it was only fair to drink a couple other of the Bell's beers I grabbed while down in Florida...some stouts! This is what Bell's does best so I was pretty excited to sample a couple that I have not tried before. First up is the Bell's Cherry Stout. This beer is a winter release so this is from last year's batch. It's a 7.0% ABV stout brewed with cherry juice.

Pours jet black with a thin brown head. No lacing. Roasty but very sweet aromas roasted malt, have to search a bit but the cherry aromas are there as well.

Cherry flavors much more evident in the taste. The tart cherry flavors blend nicely with the sweet roasted malt. Cherry is the prominent flavor but the malt takes a very close second. Sweet and roasty latte flavors intertwined with the tart cherry flavor and finishes quite sweet. The aftertaste is bitter chocolate and cherry juice.

Outstanding cherry stout! It's beers like these that Bell's should stick to.

Bell's Brewery

One Week 'Til Belgium

Literally YEARS of planning and preparation culminates next Thursday as I board a plane and wing my way to Belgium. Twelve years after my first visit and 11 years since my last, I will finally get back to Belgium and take the full beery trip I have always wanted to do.

Whereas my last trips were sidestops of larger trips or fortunate port of calls, this one will venture outside of the Antwerp\Brussels junkets I have done before into the countryside of Wallonia, the fields of West Flanders and the cities of Brugge and Gent.

Bags are beginning to be packed, reservations and deposits have been finalized and the itinerary is complete. A few resources that I found especially useful that I can pass along to others...

1) Tim Webb's Good Beer Guide to Belgium - I will know for sure once I go but I can't imagine that there is any better guide for a beer trip to Belgium anywhere on the market. Webb is an entertaining and opinionated writer and it's very thorough even for the smaller towns.

2) Belgian Beer Pub Map - While not as thorough as Tim Webb's guide, this website is maintained by Belgian beer fan Filip Geerts and features an easy to navigate map that enables you to see the worthy beer establishments in each town. There are a lot of little known gems in his lists and the best part is you can download all the data in a .ov file for use in your TomTom GPS. I imagine this will be very, very helpful during the car journey portion of the trip.

3) Belgian Beer Board - Another Geerts creation, the best part of this site is Filip's blog. He's turned me on to a few pubs and beer stores I had not heard of before and has been keeping up with the newest and best new beer releases in the West Flanders area. Excellent resource and excellent pictures to go with.

4) The Burgundian Babblebelt - Very useful for keeping up with the latest goings on in the Belgian beer scene. For example, the sad news of the closing of the Hopduvel cafe in Gent was reported there last week and I have seen no news of that anywhere else. Better to know now before going out of my way to visit only to find the place shuttered! Lots of expertise among the users who gave me some useful tips on some of the finer points of my planned visit. Also has city/province guides as well as many Babbler trip reports.

5) BeerAdvocate.com - The Belgium group in the Beer Forum is not nearly as active at the BBB but offers some good info on planning your Belgium trip, especially if you're coming from the U.S. Very good insights on brewery tours and arranging to buy Westvleteren at the abbey. The BeerFly feature also allow you to search various Belgian cities for notable pubs and beer stores.

6) Belgian Tourist Office Website - They devote a page to Beer Lovers coming to Belgium. While not comprehensive in content, it is comprehensive in the links it has to dozens and dozens of resources to learn more about Belgian beer. A good calendar for regular beer festivals and such. Also a good start for looking for accommodations and previewing non-beery attractions.

7) Michael Jackson's Great Beers of Belgium - My edition of this classic is fairly outdated but it was Jackson's writings that first made me aware of Belgium's brewing traditions and got me to buy my first Belgian beers. It's coming with me to Belgium if for nothing else but nostalgia.

Tasting Notes: Bell's Hopslam Ale

Brewery: Bell's Brewery

Style: Imperial IPA
ABV: 10.0%

Date Poured: August 2008

It pours a clear orangey copper with a frothy ivory head. Lots of fine spiderweb lacing. Beautiful smell. Floral and sweet citrusy hops. Hints of tangerine and apricot, orange rind and a hint of alcohol.

In the mouth, the alcohol is quite apparent. Quite hot actually. It is quite sweet but the malt provides very little body to offset the copious amounts of bitingly bitter hops. The hops are pretty unpleasant actually without the malt to offset the spice. It comes off exceedingly harsh. And thin! Long hoppy aftertaste.

Wow, really lacking as a double IPA. It's kind of a mess. Horrendously overrated on the various beer sites. A fantastic brewery (the best brewer of stouts in America in my estimation) but this is a beer that is surprisingly lacking in craftmanship and taste. Miss it.

Bell's Brewery

Tasting Notes: Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale

Brewery: Atlantic Brewing Company
Style: Blueberry Ale
ABV: 5.2%
Date Poured: August 2008

I am not a fan of fruit in my beer. Yes, the traditional lambics and the occasional well-crafted cherry stout may please my palate on occasion but generally I find fruit in beer to be gimmicky and the results lackluster at best. This goes double for American craft brewers who seem to believe that the quickest way to convert a female drinker is to brew the blandest wheat beer possible and then drown it in some flavor of fruity (peach, raspberry, cherry...take your pick) extract so it's nice and sweet for the delicate ladies. They taste just as bad as they sound.

However, it can be done properly. The Atlantic Brewing Company in Bar Harbor, Maine makes one of my favorite American fruit beers. First, they use real Maine blueberry puree instead of extract in the brewing process. Second, they have avoided using a bland wheat ale as a base. Instead, it's a maltier amber ale that mixes nicely with the blueberry flavor.

It pours a very clear, very bubbly clear copper topped by a thin but persistent and creamy tan head. The nose is filled with very aromatic blueberry and a biscuity malt.

Tastes of bready and lightly nutty malt. Some muted, lightly tart but lightly sweet blueberry flavors but the blueberry is not the main thrust. It merely acts as an accompaniment to the crisp and nutty malt. Just a hint of hops in the finish. Crisp and clean finish with a light sweetness in the aftertaste. Very good stuff and never gets old.

Atlantic Brewing Company

BA Barleywine Meet-up

For the second straight month, Tim at The 5th Earl Market organized a Beer Advocate gathering for another tasting. The theme this month: barleywines! No better way to pass a late summer day in Atlanta.

The list:

Rogue Old Crustacean 2004

Alaskan Barleywine 2007

Bridgeport Old Knucklehead

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2004

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #6

Green Flash Barleywine

Smuttynose Barleywine 2005

Smuttynose Wheat Wine

Clipper City Below Decks

Dogwood Excellent Adventure Barleywine

Stone Old Guardian Vertical 2002 through 2007

Anchor Old Foghorn 2007

There may have been a couple others...

Some highlights: KP was quite generous to bring the Old Guardian vertical as well as extra cups for everyone so we could try all 6 vintages side by side. (My opinion was that the 2003 vintage was the best.) Few would be so generous but few have assembled a beer cellar as impressive as KP's.

Another treat was brought by Jordan Fleetwood, current brewer at Twain's Billiards and Tap in Decatur and former brewer at the defunct Dogwood Brewing Company. The Excellent Adventure Barleywine was one of the last (if not the last) beers brewed at Dogwood and to the best of my knowledge was not commercially released. It may have been the best beer of the night.

There wasn't a bad beer in the bunch. Thanks again to Tim for organizing and everybody for bringing the beer! Hopefully, this will continue to be a regular event.

The 5th Earl Market

Tasting Notes: Florida Brewery Spotlight - Saint Somewhere Lectio Divina

Brewery: Saint Somewhere
Style: Belgian Amber (?)
ABV: 8%
Date Sampled: August 2008



The last beer in this Florida brewery spotlight is another offering from Saint Somewhere of Tarpon Springs.



It pours a deep amber with an enormous frothy head. The lace spiderwebs down the glass. Smells strongly of fruity malt with a faint alcohol. Red apple, pear and ripe cherry flavors evident in the aroma too.



Immensely sweet and fruity. Spiced apple, hints of pear and date. Sweet and sticky but surprisingly drinkable for such a big beer. Sweet spice in the finish. Very nice.

Tasting Notes: Florida Brewery Spotlight - Hurricane Reef Pale Ale

Brewery: Florida Beer Company

Style: Pale Ale

ABV: ???

Date Poured: August 2008

The second beer for the Florida Brewery Spotlight comes from...the Florida Beer Company based in Melbourne, Florida. The name of the brewery is not very creative, let's see how they did with the beer.

Pours a crystal clear copper with an creamy ivory head. Fruity malt and and herbal hop aromas wafting from the glass..

The mouthfeel is incredibly smooth and creamy but...the hop profile in the mouth is quite muted and not particularly tasty. Very little malt profile too, quite watery tasting overall. You could call it refreshing if it was actually pleasing to the tongue but it's really not. It's thin and what little hop flavor there is comes off as harsh and vegetal. Crisp finish.

They need to get more flavor in this one. The mouthfeel is great but it delivers a disappointing tasting ale.

Florida Beer Company

Tasting Notes: Florida Brewery Spotlight - Saint Somewhere Saison Athene

Brewery: Saint Somewhere
Style: Saison
ABV: 7.5%
Date Poured: August 2008

Saint Somewhere is a new brewery located in Tarpon Springs, on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Saint Somewhere has taken the unusual (for Florida) strategy of brewing Belgian-style ales and only distributing them in 750ml bottles.

Pours a bright lightly hazy straw color with a dense snow white head. The head is quite persistent with sheeting lace down the side of the glass. Smells spicy and lightly fruity with just hint of funk.

Sweet spice in the mouth and more hops apparent on the tongue than hinted at in the nose. It has a dry, light citrusy sweetness. Sweet spices shine through as well. Hints of cinnamon and black pepper. Earthy. Smooth mouthfeel but with enough heft for a significant sweet and spicy aftertaste to linger. Tasty. The only criticism would be that the spice is a tad heavy-handed but that's really nitpicking.

It is shocking to me that this beer comes from Florida! Very ambitious and a very good saison. Recommended.

Tasting Notes: Florida Brewery Spotlight - Holy Mackerel Mack in Black

Brewer: Gordash Brewing
Style: Imperial Black Ale
ABV: 8.00%
Date Poured: August 2008


A small spotlight on some beers brewed in Florida. Before I did some research for my trip last month, I couldn't have named a Florida brewery. But they do have a few.


The first offering is from a brand new contract brewed operation called Gordash Brewing. The brewer is a former homebrewer who won the Sam Adams World Homebrew Contest. Mack in Black is one of the two beers they have on the market and bills itself as an Imperial Black Ale.

Pours jet black. No light escaping from this one. A persistent but thin light brown head. The pomegranate juice is evident in the aroma buoyed by a sweet roasty malt.

Tastes of roasty malt with the fruity sweetness from the pomegranate. As it warms the pomegranate fades a bit and lets that big roastiness through. Big full body with a lingering sweetness.

My only complaint is that the pomegranate is a little heavy handed. The bottle says it can be aged for up to two years. I wonder if some age will mellow out the fruit. Three more bottles left. I plan to find out.


Gordash Brewing

Can The Brick Store Actually Get Better?

The Brick Store Pub in Decatur, GA is already one of the best beer bars on the east coast. It's getting better still.

Owen Ogletree, a writer for Southern Brew News, posted this video on YouTube. It's Dave Blanchard and Mike Gallagher, owners of the Brick Store, showing off their new beer cellar under the pub and detailing their plans for cellaring beers for the pub. Great stuff!

Free Beer? One Man's True Story

It's not everyday you get a chance for free beer so when it comes, you had better take advantage of it.

Thanks to a tip for a Beer Advocate buddy, I learned about a new Atlanta bar called Stout Irish Pub that is offering a free beer and lunch to announce their opening. Not one to leave free beer on the table, I took them up on the offer.

Stout (Stout's?) is not exactly a cozy bar. It's a hybrid of an Irish-themed pub and a sports bar. While the atmosphere was lacking, the service was not. The waitress was prompt and friendly and the beer menu was surprisingly good. The draft list is fair with the highlight being Rogue Chocolate Stout. The bottle list stands at 40 with highlights including Bridge Port Stout, Left Hand Imperial Stout, Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout, Sweetwater 420, Stoudts Double IPA and Duvel. Not a beer geek's dream but a very nice list. It would certainly be the best beer menu in the Buckhead neighborhood where this bar is.

I had an Old Rasputin Imperial Stout with their burger. The burger was surprisingly good and they had malt vinegar and salt to put on the fries, always a plus in my book. I also sampled their "house beer" but that turned out to be the very disappointing Anheuser Busch product, Bareknuckle Stout.

Overall, great food and great beer make for a great experience. It's hardly a special trip destination but if I find myself in Buckhead, this would be the place to stop off for a pint.

Stout Irish Pub

Coaster: Samuel Smith's Old Brewery

This coaster was in a holiday pack of Samuel Smith beers along with a glass. Not much to say about it except that I like the way they incorporated the logo into the coaster. Very nice design.

BA Imperial Stout Meet-Up

This past Saturday, several Atlanta area BA's (Beer Advocates) met up in Decatur for an Imperial Stout tasting. Tim works at The 5th Earl Market so he provided the venue and organized the event.

The full list of beers (as far as I can remember) is as follows:

Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti
Southern Tier Oat
Southern Tier Jahva
Peche Mortel
Mikkeller Black
O'Dell's Imperial Stout
Brewdog Paradox (not sure which release...)
Eel River Raven's Eye
Lagunitas Imperial Stout
Great Lakes Blackout Stout
Weyerbacher Old Heathen
Weyerbacher XIII
Weyerbacher Heresey
Bell's Expedition
Samuel Smith's Imperial stout
Smuttynose Imperial Stout
Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout
Duck Rabbit Rabid Duck
Left Hand Imperial stout
Fish Tale Poseidon's Imperial Stout

Personal highlights included the Smuttynose Imperial Stout, Weyerbacher Heresey, Southern Tier Jahva and Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout. Samuel Smith's was quite a surprise as it held its own against this crew of American heavyweights. Mikkeller Black was the most unique tasting (this Danish stout clocks in at 17.5%) but probably need a couple years aging (at least) to reach its potential.

As far as food, one of group ordered the Newcastle Mussels which smelled amazing (I did not have any). Others were kind enough to share some blue cheese and crackers with the group and I discovered that drizzling a little honey on the blue chees is a fantastic combination.

A good time to be sure. Met some new people and reconnected with some old acquaintances. Drank some great beer.

(On a side note, I arrived early and had one of the bar's draft offerings, Allagash Hugh Malone. Very good stuff.)

Thanks to Tim and The 5th Earl Market for hosting the event. A few snapshots are below.





BA Imperial Stout Gathering

Out of the Cellar: Aventinus Weizen Eisbock

Brewery: Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider & Sohn
Style: Eisbock
ABV: 12%
Date Cellared: October 2004
Date Poured: April 2008

My notes from 2004 describe this as a very rich and complex beer but also hot, hot, hot! It wears all of its 12% ABV on its sleeve when young. More than three years later, I decided to crack open another one to see if time has reigned this wild one in.

Pours a very dark, nearly opaque brown. Very thin tan head. Aromas of dark fruit and toffee with vanilla and oaky notes. Just a hint of pipe tobacco and a hint of ripe banana.

The alcohol in this monster has really calmed down. It allows deeper malty, dark fruit, banana, cherry and ripe banana flavors to shine through. It's still boozy but does not dominate the palate. Very sticky mouth and huge body. Finish is not cloying (thank in part to the alcohol) but a long sticky sweetness lingers forever.

This beer takes 3.5 years in the cellar like a champ. It mellows and develops lots of crazy flavors. Easily age this one at least three years for best results. I would imagine it could go a year or two more.


Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider & Sohn

Tasting Notes: Flying Dog Garde Dog

Brewery: Flying Dog Brewery
Style: Biere de Garde
ABV: 5.5%
Date Poured: July 2008

I have a real love and hate relationship with Flying Dog. They have some beers I adore and others I can't stand. Either way, it's always a surprise. There are few Biere de Gardes made in the U.S. so I figured this was worth a try.

Bright yellow gold in the glass with a dense white head. Aromas are of citrusy , pale malt. Lightly vinous and fruity. Just a hint of clove and coriander.

The taste is quite spicy and the body is quite dry. These are traits that I typically love in a beer but somehow the combination is falling flat to me. Listless in the mouth with a peppery aftertaste.

It's not bad but it's not great either. I am unmoved.





Flying Dog Brewery

The Session #18: Happy Anniversary

For this 18th edition of The Session, the theme was selected by Ray of Barley Blog. It reads:

For August, the theme is “Happy Anniversary”.

Use this as an excuse to celebrate. Open a limited release anniversary beer from your favorite brewer. Enjoy that special beer you normally only open on your wedding anniversary or birthday. Either way, tell us about it. Why is it a beer you may only drink once a year? Why is that brewery’s annual release the one you selected?

Only open on a wedding anniversary or a birthday? A beer I only drink once a year? Perhaps I am not sentimental enough but these concepts are foreign to me.

I wouldn't even celebrate my birthday if not for my wife and kids sake. I find it self-indulgent and silly for a grown man to get all worked up over his own birthday. And wedding anniversary? That's for sharing with my wife and while she likes beer too, a bottle of wine is usually what we end up splitting.

I guess it all boils down to this: Any day is a good day to break out that special beer.

I have a nice collection in my cellar. I could crack open something "special" everyday for a year or two and not run out of beer to drink. The specialness these days is finding the time to relax and indulge myself in, for example, a good aged barleywine. Kids do take up your time and energy you know.

So that leaves me to pick out something that was a one-off or a limited edition beer. While Unibroue is not my favorite brewer, they are a long-time favorite. So I decided to crack open a bottle of Unibroue Edition 2004. Why? I have quite a few of these bottles left!

It pours an orangey almond with a wispy ivory head. Some floaties (yeast) in the beer. Truly wicked fruity aromas emanating from the glass. Spiced apples and plums. Pears. Sweet spices like coriander and nutmeg with just a hint of cinnamon, toffee and vanilla. Some lightly sour green apple in the nose as well.

Explodes with flavor in the mouth. Very spicy earthy yeastiness and a decadent fruitiness form the malt. Ripe pears, plums, nutmeg, coriander and green apples underpinned by oaky toffee and vanilla. Just a hint of alcohol in the finish helps to dry the body out a bit but leaves a sticky sweet aftertaste in the mouth.

So while I'm not a "special occasion beer" guy, thanks to Ray for giving me an excuse to break out a beer that is worthy of a special occasion.

More entries for The Session can be found over here at this month's host, Barley Blog.

Tasting Notes: The IPA Spotlight - Two Hearted Ale

Brewery: Bell's Brewery
Style: IPA
ABV: 7.0%
Date Poured: July 2008

I'm going to wrap up this IPA Spotlight with one of my favorite IPAs. Straight out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, it's Bell's Two Hearted Ale. Two years since I've had any so I thought it would be a good finale.

Pours a lightly hazy golden orange with a frothy ivory head (a recurring theme). The nose is filled with sweet citrusy hops. Pink grapefruit, apricots and oranges underpinned by a lightly fruity malt.

The beer is just so juicy and sweet, between the malt and the citrusy hops. Orange rind and tangerine, bitter but balanced by a decent pale malt backbone. Full mouth with a surprisingly clean finish. Floral bitterness in the finish and aftertaste. It's beautifully balanced and quite delicious. Bravo.


Bell's Brewery

Tasting Notes: The IPA Spotlight - Indica IPA

Brewery: Lost Coast Brewery
Style: IPA
ABV: 6.5%
Date Poured: July 2008

To continue the series, another west coast IPA, this time from California.

It's a bright but opaque orange in the glass with a rocky eggshell colored head. Nice lacing. sweet cirtusy hops, faint tangerine and grapefruit and some floral hop aromas as well. Faint fruity malt and a hint of kiwi fruit. (?!?!)

Fruity malt with a strident citrusy bitterness. Grapefruit and faint tangerine., orange rind. Long bitter aftertaste very tasty, pale malt backbone but imparts little but body and sweetness.

Easy drinker and damn tasty. A good choice if you find it.


Lost Coast Brewery

65 Days To Go!

Just over two months to go before I set foot in Belgium and as you might imagine, I'm pretty psyched.

A few decisions on the itinerary for Belgium have been made:

Hostels/Campgrounds instead of Hotels/B&B's - I'm not going to Belgium for all the creature comforts of home; I'm going for the beer! I'm hardly a stranger to roughing it on vacations so I'm sure a hostel room, a trekkershut and a tent will be more than adequate. Not to mention, it's a cheaper way to go and I don't anticipate being in my room that much.

Only One Day for Brussels - Part of this decision is based on my travelling partner not getting to Belgium as quickly as we had hoped but really it just came down to robbing a day from Antwerp to spend a second day in Brussels. Antwerp and Brussels are the only cities in Belgium I have been to before and I have to say that as far as the beery experiences go, Antwerp wins hands down. There are better cafes and the prices are cheaper (or at least, they were). Also, Antwerp is a very underrated city for tourism, beer or otherwise. So, it will be parts of two or three days in Antwerp hitting the pubs and sightseeing and one very full day in Brussels seeing Cantillon, Bier Circus, Poechenellekelder and the like.

Renting A Car - This decision was really based on another one: Did we want to get out of the cities on this trip? We decided that we did. We'll be taking the car out to the Ardennes with the Achouffe Brewery as our primary target and do some camping. The car will also be handy to make a trek out to Westvleteren to visit In De Vrede. We won't have the car the whole time but it will make it much easier to hit some out of the way spots during the journey.

Not Buying Beer At Westvleteren! - To clarify, if they have the six-packs in the shop at In De Vrede, I'll pick a couple up. But I decided that to spend the time to make the reservations, wait in line at the brewery, potentially turn our itinerary upside down to get out there on the correct day and tote around a case of beer for the rest of the trip...well, it just isn't worth it to me. We will go to the cafe but no mass quantities of "the world's greatest beer". The American beer geek in me certainly wants to get as much Westvleteren 12 as I can...but there are so many other beers in Belgium that I can't get here in the U.S....can't sacrifice so much time for just one.

Eating on the Cheap - This is probably a big mistake and I will modify this decision once I get over there but eating out three meals a day is an expensive proposition. So I've got to pick my spots. Frites are a cheap foodstuff, supermarkets can provide an inexpensive light lunch and from what I can recall farmer's markets are fairly common for fruit and such. This doesn't mean that I won't be eating a few meals out in restaurants but I want to target food that is A) very good and B) preferably something uniquely Belgian, dishes I could not get here in the U.S.

So the rough itinerary is two days in Antwerp, a day in the Ardennes, two days in Brugge, a day in Gent and a day in Brussels. The trip will be quite slanted to hitting some great cafes but we are hoping to work in a couple of brewery visits (Cantillon, Straffe Hendrik and Achouffe) and hit a couple of Trappist tap houses (Westvleteren and Westmalle).

More to come...