Another great dark red/brown beer, but this time by the fine folks at Victory.

It tasted a little less roasted and less hoppy than the Great Divide Hiberational Ale I wrote about previously, but it is still an exceptional beer if this is your style (Dopplebock).

4.2 out of 5 stars.

Review Submitted By: Scott Watermasysk

Brooklyn Local 1 is a Belgian style pale ale, lots of sweet, fruity malt flavor.   This is an excellent beer, smooth, tasty, and easy to drink.

I’d rate this a 4.5 out of 5.

This was my first Great Divide beer. Wow, wow, wow! Easily the best beer I have drank in the last six months (or longer).

For the record, dark red/brown, oaky/roasted beers are my favorite. The Great Divide Hiberation Ale fit this classifcation to the T!

It is mostly brown with a slight red color and is full of roasted goodness.

My only regret is I bought just a single 12 oz bottle. I am hoping to rectifiy this problem before it goes out of season. Highly recommend.

4.75 out of 5 stars.

Review Submitted By: Scott Watermasysk

With its big complex flavors and big alcohol content (9.7% ABV), this beer is not for the faint of heart.

I have been looking for an Old Ale to try and this was my first of the style. I would describe this one as something close to a cross between a Barleywine and a Belgian Dubbel/Trippel. The aroma is sweet: it smelled like a spice cake with raisins to me, but I also got a little buttery scent and a little floral from the hops too. The flavor was very similar to the aroma: very sweet, malty, carmel and a very tiny floral hop kick at the end. A lot of times a high alcohol content beer will be described as having a “Merlot” taste to it. I expected that flavor in this beer but was pleasantly surprised to not find it. The alcohol is definitely present and you can taste it, but it is masked a little by the sweetness and the hops. The specific beer that I drank still seemed a little young and sharp – it would probably mellow out a bit more after sitting for a few more months or a year.

One of the questions in the Beer Advocate reviews of the beer asked if an Old Ale with as much hops as the Triple Exultation should still be considered an Old Ale, so apparently this beer is not a pure example of the style. However, it is a good sipping beer and you’ll enjoy it if you’re looking for something different. But unfortunately (or not!) I’ll have to continue my search for another Old Ale or two to try.

Eel River Brewing (Fortuna, CA) says that it is the first USDA Certified Organic brewery. And the Triple Exultation is a Certified Organic beer. That neither makes the beer any more or less enticing for me, but that’s cool if you’re into those things.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Review Submitted By: Dan Hounshell

The Georgetown 9lb porter was my first beer of the new year. It’s rare to find it on tap and you usually have to pick up some at the brewery. But today I lucked out. This porter is smokey and makes a great companion to BBQ or other slow cooked meats. There are also some coffee flavors, but its not chocolatey. It’s also a great way to end a day of snowboarding at Crystal Mountain where it is also on tap.

Review Submitted By: Josh Ledgard

Wells & Young’s isn’t an American craft brewer, but they have a tradition (Wells and Young independently, at least) of brewing fine beer since the 19th century.  Young’s Double Chocolate Stout is probably the prototypical Christmas beer for me.   A sweet stout, thick, and with strong chocolate flavors, it has a dry, bitter-sweet chocolate finish.  This is probably one of my top five favorite stouts.

(Belgium Ale brewed with spices and cocoa powder 10.9 %)
Don’t taste the cocoa but taste the hops. Overall a good quad style beer.

Review Submitted By: Scott Watermasysk

Ah, sweet Golden Monkey. This is a fabulous tripel style beer and definitely in my Victory Beer top 5 (along with ST. Boisterous,  Prima Pils, Festbier, and  Moonglow).

My only real complaint is the amount of alcohol. Why it does not taste overly strong, at ~9.5% abv it can (and will) hit you rather quickly.

I highly recommend you give Golden Monkey a try, especially if you can grab it on tap somewhere.

4.2 out of 5.

Review Submitted By: Scott Watermasysk

I picked Sam Adams Latitude 48 for a couple of reasons:

The liquor store I stopped in didn’t have a great selection, but I do kind of wish I would have gone with my gut and picked up the Smutty Nose IPA (I was guessing that would be too hoppy for the misses).

Now this doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good beer. It goes down crisp and smooth and it certainly won’t hang in the fridge for long…but there just wasn’t much of a hook to it.

As for my wife, she liked it as well (especially compared to the Golden Monkey we had next) however, she still prefers the DogFish Head 60 minute IPA.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Review Submitted By: Scott Watermasysk

Sam Adams Boston Lager and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale are the two beers most credited as being the stimulus for changing a beer drinkers perception of what beer should be. They are the “gateway” beers. In 1994 while stationed at Fort Lewis, WA, I tried a lot of local beers like Henry Weinhards, Rainier, and others along with Sam Adams Boston Lager. Later a friend introduced me to Guinness, Bass and Harps. And then one fateful day at an awesome little pizza place on Lake Washington I tried Red Hook ESB. From that point on I was hooked on good beer.

Boston Beer Company (brewer of Sam Adams) is the largest American-owned brewer. Yes, you read mat correctly. Both Anheuser-Busch InBev and Miller-Coors are now owned by foreign corporations. The good thing about being the largest craft brewer is that even bars and restaurants that don’t have a very good beer selection will still have Sam Adams.

Boston Lager is rich, malty, smooth, and pure delicious. Like a lot of craft beer drinkers I have moved on to big hoppy pale ales and super malty barleywines and other high alcohol content beers, but there is always room in my heart and my fridge for Sam Adams Boston Lager and their seasonals like Winter Lager.

Sam Adams is also great beer to offer to your friends and family who think they only like pale American-style lagers. I gave a family member one about a year ago and after tasting it he said it was too strong and bold for him. A couple of months ago I offered him another and he said “Sure, I’ll take a Sam Adams. I love it, I drink it all the time.” Another one converted.

Review Submitted By: Dan Hounshell