REVIEW: Aviator Devil's Tramping Ground Tripel

In doing a little bit of research on this beer I came across the legend behind the name of this beer. Apparently there's a patch of ground near Bennett, North Carolina where no vegetation grows and local folklore is that this spot is the spot at which the devil can exit Hell and enter our mortal plane. I love weird local tales and bits of legend and folklore like this. But anyway, we've got another caned Belgian style ale, this time a tripel. The aforementioned Devil's Tramping Ground Tripel from Aviator Brewing, a brewery new to the hallowed halls of this here blog. To the beer!

It's not immediately evident fro looking at the photo above but Devil's Tramping Ground Tripel pours a hazy, vibrant, golden yellow beneath a fluffy white layer of persistent head that leaves beautiful lacing.

On the nose I get grassy, herbal hops, fruity notes of pear and lemon, and a white pepper, clove-y spiciness. 

Devil's Tramping Ground is pretty full bodied with powdery citrusy notes of lemon. A sweet breast maltiness is countered by a spicy peppery bite and some Belgian yeasty esters. It's very drinkable for a beer with an ABV north of 9%, just a bit of boozy heat. 

This is a pretty solid little tripel! Nothing totally out of the ordinary but I certainly wouldn't turn down another!

HD

REVIEW: Rhinegeist Fiction

Today's post is a bit bittersweet. On the one hand it's awesome. I finally made the trip down to Over the Rhine last night to Rhinegeist for the tapping of their newest rarity, a Belgian style extra pale ale called Fiction. Man, If you haven't been down to Rhinegeist yet, get on it. The place is awesome. Big, open, bright, beautiful architecture, and fabulous beer obviously. It's exactly what I like to see in a brewery. Rhinegeist's brews are currently only available in draft so to get your hands on them you'll have to hit up a bar or head down to the brewery to do so. I highly recommend it, the beers are tremendous. So, today I'm taking a look at Rhingeist's second rarity, Fiction. To the beer!

REVIEW: Avery The Reverend

A while back I lamented that, with my look at The Czar, I had officially run out of beers from Avery's Dictators series beers to talk about. What I forgot though, is that there's a whole other series of wonderful beers from Avery, the Holy Trinity of Ales. In that series are, Hog Heaven, a heavily hopped barleywine, Salvation, a Belgian style golden ale, and the beer I'll be talking about today, The Reverend a 10% ABV Belgian style quad. I'm always a fan of a big, dark, malty Belgian style beer, so I'm pretty excited to give this one a try. To the beer!

Rockmill Dubbel

We're wrapping up the week with another of the beers procured in my trip to Columbus. The dubbel from Lancaster, Ohio's Rockmill Brewing. I don't know much about these guys other than this beer is certified organic. Also, I love a dubbel. So without further ado, to the beer!

REVIEW: Dogfish Head Positive Contact

Today's beer is a collaboration, of sorts. It's not a collaboration between brewers, like we've seen so much of on the blog. It's a collaboration between Dogfish Head and Dan the Automator, a member of the hip-hop group Deltron 3030. Sam Calagione gives the full story on how the collaboration came about and how the recipe was formed in the quick sip clip found here. Now, I'm only a very recent convert to hip-hop, only the last couple of years, and can still only get down with the more alternative stuff, but I checked out some Deltron 3030 after drinking this beer. Pretty cool stuff. Here's the song that the beer was named after. I dig it. Anyway, the beer we have today, in true Dogfish Head tradition is brewed with some pretty wild ingredients: Fuji cider, slow-roasted farro, cayenne, and cilantro. Sort of a beer cider hybrid going on here. To the beer!

REVIEW: BFM Douze

So, we've got another beer in my recent foray into strange European beers! Today's beer is from Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes, which from here on out will be referred to as BFM because it's quite hard to spell words that I cannot even confidently pronounce. This is actually not the beer that I intended to buy. The Party Source has a bunch of little tags on a lot of the beers labeling them as staff picks, noting their rate beer or beer advocate scores, and sometimes some tasting notes. I took note of one card talking about a coffee weizenbock, which sounded pretty fabulous. So I went to grab it, who wouldn't? But when I got home I found that I had accidentally grabbed the beer that we are checking out today, Douze, a Belgian style golden ale brewed with sea salt. Well, it's no coffee weizenbock, but it does sound pretty interesting anyway. Let's get into it. To the beer!

REVIEW: Smuttynose Winter Ale

My first experience with Smuttynose was pretty fantastic. I adored their Shoals Pale Ale, a great beer to be sure. My second experience was less... enjoyable. I found their pumpkin ale to be a bit disappointing. I'm not one to be put off a whole brewery based upon one bad experience though! And after hearing some good things about this particular beer I'm back to my month of Christmas beers with Smuttynose's Winter Ale. A Belgian style abbey dubble checking in at 5.83% ABV and 30 IBUS. Let's see if Smuttynose can win their way back into my good graces. To the beer!

REVIEW: Tröegs Mad Elf

Today's beer is a bit of a popular one. Mad Elf from Hershey, Pennsylvania's Tröegs Brewing Company,  a brewery that I quite enjoy but have yet to take a look at a beer from here on the blog. Mad Elf is an 11% ABV Belgian Style Strong Dark Ale brewed with honey and cherries. Mad indeed! This is what I like to see. A brewery going a bit outside the traditional seasonal box. Tröegs, it seems, has moved way outside of the box. To be fair though, this is certainly the time of year for 11% ABV beers. It finally feels like winter and I need a heart brew to fight off that chill. To the beer!

REVIEW: Samuel Adams Thirteenth Hour

I'll admit it. I totally fell for the marketing on this one. Can you really blame me though? That big, weird shaped, corked and caged bottle really jumped off the shelves. But when I got closer and saw that what drew me in was a barrel aged stout brewed with Belgian yeast I knew I was taking this one home. Now a stout is not a traditional Belgian style, far from it. But what's to stop an enterprising brewer from smashing a big dark roasty beer together with a funky fruity Belgian style ale. Color me intrigued! To the beer!

REVIEW: Avery Nineteen

Right off the bat. I must apologize for the lateness of today's post. Time sort of got away from me this morning and I ran out of time to write today's post before work. So, sorry about that. But better late than never, right? Today's beer is Avery Brewing's Nineteenth anniversary ale. I looked at the dry hopped rye saison that they brewed in celebration of their eighteenth year a few months ago. You can check that one out here. I'm a big fan of Avery and I'm always excited to check out new special brews from them. This one is a Belgian style tripel. To the beer!

REVIEW: Sun King/ Oskar Blues Chaka

Well, this is the end of the Sun King, at least for now. But we're going out with a good one. A Belgian Style collaboration ale from Sun King and Oskar Blues. Oskar Blues is probably the brewery that I am most disappointed does not distribute to Ohio. Their Dale's Pale Ale and Mama's Little Yella Pils are both tremendous beers that I wish I could get more often. But for now I'll just have to settle for this. I'm always excited to see what concoctions emerge from collaborations between talented beers. This beer is also notable for the type of can it's contained in. Oskar Blues and Sun King both can all of their beers but this is the first time either brewery has used this 16 oz resealable can. It's similar to what you may ahve seen being used by Miller Lite or Coors Light. I think it's a safe bet that the beer contained in this can will be quite a bit more tasty than those two. Let's find out. To the beer!