REVIEW: Stone/ 10 Barrel/ Blue Jacket Suede

Here in Lexington it seems we've skipped fall and gone straight from summer to winter. One day temperatures in the 70s and shorts, seemingly the next it's damn near freezing and I'm looking for my boots. Normally I would find such an abrupt change unwelcome. But when I've got big malty beers waiting in the fridge a good cold snap is just what the doctor ordered. Today's beer is another one of Stone's many collaborations. This time it's an imperial porter brewed with avocado honey, jasmine and calendula flowers and is brewed with help from Washington D.C.'s Blue Jacket Brewery and from Bend, Oregon, 10 Barrel Brewing. To the beer!

REVIEW: Grassroots/ Anchorage Arctic Saison

Taking a brief break from the fall seasonals today to check out a pretty interesting one today. There are times when a beer seems to just beckon to you from across the liquor store. That was the case with this striking blue-green bottle. I was at the Beer Trappe not too long ago enjoying a brew when I saw this one, a collaboration beer between two breweries that are new to me. Anchorage Alaska's eponymous Anchorage Brewing and Grassroots Brewing out of Greensboro Bend, Vermont. Grassroots a bit of a side project for Hill Farmstead Brewery. Hill Farmstead is widely lauded as one of the best breweries in the world. Hell, Shaun Hill was profiled in Vanity Fair. Vanity freaking Fair! Wild. But anyways, the beer, Arctic Saison is aged in oak tanks with Brettanomyces.  Sounds delightful, doesn't it! To the beer!

REVIEW: Stone R&R Coconut IPA

Two wild brand new IPAs from Stone in as many posts? I must be doing something right. Today's beer, much like the last Stone collaboration beer I had (the fabulous and bizarre Dayman Coffee IPA), is borne of homebrewers. A couple of dudes, Robert Masterson and Ryan Reschan, won Stone's recent American Homebrewers Association contest and won the right to have their beer brewed at Stone with a little help from Paul Sangster and Guy Shobe of Rip Current Brewing. That's a pretty rad prize if I do say so myself. So a big west coast IPA brewed with an irresponsible amount of hops and hearty additions of toasted coconut? Sounds awesome. To the beer!

REVIEW: Stone/ Aleman/ Two Brothers Dayman

I enjoy It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. It's never really been appointment viewing for me, but I enjoy it whenever I watch it. That's a long way of saying that I quite enjoy the name of this beer. I remember hearing about this beer quite a while ago when I watched this video from the Iron Brew Homebrew competition back in December. Well, I didn't have that video in my mind when I bought this bottle, but once I read the back of the label which talked about the origins of the beer I remembered back. So anyway, the guys at Aleman won the Iron Brew competition with their coffee IPA. Which combines two of my all time favorite beverages and sounds just bizarre enough to work. I'm very excited to try this one out. Let's not waste any more time. To the beer!

REVIEW: Dogfish Head/ Sierra Nevada Rhizing Bines

Today's beer is a collaboration between two giants of the craft beer world. From the west coast, Sierra Nevada, and the east, Dogfish Head. It's a collaboration in style, technique and ingredients. Rhizing Bines has been brewed with Carolina red fife wheat, Sierra Nevada's estate grown caramel malt as well as Bravo hops and a new experimental hop known only as Hop 664. It was brewed using Dogfish's continual hopping process used in the 60, 90, and 120 Minute IPAs and dry hopped using Sierra Nevada's torpedo system. Checks in at 8% ABV and 70 IBUs. To the beer!

REVIEW: Blank Slate/ Triple Digit Determination

Today's beer is one that I've been looking forward to. For a number of reasons, really. For one, it's our first real look at a couple of Cincinnati breweries (Both were mentioned in my post on the Cincinnati Craft Beer Oktoberfest. Check that out here.) Blank Slate Brewing, and Triple Digit. Another reason I'm excited is because this is the first offering from Blank Slate that I've been able to get my grubby little hands on in bottle. Now if you've been hanging out at better beer bars in Cincinnati over the past few months you've probably seen some of Blank Slate's beers on tap. In my day job as a bartender I've had the extreme pleasure of trying all of them and of meeting the man behind the beers, Scott LaFollette (Super nice guy by the way). This is all a long way of saying that I've been dying to get a beer from my new favorite Cincinnati brewery up on the blog, and now I finally can. Enough of my rambling, Determination is a 9%ABV double Belgian style IPA. To the beer!

Dogfish Head/ Stone/ Victory Saison du BUFF

Today's beer is a collaboration between not two, but three great breweries. Dogfish Head, Stone, and Victory got together to hatch up a recipe, and quite the interesting recipe too. Saison du BUFF (Brewers United for Freedom of Flavor) is a belgian style saison with an interesting twist, it's brewed with rosemary, sage, thyme, and parsley. The recipe was first brewed at Stone then later brewed at the other two breweries, the one I have here today is, obviously, from Dogfish Head. 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!

REVIEW: Epic/ DC Brau Fermentation Without Representation

Lots going on with today's beer! First of all it's a collaboration beer, and a collaboration between two breweries that I have never had a beer from. Salt Lake City's Epic Brewing and DC Brau out of Washington DC. I always keep an eye out for collaboration beers. You don't often see collaboration pilseners or collaboration pale ales. Collaborations are chances for brewers to try something they normally might not. This one is no exception. It is an imperial pumpkin porter. Now I know, pumpkin beers are wildly out of season. But I just found this one at Jungle Jim's, I love drinking them, and it's my blog. If I want to review a pumpkin ale in March, there's nobody that's going to tell me not to. To the beer!