REVIEW: Ommegang Take the Black

Alright, folks. I hope everybody had a great weekend. We've got a cool one today, the second in Ommegang's Game of Thrones series. Craft beer and epic fantasy, two great tastes that taste great together! I talked about the first beer in the series Iron Throne Blone Ale back in March. Check that one out here. I liked it quite a bit, but something about it didn't feel super Westerosi (Maybe Dornish? I don't know). Take the Black though? This is more of what I had in mind, a big hearty black ale. One minor critique, that will only be apparent to idiots like me. I love the name, Take the Black, very evocative, but the art on the bottle doesn't really mach up. Take the Black refers to the Night's Watch. The weirwood tree on the label isn't a symbol of the Night's Watch though. The weirwood is an important part of the religion of the old gods. And While Jon and Sam Tarly took their oath before a weirwood tree that is because they keep the old gods. Most of the brothers of the Night's Watch are worshippers of the Faith of the Seven. The old gods are still kept in the north and beyond the wall so the weir wood is more of a symbol of the north than the Night's watch. Whatever, it looks cool and it's a cool name, and only weirdoes like me will take any exception to it. What is far more important than anything on the label is what is inside the bottle, a 7% ABV Belgian style stout. To the beer!

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: Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin

This past weekend fall finally arrived in these parts in a real way. That makes today's beer all the more appropriate. A big 9% ABV imperial pumpkin ale from a brewery that's new to these pages. Newport, Maine's Shipyard Brewing and their Smashed Pumpkin. I had intended to get a bottle of this last year around this time, but by the time I got the chance the pumpkin beers were gone and the Christmas ales had taken their place. But this fall I was able to snag one. To the beer!

REVIEW: Bell's Wheat Love Ale

So I really have no idea what this beer is. Wheat Love Ale Really isn't the most descriptive name. From the back of the bottle I was able to glean that it checks in at 8% ABV. That doesn't really help me out that much though. I think it's a fair guess that it's brewed with wheat, but that doesn't really narrow it down. Is it a weizenbock, dunkelweizen, some kind of imperial hefeweizen, imperial Oberon? (Oh man, that last idea has me intrigued.) Well, whatever it is, it's a new (to me) beer from Bell's That's enough for me. To the beer!

REVIEW: New Holland Four Witches

I've got a handful of big dark beers sitting in the fridge but the time just hasn't seemed right to break them out. This dark beer is a little bit more of what I'm in the mood for.The first and only black saison I ever had, Green Flash's Freindship Brew, I wasn't totally wild about. The spice was kind of all over the place and it didn't really do it for me. But that's just one beer. Today we've got Four Witches, another black saison from a brewery that I haven't looked at much. New Holland, Michigan's New Holland Brewing. Let's get to it. To the beer!

REVIEW: The Bruery Autumn Maple

Alright, back to the fall seasonals after a brief respite. It's a bit different though. Instead of being brewed with pumpkins, The Bruery's Autumn Maple is brewed with yams. Throw those yams (17 pounds per barrel!) into the brew kettle along with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla, molasses, and maple syrup and then fermented with a Belgian yeast and you've got a recipe to make me sit up and take notice. To the beer!

REVIEW: Avery Odio Equum

I'm doing my damnedest to get this blog back on some kind of schedule. We'll get there. I've tried in the bast to get into sour ales. I quite liked Duchesse Du Bourgogne, I was less fond of Uinta's Birthday Suit. I think it's fair to call my experience with sours a mixed bag. I'm not one to let a momentary setback get in between me and an entire segment of the craft beer world. Especially when I'm staring at a bottle from one of my all time favorite breweries. Avery's Odio Equum is a 7.1% ABV sour brewed with raspberries and aged for an entire year in cabernet sauvignon barrels. To the beer!