Twelve Pack Review: The Abita Party Pack

Maybe it's our white guilt, but we really enjoy supporting the breweries of New Orleans -- or at least the ones that are available where we live. Dixie Lager and Dixie Blackened Voodoo are fine examples of the lager and dark lager style, respectively.

I'm not sure how Hurricane Katrina affected the Abita Brewery; I know it took quite a toll on Dixie Brewing, but they are thankfully doing fine even though they sustained some damage.

Upon a Saturday sojourn to the Finger Lakes Beverage Company in Ithaca, NY, we saw the Abita Party Pack, two beers each of six different selections. We have not been able to secure twelve-packs of Abita in the Syracuse area, so we decided to give it a whirl.

The six selections are:

• Turbo Dog Brown Ale
• 20th Anniversary Pilsner
• Abita Amber
• Fall Fest Oktoberfest
• Purple Haze Raspberry Wheat
• Golden Lager

I decided to tackle them head on. Here are the results.

1. ABITA AMBER. Rather than the amber color I expected, more of a dark orange. Not much head and is more clear and light-looking than a typical amber. The smell is a sweetened burnt malt. Lots of brown sugar. It almost has a mild Scotch ale smell, with nice toasted barley. It's both sweet and dry at once.
   
   The taste is a striking sharp malt with some sweet brown sugarcane and molasses. Some mild caramel in there as well. It tastes like a liquid "Sugar Daddy" candy bar. It's sweet, but thankfully not saccharine. The feel is thick and chunky and chewy. It's milky and smooth. Really a nice feel. Overall it's very sweet but not TOO sweet. Well crafted and delicious. A hell of a good start.



2. FALL FEST. Has a light copper color. Decadent white foamy head. Light bubbly carbonation. It's sturdy and quite nice. The aroma is a rich bittersweet toasted malt with fresh English-smelling hops wafting above. Light caramel. Hints of mild liquid yeast as well.
   
   The taste is a rich toffee/molasses over a roasted (but not burnt) malt. The hops are a welcome bittering accent; they are mild and serve to balance that sweetness. Also a hint of pale malt.
   
   It feels creamy and thick. Stays on the tongue for a while; it's substantial. It's a sweet caramel/molasses beer with some mildly bitter hops. It's more like a roasted pale than anything, but a good Oktoberfest.



3. GOLDEN LAGER. It's a cloudy yellow with a proud finger of head. Looks more thick and chunky than a normal lager, for sure. The smell is a dry pilsnery/lager malt. The aroma is light, but it's clearly all-malt. Bitter but mild Hallertauer-smelling hops. Malt is German-lagery.
   
   The sweetness in the taste is the bitter malt, with the nice bitter hop accent. The taste matches the smell almost exactly, with the right bitter notes all around. It's a nice lager, much better than the typical Bud/Miller/Coors pale lager fare.
   
   It feels light and bubbly, like the feel of a nice, slightly spiky Belgian ale. It's a light and easy-drinkin' lager with lots of strong flavor.



4. TURBO DOG (Brown Ale). Well this is the beer that Stuff Magazine named the #1 beer in America back in 2005. Remind me to never listen to Stuff Magazine when it comes to beer. Not that Turbo Dog is bad, but it's average at best. It's dark brown like Coca-Cola with an off-brown cardboard colored head. It looks deep and murky.
   
   The smell is a strong whiff of alcohol with some darkly sweet roasted malt. It's got brown sugar practically wafting above the glass. It smells slightly darker than a normal brown.
   
   The taste again has that heavy blast of alcohol at first, with a sweet malt swooping in immediately afterward to apologize. Then it hits me that this beer is just too sweet and saccharine, without enough balance. This would have been a perfect example of adding some hops to a dark beer to give it a rich full flavor. Instead, we get heavy and sweet sugars. It's not awful, it's just unbalanced.
   
   It feels thick and milky, although not as smooth as typical browns. It's more of a choker-downer. Overall, not really balanced enough for me to recommend. It's got some of the flavors of a brown, but with more alcohol (which by the way, doesn't count as bitter enough to balance). It's decent, but Stuff Magazine should stick to putting ridiculously hot women on its magazine and get the #&$@ out of the beer game.




5. PURPLE HAZE (Raspberry Wheat). I have heard mixed things about this one. BeerAdvocate.com really doesn't like it, and I've heard that it's a beer for chicks. Let's see for ourselves, shall we?
   
   The color is a peach-color with minimal head. It looks fruity all right, and it's hazy. Not a horrible sign. The smell, on the other hand, isn't what I'd call incredible. It's far too sweet for sure, with a sugary raspberry flavor with some mild wheat to dry it out. This could use a bitter malt balance, such as a chocolate or caramel malt to even the score.
   
   It is very sweet in the taste, but the wheat does a much better job of balancing everything. It's still too far on the sweet side of the spectrum, but decent. It's a little tart and puckery. It does get better as it warms up, but a nice toasted malt would have done wonders for this beer.
   
   It feels creamy, with some dry yeast on the tongue to remind you of the good old days. It is clearly too one-sided for me to drink it all night, but all-told it's a decent "guilty pleasure" beer.



6. 20th ANNIVERSARY PILSNER. A fine bookend to the first beer, this is one of the better pilsners I have had in quite a while. It's a hazy bright golden color, and a half-finger of foamy head. Classic pilsner look.
   
   Before I go on, I have to say I'm not a huge fan of pilsners in general, and that's because they are all so similar, they are like bitter pale ales (yes, I know pilsners are actually lagers) with a smidgen of mandatory bitter hops. And there is very little deviation from this tried and true formula. (If I have my head up my ass on this, please give me some examples to prove me wrong. I'm all ears.)
   
   Ok, so, the smell of this pils is really good. It's got a pleasant flowery aroma, with bitter Euro-German style hops. Doesn't have the too-bitter chlorine smell to which so many lesser pilsners fall victim. Really crisp aroma.
   
   Now the flavor took me completely by surprise. It's got such a nicely diverse hop flavor. Not only does it have the bittering pilsner hops, but also a flowery, estery hop with a burst of citrus. But it's not an IPA or overly hoppy; it's just well balanced. The pale-ish malt steps aside for a second to be the Stockton to the hops' Malone. The finish is pure grapefruit (Javen!).
   
   It feels fizzy and bubbly like champagne. Really nicely crafted, and the bubbles help evangelize the good word of the effervescent flavors. It's a superior pils, bursing with diverse flavors. It's got a wonderful finish. It is to what all pilsners should aspire.

As far as the 12er goes as a whole, I would say the 20th Anniversary Pilsner and the Amber are the two best, and both worth picking up a popularly-priced sixpack. The Fall Fest and the Golden lager are a good addition to mix up the 12-pack. And the Turbo Dog and Purple Haze -- ironically the most widely available of the twelver -- are just okay.

Our Stolen Sunday at Keegan Ales

The passage from boyhood to adulthood is a difficult one, but three short months ago my good friend and colleague Mr. Bojangles decided to try and soften the blow of aging by escorting me to Kingston, NY, home of Keegan Ales, one of the well-kept secrets in the eastern part of New York State.

Keegan Ales is a brewpub unlike any I've been to. First of all, the inside feels more like a lounge than a brewpub. The inviting foyer area has hardwood floors, some couches for relaxing and enjoying, and a very chilled out vibe right from the start.

The beer-tasting area slash bar experience began inauspiciously when I knocked about 150 flyers and papers off a narrow ledge when first walking in. As I picked up the strewn papers from the floor, Javen proceeded to order for the both of us.

The bar area is a charming, hardwood bar, with about a dozen taps and lots of stuff to look at. Under the glass in the bar was fossilized barley, leaving no ambiguity as to the source of the brewery's malts. About six picnic tables sit in the bar area, perfect for a laid back beer-drinking evening. This night, a big band jazz combo was expected to come in -- on a Sunday night, no less -- so the tables were moved to the side. It seems like an atmosphere where club-goer and hippie alike would feel right at home.

Javen and I hunkered down at the bar moments before a snow squall engulfed the Kingston area and slightly frightened a few of us into thinking we might not be able to leave. (I was kind of secretly hoping we would get stranded there.) Luckily, it was short-lived and we were able to enjoy the fine Keegan offerings without fear of being marooned.


The beers on tap were the Old Capital golden ale, Mother's Milk stout, Hurricane Kitty (a hoppy red), Four Philosophers Abbey Tripel, as well as a few guest taps -- He'brew, Genesee Ale, Captain Lawrence and Six-Point -- and a light beer. I started with the Old Capial -- which Javen said was due to Kingston being the capital of New York State at one time -- and Javen started with Hurricane Kitty, Keegan's flagship beer.

The atmosphere here was about as laid back as can be. A man was reading a book at the bar while the bartender and a cook sat and hung out. The bartender was very helpful, offering what knowledge she had of the beers, and and giving small samples of the beers we hadn't had before. She even allowed some half-pints, which gave us the chance of trying pretty much all the beers in the place.

The drive from Glenville to Kingston is about an hour, but it is all highway, and if you live anywhere in the Capital district, take the trip. It's one of the more charming brewpubs I've been to, and is about as perfect a Sunday afternoon destination as I can recommend. If you go on your birthday, it's even better.

6Pac - April 2008

Today we embark on a Beerjanglin' experiment, we will get a mixed six pack, we will drink the entire thing, and we will tell you about it. The emergence of mixed six packs has been a godsend to geeks such as ourselves, as it allows us to sample a great variety of beer one bottle at a time, rather than one full six pack, and at a cheaper price than at the local tavern. Because seriously, what could possibly worse than having to endure a full six pack of beer, when you can tell from the first sip of the first bottle that you aren't going to like it. Well, I suppose being hit by a meteor could be worse, but only by a slim margin.

At any rate, here is your line-up for this inaugural entry; the story of some beer I bought back in April of 2008, in six chapters:

1. GREEN FLASH BREWING - West Coast IPA
   
   
2. WILD GOOSE - English Style Amber Ale
   
   
3. AVERY - 14'er E.S.B.
   
   
4. WILD GOOSE - India Pale Ale
   
   
5. SIERRA NEVADA - Stout
   
   
6. MENDOCINO - Imperial IPA

And now, the verdict on each....

• #1: Green Flash Brewing - West Coast IPA. To call this sucker an IPA is like calling an Escalade a station wagon. This is a supremely bitter IPA offering, more akin to an Imperial ippa than the regular variety.
  The first thing that strikes me about this beer is its look, which is copper-orange and with big chunks of something or other floating around. It looks like it's suspended in amber. It looks big and chunky. The smell is full of those sweet, pungent west coast hops we all know and love so well. The hops in the smell are citrusy and flowery; breathtaking ... literally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, I would have to say that this is one of the most perfectly-aromatic beers I've had. The smell is balanced, however the flavor is all hops. If you are a hophead, this is going to be right up your alley, but don't expect much malt in the flavor. It's a thick and chewy beer, and incredibly bitter. Just don't buy the "regular" IPA label.
  
  
  
• #2: Wild Goose English Style Amber Ale. While it appears like a standard red/amber ale. Like the West Coast IPA, the smell on this one is fantastic as well, although in a different way. The Wild Goose's aroma is smooth and buttery, showcasing a sweet and biscuity malt, with just a hint of butterscotch (and not spoiled kind). It has hints of honey and even a mild sweet grape. As it warms, the aroma becomes more roasted.
  
  The flavor is nicely balanced between a hint of sweetness in the pale ale-ish notes and the roasted amber malt. It tastes like a pale amber, and has a nice tension between the burnt and the sweet. Not bad at all. It becomes more sweet, but never cloying. A good, solid ale.
  
  
  
• #3: Avery 14'er ESB. There appears to be a glow coming from within this beer in the form of a hazy light orange. The smell and taste of this beer are both mild and balanced. The sweet and biscuity malt is the perfect counterpoint to the flowery-but-bitter hop presence. Starts sweet at the sip, ends bitter at the swallow. It's a perfect change-of-pace beer; not incredible, but incredibly pleasant.
  
  
• #4: Wild Goose India Pale Ale. Lots of bubbling carbonation floating to the top of this hazy bright orange brew. Leaves a nice icy lace and a big fluffy head.
  The smell is slightly sweeter than a normal pale. It does smell more like a regular pale than an IPA, that's for sure. There are some bitter hops, but more pislnery in the nose than IPA'y. A definite hint of pale crystal malts and even a hint of a burnt malt. To call it even an English IPA is pushing it.
  
  The taste is a bitter symphony of both malt and hops. The hops are a tad flowery, but overpowered by the pilsner/pale flavors. It could use a bit more balance, in my opinion. It feels bubbly and bites a little on the way down. It does mellow out after a little while. It's a tad too bitterly harsh to drink all night. (That's not to say I don't like bitter flavors, but this one could have used the relief of something a little more sweet or muted.) I'm honestly not a huge fan of pales lately for some reason, so that may be shaping my opinion here.
  
  
  
• #5: Sierra Nevada Stout.
  One of my go-to beers of the past winter. It's a dark chocolate brown with a head the color of Nestle Quik, big and puffy. The smell is burnt coffee and dark chocolate, charred to perfection.
  
  The taste is a beautiful balance of sweet dark chocolate & toffee, countered with the burnt coffee malt. Just a deliriously good beer. I'm sad to see it go away, but it kept me warm for many cold months. It is thick and rich. It feels milky on the way down, but smooth like motor oil. Only 5.8% but you'd never know it, cuz it gives the warm feeling if drinking brandy. Top notch.
  
  
  
• #6: Mendocino Imperial IPA. One of my all-time favorite IPAs of any kind, and possibly the first IPA I really fell in love with. Clear right orange color with a nice pillowy, foamy head. Sits still in the glass with no sign of carbonation.
  
  The smell of this beer is to die for. West Coast hops that are slightly piney, slightly citrusy, and completely intoxicating. Other than possibly Stone Ruination (of which this beer reminds me a great deal) there might not be a better balance of hop flavors on Earth, or Caprica for that matter. (Sorry, I'm watching Battlestar Galactica as I drink this.) This one has been sitting in the fridge for a few weeks, so it has just the slightest hint of mustiness, but we'll see what happens.
  
  The taste confirms why they used to ship these from England to India. The hops have a graceful citrusy sweet first taste (like a grapefruit, Javen!) and then a woodsy bitter second wave. It hits both parts of the tongue and together they form a terrific combo. The sweet tries to charm you; the bitter acts like it could care less if you like it or not. What a beautiful balance in the hops. The malt is really an afterthought here.
  
  As I'm drinking it, there are beautiful icicles of lace surrounding the inside of the glass. It leaves a bitter residue on the tongue, like nature letting you rent it out for a few extra hours at no charge. Magnificent. And 7.5%.

I hope this little journey gave you a couple of good suggestions. I certainly enjoyed the research.

Beer O' The Moment - Magic Hat Lucky Kat

While I have always appreciated the fervor with which the folks at Magic Hat have tried to spread the notion of diversity in beer drinking, there have been precious few of their beers that I have found myself craving on a regular basis even though I find all of them competent and priced popularly.

Magic Hat has also been good at experimentation, forcing numerous styles on the American beer drinking public. Some of these styles (St. Gootz) were a success, others (Kerouac) interesting failures. They also have the best brewery website I can find.

Magic Hat has gone down the IPA road a few times before, with mixed results. Their most well-known offering is the now-retired Blind Faith, which was a good if not great English IPA. It lacked the hop character to which American IPA drinkers are accustomed, and therefore was probably ushered out to keep the hop-fantatics (such as yours truly) happy. Their Hi.P.A. is a decent brew, but in today's age where it seems every brewery is trying to come up with a signature, flagship IPA, the Magic Hat folks could probably see they needed something a little different; they needed something a little stronger.

Enter Lucky Kat. While I'm not sure I'm 100% in love with the name of this new concoction, I do have to say that I'm impressed with the beer itself. While I am not necessarily a proponent of more "extreme" beers, this one was a nice step up for a brewery that takes chances but doesn't necessarily take great leaps.

The beer is very nice to look at, and the most IPA-looking IPA they have come out with. It's dark orange and hazy, just the way it should be; it glows from within like a Christmas tree light. It pours a big fluffy head.

The aroma foreshadows a piney, woody IPA. There is some definite grassy pine action going on in the smell. It also takes the risk of putting in some oak. (Note: I've been told that I often sense oak where oak does not exist. I have sensed it in grape juice, caesar salad and my air conditioner so take that observation with a grain of salt.) The smell is nicely balanced, with some sweet and bready malt peeking its head out briefly.

The taste follows through on the promise of the smell, for the most part. The hops are definitely of the distinctly woody variety, and yes, that oaky flavor comes in too. It's altogether very grassy and outdoorsy, with the oily pine flavor dominating. It could use as much balance in the flavor as it does in the aroma, as the hops dominate the flavor completely, leaving only the very end of the swallow to make room for the malt to come in. This isn't a bad thing, as most imperial IPAs give the hops center stage, but a little more of the nicely toasted malt would have been a nice touch. The beer feels thick and oily, even a little milky, but smooth.

While I'm not going to say that this is an unadulterated home run for Magic Hat, I was surprised at how deep this beer is, and packed with flavor. Perhaps it's the silky, thick mouthfeel that surprised me the most. Either way, it's Magic Hat's best IPA to date, and if it sells well enough, it might be their last crack at the formula. I think they might be on to something.

Some Quick Notes (On The Occasion Of My Return To Captain Lawrence)

Today, I made it back to Pleasantville, New York's Captain Lawrence Brewing Company after a prolonged absence. While Captain Lawrence is still establishing its presence in the lower Hudson/Westchester County region (they still only bottle a select number of their beers in bombers, and a prominent display in the brewery's tasting room is a poster listing the small-but-growing number of establishments that serve Captain Lawrence beers on-tap), one constant since the brewery's opening has been Saturday tasting-room hours from noon to 6 pm.

Brewmaster Scott Vaccaro was among those behind the tasting-room bar on this warm spring afternoon, and, as a pleasant surprise, there were 2 new (well, to me) beers on tap. Here now are some quick notes on these new offerings from the Captain:

The first one that I tried was Sunblock, a Belgian-Style Wit beer. Captain Lawrence has done Belgian-style beers in the past (two of their standouts, Liquid Gold and Xtra Gold, are variations on Belgian Pale Ales). Unfortunately, Sunblock suffers from comparison to these standout drinks. Where Captain Lawrence's Belgian Pales are masterpieces, Sunblock sort of seems like a first draft. It's very light - extremely light, in fact, enough so that the nuances of the beer (hints of orange and spice) become insubstantial. The notes on Sunblock hint that there is a hop bite to be found at the end - I can't say that I found this. This is a rare miss for Captain Lawrence; certainly preferable to a macrobrewed light beer, but nowhere in the class of their other Belgian-inspired brews.

The other new offering was their Brown Bird Brown Ale, a spiced brown ale, and holy cow - another winner for Vaccaro and the folks at Captain Lawrence. My glass of this may have been enough to supplant Brooklyn Brown as my favorite of this genre. Originally intended as the Captain's fall/winter seasonal, Vaccaro and Co. have decided to brew Brown Bird year round - the beer's malty, dark-caramel finish is a welcome taste and, served fresh and cold from the tap, hit the spot nicely on this warm spring day.

It's always a pleasure to get up to Pleasantville and sample the goods of the Captain - the addition of these two beers bodes well for this developing brewery!

Beware the St. Ides of March

Yes that's right, as a time honored tradition here at the "Janglin" ranch, we once again, for the 37th year in a row, pay our yearly tribute to the disputed Duke of Forties, St. Ides. Now this beverage is one that can not be judged solely on our usual metrics. While we do take into account the eye, nose and mouthfeels, this malty dream is much, much more than that. The faint yellow color, funkified smell and corn malt taste are not what defines this heavenly brew. Oh no, you must look beyond the typical senses. You need to look at your seventh sense, your heart and soul. Because "the Ides" is about emotions and feelings. Everyone has a story about when they first, or even last, had this saintly forty ounces. It takes you back in time without pumping 1.21 gigawatz into a flux capacitor. It conjures so many feelings and stories, like some sort of alcoholic story telling quilt. More so than any other malt-ernative, I'd be willing to wager. For me it takes me back to my meager beginnings. Me and my "homeys" chillin' in the cal-de-sac, cranking our DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince cassette tape, discussing the difficulties of growing up as middle-class white males. I get a little choked up just thinking about it. Now sure it doesn't have the ringing endorsements of say, Colt 45, but for once planet Earth don't let Billy Dee Williams make your decisions for you! You may come up short in other categories St. Ides, but when it comes to Heartfeel, you will always, and I mean always, be a five in my books. I'm sure I speak for the rest of the "Janglers" when I say "the Ides" has a special place in all our hearts, and Bill's uvula.

Bottoms Up
Willie 3:16

The Best Baseball Promotion Pretty Much EVER.

We here at Beerjanglin' are, without doubt, a baseball-loving bunch. Our loyalties are a bit divided, sure (Red Sox Nation, Yankees Country, and whatever the hell superlative Mets fans use to describe themselves as a collective are all represented among our numbers), but when it all comes down to nuts and bolts, we enjoy getting together to drink some good beer and enjoy watching our true national pastime.

So, when we were perusing this site, which lists the coolest promotions for the upcoming season of Major League Baseball, something caught our eye. It was this logo:



That's right. The Oakland A's are hosting a beer festival. On June 21, the technical first day of summer, no less.

According to the site, "The game’s not until 6PM, but come to McAfee Coliseum from 11AM to 1PM and sample beers from 30 breweries and listen to live music. Then go to the parking lot and tailgate. Can you tailgate in Oakland?

Admission is free with a game ticket, but you’ve got to pay $10 for a souvenir acrylic mug and two tastings. When you think about it, those might be the cheapest two beers you’ll ever buy at an MLB stadium."

After minutes of painstaking internet research, we uncovered a partial taplist from last year's event: Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Corona, Dos XX Lager, New Belgium Fat Tire, Skinny Dip, Heineken, Heineken Premium Light, Deschutes Inversion IPA, Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Red Hook, Singha Lager, Singha Light Lager, Tecate Light, Trumer Pils, and Widmer Hefeweizen. While there are lame elements to this list (do you really need to waste taps on Singha and Singha Light? On Corona and Heineken?), there are some interesting picks (we are now intrigued by these Deschutes people). It's not perfect - far from, but credit to these folks for trying something different in an attempt to bring beer-nuts out to the ballpark. The odd timing notwithstanding (11 AM to 1 PM before a 6 PM game? Seriously?), this makes us wish we were somewhere near Oakland in June.