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@hillfarmstead Nordic saison, Nords are known for their icy farmhouses. Shit is getting tawdry real quick, icicles be drippin

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Any time someone pushes their filthy hands into Shaun Hill’s grain sack and start rooting around his mash tun, I approach with careful circumspection.

Mikkeller tried to derail shit, but HF pulled it right back into the rails. But what about this collabo? A honey saison? Slam dunk right?

YOU BET YOUR SWEET MALTY TITS THIS IS A SLAM DUNK rocketing hard like Olajuwon.

It looks like every other one of their offerings, dirty, turbid, trubby and beautiful. Perfect carb, spotty lacing, nips erect.

The nose is grassy and earthy like some Vapeur offerings but the honey shines through like a sticky sweet biere de Miel.

Speaking of biere de Miel, this is like Anna meets jester king, lite version •.
It is more crushable, less complex, but god damn in those arctic Norse winters, this will keep you not at all warm. People are sleeping on these 2 case limits hard

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When people complain that a saison isn’t sour enough.

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Alpine Kiwi Herman, The Perfect Beer to Enjoy in the Solitude of an Adult Arcade

Man this beer was released today and people have been ripping their pubes out in frustration for all manner of reasons prior thereto.  It is either pretrades asking for Blauw, lowballers offering up shit like bomb multiples, people with feels about how the BPT release went, the narrow pickup window, or just general old-fashioned localized butthurt.  Grade A uninformed shit talkers will point hard at BA Token and Chez Monieux, while simultaneously seeking this beer out.  Self-aggrandizing dipshits will try to flip this for Ann before even trying it.
Beer releases bring out the best in people.

So is this better than Chez Monus? Let’s grip them fuzzy fruits and caress the berries in today’s review:

I had three pours of this on draft before it kicked, zero ragrets were felt.

I had three pours of this on draft before it kicked, zero ragrets were felt.

Alpine Brewing Company, 7% abv

Wild ale, one two three year base beer blends aged in wine barrels with kiwis and strawberries

Please note, this review is relative to only the draft offering.  The bottled version could be nothing but unrolled condoms.  I would open my bottle but I am waiting to trade it for Pipeworks or Cigar City beers.  I trust you understand.

Please note, this review is relative to only the draft offering. The bottled version could be nothing but unrolled condoms. I would open my bottle but I am waiting to trade it for Pipeworks or Cigar City beers. I trust you understand.

A:  This is a beautiful beer right out of the gates, radiant hues, frothy microbubbles with sheeting that leaves garlands of wispy clouds like when you try to close the Brazzers tab before wiping your hands off.  It shines and has a mildly milky turbidity like all them new fangled Vermont IPAs all the kids get their first nocturnal emissions to these days.

ITS JEST DDB TRYENA BOOST UP THE TRAED VALUES ONCE AGAN. SO MUCH CANCRE, I kno bcuz i have tried evrything and i have objectiev tastebuds

ITS JEST DDB TRYENA BOOST UP THE TRAED VALUES ONCE AGAN. SO MUCH CANCRE, I kno bcuz i have tried evrything and i have objectiev tastebuds

S:  The nose is fantastically bright providing a blast of Gushers candy, refined acidity, fruit by the foot, zero acetic aspects present in some other Alpine sours, and in an odd way reminds me of Zomer in that “sun in a glass” intensity that calls out to both summer fields and farmers’ markets.  Their is a light brackish note to it akin to some of the 4% light offerings from De Garde.

"FT: Vanilla Rye" offers be looking like

“FT: Vanilla Rye” offers be looking like

T:  Strawberries are traditionally a complete bitch to work with, just balls of acidity and insoluble fiber.  You either never get the strawberry taste, or it ends up being a New Glarus smuckers jam bomb.  This hits the perfect middle ground where it presents strawberry at the outset, you get the pithy berry and Special K dried fruit aspect, but then the kiwi comes in to deliver that acidity you were hoping for to round out the complexity.  The fruit works in parity with a one two punch that presents the best aspects of both admittedly unbalanced fruits.  Go drink Cascade Strawberry then chase it with Upland Kiwi and you will feel the clear inequality between how amazing this beer is by contrast.  Alternatively, if you take the already stellar Omniscience and Proselytism and add the complexity that some of the Jester King sours so desperately need.

M:  I braced myself for dry rot at the outset when the kiwi began to work its scorched earth campaign, however, the facerape never sets in.  It is unquestionably bone dry, with strawberry juice to fill in the closer to make you want to chain combo the next sip with air to ground combos.  You can drill the 500ml bottle by yourself without any problems, and you would be reticent to share it with anyone after tasting it.

2k14 tickers drink a few fruited berliners and think they on that g13 shit.

2k14 tickers drink a few fruited berliners and think they on that g13 shit.

D:  Piggy backing on the previous category, it is intensely complex but never turns into a cheesy gruyere forward beer that is cloying.  Concurrently, it never tips its hand in the realm of acidity and remains welcome from first pour to light warming.  I liked Chez Monus, but I feel that this is more complex, more nuanced, less full frontal acidity and allows the interplay of the fruits to work in ways that aren’t as predictable as the same stone fruit milieu we have seen a million times before.  It is simply a better beer across the board and it is well worthy of your iphoneSex, give it that facetime.

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Irrelevant Brewery Releases Beer Brewed with Strange Ingredient, Attention Seeking Bullshit Ensues

Local unknown and subpar brewery from a heretofore undiscovered region has announced their bold plans to release a beer made with some attention seeking bullshit.  “We listened to the nonexistent consumers and went with our gut to generate press in the most petty way possible,” head brewer noted confidently, “some people may see this as a completely tactless ruse to generate buzz for our other substandard boring lineup of fortgettable offerings, BUT THEY CAN JUST WAIT AND SEE.”

This shitty brewery may intend to use these, it doesn't matter.

This shitty brewery may intend to use these, it doesn’t matter.

This local brewery previously serviced the people around their general vicinity with underattenuated riffs on a California ale strain, that is until Head Brewer discovered the wonderful potential of this stupid kitschy gimmic ingredient.  “Yeah at first everyone was like ‘that doesn’t belong in beer, you use that to cure meats with’ but we wont listen to them, our desire to receive undeserved attention is too great.  We are too innovative and ambitious to hold ourselves back,” Head Brewer noted while slicing up vile portions of the gelatinous ingredient, to be added during the boil and into the secondary.

They are just gonna put basically whatever into the fermenter, who gives a shit

They are just gonna put basically whatever into the fermenter, who gives a shit

Most local patrons had already assumed the Local Brewery had shut down before they attempted to launch this most pathetic of marketing ploys.  Already this forgettable nothing brewery is generating linkshares from Aunts and ignorant co-workers alike, each more shocked than the last to see what wacky things these beer people like.  “Yeah, I heard about this irrelevant shitwater that I will never try, I even heard about the nonstandard ingredient that they added.  I keep having to hear about this bullshit from everyone who knows that I enjoy beer, ” local Craft Beer connoisseur lamented, “every time some shithole brewery does this, the links come pouring in from friends and relatives who assume I am into this stupid shit.  It never fails.”

Could the shitty base beer involve this ingredient? It really doesn't fucking matter.

Could the shitty base beer involve this ingredient? It really doesn’t fucking matter.

At press time the Irrelevant Brewery stated its plans to press on despite objections from insular completely unknown protest groups. “We wouldn’t be where we are today if we listened to people telling us how to brew and we aren’t about to ratchet up the actual quality of our beer when we can just add obscure items to it.  Call it simple, but that’s just what we believe here at Unknown Irrelevant Until Yesterday Brew Works,” the formless anonymous brewer stated with a gleaming pride.

As long as stupid people continue to share the link, who give a fuck if they actually use these.

As long as stupid people continue to share the link, who give a fuck if they actually use these.

UPDATE: the link concerning the shitty attention seeking beer has now been forwarded over 1.2m times and Forgettable Brewery now plans both a 100x increase in production and a new offsite facility to serve its nonexistent customer base.

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Kuhnhenn Olde Village Stock Ale, Holy God This is a Complete Trainwreck That Smashed Square into the 4th Dementia Building

Brewers should be encouraged to experiment.  You wanna put Jicama in a Dortmunder? Fucking go for it.  Peanut butter and Sriacha cask? By all means, you do you.  The one thing brewers should not do is pass off horrible beer as either 1) intentionally sour 2) CUTTING EDGE or 3) a mystified ancient style that they are doing you a favor by unearthing.  This somehow covers a bit of ground in each category.  A SOUR OLD ALE: the style no one has ever asked for, returns to us in today’s review and holy balls is it horrible.

Two years ago, another Michigan brewery tried to pass this shit off on us when Dark Horse dropped their own SOUR OLD ALE> https://dontdrinkbeer.com/2013/02/08/dark-horse-three-guys-off-the-scale-sour-version-apparently-if-you-ruin-beer-you-can-just-call-it-sour-version/

So maybe people who live in bleak perpetual winter most of the year actually like this style, who knows. Let’s fall down the sour staircase and get some internal old ale bleeding in today’s painful review.

Midwest taster glass in full effect, and even that pour was too much.

Midwest taster glass in full effect, and even that pour was too much.

Kuhnhenn Old Village Stock Ale

Sour Old ale (?) 14.2% abv

A:  This looks fine I suppose, you might even squint and trick yourself into believing that this is a regular BB4d, those muddy lakewater notes on full puddle swerve.   The carb is legit for the abv and massive nature of the beer, appearances cant set forth the palate terror to which your facehole will be subject.

Popping this solo before nestling in for a marathon of Franklin and Bash.

Popping this solo before nestling in for a marathon of Franklin and Bash.

S:  At first smell, there is a twinge of hope, caramel, molasses, and OH FUCK IS THAT ROTTING CITRUS? What is going on with my old al- oh god its red wine vinegar, followed by an acetic filthy grapefruit in tow.  The closer is the sweet peanut brittle, albeit dipped in solvent.  You know shit isn’t going to go well from here.

DDB will continue to scour the planet to review shitty beers for your amusement

DDB will continue to scour the planet to review shitty beers for your amusement

T:  Like the reversed call against the poor Cowboys, this shit is a pathetic travesty of a once proud heritage.  How do you pull BB4d down a peg?  This is a fantastic demonstration at how tenuous the life of a beer can be, snuffed out with bacteria and off flavors like an orderly pressing a sour pillow over a struggling patient.  If you loved the creme brulee and toffee aspects of BB4d, wait until you add stomach bile and orange juice burp into the mix.  If you get through half a bottle of this, you should get a text from Guy Fieri for self flaggelation by way of the mouth zone.  Nothing works and you feel like a French soldier shivering in a trench at the battle of the Marne, wondering where the BB4d went, dreaming of times past, thinking about simpler days before everything was ruined.

M:  This is bone dry, crisp and only serves to highlight all of the awful things attendant to the actual flavor.  If a loud venue can make a blind date less creepy, this is a blind date in absolute silence, in a police interrogation room, for your palate.  There is no escape and you are gonna do some hard time.

MFW someone offers me a 14% abv SOUR old ale.

MFW someone offers me a 14% abv SOUR old ale.

D:  I cant really quantify exactly how shitty this is with the adjectives and words at my disposal and I can only LOL that this is classified as a “GOOD” beer on BA.  In fact it has an 84, just one point below The Bros review of Fou Foune.  I am clearly not cicerone enough to appreciate this heap of lukewarm gastritis discharge.

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Kuhnhenn BRAGGOT, pouring some honey on that old ale game

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Despite my suspicions of this recent 6 pack, this wasn’t nearly as lackluster as I was anticipating and actually falls closer to the realm of “I can drink this if I have two other people.”

A BRAGGOT is a blend of mead and usually a substantial malty beer, in this instance it seems like some incantation of their old ale series, base 4th dementia would be my guess. This has a lower abv and seems to have a lower mead component. It is far better than the 2011 as a result. They say

“Braggot is mead and beer combined, this batch won the Bronze medal at 2012 GABF, one of only three medals given to Michigan breweries in the state This batch was made with Michigan Wildflower mead and Scottish Ale. Frank and Eric collaborated to make this award winning mead.”

So apparently it is a Scottish base but, at this pointbpostblending it hardly matters.

It has a silky carb that is never excessive nor lackluster, which with kuhnhenn and their HOTD execution has been an issue in the past.

The nose is honey and toasted almond, agave nectar and Carmelized pralines. The taste is exceedigly sweet and you get bit O honey, o Henry, sugar daddies, all that candy aisle shit but with a toasty Cuir or substantial old ale presence of bready pumpernickel akin to Adam.

In sum, this could have been far sweeter and far worse, it is amongst the best braggots I have had, but that is probably a pool of like 11 beers so my basic ass palate can’t chime in credibly, big shocker there.

It just feels like they packed this, the Brett old ale and the American stout as a heft sidecar in a heavy handed marketing move. Then again, if kuhnhenn told me bb4d and bbbw were sold together for $40, I would readily comply as they are the top of the game, in almost every respect.

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Michigan ticker got them laser lips, his mama was a snowblower