The Bottom Shelf

Sierra Nevada Porter

The Sierra Nevada porter poured an unsurprising deep, dark brown that was nearly opaque. There was no noticeable head on this beer.

The only word I can use to describe the taste is “bitter”. It’s not the type of bitterness that blows your mind, but the hops in this beer totally mask any of the pleasant coffe, chocolate, or nutty tastes you would expect from a roasted malt. The aroma was mostly neutral, which was a little disappointing. But the beer was heavy bodied, which I appreciate in the darker beers. A lot of the darker beers are surprisingly light in body, and it’s nice to find one with the mouthfeel of this particular porter.

I got the impression Sierra Nevada was staking their claim on the more bitter end of the porter style. I’m sure many people can get excited about this; I’m not one of them. I by no means disliked this beer. But I have had plenty of porters that outperform this offering from Sierra Nevada, with the Stone Smoked Porter being the best of the bunch.

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Samuel Adams Hefeweizen

The Sam Adams hefeweizen poured a translucent golden yellow, like any good hefeweizen should. The look of the beer was particularly cool with the carbonation rising steadily from the very bottom of the pilsner-style glass I was using. This hefeweizen has a thick white head, something you won’t find on every hefeweizen you drink.

The aroma was mostly grainy and grassy, a nice balance of the malt and hop elements pleasing the nose. The taste is mostly bitter with a grassy component, and there is a noticeable bitterness on the back of the tongue and on the swallow.

I didn’t notice any citrus component to the Sam Adams hefeweizen, and I have to admit I was disappointed about that. The main reason I enjoy the hefeweizen from the local Craftsman brewery is because of the banana that is placed on top of the beer’s citrus foundation. I look forward to the yeast imparting some fruity component to this style of beer, though nothing too strong that would remind me of a cider. In this sense, I didn’t like the Sam Adams version of the hefeweizen as much as others I have had. But it’s quality, if maybe just a little boring.

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Samuel Adams Black Lager

I had a bottle of the Sam Adams Black Lager before I left for Christmas break, and I’ve finally gotten around to writing my review. The black lager poured a very dark brown, but it was not entirely opaque like the densest stouts or porters I have previously had. This beer was full bodied and was very smooth on the finish.

The head was initially thick but dissipated to a ring. The carbonation tickled my tongue but wasn’t overdone. I would describe the taste as grainy, malty, maybe even nutty. These are the flavors that dominate in this beer. The finish is slightly bitter, which couples nicely with the smoothness at the end. Overall, it was a well-balanced beer, one that I would strongly recommend to the malt fans out there.

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Samuel Adams Brown Ale

I just had the Sam Adams Brown Ale for the first time the other night. It poured a dark orange and brown color with a thin head that dissipated very quickly. It certainly looked like the other brown ales I had tried before.

Immediately I noticed a malty taste. There was a hint of caramel, maybe toffee. But there wasn’t much bitterness. The finish was quick and clean. The aroma, again like other brown ales I have tried, was mostly neutral, not giving much hint of the malty backbone of the beer.

I am fairly quick to find a beer too “hoppy” or bitter. Thus, I tend to enjoy the beers that are more malty than hoppy. In that sense, I enjoyed the Sam Adams. I found that the clean finish neutralized the malt taste nicely. I find the main risk with malty beers is that they linger on the palate, giving the back of the mouth that sweet and sticky sensation, which may be fine for candy but isn’t that enjoyable in a beer. The finish of the Sam Adams wipes all of that out.

A fine brown ale indeed.

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Lost Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2002

I had a bottle of the Lost Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 a couple of weeks ago. I actually got the bottle for free after a wine tasting I attended a few months ago. They had a handful of bottles left over, and those of us lolly gagging at the end were rewarded with a couple of bottles each of some of the different wines.

According to the back of the bottle, this wine was cellared and bottled by Snowden Vineyards in Oakville, California (i.e. Napa Valley). I wasn’t a huge fan of the wine at the tasting, but I enjoyed it more the second time over the course of a few days. The Lost Vineyard is not a fruit-forward wine. The primary aroma I found was that of charred wood, which reminded me of some of the better smoked porters I have had.

I found the taste to be dominated by both the charred wood and black licorice. I don’t like licorice candy much myself, but in the wine, complemented with the smoked taste, it was enjoyable. In general I prefer a stronger presence of berries in red wines, particularly blackberries or black cherries. I suppose it took me a little while to move past the fact that I couldn’t identify much fruit in the Lost Vineyard. But once I allowed myself to succumb to the licorice and smoked flavors, I was definitely able to enjoy this cabernet.

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East Asian Beer Tasting

Last week Wolfe, Greg, Mike, Roger, and I performed a taste test of several east Asian beers. And no, the test was not performed blind. We cheated, so what? The beers we sampled were Asahi (Japan), Sapporo (Japan), Singha (Thailand), Tiger (Singapore), Kirin Ichiban (Japan), Tsingtao (China), and San Miguel (Phillipines).

I wrote down my own tasting notes, so the opinions below are mine alone. I’ll try to identify where we reached consensus as a group. The first beer we tried was Asahi. It was a very pale yellow in color with a thin, lifeless head. It tasted somewhat ricey to me, kind of like a traditional domestic macro lager. It went down smoothly but was noticeably watery. It was a fairly nondescript beer.

The next beer was Sapporo. This one made more use of aromatic hops than the Asahi and had a darker yellow coloring. The finish was bitter and seemed to have more character than Asahi, though this character wasn’t entirely pleasant. I preferred Asahi to Sapporo.

The Singha had a more malty taste and was smoother than the first two beers. To be fair, the Singha was warmer when we had it, which means the more subtle tastes and aromas had a better chance of being noticed. I wasn’t overwhelmed, but I thought the Singha outperformed Asahi and Sapporo.

Tiger had a similar coloring to Sapporo and also made use of the floral hops. Roger was a big fan of the Tiger. While I enjoyed it, I found it to be in the middle of the pack with the other beers. The Singha had a more pleasant malty taste, but Tiger was better balanced than the too bitter Sapporo and the too weak Asahi.

Kirin Ichiban was up next, and it was the consensus favorite of the evening. Roger had it neck and neck with Tiger, and the rest of us found it to be at the top of our lists. The coloring was a darker yellow, closer to Sapporo than it was to Asahi. Kirin lacked the too strong bitter finish of Sapporo, but it wasn’t too light or delicate. The aroma was nearly neutral. I think the Kirin would perform admirably as a general quaffing beer or with an exotic meal. Pairing it with a dinner lacking a lot of flavor probably wouldn’t work best, though, since the Kirin isn’t going to add much in the way of interesting tastes or textures. It would do a good job of cutting through a more complex meal, helping the palate reset itself for each new bite.

The Tsingtao came in a green bottle and smelled as though it was skunked. It tasted alright though and had a pleasant floral aroma, once you moved past the possible skunkage. It was hard to appreciate this one after the initial smell, but it was certainly drinkable.

The San Miguel finished up the evening. There was a little bit of a spicy finish to it, almost like a cinnamon or a nutmeg. I think the San Miguel was the most interesting of the beers we tasted, but I enjoyed the Kirin Ichiban more. If you are pairing the beer with a meal that has a lot of flavor, go with the Ichiban. If you’re pairing the beer with a blander meal, go with the San Miguel. If you’re drinking the beer by itself, go with either of these two: the Kirin if you prefer the domestic macro lager style and the San Miguel if you prefer something a little more complex than that.

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