#55 Buffalo Bills - Pumpkin Ale

Buffalo Bill's Brewery was opening in the 1980 as a brewpub based on the idea of traditional brewpubs in England. I've only seen their Pumpkin beer for sale,I don't know if they distribute their other brews very far. They have a blueberry Oatmeal Stout that I think would be pretty taste based on how well they did with this pumpkin beer.

The smell is very similar to all the other pumpkin beers I've had, with a strange pumpkin smell but I don't think the smell is really pumpkin. I am getting a little spice smell something like . This beer has a nice orange color reminiscent of pumpkin. Not much foam or head on the beer, like a beer with additives, but there is a good amount of bubbles coming from the bottom.

This beer has a good pumpkin taste. I can still taste the fake pumpkin that was in the smell but there is a good natural taste to the beer. This is a nice change for all the other pumpkin beers I have had so far. I can't notice much beer flavor, malt or hops, but there is some pumpkin pie spice. The mouth feel is nice and foamy.

This isn't my favorite beer, and not one I am going to go out of my way to drink again. This is by far the most enjoyable pumpkin beer I've had. I really like the lack of fake pumpkin taste.

#54 Anchor - Steam Beer

Anchor Steam is contributed with starting the craft beer movement. Frederick (Fritz) Louis Maytag III purchased Anchor steam in 1965 making California common beer or Steam Beer. Today the name Steam Beer is a Trademark of Anchor Brewery and the style is called California common. Beer Blogger Rick Lyke has a post today about his trip to Anchor Brewery.

This beer has a nice hoppy smell. It is a refreshing and light smell, with only a touch of malt sweetness. This beer has a clear brown-gold color with a unique foam. The foam started with a bunch of bubble but quickly fizzed away like a soda, and now there are tons of small bubbles coming up from the bottom of the glass.

Even with the lack malt in the smell this beer has a plenty of malt in the taste. There is a caramel malt flavor in the taste. The hop smell get reduced down to only a little hop flavor, and a mild bitterness in the finish of the beer. This beer has a light mouth feel, but all the bubbles are tingly on my tongue.

There is a lot going on with this beer, smells that don't match the taste, nice malt and bitterness, and more bubbles that normally found in a beer. This I an enjoyable beer and I can see how it could start the craft beer revolution.

#53 Miller - High Life

I am drinking a cheap commercial beer tonight. My brother-in-law left me one this weekend to review. I don't want to be too one sided and avoid cheap beer. I decided to drink this from the can since I think that is how it is intended to be drank. and it's in a nice orange can for beer hunting season.

This beer smells like old malt, kind of skunky, defiantly not fresh. The color is pretty much a filtered clear yellow. There is plenty of carbonation, but its hard to talk about the head while in a can. I know commercial beers normally have a nice head when poured but it quickly subsides.

The taste is also of skunky old malt, it reminds me of the morning breath I have after a night of drinking beer. There is a little malt sweetness in the taste, but only noticed in a large drink. There is some bitterness after the drink is finished. I can also taste a ever so slight hop flavor, but it might be contributing to some of the skunky flavors in the beer. I don't think the beer is skunky from sun since its in a can, I think this is just how it tastes.

For a less than 50 cents a can it is beer, and will get you drunk. I would recommend another cheap beer over the Champagne of Beers for a low cost drunkenness. This is one of the few beers I really don't like, and taking my time drinking it shows this again.

#52 Steinlager - Imported premium lager

Steinlager is made in New Zealand and seems to be a big sponsor of sports events. Steinlager has even sponsored rugby teams in America. They make a Steinlager light which is low alcohol, a Steinlager Super Cold which is server at 32 degree fahrenheit, and a Pure which is marketed at a more premium version of the classic.

This beer has a well balanced malt and hop smell, with a little bit of sourness. The color is a clear yellow beer color, with a nice big head of foam. There are plenty of bubbles coming up from the bottom. This is a very traditional looking beer when poured.

The taste is also traditional. Some malt sweetness, and notes of hops throughout. No taste very strong, just well rounded taste. There is a little sourness present in the beer that I think is caused by the green glass it is bottled in. Even with the sourness this beer still finishes clean and refreshing.

This is a good straight forward lager. A little sweeter that I prefer, but I find that a lot with the morn traditional beers.

#51 Schlafly - Maplewood

I again got this beer from Schlafly's Bottleworks. This is their Maplewood named after the city of Maplewood Missouri where Bottleworks call home. This is a seasonal beer that is only served at the Bottleworks and not bottled.

This beer has a slight smell of maple sweetness. There is also a good maple brown color, filtered clear but brown for sure. This beer has almost no foam which is common for a beer with something other than malt or hops added.

The taste of this beer is all about the maple syrup. There is nothing but sweet maple syrup. The mouth feel is medium but not full which is the only thing that isn't focused around maple syrup. There is no hops and no bitterness, really nothing but sweetness.

I asked the server the story behind this beer and he said it was a beer with maple syrup added and that is what the taste is.

#50 Sierra Nevada - Wheat

Another beer from Sierra Nevada. Don't really have much to open with.

This beer has the smell of a wheat beer. There is a light citrus fruit smell, and a strong yeast smell. This beer is highly carbonated with a flood of bubbles from the bottom of the glass forming a nice thick head of foam.

The taste is very dry. There is some wheat and yeast flavor in the beer but it finished really dry. The taste is almost nutty, I think from all the yeast in the beer. There is no sweetness in the taste, this beer could have been made with almost all wheat and not malt. The dryness brings an almost metallic taste to the beer. There is a nice nice smooth mouth feel that all the wheat brings to the beer. The citrus smell does not carry though to the taste of this beer.

I think the lack of sweetness makes this a hard to drink beer. I like the smell, and all the foam, but I think the large amount of wheat makes this beer hard to drink.

#49 Woodchuck - Granny Smith Cider

In my search for a good cider I've picked up another woodchuck. This one is made from granny smith apples instead of other apples, I'm not sure what apples the other ciders used. It's nice to know this is using granny smith's since I know what they taste like.

This cider has a light smell of apples. There isn't any of the sweetness in the smell that is in some of the other ciders. There is a light carbonation in the cider with a few bubbles come up from the bottom. The color is an almost transparent yellow.

This cider has a nice sour apple / granny smith flavor. The finish is nice and sour, leaving the back of the mouth salivating. There is a little residual sweetness, just enough to be noticed. I like the added flavor from the granny smith apples, it gives the cider extra complexity.

This is a really enjoyable cider. For all the cider's I've tried so this is my favorite. I like the added complexity and the low sugar level.

#48 Berghoff - Bock Beer

This is another beer from Huber brewery. For the most part that have come a little short of what I want. I did like the red beer but it reminding me of my first beer had a lot to do with my liking that beer. I'm not saying any are very bad beer, just only one has been a very good beer.

This bock has a great smell of dark malt and caramel and even some hops. This beer is dark but filtered clear, the color is a lot like the glass of the bottle it was poured from. There is a nice head of foam on this dark beer.

This beer has a strange taste. It tastes like coffee and sweet malt, and hops all at the same time with an overly foamy thin mouth feel. This beer taste a little more like a soda than a beer. I have not had very many bocks lately maybe I am missing something about how they should taste. The sweet taste reminds me of root beer.

I would only drink this beer again to see if it still has the same strange taste. It is not really a bad taste it is just not a taste I think beer should have. It's too sweet and poorly balanced. It's tolerable, but not good.

#47 Homebrew - Hard Apple Cider

Since there are only a few cider's available in the market I decided to focus on making some of my own. This is my first batch of cider and it was really easy to make. Some fresh non-concentrate apple cider, some yeast, and a little extra sugar to push up the proof all thrown in a large bottle for a few weeks.

This apple cider has more aroma than the other ciders I have been drinking. This cider also has more carbonation that any of the other ciders. I planned for the cider to have more carbonation, but it didn't work right. This is a mostly clear with just a little haze. The color is a very light yellow, almost peach color.

This cider is very dry. This cider has no residual sweetness. There is a light apple taste, but the main taste is a dry alcohol taste. I think the smell has more apple than the taste. This is a high proof drink made with Champagne yeast which might be adding to the dry taste.

I am not thrilled with this cider, but it is drinkable. I plan to brew a second batch tomorrow and change the recipe to include some cranberry concentrate.

#46 - Strongbow - Dry Cider

Strongbow is a well known in England for being really cheap alcohol common among vagrants and homeless. It comes in 3 liter bottles, like soda in America, on a trip to England I wanted to bring some back but was worried about the pressure on a large carbonated bottle.

This cider has a dry smell, no sweetness in the smell. There is a little apple smell, but again with no foam the smell isn't as noticeable. This is has a lighter color than the woodchuck, it's close to colorless. I've seen one bubble come up from the bottom, and thats been all the carbonation to seen.

Strongbow has a very dry flavor, with no residual sweetness. There is nothing complex to the taste just apple, and dryness. The dryness is left in the back of the mouth and tongue. There is a little alcohol harshness to this cider, but it is only 5%.

I like cider, but I am not a huge fan of this one. I think it is too dry, I really liked the sweetness and the granny smith flavor. Unfortunately there are very few ciders readily available, I will be searching for more to drink and review.

#45 WoodChuck - Amber Cider

Is cider really beer? Well the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) style guidelines cover cider and I have been using the BJCP as my measure for past beers. The BJCP is the program used for homebrewing competitions which is part of my focus. By the beer purity act, Cider is not a beer because it is made of apple and not just water Barley and Hops. So is Cider beer, no it isn't but will I drink and review one for my Year of Beer, Yes.

This Cider has very slight sweet apple smell but it's not too strong. I would expect a stronger apple smell but I think the lack of foam is keeping down the aroma. There is a stray bubble or two but no foam to speak of. And the color is a clear yellow, the color of apple juice.

There is a pleasant tart taste, that remind me of granny smith apples. There is plenty of residual sweetness to this cider which makes it an attractive drink to people who don't like beer. This beer finishes nicely leaving a little hint of sweetness. The mouth feel is fuller than a normal beer.

This is a good enjoyable cider. Has a little complexity to the taste with tart and sweet but nothing overly complex. I would like a little more carbonation in my drink, but thats personal preference. I really like to get a Cider on draft and order most any time I find one.

#44 O'Fallon - 5 Day IPA

O'Fallon Brewery is a local craft brewery in a St. Louis Suburb. When I first went to O'Fallon for a tour I called ahead to schedule it and the person on the phone side she would give us the tour since her husband was taking the kid to a soccer game. At that time they only had one employee beside the two owners, today they only have 7 employee's. I've seen O'Fallon distributed in Louisville KY at a local grocery store, I was surprised to see such a wide distribution for such a small company.

This been has a wonderful flora hoppy smell. One sniff and it's clear this is an IPA. The color is a dark gold with a thick head of foam. I like the foam on IPAs it's normally thick with a slight yellow tint.

The IPA hops taste comes through very well with this beer. There is lots of green grassy hop taste and even a slight unripe pineapple taste. With all the hops this beer is not very bitter. Some IPAs are so bitter it can make the beer hard to drink very many, but this beer has very little bitterness which makes a good drinkable beer. This beer has a good thick mouth feel like an IPA should.

After the last few days of enjoyable and mediocre beer it is a pleasure to drink a beer this good. I have a friend who claims he dumped his girlfriend and fell in love with IPAs after drinking this beer.

#43 North Coast Brewing - Red Seal Ale

This beer has a sharp hop aroma, which is a nice change for the last few beers. There is a hint of malt sweetness in the smell, but mainly hop aroma. An yellow amber color that I don't think is the prettiest colored beer. There is a nice head of foam but no bubble coming up from the bottom.

The hoppy smell comes through in the taste. The hops are bitter and not the very floral. This beer has an almost soapy taste. I can only taste the slightest malt sweetness, the bitter hops are the strongest characteristic in the taste. The mouth feel is very foamy and bitter, not sticky like some hoppy beers.

This is a tasty beer, but not the greatest. I think it is a little too hoppy for a plain Ale, it could almost be an Indian Pale Ale. I think this beer uses the same hops as the Allendale IPA that I didn't like, I get the same soapy taste and bitter finish, this is a better beer that the Allendale. I would like to know if they are using the same hops so I can know to stay away from that type.

#42 Sam Adams - Brown Ale

Just another Sam Adam's beer. I didn't get anything special to drink today. I think I have one more Sam Adam's from the sample case.

This beer has a rich caramel smell, with even a little note of coffee. The color is lives up to the name of Brown Ale. This is a filtered beer but it is still very dark. Not too much head and the head is a light brown.

This beer has a strong hop bitterness in the taste. The caramel comes through in the taste but is dominated by the bitterness. There isn't a flora hop taste just a hop bitterness. There is a medium mouth feel but it's not a full as expected from such a dark beer.

This is a drinkable beer, its just nothing to get excited about. As I've said about Sam Adams before, they make a beer that tastes fine. Nothing amazing nothing disappointing. Just fine.

#41 Brouwerij De Regenboog - VUUVE

This is from the same small brewery as yesterdays beer.

The smell is very fruity, and with none of the Belgium notes from yesterday. This beer has the an unfiltered yellow color, with almost no foam.

This beer tastes a lot like yesterday's beer. If I compared them side by side I might be able to tell a difference. This beer is brewed with the spices coriander and orange peel while yesterday's was mustard. I think can taste some coriander and orange peel in this beer. If I wanted to wildly speculate I would say yesterday's was labeled wrong and this is the same beer. But I have nothing to base that wild speculation on.

I didn't like the beer yesterday and I think today's taste the same. I'm going to go buy some more beer tomorrow.

#40 Brouwerij De Regenboog - Wostyntje

I got two Belgium beers made by Brouwerij De Regenboog. Brouwerij De Regenboog means rainbow in Dutch. The brewery started in 1995 as an artisanal brewery only making 1 barrel 120 liters of beer a week. I couldn't find much other info about the brewery, it's fun to drink beers from brewery's I can't find info about. I bet knowing Dutch would help.

This beer has a sharp dry smell, but with a little spice flavor. When I was pouring the beer I first thought it smelled like a Belgium beer which I think comes from using candy sugars, but the smell passed quickly. This beer has an unfiltered yellow brown color and only a bit of foam. Adding flavors to beer other than malt and hops like spices have a tendency to limit the foam.

This beer tastes like orange juice. I am not noticing any other flavors other than orange juice. I can't detect any malt or hops, or the mustard that the beer is supposed the be brewed with. A lightly sour orange juice is all I can think of.

There might be something wrong with this bottle, or maybe this is the way a beer brewed with mustard seeds tastes like. Overall I don't really like this beer I don't think it tastes like beer.

#39 (Coors) Bluemoon - Belgiam White

It is common to add a slice of orange to a Bluemoon but I am not adding any fruit to and beer reviewed for this blog. If the brewmaster wanted the fruit added it would have been added already.

This beer has a great fruity smell, like oranges. I question the point of smelling some beers but this one smells great. There is a good yellow unfiltered color and a strong head that can get carried away if not poured correctly. This beer has clumps that I think are yeast floating in it. I am not sure how long I've had this beer around so I think the clumps are because of the age.

This beer has a nice sweet fruit taste with a nice bitter finish. The mouth feel is nice and smooth very enjoyable. The clumps don't seem to have effected the mouth feel but I think it is a little more bitter than normal. This is a nice quaffable, easy drinking beer. Nothing overly complex just a good enjoyable wheat beer.

I've found that writing this blog has changed how I feel about beer and made some beers less enjoyable. I don't like Killian as mush as I used too, but this bluemoon is still a great beer. I don't advise keeping this beer around for months because the yeast will clump and turn a little bitter, but the beer isn't ruined.

#38 Berghoff - Red Ale

Berhoff is made by Huber Brewery, the brewery that makes the Huber Premium Beer that I reviewed previously. This beer is so much better than the Huber that the Brewery has redeemed its self to me. I am eager to try other beers in the Berhoff line.

The smell of this beer is a good example of a red ale with sweet malt and light hop smells. This beer has a fine red color to match it's name and a bit of foam.

This beer has a nice sweet taste and just a bit of hops like a rd ale should. This beer also had some fruit esters which really add to the sweet taste and gives the beer some flavor to standout. It reminds me a lot of the red ale I brewed with the fruit esters.

I enjoy this beers red ale flavors. It's got a nice taste that isn't overpowering so it can be enjoyed any time.

#37 Yuengling - Traditional Lager

This blog post is a day late, because I am out of town at a wedding. The beer was drank on October 12th, but I didn't get the post finished until late the next day. I will be drinking today's beer soon and getting the write up done on time. I'll get the pictures up soon too.

This beer doesn't have much of a smell. There is a light caramel malt flavor but for the most part the smell leaves some to the imagination. The color is a great dark gold. Its filtered clear but the dark color is very pretty. There is a good head of foam on this beer that stays while I drink.

This beer has a nice balance of malt and hops. I can't distinguish any unique malt or hop flavors, but an overall taste of beer. There is a dry bitter finish to this beer which is about the only flavor I can put my finger on. This beer is just a little on the plain side, but that is not always a bad thing.

This beer is called a tradition Lager and I think it fits well. With a good balanced taste this is a good enjoyable beer that can be drank in any quantity. An idea beer to offer to a Budweiser fan.

#36 Chimay Ale - Blue

The Chimay box set came with a glass as seen in the pictures that I have been using for all the beers. The glass has a large opening that allows for good smelling of the beer and nice over all presentation. I really like this heavy goblet and I plan to use it for future beers.

Again with the yeast smell, and slight hint of dark malt maybe a little coffee. This beer has a different smell from the others it's a tart and bubbly smell a slight ticking of my nose. This beer has a very dark color with only a little head. But bubbles are coming up from the side and collecting at the edges.

Yesterday's Chimay was described as effervescent when talking about the mouth feel. This beer I think effervescent dominates the taste and mouth feel. There are little bubbles bubbling all over my tongue with ever sip. The beer starts malty sweet with slight coffee notes and a light hop spicyness, but with all the bubbles it finishes extremely dry.

I think this beer could be appropriately bottled like Champagne since it has so many bubbles. To me the effervescentes of this beer is taking away from it. I am not a big fan of Champagne which is what this beer reminds me of and this could be taking away from my enjoyment of this beer. I am not calling this beer undrinkable, I would just prefer a lot less bubbles.

As I finish the Chimay series I can say I drank them in order of enjoyment for most enjoyed to least. I loved the first beer, the triple, it was by far my favorite with the most unique taste, good flavor, and great thick head appearance. The Red was a fine beer and the blue I just am not crazy about. I will try drinking more groupings of beers. It makes it easy to pick out each day, and gives a good set of comparisons.

#35 - Chimay - Ale Red

Chimay is a Trappist beer brewed in an abbeys one of only (correction) 6 7 in the world. Orval, Rochefot, Westmalle, Westvleteren, and Achel are the Belgium Trappist breweries and Koningshoeven Brewery is in the Netherlands. Chimay abbey was built in 1850 on the Belgium French border. Monk's honor of manual labor and being hospitable to guests is where the tradition of making beer started. Today the Trappist continue to brew in the old traditions make world renowned beers.

Similar yeast and spice smell as the Triple, but with a hint of dark malt, and stout. This beer has less foam than the triple but still plenty of foam. This red lives up to its name with a dark red tint to the over all brown color.

The yeast is again present in the taste but far less than the triple. The dark malt stout smell does not come through in the taste. This beer has a nice sweet taste with a light hop spice finish. This beer has a great effervescent mouth feel. The bubble tingle the tongue and cheeks, and leave the beer finishing dry.

This is not as an amazing beer as the triple but it is still a fine beer. I like the bubbles, it's a lot like a champagne made with malt grain instead of grapes. This has a very enjoyable unique taste that I really enjoy.

#34 Chimay - Tripple Ale

Today I bought a box of 3 Chimay Trappist beers and one glass from Starrs. Starrs is a market with a large beer, wine, and liquor selection with in walking distance from my house. For the next three days I will be drinking the Chimays out of their included glass. I have some pictures of the box at the end of the post.

This Ale has a very yeasty smell that I think will be common among these three beers. There is also a hint of hop spice in the aroma. This beer has a pale yellow color and it is clearly unfiltered. This beer has HUGE head and great head retention, I think I could float a coin on the head of this beer. The head has a slight yellow color that goes with the rest of the beer.

This Ale has a LOT of taste of a beer described as an Ale. First there is a sweet taste but it doesn't taste like the normal malt sweetness. There is also some spice in the beer maybe coriander instead of just hops. Also there is a yeast flavor, but it is tasty as opposed to a common unfavorable yeast flavor. This has a great smooth mouth feel that make it a beer I want to keep drinking for the mouth feel alone.

This is an amazing beer. The taste is good and full of hard to define flavors, the mouth feel is full and enjoyable, the look is great with lots of foam that sticks to the side of the glass as the beer is drank. I am looking forward to tomorrows Trappist Chimay.

#33 Mendocino - Red Tail Ale

This is another beer from Mendocino with a picture of a Raptor. The labels on these beer remind me of 20 year of beer labels. A picture of a big strong animal on the front, with hops and grain placed in the picture. Lots of symbolism and feeling in the label. I know I complained about the German labels, but I like these, they are nostalgic and campy.

This beer has a sweet malt smell that is familar with a red Ale. There is a pleasant hop smell from this Ale. A nice red color that is filtered clear with a rim of foam.

This beer has the taste of light malt with a touch of sweetness. There is also a well balanced hop flavor that might be a little too bitter. This beer leaves a slight bitter taste on the back of the tongue a little more than most red Ales. It has a pleasant smooth mouth feel similar to the Mendocino Eye of the Hawk. It must be the grains they use but they make for a smooth beer with some body to it.

This beer is not as good as th Eye of the Hawk but it is still a very good beer. This beer has a good hops flavor that is balanced against the malt. If this beer was a little less bitter I would be happier with this beer.

#32 Carlsberg - Elephant malt liquor

Another beer from Carlsberg and it's labeled Malt Liquor. Malt Liquor is a title is normally reserved for cheap high proof drinks often fermented with corn and not barley. By law in malt liquor is defined as

"Malt Liquors" includes beer and shall be construed to mean any beverage obtained by the alcoholic fermentation of any infusion or decoction of barley, malt, hops or any other similar products, or any combination thereof, in water containing more than three and two-tenths percent of alcohol by weight.

Other high proof beers avoid the title malt liquor by brewing to a style like barley wine or doppelbock.

The similar astringent smell is present with this Carlsberg as with yesterday's Carlsberg Beer. This beer is the familiar beer yellow color, but with a light haze. Not much foam but a good number of bubbles coming up from the bottom.

The harsh skunked taste is still there, I don't know if it is caused by the green glass or if it's in green glass because the beer is already skunked and it doesn't matter. There is a little malt sweetness to this beer that adds some flavor and makes this beer tolerable. There is also a strange after taste, a little like the skunk flavor with some lemon tart flavor.

Again I am not happy with this beer, it is better than yesterday's Carlsberg Beer, but it's not good. I'm only drinking it because I have it already and I can't turn down a beer in my quest for 365. Even if I can't turn it down I can at lest not finish it, thats one thing I can be happy about.

#31 Carlsberg Beer

Carlsberg was founded by J. C. Jacobsen and the first brew was finished on November 10, 1847. Today Carlsberg owns breweries in China, Hong Kong, Israel, and throughout Europe. I am not familiar with any of the brands held b Carlsberg since they are mainly on US. In the future I will keep an eye out for more from this company.

This beer has a strong grassy hops smell. The smell is almost astringent it's so strong. A standard yellow beer color with a nice head of foam with a bubble of two coming from the bottom. This looks so stereotypical of a beer that if someone was asked to draw a beer this is what they would draw.

The astringic smell continues to the taste. It's a sharp unpleasant taste, with some detectable malt flavor but mainly the harsh astringic taste. This beer reminds me of Heineken, a beer that is intentionally skunked with UV light to cause the harsh taste. I think this beer is skunked on purpose and that's where all the astringency is coming from.

I do not like this beer. I don't like the harsh skunk taste. I might not even finish this beer I am so unhappy with it. This beer is fit to give to a twelve year old to keep them from drinking beer.

#30 Samuel Adams - Black Lager

Black Lager or Schwarzbier is a style from Germany. I always like a beer that is named for it's color because that's how I would name a beer. This is one of the many Sam Adam's beers that I got from a twelve pack of different variety. I've been read ing about a beer Sam Adam's has brewed called Utopia, it is 24% alcohol and illegal to sell in many states because of its high proof.

This black lager has the caramel smell of dark malts, and a hint of hops. The hops in the smell is enough to make it clear that this is beer. The color lives up to its name and is black, if I look closely I can see through the beer, but it is black for sure. A light foam on the top, just enough to ring the glass.

The taste is full of dark malt flavors, coffee and caramel, even some roasty burnt flavors. Again just enough hops to be reminiscent of beer. This beer has a nice clean finish for such a dark beer. The mouth feel is an appropriate medium body, making think beer good all around.

This is again a good beer from Sam Adams. Nothing too crazy, just a nice tasting easy to enjoy beer. I could enjoy a beer like this all night long.

#29 Jack's (Anheuser Busch) - Pumpkin Spice Ale

I don't know who the Jack is that made this pumpkin spice ale but I know he works for Anheuser Busch. The new trend to make a Jack's pumpkin ale instead of a Bud Pumpkin is from the growing craft brew market. I am happy to see new beers on the market, but brewery's shouldn't forget what they do well.

This beer has a spicy smell, primarily hops but a touch of pumpkin pie spice. The more I smell this beer the less like beer it smells, it starts to get an artificial smell. This beer pours with a great foamy head that sticks around and is accented by bubbles from the bottom of the glass. It has a nice orange color like a good Pumpkin beer should.

The taste of this beer is a lot like the smell of the beer. I start of thinking pumpkin because that's what it says on the bottle but the more I think about it the less I enjoy the taste. There is a little malt sweetness like an ale should have, but the strongest tastes is the spice. I just keep tasting something strange in the spice. This calls itself a pumpkin spice ale so I don't think it has any real pumpkin in it, but the taste is just off. There is nothing complex to the beer, it's a base ale with some spice added.

For a special seasonal beer this is drinkable. Maybe I don't like pumpkin spice, but I keep thinking these pumpkin beers just taste off. I won't buy this beer again thats for sure. I am not even looking forward to the other 5 in the fridge, maybe I can pawn them off on some friends. I was planning to brew my own pumpkin ale, but now I'm having second thoughts.

#28 Samuel Adams - Scotch Ale

Another Sam Adams beer is being enjoyed today. This is a Scotch Ale, a style with a history of being made with lots of malt and only a few hops because the hops would have to be imported. It's brewed and stored in the cool Scottish climate and given a long time to ferment much like Scotch Whiskey.

This beer smells of dark malts and rich hops, but unfortunately the smell isn't very strong. The beer has a pleasant filtered brown color, I can see through it but it's truly a dark beer. Not much carbonation, only a slight head that doesn't stay around.

This beer has a rich coffee and caramel malt taste plus a good hop flavor. The hops are not too strong but have a good spice taste with only a little bitterness. This is the start of a "Big Beer", a beer that is full of strong flavors that has to be drunken slowly. This Scotch Ale has a good rich mouth feel and just a great coffee finish.

In an earlier post about Samuel Adams I said the company makes beers to style, and I think this is another good example. This is a great rich beer that borders on being a Big Beer. I think if this was bottle conditioned for a while and not filtered this beer would be outstanding. As it is this is a good enjoyable beer that is available throughout the country.

#27 Bitburger - Premium Beer

This Bitburger is imported from Germany, they only sell 3 types of beer and none are a clear beer styles. I really like the labels on the German beers, they are very old traditional style labels, nothing exciting like most modern craft beers.

This beer starts with a sweet smell with a light hint of hops and maybe a touch of yeast. It has a nice gold color that I can see through but there is still a slight haze in the beer. There is a little foam but it doesn't have much head resistance.

This beer has a full sweet taste, but finishes dry. The hops are balanced against the sweetness but I think there is still too much sweetness. There is a bitter finishing taste in this beer that wipes out the sweet malt. This beer has a nice medium body mouth feel.

This beer reminds me of other light German beers. Sweet but a bitter taste in the end and not to complex. I see why dark heavy beers are what most people think about when they talk about German beers.

#26 Mendocino - Eye of the Hawk

This is a beer from a California brewery that started as one of the first brewpubs in 1983. They have good selections of beers all with bird references. One the web site they go on to talk about dreams of raising raptors and the beers embodying the spirit of the birds. I like seeing a brewery that put so much though into what they do.

I can smell a little yeast, and a little grassy hops for this beer. The yeast in the smell make me think this is beer is bottle conditioned, but its pretty clear so I could be wrong. This beer has a good golden red color, with a nice head of foam and bubbles coming up from the bottom. The look of this beer is pleasant and enticing.

This ale taste first starts with rich malt flavor, but not too sweet. It also has a slight hop flavor that is well balanced against the malt. This beer has a surprisingly heavy mouth feel, I am not sure if this is caused by the carbonation or if there is some wheat used in brewing this beer. The mouth feel reminds me of Belgium beers, I wonder if there is a connection. This is an 8% beer which is also like a Belgium beer.

The Brewery's web site mentions this beer's nice mouth feel and says it is made using a mix caramel and pale malted barley. It is bottle condition like I thought from the smell. This is a very enjoyable beer it is easy to drink and is full of flavors that are blanced. I would like to try more beers from this brewery.