Mould's Beer Blog

Hey all, thanks for coming by!  Every now and then while Kerry and I are shopping at our local Wegmans supermarket, we take a stroll through their mix a six-pack area to see if they have anything unique.  They have one of the largest mix a six-pack areas I've seen.  A lot of the selection is seasonal and flagship beers, but every now and then we find some special releases mixed in.  Last month, they had some 21st Amendment Lower de Boom!  I quickly put two in our six-pack, one to drink now and another to save in the cellar. All 8.4 fl. oz. of Lower de Boom After checking out 21st Amendment's website , I learned that Lower de Boom is part of the Insurrection Series.  The other two beers listed as part of the Insurrection series are Marooned on Hog Island and Hop Crisis.  I have high hopes for this beer, let's see what it's made of! Lower de Boom 21st Amendment Brewery American Barleywine 11.5% ABV,  92 IBUs Canned on 02/05/13...

Hey everyone, glad you could make it!  Tonight I am going to try a different style of barleywine than the Brooklyn Monster I had last night.  Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale is an American barleywine, and can be expected to have the hops kicked up to another level.  Bigfoot Ale is part of Sierra Nevada's High Altitude line of beers and is released every winter.  Let's check it out! Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale Bigfoot Ale (2013) Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Barleywine Style Ale 9.6% ABV 90 IBUs 12 oz bottle poured into my Victory Brewing tulip glass Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale  Sierra Nevada Bigfoot pours a deep copper color with red hues.  It has a two finger width off-white head, and leaves a good amount of lacing on the glass.  The aroma explodes with grapefruit and pine that covers a caramel backbone.  Bigfoot starts out rough on the palate, but eases up as it warms....

Hey everyone, thanks for coming by!  Tonight I am going to be drinking a glass of Brooklyn Brewery's 2012 batch of Monster Ale.  Monster Ale is an English barleywine style ale and can be found on store shelves between the months of November and February.  I'll be saving a few of these bottles to age to see how the beer changes over time. Brooklyn Brewery Monster Barleywine Style Ale Monster Ale Brooklyn Brewery English Barleywine 10.1% ABV 47 IBUs 12 oz bottle poured into my Chimay goblet Brooklyn Brewery Monster Barleywine Style Ale Brooklyn Brewery's 2012 Monster Ale poured a clear copper color with a 1/2 finger width head that diminished very quickly.  After pouring, I let the beer sit for 15-20 minutes.  There are aromas of sweet fruit, malts and alcohol.  I'm not able to pick out any specific aroma from the hops.  As I sip on the beer, the malt and the alcohol take center stage.  There are flavors of caramel, dat...

Hey everyone!  I'm writing this, sipping on a Yards Brewing Company Old Bartholomew Barleywine.  The Christmas tree is up and lit, presents underneath, and only one more day of work until I have to work again (sadly on December 31st).  I sincerely hope all of you have finished your holiday shopping, and can avoid the inevitably heavy crowds this weekend.   Old Bartholomew is, according to Yards Brewing, a barleywine and a winter warmer.  It's drinking like a barleywine, and definitely warms your soul up a bit, and is a winter release.  I suppose it's not such a stretch to use the term winter warmer when describing this beer.   Olde Bartholomew Barleywine Ale Yards Brewing Company 10.3% ABV Bottled on December 7, 2011 At first Old Bart surprised me.  It poured a much lighter color than I expected, a light golden orange (looks a little darker in the pic).  There was less than finger width of head.  Lots of bubbles r...

Don't worry.  You're not the only one sad this weekend is over.  On the bright side of things, we are closer to the holidays and the new year!  Time for family, food, presents and then yearly resolutions to work off all that extra food!  Tonight I am trying my first beer from Morrisville, Vermont's Rock Art Brewery .  The beer is Ridge Runner, and is Rock Art's "mild" barleywine.  Let's jump right in!   Ridge Runner Barley Wine Ale Rock Art Brewery  ABV not on bottle, BA says 7.50% Bottled on :  Sep 28, and I must assume 2012, but year not specified  From Rock Art's website :  Brewed with pale, dark crystal, Munich, flaked barley, black and chocolate malts.  Hops include Cascade, Crystal, Challenger and Perle.    Ridge Runner pours a dark copper color with a finger width head.  The head diminishes fairly quickly, and doesn't leave much lacing on the glass.  In the aroma, there are smells of...

The other day I was drinking Stone's Double Bastard Ale, an American strong ale, and I realized I didn't have the greatest understanding of the differences between strong ales, barleywines, old ales and, to a lesser extent, double IPAs. In my mind, they were always kind of grouped into the group of beers that have lots of hops, lots of malt and lots of alcohol! I decided to do some research into the real differences between these beers. To the best of my knowledge, there are two main organizations which provide beer style guidelines. The Brewer's Association (BA) provides style guidelines "as a reference for brewers and beer competition organizers."  The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) uses a similar set of guidelines, but there are some differences from the BA's guidelines.  For my purposes they are similar enough, so I am going to use the BA style guidelines for my comparison. The first think I noticed while looking at the BA style guidelin...

Winter is coming, and not just in Westeros.  When it gets to the point where it's dark out when I leave work and I have to wear my coat everyday, it's time to break out the bigger beers.  Barleywines, imperial stouts, tripels and quads, Belgian strong ales.  These are collectively my, and I'm sure a lot of yours, favorite styles of beer.  Tonight I'm drinking another beer by Atlantic Brewing Company .  Their Brother Adam's Bragget sounded like just the right thing for tonight.  From the bottle, it's a barleywine style honey ale, brewed with Maine honey.  Brother Adam sounded like a pretty awesome beer wrangler, just check out his wiki page !  I bought this beer from the brewery itself while I was in Maine, and it was a bottle from 2010.   Brewery :  Atlantic Brewing Company Beer :  Brother Adam's Bragget (2010) ABV :  11.8% (from Untappd/BeerAdvocate) Brother Adam's Bragget poured a reddish-brown color, with a tiny he...

 So it's official.  There will be a Star Wars Episode VII , and the screenplay will be written by Michael Arndt ( Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3) .  As a long time Star Wars fan, even though I was for the most part disappointed with the prequels, I can't help but feel excited and a little giddy.  I don't think the timeline has been officially announced, but since they're calling it Episode VII , I am assuming it will take place after the events in Return of the Jedi .  There are many directions Disney/Lucasfilm can take, either starting up right after Return of the Jedi , or going farther into the future.  Either way, it will definitely be interesting to see how everything pans out. Tonight I am drinking a bourbon-barrel aged barleywine from Cricket Hill Brewery .  There is no stamp on the bottle of when it was bottled, so I'm not really sure how old this barleywine is.  There is also no listed %ABV on the bottle. It poured a reddish br...