Mould's Beer Blog

Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by.  This is a post in a series of posts I am doing entitled "Exploring the BJCP," which highlights the different sections of the Beer Judge Certification Program, in no particular order.  Today, we look at Category 12B: Robust Porters!   Here is the link to the BJCP page on Category 12B .  Enjoy! Category 12 in the BJCP are porters, and they are divided into 3 subcategories: 12A: Brown Porter 12B: Robust Porter 12C: Baltic Porter Robust porters tend to have more of a burnt malt flavor in the aroma and flavor, and will usually have a greater degree of roastiness than brown porters.  They will be darker in color than brown porters, some robust porters even being close to black.  American versions of the robust porter may have more hop character than English versions.  Typically you will see the % ABV of robust porters in the 4.8 - 6.5% range. In the commercial examples of the robust porter, all are from Ame...

Hey everyone, hope you had a great weekend!  I tried some great beers the last few days.  Without further adieu, here are the one's that were really memorable. New Belgium / Dieu du Ciel! Heavenly Feijoa Heavenly Feijoa New Belgium / Dieu du Ciel! Belgian tripel with feijoa and hibiscus 9% ABV I was excited to try out the Heavenly Feijoa.  This was my first time trying one of New Belgium's Lips of Faith beers (since they don't distribute to NJ yet), and also my first time trying a beer from Dieu du Ciel!, a brewery out of Montreal.  I also didn't know what a feijoa was.  Consulting Google and Wikipedia, I learned feijoa is also known as pineapple guava and guavasteen.  The beer itself was very fruity (in aroma and flavor), but not overly sweet.  The fruit flavors blended quite well with the malt and hops.  I didn't taste much of the classic Belgian yeast character in this beer.  Overall, quite unique and quite good. 2...

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 all, thanks for coming by!  Hope you're all having a great weekend.  I thought I would try and sneak in some beer notes on this Saturday night.  As an after dinner treat, I am opening a bottle of Firestone Walker Brewing Company's Velvet Merlin.  Velvet Merlin is an oatmeal stout, and is released in the winter months as a seasonal beer.  Time for a drink...   Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin     Velvet Merlin Firestone Walker Brewing Company Oatmeal Stout 5.5% ABV 27 IBUs Bottled on January 8, 2013 12 oz. bottle poured into my Ithaca Beer Co. pint glass Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin     Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin pours black with a little bit of red around the sides when held up to the light.  There is a one finger width tan white head which recedes fairly quickly.  The aroma and flavor are both of roasted malt, milk chocolate and coffee beans.  It drinks very easily, and is not too ...

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....

Thanks for stopping by everyone!  Tonight I am cracking open a bottle of this year's batch of Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye.  Sierra Nevada first released this beer nationwide last spring, and was, for the most part, received with superb reviews.  I picked up just one bottle this year to give it a try! Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye Ruthless Rye 2013 Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Rye Beer 6.6% ABV 55 IBUs Ruthless Rye pours copper in color, with a two finger width white head.  There is great head retention, which leaves a gorgeous, thick lacing on the glass.  Ruthless Rye has tons of grapefruit in the aroma, with a little pine thrown in.  Taking some sips, there is more grapefruit, pine, lemon, caramel, and maybe a little spice from the rye, but I may be imagining it.  I would say the body on Ruthless Rye is a little heavier than medium.  Carbonation seems average, and there is a resinous quality to each sip I take. Sierra Nevada Ru...

Evening everyone!  I hope you all got to have a relaxing weekend.  There were lots of beer festivals in and around NJ over the weekend.  If you attended any, let me know how they were, either in my comments below or any of the different social media outlets.  For myself, I didn't attend any.  I never seem to catch wind of them with enough time to plan the day out.  I need to work on that!  Kerry and I did attend a small beer tasting near Princeton at McCaffrey's Wine and Spirits, where we got to try several different stouts (including Brooklyn Black Ops), which were all poured by Jym, the @brew_thusiast.  Check him out on Twitter! Stone Brewing OAKED Arrogant Bastard Ale Tonight I am popping open Stone Brewing Company's OAKED Arrogant Bastard Ale.  It is loosely defined as an American Strong Ale, and has been aged a bit on wood chips.  One thing to note on this one, it is date-stamped by Stone to be best by 11/01/12, so it is ...

What's up everyone, thanks for coming by!  I've got some more states up over on my Brewery Maps page.  Check them out and let me know how they could be more useful to you!   Tonight I am trying my first beer from Firestone Walker, their Black Rye IPA Wookey Jack.  Wookey Jack won a gold medal in this year's Great American Beer Festival in the American-style black ale category.  This is a pretty highly regarded beer which I found on a local beer shop's shelf for fairly cheap.  Firestone Walker suggests drinking this beer within 120 days of the bottling date.  This beer was bottled on July 19, so it's a little bit past its prime.  It may not be at peak, but I have a feeling it will be just fine! Wookey Jack Firestone Walker Brewing Co. 8.3% ABV 80 IBUs Bottled on 07/19/12 Fun Fact:  Unfiltered.  Anyone know where the name Wookey Jack comes from? Wookey Jack pours a dark, dark brown, almost black color.  I...

 Hey everyone, I don't know about you, but I am super glad this weekend is finally here!  To celebrate the weekend, tonight I am drinking Stone's Double Bastard Ale.  Stone's Arrogant Bastard is great, and according to The Craft of Stone Brewing Co . , the Double Bastard is an "amped up" version of Arrogant Bastard.  I am definitely expecting this to be intense! 11.2% ABV Category:  American Strong Ale Double Bastard pours deep amber in color, with a 1/2 finger width white head that sticks around while drinking.  Very nice lacing is left on the glass as I consume this monster of a beer.  The nose of Double Bastard is all hops, full of the typical citrus and pine aromas.  At this point, it could be just about any West Coast IPA.  Here's where it takes a huge turn.  Sipping this beer, I get a brief, sweet, nutty caramel flavor.  This is immediately followed by an onslaught of hop bitterness which just sticks to the sides of my m...

This is my fourth and final review of the 2012 release of Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp series.  I'll be trying the Floral IPA, and it is 5.9% ABV. On the back of the 12 oz. bottle:  " This unique take on the traditional IPA style pairs the bold and intense of whole-cone hop "flowers" with aromatic natural rose hips and petals for complex aromas and unexpected flavors." Pours into my Dogfish Head pint glass an unfiltered, golden orange color.  Lots of floaters are present in this one.  The aroma is mainly pine and grapefruit from the hops used, and I don't get much else.  The taste is full of the pine and grapefruit, and also has a little bit of tartness, which I assume is from the rose hips and petals?  The hop bitterness lingers in my mouth after taking a drink.  To me, it's a fairly typical IPA with just a hint of "something else."  It's definitely worth a taste if you see it around! Have you had this beer?  What did yo...

It's Sunday night, and I'm excited!  I normally wouldn't be so excited for a Sunday night, because Sunday means tomorrow is Monday, and Monday is work.  But this Sunday night is different, because in one week, my wife Kerry and I are going to Maine for a vacation!  We can't wait to go up there, relax, see some sights, and bring home some good beer!  I think we'll also be visiting Atlantic Brewing Company near Bar Harbor.   My third beer review in the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp 2012 release is the Imperial Pilsner.  Imperial Pilsner is a style I don't have have much experience with.  A few years ago I tried Dogfish Head's My Antonia, and I remember enjoying it, so I have high hopes for this beer! This was the description on the back of the bottle: "Packing a big hop-forward punch and bright crisp finish, this golden pilsner features a hearty dose of "sticky," resinous Crystal and Pacifica dry hops, which balance the light-bodied yet complex ...

The second beer I'm tasting from the 2012 Sierra Nevada Beer Camp is #45, an Oatmeal Stout.  It comes in at 9% ABV.  This will be a great beer to sip on and have some dessert with to celebrate the season premiere of The Office! Poured into my Dogfish Head snifter.  This beer is black, no question about that.  Only a small light brown head.  Minimal lacing.  It looks fantastic.  Smells of roasted malts, dark roast coffee, and chocolate.  The taste is very smooth, but leaves a bit of bitterness and a small alcohol burn on my tongue.  The taste is mainly of roasted coffee and dark chocolate.  It goes great with the dark chocolate chip/pecan cookies my wife made!  Halfway through the Beer Camp beers, and this one is my favorite so far! Have you had this beer yet?  What did you think?  Did you taste anything I didn't?  Feel free to use the comments! Click  here for my review of the Sierra Nevada Beer...

This is my first post in a series of reviews where I'll be trying the Sierra Nevada's 2012 Beer Camp beers.  This year there is an Imperial Red Ale, Imperial Pilsner, Floral IPA, and an Oatmeal Stout.  They are all available in a twelve pack at most good liquor stores. The Imperial Red Ale clocks in at 8.1%.  It poured into my Dogfish Head snifter with about a finger and half width of head, which fell to half a finger width and stuck around for quite awhile. Lots of lacing left on the glass.  It was a dark, dark red beer which really looked great when looking at it in front of a light.  When I initially swirl the glass, the aroma is full of fruit and a bit of pine.  When the beer settled and I really got my nose in there, I picked up some caramel and toffee.  The taste follows the aroma quite nicely, and the hop bitterness sticks in my mouth after drinking.  Definitely a good beer, give it a try! If you've had this, what did you think of it...