My beer of the month club beers finally came.

My beer of the month club beers came last night. I put 1 of each in the fridge last night and will be trying one or two a night for the next couple of nights. Anybody tried any of these beers?

Foothills Brewing -------- Cottonwood Endo IPA
Abita Brewing Company -------- Restoration Pale Ale
Brouwerij Rodenbach (Belgium) -------- Rodenbach
Pivovar Zlatý Bažant (Slovak Republic) -------- Golden Pheasant

I think Im most excited to try the Rodenbach.

I used to drink the heck out of the endo ipa. I thought that was brewed by Carolina Brewing, must have been taken over or joined forces with Foothills. Either way, it was a solid beer, haven't had one in quite awhile though. Foothills makes some great stuff.

I haven't had the others. I'd be pretty excited about the Rodenbach as well.

hogwash said:

I used to drink the heck out of the endo ipa. I thought that was brewed by Carolina Brewing, must have been taken over or joined forces with Foothills. Either way, it was a solid beer, haven't had one in quite awhile though. Foothills makes some great stuff.

I haven't had the others. I'd be pretty excited about the Rodenbach as well.

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The info that came with it did say that Carolina Brewing was bought out by foothills.

The only one i had is the abita. Its a decent beer. I dont grab them as much as i used too. The Rodenbach I got a 750ml i need to drink soon. Maybe this weekend

I love most Belgians and Belgian-styles, but Flanders ales just must not work for me, because I hated Rodenbach. Sour in a farmhouse ale, sure. Sour in a brown/red ale with all of that sweetness... blech. /opinion

Which Rodenbach? Regular or GranCru?

I plan on posting my thoughts on each one of these here as I taste them. Ive never had a flanders red, so I dont know if I like them yet. I am a big fan of most belgain styles though.

MisterTipsy said:

Which Rodenbach? Regular or GranCru?

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Regular (Or classic as they call it)

Info on each beer can be found here:
http://www.beermonthclub.com/newsletters/vol19no7.htm

I like the classic Rodenbach more than the GranCru. It's dry and tart with some good barrel notes. If you are mixing beers in a session, start with Rodenbach.

Been thinking of joining the rare beer club for a while...

ArcaneXor said:

Been thinking of joining the rare beer club for a while...

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I may ask for that when my 4 month here are done.

Where would one sign up for a beer of the month club? I'm guessing they're state specific (with beer shipping/distribution laws)?

I think there a few of them out there, but this is the one I did.

http://www.beermonthclub.com/

They ship to all but a few states according to the website (Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah). Im sure if you contacted them they could tell you.

You do have to have someone 21 yrs old or older sign for it when it comes. The first time they tried to deliver it I missed them by 10 minutes.

Well I tried the Rodenbach last night and I really liked it. It was my first time trying a soured beer. It was something I think I could only drink every now and then, and no more than one a night. Not much hop presence and not much head. It was a dark ruby color and crystal clear. Light mouthfeel with a dry tart finish. Some malt flavor, with a cherry finish on it. Not overpowering by any means. Im thinking the Ill try the Pale ale tommorow.

Last nights beer was the Cottonwood ENDO Ipa. Im usually not a huge fan of IPA's, Im more of a pale ale guy, but I think Im slowly getting a taste for more hops. This one comes in at 60% abv and 66IBU.

According to the website its a mix of
Malts: North American 2-Row, Cara, Crystal
Hops: Cascade, Chinook, Magnum

If was quite citrusy and slightly dry, but damn tasty and really easy to drink. Im kind of disapointed I only have two more of these to drink, and no real clone recipe I could find. I might have to take a stab at it with the above ingredients.

mlyday said:

Well I tried the Rodenbach last night and I really liked it. It was my first time trying a soured beer. It was something I think I could only drink every now and then, and no more than one a night. Not much hop presence and not much head. It was a dark ruby color and crystal clear. Light mouthfeel with a dry tart finish. Some malt flavor, with a cherry finish on it. Not overpowering by any means.

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Flanders ales generally don't have much hops. Usually less than 20ibu. One exception is Monstre Rouge which is a Flanders blended with an IPA.

We' over the weekend I had the other two beers. The first was the abita restoration pale ale. It was quite hoppy on the nose, but not so much on the flavor. Not a bad beer, but not alot going on here. It was quite drinkable though.
The second one was the golden Pheasant. Not much to say on this one, it was a typical euro-lager. Not bad, but not my cup of tea.

Well this month beers came in and the selection is an interesting one. I have tried all 4, and there was 3 really good ones, and one that was pretty bad.

This is what came:

Fordham Brewing Company-Spiced Harvest Ale
Cisco Brewers-Summer of Lager
Steenbrugge (Brouwerij Palm) (Belgium) - Steenbrugge Tripel
Brouwerij Palm (Belgium)- Estaminet Premium Pils

I started out with the Estaminet premium Pils. Poured a very pale yellow, crystal clear. Tasted awesome, super clean, slightly dry finish. A really solid pilsner.

Next was the Summer of Lager from Cisco. This poured a little deeper yellow, small amount of head that stuck around. Alot of hops on the nose. This beer used Saphir hops, which I hadnt heard of before for so I was intriuged. Tasted like a lot of german lagers I have had before. Very goof, and very easy drinking.

The next night I started off with the harvest ale. Ive had a bunch of different pumpkin beers and I drink them every year, but most of them the pumpkin is way too powerfull a taste for me. This one has some pumpkin but not a lot, this was designed to have the spices be the stars of the show. I really liked this alot, tasted a little like a spiced cider. mouthfell was fairly light unlike alot of the pumpkin ones.

I love my Tripels so I was excited about the Steenbrugge Tripel. At least until I tasted it. Way to funky for me. After drinking it I noticed it was a gruit. Havent had a gruit I liked yet. I want some hops in my beer.

All in all it was a good month, wish I could get my hand on a few more of some of these.

My subscription ended this month. I haven't been flattered with the variety but pleased enough to renew. Which package did you sub for that your getting sours? Sounds like the one I want this time around.

http://www.beermonthclub.com/featuredbeers.htm

Im getting the VAR collumn. It give you 2 domestic beers usually smaller regional brewerys, and 2 international one. Ive been pretty pleased with the first few months. The onlu thing that would make it better would be if they gave you like 10 options and you could pick the ones you wanted. They cant please everyone though.

They show all the previous months selections, so you could get an idea of what type of stuff they select.
Im tempted to switch mine to the rare beer selections.

That's what I was thinking of doing as well, they've had some really good looking selections for that package.