Commercial beers from Brewtopia

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RichBrewer

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Brewtopia brought a ton of beers to the Home Brew Conference and he was nice enough to give me a few of them.
The least I can do is enjoy and then give my impressions of them here.
Brewtopia, you rock! :rockin:

The first one is a 22oz bomber from Avery Brewing. It is Called Collaboration not Litigation ale and was brewed at Avery by them and the head brewer at Russian River, Vinnie Cilurzo.
Here's the story.

http://www.averybrewing.com/BigBeers/seasonal/CollaborationnotLitigationAle
When I opened the bottle there was a lot of carbonation in it. When poured, a huge head formed that had to settle. Head retention was quite good through the whole glass leaving Brussels lace down the sides. The beer is amber and quite cloudy.
A good sniff into the glass and the malt nose is strong. Very little or no hop aroma. This could be my kind of beer! :D <- Not a hop head
When I taste my first sip I confirmed that this is my kind of beer. I love the malty sweetness balanced by a medium hop bitterness. The maltiness gets better the more I drink. 8.99 ABV is printed on the label but I'm not getting an alcohol bite at all but I am feeling it pretty good after 22oz! :D )
Collaboration not Litigation is a beer I would recommend to all you other "malt heads" out there but it may be hard to find. It was a limited release bottled in January of this year.
 
This is obviously a Christmas brew from Alameda Brewhouse in Portland Or.
Fair amount of carbonation upon opening and a thick strong head when poured which lasted throughout. A dark amber beer that is a bit cloudy.
Nice looking beer.
The aroma hits me with malty sweetness and no hops to speak of.
My first sip confirms what I suspected from the nose. This is a very rich malty beer. At 7.2 % ABV I am surprised that I don't get any alcohol character from this brew. I'm tasting something that I can't quite identify but if I had to guess I'm thinking maybe a bit of rye. This is a complex beer that I'm at a loss of words to describe. I'm looking at their web site as I write this and they suggest bittersweet chocolate,Toffee, Carmel, with a bit of roast character. I am definitely tasting the toffee notes in this beer. There is hop bitterness but it is overtaken by the malt flavors.
This is a good beer that I would love to be sipping on a cold winter night.

Thanks Brewtopia!
 
Great reviews Rich. I enjoy hearing the feedback on our local beers. Has anyone out there tried the Boundary Bay IPA yet? I'm curious to hear your thoughts. It's my favorite NW IPA.
 
Brewtopia said:
Great reviews Rich. I enjoy hearing the feedback on our local beers. Has anyone out there tried the Boundary Bay IPA yet? I'm curious to hear your thoughts. It's my favorite NW IPA.
I've got more to review so stay tunned. :mug:
 
Here are the ones entrusted to me.
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2 weeks ago I had the Siletz Spruce Ale among the largest stand of Ponderosa Pines in the world. Sitka Spruce, they are not, but it would have to do.

872289637_84c844236f.jpg


I found that the pine tips added slightly menthol flavor to a pleasant medium flavored ale. I'm sorry that I couldn't have taken a picture of the brew!

When passed around a mixed crowd of beer lovers it was agreed by most that it is a somewhat of an acquired taste.

I was in the moment and so... I was longing for about 4 more.:ban:

Coincidently, there is a mispelling on the beel label. On the directions section it uses the word "form" instead of "from".
 
Oregon Trail Smoke Signal Ale

873299032_0016f849d8.jpg


Label indicates that this beer is 7.3% and features Bamberg smoked malt.

Appearance:
Deep Amber - obviously bad picture on my part. Firm head that disappates quickly, no lace.
Smell:
Hints of caramel and smoke. I could not identify a hop.
Taste:
Base ale is sweet and pleasant. Smoke flavor appears just after the swallow and lingers.
Drinkability:
Though not as robust in smokiness as the Alaskan Smoked Porter (my Fave) this is an easy drinking beer and a nice way to experience a smoked ale. I probably shouldn't compare it to a different style. It is less smokey and so I think some may prefer this over the Alaskan.

Thanks Tope!
 
:drunk: I had a glass of the Fred from the Wood Barley wine tonight. Bottled this year. Served in Sam Adams specialty glass. All I can say is woah. Heavy oak and alcohol flavor reminiscint of a whiskey. Alcohol was not masked in this beer. Almost overpowering. Strong earthiness and sweet malty finish. Some tobacco and a pear-like? flavor. The hops were there, but mostly masked by the other flavors. They showed up more as the beer warmed a bit.

Definately a sipper, the 12oz bottle could have easily been split with someone else.

I have another bottle and think this would be a great beer for extended aging. Definately not a traditional barley-wine, and the alcohol/wood flavors were a bit much, but I'll open the other one in a year or more and compare.
 
I had the Siletz Spruce Ale tonight. I am trying to get better with my beer evaluation so I have used a BJCP score sheet to rate this beer. I haven't read up everything on the site yet, so my write-up is far from perfect.

Aroma 7/12

Mild malty and slightly spruce-like aroma, with some woodiness. Detected a tea-like aroma. No noticeable hops.

Appearance: 1/3

Medium brown, no head to speak of, cloudy

Flavor: 12/20

Barely noticeable spruce and malt, watery with no aftertaste. Some tree/bark-like flavor. Missing bitterness and residual sweetness.

Mouthfeel: 2.5/5

Weak carbonation, no body.

Overall impression: 6/10

Overall unimpressive. Not a bad beer per se, but not what I was expecting from the name. If spruce is intendended to be the sole source of bittering/aroma the amount needs to be increased. Carbonation needs improvement, and more maltiness would balance this beer out.

Overall score 28.5/50

Maybe I had a bad bottle. Totally different than what olllllo experienced.
 

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