Endless Beer -

by snebbu

Endless Beer: The Forbidden Traveler

ABV: 4.4 %

The brewery that brings us the Curious Traveler has unearthed new shandy ground with their Forbidden Traveler Apple Ale. Traveler aims to create a crisp wheat ale brewed with real apple. Contrary to its hard cider counterparts, the Forbidden Traveler looks to bring beer back into apple cider. The suds bring about mixed reviews. But no worries, we’re here to set it straight.

Flavor Profile:

Appearance: Hazy yellow with a bit of an orange hue.

Aroma: Sweet apple cider with wheat malt scents and even a little bit of lemon and spice.

Taste: Apple flavor up front and throughout. A mix between apple cider and apple juice. Wheat malts come through from beginning to end, but are more subtle than the apple. While the apple stands out, the beer flavors are there.

Mouthfeel: Crisp and clean with a smooth finish. Lingering sweet aftertaste.

Overall: If you drink this expecting the flavor of a hard cider, you are going to be disappointed. If you drink it expecting the flavor of a wheat beer, you won’t get it. This is not for the faint-hearted, but for the adventurists out there. While the brew has a low ABV, the sweet apple flavor is in your face with a challenge to open up your mind to a new kind of beer – apple beer!

Endless Rating: 3 out of 5 suds

Endless Pairings:

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by snebbu

Endless Beer: Top 10 Beers of Winter

Happy New Year, folks. Time to pretend that you’ll hold to those healthy resolutions and become a “better you.” I’m right there with you, as the fiance and I try out “clean eating” for a while. Except for beers — I will NOT stop drinking beers. Which is why I bring you our top ten winter beers of the season. Note that even though Christmas is behind us, those tasty Christmas brews are still available as well as the special winter seasonals. Get ’em while you can. Here ya go:

10. Sly Fox Christmas Ale

ABV: 5.5% (canned), 6.5% (bottled)

A leader in the beer canning industry, Sly Fox offers their annual Christmas ale. The ale is a very “spiced forward” brew with Cinnamon and Ginger at the forefront. Flavors of clove continue throughout, complementing a sweet malty flavor.

9. Victory Winter Cheers

ABV: 6.7%

For those of you that don’t enjoy a winter warmer or strongly spiced ale, the Winter Cheers is a tasty and sweet wheat that takes away some of the booze flavor associated with winter warmers.

8. Deschutes Brewery Jubelale

ABV: 6.7%

Jubelale includes the traditional Christmas spices, but then has a pleasant sweetness of caramel and toffee with fruity flavors of cherry and raisin. The award-winning brew is a solid warmer that gives you a nice warm feeling all the way down. A great brew for after a hard day’s work on the slopes.

by snebbu

Endless Beer: 2014 Anchor Christmas Celebration Ale

The tradition continues! Anchor releases their 40th Anniversary edition of the Christmas Celebration Ale. Every year, Anchor Brewing tweaks the recipe to the traditional Christmas Ale. And of course…they add a new illustration of the tree to the collection. Generally, Anchor ensures a dark ale packed full of spices that remind us all of Christmas. This is my third year sipping this beverage and it has become a tradition for myself as well. Anchor keeps the recipe secret, but we know that it is made with a mix of strong malts, spices, and hops to be complemented by the dry hopping process. Anyway, here’s to beer traditions.

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by snebbu

Endless Beer: Sierra Nevada Wild Hop IPA

Sierra Nevada concludes their 2014 Harvest series with the Wild Hop IPA. Sierra Nevada went on a journey for the best wild hops around and crafted brews around what they found for these suds. The Neomexicanus “is the literal wild card” of the five bottle package with the hops’ unusual flavors. “Unusual” does not get the cravings going, but that’s why it is the wild card, right? Sierra Nevada introduces the brew with a teaser of melon, apricot, and citrus aromas in the beer coming from the hops. Here’s what we thought:

6.5% ABV

Flavor Profile:

Appearance: Hazy dark orange

Aroma: Heavy hops and subtle citrus and apricot.

Taste: Hop-forward flavor provide a pleasant bitterness for hopheads. Slight malty sweetness comes through complementing some citrus.

Mouthfeel: Dry finish with light aftertaste that does not linger.

Overall: This is a definite hophead pleaser. The hops begin and finish the beer nicely. First, the aroma hits hard with scents of being in a sweet hop garden. Then, we get some quick sweetness from the malts that are quickly cut by the pleasant hop bitterness of these WILD unusual hops.

ES Rating: 3.75/4 Suds!

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by snebbu

Endless Beer: Ommegang Three Philosophers

Ommegang famously brings us the Game of Thrones series beers, but also offers other varietals that pack their own punch. Speaking of fame, one of Ommegang’s more well known brews is the Three Philosophers. Weighing in at 9.7% ABV, the Three Philosophers promises to relax if nothing else. Three Philosophers was born when Ommegang asked homebrewers what the “perfect brew” would taste like. The answer was flavors of caramel, chocolate, and cherry. Ommegang messed with various variations until the reached a mixture of 98% ale and 2% kriek (lambic). Here are our tasting notes:

ABV: 9.7%

Poured into tulip glass.

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by snebbu

Endless Beer: Ommegang Valar Morghulis

ABV: 8%

“When confronted with the most feared saying in Valyrian, take a sip and choose your words wisely.”

We’ve all been waiting for the October release of the latest Ommegang Game of Thrones series. Now that we’ve all been able to find it somewhere, drink it up and converse about the series and what to expect next, we can talk about the beer! There are a lot of cool beer series out there, but I think Ommegang and Game of Thrones wins with most creative and true to the style (of the books and the beer). The creativity in determining what kind of beer, the label art, and even the marketing message is impressive. I’ve had each series but this is the first time I’ve had the brew after reading four of the books. I gotta tell ya, the excitement in receiving this sample from Ommegang can’t compete with many things.

Fun fact: the Valar Morghulis Dubbel was chosen by the people in a facebook poll. If you don’t know (how dare you?), Valar Morghulis means “all men must die” and to say it is foreboding would be an understatement. One of my favorite characters – Arya Stark is given a two-headed coin by a man that is able to change his appearance and also just happened to kick ass on a number occasions in the book. For two kick ass characters to be represented, the beer must do the same – kick some ass. The poll participants chose a Dubbel as the style of the beer and Ommegang went to town to create a Dubbel that lives up to its name. In knowing the ABV was at 8%, my expectations were for a boozy taste with sweet malts and to get some strong yeasty characteristics. On to the tasting profile!

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by snebbu

Endless Beer: Flying Dog Secret Stash Harvest Ale

ABV: 5.5%

Yes, kind of a mouthful. Flying Dog sent their most recent production of their secret stash: the Harvest Ale. For a limited time, Flying Dog is offering a “local brew” for the harvest. The beer is a wheat saison brewed with local hops and malts. Flying Dog held their first annual Mid-Atlantic Hop Selection at the brewery with hopes of exposing local breweries to the best hops of the mid-atlantic region. Typically, the Flying Dog brewmaster will take part in the Yakima Valley hop selection to pick the best hops offered. However, this brew is made with local cascade hops to create a bit of a kick paired with the spices of the saison yeast.

Picture sitting around a large kitchen table as the farmers come in from a day of bailing hay ready for a nice warm supper. What do you want to drink? You want something that is going to give you a nice relaxing feeling, with some spices in the mix – a farmhouse ale. Many know farmhouse ales as Saisons. Saison is the yeast strain that provides the spicy notes we’ve all known to love in the farmhouse ales. Anywho, enough of the boring (yet impressive that I know of course) stuff…on to the tasting:

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