Stone Brewing Co. Arrogant Bastard Ale

I just love the name of this brew. The descriptions are pretty funny too. Check out their website to see it if you want.

This is a pretty good looking ale. It pours out nice and transparent with a golden/reddish color. The golden head was very full as well - even in my glass. One good whiff and you get a nice hint of hops. There was also a slight bit of fruit in it as well. I couldn't really detect what fruit it was but it seemed like a neutral fruit like apples. When you taste it, the frothy head is the first flavor to hit you with a followup of hops. In the middle, you get a hint of barley and it finishes off with the hops again. I didn't get the taste of fruit like I initially smelled. The aftertaste of the brew is pretty alcoholic, though. I did not perceive the texture as very smooth. The flow of the textures and tastes didn't really transition that well and I thought it was a pretty generic beer.

Overall, Arrogant Bastard Ale I see as a pretty good everyday or session brew. But if you're looking for a special brew for tasting or occasions, this isn't really a good choice.

Appearance - 4
Smell - 4
Taste - 3.7
Texture - 3.3
Overall - 3.75/5

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout

This is easily one of the most beastly beers I've ever had. World Wide stout is One in a million and it deserved our attention as the first pinnacle beer of the first Review Night. Let's move onto the review.

It's black as hell. Guinness you could at least see some tint and color when you held it up to a light. This is a black hole in a glass. It's crazy. It also developed a very frothy off-white head but it collapsed pretty quickly. What can you expect with a beer this heavy? Smell? It smells like alcohol. Jesus H. Christ, it's 18% alcohol. Beer isn't supposed to be that strong...but it's amazing. The bouquet of aromas almost reminds me of a heavy red wine. The attention to detail here is extraordinary. It tastes just like it smells: alcohol. It also has a pretty licorice taste to it and seems like it has berries in it as well. Also to note, the bitter and chocolate-y taste at the very beginning is reminiscent of dark chocolate. The texture is interesting because it is very smooth for something that is so heavy. It goes in smooth with the froth from the head, it smooths out in the middle to present all the body of the beer and then it goes down easily with a last little bite of alcohol and the overall mesh of flavors.

Overall, this stuff reminds me of chocolate wine. I love chocolate and I love wine. Win.

Appearance - 4.4
Smell - 4.4
Taste - 4.8
Texture - 4.7
Overall - 4.58/5

Stone Brewing Co. Arrogant Bastard Ale

This is the staple of Stone Brewing Company, the Arrogant Bastard Ale, and they let you know that by the quips and insults littered all over the bottle. Sayings such as "This beer is too good for you, you probably won't like it," and "All you yellow-fizz drinking wusses can try something else," makes this a very interesting and humorous brew to try. This American strong ale pours a reddish brown hue with a small golden head. Upon inspection it gives off a noticeable aroma of hops, different kinds of malt, and a hint of sour fruit (possibly green apples?). The taste is quite strong and is exactly what i would expect from a beer made by an arrogant bastard; its bitter, dry, and hops-filled. It leaves a nice bitter aftertaste as well, the whole experience is not very smooth, but still quite enjoyable... if your not a yellow-fizz drikin' wuss like the bottle says.

Appearance - 3.9

Smell - 4.0

Taste - 4.0

Texture - 3.8

Overall - 3.93/5

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout

This is one of the highest percentage of alcohol beers that money can buy. At 18%, it's ridiculous. This imperial stout pours black. There is no other way to describe it (reminds me of oil). The head is off-white but fades rather quickly. The aroma is very intriguing: alcohol (obviously), roasted malt, licorice, and chocolate. The alcohol scent is almost overpowering but the other notes are still easily noticed. The taste is more like a fine chocolate wine than a beer because of the insanely high alcohol content. Licorice and dark chocolate can also easily be tasted. The World Wide Stout goes down smooth but if you are not a fan of wine or hard alcohol then this brew will be too strong for you.

Appearance - 4.4

Smell - 4.1

Taste - 4.3

Texture - 4.4

Overall - 4.3/5

Brew Tasting the First

This is the ceremonial soft-opening premiere introduction of our weekly brew-tasting nights (As if that couldn't be longer). This is on a Thursday to commerate our first brew run but future ones will be on Wednesday nights instead of Thursday (Those are to be kept holy for MMR).

To be K/O'ed tonight...
1) Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
2) Stone Brewing Company Arrogant Bastard Ale

Brew Run the First

Woah...what a snag. Quite a bit of brew for the coming weeks.

Our premiere brews we picked up:
1) Rochefort Trappistes 10
2) Dogfish Head World Wide Stout 18%

We also got a couple other brews for general taste-testing:
1) Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout (Sadly, not a premiere brew - not Oak Aged)
2) Stone Brewing Company Arrogant Bastard Ale
3) Samuel Adams Imperial Double Bock
4) HeBrew Jewbelation Twelve (Suggested to us by Kaufman)
5) Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA (Holy F give me 21% alcohol-sticks)

Mission Statement

This is a website about brew.

And other stuff.

But mostly about brew. We intend to travel and sample many of the highly regarded brews in the world. Being lowly college students, we intend to trek America first and then move onto Europe once funds allow. Our updates will tend to be on Wednesday nights/Thursdays. Each Wednesday, Fonnie and I will sample a new brew to add to the list of reviews. Hopefully, those who read this will go out and follow our lead and try new and better brews. I know far too many people who see Coors and Keystone as the pinnacle of beer. They fail. This is the real deal. Also, I plan to use this website as an outlet for some alcohol-fueled adventures. Hilarity and stupidity will ensue. I hope you enjoy this website as much as we enjoy adding to it.

Drink hearty.

Dogfish Head with One Raisin

The title is a little bit of an inside joke. I saw the word "Raison" on the bottle and not the plural form of it so I thought it only had one raisin in it. And by one, I mean in the entire cask it was brewed in, not the single bottle. Oh, how that raisin works. Let's move onto the review.

This brew has a very amber color that produces yet another fine, off-white head. Though it disappears quite quickly, it leaves a nice film on the edges and also reappears quickly after a thorough swirl. This beer is also very transparent so it's evident it will be, technically, a light ale. At first taste, you get a fine hit of fruit. You can get an essence of the raisin in it and other various fruits in the brew. This produces a very sweet-smelling brew. The taste is very reminiscent of a heavy wine. You get a nice taste of raisin and the other fruits that went into the brew. Also, you get the pleasant taste of hops and barley. This brew tastes much less alcoholic than any other high-percentage brew I've had. This beer goes in smooth, swells to a sugary taste with a hint of the hops and it goes down smooth and leaves behind a pleasant roasted barley spice.

Overall, I feel if you are not a fan of a fruity brew, this is not one for you. But, if you're looking for something a little different and new in the world of brew, I'd give this a shot. The texture of the beer is a nice change of pace from other brews.

Appearance - 4
Smell - 4.1
Taste - 4.4
Texture - 4.1
Overall - 4.15/5

Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre

This Belgian style strong ale made by Dogfish Head has a name which means "reason for being" in French. And if you're a fan of smooth beer then that title nails it dead-on. It pours a dark mahogany color with reddish accents and carries a small white head which fades quickly. The smell of it is instantly fruity and complex; raisins, brown sugar, and other fruits. It is very hard to pick out what is going on in the aroma of this brew as it is very complex. The taste of the Raison D'Etre is almost exactly as it smells, and leaves a bitter aftertaste which reminds me much of dry fruit. This brew goes down smooth, from beginning to end and it works very well. Although, if you are not a fan of fruitier tasting beer, you should probably steer clear of this.

Appearance - 3.8

Smell - 4.1

Taste - 4.2

Texture - 4.3

Overall - 4.10/5

Guinness 250th Anniversary Stout

At last - Guinness. My oxygen. Let's review.

This particular review is on the Guinness 250th Anniversary Stout (Extra Stout in a pretty bottle [Long Live Arthur Guinness]). What does it look like? It looks like fucking motor oil with a creamy, off-white head. That's about all I can say about it. I love it. Up against the light, you see a slight caramel color that shines through...but it's still black as Satan's heart. Upon smelling it, there is a very apparent scent of hops and the Irish roasted barley that is used in the brewing process. The smell seems very heavy; a sign of things to come. At the beginning of the taste, it seems pretty carbonated which is pretty misleading by the thick appearance of the brew. It also seems slightly sweet. As the taste progresses, it moves to a hoppy flavor with a hint of barley and it finishes off as you swallow it with more hops and the taste of alcohol. The texture is a little disappointing though. It's pretty flat and does not have a whole lot of body. The progression of flavors and textures isn't very complex but I do enjoy the nice kick at the end from the combination of the hops and alcohol.

Overall, this is a pretty good brew. Especially for the macrobrew designation that it has. I find it has the perfect balance of taste/cost. Of course most will disagree with this but I find nothing goes better with a meal than a fine Guinness. Yes, it is rated lower than Chimay Blue, but who cares. There are ratings and there are favorites. This is my favorite.

Appearance - 4.1
Smell - 4.4
Taste - 4.4
Texture - 3.9
Overall - 4.2/5

Chimay White

Chimay White, also known as Triple, is the lower of the three Chimay brews in terms of my ratings. Once I cracked the beer open, I got a very pungent smell of yeast and sweetness. This was a very misleading start for the beer. In the glass, the beer had a very murky, translucent appearance. It had a golden appearance (it looked just as expensive as it is) with a white-ish head. But, the head was very small signifying a lighter beer (EDIT: I poured a glass a couple days later in a pilsner glass and the head was so big that I only poured 70% of the glass out and the head overflowed). The carbonation is also pretty consistent within the beer but it doesn't form into a head - it just falls up and down within the beer. As for the taste, Chimay White starts off very sharp. It hits you right off the bat with the taste of alcohol and the roasted barley and yeast. It eventually mellows out with the smoothness of the brew but as you swallow it, the bitterness kicks in again, just like most other European beers. This was not nearly as fruity as any of the other Chimay brews but it did have a slight citrus bite. In terms of texture, the beer flowed from bitter, to smooth, to bitter again - a very interesting curve in the palate.

Overall this is a pretty good European beer, but, it's easily my least favorite of the Chimay brews. The texture of it just isn't something I can fall behind and the brew could look much better as well.

Appearance - 3.7
Smell - 4.2
Taste - 4.1
Texture - 4.0
Overall - 4/5

Chimay Red

Although being rated in the middle of the pack, this was probably one of my favorite Chimay beers. When I poured it out into the glass, the subtle brown tint and fine film reminded me of iced tea. It also had a slight golden tint to it. The beer itself is pretty opaque and formed a pretty minimal head in my glass (But when Fonnie tried it, it produced a very hearty off-white head). This beer had a very large bouquet of fruit in the smell. It was overall pretty citrus-y with a mix of orange and lemon smells in it as well as a small hint of the hops in the beer. Once I tasted it, the smell of the fruit obviously right. It produced a slightly woodsy taste to it (almost reminiscent of cedar). It also had an aftertaste of the hops and barley. The beer was also extremely carbonated. Also, of note, the combination of the carbonation, fruits and the sweet flavors almost made this beer seem like a wine. The progression of flavors and textures in the beer made this probably one of the smoothest beers I've ever had.

Personally, I see this as my favorite Chimay in terms of an overall beer. I prefer the Blue due to the fact that it is a heavy ale but this is a very, very strong second.

Appearance - 3.7
Smell - 4.1
Taste - 4.3
Texture - 4.7
Overall - 4.2/5

Guinness 250th Anniversary Stout

Good ol' Guinness - one of the best macrobrew beers around. Even though it is on the slightly expensive side, it is still much more affordable than any of the Belgian stouts (obviously) - but the quality shows that. It pours an extremely dark caramel color, almost black, with a small foam ring of a head. It smells of barley and roasted malt. It is ashy and dry. There is not much to the aroma as it is just a basic stout. Upon tasting, I noticed how smooth it was, a very good amount of carbonation, and a hint of roasted malt. Overall, it was a very good brew for being mass manufactured around the country; but it will only ever be a good dark and dry stout.

Appearance - 4.0

Smell - 3.2

Taste - 3.7

Texture - 4.2

Overall - 3.78/5

Chimay Red

The last, but not the least of the Chimay's: the Red. This is a very nice Abbey Dubbel with a strong, fruity, barley smell. It pours nicely and visually resembles iced tea. It has a larger head than the other two Chimay's, but fades faster into a nice off-white ring of foam. The aroma from this beer is one of barley and fruit. It has a fascinating, smooth, dry taste. As it hits the mouth it starts off being very carbonated, but quickly fades into a dry, fruity, caramel-ish taste. The aftertaste is amazing and leaves the hit of barley and apricot behind. Overall it is my favorite of the three Chimay's.

Appearance - 3.8

Smell - 4.1

Taste - 4.2

Texture - 4.5

Overall - 4.15/5

Chimay Blue

One of the finest brews I have had in my short existence in the Land of Brew. I have spent most of my time seeing Guinness as the pinnacle of beer, but once I realized that if you spent the same amount as you would on a 6-pack to get a single bottle, you would encounter a very special beer.

Chimay Blue is this beer. Traditionally called "Grand Reserve," this definitely is the top beer of Chimay's brewery. At the crack of the cap, the pungent aroma of the beer hit me with an almost fruity, citrus-y essence. Also, I could tell it was going to be a bitter beer due to the ever-prevalent smell of hops. As I poured it into my glass, it produced a very dark, amber, golden color. It was a little translucent - bordering opaque. It formed a white/gold head that was retained for a good 5 minutes or so. After I let the beer settle, I took a taste and got a hint of fruit - a bitter one; almost reminiscent of the peel of a citrus fruit (orange). There was also a bit of spice from the roasted ingredients used in the beer. As the beer enters, you can taste the alcohol and hops right from the get-go. After the initial hit, the beer mellows out quite nicely and on the way down it smooths out. It almost seems like wine with the progression of textures and sensations. I also noticed the aroma of the wood that the beer was fermented in. Overall, this was a very filling beer. It would go nice with a small, but hearty, meal. If you have too much food, I can see it overfilling you. The bitter taste of the beer is strong, but pleasant and not overpowering to the overall flavor. I greatly enjoyed this beer.

Fonnie tried to make me eat my words in saying that Guinness is second to this, but I could not do that. It was a fantastic beer, but Guinness is still my first love.

EDIT: In the end, Guinness actually scored lower than this in the overall rating. I still refuse to admit Guinness is worse, though. :P

Appearance - 4.6
Smell - 3.8
Taste - 4.2
Texture - 4.5
Overall - 4.28/5

Chimay White

The Chimay White is an abbey tripel and comes in at 8% alcohol, even though you would never notice that from the taste. This tripel pours golden yellow with a slight orange tint. It has a strong white head that stays and then fades into a ring. The aroma is light and hops-filled with slight fruity characteristics. The taste is instantly bitter which lets the taster know that there is a great deal of hops in this brew, but quietly fades into a dry, fruity taste. The Chimay White is another winner courtesy of the Chimay Trappist monks in Belgium.

Appearance - 4.0

Smell - 4.2

Taste - 3.9

Texture - 3.9

Overall - 4.0/5

Chimay Blue

Chimay. The greatest of all "cheap" Belgian imports, although this is the most expensive of the Chimay's at a little over $5 for a 12 ounce bottle. It is not classified as a strong ale for nothing, at 9.0% alcohol it is no weakling. The instant the bottle is opened a strong yeast smell is unleashed, although it is not overpowering. Chimay Blue pours a dark amber color, with a light brown head. The head is retained for a fairly long time but eventually fades to a ring. It is very subtle on the palate with an initial yeast taste, but quickly fades to a light, fruity, almost flowery flavor. This aftertaste is all that's left after each wonderful sip. Chimay Blue does not disappoint.

Appearance - 3.8

Smell - 4.2

Taste - 4.2

Texture - 4.0

Overall - 4.05/5