Frambozen - New Belgium Brewing

APPEARANCE: (5) Beautiful reddish color with a dense thick foam on top

AROMA: (4) Fruity, berry aroma with almost cheesy notes.

TASTE: (5) First dry on the palate then a little bit of soothing sweetness that disappears and a wonderful berry flavor with a perfect bitterness finish.

EXTRA: (5) Brown ale with raspberry is a wonderful idea. Despite that this is a brown ale it reminds a little bit of flavored lambic.

New Belgiums Website



Beer style: Brown ale flavored with raspberry
Serving temperature: 10-12 C
Alcohol: 6.5%
Hops: Target
Malts: Pale

Food Pairings: Deserts, ice cream, cheesecake or just as a session beer.

APPEARANCE: 5 x 5 = 25
AROMA: 4 x 10 = 40
TASTE: 5 x 10 = 50
EXTRA: 5 x 1 = 5

Total: 120/130

Spring India Pale Ale - Choc Beer Company

APPEARANCE: (2) Hazy 'dirty' dark yellow. Highly carbonated foam.

AROMA: (4) Fresh herb hop aroma with citrus notes.

TASTE: (3) Nice bitter hoppy palate. This could be a really high scoring beer but the promising scent doesn't not occur as much in the taste. This is not a bad beer but from an IPA I had expected a little bit more genuineness.

EXTRA: (2) Not much information either on the bottle or their website. Since this is a seasonal, I could not even find it on the website despite that it is spring now. Pretty surprised when I finally located the alcohol content level on the label (in tiny prining) and it was as much as 7.6%




Choc Beers Website

Beer style: India Pale Ale
Serving temperature: 8-10 C
Alcohol: 7.6%

Food Pairings: Spicy food, asian, chili etc.

APPEARANCE: 2 x 5 = 10
AROMA: 4 x 10 = 40
TASTE: 3 x 10 = 30
EXTRA: 2 x 1 = 2

Total: 82/130

Indica - Lost Coast Brewing

The last beer in the beer basket will be an India Pale ale from Lost Coast Brewing. Since this is my favorite beer style I have high expectations on this one. The last one in the basket.

APPEARANCE: (5) Dark golden brown. Thick, thick foam that is dense and last a long time.

AROMA: (5) Wonderful flowery piny hops aroma that hits your nose like a tornado. I cannot find this beer on the brewery's website so I have to guess that it is Cascade and or Amarillo

TASTE: (5) Citrus fruitiness in the hops aroma which is very, very pleasant. The bitterness is well balances with the malt giving the hops the domination in this beer, exactly how I like it best.

EXTRA: (3) Despite that this is a really good beer, there is not that much extra to add besides a medium 3.



Lost Coast Breweings Website

Beer style: India Pale Ale
Serving temperature: 8-10 C
Alcohol: 6.5%

Food Pairings: Good IPA:s are tricky to pair with food I think since they are so flavor dominant. They are also high in alcohol which makes them not suitable as session beer.

There is nothing that beats a good IPA. The flowery aroma and the wonderful aromatic bitterness is the King of beers. This was a worthy beer to end the beer basket with.

APPEARANCE: 5 x 5 = 25
AROMA: 5 x 10 = 50
TASTE: 5 x 10 = 50
EXTRA: 3 x 1 = 3

Total: 128/130

Alaskan Winter - Alaskan brewing Co

Second out in the final of the beer basket is Alaskan Winter. An English style Old Ale spiced with spruce tips. I am very excited to try this beer too since I haven't had spruce tip in a drink since I was in the military and made tea out in the forest of spruce tips during the survival week. I hope this will taste somewhat better.

APPEARANCE: (2) The color surprised me since I thought that this was going to be a very dark syrupy looking beer. Instead a bronze colored beer pours into the glass. The foam settles almost immediately.

AROMA: (3) A twirl of the testing glass to smell the aromas builds up the foam more than at pouring. There is a distinct sweet malt aroma but I cannot tell that I smell spruce yet.

TASTE: (5) The taste is surprisingly dry for being an Old Ale and here the spruce flavors really hits me hard. This is truly like chewing on spruce tips and I really love that taste and it is such a surprise in a beer. The spruce gives this beer a really refreshing and interesting aroma. It is almost like a new type of hops.

EXTRA: (5) Full points for something as unusual as brewing beer with spruce tips.



Alaskan Brewings website

Beer style: English Old Ale (brewed with spruce tips)
Serving temperature: 10-12 C
Alcohol: 6.4%

Food Pairings: This is a winter warmer but I can see this beer paired with stews and chili or almost any kind of spicy meaty food.

I really liked this beer. Not only because of it's uniqueness but also because how surprisingly well the spicy spruce go with the malt and hops of this beer. I also like it because it is an Old Ale that is not overly sweet or extreme in alcohol.

APPEARANCE: 3 x 5 = 15
AROMA: 4 x 10 = 40
TASTE: 5 x 10 = 50
EXTRA: 5 x 1 = 5

Total: 110/130

Humboldt Brown - Nectar ales

I am excited because I am down to the last 3 beers in the beer basket that my wife gave me for Valentines and that is also what gave this blog it's name.

I saved the ones for last that sounded most interesting so the expectations are high which is never good when you are judging something.

First out is Humboldt Brown from a brewery that I never before have heard of called Nectar ales. The thing that is so interesting with this beer is that I never heard of a beer that is brewed with hemp and I have no idea what hemp taste like.

APPEARANCE: (3) A very distinct brown color. Nice dense foam which builds up to a creamy head with some twirls of the glass.

AROMA: (4) Nutty aroma that are present even upon pouring. Sweet maltiness with frail scents of vanilla.

TASTE: (4) Good balance between the malt and hops provides a very drinkable brown ale with character. There is a little bit of smokiness in the aftertaste. This beer is very likable and is a perfect session beer. It is not extreme in any way but feels just right in it's perfect balance.

EXTRA: (5) Just the fact that this is the first beer that I ever have had with hemp renders a 5 in extra. Otherwise is the label and website very informative with most information needed for a beer nerd.





Nectar Ales Website

Beer style: Brown ale
Serving temperature: 10-12 C
Alcohol: 5.7%

Hops: Chinook & Tettnanger
Malt: Wheat Malt, Crystal 75, Crystal 120, Chocolate Malt & Toasted Hemp Seeds

Food Pairings: Smoked meat and also smoked fish feel like a good pairing with this mellow very nice drinkable beer.


APPEARANCE: 3 x 5 = 15
AROMA: 4 x 10 = 40
TASTE: 4 x 10 = 40
EXTRA: 5 x 1 = 5

Total: 100/130

Big Foot - Sierra Nevada

APPEARANCE: (5) Very thick dense foam. Beautiful semi dark, close to reddish color.

AROMA: (5) Piny rich hops aroma with background citrus notes.

TASTE: (5) Incredible rich flavor. First a bitterness shock, then a thick mouthful of malt and hops in it's best combination. Very complex beer with lots of aroma hops and a great full flavor. More of a hoppy dry taste than equivalent English versions of Barley Vine

EXTRA: (4) A surprisingly distinctive Barley Wine Style Ale. This could be easily identified in a blind test because of its unique flavor. It has its base in English Barley Vine but goes the extra mile to be a unique beer.





Sierra Nevada Brewing

Beer style: American Barley Wine Style Ale
Serving temperature: 10-14 C
Alcohol: 9.6%

Food Pairings: Difficult beer to pair with food. Probably works best on its own after a meal instead of coffee and cognac.

APPEARANCE: 5 x 5 = 25
AROMA: 5 x 10 = 50
TASTE: 5 x 10 = 50
EXTRA: 4 x 1 = 4

Total: 129/130

Old Foghorn - Anchor Steam Brewery

APPEARANCE: (4) Dark reddish with a nice foam that almost seems to be a little bit colored red by the beer

AROMA: (4) Sweet nuances resembling figs. Maybe a little tiny bit of banana hints in the background.

TASTE: (5) Sweet with a deceptive bitterness that is hidden in the sweetness. No trace of the high alcohol level in the taste. The maltyness is dominating even if hops has it's important share in making this beer balanced.

EXTRA: (4) Barleywine style beers are always interesting to try. They belong on the colder part of the year when you want to warm yourself with something with high alcohol and rich flavors.

It is fun and interesting to notice how close in taste this beer is to the first Barleywine ale that I ever had. It was from Ram Rod Brewery in London where I tried it on site many, many years ago. This beer might very well be older than the version I tried in London. Fritz Maytag created this beer already 1976 at his Anchor Steam Brewery, long before anyone used the term 'craft brewery'.

Drinking Barleywine style ale on a hot summer day seems just as crazy as drinking a cold wheatbeer a cold winterday. Unfortunately restaurants here in US do not understand this concept and serve the old wheat beers year around.



Anchor steam brewery website

Beer style: Barleywine style ale
Serving temperature: 10-14 C
Alcohol: 8.2%

Food Pairings: Chocolate, some cheese, deserts.

APPEARANCE: 4 x 5 = 20
AROMA: 4 x 10 = 40
TASTE: 5 x 10 = 50
EXTRA: 4 x 1 = 4

Total: 114/130

Peche Mel - Brasserie Dubuisson

APPEARANCE: (4) The beer is slightly golden colored and pours into the testing glass with a thick foam which settles somewhat after a while.

AROMA: (4) The aroma is stunning from peach and smells far from the glass even without twirling the testing glass. It is difficult to detect any other scents since the peach smell is overwhelming.

TASTE: (5) The taste is sweet with an initial bitterness that goes away and then comes back as a boomerang. It is very drinkable despite the high alcohol level and the sweet taste.

EXTRA: (4) Definitely an interesting beer to test. It is always fun when someone invents something new and it happens now and then that breweries are experiencing with mixing fruit to a regular beer style instead of imitating the gueuze/lambic concept. One good example I think is Frombozen from New Belgium where raspberry has been mixed with a brown ale.




Brasserie Dubuisson Website

This beer is called Peche Mel - Scaldis on the label I have but on their website they call it Peche Mel - Bush and the picture shows a different label for this beer that is obvious the same. The website also reveals that originally this beer was born as a mix of the Bush amber beer with a peach gueuze and was invented by students who wanted a 'cocktail' drink.

Beer style: Amber ale mixed with peach juice
Serving temperature: 10-12 C
Alcohol: 8.5%

Food Pairings: Deserts, ice cream.

APPEARANCE: 4 x 5 = 20
AROMA: 4 x 10 = 40
TASTE: 5 x 10 = 50
EXTRA: 4 x 1 = 4

Total: 114/130

Firestone DBA - Firestone Walker Brewing Company

APPEARANCE: (3) Dark golden color. Inviting creamy foam

AROMA: (3) Pleasant mellow malt aroma.

TASTE: (3) Moderate mouthfeel. Little bit of burnt wood, slightly dry malty finish with a little bit of dry aftertaste.

EXTRA: (2) Mimics the original English style ale well but so does a lot of beers.

It is difficult to find anything exciting in the British style ales when there are so many better ales brewed in America today. It is also a beer style that is not often used for new innovative craft breweries, either in US or Europe. Maybe that says it all.



Firestone Walker Brewing Company

Beer style: English Style Bitter / Amber Ale
Serving temperature: 8-10 C
Alcohol: 5.0%
Malts: Premium Two-Row, Maris Otter Pale, Munich, Crystal, Chocolate
Hops: Bittering—Magnum; Late Kettle—Styrian Golding, East Kent Golding; Dry Hops—East Kent Golding

Food Pairings: British pubfood maybe :-) Fish and chips or Steak & Kindney pie. Maybe, maybe not :-)

APPEARANCE: 3 x 5 = 15
AROMA: 3 x 10 = 30
TASTE: 3 x 10 = 30
EXTRA: 2 x 1 = 2

Total: 78/130

Alaskan Amber - Alaskan Brewing Company

APPEARANCE: (3) Light mahogany colored. Moderate foam that settles rather fast leaving only small foam islands.

AROMA: (4) Define malty aroma with sweetness notes reminding of molasses. Tiny hints of banana. Second sniff reveals some earthy tones, mushrooms?

TASTE: (2) Rather dry taste with moderate flavors. Surprisingly anonymous.

EXTRA: (3) Interesting to drink beer from Alaska. The water is coming from glaciers outside Juneau.



Alaskan Brewing Company

Beer style: Alt style
Serving temperature: 8-10 C
Alcohol: 5.3%
Bitterness: 18 IBU

Food Pairings: From Alaskan brewings website: "Smooth and richly malted, this altbier goes well king or silver salmon, flavorful meats and hearty Italian dishes. Also pairs nicely with delicate cheeses, artichokes and roasted red peppers - a perfect accompaniment to gourmet pizzas"

APPEARANCE: 3 x 5 = 15
AROMA: 4 x 10 = 40
TASTE: 2 x 10 = 20
EXTRA: 3 x 1 = 3

Total: 78/130

Great White Beer - Lost Coast Brewing

APPEARANCE: (3) Thin bubbly foam and light yellow hazy color (normal for this beer style)

AROMA: (3) Yeasty but fresh aroma. Does not reveal that much of the herbal spicyness in the aroma.

TASTE: (3) Light very refreshing taste. Not much bitterness or flavors. This is a very refreshing beer and beer style but it does not exceed expectations or surprise. I DO like wheat beers and wit beers but I don't think that I could tell many or any of them apart. They are great thirst quenchers but that is it.

EXTRA: (2) Not really much reason to give anything extra.



Lost Coast Brewery

Beer style: Belgian Whit style beer
Serving temperature: 6-8 C
Alcohol: 5.0%

Food Pairings: Anything. Otherwise a great beer to refresh yourself with while mowing the lawn.

APPEARANCE: 3 x 5 = 15
AROMA: 3 x 10 = 30
TASTE: 3 x 10 = 30
EXTRA: 2 x 1 = 2

Total: 78/130