Bitch creak Extra Special Brown Ale - Grand Teton Brewing

APPEARANCE: (5) Pours a very thick dark, dark brown beer into the testing glass. Foam is thick but settles fast. When glass is twirled the foam builds up and takes an beige or creamy color.

AROMA: (4) Very nice thick aroma. Hazelnut and toffee notes.

TASTE: (5) Thick mouthfeel with smokey flavors.

EXTRA: (3) I am not sure I have stumbled over a beer called "Extra special brown" before.

Grand Teton Brewing

Beer style: Brown ale
Serving temperature: 8-10 C
Alcohol: 6.0%

Hops: Galena, Chinook & Centennial, Dry hopped with Centennial

Food Pairings: Pistachio nuts

APPEARANCE: 5 x 5 = 25
AROMA: 4 x 10 = 40
TASTE: 5 x 10 = 50
EXTRA: 3 x 1 = 3

Total: 118/130

Duke of Wellington - Granite City Brewing

APPEARANCE: (3) Very dark for being an IPA like the website says but the label states Pale Ale. Foam flattens out fast but can be built up again with twirling the glass. Color pretty dark with some red hints.

AROMA: (4) Malty fresh rich aroma.

TASTE: (3) Somewhat flat taste with a sweet maltiness that is balanced pretty good with the hops. Very easy drinking beer.

EXTRA: (3) Not much extra except that it is very interesting to try a beer from this Wisconsin (Monroe) brewery

Granite City Brewing website

Beer style: Pale Ale
Serving temperature: 8-10 C
Alcohol: x.0%

Food Pairings: xcx

APPEARANCE: 3 x 5 = 15
AROMA: 4 x 10 = 40
TASTE: 3 x 10 = 30
EXTRA: 3 x 1 = 3

Total: 88/130

Denver Pale Ale - Great Divide Brewing

APPEARANCE: (4) Bronze colored semi clear with a rather weak foam head. Foam grows back after some twirls of the testing glass.

AROMA: (4) Sweet malty and nutty aroma.

TASTE: (4) Fairly light but very malt dominant. The hops are just playing a background role.

EXTRA: (3) This is considered Great Divides 'flagship' beer with many awards from different beer festivals. If you prefer a malty beer before a hoppy one, this is your perfect beer.

Beer style: Pale ale
Serving temperature: 8-10x C
Alcohol: 5.4%

Food Pairings: Burgers, stew, any meat dishes. Very versatile with food pairings. Or as Great Divide says on their website: "Robust pasta sauces, such as Arrabbiata, Puttanesca, spicy Italian sausage and roasted red pepper sauce, or sausage and sun dried tomato cream sauce. John Lehndorff of the Rocky Mountain News suggests serving DPA with spicy ribs. DPA’s hearty hop profile is the perfect complement to the rich flavor of DPA Braised Lamb Shanks"

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

Total: 103/130

Namaste - Dogfish head

APPEARANCE: (4) Thick foam builds up when the beer is poured into the testing glass. As with most bears of wheat or wit style, it settles fairly fast. A quick twirl builds up the milk white foamy head again.

AROMA: (4) Spicy coriander flavor. Fresh fruity aroma.

TASTE: (4) A very refreshing and tasty with beer from Dogfish head. I prefer Wit today before regular wheat beer because of the extra freshness and the interesting spices often used in them. It is mainly a refreshing beer style though and the variety between different brands are not huge.

EXTRA: (4) Nice presentation in form of this champagne bottle. Cannot figure out what the skeleton on the label symbolizes though.

Beer style: Beligan Wit
Serving temperature: 6-8 C
Alcohol: 5.0%

Food Pairings: Perfect thirst quencher beer. Works well with most dishes.

APPEARANCE: 4 x 5 = 20
AROMA: 4 x 10 = 40
TASTE: 4 x 10 = 40
EXTRA: 4 x 1 = 104

Total: 104/130

Red Rocket Ale - Bear Republic

APPEARANCE: (3) Beautiful foam fills the testing glass but dies down pretty fast. If this beer is supposed to be a "red ale", it is VERY different from all the red ales that I have had before. This beer looks more like Coca Cola.

AROMA: (3) A twirl of the glass releases a rather complex aroma; Sweet rum, overripe bananas, spoiled fruits.

TASTE: (3) Taste of molasses or burned sugar. Scottish red ale is one of extremely few beer styles that I have a problem with. This beer is not that significant as mostly red beers. It is fairly malty but kind of thin in the flavor. Since I am not a fan of red ales I cannot give this beer credit even if it would be good from a red ale fans perspective.

EXTRA: (3) Label is kind of less serious aiming to attract people who are not really beer connoisseurs.

Bear Republics website

http://www.bearrepublic.com/home.php

Beer style: "Bastardized Scottish style red ale" (according to the brewery)
Serving temperature: 8-10 C
Alcohol: 6.8%

Food Pairings: I have no idea since I don't like this beer style.

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

Total: 78/130

Rumble - Oak aged India Pale Ale - Great Divide Brewing Co

APPEARANCE: (5) Beautiful clear reddish color with a creamy inviting head.

AROMA: (5) Oakey intriguing scents from the oak caskets that this beer has been matured on. Almost smell like a good single malt.

TASTE: (4) Taste is less flavorful than expected but still very nice. Very balanced, the malt is heavy which almost is going to stand out as a identification for this brewery since the previous tested beer was the same. The hops is balancing the malt. I tried it also together with Brie cheese as Great Divide recommended and it is a pretty good choice for this beer.

EXTRA: (3) After for the first time trying Great Divide brewing I think that they are very close in their beer styles to Diamond Bear Brewing of Little Rock, AR. Even their IPA:s are dominating on the malt which makes them different. Not necessary the best beer choice for the 'hop head' but very good beers still.

Beer style: American IPA
Serving temperature: 8-10 C
Alcohol: 7.1%

Food Pairings: According to Great Divide Brewing: Marinated skirt steak, sweet potatoes, brie or Tallegio cheese, apple crisp with creme fraice ice cream.

APPEARANCE: 5 x 5 = 25
AROMA: 5 x 10 = 50
TASTE: 4 x 10 = 40
EXTRA: 3 x 1 = 3

Total: 118/130

Titan IPA - Great Divide Brewing Co

APPEARANCE: (4) Pours a beautiful copper colored fairly clear beer with a competitive foam crown.

AROMA: (4) Buttery aroma with faint hints of hop. From the aroma I can almost picture an IPA which is heavier on the malty side compared to most IPA:s.

TASTE: (5) Very interesting taste. The malt is higher than in most IPA:s but the bitterness is definitely there to balance it. The taste is somewhat surprising because it is almost a little bit butter flavored liked in Czech pilseners.

I like it. It is a fairly easy drinking beer but still with a lot of flavor. It is very well balanced between hop and malt. A different IPA. Closer to the British style than the American IPA.

EXTRA: (3) I wish that their website was a little bit more informative about the different beers.

Great Divide Brewings website

Beer style: IPA
Serving temperature: 8-10 C
Alcohol: 7.1%

Food Pairings: According to Great Divide: "Grilled halibut, Thai curry, strong/soft cow milk cheeses.

APPEARANCE: 4 x 5 = 20
AROMA: 4 x 10 = 40
TASTE: 5 x 10 = 50
EXTRA: 3 x 1 = 3

Total: 113/130

Tallgrass IPA

This will be the first time that a canned beer is tested on this website. Not that I have anything against canned beers but usually craft beer which is more expensive is sold in bottles even if cans have become available for some craft beers lately.

The cans today are ideal for beer since they are easy to transport and does not break. They also protect the beer better against light which can destroy a beer over time. However, the downside is the esthetically part. Bottles are just so much nicer than cans.

APPEARANCE: (4) This beer pours nicely (from the can) into the testing glass and creates a beautiful thick creamy head which lasts a long time. It is towards the darker side, mahogany would be a close match in color. It also seems pretty hazy, not clear.

AROMA: (4) Wonderful piney hoppy aroma. Some of my favorite hop brands have definitely been used here.

TASTE: (4) Very drinkable and still very flavor full. Pretty thick mouthful feeling with a round finish. The hops are truly present also in the taste and not just in the aroma. The bitterness is very well balanced with the malt and even if it is dominating, it does not take completely over the full experience of this beer.

EXTRA: (3) This is a very good IPA which I could drink anytime. Their website is clean and easy reading but I wish that they could give out some more facts about the components of their beer.

Tallgrass brewing co

Beer style: American IPA
Serving temperature: 8-10 C
Alcohol: 6.3%

Food Pairings: IPA:s are great beers to enjoy as they are. Because of their high bitterness they can sometimes be difficult to pair with dishes. Spicy or flavorful food is usually the best pairing.

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

Total: 103/130

The Beer Basket has been refilled

The beer basket blog started with my wife surprising me with beers that she had ordered over the internet and that I could not get here in Arkansas. A couple of weeks ago she made a trip to Kansas and was able to by me several beers there which are not available in Arkansas and that is why I have some exciting new beers to present on this blog. Please stay tuned for beers from Great Divide, Tallgrass and many other nice breweries.

True Begian Dubbel - Ommegang

APPEARANCE: (5) Enormous huge foam fills the testing glass. The foam lingers but is fairly shallow like most Belgian style ales are.

AROMA: (5) Even when just pouring this beer into the testing glass, a strong and wonderful aroma fills the room. Further twirling of the glass relieves earthy notes and fruity flavors consisting of figs, overripe bananas and buttery esters.

TASTE: (3) Medium bodied beer with fairly high drinkability despite of the high alcohol. A little bit thinner in the taste than expected and anticipated.

EXTRA: (4) The package is very nice looking in the same style as luxury beers as Chimay.

Brewery Ommegang

Their website is awful. When you click on "our beers" you are taken to a site where several glasses are shown. Well, which one is the beer that you are looking for? After a while you might figure out that you are supposed to click on the bottles instead of the glasses and you are taken to a page where some rather unstructured information is presented about the beer that you are wanting to get more information about.

Please get management to think about what should be said about each beer and get a new webmaster that can understand how to present this and not a kid that want to show off his web creating abilities. It is better to not be on the web at all than to have a website like Ommegang where there are no good information available about each beer. Should that not be the #1 reason to be on the internet for any CRAFT brewing beer company?

Beer style: Belgian Dubbel
Serving temperature: 8-10 C
Alcohol: 8.5%

Food Pairings: According to Ommegang: "savory dishes, meats, slow-cooked French dishes made with pork, lamb, rabbit, beef, carbonnades, hotchpot, marinated roasts, barbeque, rich cheeses, almost every dessert"

APPEARANCE: 5 x 5 = 25
AROMA: 5 x 10 = 50
TASTE: 3 x 10 = 30
EXTRA: 4 x 1 = 4

Total: 109/130