Wee Alec isn't Heavy, he's my brother (Jason's Review)

Okay, lame title, just couldn't help myself.

Unlike the others at the beer round table, I was a Broad Ripple Brewpub virgin. What can I say, I tend to party downtown instead of uptown. But the Brewpub, along with Brugge, gives me great reason to stray north. First, the Brewpub looks exactly like a brewpub should. Several areas, dark woods, classic in design. Second, it's a non-smoking facility. Normally, I'm prepared to smell like an ash tray after an evening of drinking. But much to my surprise, I didn't. So the lovely wife didn't make me shower before I passed out in bed. Third, the Brewpub's menu caters to the vegetarian lifestyle without forgetting about us carnivores. The nachos were excellent. And finally, with the Brewpub being the oldest in the city, it has a long history with its beers and brewmaster. Spending an evening with Kevin and discussing his beers was almost as much of a treat as drinking his beers.

As the late comer that evening, I started with what everybody else was having, the ESB. And I finished the evening with the IPA. Both were very tasty and worthy of a future review. I elected to review the Wee Alec Heavy, "a full bodied ale" with a 7.7% ABV. Now I should start off by saying that when I first joined HBG, I preferred my beers like my lovely wife preferred her men: dark. But in recent weeks and months, I've been moved to the light side of the foam. That is to say I've been craving hops. And I have been enjoying hops in many different forms.

I'm not going to go into great detail with the descriptions that Chris and Jim have already laid down very well: dark brown in color, smooth in feel and taste, notes of caramel, perhaps some raisin. Unlike Chris, I think the amount of carbonation was perfect. All of the beers at the Brewpub lean towards the English side with less bubbles and not as chilled. I think that allowed the flavors to stand out.

There was something else in the beer that the others didn't pick up. Both in scent and in flavor, I caught similarities between Wee Alec and a peaty scotch. It's hard to describe other than it was earthy in nature and produced a sting in the aftertaste. It also left a hint of alcohol in the scent. Why was I picking this up? It might have been because I had some peaty scotch not to long ago (which, honestly, I'm not a fan of). Or perhaps recent desire for hops and away from malts has left my taste buds open to other, more hidden flavors. I don't know. But what I found was probably the better parts of scotch. It certainly wasn't unpleasant.

In the end, it is a very satisfying beer, best consumed during cooler temperatures. It's a good warm-me-up beer that would probably go great with Shepard's pie or beef stew or a barley soup. I give this beer a 4 mugs rating and recommend it to any who enjoys darker beers. And get it soon. My understanding is that there is only a couple more weeks left before they replace it with a barley wine.

Broad Ripple Brewpub's Wee Alec Heavy Ale (Jim's Review)

I'm going to try not to duplicate Chris's review of the Wee Alec Heavy Ale. In fact, I think I'll focus a little more on our review site, which was the Broad Ripple Brewpub. BRB was opened in 1990, which makes BRB the grand dame of Indiana brewpubs because it was the first one to be established in the Hoosier State. The pub has a homey, UK vibe to it. It looks and feels like a typical British public house, complete with an area for throwing darts. The only thing that's missing (at least in this soccer fan's opinion) is a little footy on the telly.

BRB's food menu offers some British pub staples, such as fish and chips, shepherd's pie, bangers and mash, and some wickedly good scotch eggs. In addition, BRB has a pretty extensive offering of pizzas, which I have never tried. Many are surprised to learn that BRB is very vegetarian friendly. The pub has at least 27 vegetarian dishes (at least by my count) on the menu.

As for the pub's beers, most of the beers offered are English style ales. BRB has a number of staple beers that are brewed on a regular basis, such as the ESB, the Lawn Mower Pale Ale, and the Monon Porter. As Chris noted, BRB offers a few cask ales in addition to its staple beers.

BRB's beers are rated highly by the locals on a fairly consistent basis, and for good reason--brewer Kevin Matalucci really knows what the heck he's doing. Our chat with Kevin about BRB's beers and about beer in general was enlightening for me, particularly since I'm not very well-versed in beer-making techniques. Before our talk with Kevin, I couldn't tell you the difference between Cascade and Columbia hops. But Kevin was kind enough to explain the basic difference between hop varieties, which he described as being similar to the difference between cooking spices. In other words, you could think of one hop variety as basil, another thyme, and yet another oregano.

So what did I drink? Like Chris, I started with the ESB Extra Special Bitter. This is probably my favorite BRB staple beer. It has a great balance of hops and malt in its flavor. It starts out with a malty smoothness and bites the back of your tongue with the hops. Then, it was on to the feature beer, which was the Wee Alec Heavy Ale. Since Chris has already described the color of the beer and its ABV, I'll focus on the nose and the taste because my perceptions of those attributes were a bit different from Chris's perceptions. For me, the nose on this ale was heavy with caramel and raisins. Consequently, I expected this beer to be on the sweet side. Surprisingly, it was not sweet. Rather, it was smooth, a bit on the dry side, and even a bit buttery. The caramel and raisin notes were in the flavor, but they were not overpowering or even prevalent. I also noted a bit of a coffee flavor, but no chocolate notes like Chris found. And because the Wee Alec is not highly carbonated, it goes down rather easily, which is a characteristic that I like to describe as "milky."

My rating: 4 mugs. The Wee Alec is a high quality ale that any beer aficionado would find extremely pleasing. And a big thanks to Kevin for having a chat with us and for making a fantastic product.

Broad Ripple Brewpub's Wee Alec Heavy (Chris' Review)

Along with the other changes hoosierbeergeek.com is going through, we're also trying out a new format for posting our reviews. Instead of waiting for everyone to submit a review and compiling it into one large post, each Knight will individually post his or her review for your consumption, Dear Reader. We're also now adding labels to our posts. I honestly don't understand what that does, but Jason tells me to do it, so I do it (I bet my wife wishes I followed her commands as easily, without questioning).

The Knights of the Beer Roundtable (all 5 of us, plus extra special guest Keith "Tiny" M. of Anderson), trekked to the Broad Ripple Brewpub last evening to meet with brewmaster Kevin, and taste some of his suds. Tiny likes a variety of beers, but hadn't before delved into reviewing them. At first, he looked at us like we were kinda wierd when we stuck our noses into the beer, but by the end of the night, he had some foam on his nose, too! We're glad you joined us, Tiny!

Kevin is a very good host, and he is a damn good brewmaster. Both my warm-up (ESB, or Extra Special Bitter) and my reviewed beer (Wee Alec Heavy) were outstanding beers. Kevin even gave us a preview taste of his upcoming barleywine (w/out the dry hops), which I will definitely be going back for when it's finished. We very much appreciated Kevin taking some time out to talk with us about his products.

I paid particular attention to the Wee Alec Heavy, which had been brewed for the holidays. The Wee Alec is a cask ale, meaning that it is unfiltered & unpastuerized, and it is stored in a metal cask instead of a keg. Though Wee, Alec packs a big man's punch, coming in at a hefty 7.7% ABV.

Wee Alec is a very dark, virtually opaque beer (think Optimator - and now you can probably guess where my review is going). If you don't like dark beer - and I love it - this beer probably isn't for you.

While the nose isn't strong and overpowering, I could definitely discern hints of chocolate, coffee, and caramel. But the smells blend well together.

As with cask ales, the Wee Alec has very little carbonation. Kevin explained most of his beers are that way, and people think its an error. But as Kevin likes to point out, the brewmaster gets to make beers that the brewmaster likes, and in this case, the brewmaster doesn't like much carbonation.

This was a very smooth, medium-bodied beer. There isn't much of a bite, and I didn't think much of an aftertaste was left, either. The caramel and heavy malt flavors blend very well together, producing a well-balanced beer.

I highly recommend trying this beer before it runs out. As a seasonal that's past its season, it isn't going to last too much longer. I give it 4.5 Mugs, and only withhold the last half-mug because I, personally, like a little more carbonation in my beer. But my compliments to the brewmaster for a very fine, delicious offering!