Beer Diary - Mike

Although we score beers on a five mug scale in our roundtables, I think the real test of a beer is "would I buy this again?". With that thought in mind, here's my latest beer diary.

10 January 08 Location: Locals Only

Stone Ruination IPA - This was my warm-up beer for the Founder's Dirty Bastard Roundtable. Transparent gold body, lacing, and a sweet nose. First taste reveals rotten egg, spoiled milk elements. I kept drinking it anyway, I've gotten those flavors in beer before. Loose mouthfeel for an IPA, works the top of the mouth, nice little bite, but the taste gets worse the more the beer warms. Something isn't right with this bottle... I've had this before and it wasn't like this. I'd buy it again just to know for sure - and because it's one of the only single-bottle IPAs available at my local liquor store.

Lakefront Brewery Fuel Cafe Coffee Flavored Stout - I've seen this on the shelves at PartyPak. This beer was originally brewed "especially for (Milwaukee's) Fuel Cafe". Sounds like a pretty cool place.

There's something sweet in the coffee nose of this one. Generally I pick up either heavy coffee or beef jerky flavors from stouts - despite being "coffee flavored", I'm getting a lot more jerky out of this beer. All in all, pretty forgettable, and not something I'd buy again.

If you're into this style, Gina and I are really fond of Schlafly's Coffee Stout - I'd say it's best in class stuff, at least off the taps in St. Louis. A growler of that is a guaranteed good time.

15 January 08 Location: Home

Three Floyds Alpha Kong Sextupple Belgian Strong Ale - Every time Gina and I are in PartyPak we end up picking up a bottle, saying "check out how much this is", and then having the clerk say "this Alpha Kong is $20 a bottle". Eventually Gina bought that $20 bottle, and I drank half of it.

The first thing that hits you about Alpha Kong is the way the nose just jumps out of the bottle or glass - strong, sweet fruits scents, with elements of apple, banana, and a hint of nail polish. A translucent cherry-wood color sits underneath a lively head that eventually settles to nothing. A silky/slimy mouthfeel work the roof of the mouth and tongue, with a taste that echoes the nose - apple, banana, and a fruity sweetness. There's an obvious alcohol bite in this (which shouldn't be surprising considering its 15% ABV), but it's not overwhelming. This is a really strong but well balanced beer - extremely easy to drink, but you wouldn't want more than one. My notes say "Gone too fast/Gone fast enough" - while extremely tasty, a beer this strong is dangerous. Half a pint and I was feeling it already. I'd give this 4.5+ mugs in a roundtable review. At $20 a bottle, this is probably a special occasion beer, but I'd gladly buy it again (for the first time).

One last note - Way back at Roundtable #16, we took a tour of Barley Island's facilities in Noblesville and were fortunate enough to sample two of their bourbon barrel beers - the IPA and the oatmeal stout. At that time I found them both a little overwhelming to my developing beer senses. Recently I came across Barley Island's bourbon barrel stout in an unassuming bottle at PartyPak, and I decided to revisit it.

Now, I can't be sure that this is the same recipe Barley Island was using way back then, but now I find the beer fantastic - a nice balance of coffee, chocolate, and bourbon, with a nice creamy mouthfeel. And at $6 for a 22 ounce bomber, not at all a bad price for a limited edition beer. This might be one worth checking out if you're a fan of the style. I've already bought it more than once.

Locals Only...with a special guest star

For our latest review, which took place at Locals Only (as Jason has already noted), we were joined by Scot, who is the author of the excellent blog, 64th and Broadway, Barcelona. You might be familiar with Scot's blog because it was featured in last week's INtake article on local bloggers. Scot is an avid fan of independent films, so if you enjoy hanging out at Key Cinemas, then 64th and Broadway should be a daily stop for you because Scot often posts thoughtful and insightful reviews of the films that he sees.

I've known Scot for several years. We became acquainted through our mutual love for the Beautiful Game. We suffered together through the U.S.'s disappointing World Cup appearance this past summer and are fans of rival Major League Soccer teams. Despite our differing team loyalties, we do get along quite well. Before the review, I knew that Scot had a healthy appreciation for good beer, so it was no surprise that he joined us at Locals Only. He was a great guest. I think that I speak for the other Knights of the Beer Roundtable when I say that Scot has an open invitation to join us for future reviews.

On to the beers. Last Thursday, unfortunately, was a slightly disappointing beer night for me. This is not to say that the beers we reviewed were poor; rather, the beers simply didn't sit well with me. In fact, the best beer that I had was my warm-up beer, which was an Anheuser-Busch product, Bare Knuckle Stout. Bare Knuckle is a dry, Irish-style stout made in the mold of Guinness. I suppose that A-B decided to make a foray into the stout market based upon Guinness's burgeoning popularity here in the United States. I must say that the producer of the "King of Beers" has done a fairly good job with Bare Knuckle, which I found to be smooth with that classic milky finish that a good dry stout has. Bare Knuckle's flavor isn't as heavy as Guinness's, which has more coffee-like notes. But if you're looking to try a stout for the first time, Bare Knuckle would be a good stout with which to start.

From the Bare Knuckle, we stepped up to the high octane stuff. At Chris's behest, we went with Stone Brewing Company's Ruination IPA. I didn't protest at all because I love Stone's products. They release a Russian Imperial Stout every year that is heavenly, and they have just released their yearly batch of Old Guardian Barley Wine, which never disappoints. But up until Thursday, I had not tried the Ruination IPA.

So we broke out the snifters (actually, I think they were wine glasses) and poured. Like any good IPA, the Ruination was sort of a coppery-gold hue. The nose on this beer was phenomenal--very, very fruity, with a bit of grapefruit. On second whiff, however, I got a big old dose of...bubble gum. I loved it. The flavor, however, belied the nose. I was expecting a bit of sweetness, but the Ruination is extremely dry. Like other IPA's, it's heavy on the hops, with an almost pine-like taste. The first half of the glass was very pleasant, but as I drank more, the beer became overpowering. It almost got to the point of making me nauseated. Perhaps this happened because, next to Renee, I am probably the biggest lightweight of the group (about which I get constant grief from the other Knights). Ultimately, I wimped out and turned the rest of my beer over to Jason. So I'll give a dual rating here. If I could do nothing but smell the beer, I'd give it 5 mugs. But the flavor knocks it down to 3 mugs for me.

As for the Sterkens Hoogstraten Poorter, what would beer geeks like us do without a Belgian ale to review? Locals Only owner David generously furnished us a free bottle of the stuff (and it was a BIG bottle), which we split between us. I agree with Jason's assessment of this beer as being a virtual clone of Unibroue's Trois Pistoles, which, as I noted in an earlier review, was just not my thing. I did, however, have a good laugh at the vaguely homoerotic label for the beer. 3 mugs for the beer; 4 mugs for the label.

"We serve what I like"

These words from David Queisser make a worthy mantra for everyone when talking about your profession and your business. If you don't believe in the product, how can you expect to successfully sell it?

David and his girlfriend/business partner Michele Kofski own and operate Locals Only, a "music and art pub" at 56th Street and Keystone. It is an impressive, off the beaten path establishment that welcomes locals and not-so-locals from all walks of life. There's a stage in one corner of the bar, offering live music of all sorts. The work of local artists hang on the walls. There's a pinball machine and pool table for those that want activity. And a mix of booths, tables and chairs, bar stools, and couches so that you can find a comfortable place to sit, no matter your style. There is also a TV or two for your sports watching pleasure.

They have a nice menu of food items, but being a HBG, I wasn't there for the food. I was there for the beer. And they have one helluva beer menu. I believe I counted around 65 bottled beer varieties along with 11 taps and 13 domestic beers for your pleasure. Enough brew to keep any booze hound trying something different everyday for a couple of months.

What's also great about their beer menu is the number of beers and breweries on the menu that I had never heard of. The standards on many local beer menus (Bell's, Three Floyd's, Unibroue, etc.) were absent here. And that's okay. A good percentage of the 65 beers available seemed unique to Locals Only, at least as far as I've seen.

It was just us guys tonight. The ladies dumped us. I'm having flashbacks to high school. Everybody warmed up differently. I arrived late, so I only had one warm up beer before we headed into the featured presentation. Locals Only had some Mishawaka Brewing Company beers listed on their chalkboard, so I opted for the Seven Mules Kick-Ass Ale.

After pouring through the beer menu, we opted for the Stone Ruination IPA, a 22 ounce American Double IPA that goes for $10. The big, green bottle had a large gargoyle on the front and a very, very long description on the back. It was named Ruination "because of the immediate ruinous effect on your palate." This should be fun!

We poured our beers into snifters and I could immediately smell the abundance of hops. Not quite the punch in the nose that some other hops-centric beers provide, but very pleasant indeed. It poured with a white, foamy head and finished with a golden-red color and a cloudy consistency. It's not surprising that with a 7.7% ABV, the beer leaves a dry feeling in your mouth. There is a tartness to it and some bite, probably from both the large amount of hops and the alcohol. The flavor combination is hard to describe. There is some sweetness to it as well as an earthy component. Somewhere, I saw someone describe a beer as having a pine flavor, and I think you could use that to describe this beer. Having been on a hops and IPA kick recently, I thoroughly enjoyed this beer and would be happy to come back to it. I'm giving it a 4 mug rating.

After we finished the IPA, David treated us to a bottle of Hoogstraten Poorter from Brouwerij Sterkens. I say a bottle because it's easily big enough to be shared, coming in a 750mL ceramic bottle with a flip top. That's the size of a fifth of your favorite liquor. Big bottle. And it costs $21.50 at Locals Only.

Initially, we believed it to be of German decent but were surprised to learn that it was actually Belgian. Flipping open the bottle, we were immediately hit with fruit smells. I mean it's like Carmen Miranda shoved her hat up my nose. Based on the amount of fruit that my nose picked up, I wasn't looking forward to drinking this beer. I figured it would be too much fruit.

We poured the Poorter into tulip glasses. It is a dark beer with a light brown head. We took a drink. Much to our surprise, it was not as overwhelmingly fruity as we initially predicted. There was a nice maltiness to it, with just a hint of fruit, perhaps cherry or berry of sorts. But not annoyingly so. Together, the flavor components formed a simple but pleasing flavor. It reminds me a lot of La Fin du Monde or perhaps Trois Pistoles by Unibroue, though I prefer the Poorter over the Unibroues. A pleasant beer that gets better with time (and intoxication). I'm giving this beer a 3.5 mugs rating.