More Thanksgiving Beer: St. Bernardus 6

I'd mentioned just yesterday that I'm a fan of spicy Belgian ales when it's turkey time. Well as luck would have it, a good friend recently bought a variety 6-pack from St. Bernardus, an abbey-style brewery. He shared a couple bottles last night as we watched the Saints crush the Packers (three interceptions? really Aaron Rodgers?) and one stood out as a fantastic Thanksgiving Day beer, the St. Bernardus 6. Now this is the lesser of two dubbels (basically a Belgian brown ale) made by the brewery in alcohol, but compared to the boozier St. Bernardus 8, I thought the 6 had beer balance and drinkability. More flavor isn't always better. Some of the worst beers (cough, Bud Light Chelada, cough) are packed with flavor. Anyways, here are some brief thoughts.


St. Bernardus Pater 6
Dubbel
Brouwerij St. Bernardus

A- / 4.05
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 5

Poured a mostly-clear dark amber with a tall white head and lacing. This beer strikes me as being two things: spicy and drinkable. At nearly 7%, this baby drinks like a mild thanks to the dry and thin body. As for the spice, phenols are the dominate flavor-maker, with a red peppercorn bite next to the also spicy hops. The malt provides a subtle toffee back note for the spice and help create the delicate balance. This beer could have a little more flavor, but I'll be damned if I couldn't put down a number of these without thinking about it.


St. Bernardus Prior 8
Dubbel
Brouwerij St. Bernardus

B- / 3.45
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2.5 | drink: 4

In a word: underwhelming. Although a good beer, I found nothing to brag about. It looks like a nice monk brew, brown with generous head. Smell didn't do much for me. Some fruit and caramel, but it was faint. Similarly with tastes, there were some nice subtle complexities, but nothing grand and tasty. It was a mix of tart, sour berries, with bitter candy. I had a hard time tasting much because the beer was over carbonated. Really took a while for that to settle down. Still a very smooth drink, but not one I'd drop good money on any time soon. I'll stick to the Abt 12.

A Good Beer for Thanksgiving: Samuel Smith Pale Ale

Turkey Day is coming and its time to start thinking about what beer to bring to the dinner table. I usually lean toward spicy Belgians like a St. Bernardus Tripel or La Great Divide's Hades Ale, but recently I tried the Sam Smith Pale Ale and the earth, herbal flavors convinced me it deserved a spot next to the stuffing and potatoes.

Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale
English Pale Ale
Samuel Smith Old Brewery

A- / 4.1
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 4.5

Great aroma right after pouring. Oh man, I'm getting fresh apple with frosting, oak, French bread and hops spice. The flavor has almost a mild barleywine/old ale malt profile with a dry hit of sugar cookie and soupy caramel. It finishes with a long, moderate strength, slightly grassy, peppercone hops note. Delicious and drinkable. Get this beer.

St. Bernardus Tripel
Belgian Tripel
Brouwerij St. Bernardus

A- / 4.05
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 4

It was a touch on the thick side, for the style, but there was a great range of phenols. I mean this beer was spicy, damn. There were also mellow banana and subtle clove, matched with a sizeable hops bite of herbal lemon and citrus rind. Yum. Very tasty, but I might have trouble drinking a few of these.

Hades Ale
Belgian Strong Pale Ale
Great Divide Brewing Co.

A- / 4.2
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.5 | drink: 4.5

This beer is for real. Pale golden in color with a little lacing. The aroma is immediately reminiscent of of Duvel or a wit with a kick for the spice. The flavor is deep. Its starts sweet and bready, then bitterness grows while coriander, vanilla, and cream come through with a touch of belgian candi. The aftertaste is a long continuation of the spice and sweet malts. Oh so drinkable. My only negative comments are that this beer lacks the mouthfeel (a touch weak on the carbonation) and rocky head that help round out a great pale Belgian. Still damn tasty. Find this beer.

The Worst Beer Ever: The Search Continues

Blah, blah, blah, election. Blah, blah, blah, change. Blah, Blah, Blah, Obama.

Now that that's out of the way, and we have a good replacement for our nation's first high-functioning moron, let's get back to beer. Actually now that I think about it, this is the perfect time to focus on one of my beer goals, to try all the worst beers in the world as a way to see the worst president out the door.

I don't typically choose or prefer to drink bad beer, but I have the same sort of sick fascination as some people have with death. It's the polar opposite of what I love, good beer. And I feel by better understanding that by understanding the ying of beer, I better know the yang.

At this point the two worst beers I've identified, thanks to sites like BeerAdvocate.com, are Corona Light and Evil Eye, a malt liquor (yes that counts as beer) brewed in Wisconsin. The Corona will be easy to pick up, but the Evil Eye will have to wait until I'm in the Midwest this winter.

Here are a few choice comments on the terrible two.

Corona Light:

"Smell: wet cardboard"

"A flavorless aqueous solution of millet and assorted birdfeed by-products"

"Not drinkable by a longshot, a definite pour and brush my teeth beer."


Evil Eye:

"cloyingly sweet creamed corn with burning alcohol in the throat is enough to make one gag"

"24 oz is a marathon to get down when you are drinking liquid ass"

"rotten white grape and green apple come through, and it is just plain bad"


See what I have to look forward to? On my march to the bottom of the barrel, I recently imbibed a a fairly awful beer. Though based on desciptions, I wouldn't put it the same class as Evil Eye.


Dixie Beer
Dixie Brewing Co.
American Macro Lager

C- / 2.7
look: 3.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | drink: 2.5

Picked up a bottle at Liberty St. Tavern out of curiosity. In my pint glass it looked a clear straw gold, while a quickly disappearing head.

OK, so this beer basically tastes like someone took a batch of over-cooked corn and baked it. DMS and the corn/vegetable taste dominate, but there's a toasted biscuit note that at least makes this beer a little interesting. I'd really only recommend this beer to Rolling Rock fans, and people that really like corn.

Cheers to the NYC Marathon

Being a running dork in addition to a bike dork, last Sunday morning I took a break from eating leftover Halloween candy (and feeling kind of guilty, but not really) to watch the NYC Marathon online. Yes, not only do I like watching skinny, hairless men bike around Europe in colorful spandex, but I also enjoy watching skinny, scantily-clad men and women chasing each other around city streets.

Anyways. I saw a few things of note during the race worth raising a glass of beer. Here's to you, various parts of the marathon.

-Paula Radcliffe crushes the women's field. Leading nearly the entire race, she slowly turned the screws to drop the competition one by one.

-Kara Goucher is the first American woman to podium since 1990 and makes the fastest female American marathon debut ever. Some people only pay attention to Kara because she's cute. But in addition to that, she also generally rocks (like when she kicked Paula's ass at her post-pregnancy comeback race last year).

-Borat makes an appearance. I don't know how someone can endure 26.2 miles of the uber-banana hammock, but props to the man that can. Props also go to the guy red jersey conveniently covers Borat's ass.

I'm sure many more notable things happened in the course of Sunday's race, so the folks that enjoyed them and those I've listed here's a beer review to you. Something perfect for relaxing after a morning of pounding pavement.

Blanche De Chambly
Unibroue
Witbier

B+ / 3.95
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | drink: 4.5

Poured into a basic red wine glass. The body is a hazy straw yellow with a fluffy white head and lacing. This beer is a great example of a light, but complex beer. Sweet bready malts dominate the flavor, but notes of vanilla and allspice pop in and out. The wheat taste isn't as raw as Hoegaarden, and the aroma is a bit faint, but this is still a top-notch wit. Certainly worth trying.