Urban Family Muerte Al Cereal Imperial Stout

I have a bad habit when I holiday shop of treating myself to something nice, while shopping for others. It mostly happens if I decide to get someone beer as a Christmas present. My wife enjoys sour beers, especially fruit-forward sour beers. So, in my quest to get something interesting she had yet to try, I found myself contemplating whether I needed something for myself. I got one look at Urban Family Brewing's Muerte Al Cereal(Death to Cereal) and decided of course I did. Out of Seattle, WA, Muerte Al Cereal is another Mexican Hot Chocolate style beer. A style, simply put, I can't seem to get enough of. For example, Stone's Xocoveza has been consistently in my fridge since October, along with a few others. So I was excited to see how Muerte Al Cereal pulled off the style and report the results right here.

As I was pouring Muerte Al Cereal I immediately noticed how thin it was. This was a bit disappointing because I like my imperial stouts full-bodied. Basically I want my imperial stouts to pour like motor oil. While Muerte Al Cereal did not pour like motor oil, that was only a slight disappointment, not a deal breaker. The aroma provided a nice roastiness, some chocolate, lactose, light cinnamon and pepper spice. For the most part this matched what I got on the first sip. Roasted malt kicks things off before going right into the bold flavor of milk chocolate. The pepper spice is subtle and mostly comes through on the finish. As with most of these beers, I wanted a little more heat from the pepper on the finish. Still, the pepper was present at least. The cinnamon spice however was mostly MIA. I felt like I spent most of the remaining time drinking this beer looking for it. When the cinnamon did come through it was way too subtle. I thought letting Muerte Al Cereal warm a bit would bring the cinnamon & pepper spice out more, but sadly that did not happen. What did happen is the flavor of the chocolate & vanilla got even bolder.  I thought this was fantastic and if this wasn't a Mexican Hot Chocolate style beer, I would have been raving about it. Unfortunately, this is a Mexican Hot Chocolate style beer and it's a Mexican Hot Chocolate style beer with barely any spice. To be clear, I am not saying I needed a lot of spice in the flavor, I just wanted more than I got. Still, the flavors that I was left with were quite good. While I was disappointed Muerte Al Cereal missed the mark for the style, it is still a really nice chocolate milk stout.

Overall I would rate Muerte Al Cereal a 3/5. It's a good beer, just not the beer I hoped it would be.


Rating Scale:
1 - Repugnant and undrinkable
2 - Acceptable but forgettable
3 - Good, worth a purchase
4 - Excellent, a step above the norm
5 - Truly exceptional　

To discuss this blog or all things beer follow me on Twitter, Instagram & Untappd at @ACraftyLook

For more beer reviews go to: http://www.acraftylook.com

For my most recent appearance of 13 WHAM's Good Day Rochester: Click Here!

Happy Holidays! Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Gun Hill Roll Call East Coast IPA #3

About a month or two ago I was in a bottle shop looking for some new stuff to try. I was already a bit over the amount I would have liked to have spent but that is something I am used to at this point. I came across cans of Gun Hill Brewing Company's Roll Call East Coast IPA. I picked one up, pondered buying it for a moment, then set it down and said “next time” to myself. A few days later, a friend of mine said he had this fantastic IPA from Gun Hill and my heart sank. I rushed over that day to the same bottle shop to find the cans long gone. Since then I have waited for the day I would finally cross paths with it again. I am happy to report that day finally came last week. Call it a holiday miracle or just the next time my area got distribution of Roll Call East Coast IPA, whatever works for you. This time I would not leave it on the shelf. I bought it immediately and felt its miraculous return would make it the perfect beer for this week's review.

Out of Bronx, NY, Gun Hill Brewing Company's Roll Call East Coast IPA #3's aroma blew my mind the second I opened the can. The bold aromas of passion fruit, pineapple, apricot, tangerine and mango were practically jumping out of the can. Before I even took my first sip of this hazy golden orange IPA I knew I was in for a treat. Then the first sip of Roll Call EC #3 confirmed the previous statement. This beer is absolutely fantastic! Passion fruit, along with tangerine, pineapple, mango, orange peel and a touch of grass were all up front before a dry, bitter, spicy, pine finish. I liked everything about this beer. The fruitiness of the hops are front & center, which I thoroughly enjoy. The malt provides just the right amount of sweetness but rightfully takes the backseat and allows the hops to shine.

As I made it farther into my glass of Roll Call EC #3, I became a bigger fan of it. In Rochester, NY, the most popular IPAs distributed here are by Grimm Artisan Ales. Now, I am not saying that Roll Call East Coast IPA #3 is better than a Grimm IPA(although in some cases I think it is), I think it merits being mentioned in the same conversation. Then again, we can save that debate for another day. I just personally feel Gun Hill's Roll Call EC IPA  is one of the better IPAs I have had recently. To make things even more appealing, it is less expensive than Grimm and that doesn't hurt either.

Overall I would rate Roll Call EC #3 a 4.5/5. Don't make the same mistake I did, pick up this beer immediately!

Rating Scale:
1 - Repugnant and undrinkable
2 - Acceptable but forgettable
3 - Good, worth a purchase
4 - Excellent, a step above the norm
5 - Truly exceptional　

To discuss this blog or all things beer follow me on Twitter, Instagram & Untappd at @ACraftyLook

For more beer reviews go to: http://www.acraftylook.com

For my most recent appearance of 13 WHAM's Good Day Rochester: Click Here!

Happy Holidays! Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

21st Amendment Fireside Chat Winter Spiced Ale

Last week, I reviewed a mediocre barrel aged stout from the normally reliable Founders Brewing Company. That stout set me back about 17 dollars. It was proof that spending more on beer does not guarantee you will get your money's worth. Since it is the holiday season, I for one need to spend a little more money on Christmas presents than I do on beer. Of course I tell myself that now but I most likely will find myself chasing down the next exciting limited release heading this way. For now though, I am here to review something less expensive and easy to find. I mentioned earlier that it is the Christmas season and I realize I have barely touched upon the holiday themed beers out right now. So that is all going to change this week when I take a look at 21st Amendment Brewery's Fireside Chat Winter Spiced Ale.

Sadly, 21St Amendment's Fireside Chat is not a good beer. I really did not want to give away my overall assessment right away but in this case it felt right. Once in awhile I come across a beer where the first sip seems pretty good but by the time the last sip comes around, I find it completely unbearable. Every time I took a sip of Fireside Chat, I liked it less and less. I thought giving it time to warm would open it up, but that just made it worse. No matter what temperature the beer was, the finish of Fireside Chat completely ruined the beer. I found the finish bitter, boozy and astringent. It felt completely out of place with the rest of the beer. That was disappointing because not everything here is terrible. The aroma was pleasant and delivered mostly what you would expect from the style. Toasted caramel, toasted nuts, molasses, dark fruits and a hint of spices. These notes all come through nicely initially in the flavor. There's also a candied sugar note that is nicely complemented by cinnamon and nutmeg. What's even better is the cinnamon and nutmeg are nicely subdued here. Some holiday themed beers are drowned with spices. There is just enough of those spices here to make their presence known but not so much as to detract from anything else going on here. There is also a nice cherry note to the beer which makes it seem even more festive. Then the finish hits and ruins any potential this beer had. In the case of Fireside Chat, a little bitterness to the finish could have been a nice compliment to the malt sweetness. Instead this beer goes overboard on the bitterness, which seems even more intense because of heat from the booze. At 7.9%, the alcohol should have been hidden better. Instead the alcohol is there front and center delivering a final blow to any potential this beer had.

Fireside Chat is a disappointing beer and definitely not the best representation of winter beer on the shelves right now. Due to the fact that I am just now touching upon the winter and holiday styles of beer this late into the season I feel like I can't just leave you with my usual “this beer particular beer is terrible, try something else.” So, I will leave you with two really nice recommendations. Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale and Genesee's Winter Warmer Ale are two wonderful Winter beers on shelves right now. I highly recommend them both for your holiday festivities.

Overall I would rate Fireside Chat a 1.5/5. This is bad beer, plain and simple. However, if you are looking for a nice beer from 21st Amendment to compliment this time of year, try Monk's Blood.

Rating Scale:
1 - Repugnant and undrinkable
2 - Acceptable but forgettable
3 - Good, worth a purchase
4 - Excellent, a step above the norm
5 - Truly exceptional　

To discuss this blog or all things beer follow me on Twitter, Instagram & Untappd at @ACraftyLook

For more beer reviews go to: http://www.acraftylook.com

For my most recent appearance of 13 WHAM's Good Day Rochester: Click Here!

Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Founders Lizard of Koz

Welcome to my new readers who saw me on 13 WHAM's Good Day Rochester!
For the video of our "Holiday Pub Crawl" Click Here

As a beer drinker, I absolutely love the holiday season.  Breweries from across the country seem to release some of their best beer around this time of the year. From old favorites, to new exciting beers, there is no shortage of great beers to try. What is not ideal is the impact this has on my wallet. It almost feels as soon as I find one exciting beer, I find out another one is just hitting shelves. For this week's review, I parted with 17 dollars and picked up the latest offering from Founders Brewing Company, Lizard of Koz.

For a huge fan of barrel aged beers from Founders, Lizard of Koz sounded very exciting. A bourbon barrel aged imperial stout with blueberries, vanilla and chocolate seemed like it was going to be an automatic 5/5. I actually got nervous that this blog would sound more like a commercial than a critique. As soon I got my first whiff of the aroma, I immediately knew this wasn't going to be the case. The aroma of Lizard of Koz is practically just chocolate & blueberry. The taste of Lizard of Koz is practically just chocolate & blueberry. These flavors are so dominant that nothing else really gets a chance to shine here. I had to keep looking for any presence of the barrel and if I did not let Lizard of Koz warm a bit, I would not have found it. There is just a little oak & bourbon on the finish which is nice, but there needed to be more. Enduring the sweetness of the chocolate & blueberries became extremely tiresome midway through the glass. If you are wondering how sweet this beer actually is, think hot chocolate packet mix sweetness with blueberry syrup on top of that. Once my glass was empty I was more concerned about getting a cavity than refilling my glass.

To me, Lizard of Koz is a huge miss from the makers of amazing barrel aged classics like KBS, CBS, Backwoods Bastard and Project Pam. I say “to me” because I genuinely believe someone else will really enjoy this beer. For people that have a “sweet tooth” this beer might be right up your alley. If you read my review above and thought that it sounds good, I would strongly encourage you to pick up a bottle. I promise I will be leaving the rest of them on the shelves.

Overall I would rate Lizard of Koz a 2/5. A surprisingly disappointing offering from an outstanding brewery.

Rating Scale:
1 - Repugnant and undrinkable
2 - Acceptable but forgettable
3 - Good, worth a purchase
4 - Excellent, a step above the norm
5 - Truly exceptional　

To discuss this blog or all things beer follow me on Twitter, Instagram & Untappd at @ACraftyLook

For more beer reviews go to: http://www.acraftylook.com

Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Genesee Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Black IPA