Grimm Lumen, Candlepower & Sugarmaker

I am not typically one who likes to wait in line for beer. That is not to say I will not do it. I have waited in line like so many before me for a case of Heady Topper. I have waited in line for Goose Island Bourbon County. I have waited in line for Firestone Walker Velvet Merkin. I accidentally waited in line for Westbrook Mexican Cake. In the case of the Westbrook Mexican Cake though, I was told they would be arriving shortly. Moments later more people started showing up. A half hour later Mexican Cake had still had not arrived but a lot more people did. At that point I felt like since I had already waited that long, I might as well see it through.

For the Mexican Cake, Velvet Merkin and Bourbon County lines I only got a bottle or two. That is perfectly fine with me because those beers last. I can put them in my fridge and stare at them proudly for a while before the occasion calls for me to drink them. For me, that is perfectly acceptable. One thing that I do not understand is waiting in line for a single can of an IPA. I fully understand waiting in line for a 4 pack or a case of an IPA but just a single can seems like a waste of time. I feel this way for two reasons. One, is their short shelf life. The refrigerator admiration time for these limited IPAs is very short and I personally enjoy that time. Another thing, on a more serious note, is that frankly there is not a good enough IPA distributed in this area to make me want to spend a portion of my day waiting in line for it. That includes the entire lineup of Grimm IPAs. A lineup which I find to be very hit and miss. The hits(Tesseract, Magnetic Compass, Lambo Door) are fantastic but the misses(Forcefield, Dreamweapon) leave me feeling cheated out of 5 dollars. Still, these Grimm IPAs get people excited unlike any other beers distributed in my area. So, for this blog which happens to be my 3 year anniversary blog, I am going to review 3 beers recently released by Grimm including their IPA Lumen. Hopefully, from these reviews I can give you a better idea of whether these are worth waiting in line for, or just looking for on draft.

Grimm Lumen was the first IPA I was able to try from Grimm. I thought it was a really nice beer then and I still do now. The bold passion fruit aroma is wonderfully complimented by the aromas of pineapple, peach, grapefruit and pine. This beer is really juicy. The passion fruit is there along with orange, pineapple, mango with a bitter grapefruit and pine finish. Bold, juicy hop flavor is showcased wonderfully here with biscuit malt sweetness in the background. As I said earlier, it is a really nice beer. If you have never had an IPA from Grimm, this is a great place to start.

Overall rating 4.25/5.
Would I wait in line for it? Only if I could get more than a 4 pack

Next up, we have Grimm Candlepower, a farmhouse saison with brewed sage and pink peppercorns. I really enjoy when sage is used in saisons. I think it compliments the flavor nicely and it does that here. The issue with this beer is the malt. The sweetness of the malt overshadows everything else going on here which is a shame. Notes of lemongrass, funk, citrus with a pepper finish are nice and if not overshadowed would have been made this a really nice beer. I shared this bomber and I am glad I did. I could barely get through half a glass of it.

Overall rating 2/5
Would I wait in line for it? No, in fact I do not think I would walk across the street to try it again.

Finally, Grimm Sugarmaker Imperial Milk Stout brewed with vanilla and maple syrup. I have enjoyed every Grimm stout I have had, especially Double Negative. Personally, I think Double Negative is the perfect imperial stout and I am looking forward to its next release. Sugarmaker is a solid beer but nowhere near the class of beer Double Negative is in. The aroma is very roasty, smokey with chocolate, vanilla, lactose and maple. Much like the aroma, the first sip is roasty and smokey with a creamy chocolate, vanilla and maple finish. Initially Sugarmaker does not live up to its name. It is sweet but not too sweet. As it warms the maple really comes out in the finish and it is candy sweet. The promise of this being a sweet stout is delivered. I really liked the fact that the maple syrup was noticeable. Too many beers, including some I have reviewed here fail to deliver on the maple flavor. Sugarmaker does not and I am excited for that. Unfortunately, as much as I enjoyed the maple sweetness, like Candlepower, the sweetness became a bit too much. Also, just like Candlepower, I am glad I shared the bottle.

Overall rating 3.5/5
Would I wait in line for it? No, but I would wait in line for Double Negative

Normally, I enjoy beers from Grimm a bit more than I did here. Perhaps, this was a weak release from them or maybe, just maybe, not everything they produce is worthy of the hype. I think Lumen is a really nice IPA. If you like the style you will really enjoy it. I would just recommend seeking it out on draft.

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!

Ellicotville Chocolate Cherry Bomb

New Belgium + Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale

This past week, my wife and I traveled to Burlington, Vermont for our annual Beercation. We pick Burlington for several reasons. The town is beautiful, the food is fantastic and some of the best beers I have ever had are readily available. This year we enjoyed Lawson's Sip of Sunshine, Hill Farmstead's Sumner, Edward, and George, Fiddlehead's Mastermind Double IPA and The Alchemist's Heady Topper, Focal Banger, and The Crusher. While I could write a review on all of those beers, I am not sure it would be appropriate. I say that because I feel I love those beers so much, my blog would sound more like a commercial for them than a critical review. I will say this though, if you get a chance to try any of those beers, do it. They are all incredible and will not disappoint.

We also love Vermont for more than just beer. We love to walk through their state parks. We love to stop at their Farm Stores. We love their maple syrup and cheddar cheese. We also love Ben & Jerry's. For us there were two big goals on this most recent trip: go to The Alchemist's Visitors Center and go to Ben & Jerry's. For Ben & Jerry's, it did not have to be the factory tour(we've done that), we just had to go to one of their locations. Our visits to both of those were absolutely fantastic. So at this point you are probably wondering just where this blog is going. Well instead of reviewing a Vermont beer (because everything I had with the exception of my flight from Vermont Pub & Brewery was fantastic), I decided to review a beer with a taste of Vermont. That beer is New Belgium's latest collaboration with Ben & Jerry's, a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale.

Before I continue with the review portion of this blog, I think it is important to mention that I think this beer sounds gross. I've drank a lot of beers with ridiculous flavoring in my time but none in recent memory seemed as ridiculous as cookie dough ice cream. That being said, I really wanted it to be good. I really like Ben & Jerry's and I hope they would not put their name on something terrible. My gut just told me the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale was going to be an artificially flavored mess of a beer that I was most likely going to pour down the drain.

I watched the fizzy white head dissipate on this golden yellow ale and tried to work up the courage to take my first sip. The aroma was light but sweet with chocolate, vanilla with some grainy malt sweetness. Frankly, the aroma reminded me more of Cocoa Puffs than anything else. I do like Cocoa Puffs so I began to feel a bit of optimism. This feeling was fleeting as I took my first sip. The flavor is not as gross as I first feared, but it is just not that good either. There is a light, almost cereal-like chocolate taste in the beginning that lingers with some vanilla creaminess and doughy malt. The finish brings in the hop bitterness that stays longer than it needs to on the palate. I was fairly lukewarm on this beer until the finish where I think it completely fell apart. To the beer's credit, the flavors are not overwhelming here. This could easily have been overwhelmingly artificial and sweet. Fortunately it's not, but unfortunately it's just not that good. This is just another example of a bland base beer with some flavoring to cover it up. All New Belgium's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale really did was make me want to forget about the beer and grab a pint of Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough Ice Cream. It certainly would taste better.

Overall I would rate New Belgium's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale a 1.5/5. To sum everything up, go to Vermont, drink the beer and enjoy some ice cream. Just don't combine the two.


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

Until next time Vermont...

Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

DuClaw Dirty Little Freak Brown Ale

I, like every other beer drinker get very excited when an established out-of-market brewery finally arrives at my local bottle shops. For example, I was excited when Avery Brewing Company became regularly distributed here. I counted the days until New Belgium finally took its rightful place in NY beer aisles. And I always get a little too giddy when Cigar City Brewing occasionally finds its way to Upstate NY. Recently, I was thrilled to see DuClaw Brewing Company beer for sale in my market. This excitement is solely based on their chocolate peanut butter porter Sweet Baby Jesus. I found Sweet Baby Jesus to be a very fun beer when I tried it a year ago. Because of that, I became quite interested in trying some of their other beer, especially Dirty Little Freak. Aside from its completely ridiculous name, the idea of a coconut caramel chocolate brown ale sounded way too good to pass up. So when a friend texted me and told me it was for sale at a local beer store, I dropped everything and bought it immediately. I just hoped Dirty Little Freak, and a few of the other beers I picked up from DuClaw, would live up to the hype I somehow placed on them.

DuClaw's Dirty Little Freak poured a rich brown with a khaki colored head. The aroma gave me the idea this was going to be a very fun beer. Sweet coconut, chocolate, caramel, toffee and vanilla dominated the aroma. I thought to myself, what is there not to like here? Then I tried Dirty Little Freak and the answer turned out to be everything. The first sip brought the flavor of roasted malt & dark chocolate before finishing with the flavor of coconut hand soap. Yes, this seriously reminded me of hand soap. The taste of this beer took me back to the day I dropped my first F-Bomb in front of my parents. I thought I was a pretty cool kid until they promptly washed my mouth out with soap. It was a moment I would rather forget, but the poor flavor of this beer brought that memory flooding back.

The funny thing is I do not have a lot else to say about this beer. I just could not get past the soapy flavor. I think I tasted a little bit of vanilla in there but that may have been wishful thinking. Also, the roasted malt & dark chocolate flavor I mentioned earlier gave the impression that if this was not drowned in coconut flavoring it would still be an extremely boring brown ale. To put it simply, this is bad beer. I would not recommend anyone drink it. I would also not recommend drinking a few of DuClaw's other beers. The Neon Gypsy IPA & Blood Orange Gypsy IPA were fairly poor. The Blood Orange Neon Gypsy IPA in particular tasted like the bad homebrewed IPA I made back in college. The Funk was OK but tasted slightly medicinal. In short, if it is not Sweet Baby Jesus, spend your money elsewhere.

Overall I would rate Dirty Little Freak a 1/5. I did not swear, why is my mouth getting washed out with soap?


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 & Untappd at@ACraftyLook

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

Thanks for reading. Sláinte!