Beating The Cold With Beer - Oskar Blues 2015 Tequila Barrel Aged Gubna Imperial IPA, Night Shift Village Lager, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

It is absolutely freezing in the Northeast. Temperatures are below zero, wind chills are below zero and I am fairly certain we now live on Hoth. The good news is there is hope in the forecast ahead and slightly warmer days are on the way. For right now though, the best bet to beat the weather is to stay inside. What I mean by that is, stay inside and open some fantastic beers.


Last night, I took a very long look at what was in the refrigerator and after some careful deliberation, I decided to open up a can of Oskar Blues Gubna Imperial IPA Aged in Tequila Barrels. I was particularly intrigued by this beer because it was canned on December 16, 2015. A little over two years is a lot of time to change a beer and when I took my whiff of the aroma I saw the first casualty of aging was that the hop bite had drastically faded. The aroma of bready malt, wood, caramel and some earthiness stood out the most, with just a little bit of tequila in the background. When I took my first sip, I was not sure what to think. It was woody, earthy, bready and spicy, and while this should not have been surprising it somehow caught me off guard. As I worked my way a little deeper into the glass, I started to fall in love with it. There were some really interesting notes that began to emerge as it started to warm a little. There were nice hints of citrus, mango and pineapple. The tequila was there too and that kept confusing my senses. It was like merging irresponsible college drinking and responsible craft beer appreciation. In this beer, worlds were colliding and eventually I found a way to love it even more. Like the Rum Barrel Aged Death By Coconut I reviewed a few weeks ago, Oskar Blues has another barrel aged winner here. I hope to try this one fresh one day to see how it compares with the 2 year old version. For tonight however, this 11% treat provided a nice bit of warmth on this cold night.

Overall rating: 4.25/5


When it gets cold out, I sometimes crave a lager. I think this has to do with great memories I have drinking lagers on cold nights in college, as well as some fantastic nights drinking PBR in the backyard of one of my favorite bars. After some pondering, I settled on Night Shift Brewing's Village Lager and it was delicious. It seemed to hit all of the flavor notes I was looking for. It was grainy, bready, slightly fruity and had a nice bit of spice on a finish that was crisp and clean. At 4.8%, Village Lager is perfectly sessionable and is something I would love to regularly have in my refrigerator.

Overall rating: 4/5


Finally, I opened my last bottle of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. While there was nothing to celebrate on this cold night, Celebration Ale remains a seasonal favorite in our household. This is a beer I largely attribute my love of craft beer to. I do not think it is necessary to break down its flavor notes. This is one of those beers you should have already tried.

Overall rating: It's awesome!


That wraps up my first night of beer tasting to beat the cold. While this particular weather event is not as bad as I assumed it would be, it certainly has left me with no desire to leave my couch. For me, this is just one of those times of year where there is nothing better to do than stay in, read a book, write a blog, watch tv or play video games. Then again, I try to find a reason to do those at any time of year, so I guess the cold does not matter. Stay warm out there, everybody! Cheers!



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. Drop everything, BUY IT NOW!

To discuss this blog or all things beer like my Facebook page

Look for me on Instagram & Untappd and Twitter @ACraftyLook

For more beer reviews check out: http://www.acraftylook.com

Thanks for reading. Sláinte!



 

Night Shift Pfaffenheck German-Style Pilsner

Around this time last year I was in Boston, Massachusetts trying some amazing beers. I particularly fell in love with the beers I tried from Night Shift Brewing. Their Santilli IPA is an absolutely beautiful beer. Their Awake Coffee Porter is one of the best coffee beers I have had. Their summer hefeweizen Furth, compliments warm weather wonderfully. In short, I enjoyed everything I tried from them last summer. When Santilli & Awake occasionally find their way into local bottle shops in my area, I try to pick some up. Taking a sip from each of them instantly takes me back to last summer's amazing wedding anniversary trip with two incredible Pearl Jam concerts. The goodwill I have towards Night Shift Brewing brought me into a bottle shop last week to pick up their Pfaffenheck German-Style Pilsner. I had yet to try it but due to how positive I felt about Night Shift Brewing, this became a beer I looked forward to drinking and writing about. So the question is, would Pfaffenheck take its place alongside the other Night Shift beers I have put on a pedestal? Or would this be the first disappointing beer I have had from a brewery that time has made me think could do no wrong?

It took a lot to resist drinking Pfaffenheck out of the can. I can think of nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than a fantastic lager out of a can. I resisted that temptation, poured it into the glass and was immediately greeted with aromas of bread dough, grassy, herbal hops and a light honey sweetness. The taste pretty much matched the nose. Pilsner malt, honey, grass, spicy hops immediately attack the palate before a lemony, peppery finish. The finish can certainly be described as crisp but it is by no means clean. The hops linger around on the palate. At first, I did not mind this but by the end of the pint, I had grown tired of this. It is rare that I wish a brewery scaled back the hops on a beer, but in this case it could have significantly improved the beer. Everything else here is really solid. Pfaffenheck is just not the crisp, clean, refreshing beer I hoped it would be.

Night Shift Pfaffenheck is kind of a middle-of-the-road beer to me. It is not a bad beer by any means but with all the goodwill I have towards Night Shift Brewing, I just expected to like it a bit more. If you like pilsners it is certainly worth a try but if you have to chose between this, Awake, Santilli or Furth, I would chose one of the latters instead.

Overall rating: 3/5. It is not a bad beer but it is by no means as good as I hoped a pilsner from Night Shift 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. Drop everything, BUY IT NOW!

To discuss this blog or all things beer like my Facebook page

Look for me on Instagram & Untappd and Twitter @ACraftyLook

For more beer reviews check out: http://www.acraftylook.com

Thanks for reading. Sláinte!