Beating The Cold With Beer II - Base Camp S'More Stout, Lough Gill Mac Nutty & Rohrbach Cookies and Milk Stout

For the second day in a row, my wife and I found ourselves stuck inside due to outrageously cold temperatures. Fortunately, we had a refrigerator full of beer and no place to go. Another beer tasting seemed to be on the menu for the day and I could not be more excited.


We started things off with Portland, Oregon's Base Camp S'More Stout. I wanted to start here because I wanted something to remind me of warmer days and enjoying a s'more fits that perfectly. The aroma contained a lot of smoke and roastiness, along with some chocolate, coffee and caramelized sugar. It tasted pretty close to the aroma. The smokiness was the first thing I noticed, it certainly added a nice campfire note. Then there was dark chocolate, coffee and caramelized sugar which added a touch of creaminess to the finish. I am assuming that caramelized sugar was supposed to satisfy the marshmallow note but it needed to be bolder. Completely missing was the graham cracker and I found this immensely disappointing. In a s'more, the graham cracker is certainly not the star of the show but it does bring everything together. Missing this key component makes it hard for me to think of this as a s'more stout. If I put that aside and just think of this beer as a chocolate stout, it works fairly well.

Overall rating: 3/5


Next, we decided to “take a trip across the pond” for a beer from Ireland's Lough Gill Brewing Company. MacNutty, a nut brown ale brewed with macadamia nuts should have been right in my wheel house. In the past, I have blogged about how I feel brown ales are a completely underappreciated style. I have also blogged about how I feel people always remember a really bad brown ale. Well, unfortunately, I will always remember this extremely watered down, borderline flavorless beer. It is like drinking a glass of water with a hint of caramel sweetness, a touch of chocolate and a nutty finish that not surprisingly washes away clean. Nothing here tastes particularly bad, there is just barely anything to taste at all. I felt like I was hydrating(which is important) while I was drinking it but that was not what I was looking for on a super cold night.

Overall rating: 1.5/5


Discouraged from the last beer, I opened the fridge and pondered what to drink next. I grabbed a can of Rohrbach's Cookies & Milk Stout while thinking, “when in doubt, drink local.” This line of thinking was rewarded the moment I opened the can. The aroma was chocolate chip cookies in beer form and it was blowing my mind. My mind continued to be blown when the flavor of chocolate chip cookies is what I got on my first sip and every sip after that. It was a touch more on the subtle side at first but the rich chocolate and vanilla flavors only get bolder as it warmed making this even more of a treat. After every sip, I would stare at the glass in disbelief of what I was drinking.  This is a dessert beer that never gets too sweet and delivers exactly what it promises. I admit I am geeking out a little bit as I write this, I did not expect to like this as much as I do. This is a really great beer and I am thrilled it is brewed in my hometown.

Overall rating: 4.25/5

I think we did a solid job beating the cold, I wonder how we will beat the snow? Cheers & stay warm!


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!

Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan

I enjoy brown ales. That really is not the most exciting way to start a blog, but I feel brown ales are a style of beer that has gotten lost in the fold over the past few years. I commonly hear friends of mine tell me they just don't like brown ales. That always surprises me because it is a style of beer I have enjoyed since my early days of beer drinking. However, I also know that when you find a bad brown ale, you do not forget it. I still have not forgotten how much I disliked DuClaw's Dirty Little Freak and Magic Hat's Snow Roller. Those are brown ales I wish I could forget but serve as a reminder to help me understand why so many seem to avoid this style.

The reason I enjoy the style dates back to somewhere around a decade ago. I was sitting in Alternative Brews in Amherst, NY, drinking their Hazelnut Brown Ale from CB Craft Brewers(or at the time Custom Brewcrafters) while enjoying a cigar. It was a tremendous experience and it was that beer that got me into bottle shops and breweries seeking out more brown ales. Like every other style of beer when you find the right one, it is a fantastic drinking experience. Some favorites of mine that come to mind are: Telluride's Face Down Brown Ale, Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Cigar City Vanilla Maduro and my all time favorite, Hill Farmstead George. All of the beers I mention are well worth seeking out but one that is not is the one I am writing about today. That beer is Southern Pecan from Lazy Magnolia.

Boasting it is the “Original Nut Brown Ale”, Southern Pecan is the kind of beer that would unfortunately reinforce someone's dislike of a style. From the label, I thought I would love this Mississippi brewery's take on a nut brown ale but unfortunately as a whole, it fell flat. I knew something was off right away when it did not have that rich, nutty aroma I have come to expect with the style. Instead it smelled more like an adjunct lager with a lot of bread, grain with a slight nuttiness and hints of chocolate and caramel. The first sip matched the nose. The typical flavors one would expect to experience are pushed to the background. The big grainy flavor of cereal and bread are right up front with a light nutty flavor requiring some seeking out to find. The finish finds the chocolate and caramel one would expect from the style. There is practically zero hop presence in the beer, which does Southern Pecan no favors. The finish is clean and the beer is refreshing on a hot day because there is practically nothing going on here. I keep searching for something positive to say about it but I keep arriving at the same conclusion. Lazy Magnolia's Southern Pecan is a thin, watery, bland version of a nut brown ale.

If my blog does anything today, I hope it steers you away from this particular brown ale and into looking for a better one. To some, brown ales might not be the most exciting style to seek out these days but when you find a great one, you find an excellent drinking experience.

Overall rating: 1.5/5

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!