-brian!

The Pour:  It poured considerably more cloudy than I had expected. It had a pretty dense, foamy head that stuck around through almost the whole glass.  It also left a fair amount of lacing on the side of the glass.

The smell:  A little sweet, a little astringent.  A bit of citrus hops, and a fair amount of grassy nose.

The Taste:  I was surprised.  It’s a little bitter, but not too much.  It’s tasty.  The one place I think this beer was perfect was in the mouthfeel.  It’s really nicely thin.  The sweetness is not over the top, especially when compared to the nose.  Not exactly perfect in my opinion, but not bad.  A little less quality than I’d expect from this price ($7.99)

7/10

-brian!

So, the fine fellows of Beer and Comics got together for the first time in a long, long time.  We have decided to provide you with a review of several beers, none of which we have pictures for.  The first of which will be the New Holland B.A.M.B.

At first, you may note that if you pronounce these letters together, it sounds like Bambi.  Strangely, this beer tastes absolutely nothing like deer.  Not even baby deer.  What it does taste like, however, is delicious.

There is a story behind how this beer came to be.  Something about how this was the beer that won in the employee homebrew contest.  Ian knows better than I do.

So, what does this limited beer have to offer you, the consumer, if you can somehow get your grubby little paws on it?  In one word: deliciousness.

This is a light, pale, belgian style beer.  It is actually considered a Pomegranate and Clove Tripel.  For the purposes of this review, we will disregard that this is supposed to be a tripel, because it is not… at all.

It pours a standard pale ale color, a light orange/tan color.  It pours with a decent head, even out of a growler.  Thick enough that it’ll stick to your moustaches, but it fades with some predictability.

The nose, is all clove and esters.  In fact, I would say the nose is the most standardly tripel in style (and that’s not exactly a truth).  If you love clove flavor, you can’t go wrong in the nose.

The taste, on the other hand, is dominated by the cloves.  Ian may claim there’s a hint of sourness imparted by the pomegranate, but it’s not something I’m noticing.  What I am noticing, is that this is fucking DELICIOUS.  The mouthfeel is considerably smaller than my brain is leading me to believe the alcohol content is.

I cannot in good conscience give this beer any less than a 7.5/10, but I am reluctant to lump it in with the greats.

7.5/10

Ian’s two cents:

So as I noted in my post about my trip to New Holland, this beer was indeed the winner of the employee homebrew contest at New Holland. Brian is pretty much dead-on in his description of the nose and flavor. I did notice a bit of tripel-ness in the nose (that sort of banana, rotten fruit smell), but Brian is more or less right in saying that its not the truest trippel in the world.

What I really liked was how the pomegranate came through. Just a little bit of sour, but not very fruity. The only sweetness it had could have been from the pomegranate, or it could have been plain ol’ Belgian candy sugar. Hard to tell.

It was nice and summery, though. I will concur with Brian’s rating of 7.5/10.

And despite what Brian said above, we do have a couple pictures now, although they are both blurry and shitty.

As for taste, there’s a definite sour bite to it. Its very similar to a lambic, or a spontaneously fermented beer. That could be expected though, from the scent. While I doubt this is spontaneously fermented, the apple certainly lends that character to it. The biggest surprise is the smokiness. I get that it’s a smoked apple porter, but I after reading the label which mentioned the smoked malts, I wasn’t necessarily excited for it. I thought that the malts would taste more burnt. This was clearly incorrect, and this is a smoky, slightly sweet, sour treat. Very different from anything I’ve had before. I can honestly say I’m thrilled by this in ways I hadn’t imagined I would be.

Is it the greatest beer known to man? No. Is it stellar? That’s up for debate. All I’m comfortable saying is that I really like it for it’s strangeness. In a career of tasting well over a thousand beers, I’ve never had anything like this. It is truly completely one hundred percent unique. Shorts is doing a great job of DOMINATING that category right now. Buy any of their special beers (I highly recommend Good Humans as well) and you will likely be knocked off your chair. Not by the booze, necessarily, but by the innovation.

8/10

It poured a delicious brick red/ruby/brown type color, and left a very weak head.  All of this expected for an 11.5% ABV barleywine.

As for smell, I managed to grab a whiff before I hopped in the shower, and it was very thick with syrup and molasses, and cut with a hefty dose of ethanol.  It smells as a barleywine should, although I’d prefer a bit more hops.  Then again, I prefer all beers over 50 IBUs.

The taste was really upsetting at first.  I was less than thrilled.  It was just alcohol and a teensy sweet.  Not bad, necessarily, but the cost is not worth it.  However, once it warmed up a bit, and I was half way through, it really opened up.  It was quite sweet…  it really balanced out the alcohol well.  I have to admit, it almost leaves you with a vanilla or bourbon finish, but not quite.  My tongue actually begs for it.  Pop this beast in a bourbon barrel for a few months, and this beer would be a 9.  As it stands, it’s only a 6.

-brian

Good Humans is billed as a Dry Hopped Double Brown Ale.  Generally, I’m not much of a fan of brown ales.  I find them bland, and unimpressive in every respect.  On Ian’s recommendation, however, I bought a 6-er of this.  I also warned him that if I wasn’t into it, I’d punchisize him.  In a fierce way.

So, what was I expecting from this?  Well, I was expecting lots of malt.  Lots of really bland malt.  Maybe a teensy bit of hop in the nose, and a decent amount of alcohol; it is a double after all.

What was I given?  Well, in the nose, it’s major league hops.  Floral hops, citrus hops, grassy hops, dirty hops.  It’s hops though.  There’s a strange sweetness to it though, almost like strawberry preserves.

As far as mouthfeel, it’s light and fluffy, with some carbonation.  It doesn’t stick to the tongue, it just flows over smoothly and lightly.

The taste was the true kicker though.  It broke all of my expectations.  All of them.  It was not like anything I expected.  It is really hoppy.  Not like an IIPA, but very hop flavored.  It’s got a weird sweetness that I wasn’t necessarily prepared for.  Very fruity.  Very strange.  Very delicious.  Nothing at all like a brown ale.  Very delicious.  The genius responsible for this beer is certainly a Good Human of the highest caliber.

8.5/10

brian!

As you can see, this fine ale exhibits a strange characteristic for imperial stouts: it has head.  This is certainly not a bad thing, just different.  It’s quite thick, but fades pretty quickly.

The smell is comprised of lots of malt, chocolate, coffee, and alcohol.  It’s really sweet, in both senses of the word.

The mouthfeel is full, with minimal carbonation bite.  Very thick, coating the tongue and mouth wonderfully.

The taste is multi-faceted.  There is a lot of sweetness up front, while there is plenty of bitterness as it moves back on the tongue.  There are all sorts of flavors you could associate with this.  Coffee, chocolate, and oats are all very prominent.  There is a noticeable hint of alcohol in the flavor, which is really enjoyable.

Overall, this is a stellar beer, and I’m glad I finally got to review it for the site.  While it’s not the greatest imperial stout ever, it’s a hell of a good one.

8.5/10

I didn’t cool this at all, room temp all the way.  While this is great for the flavors, it makes it a pain in the ass to pour!  This poured a delightful copper brown that I have come to know and love, and generally revere as being the epitome of beer color.  It poured a (pain in the ass) thick khaki colored head, which strangely dissipated rather quickly…  However, what you’re seeing in this picture above, is what it still looks like after 20 minutes. The lacing just does not go away.  Well played trappist monks, well played.

What can you say about the smell?  Well, it smells belgian.  Characteristically belgian in every form and facet.  Very estery, slightly sweet, no hops; belgian.

The taste can be described much as the smell.  This is the taste of a fine belgian ale.  It has a rather bubbly mouthfeel, and strangely light, but this is characterstically belgian as well.  It’s a bit sweet, and definitely fruity.  Bananas, pears and the like.  Sure, this sounds like every other belgian, but honestly, this should be the benchmark.  If you are not as good as Chimay Red, refine your technique, and do over until you’re better.

7.5

So, we’ve all known for some time that Ian and I are great fan’s of Michigan beer.  After all, it is the great beer state.  What does Joe Short have to offer the great state of Michigan?  Well, excellent beer.  Excellent beer that is cleverly named and flavored.  The newest beer he’s crafted that I’ve tasted I had tonight, and that is “The Liberator.”

I don’t know how to describe the Liberator upon initial inspection.  It’s copper, with a solid white head, which lasts FOREVER.  It’s timeless, like Lincoln.

Upon smelling, you are greeted by some citrus and pine aromas, as well as a small amount of malt.  The most prevalent smell is definitely the hops though.  The bitter, delicious hops.

As for flavor, it’s a menagerie of wonderful flavors.  Dominated by the various characteristics of the hops, you taste grapefruit, bitterness, and a hint of malt.  The alcohol is there, but understated.  It’s a bit of a palette-ruiner, but that is just fine by me.

I’m thrilled by this beer.  In my opinion, it’s the best thing Short’s has released to date. This beer will set your taste buds free, like Lincoln did the slaves.  It is to be cherished by mankind.  Beyond that, it’s affordable too!  No 4 dollars a bottle+ here, this was only 2.69 a bottle.  All the bang for the buck you could want.

9.25/10