And so we get to tonight. The wife and I have decided to stay in and watch tv and hang out, and drink beers. Her only request was something hoppy… A woman after my own heart. I trained her well. We bought the Arcadia Hopmouth Imperial IPA so she could put the hoppiness in her mouth. I must say. I enjoy the Hopmouth. It has a wonderful citrus-pine aroma accented by a hint of sweet alcohol bite. The flavor is mostly what you’d expect from the scent, but it’s got more malt. It’s better balanced than the nose would suggest, although that’s not always a positive… This is a great beer, and an old favorite, but I would like to see more hops. Where once I would have given this an 8.5, this has been demoted to an 8.0. It’s a B.

I, on the other hand, am drinking the Voodoo brewing Big Black Voodoo Daddy Imperial Stout. Wifey thinks it smells like bbq, I think it smells a tad smoky, but mostly roasty. It goes down smooth, with sweetness, but stays roasty. It maintains its flavor the whole way through the palette. It’s strong and delicious and wonderfully stout.

7.5… I’ve had lots better, but waaaaay more worse. This brought nothing new to the table.

-brian

You’re beautiful head, your sweet, floral aroma. These are only two reasons to love you.

A deep, rich color, and a nice, not too aggressive bitterness. A sweet malt flavor in the front, and a darker, roastier malt in the finish, hiding behind the bittering hops.

Brian and I both do enjoy ourselves some IPAs, and the Imperial IPA, when well-done, holds a special place in our hearts.

Hopmouth finds its way right into my heart, and makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. And not just from the alcohol – at 8% its not a light beer, but it isn’t going to kill me either.

This beer is one to make any hop-head happy, and is one of the best beers from a Michigan brewery that usually makes only modest English-style ales. A titan among mere mortals.

9/10

Ian!

You’re beautiful head, your sweet, floral aroma. These are only two reasons to love you.

A deep, rich color, and a nice, not too aggressive bitterness. A sweet malt flavor in the front, and a darker, roastier malt in the finish, hiding behind the bittering hops.

Brian and I both do enjoy ourselves some IPAs, and the Imperial IPA, when well-done, holds a special place in our hearts.

Hopmouth finds its way right into my heart, and makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. And not just from the alcohol – at 8% its not a light beer, but it isn’t going to kill me either.

This beer is one to make any hop-head happy, and is one of the best beers from a Michigan brewery that usually makes only modest English-style ales. A titan among mere mortals.

9/10

Ian!

Like most of their beers, Arcadia made this a pretty traditional English-style ale. For that reason, it shouldn’t be any surprise that it ties with Fuller’s London Porter as my favorite.

It pours with a little brownish head, that leaves a ring around the top of your glass. Its a wonderful dark brown color, and a sweet carmel malt in the nose, paired with a little bit of nuttiness.

There is a nice, roasty flavor to this beer, especially in the aftertaste, which I think is why I like it so much. A bit of dark chocolate – there’s a definite chocolate malt taste to this beer.

I love it – and for anyone looking for a great porter, I recommend this or the Fullers. You can’t really go wrong with either, and as for Michigan Porters, this is a no-brainer.

8/10

In honor of that, I would like to point out that you can see all of our Michigan Beer reviews here.

As part of Michigan Beer Month, I will also be reviewing a whole slew of Michigan beers. Some are new, some are old favorites, but all are made right here in our home state.

There are too many great breweries in this state, it almost isn’t fair. But if you’re just getting started, check out the following:
Bells Brewing.
Founder’s.
Arcadia Brewing Company.
Dark Horse.
Dragonmead.
Hopcat.
Kuhnhenn.
The Livery.
New Holland.
Shorts.
And that’s just naming a few favorites. There is all kind of great beer to be had in Michigan, so lets enjoy them. Cheers!

I guess in all fairness it wasn’t just the two of us. It was us, 43 Michigan breweries, and nearly 4000 other attendees. Somewhere in there we ran into some old friends, made some new ones, drank no fewer than 24 different varieties of beer, and loved every minute – except for the line for the toilets. That sucked.

I guess its worth mostly talking about the stuff we liked quite a lot, or at least what was very good. There were only a few serious disappointments, and for the sake of everyone involved, I’m going to avoid naming them for now.

(Oh, and that photo right there is Brian and I being sweet, waiting in line for our first beer of the day)

One of the beers we had towards the end of the day was from Short’s Brewing. By the time we got there, they were out of Soft Parade, which I was looking forward to trying again. We got to try their Black Cherry Porter, which I wasn’t impressed with. Maybe I was burnt out on beer by that point, but it didn’t make me want to drink it like I always want to drink, say, Huma-lupa-licious.

Original Gravity Brewing had the one beer that I had all day that was close to being really good, but didn’t quite do it for me. Guys: your Belgian Training Wheels needs some more body. That would have made it a fantastic, classic beer. Certainly drinkable, but not great. Maybe that was the point (as evidenced by the name), to give beginners something that’s highly palatable, while they’re working their way up. Either way, a little more malt and sweetness, and you would have had me.

At Founders we had Kentucky Breakfast Stout and Cerise. Both exactly what I expected, and both fantastic. Kentucky Breakfast will be out in a month or two, and if you like bourbon beers, its a must. The Cerise is replacing the Rubaeus as their Summer/fruit seasonal. Made with Michigan Cherries, it has a great sour cherry character to it, and will be a major part of my beer life when it comes out.

Another highlight was the 4 Elf Winter Warmer from Dark Horse. Dude, it was probably the best spiced winter ale I’ve ever had. I wish it got some distribution (’cause they DO bottle it), ’cause I would love to get my hands on some.

My second favorite brewery of the day was Arcadia. They had their Big Dick’s Old Ale bourbon-barrel aged, which they were calling Pappy’s Big Dick Bourbon Barrel Aged Old Ale. Its a mouthful, either way you look at it. Flavor-wise and name-wise. It was good for what it was, but the real gems at Arcadia’s booth were a bit lighter.

Their Sky-High Rye is amazing. They’re having a hard time keeping up with demand on it, so I haven’t seen a bottle of it yet, but I will be buying when I do. You should too.

They also had a Firkin of Hop Rocket Imperial IPA. Oh man. Three-day dry-hopped Hop Rocket? COUNT ME IN. It was really good. Maybe one of the best beers of the day.

They also had Rick Moranis at their booth.

Taking a break from beer reviews (and a breather before we get to the best brewery of the day), here’s some more of our photos.

Brian and I both love beards and beer – we keep no secret about this. Babe mannequins are also funny, especially when they have beer coming out of their chest. Which is why Rochester Mills gets the Best Booth of the day award from us:

We also managed to find Jeff, Brian’s old co-worker (and occasional B&C contributor). He’s a beer enthusiast, and so are his sister and her boyfriend. They’re awesome. Oh, and his sister special-ordered a case, yes a case, of Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout. Seriously. Just emphasizing how awesome they are.

Okay, now its time! Best brewery of the day! Who is it? Who is it?!

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KUHNHENN BREWING COMPANY!

From their Bourbon Barrel Barleywine (very good!), to their Raspberry Isbock (great!), to their Tenacious Cassis Fruit Infused Old Ale (a currant Old Ale? Awesome!), it was all great.

Brian and I had to agree that the best beer of the day was without a doubt their American Extreme IPA. In a Firkin! Exclamation marks!

Seriously, this beer is amazing, and has without a doubt one of, if not THE best balance of malt and loads of hops I’ve had in a long time. Bittering, flavor and aromatic hops all coming together… oh man. I want to drink this all the time.

This lady poured it for me. Twice!

This is Brian’s “holy cow beer is sweeet” face.

This is Brian and I drinking our last beer of the day. We were way happier than we look in it. I promise.

Thanks to my manager at work for the tickets, thanks to our friends who shared beer with us, and most of all, thanks to all the brewers making not only the best beer in Michigan, but some of the best beer in the world.

Ian!

Anyone who knows me worth a damn, has a good solid idea of what I’m looking for in beer so these are my top 10, and why.

10. Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine: The aroma was slightly deceiving, but this was a delightful barleywine. While Behemoth may not be the best adjective, it was quite a great ale. Not as bitter as i would have liked. But overall very well balanced. I was expecting more hops, with the barleywine tag, but if it were to just say delicious ale full of goodness, I would have to agree. An excellent offering.

9. Founders Backwoods Bastard: This is the bourbon barrel aged version of their famous Scotch ale, Dirty Bastard. I had a few tastes of this at the Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Beer Fest last year, and was pretty impressed. It definitely improved the quality of a scotch ale I was only mildly fond of.

8. Breckenridge Brewery 471 Small Batch IPA: This was the beer responsible for getting me off to a great start in Imperial IPA’s. While not extraordinarily hoppy, or malty, it is very well balanced and an excellent way to transition into the genre of Imperial IPA.

7. Founders Breakfast Stout: Every year there is an enormous waiting list for this beer. It is one of the truly great things to be made in the state of Michigan, and one of my two two favorite things to come out of Grand Rapids. The other being the band Brothers. This beer drives people stark raving mad. It makes sense though, because it is a glorious wonderful thing. Double chocolate coffee oatmeal stout. What an incredible thing to behold… I have not been impressed, however, by the Kentucky breakfast stout, which is the bourbon barreled version of this same stout. While much more limited, it just didn’t do it for me.

6. Arcadia Hopmouth IIPA: I’ll tell you, when they first released this fine ale, I almost cried. I have some sentiment about Arcadia to begin with, as it was their regular IPA that is responsible for my love of good beer. Without my first taste of that at Ashley’s a few years back, my beer enjoyment criteria may still have been limited to getting hwasted. Yes, hwasted. Anyway, the the deucers of this are usually quite reasonable, and it is everything a solid IIPA should be. It is malty, very hoppy, and actually well balanced. The slight thickness of the beer lends it an incredibly smooth quality. Well, smooth if you’re really into hops. Not to mention, the guys over at Arcadia are all super good dudes. They deserve all the fame and renown they can gather.

5. Dogfish Head World Wide Stout (2006): 18% by volume. Is it really necessary I say more?! Ok, maybe it is. This beast is complex. Massively complex. Black, dense, pour. no head. Sweet aroma, almost sickly… Scents of licorice, vanilla, and scotch. A little cognac as well. Full bodied and delicious. Very sweet. Lacking in bitterness, but that is made up for in complexity of malt flavor. If this beer were not 10 bucks a bottle, I would consume it regularly. Hell, it may even move up the list, but for what it is, it is always worth it to buy a bottle every year and get a taste. I will say, however, I had the 2005, in december of ’06, about a month before I had this one, and I did prefer it. This beer is always astonishing, although it damn well better be for 10 bucks a bottle.

4. Great Lakes Brewing Co. Blackout Stout: Named after the infamous blackout that occured in 2003, it is everything I think a stout should be: big, black, and bitter. Which, perhaps coincidentally, is how I take my coffee, and if I’m not mistaken, how Ian prefers his men. Now that I mention it, it is also how I like villains in the Punisher Max series, namely Barracuda. Yes, I like my stouts to have gold fronts engraved with a rather unkind sentiment.

3. Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imperial IPA: Absolutely brilliant. What a wonderful IIPA. A hint of sweetness and a whopping load of hops. Full of booze and wonderfulness. I only had this once, but it made a lasting impression. I really wish the Three Floyds brews were available in Michigan, but alas, I shall be relegated to picking them up when I’m in Chicago visiting family.

2. Bell’s Batch 7000: Some may think of this as a cop out, since it was a limited edition beer, but by the power of Grayskull, this beer was phenomenal. Imperial stout was given a new meaning when this beer was released. It was somewhere on the order of 14-15% by volume I believe, and it was thick as motor oil. Really quite ridiculously thick. This incredible stout was a meal in and of itself. People certainly like to say that about Guinness, but most of those people have never seen a real stout, much less an imperial stout. This thing must have clocked in over 600 calories a pint. It was black, black, and more black. Sweet, somewhat bitter, with lots of coffee and almost tar-like flavors, it was everything you expect an imperial stout to be, squared.

1. I feel like there should be some sort of drum roll for this. My number one beer, is to my close friends absolutely no surprise as I praise it with every opportunity I’m given. It is: Schmaltz Brewing Company‘s He’brew Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A. From my first taste of this beer, I was absolutely blown away. It pours very unassumingly, a pleasant copper-brown with a thick head. The smell is that of hops, lots and lots of hops. The dryness of the rye malt comes through very well in the malt profile, and really adds nicely to the alcohol flavors. As a whole, it is a little sweet, a little dry, and really bitter. At 10% by volume it is right up my alley. I cannot say enough good things about this beer. It really does knock me off my feet every time I have it. I’ve probably purchased in excess of two cases of this fine ale. Another bonus: He’brew puts all of their recipes on thinterwebs. If you’re ever looking for a gift for me, this is the best 6 dollar gift ever. I can sing this beer’s praises for hours and hours. It is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever tasted.

This took me such a ridiculously long time to type out, so I hope ya’ll are happy and planning on buying me one of these fine ales after lent is over.

-brian