Overall: 9/10


We decided to go to the Detroit Institute of Arts, and stop by some breweries on the way. Awesomeness ensued.

We chose to hit up Warren, Michigan, for both Dragonmead and Kuhnhenn, since they are in such close proximity to one another.

If you didn’t know already, Brian and I have been on Twitter a lot lately, and you can follow us @BeerandComics. You can also see our latest tweets over on the right side of the website. See? –>

So, I Tweeted the hell out of our trip. Check out details after the jump:

We started our day at the DIA, and saw some awesome art. Not much of it directly comic-related, some pieces that you see the influences:

A collection of busts by J. Michallon the Younger. Top center is titled “Bust of a Man (Hans Christian Andersen?), 1830-1840″.

Wharhol.

“Alphabet – Good Humor” by Claes Oldenburg.

Then, it was on to the beer!

First, Dragonmead. Jo and I both love Final Absolution, so we wanted to try their other belgian-style ales.

The nicest thing about Dragonmead is that they let you build a custom flight of beers. Five half-pints of whatever beers you choose. Its really nice.

We drank them (and thus reviewed them) in order, from left to right. Check the (rather poor) picture for some indication of color.

My reviews went like this – forgive the format, it was Twitter, so short blurbs is about all you can get out:
“Dead Monk Abbey Ale: 7%. pleasent mouthfeel. Surprising amount of bittering hops. Subtle notes of banana, maybe a little citrus. Delicious.”

“Dubbel Dragon: 6.1% sweet nose. Somewhat esthery. Tasty but tough to pin down.”

“Breath of the Dragon Bitter: 4.2% smells kind of musty, with a bit of berries, strangely. Interesting sweetness, kind of nutty.”

“Broken Paddle IPA: 5.8% nothing great going on in the nose. But tastey. A lot of bitter, not a lot of hop flavor. Malt is pleasant though.”

“Copper Shield Bitter Harvest Barleywine: 8% isn’t really a barleywine is it? poured w a ton of head. Maple nose. Syrupy like you might expect. But hoppy. Sweet but very bitter finish. A nice surprise.”

“All in all, I have to say that Dragonmead’s pub is as awesome as their beer. ”

Then it was on to Kuhnhenn.

Kuhnhenn made our favorite beer of the day at last year’s MBG Winter Beer Festival, so my hopes were high.

The pub itself is weird in that its well-lit, open, and basically unlike any other brewpub I’ve ever been in. This isn’t a bad thing, just kind of unusual.

The night started with some drunk a-hole getting kicked out, but after that, it was nothing but awesome.

Personally, I started light, with the Classic American Pale Ale. May have been a bad choice.

I tweeted thusly:
“Classic American: 4.8% nothing remarkable here. Highly drinkable, light, but probably wouldn’t get it again. Good training wheel beer.”

The girlfriend, however, dove in head-first, and got an amazing wheat beer called White Devil.

“White Devil: 8% wheat beer. Michigan wheat. Grapefruit, Ginger. Amazing beer. Girlfriend may be getting a growler.”

As you can see on the left, Jo gives it a thumbs-up.

After that, she got herself one of her new favorite beers, Winter Wonder Lager.

“WinterWonder Lager 13.5% small nose. Big flavor. Fruity and deceptive alcohol content. Awesome.”

Jo ended up not with a growler of this, but a six-pack. Better deal, and easier to cellar. They are now hiding in the dark beneath her basement stairs.

I had the American IPA. While not as good as their Firkin of Dry-Hopped American Extreme IPA from the MBG Winter Beer Fest, it was really, really good.

“American IPA 6.5% floral aroma and – get this – FLAVOR. Weird but amazing. Great dry hopping, really well balanced. A+”

Yeah, it was kind of strange to actually have an IPA taste as floral as it smells, but this one did. Great beer, obviously.

I finished my night off with loads of water as I had to drive. But while Jo finished her Winter Wonder Lager, I had time to drink a rootbeer. It is amazing. Probably the best in Michigan, and that’s saying something, since that’s going up against MBC‘s Miner’s Brew.

All in all, Kuhnhenn was wonderful. The beer, the staff… I can’t say enough. I bought the t-shirt, and I will be going back.

Thanks, Detroit, for the wonderful time, wonderful art, and wonderful beer.

Ian! (and Jo)

Wait… What?!

I re-read.   Milford’s Best Beer Selection huh?…  I’ll show them.  I casually stroll in, expecting a vast array of Budweiser and Miller products.  Much to my surprise and delight, the first thing I see is a stack of cases of Founder’s Double Trouble, and Bell’s Hopslam.  WHAT??!?!?!?!  I FOUND HEAVEN.  Well, I wasn’t going to allow myself to be swayed by a stack of cases of good beer.  I meandered over to their beer cooler, where they even offer mix ‘n’ match 6 packs, as well as a solid selection of deucers and 750′s.    Wow.  What a surprise.  I’ve found a new favorite place to purchase alcohol in Milford.

But to the point.

I purchased Insanely Bad Elf.  I figured, recently I reviewed  Criminally Bad Elf with some favor.  Plus, it’s a whopping 11.2% alcohol by volume.   As you can see, it pours a copper color, and as I so elegantly cut out (my photography skills suck!) the head was once again lacking.  Granted with 11.2% ABV, you can’t expect much.  What you can, and should expect however, is sweetness.  In more ways than one.

The nose is sweet, and boozy.

Strangely, so is the taste.  Yeah, not that strange.   Sorry.  The interesting thing about the taste, however, is that there are some fruity notes.  Not like a belgian though, with the sweet and funky esters giving banana and clove flavors.  No.   This is almost like apples, or plums.  Something savory.

I have to admit, I really want to love this beer, and this series, but they’re not blowing me away.  In fact, it’s almost a little stale tasting and smelling.  There’s nothing mind blowing, or even bending about this beer.  It’s solid, but not bringing anything great to the table.

7.0

-brian!

So, I let this guy rip in a wine glass, because I figured barleywine has wine in the name.  Poured a beautiful light copper, which I must admit is considerably lighter than I’d expected.  Not to worry though.  The head was pretty weak also… Ok, so I started to worry.  The scent is sweet and malty, with hints of bitterness, and slight alcohol.  Mostly just sweet though, almost sickly.  Then…  then… you put it in your mouth.  It’s a whole different friggin ride when you put it in your mouth.

Oh the flavor!!!  What this beer lacks in absolutely all other areas, this beer makes up for in delicious and strangely unique flavors!  It’s sweet, spicy, bitter, and delicious.  I wasn’t really expecting the complexities this has to offer, and I must admit, the surprise this presented me with was worth every penny.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve smiled out of surprise and delight when trying a beer.  However, is this beer the greatest?  No…  but it’s not bad.  It’s akin to presenting some work from Kierkegaard at a molecular biology journal club.  It’s confusing, and delightful, and will certainly spawn some wonderful conversation, but it’s just not that stellar.

7.5/10

-brian

El matador pengüino pours a clear copper, with a thin head that leaves plenty of itself on the rim.  It smells sweet and malty, with a hint of alcohol, and a hint of spontaneous fermentation, although I can’t testify if that is in fact the case.  As for the taste, it’s very sweet, with a definite presence of alcohol.  As far as I’m concerned, there aren’t enough hops to make this truly interesting.  Although my idea of a barleywine is that it should be considerable hoppier than any standard ale and that it should also be considerably sweeter, this beer does not necessarily qualify under those pretenses.  It does however, qualify quite easily as strong english style barleywine.

I’ve got to admit that this is not my favorite beer, nor is it my favorite style, but I’ll try not to let that cloud my judgment.  This beer does have several positives, but they tend to not come out until the beer has sat a bit.  There is a great malt flavor, and when it warms up, it really gets a nice alcohol burn.  However, there is nothing distinct about this beer that really takes me for a loop.

6.5/10

-brian

So without further ado, I’m trying this year’s batch.

Its lightly carbonated, and as such, it poured with almost no head.

There is definitely an alcohol content in this beer. In both aroma and taste, its one of the first things you notice. The other thing? I’ll give you a hint: its not hops.

Malt. This is, after all, a Barleywine. Well, I guess they call it an Old Ale, but it still has that wonderful, complex malt character that we drink this type of beer for. Caramel, with plenty of roasted malt.

There is very little hop flavor to it. They say its 50 IBU, but the sweetness of the malt doesn’t really allow that to come out.

Its light carbonation goes well with the full mouthfeel. It sits on your tongue with such a nice maltiness, that I find myself drinking it faster than I probably should; I want to experience it again and again.

9/10

I rather knew what to expect with this one, seeing as it was written on the bottle, however were it to be an unknown, I would have been more pleasantly surprised. When I think barleywine, I think Big ol’ fat ass barleywine! This, was not anything of the sort. This was more of the subdued nature I think the creators of the style had intended.

As far as description goes, it didn’t have much scent aside from being an ale, categorically. It was a bit darker, a clear, brown color. It had a small white head. It tasted more or less exactly like what I thought it would taste like, except weaker. It tasted like a lighter barleywine. In fact, it didn’t have a ton of real flavors. It had some malt sweetness, but was direly lacking in the hops.

I was really disappointed with this, because I LOVE barleywines. I give it a 4 out of 10.

-brian

p.s. Lagunitas, if you’re reading this, this was the first beer of yours I’ve actually been disappointed in. So you’re 4 for 5 right now. 80%. Better than I did in college.