Samuel Adams Octoberfest

Sam Adams' Octoberfest poured a reddish copper color with a thumb width, off white head. The aroma is malty. The body is smooth, and neither thick nor thin. There is a lot of malt with a decent amount of sweetness. The finish is lacking anything that significantly distinguishes itself from the body. The malts dry out a bit and leave a barely noticeable dryness while faint traces of hops fade in and out.

Overall, this is a decent tasting beer wit nothing standing out. It starts out nice up front but falls off quite a bit. There needs to be something to balance out the big sweetness and malt if Octoberfest wants to be anything more then a mindless sessional to be drank while focusing on a football game.

Samuel Adams Boston Lager

Boston Lager poured a clear, amber color with a thumb width, off white head. The nose is yeasty with some malt and bright, clean hops underneath. The body is thick for a lager, bready with a faint sweetness and plenty of crisp hops in the middle. The finish has a yeasty dryness that is perfect for the body. There was some spooted lace left on the glass.

Boston Lager is an absolute classic for a very good reason. This big bodied lager has plenty of flavor and is extremely well balanced. One of my favorite standy beers.

Smuttynose IPA

Smuttynose IPA poured a semi-hazy, light amber color with a finger width, white head. The aroma was clean and crisp, with plenty of hops and light fruit. The body has light malt up front with a fruity sweetness and a decent helping of hops. The finish is hoppy with a really, really long lingering dryness.

Overall, I think this is a very good IPA. I am not usually a fan of overly hoppy or dry beers but I loved this beer. The body is balanced and I really liked the bone-dry finish.

Sam Adams Irish Red

Irish Red poured a dark red color with a thumb width, off white head. The aroma is deep, with lots of malt and and lots of earthy notes. The body is clean, with a burst of sweetness up front followed by lots of rich malt and dry hops in the middle. The finish is fairly short with a lingering dryness.

Overall, this is one of the best beers in the Samuel Adams line of beers. I was surprised by the depth and complexity, as this is a really rich, full bodied beer. Irish Red doesn't have a big finish but is pretty well balanced for being such a bold beer.

Flying Dog Dogtoberfest

Flying Dog's Dogtoberfest is the 2009 Great American Beer Festival's gold medal winner for the German Style Märzen category, beating out 44 other entries.

The beer poured a clear, dark amber color with a thumb width, off white head. The aroma is yeasty, with notes of sweetness and pale malt. The body is smooth and bready, with hops underneath and a sweetness that stays throughtout the entire beer. The finish has a light dryness that works well with the rest of the body.

Overall, this is a pretty enjoyable beer. The marzen style can be a little one demensional with its bready sweetness but Flying Dog's verson is really well balanced.

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Palo poured a dark brown, blackish color with a pen width, light brown head. The nose was smokey, with chocolate, rich malt and alcohol notes. The body is thick and velvety smooth with a low amount of carbonation. There is a decent amount of sweetness up front with a lot of rich, dark malt. There is a warm alcohol twinge in the middle before the sweetness starts to die out and leaves a dry finish.

Overall, this is a decent beer. It seemed to have more characteristics of the typical characteristics found in a porter, rather than a brown ale. The high ABV was noticeable and the body is very, very rich. With all of that being said, the body is decadently complex with lots of really tasty flavors. This beer is worth buying and laying down for about 6-8 months.

The Ultimate Pumpkin Beer Tasting

With the popularity of Pumpkin Ales soaring, I decided to conduct a little beer experiment to figure out which gourd flavored beer on today's market is my favorite.  Our experiment was conducted by blind tasting four beers; Saranac's Pumpkin Ale, Brooklyn Brewery's Post Road Pumpkin Ale, Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale, and Wolaver's Will Stevens' Pumpkin Ale.  

Pumpkin Ales tend to split up into two categories, either the beer tastes more like actual pumpkins, with the second tasting more like pumpkin pie. Both styles are malt forward, with mild hop flavor if any and are fairly mild.


Brooklyn Brewery Post Road (4th)
Post Road had a dark copper color. The nose was dominated by malt, with a decent amount of cinnamon and other spices. Alcohol was faintly noticeable. The body had a thicker mouthfeel, almost syrupy with a lot of malt. Post Road had the least amount of pumpkin flavor in the body but had a decent amount of pumpkin spice on the finish. Brooklyn's version had a decent finish, with a nice bitterness to balance out the sweetness. While Post Road may have been the most similiar to a traditional ale, it was our least favorite of our pumpkin lineup.










Saranac Pumpkin Ale (3rd)
Saranac's Pumpkin Ale had a dark copper color. The nose had a malt backbone with a ton of pumpkin spices. The body was crisp with a malty body and a heavily spiced finish. Saranac's beer was the third best beer in our pumpkin lineup. The crisp mouthfeel and malt texture make for a perfect fall seasonal but the spices on the finish are a little over done. Saranac's version finished third in our four beer tasting.







Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale (2nd)
Pumpkinhead had a clear, light orange/dark yellow color. The nose had some light malt but was dominated by the aroma of pumpkin pie. The body was on the lighter side and smooth with pumpkin flavor coming on strong towards the middle. Shipyard's take on the pumpkin ale style was the second best in our lineup. The lighter body was suprisingly nice and the pumpkin flavor was steady and not overbearing.










Wolaver's Will Stevens' Pumpkin Ale (1st)

Stevens' Pumpkin Ale poured a dark orange color. The aroma has a huge pumpkin aroma. The body is smooth, the malt is there and works well with the pumpkin flavor. This was by far the most balanced of the four beers and was our favorite of the four pumpkin beers.