The Official INGO Beer Snob Thread

[Colts]

Wee Mac +1

+1 for Wee Mac from Sun King:
5.3% ABV
23 IBU
Roasted Scottish Malt with toffee undertones
Low carbonation
I fill up my 64oz. growler on Fridays for $5 and grab a few samples of seasonal efforts (once was Java Mac, yes brewed with coffee)
My absolute favorite is the bock version of Wee Mac, they make in February (liquid bread its good for you!)
I have not had it yet, but Sung King (Market & College Indy) is aging some of this in oak whiskey barrels (it smells awesome) - I hope they "can" some of this.

 

[Scutter01]

Wheat Beer
Napa Smith Brewery, Napa, CA
4.6% ABV

Appearance: Light honey gold with a thin head. Very slight cloudiness; probably the clearest wheat beer I've ever seen.

Smell: Almost no smell, which is fairly typical for a wheat beer.

Taste: This beer has a very light and crisp taste to it. Very little hoppy bitterness to it, with just a hint of citrus and spice and almost no wheat.

Mouthfeel: As noted, it's very light, both in flavor and in texture. The carbonation is there, but it's not at all aggressive. Finishes very cleanly with almost no aftertaste.

Overall: I'm told that this beer uses lager yeast and 1/2 wheat, which probably explains the clarity of the pour and the lightness of the malt. As wheats go, it's pretty disappointing, but I also tend towards lighter, sweeter beers so this actually suits my tastes pretty well. Were I looking for a Hefeweizen, I would look elsewhere, but if I were looking for something cool to drink after mowing the lawn, this would be a decent enough choice. I give it a B-.

 

[LeeStreet]

This review is Samual Adams Noble Pils, which is a seasonal brew. This beer is again hopped up, but a pilsner rather than an ale. It isn't as strong as an ale. This one has a beautiful golden color with a floral scent, & a little spicy with no real after taste, just a good burp to remind you that it
's good beer.Alcohol content is 4.9BV which is also less than ale's, so a couple won't kick your butt. A couple liquor stores in my area have been selling various beers close to their expiration date by the CASE for $9.99, which is a deal. Sometimes I find Sam Adams, & Sierra Nevada at that price. Enjoy.

 

[Scutter01]

Guinness Black Lager
Guinness, St. James Gate, Dublin
4.5% ABV

Appearance: Thick, chocolate head, oil-black body. Looks just like a Stout with a typical Guinness head. The anemic 11.5 ounce bottle left me feeling shortchanged, especially when poured into my giant INGO stein mug.

Smell: Chocolate malt, with a hint of toffee.

Taste: The taste is very similar to a standard lager, with a hint of Guinness Stout bitterness mixed in. Starts out very mild and then the roasted barley kicks in nicely. Does very well ice-cold where a regular Guinness likes to be a little warmer.

Mouthfeel: It's got the lightness of a lager without the thick, chewiness of a stout. Smooth and slightly creamy.

Overall: I know that this is not a craft beer in the sense for whiche I started this thread, but I've always been a fan of Guinness Extra Stout and I wanted to give this one a try. It's marketed as a "Black Lager" of the American style, but it's really more of a German schwarzbier. The slight sourness of a Guinness Stout is evident in this lager, with the plain easy drinkability of your standard lager. Where you might be tired of a Stout after just one or two, you could probably drink the Black Lagers all evening. That said, it's only fair-to-middling in the schwarzbier field. It's not the best I've had, but it's not the worst, either. I'll enjoy drinking the remaining bottles, but then I'll probably move on to something else.

I get the feeling that Guinness created this to market to people who just couldn't drink the oily chewiness of a traditional Guinness Stout. In that respect, I feel that they'll probably find a small niche audience. Unfortunately, savvy drinkers will look for something more palatable, while traditional lager drinkers will probably stick with their national-brand favorites. I give this one a solid C. Try it if it's there, don't go out of your way to seek it out.

 

[HollidaySlim]

3 Floyds Zombie Dust

Pours with a finger of fluffy thin head that falls to a thin cap of foam that stays for the duration. The lightest haze is present in this orange/gold colored beer. Some strands of carbonation escape. Just a splotch of lace.

Aroma is bright and fresh. A blast of citrus, but the more you enjoy the light toasted malt comes through.

Nice APA. Fresh flavor, bright. Toasted malt beneath the green grassy and citrus hops. While very hop forward, this is still definitely an APA vs. IPA. Some nice fruit mid palate.

Body is still fairly light and bright. Refreshing beer.

Really good. Not a Daisy Cutter classic, but very very good.

 

[mister]

Bell's Porter
Brewed in Kalamazoo, MI.
5.6% ABV.

Price:
$4.25 at the Heorot Pub and Draught house in Muncie, IN.


Appearance:
Moderately thick, very dark, with a fairly thin head.

Aroma:
Slightly sweet, with a hint of oak.


Taste:
Very high amount of roasted barley flavor, adds a borderline sweet taste to this porter.
Very low "hoppiness,"
Little to no bitterness.
Loves to be served ice cold, but flavor does not deteriorate as quickly as some other porters as the temperature rises.
Great choice for a Fall beer, although I wouldn't recommend it during the warmer months as it can be a bit of a chore to drink.


I also wouldn't recommend drinking this, or many of the other Bell's Brewery beers from the bottle. They are much better in a glass.

 

[mister]

Robert The Bruce
Scottish Ale
Three Floyd's Brewing Company
Munster, IN
7.0% ABV

Price:
Anywhere from $3.50-$6.00 a pint depending on location.

Appearance:
Very dark, almost black. Appears to have a cream like texture. Very small but thick head.

Aroma:
Sweet, hints of caramel, and fresh barley.

Taste:
Well...it's like the best sex you've ever had. Only it's a taste.
Very mild, absolutely no bitterness whatsoever.
Not overly sweet, but definitely has a caramelish type of after taste.
Texture is similar to a Guinness Stout, but the taste is perhaps the closest thing to a polar opposite.

Letter Grade:

A+


This is in my top 3 favorites as far as regional/craft beer goes. I highly recommend it.

Again, I wouldn't drink this one out of a bottle either. A pint glass is your best friend.

 

[Scutter01]

Remember that you have to actually post a review of the beer. "It's great!" is not a review. Tell us why you like it in more than one or two sentences. Who makes it? Where did you buy it? Why should we buy (or not buy) it? What kind of food does it go well with? Should it be drunk cool or ice cold? Remember that this is a "review" thread, not a "this is a picture of my favorite beer" thread.

You can use one of the other reviews in this thread as a template:
Name of beer
Brewer
Alcohol content and size (if non-standard)

Appearance:
Smell:
Taste:
Mouthfeel:
Overall:
Letter grade:

You don't HAVE to follow this format, but we'd like to see more detail than "I drank this once and it was good!" C'mon, we're BEER SNOBS!

.

 

[mister]

Yuengling Lager
Brewed in Pottsville PA
4.5% ABV

Price:
Generally $3-$4.50 for a pint

Appearance:
Amber in color, small but tasty head

Aroma:
Slightly hoppy, with a hint of caramel. Not a very aromatic beer honestly.

Taste:
First off, I absolutely love this beer. I'm not normally a lager fan, but this just does the job for some reason. The taste is very similar to all of the standard major lager's, Budweisser, Miller, Coors, etc., but without that one little characteristic, varying from beer to beer, which keeps all of those others from being truly great.

Letter Grade:

A

 

[Scutter01]

Yuengling is my favorite lager. Unfortunately, it's not available in Indiana. However, I've recently learned that it's just become available in Ohio, and one of the distributors is based in Cincinnati. That's a much closer drive than Tennessee!

 

[perry]

Stopped by Sun King today and picked up a growler of their Rathskeller Amber. 5.3% ABV, 23 IBU. Poured in to a shaker glass.

A: Pours a translucent copper color with a creamy off-white head. Slight lacing down the side of the glass.
S: Caramel sweet smell that is "just about right."
T: Sweet tasting with some caramel in there. Nice fruity-sweetness to the aftertaste. That sweetness makes me want to keep on sipping.
M: Very smooth across the tounge. Very easy to drink.
O: Nice beer and reasonably priced for being one of Sun King's "Specialty" beers.
Letter grade: A-

 

[Cygnus]

If it's not Scottish.......

Name of beer: Wee Heavy
Brewer: Sam Adams-Imperial Series
Alcohol content and size (if non-standard): 10% (That's right!)

Appearance: Dark Brown Ale, subtle foam head
Smell: Pungent, earthy tones from the peat smoked malt.
Taste: Fullbodied with earthy and choclate overtones. Smokey in a good way as well. And heck some fruit overtones in the finish.
Mouthfeel: Between a stout and an ale
Overall: Great brew.Good with a meal or a cigar. Closest thing to the increasingly rare McKwein's Scotttish Ale.
Letter grade: A-

 

[rockhopper46038]

St. Bernardus Abt 12
10.5% ABV
Belgian Abbey Quad

Very smooth, creamy, and as you would expect, full-bodied. Toffee notes, very complex, and assertive. Alcohol is well hidden in this one. Not a sessionable beer, but a very nice after dinner fireside quaffer. World Beer Cup gold medal winner in 2006.

 

[rockhopper46038]

Monk's Cafe Flemish Red
5.5% ABV

Nice, tangy sour. The sourness is evident immediately in the aroma. At 5.5% it's a sessionable beer that is pleasant to drink for more than one.
This one is hard for me to pin down; lactobacillus, a little horse blanket, black cherry, not as much oak as I might have expected - not sure how much time this spent in barrel. Worth a try if you run across it.

 

[kyotekilr]

Sierra Nevada
Torpedo

Torpedo is a very hoppy beer. The kind that leaves that familiar after taste so many of the good ones do. however, it is very crisp and goes great with food that too has a strong and distinct taste, for example bleu cheese burgers

 

[inccwchris]

The Oaken Barrel Brewery is in Greenwood Indiana and is one of my favorite hangouts(I also imbibe in beers at BJ's down the street). One of my favorite beers they make is called Gnawbone. It is a pale ale with a 5.8% abv. When poured it has a small white head and a tan/golden body. The taste is very strong with a bitter after taste that I find quite pleasant. The smell is almost like a good cologne, strong but sweet. Best when enjoyed with a maduro cigar, pasta, or chicken breast.

 

[jbrich]

My kinda thread

Delirium Tremens

A sweet taste, sorta like a Blue Moon, but there is a lot more flavor, more floating in it, and more carbonation. Has a sister beer Delirium Nocturnum which has more of a bitter taste.

Pricey but well worth it.

I found this beer while in Chicago and absolutely love it. Although I do like the nocturnum better

 

[rockhopper46038]

Bell's Rye-ghtious Ale:
Rye beer, aged in a whiskey barrel (unknown distiller), served on tap at Bell's Eccentric Cafe

This is a very nice beer, spicy from the rye, mellowed and sweet from the wood. Alcohol level not listed, but probably about 7%. Aroma of the "C"-family of hops, also some vanilla, warmth from the ABV, finishes with a sweet rye whiskey kiss.

 

[AmericanBob]

Stone Brewing Imperial Russian Stout

ABV: 10.5% 22oz bottle

What they say:
Appearance:
The beer pours black with a deep tan head of foam.
Aroma:
The aroma is a blend of classic roasted malt flavors: coffee and cocoa, with a yeasty breadiness and hints of anise, fruit, and hops.
Taste:
The taste is all about malt, with the coffee and dark roasted malt flavors in the forefront. There's a subtle yeastiness mid-palate and the hops are present at the back end.
Palate:
The palate is full bodied and very smooth without being sweet. The alcohol is subtle, but present, and should mellow over time.



What I say:
Appearance: yup, it's black. has a very nice head on that sticks around for a bit, lacing as you drink.


Aroma: smells like a dark beer should, but not like a guinness. i get mostly dark coffee notes with just a touch of hops.


Taste: very smooth and drinkable, almost subtle. you can tell it has dark roasted malts, just slightly nutty, and you can tell there are some hops in there. but nothing is overwhelming. it seems to blend seamlessly all the way through.


Overall: very good if you like non-guinness dark beers. even if you don't normally drink dark beers this one is worth a try, if you can find it. they release it yearly on a limited basis and it goes fast. it leaves me wanting to drink more but at 10.5% and $8 a piece, it's not something i'll be pounding down all night long.

 

[xanderphillips]

Sunlight Cream Ale: Sunking Brewery, Indianapolis, IN

Sunlight Cream Ale
Sunking Brewery, Indianapolis, IN
www.sunkingbrewing.com
5.3% ABV

Sunlight is a golden blonde ale with a clean grain aroma and a touch of floral hops. It's taste focuses on the grain, and provides a clean clear flavor. It's low bitterness makes it very palatable, leaving the mouth with a crisp clean taste. It has a medium-light body with a good level of carbonation sparkle. Overall a good and very drinkable beer. It slides down the throat so easily you will look at your pint wondering where it went.

Look: 4.5/5
Smell: 4.5/5
Taste: 5/5
Feel: 5/5
Overall: 4.75/5