Beer In Review - Injured Reserve
February hasn't been off to a good start for me. I've had a horrible and unusual stomach bug as well as an infected tooth that led to a root canal. I'm now on antibiotics so my beer drinking has been put on hold for another week. Rather than wait until I'm back in action, I'll fulfill my monthly quota and just review the three beers that I sampled before things went awry. Write about the mess in DC? I can't. I wouldn't know where to begin. Besides, Mike, Mike, Edwardo, HellasIOUs, TCR and Barry Ritholtz are covering it far better than I can.
So, without further ado, on with the beer....
First up is Rogue's Mocha Porter. I had high hopes for this ale but it came up short. It started with the head. On most craft brews that I've had, one has to pour the beer down the side of the glass to prevent an overflow of head. With this one, I could pour it down the center of the glass without a problem. What little head there was didn't last.
The beer was dark brown in color, as was the head, while it lasted. There was no aroma.
The ale lived up to its name in taste. Definitely mocha with chocolate and lots of roasted malt. There was tingle from the hops (Centennial and Perle according to the website). The finish was ok.
Overall it was a disappointment. I'll have to try it again some time to see if it was just this time or what. I reviewed by brewfest bloggings and saw that I had it back at the 2007 Brass City Brewfest and liked it. Of course, depending on when I had it that day, my taste buds might've been... impaired.
Next up is the Benchwarmer Porter from Cooperstown Brewing Company. Yes, that Cooperstown. Technically, they're located in Milford, just south of Cooperstown. Close enough though. As can be expected, all of their brews have baseball references in their names.
On the pour, the brew provides a good head with good retention. It's rich brown in color with plenty of ruby hues shining through. A roasted and chocolate malt aroma rises to meet the nose. And it all comes through on the taste. The roasted malt leads off with the chocolate malt in the on deck circle. The hops bat clean up and leave a dry tingle on the tongue. This is a good beer. 6.4% ABV.
Last, but certainly not least, is Dragon Stout, from the Red Stripe folks. I didn't have high expectations for this one. Red Stripe is an ok beer from what I remember of it. I wasn't sure that Jamaica was the right place to brew a stout. Well, I was wrong.
There's plenty of rich, creamy dark brown head and it has good retention. Holding up a glass of this stout to the light will do no good. None gets through. Although it's not black, it's certainly a (very) dark brown. When you bring the pint glass up to your mouth, the dragon's rich, chocolate breath becomes apparent. It tastes just as good as it smells. Yummy! And it goes down sooo smooth. One has to wonder if the brewers talked with the lads up in Dublin before grooming this one. This one's definitely a keeper. 7.5% ABV
\_/
DED
So, without further ado, on with the beer....
First up is Rogue's Mocha Porter. I had high hopes for this ale but it came up short. It started with the head. On most craft brews that I've had, one has to pour the beer down the side of the glass to prevent an overflow of head. With this one, I could pour it down the center of the glass without a problem. What little head there was didn't last. The beer was dark brown in color, as was the head, while it lasted. There was no aroma.
The ale lived up to its name in taste. Definitely mocha with chocolate and lots of roasted malt. There was tingle from the hops (Centennial and Perle according to the website). The finish was ok.
Overall it was a disappointment. I'll have to try it again some time to see if it was just this time or what. I reviewed by brewfest bloggings and saw that I had it back at the 2007 Brass City Brewfest and liked it. Of course, depending on when I had it that day, my taste buds might've been... impaired.
Next up is the Benchwarmer Porter from Cooperstown Brewing Company. Yes, that Cooperstown. Technically, they're located in Milford, just south of Cooperstown. Close enough though. As can be expected, all of their brews have baseball references in their names.On the pour, the brew provides a good head with good retention. It's rich brown in color with plenty of ruby hues shining through. A roasted and chocolate malt aroma rises to meet the nose. And it all comes through on the taste. The roasted malt leads off with the chocolate malt in the on deck circle. The hops bat clean up and leave a dry tingle on the tongue. This is a good beer. 6.4% ABV.
Last, but certainly not least, is Dragon Stout, from the Red Stripe folks. I didn't have high expectations for this one. Red Stripe is an ok beer from what I remember of it. I wasn't sure that Jamaica was the right place to brew a stout. Well, I was wrong.There's plenty of rich, creamy dark brown head and it has good retention. Holding up a glass of this stout to the light will do no good. None gets through. Although it's not black, it's certainly a (very) dark brown. When you bring the pint glass up to your mouth, the dragon's rich, chocolate breath becomes apparent. It tastes just as good as it smells. Yummy! And it goes down sooo smooth. One has to wonder if the brewers talked with the lads up in Dublin before grooming this one. This one's definitely a keeper. 7.5% ABV
\_/
DED
Labels: beer
posted by DED at 9:00 PM
2 Comments:
I'm a big Mocha Porter fan. I wonder if you got a bad batch or something.
Not sure. Like I said, I remember it tasting better at the Brewfest where I'd had it. One way to know, would be to compare the amount of head. This one had very little and it didn't last. If you get it on a regular basis and find that head isn't a problem, then that could be true. I got this one in the mail so it's possible the sender was trying to clear his inventory of old beer.
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