Dogfish Head does Stout

So here is another stout I highly recommend for the colder months of the year that are now upon us...Dogfish Head Brewery's Chicory Stout.  This is a great stout with plenty of roast chicory and coffee flavor.  They use organic Mexican coffee for this delicious ale and a surprising, unexpected flavor - licorice root.  My advice is to pour this bold stout into a British style tulip pint glass.  Pour the beer at a 45 degree angle until you have just a little beer left in the bottle.  Give the bottle a little swirl and pour it directly into the middle of the upright glass to create a nice bone white head.  Before your first sip, inhale deeply and collect all of the strong aromas that this beer has to offer.  It may even make your eyes water a bit.

I have enjoyed everything that I have tried from Dogfish Head.  As I have mentioned before, their Punkin' Ale is my favorite pumpkin flavored beer on the market and their 60 minute ale is one of my go to beers.  I am waiting for the Discovery Channel to air another season of Brew Masters that showcases Dogfish Head Brewery and takes you along on the their adventures to find new flavors and collaborations (such as the making of a traditional Peruvian drink, Chicha, into a beer - there is a strange element to this drink that includes people's saliva).   Definitely "Off centered ales for off centered people" like me!  You can find back episodes here - Brew Masters.

Stouts for the Season...

I love stouts!  Guinness was my first experience (as I am sure was most people's) with stouts and it started me on the path of enjoying this dark libation and searching for other worthy breweries who match up to the pride of Ireland.

Tonight for the first time, I am trying Boulevard Brewery's Dark Truth Stout.  I have never had a beer from Boulevard Brewery (www.boulevard.com) out of Kansas City, MO, but I am definitely now a fan.  This 9.7% high gravity stout encompasses all of the important characteristics of a great stout.  Unlike most beers with high alcohol content, this stout is very smooth and the alcohol taste is not overpowering.  The roasted espresso flavor is very pronounced and is counter-balanced by a sweet, but not too sweet, finish.  There are plenty of spice and herbal notes to this stout and they have done a great job of adding a smoky element that makes you want to pop open another...but be careful because after two you may find yourself on the floor!

Pumpkin Ales...Mmmm!

So I am a bit behind in my write up on pumpkin ales.  I look forward to the pumpkin ales coming out each Fall and try my best to enjoy the offerings from multiple breweries before it is all done.  Last year, the clear winner in my book was Dogfish Head Brewery Punkin' Ale.  Punkin' Ale is a great pumpkin ale with the perfect amount of spice to pumpkin ratio and a great finish.  I find that a lot of pumpkin ales rely too much on the spices that are supposed to complement the pumpkin to the point that they overpower the pumpkin flavor all together, but not the Punkin' Ale.

This Fall, I tried a handful of pumpkin ales.  Dogfish Head still remains at the top of my list, but I wanted to branch out and see if there were any contenders.  The first one I tried was from one of my favorite breweries, Terrapin Beer Co.  I am a Bulldawg, so this Athens brewery tugs at my heartstrings, but unfortunately I found their Pumpkinfest to be much too floral.  Perhaps is was also the malt that didn't agree with me, but it was just not my favorite.  I still love their their Rye Pale Ale, Hopsecutioner IPA, and Wake n' Bake which includes Jittery Joe's coffee (a local Athens coffee shop brew).  I will definitely revisit Terrapin in a later post.  It is a great brewery (terrapinbeer.com).

The pumpkin ale that truly knocked my socks off this year was Foothills Brewery's Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale.  Cottonwood has done a great job of balancing real pumpkin flavor with the complementary spices of Fall.  This ale is very smooth and is enjoyable straight from the bottle or in a frosty mug.  Pumpkin brews may be hard to find at this point in the season, but if you can still find a six pack of Cottonwood's Pumpkin Ale I highly recommend picking one up.  Enjoy!