Tons of Beer Reviews! (Terrapin 30 Strong, Ommegang Rouge, Landshark, Kona Longboard, Bell's Oberon)

Ok, have a few quick reviews to hit.

Kona Longboard Lager: A very fine example of an American Lager. If you like Budweiser and want to take a leap of faith to try another great American lager pick up some Kona. Very refreshing, a nice slight hop note. Pretty good. I'll drink it if offered but won't go out of my way to hunt it down. 3 out of 5.

Landshark Lager: Picked some up for a cook out that we went to on Saturday night. Quite good. A bit crisper than the Kona. Think of it as an American version of Corona with no need to add a lime. 3 out of 5.

Ommegang Rouge: Mmmmm a flemish sour. Excellent. I have to fine somewhere that stocks this in bottles. A wonderful deep red pour. Looks almost like dark red wine. An amazing fruity aroma but with a weird tilt to it. You smell fruit and flowers but there is also a hint of the funkyness to come. Sweet and smooth to start, sour and tart to finish. Love it. 4.5 out of 5.

Terrapin 30 Strong: Terrapin's 30th anniversary Taco Mac beer. Wow, tons going on. Maltbomb but a hop bomb at the same time? Looks like a lager? Huh? Really smooth too. Can't believe it has 8.8% abv. If you can get to a Taco Mac to try it before it is gone I highly suggest it.

Bell's Oberon: I have heard so much about this beer I didn't think that there was any way that it could live up to the hype. I was wrong. Best American Wheat beer I've ever had. Wow, just the right amount of fruityness, a tad bit of funkyness left from the yeast, right amount of hops to add flavor yet keep it drinkable. I need to pick up a few 6ers before the summer is over. 4.5 out of 5.

Well those are the quick reviews for now. Hope to have more in the next few weeks along with my beer of the week reviews. 'Til then, Happy Drinking!

Guinness 250 Review

Ok, my long awaited Guinness 250 review is finally ready. I was the first to buy any at the Total Wine store in the perimeter area of Atlanta. I tried to buy some the day it came out but could not find a store that stocked any. I was not even sure if Total Wine had it until I asked. It ended up taking myself and two guys at the store 15 minutes to find where it was stocked. The problem being that we where looking for the standard black Guinness packaging and the 250 was shipped in cream colored boxes. Once it was located I picked out 2 6 packs (about $8.00 each) and was on my way.

So how was the beer? It is pretty good. The label and advertising sum it up as well as I can. Guinness says this beer is brewed to be crisper and more refreshing than Guinness Draft. Well it is. It is a tad lighter and not quite as bitter. Easier to drink for someone who has never had a stout. It is a fine beer and a bit closer to some of the microbrew porters that have become pretty popular. If you like Guinness then 250 a try, won't be around forever so try it now before it disappears for good. I'll give it a 3.5 out of 5. I'll buy some more next time I'm over at Total Wine.

Japan brewing/Asahi Super "Dry"

Here is my old college chum Jeremy's take on beer in Japan.....

Note: Jeremy is an invited blogger to Atlanta Beer Snob. He normally posts at iTooglefm on issues related to music, information retrieval, signal processing, and science.

Japan does not have a very long beer-brewing tradition and many past laws make it difficult for new tastes to emerge. Japan is dominated by four major breweries: Asahi, Kirin, Suntory, and Sapporo, which also makes Yebisu. Beyond these four, choices are rare to come by for a couple reasons. First, until a few years ago, laws prevented anyone from establishing a brewery unless they could produce on a large scale, which meant a significant investment was needed to have a full-fledged operation. Second, home-brewing is almost non-existent (again, in large part due to laws). However, Japan does have an upside: very liberal drinking laws. Beer is sold anywhere, including vending machines in train stations, etc. Just don't drink and drive (but if you are in Tokyo, you shouldn't drive anyway). Most restaurants will serve only one type of beer, but this trend is decreasing now that American restaurants are starting to serve a better variety in Japan.

Probably the one Americans are most familiar with is Asahi. For this review, I'll give my thoughts on Asahi Super "Dry." I'm not really sure why Dry is quotation marks and Super is not in quotation marks. For that matter, I'm not really sure Super applies. Like most Japanese beers, it's a fairly generic take on beer. Ask a general beer drinker to picture a beer and you'll probably get people thinking about this beer. Lots of head, light yellow color, clear complexion. Probably not bad if you are sitting out on a deck watching football, and just want to have beer without thinking about it. It's kind of amazing that this was the best result of the Dry Wars. However, it was the beer that drove Kirin from a virtual monopoly. This also paved the way for the microbrews that are now just starting to take hold in The Land of the Rising Sun.

Homebrew Weisbier Review

I got my Weisbier kegged up over the weekend and debuted it down at our neighborhood pool on Memorial day. Along with the new brew I gave my new travel keg kit a try out. I figured this would be a good run for the rest of the summer and for football tailgating this fall. First let's talk about the beer.

It turned out a good bit darker than I was expecting. It looked a lot closer to a brown ale than a lighter wheat beer as I was expecting. It poured well with a decent head that tended to stick around quite a while. Nice crisp and very smooth at the start. A very cool lemon flavor and a slight hop touch to finish. Really nice. It really was a ton better than I expected. Everyone really liked it and I will have to brew this one again a few times this summer. If this had come out of a bottle I would give it a 3.5 out of 5. Pleasantly redrinkable, no aftertaste, a perfect beer for sitting by the pool all day.

The travel keg system also performed without any hiccups. Only mistake I made was attaching the gas connection before I had the CO2 cartridge plugged in and releasing all the pressure I had in the keg initially. No worries though, the little 16g CO2 cartridges did there job. I went through 3 during the afternoon and almost floated the keg, there may be 3 or 4 beers left in the bottom. If I had not lost the initial charge on the keg 3 would have been more than enough to dispense all the beer. I also have a design in my head on how to keep the keg cool during tailgating. I am going to hack up one of my coolers that I really don't like. I'll remove the hinged lid, cut a hole in it just large enough to fit around the keg. I'll get some pictures of the whole rig when I put it all together in the next week or two.

I do have some site related news. Since I have been a bit of a slacker when comes to new beer reviews I am going to do my best to review a new beer a week for the rest of the summer. I also am going to have a few new reviews in the next few days as well as a beer drinkers guide to Japan and Taiwan. Hope you guys enjoy! As always, Happy Drinking!

Found a beer for the wife...

Kelly and I finally got a chance to grab a nice dinner alone. We went to Leon's Full Service in Decatur. It is owned by the same guys that own the Brick Store just around the corner. Neat little place, may have the coolest looking bar in town. Good beer menu, a little bit of everything. Food was excellent. I grabbed a Belgian IPA, pretty good, nice hop note but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. My second beer was a Sour. I have become a huge fan of this style of beer, really complex. Sour, sweet, bitter, smooth all in one sip, very cool stuff but it is a love it or hate it style. I convinced Kelly to take a sip and was surprised that she really liked it. Guess I will have to try and brew a sour up sometime in the coming months.

I have a bunch of beers to review (Guinness 250, Yuengling Black and Tan, Kona Longboard, Terrapin 30, Bells Oberon and more) a long with a trip report about where to drink in Ann Arbor, MI. Bear with me, I'll get them up soon! 'Till then, Happy Drinking!

Bell's is almost here!

It is official, I received my first pre-order request for Bell's beer. It lands here in the Empire State of the South on Tuesday May 19th! Sweet! Taco Mac is having a release party and Tower will have a few of there beers ready for the initial roll out. If you live in Georgia and have not had a Bell's beer I suggest that you pick up any sixer that you can find. I am saddened that the Two Hearted IPA is not one of the initial beers but Hopslam and Oberon are so I look forward to restocking my Hopslam supply.

So this is what no sleep feels like....

Just a quick update, the twins are doing fine and I have not yet had a chance to get a few new beer reviews up. I found Guinness 250 at Total Wine, I was the first person to buy it. I'll have a full write up on it in the next few days. First impression was made when my dad loaded up the cooler and snuck a few into the hospital to celebrate. It is good.

That is about it for now, hoping to some good posts up in the next few days. Happy Drinking!

Raise a toast to Two New Beer Snobs!

Well good news, the twins arrived Thursday at 2:30pm and 2:31pm. James "Tripp" Robert Garrison III and Benjamin Tanner Garrison are doing just fine. Mom and Dad are proud to welcome a few new beer snobs to the world. Tripp is in the "B" hat and Tanner is in the "A" hat. Both boys are named after their Grandfathers.