Sam Adams Honey Queen Review

Name: Sam Adams Honey Queen
Style: Braggot
ABV: 7.5%

For this post, I bring to you something completely new and different that I have never reviewed before but have always wanted to try. I'm reviewing my first ever Braggot, which comes in the form of Sam Adams Honey Queen.

Since it's more of an obscure style, not many people are familiar with what a Braggot is. It's basically a beer whose fermentation process if like that of mead. They're typically very malty, brewed with honey and can either have hops or have no hops. In this instance, Honey Queen is brewed with hops.

I'll be the first to admit that I am not terribly familiar with the Braggot style. In fact, the only Braggot I've had prior to having this was from Carmody Irish Pub & Brewery as part of their Small Batch Sunday series.  Sadly I wasn't taking any notes at the time, but I thought it was solid!

Honey Queen pours a relatively hazy yellow color with a reasonably thin white head. The visible carbonation is somewhat moderate and the lacing is quite abundant and sticky.

The nose starts things off with a prominent Belgian yeast and honey aroma. This in turn is backed up by some cloves, floral hops and flowers, which I'm guessing is the chamomile used in the brewing process.

Now in the flavor, you have have some yeastiness, floral hops and chamomile at the front end of the palate. It isn't until you get to the back of the flavor and aftertaste that the honey makes it's way through and it does so in a fairly strong way because the aftertaste of honey and chamomile sticks around for quite a while. There is a slight boozy characteristic to the flavor itself but I didn't think it affected the overall quality.

The palate as a whole is moderate in both weight and carbonation. I do think the carbonation adds a little bit of dimension to the flavor so I can't find anything wrong here.

Since I'm not familiar with the Braggot-style, I really don't have a bar as far as what constitutes a good example of this style. With that said, I enjoyed this quite a bit and I feel it's safe to say that those looking for a great way to get into an obscure style would be wise to try this out.

Sam Adams Honey Queen - 8.5/10 

Sam Adams White Christmas Review

Name: Sam Adams White Christmas
Style: Witbier
ABV: 5.8%

As many of you may be thinking in your heads, I am painfully aware that Christmas was over a month ago. Still, that does not necessarily mean that I am done with winter seasonals because there is still over a month left in winter (sadly.) How I long for a winter like the one we had in 2012 because we pretty much had no winter that year, and to me, those are the best kind of winters.

In any case, today I'm looking at a winter seasonal from Sam Adams called White Christmas, a Belgian White aka Witbier. I'd make a cheesy Bing Crosby reference here but I will refrain from doing so.

White Christmas pours a wet golden color with a some high carbonation. The head has a pretty appearance and no lacing to speak of.

The aroma starts off with a pleasent scent of orange peel, wheat and spices. Along with that are notes of cloves, cinnamon and malts.

Cinnamon and spices make up a good portion of the flavor. These are supported by some citrus hops, wheat and pale malts.

The palate is moderate in weight and some mild feeling carbonation is tacked on for good measure. This beer is pretty easy to drink.

I found this to be a pretty good Witbier and warms you up a little bit when drinking thanks to the cinnamon and spice flavors. I could see myself drinking this again next time the winter rolls around.

Sam Adams White Christmas - 8/10

Clown Shoes Blaecorn Unidragon Review

Name: Clown Shoes Blaecorn Unidragon
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
ABV: 12.5%

It's high time I did a Clown Shoes beer review. I believe they started popping up late last year in stores when I was still living in Minneapolis. While I have had Clown Shoes quite a few times, I've never done a proper review. Right now, it's availability in Minnesota is limited to Minneapolis/St. Paul as it's currently not available up here in Duluth....but it IS available right across the bridge over in Superior, Wisconsin (Keyport Liquor for those wondering!)

Tonight we're having their Blaecorn Unidragon Russian Imperial Stout. The name is a portmanteau of the phrases "Soul Dragon" & "Black Unicorn" though I think that Blaecorn Unidragon sounds like a monster you would fight in a Final Fantasy video game. Also the artwork looks like something Boris Vallejo would paint after watching an episode of Game of Thrones.

Blaecorn Unidragon pours a black opaque color with a filmy brown head. The lacing on the sides of the glass is pretty good and it has a small amount of carbonation visible.

The aroma is fairly mild by Imperial Stout standards with roasted malts, chocolate, barley and cocoa nibs. Subdued but still quite noticeable.

The flavor starts out with a strong chocolate molasses taste, followed by roasted malts, some strong piney hops, and a slight vanilla flavor. The aftertaste is a weird one with both chocolate AND bitter piney hoppiness.

Both the body weight and carbonation are moderately leveled and there's also a slight thickness to the overall mouthfeel.

While some may not like the higher-than-normal hoppiness here, it's still a fairly rich & robust Imperial Stout that tastes great and is not afraid to be a little different. Check this one out if it's available in your area.

Clown Shoes Blaecorn Unidragon - 9/10    

Sam Adams Fat Jack Double Pumpkin Review

Name: Sam Adams Fat Jack Double Pumpkin
Style: Pumpkin Beer
ABV: 8.5%

It's a cold, windy & rainy night here in Duluth and driving home is liking being in your own horror movie but without the dumb teenagers running from a serial killer. With Halloween about 4 weeks away, what better night than tonight to review a pumpkin ale.

A couple years ago, Sam Adams started releasing these specialty bombers of beer as a way to branch out more into the craft beer community and have been pretty successful so far. This one is Sam Adams' Fat Jack Double Pumpkin Ale, the brewery's own pumpkin ale. Much like Southern Tier's Pumking, this has a rather high ABV, clocking in at 8.5%. Many will call this an "Imperial Pumpkin Ale" but I think the term sounds a bit silly so we'll just call it a Pumpkin Beer for the time being.

Fat Jack pours a dark clear ruby red color with a foamy brown head that retains a filmy appearance after it settles down and leaves behind some good lacing. The visible carbonation is also quite light.

The aroma starts you off with a nice pumpkin pie and light cinnamon scent. After that, there are some spice, clove, nutmeg, malty and vanilla notes in the back. It's smell is not unlike that of Pumking.

The flavor is rather cinnamon and clove heavy upfront. The sweet pumpkin pie flavor takes a back seat to those flavors along with the vanilla, malts and hops.

The body itself is rather heavy and the carbonation starts out moderate before coming down a couple of notches to a lesser intensity.

It's a decent Pumpkin beer but the flavor is quite imbalanced and could use some work. Also I paid about a dollar more for this than Pumking, which I think is a more superior Pumpkin beer than this. If you have the money, go for Pumking instead of this.

Sam Adams Fat Jack Double Pumpkin - 7/10