Happy 3rd Anniversary from Nick's Beer Blog

It's hard to believe it's been 3 years since I first came home and decided to start this blog on a whim. From all the places this blog has taken me to where it'll lead me in the future, I for one can say I am excited to what the future holds for myself.

I know my reviews have been rather spotty over this past month and a half because there have been a lot of positive changes in my life and I wanted to let everyone that I haven't forgotten about this blog. In fact, I've got about a few reviews at the ready that I will be posting tomorrow and over the weekend, so stay tuned for that.

To everyone who has supported me throughout my endeavors, I thank you. Here's to another year of great beer.

Cheers!

Nick

Sam Adams Noble Pils Review

Name: Sam Adams Noble Pils
Style: Pilsner
ABV: 4.9%
IBUs: 34

Next up on the Sam Adams beers that I got is their Noble Pils. Not really much here aside from the fact that it's a Pilsner and I've been trying to focus more on other styles aside from IPAs as I feel that I have been focusing too much of my energy on that style (though coming up in a couple reviews, I'll be taking a look at some that I've been wanting to review for a while.)

Appearance - Mildly hazy yellow color with a moderate amount of visible carbonation. The head is on the thinner side and soapy in appearance while there is nothing here in terms of lacing.

Aroma - Floral hops and pilsner malts with a bit of yeastiness along with some light pale malts.

Taste -  Pale malts and floral hops on the front of the palate. Towards the middle, I'm getting some light pilsner malts and lemongrass nottes, while towards the back I'm getting some more pale malts and light hop bitterness, along with some light citra notes. The aftertaste, however, is quite dry.

Much like the last beer, nothing I would consider to be special but it's nice, light and drinkable and there certainly isn't wrong with that. If you see it, it would be worth checking out at least once.

Sam Adams Noble Pils - 8/10

Sam Adams Cold Snap Review

Name: Sam Adams Cold Snap
Style: Witbier
ABV: 5.3%
IBUs: 10

Winter may be over but I got my hands on a couple of winter seasonal beers from Sam Adams that I figured I would take a look at. The first beer is Cold Snap, a witbier made with orange peel and spices. I recall this coming out in particular a couple years back when I lived in Duluth due to the outrageously cold winter we were experiencing back then...........or in other words, a cold snap.

Appearance - Hazy dark yellow color with a a mild amount of visible carbonation. The head is fairly foamy and there's a decent amount of lacing left behind along the sides of the glass.

Aroma - Malted wheat and spices, along with some coriander and orange peel, with just a hint of floral hops.

Taste - Starts out with some malted wheat notes, followed by some orange peel and coriander in the middle with a light spiciness. Towards the back, I'm getting some light floral hoppiness and yeasts. The aftertaste is just a light malted wheat and coriander finish.

It's nothing terribly special, but it's got a good flavor and I have no qualms about drinking this. If you see it in the future, I would suggest you try it out.

Sam Adams Cold Snap - 8/10

Leinenkugel's Pale Ale Review

Name: Leinenkugel's Pale Ale
Style: American Pale Ale
ABV: 5.8%
IBUs: N/A

First they have given us an India Pale Lager, then they gave us a Braggot and now they have given us, of all things, a Pale Ale. Yes, it looks like Leinenkugel's has finally started to embrace craft beer trends that have been around for years. Better late than never I suppose, right?

So today we're looking at their Pale Ale, which is actually part of their 12-pack sampler but I managed to grab this as a single bottle. I also saw Heart of Oak sitting on the shelf next to it at the store I was at so perhaps I'll grab that next time I'm there. Doing some research on this beer, I haven't really been able to pull anything up about this beer aside from that it's a very new addition to their line up.

Appearance - Mildly hazy orange color with a very high amount of visible carbonation. The head is foamy yet soapy in appearance, leaving behind just some mild lacing.

Aroma - Pale malts with some mild floral hops and a some lager yeasts. I'm also getting some pils-grassiness, which is a unusual for this style.

Taste - Pale & pilsner malts and some lager yeasts upfront with some mild floral hops and cereal grains towards the middle. Towards the back I'm getting some more yeasts with some light spiciness, which caught me off guard. The aftertaste is made up of light bitter hops, which linger for a couple moments.

While it has everything that makes up a pale ale, as a whole, this feels very underwhelming and frankly a bit too light in the areas of flavor which matter the most (i.e. hops & yeasts.) It's nothing I would consider to be offensive, but after seeing what Leinenkugel's has produced over this past year, this is a bit of a let down.

Leinenkugel's Pale Ale - 6.5/10

A visit to Wicked Wort Brewing Company

Last weekend, I took advantage of the nice day to go out and about. Upon wondering what to do with my free time, I remembered that a brewery called Wicked Wort Brewing Company had recently opened their doors in Robbinsdale, MN so I decided to take it upon myself to go check it out. You're probably wondering why I decided to go to this brewery in particular, and that's because Robbinsdale is my hometown. That's right, I was born and raised there for the first 15 years of my life before I moved away.

Needless to say, I just had to check this place out and see what my hometown had to offer. Located in the old TCF Bank building along Broadway Ave on the main drag in downtown, the space looks very different than it did 15 years ago. Even the bartender who I was talking with shared memories of coming there as a kid.

Anyways, enough about that. You're probably wondering how the beer is. Luckily for me, they had a very wide variety of beers to choose from, which is shocking considering how new this place is. So I managed to get a flight as well as a pint of beers so I could cover my bases in terms of styles go.

Banks Closed Brown (6.3% ABV) - The first beer I had and an homage to the building's former occupants.. For a brown ale, it was surprisingly roasty and had a porter-like taste to it. Aside from that, you've got your chocolate malts & nuttiness with just a touch of bitter hops. Aftertaste was a bitter roasty finish.

Birdtown Blonde (4.6% ABV) - A blonde ale which gets its nom de guerre from Robbinsdale's nickname. Starts out fairly pale malt forward with some light floral hops with some light yeasts and more light hoppiness towards the end. Even though they had a lager on tap there (which I didn't get around to), this felt very much like a lager, which is certainly not a bad thing.

Cheap Seats IPA (5.3% ABV) - Citrus hops and mango notes on the front of the palate that sustain throughout the flavor with some pale & toffee malts showing up towards the back end of the palate with some hints of orange peel. The aftertaste is mainly a light bitter hop finish.

Ape Hangers Pale Ale (5% ABV) - Named after a style of handles on a motorcycle. Moderate floral hops with some pale malt on the front of the palate followed by some light bittering hops and yeasts, which both make up the back end of the palate and the aftertaste.

Burly Eyed British Bitter (4.2% ABV) - Bitter and floral hops upfront, followed by some light buttery biscuit notes and a bitter hop aftertaste.

I'm not going to lie, the past couple of new taprooms that I've been to have been somewhat disappointing in terms of overall quality and I was expecting this to be more of the same here. Thankfully every beer I had here was good & drinkable and bucked that trend of mediocre tasting beers.

At the same time, I could tell that they were playing it safe as far as the beers go since they are a fairly new brewery. On top of that, none of the beers really jumped out at me as being "great" but rather just simply "good." So while the beers were pretty by-the-numbers, I will definitely be keeping my eye on this place as I think these guys have the potential to do awesome things in the future.

For those of you wondering if it's worth checking out, I would say absolutely. The beers are good, the taproom aesthetics and atmosphere capture the spirit of Robbinsdale quite well and it's the perfect place to hang out on a nice spring afternoon.

Summit 30th Anniversary Double IPA Review

Name: Summit 30th Anniversary Double IPA Review
Style: Imperial IPA
ABV: 8.5%
IBUs: 101

Well, one of Minnesota's most respected craft brewery's is celebrating the big 3-0 this year. That's right, Summit is now offically 30 years old. To celebrate this occasion, they're releasing 4 limited release beers throughout 2016 to mark this occasion.

The first beer in the series, which we will be looking at today, is an Imperial IPA. This is also the second Imperial IPA that I will have had from Summit, with the first being their Hop Silo, which was released as part of their Unchained Series last year.

Appearance - Mildy hazy yellow color with some equally mild carbonation. The head is nice and foamy with a ton of lacing.

Aroma - Pineapple, mango & grapefruit notes along with some apricot and peach sweetness. I'm also getting a light hint of caramel maltiness and light yeasts.

Taste - Potent peach, pineapple & other tropical fruits like mangoes and pineapple on the front of the palate. Towards the middle is where that tropical citrus hoppiness transitions towards a bitter hop flavor. On the back end of the palate is mainly more bitter hops, pale malts and yeasts.

If this beer is any indicator of how this series will turn out, then I am eagerly looking forward to what the rest of this series has in-store. There's a ton of rich & robust flavors going on in this beer, all of which becomes more prevalent as it warms up. I'm not sure what the exact availability is for this beer but it is most certainly worth checking out should you come across it.

Summit 30th Anniversary Double IPA - 9.5/10

Waconia Waconiator Doppelbock Review

Name: Waconia Waconiator Doppelbock
Style: Doppelbock
ABV: 8.8%
IBUs: 20

Waconia Brewing is a fairly new brewery that opened up within the past couple of years. I say this because it was one of the many breweries which opened their doors during my time in Duluth. As you have have guessed from the name, this brewery is based out of Waconia, MN. Today I have their Waconiator Doppelbock, which is a play on Spaten's Opimator Doppelbock. Like many new breweries around here, they're bottling their beers in bomber or 750ml bottles.

Appearance - Murky dark brown color with no visible carbonation. The head initially starts out foamy but fades away after a few moments, leaving behind no lacing.

Aroma - Caramel malts, followed by some light chocolate notes. I'm also getting some light toffee sweetness in here as well

Taste - Strong caramel malts & floral hops towards the front, with some chocolate notes towards the middle. There is some toffee and light bitter hops towards the back with some more caramel malts and light hops in the aftertaste.

What can I say; It's a doppelbock and a good one at that. I really haven't been able to find too many Doppelbocks as of late and having this was a very nice change of pace for myself after seemingly splurging on IPAs for so long. In short, it's nothing that I already haven't seen in a Doppelbock but it's got a fairly robust flavor so it makes this one worth checking out.

Waconia Waconiator Doppelbock - 8/10