December 2009 Archives

Heavy duty brew from the Wolaver's Organic side of Otter Creek Brewing. Coffee beans used in the brewing process are sourced from the Alta Gracia farm community in the Dominican Republic.

Characteristics: Dark blackish-brown color, nearly opaque; low carbonation and minimal head; thick body that's almost syrupy at times; fairly consistent mix of coffee and chocolate malt flavors, with coffee and slight hoppiness coming out in the finish and vanilla emerging as the beer warms up.

Minor Gripes: None. Amazingly, the beer is consistent across all temperatures.

Bottom Line: This beer is awfully close to the platonic ideal of a coffee stout/porter(*). If you like your iced coffee to be black and thick, this could be your next favorite beer.

Rating: 8 / 10

Custom-brewed for Pianos, a small rock club on the Lower East Side (NYC) that once was a piano showroom and repair shop... this is a dense Belgian-style ale with a whole lot going on.

Characteristics: Cloudy copper color, medium carbonation and head, medium-to-heavy body, grapefruit flavors (but not Cascade hops!) dominate over a sweet, slightly malty middle section before transmogrifying into an American Pale Ale (a/k/a hop-infested) finish.

Minor Gripes: For the weight of this beer, grapefruit isn't necessarily the balancing note I would have chosen. Tough to pair with anything but a lighter weight American Pale Ale. Also hints at a high ABV content that couldn't be confirmed or denied from the tap handle.

Bottom Line: Certainly a creative beer, but not always successful. Grapefruit burps and that late hoppy shift are not welcome. Worth sampling, though, especially if you're looking for a heavyweight counterpart to all those brews trying to outperform Sierra Nevada.

Rating: 4.5 / 10 (before any bonus points for creativity and local focus)