Colorado

Rye beers are more popular than ever. It seems like most breweries use malted rye in at least one of their beers. I tend to glance over most ryes I see on the beer list because a good deal of them are Rye IPAs, not the kind of beer I'd choose to showcase my rye malt. This bottle from Left Hand is a Rye Bock, a Bavarian style Bock that's been brewed with malted rye instead of barley. There's nothing off the wall about this beer but it still stands out in a crowd. What makes Left Hand's Rye Bock remarkable is it's quality and flavor.

Boulder Beer's lineup has been a bit of a gamble thus far... I found this bottle of Obovoid on sale the other day and decided I'd roll the dice one more time. The Obovoid is part of the Looking Glass series of special release beers Boulder Beer puts out on a seasonal basis. My experience so far has been that the Looking Glass beers are certainly bigger but not always better... The Obovoid hasn't really changed my opinion of the Looking Glass series.

I first heard of Avery's Anniversary Saisons from a flyer hanging up in the bathroom of the Avery tasting room next door to the brewery in Boulder, Colorado. This was just last summer so the poster was advertising the Sixteenth Anniversary Saison. A couple months later I was about to get my hands on a bottle of the Sixteen and thought pretty highly of it. It wasn't my favorite beer by any means, but I enjoyed it. As time passed, my memories of the Sixteen grew fonder. About a month ago I was smaller liquor store looking for a new release when I came across a bottle of Avery's Fifteen and couldn't resist taking it home.

Left Hand's Milk Stout is a creamy textured, creamy flavored chocolaty Milk Stout. At 5.2% alcohol this is a beer you could drink a six pack of over the course of a cold winter's night without being sidelined the next morning. A very manageable ABV isn't this beer's selling point though, this is a great mellow stout with a fantastic flavor profile. The Milk Stout has a really mellow aroma, like chocolate milk with a hint of roasted barley. The appearance of this beer is fairly pedestrian as well, it's pitch black with a very thin tan colored head. It's easy to be underwhelmed when you have your first Left Hand Milk Stout.

Great Divide's Hades is a Belgian style Strong Ale that smells deceptively sour, less spicy than it should and generally just... swell. The Hades follows the long held Belgian tradition of naming beers after devils and the underworld. The flavor of this beer is a bit of a contradiction, being so light and fruity. There is less sour yeast flavor than I was expecting based on the name and style. Other Belgian Strong Ales tend to be a little... stronger all around. That's not to say the Hades is a bad beer, it's just a bit more mellow than you might be expecting.

I picked up this bottle of New Belgium's Biere de Mars back when the Lips of Faith series first hit shelves earlier this year. I've been wanting to drink this for quite some time but never really got around to it. Well, the time has finally come, I've set aside a couple hours and I'm determined to show this bomber who's boss. Pouring this beer into my New Belgium goblet was a little underwhelming, there isn't much head and this beer isn't terribly pungent. The Biere de Mars smells a bit like a soapy Belgian pale, a little zesty with a bit of spice. Overall though, this beer wreaks of mediocrity... but I mean that in a good way.

Boulder Beer's Killer Penguin is the non-Barleywine Barleywine... It has a double digit alcohol by volume percentage and smells a little boozy, but it doesn't have that thick dark flavor/texture that I've come to expect from Barleywines. That's not to say the Killer Penguin isn't a good beer, it has a lot to offer if you're willing to cut this lighter, mellower Barleywine some slack. While pouring this beer from it's wax dipped bottle into my snifter, I noticed the aroma was much lighter than I was expecting. The first thing I noticed was the crisp and sweet cherries and grapefruit on the nose. There is plenty of malted goodness in this beer but it doesn't stand out as much as the other flavors because it isn't roasted or super sweet. This isn't a complaint, but it contributes to the overall blendedness of this beer.

This is probably the strongest flavored Winter Warmer I've had this season. It also happens to be the most mellow flavored Avery beer I've had yet. The Old Jubilation is a roasty, spiced Winter Warmer that has a very warming flavor. There is a strong bitterness in this beer, but that's something you can pretty much expect with all Avery beers. That bitterness isn't overpowering, at times it even tastes a little like chocolate. The other flavors in this beer balance out the bitterness to a degree, but in the end the Old Jubilation tastes like an oaked brown ale with a touch more dry roasted malt.

Dear Boulder Beer Company,
Why must all of your beers but hopped within an inch of sanity? I think you have a problem, you've stuff an ungodly amount of hops into your Never Summer Ale. This beer, as you know, is your Christmas seasonal and it tastes like a liquified 2x4... I'm affraid this condition has gotten so bad that you're unable to recognize malts or other flavors that beer drinkers might appreciate. I hope you see the error of your ways and learn to use hops responsibly, for the sake of those who love you.

Extra Special Bitter is a style of beer that I don't particularly care for. In most cases, it seems like the ESB label is a license for brewers to pack a ton of bitter hops into a darker beer without bothering with any of the things that make an IPA tolerable. There's usually no citrusy sweet crispness, just dry hops and hearty grains. The ESBs that I do like tend to be those that back a little mildly toasted malt into the mix. Anything you can do to tone down the hops is greatly appreciated. I'm torn on where exactly New Belgium's 2° Below falls...