Lucid Foto IPA

Lucid Foto is an American IPA which I suppose makes it an American Indian Pale Ale so....it's an IPA made in America. It's good. It's an IPA. It doesn't reinvent the style or anything but it tastes good. 6.5 on the Drinkenscale and 65 IBU. I would like to say more about this beer but I don't have much else to say. You like IPA? You'll like this beer? You don't? You won't. It's just that simple.

I'll talk a bit about the brewery instead Lucid Brewing is out of Minnetonka, Minnesota, another one of the fine craft brewing establishments here in the north. I've had a few beers from them in the past and they've always been quality. I'll be sure to keep drinking and talking about Lucid in the future!

Founder's Rubaeus Fruit Beer

Founder's has put together a really unique beer and I like it. It still tastes like a beer but there is a strong raspberry flavor going on here. It's advertised on the bottle as a "PURE RASPBERRY ALE" and it tastes like that. Fruit beers can go south quickly, you get a mediocre beer flavor covered up with some weak fruit flavor. This is not that beer. This is delicious. The raspberry flavor is fantastic, and it's put on top of a good beer. It's a 5.7 on the Drinkenscale so it can get the job done without overwhelming you.  The only downside I can find it is it a little too sweet but it's definitely not cloying. The tartness of the raspberry just works.

Lake Superior Deep Water IPA

Another Duluth, Minnesota brewery brewing beer, Lake Superior Brewing makes some really good beer.  This is a black IPA from them so its got the IPA flavors mixed with some maltyness. I think the perfect word to describe this beer is like. I don't love it, I don't hate it, I just like it. It's very drinkable, the maltyness goes well with the citrus of the IPA. It's a very light but dark beer so it makes a good beer for someone wanting some of that roasted dark beer flavor without that roasted dark beer feeling. I actually don't know the ABV on this one so I can't put it on the Drinkenscale but I can say there is little to no alcohol flavor. Good beer. I wish I had more to say about it but I don't. It's a good beer.

New Holland Dragon's Milk

Dragon's Milk...the legendary nectar drawn from the teat of a mythological beast. New Holland has fermented and bottled this amazing liquid and bestowed it upon us mortals to sip upon...and you better sip on it. This is not a chugging beer at all. It hits SPINAL TAP on he Drinkenscale (that's 11 for you philistines out there), you have a duty as a human being to sip on this beer. It burns a little going down but then, what would expect from dragon's milk? It's a double stout. That's two stouts for the price of one. It's aged in bourbon barrels and the flavor really comes through. This is not necessarily a beer guy's beer. You don't sit around watching the game and pounding Dragon's Milk. You drink one every now and then, savoring it's flavor and then you don't drink another for awhile. Too much dragon's milk can be a dangerous thing. Everyone who likes beer should give this a taste.
I believe the Khaleesi herself, Daenerys, drinks this from time to time though I think she gets it straight from the source.
Find some...drink it...thank me later.

New Holland White Hatter

New Holland calls their White Hatter a WPA. It falls somewhere between a pale ale and an IPA and it really skates the line quite well. When you combine two styles of beer, you can end up with something that ends up lacking in both departments. However, with their White Hatter, New Holland has really created something unique. It has some of the citrus and hops you'd expect from an IPA combined with the subtlety of a pale ale. Where Oskar Blues failed me a little by advertising their beer as an IPA, New Holland calls theirs something different and so I knew to change my expectations. That doesn't mean this is some amazing beer, it isn't, but it is good. I"d drink it again. Also, with it falling on the lower end of the Drinkenscale at 5.5 you don't have to worry about getting too drunk.

Oskar Blues Pinner Throwback IPA

Oskar Blues is the creator of one of the best beers ever made, Old Chub on Nitro. This however is a very different beast. Pinner is what they call a "throwback IPA". I'm not 100% sure what that means but this doesn't remind me of an IPA at all. It lacks the bitterness and the strong flavor I associate with an IPA. It honestly reminds me more of a pilsner. It has some of that citrus flavor you expect from an IPA but it's so subtle that you might miss it. I like this beer, but since I was expecting something different I was disappointed. It's a low 4.9 on the Drinkenscale which makes sense with it's overall weak flavor. I don't know...this is a hard beer to judge because of my expectations. I feel like I'd have to drink it again to really give it a fair shake and maybe I will in the future. Going in knowing what to expect might raise my opinion Pinner quite a bit. As it stands though, I would have a hard time recommending this beer as labeled. If you go in expecting IPA prepared to be left wanting.

Surly Cynicale

Surly usually doesn't let me down. This Cynicale is really good, but I just drank that Founders Imperial Stout and I think it's having an impact on my opinion of this beer. After that thick, luxurious, Imperial, this ale lacks a little, It's a real good beer though. Here's the thing...look at that picture. I fit the entire can in that glass without spilling a drop. It was a PERFECT POUR. People go through their whole lives without a pour like that. Where the beer goes slightly over the lip of the glass but never dribbles out. AMAZING. Beer'd Baron you've done it again you handsome devil!

Oh yeah, the beer. Good, almost great. A saison to the definition of the term. 6.5 on the Drinkenscale but doesn't have any real alcohol flavor so a very drinkable beer for anyone.

Seriously though..that pour. Just amazing.

Founders Imperial Stout

Is this the best Imperial Stout I've ever had? I don't know but it's definitely up there. Good God, Founders you magnificent bastards! Looking at this beer...no light will ever pass through it. All light is absorbed by its darkness. Does any type of beer smell better than an Imperial Stout? I say nay.I popped this open and my nostril was filled with rainbows...BLACK RAINBOWS. Then I poured it into the glass and it was thick and viscous, like molasses. It drinks so smooth though. SO SMOOTH! At 10.5 on the Drinkenscale, this beer is dangerously smooth. I could sit here and drink it all damn day. You get chocolate and malts and barley and and and I don't know but I'm loving it. This is the smoothest Imperial I've ever had and I'm going to buy another the next chance I get.

Green Flash Green Bullet TRIPLE IPA

DO YOU LIKE IBU'S? If not...stay the hell away from this beer. It's pushing the needle to 100 IBU which means BITTER. Personally, I love it. I'll take all of the IBU you want to throw at me. This is my first beer from Green Flash, a brewer out of San Diego, and I'm very impressed. This thing is heavy, coming in at 10.1 on the Drinkenscale. It tastes like it too. While the alcohol isn't excessive, it's definitely there. There is no hiding from that burn. This is a beer that could be absolutely overwhelming to someone who doesn't drink a lot of beer, so...novices? beware. (I don't like that term, novice. It sounds pretentious...like I'm a PROFESSIONAL BEER DRINKER.) But, if you're used to drinking light beers and such, I wouldn't recommend just jumping right into something this strong. Really, really great beer.

Surly Hell - Is It The Perfect Wednesday Beer?

A Helles Lager (Hence the clever name) Hell apparently means "bright" in German and I think that suits this beer quite well. I call it the perfect Wednesday beer because it's a low 4.5 on the Drinkenscale and is really easy to drink. The kind of beer you can drink during the week and still get up feeling fresh in the morning for work. If you want to drink all day, you can absolutely do worse than a Surly Hell. Surly is one of the better Minnesota craft brewers and I've yet to dislike any of their beer. They do some really heavy beers and some really experimental beers. Surly Hell is proof they can brew. It takes a lot more skill to brew an excellent light beer than it does to brew a heavy full flavored beer. Surly takes their craft very seriously, and it shows in their finished product.

Oskar Blues Old Chub Nitro -Great beer? or GREATEST BEER?

This is it...the Cadillac of beer. Nah, the Bugatti of beer. No, that doesn't sound right either...the best beer, Yeah, that works. If there is a better beer than Old Chub Scotch Ale on Nitro I haven't had it yet. It's just so smooth. Like drinking a beer milkshake with incredible flavor. The malt...OH LORD the malt. There's a bunch of malt in here, some hops, some chocolate, and just a dash of DELICIOUS.

Gaze upon it's beauty.

Old Chub by itself is really good. It's the Nitro that really makes the difference here. It takes a delicious beer and adds the smoothest (I'm going to say it!) mouthfeel you will ever experience in a beer. No bubbly carbonation, just pure smooth malty liquid going down your throat. 

Is it the surface of the moon? Nope, It's OLD CHUB!

8.0 on the drinkenscale means this is a beer that knows what it's doing. I could just sit and drink it all day long except it is heavy as most Scotch Ales tend to be. This is not a chugging beer, or a beer you drink when you plan on doing anything outdoors. This is an end of the evening, sitting and relaxing, ready to fill up your tummy beer. It's dessert in a pint glass.

Uinta Detour Double IPA

I'm an IPA man. I love my hops an bitterness and IBU's as much as anyone. Uinta is a brewery out of Salt Lake City, UT and this is the first beer I've ever had from them. If I love IPA's then it stands to reason that I'll love a double IPA twice as much right? Well, that's not far from the truth. This beast of a DIPA clocks in at 95 IBU which is just the perfect amount of bitter to make my tongue smile. If you tend to shy away from the bitter beer then stay far away from Detour. Another one high on the ABV, Detour pushes the Drinkenscale all the way up to 9.5. That's enough to make you feel it. You don't taste it much though. For being such a high ABV, Detour drinks nice and smooth with little to no alcohol burn. A worthy addition to my belly.

Spaten Optimator

Spaten Optimator is a nice, dark, malty doppelbock. It really is a good specimen of the beer it represents. It doesn't do anything special with it's flavor but it doesn't have to. This is another one of those BEER beers. 7.6 on the Drinkenmeter means this is a beer you don't want to necessarily chug. It's great for washing down spicy food as all malty beers tend to be. It's a German beer through and through. Good stuff!

Castle Danger 17-7 Pale Ale

This will probably be a short post because there just isn't a lot to say about this beer. As far as pale ale goes it's good. It's just not anything special. Castle Danger is out of Two Harbors, MN and I've had some really good beer from them. This just isn't it. Again, not bad, just boring. It's a beer, that's all I an really say.It's light, it's got some hops. I'm not complaining about it, I'm just not impressed I suppose.If it was hoppier or lighter, it might be something really special but instead it falls right in the middle of all of the flavors they are looking to achieve. You're not going to dislike this beer. It's a 5.8 on the Drinkenscale so it gets the job done.

Blacklist Brewing Or Del Belgique Verte

This is why I drink beer. Because, while most beer is good, every now and then you stumble on something wonderful. This Or de Belgique from Blacklist is amazing, This is a brewer out of Duluth, Minnesota where there are some truly great brewers. The smell of this beer is intoxicating, it hits the nose beautifully and all I wanted to do was drink it...which I did. It's a 9.5 on the Drinkenscale so be careful imbibing this too quickly. It's a strong Belgian golden that drinks so smooth. It leaves a hint of alcohol burn as it goes down, but it's nothing overpowering. This is an extremely drinkable beer with a high ABV and a very complex flavor. It's hoppy too! There's a lot going on here and my tongue liked all of it.

Hofbrau Dunkel/Dunkel Gold

I went from technically not a beer, to what I would consider to be an absolute beer. When you think of BEER flavor, I imagine you're thinking of a Bavarian dark beer. This has flavor in spades, a strong, spicy very drinkable beer. Tipping the Drinkenscale at 5.5 you can drink them and not have to worry about forgetting how good it is.
Low IBU coming in at 22 because this is not a hop head's beer. This is a beer man's beer. (I LOVE HOPS BY THE WAY SO I'M NOT DEGRADING THEM) I just think this tastes like what you expect beer to taste like. No surprises, no fruits, no hops...just BEER.

Crabbie's Spiced Orange Alcoholic Ginger Beer

I was hesitant to include this one because it TECHNICALLY isn't a beer, it's an alcoholic soda. However, it has the word BEER right there in the title so it counts.
This basically tastes like a slightly alcoholic ginger ale with a tiny, tiny hint of orange. My first sip left me slightly disappointed but I think I was expecting something else. After finishing it I can definitely say I liked it. It was a unique flavor at least. Very low on the Drinkenscale, coming in at a measly 4.8, it's another "beer" that you can sip on all day long and barely feel a thing. I'd recommend this for drinking if you like soda, just don't expect a BEER.

IT HAS NO IBU BECAUSE IT TECHNICALLY ISN'T A BEER

Sam Adams Blueberry Hill Lager

This will be an "I don't know...it was in my fridge" entry. While waiting for some good beer to cool I decided to drink something from my fridge. This had been in there while and I honestly don't even remember why I bought it. I'm guessing I was building a 6 pack at one of the small liquor stores and their selection was very limited.

Anyway, this isn't bad. It smells strongly of blueberry and it has a blueberry flavor to it. The underlying beer just isn't that great. This would be a good inoffensive beer for a person who doesn't really drink beer because the beer doesn't shine through.

5.5 on the Drinkenscale, so it's not going to get you drunk quickly. 18 IBU which I'm assuming is the bitterness from the blueberries because beer sure as hell isn't coming through on that measurement.

You can do worse than this Sam Adams Blueberry Lager but I wouldn't really recommend buying it unless you are really low on choices or you really like blueberry. Although, I've had superior blueberry beer in the past.

O'Dell's Mountain Standard Double IPA

O'Dell is an excellent brewery and I feel privileged to be able to drink their brew on a regular basis. Mountain Standard is a double IPA...that's an IIPPAA. Upon writing this I've already finished it...it's a 9.5 on the Drinkenscale so my writing may reflect that at this point. 60 IBU's will wash down a pizza covered in habanero hot sauce with great aplomb. This is a bit of an unfair review because any beer being drank while I'm eating a spicy pizza is going to be delicious...except for Corona and Heineken.

I have drank this beer without the spicy pizza though so I can definitely attest to it's deliciousness on its own.

I didn't mention...it's a double BLACK IPA. That's extra black. More black than usual...the blackest. On the scale of white to black it's somewhere past BLACK.

Drink it, it's good. TRUST ME, I'm a doctor.

Boulder Shake Chocolate Porter

CHOCOHOLICS REJOICE! This might have the most chocolate flavor I've tasted in a beer. When I smell it, I smell 80% chocolate and a hint of beer on the back end. It drinks so smooth, like a thin milkshake. It's a dark porter (like a good porter should be) and very little light passes through it's chocolatey goodness. Since it only measures 5.9 on the Drinkenscale, which is generally low for a porter, you can sit and sip on these all day long. It's heavy though, and I can't imagine drinking more than one in an hour or you'd start feeling too full. The IBU rating of 39 comes from the bitterness of the chocolate more than the bitterness of the beer. This is a chocolate lover's drink first, and a beer lover's drink second. If you happen to be both then you're in for a pleasant surprise.

Sierra Nevada Flipside Red IPA

Sierra Nevada makes some excellent beers. I don't know if I've ever been disappointed by them. Their Flipside Red IPA continues this trend. Coming in at 6.2 on the Drinkenscale and a robust 60 IBU, this is an IPA through and through. Though it rates relatively highly in the IBU department, the bitterness seems to be kept in check, so i you don't like IPA's and IBU's usually, this one might surprise you. It's a really good beer for that in between time when the beers are getting lighter but the weather might not be cooperating for a day on the beach.
It looks impressive in the glass with it's very red hue, and it feels delicious in the mouth with it's bitter but somehow still smooth flavor. This is an every man's beer whether you're looking for bitter, malty, light, or anything else. I'd be surprised to find a beer drinker who doesn't think Flipside is delicious. It's not going to blow anyone away and I doubt anyone will put this at the top of their beer list, but it deserves a place in your fridge as a good casual drinker.

Ephemere Pomme Apple

I was all ready to come on here and talk about how I've never been disappointed by a beer with a cork in it...and that still remains true to come extent. This is a good beer from Canadian brewer Unibroue, but I was expecting more after I drank their Ephemere Cranberry last week. I loved that beer and since I like apple more than cranberry it seemed likely I would enjoy their Apple even more...but that just isn't true.

I definitely taste the apple, and it has a good flavor. The scent of the apple comes through a lot more than the flavor.  Had I not had such high expectations I'm sure I would be loving this beer. As it stands though, I can only say that it's alright. A modest 5.5 on the Drinkenscale means this is a beer that won't get you drunk too fast. It's light and fruity so it's easy to drink. I'd definitely recommend it, and I'll have to drink it again sometime so I can see if I like it more when I don't have high aspirations for it.

Bent Paddle - Bent Hop

Bent Paddle is another Minnesota brewer (you'll see a trend of Minnesota beers on here since I live in...well, Minnesota) Bent Hop is a pretty American IPA clocking in at 6.2 on the Drinkenscale and measuring 68 IBU. It's got a golden color and really strong citrus flavor. I'm a big fan of IPA's and IBU's in general, and this beer is one of the good ones. If you like IPA's you'll like this beer.

In The Land of Mexican Honey

Indeed Brewing never let's me down, and this Mexican Honey is no exception. If you ever find yourself near Minnesota make sure to get your hands on anything Indeed has to offer. Mexican Honey is an Imperial Lager brewed with orange blossom honey and Amarillo hops. It measure a hefty 8.0 on the Drinkenscale so it's a beer that can put you on your ass if you aren't careful. The flavor of the honey really comes through and it is exceedingly drinkable with an orange-y finish. If you see this in a store, get it.

Warsteiner Premium Verum

Second beer of the day

Hopefully this doesn't sound too negative but this is a good beer for a pilsner. Pilsners have a tendency to be weak in flavor, and this one from Warsteiner doesn't exactly explode in your mouth. However, the flavor it has is good and sometimes you don't want all of that bass dancing on your tongue. Pilsners are really easy to drink and this one is no exception. Just very light. Measuring 4.8 on the drinkenscale means you can drink this all day without getting drunk.

Leffe Blonde

Sunday afternoon is the perfect time to drink some beer.

Started my day off with this beauty right here

Leffe Blonds is a Belgian style blonde ale. Now, it saddens me a bit to learn that Leffe is owned by InBev but this is still a good beer, worthy of being enjoyed. It's an easy drinking beer that measures 6.6 on the drinkenscale. (That would be the ABV) I tasted some citrus and some spices in the mix.

It's really hard to go wrong with a Belgian Ale. Those monks know what they are doing.

On the First Day God Made Beer

Here it is, my new Blog. I'm going to try to update this weekly, possibly more often depending on how much beer I have to talk about. I'm going to discuss beer, I'm not going to discuss lacing and mouthfeel (except sarcastically), and I doubt you'll hear me talk about a faint hint of juniper berry mixed with cardamom. Instead, I'm going to talk about how delicious the beer and sometimes I'm going to pair it with food.

When I finally break out my beer making equipment I'll go ahead and document that whole process on here as well.

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Welcome to The Beer'd Baron.