Magic Hat #9

Trifecta of party beers that is.

Magic Hat has really done something wonderful here, they have created a micro you can find damn near anywhere.  Their other offerings are not bad but the #9 is the shining light of their brewery.

I brought a case of this to a christmas party thrown at my friend's house while her parents were out of town.  It was quickly ripped into and the drunken debauchery began.  

Imagine if you will a nice light pale ale with just the slightest hint of dried apricots.  It's a simple explanation of the taste for a simple concept.  nice and dry this beer is drinkable all night long.  when you are looking for something to give that friend of yours who wants something just a little fruity.

Flying Dog Brewery's Old Scratch Amber Lager

Ah Old Scratch, as I mentioned in a previous post Penn Dark is a good party beer, as is this.  I brought a case of this over to my friend's first house party.  I got thrown alongside a case of Sam Adams honey porter.  By the end of the night 6 bottles were left and that's about it 3 of each.

Flying Dog Brewery founded in Maryland as a brewpub and another in Aspen a little later.  They soon opened a brewery in Denver and later another in Maryland as demand increased.  They are pretty well known for their love of Hunter S. Thompson so much so to hire Ralph Steadman to do all their artwork as well as dedicate a brew to Hunter himself, but now is not the time or place for that.

Old Scratch is a sassy brew with a nice bite to it (ya see what I did there ha ha ha sorry.)  in all seriousness it is rather sharp in it's initial flavor with some nice carmel backup and a fairly smooth finish nice and sweet.  It's very nice for those people who you are trying to get to shy away from Yeungling for something a bit better.

And now for the trifecta...

Penn Dark

Ah Penn Brewery a microbrewery close to my heart... literally I live like 15 min away.

It opened in 1986 so it's pretty save to call it an adolescent as far as breweries go.  They produce the quintessential American style Pilsner, you guessed it Penn Pilsner.  not much to be said about this establishment other then they have a pretty B.A. German restaurant on site and they host a wicked microbrewery festival.

First time i had this brew was believe it or not at my great aunt's funeral.  My uncle was head chef at the restaurant where the wake was so typical Irish we are there was an open bar (funny I went for a German beer though.)  Right after the wake my father, three of my uncles and I moseyed on over to the Penn Brewery for the previously mentioned micro brewery festival.  

On to the beer.

Well the name does not disappoint this beer is nice and dark, about a quarter inch of foam on top (I'm drinking from a basic pilsner glass) other then that almost no light to be seen through there.  It's got a nice carmel toffee (general burnt sugar but in a good way) flavor to it with just a taste of hops in the after taste.  Very drinkable but nothing terribly special.  Great if you are going to a party and want to bring something good without alienating the miller and coors fans too much.  Which brings me to my next review...

Grimbergan Dubbel

Another Belgian...

Grimbergan was an abbey in Belgum famous for well... getting destroyed, in the 1500's it was a casulty of a local war. The abbey has been rebuilt and restored since.

If I say this once I'll say it a million times, monks know how to make a mean brew.  I love abbey beers and Trappists and I'm sure you will be seeing quite a few reviews of them on here.  My story with this beer goes back to one of the first time's I have gone to The Sharp Edge, I wanted something nice a smooth and this was reccomended to me.  I recently found a distributer in my area up at Save on Beer in Cranberry, great selection.  I grabbed this on my way home to go watch the AFC championship game, Steelers vs Ravens.  I had only had this on tap before so it was refreshing to find that the bottle wasn't far off in flavor.  The pour is nice with an off white head and nice lacing left behind.  This beer is smooth it goes down as easy as a glass of milk.  Since this brew is a brown you can expect a nice malty backbone with chocolate and carmel flavors in there too with just a hint of fruityness.  I think I chilled mine for a bit too long as the flavor and nose got better as it warmed up although I've noticed this when I get it at the bar as well.  I have a certian fondness for this beer, I think it may be how smooth it is.  This is my regular when I get out to The Sharp Edge while there are many choices out there this is the one I tend to fall back on the most, when I'm not in the mood for something new this is like an old favorite blanket something you just wanna curl up with from time to time and forget about everything else.

Leffe Blonde

Only real notable beer I had this weekend was a simple favorite of mine, Leffe Blonde.  Leffe is a Belgian abby that has fallen on many hardships over the years fire, flood and even the hell that is war.  Now a days Leffe is brewed by InBev one of the largest beer based companies on the planet.  Now back to the beer itself, Leffe Bonde as  you would expect is a nice light brew really creamy and smooth.  Maltiness and a vague fruit flavor are probably the most prominent and there are definite buttery hints in it as well oh and as with most Belgians you can defiantly taste the yeast in there.

I'm rather fond of this beer, light taste with a low alcohol content makes it a wonderful everyday style drink.  It's my choice when sitting around at my friends house watching bond movies or playing video games.  On a side note this is one of the few beers I can get my mother to drink besides Miler Light (yea I know)

Ol Red Cease And Desist

Erie Brewing a few years back presented us with "Red Ryder BIG BEER," this brew did fairly well until served with not 1 but count 'em 2 cease and desist letters from Red Ryder Enterprises (remember a Christmas Story?  "You'll shoot your eye out, you'll shoot your eye out!")

Anyway, after that fiasco Erie decided to have a little fun and gave this beer the official title of...

"Erie Brewing's Ol Red Cease And Desist, Inspired By The Long Arm Of The Law"

A mouthful am I right?

I first picked this up on the way to a friends house to go play some games at a small distributor in Imperial PA called the Essex beer distributor.  For those of you not familiar with the PA state liquor laws, a beer distributor sells cases of beer (malt beverages, wine coolers ect..) and kegs, nothing less no six-packs no singles or the likes.  I saw the box and thought "Oh well you only live twice." Went out to my car and on my way.

I get to my friend's place chill myself a pilsner glass and give it a nice vigorous pour.  I get a nice inch and a half head on it and I'm greeted with a really sweet aroma.  I sit down at the table and give it a sip, nice and sweet with something like a carmel brown sugar kinda flavor, something reminiscent of burnt sugar, but in a good way.  The after taste was very strong full of alcohol.  Unique for me at the time, I truly understood what they meant by the term Scotch Ale it made me imagine someone dropping a shot of scotch in a nice red ale.  I must say it took me quite a while to finish my first glass. But I was very pleased with the experience.  Over the next few weeks I was able to drink it more and more quickly until one day I was able to finish 4 of them and I was about to crack my fifth and realized... I was drunk.  This is odd for me I have a very strong tolerance for alcohol after all when you are drinking 8% ABV beers on a regular basis you kinda get used to it.  So when I say after four beers I was drunk I would like you to know how surprised I was.

I looked at that fifth bottle squinted a little and saw that nice small print saying 10.1% ABV

Explains a lot.

I have to say I'm rather glad to make my first review on a local, and I plan to do it fairly often, and I also plan on doing several Belgian reviews, and a few fun beer facts as well.

First and foremost

Hello there, my name is Brad and I've been pressured into writing down just about everything I know about beer for posterity sake, and so my friends don't have to hear me drone on and on about it.

I suppose a bit about my tastes first, I am a big fan of Belgians, just about any variety though I prefer anything with a strong flavor, nice and dark or light and hoppy.  I've been drinking a lot of Mad Elf (tis the season) Grimbergen and Old Red Cease and Desist.

This brings me to my first review...