Matilda is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale in the series of Belgian Style Ales created by Goose Island Beer Co. which is located in Chicago, Illinois. I saw this beer in the singles cooler at a local liquor store and had to try it after my previous experience with Goose Island's Sofie.
The ale pours a light brown color with a fluffy, two-finger head which lingers for an extremely long time and leaves a thick lacing on the glass.
Matilda smells extremely interesting. There is an obvious Belgian yeast scent to the ale, though it is lighter than that found in other Belgians. There is a light peppery scent to the ale, adding to other earthy scents. The main stars of the aroma are the fruity scents such as pear, citrus, and apple.
The Belgian Style Ale is medium bodied with a medium level of carbonation. The beer's texture is extremely velvety and smooth. The first word that came to my mind when drinking the beer was "soft" if that tells you anything about the beer's mouthfeel.
Matilda's flavors are as interesting and varied as its aroma. Flavors of biscuity malts and the sweet Belgian yeast set a background for the other, more interesting flavors. Fruit flavors such as pear, nectarine, apple, and white grape are amazingly noticeable. The beer has a fruity, nectar sort of flavor about it.
I'm finding more and more that, while I still don't quite enjoy the stronger Belgian Style Ales, I'm really enjoying the lighter, Saison style ales. Especially ones such as this and Sofie which feature an amazing variety of fruit flavors. Beer like this is comparable to fine wines in which you can pick out the flavors of many different things.
Matilda is an extremely complex, yet still very enjoyable, and not overwhelming beer. It's very nice to see American brewers showing a mastery of the Belgian styles as well as putting their own spin on the classic style.
Resin is an American Double India Pale Ale (also called an American Imperial IPA) created by Sixpoint Brewery which is located in Brooklyn, New York. Resin was created to celebrate the resinous character of the hops flower and to showcase the hops bitterness and range of flavors in their purest form, yet still in a way that is balanced and easy to drink.
Resin pours a hazy, light orange color with a two-finger, off-white head. The head shows great retention as well as lacing.
The Double IPA smells unsurprisingly hoppy. Citrus fruits and a floral fragrance are present, as well as the piney scent that comes from resin. The malt character of the beer can only slightly be smelled. There is a slight bit of an ethanol scent to the beer as well.
Resin is medium bodied with a medium carbonation level. The beer has an oily, almost sticky mouthfeel to it. The carbonation does an amazing job of really presenting the scent and flavors of the ale to the palate. This has to be one of the smoothest Double IPAs that I have ever tasted. There is a nice alcohol warmth to the ale, which at 9.1% ABV, is not surprising. The ease of drinking, however, is extremely surprising, and somewhat dangerous with such a high alcohol content.
Beerzilla attacking Brooklyn aided by hops-baloons.
Resin is definitely a hops-forward beer, though it is not nearly as overpowering as other high IBU (International Bitterness Units) ales. There is a very nice caramel malt background to the hops flavors on showcase. Citrus hops flavor is much more prevalent in the beer's taste than floral notes, differing from the beer's aroma as both seemed equally present in the scent. Piney resin flavor is definitely the big hitter in the beer. I suppose that's no surprise though, as it's what the beer is named after.
Hops are extremely important to beer, and have been for hundreds of years. In modern times, hops have become more of a flavoring agent, whereas in the times of nautical journeys which would sometimes last months on end, hops were a lifesaver. The hops plant has natural, anti-biotic properties which were discovered to keep bacteria from growing in sailors' beer supplies. In earlier times, beer contained a much lower alcohol content and was basically a way for humans to store water without worry of parasitic or bacterial invasion. India Pale Ales are so named due to the extremely long voyage between Great Britain and India. After colonizing India, the British found that their beer supplies, even with the alcohol in them, would spoil before reaching their soldiers stationed in India. Extra hops were then added to the beer to help keep it safe throughout the long voyage, hence the extra-hoppy India Pale Ale style of beers.
In recent years, the American craft brewing movement has begun using hops as a flavoring ingredient. New strains and combinations of the plant have lead to new, and extremely enjoyable, beers. Sixpoint Brewery created Resin in honor of the hops plant's history, and have released this interesting video explaining their thinking on the subject.
It's no secret that I, too, am a hophead. I really like that Sixpoint released this beer in honor of my favorite brewing ingredient. I find Resin to be a great example of an Imperial IPA, and a great beer overall. While the beer does have a rather high (103 IBU) bitterness rating, I would still recommend that even non-hopheads give the ale a try due to its amazing balance and presentation of hops flavors!
Winter Warmer is a Barleywine brewed by Upland Brewing Company which is located in Bloomington, Indiana. We are definitely out of the Winter Warmer season, but this was sitting in the refrigerator and wouldn't stay fresh through the summer and into next winter. I picked up this bomber at the Upland tasting room in Indianapolis, IN.
The ale pours a gorgeous garnet color with a decent light-khaki head. There are a lot of bubbles visible in the glass, seeming to hint at a high carbonation level. The beer leaves some light lacing on the glass. A warning to future purchasers: there is a good amount of sediment at the bottom of the bottle, so be careful to decant when pouring!
Winter Warmer smells strong and sweet. There is surprisingly a decent bit of hops scent to the beer for this style.
Upland's Barleywine is light to medium bodied with a similar level of carbonation. I'm surprised at how thin this beer is as barleywines are usually thicker than this. There is a nice alcohol warmth to the 8.5% ABV ale.
It warms you from the inside out!
The Barleywine has strong flavors of an aged ale. Sweet caramel and toffee malts make up the majority of the flavor with a bit of an alcohol hit at the end. There is a slight piney hops flavor at the end of the flavor which sticks around as a bitter aftertaste.
Winter Warmers are one of my favorite beer types. I love how the warmth of the alcohol is featured in a pleasant way in this style. Upland's Barleywine seems as though it is a bit lighter than others I have had. While the body is somewhat disappointing, the warming properties are done very well in this beer. It's not easy to balance alcohol character with sweetness to the point that the beer no longer tastes like jet fuel. Pleasant sweet flavors are the main feature of the beer.
There is clearly a bit of fine-tuning needed to make this beer a great, but it's well on its way. I would love to have more of this on a cold winter, or even just rainy, day.
I Am Alive is a Survival/Action/Adventure game developed by Ubisoft Shanghai, and produced by Ubisoft. I Am Alive has had quite a bit of hype around it ever since the project was uncovered in 2003. Rumors of a post-apocalyptic Survival/Horror game with amazing features (for the time) such as dynamic encounters with other survivors swirled around online gaming communities. Eventually, in 2008, information was uncovered about the producer of Assassin's Creed working on a new title which was assumed to be I Am Alive. Any excitement that had died down in the five year drought of information was re-ignited as leaked screenshots from an early build of I Am Alive shot across the internet in 2009. Finally, in early 2012 Ubisoft announced a release date for the game as well as information explaining that I Am Alive would no longer be a full on-disc release, but rather an Xbox 360 Arcade game. The game was released soon following this announcement in April 2012 on Xbox 360 Arcade, PC, and the Playstation Network.
Loft is a hard beer to categorize. Conservatively, the closest style to which Loft is most similar would be a Belgian Pale Ale. This style confusion comes from the fact that Loft is brewed using multiple ingredients which are rarely seen together. Both barley and wheat malts go into the mix as well as a decent amount of hops. New Belgium Brewing (Fort Collins, CO) really worked to defy genres with this one.
Loft pours a light gold color with a half-finger of white head. The foam leaves a good bit of lacing on the glass. Lots of bubbles are visible in the beer.
The beer's aroma is mainly hoppy, though the wheat and barley malts can both be smelled as well. The strange mix of barley and wheat creates a sort of confusing scent which makes me wonder what I'm in for as far as taste.
Loft is medium bodied with a medium-high level of carbonation. The beer finishes lightly, and almost watery.
Talk about a light beer!
Loft's flavor begins with slightly bitter orange peel hops changing to sweet biscuit malts and finally a grainy, sweet wheat flavor. The aftertaste is that of wheat. The beer's flavor is very light, making for a nice hot-weather drinking beer. I really find the strange mix of malts and hops off-putting, but not disgusting.
I find myself somewhat torn between my love for ingenuity and a respect for the tried and true. I definitely applaud New Belgium for attempting to make a genre-bending beer, but at the same time I just find the beer to be strange tasting. I don't want to become the sort of person who automatically hates anything different from the norm, so I worry that differences from the traditional styles in the beer's recipe are causing me to dislike it more than the flavors themselves. This is just a beer that you will have to try for yourself to see what you think of it.
While I don't hate this beer, I definitely wouldn't choose to drink it regularly. Loft is a very easy to drink beer, but the barley and wheat just seem to be at odds with each other when I taste it. This isn't enough to make the beer taste horrible, but it certainly isn't entirely pleasant to drink either.
Rusty Chain Vienna Style Beer is an Amber Ale created by Flying Bison Brewing Company which is located in Buffalo, New York. The beer was created in an attempt to promote bicycle culture in Buffalo, and to celebrate life on two wheels. As someone who hasn't been on a bicycle since middle-school, I'm a little worried that this beer won't like me very much...
Rusty Chain pours a rusty red-amber color with a small off-white head with low retention.
The beer smells very malty-sweet, toasty and lightly spicy. There is a small bit of a citrus hops presence as well.
Rusty Chain is light-bodied though the carbonation level is quite high, making the mouthfeel seem larger at swallowing. It's not quite such a high level of carbonation that you feel as though you are just swallowing foam, but it's close. There seems to be a bit of alcohol warmth to the beer, even though it has a low alcohol content of 5% ABV.
The only beer that can give you Tetanus.
This Vienna Style Beer is dominated by sweet, toasty malt flavors. This has to be one of the sweetest beers I have ever tasted. The aftertaste reminds me of brown sugar, though there is a bit of a nuttyness to it as well. Only the tiniest hops bitterness can be perceived in the beer's flavor.
I've heard from friends that craft beer culture and bicycle culture overlap in many cities. The unfortunate truth of the majority of my city's "bicycle culture" involves most of the population swerving to hit bicyclists for being hippies (ok not really, but it's close). The only overlap between beer and bicycle culture here is DUI offenders having to ride to work after losing their license. As the rustychainbeer.com website for promoting bicycle culture in Buffalo now routes to some random Chinese language blog, I'm assuming Flying Bison had little luck with championing their cause.
Overall, Rusty Chain is an extremely sweet Amber Ale. I'd almost call this a brown ale, except for its red/amber color and light body. The beer is drinkable, though the sweetness gets to be overbearing after many sips of the beer.
Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga is an Action Role Playing Game created by Belgian developer Larian Studios. The Dragon Knight Saga is a revised version of the 2010 Action RPG Divinity II: Ego Draconis. Released in the US in 2011, The Dragon Knight Saga improves on Ego Draconis's choppy framerate and awkward controls as well as a number of other improvements to the game. It also includes the expansion pack Flames of Vengeance. Many people feel as though Larian's re-release (and re-working) of Ego Draconis saved the game from being doomed to the bargain bin and being missed by many new fans to the series.
Hopper Pale Ale is an American Pale Ale brewed by the Madison River Brewing Company which is located in Belgrade, Montana. I received this beer a while back in a shipment from my craft brew club.
The Pale Ale pours a pale amber color, suggesting a maltier brew than other Pale Ales. There is very little head on the beer, making me think that this one is going to be extremely lightly carbonated. The tiny head does still leave a decent bit of lacing down the glass.
Hopper's aroma is nicely hoppy with light, sweet malt undertones. The scent of citrus fruits is the predominate hops aroma, with a bit of a floweriness as well.
The beer is medium bodied, though there is a very light level of carbonation. I'm disappointed in the lack of bubbles to the beer. I would like more effervescence to the brew so that the floweriness of the hops would be carried by the bubbles. The Pale Ale has an alcohol content of 6% ABV.
The rare, and terrifying, Beer-Hopper.
Hopper Pale Ale's flavor is just to the hoppy side of balanced. Citrus and flowery hops add just a slight bit of bite to the sweet, caramel malts. There is a strong sweetness left in the mouth as an aftertaste.
Regardless of what Madison River Brewing Company says the beer is named after, I'm convinced that it is named after the rare Beer-Hopper, of the family Beerus Hopidaeus. Little known throughout the world, the Beer-Hopper is a giant insect found only in the forests surrounding breweries powered by nuclear reactors. Feeding mainly on small rodents, the Beer-Hopper is carnivorous, and has been known to lure in unsuspecting humans (unsurprisingly, most were found to have been intoxicated after a day of brewery tours) by wrapping their legs up and under their hind-end, taking on the visage of a cool, refreshing glass of beer. Once the human prey has wrapped his or her hand around the glass, the Beer-Hopper uses its sharp, pointy teeth to deliver a lethal dose of ethanol before rubbing its legs together and creating a chirping sound to let other Hoppers in the area know that food is available (this sound has become known as the "Dinner Bell of Death" to Beer-Hopper aficionados).
Overall, Hopper Pale Ale is much sweeter than I would like for a Pale Ale. The hops flavors are good, just not as prominently displayed as I would like. I would recommend this beer to people who would like to get into Pale Ales as a style, yet aren't very keen on strong hops flavors yet. If you're a fan of Pale Ales on the other hand, I would look elsewhere for a great one.
