Porkslap Pale Ale - Butternuts Beer & Ale

    Porkslap Pale Ale is an American Pale Ale brewed by Butternuts Beer & Ale which is located in Garrattsville, New York. I think it's obvious why this beer was chosen to review.

    Porkslap pours a slightly hazy, golden-amber. The beer has an unfiltered look to it, with small particles floating around inside the beer. A small head forms, but quickly dissipates. Lots of bubbles bounce around the inside of the glass after pouring.

    The Pale Ale smells very malty with little hops aroma. The malt smells remind me of biscuits with honey on them. The slight hops scent is that of piney resin.

     Porkslap is on the low end of medium-bodied, and has a nice fizz to it. The beer finishes surprisingly dry. Porkslap has an alcohol content of 4.3% ABV.

Amulets and Ale does not condone the slapping of innocent
pigs, no matter how much you've had to drink.

    Butternut's Pale Ale is pretty mild in its flavor. Only the slightest piney hops can be tasted in the front, with strong and sweet malts coming in soon after. The malts have a nice honey flavor to them, as well as a biscuity, breadiness. I don't know if it's the pork imagery or what, but this beer tastes a bit like breakfast to me. The beer has a strange metallic aftertaste though, which is unpleasant and leaves my mouth dry and almost thirsty feeling.

    I don't even want to venture into the territory of what could have made Butternut call this beer "Porkslap". All I can assume is that it involved the drunken abuse of either some farm animals, or a portly uncle. Don't ask.

    Porkslap is extremely sweet for a Pale Ale, and exhibits none of the hop character one would expect from the style. I feel as though the beer would be more at home in the Amber Ale genre. The beer is borderline too sweet for me, though people who aren't too keen on the hoppier Pale Ales might enjoy the reprieve from hops. The metallic flavor that left my mouth feeling strange was really my biggest complaint with the beer though. I don't know if it is the packaging, or the beer itself that causes the sensation, but it's quite unpleasant.

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Anti-Hero IPA - Revolution Brewing Company

    Anti-Hero IPA is an American India Pale Ale brewed in Chicago, Illinois by the Revolution Brewing Company. I recently visited the brewery, and this was the first beer of theirs that I tried. Here's my review:

    Anti-Hero pours a dark gold with a finger of off-white head with good retention. Even after the foam fades, a layer of bubbles remain and leave great lacing on the glass.

    The American IPA smells strongly of floral and fruity hops. There is definitely more of a fruity scent to the beer than the piney scents that can be present in highly hopped ales. There is also a mild undertone of grainy, sweet malts.

    Revolution's brew is surprisingly full bodied, with a medium to full mouthfeel and a moderate carbonation level. There is a slight oily slickness to the beer that is common with hoppy ales. The beer has an alcohol content of 6.5% ABV.

    Anti-Hero IPA tastes just as hoppy as it smells. Citrus, pine, and floral notes all combine into what can only be described as a hops bouquet. There is surprisingly little bitterness to the brew however, even with all that hop flavor. Anti-Hero's sweet, grainy malts likely have everything to do with keeping the potential bitterness down, as well as rounding out the beer's flavor. There is just the slightest bit of a soapy flavor to the beer though that keeps me from fully enjoying each quaff.

Forward, my beer comrade!

    I had never really thought about it before, but I'm realizing now that craft beer is expanding at a massive, and alarming rate, its likely that beer may be on its way to conquering the world! As their numbers grow, so do their specialties. Oh sure, the bottle says Pilsener, but it very well could be a Poisoner. There's a reason that beer earned the right to be called a Stout, and don't even get me started on whatever wetwork Red Ales had to go through to earn that title. It won't be long before we see beers marching down our streets. The only way to confront this growing menace is to continue to drink their soldiers to death before they can amass a force large enough to begin the battle! Will you take up the bottle and fight by my side?

    Joking aside, Anti-Hero IPA is a very good American India Pale Ale. I'm glad that this was the first of Revolution's beers that I tried, as it made me want to try all of their other offerings all the more. Even with the tiniest bit of offputting soap flavor, I'll still seek this AIPA out regularly.

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Fallout: New Vegas - Xbox 360

    Fallout: New Vegas is an Action Western-Style Role Playing Game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and produced by Bethesda Softworks. The game saw release in 2010 on the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. While not exactly a sequel to 2008's Fallout 3, New Vegas is very similar to the previous release in the series, though with a few tweaks and changes made to the gameplay.

Lost Odyssey - Xbox 360

    Lost Odyssey is a Japanese style Role Playing Game developed by Mistwalker and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game was released in 2008, solely on the Xbox 360. Mistwalker is a game development company made up of JRPG legends such as the creator of the Final Fantasy series, Hironobu Sakaguchi. I had heard a lot of hearsay about the quality of Lost Odyssey, and after playing it myself, I can see that this game is what Final Fantasy should have been on the Xbox 360.

Sun Block - Captain Lawrence Brewing Co.

    Sun Block is a Wheat Ale brewed by the Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. which is located in Elmsford, New York. The bottle describes the brew as a "Hoppy Wheat Beer". I realize that we've just gotten into the beginning of winter here in the Midwest, but I say it's never too early to have a summer beer, and Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. seems to agree!

    The beer pours a pale, straw yellow. Just gently pouring the beer into a cup produces a massive, frothy head. Hundreds of tiny bubbles play around inside the glass alongside small bits of wheat sediment in this unfiltered brew.

    Thankfully, Sun Block smells little like its namesake. Instead, your nose is met with bright, citrus hops when you bring the glass up to your lips. There is also the light scent of wheat and some biscuit malts.

    The beer is light bodied and a bit watery, with a large amount of carbonation that tingles on the tongue. The beer has an alcohol content of 4.5% ABV.

This beer won't prevent sun burns...

    Sun Block is lightly citrus flavored, with a nice lemon flavor up front. Unfortunately, an almost cloying bitterness accompanies the citrus hops flavors which takes away from the wheat and malt flavors present in the beer's nose. These sweeter flavors eventually become completely hidden as a sour flavor builds up in your mouth after prolonged drinking.

    The only times I have seen sun block and beer come into play together were both bad mixes. The first, a prank from a crude "teen" movie, involved hiding alcohol in sunscreen bottles to sneak it into a pool, ending with the characters' internal organs having a rating of SPF 30. The other, more common mix of the two (or rather one causing the other not to be present), would be the numerous stories I've heard of people drinking in the summer, falling asleep, and waking up as red as a lobster. In other words, the mix of beer and sun block rarely turns out well.

    This beer is a perfect example of something that could have been a great idea, but went wrong somewhere along the line. I love the citrus hops and wheat combination, especially in a refreshing summertime brew, but the bitterness in this batch overpowers the subtle wheat flavors. It's possible that I got a bad batch, so I will try another of these beers in the future and update the review accordingly. Until then, I can't recommend this beer.

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George Killian's Irish Red - Coors Brewing Company

    George Killian's Irish Red is a Red Lager brewed by the Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado. Killian's was the first beer I grew to like when first getting into beer, and has a special place in my heart.

    The Irish Red pours a clear, transparent copper color with a half-finger head of off-white foam. The brew almost looks more like tea than beer.

    Killian's aroma is light, with hints of sweet malts and light hops. Not much going on here.

    The beer is light bodied, almost watery, with a moderate to high level of carbonation. The body is pretty similar to other mass-produced brews.

How do you drive this thing!?

    This was my first purchase of Killian's in a long time. I noticed that it tasted little like the brew I remembered though, and did some research only to find that Coors did, indeed, change the recipe. This change is likely linked to the rising popularity of craft brews, and is an attempt to make the beer more appealing to craft beer fans. Killian's new flavor is mainly that of sweet malts, mostly caramel and toasted malt. There is only the slightest hint of hops in the beer. The flavor overall is quite mellow and a bit watery, which isn't surprising for what is more of a macro-brew than Coors would have you think. I honestly find myself missing the old flavor,which  was more unique than the general, mediocre Red Ale/Amber Ale flavor the beer now sports.

    As I previously mentioned, Killian's (or horse head red as I affectionately call it) has a special place in my heart due to it being the first beer I would drink. Part of that specialness, and likely the reason I latched onto Killian's in the first place, is that it is the brand of beer that my dad would pick when choosing drinks. I guess, in a way, drinking Killian's is sort of a way to feel closer to my father. This is another reason that I'm not very happy about Coors changing the flavor. Now it's just the label and name that give me the same feeling, and not the taste or aroma at all.

    The new flavor of George Killian's Irish Red gives up what made it unique in exchange for a more main-stream, macro-brew flavor. This change has caused Killian's to fall into the large pool of mediocre Amber and Red Ales, and likely off my radar. There isn't anything especially bad about the beer, but it's lost nearly everything that made it special to me, and different from other beers.

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