Sea Dog Pumpkin Ale

Hello everyone, Fontes here. Tonight I'm sitting down and enjoying a glass of Sea Dog Pumpkin Ale. I am drinking this particular brew out of a standard pint glass after pouring it from it's bottle. I purchased this in a six pack for $8.99 at my local liquor store. The beer is amber in color when poured into a glass. Right away I got notes of pumkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar when I smelt this beer. It instantly reminded me of the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. However, the taste of Sea Dog's Pumpkin Ale is very different from the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. Sea Dog's brew is spicy on the palate, but in a good way. I do get a taste of pumkin, but what I really taste is the cinnamon and the nutmeg, along with the brown sugar. The Dogfish Head Punkin Ale was much more sweeter than the Sea Dog's Pumpkin Ale. Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale is more of a dessert beer, while Sea Dog's Pumpkin Ale can be drunk anytime. 

Overall, I am going to give this beer a thumbs up. I am really enjoying drinking this beer right now. It is spicy, reminds me of the fall season, and easy to drink. Now I should mention this: You will find other reviews out there that will portray this beer in a bad light. For example, these reviews do not portray this particular brew in a good light for the most part. BUT, don't let that deter you from trying this beer. If you like a pumpkin ale that is spicy and with flavors of pumpkin, nutmeg, and cinnamon, then this beer is for you. If you like an Octoberfest style of beer with more malt flavor and hop flavor then this beer is not for you. Again, in my opinion I really like this brew and it gets a thumbs up from me.

For those of you reading this post who really like Octoberfest style beers, then I suggest that you also try Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale. This beer tastes very similar to the Sea Dog's Pumpkin Ale in the sense that they both have the same kind of spicy flavor. Also, may I also suggest Brooklyn Brewery's Oktoberfest. This beer is also very enjoyable. I do not have either of these two beers on hand at this time, but I will try my best to get more before the season is over so I can give you all a full and detailed review of each of them soon.

Cheers Everyone!!!!

My First Brewing Kit

Hey everyone, Fontes here. So I did it...I finally bought a brewing kit!! At 12:30 p.m. this afternoon I purchased my very own brewing kit. At this time I only have the equipment to brew, but in the next few weeks I will purchase the actual ingredients to brew. As I mentioned in last weeks post, I was looking at two local shops in the state of Rhode Island that specialize in brew supplies. After conducting some research on the internet, I found that Basement Brew Haus was the better of the two shops. For those of you reading this blog that are located in or around the Rhode Island area and are interested in going to this store, it is located at 116 Calverley Street in Providence, Rhode Island. 

When I entered the store, I noticed that there was one type of complete brewing kit available for sale. It was a True Brew brewing kit. The manufactuer of this particular kit is Crosby & Baker Ltd. In addition to making beer kits, the company also produces and sells various other items for brewing, including, hops, yeast, and malt extracts. I was familiar with the True Brew brewing kits since I have seen them on various websites. From the comments that I read about them, I was confident that it was a quality product. The total cost of the purchase came to a little over $82. I was very happy with this price since it was cheaper than most websites that I looked at and since I bought it from a local shop I did not have to pay any shipping costs.

As of this moment, I hope to start brewing within the next two weeks. Before I start brewing I want to become familiar with the equipment and the brewing process. The lady who sold me the beer kit at Basement Brew Haus suggested that I purchase a book called The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. If anyone has any comments about this book please let me know.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my two favorite types of beer are porters and stouts. For my first home brewed beer I am still not sure what I am going to brew. Obviously, I am thinking about brewing a porter or a stout, but I am also giving thought to an IPA. Whatever beer I brew I am sure it will be fun and a learning experience. Maybe not after my first brew, but sooner or later I plan on entering a batch of my home brewed beer into the Samuel Adams Longshot Contest.

I can't wait to start brewing my own beer. If anyone reading this has brewed their own beer before and you have some tips and tricks, please leave a comment. And if you haven't brewed your own beer yet, what are you waiting for!?!? You know you want to do it, so get out there, get a kit and start brewing!

Cheers Everyone!!

How I Was Introduced To Craft Beer

Hello everyone, Fontes here. Yes it's true, unfortunately there was a time in my life when I was unaware about the wonderful world of craft beer. As a result, I was forced to drink what the majority of American beer drinkers today drink. What might that be you ask? I'm talking about cheap, watered down, mass produced, disgusting beer. That's right, I'm talking about beers like Budweiser, Miller, and Coors. I used to think this kind of beer was good. Like millions of American beer drinkers I was brainwashed by their multi-million dollar add campaigns. I wanted to be the guy at the bar with his friends drinking Budweiser. I wanted to be the guy at the bowling alley drinking Miller High Life. I wanted to be the guy at the football game drinking Coors Light. These were the type of beers I started out drinking when I was a young beer drinker. I can remember my reaction when I first started drinking these beers. I remember saying to myself: "Well I don't really like the way it tastes, because it doesn't really have a taste. But all my friends like it, so I guess I'll keep drinking it." Thinking back to those days, I can't help but laugh at how ignorant I was about beer. And then one day about two years ago, everything changed.

One night about two years ago I was at a friends house. I was sitting down, relaxing, and drinking my normal watered down beer. Then my friend came over and sat next to me. He had a beer in his hand that I never saw before. I said "Hey, what kind of beer is that, I've never seen that before" That's when he gave me a bottle of Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat. I remember my reaction to the first sip of that beer like it was yesterday...WOW!!! I was totally blown away. It was so unlike any beer that I was used to. This beer actually had flavor!! I said to him "It tastes like Fruity Pebbles!!" Thankfully, he saw how much I enjoyed the beer and he was kind enough to share his twelve pack.

After that night, I was completely hooked on craft beer. I wanted to know everything about it. The different styles: porters, stouts, brown ales, pilsners, lagers, indian pale ales, pale ales, barley wine ale, etc. I discovered a great documentary called Beer Wars. The documentary talks about micro-breweries and their fight against the giant breweries like Bud, Miller, and Coors.

It's hard to believe that it's already been two years since I was introduced to the wonderful world of craft beer. Since I've been drinking craft beer I have a much better appreciation for good quality made beer. The beer I drink now is not made by some huge company. It's made by small independently owned micro-breweries. The beer might be more expensive, but it's like the old saying goes: You get what you pay for. And in my honest opinion...Craft beer is worth every penny. Cheers everyone!

 

Magic Hat Hex

Helllo everyone, Fontes here, and tonight I'm sitting down, drinking a glass of Magic Hat Hex. This particular brew is Magic Hat's attempt at an Octoberfest beer. In fact, they call it Our-toberfest. So did they achieve a good tasting Octoberfest? The answer?....Kind of. Let's start from the beginning. I purchased this beer in a six pack for a little over $9 after tax. The color of this beer is best described as amber in color, which is consistent with most Octoberfest beers. With most Octoberfest beers that I have tried, I've gotten a predominant smell and taste of roasted malts. The malt gives way to a nice caramel flavor. With certain beers like the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, one can even get a taste of brown sugar and pumpkin. However, with this particular brew, I was kind of let down. Is there a taste and smell of roasted malts? Yes...but only slightly. Everything with this beer is light. The smell, the taste, and the texture. It smells only slightly of roasted malt. I actually get more of a hops smell more than anything. When the beer hits my tongue, I get a slight taste of hops, followed by a slight taste of roasted malt in the after taste. The texture is no Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. That brew was much thicker than the Hex. This beer is much lighter on the palate. Taste wise and texture. I should mention that I'm drinking this particular brew out of a standard pint glass.
 Do I think this is a good tasting beer in general?...Yes. And because of that I will give it a thumbs up...And I'm being generous with this one only because I truely like the rest of Magic Hat's beers that I have tried. HOWEVER, do I think this is a true Octoberfest beer?...No. A true Octoberfest beer should have bold flavors of roasted malt, caramel, and in general smokey flavor, that reminds you of the Autumn season. This beer tried to achieve that, but in the end fell short. Magic Hat might call their Octoberfest Hex Our-toberfest, but it is certainly not my Octoberfest.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

I LOVE THIS BEER!!!!! Ok now that I've got that little outburst out of my system, I can try to do this review hahaha. The beer that I am drinking tonight is Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. This beer is brewed with real pumpkins, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. All those ingredients combined create one response...WOW!!!! I get a smell of brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and a slight smell of hops. The taste is absolutely fantastic!! Cinnamom, nutmeg, brown sugar, and slight hops warm the palate to give way to a nice subtle pumpkin taste. Every time I drink this beer it's like I get a taste of the holidays. I am drinking this particular brew out of a standard pint glass. The color of this beer is a fantastic reddish amber color. It's basically autumn in a glass hahaha. This beer also packs a punch at seven perecent alcohol for a standard tweleve onunce bottle. It's microbrews like this, that make me wish it was autumn 365 days a year. This beer gets a definite thumbs up! Cheers everyone!!

Samuel Adams Octoberfest

Hello everyone, this is Fontes. Ah it's that time of the year again. The days get shorter, the temperature starts to drop, and there's a surplus of great seasonal beers at your local liquor store. It may only be early September, but October is right around the corner and that means it's time for Octoberfest! That's right, tonight I'm sitting down enjoying some Samuel Adams Octoberfest. This beer is simply fantastic. Each drink reminds me of a cool Autumn day. This beer has a nice red amber color to it. The color of this beer is perfect for the season. In Autumn, the color of leaves start to turn a reddish hue. The color of this beer resembles that perfectly. I get a strong smell of roasted malt with a slight smell of hops from this beer. The smell of malts is very apparent since the brewers at Samuel Adams use five different types of malt during the brewing process in order to create this particular beer. The taste is very similar to how it smells. When the beer first entered my mouth, I got a strong taste of roasted malt. After swallowing, the roasted malt flavor still lingered while giving way to a slight hoppy taste. Overall, I found that the end result tasted similar to that of a toffee flavor. I am drinking this brew out of a Samuel Adams pint glass. I purchased this brew in a six pack from my local liquor store for 8.99 plus tax. I definitely give this beer a thumbs up.

Just picture yourself sitting outside on a cool fall night in October. The sky is crystal clear. The leaves are on the ground. The smell of burning wood is in the air. And an ice cold Samuel Adams Octoberfest is in your hand! What could be better than that? Cheers everyone!

Samuel Adams Honey Porter

Hello everyone, this is Fontes. Tonight I'm sitting down enjoying a Samuel Adams Honey Porter. This particular beer is part of Samuel Adams Brewmaster's Collection. I purchased this in a six pack for $8.99 plus tax. Since this is a porter, the appearance of this particular beer is very dark. When I held it up to a light source, very little light was able to shine through. The smell of this beer is very nice. I can describe what I smell to you with only two words...Roasted Malt. I've found that this is a key smell that I find in many porters and this particular porter is no exception. The taste of this beer is very good in my opinion. When the beer first entered my mouth, I got a taste of roasted malt, caramel, and chocolate. After I swallowed the beer, I got a very distinct honey flavor. None of the flavors are overwhelming. Each flavor complements each other to create a great tasting beer. The way in which this beer was served in was in bottle form. However, I poured the beer into a glass after I opened the bottle. I find that this helps to bring out more aroma and taste from the beer. I have to say that porters are by far one of my favorite types of beer to drink and the Samuel Adams Honey Porter did not disappoint me at all. It was a joy to drink from start to finish. This beer gets a definite thumbs up from me.

Welcome Everyone!!!!

Hello and welcome to our blog. The purpose of this blog is to inform and educate people about craft beer. Our names are Fontes, Antonio, and Tyler and we are three guys in our early twenties who are passionate about the world of craft beer and what it has to offer. The concept of this blog is simple. Each time one of us tries a new type of craft beer; we create a blog post to inform all of you on the quality of that particular beer. Some of the information that will always be available to you with every craft beer review includes: the brewer, style of beer, appearance, smell, taste, price, and serving type. After the entire review of the beer is complete we will give an overall rating. Reviewing beer is very subjective. What one person likes, someone else might hate. With that said, we have decided to give a simple thumbs up or thumbs down for our overall rating. We are simply giving you our opinion with the hopes that you will try a beer that we like or stay away from a beer that we don’t particularly like.
However, not every blog post will be a review of a craft beer. Other types of blog posts may include background information on a certain brewery or background information on a certain style of beer. We may create a post describing why we like a certain type of beer, or what got us interested in drinking craft beer. Basically, there are many different directions we can take with these types of posts.
We’re still new to the world of craft beer, so we are always open to any advice or knowledge that you have. We do not claim to know everything there is to know about every type or style of beer. Our goal is to have this blog be a place where people can learn as well as share what they know about craft beer. If you are interested in our blog and want to follow us, please subscribe to our blog. Thanks for reading!