Wells' Banana Bread Beer

Sorry for the delay in this posting, work is insane and always seems to be in the way of drinking :). So I have had a few banana bread beers in the past and blow away by them, sadly I am not so excited about this one. The carbonation is a little high but I will get into the details of this one in a little bit. As always a little note from the brewery;

"Tempting banoffe aromas tempered by a grassy, lemony nose all leading to a finely balanced, fresh, delicate flavor of peppery hops with a lingering dry finish."

Now,  I have to give them points for a gorgeous color and pour. The beer itself is an orangish amber that makes me miss my pumpkin ales. The head of the beer is an off white cream color and when poured had about a quarter inch of thickness and after a little downtime it still has a nice lacing at the top.

In my honest opinion this is really disappointing in both aroma and taste. I get maybe a hint of banana in both aroma and taste the over carbonation is all I can taste in this beer. I accidentally gave it a 3 out of 5 on Untappd and totally meant to give it a 1 of of 5. Try it if you want, this might have been a single bad bottle but as of right now it gets a 1 out of 5.

More on the beer: Wells' Banana Bread Beer

Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale

Mmmmm, a subtle hint of cinnamon from my favorite fall beer Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale. From the previous post you know that this is the second beer in a small homage to Pumpkin Beers. The other day was R.J. Rockers' Gruntled and today is Dogfish Heads. I will be noting slight differences between the two since they are the same style. First, as always the brewers description;

"A full-bodies brown ale with smooth hints of pumpkin and brown sugar. We brew our Punkin Ale with pumpkin meat, organic brown sugar and spices. As the season cools, this is the perfect beer to warm up with."

 The color of the beer is a brownish orange with a slight lacing of cream colored head. The head itself did not last very long in the glass, it covered the beer then quickly dispersed before the first taste. As far as aroma goes its pumpkin with a hint of brown sugar and a smaller hint of nutmeg. The aromas do not over power one another in the slightest but actually are all quite mellow and complementing.

The first taste, which is accompanied by an aroma of pumpkin and a few spices, is pumpkin, simple and quite tasty. The aftertaste finishes smoothly with a subtle taste of cinnamon and nutmeg. The beer all in all is quite smooth, the pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugars all mellow and mesh very well together. Nothing is fighting to over-power the other in either aroma, first taste and the aftertaste.

As compared to the other day with the Gruntled Pumpkin Ale where there was a fight in the glass its a much appreciated and welcoming calm to the glass, not to complex but enough to enjoy and have another slip. Honestly, the glass is already empty and the post itself is not complete. In the end its a great beer for the fall and early early winter and very much earns a 4 out of 5 glasses.

For more info on the brew visit Dogfish Head.

R.J. Rockers' Gruntled Pumpkin Ale

Fall is in the air and that means a slight homage to pumpkin beers. Originally I was going to do a comparison due to the fact that I was caught off guard by their already being pumpkin beers on the shelves, then I realized its cause of where I live and its still ungodly warm and does not yet smell like fall is in the air. So I scratched my original idea to do a verses with this beer against my favorite pumpkin beer, Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale which shall be tomorrows topic unless I get really thirsty later tonight...both are possibilities. That being said lets dive right into the glass...

"The Gruntled Pumpkin planted the seed and started a revolution for all of pumpkin-kind. To guard the promising vines of the future that would eventually blossom to become the bottom of the barrel (and thats a good thing) of this new pumpkin ale."

As always, I pour the beer from bottle into the glass and judge the head of the beer which did not last long. The beer itself is orange, as any pumpkin beer should be, quite clear with no cloudiness and the head itself was white in color and quickly disappeared and left no ring of lace on top.

As far as aroma goes its nothing but pumpkin and spices, maybe a nutmeg but the pumpkin over powers anything that could try and escape into the nose.

For first taste its spices for me, the moment that ale hit my tongue I was surprised that its wasn't the pumpkin I was tasting. While it may overwhelm the nose to some extent in the taste department it was beaten. Now don't get me wrong, you will taste the pumpkin but its more mid sip and after taste where its subtle characteristics begin to come forth. Even with it hitting you hard at the beginning the spices will not back down and the will be there during the after taste which brings back memories of slices of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving dinner, not many but some memories. Its the spices that you will taste and remember when you think of this beer.

All in all this isn't a bad pumpkin ale. It will not be my first choice but not my last by a long shot. In the end it was the overwhelming spices that did it for me, when I sit back and drink a themed beer I want that theme to stand out no matter what it is and this just didn't do it for me in that regard. As an ale its good as a pumpkin ale it works which is why I am giving it a 3 out of 5.

Founders' Breakfast Stout

For todays beer its something that has been recommended to me, at least three times now, due mainly to the fact that I am a huge fan of Stouts and Porters. The beer is Founder's Breakfast Stout and as described by their site is

"The coffee lover’s consummate beer. Brewed with an abundance of flaked oats, bitter and imported chocolates, and Sumatra and Kona coffee, this stout has an intense fresh-roasted java nose topped with a frothy, cinnamon-colored head that goes forever."

The beer itself is very dark in appearance and when held up to the light, the light has no chance in the slightest of coming through. The head is quite dense as is the norm with many of my favorite beers and as it slowly leaves the glass there is still a ring of dense foam at the top. The head itself is, in my opinion more milk chocolate in color and by saying its cinnamon colored as the description says lead my to hope for a slight cinnamon taste somewhere in the brew but sadly there was none. 

The aroma is very much that of coffee with a subtle hint of oatmeal. No chocolate in the smell nor hops (Thank God) just a good deal of coffee and oatmeal. And with the first sip its nothing but oatmeal at first roasted oatmeal verging with a hint of coffee. That is until the finish where the chocolate is bumped up a few notches and the coffee gets turned up to 11.

All in all it took me a little bit to warm up to the beer. I am a huge fan of stouts but oatmeal stouts not so much nor with too much coffee. That being said after about two-thirds through the bottle I started to warm up to it a bit or that could have been the ABV 8.3%.

Highly recommended to those of you who enjoy a heavy beer that hits you like a meal and very much a late fall/all around winter beer.


For more info: Founder's Breakfast Stout