Gulden Draak Brewmaster's Edition 2013 (10/10)

You'll notice a decidedly Valentine's Day appearance to the photo at the left.  That's because I received the bottle of Gulden Draak Brewmaster's Edition as a Christmas gift in 2013 and waited until February 2014 to open it and take notes.  Time flies. It's now May 2015 and I'm finally reviewing it here.

The Gulden Draak Brewmaster's Edition is an amber colored ale aged in whiskey barrels.  It was originally made to celebrate the 230th birthday of the brewery and as a tribute to the brewmaster's grandfather.  I saw it available again in 2014, so it looks like it may be a yearly thing now (hence my decision to review a beer from 2013 in 2015).

It pours a cloudy amber color with three fingers' worth of off-white head.

The aroma is an enticing combination of malt sweetness, warming alcohol, fruit, and whiskey.  The whiskey element in the aroma and flavor is more subtle here than in beers like Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, and Anderson Valley Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout.  But it's not so subtle that you're going to miss it.

The flavor is sweet, with notes of dark fruit, spices, and whiskey.  You might pick up a bit of honey or vanilla in it.  The finish is very mildly bitter, with a warming alcohol element to it. It's a beer you'll want to savor, not just because of its complexity, but because of its price.  The bottle you see pictured here retails for about $19.99.  As with regular Gulden Draak, this is a beer I'd probably drink every day if it sold for about a quarter of the price.  At this level, it's one I'll indulge in only yearly or when someone is kind enough to gift a bottle to me.

I was actually fortunate enough to get two bottles for Christmas in 2013.  I cellared one of them and hope to open it later this year so see how well it ages.

I don't seem to be alone in my appreciation of this beer.  Rate Beer gives it a 97 overall.  Beer Advocate rates it an 89 or "very good" with only 145 people weighing in.

I've seen this for sale consistently at The Andersons General Store in Dublin.  I've occasionally seen a bottle elsewhere, but not often enough to recommend a specific location.

Brasserie Dubuisson Scaldis Amber Ale (7/10)

Brasserie Dubuisson produces one of my favorite Christmas seasonals, Scaldis Noel.  When I saw Scaldis Amber on the shelf at a local retailer, I had to grab a bottle to try out.

The beer pours a slightly hazy amber with finger-thick white head that lasts a few seconds before reincorporating into the beer.

The aroma is a strong malt and caramel one, with a bit of boozy warmth hidden in.  This is not surprising for this 12% alcohol by volume ale.

The flavor starts with a malty alcohol burn which intensifies and lingers.  Some hops bitterness is present at the middle and end, too.   It’s a bit too much for my liking. 

In the end, it’s fair to say that I like this beer, but it’s not one that I love the way I do Scaldis Noel.  Noel has more complexity, less of a boozy burn to it, and less bitterness.  It’s just a more-pleasant beer to drink all-around.  When I compare it to other 12% beers like Victory V Twelve, Scaldis Noel, and Rinkuskiai Before and After, it doesn’t hold up well.  Before and After is much cheaper ($2.69 a bottle vs. $7 for this one), a tiny bit more complex, and doesn’t have quite the burn to it.  V Twelve is better still, with more malt and more flavor, and also a much lower price ($6.99 for a bomber vs. Scaldis at $7 for an 11.2 ounce bottle).

All this said, I do plan to buy a couple of more bottles of this beer when I encounter them.  My goal will be to cellar those bottles for at least a year, maybe two.  I think the cellaring of this beer would mellow out the flavor, smooth out the hops, and maybe increase the complexity.  This is the kind of beer I think needs to be cellared to really reach its potential.  More on this in, oh, two or three years…

Beer Advocate rates it 87-91 (very good to outstanding).  Rate Beer gives it a 90 overall.  I'm giving it only a 7 out of 10.  

This beer can be purchased at the Whole Foods location in Dublin, and possibly at other retailers but I don't recall seeing it anywhere else.

Brew Dog Dogma Ale (8/10)

Before I tell you about this beer, let me first share something about the brewers.  Brew Dog is a Scottish brewery known for having brewed some of the world's highest-alcohol-content beers.  Brewmasters James Watt and Martin Dickie have been featured in their own television series in the US, where they travel the country visiting various cities.  In each city, they try to come up with a beer that embodies the spirit of that city and brew it while they're there, in conjunction with one of that city's breweries.  Their show (called what else but "Brew Dogs") airs on the Esquire channel and comes highly recommended by me.  I hope someday to meet these guys if they come to Columbus.

Now that you know something about the brewery, how about Dogma itself?  The Brew Dog web site describes Dogma as "a beer for thinkers, dreamers, and sometime truth-seekers".  It's brewed with 10 different varieties of malt and Scottish heather honey.  It's also brewed with kola nut, poppy seed, and guarana.  (This should give you some idea of the kind of brewers Martin and James are.  They come up with some wild and amazing stuff.)

The beer pours a deep, dark brown with tan head that's about two fingers thick and lasts a while.

The aroma is complex and interesting.  You probably could sit there for a while taking it in, following James and Martin's advice, saying "Hello, how are you?" and enjoying the scent for a while.  I get a bit of soft drink (cola), fruit, and a woody element.

Ultimately, though, a beer lives or dies on its flavor.  Dogma's got you covered there.  It's a complex and very interesting combination of soft drink, fruit, malt, and a balanced hops bitterness.  This is not a beer you gulp down and refill your glass.  It lives up to that "beer for thinkers" idea.  You sip a bit of it, think about what you're tasting, and sip again.

A little secret about this one.  It's "good" when it's fresh from the brewery (well, as fresh as any Scottish beer is going to be by the time it reaches us here in Central Ohio).  But it becomes really "great" when you age it for about six months in your cellar.  Some of the harsher hops bitterness subsides and leaves behind a slightly sweeter, even more complex flavor.  If you buy it, buy two bottles and (if you can keep yourself from drinking both) take notes on the "fresh" and "cellared" versions.  I think you'll agree with me.

I can usually find this beer for sale at The Andersons General Store in Dublin.  I sometimes see it at other retailers.  Beer Menus says you won't find a bottle any closer than 150 miles at the time of this writing, but bear in mind that they don't have a complete list of the stock at all Columbus area stores.

I'm giving this beer an 8 out of 10, but that's on the cellared bottle.  It's worth noting that it appears they may have changed the recipe for this in the past year or so, so what you buy now might not be the same beer I'm reviewing here.  Check the label for references to Kola Nut and Guarana.  If you only see "honey infused" on the label, it's that new recipe.

Beer Advocate gave the original recipe here an 82 or "good".  Rate Beer gives it a 95 but doesn't mention a change in recipe.  These are in the ballpark of my 8/10 rating.

Breckenridge Vanilla Porter with Pistachios (6/10)

Breckenridge Brewery of Denver, Colorado, produced this vanilla Porter brewed with pistachios.  It was on tap at The Daily Growler in Upper Arlington a while ago, and Beer Advocate says it's retired now.  If it comes back, you may find it on Beer Menus.

It pours a clear, very dark mahogany color with thin white head that lasts a while.

The aroma is malty, slightly chocolatey, but doesn't hint at pistachio.

The pistachios don't add the flavor you'd expect.  I thought there would be a definite nutty element to the beer, but instead detected more of a woody, barrel-aged kind of flavor.  It seemed more like a barrel aged brown ale than a porter.  I liked it, but didn't particularly love it.  The pistachios seemed to cancel out the vanilla and some of the porter flavor as well.

I'm rating this one a 6 out of 10.  Rate Beer had nothing on this one, and Beer Advocate doesn't have enough reviews to give a score.  Most of the scores they had were in the 3.55 to 4.62 out of 5 range, which would equate to about an 8.3 out of 10 on my scale.  I guess they enjoyed it more than I did.

Columbus Brew Adventures - August 1, 2015

As the guy behind Columbus Beer Scene, knowing what's going on with beer in Columbus comes with the territory.  No matter how much I know, there is always more to learn.  I can tell you about many of the great breweries in town.  I've met several of the brewmasters and gotten to talk with some of them for a while.  No matter how much I might know, I believe Columbus Brew Adventures' tour guide Jim has me beat.

This past Saturday, two friends invited my wife and me to join them on the tour.  I'd heard of Columbus Brew Adventures a while ago but had never met anyone who'd actually gone on the tour.  Our friends had, and they were told it was a great time.  After taking the downtown brewery tour, I can't argue with that.

Our tour began at the Columbus Brewing Company (CBC) restaurant on Metro Place.  We were led to a table in the back, where the 12 tour guests sat down.  Jim the tour guide told us some of CBC's history, about the history of the restaurant, and the tour we'd be taking.  Our server brought out appetizers from the CBC menu and samples of three of their beers.  Jim explained how a "beer snob" should taste a beer, then walked us through the three samples provided.  The main idea here was to communicate the concept of bitterness in beer, the International Bitterness Unit (IBU), and how three beers that look very nearly alike can taste very different and be quite different in bitterness levels.

Beer Samples at Seventh Son

After CBC, we went to the Seventh Son Brewery.  Brewmaster Colin Vent sat us down inside the brewery area, near the fermentation tanks, mash tuns, and other apparatus.  He talked about the brewing process, and the importance of sanitation.  He discussed how water, yeast, hops, and barley all play a part in making a good beer.  We were offered samples of three different roast levels of barley to chew up and taste, along with explanations of how they are used at Seventh Son.  He also talked about the three beers offered for samples that day, discussing how they came to be and to some degree what went into making them.  We also learned about the bottled versions of their beers that can be purchased at the bar, and about the artist who does the labels.

Jim the Tour Guide and North High's host

Our third stop was North High Brewing.  North High, as I've talked about before here, is both a taproom where you can try North High's products and a brew-on-premise site where you can make you own beer to take home.  A representative from North High told us about the history of the building they're located in (a former Model T dealership) and of many of the elements of the architecture (which include wood from former OSU stadium bleachers).  After this, we were shown the brew-on-premise room, the fermentation room, and bottling area.

The final stop was at Barley's Ale House across from the Greater Columbus Convention Center.  Here we were met by Columbus brewing celebrity Angelo Signorino, the brewmaster at Barley's.  If you've never met Angelo, you're in for a treat.  He's a very nice guy, very passionate about what he does, and has a great sense of humor.  He's also a great brewer.  Angelo told stories about the brewery, their annual Meet the Brewers event, the beers he offered samples of, and more.  The highlight of this segment of the tour for me was the sample of Infinity Grand Cru, a beer Angelo made for the general manager's wedding.  This Belgian Strong Dark beer is one of my absolute favorites of all Columbus beers, so I was glad the tour ended with that.

When the tour was over, Jim took us back to CBC and let us know that tour guests who choose to eat at the CBC restaurant the same day can get a free dessert from the menu.  If you're half the chocoholic I am, you'll want to order the cupcake.  (Don't worry, this isn't a "muffin tin" sized cupcake.  This is a big, thick "I'm not sure I'm going to be able to eat all this, but I can't stop" kind of cupcake.)

The bottom line is that I recommend this tour if you're interested in Columbus brewing history (which Jim shares in ample-but-not-overwhelming doses), how beer is made, meeting the people who make it, and trying a little bit of it.  All this with a built-in designated driver.  We had a great time, and I look forward to taking one of Jim's other tours in the future.