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Beer Review #27: Angry Orchard Strawman

31 May

Website description: Strawman combines a distinct blend of juices from culinary and bittersweet apples, and is aged on oak, resulting in a complex, wine-like cider with apple and citrus notes and an earthy finish.

ABV: 10%

My thoughts: This has a great cinnamon and nutmeg scent. You’d think it would be sweet given the aroma, but its surprisingly tart! Like a fresh fall apple, it’s crisp and tart with just a bit of sweet juiciness. It’s quite carbonated and feels light on the tongue. It tastes almost like a Granny Smith apple at the very end, which lingers for a bit. Like all great beers and ciders, you don’t get a sense of how strong it is. This is definitely an excellent fall cider that would be great in any occasion.

Number of times I’ve had it: 1 (750 mL bottle)

Rating: 4.5/5

Location: Bought at Bottle Values, drank at home during Thanksgiving with the family.

Angry Orchard Strawman
Angry Orchard Strawman
 
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Posted by on May 31, 2016 in Beer

 

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Beer Review #26: Great South Bay Candelabrum

30 May

Menu description: Rum barrel pumpkin.

ABV: 8.5%

My thoughts: This has a mild scent that I’m having trouble pinning down. It’s sort of malty and a little sweet. The flavor is interesting. It’s got that boozy rum barrel flavor, but the pumpkin adds an interesting counterpoint and there’s a nice sweet touch from the pumpkin spices. This is an interesting blend of styles and definitely something I’d like to try more of. Carbonation is higher than average and it adds a good texture that goes well with the boozy, barrel aged flavor.

Number of times I’ve had it: 1

Rating: 4/5

Location:
Great South Bay Brewery Tasting Room
25 Drexel Drive
Bay Shore, NY

Great South Bay Candelabrum
Great South Bay Candelabrum
 
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Posted by on May 30, 2016 in Beer

 

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Beer Review #17: Angry Orchard Green Apple

29 Dec

Earlier this year I moved to CA. Very recently I moved back to NY. Its been quite a year, filled with a lot of change and uncertainty, but thankfully it was also filled with a lot of beer! Now that I’m more or less settled back in NY, I thought I’d resume posting my beer reviews. I’ve decided to alternate between the beers I’ve had in CA (I tried an even 100!) and those I’ve had in NY. I’m hoping (don’t get your hopes up) that I can put out a post a day. Let’s see how that goes! To start with we have…

Website description: Angry Orchard Green Apple has a bright, fresh apple aroma, with notes of honeydew melon and kiwi. This cider is slightly tart with balanced sweetness, reminiscent of a fresh green apple.

ABV: 5%

My thoughts: This beer, or more properly cider, was the first new alcoholic beverage I had in California. Its got a light apple scent, as one might expect, and it totally tastes like green apple candy. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this cider. I mean, how different can green apple be from… regular apple? Or whatever it is they use for the standard Angry Orchard cider. Apparently, it can be different enough! More tart than the standard cider, but just as sweet, its an interesting drink. It’s pretty good, but I’m not sure that it’s something that I’d drink several of because I think it would get too sweet. One or two is fine though. There’s a bit of pleasant tartness at the end. It reminds me of a green Jolly Rancher or better yet, a green apple Charms Blow Pop! Anyone remember those?

Number of times I’ve had it: 1

Rating: 4/5

Location: Store bought, drank at home

Angry Orchard Green Apple
 
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Posted by on December 29, 2015 in Beer

 

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Beer Review #14: Southampton Biere de Mars

20 Jul

Menu description: Hints of vanilla & almonds, spiced fruits, floral hop.

ABV: 6.5%


My thoughts: Southampton Biere de Mars is a Long Island beer, in case you couldn’t tell by the name. Its brewed by the Southampton Publick House, a place I sadly never got to visit before moving to California. While I’ve had quite a few LI beers, this was one of the first I’d had from the east end. This one’s got a mild, but very fresh smelling aroma. I imagine this is due to the vanilla. It’s lightly hoppy, but you don’t notice that right away. The sweet fruity flavors are what first hit your tongue. I didn’t really taste any vanilla, which disappointed me. I like the oddball brew every now and then and a vanilla flavored beer would be pretty interesting, I think. Alas, this was not the beer to explore that particular flavor with. That said, it was pretty good. There’s slight nuttiness to it that shows up at the end along with the hop flavor. I think that flavor combination worked pretty well and I’d like to see more beers try that. It is a smooth and easy drink, which I always appreciate. I’ve only had this beer once, primarily because I’ve never seen it again after that first night. It’s a shame too, because its definitely something I’d like to have again.

Number of times I’ve had it: 1

Rating: 3.75/5

Location:
Croxley’s Ale House
Farmingdale, NY

 
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Posted by on July 20, 2015 in Beer

 

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Beer Review #5: Brooklyn Blast

13 Dec

A quick one today because today’s beer is nothing special. From the menu: “Grapefruit & other sweet fruits, caramel malts.”

It’s a pretty decent IPA, but that’s about it. It’s not really remarkable in any way, and I gotta say that I don’t know what they’re talking about with all this fruit nonsense. It’s better than a typical house beer and most other generic types or major brands. The price, like the taste, is inoffensive so that’s a plus. Not really much more to say here.

7% ABV

Brooklyn Blast
 
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Posted by on December 13, 2012 in Beer

 

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Beer Review #3: Angry Orchard Hard Cider – Crisp Apple

07 Dec

From the Angry Orchard website: “A crisp and refreshing cider, its fresh apple aroma and slightly sweet, ripe apple flavor make it hard to resist.”

I’ve had more of these than I can count! This is the 2nd best cider I’ve ever had. Its not terribly strong, but its amazingly flavorful and has a wonderful golden color. The Crisp Apple is, as the name implies, quite crisp. It has a clean, sweet (but not overly so) flavor that finishes smooth as a baby’s ass. (On a side note, why are babies asses the standard measure of smoothness? Something seems wrong about that.) Crisp Apple is used in some what I believe is called a beer cocktail. If I’ve watched the bartenders correctly, you add 1/4 of a pint of this to 3/4 of a pint of Harpoon Winter Warmer and you get an Apple Pie. This concoction is pretty much exactly like drinking a delicious apple pie and its one of my favorite winter beers/drinks. Even if you never get to try an Apple Pie (and if you get a chance, I strongly recommend you do!), this is a fantastic cider that’s not only great in the fall/winter, but is also available year round!

5% ABV

I’ll let this man have the final word:

Angry Orchard
 
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Posted by on December 7, 2012 in Beer

 

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Beer Review #2: Blue Point Sour Cherry Imperial Stout

06 Dec

A quick one today as sadly my notes on this were a bit on the light side. Also, the picture is annotated because of some shenanigans with Evernote, so sorry about that!

Blue Point’s rather lengthy description of the beer is located here.

I’ve had 2 of these so far and its pretty good! There’s not much cherry flavor in this beer, but it does have a pleasant cherry smell. The sour notes are light and the predominant flavor is the chocolate. If you’re a fan of stouts or beers made with chocolate, you’re going to enjoy this. It’s no Sam Adam Dark Chocolate Cherry (one of my favorite beers ever!) but its a very solid and enjoyable beer.

EDIT: I recently had an opportunity to have this again and I realized that I had the name slightly wrong. It’s Blue Point Sour Cherry Imperial Stout, not Blue Point Sour Cherry Dark Chocolate Stout. Since I just had it the other day, I’ve got some more thoughts on it to supplement my earlier lack of notes. The menu stated that this beer had “notes of coffee & sherry.” The coffee, sherry, and chocolate make an interesting and tasty blend, but they seemed to take a back seat to the sour cherry. That flavor was a lot stronger than I remember and the others took a definite back seat. Seeing as how they brew this for Valentine’s Day, I wonder if there are slight differences between batches because last time this beer didn’t seem to have too much of a cherry flavor. Or maybe my palette has just gotten SUPER REFINED because I’m awesome like that. It’s definitely good, and I think actually I prefer it with a stronger cherry taste. I liked how light on the tongue this beer was, not like a lot of other dark beers which feel heavy or viscous. Highly recommended!

9.2% ABV

 
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Posted by on December 6, 2012 in Beer

 

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