Death by Coconut

An unusually high number of notifications for Death by Coconut from various beer groups have been popping up all over my Facebook news feed. They were all raving about and waxing poetic about this beer.

I began to think it might be something I should try.

I've had fantastic experience with Oskar Blues beer, so I was definitely not put off by the brewer. However, porters and stouts are generally not my go-to beers, either. No risk, no reward.

All indications were that Death by Coconut was still sparsely available in Connecticut, so on a recent trip to New Hampshire I swung by a store I was pretty sure would have it - Vista Country Store in Intervale. Bingo! I got that plus a couple local brews.

I sat down to enjoy a relaxing smoke and a Death by Coconut. I can honestly say was not disappointed. In fact, I was wowed.

Death by Coconut (6.50% ABV) by Oskar Blues is dark and creamy. It has wonderful chocolate and coconut notes that are front and center without being cloying or overpowering. Simpy delicious.

I rank this beer among the top beers of this style I have ever tasted. Right up there with Duclaw Sweet Baby Jesus, Founders Breakfast Stout, Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout, and Keegan Mother's Milk. Not necessarily in that order but definitely that awesome!

The Deuce

I was at my favorite Trading Post in Woodbridge and so, since I was in the area, I decided to pop into New England Brewing Company to get a growler fill up.

While waiting for my fill up I sampled a few NEBCO brews - Coriolis, Fat-10-er #4, and Fat-10-er #5.

The growler was nearly topped off and samples consumed when Craig (bald/bearded dude) presented a can of The Deuce to me with a flourish and poured a sample. Wow! What a fantasmicly unexpected surprise!

The Deuce is a Canlaboration between Oskar Blues and Sun King Brewery. It is a limited edition American Brown Ale brewed with ingredients from each brewers home state - Colorado and Indiana, respectively - Colorado Malting Company’s Belgian Pale Malt and Riehle’s popcorn, respectively.

This is no ordinary American Brown Ale made with popcorn. Like that's ordinary. No. It is also hopped, hopped, then dry hopped with Galaxy Hops. So, what's in the can is a hopped up brown ale that truly does not suck.

The Deuce (7.00% ABV) pours a deep dark brown with an off white head that leaves behind a ring of foam that clings to the edge of the glass.

The aroma is burst of citrus hops, yeast, and malt.

The taste is hop forward - citrus and juicy tropical fruits.   Sweet chocolaty malts offset some of the bitterness and bready yeast adds character.

The mouth feel is medium and somewhat thin with good carbonation.

I like The Deuce. It's a flavorsum twist on a traditional brown ale. Yum!

Overall: very good

Plan Bacon

Plan B is a great place to go for great beer, creative burgers, and fine bourbon. This week they've added another B and another reason to go there - BACON.

It's Bacon Week at Plan B!!! I know!! Can you stand it??

That's just way too much awesomeness to not share, so hubby and I met up with some friends to partake in the crispety, crunchety, salty goodness. Much bacon was consumed; several pigs' worth, at least. We have no regrets.

Friend and fellow beer enthusiast, Kyle, was also at Plan B with his very own merry hoard of bacon eaters. Remarkably, Kyle had just emerged from a five year hiatus of bacon abstinence. Can you believe that?? Who can go FIVE whole years without eating bacon? It doesn't seem possible. Well, welcome back to heaven, dude. He remarked that he likes his bacon firm and not flaccid. I can't say that I disagree with that. 'nuff said.

Our server, Jessica, was the best! She was attentive, knowledgeable, friendly, and quite tolerant of our silliness!

When Plan B makes a menu for Bacon Week they don't mess around! Holy baconoly!









We started out with the bacon appetizer which was aptly named Bucket of Bacon. It was literally nothing more than a pile of crispy bacon served with a side of three dipping sauces. It was flippin' incredible.

And of course, a bacon cocktail was in order. Bacon Bourbon Apple Cider Fizz - bacon infused bourbon, apple cider, ginger, beer candied bacon, and an apple slice. Mmmm.

Everybody ordered a main course off the Bacon Week menu. They all looked so tempting, it was hard to choose. No, I take that back. For me, it was a no brainer. I got the Hog Tied Hamburger. The burger consisted of half beef, half apple juice brined ground bacon burger topped with maple syrup roasted pork belly, bourbon bacon butter country gravy, fresh arugula, and served on bacon cheddar buttermilk biscuits.

How to describe how it tasted? Hmm . . . this scene from When Harry Met Sally pretty much gives a good idea. Except I wasn't faking it.

Of course we had beer. All of the selections were good. A couple were great. So, let's get to it!

Deviant Dale's (8% ABV) IPA by Oskar Blues

Served in a stemmed chalice. It was a clear pale amber color with the remnants of the thick head. This beer has remarkable lacing; impressive!  The aroma was an enticing mixture of resinous hops and caramel malt.  The taste mirrors the aroma with a a mouthwatering combination of pine, grapefruit and spicy pepper hops offset by caramel and biscuit malts. This brew is the best of both worlds with a nice sharp bite of bitter hops balanced by lovely sweet malt. The finish is dry and bitter. The mouthfeel is medium with good carbonation.  Overall: very good.

Sofie (6.5% ABV) Belgian Farmhouse Ale by Goose Island

Served in a stemmed chalice. It was a clear pale gold.  The aroma was grainy with some fruit notes. The taste had a strong bready grain profile accentuated by banana, citrus and clove.  The wine barrel aging imparted a distinctive crisp quality that was, indeed, wine like.  The mouth feel was medium with lots of bubbly carbonation.  Overall: good.

Pranqster (7.5% ABV) Belgian Golden Ale by North Coast Brewing.

Served in a shaker pint. It was a hazy golden color with a skim of foam floating on top.  The aroma was typical of a Belgian style beer - banana, bubblegum, clove, juicy fruits, yeast. The taste was also very characteristic of the Belgian style.  Loads mouthwatering tart fruit flavors co-mingling with sweet juicy fruit flavors along with candy-like sweetness and spices. There is a strong grain presence, as well. The hops provide just the right amount of bittering to counteract the sweetness and create a good balance of flavors. The hops take over in the finish leaving a lingering bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium with loads of tingly effervescence. Overall: good

Brewer's Select Aries (8% ABV) an amazing combination of their Heathen Imperial Stout and Imperial Pumpkin Stout by Weyerbacher.

Served in a stemmed chalice. It was as dark as night with reddish orange highlights. This was an outstanding brew! All the characteristics of a good barrel aged stout combined with flavorful pumpkin ale. Malty, roasty, pumpkiny, gently sweet, spicy. All this with an incredibly creamy mouthfeel. So good! Overall: excellent!

Pale Ale (5.4% ABV) by Founders

Served in a shaker pint. It was a clear amber with the remains of a head intact that left behind nice lacing. The aroma is primarily grassy and citrus hops with some malty undertones. The taste was a fairly average and unremarkable pale ale. More hoppy than most with sweet malts to offset some of the bitterness. The mouthfeel is crisp and dry. It was good but nothing special. Overall: good.


Hard Pumpkin Cider (5% ABV) by Ace Cider

Served in a shaker pint. It is a bright, clear honey color. The aroma is promising with a mouthwatering combination of pumpkin and apples. The taste is somewhat disappointing. The flavors of pumpkin, tart apples, and pie spices come through but it's somewhat watery and lacking. It needs something - more oomph - and it just doesn't have it. Overall: meh.


It was a great evening of good good and drink shared with the best of friends. And bacon. Lots and lots of bacon. It just doesn't get much better than that!

Cheers!

Gubna

"You gotta get yourself some Gubna", my friend says. "It's great beer", he says.

Yeah, okay, that's all well and good except that I can't seem to find it locally.

We were at this friend's house recently and he says, "They have some of that there Gubna down the road a piece at the Country Mile."

Okay, friend, you don't have to twist my arm.  I ran my butt down to that there Country Mile and got myself a four-pack of that there Gubna.






Gubna (10.00% ABV ) by Oskar Blues is an imperial IPA.

This is, with out a doubt, one big honkin' beer! But not obnoxiously so.  It doesn't overpower the tastebuds or burn you with alcohol. It's just a good, strong brew with excellent flavor.

From the can, it pours a clear liquid gold that compiles into a gorgeous satinny amber in the glass. It is topped with a thick pillow of a head that leaves behind remarkable sticky lacing.  This is a fabulous looking brew!

The aroma is big burst of citrus with deep malty notes. Gubna smells fab, too.

The taste is a bite of citrus and pine with a solid caramel malt backbone. There are subtle whispers of grain, and yeast, and other fruits. The tongue tingles pleasantly and there is a warming of the throat from the alcohol; not harsh at all. The finish is mildly sweet with nice bitterness accompanying the heat of the alcohol.

The mouthfeel is surprisingly smooth with moderate carbonation.

My experience has been that you can't go wrong with an Oskar Blues beer.

Overall: pretty darn excellent

Mama's Little Yella Pils

Craft beer. Check

Craft Beer in a can. Check.

Craft Beer in a big tall can. Check.

An ice cold craft beer in a big tall can - check, check, check, check.

Ahhh, all is right with the world.

Mama's Little Yella Pils is a beer I've been meaning to drink for quite a while. So, when I spied a can of it on the shelf of The Country Mile, I snatched it up despite the two armloads and fists full of beer I was already balancing.

My experiences, thus far, with Oskar Blues beer have been happy and delicious.  I was expecting nothing less from this small batch brewed Czech style pilsner.

Mama's Little Yella Pils comes in at a very sessionable 5.3% ABV.

It pours a clear golden yellow with a smallish head despite a fairly aggressive pour.  The bright white head left behind a remarkable amount of glass grabbing lace.

The aroma is typical for the style - very pilsner-esque, as it were - with notes of bright Saaz hops and grain.

The taste is clean, fresh and perfectly pilsner-y.  Grains add sweet biscuit flavor and the hops add a small nibble of bitterness.  There is nothing overpowering here. There is an impressive lemony-ness  towards the end that just puts this pilsner over the top for me. So good! The finish is crisp and (again) clean.

The moutfeel is light with lovely carbonation.  Too quaffable, nearing chuggable.

An excellent example of the style.  Very want-more-able.

Mama's Little Yella Pils is a good beer for people who are interesting in craft beer but don't know where to start.  Or for someone who is afraid of craft beer and thinks they're all big and fancy.  This pilsner is crisp, light and drinkable.  A classic style that is simply delicious.

Overall: excellent

I love it when a Plan (B) comes together!

Last night hubby and I went to Plan B burger bar primarily because they were tapping a keg of the much anticipated Stone Enjoy By 04/01/13, secondarily for burgers.

We each ordered a beer and placed our burger order. I went with the Enjoy By, because that's why we were there after all, and hubby decided on Copper Hill Kolsch.  

I won't do a review of the Enjoy By.  Suffice to say that I didn't enjoy it.  Please click here if you're interested in reading my full review.  

Copper Hill Kölsch (5.1% ABV) is brewed by Cambridge House, which is a local-to-me brewery.  Copper Hill was served in a standard shaker pint glass.  This lager is a clear straw color with a thin lingering head that laces nicely on the glass.  The aroma is hoppy and somewhat bready.  Sweet malt dominates with a touch of fruitiness and a healthy (but not overbearing) dose of hops.  The finish is mildly bitter.  The mouth feel is medium and smooth.  Overall good and quite drinkable.  

While we were finishing up our first round of brews, the burgers were served and round two was ordered.

I got sliders made with ground duck, topped with brie and dates along with a side of green fries (flash fried green beans).  Oh my goodness, those were some yummy little burgers. 

Hubby got a cream cheese and jelly burger.  Before you cringe, it was a burger topped with a cream/goat cheese mixture, pepper jelly, bacon and greens.  It was delicious!

668 The Neighbor of the Beast (8.5% ABV) by New England Brewing another Connecticut brewery.  The strong Belgian pale ale was served in a chalice. The beer was a hazy gold with a big white head that left nice lacing on the glass. There's plenty of hop character that balances nicely with a sweet maltiness and a touch of wheat.  The alcohol can be felt as well as tasted, but it's please and warm, not overpowering.  Be careful with this one; it goes down easy.  This is a great beer! Try it if you find it.

G'Knight (8.7% ABV) by Oskar Blues Brewery is an imperial red ale and was without a doubt the best beer of the night.  This dense amber beer was served in chalice.  It came to the table with a decent head and left behind exceptional lacing on the glass.  G'Knight has a big aroma and big flavor.  Lots of citrus hops and roasty malt along with a nice bready yeastiness.  Despite the high alcohol, this is a smooth beer that goes down too easy.  Overall, excellent.

For dessert, we decided to split a beer and cinnamon apple pie a la mode. The beer was good and the pie was rockin'!

River Ale (7% ABV) by Berkshire Brewing Company is an American Pale Wheat Ale.  Served in a shaker pint, this beer was dark and dense with a good head. The aroma is subtle but malty.  The flavor was a bit surprising; in a good way.  It was wheaty, of course, with spicy clove and banana undertones.  This is complimented by caramel malt, a bready yeastiness and a nice touch of bitter hops.  This is a very well balance and flavorful beer.  Overall, good.

If you haven't been to a Plan B, I highly recommend it!  They have delicious burgers, an extensive bourbon menu and ever rotating beer taps.  Good stuff!