Cluster of Events This Weekend

Max's First Annual Germanfest

If you've been to their Belgian Beer Fest you know the drill. This thing will run from Friday to Sunday, with an unbelievable number of German beers.

Mahaffey's 7th Annual Block Party

In Canton, I assume (this is listed in Mid-Atlantic Brewing News). "With bands, craft beer, & food. (410)276-9899

10th Annual Capital City Invitational Beer Festival

Held in Harrisburg, PA, featuring samples from 20+ breweries in PA, Md., Delaware and New York. Three sessions, tickets $30-$35 (designated drivers $15)

Brew Review: Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA

Hmmmm ... not good.

This beer sounded quite interesting and had splendid reviews on Beer Advocate (4.23 average score!), but I really struggled with it.

It was billed as a double IPA, "without the harshness". Weyerbacher used synthetic Simcoe Hops, developed in 2000 by Select Botanicals LLC, allowing for maximum aromatic oils and minimum harshness. For whatever reason, and this is likely a purely personal thing, this went down poorly. Obviously this is nothing against the brewer particularly of such a well regarded beer, but it didn't work for me. Maybe my tastes were off, maybe it was a skunked bottle, who knows.

It's rare when I struggle with a beer as much as I did this one so I'm a little depressed at the experience. I don't know how to describe it other than that I was almost queasy in the stomach as I finished the last half of my pint. I absolutely love harsh IPA's and their power. This thing actually came across as equally powerful but with something else strange going on.

As far as the basics, it came from a 12 oz bottle poured into a standard pint glass. There was a fun root beer float type head, and the pour was your standard dark amber IPA color. Its aroma was almost candylike, quite sweet and light. The hop taste was much more pine than citrus, but there was an odd back of the mouth taste.

I asked my friend Summer of Beer Steve about this and he also didn't like it, although as we looked at his review over instant messenger he laughed that it sounded tasty right now given what he'd said about it.

It's anecdotal at this point, but Alexander D. Mitchell IV of "Beer in Baltimore" also disliked this double IPA, saying "Weyerbacher's Double Simcoe a few years back left me almost wincing in semi-pain as just too "over-the-top" in more ways than one". Yikes. Our voices are in the minority, but that's taste for ya, everyone's is a little bit different.

We're open minded here so this Pennsylvania brewery and the particular beer won't be written off, but this wasn't the best of starts.

Events

Something popped up and I'll be out of town so BBG won't be able to report or review these events sadly. I encourage any of you out there to attend, however, and be sure to report back via comments or email what all went down.

Maryland Beer & Foodfest
10-5 Saturday and Sunday (4/26-4/27)
Ripken Stadium Aberdeen, MD
$15 adults, $10 designated drivers 21+, $10 ages 13-20, FREE 12-under

City Paper Brewfest
1-5 Saturday (4/26)
Broadway Square/Fells Point downtown Baltimore
$25/$20 in advance

In conjunction, DuClaw Brewing
After the Brewfest, walk down to DuClaw's Fells Point location, they'll be tapping two special firkins (Blueberry Bare Ass Blonde Ale and their new American style IPA, Hellrazer), plus the last of this year's Venom Pale Ale on their NITRO tap.

10th Annual Manayunk Brew Fest Extravaganza
12-4 Saturday (4/26)
Manayunk Brewery, Philadelphia PA

Beer Tastings at The Perfect Pour
Friday: TommyKnocker Brewery (4:30-7:30)
Saturday: Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel (4-8)
New Arrivals: Brewer's Art Le Canard, Harpoon Summer, Arcadia Ales

Customer Appreciation Day at Your Wine & Spirit Shoppe
Saturday (4/26), 10am to 6pm wholesale pricing on virtually all items in stock

Happy Hour Kick-Off at Victoria Gastro Pub
Friday (4/25) from 4-7 pm with free Passed Hors D'Oeuvres and $2.95 "extraordinary beers".

Brew Review: Troegs Troegenator Doublebock

Yet another sampling from Harrisburg, PA's Troeg's Brewing.

Tonight's sample was from a 12 oz bottle, poured into a standard pint glass. You know how that goes.

It didn't stay long, but the initial aroma jumped out. It was that sweet, slightly chocolate/coffee smell you usually find in a thick, syrupy porter. The head was thick and lumpy, but quickly settled to something quite flat once I took a sip. In color it was a nice mix of brown and orange and burgundy, which seems to have been reasonably approximated on the bottle label. Nice job guys!

The taste was malty, and a little sweet. I struggled to draw out any specific flavors to reference, but just doing some quick reading on double bocks it seemed to be a more than adequate representation of the style. One thing that stood out is that this was dancing all over the "sour" areas of my tongue. I didn't really taste sour, but that's the area of the tongue that demanded attention.

Overall this is a good beer to sit down and enjoy. I had no complaints, and would drink it again. If anything I'm curious what foods would pair with it, as it might stand up really well to certain more subtle foods with its sweet, slightly creamy, just strong enough taste.

This beer earned a 3.85 (B+) from Beer Advocate reviews.

Update: Speak of the devil, The Baltimore Sun's Rob Kasper has a brief entry about bocks from last week, calling it the beer of springtime. Thinking locally, there's usually at least one bock on tap at Ellicott Mills Brewing, as they're fully committed to making German beers.

Brew Review: Troegs Nugget Nectar

This fine Pennsylvania creation comes highly recommended from Summer of Beer Steve.

I sampled it tonight out of a 12 oz bottle poured into a standard pint.

Right away this thing carries the smell and aroma of an IPA. True to form, the bottle promises a "hopheads nirvana", with "93ish IBU's". There was a modest if undistinguished head with the pour, and it displayed an orange-amber color.

Heavily hopped beers like IPA's tend to carry a "piney" or "citrusy" aroma. Sometimes that's true, sometimes it isn't as I think there's a third smell I can't quite name. However, this time the aroma was most definitely piney. What that means for you I don't know, but it's normal and unoffensive to my general experience.

My general impression is that this has a residual hop taste. It isn't overpowering by any means, but it lingers on. For the IPA nut and "hop heads" this is part of the experience but obviously for the untrained taster it can be disconcerting. I should point out that this isn't an IPA, but rather an Imperial Amber, but the experience is about the same.

Other notes:

Initial tasting comes in real sweet, but as stated above there's a rapid bitter/piney flavor that lingers in the mouth. This is a good beer to sit down with and then wait a few minutes. I finished 90% of my pint and then went to the business of writing this. As I gulped down that last mouthful it suddenly tasted a hell of a lot better. That's kind of how wine works sometimes, so this beer is in good company if you've got patience.

Like another one of my recent tastings, this was a holdover, older bottle that had been hiding in my fridge for a while and sometimes time doesn't do good things to beers like this. That said, this tasting was consistent with the other, fresher bottles of my Nugget Nectar six-pack I'd tried.

Here's the review from Beer Advocate (4.37/A, very well regarded!), and here's a glowing review from Summer of Beer.

Brew Review: Victory Hop Wallop

Cool name, cool label art, intense taste.

I tried a 12oz bottle of the Downington PA's "Very Hoppy Ale" tonight, poured into a standard pint glass. The aroma reminded me of Bridgeport's IPA, as it poured a cloudy, pale-yellow/gold color with a clumpy but otherwise standard head.

Ok that's getting into too much inside baseball when it comes to description and that's something we'll discuss down the road.

My impression? It tasted like a watered-down Oggi's Hop Juice which isn't a bad thing. The southern California natives in the readership should have an idea what I'm talking about. This is a strong, hopped-up ale, although the flavor still came across a bit faded/light. The bottle had been sitting in my fridge for ~6 weeks so that might have had something to do with it. The taste improved after a few sips, which is ideal and sort of wine-like in its ability to improve with some oxygen and warm air.

The alternative is an increasingly bad-tasting beer the more sips you have, which is never good so we're headed in the right direction here. This isn't exactly something you want to have on an empty stomach (guilty), so throw some food in the gullet before having a taste. Overall I enjoyed this beer, and was swept in by some of the bottle art and well-chosen name. However, it wasn't a great beer experience either.

Verdict: can't complain, an above-average extra-hopped beer from a well-respected, Mid-Atlantic label. By comparison, here's a review from BBG's good friend, Summer of Beer Steve.

For my handful of readers out there, what do you have to say about Victory's Hop Wallop? Beer Advocate readers have given it a 4.08, which rates an A-/excellent. In other words it is not all that far from classification as a world-class beer.