The aroma is a bit challenged. I didnt get much on the nose (except for some foam.) A hint of bitterness from the orange and hops and sweetness from the malts. On the palate I taste the bitter, strong cheese flavor that they mentioned on the beer’s description on Lefthand’s website. I couldnt place that taste till I read it… but its very noticeable. The finish is nice and smooth and the bitterness doesnt overcome the palate. The flavor stays on your palate for a long time and it’s a welcome visitor. It’s also pretty refreshing for these hot times. 400 Pound Monkey can come by and hang out whenever it wants… especially during the summer.

The beer poured very rich reddish-brown with a thick creamy head. It definitely blew me away at first sniff! Hoppy, malty, floral, and syrupy-fruit smell all mixed together to knock me back a couple of feet. I was very intrigued by the candy sweetness when I first poured the beer, which I didn’t expect from this Imperial Brown Ale. I was happy that the candy-sweet flavors were more subdued and balanced once I tasted the beer. The hops are more accentuated in the front of the palate and the aftertaste while the sweetness of the malts and dark fruit show up in the back end.

This beer defenitely gave my beer-consuming optimism some uptick. I say it’s time to stare this recession in the face and tell it that we are sick of it!

The SunRay Wheat Beer is fantastic, but I’ll elaborate on it later this week. This post will focus on Estrella Damn Inedit. It super refreshing and crisp, considering the crazy heat we’ve all be experiencing from coast to coast. It has a slightly citrusy and floral nose with a little bit of yeastiness. On the pallate it was very crisp and refleshing. The citrus tones come right to the front of the tongue with a little breadyness on the backend. It’s almost a mixture of of a witbeer with the crispness of a pilsner. The mini booklet that came with beer said that it should be served in white wine glass and placing the bottle in a bucket of ice. This beer was not as amazing as I was hoping, but it was definitely a good beer for the summer.

Thanks Derek for the link. I’ve been super busy with moving so I’ll take any beer related links while things calm down!

The fourth course consisted of Jerk Spiced Beef Tenderloin (with purple potato hash and a truffle demi-glace) accompanied by Brooklyn Brown Ale. The beef tenderloin’s jerk spices and sweetness brought out an unexpected rum aroma (maybe it was the jerk spices making me think of island rum) accompanied by dark chocolate smells in the initial sniff test. The flavor was predominantly of bitter dark chocolate and malts. The sweetness of the chocolate was nicely balanced by the sweet earthy potatoes and truffle.

Brooklyn Brown Ale & Black Chocolate Stout

The final course is usually my favorite… desert! For the last course they served us Strawberry and Chocolate S’mores (with vanilla bean gelato) accompanied by the Black Chocolate Stout. This dish was “okay”. I was not very impressed by the combination of strawberries, marshmallows and graham cracker. It was a decent pairing with the beer though. The beer had more bitter and coffee tastes before tasting the desert, but after tasting the s’mores, the sweetness of the chocolate was more pronounced. This beer was a lot stronger than the others, but its alcohol was toned down when paired with the s’mores.

All in all, this was an extremey interesting and satisfying food and beer pairing. Color this monkey impressed by Brooklyn Brewery’s offerings! It’s definitely given me some ideas for home food pairings. I’ll post about any good ones… if I can come up with anything that goes well with bananas.

(Make sure to check out Part 1)

Brooklyn Brewery Summer Ale, Local 2 & Sorachi Ace

The first pairing was the Brooklyn Summer Ale along with hummus. The citrusy flavor of the summer ale went really well with the lemon flavor of the hummus. It was a nice, light, and refreshing combo to start this paring off the right way.

Brooklyn’s Local 2 (a Dark Ale) was paired with my favorite dish of the night, the Warm Mushroom Strudel (mushroom strudel + hungry ape = heaven). The peppercorn in the strudel brought out the spice in the beer. The spice is balanced by the earthiness of the mushrooms in the strudels and the chocolate maltiness in the beer. The alcohol was a bit strong for me at first but it gets subdued once you take a bite of the strudel. The beer coats the palette and has a very nice velvety mouth feel.

The next pairing was Brookyn’s Sorachi Ace with Crispy Crab Cakes served with Cajun Remoulade and a Lemon-Artichoke Relish. The Sorachi Ace was my favorite beer of the night. It’s a Saison brewed with a very special hop variety grown in Japan that has a surprising lemon flavor. Asian lemon-artichoke relish is perfectly complimented by the delicate citrucy sweetness and spiciness of the saison. The beer tastes more tangy and bitter after tasting the crab cake dish. You don’t get many crabs in the jungle… but I’m thinking I might get an aquarium so I can have more of these crab cakes accompanied by this wonderful Sorachi Ale!

So far the first half of the beer dinner has been awesome, will the rest of the pairings continue to blow my monkey mind? Find out tomorrow in Part II of my review!

(Continue reading my riveting review in Part 2)

I’ve been wanting to try the House of Beer for a while, but its been tough to get to that side of town for me since I work and live far from it. I didn’t know of anyone who’d been there so I just relied on their website for an idea of what to expect. With about 50 draughts and 150 bottles, I thought I’d be in good hands.

I started out with the Happy Hour special (2 for $6) of Hoptical Illusion IPA. Which was a nicely balanced IPA from Oregon. a great selection for the summer heat I’ve been battling.

After Happy Hour was over I switched to Trois Pistoles, which I hadn’t had in a while. An exceptional Strong Ale with great sweetness, malts, and a fun set of bunny ears (see photo above). Before wrapping up our evening I had to order the 400 Pound Monkey. It’s brewed by Left Hand Brewing and it doesn’t disappoint. I love ending an evening of beer drinking with tons of hops in my mouth!  YUM!

Of course I got the 400 Pound Monkey

I tried a few of Cigar City‘s beers when they first exploded onto the scene about two years ago with their Jai Alai IPA and Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale. Recently I found out they were rocking the craft beer world with a set of seasonal, short-run, and Spanish Cedar-aged brews they appropriately named “The Humidor Series”. I had the pleasure of trying their Humidor Series: Gruit Ale. Gruit (as I found out when I looked it up in Wikipedia) “is an old-fashioned herb mixture used for bittering and flavoring beer, popular before the extensive use of hops”. I could tell it was definitely not your average beer when I first smelled it. I had a hard time placing the aromas at first, except for a slightly sweet berry aroma, spice, and what I later discovered to be juniper… making the nose a bit of an odd and funky combo of smells. The beer was a light golden yellow color without much head but good carbonation. The flavor was light, slightly sweet and spicy, with a nice tangy juniper flavor. It was a really nice summer beer with surprising flavors and aromas.

I enjoyed this beer so much that I painted a self-portrait on velvet enjoying a cigar in honor of Cigar City Brewery. Keep up the good work and thanks for keeping Florida on the beer map!

Paradox Isle of Arran

I mentioned this blog to a beer connoisseur friend of mine who works in the beer industry. He instantly offered me a couple of beers from his insane collection (more beers than you can fit in a full armoir). One of the beers he told me to try and review was Paradox Isle of Arran, a unique Imperial Stout brewed by Scottish brewer Brew Dog and matured in scotch whiskey casks. That brewery might sound familiar if you follow beer news. They are famous for the worlds strongest beer, clocked in at 32% ABV! Wow!

The first thing that struck me was how little head and carbonation there was… I was almost worried it was a bad bottle… until I tasted it. It had a subtle aroma of caramel and malts with a bit of scotch… just the way Ron Burgundy likes it. It was quite malty, a bit spicy and definitely balaned with a hint of the scotch it encountered with while in the scottish whiskey cask. This beer was definitely interesting and worth trying. Whiskey and beer… an odd couple that just works. Who knew?

The instant I poured the beer into my coconut shell goblet I could smell the hint of peppercorn coming through the floral aroma. The beginning flavor was sweet and malty… but that soon gave way to the peppercorn and the slight spicy tingle in my tongue. All I could say was “WOW”. This beer was amazingly balanced; the sweet and spice worked really well with the hoppy bitterness. I absolutely loved this beer and will be picking up some more as soon as I can. I would suggest you swing to your nearest specialty beer store or bar and beg for it! If they refuse… throw your own feces at them (Always works for me).

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