Jerry over at JerryKatz.cc aka Opelika Daily News has posted a new beer review on Samuel Adams ‘Summer Ale’ titled Another Beer for the Butterbean. Check it out and let us know where else we can find more local beer reviews. Or, even better, send in yours!

by John Little

Maybe you’ve heard some of your beer loving friends lament an increase in craft beer prices, the current world-wide hop shortage and how the shortage has altered the character of their favorite beers.  A combination of factors, including a vast surplus of hops in the 90s, decreased hop farm acreage in the early 2000s and a devastating hail storm in Czechoslovakia and Slovenia in 2007 has led to hop price increases of as much as 500% for some varieties.  Other varieties simply can’t be found.  Hopheads around the world fear they won’t see their favorite Imperial IPAs on the market for at least a few years, until the market recovers.  Many craft brewers are being forced to reformulate their most popular hoppy beers, substituting alternate hop varieties for their “signature” varieties.

However, Sierra Nevada isn’t letting the hop shortage damage their reputation for producing some of the best craft beers in the U.S.  Last month, Sierra Nevada released its “Early Spring Beer,” an American version of an English Extra Special Bitter (ESB) that “combines the best of English tradition with West Coast style;” and, at 5.9% abv, the beer just barely escapes being criminal in Alabama, so Auburn residents are fortunate to be able to enjoy it.  For this brew, Sierra Nevada uses a blend of English and American malts and hops to produce a delicious and refreshing unfiltered ale with a reddish-copper hue, a unique rich and malty sweetness, an earthy spiciness as bitterness and a slight cedar and citrus aroma.

In Auburn, Sierra Nevada Early Spring Beer first appeared on the shelves of Kroger at Glenn and Dean and Kroger in Tigertown (we think).  By the time this edition of the Corner News is published, this incredible ESB should also be on the shelves at the BP (Samford and Gay) and at the Mellow Mushroom.

John Little is a healthcare attorney whose real passion is brewing beer.  If you’re interested in learning to brew your own, visit auburnbrewclub.org.

John Little | Auburn, Alabama | http://auburnbrewclub.org

First of all, no, we aren’t getting anything from Sam Adams. We just happened to have alot of it and some mix packs so we decided to write about it. But we do also tend to like alot of their beers.

Ok, now for the Honey Porter. I haven’t had many porters so I’ll admit I have somewhat bought into the stigma of porters being extremly heavy and somewhat harsh. Well, if that is true for most porters it doesn’t fit this one.

Sam Adam’s Honey Porter was smooth, rich, and well, good. I really enjoyed this one and it even reminds me a bit of our last review, Sam Adam’s Black Lager. It leaves a nice trailing honey flavor and dosen’t punch on the way down or after. It definatley has earned a place on my “would buy anytime” list.

I keep meaning to try these beers with different foods to add something to my reviews but alas this one was had solo.

-Rob

You can get this beer in six pack or mix pack at Tiger Town Kroger as well as a few other places around town.

Please let us know if you’ve enjoyed this one or if you know of anywhere you can get this on tap.

Sam Adams Black Lager is the fourth beer style I’ve had from Sam Adams. It is a deep, smooth, dark offering that was a bit of a suprise. It’s color is very similar to coke, black on the counter with a bit of amber when held to the light. It had a nice frothy head. It drinks smooth with no bite to speak of. As the beer warms up you get a bit of a different feel for the flavors at the end of each sip. You can catch just a bit of caramel and chocolate when you smell it and a bit of the same flavor aftertaste. I was plesently suprised by the smoothness and creamy flavors in this some what heavier beer and could see enjoying it for many different occasions.

-Rob

(Locally Available @ Kroger in Tiger Town)

From Sam Adams website:

When one sees a beer with a darker complexion these days, more often than not it’s a Porter or Stout. However looks can be deceiving. There exists a style older than both and generally less well known; the Schwarzbier, which literally translated is “Black Beer.” Unlike its dark cousins which both hail from Britain and are highly hopped ales, Schwarzbier comes from Germany, is lightly hopped and is fermented using a bottom fermenting lager yeast. Samuel Adams® Black Lager is brewed in the tradition of the latter. A medium bodied beer brewed using several different roasts of malt to give the end product a smooth body and a depth of malt character that has to be tasted to be believed.

There will be an additional Review of this beer soon by another local reviewer so keep an eye out for it. Also, any additional reviews of this beer we receive before that one is posted we’ll put in that post so send in your reviews today!

Auburn Beer Club will be posting reviews of Yuengling Traditional Lager soon. Submit your reviews, ratings and stories to be added to this review now!

Click here now to submit your Yuenling reviews, ratings and stories relating to this brew now.

From Yuengling.com: Since 1829, D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc. of Pottsville, Pennsylvania has produced a complete line of fine brewed products to satisfy the most discerning tastes of beer connoisseurs. For over 175 years each recipe has called for both American six row and imported two row barley malt along with a combination of Cluster and Cascade hops. Coupled with longer aging times, each of these craft-brewed beers offers its own unique appearance, aroma, taste, and mouthfeel. This home town brewer has the distinction of being a regional brewery without sacrificing flavor to appeal to the masses.

This is not the only way to rate beer but it is a great example of one way.

Also See: Beer Advocate on Beer Rating

How to rate beer depends to some extent on why you want to rate beer. Aside from people who drink beer mainly to get drunk, most beer drinkers will usually drink beer they like. As soon as you start to do that you are effectively rating beer. Most beer drinkers tend to try a few beers and then stick to their favourites, but more and more people are now trying a wider range of styles and imports. Once you’ve tasted more than about 20 different beers your ability to remember if Nottingham Pale Ale was better or worse than Robin Hood’s Bitter becomes more and more difficult. Tasting beers in a consistent way and keeping some sort of record of what you thought of those beers is fun, useful in making future purchases and to be able to recommend good beer to mates.

Now we can look at “how to rate beer”. Firstly, there is no one or right way to rate beer. I will describe how I do it and you can decide for your self which parts of the rating process you might wish to try and/or use.

Preparation:
Firstly, I never rate a beer direct from a can or a bottle, only a clean glass. Of course having the exact glass recommended by the brewery is ideal but when I don’t have one, I substitute based on style: a standard pint pub glass for lagers, stouts and ales; a “chalice like” glass for Belgian ales, and flutes or champagne glasses for lambic beers.

Make sure your beer is at the correct temperature. This does not mean “almost frozen”. People who drink near to frozen beer (e.g. many Australians) don’t realize that your nose and tongue do not work well at these temperatures – or maybe the beer they are drinking is so bad they are doing this deliberately! Cellar temperature is often recommended, but I like to cool my beers a few degrees colder than the recommended temperature so that by the time it’s in the glass and I’ve made my couple of minutes worth of initial observations it’s ready to taste. Freezing your glass is not recommended as it freezes water out from the beer and can substantially alter its flavour.

Finally I like to have my bottle opener, pen and notebook handy (being a super nerdy beer rater, I also sometimes use a thermometer as well!). My preference is to rate in as quiet a situation as possible, with minimum noise and distractions. That said, rating with friends is fun because you can discuss each beer in detail and help each other to come up with words to describe the aromas and flavours.

Rating
Make sure the beer has as close as possible to the correct size head for the beer style. Ideally you should pour yourself a full serve so you can observe the proper head. This becomes a bit harder when sharing beers but you should still be able to get a good bit of foam on top of your sample.

Appearance:
After pouring I then look at the beer and write down as many things as I can about its visual appeal, including the colour, clarity, carbonation, and head size and longevity. Later I also note the extent and pattern of lacing on the glass. I then award a mark out of 5 for this feature. Basically the mark is awarded for how tantalizing does the beer look - how much does it say “Pick me up and drink me!”

Aroma:
Now smell the beer. The very first smell is the one you need to pay most attention to, as your nasal sensors will quickly saturate. Move the glass away from you and breathe normal air and then try again. I look for and note down any attractive, unusual or bad aromas. Hop character, malts, sweetness, fruitiness and other aromas. Swirling the glass can release some of the fainter more subtle aromas that are not evident the first time around. If you need word descriptors, see the excellent Aroma/Flavor Checklist, by ecrvich. Click here for a Aroma/Flavor Tasting Form. Finally, I award a mark out of 10 for this feature.

NOW YOU CAN TASTE THE BEER!
Palate:
This is a difficult one to put your finger on. It’s basically the “feel” of the beer inside your mouth and (unlike wine tasting!) as you swallow it. How does the beer feel around the front of your mouth, the back of the mouth and as you swallow it? Is it velvety smooth or harsh, mouth filling like a stout or is it thin bodied like a watery lager? Sticky or cloying like a over sweet soft drink or does it strip your mouth out like vinegar? Is it balanced, or one-dimensional? I usually concentrate on the body or fullness of the beer and any other special feature of how it feels in the mouth. I then award a mark out of 5 for this feature. The Aroma/Flavor Checklist has a number of useful terms to help you describe the palate.

Flavour:
This is how the beer tastes. How many different tastes and flavours can you identify? How does the initial flavour vary from the start, the middle, finish and aftertaste of the beer. Here you can describe the intensity of the bitterness, sweetness and sourness of the beer. See the Aroma/Flavor Checklist once again for useful descriptors. I award a mark out of 10 for flavour.

Overall:
Finally the beer is rated overall out of 20 marks. This can be a way of balancing up other features about the beer or anything else you like or dislike about it. You might be a cost conscious beer drinker and include price. How likely are you going to want to buy this beer again? When you finish the beer, how do you feel about it?

from ratebeer.com

Review by Jerry Katz @ JerryKatz.cc [January 20, 2008]

Sam Adams Seasonal Beer - White Ale (Light blue Label on the bottle)

From the Same Adams website, here’s their definition: This beer’s roots are in Belgium, and the classic Wit biers produced by Belgium’s brewers. The style gets its name from the white, milky appearance of this unfiltered wheat ale. The brewers of Samuel Adams® beer, taking inspiration from the Belgians, have created a classic of their own. On the malt side, we use malted two row Pale barley, malted wheat, and Munich malt to give this beer a crisp, malty, cereal finish and smooth mouth feel. The hops used are Noble Tettnang Tettnanger hops. At the end of the kettle boil, we add a proprietary spice blend to give Samuel Adams® White Ale a unique and complex flavor, without being overpowering or cloying. The spice blend includes orange and lemon peel, dried plum, grains of paradise, coriander, anise, hibiscus, rose hips, tamarind, and vanilla. It is this special blend of spices that gives Samuel Adams® White Ale its unique character, complexity and refreshing drinkability. The beer is coarse filtered, leaving a white haze from the malt proteins. Our proprietary top fermenting ale yeast ferments the beer, imparting its signature character - bright and slightly fruity.

The beer was first brewed in 1997 and is available late January thru April. It’s got a Golden Amber color, but it’s cloudy. Put your hand behind the glass and see what you can’t see. It’s got 175 Calories.

Not to anger to folks in Boston, another beer I like that this falls into the same range would be Blue Moon.

Drinkability, humm, how to define this one. If you’re going to sit and have a few beers and eat some wings, this going to be fine. Would you want to drink them all afternoon on the lake (if it were warm and we had water in the lake) probably not. I’d switch over to another Sam treat after a few.

Review by Jerry Katz @ JerryKatz.cc [January 20, 2008]
From the official website of Sam Adams -  The first thing one notices in a Samuel Adams® Winter Lager is its color: the deep brown of winter. Then comes the magical aroma which promises something special on the tongue. The warm aroma of cinnamon and ginger which blends with the roasty sweetness of the malted barley and hint of citrus from the orange peel. And after that first sip the promise is fulfilled. On the palate Samuel Adams® Winter Lager is rich and full bodied, robust and warming, a wonderful way to enjoy the cold evenings that come with this season.

Now this seasonal is offered from November thru January.  But watch the label if you pick it up at Outback Steakhouse. The beer is better when you drink it before the month notched. So, if the bottle is notched with January, as them to search around in the cooler for one notched later. I found them with March at the Outback and April at BW3.   The first I had was not as good, nor did it produce a good head.

This could be one of the reasons of weight gain in winter. It’s a big 200 calories per 12 oz bottle. Uh, let’s see, times…. oh, never mind!   This overview is part of a requested “Beer of the Week” section added to the site for friend Dick Tracey.  Go try these first two and let me know what you think.  And, by the way, I take you to be a Budweiser drinker. Am I right!

Also See: Simple Beer Rating Guide

Stop, think and drink!

One day you might find yourself enjoying a beer, when all of the sudden you begin to have an opinion on the beer, beyond just enjoying it - or not, as the case might be. From there, you might decide to discuss it with others or take some notes. But before you do: stop, think and drink! Although taste is very subjective, there are ways to compose your thoughts and remain as objective as possible. The following tips will allow you to evaluate a beer, while respecting what the brewer was trying to achieve.

Note: you don’t need to be a beer geek to follow these tips either.

Respect brewers
Behind each beer is a person with feelings and pride. Beer might be their passion, livelihood or entire life. Even if you don’t like a beer, at the very least have some respect and be constructive with your criticism.

Form your own opinion
It’s important to not be influenced by others when reviewing a beer. Everyone is going to have a different experience, so make sure your opinions are your own. Don’t allow others to lead you before you review the beer yourself - this includes reading on-line reviews of the beer that you’re about to review.

Keep style in mind
Say you don’t like light beers. We suggest that you do one of two things: 1) don’t review them if you know you already don’t like them - your opinion will be tainted. 2) Review with an open mind and for what the beer is trying to be, not what you think the beer should be or pit it against the kick-ass India Pale Ale that you had earlier. It’s also important to note that a beery character that you might not like, could be “to style,” and shouldn’t be deemed a flaw. Example: buttery notes (diacetyl) in a Scotch Ale or ESB, the vinegary sourness in a Lambic, or the intense smokiness in a Rauchbier.

Senses
Flavor and aroma are tightly connected, so make sure you have your senses in check. Don’t attempt to review a beer if your senses are out of whack, like: you’ve got a cold, burnt your tongue with coffee in the morning, just ate a plate of atomic wings, tasted too many beers already, you’re exhausted or simply in a bad mood. Taste buds can get ruined and tired, so be flexible and try a beer more than once.

Smoking
Speaking of senses, never review a beer in a smoky environment or while smoking. Smoking inhibits your sense of smell and taste in a major way, and smoking (first- or second-hand) can damage your senses, sometimes permanently.

What to look for
There are five categories to evaluating a beer with your review:

Appearance - Note the beer’s color, carbonation, head and its retention. Is it clear or cloudy? Does it look lackluster and dull or alive and inviting?

Smell - Bring the beer to your nose. Note the beer’s aromatic qualities. Malts: sweet, roasty, smoky, toasty, chocolaty, nutty, caramelly, biscuity? Hops: dank / resiny, herbal, perfumy, spicy, leafy, grassy, floral, piney, citrusy? Yeast will also create aromas. You might get fruity or flowery aromas (esters) from ales and very clean aromas from lagers, which will allow the malt and hop subtleties to pull through.

Taste - Take a deep sip of the beer. Note any flavors, or interpretations of flavors, that you might discover. The descriptions will be similar to what you smell. Is the beer built-well? Is there a balance between the ingredients? Was the beer brewed with a specific dominance of character in mind? How does it fit the style?

Mouthfeel - Take another sip and let it wander. Note how the beer feels on the palate and its body. Light, heavy, chewy, thin / watery, smooth or coarse? Was the beer flat, over-carbonated?

Drinkability - The beer’s overall ease of consumption and your overall impression of the beer. Would you have another?

Temperature
Many drink their beer too damn cold. Cold temperatures will numb the taste buds and literally masks the beer’s true flavors, aromas and nuances. Use color (malts) and alcohol content to determine the best drinking temperatures. Try around 40-50 degrees F for paler or lower alcohol beers, and 50-60 degrees F for darker or higher alcohol beers.

Glassware (clean)
Is important. If you’re at home, stock up on some of the basics, otherwise do the best you can.

Serving preparation
As mentioned, clean glassware is a must. You should take note to not review a beer if: you know that the tap lines are dirty or your sample is from a recapped or abused growler sample - like a growler shipped across the US or growler that is poured into bottles and recapped to ship to multiple reviewers.

Order
Many suggest that beers should be tasted from the old “lightest to darkest” heuristic method. While this generally works, today it’s dated and flawed. Sure, malt flavors will intensify with increasing kilning temperatures, but often times color has nothing to do with tasting a beer. Color can be an indication of what you might be in for, but for the most part, and with most drinkers, it’s psychological. You’ll want to consider two things: alcohol content and hop levels. Keep your hoppy and high alcohol beers towards the end so you don’t ruin your palate early in the tasting. Exceptions to this might be certain specialty ingredients that have very bold and distinct characters, like: smoked malts in Rauchbiers, intense fruit beers, or the wild yeast and bacteria used in Lambics - all of which can be light in color, hence the flaw. You’ll want to save these for the end as well.

Don’t review a “bad” beer
Not a beer that you simply don’t like, but rather a beer you know to be spoiled due to reasons outside of the brewer’s control - like a skunked beer and beer past its prime. If you come across a beer like this, alert whoever you purchased it from and send a note to the brewer.

Don’t review at beer fests
If you’re planning on taking notes at a beer fest, don’t. With small sample sizes (usually 1 to 4ozs), loud environments, slew of smells, and tasting of numerous beer styles back-to-back, beer fests are not the ideal environment in which to review a beer. Doing so does a disservice to the brewer and could mislead others. It’s also not a good idea to have multiple people review from the same small serving or review by cell-phone light at night.

Don’t review from samplers
Along the same lines as beer fests, many brewpubs and beer bars offer samplers - typically 4ozs servings of a range of offerings. You shouldn’t review these either. Between the presentation and sample size, samplers are simply not worthy of reviews. You’re not going to get to know a beer off of a single 4oz sample.

Don’t review while intoxicated
You should always practice moderation when drinking, but never review a beer if you’re intoxicated. Your judgment will be clouded, as will your senses.

Cleanse the palate
It’s highly recommended that you have some water as well as plain bread, crackers or even air-popped popcorn on hand to cleanse the palate between beers and to help stave off inebriation. Avoid salty and greasy foods or anything that could overpower the senses - you want to clean/scrub the palate, not destroy it.

Take notes
Many view this as a rather geeky practice, but note taking can really help you to learn more about beer, train your palate and broaden your beer vocabulary.