The Nefarious Ten Pin is made by Ska Brewing it is 8% alcohol and is called a “Baltic porter”. Originally Baltic porters were made in the 1700′s and sent across the seas, hence the nickname. The company that brews this beer is from Colorado (Ska Brewing) and produces many different types of beer so check your local beer store for more varieties. This particular beer was sealed with wax. The reason companies seal the bottles using this method is to help ensure that no oxygen can enter the beer. The 2 things that will ruin your beer are oxygen and light so anything you can do to prevent those getting in is a great idea. Plus… I’m sure they do it for looks ;o)

The Nefarious Ten Pin is best paired with Beef, BBQ and cheese. If you have eaten and any finer restaurants lately, you have probably started to notice more beers being offered on the menus. Even at some of my favorite wine bars, I have started to see some of the more expensive and higher quality beers starting to appear. The reason I bring that up is most people have thought only wine is best paired with cheese but you would be surprised at how well beer stacks up to some delicious cheese. Hopefully soon we will have some more info about cheese and food pairing on the site soon.

If you are going to be tasting multiple beers in a night, I usually prefer to go from lowest alcohol to highest. It’s not always the best method but try and make sure you cleanse your palette between tastings so you can truly enjoy the next beer.

The stout pours jet black with no lacing and minimal head. It doesn’t appear to have much carbonation and looks like a flat cola. It has a mellow smell that is very sweet and malty with a slightly toasted smell. I get slight hints of yeast and that familiar alcohol smell that comes across slightly sour in these higher alcohol beers.

It has a very refreshing snap to it with a smoky slightly burnt wave. You get the warm smooth flavor enveloping your mouth but it has a very refreshing super drinkable beer. Normally stouts can be hard to drink on a hot day but this is a great summer beer. I really expected it to be just a dessert beer but it was very good. The higher alcohol will keep you from enjoying to many but you can try!

This is one of my personal favorites from Ska Brewing. Ska has made sure to pay attention to the finer details in this beer with an excellent bottle and an astounding flavor. If you are a die hard traditional stout kind of person this might not be your thing but I love when breweries keep it interesting and step out of the “normal”. Ska Brewing has truly stepped out of the box.

The bottle is ceramic and can be used in bottling your own beers! This is an award winning bottle so make sure you save it for your collection.

The beer pours a golden haze with about an inch of head. The head holds very well and has a crisp white color. Not a ton of carbonation and looks similar to many hefeweizens.

The smell started off very sour. It has a strong yeasty smell and the signature pilsner skunk aroma. Based on the smell, I wasn’t real excited to give it a taste.

The taste was surprising. Very smooth, had the czech skunkiness but not overpowering and was very drinkable. After tasting the beer, the smells mellowed out and I could get much stronger smells showing through. It was tough to get through the sour smell but once you were past it, this smelled and taste pretty good. I would drink it again!

Stones Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale started as Stone 11th Anniversary Ale. People loved the Ale so much that they decided to remake the beer and bring it back.

The beer pours a dark brown almost black color. Through the thinner parts you can see a brownish red tint to the beer. There was a large amount of head (roughly 3 fingers) that was creamy mellow tan with a foamy texture. The head sat still when I swirled the glass but the bubbles faded quickly.

The smell was nothing like I expected from such a dark ale. I mostly smelled hops and didn’t want to wait for the head to dissipate to open up the aromas. It had a very citrus grapefruit like smell with a tiny hint of sweetness.

The taste was another shocking wave of deliciousness. It starts off with the alcohol making it warm and inviting but not overpowering. It was very rich and malty, the bitterness made this a very interesting experience for your senses. It’s hard to describe but the beer just tastes exceptional. For those of you that think higher alcohol complex beers are hard to drink, you should try this one. Your brain will be questioning if you are enjoying an IPA, a stout, or some type of strong ale.

Great job with this Stone Brewing, we hope you re-produce many of your limited release beers for us Stone Brewery lovers!

Rogue makes some exceptional beers and we love our stouts. This one is 6% alcohol and is rated very high on most other sites.

The Shakespeare Stout pours a dark black with a rich burnt brown head. It poured perfect and is exactly how I would like a dark stout to look. Great lacing, head retention, color, etc.

Our Rogue stout had a very nutty, chocolaty, vanilla and coffee smell. Almost a toffee caramel hint also. The bubbles and alcohol give you a tingly feeling in your nose. It smelled smooth with a small bite.

The first thing I notice was the very very smooth mouth feel. It helped make this exceptionally easy to drink and really opens up the possibilities for pairing with food. It has a bold rich bakers chocolate taste with hints of espresso. If this was on nitrogen, it would be a perfect 10 overall. I will be buying plenty more of Rogues exceptional Shakespeare Stout.

The beer poured a dark rich dry brown that was pitch black. There is about 2 fingers worth of head. The head was very dark brown and may be the darkest head I have seen. When they say Old Viscosity, I think they are referring to oil… That’s exactly what this stout beer looks like.

It has a dry woody musk smell that wasn’t too sweet. It reminds me of an extra stout with burnt woody vanilla smell with small hints of cocoa. I’m a big fan of oak aged stouts and think it really steps up the flavor notch for a beer as potent as this.

The taste was superb. You can get the higher alcohol warmth right away which works great with the strength of flavor of Old Viscosity. The vanilla and burnt flavor come through very smooth but strong. It has a heavy thick dark chocolate flavor that would make this an excellent drink for desert, or on a cold day.

Each Vertical Epic beer is designed to drink sometime after 12.12.12 (end of the world?) for a “truly epic tasting”. If you had all 10 bottles, it would be an experience maybe 3 or 4 will get to try. They use very interesting ingredients and release them as homebrew recipes usually a month or so after their release. I have tasted every vertical epic since 06.06.06 and really appreciated the delicious chocolate Vertical Epic released for 09. We picked up 8 or 9 bottles hoping to save some… First 4 and then we had to grab more… There’s only 1 left… This is a great beer and I really hope they add this to their “regularly produced” list.

The beer poured a very dark espresso color and is pitch black in our glasses. The head was very creamy and it had a nitrogen appearance which was really surprising.

It has a citrus swiss chocolate smell like a sweet candy. It reminds me of chocolate covered orange peels that I used to eat as a kid.

The taste was exceptional. It has a strong coffee chocolate flavor with a very smooth creamy texture. The citrus creates a nice bitterness that combined with the burnt malty chocolate is DELICIOUS. I knew there was no way our bottles were going to last after that taste.

I think my last bottle is going to last through the day… Thanks Stone Brewing!

The beer contains cocoa, chilies, honey, tree seeds and more. It’s not what you expect from a chocolate beer and I promise it will surprise you!

The beer pours a redish amber with almost no head. It looks unfiltered and should help keep the flavor.

It has a sour smell and it makes it very difficult to pinpoint what it is. Theobroma didn’t smell like most beers and I think the chile’s with cocoa mix really confuses what you expect to smell.

It was sour and has a spicy dryness. It feels excellent in your mouth. It was very surprising. You get the cocoa bitterness right up front but the chiles really follow through in the end to keep it very complex.

I wouldn’t drink this everyday but it is worth buying and trying!

Coney Island’s brewery is out of New York (Shmaltz Brewing Company) and is one of the few east coast craft breweries that makes it all the way to Arizona. The bottle has excellent artwork and really stands out on the shelf when you walk by.

The Coney Island brewery donates a portion of their profits to a foundation that helps keep Coney Islands historical landmark maintained.

The beer is 6.66% alcohol seasonal beer with 5 different hops and 5 different types of malts. The beer pours an unnatural red color to really stand true to the name. I’ve never seen a beer this red that wasn’t a framboise.

It has a very sweet sugar flavor with a nice wave of hops. I would probably classify this as an OctoberIPAfest. If you like the sweet beers that are full of hops, this may be your new favorite.

The brew bosts a 27% ABV, which makes this the strongest commercial beer currently available. This is also the strongest offering of the Utopias which was first released in February of 2002. There were 9000 bottles released this year and because the alcohol level is so high, it is banned in 13 states. The Utopias is brewed with Carmel, Cienna, Moravian and Bavarian Smoked Malts and all four varieties of noble hops. It has been aged for around 15 years in oak barrells and is acctually a combination of several generations of Utopias to create the perfect blend and complexity. The beer comes packaged in a copper finished kettle that resembles those used during the brewing process. The Utopias bottle is a work of art on it’s own. The 2009 edition of the Utopias is currently being sold for $150 a bottle, we picked our bottle of Samuel Adams Utopias at BevMo in Queen Creek Arizona.

The beer poured a beautiful carmely red that reminded me of a fine cognac. There is no head and Utopias viscosity reminds me of a fresh made maple syrup. You can smell the alcohol 3 feet away from the beer and get a very sweet inviting smell. When you breathe it in you get an excellent carmel vanilla toffee smell. Sam Adams really went all out on Utopias making something that redefines what a beer can be. This reminds me of a very fine cognac with a sweet syrup flavor that has rushing waves of flavor as it coats your mouth. The video helps show everyones reactions to the delicious flavor. It’s definatly made for sipping and a few of our friends couldn’t handle Utopias greatness. Most of the true beer lovers were in awe at this beers character. If I could sum up this beer into one word… Heavenly…

I found a new favorite for my top 3 beers of all time. Sam Adams, you have truly outdone yourself this time.

We just got done enjoying a delicious Turkey dinner and it’s time to enjoy something special! The smell is strong, kind of fruity, woody slightly chocolaty. It poured a very nice dark black with a dark brown burnt head. The head retention is spectacular and it looks like it will be amazing.

The first thing I taste is a warm  roasted caramel flavor. It has a great flavorful warmth.  It has a malty very sweet strong wave that is complimented by the dry burnt flavor. The alcohol made for a peppery spiciness in the back of my throat.  The wood really brings a new dimension to the beer and it wouldn’t have been as good without it.

I didn’t expect it to be so delicious. The smell set my expectations of a mediocre beer. The flavor reminded me how great a good craft brew can be. The perfect place for this is after a long day in the snow. The smell stepped up a level after tasting and revealed some of the milder scents I didn’t pick up originally.

You couldn’t drink bottle after bottle but I could sure use another one!

The life and limb beer uses a blend of house yeasts, maple syrup and birch syrup (probably a first for beer). Because the life & limb is only using family products and both breweries have very strong heritage to their farms and families they decided to name the beer Life and Limb. They have dedicated the beer to all the beer drinkers, brewers, enthusiasts, etc. that risk life & limb to help grow the craft brewing community. That is what this site is all about!

Life and Limb is a 10% ABV strong, dark beer. It should be pitch black and I assume it will be very rich and slightly sweet from the syrups. Both breweries make exceptional beers and I am sure this will be just as good as everything else they have made if not even better.

The beer is now available on draft and they are shipping the bombers throughout the country. It will probably somewhat hard to find. If you have a Bevmo or Total Wine, etc you should probably be able to pick it up.

While making this they came up with a very very small batch of another beer titled Limb and Life. It’s a “small beer” and will be difficult to find. It will only be available on draft so if you can find this, let us know where you found it!

*Picture is courtesy of their website life-limb.com

Redhook is headquartered in Seattle Washington and has several locations around the United States. They are very popular and you should be able to find their beers in most grocery stores. I am most familiar with their ESB which is also very pleasant.

First we started off at the field where all the food vendors and bathrooms are. There are tons of games like beer pong, pool, bag toss, etc. We made sure to take some time between drinks and enjoy the activities. The girls from Dos Equis pointed out a girl that was so drunk she fell out of a port-o-potty so we made sure we didn’t get to that level.

The beers I tried were:

1. Cream Ale
2. Four Peaks Pitchfork
3. Bitch Creek
4. Avery IPA
5. BeerBakers
6. Dales Pale Ale
7. Santa Fe Pale Ale
8. Guiness

Not all the beers I tried were new. We had a group of 3 and we each tasted eachothers to get the largest variety possible. My favorite was probably Four Peaks Pitchfork and Bitch Creek. Four Peaks Pitchfork was very drinkable and tasted like a mix of their 8th Street Ale and the Raj IPA. Bitch Creek was a very well balanced ESB.

We’ll see you at the next event!

- LocalBrewery.com

We went to this event (and several others) last year and it is a blast! There will be thousands of beer fans ranging from connoisseur to college bing drinker. The one thing everyone has in common… They LOVE beer! 

There will be hundreds of beers and even some beers that have NEVER been served in Arizona before. If you are a true beer lover, make sure you check it out!

Here is a list of a few beers that will be at the event:

Thursday Green Beer Area

Green Flash Hop-less
Ska Hoperation
Thursday VIP area
Bells Bourbon Barrel aged Double cream stout
Alpine Brewing Pure Hoppiness
Alpine Brewing Willy
Alpine Brewing Captains Stout
Pizza Port/Carlsbad Twerp
Pizza Port/Carlsbad Good Grief Charlie Brown
Silly Saison
Ninkasi Total Domination IPA
Ninkasi Believer Double Red
Maui Blond
Maui IPA
Full Sail Lumplin Fresh Hop
Full Sail Keelhauler
Deschutes Hop Trip
Deschutes Red Chair
Dogfish Palo Santo

Some of the beers being poured Friday

Alpine Brewing Willy
Alpine Brewing Duet
Alpine Brewing Captains Stout
Alpine Brewing Alpine Ale
Pizza Port/Carlsbad Chronic
Ninkasi Total Domination IPA
Ninkasi Radiant
Maui IPA
Maui Coconut Porter
Great Divide Oak Barrel aged Yeti
Full Sail Lumplin Fresh Hop
Full Sail Keelhauler
Deschutes Hop Trip
Deschutes Red Chair
Dogfish Palo Santo

Here is a sampling of some of the beers available in the VIP area of the main event:

Green Flash Hop-less
Alpine Brewing Pure Hoppiness
Alpine Brewing Willy
Alpine Brewing Duet
Alpine Brewing Captains Stout
Alpine Brewing Alpine Ale
Pizza Port/Carlsbad Twerp
Pizza Port/Carlsbad Chronic
Pizza Port/Carlsbad Good Grief Charlie Brown
Pizza Port/Carlsbad Plant to Pint Freshhop
Dogfish Palo Santo
Deschutes Red Chair
Deschutes Hop Trip
Full Sail Keelhauler
Full Sail Lumplin Fresh Hop
Affligem Triple Noel (Keg)
Great Divide Oak Barrel Aged Yeti (Keg)
Alesmith Grand Cru
Anderson Valley Winter Soltice
Bear Republic Racer 5
Eel River Acai Berry
Moylans White Xmas
Moylans Hopsickle
Avery Czar (Keg)
Avery Collaboration
Nogne-O Dogges Sahti
Fantome Noel
Mahrs Christmas
Cantillon Kreik
Sint Peters XMAS Zinnebeer
Schneider Brooklyn Hopfen Weiss
Redstone Nectar of the hops
Augustijn (Keg)
Petras Aged Pale
Blanche Des Moines
Scaldis Noel
Triple Karmeliet
Meantime Coffee Porter
Kwak (Keg)
Urthel Hopit
Sinnebrychoffs Porter
JW Lees Harvest Port
Oude Beersel Kreik
St Bernardus Abt 12
Silly Scotch
Silly Saison- (Keg)
Petrus Winter Ale
DeDolle Teve
Hebrew R.I.P.A.
Breckenridge Vanilla Porter
Breckenridge 471 Small Batch IPA
Hitachino Nest White
Harviestoun Ola Dubh 12
Flying Dog Wild Weizen
Great Divide Hoss
Lefthand Smoke Jumper
Oskar Blues TenFidy (cans)
Ska Modus Hoperandi (cans)
Ska Euphoria (cans)
Port Brewing Santas Little Helper
Lost Abbey Gift of the Magi
Lakefront Pumpkin (Keg)
Papago Oude Zuipers
Sonoran Cordeilla Blanca
McChouffe
Cucapa Barleywine
Cucapa Chucacabras (cans)
Steigl Pils
Bruery Saison Rue
New Belgium LaFolie
New Belgium Transatlantic Kreik

The beer bottle is expected to bring in up to $8,000 this weekend at auction. The beer is Lowenbrau, over 62 years old and the beer inside is undrinkable.

“It is the most valuable bottle of beer ever sold,” said Aldridge of the British auction house Henry Aldridge & Sons. “You wouldn’t want to drink it – it is probably quite putrid to taste”

*Image courtesy of BNPS

After reading everyones reviews on Beer Advocate, I thought it wasn’t going to be as good as it is. It seems like most people only rate beers high when they are extremely strong, high in alcohol or super bitter. I personally rate this very very high. It is a limited release beer but I will buy as much as I can before this delicious porter is gone.  I thought the beer was so good I decided to use it as a theme for my dinner.

We made a delicious New York strip steak soaked in a mixture of Worcestershire, the delicious pipeline porter and seasoning. I only soaked them at room temperature for about an hour or so. When the steak was ready, this beer really brought out the flavor. Enjoying the beer with the steak was truly a treat for my mouth. Kona is an excellent local brewery in Hawaii, if you are there make sure to check them out!

I wanted this beer to stand out when you read the reviews so I edited the picture a bit to help showcase it.

The beer pours with perfect head (as you can see in the picture). It’s right about an inch to an inch and a half of head. The beer is amber yellow and has mild lacing. The smell is very well balanced with slightly citrus caramel smell. The beer has a very sweet pleasantness that paired perfect with the food. The hops contrasted with the mild flavor of the macaroni and helped strengthen the meats to be extra flavorful. This is the kind of beer that could be mixed with any meal. Extremely drinkable with excellent flavor. One of my absolute favorites if you are looking for something mild and very drinkable!

The beer poors a very very light yellow. I poored straight down the center of the glass almost as fast as I could and didn’t get any real amount of head. The lacing is pretty strong on the sides of the glass. I let the beer warm for a few minutes to get a nice smell in my “Perfect Beer Glass”. It smells very bitter with very light hints of rose and maybe a tiny bit of citrus. Not a lot of carbonation and looks like it is bottle conditioned. It has 2 waves of flavors. The first part is a very refreshing and very drinkable light ale. It then follows up with a strong dry bitter rush of hoppiness.  It’s pretty sweet and I don’t get a lot of the hoppiness until after I swallow.

Overall I think this is a good pale ale. I think it could have use a bit more malt to balance the flavor more or maybe more hops up front. I look forward to trying everything else they offer!

The beer has 100% Kona Coffee and Macadamia nut. The beer was very dark and poured with excellent dark malty head. It has a very strong smell with higher alcohol than most porters. The beer had intense flavor with a strong coffee/espresso like taste topped off with a rich sweet nutty finish. It was better than we expected. If you like dark beers, coconut, chocolate, etc this is an excellent choice!