Beer Review: Berkshire Brewing Co - Drayman's Porter

Brew Style: Porter
Brewer: http://www.berkshirebrewingcompany.com
ABV: 6.2%
BrewNewb Opinion: Good Beer

Perhaps I'm a little bit biased, being from MA, and loving the Berkshire mountains and all, but then again - maybe the beer they make is just plain awesome! 

Bought a pint of this, poured, as always, into my Sam Adams perfect pint glass. Poured very dark, nearly black, which piqued my interests. The foam was thick, didn't stick around very long. 

Smelled of sweet vanilla. It was a mild understated scent, I was surprised at how thin the scent was. 

Coffee is the front end of this beer, it's the taste that hits the hardest in the beginning, finishs with the chocolate. The hops are light, a perfect balance to the sweetness. Carbonation is very slight, does not interfere with the complex flavors.

Very nice beer, great selection if you like a nice porter.

Beer Review: Berkshire Brewing Company: Dean's Beans Coffeehouse Porter

Brew Style: Porter
Brewer: http://www.berkshirebrewingcompany.com
ABV: 6.2%
BrewNewb Opinion: Great Beer!

I love a nice thick porter. I love the brown sweet scent, the way it pours like a flat soda, the thick creamy froth of the head, and this brew does NOT disappoint. 

I bought a pint of this, brought it home and poured it into my Sam Adams perfect pint glass. It smelled like a iced coffee, with a mild grain scent, hints of cocoa.

The head is truly impressive, thick and fluffy, and dark like that of a root beer float. 

The taste was smooth and crisp. Coffee and caramel, vanilla and chocolate, with a smooth finish. Very well balanced beer, and a good choice if you're itching for a coffee porter. 

Price was nice too, a pint was less than $5.

Lost Sailor IPA - A to Z Blog Challenge

SO. Here I am again. I JUST finished up a few other posts, such as the J post here...  So why did I skip K? Cause I've had enough Killian's that I could post about it with my eyes closed, both hands tied behind my back, using the force. I wrote the Killian's post a week ago.

OK, so I've told you before, IPA is currently my favorite brew, so again, a biased post... Keep in mind, I just did the J post, while working on this one AND doing my H post for my usual blog... so at this point, anything that I write that's even coherent, is a bonus.

So the Lost Sailor IPA... I can't say enough good things about this stuff... When you crack this growler, the first thing you notice is that it pours and looks like a normal pale ale... But you smell Christmas trees! The bitterness of the hops used for an IPA (like Harpoon for those of you who are familiar" always reminds me of Christmas trees... I don't know why, perhaps it tastes like Christmas trees... and yes, I've tasted Christmas tress... It was sort of a tradition for my cousin and I. More him than me, but when he was over, and sampled a sprig if my tree, I felt like it would be rude if I didn't join him. Anyway, that's what the bitterness of an IPA reminds me of. Call me crazy if you like.

SO, the Lost Sailor IPA, like I was saying is awesome if you like IPA. It's about 5.5%. According to that website that I linked, you can get it in single bottles, but I only have access to the growlers. ...boy, poor me. Why "lost sailor"? I don't know. Perhaps cause it's a MA brew, and there was a lot of sailors here? Could be!

To learn more, don't look to me, cause right now, my field research has me drunk and I still need to cook dinner for myself and the kids. It's looking like hot dogs for tonight.

Berkshire Brewing Company (BBC) - A to Z Blog Challenge

Berkshire Brewing Company started in 1994, coincidentally the same year I finished my sophmore year in High School. There's no common thread between those two facts, I just thought I'd throw that in there, cause aside from it being my sophomore year, there was nothing memorable about it for me. At least, if there was, I can't recall it.

Being a New Englander, and more specifically a Bostonian, I have an over-inflated sense of pride regarding things in, around, and from this area. It seems a common trait we New Englanders have. I love that we see the best and worst of all four seasons. Case in point: As I write this post, a little early on in this challenge, admittedly, but knowing myself, I'll finish it only just in the nick of time anyway, it's March 21st, the first day of spring, and it's snowing like crazy. There's so much white stuff on my deck right now, it looks like Charlie Sheen's coffee table. 

I also love that we have the ocean, lakes, forests and mountains. Imagine my non-sensical swell of pride to find a beer by the "Berkshire Brewing Company"!

This beer was introduced to me in probably one of the coolest ways by my buddy. He brought over in a Growler. In the picture below, you'll see one of my brews in recycled bottles... The 6 large ones in the middle are growlers. You can see, these are actually BBC growlers I used. 

I can just imagine the conversation that lead to the genesis of the growler... Two guys bottling beers, one says "Christ what a pain in the ass!" and the other says "Let's make a bigger bottle! That'll be MANLY!" and the first guy says "Yeah! And to make it more MANLY, we'll call it a GRRRRRRROWLER!" I'm sure it was shortened for convenience. 

Anwyay, back to the beer. 

This is a craft brew, and as such, it has a sludge that settles on the bottom called Lees. Some people prefer to toss the last few ounces to avoid drinking the lees, others drink it. It's perfectly harmless, as it's mainly dead yeast cells. If you don't like the lees, you'd best store the bottle upright. 

Being that it comes in such a large vessel, it's best to drink the whole thing that night, to avoid having flat beer tomorrow. 

I've had several brews, and they were all exemplary. My favorite of these is the Lost Sailor IPA. This is a very nice IPA similar to Harpoon, though a little more flowery. It's definltey got some wine overtones to it, but the hop flavor comes out in the finish. Perhaps a little more sour than bitter. 

This beer comes in at 5.5%. Definitely a good beer.