Mt. Carmel Brewing Company Amber Ale

You probably don’t think of craft beer when you think of Cincinnati, but that may change thanks to Mt. Carmel Brewing Company. In business since 2005, MCBC is a family operation based out of a farmhouse on Mt. Carmel-Tobasco Road. Brewers Mike and Kathleen Dewey endeavor to “provide exceptional craft beers to the greater Cincinnati area”. They’re clearly doing a good job - their average beer rating on Beer Advocate is a B+ (an astronomically high score considering the notorious snobbery of the voting pool!). I decided to start with their Amber Ale for a couple of reasons. First of all, I enjoy ambers. And secondly, I figured this sort of beer would really test Mt. Carmel’s brewing chops. After all, amber ales aren’t considered the most “interesting” style of beer. They’re not hop bombs. They don’t really “challenge” the palate. They’re simple beers, and they can taste pretty generic if they’re not done well. It takes subtlety and craftsmanship to deliver an amber that rises above the pack. When I find brewers that can make smooth, tasty ambers, I know they can make any kind of beer. And by all means, Mt. Carmel has come through with a truly outstanding amber ale! It’s at least as good as a Fat Tire - if not better. It’s balanced and wicked smooth, yet at the same time far hoppier than your run-of-the-mill amber. Roasty and caramel malts hit you first, giving way to buttery, bready deliciousness a la an English bitter. And then the finish is all piny and citrus hops, the bitterness boldly cutting through those sweet malts you notice upfront. The hops are by no means overdone (this is, after all, an “easy drinking” style of brew!). But compared to a “typical” amber ale, it’s got quite a bite to it. All in all, this is an “A” grade amber that I could drink every day, all year. I’ve been fully converted. The next time I’m in Ohio, I’m going hard after the Mt. Carmel beers! I can’t wait to try their nut brown ale and stout!

http://www.mtcarmelbrewingcompany.com/

Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imperial IPA

Shawn Abnoxious, my friend and a great American, will find it quite funny that I paid $12.99 for a single bottle of Three Floyds Dreadnaught. He might even advise me to have myself committed. Shawn, after all, enjoys iconic North American swills like Miller High Life and Labatt Blue. When he spends $12.99 at the beer store, he goes home with a case! I went home with 22 ounces. I must confess that I sought my wife’s consent before proceeding to checkout. She said, “Buy one, and if you like it, we can come back later and get more.” Yeah, I know: I’m a lucky man.

Here’s the really crazy part: I’m gonna buy the Three Floyds Dreadnaught again. That’s a certainty. I have no regrets about my decadent splurge on an absurdly premium beer. I mean, I wouldn’t buy that sort of brew every day (or even every month). But for special occasions, I’m willing to go a little nuts. I’m a beer lover, for Christ’s sake! Life is short! Savor the flavor! The key is that it’s gotta be worth every penny. And the Dreadnaught absolutely is. It’s one of the best beers in the United States. It deserves its own statue - and perhaps even a theme song.

I’m sometimes lukewarm on standard IPAs. But when it comes to imperial IPAs, I am all over that shit! You have to love a beer that flat-out wants to kick your ass. But like any world-class DIPA, the Dreadnaught has way more going for it than just a nuclear assault of hops. Sure, it’s strong. But it’s also balanced, drinkable, and incredibly great-tasting. Mango and peach notes add a little something extra to the familiar pine/grapefruit hop wallop, and all that assertive bitterness is countered nicely with a rich caramel malt backbone and a nice grainy sweetness. The mouthfeel is to die for: so silky and creamy that you’d think there’s no way it could have come from a bottle! Sure, the alcohol by volume (9.5 percent) and IBU count (99) are through the roof. If you like “big” beers, this one is absolutely ginormous. But while you can admire the Dreadnaught purely on the basis of ballsiness, it merits equally high marks in the deliciousness department. The clerk at the Mishawaka Belmont Beverage led me to believe that Three Floyds beers are hard to find in that neck of the woods. Apparently this brewer’s wares are distributed on such a limited basis that when they hit the store shelves, people quickly come out of the woodwork to snatch them up, beating each other with sticks if necessary. Based on what I’ve tasted from the Three Floyds beer lineup, that sort of fervor is most understandable.

http://3floyds.com/

North Peak Wanderer Session IPA

Operation 200, a key component of Fitzledge Midwestern Tour 2011, turned out to be an epic fail. My goal was to eat my way over the 200 pound plateau while vacationing in the Land of Good Food. It was going to be the gluttonous grand finale of my annual bulking phase (you know you’re a meathead if your winter bulking phase extends into August!). I was going to top two bills on the scale and then spend my fall dieting down to 175. I had an ironclad assemblage of accomplices: Steak N’ Shake, Burger King, Tony Packo’s, Famous Dave’s, Grand Traverse Pie Co., Handel’s Ice Cream…There was just no way I could lose! But I stepped on the scale this past Monday and discovered I’d only made it to 198. In spite of gorging myself on sausage, beef, and beer for ten solid days, I fell two pounds short of glory. So close…yet so far! On a more positive note, at least I’m two pounds closer to 175. And a second component of the trip, Mission Brewski, was a decisive victory. I successfully purchased 150 dollars’ worth of craft beer in three different states, and now I’m fully stocked for the arrival of football season. The first of my booty to be sampled: North Peak’s Wanderer Session IPA.

So what the hell is a “session IPA”, exactly? Is it really an IPA, or is it just an assertively hopped APA? What the hay - I’ll give the brewer the benefit of the doubt! Citrus and pine are the prevailing notes. There’s a bitter bite to the flavor. An IPA it is! And at just 4.2 % alcohol and a modest 45 IBUs, it’s most definitely sessionable! Call it an “IPA light” if you wish, but the Wanderer delivers an extraordinary amount of taste for such a low ABV. You can drink 4 or 5 of these and not get blitzed, and that is precisely the point! If other warm weather seasonals come off like concessions to the average Joe, this one is a beer connoisseur’s session brew. Hopped with Perle, Willamette, Centennial, and Citra, and incorporating hops local to Traverse City, Michigan, this bad boy combines a clean finish and maximum drinkability with a strong, grassy hop kick. I’m funny with hops – sometimes modest little APAs taste gross to me, whereas I quite dig the full-on knock-your-socks-off bitterness of a double IPA. I’ve never quite warmed to the idea of a “drinkable” IPA…until now. The Wanderer is a balanced and tasty beer, and one I’d like to see upgraded to year-round status since it’s not really your typical “summer” ale. Then again, in the Michigan Upper Peninsula, “warm weather” beer season lasts about two months before it’s time to shelve the session beers and break out the imperial stouts. No wonder Michiganders have such outstanding beer – they deserve it!

http://www.northpeakbeer.com/

Bell's Oberon Ale

If you think about it, craft beer and indie rock are practically the same thing. One’s for the ears, and the other’s for the taste buds. But the principle is the same: an alternative to the mainstream, crafted not for the masses but rather the select few who can’t abide mediocrity. I am one of those select few. Sure, I like the classics as much as the next guy. I grew up on the Stones and The Who. I’ve seen them both in concert. But if you’re talking “contemporary” artists on my iPod, you’ve probably never heard of any of them. Something Fierce? Missing Monuments? Miss Chain and the Broken Heels? Yeah, like I was saying. Even most of the “old” music I own (Replacements, Clash) was the micro-brew rock of its time. It may be every eastern Pennsylvanian’s birthright to drink Yuengling, and I do from time-to-time. But to be totally honest (and risk deportation from the commonwealth), I gotta say I’ve lost my taste for Yuengling Lager. It’s not that I’m a snob. But having inundated myself with premium hops and malts on a daily basis for several years now, I’ve reached the point where beers that are made mostly from water and corn adjuncts just taste gross. Honestly, I want to like Miller High Life. I like the idea of the classic American beer. But the major corporate brewers, for financial reasons, chose to water down their product at some point in the 1970s. If you want a true classic beer, you probably have to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

If Samuel Adams is The Stooges of craft beer - the true progenitor of all that’s good - then Bell’s Brewery out of Kalamazoo and Comstock, Michigan might be micro-brewing’s Dictators or even Devo. Bell’s goes way back to 1985 - almost prehistoric times in craft beer terms! Literally thousands of American craft breweries have come along over the past 25 years or so and revolutionized beer drinking in this country. But Bell’s, one of the founding fathers, remains one of the very best. I love their porter, and I love the Hopslam. And come summertime, I love the Oberon. A wheat ale fermented with Bell’s “signature house ale yeast”, this is the last summer seasonal I’ll review this year. And it just might be the best! While many popular summer beers boast of “crisp” and “refreshing” qualities, Oberon is all about quality and flavor. It’s considerably hoppier than the typical wheat beer, which helps balance the citrus twang and yeasty sweetness that define this ale’s easy-drinking character. The wheat malts smooth everything out and make this perhaps the most quaffable beer you’ll taste all summer. Mmmmm! This is one of the few summer seasonals I’d drink year-round. If you don’t mind a summer beer that’s more “flavor-forward” than most, the Oberon is a must-buy. And if you do mind, go ahead and drink Bud Light Lime. I won’t think any less of you- so long as you don’t make me drink any!

Great Lakes Holy Moses White Ale

It’s hard to believe that summer beer season is almost over (current temperature outside right now: 97). The fall seasonals will begin rolling out within the next few weeks, and a lot of your summer standbys will soon disappear from the shelves. Better stock up now! I’ll be in Great Lakes country in early August, and I’m praying that the Holy Moses White Ale won’t be gone for the year! We’ve probably got another 7 weeks of hot weather left to enjoy (or detest, if you’re my wife). I plan on keeping my fridge stocked with summer beers well into September. And out of all the summer beers I drink, Holy Moses is one of my most favorite. A Belgian-style witbier with orange peel, chamomile, and coriander, it’s crisp and refreshing but also has quite a kick to it. Upfront the spices are really strong - and not in a bad way. This is not your grandfather’s summer beer! It’s fruity and peppery and really snaps your tongue. Mmmm! Going down it’s got a yeasty malt character that seems appropriate for the style and the season. Drinkable enough to quench your summer thirst but full-flavored enough to still taste great when you find that odd bottle in the back of the fridge come November, Holy Moses is just one of many fine brews made by Great Lakes. Cleveland may have the worst pro sports team of any large American city, but it’s damn well got one of the best breweries going!

Abita Turbodog

Sigmund in Sandusky wants to know if I, on the eve of my second wedding anniversary, have any advice on how to identify true love. Well, Sigmund, on matters such as these I try to keep it simple. I can tell you that when I met my wife, I knew straight off that she was The One. I knew this largely because from the moment we met, I was able to be myself. It just felt right. I didn’t have to mentally rehearse how I’d act around her. I didn’t worry about trying to be the man I thought she wanted. I let her see the real me, right off the bat. There really was an instant connection. And it was easy. That’s how it should be. If it’s not easy, if you have to try too hard to make it work, is it really meant to be?

Sigmund, you might agree that it’s the same thing with beer. You might hear about all kinds of beers that you’re supposed to like. A beer might boast 25 gold medal prizes and an A+ rating on Beer Advocate, but if you drink it a few times and you’re stilll like, “Eh”, at some point you realize that you don’t have to always agree with the “experts”. Me, I’ll take a love-at-first-sip beer over an “acquired taste” any day of the week. Abita’s Turbodog (out of Louisiana) floored me the very first time I had it, and it’s quickly rising to near the top of my favorite beer list. It’s everything I love in a beer. It’s dark and malty, with just enough hops for balance. It’s ridiculously smooth. A dark brown ale brewed with Willamette hops and a blend of pale, caramel, and chocolate malts, Turbodog is rich, medium-bodied, and out-of-this-world delicious. It’s got a predominantly chocolate and toffee like flavor with a touch of fruit and sweet bready grains to finish. I’m crazy about English brown ales, but this Americanized version is better than any of ‘em. You could almost say it’s porter-like, yet still very much a brown ale. Whatever it is, I just love it. I could drink it every day and never get tired of it. This beer and I - we were meant to be.

Brooklyn Summer Ale

Out of all the summer beers out there, Brooklyn Summer Ale might be my absolute favorite. Like any good summer beer, it’s light and thirst-quenching. But it’s got more flavor than most, and like anything off the Brooklyn line that I’ve tasted, it’s simply an awesome beer. A modern rendition of the “light dinner ales” they used to brew in England in the 1800s and early 1900s, Brooklyn Summer Ale uses premium English barley malt for a bready malt-forward flavor. German and American hops add crispness and floral, lemony notes. All told this is a supremely delicious warm weather beer. You can suck it down fast after a hard day of laboring in the summer sun, or just as easily sip it as you relax on the deck with your pals. It will obliterate your thirst but still bring a ton of flavor. Some summer beers are glorified water, and others are just too fancy for their humble purpose. Brooklyn Summer Ale gets it just right. I hate to say this, since I love Samuel Adams beer. But Brooklyn Summer Ale beats the pants off of Sam’s Summer Ale. I think I’m gonna buy an entire case!