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Today is Brevity Day here on Groovy Brew. This is going to be a wham-bam hit-and-run review … mainly because I’m doing it from months-old scribbled notes…
You know, with a name like Moose Drool, it either has to be new, or it has to be really good.
This brew isn’t new.
It’s really good.
Smells like brown sugar and hops.
Tastes like a wonderful balance between molasses malts and sharp green hops.
It’s a groovy brew and I award it a moose-sized 7.1 on the Holy Grail Scale.
I am so tempted.
I’m not sure if it’s that I want their home-brew products, or if I just love their ads so much.
And here’s a question … why is it that beer ads which make beer drinkers look like idiots, actually work?
Is it, like, we want to drink beer and be idiots?
I have to assume the answer to that is yes. I mean, really. Look how popular Homer Simpson is.
It’s payday.
Payday means I stop at my new local beer heaven and pick out a mix-and-match six pack to sample and review. Among the ones I grabbed today is this Saranac Brown Ale.
It’s the simple things in life that get you by, you know? Gas in the car. A clean windshield. Payday.
Assorted craft beers.
Life is good.
Popping the top, I take the traditional whiff. Lightly hoppy, gently malty, and smells a touch sweet.
Things are looking up. I raise the bottle to my lips.
The hops are right up front and sharp, like in Saranac’s IPA. That fades quickly to a mild chocolate maltiness that rides the foam until the hoppiness returns to dominate, leaving a smooth bitter finish. This finish invites you back for more.
Ah, yes! No disappointment here. This brown ale is worthy of being deigned a groovy brew, and I score it 4.5 on the Holy Grail Scale.
File this one under, “Too lazy to take a proper picture of the bottle.” I used my webcam.
It took me a long time to get around to trying this beer. They actually approached me (I think it was last summer) and sent a poster and other promotional materials. Unfortunately customs opened the box and then didn’t reseal it very well … that’s my guess, at least … because by the time I got it, half the stuff was missing.
Also, they didn’t send any beer. Made a lame excuse like, “We can’t, it’s illegal.” Yeah, whatever. Besides, they seemed more interested in promoting some expensive made-for-YouTube movie than they were the beer itself.
Fast forward to December, during our recent Christmas party, one of my cohorts ordered one up and out of curiosity I had one as well. Then I had another. Then another.
This is some pretty good beer.
So tonight, I have a couple for “official review” and here’s the experience:
Smells hoppy, supported by some crisp citrus tones and light maltiness.
Tastes light, but not watery, with a good carbonation dancing across the palate that fades to a solid flavor of green hops and untoasted grain. Well balanced and easy to drink, causing me to tentatively sound the gulp alert on this one (not as much as some, but I could easily toss one of these back and reach for another in less than two minutes). By the time the bottle is done, it finishes clean with a residual bitterness so light that it may be just a ghost.
It leaves me with the desire for more. Fortunately I have more. Before I pop another one open, though, I’ll wrap this up by officially proclaiming Stella Artois a groovy brew … but not quite a Holy Beer contender.
Oh Jimmy. Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy… (shaking my head) stick to music and adventure novels, please.
To be fair, I did try this after downing a bottle of Samuel Adam’s Triple Bock. First sip was miserably horrid, and so I went and cleansed my palate with some peanut butter. Came back to it, found it not that bad … put some lime and a bit of salt in it, and found it drinkable.
But really, if I wanted a Corona, I would buy a Corona. Because really, obviously, that’s what this is. It’s a Corona with Jimmy Buffet’s Margaretville branding on it.
Jimmy does have at least one good connection, however, to good beer … he was good friends with the late Hunter S. Thompson, and Hunter Thompson of course has close ties to Colorado’s Flying Dog brewery. Or at least he did before they sold out.
That association doesn’t come though with this beer, though. I suppose if I were in a boat in Florida right now, instead of freezing my goddamn ass off in Illinois, I’d be much more in the mood to drink a tropical beer that’s a rip off of Corona with a famous musician’s name stamped on it. But I have to tell you, if I want a tropical beer I’m reaching for a Phuket Lager from Thailand. That is some truly good tropical beer.
I feel somewhat obligated to proclaim Landshark groovy, at least by association. But take that in the context it is intended. I like Jimmy Buffet, and I used to love the old Landshark skits on Saturday Night Life.
I stumbled upon these this afternoon and had to share them. “Thank God you’re a Man,” is the theme.
(click to enlarge)
This is not an easy bottle to take a picture of.
It’s jet black with gold lettering. It’s also tiny, which makes me sad, because I know I’m going to freaking love it, and I also know it’s going to be gone in 43 seconds.
Actually, now that I have the wrapper off the top, I find the bottle is actually a deep violet. It has a cork, somewhat like a wine cork, instead of a cap. Gingerly I ease it out.
Taking a sniff, it smells quite a bit like port wine mixed with chocolate. Either that, or it smells like some sort of evil cough syrup from the 1800’s. I can’t decide which.
Okay, here goes nothing. Raising it to my lips now…
WOW. This is unlike anything I have ever tasted before. It does taste quite a bit like a wine / beer hybrid. It’s sweet, malty, and has the odd character of having absolutely no hint of carbonation. None. Zero.
It also doesn’t give any hint of hops, either.
Okay, so this is not going to disappear in 43 seconds. This is for sipping. And also I need to go to the Internet and research this, as it’s nothing like I’d expected.
Okay, interesting, this stuff is over 17 percent alcohol. I can’t taste the alcohol at all, but I’m starting to feel it. Also it’s supposed to have Noble hops, but if so they’re hiding somewhere. Another ingredient, and now that I know about it I can taste it, is maple syrup. Also, it’s aged in whisky barrels. Now that I know that, I can taste hints of the whisky as well.
It has the cork so that you can close it up and save some for later. Why? Because it’s so freaking strong.
I’m not stopping, though. I’m going to finish this up and do some more work on my novel about the Holy Beer. We’ll see if this inspires anything.
Samuel Adams Triple Bock is over-the-top and balls-to-the-wall outrageous, and I have to bow to them and proclaims this beer very groovy, and bestow upon it a well earned 8.8 on the Holy Grail scale.
Here we are in 2009. For some reason this number seems very Sci-Fi to me.
2009.
Wow, who would ever thought that I’d live this long? It’s freaking 2009. Where’s my flying car? Why aren’t we colonizing Mars? What the hell are we doing embroiled in yet another Vietnam type conflict and facing a new depression era?
What a disappointing future this turned out to be.
Oh well, at least we have good beer. This one has got to be good.
A bright red bottle? Two skulls and crossbones? The name “Double Dead Guy?”
The fact that it cost $10 a bottle?
It better be pretty damn good.
We’ll see.
I thought I’d celebrate the new year with a Double Dead Guy Ale. I just popped the top on this bad boy and it smells hoppy. Hoppy, sharp, with tantalizing malty undertones. One thing I can tell already – whether or not I like it, it’s going to have a strong flavor.
I heft this very heavy red bottle up to my lips and tip the 9% alcohol into my mouth for that first tantalizing taste…
Obviously, this is from Rogue, from Oregon, you know it’s 
going to be a blast of hops, and my beer-loving friends, YES IT IS. Blam! They spank your tongue right up front, then apologize to it with a almost grapefruity sweetness, mixed with a malty brown-sugary wave. The wave rushes out leaving a pleasantly balanced bitterness that begs for the next sip. The extra alcohol creeps in as a kind of after-vodka tang, right on the edges of your palate – which is not a problem if you like vodka. Which I do.
Okay… Hmmm.
Well, yes, I have to say it, this is an amazing ale. It is completely over-the-top and at the same time exquisitely balanced. I love it. I’m happy to have it. I feel it was worth the $10 I paid for it.
This, my friends, is one groovy brew, and I award it 8.8 on the Holy Grail Scale.
And, by the way … happy new year!
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