July 18, 2007
Tonight’s beer came in an off white 12 oz can. On the front with an old fashion style looks is the logo inside an oval. There is an Eagle in the center. There is a story on the side of the can, “D.G. Yuengling & Son is officially recognized as America’s oldest brewery. With over 178 years of brewing tradition and fiver generations of Yuengling Family ownership, D.G. Yuengling & Son holds the American Brewing industry record for the longest, continuously operated brewery…” There’s more, but I’m not typing it.
It has a dark amber color with a hint of red to it. There doesnÂ’t appear to be a hint of cloudiness to it and light passes through easily. . It pours a three quarter inch head that fades quickly to nothing. There is no lacing or even ring around the edge of the glass.
The scent is that of floral hops and caramel malts. If you smell it long enough, you can get a hint of corn. You can taste a mixture of caramel malts with a touch of hops. There is almost a pear-like flavor to the aftertaste that fades quickly. There is almost no bitterness to the beer.
It is a light bodied beer. There is a lot of carbonation to it that is almost distracting. ItÂ’s very smooth and easy to drink.
I have heard a lot about this beer, but never had one until tonight. The anticipation of drinking it was probably better then the act itself. To be honest to every one that has said so many good things about this beer, I think you built my anticipation up only to be let down. I really didn’t think it was that impressive. It’s like your standard American lager. There really isn’t anything all that special about it. I think this is just another beer that gets hyped due to a reputation, a reputation for being the oldest beer in America. It is easy to drink, this is one of those get drunk quick types of beers. I had the first one down in three “sips”.
Overall, I did enjoy the beer, I was expecting more, but it just didnÂ’t deliver. Overall this is not a bad beer; in fact itÂ’s a good beer. Why anyone would call this their favorite, I donÂ’t know. I give it 5 out of 10.
Posted by: Contagion at
06:19 PM
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July 11, 2007
It comes in the squat 12 oz brown bottle. The main label has a picture of a bulldog with a monocle holding a pint in his left hand. In big red letters above the pictures is the word BULLY! In the same script below is read PORTER. On the red neck label there is a little blurb about the beer itself as well as the breweryÂ’s logo. I do believe they are trying to give this beer an English look.
There is a dark coffee color to the beer with a hint of dark red. Light reluctantly passes through it, and itÂ’s too dark to tell if there is any cloudiness to it at all. It pours a very thick tan head that is long lasting. Heck IÂ’m almost done with the pint and there is still a head on the beer. It leaves some lacing on the side of the glass.
You can smell a combination of roasted coffee and chocolate malts easily. There is a citrus and floral hop background to the scent that is almost completely overpowered by the scent of the malts. The taste is a nice combination of coffee and chocolate roasted malts. There is a slight hop bitterness to the finish, but it helps add to the flavor and isnÂ’t distracting. It has a mildly bitter aftertaste, but it isnÂ’t lingering or unpleasant.
It is a medium bodied beer with a high level of carbonation. To be honest the carbonation is a little on the strong side for my likes, but not unpleasantly so.
IÂ’m very pleased with this beer. I should not be surprised since after the last couple of times sharing a pint with Bloodspite, I know he has a good taste in beer. IÂ’m going to be heading through KC in a couple of weeks, I may have to stop and pick me up another six-pack of it. Overall IÂ’m going to give this a 6.5 out of 10.
Posted by: Contagion at
05:45 PM
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July 05, 2007
After work we met there to check it out and see what it’s like. The place was packed. We just wanted to sit at the bar, but there was no room. We ended up having to get a table in the dining area. The place was filled with your yuppie suburbanite crowd. Sadly enough since I had just come from work, I kind of fit in wearing my shirt and tie. Yea, it’s that kind of crowd. To make matters worse, the atmosphere was crap. This is your standard cookie cutter, Chicago chain restaurant in the mall look and feel. I guess it's fitting since it is a chain brewery. The only thing different was the big stainless fermenting silos in a glass-partitioned section of the building. Really, they could take those out, add more tables and slap a “Panera Bread Company” sign out front and you wouldn’t know the difference. Anyone that lives in the Chicago area knows EXACTLY what I’m talking about.
We kept telling the serving staff we didn’t want food, we just came to sample some of the beer, yet they kept trying to sell us food. I guess it’s their job, but it was annoying. Then AFTER we ordered our first pint and are discussing which one of the four brews they had we wanted to try next the waitress advised us that they have a “sampler” tray. Yea, that would have been nice to know prior to half way through the first pint. But it’s new, so I’m going to cut it some slack. However, you think they would advertise it on their beer menu, but they don’t.
But lets get down to the nitty gritty of the whole thing. What was the beer like? These arenÂ’t going to be my normal reviews, as I didnÂ’t bring a note pad, and IÂ’m pulling it from memory, so youÂ’re just going to get the basics here. BTW, I may screw up the names a little, remember, no note pad.
American Light Lager: As I read their description I told Bruce it was going to be like a Miller Lite, Bud Light, or Coors light. When they brought the samplers they described this one almost EXACTLY like that. It was very light bodied and watery. There was almost no taste to it, and the scent was minimal. It was like a watered down Miller Lite. It was weak, lacking, and very disappointing.
Benedictine Bock: This was one I was going to choose for my second pint before we found out about the sampler. Again there was almost no scent to it. In fact with all the background smells, I really couldnÂ’t single out this beer, and it was right under my nose, literally. It was also light bodied and watery, but it had a darker richer color. The flavor was rather disappointing. It was weak and they described it as having a hint of chocolate to the flavor, but one couldnÂ’t really taste it. It was better then the American Light Lager, but not by much.
Double Pull: It’s half American Light Lager and half Benedictine Bock. I’m going to sum this up by quoting that old anecdote, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
DukeÂ’s IPA: They described this one of having a grapefruit flavor to it. They werenÂ’t wrong. It smelled like grapefruit, it tasted like grapefruit, and if they jammed any more hops into it, I think the bitterness would have caused my face to implode from the pucker. Now, I will invalidate my review of this beer up front. I do not like IPAs, so itÂ’s hard for me to review them honestly. IÂ’m pretty much set at hating them. But from what the staff said, no one has liked it. I about fell out of my chair laughing when Bruce suggested they hook up a hose to the tank itÂ’s in and wash down the parking lot with it. I donÂ’t know what the parking lot did to him, but damn, thatÂ’s just harsh.
Bad Axe Stout: This was the pint I ordered first. I like stouts, IÂ’m fonder of the European stouts over the American ones, but I still like all of them. Rarely do I find one that I donÂ’t like. Well, I canÂ’t say I didnÂ’t like this one, but IÂ’ve had many more that were better then worse. It was a light-medium body. There was a good creamy feel to it, but the overall body was again watery. It was way too bitter for a stout, they went too heavy on the hops. There was something amiss with the malts as well, and Bruce nailed it on the head; it tasted burnt. I think they were trying for a good roasted malt flavor, and over did it. It really was not a complimentary flavor to the beer.
That was it for their beer on tap. They have some others coming up in the following months and they have some seasonal ones as well. Overall I was not impressed at all with the quality of beer. I found it to be rather disappointing. Yet, I am going to give them another chance. In October IÂ’m going to head back and see if maybe a couple months of practice might help out the brewmaster. Then I can also check out the quality of their seasonals. At this time IÂ’m just not holding my breath.
The worst part is that after leaving I felt like a bad man. Not because I didnÂ’t like the place or their beer, but because I went to a brewery other than Carlyle. The urge to drive down there and drink a couple of pints to plead for atonement (and wash the bad flavor out of my mouth) was over whelming.
People if you are in the Rockford Area and want a good locally brewed beer. Do yourself a favor and go to Carlyle. What do you expect from a brewery in a mall?
Oh and Bruce has a much shorter and more to the point version of this post.
Posted by: Contagion at
08:57 PM
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