Beer Review: Troegs Hopback Amber

Troegs, a brewery out of Pennsylvania, makes some of the best "value" beers out there and Hopback Amber is really the centerpiece of their line of great beers. For some context, this is an "American Amber Ale" but it really tastes like a malt-forward IPA. I'll talk more about that in a second.

This beer pours a medium amber color with a thin head that turns into just a filament shortly after and sits on top for a while. Great looking beer!

The smell is all malt; thick caramel, bready notes dominate here with no real variation to speak of. The smell is pleasant, for sure, but nothing blows you away.

The taste is far more complex than the nose; on the tip of your tongue you get the taste of sweet malts that the nose prepared you for. There's some citrus flavors through the middle of the sip and then a big bite of hops on the back end. I'm not talking about some generic amber ale hop content, this beer's hop flavor is (as I alluded to before) much more like an IPA than anything. Very pleasing taste in every aspect; especially in the boldness of the flavors.

This beer has, I would say, below average carbonation in terms of amount of carbonation. This works well with the caramel flavor which might have been masked by the carbonation bite. Not a particularly heavy beer on the palate but feels reasonably substantial because of the bready malt presence.

At $8.99 + tax, this beer is a bargain for the taste you get. Even people adverse to hop bitterness, I think, will find this beer tasty by virtue of the blast of caramel malt you get when you first taste this beers

Score: A  4.25/5

Craft Beer Total Value Ranking

As you may be aware, the purpose of this blog is to educate people as to the merits of drinking well made, delicious beer, but with a focus on "value." Out of this philosophy was born a formula (driven by my borderline obsessive desire to quantify everything) to help determine which beers to buy when price is of importance. Here is the link to the google doc that contains the spreadsheet with my rankings: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiX9C2t4i6JcdGNpTnFnZ3lTVDlmWkhUaE45SzVObGc#gid=0.

A few notes:

• Keep in mind that the Total Value Ranking is HUGELY subjective. In fact, as I will explain, the only objective parts of the formula are the price and the alcohol content. 
• While alcohol content is a part of the equation, and this may seem to promote "getting drunk," please consider a portion of my audience. That is, I want to reach out to people who use beer primarily as means to catch a buzz, but yearn for something more from their beer. Indeed for almost all beer drinkers, the alcohol itself is a rich and integral part of the drinking experience. 
• Remember, this is about getting the "most" for your dollar!

Here's how the final formula works:

1. I record the beer name, the price, how many 12oz beer equivalents you get for that price (6 pack=6 beers, 22oz Bomber=1.833 beers, etc.) and the abv of that beer.
2. Functions embedded in the cells for that beer's row then calculate the number of standard drinks you receive by purchase that particular pack, and subsequently, the price per drink.
3. I then record either my subjective rating for the beer (on a scale of 0-5) or the beeradvocate.com rating avg. This is then used to normalize the price per drink value for taste of the beer. 
4. When all these values are put into the spreadsheet or calculated, the beers are ranked based on Cost (price of the pack/bottle), Price/Drink, Normalized Price/Drink and Taste. 
5. The Total Value Rating is then calculated as a compilation of these 4 rankings. The final Ranking is weighted as follows: 20% Price, 25% Price/Drink, 35% Normalized Price/Drink and 20% Taste.

Hopefully you enjoy this; it is in no way meant to be the final word on craft beer but rather one man's opinion. It is also subject to change... often... as I tweak the rankings and the weighting system. Finally I plan on updating it frequently as I try new beers (the bold beers in the first column are ones that I haven't tried yet) and I may or may not open up the document for public editing. 

As always feel free to ask away if you have any questions, comments, compliments or criticisms!

Beer Review: Stone Enjoy By 9.21.12 IPA

This is a limited release, "small batch" beer by Stone, a company that normally is known for their high production volume and reach for a craft beer company. I was pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of bottles at my local liquor store after visiting the downtown Binny's franchise and learning that they had sold out in a couple hours. The name seems to be an effort to place emphasis on the freshness of the beer; it is indeed meant to be drunk before 9.21.12 as you may have guessed.

This beer pours a clean, golden color with a thick, modest-in-size head. A steady stream of carbonation is visible pouring from the bottom of my tulip glass. Pretty standard for a DIPA... nothing to hint at any distinctive qualities.

The smell is where this beer starts to get interesting: awesomely complex for an IPA. Usually, even in "sweeter" IPAs, the hops really dominate the smell but in Stone's Enjoy By, there is a wonderful mix of citrus flavors fused with the Hops. Scent is thick; I can tell that this is going to be an intense beer flavor-wise. Easily one of the best smelling beers I've ever had.

The taste is complex. Right off the bat I get fruity notes; first sweet... some lemon, mango mix then bitter fruits... BIG grapefruit taste accompanied by orange rind. It is on the back end of the sip that you get hit by the hop flavor. While this doesn't pack the hop punch of Ruination (also by Stone), the sheer amount of juiciness and flavor in this beer MORE than makes up for the decreased bitterness (which I happen to love).

This beer continues to stand out in the mouthfeel. The thickness; dare I say "chewiness" reminds me of something like Founder's Double Trouble (to be reviewed in the near future) and that is a very, very good thing. Great fullness in the body of this beer which compliments the fruitiness that is on showcase. Maybe not the most drinkable beer in the world but beers this flavorful rarely are. A good amount of carbonation rounds this beer out.

For $6.99, I thought this was a great deal but maybe that was in light of my [unfortunate] trend towards buying more expensive bottles of beer lately. Bottom line, was easily one of the best beers I've ever tried and possibly my favorite. I'll give it a slightly unrepresentative grade flavor wise due to the higher cost per ounce of the 22oz bottle format but make no mistake... if you see this beer on the shelves, get it!

Score: A-  4.25/5

Beer Review: Red Stripe

Red Stripe is a beer that has gained popularity through advertisement over the years; because of this, the makers and distributors have been able to play it off as a beer superior to generic macro lagers. We'll see how it fares in a real world test in just a minute.

The beer pours a thin straw yellow color with quite a bit of carbonation. There's not head to speak of; even with a rather aggressive pour, only a few stray bubbles manage to make it to the surface. Overall a pretty generic looking beer. 

There's a sweet smell to Red Stripe; something akin to a corona or similar imported lager. Kind of musty but definitely syrupy. Not altogether off-putting, but not what I would call pleasing. 

Taste is sweet right off the bat. You get some bready/malty mix throughout the sip but not much else beyond that. Taste is funky; not quite your generic bud taste but almost like you took a bud and aged it. 

Soft drink consistency; drinks thin with a watery mouthfeel. I can deal with watery if there's some flavor to it but if you've read the previous paragraph you know my opinion on that. Not as thin as a light beer which is I guess a redeemable quality. 

You can find Red Stripe "Jamaican Lager" at your local store for around $7.99 but honestly, don't. There's not much that distinguishes Red Stripe from your corona-type varieties; some twists on the adjunct lager taste but basically its the same beer. The only thing keeping me from giving this beer an "F" is the slightly-better-than-light-beer mouthfeel. No other way to describe it other than a bad value. Want taste like this? Get a 30-pack of whatever macro is on sale.

Score: D-  1.5/5

Beer Review: Goose Island Honker's Ale

Today I'll be reviewing a Chicago favorite, Goose Island's Honker's Ale. This was actually the first craft beer I tried when I moved to Chicago and it's grown to be one of my go-to beers.

This beer pours a light amber color with a quick fading, fluffy head. Overall a nice full-looking beer.

The smell is complex; you get some sweet smelling malts as well as the piney hops as well as a faint citrus smell. The nose really adds a lot to the experience this beer offers.

The taste really wows you from the first sip. Everything that the nose promises is present and then some. There are some really bready malts present that are complimented by some decent hop bitterness. Not a whole lot of fruity flavor but the malt/hop balance is superb, with both of those flavor profiles shining through with strength.

As good as the taste is, the body and mouthfeel of this beer could be even better. The bready malts meld well with the full body and moderate carbonation creating a really bold tasting beer.

This is a solid all around beer that really has no weaknesses. At $7.99 a sixer or even better, $12.99 a 12-pack, this is another one of the best value beers around. Best of all, stores in Chicago love to have sales on it so I've seen a 12 pack for as low as $10.99.

Score: A  4.5/5

Beer Review: Smuttynose Finestkind IPA

A beer review to kick off the summer! This is probably one of my favorite beers ever; really the standard for value as far as I'm concerned. Just a note: it's not uncommon to observe sediment at the bottom of the bottle; even if it looks "chunky," it will break up when you pour it!

I poured this into an oversized wine glass and I think it did a good job of displaying the great cloudy appearance this beer has. Plenty of head  that fades pretty fast but leaves your standard creamy layer on top that keeps that aroma locked in.

Speaking of aroma... it smells resinous. The nose is all hops; oily, piney hops. You can tell how hoppy this beer will be just from its smell. It's not musty but quite crisp smelling (this bottle was pretty fresh).

Let me say here that because of the taste, this beer is my favorite single IPA. You obviously get the huge hops upfront but this beer is more than the hops. Some citrus flavors make their way through; definitely grapefruit and orange rind. You also have a little bit of malty sweetness though I wouldn't say it has a strong malt grounding at all... the main attraction here is the hops! Bold and perfectly melded flavors.

The body and mouthfeel are just about par for the course for an IPA; nothing surprising, just no nonsense goodness.

At $8.99/sixer this beer is a much better deal than almost every worthwhile IPA. Absolutely my go to beer when I can find it in Chicago and it's available widely in NE. Kudos to smuttynose for an outstanding beer.

Score: A+ 5/5