Oct. 31, 2020
Storybook did not conjure some wretched pumpkin beer, but a genuine IPA geared toward Halloween. By combining Citra and Nelson Sauvin hops, this DIPA avoids the trappings of the style and has a nice assertive bite the whole way through. It’s a big beer but the combination of hops makes it an entrancing pour. Dank and deep due to its 9 percent ABV, Witches’ Vacation is a break well worth taking.
Storybook Chile Pale Ale
Nov. 1, 2020
This is not like the last so-called chile beer I tasted. This pale ale brings the Pueblo chile heat. They might not be as spicy as Hatch chiles, but the pepper heat is strong from the first pass of the nose. Storybook does not hold back. The pepper does not blister the mouth, but it is a strong yet ambient heat. The crowler already feels like too much beer, as it’s brewed to accentuate the Pueblo chiles, which are akin to Anaheim in terms of heat.
Anchorage Brewing Migrating Eyes Batch 2
(mixed-culture sour with peaches and apricots)
Collaboration with Tired Hands Brewery
Nov. 15, 2020
I’m not sure where one gets fresh peaches and apricots in Alaska – enter Pennsylvania’s Tired Hands as a collaborator. Anchoring and Tired Hands can tout a tremendous sour that shows elements of both fruit barrel additions. Each pass of Migrating Eyes starts with a fist of sour beer that accelerates into a beautiful mix of peach and apricot. Both fruits are well-represented. The finish is suitably sour, not searing, but definitely strong. I gravitate toward peach lambics/sours and this one is no exception. I would not classify any sour as easy-drinking, but this one definitely goes down smoother than most.
Little Fish Cleft
Nov. 23, 2020 
Cleft has a blistering sour intro – the finish is intense as it moves across various notes of peaches, cider and other musty flavors. This recent Great American Beer Festival silver medalist blends three different barrel-aged sours and sits on Ohio peaches (first I ever heard of them) from Chillicothe. The sour punch finale does calm down after a point; its initial strength is just a shock to the taste buds. That intense pucker had to ease or Cleft might have gone off the rails. As it does mellow, so does the peach grow more prominent than the pucker, and the blend of different sours provides a foundation for a superior peach sour.
Soulcraft Chile Beer
Nov. 25, 2020
Soulcraft combines Pueblo chiles and Serrano chiles. Thanks to a bad chile beer experience many years ago, the letter pepper gave me some pause. Overuse of Serrano can produce a searing, unpleasant beer. But the combined effort does jut fine. Layered atop a golden ale brewed with milder English hops, Soulcraft produced an exquisitely balanced chile ale. There’s pepper flesh on the front end, and plenty of ambient heat throughout, then a finishing heat that increases with each pass, undoubtedly due to the Serrano (Pueblo is akin to Anaheim). It brings a little needed heat to a November night. 
Breaking Brew Meadery Raspberry Beret
Nov. 27, 2020
This Dallas meadery has done some great work, pushing mead beyond the sometimes stodgy and overpoweringly sweet honey brew. First up was Ginger Bear, their take on ginger bear using mead and fresh ginger – I didn’t take notes but definitely enjoyed the combination. From the beginning, Raspberry Beret has enough bitter fruit to balance out the honey sweetness. The meeting of these flavors is just pitch-perfect. Allowing a stronger layer of raspberry makes this mead attractive to those who fear the sweetness might run amok. Even at 5.9 percent, the honey base gives the fruit mead an unexpected boozy backdrop. For once I am glad to enjoy such a beverage on a wintry afternoon since I could foresee downing pint after pint during the warm months. It’s that easy and tasty.
Pikes Peak Adaman
Nov. 27, 2020
Named for the hiking group that hikes Pikes Peak at the end of December to deliver the New Year’s fireworks, Adaman is a big holiday ale from Monument. Adaman adds a man/woman experience at mountaineering every year. This dark ale is brewed with cinnamon, ginger and honey, so I could not resist. The mix of spices is pretty nice throughout. They seem well thought-out, not just thrown into a dark ale. The cinnamon runs strong, and that’s a good thing. ButI wish some flavors were stronger – the honey could be more assertive, and while ginger could easily be overdone, it barely peeks out. It’s a fine dark winter ale but the underlying softness does not develop. It finishes rather bitter. I just think it could be a little more forward.
Breaking Brew Meadery Blue by You
Nov, 29, 2020
This one just tastes of summer, the blueberry not overpowering but just blended right with the honey. BB also adds lemongrass and thyme to this one. The lemongrass does not run wild, as it easily could, and the thyme. Blueberry and honey mix so nicely it’s hard to pick out anything else. The sharpness of lemongrass never really speaks up but I don’t mind, not with the way the main flavors roll. The thyme comes in a little herbal uptick at the end, but it does nothing to upset the balance that Blue by You achieves.
Alaskan 2014 Smoked Porter
Dec. 2, 2020
The alder-smoked malt rises as soon as I pop the cap. Six years after its release, this porter continues to represent its roots in Juneau. Not as big a beer as many worth aging, but Alaskan Smoked Porter still delivers the goods. A little more booziness has crept into the 6.5 percent ABV but it does not overwhelm. It’s smooth and silky through that smoke, a world-class beer as always. I know people cellar them longer, but six years is about my limit for a beer of this ABV. Luckily, new bottles of Alaskan Smoked Porter are now easily available, and I will drink when I can.
Paradox Rose is Bae
(Wild sour ale brewed with Sangiovese must and aged in wine barrels)
Dec. 4, 2020
The sour is pretty mellow on this vintage 2017 ale, a lot of mustiness but a sharp uptick of sour bite that goes away quickly. There’s a lot of red fruit brightness – I detect strawberries, raspberry and even cherries, plus a spritz or two of lemon. It’s no accident that this is a very wine-like beer, as the combination of grape must and wine barrel aging should push it in that direction. There’s a chewy texture to Rose is Bae, not shocking after three-plus years in the bottle. All of this achieves a sum that is more than the parts, a wild ale that approximates a rose wine to a stunningly close degree.
Black Forest Hefeweizen
Dec. 10, 2020
I hoped Black Forest brewery had a top-notch hefeweizen, and that faith has been rewarded. It lies on the traditional side, which not enough breweries stick with. There’s lots of lemon, orange and not too much clove or bubblegum. This hefe still has some sharpness, but it’s refreshing, even on a cold night. I’d rather pour a crowler during the summer but this one does just fine.
Cameron’s Where the Buffalo Roam
Dec.12, 2020
Good cold night for a barleywine, a beer that brings expectations from a Canadian craft brewer. This one spends some time in a bourbon barrel, but not so long that the barrel exerts heavy influence. There’s a lot of flavors working through this, effectively masking the 11.2 percent ABV – very little booziness overall, which I like. Finishes quite sweet, as I would expect, with hints of bourbon, raisin and toffee. There’s a nice vein of orange zest, and sturdy wall of dark malts. Not much hop presence, but in fairness, I have mostly drunk American takes on barleywine in recent years, and those tend to lean hoppy. The bitterness on the front end is reminiscent of more British-style barleywines, which is not a style choice that I mind.
Short’s Brew Batch 10,000
(Double Brut IPA with Mango and Black Currants)
Dec. 13, 2020
With the fruit infusion, Batch 10,000 hides its whopping 13.2 percent ABV well. There’s a bitter burn of hops and mango that thankfully does not last long. A vein of black currants adds complexity to the fruit profile; the currants seem to take over on the finish and that is quite pleasant. Big burnt muddled orange character sits at the center of this one. It still feels like quite the hoppy beer despite the fruit additions. Definitely an IPA to encounter, even if it’s just once. That one sample will leave you quite buzzed though.
Anchorage Bitter Monk
(Belgian-style Double IPA with Brettanomyces)
Dec. 16, 2020
Supply of these small release beer from Anchorage Brewing has been dwindling at the local store, so I pulled the trigger on this DIPA. Past batches have included Apollo, Mosaic and Simcoe hops, but this batch was dry-hopped only with Citra. Bitter Monk receives three rounds of fermentation -the initial with a Belgian yeast, then in French oak chardonnay barrels with the wild year and it is bottle-conditioned to continue aging on the shelf. Bitter Monk pours nicely in an Orval chalice (this is wild-yeast, dry-hopped beer, after all), with a wispy thin lace. Then comes the citrus, piles and mounds of citrus. Not traditionally hoppy due to the distance from the dry-hopping, but there is strong influence from those hops. The influence of the French oak and chardonnay arises late but it is distinct. More importantly, it tamps down the brett and does not let the wild yeast run amok. The French oak imparts some grassy, herbal notes and a degree of oaky bitterness, plus many shades of chardonnay dryness. Bitter Monk ends up presenting a three-pronged flavor profile from the hops, the yeast and the barrel – at no point does it give away the 9 percent ABV.
Dec. 16, 2020
2020 marks the first time Springs’ Bristol Brewing has bottled its Christmas ale. The spice blend - cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and cloves – and molasses work well brewed into dark ale. Nothing feels thrown in – the spices feel measured and blended to where none overwhelm, too often an issue with nutmeg or cloves. There are Chinook hops, but don’t look too hard for them – you don’t buy this one for the hops. What’s nice is unlike many holiday ales and winter warmers, Bristol does not ratchet up the alcohol content. Their Christmas ale is spicy, malty and clocks in at a likable 5 percent ABV. Plus, it has a mule deer painting on the label, and mule deer don’t get nearly enough love.
Breaking Brewing I’m Peachy, Tangerine
Dec. 19, 2020
The last of the Dallas meads, this one was tremendous, exactly the flavors I enjoy on a warm afternoon.
Goose Island 2020 Bourbon County Stout
Dec. 20, 2020 
A week after the release, more than a dozen bottles sat on the shelf, with samples of past two vintages available alongside the 2020 release. I’ve never had a fresh Bourbon since they age extremely well – a 2015 still sits in my stash. But I digress. The 2020 Bourbon County sports an impressive nose, with raisins, dates, molasses, dark chocolate, caramel and more, not unlike a Belgian quad. The alcohol is there too, as 14.6 percent is a little too difficult to hide. A year in the barrel turns this stout and its interesting blend of malts Dense mouthfeel, almost chewy at times. All those dark characteristics run through and while there is a booziness to Bourbon County, it’s more whiskey barrel influence than an off-putting note of black pepper. The finish is high on raisins and bourbon. When you can find it, the fun in Bourbon County comes from all the flavors you can detect, like a little spearmint, more vanilla and some bitterness from the oak. I’m sure some lighter notes fade with aging, but for now they are noticeable. It might take me a few hours to finish, but like most seminal beers, the joy lies in the journey.
Great Lakes Christmas Ale Vintage 2012
Dec. 23, 2020
Creamy, not at all spicy, but the influence of honey continued aging this one in darkness for years.
Short’s Brew Juicy Tree
(Experimental IPA with blue spruce tips, juniper berries, and cranberries)
Dec. 24, 2020
This seemed like a solid choice for Christmas Eve. The spruce is pretty strong throughout, shaping the flavor and working with the two fruit additions. Back-half of each sip turns lush, thick and piney, not that I mind. All flavors coexist pretty harmoniously, as does a more standard bitter orange IPA.
Metric Number of the Beast Extra Pale Ale
Dec. 27, 2020
This is definitely not a bruising IPA so the extra pale ale tag, one that doesn’t often mean a lot, but here it does. The body has an unusual muted pink hue. But it’s a likable beer, presenting a blend of hops that includes Idaho 7 and never overstays its welcome. Mid to late palate, when the malt seems ready to take over, another wave of ambient bitterness rolls across the mouth. There’s a good mid-level sizzle throughout. Metric never fails to delight with its experiments, and this extra pale is another sterling example.
Cameron’s Brewing Early Bird Breakfast Barleywine
Dec. 31, 2020
The second pass at this Ontario brewer does not migrate far from the first.
There’s a hint of sweet from the maple syrup and a brief interlude from the cold-brew coffee. The syrup moves in early, adding a viscous element to the normal bruising barleywine profile. None of these elements changes the breakfast barleywine drastically from Cameron’s other barrel-aged barleywine.
By contrast, the coffee amps up the bitterness from mid-palate to the finish. It’s necessary, and helps the breakfast barleywine differentiate itself better from the standard Cameron’s version. The alcohol is pretty well masked by the breakfast additions and the stiff malt bill.
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