Brooklyn Lager

Ratebeer 3.43 90th percentile
Beer Advocate B+

Taste +4

The nose is cool with menthol and faint biscuity malts. A well done lager is an uneventful brew; luckily this is far from uneventful. The light citrus (lemon) and floral hops jumps out at you to grab your tongues attention. This fades off to reveal a bread and biscuit malt.

Aftertaste +1

The quickly fading hops leaves a floral hop ending. Then it is gone, clean.

Alcohol Content 0 5.2%

Value +1

An above average and flavourful lager.

Ingame Enhancement +1

Just bumping the score up.

Overall 7/10

It's a lager: clean, crisp and easy drinking. The enhanced citrus and bready flavours were a nice surprise.

Red Canoe Lager
Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Hard Science
Red Stripe Lager

Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Ratebeer 3.46 92nd percentile
Beer Advocate B+

Taste +4

This is a go-to beer for a lot of people; I can understand why. The aroma says it all: glorious and hoppy with floral and citrus. This is well balanced with bready malts and a slight vegetable. The hops impart citrus, floral, banana and a cool menthol flavours.

Aftertaste +1

It was a wet finish with lingering bread malts and menthol. There was a slight herbal mouth coating.

Alcohol Content 0 5%

Value +1

This is unlike all other pale ales; it is the king. The flavour is above average but not overly challenging for the routine beer drinker.

Ingame Enhancement +1

I have this beer often and is always enjoyable. It goes will with everything.

Overall 7/10

A truly great pale ale. The bready malts are slightly shadowed by the sharp citrus and menthol hops

Phillips Blue Buck
Salt Spring Island Pale Ale
Deschutes Hop Trip

Fish Tale Organic IPA

Ratebeer 3.3 82nd percentile
Beer Advocate B

Taste +3

I never get tired of tasting good PNW IPAs. This one comes from the Fish Brewing company in Olympia, Washington. They also brew the Leavenworth beers for that uber-cute Bavarian town. The nose is sweet with citrus and subdued pine. Again the taste is smooth with citrus, resin and pine. You get most of the bitterness at the back of the mouth. The citrus is leaning more to the tangerine side of things. This IPA is brewed with organic Pacific Gem hops with 42IBUs for those keeping score. Malts were light with caramel

Aftertaste +1

There was a bare lingering of caramel and light tangerines

Alcohol Content +1 6.7%

Just as a good IPA should be.

Value 0

This was not an outstanding IPA. It must be tough to release an IPA in the PNW; they must be outstanding to rise above the others.

Ingame Enhancement +1

Still in Seattle, still drinking great beers.

Overall 6/10

This was a solid IPA, just not outstanding. The caramel malts were overshadowed by the citrus and pine hops. Props go out for being Organic.

Nine Donkeys of the Hopocalypse
Pliny the Elder and Adrenaline Shots
Green Flash Imperial IPA

This is the best study so far because it contains two awesome variables: booze and firearms. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine tested the effects of alcohol and firearm use. Both sauced and sober subjects were put through a number of training scenarios with realistic handguns. They were actually retrofitted to be air pistols. I wonder what the findings were? Intoxicated subjects were less accurate, slower to fire in reaction time scenarios, and quicker to fire in scenarios requiring judgement relative to the teetotalers. The researchers hypothesis was, "...alcohol consumption worsens accuracy and retards judgement about when to use a gun..."Shocking, but still awesome. Science can be fun and educational.

La Chouffe


Ratebeer 3.77 98th percentile
Beer Advocate A-

Taste +4

This is a Belgian strong ale so the golden colour and lots of carbonation are right on the mark. The large mousse head disipated quickly to form just a thin layer. Its nose is light of yeast, honey and spices(pepper). As the big carbonation tingles the throat, the alcohol warms the chest. This cleanses the way for yeast, bready, sweet light fruits (citrus) and honey flavours. The yeasty/wheat tartness imparts a full mouthfeel.

Aftertaste +1

It was very crisp and dry with just a little yeast tartness.

Alcohol Content +1 8%

Value +1

People rave about this beer and I now understand why. If you love a strong spicy Belgian ale, this is the one.

Ingame Enhancement +1

There is no memory of what I was doing or where I was. Yes, the score is being bumped up for selfish reasons.

Overall 8/10

A strong Belgian ale can be a beautiful thing, when done right. It can either be a zesty, bready, tart, fruity, spicy palate-loving brew. Or it can be a bland vehicle for high ABV and regrettable memories. Often recorded by the court stenographer. Luckily La Chouffe falls into the latter category.

Brooklyn Local 1
St. Bernardus Tripel
Saint-Martin Blond

Within moderation that is.
This bold statement is supported by evidence in the June 15, 2010 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology. The researchers followed 325 patients (men and women) recovering from a heart attack. 84% of these patients continued to be moderate drinkers and 16% decided to quit. Moderation was listed as a minimum of 2 to 4 times a month with 1-4 drinks per occasion. This works out to be about 1 drink a day; binge drinkers were not included in this study. It need not be repeated, but I have mentioned that binge drinking is bad for you. Oddly the quantity of alcohol consumed was not mentioned. 2-3 of these 1 liter mugs might not qualify as health promoting.


After three years, the moderate drinkers experienced better physical functioning than those that stopped drinking. Drinkers had fewer episodes of chest pain, fewer rehospitalizations, and felt better overall. Drinkers were less likely to die! 10% of non-drinkers died after 3 years compared to only 6% of moderate drinkers. Check out the cool graph that proves it.

So there you go; don't be a quitter. Just remember everything in moderation.

Creemore Springs Lager

Ratebeer 3.3 82nd percentile
Beer Advocate B+

Taste +3

To taste a well made lager is an uneventful thing. This one was no different. The nose was faint of grass, bread and light citrus. A clean medium hop snap at the start was resinous and slightly spicy. This was followed by the easly drinking grassy malts. All of this leading to a clean finish.

Aftertaste 0

Sorry did I not mention the clean finish?

Alcohol Content 0 5%

Don't we all know that 5 is the magic beer number

Value +1

To be fair, this was a well done lager.

Ingame Enhancement 0

This was another LCBO beer find. I will never make fun of the crappy beer selection at my local BCLS; it is excellent compared to any LCBO.

Overall 4/10

Lagers are not my favourite beer; hence my rating system is rigged so that they will fail. This was a good lager; pleasant hop snap, drinkable malts and a clean finish. That's just was a lager is.

Lucky Force 8 (100th review)
Steigl-Goldbrau bier and is addiction really so bad..
Swan's Old Town Bavarian Lager and beer hacking

London Porter (Fuller's)

Ratebeer 3.97 100th percentile
Beer Advocate A-

Taste +4

The nose was full of milk chocolate goodness and a little roast/smoke. Like most English canned beer the head started off pretty good and fluffy but vanished quickly. The taste was just like the nose announced: smooth, sweet, creamy chocolate, roasted and not very bitter. The fuggles hops gave a slight velvety bitterness but nothing pronounced.

Aftertaste +1

There was a slight roasted chocolate aftertaste with a little stale coffee mixed in.

Alcohol Content 0 5.4%

Value +1

Fuller's makes a very drinkable porter. It was not challenging to the taste buds, but it did make them happy.

Ingame Enhancement +1

I found this at the local LCBO while in Toronto. Sadly that was about all I found worth drinking.
Overall 7/10

This should be the standard against which all porters are rated. Fuller's had it all: sweet chocolate malts, not too bitter, roast/smoke and a velvety mouthfeel.

Black Boss Porter
Gonzo Imperial Porter
Anchor Porter

Bruegel Amber Ale

Ratebeer 2.96 44th percentile
Beer Advocate B

Taste +2

This was an average beer; the nose too was average of yeast, bread, honey and slightly fruity. The taste was just like the nose, so no further excitement here. There was the nice floral and herbal hop bite up front. It was not so much a bit as a nibble. I actually thought it tasted a bit watery.

Aftertaste +1

It was clean but with a slippery ending of faint fruits and honey

Alcohol Content 0 5.2%

Value 0

Not really a beer of excitement.

Ingame Enhancement 0

Meh, I done with this beer.

Overall 3/10

Anyone who raves about how great all Belgian beers are needs to try this one. I found it boring and quite plain. It was a bit watery with honey sweetness, light fruits, yeast and a lackluster hop bite. In case you were wondering, the art on the label was Pieter Bruegel the Elder's The Peasant Dance.

Augustijn
Achel Blond
Saint-Martin Blond

Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale

Ratebeer 3.47 92nd precentile
Beer Advocate B+

Taste +5

A sour Flemish beer is not for the faint of heart. If you are brave, you will truly enjoy the sour cherry, tart yeast and vinegar that appears in the nose. Supposing the nose has not deterred you; every sip will be mouth puckering and medium bodied. The flavours will be grandiose with tart, sweet fruits, dense sour vinegar, cherries and green apples. There might be a little balsamic vinegar in there also. Descriptions are never good for a sour ale, but try it and you will be most refereshed.

Aftertaste +1

The ending was quite dry and tart with a bit of sour cherries that faded quickly

Alcohol Content 0 5.5%

To bad they did not list acetic acid content.

Value +1

This was a big hit at the BJCP tasting session. I found this Flemish more palatable than the Duchesse and Rodenbach.

Ingame Enhancement +1

Whatever, it was good so it deserves a higher score.

Overall 8/10

This brew was all tart and sour fruit goodness.

Rodenbach Grand Cru
Vichtenaar
Duchesse de Bourgogne