Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Weizen: Review

The Beer
Appearance: Dark brown body while it was sitting on the bar - when held to the light you get a nice mahogany color. The head is an off-white color that does not hang around too long. Didn't see much lacing if any.

Smell: Real hickory smoked ham hocks. And then more smoke. I could not go with average. It's not average - it's smoked beer. So, the smell did not make me think weizen beer.

Taste: SMOKE! I'll have to drink this while I cook up some ribs. Smoked spice, smoky head on the nose while drinking, smoked malts, there has to be hops for that bitter sour note so, smoked hops, and smoke on the water. It is smoky.

Mouthfeel: I liked the fine carbonation and the slight creamy texture but, they are soon taken away by the smoky profile and roasty undertones. Then the watery style hits the back of the palate to help clean up a little bit except you are left with SMOKE damage on the after taste.

Personally I do not think it is that drinkable. One and done. You should try it. I have had it before when I was out for dinner. And, I bought it again - only one bottle but, I still bought it. I'll wait till summer and when I put those ribs on the grill - I'll make sure I try it one more time. Maybe with BBQ food I'll like it a little more. I have to say, the taste is unique.

What really bothers me about this beer is the smell – ok I don’t like my beer to smell like BBQ smoke, the taste was unique but, I can’t decide if I like it a little or dislike it a little. The mouthfeel I’ll go with the dislike a little. So, for my strength rating I am up in the air as well. The smoky taste and aftertaste makes me think of a 6. Lack of real complexity does not help and that watery mouthfeel makes me want to go to a 4 or 4.5. See what I mean. So, I’ll call it a 5 – who cares!

Rocky Patel Sun Grown and Michigan Brewing Superior Stout: Review

The Cigar
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sun Grown
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Brazil, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua
Size: 6 x 60
My Strength Rating: 6.5
This cigar needs a solid beverage paired with it because it can be a little dry and to some smokers ‘harsh.’ This cigar is pretty straight forward with its earthy, spicy, and peppery notes. I do like this cigar when it is paired up with a good Cabernet wine or fuller beer.

The Stout
This stout is from Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville Michigan. Their beers are always pretty consistent in their taste. This stout has some nice roasted malts and coffee flavors. The hops add a nice bitterness and the malts are adding a little caramel and chocolate flavor. This gives me that bitter-sweet taste. Overall it is a pretty clean tasting stout due to the watery edges to the mouthfeel.

The Pairing
I know what I wanted to smoke with this stout but, I wanted to try something that would test the limits of the tasting profile of this type of beer. I want to through a little spice into this mix.

This is a pretty good pairing. They are similar in their strength ratings but, the spicy and peppery profile of the cigar does not make for a perfect pairing with this stout, just a pretty good one. So, find that cigar with the coffee or chocolate note or both to help maximize your experience.

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Celis Grand Cru: Review

The Grand Cru
The looks of this ale can be deceiving because, it has a light crystal golden color that makes you think it might be light in body.

According to michiganbrewing.com they say it is made with, ‘pilsen malts, Saaz Willamette hops, Curacau orange peel and select spices.’ And, the spices are plentiful from the coriander and clove along with some rose petals. I want to smell some rose petals while I drink this beer for some reason. If you are thinking rose petals in beer - yes, get this beer and smell that aroma.  This ale also has some citrus zip to it. Orange and lemon smack the palate with each sip. The Celis Grand Cru would be nice to drink while dinning on seafood. This is a very nice ale.

Bell's Batch 9000: Review

The Ale
Bell’s Batch 9000 Ale is a 12.5% abv sipper. It has a very dark opaque body. Holding it to the light I cannot see through it. Around the top edge of the beverage I can see a mahogany hue – other than that it is a dark black body. Looking down at the glass I get a cola like appearance, interesting. Be ready for that syrupy molasses like sweetness that hits the palate right up front and center. After a few sips and making it past the sweetness, I started to note the dark fruits and the chocolate-coffee profile. There are some nice complexities here to enjoy but, for me getting past that molasses like sweetness can be a chore. There is also the alcohol bite to contend with during this experience.

 

Point Belgian White: Review

The Beer

Point Belgian White is a 4.76% abv that is very drinkable. It is made my Stevens Point Brewery in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. The aroma has a nice wheat, biscuit, coriander and lemon citrus notes. The taste is very light overall. Light coriander, light orange, and a delicate wheat taste. If you have tried other Belgian Witbers that are spiced up a little too much for your liking then, try this one for it is very lightly spiced. I would place my strength rating on this beer around a 3.5.

A Cigar and Ale Review: Montecristo White and Poperings Hommel Ale

The Cigar

Wrapper: Connecticut-seed Ecuadorian Shade Grown

Filler: Dominican, Nicaraguan

Size: 6x54

My Strength Rating: 5

I use to smoke a lot of these back when they came in that high quality box and not that cardboard cigar box they come in now. Well, it is not because of the box that I do not smoke as many of these cigars; it is because there are so many other quality cigars to go around. I have to admit I still like this cigar. It is kinda plain. It is not a complex smoke. It is one dimensional and that is not always a bad thing. You don’t always have to have bold spice, coffee and earth to be a good cigar. This smoke is solid cedar. If you want to know what cedar tastes like pick this cigar up and you will know what cedar is like. The smoke is consistent all the through. No bitter notes. It does not really change strength ratings during the experience. And, paired with the right beverage this can be the perfect smoke. With that said, I plan to pick up a few more to be ready for some good summertime pairings. Here is one of them.

The Ale

Poperings Hommel Ale is brewed by Brouwerij Van Eecke. The ale has a 7.5% abv and is a Belgian IPA. For those of you who are afraid of the big bold IPA’s that have that super bitter grapefruit taste that will destroy your taste buds for the remainder of the day – don’t worry, this is a very pleasing IPA.

The aroma should turn you on - for the ale of course. The sweet grainy aroma hits my nose every time I pop that cork on that 750 ml bottle. Once in the glass I still get the sweet grain, as well as, some nice herbal notes and pure freshness. The taste is very crisp and has a wonderful hoppy, lemon citrus flavor. Don’t worry, nothing overpowering. The floral-rosy edges start to build and as the ale warms up some nice and very light sweet malty undertones come into play. To me this is a perfectly balanced IPA. Poperings Hommel is now always in my cellar.

The Pairing

This is a perfect pairing. The cigar brings that cedar woody flavor to mingle with the citrus, floral, and bready profile of the ale. The mouthfeel is pure delight. The high carbonation and dry citrus texture of the ale is very pleasing with this cigar. I have not had that experience with other American style IPA’s. It is almost impossible to pair a cigar up with those bold bitter grapefruit bombs. But, then I have not paired them up with this cigar – hum – I’ll have to give it try.

Read another posting about Poperings - with dinner plans

Cigar and Beer Pairing - The Point System

I have read the articles on Matching Cigars and Beverage stuff just like you have. I have seen it where someone says, “Match up the color of your cigar with the color of your drink.” Really! Or, light colored cigars are mild so drink mild drinks and dark cigars are strong so drink strong drinks. Wow, this is way too generalized and misinformed. I have had Natural colored shade wrapped cigars that have been medium-full in body. And, I have had dark cigars that tasted like air. This is no help at all.

Some articles give you a few ideas but, not enough. I even read one where some guy from a ‘cigar’ magazine said, you can’t mathematically match up your pairings so, don’t do it. Okay, so don’t think about it, light up that Cain Maduro cigar and grab yourself a hopped up IPA and you will find out what a taste collision is all about.

I am going to present a point system that will ‘help’ you to start matching your cigar to a quality beer. Is it fool proof? No. But, we get to examine our flavor profiles, in beer and cigar, in a more objective way. We will find out what works and what does not work, according to our own personal taste buds, and this should help to minimize that collision in taste. And at another time, we will look into those contrasting matching’s (Mild paired up to a Full) that work and at some that don’t.

I will use a Zero to Ten scale to rate my strength of each product. Zero being ‘very mild’ and ten being very strong.

Zero-0.5: Very Mild, Ultra Mild
1 - 2: Mild
2.5 – 4: Mild to Medium
4.5 - 5.5: Medium
6 – 7.5: Medium to Full
8 – 9: Full 9.5 - Ten: Very Full – Have food and drink ready.

This is the scale I use to describe the overall experience of each of these products (taste & mouthfeel).

Adjust the scale to your perception. Start charting your taste on different cigars. Rate them from zero to ten. For example, for me a Don Lino natural would score a zero for very mild. A Camacho, in general, I would score around a 9. I would do the same for the beer as well, a zero for a domestic beer especially ‘light’ beers and then a 9 or 10 for IPA's and sour beers.

Once charted, I would know my taste number and I would go two numbers in either direction for matching. Now, I am ready to pair my beer with a cigar to match.

If my beer is a 4 on this scale I want my cigar to be within two points from this tasting. This gives me a range from a two (mild) to a 6 (medium). The beer flavor will not be lost in this range. Whereas, if I chose a cigar with an 8 score (fuller), it would over-power the beer and the flavor would not be maximized. So, if I was smoking a cigar that was an 8, I would select a beer that would be a 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10.

Let’s take a look. The Wittekerke Belgian Wheat Ale: I would score as a 4, on the mild side of medium, very pleasant tasting wheat ale that would be wonderful on a very hot day indeed. Also, I do not get any strong spicy flavors from this beer, just pure wheat beer pleasure. So, I do not want too strong of a cigar where it overwhelms the beverage or a too mild of a cigar where I lose the smoking pleasure. A nice balanced Cameroon cigar or a Connecticut wrapped cigar would do. The other day I enjoyed my Wittekerke with a Leon Jimenes Cameroon 300 (5 rating) and it was magical.

The Bieken Honey Ale I rated a 4 on my strength scale. The Bieken is an 8.5% abv Belgian beer with a nice mild to medium body flavor. The Excalibur #1 cigar offers you a sweet, woody and wheat bread toasty flavor. I also rate this cigar a 4. The Connecticut shade leaves used on the wrapper and binder gives you a nice mild-medium smoke. The long fillers of Nicaraguan, Dominican and Honduran tobaccos give the Excalibur that classic tobacco taste that I always enjoy. This cigar has been one of my favorites for the last 15 years. Because, of the nice soft undertones, this cigar has the range to go with many foods and beverages. This was a super pairing! I am reserving a spot in my summer time to sit back and enjoy these two again. The point system worked here. So, before you crack open a bottle of quality beer and strike up a $10 stogie – think first – what is the mouthfeel of each (medium or medium-full or full) and how do they compare.

The objective is to maximize your pleasure.

Espresso Love: Review

Espresso Love Stout by Arbor Brewing Company

The Beer
Espresso Love is a breakfast stout with a 6.5% abv and a .10 cent deposit on the bottle here in Michigan. To me Arbor Brewing can be a hit or miss deal. One batch can be just fine and then the next can make you wonder if they were sleeping in the brewing room. But, it seems to me that Espresso Love is as close to consistent as they can get.

I like the nice coffee flavor that is matched with some good dark chocolate notes. This Breakfast Stout is smooth and has a slight creaminess to its texture. There always seems to be a good balance between the hops and the malts. The carbonation is light but, for a stout it is at that max point that I would like on a stout. This is not a mouth coating stout. It has a very clean mouthfeel

Gosser – Bierjue – Zaibo - 3 beer review

Here are three interesting beers.

Gosser is from Austria and comes in a green bottle. I know what is coming here. It is one of those green bottle beers – right. Aroma – yes – green bottle style smell. Taste: not too far off from a Heineken type beer. Not that big of a metallic taste. Not bad overall. But, nothing special either. I’d pass on this beer.

Bierjue is from Lithuania and brewed by Rinkuskiai. I am looking forward to trying this dark ale. The aroma is very malty sweet. The pour produces a caramel colored body and a very weak head. The first sip says – yikes! What the hell was that? Another sip and yes it has a nasty caramel sweetness that I just cannot do. I tried a few more sips and then I was off to the flower garden to water the plants with this one. Don’t do it!

Zaibo Extreme Strong Beer is next. Another Lithuanian beer brewed by Rinkuskiai. Another pour that produces a weak head. The aroma is light in the malts. Another caramel sweet tasting malt beer that has little carbonation. The taste is very uninspiring. Malty sweet caramel and not much else going on. It is a little more drinkable than the Bierjue beer. Save the money and buy a good beer. I guess I’ll cancel that trip to Lithuania – they can’t make beer! Well, good tasting beer.

The other week when the hard drive crashed - these three pictures were among the casualties.

Zatec Dark Lager Beer: Review

500ml bottle. 5.7% abv. From the Czech Republic.

See the posting on June 19, 2010 for the Zatec Lager.

This is an ok tasting and refreshing dark lager. There is a mild roasty note that accompanies a mild-medium larger taste. Nothing complex here. A pretty simple straight forward dark lager. I like the Zatec lager beer. As for the dark lager – If I am going to have a darker beer I want a little more complexity to the taste profile.

Pass.