My recent trip to Washington introduced me to a new beer, Alaskan Amber. It’s brown and sweet and delicious. Smooth and mild, it goes well with fish and chips (and probably a lot more but that’s the only thing I tried). If you’re in a region that sells it, I recommend trying this one on tap. And if you can, try their stout and smoked porter and report back to me!

I came back home and looked at my massive spreadsheet o’ beer and discovered why the name looked familiar – I’ve had Belhaven Scottish Ale in the bottle. It’s dark and tart and bitter, with a hint of sweet in the middle. It wasn’t bad for a Scottish ale, but not my favorite. Granted, it’s been a while since I had the bottled version, and the name isn’t exactly the same, but the two tasted very different. Hmm, beer quandary…

Rating:
Bottle: 5.5
Tap: 8.5

Have some Irish beer this week. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Our wonderful friends Kay-bot and Tonyzilla gave us three new dark beers to try. I haven’t seen these in our stores – our friends are from Michigan – enforcing my suspicion that I’ll have to do a cross-country beer-tasting road trip.

O’Fallon Cherry Chocolate Ale is something to behold. Although it’s an ale, its flavor is dark and delicious. As the name suggests, it tastes just like a dark-chocolate-covered cherry, but far milder and less sweet. It’s light and crisp, making it much more drinkable than an actual chocolate-covered-cherry might lead you to believe. The flavor is slightly more cherry than chocolate, and is very smooth. It has absolutely no bite, although a small bite might improve it even more.

A wonderful, refreshing, different beer. Smiles all around.

M: 8.5
N: 7.5

Day 1: Meet with Casey Klahn of The Colorist, who has the most beautiful backyard ever. Got to see some of his originals and his awesome new studio-in-progress. He has cute kids and gave me beer. Thumbs up!

Walnut Brewery Old Elk Brown Ale: a nice red beer, tastier by far than Killian’s. Ratings for a non-dark beer… M: 7 N: 6.5

Day 2: Family reunion in beautiful Leavenworth, WA. Found out that I have the same birthday as this handsome fellow, my great-great-grandfather the horse-wrangler.

Also found out that I’m related to an excellent botanical artist, Catherine Watters. My family rocks.

Leavenworth is a Bavarian Village, and has tons of good beer on tap. Here’s what we drank:

Big Sky Brewery Moose Drool Brown Ale: chocolatey, mild, complex, and dark for an ale. On tap at Gustav’s, which makes kick-ass cheeseburgers. Non-dark beer ratings… M: 9 N: 8.5

Boundary Bay Imperial Oatmeal Stout: served room temp, it’s dessert-sweet and rich, like a mild black russian. On tap at Ducks and Drakes. M: 9 N: 9

Elysian Perseus Porter: complex, better than Guinness. On tap at I forget which beer garden. M: 7 N: 7.5

Hales Brewery Sleeping Maiden Porter: deep, rich, tasty. On tap at, and made exclusively for, Gustav’s. M: 7.5 N: 7

Deschutes Brewery Black Butte Porter: smooth and mild, a typical porter. On tap at Gustav’s. M: 8 N: 7

Day 3: Drove to Dayton, WA to visit my grandmother, a 96-year-old firecracker with a 20-year-old sense of humor. Visit Palouse Falls. Successfully take photos without falling in.

Day 4: Visited Little Goose Dam and its fish ladder. I’ve never seen salmon so big.

Day 5: Dinner at Skye Book & Brew in Dayton. It’s an awesome little mix of cafe, coffee shop, and bookstore. Their brewmaster makes excellent beer that is only available on tap at this restaurant. They have $1 pints on Monday night. ONE DOLLAR. I love this place.

S. McTaggart Scottish Ale: dark, complex, and earthy with a hint of cocoa. Non-dark beer ratings… M: 9 N:9

Pataha Creek Porter: light for a porter, smooth, complex, and bitter. M: 7.5 N: 7

Tucannon Honey Wheat: not dark beer at all, but Grandmother liked it, so I had to try. Sweet and tasty.

Startin Starveout Stout: I had this on my last trip to Dayton, and it was delicious. They aren’t making it right now. Shame.

Day 6: Pick wild blackberries. Dinner at the Weinhard Cafe. Awesome food.

Deschutes Brewery Obsidian Stout: full, smooth, thick, nutty, and sweet. M: 9 N: 8.5

Day 7: Had beer on tap at Squatters Pub Brewery in the Salt Lake City airport while waiting on a layover.

Squatters Polygamy Porter: mild, smooth, with a small bite. M: 7 N: 5

Squatters Captain Bastard’s Oatmeal Stout: complex but verrry bitter and sour, smells like coffee. M: 6  N: 5

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed my beer vacation as much as I did.

Moorehouse’s Black Cat called to me from its lonely perch in the refrigerator case. It was a lone bottle, waiting for someone to give it a good home. It had come all the way from England. I obliged.

Black Cat is a dark ale that tastes a tiny bit like a stout – a very mild one. It has the ale characteristic of not having much taste, at least compared to most dark beers. We’re talking a tame, cute black cat (Fig. 1), rather than a witch’s pet or the evil, insane kind (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

This Black Cat is more tangy than sweet, but the flavor isn’t very strong either way. It’s very smooth, with not much aftertaste. Apparently it won some awards in 1998. Meh.

Ratings:
M: 7
N: 6

Twice we’ve bought organic beer that was possessed. Two separate occasions, two different breweries. We’d open the bottle, but as soon as the beer reached our mouths, it turned to complete fizz. All air, no liquid. Same if we poured it in a glass – it turned completely to foam. Let it sit for half an hour, and there’d be half an inch of totally flat beer in a glass that had been brimming full of foam.

Both times, the blight affected the entire six-pack. Both times, we’ve had the beer several times before and it was fine. The first occasion was several months ago, and it was Bison Chocolate Stout. The second time was last weekend, with Butte Creek Organic Porter. It wasn’t as bad as the Bison, but still difficult to drink. Beer is much less enjoyable when you have to concentrate on each sip or end up with fizz up your nose and a shirt covered in beer fluff.

So… if you but these organic beers, beware… and does anyone know what the freakin’ heck is going on? Unless you have ideas, I’m going on the presumption that these beers are possessed.

To celebrate the unofficial arrival of summer, this week’s beer is a lighter one; an ale with the soul of a dark beer. I was first introduced to Rogue Dead Guy Ale by a dear friend in Houston. I liked it. Since returning, I have only tried it on tap, so that’s the description you get.

First of all, it is dark for an ale. It has a skeleton on the tap (and on the bottle), and its black heart comes out through its dark taste. It’s fairly smooth and a bit bright. The first taste is sweet and dark, but then it gives you a small bite to remind you that it’s an ale. We didn’t rank it sky-high because it is still an ale, and is therefore competing against a tough benchmark. But saying an ale is good enough to stand up with the dark beers is saying something.

N: 7

M: 6.5

And in honor of all those who have fought or are still fighting for our right to drink whatever beer we choose, a toast. Thank you.

For a dark beer, it isn’t all that dark. I suppose it tastes dark when compared with lighter beers and ales and whatnot, but compared to our usual beer fare, it’s pretty light-tasting.

There is a hint of honey in the initial taste, and it lingers in the aftertaste a little. The rest of the flavor is bitter, with a darker bite… but mostly bitter. Initially I didn’t like it at all, but it’s growing on me. It still doesn’t hold a candle to our usual stouts and porters, but for an ale-like beer, it isn’t bad. And I could be biased, since it’s only been 24 hours since I woke up with a smashing tequila hangover, and I’m not really in the mood for beer.

Ratings:

M: 4.5

N: 3

Dogfish Head Raison d’Etre was tasty. According to the almighty Wikipedia, its name translates to “the reason for existence.” This seems a bit presumptuous, but it matches their website’s attitude, which also recommends drinking this beer from a goblet or snifter. Since Nathan and I are more walk-around-barefoot-outside people than OMG-my-goblets-don’t-match-my-china-pattern people, we just drank it straight from the bottle.

Anyhow, although this beer is technically ale, it’s really sweet and dark. It’s slightly sugary and reminiscent of raisins, which might be what’s on the label, although I think they look like coffee beans. Not a remarkable dark beer, but pleasant, and I’d recommend it.

Ratings

M: 8.5

N: 8