American Strong Ale Battle, more big beers for big fun

In the realm of beer, one category seems to defy explanation and that is the American Strong Ale. An American strong ale is sort of what its namesake implies, a particularly strong Ale like beer. This has become a sort of go to catch all category for craft brews that are high in ABV. It basically gives brewers a big blank template to essentially go crazy, many of the beers sometimes are stored in oak barrels, or they have specific ingredients that you wouldn't normally find.

For todays imbibing joy I brought out three heavweights to compare. The beers imbibed on were from Stone Brewery in San Diego Double Bastard, Great Lakes Nosferatu, and Lagunitas Brown Shugga, a strong ale with a large amount of brown sugar added. The results were some very good imbibing joy.

Cheers!

APA battle, hopin fresh and also smooth to the finish line

When I was down in Portland Oregon, I had something called "Fresh Hop Beer". Simply put, the abundance of great hops that exist in the nearby Willamette valley, are quickly gathered and made for beer within an hour. This is how they were done at Deschutes. So when I returned back home and saw Fresh Hop beers available to purchase I was excited.

A giant green bottle struck my face as if it should have been in the frozen food section, but there was no jolly green giant on this thing. I picked up a bottle from Great Divide of their "fresh hop" beer.

I was hoping to pair it with another fresh hop style, but couldn't find much. There were similar beers though in this style which is classified as an American Pale Ale.

I grabbed another APA but not a fresh hop for comparison, and I was glad I grabbed it. It's from Great Lakes brewery in Cleveland and it's called Burning River. It's excellent.

To take my word for it, see the review below:

Cheers!