My thoughts: This smells like Grim Bergen! It actually tastes a lot like Grim Bergen as well. Seriously this is a Grim Bergen clone, with a slightly higher ABV. It may have a bit rougher aftertaste. If you like Grim Bergen and want to get drunk faster, this is the way to go.
My thoughts: Strong citrus scent. Interesting fruity flavor. It’s very sweet and the hop flavor is almost nonexistent. It’s very smooth and almost creamy. No indication of its ABV. The finish is clean and there’s an almost fresh taste to it, sort of like a fresh and juicy fruit salad. This is a fantastic beer!
My thoughts: First, let me say WTF at this ABV. Is this even beer? It certainly smells pretty fucking sour. Well, it’s mouth puckeringly sour. So… Yeah… There’s almost something sweet when you first sip it, but it’s gone so quick I am not sure if I’m imaging it. The rest is just the sour of a fruit that’s gone bad. Strong carbonation. It’s quite dry. The finish is, as one might expect, more sour, but at least it vanishes quickly. I white girl can’t even with this.
My thoughts: Smells like a sickly sweet mess. It tastes… I dunno. Like an IPA but it’s gone bad. The flavor is like a typical mildly hoppy IPA with something sweet mixed in, but that sweet thing was maybe sitting in the sun too long and has maybe turned a bit. Strong carbonation, medium body, and a mild finish can’t save what’s fundamentally a bad beer.
My thoughts: Moderate, almost cocoa scent. Nice flavor, notes of mild coffee with an undertone of chocolate and bourbon. More carbonation than I expected, but it plays nicely with the flavor. Full body, but not too rich. Somewhat creamy. Slight coffee bitter aftertaste that dissipates quickly.
My thoughts: Weird metallic scent. Weird metallic flavor too. Aside from that, there doesn’t seem to be any other flavor in here, certainly not any chocolate. It’s super watery and thin, which is just plain wrong for a porter. It’s also quite carbonated. The aftertaste is metallic as well, just like the rest of this apparently metal based beer. This is no good.
My thoughts: Super strong coconut scent. Pretty strong coconut flavor as well. There’s some coffee underneath and I feel like I’m getting a hint of chocolate. The finish is bitter coffee and it lingers a bit. Full body, low carbonation, and smooth.
This is one of my early reviews. I knew less and wrote less and generally they are not as detailed as my later reviews. As I go through my tremendous backlog of beer notes, I’ll indicate which reviews are based off of my older notes. They have less info than I’d like, but they still helped me keep my beers straight, so I figured they’d be worth posting. From here on out, I’ll simply add the “early review” tag to beer review posts that are from those early days instead of having this big block of text at the start of the post.
Menu description: Bready malt, hint of honey, very smooth.
ABV: 7.5%
My thoughts: It has a strong honey taste. Aaaaand that’s about it. There wasn’t much in the flavor that I really noticed other than some mild malts and the honey. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really anything special. The description from the Croxley’s menu lies about this beer being smooth. It’s an easy enough drink, but again doesn’t stand out in the smoothness category. It smells pretty nice, but unfortunately you don’t get any of those scents in the flavor. It’s too bad, with an angry sounding German name like that, I expected a more exciting beer.
This is one of my early reviews. I knew less and wrote less and generally they are not as detailed as my later reviews. As I go through my tremendous backlog of beer notes, I’ll indicate which reviews are based off of my older notes. They have less info than I’d like, but they still helped me keep my beers straight, so I figured they’d be worth posting.
Menu description: Smooth resin and grapefruit notes balanced by subtle caramel malts.
ABV: 7.5%
My thoughts: Very light citrus aroma. It’s quite smooth and the caramel flavor really comes through. It finishes mostly clean, but there’s a hint of something at the end. I’m guessing that’s the resin, because I don’t know what else it could be. It certainly doesn’t taste like the grapefruit mentioned in the description. The caramel flavor I mentioned kind of reminds me of those soft caramels you used to be able to get at supermarkets back when they had loose candy bins because apparently people didn’t steal and lol sanitary concerns, amirite? It was a bit unusual for me as most beers with caramel flavors don’t give me that impression. This is a pretty sweet beer, but not so much that you can only drink one. Of course this is a decently strong beer, so maybe you don’t want to go too hard.
Menu description: Hints of vanilla & almonds, spiced fruits, floral hop.
ABV: 6.5%
My thoughts: Southampton Biere de Mars is a Long Island beer, in case you couldn’t tell by the name. Its brewed by the Southampton Publick House, a place I sadly never got to visit before moving to California. While I’ve had quite a few LI beers, this was one of the first I’d had from the east end. This one’s got a mild, but very fresh smelling aroma. I imagine this is due to the vanilla. It’s lightly hoppy, but you don’t notice that right away. The sweet fruity flavors are what first hit your tongue. I didn’t really taste any vanilla, which disappointed me. I like the oddball brew every now and then and a vanilla flavored beer would be pretty interesting, I think. Alas, this was not the beer to explore that particular flavor with. That said, it was pretty good. There’s slight nuttiness to it that shows up at the end along with the hop flavor. I think that flavor combination worked pretty well and I’d like to see more beers try that. It is a smooth and easy drink, which I always appreciate. I’ve only had this beer once, primarily because I’ve never seen it again after that first night. It’s a shame too, because its definitely something I’d like to have again.
One time, at band camp work, I gave a bunch of good restaurant recommendations. One of my friends was all like “You’ve given us some great recommendations! We’re coming to you whenever we’re going out to eat.” Because I don’t always think things through, I decided to create a website where I can review local (LI/NY at the time) restaurants. Also I am a fatty, hence the name of the site.
That was how it started. I am notoriously lazy and didn’t update more than once or twice a year, if that. There were some dark times, but I am setting off on a renewed venture (Narrator: he stalled almost as soon as he started up again) to bring you not only food reviews from wherever I am stuffing my face (I’ve been to CA and back to NY!), but also infinite beer reviews, because who doesn’t like beer?