Beer review: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (5.6% United States: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company)

The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is an ale, more specifically an American Pale Ale. It's brewed by the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, the seventh-largest brewery in the United States. The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company was founded in 1980 and produces around 100 000 000 litres of beer annually. Thus, it's most definitely not the smallest of breweries but it's a craft brewery nevertheless. Furthermore, the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the best selling pale ale in the United States, so it has to have something extraordinary in it. Let's see what that is!

Taste: The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a medium-strength beer with a well-balanced slightly sweet taste. It's relatively easy to drink, yet it offers an interesting set of aromas: a sweet, even caramel, maltiness combined with a fruity hoppiness of citrus, orange and even pineapple.

Overall, the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is an excellent beer. It's refreshing and it offers a perfect balance of sweet malt and hoppiness. It's definitely one of the best widely available APAs I've come across and deserves its fame. In my books the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the beer that sets the standard for other APAs.

95 Legendary

Beer review: Fuller's London Porter (5.4% England: Fuller's Brewery)

The Fuller's London Porter is an Ale, more specifically a Porter. It's brewed by Fuller's Brewery, a medium-sized British independent brewery located in Chiswick, London. The company was founded in 1845 and currently produces about 26 million liters annually. The Fuller's London Porter is widely regarded as the World's Finest Porter: having won awards all over the world, London Porter is regularly voted the number one Porter on beer websites such as www.ratebeer.com. Sounds really promising!

Taste: The Fuller's London Porter is a medium/full-bodied beer with a very sophisticated and mature taste. It starts with the flavor of brown bread with notes of caramel and faint notes of sweet fruit. This is followed by a roasted, quite sweet bready flavor and the beer finishes with some chocolate, roasted coffee, smoky aromas and a faint hoppiness.

Overall, the Fuller's London Porter is an excellent beer. I'm personally into Porters and Stouts but they're easily a bit too overwhelming and demand quite a lot from the drinker. Therefore, it's easy to understand the world-wide popularity and fame of the Fuller's London Porter: it's the easiest Porter that I've ever tasted. It's easy to enjoy and yet it offers a very wide range of sophisticated and mature aromas. It's an excellent stepping-stone into the more demanding world of Imperial Stouts, which in the eyes of many beer connoisseurs are the ultimate taste experiences in these types of beer. To put it short, the Fuller's London Porter is the best porter I've ever tasted!

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Cider review: Gwynt y Ddraig Gold Medal (7.0% Wales: Gwynt y Ddraig Cider)

The Gwynt y Ddraig (the wind dragon in English) Gold Medal is an apple cider. It's produced by Gwynt y Ddraig Cider, an award-winning Welsh cider producer. The cider is their first commercially produced cider and it is the winner of CAMRA’S gold medal at the 2004 National cider & perry judging.

Taste: The Gwynt y Ddraig Gold Medal is a medium-bodied cider with a medium sweet body. It offers aromas of sweet apple, with light tartness and bitterness. It also offers faint aromas of wood and vanilla.

Overall, the Gwynt y Ddraig Gold Medal is a very mature and well-accomplished cider. Despite the fact that it's a commercial cider, its taste has maintained a home-made quality and feel to it. A very nice cider, and definitely recommended for any cider lovers.

95 Legendary

Beer review: Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel (4.7% Germany: Weltenburger Klosterbrauerei)

The Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel is a lager, more specifically a dark brown lager (Dunkel). It's brewed by the Weltenburger Klostenbrauerei, a German monastery brewery. The brewery was founded in 1050 and claims to be the oldest monastery brewery in the world (competing with the Weihenstepan abbey brewery). The beer has won several awards, for example the World Beer cup award in 2004, 2008 and 2012 for the best Dunkel beer in the world. Can't wait to try it out!

Taste: The Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel is a medium-bodied beer with a sophisticated, aroma-rich body. It delivers a smoky, roasted and bready and slightly sweet malt body. The flavor is strong, yet very pleasant and smooth. The beer finishes with a faint, yet once again very smooth hoppy bitterness.

Overall, the Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel is the best Dunkel I've ever tasted. It's an incredible achievement to pack such a rich set of aromas into a market-strength beer. This beer manages to do it, and yet maintains a well-balanced and smooth aroma. It's like drinking the liquid form of the best dark bread you've ever eaten. Pure enjoyment!

95 Legendary

Beer review: La Trappe Dubbel (7% Netherlands: De Koningshoeven Brewery)

The La Trappe Dubbel is an ale, more specifically an Abbey Dubbel. It's brewed by De Koningshoeven Brewery, a medium-sized Dutch brewery located within the walls of the Onze Lieve Vrouw van Koningshoeven abbey in Berkel-Enschot. The brewery was founded in 1884 and nowadays produces about 14,5 million litres.

Taste: The La Trappe Dubbel is a medium-bodied beer with a sweet sugary malt body. In addition, the beer offers aromas of sugary yeast, spices, roasted malt, dried fruit and caramel.

Overall, the La Trappe Dubbel is an excellent, well-balanced beer with a rich set of flavors. The beer is really smooth and sweet, but the spices balance the sweetness, resulting in a phenomenal overall taste. When you choose a Trappist, you're guaranteed to get your money's worth.

95 Legendary

Beer review: Samuel Adams Boston Lager (4.7% United States: Boston Beer Company)

The Samuel Adams Boston Lager is a lager, more specifically an Amber Lager. It's brewed by the Boston Beer Company, the fourth largest brewery in the States and the largest one to manufacture craft beers. The brewery was founded in 1984 and its products have since received several awards, for example at the Great American Beer Festival.

Taste: The Samuel Adams Boston Lager is a light/medium-bodied beer with a pleasant malt-rich body. The taste is slightly sweet and offers aromas of toffee. The beer finishes with a nice herbal hoppiness, a touch of bitterness and faint aromas of toffee.

Overall, the Samuel Adams Boston Lager is a well-accomplished beer. It was a really pleasant surprise and among the market beers, it's definitely one of the best. It's the best amber lager that I've come across.

95 Legendary

Beer review: Chimay Blue (9.0% Belgium: Chimay Brewery)

Chimay Blue is an ale, more specifically a Belgian style strong ale, brewed by Chimay Brewery, a brewery located in the Scourmont Abbey in southern Belgium. It is one of the ten breweries in the world to produce Trappist beer. All of the profits from Chimay products go for the benefit of the monastery and to charity. Finally a way to do charity while practising a hobby of mine! Considering that it's a monastery brewery, the annual amount of Chimay products being brewed is staggering, 12 million litres reported in 2005. That has to be a sign of something exceptional, let's find out what it is.

Taste: Chimay Blue is a very sophisticated and mature beer, with a malt dominant, medium/full-bodied yet soft and smooth taste. The aftertaste of Chimay is pleasant, finishing with a warm, mildly sweet, almost liquorice-ish malty flavor.

Overall, Chimay Blue is worth its reputation and its understandable why it's so popular. It's available in almost all of the alcohol stores in Finland, which is a good thing because it's one of my regular picks. If you haven't tried Chimay Blue yet, do it!

95 Legendary