Tag Archives: weyerbacher

Weyerbacher Slam Dunkel

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Beer-a-Day #350 Weyerbacher Slam Dunkel

Slam Dunkel was a small batch release in 2007. We had such an overwhelming response that we had to put it in the seasonal rotation. We also decided we couldn’t live without drinking this beer every year!  This 7% Double Dunkelweizen is unfiltered and made with over 50% wheat malt along with pale, munich, and a touch of chocolate to give it the traditional color and flavor. Bitterness is subdued to allow the Weihenstephen yeast to shine through with those traditional notes of banana and clove.

Dark brown and a bit hazy. Plenty of banana in clove in the aroma, with an underlying bite from the alcohol. Big malty flavor. That’s a good sipping beer.

Weyerbacher Slam Dunkel

Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale

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Beer-a-Day #239

Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale (image © Christopher Vigliotti)

Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale (image © Christopher Vigliotti)

Like a pyramid for a pharaoh, we set out to make a bold monument for The King of the Pumpkins!  This 8.0% ABV pumpkin ale is the mother of all pumpkin ales.  It is heartier, spicier, and more “caramelly” and “pumpkiny” than its faint brethren! We have added lots of pumpkin along with Cinnamon, Nutmeg and a touch of cardamom and clove giving this beer a spicy, full-bodied flavor.  This truly is an Imperial Pumpkin Ale.

Perfect finisher on a cool autumn night, or match it up with a slice of pumpkin pie and fresh whipped cream.  It is available August through November.

This is a great time of year for beer: All of the Octoberfests and Pumpkin beers are hitting the stores.

Golden amber with orange highlights; off-white head. Definitely getting the cinnamon in the aroma. Not bad, but seems a little unbalanced. 8% ABV seems awfully high for a pumpkin beer. There might be a bit too much cinnamon.

Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale

Weyerbacher Merry Monks

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Weyerbacher Merry MonksBeer-a-Day #96

I’m running out of Weyerbacher beers. This is a Belgian-style Tripel.

Light amber with plenty of haze, and a bunch of stuff floating in it (I hope from the bottle-conditioning). Lots of bubblegum and bananas from the yeast. No, something’s off. Too bad, I really wanted to like this. I guess I’ll have to try again.

Weyerbacher Merry Monks’

Weyerbacher Old Heathen Imperial Stout

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Weyerbacher Old Heathen labelBeer-a-Day #95

I’ve had this before, but it’s been quite a while, and I’ve never written about it, so…

Color of used motor oil, with a head that looks like a chocolate milkshake and a nice cascade. Chocolate, coffee, and toffee notes in the aroma. More coffee and chocolate in the flavor, with some nice roastiness and bitterness.

I seem to recall that the last time I had this I didn’t like it, but my palate must be evolving, because I rather like this now.

Weyerbacher Old Heathen Imperial Stout

Weyerbacher QUAD

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Weyerbacher Quad labelBeer-a-Day #94

Well, I might as well stick to Weyerbacher for a bit longer. They’re not too far away, being just up in Easton, Pennsylvania (home of Crayola Crayons!).

The Weyerbacher folks suggest cellaring it for 12 months or more. I’m not that patient.

Orangeish, with haze. Aroma is overwhelmingly of bananas and bubblegum. Sweet, and there’s some heat from the 11.8% alcohol-by-volume. Something to savor, and I can see where this could mellow nicely over time.

Weyerbacher QUAD

Session #26: Weyerbacher Fireside Ale

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The Session - Beer Blogging FridayThis edition of The Session is sponsored Lew Bryson at Seen Through a Glass.

Announcing Session #26: Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em

There may be more smoked beers than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio; it’s not just rauchbier lagers from Franconia. Within the last year, I’ve had a strange smoked wheat beer, light and tart, that local brewers insisted was a re-creation of a Polish grodziski beer; a lichtenhainer, another light smoked wheat beer; several smoked porters; the odd Schlenkerla unsmoked helles that tastes pretty damned smokey; and, yeah, several types of smoked lagers. You’ve got three weeks, is what I’m saying: go find a smoked beer.

Smoked beer. Not my favorite. Smoked anything generally doesn’t make it onto my hit parade. What the hell? How bad could it be?

I hied myself over to my favorite beer retailer. There’s the Stone Smoked Porter. Ron’s doing that one, so I’ll skip it. Rogue has one. In a bomber, though. Do I want to make that kind of commitment?

Weyerbacher Fireside AleAh, here we go: Weyerbacher Fireside Ale. “An Intriguing Dark Ale with a Touch of Smokiness”. Sounds like just the thing.

7.5% ABV. Sounds like the kind of thing one should enjoy sitting next to a fire.

It’s brown; the color of coffee, with a tan, craggy head. I get maltiness and maybe just a hint of smoke in the aroma. Malty, nutty, and just a trace of smoke in the flavor. Moderate bitterness in the finish I think this would go well with a nice sharp cheese. (I think I have some cheddar in the house. Off to search.)

It’s not something I think I’d make my regular, but it’s not too bad.

This is also Beer-a-Day #93.

Weyerbacher Fireside Ale

Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA

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Beer-a-Day #25

This was actually #1 on Ron’s wishlist in 2007. Not only that, but the lucky sod got it as one of his gifts last weekend.

Well, he can do a full-blown tasting if he likes, but I’m making it my selection for today’s imbibification.

Nice amber color with some chill haze. Prodigious head. Lots of grapefruit and pepper in the aroma. Plenty of kick from the hops. This is a beer for a hop head.

Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA

IPA Bake Off

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Back in October we tried an Octoberfest bake off (a taste test) and it wasn’t that successful. Nice.. not thrillin’, but nice. So when a different group of my friends suggested a blind IPA taste testing, I wasn’t very optimistic; but of course I was game anyway.

Surprise! Not only was it a great evening, the winners and losers made it all that much more interesting. We scored them differently than I had done previously, not just on an overall impression like the unofficial Hop-Talk rating system is built upon, but rather a much more detailed method using a standard beer judging sheet. It is based on an overall score of 50 points made up of several categories.

scoring chart

Here are the results. I rounded the averages of the four of us playing judge…

ipa-taste-test
My comments after the tasting go like this…
Rogue - Yes, it stood alone at the top.
Stone – One of my favorite IPA’s. My score for it probably would have been higher but I hadn’t just taken a break in tasting for a slice of Buffalo Pizza… probably not the best idea and probably affected the overall result.
Butternut – We were all surprised by this one, but me most of all as I really don’t like Butternut’s other brews. I’m going to have to go back for this one.
Middle Ages – While we all know and love this IPA, none of us expected it to rate so high. Glad to see it up there.
Sam Smith – I nailed the import.

I had a great time doing this… I don’t know if the flavors varied that much greater than the octoberfest styles, or if the method in judging was what made it so much better. In any case, the casual nature and long evening in which we took to do it was one for the books.

Special thanks to our servers, Ellie & Katie, and their scientific strategy to organization assuring accurate test results. (We will excuse the Yuengling Porter incident.)