My introduction to Terrapin Beer Co.
This past weekend I visited my family down in Georgia. Visiting other people in different states is always a nice time to go beer hunting!!! To my surprise every beer store I went to was well stocked with beer I’ve never seen before. There version of Total Wine just blows away the ones we have here. Distribution in Georgia is strong. Maybe I should move there. Instead of going nuts I decided to only try to pick up brews that were from the state. (That worked out sorta) I decided to get my education in a brewery named Terrapin Beer Co. Terrapin is located in Athens, Georgia. Which I don’t think is to far from where I was staying. They have a line of beers called “Side Project” These beers are only brewed once and once they are gone, they are gone forever. I was lucky enough to find two of those brews (well actually three but I didn’t have time to drink it while I was down there) Dos Cocoas and Monk’s Revenge. I also decided I needed to try their year around beers. They make a four in total. I won’t go into huge reviews for those four because well by the time I was done with drinking most of the box, I was pretty lit. But instead here are some quick ones.
Rye Pale Ale – My second favorite of the bunch. A decent pale ale with a punch of hops, bready malt, and of course the rye. I love beers brewed with rye so this was good to me. Easy to drink. Light and crisp. Good for the 90+ degree weather. Rating: B
Golden Ale – Probably my least favorite of the bunch but still a really decent beer. A nice light beer brewed with honey. Light floral hops with a grainy taste rounded out the experience. A great session beer. You can down these babies all night. Rating: C
India Style Brown Ale – Easily my favorite out of the four. Nice mixture of brown ale and IPA characteristics. Nice roasted malt flavor, chocolate, with a nice shot of hops. Interesting mixture here and like I said the highlight of the 4. Rating: B+
SunRay Wheat Beer – Last but not least is their take on a Hefeweizen. Was not to overly impressed with this Hefe but like everything else in the box it was a easy drinker and decent. Mixture of wheat and tart fruit. Rating: C+
Ok now on to the beers I was really searching for. The Side Project beers. The two I found like I said above was Monk’s Revenge which is classified as a Belgian IPA and Dos Cocoas which is a Chocolate Porter. While I really enjoyed one, the other one really didn’t do much for me. Read on!!
Terrapin Dos Cocoas Chocolate Porter – First is the porter. This beer is number 4 in the series of 6 This brew poured like a soda. At first it poured a huge head. But quickly the head fizzles out like a soda does. Bubbles shooting everywhere. The color of the brew is pitch black. The smell is full of bitter chocolate. roasted malt, and a small amount of coffee. The smell was decent but nothing to write home about. Sadly same goes for the taste. I was hoping for more of a rich taste. But instead the bitterness of the chocolate takes over to much. I know this is a chocolate porter but it was to much bitter chocolate for my tastes. Wanted a little bit more complex taste. Mixed in with the bitterness was a bit of sourness. The mixture just turned me off from this beer. What else bugged me is how watery this beer was. One of the more watery beers I’ve had in a while. While this was a nice beer to make I’m glad they are only doing it once and not making it a full release. Maybe a little tinkering with the recipe would make this one a winner. But you know you really aren’t into a beer when you don’t want to even finish it. Luckily the other Side Project beer made up for it.
Found: Somewhere in Georgia!
Price: 7 dollars a bottle
Website: http://www.terrapinbeer.com
What the company says: The “Dos Cocoas” is a traditional Porter with a chocolaty experimental twist. “Spike” incorporated two types of chocolate at two different stages of production to achieve the balanced chocolate flavors in the “Dos Cocoas.” The first addition was 60 pounds of cocoa powder added in the whirlpool. Next, the porter was aged for one month on a 60 pound bed of cocoa nibs to really bring the dark chocolate flavors home. The result is a fine chocolate aroma, a unique bitterness and a tantalizingly balanced chocolate flavor from both the cocoa powder and the nibs.
ABV%: 5.80%
Other beers to try from this brewery: Terrapin India Style Brown Ale, Terrapin Rye Pale Ale
Other beers to try within the same style: Samuel Adams Holiday Porter
Rating: C
Terrapin Monk’s Revenge – Up next is their take on a Belgian IPA. Ever since I’ve tried my first Belgian IPA (Stone Cali-Belgique IPA) I’ve really enjoyed the style of beer. I mean how can you go wrong. A mixture of Belgian style brewing with my favorite kind of beer, India Pale Ale. A mixture made in heaven. This might not be my favorite version of the style but it’s pretty damn good. It’s big. That’s for sure. The beer pours a light orange color with a fluffy white head that leaves a good amount of lacing throughout the glass. The smell is just inviting. Mixture of piney hops, citrus, sugary sweet aroma, Belgian yeast and spice. Good mixture. When you take your first sip you’ll be welcomed by a nice fruity, sweet sugary flavor mixed in with hops and the Belgian side of things, the yeast and spice. You’ll also notice a nice amount of alcohol. Burns your mouth and throat a bit as it goes down. The beer is smooth and crisp. Just a lovely beer. I even had my brother try it, he’s a Coors Light man, and he liked it. Could I be converting someone else to the darkside? No probably not. Out of the two Side Project beers this is easily the winner. To bad I missed the others.
Found: Somewhere in Georgia!
Price: 7 dollars a bottle
Website: http://www.terrapinbeer.com
What the company says: This Belgian IPA has a malt bill of a Belgian Tripel and a hop bill of a Double IPA. The yeast I chose for this beer comes from one of the 7 Trappist breweries. Believe it or not, this is the first time in my professional brewing career that I have used dextrose (corn syrup) in a Terrapin brew. True to style no doubt. “Monk’s Revenge” (otherwise known as the “Big Nasty”) has all the flavor and aroma of a Double IPA while hidden beneath lies the malt character of a fine Belgian Tripel. I hope you enjoy my interpretation of this very fun style.
ABV%: 9.80%
Other beers to try from this brewery: Terrapin Golden Ale, Terrapin SunRay Wheat Beer
Other beers to try within the same style: Green Flash Le Freak, Stone Cali-Belgique IPA)
Rating: B+ (Almost an A-)
Awhile back I remember my buddy Aaron from the Vice Blog saying that Imperial Reds seem to be popping up a lot these days. He said that right as I was enjoying my new favorite red, Ballast Point Tongue Buckler. The next night I was in the mood for another red and what do you know, the fridge came through. This time it was Red Devil from Coronado Brewing. While Red Devil isn’t as tasty as Tongue Buckler, it is more approachable. It’s not as much of a monster that Buckler is. But is a damn fine Imperial Red. The only other beer I’ve had from these guys was their Idiot IPA. While I thought Idiot IPA was OK, the Red Devil easily blows it away.
When I first dove into the world of craft beers I remember going to Beer Advocates top 100 beers and taking a look around. I came upon Speedway Stout. I had never heard of Alesmith and since I didn’t have access to West Coast beer I thought I would never get to try this stuff. I just remember going through all the reviews. Every single review was positive and the beer sounded great. I just said to myself one day Dave one day. Well thanks to South Bay I was able to try one of my first beer crushes. OK I know that sounds stupid but for some reason I just remember this was the first stout I ever wanted to try. Was it worth the wait? Answer is yes sir!! While it might not be my favorite stout of all time (that award belongs to Surly Darkness) it is truly a world class stout and deserves to be on that list of BAs Top 100.
This beer has a sad story behind it and while being sad, it also has a happy ending. Here is the story about this brew (Stolen directly from Beernews.org =)
I’m so jealous of the Longshot winners. First off they can obviously brew well. Something I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to do and secondly to me it would be such an honor to have my brew distrubted with the Samuel Adams name attached to it. The first brew that I will be reviewing is actually a 2007 Longshot winner. Story goes that Mike McDole actually won the 2007 contest but due to the hop shortage they couldn’t make the beer. Good news is Mikes fantastic Imperial IPA made the line this year and before I go any further I think Sam Adams should really think about making this a part of their full time line up. First off they don’t have an IPA in their lineup and secondly this beer is so good that I think it deserves it. For me it was easily the best out of the three.
Port Brewing really doesn’t make a bad beer and because of that they are one of my favorite breweries. So when I heard they we’re making a Double IPA for their 3rd Anniversary Ale I was all over it. As soon as South Bay put it up I made sure I had two bottles in my order. I’m happy to say this is a very good beer. A different kind of IPA.
