DuClaw, Naked Fish Raspberry Chocolate Porter

Here is one of the newest brews to grace our line up at White Horse Wine and Spirits. This brewery just started to come in to our fine state of New Jersey. Unlike other breweries who trickle in with a few beers to start with, DuClaw has been hot and heavy with new beers almost every few weeks. They quickly hit a home run with our customers with their outrageous Sweet Baby Jesus, a chocolate peanut butter stout, that everybody seems to love! Given the popularity (and the fact that my wife goes nuts for chocolate and raspberries) I decided to try this latest brew.

The interesting facts about this beer are (if you look at the fine print on the six pack) that it is also brewed with coffee (which adds extra points in my book). It is also a session beer clocking in at only 4.6% alcohol, which is odd considering most brewers making a coffee stout or a chocolate stout would opt for a heavy ABV (perhaps 7 to 9 percent).

When I first opened this beer, I was hit by a nice sweet raspberry aromas followed by just a hint of dark chocolate. The opening blast gave me a good opinion of this beer from the start. I then poured it into a pint glass to see how the aromas developed. It lost a little bit of the intensity in the glass. The mouthfeel of this beer is very light (almost Guiness like). A very easy drinking beer that was quickly finished and replaced by another throughout the night.

Overall, this is a really easy drinking beer that has the aromas to satisfy and the body to go down very smooth. A very good combo of raspberry and chocolate. If your looking for a rich, full stout with a nice bitter finish, look somewhere else. However, if your looking for a great kickback beer that pairs well with chocolates for lets Valentines Day, then this is your beer! Cheers!

Personal Rating: 6/10
Style Rating: 8/10
Wanna try it now? Order it online at: https://www.whitehorsewine.com/proddetail.php?prod=641455110298 

Dogfish Head, Piercing Pils

A new winter release from Dogfish Head Brewery. This is replacing the Chicory Stout in the seasonal line up. Off the bat, I do have to say that I love Dogfish Head and their off center beer styles especially their historical series. However it does seem odd to release a lighter style beer in the Winter. Just thinking of pears and Pilsner make me think Summer refreshing flavors. 
This is as Dogfish Head explains a "Perry-Pils hybrid, Piercing Pils is a Czech Style Pilsner brewed with a White Pear Tea and Pear juice.  Both the juice and the tea were added in the kettle during the whirlpool (after the boil) for maximum flavor and aroma contribution.  The Pear fruit complexity pierces right through the spicy Czech Saaz hops beautifully, adding a gentle acidity to this pale lager that makes for a crisp refreshing sipper.  Amarillo hops add nuanced citrus notes that meld perfectly with the fruit."
I picked this up for the wife for dinner knowing that she likes sweeter fruit beers. She enjoyed it with dinner but said it just tasted "like a beer beer". I enjoyed one of these beers after dinner and found that although the aromatics are more interesting then a typical Pilsner, this one still tastes like a basic Pilsner beer. I do enjoy the style, but I was expecting something a little more unique and interesting. Overall, this is a good kickback and enjoy Sunday football beer, but not something I would recommend for our normal craft beer geeks. 

Personal Rating: 6/10
Style Rating: 8/10
Wanna try it now? Order it online at: https://www.whitehorsewine.com/proddetail.php?prod=638489001104

Victory, Hop Ranch Imperial IPA

Here's a new release from Victory. This is a new winter seasonal available in 4 packs. A very unique Imperial IPA due to the fact that it uses 2 very new hops (mosaic and azacca) which were formally unnamed and only referred to as hop #369 (mosaic) and #483 (azacca). Mosaic has been around for a short time but is quickly being picked up and used by most craft brewers because of its complex aroma and piney yet fruit forward flavor. The azacca hop was release very recently by the american dwarf hop association and was named after the Haitian god of agriculture. It has a distinctive nose with notes of mango, apricot, apples, and pears. These two new hops are the only hops used in this brew but they provide a really complex range of flavors and aromas. 

This beer clocks in at 9% abv which does not put it in the "sessionable" category. However, they brewed this one with Pilsner malt to give it a real light body. It is just enough to stand up to the big, bitter hop flavors but not enough to fill you up.

This is another brew from Victory that is really making me look at this brewery in a new light. A solid release that will definitely wow the hop heads out there. If Victory keeps this up, they will be far ahead of their fellow craft brewers!

Personal Rating: 9.8/10
Style Rating: 9/10

Wanna try it now? Order it online at: 
https://www.whitehorsewine.com/proddetail.php?prod=630279474044

Victory, Dirt Wolf Double IPA

Here is a new offering from Victory Brewing Company that brings them up to speed with some of their hot and heavy competition in the global hops race! I have to admit that I fell in love with Victory when I first got into craft beers, but as the years have gone on and more and more craft breweries popped up with new exciting styles and hop profiles, I had written Victory off as stagnant brewery. Then Summer Love came about and gave me a chance to reevaluate the brewery. This latest offering is just the kind of innovation that will win back hardcore hop heads that no longer swoon over heavy malty offerings like Hop Wallop or Hop Devil.

Dirt Wolf double IPA is a big, bold, hoppy brew that clocks in at 8.7% ABV and has a great hop line up of Citra, Chinook, Simcoe and the newest hop Mosaic. The aroma is a big resiny, piney hop punch that does not disapoint on the taste buds. The big resiny hop flavor coats the tongue without being heavy and malty. The old philosphy that a big, hoppy beer has to be tempered with a rich, malty backbone has been offically debunked with great beers like Lagunita's Little Sumpin Sumpin and Uinta's Hop Notch. This light bodied but super hopped up brew has been compared to the famous Heady Topper (which I can't comment on since I haven't had it yet) which is very high praise.

If you like Sierra Nevada's Hoptimum, Firestone Walker's Union Jack or Weyerbacher's Double Simcoe they I think you will fall in love with this brew. A must try for anyone who didn't think Victory could wow your tastebuds anymore.

Personal Rating: 9.5/10
Style Rating: 9.5/10

Wanna try it now? Order it online at: 
http://www.whitehorsewine.com/proddetail.php?prod=630279393048

Colorado, Vixnu Imperial IPA

What we have here folks is the first Brazilian craft beer being imported into the United States. This is a Brazilian take on the very popular craft beer style of Imperial IPAs or as we call them DIPA (Double IPA). This Brazilian beer is named Vixnu after the Hindu god Vishnu the creator. It is brewed with a load of sticky hops and local rapadura sugar that kicks up the alcohol to 9.5%. The sugar provides a nice ABV without giving it a malty richness. This beer reminds me of the first IPA's that got me hooked on the hoppy bitter brew that has become my go to craft beer style.

The aromas on this beer are all tropical: pineapple, mango, passionfruit and a hint of lime zest. It is not very aggressive on the hop aromas, in fact I gave a sip to a few non-hopheads and they loved the smell but the hoppy, bitter finish did them in. The finish has a nice sticky, resiny finish that is not very long, but enough to satisfy. This would be a great session beer if it were not so high in alcohol. This didn't pose much of a problem for a professional like myself, as I downed the 600ml bottle in less then 15 mins while watching a great Eagles game (which doesn't happen every Sunday).

Overall this is a really unique beer that showcases the different takes on our American Double IPA style. The use of a local sugar and the fact that it is the first craft import from this country make this a high recommendation in my book. If you have some friends just dipping their toes into the IPA world, then this is a must for them. Look for more varieties from this brewery coming soon!

Personal Rating: 8.5 /10
Style Rating: 9/10

Wanna try it now? Order it online at: 
http://www.whitehorsewine.com/proddetail.php?prod=7898925943808

Troegs Brewery Expansion

Here's some local brew news about tries Brewery out in Pennsylvannia. 

Pennsylvania’s Troegs Brewing Co. is expanding with the addition of 24 fermentation tanks—each holding the equivalent of 10,000 (2.25-gallon) cases—to its brewery in Hershey. Pennlive reports that Troegs has also started production on its new cork-and-cage bottling line, which is being used for larger format bottles, and is testing a new canning line, with canned beers—including Troegs’ Perpetual IPA and Troegenator brews—expected to hit the market around Thanksgiving. The cork-and-cage line is rolling out beers like triple golden ale Lagrave in 375-ml. bottles and Master of Pumpkins in 750-ml. bottles, both due at retailers around the end of this month.

Sixpoint, Autumnation (2013)

A great shift in focus for this Autumn beer from Sixpoint Brewery out of New York. The 2011 and 2012 versions of this beer were billed as pumpkin beers. They were brewed with fresh pumpkin from NY state. The old beers were delicious because they were copper colored hop bombs. Needless to say they didn't sell very well in the store because hop heads avoided the pumpkin on the label and pumpkin beer fans were disappointed due to the lack of pumpkin flavor. Finally the brewery bit the bullet and changed their Autumnation from a pumpkin beer to a hoppy fall beer (same basic beer but with a new label).
While this is the same basic recipe for this beer, each year Sixpoint Brewery lets the hops be decided by its loyal fans. This year, they have choosen the new hop Mosaic. This newly culitvated hop is (HBC 369) is an aroma hop variety developed by Hop Breeding Company that was released in 2012. It offers a unique and complex blend of floral, tropical, fruity, and earthy characteristics that translate very favorably into
several styles of beer. Mosaic is the daughter of Simcoe and a Nugget derived male.
This brew is definitely more aromatic then its past counterparts. It has a warm bready, carmel malty aroma upfront with a piney, resiny citrus aroma that wafts up from behind. The aromas falsely set up this beer because they trick you into thinking this is more of a Fall brown ale. The rich copper color and bready/nuttyness of the aroma definately say Fall beer with a little hop background. However, the first sip shows you what this beer really is, a secret hop bomb. Its no DIPA, but for a Fall beer it is quite hoppy. This reminders me of the new beer that Sierra Nevada just launched for Fall called Flipside. It too is a red/brown ale with a big hop wallop. Both are solid beers with enough hops to please the hopheads but a richness that goes perfectly with the cool Fall weather that just hit here. Plus, with the 6.7% abv, this is just enough to keep you toasty in front of a roaring fire at night!
Overall, I would highly recommend this beer. It is local, tasty and the best part, it comes in 16oz cans! This is a highly seasonal beer, so grab it before we drink it all.

Personal Rating: 9.5 /10
Style Rating: 5/10 (not sure what style this really fits)

Wanna try it now? Order it online at: 
http://www.whitehorsewine.com/proddetail.php?prod=859093002169