Guinness Zero

Yesterday marked five months sober for me. I've gone that long without drinking alcohol before, but always with the intention of starting up again, which is not now the case. In honor of this milestone, I'll be opening up the Ill-Gotten Booty Beer Reviews shop, dusty off the shelves and cleaning the cobwebs and reviewing NAs.

My first will be Guinness Zero. 

Guinness has never been my favorite stout. I thought that American craft brewers had done a great job with various sub-styles of stouts: milk stouts, porters, Imperials, Baltics, sweet stouts. But when I went NA shopping the other day, Guinness was the only NA stout available. It's a little thinner than I'd want a stout to be, but Guinness from a can was never as heaty as draft Guinness anyway. It pours a deep, dark, almost black. The tan head starts off about three fingers. It's sweeter than I expected, with subdued notes of caramel and toffee, with more evident suggestions of coffee and dark chocolate. If it weren't for the fact that I'm not getting any kind of buzz I wouldn't know it was non-alcoholic. 
 

Odell Mountain Standard IPA

Mountain Style IPA? I tried to look it up and apparently it's something Odell, a Colorado brewery, made up. Anyway, Mountain Standard IPA pours a hazy lemonade-y hue, with a fluffy, two-finger bright white head. According to their website, their goal was to produce favor notes without adding an adjuncts or fruit. They say they achieve this by "triple hopping", which is when you add different types of hops during different stages of the brewing process. At 39 IBUs, it's not especially bitter, but there is evidence of different hop varieties, piney, grapefruit-y; tropical fruits; citrus, caramel and some breadiness. A little bit or orange peel and lemon zest too. Well balanced. An easy 9 on the IGB IPA scale. 
 

Odell Sippin' Pretty Fruited Sour

When I used to frequent Yia-Yia's a few years ago I would receive a warning whenever I ordered a sour beer: "That's a sour, you know!" I always knew.

Whenever I'm asked what my favorite beer styles are I can never narrow it down. Some styles I favor in the Winter months - winter warmers, stouts and porters, quads and bourbon barrel-aged ales of all descriptions; in the Spring I pick up some bocks and IPAs; in the Autumn I start looking for Oktoberfests and pumpkin ales; Summer is for Kölsches, Altbiers, shandies and sours. 

There are various styles of sours, some mildly tangy while others are super sour. The traditional method of brewing sour beers involved months-long processes, including the use of "wild" yeast; kettle brewing is a speeded up method, ostensibly to meet the demand, presumably without the use of wild yeast. Sippin' Pretty is a kettle brewed sour with açaí, guava and elderberry added for extra flavor. It pours a grapefruit pink with a pale pink head. All of the advertised flavors are there. Two of them anyway - I really don't know what elderberry tastes like! The tartness level is around a 4 on a scale of 10. Not much else to say, other than they claim to include Himalayan sea salt (although I don't believe that the Himalayas are near he sea), but I really can't detect any saltiness. (Note - the Gose style of sours contains sea salt). All in all, a refreshing brew, but there are better sours out there,

Odell Wolf Picker Experimental IPA

The name Wolf Picker comes from a harvesting rig, not from somebody who picked at wolves, or a judge in a wolf beauty contest, or someone who does wolf tattoos. Apparently every year the Wolf Picker features a different strain of hops. 

Wolf Picker IPA pours a slightly hazy golden hue, with a towering four-finger head. Although the IBU count is a conservative 41, it tastes like it should be higher. Interesting mixture of grapefruit and pine notes. Other than those two, there are hints of lemon grass, coriander, and some floral & tropical fruit notes, all very subdued. This is what you want - nothing overwhelming anything else, no added fruit flavors - everything that you taste coming from the hops and the malt. I'd seriously recommend if you like to be able to taste your IPAs and not be drowned in bitterness. 
 

Odell 90 Shilling Amber Ale

 I picked up an Odell's variety 12 pack today, it looks like I may have had, once upon a time, three of the four, but I'm going to review them again since it's been over 10 years. 

90 Shilling is an amber ale. Amber ales are kind of the middle-of-the-road work horses of the ale world, nothing fancy, no crazy flavorings or over-the-moon hoppiness. 90 Shilling pours a clear copper hue, with a thin beige head that dissipates pretty quickly. The ABV is 5.3%, which means it's not going to kill you, with 32 IBUs, which means you'll still have enamel on your teeth after a can or two. At one time Odell's called it a Scottish Ale, but in my view, amber ale describes it better, as Scottish Ales tend to be heavier with a smoky quality that this beer lacks. 

Caramel and pumpernickel bread are the prevailing flavors, yet they don't overwhelm. I think I'm detecting teeny bit of coriander and honey as well. Pretty decent ale, especially if you like to keep it simple. 

Brewdog Double Punk Imperial IPA

I'm almost through the Brewdog Winter Variety 12 pack - it's now time for an Imperial IPA! Double Punk clocks in at 8.5% ABV, which, in my book, makes it just an IPA, not an Imperial - but since there's no actual rules about what brewers can call their beers, we'll just live with it. Brewdog doesn't list their IBUs, so I don't know where this falls on the hoppiness scale, but it tastes really hoppy. There's a strong pine taste to the hops, along with some hints of grapefruit and lemon. I'm also getting a bit of breadiness, and some light caramel as well. I neglected to mention that it pours a ripe pineapple hue, with a bright white two-finger head! 

 

Brew Dog Jet Black Heart Vanilla Oatmeal Milk Stout

 Ill-Gotten Booty has been on a little break from beer since New Year's Eve Eve's overindulgence at the Shithook show, but he's back with yet another from the Brewdog Winter variety 12-pack. An earlier beer in the Jet Black Heart series, the espresso version, was reviewed about six weeks ago. Jet Black Heart Vanilla Oatmeal Milk Stout is just as good as its sibling. It poured out of the can like a chocolate milkshake, the reverse waterfall effect gradually receding to a jet-black (naturally) brew with a frothy tan two-finger head. The consistency is like liquid velvet. Of course there's vanilla, but not overwhelming at all. The overall impression is that of chocolate milk, with some mild coffee notes. Minor notes of dark fruit, brown sugar and caramel are along for the ride. The IGB score? 9.0 on the milk stout scale!