Tag: Michigan Micros

Big Dick’s Olde Ale

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Maker: Arcadia Ales, Battle Creek, Michigan

Style: Old Ale

Vintage: 2009

ABV: 9%

I reviewed this ale early on in the life of this blog, but I was curious about how it has changed since I first tasted.

Appearance: Monstrous head, overflowed my glass. Hazy, medium brown, like iced tea.

Nose: Sweet and fruity, not much in the way of toasty flavors, but a hint of bitterness lies behind the fruit.

On the palate: Medium bodied. A bit of toasty malt comes through here. It’s fruity and dry at the same time, like a middle-aged Cabernet. Even after close to an hour in my mug, it is still effervescent. Maybe more like a brut champagne now. I guess my point is that this is very winey ale.

Finish: Fruity and sweet. Slow effervescent tingle and a hit of bitterness. A tiny bit of green tea and gum drops.

Parting Words: This beer is like the kind of significant other you want as an adult: sweet, elegant and sophisticated. There is little suggestion of the ruthless, violent, absentee king Big Dick’s Olde Ale is named after. This is a great, flawlessly crafted beer. Highly Recommended.

Black Star Farms 10 year old Apple Brandy

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Age: 10 y/o

ABV: 42.7%

Appearance: Copper with thick clingy legs

Nose: alcohol, mulled cider, apple pie, cardamom, lemon juice, apple sauce with sweet cinnamon, brown butter

On the palate: full-bodied. Sweet brown sugar, a good amount of burn, cinnamon, coriander, cardamom and tart apples.

Finish: warm, dry, that sweet cinnamon again, reminding me of my grandmother’s homemade apple sauce.

Parting Words: This a fantastic spirit. The standard Black Star Farms Apple Brandy is a pleasant sipper that performs nicely in cocktails and in mulled cider. But this 10 y/o apple brandy reaches sublime hights. Black Star Farms’ 10 y/o apple brandy was aged in a new toasted oak barrel, like those used for wine. This results in a spirit that, even at 10 y/o, still has a lot of crisp apple character. It is on par with a fine cognac or Armagnac and is best sipped neat or with a little water in a snifter or Glencairn glass.

There are few micro-distilling outfits that have been in business long enough to offer a 10 y/o product that they made themselves. Even some that are approaching that number have not been putting any back for longer aging. Black Star Farms had the foresight to let this brandy lay. It’s not cheap, I paid $75 at the tasting room for my bottle, but unlike most $75 whiskeys, this stuff is worth every penny. Highly Recommended.

Double Down Brewer’s Whiskey

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Maker: New Holland, Michigan, USA

Type: Straight Malt Whiskey

Age: 6 mos. (in “small” barrels)

Proof: 90 (45% ABV)

Appearance: Dark copper with thick legs.

Nose: A faint hint of leather up front, like walking into a furniture showroom. Sweet black licorice, caramel, a bit of alcohol.

On the palate: Full, voluptuous body. Like a porter on the palate. Lots of licorice, some more caramel and hard candy, maybe a little horehound.

Finish: same notes as on the palate, but with some slightly bitter clove and Chinese five-spice.

Parting words: This was the first entry into New Holland’s Brewer’s Whiskey series of small barrel, small bottle releases. Some of the acrid nastiness that very small barrels can throw into the nose is absent here. Instead, it’s like drinking a very spicy porter or sucking on black anise candy. A lovely whiskey, and one that is good sippin’ for the holidays. Highly Recommended.

Dragon’s Milk

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Maker: New Holland, Holland, Michigan, USA

Style: Barrel-aged stout

Vintage: 2011

ABV: 10%

Appearance: Dark chocolate with a mildly frothy tan head.

Nose: Sweet, cereal milk, milk chocolate.

On the palate: Full-bodied, bitter at first, then sweeter. Café mocha, vanilla and amaretto, with a bit of bite from the alcohol and carbonation.

Finish: Sweet and pleasantly sticky fading very slowly to a smoky bitterness. The sticky sweetness continues to linger on the lips for a long time.

Parting words: This is a delicious beer. Unlike some other barrel-aged beers, Dragon’s Milk strikes a balance between barrel character and beer character. This is a quality stout first. Instead of being covered up, those stout characteristics are complemented by the wood tannins and the sweet vanilla and liquer flavors coming from the barrel. Dragon’s Milk is a flawlessly executed barrel-aged stout. Highly recommended.

B. Nektar Wildflower Mead

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Maker: B. Nektar, Ferndale, Michigan, USA

Varietal: Wildflower

ABV: 14%

Appearance: Pale straw, like young chardonnay.

Nose: Honey (duh), pear, wild herbs, sweet hay.

On the palate: Full-bodied, lightly sweet, Riesling-like with a bit of citrus, but still lots of wildflower honey character, especially as the glass warms.

Finish: Lightly bittersweet and clingy. Slowly fades to a pleasant sweetness.

Parting words:  I’ve long been eager to review B. Nektar’s Wildflower mead if for no other reason than to establish a baseline for tasting their other, funkier, offerings, and also becuase the meadery is about 2 1/2 miles from my house. It doesn’t disappoint. It’s more elegant and delicate than Oliver’s Camelot mead, but still delivers plenty of varietal character as I said above. It’s a good deal more expensive than Camelot, but Camelot is probably underpriced and B. Nektar’s wildflower honey is better so it all evens out. This is mead to be savored, not slammed. Recommended.

La Parcela, no. 1 Pumpkin Ale

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Maker: Jolly Pumpkin, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Style: Oak-aged Pumpkin-spiced ale

ABV: 5.9%

Appearance: Burnt orange with a frothy head.

Nose: Bright, citrus, pumpkin.

On the palate: Medium-bodied. Fresh Pumpkin puree, some bitterness, light sweetness. Not over-spiced or over-oaked. Actually neither make much of an appearance at all.

Finish: Light, pumpkin-y and slightly sour. Fades quickly.

Parting Words: This is a pleasantly pumpkin-y ale. The cacao and other spices are so far submerged, they might as well be absent. Still, this isn’t a a bad thing. This is one pumpkin ale that actually tastes like a pumpkin actually tastes. Recommended.

Angler’s Ale

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Maker: Arcadia Ales, Battle Creek, Michigan, USA

Style: American Pale Ale

ABV: 5%

Appearance: Hazy orange, big frothy head that dissipates fairlyquickly.

Nose: Oranges, raspberry, hops, fresh cut hay.

On the palate: Full-bodied, malt, breakfast cereal, moderately bitter, spicy and hoppy.

Finish: sweet then big and bitter and exuberant.

Parting Words: The Pete Sampras of American Pales. Along with Milkin It Productions’ sophisticated Axl Pale Ale, this is my favorite American Pale. Highly recommended.

Noble Chaos Oktoberfest

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Maker: Short’s, Bellaire, Michigan, USA

Style: Amber Ale (Marzen)

ABV: 5.75%

Appearance: Auburn with a clingy, foamy head.

Nose: Sweet, malty, slightly fruity

On the palate: medium-bodied, with a lot of sweetness and spicy hops on initial entry. Lots of malt, hoops, sweetness, whole wheat toast and a whiff of smoke. Not particularly complex but well-balanced and goes well with my lunch of saltines and summer sausage.

Finish: Long, hoppy and bitter, but not unpleasantly so.

Parting Words: This is a very well-executed edition of the classic malty Bavarian Oktoberfest-type beer. It’s more aggressive than most beers of the same style, but that’s not a bad thing. Recommended.

Knickerbocker Gin

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Maker: New Holland, Holland, Michigan, USA

ABV: 42.5%

Neat

Appearance: Crystal clear with pearl necklace-ing.

Nose: Sweet, a little rough. Citron, anise, a touch of horehound and eucalyptus, a hint of juniper.

On the palate: Full-bodied, but light in flavor. Water brings out the juniper in a big way. The sweet old-fashioned stick-candy flavors are there too: licorice, horehound and bitter lemon.

Finish: Herbal and floral neat, sweetness and candy with a splash of water.

Mixed

Tom Collins: Does very well. Adds depth to the drink without overwhelming it.

G & T: Does fine, but doesn’t particularly distinguish itself when mixed with good tonic. Ironically (or not) it seems to stand out more against supermarket brand tonic.

Bitter Lemon: Overwhelmed by the citrus flavors.

Dry Martini (w/Noilly Pratt): Adds a nice sweet note to balance the assertive herbaceousness of the vermouth. Brings a good amount of body too. As I reach The Olive Zone at the bottom of the glass, it stands up to the brine well. Knickerbocker would probably work even better in a perfect (½ dry vermouth, ½ sweet) martini, but unfortunately I didn’t think of that until the bottle was almost gone. I don’t remember this gin doing nearly this well in a martini the last time I bought it. If they tinkered with it in the recent past, they did a good job. Like Corair’s gin, this is a fine, if less ambitious, example of what micro-distillers can do well. Recommended.

Boffo Brown Ale

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Maker: Dark Horse Brewing Co., Marshall, Michigan

Style: Brown Ale

ABV: ???

Appearance: Big pillowy head that takes a while to calm down. The body is chocolate brown.

Nose: Sweet and a little fruity and yeasty.

On the palate: Full-bodied. Nice balance of sweetness and bitterness. Like chocolate chip cookies chased with a shot of espresso. Closer to a porter than to a typical brown ale.

Finish: Roasty bitterness mitigated by some background sweetness.

Parting Words: Dark Horse is a brewery known for its ugly labels, and this one is one of the ugliest I’ve ever seen. It looks like it was drawn by a 6 year-old child with serious psychological problems. What’s inside more than makes up for it, though. This is a well-executed brown ale that goes well with beefy spicy food or on its own. Recommended.