Stephen Smith

10

Can Sam Calagioni do anything wrong? No!!! Delicious beer. Earth, dates, hay, a little yeasty. Brilliant!!!!
— 9 years ago

with Mindy

Jay Svoboda

8.9

Wine from Colorado - Denver, to be precise - who'da thunk it? Big nose of boysenberry, blackberry and blueberry. Also hints of menthol, saddle leather, graham cracker, a touch of cola or root beer, and smoked meat. Although a dense purple in color - not surprising for a Petite Sirah - the palette comes across fairly light bodied. Dark berries, muddled and stewed a bit - the tannins definitely grip and hold, but not without a decent punch of acidity. Light earth and subtle oak are also of note. Not to knock the Colorado wine scene (which I know very little about), but this is surprisingly good. — 10 years ago

Xun Lou

8.9

Continue my beer testing, this one is a little behind Stella Artois Lager. — 10 years ago

Lauren Ellis

8.9

First American Trappist beer. A little more floral than I expected — 10 years ago

Mitchell Mulder

9.6

Another great beer from Lagunitas, seasonal, so get it now, Belgian Strong Ale, IPA, big malt, great yeast strain, big hops, complex, Excellent — 11 years ago

Tsuyoshi Enoki

Sake Specialist Hasegawa Sake Shop Tokyo

8.9

Transparency, bright deep yellow or amber yellow, slightly fine air bubble.
The scent of open part is orange, chamomile, jasmine, melon, then scent of lemon, lemon peel, sweet potato, and honey is added gradually, finally nuance of hop, Belgium beer, yeast, hard bread, mineral, limestone and carbonated water is mixed.
Fine rich fruitiness, fine acid, a little bitterness makes it comfortable taste. — 11 years ago

Allison Orr

9.8

It's a cider beer night and grass hoppah is my favorite little hints of lemongrass this cider is crisp, fresh and not overly sweet — 11 years ago

Dock Hooks

9.6

Big kudos here, to the vintners, for providing just a little spice on the nose introducing flavors that present smoothly right after pulling the cork and results in big ole mouthful of jammy red fruit covering the entire palate with proper tannins and an easy finish resonating trails of what started as it drifts down one's throat. I found this, very affordable, yet right-on red wine at Promise Land Market (top-notch craft beer and wine bar that has become my fall hang while back home in Morehead City, NC; checkout the superb yet casual charcuterie). All a delight! (especially the people; come and see...) — 12 years ago

Steve Matthiasson

Owner/Winemaker Matthiasson Wines

10

Johanna Jensen Roberts 2012 Albariño. A little effervescent, a little beer-like, a bit like Kombucha, nourishing and healthy-seeming, refreshing, just needs a label to be perfect. Slap a label on this and share it Johanna! — 12 years ago

Christopher Brownrigg

9.0

A little too sweet and not as hot as I'd like but nice. — 12 years ago

Nick Fair

9.1

A little tart, but it feels like drinking fruit candy. Not even a taste hint that it's alcoholic. — 10 years ago

Jeff Peugh

9.3

This stuff is awesome, if you want your root beer with pizza and a little alcohol, at 5.9%. Delicious! — 10 years ago

Seth Merritt

9.4

The nose initially smells of caramel and toffee and generalizable baking spices. This gives way to a light smell of maple. The palate is complex with hazelnut and toffee, vanilla and cardamum. The alcohol is well disguised, though the beer is a little more full bodied than I would personally like. Overall, a. outstanding beer, best enjoyed with friends. Or alone, because it's Wednesday, and fuck it. — 10 years ago

Heath Cordes

9.0

This a little treat for dessert! Dark chocolate, mocha and not too sweet. Nice malty flavor without being over the top. — 10 years ago

Mitchell Mulder

9.3

This beer for some reason, on the beer rating sites does not get very more than fair reviews, it is with out a doubt a very good double IPA, if you like Stone Ruination, which I love, and some other great west coast IPA's , you really can not find too much not to like, or love, big big hops, nice malt backbone, maybe it is a little thin on the tropical notes, Grapefruit is what you mostly get, but overall, it is very good in the style, I like it a lot, not my favorite double IPA, but it is still very good — 11 years ago

Brian Reams

8.9

Great for Moscow mules wish it had a bit more carbonation and little bit more ginger bite — 11 years ago

Eric Hwang

8.9

A little beer chaser. — 11 years ago

Bjørn Rostad

10

My favorite Christmas beer — 11 years ago

Antoine Pin

Wine Buyer Kroger/QFC

9.4

"It tastes very German!"..."I like German beer". A lot less hoppy than these heavy PACNW beers. "A little backwards from our beers here" $5 / 90pts — 12 years ago

James Goldman

9.8

A little sweet but a very tasty bright beer. — 12 years ago

James Goldman

9.7

Very rich dark beer. Thick soft head with a little bitter. Kind of wish I cellared it but a really nice beverage. — 12 years ago

John Howard

Harvest production at Hirsch and Cobb Wineries

9.1

Big ripe cherry fruit(vintage?), tea bag, iron, root beer, a little stem, vanilla and meaty. — 10 years ago

Steven Beishuizen

9.4

Back in the early 2000s, I loved this wine. It was my "splurge" wine that I'd spend a little more on for a special Saturday night. After a few drinks, I frequently broke into, "My name is Alfiero Boffa. You killed my father. Prepare to die." All these years later, I stumbled upon it again in a random (and fairly scuzzy) beer and wine store. It's very familiar to me. Astringent to the point of me calling it sour, but the red cherry flavor dominant. In the background, some earthiness, maybe even tobacco? All over smooth though. Silky. This is not a big huge wine, but silkiness at this more subtle scale is amazing. I'm so glad I found it again so many years later. My na me is Alfiero Boffa. You killed my father. Prepare to die. — 10 years ago

Genie Ko

9.7

An Italian sour beer? Tell me more.... Oaky, a little malty, a nice level of sour (tangy without too much pucker). Really enjoyed this one. Thanks for the beer sale, whole foods! — 10 years ago

with Lane

Raul Garcia

8.9

Great flavor! Mocha a little coffee grind and a slightly dusty. Not what I imagined after a year in storage but still a great beer. Better young or after 6 months — 11 years ago

Jeffrey Sindelar

9.2

Great for a strong beer. Little kick first after taste very crisp — 11 years ago

Greg Jantz

9.5

Celebrating America with American beer — 11 years ago

Allison Orr

9.4

Another favorite Colorado cider beer a little less sweet but nice tart apple crispness — 11 years ago

Jesse Lopez

9.7

Another flavorful Mead of the lesser sweet variant. I rate this on the same level of greatness as the SkyRiver Mead, although this one is a little bit more dry. It gives it an almost beer like property, though it's still rich and smooth like a wine should be. — 12 years ago

Joe Carroll

Owner/Wine Director Spuyten Duyvil, Fette Sau, St. Anselm & Gotham Artisanal Provisions

9.5

Jean Van Roy's amazing story of Zwanze 2013. When we started renovation works in the cellars of the brewery two years ago, much to our surprise we came upon the remains of some very old walls. In agreement with the medievalists of the city of Brussels, the works were stopped in order to allow archaeological excavations to take place.

Shortly thereafter we were astonished to find out that Cantillon brewery had in fact been built on the ruins of the very ancient Abbey of Cureghem! According to the medievalists, this religious community was well-known during the middle ages for its fowl fed on draff and, more specifically, for its dish of stuffed Cureghem capon, which was served with a beer brewed at the abbey and apparently drew pilgrims from all over Europe.

Yet it was truly a heavenly surprise when the excavations uncovered the cell of the abbot, Father Faro. In the small room the archaeologists found quite a few old reference books, one of which contained the original recipes for the beers brewed at the abbey several hundred years ago. We didn’t hesitate for a second and decided on the spot to recreate one of these mythical beers.

This beer, which will be our Zwanze for 2013, therefore bears the name of its illustrious place of origin, Abbaye de Cureghem (Cureghem Abbey). Cureghem was formerly a village established many centuries ago on the banks of the Senne, the river running through present-day Brussels. The area was very heavily industrialised during the 19th century and, among other things, became home to many breweries. Today, it is part of the municipality of Anderlecht.

Since beers commonly referred to as “abbey beers” are not, or not any longer, products of spontaneous fermentation, we decided to brew a top fermentation beer, from a technical point of view in any case. The yeasts were selected in collaboration with Institut Meurice, a post-secondary college in Brussels specialising in biotechnology. Brewed in March 2012, our “Cureghem” beer fermented four weeks in stainless steel tanks before being blended with 10% lambic and pumped into 400-litre barrels of various origins. After maturing for six months, the beers were blended and put into casks or bottles to undergo re-fermentation and reach 7.2% ABV (Alcohol by Volume).

Inevitably, a top fermentation beer brewed in a spontaneous fermentation environment will be affected by the wild yeasts in the air, and this is certainly what happened in our case. For our Cureghem, the cultured yeasts were clearly the main factor behind primary fermentation and I think that the wild yeasts in the beer will instead play an increasingly important role as the product ages. However, despite the addition of the lambic to give it a little “extra something” in terms of character and ageing characteristics, this Zwanze cannot in any case be considered a spontaneous fermentation beer.

The long fermentation period coupled with the presence of wild yeasts lends this beer a solid character with a dry finish that lingers on the palate, while the combined use of fresh and aged hops yields both freshness and bitterness. Moreover, the different malts used give this year’s Zwanze a coppery colour along with a touch of caramel and candied fruit that provide body. Clearly, this is not your standard “abbey” beer but, perhaps, it is representative of what these beers were one or two hundred years ago — 12 years ago