Brooklyn Sorachi Ace

Brooklyn Brewery is a company with strange stardards. They can create some amazing brews (Local 1, Black Chocolate Stout) yet let a couple slip past them and continue to be sold on the market (East India Pale Ale, Pennant Ale.) The brewery is much like the city it is from- some amazing things and some things that we'd rather not see again (another Yankee pennant or George Steinbrenner) So when we noticed a new Brooklyn 750ml bottle on the shelf, we were intrigued.

Sorachi Ace is a 100% bottle refermented saison ale. It boasts a respectable 7.6% ABV and is brewed with the rare Sorachi Ace hop and a Belgian yeast strain an re-fermented with champgne yeast in the bottle. This sounds like it could be a home run.

Sorachi Ace pours cloudy and golden with a fizzy white head with sweet lemon-y smell. SA hits the tongue with sweetness, a tarty lemon zest and a crisp hop flavor with a bit of carbonation. The alcohol is the hidden treasure hid beneath the complex and completely refreshing flavors. This brew would pair nice with a light dish and cheeses and is perfect for a summer evening split with a good friend.

Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace delived what we hoped for. It acheives where many Jolly Pumpkin beers fail, tart and sweet but that flavor does not overpower the rest of the beer. This is what a saison should be, light and crisp but with enough alcohol to encourage the purchase of an expensive brew. While not quite a grandslam, this beer is a walk off home run.

Oz Scale: 8.5

Mike Scale: 8.4

Brooklyn Brewery's Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse

A collaboration between two different breweries brings us the Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse. Brooklyn Brewery and Schneider Brewery's brewmasters collaborated on this weizenbock that is similar to Schneider's weisse with a Brooklyn's EIPA hop kick. This is a one time collaboration, so Mike didn't mind dropping $12 on a single bottle. By New York standards , this beer is reletively cheap.

With a surprisingly light color, hazy to the eye, the brew pours from the 25.4 oz. with a frothy head and a floral, yet hoppy smell. Given the higher alcohol percentage (8.5%) it is surprisingly light bodied. Tastes of citrus and fruit, it slivers down the throat to welcoming stomach. This brew has the best of both worlds, the light bodied drinkability of a weisse bier with the hop flavor of an IPA the tongue desires.

Brooklyn Brewery has had a couple beers that tickled our fancy (Black Chocolate Stout & Winter Ale) and a couple that were average (Lager & Octoberfest) but this once scores on the former. We could rip on New York apart all day, but after sipping on this brew, we don't want to even make a smart ass remark on their accents or annoying attitude or some other John Travolta Saturday Night Fever joke. That Nanny TV show sucked as well. Anyway...

Oz Scale: 8.2

Mike Scale: 8.6

Bell's Sparkling Ale

A taste of the bubbly in a beer? How can you make a champagne style beer? Bells is brave enough to attempt the challenge with their American style Tripel. While our Champagne knowledge is limited, our proficiency of beer is great enough and we are up for the challenge for this winter seasonal.

The color and sediment is missing for a tripel. The punch hits in the middle and leaves a tingling feeling on the mouth. It is a little bland for a 9% ABV brew. The kick is reminiscent of a barleywine but doesn't have the negatives it is associated with. The taste lingers on the tip of the tongue with a sweet, fruity taste. However, it feels like a light ale that someone dropped some vodka into the barrel.

It is a unique style brew but doesn't seem to convince anyone of it's superiority. The brew could be more reminiscent of a Belgian Tripel but it decided to take matters upon its own hands and that is where things could have worked. In appreciation of everything that is and could have been:

Oz Scale: 6.7
Mike Scale: 6.3

Atwater Block Brewery's Atwater Hell

Hell..... Well, hell, it caught our eye. How the hell could we resist? Sitting in the top righthand side of the north wall of Harbor Beverage sat our destiny. The bottom of the box read "Atwater Block Brewery is located in the heart of Detroit's Rivertown district on the banks of the Detroit River (at-water, river, get it?) It's full of good food, good people, (sic) and the best beer anywhere." LIARS! Well, at least the latter. We can not attest to the former.

The color looks like Mike's urine during a full blown stomach ulcer (coming soon to the color wheel at your local Home Depot.) Before we get to the bad stuff, i.e. the taste: let's get to the pour. More like the poor (hey-o!) If you want a proper pour, you'll have to go slower than the fermentation process. This brew will give you more head than Heather Brooks could ever imagine, I wouldn't touch this beer again with an 8-mile pole. Finishing the 6-pack was a chore, the only way we could justify about drinking the brew was "At least it's not Bud Light."

With a sweet start and no finish, this brew makes you want PBR for salvation. You will sip on this beer as if you were recovering a hangover. Seriously... THAT slow. The only thing postive we could say about it was at least it wasn't a d-12 pack. With that said, here is our ranking:

Mutual:
Better than Budlight
Worse than PBR

enought said.