Beer Review! Heady Topper

I haven't done a beer review since April and I'm not sure anyone reads them, but once in a while I get bored with writing about running--not for long, though, the Olympics should provide plenty of fodder! Anyway, without further ado, a beer review.


When it comes to rares, sought-after brews, there are generally two types. The first type are limited release beers, ones that only come out once a year or so. These beers appear only fleetingly and if you miss them, you have to wait a whole year for another chance. If you're a beer geek you know plenty of these like Pliny the Younger, Sexual Chocolate, and Canadian Breakfast Stout. The second type are beers that are produced by smaller brewers with limited distribution. This second type is the kind I'm talking about today with the Alchemist's Heady Topper.

Photo credit: http://brewyorknewyork.com/

The Alchemist is a tiny Vermont Brewery that rarely distributes outside of its home state. In fact, New York City only received a shipment of the beer for the first time in May and ever since it's been all but impossible to get ahold of. So before I get to my review, how did I come across this tough-to-find brew? Easy, I visited the cannery in Waterbury, Vermont. On a quick side note, the cannery is just down the street from the Ben and Jerry's factory and I guarantee you a visit to the former is much more pleasant than a visit to the latter.

Okay, that's more than enough background--what about the damn beer?!? Here's my executive summary: it's delicious.

Now for the more detailed review. Heady Topper is a double IPA and weighs in at 8% ABV. It's pretty much only available in cans and that's how you're supposed to drink it--straight out of the can. As soon as you pop the top you're hit with the strong smell of tropical fruit. I wish my olfactory sense was good enough to pick out individual fruits--all I can say is I was immediately transported to Tahiti (I've never been there, if you have and that metaphor sucks, pick your favorite tropical paradise and put that in your nose).

As for taste, the biggest initial flavor is grapefruit but that is soon joined by pine, and--not that I know what it tastes like but--maybe a little bit of pot (which makes sense given that canibis and hops are related), er, let's say earthiness? It starts out slightly sweet but finishes dry with just a hint of bitterness. The carbonation, like almost every aspect of this beer, is just perfect.

The bottom line is this beer is excellent. If you're ever in Vermont it's definitely worth a detour to Waterbury and if you ever see this beer in a bar outside the Green Mountain State YOU HAVE TO ORDER IT! Even if you're not a huge IPA person it might just turn you.

Beer Review! Sam Adams 26.2

Usually after running a marathon I indulge in several rounds of beer and nachos. This year, because I was pretty darn dehydrated, I decided to play it safe even after finishing 7L of sports drink. Still, there was no way I could pass up trying Sam Adams special 26.2 Boston Brew which they made special for the marathon. Since they only distributed this beer to a limited number of Boston spots, I figured a review would be in order so those of you unable to make it to the Hub over Patriot's Day weekend could live vicariously through me.

26.2 is a Gose beer, a relatively obscure style closely associated with the German city of Leipzig. One thing that makes this style so special is that it departs from the standards of the Reinheitsgebot (the German beer purity law).* Gose is a top-fermented beer, brewed with more than 50% malted wheat and finished with malted barley. So far, sounds pretty standard, right? Well, in addition to hops, the beer is spiced with coriander and salt--yes you read that correctly, salt. It's also relatively low in alcohol, with the 26.2 interpretation coming it at 4.5%. Now you see why the Sam Adams folks figured it would be a good post-marathon beer!

I had this beer on tap at Fenway during the post-marathon open house so I was drinking from a plastic cup. It had a nice light golden color and was a little cloudy (though since my cup wasn't completely clear hard to say how much of this was the cup). I could certainly smell the coriander, but also some citrus rind. Anyway, I was far more interested in drinking this one than smelling it--I was still very thirsty.

At first taste you certainly notice the citrus notes and the breadiness of the wheat. Next, though, you notice the salt which gives the beer a nice dry finish. This is really perfect on a hot day and Monday was a very hot day. The brew was moderately carbonated which helped to add to the overall refreshingness (that's not a word, but I'm using it!).

My overall verdict? If you're in Boston in the next few days and see this on tap, it's certainly worth a try.


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* The Reinheitsgebot was a Bavarian law while Gose hails from Saxony. That means Gose brewers weren't subject to the law's restrictions until the unification of Germany by which point the style was so established as to be effectively grandfathered in.

Beer Review: Hill Farmstead's Everett

With my half-marathon coming up Sunday I'm officially in "detox" mode, but just because I'm going to have a dry weekend doesn't mean the rest of you should! For today's beer review we travel north to Greensboro Bend, Vermont. (Actually, I traveled south since I sampled this beer last Sunday while visiting the forgotten borough).

Hill Farmstead Brewery was started by Shaun Hill in April of 2010. It's definitely a micro operation (possibly even a nano) so his beer only makes it to NYC occasionally and so far as know, only ever on draft (though he does bottle some of his brews). I've been wanting to try one of Hill's beers for a while know but it was until this past Sunday I found myself at the right bar at the right time.

I had some time to kill before the next bust to the ferry so popped into Adobe Blues, a bar/restaurant with a wild west look, a TexMex menu, and an excellent beer menu. Once I saw that had a Hill Farmstead beer on tap, though, I knew what I would be ordering.

The beer is called Everett, it's a strong porter (7.5%) named after Hill's great-uncle. The bar served it to me in a 12 oz snifter glass. This was a dark beer, black like oil, with a mocha head. The beer had a great cocoa smell to it with some caramel notes too.

This was a "thick" porter--nothing watery here--with lighter carbonation (think smooth, not bubbly--if it were a wine I might say pétillant).

Now onto the taste: definitely lots of rich unsweetened chocolate here and some coffee overtones (like freshly roasted beans) too. There's some sweetness in the finish but afterwards there's a bit of char. Overall a really delicious beer.

Although I drank mine slowly and let it warm a bit, I think this beer would be out of this world if served from a cask. If you see any Hill Farmstead beers on your travels, I highly recommend giving them a try!

Beer Review! Our Special Ale 2011

So, this may come as a shock, but now that training has really kicked into high gear, I'm not drinking as much beer. It just doesn't fit into my schedule that well when I'm posting double digits runs and waking up at the crack of dawn on a weekday. That said, I still love a good brew on the weekends and last weekend I visited one of my favorite spots, Flair Beverages, a retail-wholesaler in Inwood. Since you can buy beer in singles, I picked out a mixed six pack so there should be some fuel for further reviews.

The first one I cracked open was Anchor Brewing's Our Special Ale 2011 (their Christmas brew). Why buy a Christmas beer in February? Because somehow I never got around to trying the 2011 version and I remembered liking it in 2010.

At first when you pour this beer it looks almost black but hold it up to the light and you notice it's a beautiful dark reddish brown. The head is light and cream colored. I got notes of baking spices (cloves, cinnamon, maybe some anise?) but also some evergreen notes like pine (I could have held my nose in the glass for a long time trying to pick out the different scents but someone also had to drink the darn thing).

This is not a highly carbonated beer and it felt much lighter than I expected given it's appearance, but unlike a certain other beer, this wasn't a disappointment. You could taste the roast malt and the spices mentioned earlier but there is also a slight sweetness wrapping the beer. All in all I would recommend this one. It's surprisingly complex for such a sessionable beer. Now I only wish I had picked up a second bottle!

Beer Review! Cozy Sweater

Not every good run deserves a good beer, but certainly the occasional mediocre run does. After my Forest Park run this past weekend I was a bit chilled. When I got home, I decided the best way to warm up would be to open one of the bottles of suds I brought back with me from my last trip to Seattle.

Given the crisp weather, I opted to try Iron Horse Brewery's Cozy Sweater. This beer caught my attention because it's a vanilla milk stout. Every since I first tried Duck Rabbit's milk stout back in 2009, I've been hooked on the style. I'm also a huge fan of one of Iron Horse's regular brews, Quilter's Irish Death so I figured this one would be worth a try.

This beer pours very black with a light off-white head. The nose was dominated by coffee and chocolate more than vanilla but just looking at it, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, the taste didn't quite meet my expectations.

First of all, it had a very thin mouthfeel, not something I was expecting from such a dark milk stout. It had a nice roast malt taste but there wasn't much of a vanilla. It also had less of the sweetness that I would expect from the lactose. It was not a bad beer, but it also wasn't all that special. I'd love to try it on tap, but I won't be devoting any precious cargo space to another bottle next time I visit Seattle.

Frozen Fingers; or the Perils of Cheap Gloves

We’ve been spoiled in New York this winter. Until this weekend we only had snow once–back in October! There have been some cold mornings where I’ve opted for a treadmill (“TM”) run, but the majority of days, I’ve been able to run outside with no problem. In fact, it’s been so nice, I’ve only had to bust out the tights once and I didn’t even bother getting my thick gloves out of storage.

Now, enter yesterday’s snow. It wasn’t much snow as far as a normal winter is concerned, but I’ve kind of wussed out. I did yesterday’s run on the TM (mainly because I went to the opera yesterday–the Enchanted Island–and couldn’t run until 6 pm) but today I was determined to do a long run outside. Well, I’m happy to report I got in 14.6 miles in Central Park doing two figure-eight loops (where I criss-cross back and forth using the 103rd and 72nd transverse) but by the time I got back to my apartment, I could no longer feel my fingers. I guess those $2 gloves I bought at Target aren’t really designed for long cold runs… If this keeps up, I may need to invest in something a little more functional.

Now that my fingers have thawed I’ve settled in for some football, frozen cookie dough (homemade, of course), and a bottle of Three Floyd’s Arctic Panzer Wolf (a treat I brought back from Chicago).

And now…my first beer review:

Beer Name: Arctic Panzer Wolf
Brewery: Three Floyd’s (IN)
Style: Imperial IPA
My take on it: I’m a huge hophead so I tend to love big IPAs and this one is no exception. It’s citrusy and sweet on the tongue at first but there’s a nice bitter finish (think lemon rinds). You can feel the alcohol, but in a warming kind of way that I appreciate after a cold run! You won’t find this in NYC, but if you’re in the Midwest, I would definitely recommend picking up a bottle or ordering a pint.