Estrella Damm

Estrella Damm is an extremely clear and incredibly pale straw coloured Catalan Pilsner.  This brew, born in Barcelona, Spain, is sold in handsome red and gold 500mL cans and features a gold star (estrella is Spanish for star).  It has a relatively light alcohol content, clocking in at 4.6%.  It is the primary beer produced by the S.A. Damm brewery.

Estrella Damm has a fine, white head and a fair amount of pretty, clinging lace.  It is quite carbonated, though it doesn't taste overly fizzy.  The bubbles rise in fine, vertical lines when poured.  There is an aroma of wheat and citrus.  The taste is very mild: slightly buttery with faint notes of grass and citrus.  This is a very light cerveza with a thin mouthfeel.  Notably, there is almost no aftertaste at all.

This is a fine beer for a sunny afternoon.  I enjoyed it with a cheap cigar during at halftime during a Raiders telecast.  It is highly sessionable, since it is crisp, smooth and easy drinking.  However, it is, at best, an unremarkable pale lager.  To rate higher, it would need to have a bit more flavour and character.  While I would probably buy this beer again, it won't ever be a staple in my refrigerator.

Rating:  7.0 out of 10.

Goose Island Beer Company-312 Urban Wheat Ale

 Another Goose Island offering, the 312 Urban Wheat Ale was a pretty little brew.  Enjoyed on tap at Chicago's South Loop Club, our bartender Mike did me a solid and spared me the slice of lemon that seems to be traditionally served with the 312.  Lemon is fine once in a while, but it just won't do when reviewing.

According to the Goose Island website, the 312 has an alcohol content of 4.2% and 20 IBUs (quite bitter for a wheat). My pint was a very nice looking light yellow colour, slightly cloudy.  There was a thin head with a moderate amount of lace.  The aroma was decidedly wheaty, with some citrus tones.  The mouthfeel was a bit thin and the beer was slightly watery.  The flavour starts slow but builds to a surprisingly bitter citrus finish.

The 312 (a nod to a Chicago area code) was a fine beer.  Not outstanding, but definitely enjoyable.  It was a little thin, but definitely tasty.  This is a brew that could be downed in considerable quantities.  Give it a try if you're passing through the Second City.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Goose Island Beer Company-Green Line Pale Ale

My beer tour of Chicago continued with Goose Island Beer Company's Green Line Pale Ale.  According to the beer list at the bar, Goose Island Beer Company was Chicago's original brewery.  They've put together a fine roster of beers that I enjoyed throughout my stay in the Windy City.

Enjoyed on tap with a delicious pastrami sandwich at Miller's Pub, this little beauty weighed in at 5% alcohol.  It was a slightly cloudy yellow-amber colour.  It smelled sweet, with a faint aroma of orange peel.  The moderate hops flavour is the main feature.  The beer was pleasantly bitter from initial taste though the aftertaste, without going overboard.

This was a pretty fine brew; one that I would gladly order again if I were to be back in Chicago.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Rock Bottom Brewery-Saison Jonquille

While at Rock Bottom Brewery in Chicago, I also had occasion to sample their Saison Jonquille.  The brew weighs in at a weighty 5.6% alcohol and is rated at 28 IBUs.  The Saison is a faintly cloudy gold colour.  There is very little evidence of carbonation, but lots of lace.

I seldom have cause to order a saison.  It's not a style that I see all that often when I'm out and about.  I enjoy them well enough, particularly when they are a bit spicy, but they tend to be a bit malty for my tastes.  The Saison Jonquille had a rich, malty aroma.  It tasted extremely sweet with a fairly fierce maltiness and a slight floral taste.  It was slightly spicy, but not as much as I was hoping.  As with the rest of the beer, the finish was very sweet.

In all honesty, I wasn't wild about this brew when I first got it, but it was growing on me by the end.  I would consider ordering it again some time, if it weren't for the fact that Rock Bottom has a roster of other beers that I prefer.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Rock Bottom Brewery I.P.A.

Here's an unruly post.  I'm going to attempt to author a three person review.  My brother, my Dad and I were in Chicago for a conference and went out in search of some local beer.  Rock Bottom Brewery is not exclusive to Chicago--rather, it is a chain of breweries with locations in many U.S. cities.  However, they brew on site and it's something we can't get in Canada.

After much discussion and perusal of the beer list, we three settled on the I.P.A.  We each had a pint on tap.  My familial colleagues said that the beer is honey coloured, or as my Dad put it, "failed amber."  In my opinion, it was a cloudy orange with a moderate amount of head.  It closely resembles a witbier.  I was unable to determine the I.P.A.'s alcohol content at the bar or at Rock Bottom's website.

According to Brother Rob, the beer has a strong citrus smell, tastes of grapefruit and has a lingering aftertaste.  My Pops claimed a malty citrus smell.  After one sip he exclaimed "Talk about grapefruit!"  Finally, Dad cryptically observed that "one sip encourages another."

In my opinion, the I.P.A. had an extremely hop heavy aroma.  The taste moves from sweet to bitter, and just as my co-reviewers noted, there is an undeniable grapefruit taste.  The aftertaste is fairly bitter with a bit of orange peel flavour.

The three of us agreed that this was a fine beer.  Not exceptional, but pretty tasty.  It wasn't really what we were expecting, since it had only understated bitterness.  Still, well worth a try if you pass by a Rock Bottom Brewery.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Stratford Pilsner

My partner and I recently picked up tickets for Titus Andronicus at the Stratford Festival.  This made me think that it was about time to review this eponymous little brew.  Stratford Pilsner is produced by the Stratford Brewing Co.  It is sold in 341mL bottles and has an alcohol content of 4.9%.

SP pours a slightly cloudy gold colour.  There is a thin but persistent white head and lots of lace.  The aroma suggests sweetness; it has a slight honey scent.  Not surprisingly, it tastes sweet, slightly malty and has notes of citrus fruit.  The aftertaste is sweet, but with an element of hops bitterness.

It's sold in fairly spartan packaging that doesn't really draw the eye, but all told, this is a pretty nice pilsner with some character.  It's a little oversweet and a bit wanting in the crispness department, but a good brew nonetheless.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Let's Talk About Ratings

I've had a few questions from readers wondering about how I arrive at my ratings, so I have decided to take a few moments to try to walk y'all through my process.  Please keep in mind that there is nothing scientific or objective about the way that I rate beers; it's my blog and I can be as subjective and obtuse as I want to be.  I like what I like.  Still, I probably should take a few moments to talk about how I arrive at my conclusions.

I rate beers on a scale between 0 and 10.  I am willing to use half points (i.e. 5.5, 8.5), but I am unwilling to split hairs any further than that.  One critique I've received is that I'm too generous with my ratings.  So far, I haven't had cause to rate anything lower than 5.0.  This is unsurprising, since I don't make a habit of buying beers I don't like.  That's not to say it'll never happen.  There are even a handful of beers out there that are worthy of a 0.0 score.  But generally I love and respect beer.  You won't see many low scores on this blog because most beer has merit.  I review beer like I'm a high school teacher; the pass/fail threshold is 60%.  Few beers fall below that line.

 Similarly, I have not yet rated a beer higher than 9.0.  I'm not one of those pig-headed professors that won't hand out an A+ under any circumstances.  There are 10.0 beers out there.  Lots of them.  I just haven't reviewed any yet (though I have sampled my fair share).  Don't worry, I'll get to them.

When reviewing a beer, my first step is observation.  I try not to review beers without having an opportunity to look at them.  To that end, I order beer on tap, or if I am drinking beer from a bottle or can, I always pour it into a glass.  I look at the colour of the beer, how much head, lace and carbonation exist, and assess the clarity.  I always include these elements in my review, though they seldom affect the rating.  Unless a beer is simply beautiful, looks unappealing or has a head that is utterly unacceptable, looks are neutral.

Next, I spend some time smelling it.  This is the part of the process that I find most challenging, since I don't have a particularly impressive sense of smell.  I often have to get my face right into the glass, but I do it, because I love beer.

Now it's tastin' time.  I finally sample the beer, taking a small sip at first to get a feel for the brew.  I try to vary my drinking style, sometimes guzzling, sometimes sipping, until the beer is gone.  I consider taste, look for flavour notes, and assess aftertaste.  This is definitely the best part of the process.

Once the beer is gone, I get down to the business of rating it.  I think it is important to point out that I am rating beers against similar beers.  I have an affinity for stouts and bitters, so it would be problematic if I routinely rated these styles higher than pale lagers.  In order to combat this, when reviewing a pilsner, I try to rate it against other pilsners I have tried.  Porters are compared to other porters, wits to wits, and so on.  This may one day be problematic if I encounter a style that I am unfamiliar with, but so far that hasn't come up.  Fortunately, I have a pretty diverse and thorough beer-drinking repertoire.

There you have it.  Context.