Beer Reviews, Harpoon 100 Barrel Series, Allagash Hugh Malone

Last night after work, Skot came over for a beer, or two. I had picked up several on recent trips that neither of us have had, the ones from yesterday I picked up at Bruisin Ales, in Asheville.

The first was Allagash Hugh Malone. Hugh Malone at one point was the world's greatest hops picker. Hops pickers were paid by the bag of hops, Hugh had large hands and was able to fill more bags than others. The bags were labeled with the name of the picker, and it seemed most bags had the name "Hugh Malone" on them; so much so that at one point hops were referred to as "Hugh Malones". When he was 66 Hugh took a boat to America and became a hops grower and picker. He also became a brewer. He became famous for making beers that were extra hoppy. Most people believe that it was because he followed simple recipes that called for a "handful of hops". Due to Hugh's large hands, his handful was a lot more than other brewers. Later in life he became a mean old man, some said he was bitter because of all the bitterness in his beer.

Allagash Hugh Malone poured a deep rich copper. It wasn't thin, it blocked light but did allow a little to pass through on the sides. It smelled flowery, with citrus hops smell (Simcoe).

It felt effervescent, almost coca-cola carbonation. It tasted very citrusy. Almost like an orange juice (skot said lemon). There was a slight bitterness in the finish. After you drink it, it thickens up. If you had enough of this beer, the elves would sneak into your house when you are passed out and put wool socks on your teeth.

It was really good; although Skot and I had difficulty finishing it. It's not an incredibly high ABV, but we were both kind of feeling it. We persevered and opened another bottle.

The second beer was Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Session 22 - Steve Stewart's Firth of Forth Ale (that's a name). This one is a scottish ale that poured dark brown, with not very much head.

The smell is where this one gets interesting. If you've ever brewed beer, you would recognize the smell instantly.

*tangent*

If you've ever gotten a tattoo, you can immediately recognize the sound of a tattoo gun. After a while, you may forget the pain of getting a tattoo, but the second you HEAR that familiar buzz, you remember everything. The smell, sights, and pricking pain sensation all comes back when you hear it.

*/tangent*

This beer smell (to me and Skot) had the same properties. This beer smells exactly like when you are brewing beer and you've got your water and malt (doesn't matter if it's extract or whole grain) boiling, and you just pulled out that bag of hops, and you put it into the boil. You know the smell, if not, come by and we'll brew some beer. It's such a distinctive smell. Boiling hops has such a unique smell. This beer smells like its just about to boil over. Stir, stir, stir, reduce heat, stir stir... It's almost like a hot tea, but not quite. It smells like stirring.

It feels a little thin, but has some effervescence to it, which is odd because it had no head. It tasted of hops that then blended into a tea. Skot said it had some chocolatey flavor, I thought maybe a little caramel and vanilla. "That's good; mmmm" he said. This one was nice.

It led us to do an experiment, to try and capture the tea smell and flavor. I pulled out some tea bags and my instant water boiler thing and we made some tea. One of the teas was a vanilla caramel, but it had too much vanilla smell. The next was a breakfast tea, and it was pretty close to the beer. The final was Earl Grey, but that one had too much mint in the nose. We mixed a little bit of the vanilla caramel with the breakfast and it came darn close to the smell.

My final beer for the night, which was around 11; was Bottleworks Tripel Krullekop. This one is a Flemish ale. I thought it would be good to try in the new Budweiser glass. I was mistaken. The Flemish ale has too much flocculation (chunks) for a glass that produces bubbles. Basically, the beer in that glass looked almost like a lava lamp. There were, what looked like, black pepper, pieces going up and down. Those floaters were accompanied by other sediments, in various colors. The taste was decent, but it was definitely the wrong glass.