Samuel Smith, The Old Brewery at Tadcaster - 2011-vintage "Winter Welcome" ale

Today's beer is leftover from 2011 - I bought it way back then and never got around to trying it. It's Sam Smith's Winter Welcome ale, which is a 6% ABV ale released in the wintertime by English brewery Samuel Smith.

The Samuel Smith Old Brewery, better known as "Sam Smith," is an old English brewery in Tadcaster, Yorkshire, UK. This brewery has a rather storied history and is very popular in England, with over 200 Sam Smith-branded pubs dotting the country. They've also been using the same strain of yeast since the eighteenth century! Interestingly enough, the brewery uses big slate vats - called "stone Yorkshire squares" - to ferment the beer:

So  I've had a couple of Sam Smith ales, specifically their Taddy Porter and the Nut Brown ale. All have been pretty good, bu I've never had the Winter Warmer, so I'm not even sure what it's like normally! Let's take a look.

It poured nicely, and had a golden copper color. Some good white foam is produced.

The beer threw aroma of sugar, apples, and fresh juice, which is kinda neat and totally unexpected. It's supposed to be an ale, so I was imaging something a little different. The taste as well is a surprise! It has a sour yeasty flavors, not unlike a hard apple cider. It was sugary, carbonated, and had a pleasant crisp finish, followed by a thin aftertaste with some eventual choppy notes a few minutes down the line.

This was another interesting experiment. Since I don't know what it used to taste like, I can't compare, but the cellaring probably didn't do it any favors. I seem to be having bad luck with cellaring lately. But, it was drinkable with interesting flavors and was closer to cider than a traditional ale. It was a neat experiment for sure!

Pabst Brewing Co. - "Rainier Beer" lager

Today's review is of a Seattle cult favorite, Rainier Beer. Known as "Vitamin R" to some Seattleites, Rainier is a local lager made with Yakima Valley hops. I've had it both in DC (thanks to the Marshall Aid shipment from my brother) and also in Seattle itself, when I've been there to visit. I also brought it to my friends Michael and Joe on the 4th of July and they loved having a taste of home.

You may notice by the title that Pabst makes it. That's because Pabst Brewing Co. acquired the rights to Rainier. Having had Pabst Blue Ribbon - "PBR" - it pains me to append such a label to Rainier, but, that's life.

Rainier has a long and storied history. First marketed in 1878, before Washington was a state, Rainier has been in the public consciousness for quite some time.  Take these advertisements from 1898 and 1907. respectively:

But despite various fits and starts, name changes, ownership changes, and that nasty Prohibition business, Rainier persevered until 1999, when it was totally acquired first by Stroh's and then, finally, by Pabst, which shuttered the brewery. The beer is now brewed under contract in California.

Unlike many of the beers I try, Rainier Beer also comes in several sizes - a regular 12 oz can, a Winter Jubilee half quart can, and my favorite, the One Pounder.That's my iPhone for scale.

So let's talk beer. Rainier is actually what's called an "adjunct lager," which means that the mash is supplemented by "adjuncts," or various kinds of unmalted grains like rice, corn, rye or barley. 

Rainier pours super fast, with a straw-colored eye and a very foamy head. Lots of white bubbles in there! It's not a high-gravity craft beer, that's for sure.

The taste is very wheaty, and very thin, with an oddly-refreshing bright malt taste. There's not a heck of a lot more to say - it's a very unassuming, light, straighforward lager that satisfies my thirst. This isn't not something I'd drink by my usual standards, but... there's something about it. All conventional wisdom says this is a basic, no-frills lager that doesn't deliver a hell of a lot of taste.  The thing is, the taste isn't bad. The (fortunately limited) times I've had Budweiser and Coors, I've been really repulsed by the taste. I felt it was sour and stale. However, Rainier doesn't have any of those nasty elements I don't like.  It's not sour, not sweet, and does not have crappy elements that make other crappy beers crappy. But most of all it doesn't have that stale malt taste that comes with a lot of cheap, thin beers. I find this beer to be refreshing, delicious, and very light.

Essentially, Rainier is one of those cult-favorite, light session ales that you can drink all day and not feel the effects. It's cheap, widely available in Seattle, and is something I would drink. It's not fancy, not a craft beer, but it gets the job done.

Wine Flash: 2010 Rutherford Vintners Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon (California)

Today's post is just a quick Wine Flash covering California-based Rutherford Vintners' 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley.

Poured nice and red, with some aroma of fruit in the glass. As you can see below, the wine is a solid red when candled.


Good usual cabernet tastes - thin on taste and low on oak and acid. Some ripe fruit flavors, which was nice, but such tastes die away quickly. Definitely not my favorite vintage - not a huge Cab fan to begin with - so I'm disappointed that this bottle didn't knock it out of the park. It wasn't cheap, and came to me on a recommendation, so I'm doubly disappointed. Still, though, you can't always judge a vintage by one bottle - I'd try it again, to see if perhaps I got a bad year or something.

Romeo y Julieta - 1875 Riserva Real (Dominican Republic)

Today's cigar is from cigar manufacturer Romeo y Julieta, one of the most recognizable and famous cigar brands in the world. Produced for many years in Cuba, Romeo y Julieta's tabacleria moved and set up shop in the Dominican Republic in 1954. But Habanos S.A., the state-owned tobacco company in Cuba, kept manufacturing Romeo y Julietas. Like Cohiba, to this day there are two brands in existence - the Cuban one and the Dominican one. Today's smoke is the Dominican one. 

This particular cigar, first introduced in 1875, is a Dominican blend with Nicaraguan longfillers inside, topped with an Ecuadorian-grown Connecticut Shade wrapper. It was given to me as a thank-you gift from Congressman Joe Garcia (D-FL).

It smoked up pretty nice; it was a bit dry since I've only had it for a week or so, but in despite of that fact it lit nicely and maintained an even burn throughout the length. Unfortunately the draw was a bit hard and could have been Drawpoker'd if I had one. I liked the woody (but medium-bodied) smoke that came with it. It wasn't as creamy as I usually prefer my medium smokes to be, but I still enjoyed the flavor and construction and I'd be interested in buying a few more to have on hand. So thanks again, Congressman!

Stone Brewing Co. - "Lijkcy Basartd" American strong ale

Check out what I found at Whole Foods! It's a dry-hopped, special-release blend of Stone's popular Arrogant Bastard, Double Bastard and Oak Arrogant Bastard beers, weighing in at 8.5% ABV.

The whole label is riddled with intentional typos - the letters are transposed using the phenomenon of "transposed letter effects in prefixed words" - essentially, the human mind sees familiar words as a whole, and so even though some of the letters are jumbled, you can still read the words easily.

This beer is meant to be fresh - it has a use-by date on the bottle of January 1st, 2015. Reminds me of that other Stone brew, the Drink by 7/4/14, that I had in July. Some beers, as noted previously, are made with certain ingredients that are best enjoyed fresh. This is one of them, so let's get drinkin'!

Pours nicely, holds a deep caramel color that lights up nicely when candled. The beer has no head whatsoever, and throws a bright and tasty hop aroma.

There's a little bit of lacing on the glass after the pour. It has a strong, slightly-sour hop flavors with a nice strong malt and alcohol flavors. The dry bitterness from hops is subtle but definitely appreciable, and the finish is of muted caramel which is rather nice.

It's hard to critique a beer that's a combination of other beers that I haven't tried all along - I'm sure this beer has some special significance for those who are ardent fans of the series. I think this is my first experience with the Bastard series in recent memory - I had the Oak-Aged Arrogant Bastard years ago and don't recall really caring for it that much. But I'm definitely interested in seeking it out again, as well as other entries in this line (Arrogant Bastard, Double Bastard, Oaked Arrogant Bastard, etc.) I also had this on draft at Plan B burger bar on Pennsylvania Avenue (Plan B being also originally from my hometown in Connecticut) and it tastes great on draft, as well. I think they've probably finished their run of this beer so if you see it, grab it! It's got a short shelf-life for sure and having this has definitely re-energized my interest in this line of beer.