Beer of the Week

The beer: Alpha Klaus

Brewed by: 3 Floyds Brewing, Munster, Indiana

Description (from the website): "Alpha King’s festive cousin. A big American Christmas Porter brewed with English chocolate malt, Mexican sugar, and tons of strange American hops. The pronounced hop bitterness gives way to flavors of molasses and chocolate from the roasted malt bill."

Would I buy it again? If I were presented with this beer blind, absent any notions of festivity, I would like this beer. It's a solid porter from a well-known and fairly large craft brewery. But this beer has been advertised as a Christmas beer, and I'm sorry, but I'm not seeing it. This is quite literally just a porter, and I can get one of those any time of year. You can't just advertise a plain old porter as a Christmas beer, it's just wrong. I've never had Alpha King, which apparently this beer is related to, but if I were a betting man, I'd wager that this is the same beer with different packaging. Just make sure you don't sell the two beers at the same time and no one will ever notice that they're actually one in the same. That's my conspiracy theory to end the year.

So no, I would not buy this again, despite overall quite enjoying it. I'd rather spend my money on something worse that actually tried to be festive.

Beer of the Week

The beer: No Sparge

Brewed by: Taxman Brewing Company, Bargersville, Indiana

Description (from the website): "No sparging, sprinkling, diluting or extra water here. We loaded our mash tun to the brim with 1.5 tons of delicious Belgian malt, mashed it once and took only the first (and best) runnings. Sure, it might be downright inefficient, but it also creates a uniquely smooth, rich and robust malty body to complement the intense, tropical flavors of our farmhouse yeast. Procure this ale while you can, before our accountants found out what we did."

Would I buy it again?: Don't believe all that stuff about the malty body and complementing tropical flavors. Okay, you can believe it, but the dominating taste in this beer is alcohol. Which I suppose isn't terribly surprising, considering we're talking about a 12% golden ale, but still, I was surprised how strong the alcohol taste was. I'd buy it again, but not for the taste, if you catch my meaning.

Beer of the Week

The beer: Dragonfly IPA

Brewed by: Upland Brewing Company, Bloomington, Indiana

Description (from the website): "India Pale Ale originated when the British added excessive amounts of hops to help preserve their ales for long journeys to their citizens overseas, including to India. Our Dragonfly India Pale Ale is true to this tradition, featuring seven hop additions to create a powerful hop profile. A solid malt base, however, tempers the bitter American hops, giving Dragonfly a balance not often found in this style. The end product is a well-balanced, malty beer with the crisp taste of hops and an exceptionally floral nose. Dragonfly is our most popular beer, serving as an introduction to craft beer for many and a longstanding favorite for many more."

Would I buy it again?: This was, for all intents, a basic IPA. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. Pretty much every brewery makes something like it. The only reason I bought this one is because I'm trying to collect beer bottles/cans from every state, and I didn't have Indiana.