Best brews of 2019

With the year drawing to a close, I thought it would be fun to do a "best of" list of some great beers and ciders from 2019. This was NOT an easy list to compile but a decision has to be made at some point. By all means, share your favorites in the comments!

1. Sister Sangria cider (Coytote Hole Ciderworks)
2. Botanicallia Berliner Weisse (Commonwealth Brewing)
3. Notorious P.O.G. Berliner Weisse (Stone Brewing)
4. Villuminati fruited gose (Commonwealth Brewing)
5. Merrang Berliner Weisse (Crooked Run Brewing)
6. Velvet Walrus Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout (Vasen Brewing)
7. Black Forest imperial stout (Alewerks Brewing)
8. Smoked Blood Peach sour (Vasen Brewing)
9. Cuffing Season Chocolate Pommegranate gose (Oozlefinch Brewing)
10. Marmalada sour IPA (Commonwealth Brewing)
11. Blueberry Pancake cider (Buskey Cider)
12. Paper Umbrellas sour Berliner Weisse (Commonwealth Brewing)
13. The Clobbler Berliner Weisse (Crooked Run Brewing)
14. Pavlova sour IPA (Commonwealth Brewing)
15. Proud To Partake imperial pecan pie stout (Oozlefinch Brewing)
16. Babysitter's Dead fruited sour (Precarious Beer Project)
17. Boom Choc-O-Lotta chocolate lager (Strangeways Brewing)
18. Mamaw's Mean Cobbler Belgian tripel (Hardywood Park Brewing)
19. 522 Black Currant cider (Winchester Ciderworks)
20. Ambrosia Berliner Weisse (Crooked Run Brewing)

Have a safe and "hoppy" new year!

This stout is "liquid dessert"; a fun Sangria cider

As much as I enjoy indulging my sweet tooth on fruity and funky sours, goses, and Berliner weisses during the warmer months, I always look forward to the dark roasty tones of brown ales, stouts, and porters to get me through the cold drab of winter.

This past week, during my normal craft beer run to my favorite bottle shop, The Wink, I took home two imperial stouts from Commonwealth Brewing, both from the same series: Marvoloso 2019: V05 (rated and reviewed in my last post) and Marvoloso 2019: V06, which boasts Ghiradelli chocolate, maple syrup, praline, and toasted coconut; 12.6% ABV. It boasts the same smoothness and thickness of your typical stout, with very pronounced chocolate notes, and subtle maple and coconut in the background. The maple does boost the sweetness of this one a little bit beyond your usual stout, so be forewarned if you're not into overly sweet beers. That being said, the flavor was outstanding, as I've come to expect from Commonwealth. Perfect way to end a hearty holiday meal! I gave it 4.5 stars on Untappd.

My second pick-up this week was a new cider from Coyote Hole Cidery near Mineral, VA called "Sister Sangria." Coyote Hole Cider Works describes it as a blend of green apple hard cider, cranberry, blackberry, cabernet franc, and tangerines and you definitely pick up on the wine flavor both in the aroma and in the cider itself. It's definitely a sweeter cider and a bit more carbonated; a comparable cider would be Rekkorderlig. I thoroughly enjoyed it as I will admit to having a bit of a sweet tooth. 5.6% ABV.

More reviews next week! Oh, and you can follow and friend me on Untappd!

Christmas week: A "meh" gose and two sweet, sweet stouts

Firstly, Merry Christmas and happy holidays! Hope you managed to minimize exposure to the shopping insanity and got in some good chill time with friends and family around good food and drink!

This week's beer pick up was a four pack of "Grammy's Favorite", a gose from BenchTop Brewing in Norfolk, VA that features...get this...sweet potato, marshmallows and orange zest (6% ABV).

As usual I found this at my default bottle shop, De Fles Winkle (aka "The Wink") in the Food Lion shopping center off Nuckols Road in Glen Allen. This particular one was a little underwhelming, as I only picked up on the orange zest and didn't really taste anything else. It was mostly a run of the mill gose...a little sweet, mostly tart. But not bad, just didn't really stand out. I gave it 3.5 stars on Untappd.

Also in the beer fridge from earlier in the week I had two versions of Marvolosa from Commomwealth Brewing, an imperial stout. Both had Ghiradelli chocolate but one featured maple syrup, coconut and praline, and the other featured banana, coffee, and vanilla beans. I tried the second one last night and found it to be like your typical imperial stout...very roasty, smooth and thick, slight sweetness from the chocolate but a subtle yet still evident twist from the banana. As you might expect, it was a high ABV (12.6%) and the sweetness made it a good "slow sipper" beer to enjoy over the course of an hour.

Stay tuned for the next brew reviews, most likely this weekend.