the brews of the week
The liquor stop
Each week, our friends over at The Liquor Stop on Conwingo Rd in Bel Air, MD provide us with a different 6 pack of brews to enjoy live on our show! We by no means claim to be beer connoisseurs or experts of any kind… But we enjoy our beer just like the next man! We try to be as open and honest, good or bad, as we can about every beer we taste! Here is where you will find each beer we have tried, and some quick fact info! Don’t forget to swing in the Liquor Stop, tell them Birdland BS sent you and get your 10% off!!
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BrewDog: Pulp Patriot Raspberry Milkshake IPA
ABV: 9.5%. | IBU 10
This powerhouse of an American double IPA is packing raspberry. Delivering intense stewed raspberry aromas and gigantic jammy flavour upfront. Tail-gated by citrus notes that balance out the sweetness. Milk sugar adds body and rounds out the jammy delivery.
Port City Brewing: Integral IPA
ABV: 7.0%. | IBU 60
Breathe deep: Integral IPA is all about big, complex aromas, coaxed from some of your favorite new school American hops. A refined, dry body serves as the golden-hued canvas for layers of hop character – think overripe pineapple, guava, and melon. You can thank HOPZOOKA and hop-bursting for that.
Silver Branch Brewing: Lost In The Fog (California Common)
ABV: 5.1%. | IBU 38
Beautiful amber color, brilliantly clear. Pours a moderate sized white head, tightly bubbled and with decent retention. Slightly toasty malt aroma, and the earthy/minty Northern Brewer hop aroma. Has the unmistakable smell of a traditional Cal Common. A complicated mashup of flavors, with the hints of caramel and toast initially, quickly subsumed by the hop flavors. Nice earthy hop flavors gradually become more bitter as it transitions to a relatively dry and bitter finish. Medium body and med-high carbonation. The carbonation helps dry out the finish. Hops not astringent, but do linger on the tongue a bit. A nice Cal Common, with the hop character very fresh and prominent.
El Segundo Brewing: Broken Skull IPA
ABV: 6.7%. | IBU 67
Pours a pale golden with a slight amount of chill haze that clears up almost completely as the beer warms. Head is lively, and sticks in spongy globs and streams against the glass. Nose has a grainy aspect to it, along with a familiar citrus (lemony) and grass notes. The lemon increases with warmth and the grass becomes fresher and even morphs into a grape leave-like note with a hint of pepperiness. The opening notes mix the light-color grain with a near lemony wine-like flavor. Citrus rind and grass come next, leading the IPA towards the bitter. A grape leave peppery green bitterness comes as an increase in bitterness. As the beer warms, the malt plays a little deeper into the taste which allows the citrus to last a little longer and pushed the peppery hearty green note little further back in the taste. Perhaps this is due to my palate adjusting to the bitterness. Medium light, fairly clean feel with a good amount of carbonation - the feel is pretty nice. The only thing is, on a cold beer there is an ever so slight chalky note in back. This fades and the beer softens a bit in back as it does.
DuClaw Brewing: Purple Passion Gose Ale
ABV: 5.5%. | IBU 14
The beer itself pours nicely with a poofy, off-white foam head that you can hear dissolving if you hold it up to your ear. The foam head does not last too long, which is great as it yields a phenomenal rose-gold color throughout -- one of the more inviting looking beers I have had in a while. The scent is, unsurprisingly, acidic/sour with blackberry and other fruit notes coming through cleanly. The taste is sour throughout with a fresher, lighter fruit flavor up front followed up with a superb blackberry flavor towards the end and lingering into the aftertaste. That lingering blackberry aftertaste draws you back for another sip, and another, and another... As far as sours go, this is one of the safer ones I have tried -- a good, crisp one for these later summer days and upcoming fall.