10.8% ABV 

This super-hopped, 10^th-anniversary version of Stone’s popular Ruination Double IPA was intended as a one-off, but has now become part of their seasonal rotation.  Ruin-Ten pours a bruised peach with a tight, off-white head and a delicious nose of candied citrus, snowy pine, and butter crackers.  I’m not a big fan of the standard, diesel-hop iteration of Ruination, but this version tastes both stronger and cleaner, giving caramel and pine resin nuances to the crushing hoppiness.  Alcohol-soaked oranges and a moderated sweetness give way to the expected palate-smashing resin bitterness.  Slight hints of fresh peppermint, burnt caramel, and spicy hops come and go on the tongue, but there is a lasting and consistent impression of pine needles.

   4 Toasts

   3.5 Toasts

10% ABV
Purchased at Trappist Provisions ($6.50/11.2 oz. bottle) and poured into goblet glasses.

This quadrupel from Belgian brewers The Perfect Crime pours a bright copper with a vaporous white head.  The nose is similar to booze-soaked fruitcake, with raisins, figs, and hard alcohol most prominent, along with red apples and cooked cherries.  Hollow Point is more nuanced on the tongue, offering black walnuts, wood, raisins, and a little caramel, with a prolonged nutty bitterness and a slight alcohol burn coming to dominate the aftertaste.  Its body is exceptionally light for the style, and I like the lack of overpowering sweetness here, as Hollow Point emphasizes nuttiness and hoppiness over dark fruit flavors.

   4 Toasts

   4 Toasts

5.3% ABV
Purchased at Trappist Provisions in Oakland ($6/16.9 oz. bottle) and poured into weizen glasses.

This “Rhineland Weizen” from German brewers Freigeist – a more experimental offshoot of the successful Braustelle brand – pours a murky cantaloupe orange with a sizable eggshell-white head.  The body is filled with bubble agitation and the free-floating, unfiltered remnants of the brewing process.  Pimock has a smell that evokes dried apples, caramel, and some grains and hay, and the first swallow indeed emphasizes crisp, red apples instead of the banana and cloves endemic to Bavarian weizen beers.  Despite the relatively light body, it’s a lot closer to a German fest beer than any weizen beer I’ve ever sampled, although the presence of crisp wheat and hops on the finish give it body and a welcome brightness.

***Pangaea Two Brews Cafe will be hosting a Meet the Brewer event with Freigeist this Friday, June 14th, from 6 to 9 p.m.***

   3 Toasts

   3.5 Toasts

11% ABV; 45 IBUs
Purchased at Davis Beer Shoppe ($9.99/22 oz. bottle) and poured into globe glasses.

This Russian Imperial Stout brewed with rye from Anchorage-based brewers Midnight Sun pours an olive black with a quickly departing caramel-brown head and a body thick as motor oil.  The nose of booze-soaked dark chocolate practically leaps out of the glass, although black licorice, lumber, and molasses aromas are present when you drill down further.  Moscow offers velvety and decadent dark roasted malts on first swallow, with flavors ranging from rich chocolate to boozy barrel wood to fresh-roasted espresso beans.  It could have been an overwhelming beer, but it’s all given balance and texture on the aftertaste by the presence of peppery rye grains, and a coffee bitterness that lingers pleasurably on the palette.

   4.5 Toasts

   4.5 Toasts

9% ABV

Oklahoma-based Prairie Artisan Ales only produced 100 cases of this “imperial oatmeal stout aged in oak whiskey barrels”, which pours a deep onyx with a scarce brown sugar head.  Prairie Noir offers a distinct nose of sawdust, bitter chocolate, coffee grounds, and fire-hot whiskey, but has a little more moderation and complexity on the tongue.  Freshly sawed lumber is the main flavor up front, followed by the expected coffee and chocolate notes, and some scorched sugar and burnt cereal on the retreat.  There is almost as much barrel as beer here, with that sawdust-y wood flavor coming to dominate the profile, along with hard alcohol and vanilla bean.  Allowing the beer some time to warm brings out more of the rich stout flavors.

   3.5 Toasts

   4 Toasts

6% ABV

This “ale brewed with hibiscus” pours a clear, pale yellow with a bountiful bone-white head and a nose of citrus, grass, flowers, Sour Patch candy, and a subtle farmhouse funk.  It’s marvelously refreshing on the first swallow, with a just a prickle of sour citrus cutting through the balanced barnyard sweetness.  The hibiscus flowers enter the frame on the superbly dry finish, along with clove-heavy Belgian yeast, cracker-y notes, and a touch of honeydew melon.  This stellar “Vol. 1” of Stillwater’s Sensory Series (each bottle comes w/ a QR code that when scanned links to the “full sensory experience” – i.e., a 13-minute psychedelic jam by Baltimore indie rockers Lower Dens), is light and drinkable, but packed with complex flavors and spices.

   4.5 Toasts

   4 Toasts

7% ABV
Purchased at Taylor’s Market ($11.99/4-pack of 12-oz. bottles) and poured into tulip glasses.

This Belgian IPA from Ipswich, Massachussetts-based brewery Clown Shoes pours burnt orange with a minimal white head.  Tramp Stamp gives off a nose of sweet farmhouse funk, lemon, hay, and some stone fruits.  It offers a decent hop presence on the first swallow, but that quickly subsides into a Belgian yeast-heavy finish that absolutely refuses to vacate the palate.  The lingering aftertaste is rubbery, metallic, and altogether unpleasant, completely overwhelming the promising IPA flavors on the front end.  A successful “Belgian IPA” requires a certain balance of flavors, and although we have enjoyed other beers from Clown Shoes (like their delicious tripel Muffin Top and their  stout Chocolate Sombrero), this one completely misses the mark.

   2 Toasts

      2.5 Toasts

7.6% ABV

This “strong honey bock” from up-and-coming Swiss brewers Birra San Martino pours a murky raisin brown with a mid-sized, dirty white head.  The distinctive and fairly promising nose of La Gold offers chestnuts, raw flour, twigs and leaves, and some dark fruits.  Nuts and grains appear first on the tongue, fading nicely into richer flavors like caramel, flowered honey, and plum-y chocolate.  La Gold has a unique flavor that is earthy and contemplative, and yet still quite drinkable, with complex waves of roasted nuts, cereal grains, and hints of honey, plums, and raisins washing across the palette.  La Gold gets more flower-y as it warms, with wild berry notes coming on and less of those richer caramel flavors.  With a little more sediment in the glass, some barrel root beer and sarsaparilla enters the frame.  What a beer!

   4.5 Toasts

   4.5 Toasts

This Lips of Faith collaboration between Colorado legends New Belgium and Montreal-based Dieu du Ciel! – brewers of the excellent Solstice d’Hiver barley wine – pours a heavily burnished gold with a slight white head.  The strong nose smells of fermented barnyard grains, Belgian yeast, and the hibiscus flowers promised on the bottle.  However, it’s a tart, super-sweet tropical note that dominates the palette, presumably from the addition of feijoa (aka “pineapple guava”), eventually fading into more of those strong, spicy grains.  It’s definitely an original brew, and I have loved other Lips of Faiths beers (including the new Cascara Quad), but it’s also pretty one-note and too sweet for my tastes.  (2½ toasts)

   2.5 Toasts

   2.5 Toasts

6.4% ABV

This saison from Cambridge, Mass.-based Pretty Things pours a cloudy pineapple yellow with a fairly slight white head.  The nose gives off hay, copious grains, lemon and grapefruit citrus, and hardly any Belgian-style funk.  Jack D’Or is more grounded on the tongue, with the expected Belgian yeast flavors offset by an immense bill of grains and spicy hops.  Bananas and cloves dominate the front end, with more grains backing them up, and a piney-spicy bitterness on the aftertaste.  It’s a decent drink, but also a real mouthful for a mid-ABV saison, and certainly too heavy and aggressive to be called refreshing.

   3 Toasts

   3.5 Toasts