On the surface, The Perfect Disguise looks like a straightforward Kölsch with a crisp Kölsch yeast and traditional German malts and hops … but things aren’t always what they seem. With a quick sniff and a slight sip, you’re greeted by a creamy mouthfeel and full body thanks to the addition of a unique German chit malt – the first hint that this beer may be somewhat different.
Hiding deeper behind that German disguise is the double dry-hopping of an American Double IPA, with nearly 4 lbs. of German and American hops per barrel. It brings tropical flavors of citrus, tangerine, mango, gooseberries and peach.
The artwork for The Perfect Disguise was brought to life and designed by 2019 Off-Centered Art Series artist Michael Hacker. The name ‘The Perfect Disguise’ was the inspiration for the illustration design as it’s a play on words with whether or not the beer is actually a Kölsch or an American IPA.
I realize I’ve mentioned Dogfish Head quite a bit here on the Tap Takeover in my monthly six packs and other assorted posts. However, has been quite a while (mid-2017) since I gave one of their beers the full review treatment. This beer came along and really tickled my palate so here’s a review of The Perfect Disguise.
Sam Calagione and Dogfish have a great way with words and the description of The Perfect Disguise is really on-point. But in my own words, the beer is a really bright golden yellow as I poured into the glass. There’s an even head that dissipates pretty quickly. On the whole, The Perfect Disguise pours much brighter than most IPAs I’ve had, at the very least.
The hop aroma is very potent and welcoming and has the hints of citrus I really like. The taste is not quite that hoppy, at least initially. It is pretty clean, a little sweet and then WHAM the hops hit you. In a good way, at least for me. The hop flavor is potent, but finishes off with the citrus and somewhat tropical flavor that makes it difficult to stop drinking the beer. There’s a bit of a hop-oily finish to the beer, too. I’ve noticed this with some of the Imperial IPAs I’ve had from Dogfish Head (90 Minute, Burton Baton). It is a welcome finish by all means because those other Imperial IPAs are excellent.
How does this rank against other Imperial IPAs I’ve had? Quite highly, probably one of the better Imperials I’ve had over the past few months. Aside from that initially mild taste, the beer hits all the notes of an excellent Imperial IPA and specifically, an Imperial IPA from Dogfish Head. This beer should be easily available across the country since Dogfish distributes to most of the US. It is well worth getting the full six pack because quite simply – this is a complex, delicious beer.
Cheers to Independent U.S. Craft Breweries (Level 33)
Cheers, beer patriot! You are supporting the small and independent American craft brewer. When you see the seal — shaped like an upside-down beer bottle — that’s independence you’re tasting.
Year after year, the fan favorite at our cask festival is always our Tripel Horse Belgian Style Ale with raspberries. So we figured why not run with it! We’ve added 14 pounds of raspberries per barrel to our original Tripel Horse recipe and bottled it for you to enjoy at home. The raspberry is perfectly balanced in this smooth Belgian style beer. The label may be loud – but the raspberry is perfectly balanced in this smooth Belgian style beer
Almost exactly a year since my first review of a River Horse beer, here comes another from the venerable New Jersey brewery. Oddly enough, for all the love I throw to the Belgian style ales, this is the first Belgian Tripel I’m reviewing. River Horse’s Tripel Horse arguably the most well known and most acclaimed beer they brew – it received a bronze medal at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival – but I figured that beer was well known enough that I wanted to try something slightly adjacent to that beer. This beer also happens to mark my 5th anniversary on untappd, so it is a great candidate for review.
This beer, like many beers, began as a brewery exclusive variant on a popular beer. I’ve had the original Tripel Horse a few times and have wanted to try this sweetened variant since it was released in bottles a few years ago. In fact, one of the first times I had Tripel Horse I had two sitting at the bar waiting for a table. I thought the beer was delicious, but the ABV was subtle. To the point that when I stood up when our table was called, a nearly fell back down.
Enough reminiscing and preamble, let’s dive into this beer, shall we?
The beer pours like a standard Tripel, but a little hazier and with a reddish-pinkish hue. Not surprising given the amount of raspberries added per barrel. I get the yeasty aroma I’d expect from a Tripel with maybe a hint of the raspberries. It makes for a unique aroma and not unpleasant.
First sip gives more of the raspberry than the nose did, the tartness of the raspberry seems most prevalent. The beer turns out to be quite well-rounded, with the raspberry and yeast playing nicely together. This is a very flavorful beer so I don’t know that I’d pair it with say, a steak, pizza, or your main meal.
The magic of the yeast along with the sweet tartness brought by the raspberry make for a really nice dessert beer. I think the sweetness also masks the 10% ABV of the beer. The booziness / alcohol level aren’t immediately present, but noticeable at the end. Granted, I didn’t chug the beer but rather consumed it in smaller sips because it is such a potently flavor-filled beer.
If you are looking for a sweet take on an already excellent interpretation of a world class style, River Horse’s Raspberry Tripel Horse is well worth trying.
I’ll beat the same drum I do for most higher ABV beers: the flavors come more alive as the beer settles from fridge temperature to room temperature. The sweetness takes over the tartness just a little bit, too.
Side note on the label, it seems over the past year or two, River Horse has made their mascot – Brewtus the Hippo – a more prominent component of their label designs. For this one, they put a beret on him so I found myself playing Prince’s Raspberry Beret in my head when I was enjoying the beer. According to this facebook post, from River Horse the beer was indeed brewed in homage to his Purprleness, Prince:
…Our Raspberry Tripel was created around the time the Artist-Formerly-Known-As (and known again as) Prince died. In honor of his badassness, we thought Brewtus should don a Raspberry Beret.
While this specific beer has been available in bottles for about two years, it is nice to see that River Horse, one of earliest independent/craft breweries in NJ continues to release new styles and beers. This is one that should be an annual favorite.
Dubbel, Tripel, or Quad, you can’t go wrong with these amazing feats of Belgian style brewing. Whether you’re looking for something light and golden or dark and boozy, one of these will do the trick!
Sky’s the Limit! (Level 29)
You don’t always intend to go for beers with a double digit ABV, but when you do, you make it count! Cheers to you, but be careful, 10% and up can really pack a punch.
Cheers to You (Level 5)
Happy Untappd anniversary to you! Thanks for sticking around and drinking socially with us. Cheers! That’s 5 years on Untappd!
For our latest Two Evil collaborative brew, Two Roads’ Phil and Evil Twin’s Jeppe sampled and became enamored with a popular Vietnamese coffee drink called “Ca Phe Sua Da” (cah-fe sah dah). Thick & decadent, like a coffee milkshake, it was the inspiration for this Vietnamese-style Coffee Stout. They then traveled to the chaotic, scooter packed streets of Saigon to meet up with good friends at Heart Of Darkness Brewery. It was there that the brewers created the first batch of this collaborative beer.
So raise a glass (or can), snap a selfie and enjoy a taste of Vietnam!
Two Roads is one of the most consistent breweries in the Northeast, maybe in the United States. Of the nearly 20 distinct beers I’ve had from them, the lowest untappd rating from me was 3.5 bottle caps and that was only one beer, while the vast majority are 4 bottle caps and above. Evil Twin is just as respectable in the beer world and the two companies (mainly Phil Markowski from Two Roads and Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø from Evil Twin) have collaborated multiple times under the “Two Evil” banner to brew some great beers. This coffee stout; however, might be their best collaboration yet. At least it is my favorite.
Coffee stouts are a popular style and one of my favorites so knowing what I stated above, I had to get my hands on this one. On the other hand, sometimes a coffee stout can be far too bitter, largely from the over-roasted coffee. So what about this beer?
As you’d expect from a stout made with coffee, the beer pours very black and I appreciate the thick body from the beer as it filled up my Two Roads pint glass. The head is a little creamy looking, too. Or, to put it another way, on quick glance and in a different glass, one might think this is coffee. There’s a nice sweet coffee aroma coming off the beer and I settle into the couch and take a sip. This. Is. Good.
This beer is everything a stout, specifically a coffee stout, should be. For my palette, it hits all the pleasing notes a coffee stout ought to hit, while managing to strum a few new chords and notes. The coffee flavor doesn’t overtake the beer, it is a harmonious marriage. The presence of brown sugar could potentially make this cloyingly sweet, but nope. The sweetness is perfect. Add in the cream / condensed milk flavor from the Ca Phe Sua Da the beer is attempting to mimic or evoke in one’s palette and you have a stout that is the perfect marriage of familiar and new.
I had just worked a very long day (13 hours for a quarter end) and considering the time of year (cold weather January), I couldn’t think of a more perfect beer to enjoy for dessert.
What happens when you take two or more amazing breweries, throw them into the tank and let them ferment together? An amazing collaboration beer, that’s what! Cheers to working together to create the perfect flavor. That’s 40 different beers that have been brewed as a collaboration.
Draught Diversions is the catchall label for mini-rants, think-pieces, and posts that don’t just focus on one beer here at The Tap Takeover. We hope you don’t grow too weary of the alcohol alliterative names we use…
This seemed to work well last year, so why not again? There are quite a few “dessert / pastry” stouts out there and many of these beers have some flavor element that would lend themselves to Valentine’s day. Only one brewery from last year’s Valentine’s Day/Chocolate Beer post reappears here.
A departure from most of the other beers on this post since it isn’t a chocolate stout or stout of any kind. What flowers are most associated with Valentine’s Day? Roses. Well, this beer has “Rose” as part of its name (I know it is a stretch), but it doesn’t quite have roses in it. Rather, the color of the beer is a beautiful deep red evocative of a rose and is one of the very best beers with cherry I’ve ever had. A blend of two beers in one bottle, it is truly an artistically inspired beer. When Ommegang creates beers in its Belgian wheelhouse, wonderful things like this are produced. This is one of two beers in this post I’ve had (and thoroughly enjoyed).
What Ommegang says about the beer:
Rosetta kriek is a little sweet and a little tart, and now pops in cherry red with a bold, black logo. An homage to Rosa Merckx, the first female brewmaster in Belgium, Rosetta is blended for us at our sister brewery Leifmans, where Rosa worked for 46 years.
Ommegang Rosetta pays homage to time-honored Belgian methods of aging and blending fruit beers. Ommegang brewmaster Phil Leinhart partnered with Belgian sister brewery, Liefmans – legendary brewers in the world of sour fruit beers – to create a truly unique blend for Ommegang and U.S. craft beer lovers. Pouring a mahogany-brown with a hint of red, Rosetta offers elegance, depth, complexity, and an intriguing interplay of tartness and sweetness. This is derived from Phil’s perfectly balanced blend of Oud Bruin (a tart Flemish brown ale) with Cuvee Brut (a fruity and lively Kriek Beer)
Cupid | Carton Brewing Company | Atlantic Highlands, NJ | Stout – Other | ABV: 6.6%
Image courtesy of Carton’s Facebook
Perhaps the most on-point beer for Valentine’s Day comes from my NJ favorite, Carton Brewing. Augie and his band of brewers go beyond the confines of standard brewing ingredients for many of their beers, especially one-offs or seasonal beers like this one. How many other beers are made with roses? I’ll let Augie give you the lowdown..
What Carton says about the beer:
Simple truth is we wanted to make something taste like roses, and a stout reminiscent of the simple flavors of boxed chocolates seemed to make sense. The path became clear once we embraced honesty, no need for chocolate additions, just a malt bill built around chocolaty roasts. After that it was just some roses on the way home. Drink Cupid because that’s all there was to it, really, we swear, a straightforward inkling for boxed chocolates and some roses. Nothing else was going on.
Velvet Merkin | Firestone Walker Brewing Company | Paso Robles, CA | Stout – Imperial Oatmeal | 8.5% ABV
Image courtesy of Firestone Walker’s Web site
I’ve had the regular Velvet Merlin, which is a delicious Oatmeal Stout and Mocha Merlin, one of the best coffee stouts I’ve ever had. I’ve yet to have this elusive beer, which is part of their “Proprietor’s Vintage Series” of barrel-aged beers. I’ve not had the opportunity to sample any of their barrel-aged beers, but this is the one I think I’d want to try the most.
What Firestone Walker says about the beer:
Velvet Merkin is the beer that almost wasn’t…Indeed, this vintage oatmeal stout’s comical (or is it scandalous?) name went off the grid for several years, but now it’s back due to popular demand. Velvet Merkin is aged for a full year in retired spirits barrels from Heaven Hill, Woodford Reserve and others, yet manages to offer mind-boggling balance and restraint. You will wig out when you taste Velvet Merkin’s rich milk chocolate, bourbon and espresso flavors, preceded by aromas of vanilla, coconut, toasted oak and mocha.
Chocolate Cherry Yeti | Great Divide Brewing Company | Denver, CO | Stout – American Imperial / Double 9.5% ABV
Image courtesy of Great Divide’s Facebook
The Yeti from Great Divide is one of the great Colorado stouts and has become a brand within Great Divide. I’ve had the Yeti and it is a big, flavorful beer. This variant, with Cherry added, seems like a delightfully delicious dessert beer perfect for Valentine’s Day. So of course it is logical that Great Divide releases it in February.
What Great Divide says about the beer:
CHOCOLATE CHERRY YETI is the newest version in our revered Yeti Series. We’ve tweaked the hop bitterness for this special release and then added sweet and sour cherries and cacao. The roasty malt backbone of Yeti melds perfectly with the cherries and cacao to make this one smooth sipper. A Yeti in a cherry orchard can be a great thing.
Lancaster’s Milk Stout was maybe the first Milk Stout I recall seeing called out specifically as a Milk Stout many moons ago. I liked it quite a bit and it was a regular winter beer for me. Then I tried this version of the beer which is a level up in taste, flavor, and all around quality as a beer.
Hell, Lancaster suggests pouring a can of this with their Strawberry Wheat Ale (a solid summer beer) for a chocolate covered strawberry.
What Lancaster says about the beer:
Don’t miss out on the intense roasted malts, silky smooth mouth feel, subtle sweetness and velvety chocolate goodness of our 2X Chocolate Milk Stout. We went over the top, with more malt, the infusion of cacao nibs and pure chocolate for a truly otherworldly chocolate stout experience.
Cherry Cordial | Southern Tier Brewing Company | Lakewood, NY | Stout – Imperial / Double | 10% ABV
Image courtesy of Southern Tier’s Facebook
Southern Tier is one of the leaders (at least in my region/distribution footprint) of the dessert / pastry stout, which is why they are appearing two years a row for this post. Frankly, I could probably include a beer in this themed post from Southern Tier for a few years. Like most of their big stouts, this is part of the “Blackwater” Series. Anyway, this one is a beer that evokes that most iconic of chocolate candies, the chocolate candy with cherry and cherry syrup filling. I think this is available in both 12oz 4 packs and 500ml bottles.
What Southern Tier says about the beer:
Big, juicy cherries covered in rich chocolate? Yes! Not overly sweet, with just enough contrast between the fruit and chocolate, Cherry Cordial is every bit as tempting as it sounds.
<We’re well known for our affection for decadent, flavorful, dessert-like beers which has put us on an endless quest to brew the ultimate indulgence. Our dessert beers are a fusion of flavors, making each of them a perfect pairing when one craves an exceptional stout all of personality.
Draught Diversions is the catchall label for mini-rants, think-pieces, and non-review posts here at The Tap Takeover. We hope you don’t grow too weary of the alcohol alliterative names we use…
New year, new beers! January 2019 turned out to be a big month for new beers here at the Tap Takeover. Multiple brewery visits and two business trips made or a great variety. So much that whittling down the new beers, about 30 altogether, I had in January to a six pack was more challenging than it has been in quite some time.
Over the past couple of years, it has become a New Year’s / Early January NJ tradition (and one for me personally) to head down to visit Carton Brewing in the Atlantic Highlands to get whatever variant Augie and company release of their highly coveted Regular Coffee cream ale. This year, I met up with some friends to grab some of this beer. Carton has the best deal of any brewery in NJ in terms of tasters, and I knew I had to bring this one home. Regular Coffee is an “Imperial” Cream Ale made with coffee from local roasters. Put simply, Regular Coffee is the best Coffee beer I’ve ever had. I’ve realized I don’t care for Nitro beers over the past year, but this one bucks that recent trend. I can’t think of a beer that more perfectly utilizes Nitro and enhances all the flavor components, raising the bar on an already great beer to something sublime. This may end up being the best beer I have all year.
Mother Earth beers recently started appearing on NJ shelves…maybe within the last year? This is the first offering I’ve had from them, thanks to my wife getting me a Mix Six pack from Wegman’s. She’ll pour me the beer and I have to try to figure out what the beer is. I got the sweetness initially, but I thought it was a porter so I wasn’t too far off. Be that as it may, I was very pleasantly surprised by the beer. The amount of peanut butter in the beer was just right and not overpowering. This is a really nice dessert beer that doesn’t come across too boozy and spot on for a stout.
Again, traveling for work allows for sampling different local beers. Case in point, this really tasty beer from Robot Brewing in Boca Raton, FL. Sometimes you take a chance on a beer that seems like it shouldn’t be good at all and you’re surprised. I like pickles and I like beer and this beer is the best of both worlds. The pickle flavor melds so good with the salty and sour aspects of the Gose. Like I say on untappd, I would *love* this one in the summer because it is such a surprisingly refreshing beer.
Hop Wallop IPA – Imperial / Double (Victory Brewing) – 3.75 bottle Caps on untappd
Been a while since a beer from Victory showed up here on the Tap Takeover and it took the re-release of an old favorite to make the cut. A little rebranding/relabeling and my growing enjoyment of IPAs leads to this beer showing up. This is a beer with a lot of Citra hops (one I like quite a bit) for a citrusy, yet bitter hop/flavor profile. I enjoyed the second beer from the six pack more than the first. This isn’t a blow-you-away IPA, but it is on-point for the style and represents the style of DIPA quite nicely.
Sierra Nevada is really the standard bearer for the full definition of what it means to be an American Craft Brewery. They make superb beers and are a fixture in their community. Those two ideals come together perfectly in this beer, 100% proceeds of which go to the Camp Fire Relief Fund for the disastrous Camp Fires in California late last year. It doesn’t hurt that this is a delicious IPA, an IPA the embodies everything a modern West Coast IPA should be. I can see myself grabbing multiple six packs of this beer.
Another beer from the business travels. In a great turn of events, the “networking event” for my second business trip was held at the Great Divide Barrel Bar in Denver. You’d think the marketing and event folks asked me where it should be held. Be that as it may, I had four different beers during the event and this beer was the standout. I like Scotch Ales and this is a damned good interpretation of the style. Everything – the sweetness from the malt was absolutely perfect. It was a perfect beer to start out the night after walking across a cold parking lot.
All in all, a really good month for new beers. Some months there aren’t enough good ones and I need to add a dud to this post. Not the case for January: More than enough good beers to whittle down to six.
The Tap Takeover 