The beers of PAX River: Samule Smith's winter welcome ale 2015-2016

Another Sam Smith. This one seems to have been aged for me, being about four years old (I'm writing in the years since the coming of our Lord two thousand and twenty). According to Sam Smith's website "This seasonal beer is a limited edition brewed for the short days and long nights of winter. The full body resulting from fermentation in ‘stone Yorkshire squares’ and the luxurious malt character, which will appeal to a broad range of drinkers, is balanced against whole-dried Fuggle and Golding hops with nuances and complexities that should be contemplated before an open fire.". We'll see how she held up over the years. Winter ales tend to do okay, but keep in mind there may be some qualities that I list that are from oxidization. So take any criticism with a grain of salt and remember a fresh one may be a bit different. Remember it's a Christmas seasonal so you probably won't be able to just go and grab one from your local bottle shop. I happened to find this one at a ABC liquor store here in Lexington Park Maryland, one of those brewthrough/bar jobs they have up here. I've written on Sam Smith before, check out my blog from September 2016 for info on the brewery.

It's in their typical Sam Smith 1pt 2.7oz (550ml) bottle with gold foil around the neck and crimpcap. Allot of stuff written on the label, I'm going to be lazy and just take a picture of it instead of describing everything. The back label basically says what the website does. 6% ABV. let's pop the top.

from the bottle it has a raisin/plum/dark fruit scent with a touch of spice. It's a little too cold and I think that's muting the aroma. It has a light white head with moderate retention. Color is about a 16 on the SRM, so a light orange/copper color. It has a decent bit of agitation so it shouldn't be flat, though I wasn't worried about that as the cap gave a decent hiss. Fairly clear with a few floaters. From the glass it has a deep dark fruit and spice aroma with regular sweet fruitiness as well that is regrettably plagued by some sherry aroma from oxidization. on first sip, it's sweet fig and plum with Christmas spices a bit like a drink lightly spiked with spiced rum. There is a little bit of raisin in the background but it really comes out in the aftertaste. It's certainly malty on the balance, I detect a slight bittering hop presence but I couldn't really ascribe it a flavor. It's a bit light on the carbonation, but that's probably from being old. Fortunately I don't get too many oxidized flavors, little tinges of sherry but nothing that ruins it, maybe some cardboard in the aftertaste but not a whole lot. It's a medium body, smooth with a sweet finish.

I started off listening to ska but YouTube autoplay has been going for a while and somehow I'm listening to Japanese Rock. I couldn't tell who or exactly what it is as everything is in Japanese and my ability to read Japanese is limited to a few common symbols. The title is あなたのやさしさをオレは何に例えよう and Google Translate says it means "What can I compare your kindness to". It's pretty good, the birds seem to like it. 
I'm waiting for some beer kits to come in, though I can't remember what I ordered outside of being all grain. The mash tun I build should work out just fine, or at least I hope so. Still need to finish drilling ingress holes in the pipe. My cooling tub blew away during that last storm so I'll have to get another one. I'm trying to avoid spending money if I can, had a payment glitch wipe out my savings but thank God I had them. Allot of people seem to be sent through the wringer right now. Seneca got clobbered by a tornado that destroyed most of the BorgWarner plant. Thankfully everyone I know up there is okay but this is still a big disaster. The whole disease thing isn't helping either, with a bunch of people who didn't know if they were going to have enough money to survive now don't have houses to survive in. If you pray, please keep them in your prayers.

Final thoughts. Would have been great fresh, but it's well past it's prime. It's still mostly acceptable, but those oxidized flavors really start to show up as it warms. It's one of those where it's not really a good beer now but I really believe it was at one point. I can't give it my seal of approval because I don't know that, but I would certainly be inclined to. Maybe this Christmas I can get a fresh one and do an update.

the beers of Pax River: Alaskan brewing co 2019 smoked porter

I picked this bottle up from the Beer Wars competition I judged this year. It is the 2019 limited edition Smoked Porter by Alaskan Brewing Co.. They're a cherished name in the beer circles I run in and I can't say I've ever had a bad beer from them. Started in 1986 (which is one hell of a long time in the American craft beer world) by Marcy and Geoff Larson, it was only the 67th craft brewer in the country and the first in Alaska's capital since prohibition. They originally recreated Gold Rush era beers, one of those being their flagship Alaskan Amber, but later moved onto other styles. They've gone on to great success, being one of the most award winning breweries in the country (hence the notoriety in the judging community). Their website seems to imply that this smoked porter is styled after a German Rauchbier, and when it was introduced in 1988 was one of the first commercial examples brewed in the United States. It's won something at Beer Wars since 2017, last year it took gold, I don't know how it did at the recent 2020 event but I can't imagine it not taking home a medal.

I got this in a 1pt 6oz bomber. The label features a Caribou against the horizon with a setting sun. As with many "age-able" beers nowadays it has the year it was brewed on it, this one being a 2019. It even says "enjoy it now or age it for several years. Standard crimpcap, says "made in Alaska". 6.5% ABV. let's pop the top.

Nose from the bottle is a sort of peat smoke with chocolate. It is a very dark beer, almost black, but it's perfectly clear. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good picture to illustrate that. The head is light brown to an almost beige color, it doesn't stick around very long though. Nose from the glass is even more peat smoke than it was from the bottle. You have to take a couple of pulls to get any of the chocolate and roasted malts out of it, but they clearly are there. On first sip, It's smokey and rich and creamy. It has a woody, earthy quality to it with a slightly medicinal flavor at the end. It's pretty astringent, but that's not uncommon in beers meant for aging. If given a few years that would probably go away. I don't know if that medicinal quality would go away though. I actually don't get too many other flavors outside of the smoke. The mouthfeel is pretty great, real smooth and creamy, basically no acidity. It's got a quality in the aftertaste I don't know how to describe, it's that flavor you get when you have hard water or something else that has allot of calcium in it. Actually, that might be it, probably just has allot of calcium.

Listening to a mix called "best ska music from the Balkans", it sounds exactly like you think it would and I love it.
Been stuck inside all weekend because of this Covid-19 business. It's given me the opportunity to finish some chores, which I proceeded not to do. I suppose that's not entirely true, I managed to fix my reel to reel player and listen to a few radio master tapes I acquired. two were marked "charlie tuna" and turned out to just be "simucast" reels with station calls on them. You know, those little jingles where the station would say what station you are listening to. They would time them with other tapes to play after commercials but before the next song. From a technical perspective they are fascinating, but they completely suck when you were expecting a radio show. At least my Wolfman Jack tape turned out to be that. Had a handful of awesome classic 70's songs that thousands of people would have listened to over the airways directly from this very tape, there were also a bunch of songs that frankly needed to stay in the 70's. Hopefully once this RCA to 3.5mm jack adapter shows up I'll be able to convert some of the older tapes into digital files.
In other news I have two blue budgies now. It's been a few weeks and they have finally gotten used to having me around. I can get them to eat out of my hand if I don't look at them, as soon as I look they get skiddish. I let them roam around the house when I'm here, but they can be hard as hell to get back into their cage, but once they're in they don't want to leave. They absolutely love being underneath chairs or my pool table. I suppose it's because they don't have to pay attention to what's above them and chairs have little structural bars to sit on. As I was writing this one of them finally got the courage to climb on me for the first time.

final thought's. It's a well brewed beer, but it's not for me. The smoke flavor is a bit overpowering and I wasn't exactly a fan of smoked beer in the first place. If smoked beers are your thing, you will probably like this. As for me, not wild about it. I'm not going to call it a bad beer, it clearly is not and if I had to judge it I probably would have given it pretty high rankings. But this blog is my personal opinion and It's just not for me.
Post Script: It is far better warm than it is cold, but it hasn't changed my opinion.

The beers of Pax River: National Bohemian

This beer caught my eye at a local package store up here in southern Maryland. It was $9.99 for a twelve pack at the brew-threw up the street (the drive through ABC stores that are also bars are one of Maryland's few redeeming qualities freedom wise), and I had never heard of it. It is National Bohemian, a regional beer from Baltimore Maryland (although now brewed in NC,GA,and OH) that is now owned by Pabst and contract brewed by Miller.
First brewed in 1885, it was the flagship beer of the National Brewing Company of Baltimore. This smaller brewer was forced to shut down after the passing of the Volstead act (Alcohol Prohibition) as they could not compete with larger brewers in the very limited "near beer" market. The Hoffberger family purchased the business (it is unclear if shortly before the repeal of Prohibition or just after) and modernized it's building and equipment. A few years later they created their marketing icon "Mr. Boh", which has graced "natty boh" containers ever since.

National Bohemian was the first beer offered canned in the now common six pack sometime in the late 1940's, although it is unclear as to when. Also in the 1940's they started adding rebus puzzles to the underside of their caps as a marketing gimmick, but this became a permanent feature after US spies used them to assist the allies in 1944. In 1954 they partnered with the newly created Baltimore Oriels to offer Natty Boh at Memorial Stadium, a partnership that would cement it in the local culture and turn it into "The Official Beer of Baltimore", the brand is heavily involved in local sports to this day. Sometime in the 60's the company created it's slogans "land of pleasant living" (which occasionally morphs into "live pleasantly) and "Oh boy, what a beer!". In 1967 they tried out "every man should have a beer to call his own" but that didn't stick.
I'm not going to get into the gritty details of what happened to the National Brewing Company, so I'll try to make a short synopsis. The 1970's-80's was a dark time for small breweries, and National Brewing Co. got caught in the 2nd Great Die off (you could also call it the great reshuffling, same thing previous regional brand Narragansett was caught in). So in '75 they merged with Carling Brewing Co. in an attempt to save both companies, becoming Carling-National and the ninth largest brewer in North America. But sales did not pick up, and an attempt was made to merge with Pabst. This was denied on anti-trust grounds, which seems ridiculous today as not only would they not be the largest brewer, but the companies are failing. So in '78 the company was sold to the G. Heileman Brewing Company. In the late 80's that company had a hostile takeover by an Australian brewer Alan Bond, it was a complete disaster, they tried to push more into the Malt Liquor market (they already owned the brand Colt 45 from National), it was a complete disaster, they were bought by an equity firm and then sold to Stroh Brewery Co., it was a complete disaster, Everything was bought by either Miller or Pabst.

I got this in 12oz. twist cap glass bottles. The bottle has a sort of mid-century Miller Highlife feel to it in that it has a white, black, red, and gold color scheme. The front prominently features Mr. Boh looking at the National Bohemian logo. On the neck banner you have "Live Pleasantly" and on the main label the other catch phrase "Oh boy, what a beer!". The red cap features Mr. Boh on top and the aforementioned rebus puzzle. It doesn't have the ABV on the bottle but it's about 4.3% according to the internet. Lets twist off the cap and give it a whiff.

listen to your elders

It has a grainy, light pilsner malt nose from the bottle. No hops to speak of, but that's common for the style. It smells pretty clean. Now lets see the head.

It has a soft, white head with poor retention. Color is golden straw with perfect clarity and good agitation. Nose from the glass is similar to the bottle, but with a light malt sweetness.

on first sip, It is lightly sweet and somewhat malty leading into a grainy huskiness in the finish. The sweetness has a red delicious apple quality that lingers after the finish. I can't really detect any hop flavor.  It has a lighter medium body, moderate carbonation, and is fairly creamy. It is a very "clean" beer and quite similar to Miller highlife (which is not surprising considering it was contract brewed by Miller). That apple flavor evolves into honey as you drink it.

So It's been a while since I've posted. I got a job doing what I did in the Marine Corps but for significantly more money. The job required me to move to southern Maryland (I'm outside of PAX River). Hopefully this job will lead to others in the Machine Gun world. I've missed working with automatic weapons so much I can't believe this is real. I'm keeping my house back in South Carolina as my official residence, but I maintain a townhouse up here as it is inconvenient and logistically impossible to move back and forth from my home to work (it's a 9 hour drive). I don't think I could see this place as my home, it's like New River was, just a place I have to be for work. Maryland is better than I anticipated, but it's not fantastic. It's a good enough place to be while the money is coming in, but I wouldn't want to put roots down here. I definitely want to bring my 180 up, the Sequoia isn't long for this world and I don't really need it for anything but going to and from work. At least the crabbing is good around here, I'm pretty excited for that.

Final thoughts, It's a pretty inoffensive beer. It's a bit better than Highlife but not quite as good as Narragansett. It's really a "peripheral beer", not made to be thought about but just used as a social lubricant at events. For this it serves it's purpose quite well. Should you seek it out? probably not. Just get a Miller Highlife and wish it was slightly sweeter and a little more smooth, then you've basically got it. But if you're ever having crabs in Maryland, go ahead and have one or two, they're not bad.