Put in my place by Stone Brewing CEO Greg Koch

Ah, the percieved anonymity of the internet. We've all read the stories. A guy calls in sick, posts some party pics and gets fired. Teenage girls beat up a friend and post the video, only to find out that police too can surf the net. Well, these folks aren't alone. When we started this blog it was intended to be a fun resource for people in our brewing association and a way to discuss beer in general from our common-dude sort of perspective. Little did we know that Greg Koch, CEO and Co-founder of Stone Brewing, also has a common dude mentality, and reads the online reviews of his beers (even at little blogs like ours). Luckily, we've thus far reviewed two of Stone's brews (see those reviews below) and both got very high marks. In fact, one of our founders thinks Stone IPA is about the best damn beer in the world. He's also the best brewer among us, so I don't take that opinion lightly. However, when I drank and reviewed the Arrogant Bastard, I got a little...well...arrogant.

As I was quaffing said brew, and thoroughly enjoying myself (truth be told it wasn't my first time drinking it...and won't be my last) I stared at the bottle in front of me and was impressed with Stone's logo. That gargoyle dude is pretty mean looking, and matches their mean brews perfectly. Even though I recieved my undergraduate degree in English (no, I haven't yet uttered the phrase "would you like fries with that"), I rarely read packaging text or much of anything with a critical eye. It ruins things for me when I do. This time though, I read the bottle for Arrogant Bastard and was a little put off. My friends have called me a spiteful goat for years, and that nickname didn't stick because of my facial hair. So when I read the first three sentences on the bottle, my hackles rose. Here they are for context:

This is an aggressive beer. You probably won't like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth.

It goes on from there with the same attitude, and takes a shot at the fizzy yellow beer of unnamed budcoorsmiller (they all taste the same to me), and calls out the masses who drink that swill simply because it's cheap and well advertised. Looking back on it, I should've chuckled and agreed. Hell, I DO agree. But after finishing my 22oz Arrogant Bastard, and with my hackles still up, I decided I'd stand up for my taste buds and let Stone know what I thought about them telling me I wouldn't like their beer. Like an angry teenager I planned to fight back in a totally one-sided and anonymous way. I'd show them a thing or two by telling them how much I did/do like it, and wax spiteful on their packaging. The only thing I didn't think about was Stone actually replying! In a comment on that review Greg took me to task for how I reacted. He did so in a very cool way, and wasn't confrontational at all about it. And damnit... he was right. Anyone who knows me also knows that I won't change my opinion simply because someone important tells me to. So when i say he was right, I mean it.

If you want to read the comment he left just scroll down and check it out under the Arrogant Bastard review. The short story is, I'm both honored and certainly humbled by Greg reading our review. If you haven't tried Stone's beer yet. Do it. Now. This second. Whether you like the bottle it comes in or not, you're going to love the beer inside.

Reviews 2/23/09

Sam Adams Imperial Double Bock


Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda, but it didn’t.... Didn’t impress me or the fellow tasters. I have tried a lot of brews from Sam Adams, and like most, but I think that they dropped the ball on this one. Its potentially wonderful characteristics are covered buy the overpowering sweet, scotchy, overtones... I enjoy beers that challenge my taste buds, but this challenged my desire to finish the glass that I poured. Thanks to those present for helping me push forward and successfully finish this beverage. We all make sacrifices.

Sam Adams Imperial Stout


I love Stouts...But not this one... As I drank it all I could think was "I'm really Disappointed." I'm not sure what I was hoping for from the beloved Sam Adams, but it must have been something better than what I got. Honestly, I will drink anything dark, but this was tough . The stout was way too sweet and scotchy. These flavors overrode the chocolate, coffee, and malty flavors I was so excited to taste. If I were going to chose an Imperial Stout, right now, I would suggest the Rogue Imperial Stout, it is everything an Imperial Stout should be and a little more...

Sam Adam Summer Ale


Fire up the grill and grab a beer.... Not just any beer, crack open a Sam Adams Summer Ale and enjoy, but be careful don’t burn the stuff your grillin'.
This is what I expect out of a summer time beer, it is original, has identity, refreshing and if you a brewer makes you go searching for the recipe (it will soon be posted at idahobrewing.net) This ale has a wonderful crisp, sweet smell of citrus and malts. The taste of the ale is a fresh and slightly malty, citrus and spices, with a great finish that make you want another sip. Great beer for a day doing what ever.... But is perfect for manning the BBQ.


Alaskan IPA


I really enjoyed this beer, it's a mild IPA and would make a great introductory beer for those exploring the joys of IPA's. Give it a try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Overall, a nice, well balanced IPA, it has subtle citrus notes with some very pleasant caramel undertones . Very drinkable and a great session IPA.

Beer reviews 6-18-09

Anheuser-Busch / Margaritaville's Landshark Lager

This is an "Island Style Lager." What does that mean exactly?? If it's supposed to mean a flavorful party on you palate, then think again! I've had water with more flavor than this beer, and unless I'm drinking Propel, that's never a good thing. I must say though, if I'm on the beach and trying to get wasted on the cheap....this is still not going to do it for me. I'd rather go for Keystone Lite. That's REALLY saying something.

Beer Reviews Metolius IPA and Stone Arrogant Bastard

Metolius - IPA

So... You ever kissed your sister (or brother)? Ever played a great game and ended up tied with no more overtimes? Ever had vanilla ice cream plain? Yeah? Well then you've had the IPA equivalent of Metolius' version of the India Pale Ale. It's not bad, per se, but it isn't great either. No hopzilla going on, but there's a definite hop finish. There's too much malitiness for an IPA. Hell, you ever heard the word maltiness and IPA in the same sentence? I mean it's not an amber (though you wouldn't know it from the looks of it), but it's just sort of blah. If you're sitting at a BBQ and someone offers you a coors light or a Metolius IPA, definitely take the Metolius. Just don't expect anything earth shaking.


Stone - Aarogant Bastard Ale

This is a snippet of the message on the Bottle: "This is an aggressive beer. You probably won't like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to appreciate an ale of this quality or depth." It goes on to accuse the reader/drinker of being influenced by multi-million dollar ads, and attacks the big boys for their watered down crappy beer. Now, I love Stone. They brew good beer, and can hold their own with the best. More than that with their IPA, in fact. But I'm a little irritated with this beer. It was good. Damn good. It was a well rounded ale with some love for the hops-a-holic in all of us who like craft brews. But did they have to go so over the top? I mean, if you're going to call your beer an Arrogant Bastard, and lay claim to MY taste buds. You know the guy's taste buds who buys craft brews and even brews his own... you better damn well represent. This was a good beer. Medium/Full bodied with a great but not overpowering hops finish. But the only arrogance I found was in the marketing.

Beer Reviews from brew day 6-6-09

Metolius - Golden Stone Amber

As far as ambers go I can think of about five others that I would rather drink. That doesn't mean it was bad. Well, not exactly. It definetly doesn't stand out in a crowd. But then again, what amber does? Well, I guess Amber Lee Ettinger does (She's the Obama Girl from the net). Sorry, got sidetracked. In all it’s a solid beer, mild malty flavor, little bit of a biscuit note and very subtle hop finish. I don’t know much anout Metolius Brewing but I must give them credit for the fly fishing oriented naming of their products. I'd even be half tempted to take a couple with me the next time I go out to toss out a line.


Georgetown - 9 Pound Porter

Georgetown Brewing Company is a Seattle based microbrewery. They are a "draft beer only" production brewery, which means that all they do is make beer and fill kegs. You won't find any bottles in your local store... at least not yet. If your local pub doesn't carry their brews I would encourage you to be a vocal consumer and request that they get off their tails and order the 9 Pound Porter. This was one of the best porters I've tried in a long time. I mean I dug it so much that it could replace one of my favorites (Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewing) the next time I'm out. The 9 Pound has a prolific porter profile, great roasted qualities, and so much chocolate malty goodness that it was hard to put it down. All told, it's hard to find a better porter anywhere.

Widmer - Drifter

HOLY SMOKES! I'm so proud of you Widmer Brothers! You have FINALLY created a beer that could possibly match the quality of your Hefeweizen. This is a great beer and produced a very pleasant response form all that tried it at our homebrew session. A drifter by definition is: "A wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support”. The Drifter wanders around your taste buds leaving subtle hints of citrus and when it departs down the back of you throat it leaves a wonderfully sweet hoppy finish encouraging you to take in another mouthful of this delicious pale ale. I would encourage you to support this drifter and it a give it a home in your fridge.


Red Chair IPA

Red Chair is brewed by Deschutes Brewing. Need I say more? It has a nice aroma of grapefruity/citrusy hops, a bunch of caramel malt, some bready notes and just a rather nice hop meets malt aroma. Flavors are floral, citrusy, piney-hops, caramel, light-toast and bready malts. There is a lot of malt flavor in this IPA. If one were to pour this beer into a glass you would think it was an amber, but the instant it hit the tongue you know that it is and IPA. This is a solid, solid, solid IPA and without hesitation I would say it is a go to brew, and if you're into it, drink the heck out of.


Stone - IPA

Stone Brewing is a gift to all that enjoy quality beer. Wihtout doubt, Stone IPA sets the standard for all other IPA’s, and won't be knocked off any time soon. However, for you newbies out there, this beer can be dangerous. At almost 8% alcohol by volume, it can really sneak up on you. It sure snuck up on me at our last home brewing event! After a couple of stone IPA’s I started to lose track of what the hell I was doing... not good when you're brewing for competition! Stone IPA provides tons of sweet, grapefruit citrus in the nose, a nice sweet, hoppy citrus flavor and a perfectly dry finish. Stone IPA stands apart from the crowd, and alone at the top of the IPA pyramid.



Alaskan - Summer Ale

Let's be blunt: This isn't a stand-out beer. It kind of left me questioning what a Summer Ale is exactly? I mean, Alaskan Summer Ale isn't really a pale ale. And it surely isn't an IPA. It kind of has a Kolsh/Lager flavor, but even that's a stretch. I'm just not sure. Have you ever seen the Saturday Night Live skit "Here comes Pat?" You know, the one where they can't tell if Pat's a man or woman? I can honestly say that this is Pat's beer. It lacked strong flavor, lacked finish and I think lacks identity. I suppose I will have to try it again in an attempt to gain further insight into this mysterious beer... which might just be Alaska's sly trick to get me to drink it!

A great brew day!

This last Sunday, 6 of the Idaho Brewing Association members got together and did some brew exchanging. By exchange, I mean that we created and consumed simultaneously! It was tough, but we do what we have to right?
On tap in a few weeks will be an Organic Wheat (for the upcoming competition), A Bavarian Wheat, two different IPA's and whatever Mike Clifford brewed. It's always a tossup, so let's just call it Lawmower Beer.

We've always got more brew dates coming up, and sometime this summer we're going to do a Boise Brew at Buster's Bar and Grill on Broadway. We'll be on the patio during a weekend morning. The scheduling is still in the works, but we'll brew, have lunch, drink some beer and get an eye-full.

See you all soon, and tell your friends! The more beer we brew the better!

Beer Review 6/04/2009 - Cinder Cone Red, Kilt Lifter, Hoegaarden Belgian Wit

Deschutes - Cinder Cone Red



Overall, our reaction was an emphatic "meh" with this brew. Not the best red we'd tasted, but certainly drinkable. A little too hoppy for our taste, but that's kind of traditional for Deschutes. Not that we're anti-hops. Oooooh no. It just didn't fit perfectly with this beer.


Pike - Kilt Lifter Scotch Style Ruby Ale



A solid Scottish ale. It's pretty malty (which we dig on), and has good hop proflie and balance. All in all we'd recommend this for the craft brew beginning drinker to try out. It won't scare you off like an IPA might (work your way into it!) and it leaves you wanting to try more beer.


Hoegaarden - Belgian Wit



Excuse me waiter? Yes could I get some liquid clove please? What's that? You serve the Hoegaarden Belgian Wit? I'll take that instead. We're just messing with you Hoegaarden. How can we not with a name like that? This is a smooth brew with mild hoppiness. We'd recommend it in the fall when the weather is juuuust starting to cool off. It's got that clov-ey flavor that just mixes well with Autumn.

Boise Brewing meeting

The founders are meeting as we speak, and we're coming up with dates for our Boise Brew Day! Keep August 15th on your calendar if you're looking to brew.

See you soon fellow homebrewers!

Brewing Saturday June 6th

For anyone interested in Brewing with some Boise home brewers, we will be brewing this weekend! Everything from full grain systems to extract batches will be going on, and there's sure to be some home brew on tap!


Send an email to Idahobrewing@gmail.comto find out where and when!

Boise Hops Swap

Some of us homebrewers grow our own hops both to cut on costs, and because it makes your homebrew just that much more individual. The hops swap will be happening in September, and keep checking back for more info!