Columbus Brewing Company Summerteeth

This post is a bit out of place, but I felt the need to acknowledge a great local beer.

By the time we Brewski Brothers had returned from our world trek, summer time was in full swing and I felt like nothing more than sitting down and relaxing with a great local brew.

I stopped by my local carryout and grabbed a sixer of Columbus Brewing Company's Summer Teeth, which is an excellent Kellerbier. A kellerbier is basically a hoppier version of a helles style lager.

Columbus does an exceptional job with the hops on this one. The aroma offers a slight, herbal hoppiness and a tad of malty sweetness. The flavor is very dry, grassy, and crisp.

I sat around all day and enjoyed the greatness that this six pack had to offer. As I drank this, I began to ponder the great adventures that are in store for us Brewski-Bros here in the near future.

I realized that I am content and love the beer I drink. That being said... complacency is never a good thing. More is to come from our journeys around the world. We will not rest 'til we have scoured every corner possible that offers the bounties of beer.

Sterkens Dubbel

Good God is Belgium awesome! The beers are fantastic! Visting Trappist breweries cannot be done in one day. We spent one day for each Trappist brewery... and man did we love it!

Well, now that that has been said... here we have Sterkens Dubbel. What crap. All this beer represents is a Belgian macro-style beer.

We were just about to head out of Belgium, when i stumbled across this beer at a tiny food mart. The aroma is just a simple malt profile with a tiny bit of yeast and fruit. The flavor is incredibly thin. I am overwhelmed with plastic and a sense that I am drinking a watered down beer. There is even a slight metallic sting... oxidation due to the lack of bottle conditioning. What a waste of a beer.

It saddens me that this beer is out of Belgium. Belgian beers are like no other beers you can have. However... skip this one.

Harpoon Summer Beer

Time to do a 180!

Once we had finished our journey along the west coast, we made our way to the east and enjoyed the offerings from Harpoon.

I must admit, I haven't had too many beers from Harpoon that I thought were above par or worth noting. Call it the fever of summer time, call it my German ancestry, or simply call it the fact that this is a great beer... but, man, did I love the Harpoon Summer Beer!

Harpoon Summer Beer is a German style Kolsch and it's nice to have an American brewery nail the style down like this!

The beer pours a very pale, straw color with an aroma or grass and slight malt. The beer is very well balanced.. offering a slight bready malt with a teensy bit of grassy hops.

This beer is great for the summer time and I could have stuck around forever and had this beer, but the work of the Brewski Brothers is never done, and thus we move on...

Anchor Summer Beer

Sticking with our venture along the west coast, here we have Anchor Summer Beer out of San Francisco. Anchor is more well known for their Steam Beer, but what a delight is their Summer Beer! After Rob and I had had our fill of exploring the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, we decided to crash along the coast with this refreshing beer.

The beer pours a very pale yellow, but has a huge, gorgeous creamy head that stuck around forever. Normally a wheat beer that has this much clarity turns me off, but this one hit the spot. The aroma and flavor kind of lack.. the aroma is slightly grassy, malty, and has a hint of fruit and the flavor is mostly dry and crisp.

Anchor charges on the higher side for this beer ($10.99 for a six pack), but I could not think of a more enjoyable night than drinking this beer for hours on end along the San Fran coast. This is a true summer beer... it's easy to drink, thirst quenching, and delightfully dry. We'll be going on more road trips here very shortly... and this beer will surely be one that will be in my suitcase for the journey. Cheers, Anchor!

Carlsberg Elephant

In a bicycle shop in Cairo, Egypt, I came across Carlsberg Elephant malt liquor. Rather than going into the details of why this skunky brew was bad, I thought I would use a visual aid of what it tastes like. My tongue hasn't forgiven me as of yet. Maybe someday...It had the flavors and aroma of elephant shit. Surprise!

Bell's Hopslam

Bell's Hopslam is probably one of the most sought-after Imperial IPAs in the United States. Bell's Brewing Company started up interestingly enough, as a homebrew supply store in 1983. By 1985, they were brewing their own beer for sale. Bell's has a limited distribution territory, so demand is very high for their products, especially their seasonal beers. Hopslam is a seasonal, unfortunately, that is released in mid-Winter each year. As an Ohio State fan, it is hard to be supportive of anything from That State Up North (Michigan), so that is why I put an OSU football helmet on the bottle. It is fitting because Ohio State owns Michigan.

Hopslam pours a rich, vivid orange color with a medium off-white colored head. The head disappears within a minute or so, allowing the beer to reveal its decadant aroma. I detected notes of honey, orange, grass, grapefruit, mango and cantaloupe. The flavor started out sweet with piney hop notes and eventually turns into a cavalcade of sweet citrus fruit and orange blossom honey. It claims to be 10% abv, but I believe that is a modest estimate. The IBUs are around 70, which is balanced lovingly by the honey that is used to make it. The Simcoe and Cascade hops bring the flavors and aroma together, creating a smooth, satisfying extreme brew.

If Hopslam isn't one of the best DIPAs around, I am hard-pressed to think of another. I don't believe I could ever get tired of this beer. It is divine and deserved to be labelled as "The Nectar of the Gods" even if it is from that sinkhole, backwater state called Michigan. A+!!!

Stone Old Guardian

We are glad to announce our return from our self-imposed hiatus. After Ohio State's crushing defeat at the hands of USC, we went totally 'Kung Fu' by deciding to scour the Earth to search for the meaning of life. What we found was a lot more beer and a lot more meaningful beer. Now that we are back in North America and have managed to acclimate ourselves back into society after almost 9 months of roaming from wilderness to wilderness, it's time to write about some of the beers from our travels.




First up is Stone Old Guardian, a big boy barleywine from a craft brewery in lovely San Diego (which is German for a whale's vagina.) We sure loved San Diego. Balboa Park. The Zoo. The beaches. La Jolla. Most importantly, we loved the beer, particularly the offerings from Stone and AleSmith. Stone is headquartered in Escondido (Spanish for "hidden"), however, they certainly don't hide the flavors in their extreme brews.


Old Guardian pours a hazy light orange with aromas of peaches, pine needles, apricots, caramel and alcohol. The predominant flavors are peaches, raisins, white pepper and slightly burnt caramel. The hops give the beer a nice spicy herb and lemon/grapefruit finish. At nearly 11.3% abv, this certainly is a large beer. It will cellar for at least a few years in optimal conditions, but it sure is enjoyable now. Best enjoyed with a Pacific sunset at one of San Diego's countless beautiful vistas...But that's just how we enjoyed it.