Marz Jungle Boogie

Brewed By: Marz Community Brewing Co. in Chicago, Illinois  

Purchased: 16.9oz bottle bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2015 

Style/ABV: American Pale Wheat Ale, 5.5%

Reported IBUs: 10

Something something Chicago shelf turds. About the Marz Community Brewing Company:

The Marz Community Brewing Company is a brewery based out of Chicago, Illinois. The brewery launched in 2014, and was a project started by brothers Ed and Mike Marszewski, along with a handful of professional and amateur brewers. The website credits several "members of the Colletive," including Alex Robertson, Mike Marszewski, Pete Alvarado, Johanna Wawro, Michael Freimuth, Doktor Kazys Ozelis, Eric Olson, Ed Marszewski, Mike Redwick, Malread Case, Tom Piekarz, Eli Espinoza, and Tim Lange. This is like a football team or film credit roll, and I'm sure their list of contributors will expand. The brewery's POV is that they are a collective comprised of home brewers, professional brewers, and artists, that have united to make small, artisanal batches of beer. And that's all you really need to know. For more info, check out their website or Facebook.

The Jungle Boogie is an American Pale Wheat Ale brewed with rooibos tea. This pours into a dark red, brownish body...the head retention is impressive, and this is hazy as you'd expect with a wheat beer. 

Marz Jungle Boogie

The aroma is absolutely fantastic. There is an explosion of bright Mosaic hops and huge Rooibos tea that culminates in an explosion of bright tropical fruits, berries, fresh tea, green tea, intense wheat, peaches, fresh pine, and steeped tea. It's an incredibly vibrant and fresh aroma, and the fusion of the tea and hops is spot on. 

This drinks more like a pale ale than an American Wheat Ale, but I see why they are calling it that. There's a lot of bright tea notes and clean wheat notes, but beneath the tea and wheat is a serious punch of Mosaic hops. The hops not only drop pine and tropical fruit, but they also blast some lemon, resinous bitterness, and a little hemp oil. The tea notes also come in on the back end adding some tea-like bitterness. You get lots of green tea, and some earthy shades of medium/black tea. The tea-hop punch really works here.

This isn't the first fusion of tea and hops, but it's definitely the most congruent example I have had. I actually enjoy this more than the Laughing Panda Green Tea IPA, and I enjoyed that beer. This is medium-bodied with fairly flat carbonation, but it is so clean and easy to drink. Palate depth is perfect, with good depth and duration. This also unravels with a fair bit of complexity. The tea and bright Mosiac hop notes up front transition into a wheat-heavy mid, with more fruity tea/hop notes. The back end trails off with the fruit and tea, and drops some earthy green tea and lemony resin. This is dropping some peach notes as I sip on it, and it's just incredibly refreshing. I hope this is around in the summer.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. I'm tempted to bump this up to a 4.5 but I really need to camp out on another bottle. As it stands, this is maybe the best hop-tea beer I have had. I would definitely recommend this, and the food pairings are endless. I would maybe pair this with a fish dish or sushi...but that's me. 

Random Thought: These Marz guys are really coming out the gates strong.

Dogfish Head Piercing Pils

Brewed By: Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 4-pack bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2014 

Style/ABV: American-style Pilsner/Fruit Beer, 6.0% 
Reported IBUs: 35

I love Pilsners. About Dogfish Head:

Dogfish Head is a craft brewery based out of Milton, Delaware. The brewery was founded by Sam Calagione back in 1995.The brewery began as a brewpub (the first in Delaware) called Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, and was originally located in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The initial brewing setup included three kegs and propane burners. They brewed 12-gallon batches of beer three times a day, five days a week. In 1996 the brewery began bottling their beer, and by 1999 they had distribution to around a dozen different states. In 2002 the company outgrew their Rehoboth location, and moved to Milton, Delaware. More info can be found HERE.

The Piercing Pils has serious potential to carve a niche as a moderate-gravity, easy-drinking beer. This "Perry-Pils hybrid" is a "Czech Style Pilsner" that is brewed with white pear tea and pear juice. The juice and tea are added in the kettle during the whirlpool after the boil. This one also features Amarillo and Saaz hops. 

Dogfish Head Piercing Pils

The beer pours into a dark golden body, kicking up three fingers of thick, dense, white head. The head falls off slowly, leaving lots of lacing. The body is transparent, with moderate, mid-sized bubbles rising upwards. 

The aroma features huge floral notes, white tea, Saaz spice, Noble hop character, light citrus, peach, pears, apple slaw salad, wet rain, grass, white peach, kumquats, and big underlying biscuit/toast/cracker from the Pils malts and Pilsner base.

The taste follows the aroma appropriately, with big Saaz spice and floral notes, mild citrus from the Amarillo, and big peaches, white tea, kumquats, pears, and slaw salad from the tea. The back end of the beer drops giant Pils malts on your palate, with huge cracker and biscuit. The finish is bitter with lingering cracker/biscuit, mineral water, and lingering bitter/dry grassy hops.

This is light-bodied, refreshing, and crisp with lots of carbonation. I almost wish it was a bit lighter than 6.0%, because that's a hefty enough ABV that drinking a few of these will get you drunk. Palate depth is good, and complexity is good too: up front is big Saaz and Amarillo hops; the mids roll into peaches, pear, pear juice, white tea; the back end dials up big cracker and biscuit, lingering hop bitterness, Pils malts, and a dry Pilsner finish.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. This is super quaffable and would make a great Spring or Summer brew. The Saaz and Amarillo hops play off the subtle white tea flavors, and the beer works. I think the base could stand out a little more, but I'm not sure how you'd go about integrating that....I don't get the hate for this beer. It's just a well-crafted, above-average Pilsner. Food pairings: meats with peanut sauces (think chicken satay with peanut sauce), grilled chicken, sushi, white fish, pizza, white pasta, fish tacos, pork tacos. Good stuff.

Random Thought: I hate Sunday nights.

Pipeworks Chai Dog

Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bottle (Batch #108) bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2013  (bottled 8/14/2013)

Style/ABV: Milk Stout/Sweet Stout, 10.0% 
Reported IBUs: ?

Welcome to another Unofficial Pipeworks Thursday™. If you aren't privy to the happenings, the happenings are that on Thursdays I drink Pipeworks beers. Tonight's beer is courtesy of my lovely girlfriend who went out and snagged me a bottle of this beer. Last night I dusted off the Jones Dog, but tonight is all about the Chai, baby. About Pipeworks:

Pipeworks has humble roots. The brewery was founded in Chicago in 2011 by Beejay Oslon and Gerrit Lewis. The duo were both homebrewers that met while while working at West Lakeview Liquors. In 2011, they began to raise money for their brewery using the online Internet site, Kickstarter. Olson and Lewis were both educated at De Struise Brewery in Oostvleteren, Belgium. With that knowledge, and the money from their kickstarter, Olson and Lewis created a unique brewery that is smaller in size, and intended to brew smaller batches of beer. The company's motto is "small batches, big beers." And indeed, since the brewery has been around, they've been releasing a lot of one-offs and small batch releases. The goal is to release a new beer every week. You can read more about the brewery at their website HERE.

The back of the Chai Dog bottle reads (this is verbatim/copypasta):

"Chai Dog is our Eastern answer to the coffee-centric caffeine concoctions popular here in the West. This silky smooth milk stout is brewed with cacao nibs, green cardamon, vanilla bean, star anise, black peppercorn and cinnamon. This delicious blend of spices creates a balance and complexity will transport you from your local watering hole to an authentic, old tea house in the heart of Mumbai."

Of course, we all know what vanilla, cacao, anise, peppercorns, and cinnamon taste like. Cardamon is an aromatic spice used in Indian cooking, and Chai is a blend of tea and spices. I actually enjoy chai tea quite a bit, so hopefully this beer will kick ass and take names.

Pipeworks Chai Dog

Like the Jones Dog, this beer pours into a black, dark body. I kicked up a finger of bready, dense, brown head...but the head was reluctant to form, and it faded quickly. You can thank all the spices for that, but as far as I can tell this beer doesn't have any carbonation issues. In bright light, you can not only see how dark and Imperial Stout-like this beer looks, but you can see streams of tiny bubbles rising upwards. There's a brown ring of carbonation around the edges, and swirling the beer kicks up some head, leaves some sticky lacing, and reveals some glossy alcohol legs.

The aroma on this beer is powerfully spicy, like a rapey-spicy pumpkin beer. I'm getting massive cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. This beer smells like two or three other beers I've had: the Sam Adams Merry Mischief Gingerbread Stout, the Stone 12.12.12 Vertical Epic Ale, and the Southern Tier 2XMAS. This beer isn't quite the Christmas/Pumpkin beer I'm describing it to be. I'm also getting a lot of that green cardamon on the nose, which is super pungent and not-quite-curry and not-quite-ginger. If you sit there and smell the beer for a while, you also get some earthy ash/dirt/coffee. I can only guess how this will taste.

Whew...this -- thankfully -- doesn't taste like a Christmas beer. It doesn't really taste like a Milk Stout either. There's a lot going on here...but the large Stout base and the slight booze presence really helps temper the spice. Up front you get rich, dense, spicy chocolate/cacao. I'm getting a lot of cinnamon, some pepper, and a nutmeg/ginger/cardamon thing. This beer is chewy and dense, so the cacao/chocolate/vanilla thing really sludges along. The spices are earthy, and have a straight up Indian-cuisine vibe. The beer is aggressively sweet, and there's some layers of fruit/caramel/sugars in the mix. There's also some hints of earthy ash/roast/coffee, but it's very subtle.

All this beer really needs is the addition of Jalapenos, and bam! It's a fiesta. This beer is fucking weird, man. I don't mean to go all Pie Style up in this shindig, but yeah. I guess this beer does remind me of Chai Tea, so mission accomplished. This beer has a full-bodied mouthfeel, supported by good carbonation and tingly spice. At 10.0%, you do get some booze. The drinkability is probably going to be low for a lot of people courtesy of the spice, booze, and sticky sweet kisses this beer gives you. Palate depth is good, and I guess this is pretty complex...or intriguing? You get dense

You never go full Pie Style.

cacao/chocolate and spice up front; that rolls into more spice, some caramel/sugar/fruit, vanilla, flat out chai tea, and more cacao; the back end is lingering pepper and spice, some booze, earth/coffee/ash, and a sticky-sweet finish.

Rating: Above-Average (3.5/5.0 Untappd)

I like this beer and I like what is going on here, so I'm going to toss this a Light Above-Average. This beer has a strange appeal...I'd almost throw it into the "foodie" category. This is definitely a beer to pair with foods, and those foods are Mexican cuisine (a mole sauce? mmm) or Indian food. As a standalone beer, this is interesting to try and would be worth splitting with a friend or two. I might even seek something like this out in the late Fall or early Winter months. It kind of feels like a Christmas beer, but it really isn't. Having said all that, this is another excellent Stout from Pipeworks. Their Stout program continues to impress...can't wait to see how their barrel-aged stuff tastes. 

Random Thought: A final, final note about this beer...I know earlier in the review I stated that the huge Stout base and big ABV helps temper the spice. Well, the huge spice in this beer helps temper the sweetness. It all kind of gels in harmony. 

Two Brothers Laughing Panda Green Tea IPA

Brewed By: Two Brothers Brewing Company in Warrenville, Illinois

Purchased: 22oz bomber bought at Binny's in Illinois; 2013

Style/ABV: India Pale Ale, 6.75%
Reported IBUs: 70.2

Oh shit. Things are getting legit! It looks like Two Brothers made some updates to their website. They've upgraded from some 1993 GeoCities page to some 1996 you-just-got-AOL page. Maybe in 15 years their website will catch up to the millenium. Who knows. I'm just busting balls, of course. Two Brothers is busy making beer and paying the rent for their Roundhouse. To quote Ali G: "respect." About Two Brothers:

Two Brothers are based out of Warrenville, Illinois, a town not far from Chicago. Two brothers was founded in 1996 by brother Jason and Jim Ebel. Their brewery and Tap House Restaurant are both located in Warrenville. Their distribution and production seems to be increasing with each year, and along with their beer you can buy home brewing equipment and supplies at the Tap House Restaurant. If you get the chance, swing by and check out their Roundhouse. It's an awesome joint, and needs all the love it can get.

Tonight's beer is all new and cutting edge. Hopefully that translates to that fresh hop money shot. Hops: it's what I crave. The Laughing Panda is also brewed with green tea. I happen to enjoy a glass of green tea, and I think it has the potential to mesh well with an IPA. The back of the bottle reads:

A panda enters a restaurant, sits down and orders a sandwich. After he finishes the sandwich, the panda pulls out a gun and shoots the waiter, and then stands up to go. "Hey!" shouts the manager. "Where are you going? You just shot my waiter and you didn't pay for your sandwich!"

The panda yells back at the manager, "Hey man, I am a PANDA! Look it up!" The manager looks up the definition for panda: "A tree-dwelling mamal of Asian origin, characterised by distinct black and white colouring. Eats shoots and leaves.

Can you say, hiiii-yooooo. Maybe I'm just projecting, but that joke is one bear away from being racist. But it's cool, because no one likes pandas anyway. Brown Bears > Chicago Bears > Polar Bears > Bernstein Bears > Black Bears > Pandas. Anyway. 

Credit to the colorful bottle art, the green label is eye-catching and compelled me to walk over and check this beer out. The beer pours into a filtered, apple-juice-colored body, with 3-fingers of sticky, off-white head. In bright light, the body is a nice golden/honey color, the head is white with a hint of gold, and there is moderate-sized, lazy carbonation streaming upwards. The head is pillowy, leaving nice lacing, and seems to be sticking around.

Two Brothers Laughing Panda

The aroma here suggests that this is super fresh. I'm pulling off big grapefruit, mango, and citrus. There's some oranges, hints of toffee and sweet, bready malts, and some orange candy sweetness. I'm also getting some big apricot, light peach, strawberry, and fresh grassy wetness.

For 6.75%, this has a hell of a dense body. It reminds me a bit of the Unicorn's Revenge and the Ninja vs. Unicorn by Pipeworks. The taste features big, dense, bready sweetness, with big candied citrus, grapefruit, orange, apricot, and earthy hops. The finish is malty and juicy, and then dry. There's a light herbal character, and some earthy spice abound as well.

Drinkability is excellent on this, as you don't notice the near-7% ABV at all. Palate depth is great, while complexity is just okay. The mouthfeel is medium-full. This has an impressive body for the ABV, and starts off with dank, bready, sweet orange, grapefruit, citrus, grass, and apricot; that rolls into some juicy citrus, earthy hops, mild spice; the finish is bitterness, big earthy spice, drying, and some mild woody kick. The bitterness is well compensated by nice flavor and malt. Good stuff.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5 Untappd)

This is a Decent Above-Average. If you're looking for a dank, juicy, full-bodied IPA, this will fit the task. There's a nice earthy bitterness to this beer, along with some nice hop spice, and big apricot in the aroma/taste...plus the big body. I'm curious how much the aforementioned things are influenced by the addition of the green tea. Either way, this is a tasty IPA. You could pair this with wings, a burger, chicken, pizza...whatever, really. Tasty stuff, and basically a steal at 7 dollars a bomber. 

Random Thought: And then there I was. Taking apart a netbook. It's about on par with breaking down a laptop, which isn't that rough. It seems that the smaller you go, the harder it is to take apart. I'm looking at you, MP3 player. At this point, my success rate has to be around 50%. I've definitely destroyed my fair share of electronics, but I've also fixed things and successfully put them back together. I guess you can't win them all. All I have to do is replace a LCD panel and I can cross that off my bucket list.