Samuel Adams Infinium

For the past couple of years, the Boston Beer Company and Germany’s Weihenstephan Brewery have joined forces to create what they characterized as an entirely new style of beer, a champagne-like ale called Infinium. Infinium comes in a 750 ml champagne bottle, complete with foil, wire and cork.

The beer (champagne?) poured a medium amber with a small, lacy head. There was no significant nose, only a very slight dry, citrus smell.

The mouthfeel was very light like champagne, and dry to the point that you feel your teeth touching. The taste is very interesting, with a definite impression of a beer/champagne combination. The sense of grapes is there to be sure (even though there are no grapes in the process), but you also sense the hops and taste the malt.

Infinium is quite unique, and I really liked it. I seldom drink champagne, and I can’t imagine ever going to the fridge to pull out a bottle of champagne to enjoy with a cigar on the Lido Deck. But I can see pulling one of these out if I wanted something really light that wouldn’t compete with a mild cigar.

It’s hard to stack this up against anything else since it is so different, but for the taste and unique drinking experience, I’ll give it a 93 on The Morris Scale.

From the Samuel Adams website:

Our brewers worked for two years with the world’s oldest brewery, Germany’s Weihenstephan, to create this unique new beer style. A groundbreaking brew, made with only the four traditional ingredients: malted barley, hops, water and yeast, Infinium™ is a crisp champagne-like beer with fine bubbles and a fruity, spicy aroma. The crisp clean malt character and delicate fruit notes in this beer are complemented by a slight citrus flavor from dry hopping with Bavarian Noble hops. Bottle conditioning adds another layer of complexity and light spice notes.

Flavor: Light and dry with a crisp clean malt character, and delicate fruit and spice notes
Color: Pale golden with a sparkling effervescence, 8 SRM
Original Gravity: 20.5° Plato
Alcohol by Vol/Wt: 10.3%ABV – 8.1%ABW
Calories/12 oz.: 278
IBUs: 10
Malt Varieties: Custom blend of two-row malted barley, malted spring white wheat, and malted oats
Hop Varieties: Hallertau Mittlefrueh, Spalt Spalter, Tettnang Tettnanger and Hersbrucker Noble Hops
Yeast Strain: Samuel Adams ale yeast, Belgian yeast

CAO OSA Sol

The OSA Sol is available in three sizes, the Lot 50 (5×50), Lot 54 (6×54), and Lot 58 (6 ½ x 58). I decided to pick a cigar at random from my humidor, and came out with the monster 58 ring size.

The cigar had a nice look with good construction. The cut with a guillotine was a little ragged, but with a little picking at the filler I was able to make things right. The burn was perfect for the life of the cigar.

My initial impression as to taste was that the cigar was a little harsh with no complexity. As the cigar progressed, the harshness disappeared but the taste never surfaced. There’s really nothing else to say. There was just never any there there. I’ve had some great CAO cigars, but this isn’t one of them. A sad 71 on The Morris Scale.

From the Cigars International website:

The secret between CAO OSA Sol is the wrapper. This exquisite leaf is grown in Olancho, San Agustin, a fertile valley of Honduras surrounded by tree covered mountains. This field is hugged by a crystal clear river, feeding the sun-nurtured tobaccos with pure spring waters and producing a uniquely robust and earth wrapper leaf. A sun-grown leaf, hence CAO OSA Sol.

CAO OSA Sol marks the first use of this rare, proprietary tobacco variety. A glorious presentation to see and burn, each cigar contains a flavorful OSA sun-grown wrapper chock full of Nicaraguan and Honduran long-fillers inside a hearty Connecticut Broadleaf binder. Medium in body, CAO OSA Sol gushes with rustic tobacco flavors enhanced by earthy undertones, subtle spices, and a touch of leather. Aromatic is an understatement, as each OSA Sol fills the air above with thick clouds of smoke and a lovely, rich, earthy scent.

Yeah, not so much.

C.E.O. Red Label Cigar (5 x 50)

This is a real mystery cigar.  I think I actually bought a five-pack of C.E.O. cigars, based on a vague memory that I exclaimed, “what the hell are C.E.O. cigars?” when the package came in the mail.  I think they were an impulse buy on Cigar Monster, ordered so quickly and without investigation that I thought I was buying CAO cigars.  Since receiving them, I have used them in my humidor to place behind other “real” cigars so they don’t slide backwards when I open certain drawers.  Quite the ignominious existence for a cigar.  Today on a whim I decided to smoke one of these drawer-stops in case it turned out to be a surprise find.

I was unable to find anything about the cigar on the Internet, and that’s why I’m going to go into some extra detail here, to assist anyone in the future trying to track these down.  CigarAdvisor.com had a little squib on it’s site, stating: “C.E.O. are impeccably constructed cigars with a diverse blend of longfiller tobaccos and wrappers spanning five nations, all aged from three to five years. Made by Arganese Cigars, we bought these cigars as a closeout and are passing the savings on to you. You get five unique cigars in all, spanning the entire range of strengths and rich tobacco flavors. Blue and Green are full; Red and Orange: medium; Yellow: mild.”

With a little more investigation, I think I found why Famous Smoke Shop (the company behind Cigar Monster and Cigar Advisor) was able to buy these cigars on closeout.  Inside the cigar band is the non-functioning web address www.ceoMLM.com.  It appears that these cigars were intended to be part of some strange multi-level marketing plan; the cigar smoker’s answer to Amway.  That also explains why the cigar band says Connoisseur Entrepreneurs Organization.

There is nothing on the Arganese Cigar site about these cigars, so it appears they are no longer manufactured.  My four remaining sticks may be real collector’s items.  Drop me a note if you want them.  Opening bid, $1,000 per.

So how was the cigar?  Actually, pretty good.  I guess if you’re going to sell a cigar at a multi-level price, and call it a connoisseur’s cigar, it had better be decent.  I could tell from the moment I cut it that it was a well constructed cigar.  The CEO red label had some real complexity, without ever becoming harsh.  Tastes of spice and chocolate, and mellow to the end.  A strong 86 on The Morris Scale.  If you ever come across one, give it a try.  I’m looking forward to trying the blue and green labels, which are supposed to be more full bodied.  I know I’ll be moving these drawer stops to a more accessible location.

Shipyard Imperial Porter – Pugsley’s Signature Series

The CEO cigar looked pretty light, so I thought I’d balance it with a porter.  The Imperial Porter I selected is brewed by Shipyard Brewing Company in Portland, Maine.  Here is the company’s description of the Imperial Porter:

“Imperial Porter is a full bodied, very dark, malty beer with a good roasted character coming from the Crystal, Chocolate and Black Patent Malts used in the mash. Warrior, English Fuggles, and East Kent Goldings Hops balance the malts with a good hop bite. The beer has an OG* of 1.070, rounding out after fermentation with just a slight residual sweetness and cutting dry at the finish.”

This description discloses that Shipyard has misnamed the beer, because an “Imperial” porter should have an OG exceeding 1.090.**  But I pick nits.

I like this beer.  The beer pours so thick and dark that you anticipate something heavy, but you are met with a very nice, malty beer.  The mouth feel is thinner than I anticipated, but not in a bad way and I think that will greatly enhance the drinkability.  The description of “a good hop bite” is accurate, to the point that a hop head would probably find this beer a good choice.  Not my favorite porter, but a very worthy companion to a cigar.  I give it an 84.

FOOTNOTES:

* OG = Original Gravity

Everything you ever wanted to know about OG:

Gravity, in the context of fermenting alcoholic beverages, refers to the specific gravity of the wort or must at various stages in the fermentation. This article focuses primarily on the brewing industry. The concepts and equations are basically the same in the wine making industry.

Gravity (specific gravity) measurements are used to determine the “size” of the beer, its alcoholic strength and how much of the available sugar the yeast were able to consume (a given strain can be expected, under proper conditions, to ferment a wort of a particular composition to within a range of attenuation, that is, they should be able to consume a known percentage of the extract).

At various stages in alcohol fermentation, the density of the wort varies. Depending upon the depth that the hydrometer falls into the wort, the percentage of alcohol can be determined.

Initially (before alcohol production by the yeast commences) the specific gravity of a wort is dependent mostly on the amount of sugar present and, therefore, specific gravity readings can be used to determine sugar content by the use of formulae or tables. This sugar content is expressed in units of grams of sugar per 100 grams of wort equivalent to % w/w and called, in the brewing industry, “degrees Plato” (abbreviated °P) and in the wine industry “degrees Brix”. Even when specified in terms of °P it is not uncommon to refer to the pre-fermentation reading as the “Original Gravity”, (abbreviated OG) though it is more correct to term it the “Original Extract” (abbreviated OE). It is, of course, correct to refer to the original specific gravity reading as the OG. By considering the original sugar content the brewer or vintner obtains an indication as to the probable ultimate alcoholic content of his product. The OE is often referred to as the “size” of the beer and is, in Europe, often printed on the label as Stammwürze or sometimes just as a percent. In the Czech Republic, for example, they speak of “10 degree beers”, “12 degree beers” and so on.

As fermentation progresses the yeast convert sugars to carbon dioxide, ethanol, more yeast and flavor producing compounds. The decline in the sugar content and the presence of ethanol (which is appreciably less dense than water) both contribute to a lowering in the specific gravity of the wort so that the formulae relating sugar content and specific gravity no longer apply. Nevertheless, by monitoring the decline in SG over time the brewer obtains information about the health and progress of the fermentation and determines that it is complete when gravity stops declining. A gravity measurement taken at this time compared to the original gravity reading can be used to estimate the amount of sugar consumed and thus the amount of ethanol produced. Specific gravity is measured by a hydrometer, pycnometer or oscillating U-tube electronic meter.

** Everything you ever wanted to know about porters and “Imperial” porters.

Before 1700, London brewers sent out their beer very young and any aging was either performed by the publican or a dealer. Porter was the first beer to be aged at the brewery and despatched in a condition fit to be drunk immediately. It was the first beer that could be made on any large scale, and the London porter brewers, such as Whitbread, Truman, Parsons and Thrale, achieved great success financially.

Early London porters were strong beers by modern standards. Early trials with the hydrometer in the 1770s recorded porter as having an OG (original gravity) of 1.071° and 6.6% ABV. Increased taxation during the Napoleonic Wars pushed its gravity down to around 1.055°, where it remained for the rest of the 19th century. The huge popularity of the style prompted brewers to produce porters in a wide variety of strengths. These started with Single Stout Porter at around 1.066°, Double Stout Porter (such as Guinness) at 1.072°, Triple Stout Porter at 1.078° and Imperial Stout Porter at 1.095° and more. As the 19th century progressed the porter suffix was gradually dropped. British brewers, however, continued to use porter as the generic term for both porters and stouts.  Thank you Wikipedia.

1 – 5 Vegas Classic Campana Pyramid (5″ x 58)
1 – 5 Vegas Gold Maduro Campana Pyramid (5″ x 58)
1 – 5 Vegas Triple-A (5″ x 56)
1 – Cuba Libre Campana Pyramid (5″ x 58)
1 – Diesel Unholy Cocktail (torpedo) (5″ x 56)
1 – El Mejor Emerald Campana Pyramid (5″ x 58)
1 – Gurkha Beast (6.5″ x 56)
1 – Gurkha Black Dragon (7″ x 52)
1 – Gurkha Centurian Double Perfecto (6″ x 60)
1 – Gurkha Crest Torpedo (6.5″ x 52)
1 – Gurkha Titan (6.25″ x 56)
1 – La Herencia Cubana Oscuro Fuerte Toro (6.5″ x 50)
1 – La Perla Habana Black Pearl Perfecto (6″ x 60)
1 – La Perla Habana Classic Perfecto (6″ x 60)
1 – La Perla Habana Cobre Perfecto (6″ x 60)
1 – La Perla Habana Morado Perfecto (6″ x 60)
1 – La Perla Habana Rojo Perfecto (6″ x 60)
1 – Man O’ War Ruination Robusto #1 (5.5″ x 54)
1 – Man O’ War Virtue Toro (6″ x 50)
1 – Oliva Connecticut Reserve Robusto (5″ x 50)
1 – Oliva Master Blends III Robusto (5″ x 50)
1 – Oliva Serie ‘G’ Toro (6″ x 50)
1 – Oliva Serie ‘O’ Robusto (5″ x 50)
1 – Oliva Serie ‘O’ Robusto Maduro (5″ x 50)
1 – Padilla Achilles Salomon (7.1″ x 58)
1 – Padilla Miami Churchill (7″ x 48)
1 – Padilla Obsidian Belicoso (6″ x 54)
1 – Padilla Series ’68 Toro (6″ x 50)
1 – Padilla Signature 1932 Churchill (7″ x 48)
1 – Perdomo 2 Limited Edition Torpedo (6.25″ x 54)
1 – Perdomo Grand Cru Corojo Torpedo (6″ x 54)
1 – Perdomo Habano Corojo Torpedo (6.5″ x 54)
1 – Perdomo Lot 23 Belicoso (5.75″ x 54)
1 – Perdomo Patriarch Corojo Torpedo (6.5″ x 54)
1 – Rocky Patel 1961 Torpedo (6.1″ x 52)
1 – Rocky Patel Decade Torpedo (6.5″ x 52)
1 – Rocky Patel Edge Corojo Toro (6″ x 52)
1 – Rocky Patel Olde World Corojo Toro (6.5″ x 52)
1 – Rocky Patel Sun Grown Torpedo (6.1″ x 52)
1 – Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Torpedo (6.1″ x 52)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Casa Magna Colorado (5 x 52)

You may be familiar with Connecticut wrappers, but less familiar with references to the Colorado wrapper. Without checking the website, I’m confident that the name of the cigar is not random, but rather is a reference to the wrapper, Colorado being the term used to describe a cigar with a reddish brown shading of the tobacco leaf.

I like this stick! Construction, cut and draw were perfect. There were no strong flavors upon lighting, other than a pleasant taste of tobacco, yielding copious amounts of blue smoke. Not every cigar needs to be a cacophony of tastes.

OK, I’ll check the site now to see the composition of the cigars. Shoot, no site, but the fine, fine people at Cigars Direct describe it as follows:

“The Casa Magna represents the ultimate collaboration between two cigar legends, Manuel Quesada of the Fonseca enterprise and Nestor Plasencia. Nestor’s farms produced the Nicaraguan puro leaves used in the construction of this very new cigar introduced to the world in 2008. The Nicaraguan filler is embraced by a very special Cuban-seeded Colorado Ligero wrapper also grown in Nicaragua.”

I should have guessed this was a Nicaraguan puro; one of my consistent favorites.

At the half-way point, still no distinctive notes beyond a little spice, but I am really enjoying this cigar with the stout. The stout was a good choice (dumb luck), because this is a full-bodied cigar, and needs a strong beer to keep up with it. A lager would have been lost.

When I reached the final third of the cigar, it took on a new, still indescribable but very good taste. If you’ve never been sure about the sweet spot of a cigar that so many people talk about, this cigar will ably demonstrate the phenomenon.

A great cigar, and I will be adding a few of these to the humidor. I give it a 96 on The Morris Scale, and my accolades are echoed by Cigar Aficionado, which rated it the best cigar of 2008. By the way, lest you think I am shilling for those truly magnanimous people at Cigars Direct, even though they provided this cigar, I don’t see it for sale on their site. It can be hard to find due to the recognition by Cigar Aficionado (and now Beer, Bikes and Butts). On other sites, the going price seems to be around $6. An amazing value for such a good cigar.

[UPDATE - May 13, 2011]  A search for “Colorado” on the Cigars Direct website yielded no results, and that’s why I thought they were out.  But I dug a little deeper and found them, but missing the Colorado moniker.  This is a real find, because by failing to properly identify them they have maintained a supply, unlike other sites I checked.  I immediately ordered a 5-pack.

Voo Doo American Stout

The beer pours almost black, with only a slight tan head. With my first sip, I was prepared not to like this beer because the aftertaste was not pleasant. But my palate must have adjusted, because thereafter it was smooth sailing. A very nice caramel taste with no undue bitterness. Very creamy mouthfeel. It’s a thick, heavy beer, but not so much as to destroy the drinkability. This would be a very good change up among a few beers.

I give this beer, crafted by Left Coast Brewing Company in San Clemente, California, a 91 on The Morris Scale.

A very good pairing indeed.

So, to that end, I checked around for the best price on one of my favorite glass tubo cigars – the Maker’s Mark 10th Anniversary Bourbon Cigar – and found a great price on a box of 25 at Famous Smoke Shop.*

The cigars arrived well packed, but nonetheless one glass tube was broken and the cigar trashed, and another was cracked. I shot a quick email to Famous, asking only for a replacement of the one dead soldier. To their credit, the fine customer service people at Famous responded that they would issue me a credit for the price of two of the cigars on a future order.

Good job Famous Smoke Shop.  This makes up a little for your insidious CigarMonster.com that repeatedly causes me to buy cigars I don’t really need.　

* Lest you think I am shilling for Famous Smoke Shop, I have since found a much better price for the Maker’s Mark cigars at a site called Bonita Smoke Shop. I’ve never ordered from them so I can’t make any recommendations, but their advertised price for this particular cigar is amazing.

But give the man his due.  RPs seldom disappoint (geez, another touchdown by Green Bay) and this stick is mighty tasty.  Zero harshness and a nice complex presentation.  A 92 on The Morris Scale.

I’ve previously reviewed the Orval, and it remains one of my favorite beers.  Here’s what I said last time, so you don’t need to go searching:

You may not give much thought to the yeast used to make your beer, but it can make a huge difference in the taste.  If you have ever made your own beer, you may be familiar with a yeast called Brettanomyces, or “Brett” for short, that is normally viewed as a contaminant.  This yeast comes from wood, and can feed on wood, which can be a problem for breweries that ferment in casks.

But in the proper hands, Brett can be used to add distinctive flavors to beer, and is used in some sour beer styles.  If you want to experience a Brett beer (not in a sour style), Orval is the only Trappist monastery that uses Brett in its the beer making process.

The taste of the Orval Trappist Ale is amazing, especially if you take the time to really smell the beer before you take your first taste.  The aroma of Brett beer is sometimes described as damp wool.  The Orval smell is slightly citrus as well, but very distinctive, and totally belies what you are about to experience.

This Belgium Trappist ale pours a golden brown with a frothy tan head so thick you could suspend a cherry on top if you were so inclined.  The wild Brett yeast brings an earthy taste, that is at the same time sweet, dry and citrusy.  The yeast taste was oddly reminiscent of the horrible yeasty beer I created during my first home brewing attempts, but in this case it is a perfectly balanced addition.

You need to experience this beer.  It’s a little pricey at $4.79 for an 11.2 ounce bottle, but this is a true experience.  Draft magazine rightfully rated this beer at 98.

As to the Super Bowl? Well at least I can watch the commercials.

Drew Estates tasting night here at the Eight Eighty Eight lounge in Fullerton.  Nice sampling of three cigars for $20 which includes a raffle for some pretty stylin’ prizes. They even let me swap out the Acid cigar for an Antaño.

The Joya de Nicaragua Antaño consists of  75% Ligero leaf and is a Nicaragua puro.  The cigar is nice and complex, with an intial strong taste of spice and notes of chocolate and coffee.  Very full bodied.

A great stick, warranting a 91 on The Morris Scale.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I was immediately impressed with the taste – a blend of spice and leather — but not so much the construction.  The draw was restricted and the burn inconsistent, which was a distraction.  Still, if I chalk the problems up to the recent high humidity and limit my focus to the taste, this was a pretty good smoke.  I would definitely try another.  I give it an 88.

Mr. Beer West Coast Pale Ale

I’ve only attempted making a home brew once, many years ago, and it was terrible.  But I recently came across the Mr. Beer kit which appeared to make the process pretty painless.  You just mix the ingredients in the plastic barrel, give it a week or so, then put the brew in plastic bottles with screw on caps for the in-bottle fermenting.  The company offers many different types of beer, but the kit comes with West Coast Pale Ale.

The fledgling brew sits in the barrel for a week, and according to the instructions is ready for bottling once it tastes like flat beer.  I transferred it to the bottles, added some sugar as required, and opened a bottle a week later to see how it was coming.  It still tasted like flat beer.  I waited an additional week and the result was the same.  But here is where I should have been taking advantage of the plastic bottles.  When the plastic bottle becomes rock hard, it means the beer has become carbonated.  I could tell from squeezing the bottles that the beer was ready to go tonight, three weeks after the original bottling and four weeks after I first started the process.

This is some tasty brew!  As you can see from the photo, the carbonation finally arrived, yielding a nice foamy head.  The beer is akin to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but better.  Think of homemade bread versus store-bought bread.  Both may contain the same basic ingredients, but homemade just tastes better.  The beer was nice and hoppy with a very creamy mouthfeel and nice aftertaste. 

The kit comes with eight, 1-liter bottles, and a single batch fills them all.  I went through three until I figured out the carbonation situation.  Today’s beer was still a little less carbonated than I would have preferred – like an open beer you’ve left unattended too long – but I think with another week in the bottles it will be perfect.  But even as is, I give this home brew an 86 on The Morris Scale.

[Update]  I was right.  I let the beer sit for another week and the carbonation was perfect.  I can now give it a score of 92.  I shared some with friends and they were blown away that this was a home brew.  Good stuff.

Perdomo Reserve Maduro Robusto

Perdomo Reserve 10 Year Anniversary cigars were created to celebrate the next generation of the cigar company’s original La Tradicion Perdomo Reserve line, according to their site. The cigars are made with Cuban-seed Nicaraguan Maduro wrappers.

I was not impressed with the construction.  The draw was too loose, and the smoke was hot as a result.  The burn was ragged, but did even up toward the end.  The cigar was a strong maduro, but it was harsh without any flavorful reward.  Not a terrible smoke, and another batch might not suffer from the same rolling problem, but as presented I can only give it an 82.

Siboney (SEE-bow-Nay) is an in-house brand for Famous Smoke Shop, made by Alec Bradley. (Not to be confused with the Siboney Reserve cigars from Famous Smoke Shop, which are made by Don Pepin Garcia.) The Siboney consists of a blend of Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 & Honduran Criollo ’98 longfillers, Honduran binder, and a Honduran Trojes wrapper leaf.

I’m not sure if I got this in a sampler or if it was sent to me for review, but the bright gold and red label caught my eye while I was perusing my humidor, so I decided to give it a try.  (Yes my iPhone flash washed out the label in the photo, but c’est la vie.)

The construction was good; burn and draw were perfect. The initial taste is mild spice and oak. The taste begins at mild to medium and progresses to medium-full. The taste was never particularly complex, but it was a very pleasant smoke. I rate this unassuming stick an 88 on The Morris Scale.

As is my practice, I waited until after the review to check out the particulars of the cigar, such as price and cigar maker, so as not to be biased. I was pleasantly surprised to see that these are priced at less that $3 a stick. A very good cigar indeed for the price.