Johnny’s is a small liquor and beer store that is close to a college campus and therefore will be perpetually in business until the college vaporizes itself somehow.  Far from being a typical liquor store spot, however, Johnny’s stocks the finest available craft beers Ohio has to offer, providing a nice selection at a great price right near anywhere you’d want to be in Oberlin.  Score.

The first night in Oberlin we stopped and picked up a couple six packs and a few bombers for the night.  We ended up with some Bell’s Porter, a bomber of Brew Keeper’s Mad Brewer’s Hop Fusion IPA, and a sixer of Bell’s Third Coast Beer.  Before we hit the gig, however, we stopped at a local Mexican joint and sampled Great Lakes Dormunder Gold, the pervasive session beer in Oberlin.  A great session Lager that I’ve sampled on many other trips thoughout the midwest, Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold is a very solid, drinkable rendition of one of the most classic and revered styles of German Lager.  Golden and crisp with enough malt to balance and a nice dry, noble finish, Dortmunder Gold is a perfect brew to enjoy with food and could replace any other BMC bullshit Lager in any college town and leave the masses more enlightened for it.  Maybe one day.

Bell’s Porter is an American style Porter with a good amount of residual sweetness and a bitter finish that packs quite a punch if you try to make it your “beer of the night.”  Getting through two or three of these really had me going and it’s funny how you can never tell how a night with Bell’s will leave you.  This one left me feeling pretty bent, but the nice fruit and chocolate malt flavors, balanced with enough hop bitterness to make it drinkable was exactly what I was looking for from one of my favorite breweries who can seemingly do anything.  Classic.

Alternating between the Porter and Bell’s Third Coast Beer was a bit jarring, coming as they do from two different sides of the Bell’s Beer camp.  Third Coast Beer is a biter golden ale that doesn’t have enough yeast presence to be Belgian, enough hop presence to be an IPA, or enough malt presence to be a Pale Ale.  A somewhat thin, middle of the road beer, it took some getting used to before I realized it was just never going to taste right if I was switching it up with some Porters.  Decent enough on its own, sort of a thinner Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Third Coast Beer deserves a shot on its own because it’s brown brother kinda killed it.  Oops.

T-Bone chose to start the night with the bomber of Mad Brewer’s Hop Fusion IPA, a “fusion of four hop varities” that came in a very DIY looking bomber, promising enough as a craft selection from Ohio.  We weren’t expecting much but we got a very satisfying Hoppy IPA with a great floral nose, a solid amber malt backbone, and a ton of bitterness to finish.  Excellent beer that I would love to have on tap — I have another selection of theirs to review later.

We hit Johnny’s on the way out of town and grabbed some other Bell’s selections I haven’t tried or written about, along with some other gems not available in these parts.  Stay tuned for some more words on those.

Bell’s Amber Ale – One of the backbone’s of Bell’s success in Michigan, and one of the last active beer styles by them that I hadn’t tried.  Got it in a trade recently and was very pleasantly surprised – a somewhat bready, very aromatic, hoppy Amber Ale.  Like most of Bell’s offerings, balanced when it needs to be.  Awesome.  One of the best 6pm work beers I can think of.

New Glarus “Uff Da” Bock – Stinky swears we’ve tried this before but I don’t recall that being the case.  Cracked a bottle for the boys at Bierkraft and Ben, Jonah, Stinky, and I were all fauning over the heavy dried cherry aromas, the undercurrents of black coffee and the incredibly balanced sweetness.  New Glarus has yet to disappoint.  I received 4 beers beyond this that I haven’t had of theirs yet in a trade, so expect more updates.  Don’t be surprised if I like all of them, though.

Victory Harvest Pils – At a Victory Brewing event at The Gate, Stinky and I got the chance to catch up while drinking beer outside (gasp! spring in winter!) and this was my pick for the evening.  A pale, golden, very clear pouring beer with an overwhelming fresh hop aroma that kept tricking my brain into thinking I was smelling Belgian Yeast.  Crisp and yet very well balanced malt-wise considering the color and dryness of the beer in general.  Victory is an outstanding brewery — get behind them.

I should have some updates on my homebrewed Porter soon as well, and will hopefully be brewing a 100% Brett beer this weekend.  Thanks for checking in.

I shared the Hopslam with Stinky during a small tasting session we had while my wife was out of town.  He was just as excited as I was by this beer, never having tried it before, and neither of us were disappointed.  I didn’t know that the brew was made with honey, a very welcome addition to the beer which gave it a certain sense of balance which is often missing from these insanely Hoppy beers.  No, I’m not looking for a “well-balanced” beer in any traditional sense, but it’s nice to see this nod toward balancing sweetness with bitterness.  Hopslam has a really great heavy Hops aroma which manages to let some of the honey smells come through as well.  It pours a beautiful color, and really just gave us everything we were looking for.  Great carbonation, perfect amount of floral, citrus, and a bit of piney hop flavor.  Bell’s is a truly incredible brewery and I’m going to do my best to taste everything they make.  Hopslam retains a sense of restraint relative to the next beer I’m going to write about, which seems to be true for most of their beers.  They’re crafting exemplary brews for their style, which are typically very drinkable.  I could kill a few Hopslams and be stoked.  Nothing challenging there.

Hop 15 portrays fighter jets air-bombing Hop flowers into a pint glass, as a nice contrast to the Hopslam label which shows a poor schmuck getting decimated…by a giant Hop flower.  Hop 15 is an incredible West Coast DIPA on the order of the Green Flash Imperial IPA — over the top, intense, and unforgiving.  A little bit thin but still incredibly drinkable, Hop 15 stayed on my tongue for a full hour after I drank it.  This beer represents a great achievement — definitely the kind of beer that could inspire a European brewer to experiment with some of these “newfangled” American Hop Varietals.  Hop 15 is all about the Pine, and it really clobbers you.  Drink this beer first if you don’t want to taste anything else, or last if you want to pass out feeling like you were sucking on a pinecone.  This is just an incredibly drinkable beer for its ABV and hops intensity, and like the other Port beers I tried, it lived up to its expectations.  Very excited to get into more of their brews as well.

Pouring mostly clear at first and then dumping a big load of yeast about 80% of the way down, this beer was a beautiful golden color that got clouded up and looked truly “Wit.” A bunch of stuff is going on when you first smell this – Orange for sure, and definitely some musky spice, but I’m not going to cop like I could smell the Paradise Seed or Coriander specifically. The spice was definitely unmistakable and this brew feels great in your mouth with some nice viscosity, almost approaching “chewy.” It’s definitely hot and the 9% makes you feel nice after you get through most of the bottle. I tried to take my time with this one but it was really satisfying to drink — refreshing, and great for one of the first summer nights we’ve had, even if it is premature. I’m really happy to have picked a Bell’s bottle where the hops and yeast dominate over the malts — it seems that they can really pull anything off, if my initial impressions end up being true. In my mind this stands up in the weird world of American Witbiers like Allagash White and Jolly Pumpkin’s Calabaza Blanca, both of which I really enjoy, and I can’t wait to get into the remaining Bell’s bottles I collected.

After all the annoying driving I decided I need to crack one open, and the Bell’s Cherry Stout was a perfect temperature for drinking. It poured a thick and dark black with a little bit of red. The head was super attractive and also reddish, and it smelled great as soon as it poured. I don’t really know why I chose one of their fruit beers, and Stinky will probably give me shit for it, but I don’t care. Here’s why: Michigan is where sour cherries are from, Sour Cherries are one of my favorite fruits, I love a good stout , and Bell’s stouts are amongst their most well regarded beers. This 12oz bottle did not disappoint. A big stout with the traditional roasted flavors, big amounts of coffee and chocolate, balanced and countered with the sourness from the cherries. Not too much sweetness, and seriously, it smells just great. Not a beer I would drink several of in a row, but it definitely lives up to its reputation and I can’t wait to get into more of the Bell’s, which I will definitely be writing up here. Both the Foodery and the brew were worth the trip.