First, the Not So Awesome Brew…

Every month, a Not So Awesome Brew is featured as a baseline. After all, what is an Awesome Brew? Awesome compared to what? Compared to something like this:

Coors Brewing Company’s, Coors Light “The Silver Bullet”, 4.2% ABV

Coors Light, other wise known as the Silver Bullet.  The main moneymaker of the Coors Brewing Company, a brewery that was founded by, of all things, an illegal stowaway named Adolph Coors.  I’ve been holding off on reviewing this one for a little bit because while it’s a not-so-awesome brew, it’s really not terribly awful either.  The Silver Bullet won’t help with slaying any werewolves or other strains of lycanthropy; and the name coming from the the traditional silver can, now bottle-can, it comes in.  I mentioned before I very much enjoy beer out of cans, perhaps more than bottles since it reminds me more of draft beer fresh from aluminum kegs drawn at a bar.  If I should hold one thing against a beer for being not very awesome, it would be its flavor, or as often the case with typical mass-market American brews, the extreme lack thereof.

As most American light beers, Coors Light is pretty flavorless, tasting mostly like an extremely watered down beer made with corn and malt.  When you strain to taste it, it doesn’t have a bad flavor though.  The corn tastes fresh and full, not like it was sitting around growing moldy in a feed silo for months before it was sold off to the brewery to recoop costs, and you can even pick out extremely subtle flavors from the malt.  The ingredients used in the brewing really do have a premium taste to them when you can taste them.  Even the color looks rich and golden, and the head a nice blend of fizz and froth that’s uncommon on cheap American blue-collar working man’s hooch.  If it only had more flavor, I would most likely promote it to an Awesome Brew.  While not as bad a Natural Light or even Miller Light, it’s thin enough that it crosses the line from being a light beer, to a can of beer contaminated water.

I’m actually interested in hunting down and trying the full-flavor version of this, which is referred to as Coors Banquet – sadly sounding like a rather poor attempt to enter high society, much like Miller High Life.  Unfortunately, like my efforts to locate normal Steel Reserve and regular, non-ICE Milwaukee’s Best, efforts have come up empty.  You can certainly do worse than Coors Light if you’re thirsty and don’t mind a little beer flavoring with your re-hydration – the Silver Bullet is your Magic Bullet.  Serve arctic cold with a bison burger and a copy of American Werewolf in London.

And Now, the Awesome Brews…

Ommegang’s Three Philosophers, 9.7% ABV

Ommegang is a Belgian brewery located in update New York.  They’re owned by Duvel Moortgat Brewery in Belgum best known for their signature beer bearing their brewery’s name, Duvel.  Ommegang is all about being a powerful mover in the American microbrew market, and they have an impressive lineup to attest to their success of that.  This isn’t the first Ommegang brew I’ve reviewed.  I did Ommegang’s Rosetta back in Awesome Brews #11, and I came close to doing Ommegang’s Gnomegang for Awesome Brews #17 but dropped the half-finished writeup in favor of the insane can design of Against The Grain’s 35K.  This will be the first writeup though for a brew actually brewed at Ommegang’s Brewery (which Rosetta wasn’t).

Three Philosophers is perhaps their most well known brew.  It’s a Belgian Quadrupel, winner of several awards, and top tier rated on most beer review sites.  It’s a blend of a Belgian brown ale and Liefmans Kriek.  This is a beer, like St. Bernardus abv 12, can turn a person into a beer snob, because once you taste what an amazing brew this is, you’ll be hard pressed to go back to things like Budweiser.  When you pour it, it comes out a brownish red with a lively, fizzy head almost like a soda pop.  The taste is medium bodied, with almost a carmel, yeasty, malty taste mixed with slightly soured cherry flavor.  It’s a flavor that’s as hard to describe as the complexity of the brew and is neither too strong nor weak, neither too sweet nor bitter.  Despite it’s high alcohol content, it’s hidden well behind the flavor explosion.

This is a mastercrafted ale that’s a brew for a serious drinker.  It’s rich, inviting flavor makes it worthy of every award it’s won which includes a bronze for it’s category at the World Beer Cup 2016. Sip slowly and savor every taste, it can’t come more highly recommended.  Serve chilled with medium-rare Prime Rib and cheesecake and a copy of the original Conan the Barbarian, because it is one of the things best in life.

Dansk Mjød’s Vikingernes Mjød, 19.0% ABV

Dear God, what the hell was I thinking when I picked up this stuff?  If there was ever a real-world analogue to Honningbrew Mead from Skyrim, this would be it.  My Danish is a bit rusty, but I think they just named this one “Viking’s Mead”, because you gotta be made of iron to truly appreciate this awesome brew.  It comes in a ceramic bottle, which is probably because it would eat through anything made of glass.  The ceramic bottle is stoppered with a a cork and wood stopper.  There’s no fancy-schmancy inventions like “threads” or “caps” with this stuff.  Uncorking it to pour into your favorite Scandinavian drinking horn reveals a fluid which pours like lightweight motor oil, has an almost sickly sweet smell and a color like liquid honey.  It’s no wonder the Nords sing it’s praises so often in the game, this stuff is powerful and magical.

Vikingernes also has hops added in, because you know, why not?  It’s from a several hundred year old Scandinavian recipe because it’s hard to tinker with a masterpiece.  The result is a potently sweet concoction that has the slight hoppiness of a good beer that slides down your throat like molten honey.  It might be too sweet for a lot of drinkers.  I know from reviewing Montezuma’s Semi-Sweet mead earlier this year and the various Crafted Meadery concoctions I’ve tried in the past, I prefer a less sweet mead.  Compared to those brews, Vikingernes was overpowering.  But did I mention this stuff’s a hardcore knock you on your rear 19% ABV?!  At 19%, we’re approaching hard liquor territory.  This is why you need to have the stomach of a Viking to handle this stuff.  Let me put it to you another way, drinking a bottle of this stuff is about the equivalent of drinking an entire fifth of typical peppermint schnapps.

Approach with caution, pour into a clean drinking horn and get your inner Nord on because this stuff is as real as it gets.  I’m hard to get drunk, and the bottle I had of this stuff had me swimming pretty good!  Serve chilled along with Pinnekjøtt and binge-watching Vikings on Netflix.

Some of the pictures taken for Awesome Brews were done by Diane Schuler of Schuler Photography