Portsmouth Kate The Great

Kate The Great
Portsmouth Brewery
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
12.00% ABV
Style: Russian Imperial Stout

C: Too Dark to Tell
H: BLACK
N: Very complex nose including Coffee, Sweet and Dark Chocolate, Roasted Malt, and Molasses.

The Ferm: This was my "whale" that I decided to go after this year....I was very lucky to land it early on in the year. Kate the Great is released in a very limited quantity once a year from the Portsmouth Brewery. This is the beer these guys are known for. To call it a "hyped" beer may be an understatement. This beer is a hype-machine.
The beer poured pitch black with a solid tan head. The nose was insane with tons of dark and sweet chocolate in the nose. Coffee and Roast almost over powered all the other odors once the beer warmed to room temperature. The taste....extremely balanced, very good body, and the scents carried over well to the taste.
In my honest opinion, I was sort-a let down. I expected something bigger, better, and memorable from a beer with sooo much hype around it. Don't get me wrong this was a GREAT beer, but it is not one that I will actively seek out every year, like other once a year releases. This was a solid beer though. I'd say we can change Kate's name to Kate the Good.

Score : 3.99

Portsmouth - Bottle Rocket IPA

Portsmouth Bottle Rocket IPA
Portsmouth Brewery
Portsmouth, MA
6.50% ABV

C. Clear
H. Gold
N. Sweet Orange/Tangerine, slight banana, and hops

El Guapo; I was going to try to make some clever joke about Kate The Great being some hot beer loving girl that all beer geeks want, possibly throwing in some joke about how she gives "great head"... After erasing about 6 different sentences, I decided against it. I'll let Phil handle the comedic duties. Anyways, lets talk about the beer at hand. I thought this was a pretty unique IPA. The nose was citrusy, but instead of the typical grapefruit, it smelled more of oranges and tangerines. The taste was a quick flash of orangey hop bitterness, leaving a pretty clean and mild finish. Not much to say about this beer except that the hop profile tasted a little different than most IPA's. It was definitely drinkable and solid but not incredible. It also looked really damn cloudy which was odd, almost like juice.
Score: 3.333(with that repeating sign over the last 3)

The Ferm: When in Portsmouth you must buy this beer, take it to the PAWN Shop, and try to sell it; it's GOLD. Poured clear and 24k gold in color. Not surprising as it is probably trying impress and have incest with one of the sexiest beers available in the US, Kate the Great. Yep, she lives in the same brewhouse! They are practically brother and sister. Back to Bottle Rocket, this was a very solid IPA. Unfortunately unlike the name would suggest this is anything but fireworks in your mouth. It wasn't super hoppy at all, but it had almost a sweet fruity backing to it. Not very complex at all. Light on malt and mild on hops. I could really down a few of these bad boys!
Score: 4.002

Overall: 3.667666666 (with repeating sign over the last 6)