Elysian Superfuzz Blood Orange Pale

Nice and smooth. Nothing too fancy, but you can taste the orange. I'm beers in but still liking this. Not a bar concoction! ID+

12oz bottle, 6.4% ABV
Elysian Brewing Company
Seattle WA
purchased at Homewood Liquors

Roundhouse India Red Ale Brewed with Honey

Why are beer names getting so long?! Anyway this is malty and bitter. Not at all sweet from the honey. A little funk to it served warmer that I hadn't noticed when cold. Just ok really. Then again I see "Shelf Life - 6 Months" on the label and the brew date is almost exactly 11 months ago, so I probably need a fresh one for an accurate rating. For now ID

12oz can, 7.5% ABV
Bell's Brewery Inc
Comstock MI
purchased at Homewood Liquors

Gotta Getup Toget Down Coffee Milk Stout

Nice and dry, like a Guinness, but with a bit of extra flavor from the milk sugar and a bit of bitter sourness from the coffee. Leaves a nice dark toasty flavor in your mouth well past the swallow. ID

12oz can, 5% ABV
Wiseacre Brewing Company
Memphis, TN
purchased at Homewood Liquors

Melt My Brain

A "golden ale brewed with coriander, juniper berries and lime, with tonic water added". I got turned onto this from a Facebook conversation with an old friend (we'll see if she reads this - comment if you do!). Something so interesting, I just had to try, as a big gin and tonic fan. And it's good. Almost no beer flavor here at all, but it does taste remarkably like gin and tonic! But therein lies the fundamental flaw: I paid like $11.99 or $13.99 for this six-pack. My regular gin and tonic fix is like 15 bucks for a half gallon of gin and 99¢ a liter for diet tonic water, plus another buck for an overload of fresh limes. So, as good as this is, why should anyone pay craft beer prices for a cheap booze cocktail experience?! That is the conundrum that melts my brain, not this brew itself. Anyway, it's good, but will be my only venture down this road. ID

12oz bottle with no deets
Short's Brewing Company
Elk Grove, MI
purchased at Jimmie Garant's Party Store

Guava Islander Tropical IPA

The aroma has a hint of guava. The taste is heavy on the bitter with a hint of fruit. Drinkable, and good, but I'm not blown away by this combination. ID

12oz can, 65 IBU, 7% ABV
Coronado Brewing Company
Coronado CA
purchased at Homewood Liquors

Cinnamon Raisin COMMODORE American Stout

This is pretty cool. I've been struggling to find stouts in the stores, since I guess they're not "in season" during the Summer. The cinnamon and raisin flavours don't dominate this, but they have a welcome presence. There is a nice spice aroma, but then the stout is dark, and burnt, making it much more bitter than I'd expect, almost like a black IPA rather than a stout. But then the spices, with maybe a hint of vanilla, come back in and balance this well. Overall more dry than sweet, which works for me. A good, solid, unique stout! MB-, with the minus only because I might think this is better than it is because I'm craving stout but can't find much. I'll revisit this in the winter for sure to see if it holds up!

12oz bottle, 6.5% ABV
Ballast Point Brewing Company
San Diego CA
purchased at Kenwood

Double Daisy Cutter

This is called a "double pale ale", which I can't say I've heard of. But I often drink Daisy Cutter while shopping for groceries (boring errands never had it as good as at Mariano's! And I never mind waiting in the deli lines with a beer in hand!), but I don't believe I've rated it. So instead, a double sounded good for home. I thought for sure this would just be a double IPA, but it isn't! It is indeed just as light, watery even, as a pale ale. But with supposedly bigger booze. I'll see if I catch a buzz, or if they just put the original Daisy in a new can and upped the price! This could be the real deal in "great taste, less filling"! MB

16oz can, 8% ABV
Half Acre Beer Company
Chicago, IL
purchased at Kenwood

Strawberry Short's Cake

Wow, smells like a bag of frozen strawberries! And the strawberry flavor dominates this, almost like I'm drinking a smoothie! Mostly fruit sweetness with a touch of sourness. The golden ale backbone sits behind the heavy fruit flavor, showing itself only the tiniest bit at the back of each sip. My wife didn't care for this, but this has got to be the best Short's brew I've tasted. It is exceptionally well crafted, as long as you like strawberries! MB for your daily serving of fruit!

12oz bottle, that is all
Short's Brewing Company
Elk Rapids MI
purchased at Jimmie Garant's Party Store

Pahoehoe Coconut Ale

Sounds strange, because of course "coconut ale" is not a thing, so I don't know what kind of ale this is, but it is pretty light, smooth and creamy, and dominated by coconut flavor. Totally unique and totally good! If you like coconut, and want to try something new, MB, cause I'm coco-nuts for this find!

12oz can, 16.1 IBU, 5.2% ABV
Two Brothers Artisan Brewing
Warrenville, IL
purchased at Kenwood

Bulldog Red

A decent red ale. I laughed when this little family-type restaurant/brewery in Big Rapids where we stopped for dinner had a logo on the wall proclaiming "Voted One of Michigan's Top Ten Breweries". So I Googled "Michigan's Top 10 Breweries", and sure enough the first link listed them at #10!! This red is smooth and caramel, the right color, but I just wish there was more done with hops, but I always wish that. Not bad, but I'm also not particularly impressed. But still nice to hit a highly rated brewing establishment completely by chance when just looking for our 2nd choice for dinner. ID

12oz draft, 5.1% ABV
Cranker's Brewing
Big Rapids, MI
purchased at the restaurant

Sea Quench Ale session sour

"Blissfully brewed with lime juice, lime peel, black limes & sea salt". Can you say LIME?! So it should go without saying that this is definitely limey. You taste lime, the tiniest hint of grain, and then sour. That's pretty much it. I've been mistakenly reading the label until now to say "black pepper" rather than "black limes" (WTF is a black lime anyway?) and so now I wonder, how good would this be with a bit of pepper? So because I'm a fucking weirdo, I added some Penzeys Pepper to my glass. It kills a bit of the sour (ok I'm on a tangent here: this was a very nice sour beer, maybe not Dogfish's best offering, considering they have ALWAYS been 100% over-the-top amazing in every risk they take) and makes an amazingly complicated, slightly spicy concoction. Of course I'm now chewing a bit of pepper (I briefly considered using filter paper to keep out the particles, but was too anxious for an immediate experience) but the end result is this much more amazing beer drinking experience where you get the lime, the sour, but now the smallest heat on your lips and the back of the tongue. Wow, I started thinking how this beer was a little bit like Corona with a lime, minus having to cut limes, and minus the ever present skunk of shipping beer in clear bottles from Mexico, to now thinking, hey let's serve Sea Quench with a shake of good pepper in it! I'll give Sea Quench an ID+ alone, but a MB if you put a shake of pepper in it! This is my last can from a sixer, so I'm disappointed I only now discovered how to get the most fun outta this brew. I'm definitely gonna buy this again to try this pepper game again, and with friends to see what they think!

12oz can, 4.9% ABV
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Milton, DE
purchased at Kenwood

Anni Ale 13irteen

A "dry hopped sour ale with black currents". You can definitely smell the fruit. Not a super sour ale, on the sip. I think the currents mellow it, but for sure the residual aftertaste leaves a pucker in your mouth. The last two bottles from a sixer have been sitting in my fridge for a while (born on date is 4/20/17!) but I don't know why, 'cause I've been doing more sours lately, and this is a darn good one. From my recollection, this brewer tries some neat stuff, but often doesn't quite pull it off to perfection. This one is just about there, if you're into the distinctly different genre of sours! MB

12oz bottle, and that's all I know
Short's Brewing Company
Elk Rapids, MI
purchased at Jimmie Garant's Party Store (I think)

Pooltime Ale

This is called a "Belgian Inspired Wheat Ale with Cherry Juice". I like this just slightly less than the cherry IPA I recently rated. This is a tiny bit sour, followed by a hint of Belgian ale flavor, with a slight sweetness from the cherry juice, finished by a final emergence of tartness again. Really a nice Summer beer. And I just had to take the picture in front of the skeletal remains of my old pool! ID+

12oz can, 5% ABV
Bell's Brewery, Inc
Comstock, MI
purchased at Kenwood

Totally Naked

A simple, tiny bit grainy, lager that will please any mass-produced beer drinkers who want to try something craft. There's little to offer me, but I appreciate this local brewery brewing for the Wisconsin crowd. Gotta go there to get this. ID

12oz bottle, no deets
New Glarus Brewing Company
New Glarus WI
purchased at: WI, ask my wife where