I went on a camping trip this past weekend with Sam and he brought along a few Arturo Fuente cigars that we recieved from our friends at cigarsdirect.com. They were shipped in a zip-lock style bag with a humidification pillow to reduce “shipping shock”. Nice touch. Sam gave me first choice and I picked the Don Carlos Double Robusto. (5 3/4″ X 52)

It was a very good looking cigar with a nice grassy aroma and a light brown wrapper. It didn’t have many visable veins but it was a little hard when I squeezed it. The cut was a bit brittle and it lit pretty fast. It had a somewhat bland flavor at first but matured into a nice mild peppery finish, but still tasted a little “grassy”. A good even burn all the way down and it lasted about 35 minutes. It was an ejoyable smoke with no problems or issues and had a medium flavor.

I realize that this time of year (autumn) in the midwest can wreak havoc on humidor conditions and this is probably a better cigar than I’m giving credit for. I have had Arturo Fuente cigars in the past and have been very happy with them. This one however was not their best. Maybe I’ll try it again in the spring.

You can purchase Don Carlos and other high quality cigars online at www.cigarsdirect.com.

Posted by Mr. Porch

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I found this one on sale at one of my favorite spots to buy beer. I thought it had a pretty generic looking label but the price was right and so I thought “how bad could it be?” So I picked up a six pack and brought it home and put it in my beer fridge to get cold. The next night, I was reading in my Market Watch magazine and lo and behold, there was an article that highlighted 4 different micro-brewerys and Brooklyn was one of them. What are the chances? Until this point I had never heard of them, so I figure it was just simple fate that brought me and this beer together. 

It poured a dark brown, like a cola, with a light tan head that lasted about half way down. It was a very smooth beer for an ale. You could taste the hops, but they weren’t overbearing like some ales. It had a pleasant malty aroma with every drink. If you are new to dark beers, this would be a good one to start with. It had just enough hops to cut through the malts but didn’t leave a heavy hop aftertaste. I would (and have) recomended this brew to anyone that is a bit shy about trying new beers. But be careful, it just may turn you into a dark beer drinker. If not, then at least you’ll look cool drinking a dark beer in front of all your friends.

This is the first Brooklyn Brewery beer I’ve tried and I’m impressed. I can’t wait to try their other brews.

P-O-R-C-H rating: C+

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An old friend stopped by the other night with a six pack of Dixie Jazz Amber Light. I must admit, I’ve never heard of it. Ron has spent time in Germany with the U.S. Army so I was a little surprised that he would choose such a light beer to bring. But I trusted his taste buds and, again, I wasn’t disappointed. It poured a fairly clear amber with thin soapy head. It smelled thicker than it looked, I could swear at times it smelled a little like pancakes. It had a thick feel to the palate for a light beer and we thought it had a good combination of malts. No hop flavor at all.

For a light beer it had a pretty full flavor to it. We both agreed that it was a decent refreshing beer that had a deceiving appearance. It looked like a light beer but went down like a full flavored beer. If you like a full flavor in your beers but are concerned about your beer belly, this is the beer for you. It left no aftertaste and had a somewhat clean finish. Nothing really stands out about this one but it is good enough  to get again. Thanks for the beer Ron, and as always, it was good to see you again.

P-O-R-C-H rating: R-

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In the past couple of years, I have seen a few flavored beers hitting the shelves from the two major brewery’s in the United States. Miller Chill, Bud lite Lime, etc.  Personally, I think flavoring beer with a fruit is the big two’s (Anheuser Busch and MillerCoors) way of trying to get more women as customers. Come on, really, how many men do you know go on a beer run during half time of the big game and return with a twelve pack of Michelob Ultra Pomegranite Raspberry Pilsner? Anything less than Coors light and you’ll lose your man card for a week, not to mention that you will be laughed at for months, maybe years. “Hey remember when Bob went on that beer run twelve years ago and came back with that Pomegranite Orange crap?” “Yeah he stopped by Bath and Body works on the way back and that’s why he missed the third quarter.” (NOTE: Bob’s name used to be “Slayer” but he lost rights to it too, now he’s simply known as “Bob, the guy that botched the beer run”) These flavored brews are targeting the female gender and that’s fine for their place in the business and kudos to their marketing teams for having more than a little success at this. Heck, if this is what it takes to get a new customer, then more power to them. Besides, if more women drank beer, our dinner bills will be cheaper. A flavored beer has to cost less than a daquari.

But lately I have seen something in the beer world that has grabbed my attention, an influx of “specialty” beers. Anheuser Busch, through their Michelob line, has introduced some brews that until now have only been available through micro-brewery’s. Pale Ale, Porter, Marzen, Dunkel Weissen etc. They even have seasonal brews, Beach Bum blonde ale for the summer, Jacks Pumpkin spice ale for the fall and Winter Bourbon Cask Ale for the winter. They also have a yet to be announced brew coming this spring, I can oly assume it will be an ale. (yawn)

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the big two are now owned by foreign company’s and they are trying to keep the allegiance of the American beer drinker. This would be a pretty transparent, albeit logical, reason for the sudden release of so many different brews in such a small time frame. I have tried a few of these brews and will be posting my reviews soon. I promise I’ll  keep an open mind when writing my notes and forming my opinions. I will give it my all to be as objective as possible. But please keep in mind that the big two have lots of money and resources that micro-brewery’s just don’t have.

Of the ones I’ve seen and tried, the labels are fairly attractive and the commercials are pretty cool for the novice beer drinker. The more experienced beer drinkers, however,  are not fooled by catchy phrases and clever ads. For example, in one of the Michelob ads it shows someone, supposedly an employee of the brewery, explaining how they are looking for a thick head and “lacing” down the glass. I find this remarkably similar to the Samuel Adams commercials. Besides, aren’t all thicker, darker beers supposed to have this lacing? My opinion is that this will only steer most beer drinkers to their product once, then they will come back to their favorite brews. Yeah, the big two have the money and resources to give out a marketing campaign that will certainly steer some beer drinkers away from their favorite micro-brews for a time. After all, most experienced beer drinkers will try anything once.

My fear is that because of the aforementioned marketing campaigns, it might put a squeeze on some of the smaller micro-brewery’s in the United States. I, for one, would hate to see a small entreprenuer be put out of business because of the greed of another huge corporation. I had a conversation with a very good friend of mine the other night and he is of the opinion that  the big two might be doing the American beer drinker somewhat of a service. He says they would be making different types of brews available to the entire population. Think about it, if you tasted a Bock beer while on vacation in Texas, and you really liked it, but you live in Idaho and had no way of ever getting it again unless you go back to Texas, what do you do? The big two have the money and resources to make that type of brew available to you. This is a good thing, and it make sense.

Now, the other side of the story. If you had a bock beer in Texas, who’s to say that MillerCoors Bock is as good as the micro-brew you had in Texas? Oh, sure, you’ll try it once, but you will always yearn for the bock you had while in the micro-brewery’s back yard.

Now, these specialty beers that are being produced by the big two might catch on for a small period of time, I really don’t think they will ever take a considerable amount of business away from other brew crafters. In fact, in time I think they will serve as gateway beers and turn more people on to the wonderful world of micro-brews. Once you’ve had an ale from a name you trust (ie. Budweiser American Ale), you will be less apprehensive to try a Stone Brewery Pale Ale. I must admit, at first I thought that this situation may prove detrimental to the American micro-brewery, but in retrospect I think it may turn out to be a good thing for them. Time will tell.

Posted by Mr. Porch

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This cigar was gifted to me a couple of months ago, and I’ve been holding on to it until the right occassion. As it turns out, I needed a cigar like this last night.

I’ve been a bit concerned about the humidity in my humidor, we’ve been keeping the windows open and the humidity has been all over the place.

I Headed out to the tasting booth, and for the occasion I poured a tall Amber Bock. The pre light inspection had me a bit excited, as the construction and look of this cigar was nearly perfect. The wrapper was maduro and there weren’t too many veins. Once I removed the celophane wrapper, I caught whiff of an aroma that was appealing, and was a bit more pronounced than other cigars.

The rigidity of the cigar was a bit firmer than other cigars, but wasn’t “solid”. After cutting it took me a bit longer than normal to get the cigar lit, and once I had it going I was smoking a very good cigar.

The air was still and so the smoke hung around, and there was a lot of it.

As I smoked the cigar, I became bored. It was getting late and I needed to head in and give baths to my boys before they headed up to bed. About an hour after lighting, I had to leave it and it wasn’t even halfway done yet. What a waste.

This was an excellent cigar that shouldn’t be rushed. Don’t get it out unless you’ve got a couple of hours to sit and enjoy it. This would be a perfect cigar for the Porch. I’m giving it an A-.

Posted by Sam

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I had one of these tonight during the Monday night football game. All of my pre-smoke inspections passed with flying colors. No hard spots, not many veins, good aroma etc. It lit well, stayed lit and burned evenly the whole way. It had a nice draw with lots of smoke. BUT……It tasted very dry and only lasted about a half an hour. It is one of those cigars that you just know will give you a headache if you finish it, which I did. And it gave me a headache and I can’t explain why. Maybe some of you more experienced cigar smokers can explain it to me.

Not a bad cigar by any means but it didn’t impress me much. My experience with Perdomo cigars have always been good but this one just didn’t do it for me. A well constructed cigar that performed well but it left my palate with a dry aftertaste that made me wish I picked a different one to smoke. I’ll probably not buy these again.

Posted by Mr. Porch

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