Front Street - Raging River Ale

This brew, Front Street's Raging River Ale, was the second beer I had during my brief visit.  It was during this pint that I had a chance to talk to Jen, the wife of the husband/wife owner team.  In our brief talk she mentioned some talk of expansion!  This is great news for a local brewpub that definitely deserves its success.  Let's pour!

Photo again blatantly stolen from their website.

Aroma 10/12

The brew is definitely hop-leaning and the malt is not making its presence felt via the nose.  It is then a good thing that the hops are such a nice combination of citrus and pine.  This combined with an ester that recalls a bit of green apples is a very light and pleasant way to start this beer.

Appearance 2/3

A dark golden honey color with barely a covering of white head.  It is moderately translucent, bright, and very appealing in its shades of yellow.  Even an average amount of head and retention would have yielded a perfect rating in this category.

Photo is my own.

Flavor 18/20  

This beer starts off strong out of the gate with sweet notes of honey and almost a sugary sweetness!  Very light and refreshing.  The backbone starts with strong caramel tones, but has a lovely smorgasbord of sweet and light tartness involving the apple from the aroma, citrus from the hop, and a distinct floral tone that wraps everything up before featuring the hop bitter.   It should be noted that the hop flavors and bitter are almost completely separated in this brew.  The bitter does arrive in the very beginning of the finish.  It is an abrupt contrast to the prior sweetness, but an excellent finish that is appropriate for the style.  It continues the flowery sweetness while introducing the aforementioned hop bitter as well as an additional peppery hop flavor.  The pepper helps dry the finish and keeps it remarkably clean despite the mouth-watering sweetness introduced earlier.  Aftertaste is fairly clean, but does leave its bitter calling card on the edges of the tongue.

Mouthfeel 5/5

The beer has a medium body that feels heavier than its light color would have you believe.  Also, one is not accustomed to having light, hop-emphasizing beers attain this level of creaminess.  The carbonation is a perfect compliment and only adds to its refreshing nature being both abundant and non-distracting throughout the pint.  The mouthfeel is very nice and lends itself to the feeling that this is a more substantial offering of the style.

Overall Impression 9/10

This is a very impressive local offering!  It is clean, refreshing, bubbly beer with a complex hop profile.  It manages to neatly separate several hop varieties and showcase each one without becoming “hop crazy” or dominating the rest of the brew.

Total 44/50

This ranking puts this beer at the top of the excellent category and rightly so.  There is marvelous sweetness up front and a wonderful, complex garden full of hops to wrap up the flavor.  I am not sure how they separate the hop flavor and the bitter, but as I held it in my mouth I had to all but swallow it before those hop bitters became present.  It is definitely a two-phased beer.  This is not a bad thing; I rather enjoy the effect.   They finished it right by making this light ale with a dry finish.  I cannot wait to take another sip or order another.  Hoppy beers are not my forte, but I am coming to appreciate them more with every bottle.  This beer is no exception and I would recommend it to anyone taking that bold step into the world of IPAs and hoppy goodness.  As mentioned earlier, not only are hoppy beers not my forte, but they are also not usually my first choice off of the menu.  This beer is definitely an exception to the rule.  I will be back for this one.  Prost! 

Another stolen image.

Front Street - Bucktown Stout

Some personal business took me to the Illinois/Iowa border today and this was fortunate.  On that border there is an area consisting of four cities referred to as the Quad Cities and it is composed of Rock Island & Moline on the Illinois side, and Davenport & Bettendorf across the Mississippi in Iowa.  Despite being a smaller market, this area has given rise to FOUR, count ‘em, FOUR breweries and some would argue a fifth in a chain restaurant  called Granite City.  It makes a strong, nay, irrefutable argument for traveling into the area and having some great local beer and supporting local communities.  This review’s beer is for Front Street Brewery in Davenport, IA.  I am actually sitting in the establishment right now.

Quick Note: Please forgive the quality of any shots in this review or Front Street's next review.  I did not have a camera with me or even a decent cell phone.  My recently-deceased cell phone had an unfortunate accident involving a motorcycle.  But I digress...

The atmosphere is very nice in a remodeled early 20^th century riverfront building - lots of wood and exposed brick.  In fact, out the front window I can clearly the mighty Mississippi rolling on by, the local Lock & Dam No. 15, and the Rock Island Arsenal (which manufactured TONS of rifles used in WWII).  Bucktown was actually an area of the city that Wikipedia describes as such,

"The eastern end of downtown Davenport, historically known as Bucktown, was infamous at the turn of the 20th century for its speakeasies, dance halls and German music pavilions. It was home to a documented forty-two brothels in a two block area. The reputation of Bucktown traveled across the country and garnered national media headlines as the "wickedest city in America... Bucktown was also known, however, for its culture. The strong German heritage of the community formed the identity of Bucktown and its infusion of the arts into the everyday... In Bucktown, the music of the people was played by the era's finest musicians, including Louis Armstrong and the legendary Bix Beiderbecke."

That is a pretty rich heritage.  If that heritage was an uncle, he probably would not be invited to many family gatherings.  This place is loaded with local history and it is literally plastered all over the walls in large black and white photos that depict not only the history of the area, but also of the building itself.  Very cool!  The community should be proud to have an establishment like this.  Enough gabbing though!  On to the beer.  Let’s pour!

Unflattering cell phone shot.

Aroma  8/12

The malty beginnings are smoky and toasted moderately.  There was no charring when making this stout.  There is, however, a chocolaty sweetness that makes itself more known as the pint warms.  Coffee is the primary aroma, but this typically strong scent is not allowed to overwhelm its counterparts.  Very mild beginnings.

Appearance 2/3

Like the aroma, the appearance is a bit light for the style.  The beer is not black, but gets probably as close as it gets without achieving that goal.  It is completely opaque, but black has been swapped for a ruddy chestnut brown that reveals dark reddish-browns at its edges.  Head is small, does not offer much in retention, but sticks around quite a bit as a collar.  There is a minute amount of lacing present.

Flavor

The first sips show the malt used in this beer.  It tastes like a rather pale malt that has gone through some lighter roasting than expected.  It makes the beer less intense than other stouts, but that could work out very well for some drinkers who prefer just that.  The malt also adds a sourish sweet flavor that is again distinct, but not unpleasant in the least.  The backbone then steps in with the lighter chocolate notes and the stronger coffee flavors.  This fades a bit and gives way again to the sour/sweet malt and some pretty distinct earthy tones.  The finish is unusually sweet, but does have the appropriate emphasis on coffee.  The coffee gets to combine with a delicate hop bitter which always makes for nice finish.  Aftertaste is almost entirely hop bitters, but does involve a little of the prior coffee and the result is almost that of charred coffee beans despite the lack of blackened ingredients anywhere in this beer.

Mouthfeel 3/5

The carbonation is high and a little out of place for the style.  It is prickly and contrasts the body/creaminess that stouts normally seek to attain.  That said, it still does maintain a better than average creaminess and a medium heavy body.  No detectable warmth.

Overall Impression 6/10

A pretty good stout.  Definitely not an intense version, but not the type used to introduce others to craft beer stouts either.  It lies somewhere in that dangerous middle ground that achieves neither wide spread success (too weak), nor critical accolades (flavor powerhouse).  It is a good beer that I would not have problems ordering growlers of were I living in the area, but it would benefit from a push either to the extreme or to the acceptability of the masses.

Total 34/50

Almost every section of this beer’s review notes that it is light for the style and that sums things up rather well.  This can make for a very good “exbeerience” for those who are not looking for the insanely dark tones that an Imperial might provide.  It is a rather light coffee stout that I would prefer ANY day to almost anything most local places/chain restaurants have on tap.  It is a great alternative to have in the area, but falls a bit short when competing on a national stage.

I really like this brewery/brewpub (They do serve food.  Good food at that!).  I enjoy this beer.  It might not bring home any first place trophies, but it is a pretty good stout that you can definitely have several of without any reservations.  Cheers to Steve and Jen for running a fine establishment!

Photo blatantly stolen from their website.