A deep mahogany, Belgian-style brown ale brewed with beet sugar, raisins and Belgian-style yeast.

Midas touch being my (Chas) all time favorite, this one easily comes in second. This rich, smooth, raisiny sweet beer blew me away. Both of us highly recommend this beer to anyone.

Simple in it’s flavors with sweet crystal grains and pureed raisins, it’s still bold and full of interest. Warm alcohol flavors melt into the tongue with subtle hop notes.

Raison D’etre pours a nice dark amber color with a light tan head. It smells of raisins and toasted malts mostly.

Raison D’etre is a Belgian strong dark ale and is 8.0% by Vol.

For more info on Dogfish Head Brewery and their full line of beers head on over to their website or their official Facebook page.

Review by Chas and Shaun

Special Double Cream Stout derives its name from its smooth, creamy texture, not the ingredients. Completely dairy-free, this stout blends eight different specialty malts to yield a remarkable depth of flavor. With only a touch of burnt notes, Special Double Cream Stout focuses on the softer, cocoa & espresso-like aspects of roasted malt. -Taken from the Bell’s website-

This beer has a slightly bitter aftertaste with robust coffee and cocoa flavors but through and through it is velvety smooth, interesting and extremely drinkable. So far we’ve loved everything that we’ve tasted from Bell’s but this may be Chas’ new favorite.

The beer pours a nice deep dark brown and is almost black with a nice tan head. It has the look of a perfect stout.

Special Double Cream Stout is only available during the winter months and is 6.1% by Vol.

For more info on Bell’s Brewery and their full line of beers head on over to their website or their official Facebook page.

Review by Chas and Shaun

Normally when you think of fall or Halloween beer you think of either pumpkin ales or Octoberfest beers usually. Well Newcastle has broken that with their Werewolf Blood Red Ale.

This Scottish ale pours a beautiful blood red and amber color with a nice frothy head. The rye is what gives it it’s great color.

There is a perfect balance between sweet and bitter in this ale and I just can’t get enough of it. It’s sweet and malty up front and leaves you with a nice malty and slightly bitter aftertaste.

I originally bought a six pack of this mainly for the novelty of it being named Werewolf as I’m a sucker for anything having to do with horror/Halloween but I was super surprised at how good it actually is. Needless to say the 6 pack went in one night and I quickly went and picked up a 12 pack. The local liquor store has 4 12 packs left and they have my name written all over them. When I picked up the first 6 pack the local store had a huge stack of cases of this stuff and now just a few days later they were down to only 4 12 packs, that should give you an idea of how good it is. I highly suggest that if you can find Newcastle Werewolf you pick up at least a 6 pack and give it a try. The only negative I can find with this beer is it’s only sold 3 months out of the year.

Thank you Newcastle!

Newcastle Werewolf is a Scottish Red Ale and is 4.5% by Vol.

For more info on Newcastle and their limited editions head on over to their website or their official Facebook page.

Review by Chas and Shaun

Continuing the pumpkin beer reviews this season we have The Wild Onion’s Pumpkin Ale up next.

The ale pours a light copper yellow color with little to no head.

The ale has a light and spicy aroma, is light and smooth bodied and it’s a really delicious pumpkin beer.

It has a light up front pumpkin taste and it’s slightly bitter on the back and middle of the tongue but the mildly bitter notes taper off to leave the tongue with the after taste of sweet pumpkin. It has a good pumpkin taste in the beginning and the end but it’s light all around compared to other pumpkin beers. Out of all the pumpkin beers we’ve tried this so far has been Chas’ favorite. I (Shaun) liked this beer a lot but it’s not my favorite pumpkin beer. We both would definitely drink this again.

Wild Onion Pumpkin Ale is 5% by Vol.

Pumpkin Ale is made by The Wild Onion Brewery which is a great local brewery here in Illinois. They have a wide variety of beers and their own pub. Visit their official website for more info: www.OnionPub.com

Reviewed by Chas and Shaun

Tis the season for pumpkin flavored everything, especially beer. First up on the pumpkin beer reviews is Ichabod Pumpkin Ale from New Holland Brewing Co.

The ale pours an orange-red copper color with a decent amount of head.

The beer tastes like it looks. It drinks more like a red ale with a spicy up front nose. It’s sweet and bitter up front and ends with a heavy red ale flavor on the back of your tongue.

There’s not too much pumpkin or spice flavor compared to other beers out there but sometimes that’s not a bad thing.

Overall it’s lacking in definition but it is tasty. It’s not our favorite pumpkin ale but it’s not our least favorite either. A six pack is good once in awhile but it’s nothing we’d drink all the time.

Ichabod Pumpkin Ale is 5.2% by Vol.

If you’re not familiar with New Holland Brewing Co. don’t let this beer discourage you from trying their others as some of their other beers are phenomenal.

For more info on New Holland and their beers make sure you check out their official website: www.NewHollandBrew.com

Review by Chas and Shaun