By Greg B. It was a cold Saturday night, and there are few places I’d rather go than the old standby, Max’s on Broadway.  Knowing that one of our favorite bartenders was working the backroom (see Courtney, if you read the blog you can see how famous you are!), we dropped in and went about sampling the majority of the beers on tap.

The back room at Max’s is a nice place, it’s officially known as the darthouse.  It has two regulation dart boards and distance markers, which you can either bring your own (cant find mine) or borrow them from the bartender.  Sometimes to the far left there is karaoke, but thankfully, not tonight!  When you first walk in, there is a giant chalkboard on the wall, indicating the beers they have on tap in this room. Walking in, before I even got a chance to look at the list, Jer suggested the “crazy Ivan’.  With a name like that, how could I turn the beer down?  And so we drank…

Bear Republic’s Crazy Ivan – A Belgian Dark ale with a lot of hop character to it.  Had a mild bitter aroma, dark honey color but clear beer and lacked a head of substance.  However, it made up for this with a clean bitter aftertaste which I felt was quite nice.  It was higher in alcohol, somewhere in the 9% abv range, so this beer will hit you pretty good as it goes down very smooth.  As it warmed up in my hand (and under the spotlight) the beer took on a much more malty character and lost the bitter flavor substantially. (I didn’t see this on their website, because it was a very limited brew and I don’t know that they are continuing it).

WhiteMarsh Murf’s Porter – This is a great beer from a local brewpub which I admit, I have never been to.  Interestingly, this is the second time Red Brick Station came up in the night, one for the beer being poured, and once when I met an employee of RBS, Ashley (goodluck on you holiday marriage!).  As for the beer, it really was impressive.  Big, tan head, didn’t catch a lot of the aroma of the beer (could have been blocked by the head) but it did have an incredible creamy mouthfeel and tastes of chocolate malts.  Great beer for cold weather!  6.3% abv.

Southern Tier Krampus -  Wow!  This beer was intense.  It has a real intense hoppy floral aroma on the nose, with a low/no head.  Has an interesting flavor, sweet, and an almost ‘ice-tea’ kind of flavor to it, it’s hard to explain but good.  Definitely has a dark roasted malt character to it that you can smell once you drink it, with a bitter finish.  Very nice beer!  Pours a medium dark amber/honey color.  9% abv

Great Divide Old Ruffian – Now, I was going to order this, but thankfully we have a great bartender in Courtney, and she recommended I try a sample first.  She was right.  Seeing as how this is a barley wine, I probably would not have liked it anyway, but this one was not ok with me.  I will say it had a very unique flavor to it.  A musty, stale room, dry alcohol aroma but a really sweet, caramel flavor.  Interesting, but not what I wanted to drink, especially not a full glass of (I think they serve it in 5oz glasses).  10.2% abv.

Sam Adams Chocolate Boch – First, I apologize for the annoying website.  Entering and re-entering birthday information, annoying sounds, having to click things twice sometimes to go to the part of the website you wanted (after having to watch some stupid animation).  But there is the link, if you want to go to it.  However, despite their website inadequacies, they do make some damn good beer.  This chocolate boch was a nice change of pace for me, away from the really intense, hoppy beers I had earlier in the evening.  Has a medium/high amount of head which is light tan in color.  The beer has a delicious creamy mouthfeel and is slightly sweet but only a tiny bit and has a nice mild hint of chocolate.  No element of this beer was overdone and every element really comes together to produce a well balanced beer.

Cape Ann Fisherman Dunkel Weisse –  Cannot seem to find a reference to this online, but this is what the chalkboard said!  Had a big head which receded quickly, dark color, almost a buckwheat honey colored beer.  Has a mild tart/sweet flavor, it’s malty, but mild all around.  A nice beer, not in the extreme beer categories but something nice to drink.

Wild Goose Snow Goose - Yet another great beer from the folks out in Frederick at the Wild Goose brewery!  I really have to make sure I get out there for a tour, prior to Christmas is my goal.  This beer pours a beautiful dark brown color with little amount of head.  It has a nice mild malty flavor initially, but this soon gives way to a spicy cinnamon/nutmeg flavor.  It does have a tiny hint of that ‘medicine’ sweetness to it at times, despite not really being all that sweet (I think it has to do with the spices and the alcohol flavor too).  But each sip follows this order, in rapid fire: Taste dark malts, alcohol, spices.  A very nice beer, definitely highly recommended!

Samichlaus Helles - I inquired about this beer, but Courtney again made me taste it before I drank it.  Ug!  Not my style at all.  It’s sweet, very sweet.  Is 14% abv, and has some kind of a weird spice flavor to it.  It was a darker yellow color, if I recall correctly, but definitely not for me.

Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere – Has a medium sized head with a very long retention.  A nice medium brown color, good hoppy floral aroma.  The beer has a great smooth mouthfeel with nice carbonation and a nice bitterness to it that is not overwhelmingly bitter, but very pleasant and refreshing.  Has a mild malt profile in it, but this is more subtle and clouded by the delicious hops!  However, as it warms up the hops give way to a nice pleasant bouquet of flowers and the beer expresses the more hidden malty side. 6.7% abv.

By this time, it was time to shut down the dartroom and head home.  But I was certainly thankful for the opportunity to try some of these more interesting beers, and for Courtney’s good advice.  With around 25-30 beers on tap, this is a nice side room and a good change of pace from the normal hectic and always busy main bar.  I suggest you all go out and check it out.  In the meantime, I’ll plan my trip to Red Brick Station!