Alewerks Intentional Stout

Intentional Stout is a fine stout. Beeradvocate classifies it as an American Stout.

Brewer's notes: Strikingly bold and irresistibly delicious, Intentional Stout is a no-gimmick American Stout with dark fruit and toasted bread notes. A natural richness is balanced by a generous addition of American hops. A roasty finish leaves the palate with the taste of dark chocolate and cocoa.

Tasting notes
20260115: Intentional is a solid stout. The taste has chocolate and some licorice. It reminded me of Kalamazoo Stout. I am happy to drink more and may occasionally buy some for my cellar. 

Rating: = 3.5 glasses

Alewerks Coffeehouse

Brewer's notes
This Milk Stout is brewed with a generous amount of Guatemala Antigua coffee. There's a noticeably sweet character but we don't shy away from the coffee's bitter nature. It's the coffee drinker's coffee stout.

04 Jan. 2020
The brewer's notes are spot on. The beer is good, interesting, and flavorful. It combines sweet stout with a BIG dose of coffee. The beer is "smaller" than Hardywood Christmas Morning but has more coffee flavor.

BeerAdvocate.

Rating = 4 glasses. If you love coffee it is probably a 5.

Alewerks Chesapeake Pale Ale

Chesapeake Pale Ale is a nice pale ale. It is balanced, flavorful, and quaffable.

Rating = 4 glasses.

Aleworks Protocol Porter

Protocol Porter is a pleasant beer. It is easy to drink with a smokey background. Probably similar to what the porters drank back in the day. Thinness in the body represents well how porter differs from stout.

Rating: 3 glasses.

Williamsburg Alewerks Lover's Greed

This is a nice Wild Ale. Its flavor falls between Gueze and Flanders Red Ale, a nice blend of tart and sweet. I'll buy again.

5 glasses. 

Props to Williamsburg Alewerks: A brewery is a sanitation business that dabbles in brewing beer

I had a wonderful exchange of emails with Charles Haines of Williamsburg Alewerks. I wrote to notify him that a bottle of his Washington's Porter had an off, sour, acidic flavor. He replied that the beer was bottled in July and was unstable and he graciously offered to reimburse me for the bottle. I then asked how a retailer could sell a beer that was "out of code". His reply is educational.

"Very few microbreweries either microfilter, sterile filter or pasteurize their beer. Most microbreweries do filter (remove residual yeast) from some of their beers. Wheats, big beers that are cellared and some other styles are usually not filtered at all. We do not filter our Tavern Ale, Porter, Wheat and any of our big beers.

"It has beer said that a brewery is a sanitation business that dabbles in brewing beer. There is a lot of truth in that. Each brew is a challenge, and some brews are cleaner than others. Generally speaking, microbreweries figure their beer is good for three months. If it is really clean, it will last a year plus, maybe not taste fresh, but not be infected at all. If the beer has some alcohol in it (8% ABV or more) it will last longer. Same thing for hops as both alcohol and hops are preservatives.

"Generally speaking, the wholesaler is going to sell it if he has it in the warehouse, same thing for the retailer if he has it on the shelf. If have no problem taking back beer that is kind of in the cycle, particularly if I think the batch was not going to last much beyond three month (that is the case of porter #27, I will swap out the remaining Corks & Kegs six-packs). When I find beer in the wholesalers warehouse that is five months old, or has been on the retailers shelf for a year, I do not think it should be my problem. It is however my beer, so I would rather buy it back than have it sold."