Arbor Brewing Buzzsaw Ale - Arbor Brewing Company

SometimesIfart

Michigan

3.99/5  rDev +3.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

A - Pours very murky copper with a two finger slight off-white head. Left a decent amount of lacing.

S - Starts off with grapefruit rind and mango, followed by some lemon grass and lemons. Caramel malts come through as well along with some blood oranges.

T - Starts with a pelthora of pine and banana, followed by some slight grapefruit and soap.

M - Medium slightly creamy body with medium carbonation.

O - Overall, another solid beer out of ABC. It's definitely sessionable, although the flavor could have been a bit cleaner.

Serving type: bottle

03-09-2013 05:06:55 | More by SometimesIfart

HarmonMW

Michigan

3.5/5  rDev -9.3%

05-12-2013 02:22:48 | More by HarmonMW

rkf1976

Michigan

3.75/5  rDev -2.8%

05-10-2013 03:21:43 | More by rkf1976

TheBrewo

Michigan

4.25/5  rDev +10.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.25

We crack the top and pour a brew of pale golden orange coloring into our Great Lakes pints. It holds a two finger head of white soapy bubbles, leaving slow patterned lacing after a beautiful retention that never quite finishes. A chill haze permeates the clarity, with no sediment noted. Carbonation appears to be moderate. The aroma is beautifully juicy with hops that shout of bright grapefruit, pine, and floral nectars. To balance are notes of lightly toasted pale malts, dried apricot, pear, pineapple, lemon zest bitterness, honey, and flashes of white sugar sweetness. With warmth comes some phenolic plastics, fusel booze, and softer cereal grain. Our first impression is that the hops steal the show, with big lemon and soap, pushing the balance to more generalized bitterness. As we sip, the flavor opens with those aromatic pale and toasty malts, robustly bittered soapy hops, rose stems, bittered booziness, lemon pulp, and more amber malt smoothness. The middle peaks with bite of peppery alcohol, tannic black tea, salted pretzels, and further hop kick of resiny pine, soaps, and bittered citric rind. The finish gives creamy vanilla sweetness, sweeter alcohol, juicy coconut and mango fruitiness, sweet pale malts, chemical airs, and herbal hoppiness, with mint, dill, and lightly phenolic clove. The aftertaste breathes of herbed Thanksgiving stuffing, herbal and more floral hop airs, white sugar sweetness, grapefruit fleshiness, black pepper booze, mineral, and cement. The body is medium, and the carbonation is high. Each sip gives soft slurp, smack, cream, froth, and sip, while the mouth is nicely coated and cooled. The hops afford eventual bittering pucker, and astringency stretched down the length of the hard palate and tongue. The abv is fine, and drinkability is great.

Overall, what we enjoyed most about this brew was its taste and general drinkability. The nose starts things off nicely, giving good fruitiness and hoppiness to start. The sip, however, is where the action is. The hops morph into this amazingly juicy, fruity, biting, sweet, and drying amalgamation of freshness, leaving you wanting more and more after each sip. While some might find it a bit bitter, this is the best, most exciting local beer we’ve found after moving to Michigan, and it will certainly become a staple as a summer porch beer.

Serving type: bottle

05-04-2013 02:34:58 | More by TheBrewo

Gigantis

Michigan

3.49/5  rDev -9.6%
look: 3.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 3.25

I wish I could grade the bottle. I bought this beer because the picture is cool. Also, I suspected that this was a DIPA because of the graphics, the name and, largely, the prohibitive price. I read on the six pack when I got home that this is an America IPA and I tried to judge it accordingly.

A - Pretty nice looking beer. A bright, dark molten-orange color and an off-white head. The head dissipated very quickly but laced well on the glass. Very small amount of visible carbonation.

S - The beer's best quality is the aroma. A burst of hops; lots of fresh citrus and grapefruit with a nutty grain scent to follow. Hints of tobacco and leather. The scent was very powerful when I first opened the beer and poured it into a tulip glass. It was truly glorious, but also fleeting.

T - Grapefruit and mango with hints of earthy caramel. A very nice floral component and very complimentary of the way this brew smells. Good hoppy finish.

M - A little watery actually. I was expecting more. On a positive note, the carbonation is just right. I felt like this should have had at least a medium bodied feel to it but it has the mouthfeel of a session IPA at best and a Bud at worst.

IT's pretty good though not the best example of the style. I would have appreciated more boldness and more hop character. Good looking and again it was one of the better smelling beers I've had in a while but if I am every confronted with that cool logo again (mutant warrior in a cornfield?) I will have to remind myself that this beer just didn't satisfy me as much as it should have. Overall a nice IPA but not worth the price of admission.

Serving type: bottle

04-30-2013 22:18:45 | More by Gigantis

drbenderdo

Michigan

4.25/5  rDev +10.1%

04-21-2013 23:45:34 | More by drbenderdo

Pat316

Michigan

3.75/5  rDev -2.8%

04-16-2013 22:12:36 | More by Pat316

alphaacid9000

Michigan

4.25/5  rDev +10.1%

04-15-2013 00:25:48 | More by alphaacid9000

dmnielsen

Michigan

4/5  rDev +3.6%

02-23-2013 22:48:24 | More by dmnielsen

Danielr26

Michigan

3.5/5  rDev -9.3%

02-18-2013 14:01:34 | More by Danielr26

Rostie

Michigan

4.25/5  rDev +10.1%

02-16-2013 15:38:21 | More by Rostie

ChrisKayler

Virginia

4.25/5  rDev +10.1%

02-15-2013 21:44:37 | More by ChrisKayler

andrewjraab

Michigan

3.79/5  rDev -1.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

I had a nice lengthy review on this one, but somehow the webpage booted me when I went to save it so hear goes the cliffs notes version,...

Good looking beer with nice camouflage like webbing. Clean and fresh hops in the nose. Nice hop / malt balance with a nice juicy hop presence.

Overall, I really enjoyed this brew and would definitely try it again. The flavor borders on a DIPA - lets call this a 1.5 IPA.

Serving type: bottle

02-15-2013 00:10:55 | More by andrewjraab

beergorrilla

Michigan

3.75/5  rDev -2.8%

02-12-2013 19:23:55 | More by beergorrilla

buschbeer

Ohio

3.86/5  rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

12 ounce bottle
Served in a perfect pint glass

A - This offering is amber in color with golden highlights. One inch of head caps it.

S - It has a nice citrus aroma. I get fresh oranges and grapefruit.

T - It starts out with a little mango. Then I get more citrus flavors. Finishing with some grapefruit and juniper.

M - Moderate

O - This is an easy drinking IPA. I prefer it to ABC's Sacred Cow. One of the better beers that I have had from Arbor Brewing.

Serving type: bottle

02-09-2013 21:00:50 | More by buschbeer

adamant1912

Michigan

4.25/5  rDev +10.1%

02-06-2013 04:46:11 | More by adamant1912

EL48823

Michigan

4/5  rDev +3.6%

01-28-2013 20:49:08 | More by EL48823

qwe2323

4.25/5  rDev +10.1%

01-16-2013 20:59:06 | More by qwe2323

StoutHunter

Michigan

3.41/5  rDev -11.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3

I picked up a bottle of Arbor Brewing's Buzzsaw Ale last week for $2.19 at The Lager Mill. I have tried this beer a couple times at some beer festivals, I thought it was good and since Arbor decided to start bottling this I decided I needed to revisit it, so lets see how it goes. No visible bottling date, but it just showed up so I think it's fairly fresh. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into an imperial pint glass.

A- The label looks nice, it's fairly eye catching and it had a cool comic book look to it. It poured a hazy golden color that took on a nice bright orange hue when held to the light with two fingers worth of fluffy white head that died down to a thick ring that stayed till the end and left lots of sticky lacing behind. This is a very nice looking IPA, there's not a single thing wrong with the way it looks.

S- The aroma starts off with a slightly higher amount of medium sweetness followed by a good amount of malts that impart a grainy and very bread like aroma along with a noticeable bread crust aroma. After that comes the hops which are on the citrus side and impart some citrus rind, along with some mango, grapefruit and some light pineapple aromas. The aroma was nice, but it seemed like the bready malts stuck out a little too much.

T- The taste seems to be fairly similar to the aroma and it starts off with a medium amount of sweetness and lots of malts that impart a grainy, stale malt, bread and bread crust like aroma that were more dominant than it should be. Up next comes the hops which are still on the citrus side, but only impart a light citrus flavor that is very similar to citrus rinds and there was also a slight floral hops taste. On the finish there was a higher amount of bitterness with a really grainy and slightly citrusy aftertaste. This was a pretty average tasting American IPA. the malts were just too dominate and the hops only imparted a very light citrus flavor with more bitterness than hop flavors.

M- Not that smooth, dry, medium bodied, with a medium amount of carbonation. The mouthfeel was nice, but it could have been smoother.

Overall this beer wasn't as good as I remembered and I thought that it was an average example of the style, the malts really showed up in this beer making it pretty bready tasting and the hops had the bitterness to balance out the malts but not the flavors to balance them out which made it not well balanced. This beer didn't have good drinkability, it wasn't that smooth and the flavors didn't do a good job at holding my attention, one is enough for me, i'm not interested in following this up with another one. What I liked the most about this beer was the appearance, it was very good and pretty true to style, there wasn't a single thing wrong with the way it looks. What I liked the least about this beer was the taste and the drinkability, and they were disappointing and they both weren't what I expected from this style or the brewery. I wouldn't buy bottles of this again, it's not hard to find a much better bottled American IPA, but I would give it another try on draft to see if it's any different, I wouldn't recommend this to my friends as a good American IPA, there are much better ones out there. All in I was let down with this beer just like I was with their other new bottled offering, it just wasn't as good as I remembered and the malts were too dominant for the style, it would have been nice if the hops imparted some more citrus flavors to go with all that bitterness. Nice try guys, but this one didn't work out that well, it needs a lot of work, better luck next time, this doesn't remind of the Buzzsaw Ale that one best of show at the beer festival, I think something went wrong here.

Serving type: bottle

01-13-2013 20:10:02 | More by StoutHunter

FlyingHellfish

Michigan

3.5/5  rDev -9.3%

01-12-2013 14:57:11 | More by FlyingHellfish

DrIPA

Michigan

3.5/5  rDev -9.3%

01-06-2013 02:48:31 | More by DrIPA

atone315

Wisconsin

4/5  rDev +3.6%

12-28-2012 03:09:17 | More by atone315

superspak

Michigan

3.78/5  rDev -2.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

12 ounce bottle into tulip glass, no bottle dating. Pours hazy golden orange color with a 1-2 finger dense off white head with great retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Nice dense foamy lacing clings to the glass. Aromas of big mango, pineapple, orange, caramel, floral, strawberry, pine, grass, and herbal. Very nice and unique aromas, with good hop complexity and balance. Taste of grapefruit, orange zest, pine, caramel, floral, bread, grass, light mango, and earthy spiciness. Good amount of piney bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of citrus, pine, caramel, bread, floral, grass, and earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Nice hop flavor balance with a good bitterness/sweetness balance as well; zero cloying flavors present after the finish. Medium carbonation and body; with a creamy and fairly sticky mouthfeel that is good. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a slight warming noticed after the finish. Overall this is a very good IPA. Nice hop flavor profile and very smooth to sip on. I enjoyed this quite a bit.

Serving type: bottle

12-09-2012 06:06:25 | More by superspak

Zaphog

Michigan

3.75/5  rDev -2.8%

12-01-2012 18:13:24 | More by Zaphog

mzeld

Michigan

4/5  rDev +3.6%

11-27-2012 17:05:03 | More by mzeld