Pearl Jam Twenty
April 1, 2012 by justin · Leave a Comment
Light orange color. Smooth. Slightly sweet but not too much. Very nice! Another 6 for Dogfish Head.
I ended up pairing this with a mild Indian chicken and veg curry. It is a GREAT combo.
De Dolle Extra Export Stout
January 29, 2011 by justin · Leave a Comment
It is finished! This is my final night of the project!!! I will report in the coming days my observations, top-ten lists and more but tonight is dedicated to the De Dolle Extra Export Stout. I spent all day resting, trying to get better and tonight I am feeling good. Not well enough to go to the Forge where this all began with the Hooker Nor’Easter but, well enough to really enjoy a nice stout. I feel like the ending tonight is a bit anti-climatic. Just another night drinking another good beer.
This stout pours beautifully with a big tan head. The flavour is complex with dates, and other “old world” fruits taking center stage. There is a strong malt flavour and some chocolate for good measure. The alcohol is a bit too up-front for my taste but overall it is a smooth tasty stout. Very nice
This has been an amazing year. I will continue to post my beer musings here but on a less regular basis so please check back every once and a while. I am also planning on a new year-long adventure which I will announce here.
Saison De Dottignies
January 29, 2011 by justin · Leave a Comment
Ok, so I am more stuffed up than ever, which is a real bummer cause this saison seems amazing but I know I am only experiencing a portion of the flavour and aroma. I fell in love with saisons this summer and when I saw this one I knew I had to try it. Brewery De Ranke’s Saison De Dottignies is light, slightly sweet but dry. It is crisp with a nice grassy hop flavour. This beer is everything a saison should be. I will get this one again for sure! Summer here we come!!!!
Gaspar Ale
January 23, 2011 by justin · Leave a Comment
The Gaspar Ale is a sweet and sour Belgian ale. It exploded when I popped the cap and about 1/2 of the bottle foamed over into my sick and all over my counter. Took about 10 min to get it in a glass. So that was a bit excessive. Very hoppy for a Belgian, most likely done specifically for us yanks. I would say that this is an odd one for a Belgian. If you are looking for a traditional Belgian Ale, don’t drink this. If you are looking to get into Belgians then this might be a good entry for you as it is more like an extra hopp pale ale than anything.
Allagash Odyssey
November 10, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
Allagash does it again…great beer. My folks keep telling me about this pub called Churchills. We almost didn’t make at my love for crab almost got in the way. I quickly got my senses about me and we headed down the road to Churchills. So glad we did, I love this place. Almost makes me think I could live in San Diego again, awe… maybe not. Anyway, great pub, better beer! The selection is amazing and the staff is knowledgeable. The thing that struck me about Churchills was that the beers on tap were all top quality. Some pubs sacrifice quality for quantity on their taps, not here. Every beer on the list was a 5!
The Odyssey has strong flavours of raisins and dates, some figs hiding there too! The strength and smoothness are all in balance, the Allagash trademark, balance, if you ask me.
Stone Cali-Belgique
November 7, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
Well as I headed into San Diego I met my folks at Stone for my beginning to San Diego Beer Week! My timing for a visit was spot on and the beers, fabulous!!! Had an amazing Mac n Cheese and the Stone Cali-Belgique. Yeah for San Diego!! It was really dark at our table, so no live photo, sorry folks.
Bavik
How can you not love a beer named Bavik? Just say the name, really. Outloud. Come on, say it… B…a…v…i…k, Bavik.
Considered one of the top Pilsners during the Michael Jackson International Pilsner tasting in Beer Passion Magazine, autumn 2000, where 27 Pilsners from around the world were ‘blind’ tasted and compared. (said here)
Pours a light wheat colour, its a pilsner people, they are light golden wheat in colour. Minimal bubbles. Many pilsners are bubbly, not this one so much. Rather crisp, and hoppy aroma. bitter, not too skunky. quite swell I think!
Crazy week, weekly digest
August 30, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
Ok, as I’ve stated I am in my busiest week here in Billsville, so… Weekly digest. This is not going to become a regular thing.
A dear friend, whom I had not seen in way too long, came up to the Bills for lunch. We went to Sushi Thai Garden, the Asian Fusion restaurant here in Billsvile and had pad thai, yumm and drinks, for lunch. I had a Kirin Ichiban, in a bottle. Honestly, I don’t find it that repulsive. It is a rice lager and exactly what one would expect. Bland and yellow and not much going on.
Wolaver’s Pat Leavy’s All-American Ale is from one of my favorite regional breweries, Otter Creek. The Wolaver’s line is their organic line and I like organic beer. Why do I like organic beer? Cause I don’t like to drink pesticides, duh. The All American Ale is a very limited release, stuck in our region, and NYC. Brewed with organic Fuggles and Goldings hops this is a rather balanced summer ale. Perfect for BBQ’s and mowing the lawn. I don’t really find any of the Wolaver beers “exciting” but they are always well brewed. I can’t really ask for anything more.
Headed down to the Pit to hear a friend Gabriel Squailia read from his new book, Dead Boys, at the WordXWord festival. Gabe was great and the Rare Vos from Brewery Ommegang that I had at Jae’s Spice was great too. Rare Vos is a beautiful Belgian Dark Ale, amazing! It is full, fruity, sweet, dry, and malty. Yeah Ommegang!
So, Thursday was a night where honestly, I was not feeling the drinking bug. So, for a night such as this, I bought the wee 7oz. Rogue: XS Imperial Red Ale Seriously the cutest damn bottle you have ever seen. Way more spice than I expected. It is toasty, nutty and toffee. Kinda reminds me of toffee crusted peppercorn beef. No, I’ve never had that. However, if there was such a creation, this would be its sister.
Friday found me making little open sandwhich tastey goodnesses. Cheese, pork, tomato, wow! I wanted a sassion, no luck, so I settled for the Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat. This is not a bad witbier, but not great either Fruit, cloves, and easy down the hatch.
Can’t really go wrong with a beer from Victory Brewing Company, great consistantly good beers. Their Old Horizontal is right up there. This is a barleywine style ale. As you might expect, strong on the alcohol. But, for over 10%ABV, it is rather mellow. I sipped this one for a few hours while watching a film. Sweet, grassy, low carbonation. Very nice.
Made a batch of my Mission Fig Ice Cream so… I popped open the Meantime Coffee Porter I had in the fridge. Beautiful! The label on the porter, if you can read it, talks about breakfast. Good idea. Next time, this one will be had with my oatmeal. Perfect really for any occasion. However, if you don’t like coffee… might want to avoid this one. The coffee takes center stage, it is beer though and the sweetness of maple syrup and some strong malts balances it out with a nice dry finish.
And that my friends, brings us to the present. As I sit here typing this I am drinking a Shipyard Summer Ale. The aroma was awful. Skunked and buttery. Big fail. The flavour is just off. Reminds me of a PBR but twice as expensive. The dude does not recommend.
So that is it, a week of drinks.
Just checking to see if you read all the way down to the cat!
Raging Bitch Belgian IPA
August 15, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
I can not come up with this shit on my own. Flying Dog really called their 20th Anniversary beer, Raging Bitch Belgian IPA. According to their site, “An American IPA augmented with Belgian yeast, our 20th anniversary beer jumps out of the glass and nips at your taste buds with its delicate hop bitterness. At 8.3% ABV, this bitch is dangerously drinkable.”
Drinkable is right. Since I had to buy a six-pack I have been tapping this one all weekend long.
Ralph Steadman did the artwork, again. If you are a lover of Hunter S. Thompson’s work you will know Ralph, he did all of Hunter’s artwork. “George and Richard met up with >Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman in the Woody Creek Tavern and things got a whole lot weirder. As Dr. Gonzo once stated though, “when the going gets weird the weird turn pro,” so today we ship over 500,000 cases a year, across the world, from our state-of-the-art facility in Frederick, Maryland. The Maryland Brewery utilizes cutting-edge technologies to aid in water conservation, ensuring the same great Flying Dog drinking experience time after time.”
So what is a Belgian IPA? As far as I can tell it is an IPA brewed with Belgian yeast. Not really a style, just another f’d up gonzo beer from Flying Dog. If Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic or event being covered. It disregards the ‘polished’ edited product favored by newspaper media and strives for a more gritty approach. (stolen from wikipedia’s gonzo entry) Than, Gonzo beer favors style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the beer and strives for a more gritty approach.
This then, my friends is a gonzo beer.
To me, I taste rye, and lots of it. I also taste the ever present hop. I smell malts, and grass. I might be attributing the rye flavour because of the bitterness, not sure. I do know that this is a highly drinkable high alcohol brew. Drink this now!!!
Corsendonk Christmas Ale
July 26, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
Christmas in July! Yep, I’m such a geek I have been looking forward to this for a few months now. I am serious about that. I woke up and thought, “christmas ale!” Probably closer to the real date of the birth of the big JC, there is no better way to celebrate than BBQ and Beer!
It was another hot humid day and as it cooled off in the afternoon, rare but there was a big raincloud coming in, I fired up my grill and sat outside reading a book and drinking my christmas ale.
The Corsendonk Christmas Ale pours a ruby brown colour and has a head you could eat. This head didn’t go anywhere, seriously just stuck around as the crowning jewel on this fine ale. The style is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale brewed by Brouwerij Corsendonk.
The aroma is very toasty, like malty toasty, like bread just popping out of the toaster toasty. The alcohol is well hidden here and the mouthfeel is not as heavy as I expected Very crisp. The flavour has cherries, figs, and dates. So strong on the fig notes that as I was sipping this after my BBQ turkey I realized that I still had some of my homemade Mission Fig Ice Cream in the freezer. Sure enough, Perfect pairing (I’m telling you this ice cream is a hit with the beers).
Great beer, I wish it was Christmas everyday.
Since I had everything upside down, I thought the upside-down glass was just perfect!