A reason to Celebrate

As I am sure everyone who reads this blog knows, my son Paul was born just a few days ago. You can read our other blog for details on that; as for this blog, Paul's birth was a reason for family to come and celebration with some good beer! On Friday night after Melissa and Paul got home from the hospital, John, Melanie and myself had a chance to to down a round of brews. Melanie had a Duchess that was left over from Christmas (I am not a huge fan of the Belgians, so I saved it for someone who would appreciate it). John and I each had a bomber sized Stone Old Guardian, a very nice barlywine. It had a nice aroma, and a great experience to go with it. At 11.5% this is a very full bodied beer, which I really enjoy. The initial mouthful has a nice rich creamy maltyness to it, with the distinct "high gravity" feel- I don't really know how else to describe it except that it just seems to have alot of substance to it. And on the finish there is the perfect hint of hops but no bite to the aftertaste like an IPA would have. Overall this was less rich and complex than an Old Stock Ale, but still a very good beer- I would highly recommend it if you haven't tried it.

In preparation for Paul, we acquired a nice video camera (thanks grandpa!) so I was able to snag a little bit of how the night went. The quality on these videos is obviously diminished for YouTube. In addition to the beer we also had some cheese pairings. This is all explained in the video below, I think it speaks for itself.



On Saturday night, Matt was able to join us (yay). Matt drank a Corsendonk, John had a Unibroue 17, and I had a Beals Brother's Brewery Sleet Street Scotch Ale. like the last taste I had over Christmas break, this was an excellent beer! A very rich taste, much like the barleywines I have been so into. Just the right amount of hops to give it a good kick. The only down sides to this particular brew were a little too much carbonation, and I personally would have liked it to be a little higher gravity to give it a slightly fuller body. Once again, drinking this beer makes me want to get into home brewing, because I loved this more than most of the stuff I buy in stores.

Basketball and Beer. Good.

I am watching the Celtics Calves game from friday night. I just got to half time, and I have just about finished off a Stone IPA. Both of these have been great! The game has been post season like in atmosphere- and not just first round kind of post season, but like conference finals intensity. And who knows, this game could play a part in who wins the conference finals. And the beer has been great. The hops have been exactly what I wanted. This is exactly the right environment for a solid, inexpensive IPA.

UPDATE: During the second half I drank a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. This is another reasonably priced beer. Although it is not classified as an IPA, it has alot of IPA characteristics, and it too was exactly what I wanted to follow that Stone IPA and close out the game. Overall this was a great game to watch. The Celtics bench really seemed to show that it could win an another NBA championship.

Both of theses brews I have had before and previously gave so-so reviews as I recall. Both of these were also purchased way back in December, and have been chillin' in my fridge since then. I don't know if it was the fact that I didn't expect too much, the fact that I was watching a basketball game and not focusing on every nuance of the beer, or the fact that these beers have had a chance to mellow out, but I really enjoyed both of these beers significantly more than the last time I had them. I guess it may also be that Celtics wins make everything taste a little sweeter. :-)