Check out the twins!

Alright, here it is, the FINAL thanksgiving beer that I will be reviewing. The Left Handed Brewing company's Twin Sisters Double IPA bomber. My favorite beer thus far has been the dogfish head 90 minute IPA, which is apparently a double IPA, so I was really looking forward to this one. As you can see, good head on this, light color, and I don't remember the aroma. I do remember being VERY pleased with this brew. The flavors where very smooth and mellow with a nice hoppy kick. But not the over powering hops of alot of the single IPAs. I also have some faint memory that the hops had a different characteristic than what I am used to, but I cannot remember anymore! UG! However, given how much I enjoyed this I will have no problem trying it again later! The only issue will be availability. I haven't really seen much if any left hand stuff down in Georgia, so I don't know when I will try it again. I am sure I will get a chance tho, as they seem to be a fairly large brewery.

Alright, thats (finaly) it for the thanksgiving crop of beers. It was definately a good holiday! Now, as my Christmas holidy is about half over, I am trying to do a better job of staying up to date on the postings. These last two posts where very fuzzy on any of the specifics that I like to keep track of.

Thanksgiving, a Belgian holiday??

Over thanksgiving I had the chance to get a couple of Unibroue belgians. I drank the two dark ones that I had in addition to some of another bomber that John had. I am still not able to distinguish much between different belgian styled ales. However, I previously have not really enjoyed the belgian style too much. As I have more I am finding that I am enjoying them more. Thanksgiving was the first time I had one and honestly really enjoyed it. The Unibroues are a big name, and I guess there is a reason. I have a couple more Unibroue's at home to go through, and i will try to take better note of exactly what I taste and try to compair it to some of the belgians I have had since thanksgiving.

Beals Brewhouse?

UPDATE: Melissa read this and immediately pointed out that she thought she remembered the Dogfish Head being called "Immort Ale" not "Immortal Ale" A quick check of the picture shows that she was right. I have updated the references in this post.


I know I haven't finished all the thanksgiving beers yet, but I want to write a bit about some more recent beers I had before I forget about them. I am up here in Massachusetts for Christmas, and having a blast. I was able to go to a Celtics game with Aaron, where I enjoyed a Sam Adams winter brew. It was pretty good actually. The game was great (even tho it was a bit of a blow out), and overall just a fun time. Then we got to go back and Aaron showed me some of the beers he had on hand, and some of his beer making equipment. It sure did make me want to get into brewing!

After the tour we had a tasting of some Dogfish Head Immort Ale. This ale had a lot of good character, and definitely tasted like I would expect an ale to taste. Some "ales" I have had are so hopped that they taste more like an IPA, with the hops being the overwhelming component of the brew. The immort ale, however, tasted nice and complex. Actually, according to the label it tasted "luscious, complex, this smooth, full-bodied ale reveals interwoven notes of maple, vanilla & oak." I would agree that it was complex and smooth. I didn't really think it was all that full bodied, but it was an 11% beer. I guess it just TASTED lighter to me. I also couldn't pick out any of those specific flavors described, but it did have a nice bouquet of different tastes.

The finish on this beer was very sweet to me. I think this was less noticeable after we started eating pizza, but I still would have liked to have a light hoppy finish instead of the sweet finish. However, I would not have wanted the hops to be very noticeable till the finish. Overall this was a very nice beer. I had not seen this anywhere before, so I was very glad to get a chance to try this. Thanks Aaron!

After the late dinner with Laura's great pizza and the immortal ale, we watched some TV and had a chance to try a Beal's home brew! This was an older batch that Aaron still had some of left, however he warned me ahead of time that it didn't really come out as nice as they had hoped. This tasted like a light ale to me. The flavor was decent, tho a little bit light. I thought the finish had a bit of an apply flavor to it. Overall not bad, but I agree that it wasn't the best. If I were buying this at a store next to some dogfish head, etc, I would probably not rebuy. However, I have been promised a taste of the next batch, which is a different brew and should be much better. I am certainly looking forward to that!

Schlafly didn't bother me at all

The Schlafly brews were the local St. Louis brews that John recommended to me. I got 4 of them in total. Three of them I drank in St. Louis, and the fourth I drank after we got back. The first one I drank was the octoberfest beer. I am really not sure what makes a beer an octoberfest beer, but it sounded "wintery" to me. This beer had a good complex fruity taste. I definately would have called it an Ale if I had to label it by taste alone. Not too much hops, but I am pretty sure there were some hops there on the finish.
Next up was the stout. I really don't remember much about this one. I want to say it tasted like a classic dark beer, but really I don't remember. I will certainly have to give this one another try if I get a chance.
The third Schlafly, and last one that I had in St. Louis, was the APA. Once again, a classic ale taste, but much fruitier than the dogfish head and stone beers I am used to. The character was very complex at the begining and hoppy at the finish. I am probably getting all these mixed up, but I can say for certain that this was another good beer.
The last beer, the ESB, I had at home. I had this while Melissa was in Atlanta on a rotation and I was fending for myself. I made some good stake and potatoes, and had the ESB to cap it off. The entire meal was very good, and the beer certainly held its own. Again, very complex and fruity, much like the other two ales from Schlafly.
I realized while drinking these and compairing this with the Siera Nevada Celebration Ale that I had previously, I really enjoyed the complex flavors these ales had to offer. In addition, I noticed that the hops in these ales were not the piney styled hops that I am accustome to. I beleive that one of these beers, the APA I think, had hops that were distinctly more grapefruity than piney. I would have really liked to try an IPA from Schlafly to see how it compaired to the celebration ale and to the IPAs that I am more familiar with, especially in how the hops taste. I would like to have a highly hopped brew that also contains the complexities and initial sweetness that these ales had along with the less harsh, but still promanent hoppy finish. I think that the more I experience in the ale/IPA catagories, the more I appreciate a well balanced brew. I think that this is the reason that I have always enjoyed the double IPAs like the 90 minute IPA from digfish head. That beer has alot better balance of malts to hops, which really allows the beer to shine. I also like the smooth finish of the DIPAs. These Schlafly ales seemed to have alot of those characteristics, which made them very enjoyable to drink. They were not has heavy and creamy as a double IPA, but still had a good balance. Maybe some day we will have time to go tour the Schafly brewery and get some samples on tap. That would be a really neat experience.

Anyhow, to sum up, if you see Schlafly around, get some!

Let the celebration end...

Sorry to those of you who have been wearing out your F5 key just waiting for the updates about all those Thanksgiving beers I had. Good news, here they come! Or at least some of them. I was really excited about the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. I have heard good things about the Sierra Nevada Big Foot and Anniversary ales, so I figured this had to be pretty good. This was the first beer I had at Johns house. I opened it and poured it into a pint glass. As you can see from the pictures, the head on this was a little nuts! I have been getting very little head on most of my beers, so I didn't necessarily take the time to pour this one down the side for the first part, and then the middle for the end, I mainly just poured it straight into the center. Alright, maybe that was a bad idea. But it did settle down, and I was able to drink it. The aroma was definitely hoppy, very much like I would expect from an IPA. The taste definitely matched, having strong piney hops. Infact, like a number of the other less expensive single IPAs from stone and dogfishhead, the hops were good, but tended to hide alot of the other nuances. In the end all I really remember were hops. This beer was OK, but I will probably not get it again. It just wasn't anything outstanding in my mind.

Because I got a 6-pack of these, I have been able to try this beer a couple more times (twice more if I recall correctly). My impression stayed the same, even in the comfort of my own home, with no other distractions. Having talked about beer some more with Aaron, I have realized that my tastes ARE begining to change. I think that a few months ago this would have been just what I was looking for. Now, I demand more of an ale. I want some complexity to the taste, not just MASSIVE HOPS. (Tho, don't get me wrong, I still like my hops!) The Schlfly and Unibroues I had later on seemed to confirm that this is the case. You can look forward to reading about them soon!

Belated Thanksgiving

As promised, I am going to start posting about the thanksgiving beers I had. The family got together out in St. Louis this thanksgiving, and the fun times were had by all, as usual. John, our local inside man, had already scouted the area for the best beer locations. Given budget restrictions, and the fact that only about half the family are really interested in the beer, most of our beer experiences were limited to bottle purchases that were then consumed at home while enjoying the company of everyone. But this was certainly not a disappointment by any stretch!

The place for beer in St. Louis is the beer, wine, and liquor super store Friar Tucks. This place is like a grocery store filled with only alcoholic beverages. They do have a large section devoted to wines, liquors, and macro brew beers. However, their craft brewery section is quite extensive as well. They had alot of Belgians, and more exciting to me, a number of more local offerings. They are rated well over at BA, and I do agree with the high rating. They had home brew equipment as well. (Maybe after I graduate from MCG I will have the time/money to get into some home brewing.) The one major downside is that they only have a limited "singles" selection. (actualy, even worse, its a build your own 6-pack, so you can't just get 7 beers that you want.) I guess I am just really spoiled by Toast and there "break any 6-pack" policy.

I saw some celebration ale from Sierra Nevada that I had not seen before, so I was obligated to snag a 6-pack. (I have since then seen this here in GA, so maybe it wasn't so essential.) I also picked up a variety 4 pack of Unibroue Belgian ales. But I was most excited about a number of Schlafly offerings in the sigles section. According to John, Schlafly is suppose to be a good St. Louis brewery. I snagged an APA, an ESB, a stout, and an Octoberfest beer. I had to round out the 6-pack, so I picked up a thunderhead IPA and a Goose Island IPA. I know nothing about these last two, they just looked the most interesting of the available selection.

Later on we stop at another beer shop, I don't remember the name, and took a look around. This was a much smaller, more typical beverage store. They did sell singles, but once again, only a limited selected. I ended up picking up a Left Hand Twin Sisters double IPA bomber. A bit later in the weekend we also felt the need to head to the OTHER Friar Tucks location. I did not make any purchases there. (No more money, and I already had more beer than I could drink for the weekend!)

Anyhow, I will make a few post about my general thoughts on the beers. Keep checking back! (Or just use google reader and subscribe to the RSS feed.)

Laying the foundations for beer enjoyment

I am in Atlanta with Melissa during her last week of rotation here. I was hoping to check out a little bit of the beer scene, maybe stop by a beer store someplace around the apartment. Since Melissa is 6 month pregnant, and obviously isn't drinking, I didn't figure we would get to go to any of the really neat beer attractions. However, last night, Melissa comes home and SHE suggest going to The Brick Store! Check out the reviews, this place gets an A+ for good reason. Heck ya I want to go to the Brick Store.


Unfortunately I forgot my camera in Augusta (stupid me), so this is the best I got with melissa's point and shoot. It is a great little camera, but I can't really adjust most of the setting manually, and even if I could, its highest ISO is 400. So without a tripod I didn't have much hope at a decent shot here. But at least I remembered to try this time.

Alright, so, it took us a little over an hour to drive there (and about 20 minutes to drive back- I hate you Atlanta traffic), but once we got there, it was worth it. The place is a very cozy local establishment, and even on a tuesday night it was packed out. We had to wait about 20 minutes to get a table. No problem tho- we headed up the stairs in the back, and tucked away around the corner is their famous Belgian bar! There were a number of free bar seats located along the walls and pillars. Melissa and I grabbed a pair and I looked over the beer menu for the first time. To make my selection slightly easier I decided not to even look at the bottled beers. I went to get stuff on draught, I can get the bottles and drink them at home cheaper. They had a number of 750ml bottles of specialty Christmas beers running about $20 or more a peice. Out of my price range anyway!

But not to worry, the draught menu is extensive, and ever changing. You can check out their current list on their website. They had a number of winter beers and some really good looking Belgians. One that caught my eye was an apparently new Sweetwater brew called "Creeper." This Belgian boasted around 10% alcohol (as all the Belgians did), and was only $6 for a 16oz glass.

I have not really liked the Belgian beers in the past. Over thanksgiving I started to develope a taste for some of the Unibroue dark Belgians. The Creeper is a light Belgian, but boy was it good! I certanly did not taste the 10% alcohol. It was very smooth a creamy, and had the typical belgian flavor. It did not have much of the aftertaste that has turned me off of the Bengals in the past. Or maybe I am just becoming accustom to it. This was definitely an acceptable way to spend 20 minutes waiting for a table!


Note the St. Bernardus coaster. They also had abt. 12 on tap as well for $6.



I had not gotten to far into this beer when they got our table ready. We were seated down stairs at one of the round tables that use a large oak barrel for a base, and are surrounded by bar stools. This was actually one of the few things I didn't like. I never really felt comfortable at the table. The bar stool had no back, was not real comfortable to sit on, and didn't have a place for my feet. Plus, I kept hitting me knees on the barrel. In the future I may ask to wait until a regular table or booth opens up. I certainly wouldn't have minded waiting a while longer with my Belgian.

Melissa and I both ordered the burger. Interesting side note to this whole event: This is not the first time I have been to the brick store. Agnes Scott is within walking distance of the brick store, and Melissa and I have been there because "they have great burgers." Never heard anything about their beer. And at the time I equated beer with bud light, and didn't really have a desire to spend my limited funds on such things. Boy did I miss an opportunity then!



Anyhow, the burgers came, and were at least on par with the quality of beer. My burger with bacon and grilled onions was just fantastic. About half way through I ordered another beer, the Great Divide Hibernation Ale. If you will look to your left you will notice that it is one of the beers on my beer wish list! This was a really good winter brew. It was actually very similar in taste and texture to the great divide st. bridget's porter. It was lighter in color and slightly lighter in body, but in general it sported the same basic flavors. I think that the hibernation ale is more complex in taste. This may simply be due to it being on draught tho. Either way, it did not disappoint.



All in all this was a really special treat getting to go here. Thanks Melissa for a wonderful time! And if any of you guys are ever in the Decatur area, you need to make a point of stopping in.