Bigfoot is big taste

I decided to use the Aaron strategy for drinking the Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ales. As I mentioned before, I picked up a 6 pack of this barelywine from Toast the other day, and I had a quick phone conversation with Aaron afterwords. His strategy for drinking/aging these is to drink the first one immediately, another 6 months out, another 1 year out, and then hold them for consecutive years after that. I like this strategy because it allows me to drink one now to satisfy by curiosity about how it tastes, and then see how it changes as it ages. I will probably give away at least one of them, so that means I will have a supply of 2009s to drink until 2012. This is a strategy I should probably also implement with the Old Stock ales as well. Since both of these are release yearly (I believe) and include the year prominantly on the bottle. However, this also accentuates my need for a better beer storage solution.

Since this beer IS on my "want to try" list, I was excited to obtain it, and eager to give the first one a try. While at Toast I had two separate people tell me how good it is, both saying something along the lines of "once you try that, you won't want anything else." So at 11:45am on Saturday I couldn't wait any longer. Melissa warmed up half a Red Robin Royal burger (the one with a fried egg on it YUM!) and some fries, and I turned on the Celtics game I had Tivoed from a few days ago.

When I first popped the top I could immediately smell the malty goodness of this beer. I don't know why it was that noticeable, but this was the first beer I have ever gotten such a distinct aroma from after simply opening the bottle. The pour was nice, tho lacking in much head. Although, I don't really mind that much. Especially on a beer like this that already has a good aroma, I don't really feel the need for alot of head. I don't really like DRINKING the foam anyway. So no disapointment there. My first mouthful was strong with good maltyness, but a little overwhelming on the hops! It left a bit of a bitter aftertaste. Not so much as to be bad, but more than I anticipated, and more than I wanted. The flavor, however, because significantly more balanced as the beer warmed up. This is a fairly heavy beer with an alcohol content around 9.5%, so it lasted for a while. After a bit of warming this beer had a much richer and more well balanced taste to it. I wouldn't say this is the only beer I want, but I certainly will be getting this in the future. At less than $2 a bottle, this is a real good beer at a real good price!

Although I clearly could use a better way to store my beer, one that would not use up valuable fridge space that we need, and that could be set at the proper temperature for beer, I don't anticipate this happening in the near future. Until we move in about two and a half years, I don't for see me getting another beer fridge. However, when serving wine there is a "15 minute rule" that I have heard of. I think this may work well for beer as well. The 15 minute rule for wine is put your red wine in the refrigerator 15 minutes before serving, and take your white wines out 15 minutes before serving. This gets them much closer to the ideal serving temperatures for each. Since beer is suppose to be served cold, next time I will try taking the white wine approach and letting it sit out for 15 minutes before pouring.

Inspired to write

Tonight I finally got a chance to stop by Toast and pick up a 6-pack of their beer of the month: Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale (2009). This is on my list of beers I wany to try. It is another barley wine, a style I have really been digging lately. Last friday I went to a beer tasting at Wine World and really liked the Uinta Anniversary Barley Wine (so I bought two- one for soon, one for later). Now I have a number of different barley wines aging in my fridge- and a few out of my fridge because I ran out of room. I really need to get a better place to store the beer that I am letting age. (I need a nice cool basement!)

Anyhow, in addition to the barley wine, I had a number of other good beers at the Wine World beer tasting. I had the Lion Imperial Lager, which was good for a lager- worth the purchase of a whole bottle to taste later. I also had an Uinta Angler's Pale Ale. A nicely hopped ale, also worthy of a bottle for later review. I also purchased a bottle of Morland Hen's Tooth. They are a respectable company, and I liked the taste I had of this. But the best suprise at the tasting was the Founder's Double Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Stout. This stuff was great! I really thought it capture the taste that I am looking for when I SMELL coffee. The part I don't really like about coffee is how much of a letdown the flavor is compaired to the smell, but this stuff tasted much like what I thought coffee should taste like based on the smell. Very full and rich with smooth complex flavors. At least, thats what I got from my tiny little sample cup (after tasting 11 other beers). I definately bought one of these as well. I hope that it turns out as well in the full sized edition as my sample did.

I didn't take any notes at the beer tasting. I really like the beer tasting because I get a good idea of weather the beers are ones I want to try or ones I would rather pass on. However, I don't think that I really get a good sence of what the beer really taste like from 1-2 mouthfulls. Especially since I am going from one sample to the next, which I am sure effects how I taste each one. They do set it up so that you go from light to dark, but still, I don't get that solid experience with each that you get from sitting down to a full glass and enjoying it. And that is just fine. It is a great way for me to sample some brands I haven't heard of and would be reluctant to try otherwise. I never would have bought a Hen's Tooth without the tasting. Now that I know I won't hate it, I don't have a problem giving a full bottle a try and making a real determination based on that.

The beer tasting at Wine World cost $4, but they give you $3 off your purchase if you get 6 bottles of the featured beers. Since they always have enough good stuff that I want to get a full bottle to try, its basically $1 for a tasting. I wish they had these more than once every 3-4 months, but I guess I would just go broke if they did! As it is, I spent basically all of my spending cash for the month between Wine World last week and Toast today. But my fridge is definitely stocked full!

Hangin' at the Hintons

After a great trip to Massachusetts we headed down for a second Christmas in Valdosta. Unfortunately Valdosta is fairly devoid of good drinking establishments, however, John brought down some good beers, and we were able to supplement his supply with a trip to the local liquor store (Five Points Liquor) which turned out to have a decent beer selection for a liquor store. I bought a brew from Avery called "Hog Heaven." I was really hoping for something like an Old Stock, or a good barleywine (because I was still thinking of that great brew I got from Aaron). Since it clamed to be a barleywine on the label, this one seemed like it might fit the bill.

The aroma was indeed remenecent of an old ale style drink, however, as the head settled down it gave off a piney hops smell. The beer was clearer than I expected, but still looked enticing. The first taste had a strong hoppy flavor, but still fairly mellow overall. Good, but not exactly what I was in the mood for. Over time the flavor tended to mellow out a bit as it got warmer, but still was defined mainly by the hops. However, there was a noticable sugaryness to the beer, which I think accounted for the smoother mellow taste, but did not cover a fairly bitter aftertaste.

I do really enjoy some good hops, but I typically like a smooth finish. The Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA is my prototypical example of a hoppy beer that I really like. Unfortunately what I really was craving was an Old Stock Ale, and this just wasn't it. Since then I have purchased a 4 pack of Old Stock to let mellow in my fridge.

New POST about some new BEER

I know its been a while since I updated the blog, but don't worry, I am sure I will be much less busy in a few months. :-) Seriously tho, I have been pretty busy, but I will try to make some more time to write up the backlog of reviews I have.

Today is a short one about a great brew. Just 2 days after the Publick house trip we found ourselves back at Aarons. But this time it was for the primary beer I had been waiting to try, the just-barely-aged-enough-to-open Sleet Street Ale from Beals Brothers Brewing. This was a scotch ale roughly estimated to be about 7% alcohol.

There were a number of us there trying this beer, so we opened 2 bottles and split it about 5 ways. Aaron had some neat tasting glasses that looked a bit like squat pint glasses. I thought they were neat.

The pour was nice, leaving a good head. It had a rich dark caramel color to it, and gave off a nice malty smell. The flavor reminded me of Old Stock Ale, but a little crisper, and with more carbonation. This beer had a flavor that I associate with a good barleywine. Aaron recommened that this beer be aged another two to three months to really let the flavors mellow out. Aaron let me take a bottle of this home with me, and I was fortunately able to get it all the way back to Augusta without it breaking. I am letting it age in my refridgerator until after Paul is born, and then I will crack it open when there are some other beer conesures around. I am looking forward to getting to taste this again!

This was really one of my favorite beers I had over the whole break. As a resault of drinking this beer, I am now planning to eventually invest in some equipment and start brewing some of my own beer.

From Publick House to Private Tavern

Christmas was great, and filled with much good beer. And here is the good news- Aaron suggested that I get a beer journal, which I did, so I can actually go back weeks later and still write accurate reviews of the beers. See, I learned from Thanksgiving!

The inaugural use of the beer journal came the day after Christmas when I went with Aaron, Jeremy and Brant to the Publick House in Boston. Aaron tells me that this is one of the top places for beer in Boston. They had a Chimay sign hung out front, definitely a good "sign." Upon entering the establishment, we were greeted with warmth (Boston is cold in the winter) and a hostess who asked for a cell phone number to call us when a table was ready. I had never seen that before, but I think that is neat. Saves them the money of having to maintain those stupid coaster pagers that just get in the way. Does anyone ever actually use them as a coaster??

This place was set up primarily as a restaurant, but did have a reasonably sized bar for all their taps. We waited near the bar, as all the seats were taken already. It was a bit awkward being huddled in a little circle with our jackets on next to tables of people eating while we sipped our brews and waited for a table. But I guess in a place like Boston were the real estate is limited, you just can't have a big bar/waiting area.

At the bar I decided to order a belgian. Since I am still developing a taste for the belgians I like to start with them, and then finish with something I know I will really like. I went with the Allagash Curieux, an 11.5% belgian ale from Allagash Brewing in Portland, ME ($6). Part of the reason I picked it was because it was from a New England brewery, so I thought it might not be available back home in GA. I have since learned that Allagash is a fairly large company, and can easily be obtained in most decent beer stores in GA. But hay, thats fine, a good beer is still a good beer, even if it is readily available.

The aroma of the Curieux was just want I have come to expect from belgians. I don't really seem to be able to notice any differences between the different brews in this regard. The taste started semi smooth, transitioning nicely into the characteristic sweetness of a belgian. I believe that this distinctive sweet taste is from the belgian candy sugar used in the process, not from the yeast, but I could be wrong on that. The finish on the beer was nicely bitter. I assume that this is the hops, but it is subtle, and definitely not an American IPA style hops. Overall this was a decent beer, although I can't say I could really differentiate it much from other decent belgians like the Unibroue or the Sweetwater Creeper that I have had. I enjoyed it for sure, but I was looking forward to an old ale or an IPA with my dinner.

We were seated after I was about a third of the way into my Curieux. Getting to take off my jacket and settle in certainly help me enjoy the experience more. After sitting down, it appears that I got one of the better chairs. Aarons chair was particularly well used looking, and I think Jeremy was just on a stool or something. I have to admit, I did pick my chair because it looked comfy, and I remember being not so comfy at the Brick Store a week or so earlier.

For dinner I ordered the burger and fries. When I finished my Curieux I ordered a MoJo IPA, a 6.8% IPA from the Boulder Brewing Co. in Colorado ($5.50). The initial aroma was a classic American IPA smell of piney hops. On tasting I found it to have a distinct hoppy flavor, but very well balanced into a smooth flavor. The hops were piney, but nicely blended with a maltyness that I found very reminiscent of a Double IPA like the dogfish head 90 minute IPA. Dinner was decent, but the burger certainly was not as good as the one I had at the Brick Store. I decided to put some extra salt on my fries (yum!). After having the extra salt, however, the hoppy characteristic of the IPA changed dramatically. To my post salted palate, the hops became the most paramount flavor, overriding the smooth maltyness I had tasted previously! This is something to remember for the future. Aaron also mentioned later that the hardness or softness of the water you use to make your beer has a big difference on the taste. I can see why; adding the salt ions really changed the way my palate tasted this beer. If it had been made with hard water that included the ions, the harsh hops would be inescapable. Very interesting. Overall I thought the Mojo IPA was great. Definitely would get this again some time.

Brant got some beer that I do not remember the name of, but he let me try a sip and it definitely had an old ale/barleywine flavor to it. From then on all I wanted was something else from this vein. unfortunately I did not get any that night.

After we finished dinner, we planned to head over to a decent beer store and see what they had. However, as we were going to cross the street we noticed a beer store on the corner name "Publick House Provisions." Interesting. Very interesting. We did not pass up the opportunity to check this place out. The store was fairly small, just a long checkout counter on one wall, coolers down the opposite wall, and a single island of shelves in the middle. However, they only carried top notch beers! They didn't even have any of the common craft brew stuff here, they reserved all their shelf space for seasonal specials and other hard to come by beers. I got a Brooklyn Brewery Local 1, which Aaron had previously recommended. I also got a Great Divide Hibernation Ale, and best of all I finally found a Dogfish Head 120 IPA! A beer not available in GA, and one I have not seen anywhere else. The down side was price. They didn't have any prices obvious on the beers, and they were not cheap. But all and all, an excellent find.

With my wallet empty, we headed back to Aaron's house. Aaron offered to let us look through some of his beer stash and have another beer. We headed down into Aaron's basement where the beer fridge is to make some selections. While down there we also managed to convince him to let us drink the beers in the comfort of the semi finished, and nicely warmed local. Beals' Tavern 1.0 as some might call it. The Beals' Tavern certainly has some room for growth and improvement. They apparently can only have either bottles OR taps, but not both. On this day they were sporting bottles. Also, they don't have an actual bar to sit at, so the seating is a little hap hazard. However, the selection is excellent, and the atmosphere is warm and cozy. Sitting around with friends you just get that comfortable "home" feeling. If this place was closer I would make this a regular hangout spot of mine, especially on C's game nights. I believe that carry the away games on the radio. We ignored the single protester who felt that the Tavern was too run down and should be closed off to visitors.

At the Tavern I had a Heavy Seas' Peg Leg Imperial Stout, an 8% brew. This beer poured a nice dark color like you would expect a stout to be. The head was fairly small, but I tend to expect that from bottled beers these days. The taste was primarily the classic stout flavor- dark beer, some chocolate/coffee hints. It had a solid maltyness to it as well, but it didn't have a whole lot of body. It was certainly not a big "meal" type consistency that people often describe stouts as being. It was a little heavier than a Guiness, but really not to heavy. String taste, but crisp, and not lingering. The aftertaste was a little bitter, as expected from a dark beer like this. Overall, a good beer.

This night was pretty much the pinnacle of my Christmas beering experience. I did get some really good stuff at Trappeze at the very end of the break, but I think this night wins out overall because of the friends I so rarely get to see, and the acquisition of the 120 minute IPA.

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.