Such a bad idea

So, no matter what your friends tell you, don't order two twenty ounce glasses of 10% abv beer. I am a lucky man and my evening of drinking only ended in me being overly loud and verbose. two twenty ounce beers, at 10%, is roughly 6 and 2/3 beers. In two glasses. Yikes.

To be fair, they were delicious. At my new favorite pub (apparently), Victoria Gastro, they have a Sunday evening happy hour which is half off draft beer. You can get high quality beer for less then a five spot. This particular evening, I was torn between Heavy Seas Below Decks Barleywine that was Bourbon barrel aged, and Cabernet barrel aged. Truly a dilemma for the ages.

As stated above, after some encouragement from my friends, I ended up getting both. Now, I've never tried Below Decks before, but I could tell right away that it was a pretty tasty barleywine. The dark fruits and candy sugar make it quite drinkable, despite it's high alcohol content. The beer itself isn't particularly adventurous for a barleywine, but the barrel aging changes the game.

Now, a lot of breweries are doing barrel aging - it's sort of the cool new thing. And I for one couldn't be more thrilled. I love barrel aging - it imparts delicious flavors and mellows beers pleasantly. I expected to really like the bourbon barrel aging, but I was surprised to find that I favored the Cabernet barrel aged variety.

The Bourbon variety had some tasty notes of oak and vanilla, but a sharply alcohol bourbon taste combined with the high alcohol content to make the beer a little too boozy for me. The Cabernet variety, on the other hand, had a really nice acidity and tartness that worked well with the dark fruits and masked the heavy booziness of the beer.

Overall, I'd highly recommend giving either of them a try, as they were both very impressive beers. But not both. Even if you can get 20 oz. of both for under ten bucks. Pick your favorite or share with a friend, but even one of these beers will end in a cab ride home, or bringing a DD.

Collaboration is good

So, I was at the neighborhood late-night booze shop. Thankfully, even the super late night stores in the area carry interesting craft beers. I grabbed a bottle of Stone's smoked porter, but I'm saving that for a later date. What grabbed me though, and didn't let go, was a collaboration beer between stone, dogfish head, and victory brewing. A saison, it proudly proclaimed to have been brewed with sage, rosemary, thyme, and parsley.

The beer is called Saison du Buff. Buff stands for Brewers United for Freedom of Flavors, and you can see why. The first smell is pungently spicy, and the taste doesn't do any less. You're hit with a very yeasty flavor, and then with all the aforementioned herbs, shocking your taste buds. This is beer, not a turkey dinner.

The beer is pleasant, and dry, but I felt like it didn't necessarily follow through. The taste is powerful upfront, but then kind of drops off without a noticeable or appreciable aftertaste. Still, for such an interesting beer, I find it hard to judge it too harshly. Obviously there are also some malts, with a pleasant sweetness countering the mild citrusy hops.

Overall, worth a try. This is an *odd* beer, mostly in a good way, and I doubt we'll see another beer like it for a long time. Give it a try, at a little under $4 a bottle, you can't cry too much if you don't like it.

This one took way too long

Seriously, it's been a looong time since I've tried more than a few of these beers. I apologize to my loyal reader (there's one out there, right? :-P) but I just haven't found the time to sit down and hash my thoughts out.

We'll start with the best of the bunch - I was at Victoria Gastro Pub, quickly becoming a favorite of mine, debating between an Oyster Stout and a Saison, when I saw that there was an odd beer. It was a Strawberry Weisse, a "short batch" from Smuttynose. It was described as a sour strawberry beer, and I was hooked. I love Smuttynose, and I liked the idea of trying something limited edition.

The beer was fantastic. It poured a rich, ruby red, and was deliciously sour with a nice flavor of strawberries. This was no thin wheat beer with a hint of fruit - it was a punch in the face. To be fair, I desperately love all things sour, so be prepared to deal with a lot of sour. A relatively uncomplicated beer, I was nonetheless wholly impressed by their ability to make a strong and delicious fruit beer. Fruli strawberry can suck it - this is far and away the best fruit beer I've ever had.

Now, I also feel like I've made a mistake somewhere, because apparently I've never written about Sierra Nevada's Summerfest. This seems wrong, as it's quickly become one of my favorites for summer. Nonetheless, I'll give you my impression, and hopefully you'll forgive any accidental doubling.

Their Summerfest is a lager, but this is no bland golden beer. It has a very nice clean, crisp, and refreshing taste with floral and grassy notes, with a pleasantly assertive hop flavor rounding it out. Not too bitter, it's excellent for hot days and lazing around, with an interesting character but light enough to drink more than a few. According to beer advocate, the beer is a Czech Pilsner, but seeing as the bottle calls it a lager, I'm sticking to that.

I also had a chance, oddly enough, to try their Celebration ale. It's a winter beer from them, but apparently it'd been hiding in the back of my friend, The Culinator's, fridge. Classified as an American IPA, I admit to having my doubts. The beer is excellent - darker and spicy, with a nice hop profile. However, it just doesn't taste as bitter as I expect for an IPA. There are also some sweet malts in there as well, making a nicely balanced beer. Tasty and delicious, although misclassified for my money.

Now, the last beer was good, but a little surprising. While at the Perfect Pour, I picked up a mixed pack of Star Hill. On the box was listed the numerous awards each beer had won - multiple medals at the great American beer festival. Needless to say, I was excited.

Star Hill's Amber Ale is good. It's a nice copper red, with flavors of toffee and caramel, as well as some bready malts. Really though, it was pretty boring. I want to reiterate - it wasn't bad. But it wasn't terribly interesting, especially for a medal winning beer. Not a bad session beer, as I had a couple without evening noticing it, but nothing to write home about.