Beer is relaxing

This is just a fact. Beer can be very relaxing. Much like a hot bath, or a nice cigar, a cold beer can really offset a tiring day. Case in point - today I was sick and tired and exhausted, and just generally pissed off. What at? Nothing, really. Just pissed.

So I poured myself a glass of Troeg's Pale Ale. I've had troeg's twice and been impressed both times, so I was intrigued.

The beer poured golden, and that cold crisp first sip just relaxed every muscle. I sighed and quaffed more, enjoying the simple pleasure of the beer, to the exclusion of all else.

The beer itself, apart from magic relaxing qualities, was quite good. A pretty typical pale ale, the citrusy hops were nicely balanced by some sweet malts. Not a terribly complex beer, but just really simply and tasty. And sometimes thats all I want. Not a beer that I have to consider and attacks me from all angles. Just a nice simple beer at the end of an exhausting day.

Definitely something I'd look to for a session beer - worth a try for both the casual beer drinker and the regular.

Stone's brilliance

Good god. I had originally planned to consolidate my posts, but this isn't possible. This beer was so good that it deserves it's own post. I've written before about Stone's Smoke Porter with Chipotle, but the other night I got a full 12oz pour of it. And good god. There's a reason that I like that new bar, Alewife, as much as I do.

The flavor starts out, rich and dark, with roasted malts, some smokiness, and a slight coffee flavor. And then you're hit the face, WHAM, with rich spicy flavor. It's not overwhelming, and it blends nicely with the dark flavors.

The best part though, is after the sip. After you've swallowed the beer, and are resting, you feel a little tingling. It's the spiciness of the beer in the back of your throat, providing a deliciously heated, but not extremely spicy finish.

This is no hot sauce beer, no gimmick. This is a beer with an awesome flavor profile, that will knock your socks off. Or at least, it did mine anyway. This beer is up there with the Italian Chili Pepper stout, although sadly no less rare.

Really just a fantastic beer. My hat is off to stone for their innovation and creativity. Hope your beers are just as good, Cheers!

Dogfish and Alewife

Seriously, in case you can't tell from all my posts, I couldn't be more thrilled about Alewife opening. It's utterly fantastic to have a beer bar of that quality that close. I love it.

Specifically, tonight I was enjoying their featuring of several dogfish head beers. I was having trouble deciding what to get - between several old stone taps and the dogfish beers, they were featuring a lot of beers I wasn't terribly sold on, or had tried before.

Luckily, my conundrum was quickly resolved. Standing at the bar, I was chatting with the Dogfish rep about a dark beer that I'd seen people sipping. In response, she handed me a glass and said "Yeah, it's on Sam". The beer turned out to be their limited edition Bitches Brew, a tribute to Miles Davis. The beer is very dark, with a cocoa colored head. The flavor is roasted malts and cocoa, as per the usual. The shocker, though, comes with the finish.

The beer is actually flavored with honey, so the finish is devilishly subtle and sweet. It's not a cloying bite of sweetness, but it's a deliciously sweet finish, which contrasts nicely to the dark and roasted flavors of the beer. It dovetails nicely with some sweet fruit notes, and just provides a fantastic finish to the beer.

Although I thought I was done, I was apparently wrong. Padre, who I was having my beer with, had orderd a glass of My Antonia, Dogfish's continually hopped imperial pilsner. However, the waiter came back after he'd gotten his beer, and apologized. Apparently the bar had poured two, instead of one. Whoops! So, that's how I got my second free beer of the night.

My Antonia was surprisingly good. I'm not a huge hop fan, but the hop flavors really brought out the crisp, clean flavor of the beer, and the ending wasn't terribly bitter. The beer itself brought out flavors of grains and breads - but in such a light way that they didn't bog down the beer. Overall a really elegant version of a Pilsner, full of flavor.

So here's my shout out to Alewife and to Dogfish. To good beer (and to free beer)! May you have the same fortune, and go enjoy a beer!

The Great Pumpkin Beer Taste-off

I think part of the fun of beers is comparing them. A big reason that I started this blog was to start writing down my impressions, thoughts, and feelings on beer so I could recall them, and compare various beers.

With that in mind, my friends and I decided to go a pumpkin beer tasting. I'm not a huge pumpkin beer fan, but there are so many out right now, it seemed silly to do otherwise.

Now, I should preface this by saying that my favorite pumpkin beer was tried well before the tasting. I managed to get my hands on a bottle of Heavy Seas Great'er Pumpkin - their normal pumpkin beer that is aged in bourbon barrels. It was delicious. The bourbony vanilla really complemented the pumpkin spice flavor of the beer. However, this beer is fairly rare, so we weren't able to get another bottle of the tasting, despite Rouge driving damn near an hour to try and find some.

Of the beers we tried, I didn't really have a least favorite. The Heavy Seas was a little too boozy for my taste, but in it's defense, we didn't let it cool long enough. The flavor was all ginger and alcohol, with none of the lovely lightness of it's greater cousin.

Sam Adams was a tasty, light, and sweet beer - it tasted the "beeriest" of all the beers, but in doing so it lacked any serious pumpkin flavor. I like Sam Adams, but I realize now that a lot of their beers are kind of the entry level version of the microbrews. They make good beer, but it's not terribly adventurous - they're a middle ground between macro and micro, between Bud and Dogfish.

Speaking of Dogfish, their Punkin Ale had a very strong pumpkin spice flavor, which was tasty, but the beer itself lacked body. It was fairly thin, which didn't give the beer the sort of hearty backbone that a great pumpkin beer seems to need in my opinion. Still, fairly tasty.

Saranac, surprisingly, came out with one of the favorites of the evening. I thought that the flavor was a little herbaceous, but the flavor was indisputably pumpkin-ish, and although it wasn't terribly complex, it did the job of being a pumpkin beer.

My favorite of the evening, and a popular choice, was Southern Tier's Pumking. A full body, flavors of ginger and nutmeg and cinnamon, and an interestingly sweet finish made this beer taste like spice cake to some, pumpkin pie to others. Either way, a very, very solid beer, and winner of the evening. Highly recommended that you give this beer a shot, even if you're not a huge pumpkin beer fan.

Pure Wine and Stone at Alewife

Sometimes you're just lucky enough to have a couple of good places to eat, and this is clearly one of those times. I've had back to back weekends of glorious dining experiences, at both Alewife in Baltimore and Pure Wine Cafe in Ellicott City.

Alewife hosted a Stone Brewing Company event, offering 40 different Stone beers, many rare and old. I was floored by almost everything I tried that day. Best of the best would have been Stone's smoked porter with chipotle pepper. Similarly, their Mad Man Mix - a blend of 10 different years of their russian imperial stout, their sublimely self righteous ale, and some chipotle pepper was spicy and delicious. Their Vertical Epic 07.07.07 aged in red wine barrels was also impressive, tangy and light, with full flavors. Finally, one of their best that flew under the radar for me was their bitter chocolate oatmeal stout. Extremely creamy and smooth, with a lot of excellent chocolate flavors, this was a big surprise.

I also tried their smoked porter with vanilla, which was good but couldn't compare to the one with chipotle pepper, their aged russian imperial stout and their russian imperial aged in bourbon, both of which were dark and delicious, but a little boozy at times. Overall it was a really excellent time, and the beers were fantastic.

I also lunched, the other day, at Pure Wine Cafe. On main street in Old Ellicott City, it's a tiny little bistro with an amazing menu. I had Dogfish head's festina peche, delicious as always, as well as a tasty white wine named Infamous Goose. Really though, the food stole the show. Kobe Beef meatball sliders, truffled fries with pepper aoli, my god. Just amazing.

Hope your weeks are full of good beer and good food - til next time! Cheers!