Recap time!

So, with finals taking up all my time, I saved all my wonderful beer for a single blog post. Bear with me, this is gonna get a little long.

I wasn't planning to jump into ridiculous beers, but the first weekend of finals, I went home to find out my friends were having a horse racing party. Which race? I don't know! However, I was able to acquire some delicious beers, and branch out a little.

The first was Troeg's Sunshine Pils. This aggressive looking beer seemed like a nice compliment to a hot spring day. And oh it was. Nice and refreshing, with a pleasant hop taste that never overwhelmed the nice lemony citrus. I'm not necessarily a huge pilsner fan, but this was a great beer to sip on a hot day.

I also grabbed Flying Dog's Garde Dog. I've been more and more intrigued with Biere De Garde, a style similar to the Saison. This was a pretty meek version of the style though. Not bad by any means, but a little timid, especially for Flying Dog. A great introduction to the style though for any wary newcomers. It's generically yeasty and spicy, and not a lot more can be said.

I figured I'd be done with beer for a little while at least, crazy me. I had forgotten that I planned to go out for drinks after my first final with Sparrow, Stark, and The Girlfried (aka llama lady aka cat staring at a butterfly aka cutiesaurus rex). I was determined to try this little chic wine bar in Hamden called 13.5%

The place is awesome. I can't even pretend to be snobbish - it was a great mix of classy and relaxed. The food was also ridiculously good. I had stout braised short ribs that literally fell apart and melted in my mouth. Oh god so good. I also had their tiramisu, which was less impressive, but still very tasty.

Mostly though, I was excited to try some beer. I had noticed that they had Evolution's Lucky 7 Porter on tap. I'd been dying to try this for a while, and had even contemplated getting some for the horse racing party, but realized that porter and hot spring days don't mix for most people.

It was delicious, but a little disappointing towards the end. The beer started out as everything I'd ever loved about porters - full flavors of roasted malts, some nice coffee notes, and a little chocolate too, not too bitter and pleasantly light. Mmmm porters. The problem though came after a little while of sipping - maybe it was my excessive hunger, but the beer started to just have a sickly sweet aftertaste. It was just upsetting at the end of a dark, roasty beer to suddenly taste brown sugar everywhere. I feel like I owe this beer another try though, because I've heard so many good things.

What's better than Porter? More Porter! And luckily for me, I'd chosen a hell of a porter to follow up Lucky 7. I got my hands on a probably too expensive but oh so worth it bottle of Rogue's Double Mocha Porter. The taste is boozy, but oh so much coffee/chocolate mix, and roasted malts. I realize that this is how I describe every porter, but c'mon. Until someone does something crazy with the style, that is how you make a delicious porter. This one packs a ridiculous punch of espresso and dark chocolate, satisfying the biggest fan of coffee beer.

And I thought I was done until after finals. I'd had a good week of delicious beers, and was ready to relax until the end of finals. Oh, but I was wrong. I went home for mothers day, with ChefSister and DudeBrah, as well as the rest of the family. What I didn't expect was to be sent out to get beer. Oh, and beer I got.

Started out with a 6 pack of Allagash white, which was absolutely delicious. Allagash white might be my favorite wheat beer, always ridiculously refreshing and surprisingly flavorful. Oh, but that wasn't the end.

No, I was asked to get an oatmeal stout. Oh darn, right? And what did I find there, but a beer I'd been searching for - Rogue's Shakespeare Stout. I know I promised to avoid stouts, but what can I do? It pours a gorgeous black with a cocoa colored head. It's sweet oats and milk chocolate all the way through for this one.

And finally, just when I thought I was done, DudeBrah pulled out the Fordham Scotch Ale, with which to marinate the brats (which was amazing, by the way). I'd had my eye on Fordham's scotch ale for a while, as a big fan of scotch ales. It pours a nice copper brown, and smells all manner of smoke. The taste is standard scotch ale, peat moss, smoke, and some sweet fruits. Really a great example of scotch ales, if not too exciting - think of it as a good mid point.

Finally, last but far from least, I saved a real mad man for my last finals beer. I received from a friend at law school a bottle of Samichlaus. For those who don't know, it's a famous Barleywine that is barrel aged and bottle aged, and is basically a wine among beers.

it pours a gorgeous cherry wood red, with little to no head. The first smell is all alcohol and a cloyingly sweet note of candied sugar and licorice. The taste follows up with a sharp shock of alcohol that warms nicely and tastes of cherries and raisins, and maybe some plum. Not even a hint of hops to be found, but the abundant malts more than make up for it, with a surprisingly sweet (molasses? syrup?) aftertaste despite the booziness.

The beer is a little overpowering at first, but as it warms it settles into a delicious desert of a beer. Not that I've tried it before, but I'd put this up against Port any day of the week for a nice after dinner drink. One is enough though - and then some. At 14% abv, you'll want to sip this one nice and slow.

So yeah. My alcohol infused, ridiculous finals week and a half. Yikes. Glad to be done, sad to see those delicious beers disappear. Until next time!

Series of Sam (4 of 6)

You know, the problem with constantly having good beers is that eventually you become kind of inured to the whole thing. As much as I love reviewing beers, sometimes it's nice to just sit back and enjoy the beers, without having to worry about flavor profiles.

Over spring break, I got to enjoy Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Allagash White, and Stoudt's Fat Dog stout, all of which were delicious. However, I had these while hanging out with friends and being social. And as much as I enjoyed them, I must shamefully admit to not having put much more thought into them than "damn! this is a delicious beer! I should drink more of it..."

However, luckily for me, this kind of exhaustion doesn't last. As you saw earlier this week I'm right back into the swing of things. Now, I only intended to review one beer tonight, but I ended with two, which is just such a darn shame.

The beer I intended, as above, was another from the Sam Adams mix pack. I'm saving their delicious cream stout for last, but I wanted a beer I could reliably enjoy, so the noble pils had to wait as well. Hence, I went with their ubiquitous Boston Lager.

It pours light golden, with supririsingly little head for a beer whose commercials always feature suds going freaking everywhere. The smell was tough to place, but is one I instantly associate with their Boston Lager and Ale. It's dark, and kind of malty. The beer, if anything, is more so. The taste is dark, maybe chocolate or caramel, and pleasantly malty, with an almost bready flavor.

This beer is pretty much the definition of a fallback beer, good for dinner or sipping with friends, but isn't exactly a thrill ride. If you haven't tried it, shame on you. If you have, it's a solid beer to have on hand for when that crazy beer you're trying ends up tasting like suck.

Speaking of a slightly more crazy beer, I had the good fortune of grabbing a brew with The Parental this evening at Pratt Street Ale House. A typical favorite, I was deciding between their delicious porter and scotch ale, when a new beer caught my eye. It was called Biere De Garde, and was their take on the French farmhouse ale.

Intrigued, I ordered myself a glass. It pours dark amber/reddish. The taste is delicious fruits (maybe cherries?) nicely mixed with a citrusy hop note. Rounding it out, thanks I imagine to the Belgian yeast, is a certain spice flavor that runs undercurrent to the rest of the beer. It's a very tasty beer, but I'm not sure I could share my focus with anything else - it's a holds-its-own kind of beer.

Ah good beer. May I always be cursed with such a bounty of delicious drinks. Cheers!

-The Unabashed Ungourmet