Something to distract me during finals

Seriously, this is why I'm writing this. The more I focus on outlining my notes, the stronger my headache grows and the more I suspect my eyes might pop out and go scampering off.

For those of you lucky enough to love things other than the legal profession, you may not know what outlining is. Basically, because law school doesn't give multiple grades, you have one exam. One giant test, covering an entire semester's worth of knowledge, which will determine your grade in this class. Outlining is the process whereby you take the notes you took in class, and turn them into some manner of organized mass about the material for class.

Saintly teachers will allow you to bring these into exams, from whence you can check and receck your definitions of trespass to chattels. Sadly, evil, evil professors will sometimes refuse to let you use these outlines. Or your textbook. In case of that, I recommend lots of studying. Or, if you're me, slacking off with my roommates and having a good beer.

In this case, I would say go for something dark and filling. Your impulse, in these times of lovely weather, may be to reach for something crisp, refreshing, and maybe even a little hoppy. And normally I'd be with you. Currently chilling in my fridge are Flying Dog's Snake Dog IPA, and Sierra Nevada's Glissade. I'm even dreaming a little of Troeg's Sunshine Pils and Sierra's Summerfest.

However! Be swayed not by these tempting brews. You're about to settle in for several hours of mind numbing horror as you re-read, re-interpret, translate, and organize the mass of horror known as your (my) notes. A good beer for this would be Great Divide's Yeti, preferably the espresso aged variety. Lacking that however, I'll go ahead and pimp the beer I'm currently stocked of in my fridge - Breckenridge's Vanilla Porter.

Now, when I first tried this porter, I was sad. It tasted...watery. It was sort of dark and a little roasty, but pretty underwhelming. Especially for a beer performing well in Washington Post's Beer Madness 2011 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/foodanddining/features/2011/beer-madness/). But, as they tell me, patience is indeed a virtue. Like a wonderful flower in springtime, as this beer warmed it's flavors opened up into a wave of delicious tastes. Vanilla bean fresh off the...vine? (orchid seed pod, thanks Sparrow). Chocolate, and wonderful mild chocolate malts. Mmmmmm. Truly a beer for me to brace myself against the madness of outling and help me last long into the evening, tapping frantically.

For those of you done with exams, cheers to you. For those about to take them, good luck. And for those without exams, will kindly die in a fire :-P. Hope you're all having a good spring out there - I'm curious to know if you have a favorite spring beer (Corona, classified as pisswater, doesn't count. Even with lime. Especially with lime). Leave it in the comments if you've got a favorite/have a new beer you think I should try. Cheers!

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!

The Alewife

So, admittedly, this post will be more about a bar than about beer. But really, when it's a craft beer bar that's just opened up in Baltimore, I hope you'll forgive me.

Alewife is a new place, just opened near the Hippodrome. With 40 beers on tap, I had to check this place out. The building is great - high ceilings and big windows take advantage of what was once a bank. The beer list is impressive, as hoped, with a good mix of styles and breweries, both local and foreign.

The food is a little expensive, with main dishes running in thwe $20-$30 range, but they have a fantastic selection of sides, small plates, and appatizers, which are less expensive but equally delicious. For the record, I reccomend the duck fat fries with sundried tomato ketchup.

I went there, in fact, this very evening, and availed myself of their delicious beers. My first beer was Victory's FestBier, a marzen/oktoberfest style beer from Victory. The beer had a really solid malty flavor, accented by bready notes, and some nutty flavors too. I wasn't wild about the aftertaste, which reminded me of fake sugar and bitter hops, but the beer was refreshing, with a very clean taste.

I then moved on to Stone's Smoke Porter, which I've reviewed before, but will reiterate: Damn. That is one tasty beer. For all you Baltimore natives out there, Stone breweries is taking over Alewife on October 1st for a special Stone-centeric evening with over 40 of stone's beers on tap. I for one, am pumped.

I should also mention, in the course of things, that I finally got to try my once favorite beer again. That's right, on two separate vists to Max's recently, they had Del Ducato Verdi's Imperial Stout. It's a stout made with chilipeppers, the mention of which makes me drool a little. In fact, I was extremely pleased to find that time had not exagerated the genius of this beer, which was every bit as chocolately, spicy, and delicious as I remebered. Still my favorite beer, hands down.

I also got to try, at Max's, Mikkeller's Beer Geek Breakfast, a smoked oatmeal stout. My compatriots all complained of it tasting like charcoal, but I thought it was a bold use of smokiness and roasted flavors, along with a nice hit of coffee, in an oatmeal stout, with a delicious result. It's certaintly a unique beer, and won't please all, but I loved it.

Also on tap was Heavy Sea's Smoke on the Water, a smoked porter. Sadly, we all agreed that this was hopefully a bad batch, as it tasted sour, as if it had gone bad, and was just not a very good beer, despite coming from an excellent brewer.

So, as you may notice, my posts have been less frequent. Well, sadly, I have moved far from my favorite beer store, and being busy with school and all, this blog may receive less love. How sad. I know how much you all loved it :-P. Still, I'll try and update when I can. Cheers!

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!

Oh My Ommegang

I love Ommegang. I really do. I've had other Belgian beers, and just remain thoroughly unimpressed with most anything else (brewer's art aside). I was enjoying some of their delicious beers today with Mrs. Satan.

I cracked open a Rare Vos, a Belgian amber ale. Sparrow had tried this the week before and really enjoyed it, and I liked the sip or two that I had of it. Really, it's just fantastically drinkable.

It pours with a nice full head, an a light amber color. The smell is strong with fruity notes, maybe peach or orange? The taste though, blew me away. It was smooth and refreshing, but bursting with flavors. There was some lighter fruit, maybe apples or pears, and some darker fruits as well like cherries or plums. There were also spiced and floral notes, although I'm not good enough to discern them.

Really, I was expecting either full flavored or really just enjoyable, since a beer usually excels at one, but this one nailed both. It was delicious to sit and sip with a friend, but I could also imagine this being excellent with a range of meals, from a summer barbecue to a spicy Thai dish.

The bottom line? Try this one.

I also had the luck and joy of getting to try Pratt Street Ale House's Scotch Ale. I've been excited to try this one since it came out. I was worried because I heard how quickly it was selling, but I guess I lucked out.

And damned if it wasn't delicious. Smoky and dark, earthy flavors of peat and malts, with an interesting sweetness that felt like fruits. I'm not sure what, because it didn't taste dark like plums or grapes, nor was it light like an orange or an apple. Maybe some sort of berry, like a raspberry or something similar? There was also a little bitterness, which helped to ground the beer and give it an earthy flavor. Either way, absolutely delicious, and a great example of a Scotch Ale.

And yet, it wasn't even the best beer I had there. I also had the good fortune of asking after their Peeping Tom Porter. It was fantastic. It looked like a stout, but drank like a smoother ale, bursting with the flavor of roasted malts. The flavor profile was really nicely rounded out with chocolate, but mostly highlighted the roasted malts.

The Peeping Tom was easily one of the better porters I've had, managing to have all the flavor of a stout while maintaining the nice lightness and refreshing nature of an ale. Best of all, it didn't try to copy stouts, but created it's own flavor around the roasted malts. Really an excellent beer, which I pity everyone not from Baltimore for not getting to try.

Phew. That's a lot of beer, and there's only more to come. What a pity, right? Until next time!

-The Unabashed Ungourmet

Holiday drinks

I had a fantastic thanksgiving weekend, highlighted by a small shindig with a few friends. Sort of a post-thanksgiving get together, we ate, we drank, we played card games, and had a good time. Also, The Irish made his signature bread pudding, which is basically diabetes in pure form. Stark came with some gross cherry wine, and The Culinator helped cook the whole thing. It rocked.

It also gave me a chance to try several Sam Adams beers I've been wanting to get my hands on, but had to wait a whole year since I forgot about them last year.

Sam Adams is far and away one of my favorite breweries, with palatable yet interesting beers in almost every possible variety. I especially enjoy their cream stout, scotch ale, and white ale, but more on those later.

This particular evening, I got to try Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic, Holiday Porter, and Old Fezziwig.

The Cranberry Lambic tasted (shockingly) of cranberries, and was interesting. Sadly, it is a wheat beer, which I'm just not a huge fan of. The cranberry kept getting washed out by the wheat, and it just didn't sit with me that well. I'm not sure I'd have this again, just because the wheat flavor was so uninteresting, and the cranberry wasn't strong enough.

The Holiday Porter was excellent, on the other hand. It tasted of caramel and dark chocolate, but rather than being thick like a stout it was surprisingly light. A delicious dark beer, it provided a nice sipping beer, but I can see it pairing well with a desert.(didn't get to try it with one, as it ran out almost immediately). Definitely something I'd like to have more of, so I wish it didn't only come in the winter mix pack.

Old Fezziwig is the toughest to decide on. It's a winter warmer, a style of ale that I've never had before. It's spiced like a wit beer or a Belgian ale, with lots of cinnamon and nutmeg. The end result is something like a Christmas spice cake, which is tasty, but was kind of odd. Can't really imagine doing anything other than drinking it by itself due to it's flavor profile, but I really feel like it was begging a complimentary flavor of some sort to complete it. Interesting, and I'd drink it again, but not too often.

I also got to have some Woodchuck 802. Woodchuck, as I've mentioned before, makes delicious cider. Their 802, named for the area code where they harvest the apples, is their best variety. Smokey and crisp, it's a deliciously dry cider, that is pleasantly sweet and a little tart. It is probably my favorite cider over all, and always something I enjoy having. Definitely try this if you like cider.

Also, I picked up a 10-pack of Ommegang beers, and am so very excited to give them a whirl. Hooray incredibly expensive craft beer!

-The Unabashed Ungourmet

P.S. - Also appearing at the shindig were Sparrow, Hooah, Mrs. Satan, Napoleon, and The Girlfriend. Not so much important, as convenient for me to write down all their nicknames now and just have them for my reference.