Two Parter

Right, so I'm bad about updating. But I swear, it's all about how busy life is!

For example, a perfectly boring wednesday evening turned into a several hour long baseball games followed by celebratory beers with friends. Specifically, I was lured into buying a cheap seat for the last of the O's games against the A's - which turned out to be a good call.

We walked into the stadium and right up the seats in lower right field, and sat down to enjoy the game. Note that our lack of nervousness and sketchiness can probably be credited for the ushers not harassing us. Also, for whatever reason the lower level ushers are waaaaaay less anal about leaving people alone than upper level seat nazi ushers. How odd.

Anyway, it turned out to be a good game - Mark Reynolds acted like a real baseball player, Zach Britton pitched 6 solid innings, and the O's swept the A's for a 3 game series. Also, the opponents had such players as Dr. Jesus (dejesus but whatever) and Coco Crisp. Seriously. How the fuck is he named Coco Crisp?

Anyway, in the wake of our excellent victory, me, Metal Chef and Metal Chef's brother decided we needed excellent beers. Lucky for us, Alewife is just a few short blocks from Camden Yards, and welcomes us from the heat with AC and good beers. Imagine my thrill at seeing Heavy Seas limited release Plank 1 on tap! As my reader will know, I love wood aged beers, and here is one specifically made to showcase the flavor of wood aging (Poplar in this case).

The smell is dark and roasty, and the first sip reminds me of an amber or a nut brown. However, you're soon whisked away by the rich flavor of poplar, complemented by sweet malts and hints of caramel. Really an excellent beer, this needs to be sipped by itself to appreciate it, but I definitely recommend it as an interesting and challenging beer.

And then of course, we come to part II. A nice relaxing weekend is such a silly idea - so of course it ends up jam packed. Friday starts at 6:30am where I'm awoken and whisked off to the girlfriend's farm, for a day's labor in the hundred plus degree heat. Watering, weeding, shooting bbs at birds, and picking rhubarb are a good digest of the day, aside from hanging lines for some netting we were putting up. Sadly, it had been inelegantly cut and served mostly to piss us all off for several long hours. And oh they were long. Despite drinking multiple bottles of water, I felt like I was in the desert.

Anyway, my torture eventually ceases, and I make my way home for beers with the family. Nothing terribly interesting there, other than: avoid anderson valley's cream ale unless you really want super sweet butterscotch beer. Anyway, this evening transitioned into saturday morning, for which was planned a day of paintball! I love paintball. It's the best. But that didn't sound like enough effort, so of course CAPS LOCK and I went for a four mile run. Woooo!

The actual paintball was pretty fun - it started slow with some less than excellent courses, but got better throughout the day. I prefer more open-ended courses, while they did a lot of linear stuff, but it was still challenging and fun. Sadly, as weekend warriors we were ill-equipped to deal with the automatic weapon toting paintball pros we were up against, but fun was still had, and welts gained, by all.

The beer that capped this little adventure (as well as way too much driving and a lot of Popeyes food) was Great Divide's Colette - a farmhouse ale or saison. I'm a pretty big fan of saisons, and this was an interesting take. Light and refreshing, it refrained from a lot of the spice that most versions go fairly heavy one. Instead, the flavors had an enjoyable clarity, allowing me to pick out some nice lemon zest, as well as some yeasty notes, resulting in a lightly tart and extremely tasty beer. This goes on the list of excellent summer beers that don't skimp on flavor.

Anyway, hope your days are exciting and your beers delicious - til next time!

Home again!

Oh man, being home is nice. Being abroad is fun and exciting, but it really just kind of gets tiring and expensive eventually. Also, the beer isn't as good :-P

Case in point - the first few days home I received bottles of Brooklyn Black Ops stout, as well as Sam Adams Chocolate Bock. Life is good.

In more pedestrian but equally delicious news, I also got to try Brooklyn's Sorachi Ace and Smuttynose's Hanami Ale.

The Sorachi was a bit of a whim - I like Brooklyn and I like saisons, so this was a pretty easy call. Poured it a little warm and it was none too tasty. Stuck it in the fridge, and found a solid improvement. Still, not really a beer I enjoyed that much. A lot of the powerful spicy flavor in saisons, but just a lot of bitterness that didn't seem to contribute. I'm thinking we should've chilled it further.

The Hanami, on the other hand, is one I've been eyeballing for a while. I like cherry ales - none of this stupid fruit beer nonsense, just another flavor in a nice solid ale. Hanami is an excellent example - an excellent sour cherry tang without sacrificing the character of the ale, or loading it with sugar. Really a tasty beer, nice sweet malts complimented by a sour cherry tang that is present but not overwhelming.

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.

Series of Sam (6 of 6)

So, here it is. The end of an era. A very, very short, and mostly delicious era. I am, as I write this, finishing the last of the Sam Adams mix pack. And I may have saved the best for last.

Sam Adams cream stout is a darn tasty beer. One of the earlier stouts I tried, I'd like to think it was pretty formative. It pour a rich dark brown, with a light brown head. The smell is all roasted malts. The first sip is tastes of roasted malts, with a nice creamy undertone. There's also some hints of milk chocolate, as well as a smoky flavor. The beer is pleasantly thick - not heavy, but full and delicious.

I really appreciate this beer for being exceptionally drinkable. This is a stout I could pretty much drink all day, summer or winter. The light creaminess perfectly balances against the thick maltiness. Mmmmm cream stout.

However, this wasn't the end of my alcohol related escapades for the day. Oh no.

I also went to Pratt Street Ale House, to try their new offering, the Cherry Blossom Ale. I know that this sounds like a fruity girly drink, but I was actually pretty darn impressed. I'm not a huge fan of wheat beers, but this was a delicious beer.

It pours a nice red amber, with a pinkish head. The first smell is cherries, shockingly. The taste though, was a sucker punch. Sour cherries, a nice subtle undertone of wheat, and a very nice light hoppy finish. This beer tastes like spring should in my opinion - light, tart, a little sweet, and herbal at the finish. I could've had a few pints, but sadly I couldn't stay.

I've also heard that it goes ridiculously well mixed with their Bishop's breakfast, their oatmeal stout, for something of a chocolate cherry. On the list to try next week.

Now, I had planned to finish the evening with a brand new beer, but the evening was a little too rushed. I went out to Cazbar on Charles Street with some friends, and just got back too late to really sip and enjoy. To be fair, it was worth it - Cazbar is ridiculously delicious, and makes me crave more pretty much every time I think about it. I can't even intelligibly describe the food, other than to say it was amazing and fantastic.

However, this didn't temper my enthusiasm. I'd been dying to try this beer, and come hell or high water, I would. So, the following afternoon I cracked open my bottle of Stillwater Artisanal Ale's Stateside Saison. Stillwater is a new Maryland brewer, and I've been dying to try them ever since I saw the first rave reviews of their offerings.

Their saison does not fail to impress. It pours a nice golden yellow, with a brilliant white head. The smell is all fruity esters. The first taste is that trademark belgian spice/yeast flavor, with a very nice, very subtle hop finish. The flavors are herbal and woody/grains, with hints of orange or coriander and lemon as well. This is dangerously drinkable, and I finished the whole darn bottle before I realized it. And of course, now I want more.

Man, I need to not cluster my beer into so few days. Ideally I'd spread these out more, but I somehow just always wait on beer til the end of the week to really enjoy it, along with my freedom from school.

Mmmmm beer. Until next time!

-The Unabashaed Ungourmet

Beer Thursdays

I wanted to title this something like "a post that isn't about stouts", but I feel like that joke was old before it was ever told in the first place.

I have to admit that I like having a night of the week that I often have a beer on. It's not locked in by any means, but it's often something to look forward to. I get to think about what beer I want to try in a given week, but it's also something to look forward to, and for me it's a reward that reminds me that the week is almost over.

Obviously many people drink several days a week, and I certainly do from time to time drink a few times during the week. But that's usually sharing a few beers with friends, or going out to a bar to be social. This is the enjoyment of sitting down, and taking the time to really taste and observe a beer.

I like to pair this with watching TV, as I'm already relaxed and in a good mood, and cracking open a delicious beer only adds to this. Conveniently, two of my favorite shows are on Thursday nights. The total experience is just really relaxing, which is nice. What about you, my faithful readers, do you have an evening you set aside, or do you prefer to test and taste as you go, whenever the opportunity occurs?

Anyway, this isn't just about me rambling. This Thursday I had the good fortune to still have a few bottles of Ommegang, specifically their Hennepin Saison. I'd heard excellent reviews of this beer, but was a bit wary as I've heard it's one of their hoppier beers.

It pours a very pale yellow, looking almost like water at first before settling in to a light golden color. The head is ivory white and thick. I actually swiped off a bit of the head, and found it thick as bubble bath (I can't think of a straighter analogy, sorry), and very bitter.

The smell was similar, light and crisp, hints of what might be floral scents? The taste though was really impressive. It was cool and refreshing, but full of light sweet fruits like pear. It had some hoppy bitterness, but it was very balanced and did a good job of rounding out the flavor and not overwhelming everything else. There were also some floral notes with some grains and citrus in the background as well.

Overall a really tasty beer. Not my favorite, as I'm still not a hoppy beer guy, but easily one of the better hoppy beers that I've tried. Suffice to say that I'd be happy to drink it again, but I might not seek it out. If you enjoy hops, give this one a try for sure.