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!