What Beers Did You Drink Today? Or Yesterday? (Part 2)

[MattJohnson]

I have a bottle of Trappist Westvleteren 12 that I'm hoping to try this weekend.  Some friends and I went in on an Ebay buy of some.  It should be interesting to see what it is like.

Ooooo, let us know

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It was a great beer. Aroma of grains, carmel, slightly floral/fruity. The balance was really nice. Just enough bitter to balance a subtle sweetness. Long lovely finish. It'd be fun to put some down and see how they age.

If I could get it around here for a bit cheaper (ended up being 15 for a bottle with shipping!) I'd definitely drink it often. It was great to try it - just the story about the pains of getting this beer makes it worth it.

[Shannon_Elise]

This weekend for football Saturday (Go Bucks! Number 4 baby) I went to The Winking Lizard Tavern (100 beers by the bottle from around the world).

I had Houblon Chouffe (a personal favorite), Lion Stout (from Sri Lanka, a cheapie but gets the job done, plus the bottle is pretty cool), and a Thirsty Dog Siberian Night. I tend to go for a high ABV beer with the taste to back up the alcohol content. However, after all that I had to calm it down with one of the best Bloody Mary's I'd ever had. Yeah, so it was 11 at night and I just had a lot of beer, but it was sure refreshing.

[Amarantha]

It was a great beer.  Aroma of grains, carmel, slightly floral/fruity.  The balance was really nice.  Just enough bitter to balance a subtle sweetness.  Long lovely finish.  It'd be fun to put some down and see how they age.

If I could get it around here for a bit cheaper (ended up being 15 for a bottle with shipping!) I'd definitely drink it often.  It was great to try it - just the story about the pains of getting this beer makes it worth it.

Thanks for the review We're hoping to be honeymooning in that part of the world in about 18 months' time, and that's definitely on the list of things to try.

[Tim Dolan]

Had a few pints of Young's Double Chocolate Stout over the weekend. Delicious.

[Rich Pawlak]

Downed several bottles of this year's version of Saranac Pumpkin Ale with a plate of cheesy, spicy nachos, as perfect a beer pairing as exists on this earth, I swear.

[70/30]

It's been very warm here in Virginia so I've been enjoying some easy-drinking beers. Particularly Troegs Rugged Trail Ale. I'm not a huge fan of brown ale but it's tasty and a good thirst quencher.

[Al Abonado]

Picked up La Terrible by Unibroue the other day. What a fantastic beer.

[JimH]

I had an Ommegang Belgian Witte for the first time last week. If you like Belgian style beer you'll love this one, the flavor is incredible.

[toweringpine]

I've been enjoying Belhaven's Twisted Thistle on tap at my local pub recently. A fantastic brew. Yesterday I found it in bottles at the LCBO. I am looking forward to trying them out while watching the race this afternoon.

[Tim Dolan]

I had a beer called Atomium yesterday which was really nice. Didn't get the name of the brewer though. Anybody know anything about it?

Edit: Well, a quick Google search showed that Atomium is the brewer, and the Grand Cru is the only beer they make. It was quite tasty.

Edited October 22, 2007 by Tim Dolan (log)

[pickledgarlic]

Sitting in my lab (joys of being a grad student) staring at a few empty Phillip's Brewing Co. Draught Dodger, out of Victoria BC. I haven't seen anything else of their stuff kicking around though.

They have a maple cream ale apparently. I need to go find it.

Very tasty.

[Tim Dolan]

Over the weekend I had few goblets of Maudite from Unibroue, which was delicious, and a pint of Vanilla Java Porter from Atwater Brewing Co. The latter was definitely interesting, and you could definitely taste the vanilla and coffee, but I'm not so sure the body carried the flavors as well as it could've.

[mtigges]

Sitting in my lab (joys of being a grad student) staring at a few empty Phillip's Brewing Co. Draught Dodger, out of Victoria BC.  I haven't seen anything else of their stuff kicking around though.

They have a maple cream ale apparently.  I need to go find it.

Very tasty.

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Everything from philips is amazing. The best brewery in BC I think. My fave is their new bitter (at least I think it's new). Not a big fan of the maple cream though. A bit too sweet for my tastes.

[planojim]

just picked up a 6 of Schlafly Dry Hopped APA while in St Louis. I'd never heard of it before, but, I like it very much.

also got a 6 of Odells IPA.

[Brad Ballinger]

I recently had some Bell's Winter White Ale. Tomy palate, I couldn't detect much that makes it different from any other white or wheat ale. But, it being winter and all, I didn't really taste it side by side with anything else. I liked it nonetheless.

[Batard]

Anchor Christmas Ale!

Our local beerstore has some bottles from 2005 and 2006 stored away for special customers, and so I will be doing a vertical tasting of those 2 years against the 2007. A year or two in the bottle does wonders for this stuff.

The Sierrra Nevada Celebration Ale is tasting really good too, for all you hop-heads out there.

Edited December 24, 2007 by Batard (log)

[Natho]

On boxing day my friend and i picked up some interesting looking beers we had never tried and had a crack

Montieths doppelbok winter ale - Not bad, but not great either

Macs Sassy Red - See previous judgement

James Boags Wizard Smith - Again, see previous judgement

Harviestoun Old Engine Oil - Great! Will definitely buy it again.

That was the experimentals, we also drank bucket loads of tooheys old and plenty of homebrew

[KatieLoeb]

We just got the Birifico Italiano La Fleurette on draught at my bar and I tasted it yesterday. Really interesting stuff brewed with honey, roses, violets, elderberry and pepper. Only three barrels in the country I'm told. Very elegant, floral and delicious.

[Rich Pawlak]

OK, I've gotta get over to Chcik's for that stuff; sounds quite interesting!

Last night in our weekly beer chat, The No Bull Inn, on starchat.net (11PM EST), I sampled the latest Oatmeal Stout and Scotch Ale from Saranac, from their 12 Beers of Winter pack. The oatmeal was good and roasty, if a bit thin for an oatmeal stout; the Scotch Ale was quite nice, good caramel notes, and a nice silky mouthfeel.

[theisenm85]

Anchor Steam Bock

Didn't love it. The aroma hop addition (at least I assume it was this for the most part because it showed up barely at all in the taste) was a bit annoying. Seemed a bit dark and roasty for a bock, more like a stout or porter.

[eje]

Anchor Steam Bock

Didn't love it.  The aroma hop addition (at least I assume it was this for the most part because it showed up barely at all in the taste) was a bit annoying.  Seemed a bit dark and roasty for a bock, more like a stout or porter.

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Not really that big a fan, myself, of the Anchor Bock. Tastes pretty much like their Holiday Beer without the spices.

As a point of fact: Apparently, for years, a friend had been bothering Mr. Maytag, the proprietor of Anchor Brewing, to produce a Bock Beer. Anchor was his favorite brewery and Bock was his favorite type of beer. As a matter of coincidence, Potrero Hill, where Anchor is currently located in San Francisco, used to be called "Goat Hill" because a farmer grazed goats on a pasture there. Bock is the German word for Billy-Goat. In any case, after his friend died, Mr. Maytag produced the beer as a sort of memorial.

[TBoner]

Today was a Great Divide Fresh Hop and and Bridgeport ESB. Haven't been posting regularly, so I'll add that lately it's been homebrewed oatmeal stout, Real Ale Full Moon Rye Pale Ale, Hop Rod Rye, and Foret.

[Tim Dolan]

Over the holiday break, me and a few friends decided to hit a local bar (Flat Rock in Manayunk) with an outstanding selection of all kinds of different beers and have a holiday beer tasting. We started off with a Chimay Blue to warm us up, then went with a Belgian (I believe) called Golden Dragon. Not a holiday beer, but damn good.

The first holiday beer was the Mad Elf from Troegs. I happen to think that this beer was better when they first brewed it a few years ago, but it's still nice. After that we moved on to Delerium Noel, which I loved. Up next came a beer called Samiclaus, which tipped the scales at an astonishing 14% alcohol. You could definitely taste the alcohol, but it wasn't as pronounced as you would think a 14% banger would be. After this we throttled down a bit and went with Sam Smith's holiday beer (forget the name), which I liked but my friends weren't so fond of. After this we were joined by another friend who grabbed a round of Mad Elfs for everyone. I find it somewhat amazing that I remembered all this, as my memory was quite hazy by this time.

The high alcohol content was the common thread among all these beers, and as you can imagine we were all toasted by the end of our impropmtu session, but that was kind of our goal anyway. Definitely a great way to get you into the Christmas spirit.

[Tim Dolan]

Also had Delerium Tremens for the first time the other night. Outstanding. I'm pretty much new to Belgians, and it's great to starting finding out just how good they are.

[Joe Power]

Last night I had a couple of bottles of St. Arnold's Oktoberfests that I forgot I had. I was surprised that they still tasted nice and fresh.