Fridays, IPA, and thoughts of Coloradoan Chris, NU Pete, and Duane's recovering European Liver

I like Dark Horse's Crooked Tree IPA. It's hoppy, it's creamy, it's very foggy, it's yummy. I like drinking it.

4.5/5

Last Beer for the night:

For my last one, I ordered something that they were out of, then panicked when the waitress looked impatient, and got the first thing that popped into my head: a draft Oak Arrogant Bastard. Tasted pretty good, but the smoke flavor was still all I could taste, and my sobriety was in grave danger at this point. In the end, I left about 1/4 of the glass and headed for home so I could live to drink another day.
Tomorrow's tentative itinerary: Great Divide Tap Room (this looks like its in kind a ghetto-ish area, so I want to go there early) and possibly a return trip to Wynkoop Brewery where Katie and I went this summer. I also found a Spanish tapas restaurant I want to snack at...maybe they'll have Basque cider, one of the best beverages I've ever tasted.

Evening totals: 5 great beers, one great grilled cheese. $Priceless on one level, but on another, more realistic level, $18.75+tip. Denver is great.

Draft #4

Perhaps the rarest beer I've had, and also one that destroyed my palate for the night. Alaskan Smoke Porter. This bar gets one cask, once a year of this brew and today happened to be the day they were tapping it. Lucky me :) Today they had the new 2008 vintage, and one that had been aging since 1996. I went with the '96 which was supposed to be smoother.
Initially, this did not follow the IPA's well. Lucky for me, there was a tasty grilled cheese with bacon calling my name on the menu. 15 minutes and some melted cheddar later, this beer tasted great. Probably the best beer/food pairing I've ever made. Very smokey flavor...much more than the Rogue, but maybe not as much as the crazy german one Duane brought down last Bloomington Beer Fest. I liked this a lot, but any hope of tasting anything other than smoke the rest of the night was hopeless. I still taste it now, one beer, one dark milky way, and one bag of gummy bears later. Final score w/ grilled cheese pairing: 4.4/5

Draft #3

Number 3: Avery's "The Maharaja" Imperial IPA. This was more like it for me. Much more malty and caramel-ly. One of my top Imp IPA contenders. Great.
4.6/5

Falling Rock brew #2

Midway through my first beer, a seat opened up in a giant leather lazyboy right in front of a 60 inch TV with the masters on it. The next 2 hours of my night were spent firmly planted right there.

Next Up: Green Flash Imperial IPA. I had never heard of this, so naturally I had to have it. In addition to sounding like a beer that would be imbibed by super heros, this was quite tasty. Another one that I think Barry would love, this was very hoppy, but not as malty as I'm used to with my favorite Imp IPA's. A great beer, but not my favorite of the style...I like more maltiness.
4/5

Denver Day 1: Sobriety = minimal

My apologies to Pete for a week of Colorado beer-heavy reviews. You don't know what you're missing. The Falling Rock Tap House is amazing. About half a block from the Rockies' stadium, this is beer nirvana. Over 75 craft beers on tap, and probably twice that in the bottle. On the walls are 2500 different beer bottles all supposedly drunk by the owner (who also supposedly drinks draft beer 90% of the time...you do the math on how many beers he's had)
I was a little overwhelmed here, especially at first when there was no where to sit and I was left standing around drinking a beer by myself. I was uncomfortable to say the least.
Beer #1: Odell IPA on draft. 2007 Gold Medal IPA. This was a REALLY good IPA. Super Hoppy, I would imagine this as a total Walsh special, but in a way that all of us would enjoy. One of my favorite IPA's ever. Wow. I'm going to look for more Odell's.
4.5/5

The Second in a Trilogy gets no respect

Moylan's Double IPA brings me a step up the ladder from their IPA, but a rung below possibly the most anticipated and well named of the series, Hopsickle, which is an Imperial. I've waited all week for this, and I'm not overly impressed. Beautiful coppery cloudy pour, has that know-it-when-you-smell-it Imperial smell, tastes malty and hoppy but in an unbalanced sort of way. Much like Pete, the body is lacking. Expected more.

4/5

* Note - as a teacher I take my rating and multiply it by two to get a percentage. Therefore this 4 is, on my scale, a B-

Last Uni-brow for the week

Terrible! Perhaps the biggest misnomer in the history of beer. Unibroue La Terrible. This was my (and Katie's) favorite of the Trilogy. Darkest, least fizzy, and almost like a red or port wine. Definite alcohol kick, but smooth and tasty. Fantastic. When I get back, I'm going to get the other Unibroue's at the store I haven't tried yet, which includes the 15th anniversary one which I'm guessing is good. In the meantime, this gets a 4.5/5, and I'm off to Denver tomorrow to hit the Great Divide brewery and Wynkoop brewery. Reviews will follow, I think I have free wi-fi in the room.

The Official Beerfest Want/Got Post

I figured that since the date is more or less settled, we should build a list of beers that we have and want to bring and more importantly, beers that we want others to bring.

I would suggest editing this thread and adding your own wants and gots.

Duane wants:
Stone Russian Imperial Stout
Stone Arrogant Bastard
Stone IPA

Duane will bring:
Bell's Expedition Stout (4x)
Bell's Hopslam (I think I have 3 left)
Victory Storm King (I only have 1 left, but can get more)
Westvleteren 12 (2x)
Westvleteren Blonde (2x)
Tyranena Hop Whore (1x, but can get more)
Tyranena Dirty Old Man (just picked up a 4 pack today)

Chris wants:
Tyranena, Lake Louie, other cool Wisconsin beers
Homebrews
Anything you've rated over 4.5 and I haven't posted about
Anything quad or imperial

Chris plans to have: (this list is fluid)
extra Hopslam
Oak Arrogant bastard
Two Brothers mead and hopjuice
Red Tail Hawk ale
Great Divide double IPA
Stone Russian Imp Stout
Avery Reverend
Some Goose Island reserves
Bloomington growler or two



Pete wants:
Hopslam on tap (pleeaaasee)
Olde Glory APA (yes.)
Spotted Cow (moooooooo)
Lake Louie Arena
New Glarus Naked (itsa niice)

Pete will bring:
Sposborth Imperial Honey IPA (hopslam killa?)
Otto's DD Imperial IPA
Otto's Imperial Stout
Any Victory suggestions?
Any Troegs suggestions?
Some random Cincinnati / Jungle Jim's beers

My trip to Tyranena

I've been meaning to post this for a while. Since I'm still sick and probably shouldn't drink, we'll consider this a "Best Of" post.

Carey and I and some friends from work made the short trip to Tyranena to try some brews and do the brewery tour.

The tour was fun. The tour guide was the stoner assistant brewer. Two highlights. At the end of the tour, he pulled a growler out of the fridge. In the growler was The Devil Made Me Do It Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Porter bourbon barrel run-off. By this, I mean, that it was the stuff right out of the bourbon barrel for Tyranena's next Brewer's Gone Wild Series that is currently aging. The taste was very interesting. It was very strong and had virtually no carbonation. It was good and I can't wait for the real deal to come out.

Highlight number two would make Barry proud. At most brewery tours, they'll let you taste the barley. This one was the first tour where they let us tastes the hops. I tried a pressed Amarillo hop pellet. The taste was unbelievably strong...so much that every beer for the rest of the day tasted hoppy.

Many, many beers were consumed. Of what I can remember...

Dirty Old Man Imperial Rye Porter - This one is top notch. Smells like rye bread and vanilla and tastes the same with nice hops.

Chief Blackhawk Porter - A good standard porter. I've probably reviewed it before.
Bitter Woman IPA
Pretty Damn Black Stout - This one was also very good. It is not a imperial stout, but it had a good roasted malt taste and some good hops. I've decided that I only like stouts that are hoppy, which is a strange realization for me.

Round 2: More uni-brow

Next up: Unibroue Trois Pistoles. Similar story here but a little darker, a little higher alcohol content. The main difference I taste is a little less fizzy-ness, and a little more of a port wine/raison/plum sort of taste. I'm honestly not sure which I like better. Both are tasty, neither is my favorite of all time. I think I'll give it the same score 4/5.

Uni-brow trilogy

The first half of this week will feature a Canadian Belgian triumvirate. First entry from last night: Unibroue Maudite. This was pretty fantastic. You know I like the strong Belgians.


The main complaint was that this was really fizzy...I think I would have preferred it a little more on the flat side. Also, at all costs make sure this heats up close to room temp. It tastes awful if its too cold. Not quite as sweet as some of the Belgians I've had, so if you like (or dislike) the candy sugar, this isn't a big flavor here.
4/5

Beerfest - A Time for Beer

Hi All,
So here's my deal....I get done with school on Tuesday, June 10, and could be in Bloomington the next day. Thoughts?

Boo 18th Amendment, Boo-urns 21st Amendment!

I think today is the anniversary of the Prohibition repeal (for beer). Also apparently the day that Budweiser introduced Clydesdales. Drink a beer in celebration.

A Trilogy Begins

Enter Moylan's Brewing Company out of Navato, California. On a recent tour back to my hometown, I purchased three bombers of Moylan's brew. Today, I review their IPA. It has many awards listed on the bottle, so I suppose it should be good. Pours deep gold with quite abit of carbonation. Thin head lasts throughout. Hops very noticeable on pour and immediately evident upon first sip. Medium bodied, almost thick, and quite spicy. Aftertaste of malt that is rather sweet, followed by a hop residual that dances on the tongue. This is good.

4.4/5