Full Sailing Away, ala Stix

Murky orange pour out of 2007 bomber

Smells like the holidays with a touch of pine

Muddled mix of sweetness, malt, orange, and pine needles

Watery mouthfeel with tastes clashing for my attention

Meh....I'd like to believe the passage of time has rendered this beer a shell of itself.

C +

Old beer

What's better than BORIS fresh? Old BORIS is the correct answer. This is the first one I've cracked since I brought home a case of bombers from Bloomington. How long ago was that? Anyway, this one is holding up quite well. I like being able to drink this at cellar temperature.

I hear rumors that a Barrel-aged BORIS is coming out soon. Eyes peeled, Chris and Pete.

Milestone Mystery

So, I'm drinking Scratch Beer # 18 from Troegs, via my Pete box.

I'm unaware if I've ever had a beer from this brewery before, and I enjoy the idea of trying to discern this beer before researching it.

Pours very much like apple juice in both color and consistency.

Not much on the smell; again, a bit of apple juice.

The most predominant tastes are yeast and flour, along with some baking soda and doughy bread. A faint note of Smarties candy sneaks in at the end.

Mouthfeel is a strong point, well carbonated.

I drank and rated this beer without any concept of what type of beer this actually was. I was way off, considering I believed, by taste, this was a Pale Belgian. I'm curious how much knowing the type affects how we rate beers, as I never would have placed this as a rye. Only now can I detect notes of rye, albeit mildly so.

B

Spaeth Slayer

Return of the Raspy.

Odd bubble gum sweetness, with a touch of toffee candy bars. I like it.

A -

Founders' Breakfast Stout

I had a Founders' Breakfast Stout tonight. Is that the same as KY Breakfast Stout?

It was good. Not great.

Grade: AB.

"Boulevard of un-broken dreams" or "Smokestack Lightnin'"

Boulevard Smokestack Series Double-Wide IPA. Picked this up down south, and it continues to reinforce my good feelings about Boulevard. This is a solid IIPA, that is reminiscent of a 90 min or something along those lines. Smooth, malty, hoppy, and chewy. I liked it. Grade: solid A

Post #200...now featuring more rat droppings

Thought I'd open up a fancy one for #200 (thanks to Barry for pointing out this important milestone... I like to think of myself as the Jo-Pa/Bobby Bowden of beer blogging).
This is the Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch. As far as I can tell, the big difference between this and the Beer Geek Breakfast is the type of coffee. This is brewed with Weasel coffee. Let me quote the description from the label:

"...made from the droppings of weasel-like civet cats. The fussy southeast asian animals eat only the best and ripest coffee berries. Enzymes in their digestive system help break down the bean, and workers collect the bean-containing droppings for civet or Weasel coffee. The exceedingly rare coffee has a strong taste and even stronger aroma."

This all seems somewhat hard to believe, but is apparently true if wikipedia is to be believed (which also says that the coffee is $600/lb and a cup of it costs between $33-100, which make me think this was a bargain at $10 for a bomber). It was pretty stellar. My overwhelming impression about it was that it was just amazingly flavorful. It was a complex taste that I don't know that I ever really got my finger on, but I think it kind of reminded me of a fancy chocolate withe some kind of berry flavor in it (like one of those endangered species ones, or chocolate from wherever it was Kathleen got those fancy pepper and Jamaican ones last time I was in Madison). No one would call this bland. I guess I wouldn't say it was the absolute best thing I've ever had, but its in the discussion of most flavorful and interesting, and I liked it a lot. I'll give it an A+.

Wha happened homebrew?

Strange looking beer - something must have gone wrong, but I don't know what that is. This is the Golden Promise IPA made in Virginia, driven back to PA. Tastes better than it looks. More of a Pale Ale I guess.

I think it needs a couple weeks in the fridge/cellar.

Pete's Box - Beer 1

Thanks to Pete for a box of beer! I really enjoy sending and receiving beer that's unavailable in our respective areas. I am VERY appreciative, despite the upcoming poor review.

Hoppy Trails IPA from Appalachian Brewing smells like a wet dog. Hops are spicy and vegetative, not my favorite profile. It's a ho-hum, run of the mill IPA. Nothing special here.

C+

You know you have a problem...

...when you walk into a beer bar with over 350 options, and can count on two hands the number you haven't tried, and on one hand the number you're interested in trying. Of the 35 craft beer IPA's, I'd had all but 2, and of the 25 stouts, I'd had them all. Same with the 25 Belgians. Does anyone else miss the halcyon days of beer discovery when we had no idea what was good? I definately do. I mean, I can usually go into a beer store and find at least one or two new things now, but it's getting pretty rare to go into a bar, even in a new city, and find something new. Sigh.

So, this all occured when I went to the Flying Saucer tonight, which was a cool place, obviously with a large, for most non-snobby people, selection. The food was good, the atmosphere was nice. Beer results were very meh. I got a Highland Kashmir IPA (from Ashville, NC) which was pretty average, although it had a bit of the strange peppery/garlic-y hop variety that the Yazoo from last night had. B- grade
I also got a Schlafly Dry Hopped Pale Ale, which I had tried from the bottle last week and liked, so thought I'd try it on tap. It as just ok. Another B-

They had world wide stout and 120 min on tap, but I had to drive home, so that seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. There wasn't even really anything else I was too tempted by, other than another local one that my "beer goddess" (their term for waitresses) advised me was awful. I think she was pretty exasperated with me because everything she suggested instead ("Have you tried...?") I had, in fact, tried and I think I got a bored look from her suggestions of such exotic brews as Dogfish 60min, Boulder Mojo, Stone, Flying dog, etc.

I stopped at the supposedly "best" local beer store on the way home, and ended up getting 5 things, 2 of which I'd had before but can't get in Indiana. Everything else was the ususal. One interesting (and annoying) local blue law is that the beer store and the liquor store have to be separate (there were 2 doors). This doesn't sound that bad, except that anything over 5% abv has to go on the liquor side. So, you have to check both stores if you want to see regular and high gravity beer offerings. Lame.

Sincerely,
Jaded Beer Snob

Long Road to Nashville...

I'm currently watching hoops in bed and making my way through a growler of Hop Project #12 from Yazoo Brewery (and yes, it was actually served by the guy in this picture who has an epic beard, although I didn't take the picture). It's pretty solid. It has an almost peppery-ness to it. It also has a cool growler top that forms a much better seal than other growlers I've gotten. I'll give the overall experience of the Yazoo tap room and Hop Project #12 an A

For the brewers in the house, here's the description:
"And the hops keep coming... for this rendition of our soon-to-be-world-famous Hop Project Ale, which will be number 12 in the series, we featured two relatively new varieties called Apollo and Bravo. Apollo, which we used in #3 (if I remember right), has a really pungent nose. almost garlicy. Bravo is much more mellow, kind of lemony. They are both bred from a Galena variety to be high-alpha (around 16%) but much more stable in storage. We bittered the beer with Apollo and Zeus in the first wort, then added some Galena, Goldings, and Bravo at 30 minutes, and Simcoe, Goldings, and Bravo at 5 minutes for aroma. Then we dryhopped it with some Goldings and Amarillo. The old calculations say it's over 100 IBUs, which makes us happy."


In other news, I played at least a quarter million dollars worth of guitars and amps today, and hope to surpass that tomorrow. Viva la Nashville.

The Elusive KBS

Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout is black, real black. Smells of wood, charred paper, and burnt coffee. Tastes reminiscent of Breakfast Stout, but with a boozy bourbon background and a dollop of vanilla. Burn evident as beer warms, but deiselness noticed more in the warmth that spreads throught he body than the actual taste. Complimentary bourbon is, indeed, less evident than the Goose's stout.

A.......... with perhaps more as warming continues


As an aside, I find it comical that a vast majority of the small amount imported into the west side of Madison was purchased by Duane and I.

Bourbon Barrel-Aged Jolly Roger Stout

This was on cask at Otto's today. It is the best beer I have tried for a long long time.

Like a Lisa Simpson quiz,

A+++.

Simcoe!

Appropriately enough, I picked this up today at "The Hop Shop" in Indy while on a whirlwind beer/guitar/chili spring break extravaganza. Mikkeller Simcoe Single Hop IPA. This is fabulous. I learned today that I really like Simcoe hops. Anyone know any other beers that use them? (Sposborth/Barryborth perhaps?) It's a veritable flavor explosion in my mouth.
Grade: A/A+

Official "who is going to Dark Lord Day" post

I'm in. Barry is not sure (he has to go to a White Sox game at 6pm).

Pete, Chris, what are you thinking? I have a hotel booked for the time period. Should be fun.