Holiday Hangover

Today is my first chance to post since the Holidays. The season took me through several states (Virginia, DC, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware) and more miles (traffic) on I-95 than I would like. During this time, I had my fair share of repeat beers, ate at least my weight in Christmas cookies, saw a Broadway Show (which I highly recommend), saw a lot of family, and spent a lot of pleasant time with the girlfriend. Due to the Christmas cookies and my well documented love for porters, you can assume I will be a regular visitor at my gym very soon.

The funniest beer related moment had to be on Christmas day. My family hosts the extended family to celebrate. Dinner was a pork roast (sorry, Colleen). As my Mom was putting the roast in the oven, she decided to marinate it in beer. I was standing in the kitchen. I watched her begin to marinate the meat with Samuel Adams Winter Lager! I began to protest, but she retorted with the fact that it was the cheapest beer we had - it seems beer snobbery runs in the family. I wish we had both remembered the Miller Lite sitting in the garage.

My beer consumption consisted of Yuengling Lager, NewCastle Brown Ale, and Samuel Adams Winter Lager - all of which are solid, commonly available beers on the East Coast (which I have had many times before). Colleen and I did not manage to have a DBF staff meeting, which was due to me being unavailable (and lame). Fear not though, we shall have one soon.

My Brother gave me a Christmas gift which consisted of a custom six pack that he made at Hops and Grapes. He also made my Dad a few six packs for Christmas as well. Dad was so excited about his gift; he seemed to want a picture of him with each individual bottle. I, however, managed to contain my excitement. My six pack contained the most revered beer on this blog: Victory Storm King. Needless to say, I am really excited to drink this one. The new beers were as follows:

Great Divide Titan IPA: This was a little heavy for an IPA. And by that I mean, the beer left a lot of residue on the side of the glass after each sip. I would expect that from a stout, but less from an IPA. The beer had a decent amount of depth and was heavier than most IPAs I've encountered. I look forward to having this again.

Yards Philadelphia Pale Ale: Have you ever had a beer that you hated? If so, you've made the terrible mistake of drinking it slow (since you hate it), only for it to taste worse as it gets warmer. That's exactly the case with this one. I hated it and thought it was skunked, but Brendan seemed to like it and think the flavor I hated with a hint of grapefruit. Either way, I give this a thumbs down.

River Horse Hopalotamus: The description on RateBeer is just hilarious, "The fabled Hop-a-lot-amus is a mythical creature. The heavy hop character of this Double IPA is as subtle as a "river horse" in your lap, but finishes like a hippo in a tutu." I thought this was a solid IPA from a New Jersey micro-brew. I'd like to try another beer of theirs.

Yuengling Lord Chesterfield Ale: I had this beer at my girlfriend's family party. I very much enjoyed myself at the party, but I thought this beer was terrible. It tasted like it was skunked. Yuengling makes a very good, "go to" Lager, but I was unimpressed by this beer.

The scorecard:
Paul - 169
Colleen - 165

Cheers,
Paul