Happy anniversary, beer friends!
It is a great privilege and honor to wish Colleen and Paul a happy 'one year of being beer friends'. Their blogging about beer has been frequent and fun, and it feels appropriate at this time, as a third party to the shared beer experience, to wish them further happy quaffing.
In the spirit of sharing, Colleen has invited me to compose a guest blog regarding our mutual first drink of Flying Fish Grand Cru Winter Reserve. This stunning beer is a perfect mix of bottle-conditioned Belgian floral flavor with a subtle malty finish. In short, it's everything one would enjoy about a beer like Corsendonk or Hoegaarden, but with the warm lingering malt of a brown ale like Newcastle or a lager like Sam Adams.
After this shared experience, we set our sights in different directions. I opted for La Chouffe's Petit Houblon Dobbelen IPA Tripel, which at 9.0% ABV packs a strong punch in a highly aromatic start with a strong but balanced hop finish. The pour was yeast-tactic with a cloudiness that almost seemed "off". As our awesome bartender friend Jill put it, "it looked like a lava lamp". Colleen chose the Norse Porter from HaandBryggeriet. It's a Norwegian Dark Porter which poured out in a very fizzy way (causing Colleen a bit of discomfort when she tried to sip right from the bottle) but immediately gave a pungent chocolate aroma and followed with the same strong chocolatey porter flavor. Ironically, this heavily carbonated choice would imply that it should be bottle-sipped since it has a photoshopped-in set of fingerprints gripping around the bottle. In spite of exploding in Colleen's mouth, this fizzy deliciousness ranked well for Ms. Earp-Porterpants.
P.S. Happy belated birthday to the Colleenator herself, who shared her special day this year with turkeys and tofurkeys everywhere on November 25th.
Cheers,
Cheryl
Showing posts with label tripel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tripel. Show all posts
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
BUFFing out the pain of the thesis, and other good beers
The first draft of my thesis was due last week. Ugh.
To help motivate myself to meet that deadline, I made myself a mixed six pack at the store near Cheryl and Gurzo's house, with the stipulation that I wasn't allowed to have any unless I called them and checked in with my progress on that paper. They are good friends, aren't they? At first I was just going to pick up two or three individual bottles, but then I found six that I was interested in.
The first one I was particularly interested in, given the somewhat recent discussion about our favorite microbrewers. You may recall I recently picked Dogfish Head, while Paul stands by Stone. You may also recall that a shared favorite of ours is a Victory brew (even if I haven't liked most of theirs that I've tried aside from Storm King, that shared favorite). Well. It turns out the three companies got together to create BUFF: Brewers United for Freedom of Flavor, and created Saison du Buff, a farmhouse beer made with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. I bought it under the Dogfish Head label though I did later see it under the Victory label on the same shelf. Was it epic? Indeed it was. My notes say, "brilliant herby slightly hoppy light tangy farmhouse love." It was just really fresh and crisp tasting. Very, very good. I would absolutely recommend this. I am impressed with their work and sincerely hope the BUFF efforts continue.
What else have I tried lately?
Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale: Also part of my six pack, as per the recommendation of one of my good friend Noah. He described it as exquisite. While I respect his opinions, especially when it comes to beer, I may need to disagree on this one. The spices were great in this one, but it was too sweet for me, one of those pumpkin beers that tastes more like pie than vegetable. It was very smooth, but not my favorite pumpkin brew.
Sam Adams Latitude 48 IPA: Another addition to the mixed six, based on two criteria: I'm trying to get into IPAs, and it had a geographic theme. I ended up having this one in the midst of the writing process (which was about latitude 19, but that's beside the point, I suppose), figuring that I'd be able to try a new beer but wasn't totally indulging, since it was unlikely that I'd really like this beer anyway. False! This is a nice IPA. It was really hoppy, but it was smooth and had this sort of fresh citrusy thing going on. I approve. And if I approve of an IPA, you know it's worth your time.
Harpoon IPA: Another one that I give my seal of approval! I had this while out for dinner with JACK (the acronym for the girls I went across Canada with) while we were completing the NJ Lighthouse Challenge this past weekend. They didn't have anything else I wanted, so I figured, try another IPA. This one is just like a smooth, nice ale with a slightly hoppy-- not overwhelming-- aftertaste. A pleasant surprise for me.
Flying Fish Exit 4: This was another member of my mixed six, that I'd been looking for for a while, but had trouble finding since it was an earlier part of the Flying Fish Exit Series. I was excited to try it because I love New Jersey and had just finished a two day roadtrip around the coastline thereof, but I knew in my heart that I typically don't care for the style and probably wouldn't totally love it. However, another pleasant surprise: good stuff. This is a tripel, which tend to be too sweet for me, and this was still a little sweeter than I'd prefer, but it was very nicely balanced with the hops and I kinda liked it. Good luck trying to find this, but if you do, it was pretty good.
I have a few more in my thesis motivator pack and as to be expected, I have a few more things to do for said thesis, so those will come soon, I'm sure. In the meantime, Paul: 300 (congrats and welcome to the club, buddy) and Colleen: 309.
To help motivate myself to meet that deadline, I made myself a mixed six pack at the store near Cheryl and Gurzo's house, with the stipulation that I wasn't allowed to have any unless I called them and checked in with my progress on that paper. They are good friends, aren't they? At first I was just going to pick up two or three individual bottles, but then I found six that I was interested in.
The first one I was particularly interested in, given the somewhat recent discussion about our favorite microbrewers. You may recall I recently picked Dogfish Head, while Paul stands by Stone. You may also recall that a shared favorite of ours is a Victory brew (even if I haven't liked most of theirs that I've tried aside from Storm King, that shared favorite). Well. It turns out the three companies got together to create BUFF: Brewers United for Freedom of Flavor, and created Saison du Buff, a farmhouse beer made with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. I bought it under the Dogfish Head label though I did later see it under the Victory label on the same shelf. Was it epic? Indeed it was. My notes say, "brilliant herby slightly hoppy light tangy farmhouse love." It was just really fresh and crisp tasting. Very, very good. I would absolutely recommend this. I am impressed with their work and sincerely hope the BUFF efforts continue.
What else have I tried lately?
Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale: Also part of my six pack, as per the recommendation of one of my good friend Noah. He described it as exquisite. While I respect his opinions, especially when it comes to beer, I may need to disagree on this one. The spices were great in this one, but it was too sweet for me, one of those pumpkin beers that tastes more like pie than vegetable. It was very smooth, but not my favorite pumpkin brew.
Sam Adams Latitude 48 IPA: Another addition to the mixed six, based on two criteria: I'm trying to get into IPAs, and it had a geographic theme. I ended up having this one in the midst of the writing process (which was about latitude 19, but that's beside the point, I suppose), figuring that I'd be able to try a new beer but wasn't totally indulging, since it was unlikely that I'd really like this beer anyway. False! This is a nice IPA. It was really hoppy, but it was smooth and had this sort of fresh citrusy thing going on. I approve. And if I approve of an IPA, you know it's worth your time.
Harpoon IPA: Another one that I give my seal of approval! I had this while out for dinner with JACK (the acronym for the girls I went across Canada with) while we were completing the NJ Lighthouse Challenge this past weekend. They didn't have anything else I wanted, so I figured, try another IPA. This one is just like a smooth, nice ale with a slightly hoppy-- not overwhelming-- aftertaste. A pleasant surprise for me.
Flying Fish Exit 4: This was another member of my mixed six, that I'd been looking for for a while, but had trouble finding since it was an earlier part of the Flying Fish Exit Series. I was excited to try it because I love New Jersey and had just finished a two day roadtrip around the coastline thereof, but I knew in my heart that I typically don't care for the style and probably wouldn't totally love it. However, another pleasant surprise: good stuff. This is a tripel, which tend to be too sweet for me, and this was still a little sweeter than I'd prefer, but it was very nicely balanced with the hops and I kinda liked it. Good luck trying to find this, but if you do, it was pretty good.
I have a few more in my thesis motivator pack and as to be expected, I have a few more things to do for said thesis, so those will come soon, I'm sure. In the meantime, Paul: 300 (congrats and welcome to the club, buddy) and Colleen: 309.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
not exactly a victory...
I have a standing meeting with some friends on Monday nights at Stuff Yer Face. They have great food, an excellent beer menu, and it's not too far away from any of us. I've tried quite a few new beers there. This week, they had a new one on tap: Victory's Yakima Twilight.
So disappointing.
I mean, Victory Storm King is a beer that both Paul and I feel quite strongly about. BECAUSE IT'S DELICIOUS. I've tried several Victory brews since he recommended that one back when we were in college, but have only been let down since. Yakima Twilight? I was amused by the name and I still had high hopes for the brewer. However, those high hopes were met with high hops... why are all of their beers so hoppy? Why? It kind of had an almost pleasant malty flavor when I first sipped it, but you swallow it and it's just so hoppy... ughhh.
I think I'm fairly open minded about trying new things. However, here's what I wrote about Yakima Twilight in my beer list: "More like yuckima hoplight. Seriously, I'm going to stop drinking Victory beers soon. Except Storm King." I've tried quite a few beers by them that were way hoppier than expected: Weizen Bock ("a bit hoppy for me"), Golden Monkey ("kind of hoppy"), Hop Devil-- ok, that one I expected (it's an American IPA). I guess I'm just not crazy about hops. And I'm just not crazy about any of Victory's beers except Storm King. It's a shame.
But it does bring the score to 154-142.
So disappointing.
I mean, Victory Storm King is a beer that both Paul and I feel quite strongly about. BECAUSE IT'S DELICIOUS. I've tried several Victory brews since he recommended that one back when we were in college, but have only been let down since. Yakima Twilight? I was amused by the name and I still had high hopes for the brewer. However, those high hopes were met with high hops... why are all of their beers so hoppy? Why? It kind of had an almost pleasant malty flavor when I first sipped it, but you swallow it and it's just so hoppy... ughhh.
I think I'm fairly open minded about trying new things. However, here's what I wrote about Yakima Twilight in my beer list: "More like yuckima hoplight. Seriously, I'm going to stop drinking Victory beers soon. Except Storm King." I've tried quite a few beers by them that were way hoppier than expected: Weizen Bock ("a bit hoppy for me"), Golden Monkey ("kind of hoppy"), Hop Devil-- ok, that one I expected (it's an American IPA). I guess I'm just not crazy about hops. And I'm just not crazy about any of Victory's beers except Storm King. It's a shame.
But it does bring the score to 154-142.
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