Sours on Christmas Eve

Well, guess I decided to write about Christmas Eve instead of the Bell's event. Too lazy to get the pictures off my camera right now mostly. For Christmas Eve, I decided to do a sours theme because I wanted to see how the two Captain Lawrence beers were tasting and I needed to get the bottle of Duchesse de Bourgogne out of my beer fridge.

I started with the Cuvee De Castleton as the base for it is a blonde ale and I thought it would be the lightest flavored. It's aged with muscat grapes.

Musty nose with a bit of grape in it. Quite inviting. Super tart but no mustiness in the first sip with a bit of grapey sweetness. Pretty dry finish. Continued along those lines with a perfectly balanced tartness never becoming to dry or acetic. Really delicious.

Beers on Little Christmas Eve

For the past two years (that's this year and last since Christmas is over now), I've been sharing some of my cellared (okay, it's just a basement) beers with my wife's family over Christmas. It may only be a two year tradition but it certainly feels like it's going to stick. Besides forcing my hand into drinking things out of the cellar, it's also fun to share the beers with people that aren't as into the beer scene as me. Gives a new perspective on things and such. This year I decided to do theme nights starting with Imperial Stouts.

The first one I opened was the pretty rare Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS).

New Holland The Poet

In my last visit to Kite & Key before the holidays, I ordered a New Holland The Poet, an oatmeal stout. It was actually a hard decision this time since there had been a decent amount of turnover but this seemed like a good choice.

Roasty nose but pretty mild otherwise. Smooth roast flavors started things off mixed with a slight bitterness. As it warmed up, some milky creaminess joined the roast and smoothed everything out. The latter was definitely the oat part of the beer coming through and it really brought it from just being okay to being pretty decent. Quite an enjoyable beer.

Hope everyone has a great holiday and has some awesome beers lined up! I know I do with some Founders CBS tonight, some Captain Lawrence sours tomorrow, some pumpkin beers on Sunday, and then maybe some barleywines Monday. Should be a great weekend.

River Horse Tripel Horse

Another of the beers left behind by my forgetful friends was River Horse Tripel Horse.

Hints of banana and clove with a decent amount of sweetness in the nose. Some alcohol too. Starts really sugary with clove and more hints of bananas. Mostly continues that way though the sweetness becomes a little much after about half the glass. Decent enough but it wasn't as good as the Heavy Seas Yule Tide from the other day.

Random Beer from my Brother

My brother has started to make a tradition of giving me beer as my Hanukkah present. Works for me! This one we were supposed to open together, but we totally forgot to do so. Oh well. This was a beer made by a friend of his at a brewery (possibly Shenandoah which is now the Farmer's Cabinet brewery) and was supposedly an Oatmeal Stout.

Smelled like dark fruit with a hint of hops. Some sourness in the nose was the first hint that something was terribly wrong with this. At first, I thought it was a sherry flavor since it was over a year old, but as I drank more I realized it was more of a sharp tanginess, reminiscent of infection. It sort of reminded me of a really poor sour porter but way less drinkable. I did manage to get through the whole glass in the picture so it wasn't undrinkable, just bizarre.

Honestly, looking at the picture, you can see how thin the body is since you can basically see through it. My recommendation to my brother's friend is to drink the rest of these if he has any left since it's just going to get worse as the infection spreads.

Heavy Seas Yule Tide

One of the random side effects of the beer tasting I held a little while ago was that a bunch of beers were left in my refrigerator. I wanted people to take them home with them but they forgot. Oh well. Guess I'll just have to drink them. The sacrifices I make in life.

The Heavy Seas Yule Tide, a Tripel, was one of them.

Quite a sweet nose with hints of clove and some slight pepper notes. First sip was quite fruity, lots of apple flavor. Some peppery bitterness appeared as I drank more but the major point was the fruity sweetness. I think I like my tripels to be dryer as the sweetness in this one was a bit too much for such a big bottle.

Nodding Head 12 Beers of Christmas

On the second Saturday of December, Nodding Head held an event called 12 Beers of Christmas. They've been doing second Saturday events for quite a while now and they always have a few special beers for each event. For this one, they had 2010 Sledwrecker, Phunkywine, and some Grog aged in a JW Lees barrel. There were also quite a few others as they had like 12 beers available so it was quite an afternoon. When I arrived, things were slightly busy but there was plenty of room to stand.

Knowing I'd end up ordering all the beers I wanted anyway, I decided to start with the JW Lees Grog as it was in a small firkin sitting on the bar so I felt like it had the highest chance of kicking at some point.

Jabroni En Garde

En Garde is one of the homebrews that my buddy Pete brought to the beer tasting the other night. It's a Biere de Garde according to him.

Peppery nose with some breadiness to it. Not as much spiciness in the first sip though. Some bitterness followed but very mild. Decently clean finish. As it warmed up, I started getting more notes of clove which was really interesting. I'm guessing it's a result of the yeast but regardless it makes the beer much better.

A Swedish Beer on Saint Lucia

For those that don't know, my wife is half Swedish and so we celebrated Saint Lucia day this year. Saint Lucia is a Swedish holiday where parents force their young daughters to wear crowns with lit candles on their heads which then drip hot wax all over them. Nah, just kidding. Well, okay, sort of kidding. It's really about how the Swedes thought December 13th was the darkest day of the year and so they celebrated Saint Lucia bringing them light. To remember this, they have children wear crowns with candles hence the melting wax. Nowadays, though, I believe they use electric candles so it's much safer.

We finally have enough room at our new house so we had some friends over to celebrate Saint Lucia this year. One was nice enough to bring a beer that was actually from Sweden, Dugges 1/2 Idjit, a porter.

Nose was full of roast, molasses and licorice. Really interesting. First sip had roast, coffee, a little saltiness, and some hints of licorice. The saltiness and licorice made for an interesting finish to the beer. Apparently, salty licorice is a thing and quite a favorite in Sweden so it makes sense to aim for that flavor. It actually reminded me a little bit of Deschutes The Abyss although only in flavor not body. This was pretty unique and it was really nice of my buddy to bring it.

Beer Tasting 4

Yet again I invited some friends over to share some beers and hang out. There were eight of us this time so there was quite a bit of beer opened, some good, some, well, not so good. I also discovered they think I use the descriptor banana a ton when writing this, but I attribute it to drinking Belgian style stuff a lot right now (especially Weyerbacher) and I'm sticking with that.

Here's the first set of bottles we worked through.

From left to right but not in order: Pete G. En Garde, Samuel Smith Winter Warmer, Pete G. Double Pumpkin, Allagash Tripel, Victory Otto, Boulevard The Sixth Glass, Mike D. Braggot.

Fegley's Brew Works Devious Imperial Pumpkin

I think I have one more pumpkin after this one so expect that one soon. The Devious is an imperial pumpkin coming in at 9%.

Huge cinnamon, allspice and clove nose. Just tons of spice. Interestingly enough, the flavors were way more smooth and understated. Started with some brown sugar maltiness with some cinnamon appearing along with a tiny bit of general spiciness and then finishing sweet. I liked the difference between the nose and body as it got you ready to drink this spice laden monster only to get a nice balanced sweetness instead. Really good pumpkin and something I'd get again.

Weyerbacher Tango

The Weyerbacher Tango is the newest Brewer's Select beer from Weyerbacher. It's a Belgian Strong Dark Ale brewed with cherries.

Seeing as how this is a Belgian from Weyerbacher, I had certain biases going into it since their Belgians mostly all have the same base flavor. The nose had a strong flavor of bananas without much else. Didn't find any cherry in it. Taste followed with banana then some hints of clove. As I drank more of it, I got some flashes of cherry but nothing really strong or obvious. It was slightly reminiscent of Troegs Mad Elf although not quite as sweet and the Belgian yeast flavors were a bit stronger. Decently enjoyable but I do find the Belgian flavors from Weyerbacher's yeast to be a bit much at times. Probably wouldn't want more than a glass of this as a result.

Victory Storm King on the hand pump

Went to Kite & Key like usual yesterday but didn't find anything to order that immediately jumped out at me. So, just to see if I really don't like it, I ordered a Victory Storm King from their hand pump.

Slight roast with a hint of the hops on the nose. Sort of bitter up front, followed by roast, then finished with a mix of bitterness and chocolate. For an imperial stout, it's amazingly hoppy even being poured from the handpump. For me, the flavors just never melded properly and it was just unpleasantly bitter. I don't know if the recipe has changed over the years or what since I swear I used to like it but now it's just bleh to me. Oh well. At least I finally know not to order it again.

Cuvee De Castleton release at Captain Lawrence

Once again, our intrepid beer release hound (that's me) decided to head up to Captain Lawrence for their latest release. This time it was for their Cuvee De Castleton, a golden ale fermented with muscat grapes in oak barrels. For a better description, see their website. Just like the release of their Rosso e Marrone, my friends and I knew we had to leave ridiculously early in order to be able to buy bottles so that's what we did. I tried to get a little bit of sleep beforehand and sort of succeeded but waking up in the middle of the night is still difficult. When my buddy arrived, I gathered my beer for sharing and some other stuff and we headed out on our way there.

After two or so hours, we arrived at Captain Lawrence. Of course there were already a bunch of people there but they were crazier than us as they'd been there since 8pm and drinking basically the entire time. Here's us just after we pulled into the lot.

Bell's Oarsman

I've had this bottle for a while now and haven't found time to open it until now. Bell's Oarsman is a berliner weiss style beer and is a regular seasonal from Bell's.

Sort of a sour wheat nose which totally smells better than it sounds honestly. Slightly tart, hint of wheaty earthiness. The finish has a slight bitterness which fades quickly. Really, slight is the name of the game here. Everything is balanced and it's super easy drinking. It comes out some time in the summer, I think, which would make sense because on a hot summer day this would be awesome. Really enjoyed this.

Dock Street and Local 44

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Dock Street decided to have a bottle release party for their Prisoner of Hell. Included with that release were bottles of last years Prince Myshkin and their '09 Barleywine. I realize I already have one of each of those two but, well, a second means when I drink one I still have one. Brilliant right? I think so at least and that's what matters to me. Plus, I met up with some friends for dinner so it wasn't totally just about the bottles.

When I got there, they hadn't started pouring the flemish red yet so I ordered the Rye IPA.

Grapefruit nose, slight rye spice. Started with the same slight rye flavor, moved on to being slightly bitter, and finished slightly peppery. Nice, balanced rye IPA without being too over the top with anything. Good way to start the visit.

Bell's Sparkling Ale

I missed my first visit to Kite & Key in a while last week but I totally had a good excuse in that it was the Dock Street bottle release party plus Thanksgiving. So yeah. Lets put that behind us and move on to the newest streak. This time, I ordered a Bell's Sparkling Ale, a tripel.

As far as I can tell, Sparkling Ale is a new offering from Bell's that made it to Philly relatively recently. I could be wrong, obviously, but I don't remember seeing it around before now. Slight Belgian nose, hints of clove and banana. Quite tasty. Started with a raisin flavor, cloves, a tiny hit of bitterness, and a dryish Belgiany finish. Continued along those lines with the raisin and clove being the major players but the dryness kept it from ever being too sweet. Really enjoyed this one and another good entry from Bell's.

Pre-Thanksgiving Trip to Capone's

In what has turned into an every other month tradition, Jo and I took a trip to Capone's the weekend before Thanksgiving. I had something to pick up plus there turned out to be a Mikkeller and De Struise event that day. Win win!

I, of course, started off with a sampler of the available special beers.

Going clockwise from the front, I ordered Mikkeller Black Hole Red Wine, Mikkeller Black Hole White Wine, De Struise Black Damnation, and De Struise Black Damnation 4: Coffee Club.

Schlafly Imperial Stout 2008

The Friday after Thanksgiving, I opened my bottle of Schlafly Reserve Imperial Stout from 2008. I bought this when I was in St. Louis earlier in the year. Turns out sharing it with my brother was a good idea as it would have been a bit too much for me alone I think.

Bourbon sweet nose, not much heat in it. While pouring it didn't look terribly thick, but on the first sip I realized the body was thicker than its appearance suggested. Lots of dark fruit, some oak, a bit of alcohol and a decent amount of bourbon flavor. As I drank more, the bourbon was the major flavor and slowly overpowered everything. There wasn't any heat at least and so it still tasted good but definitely different than the Bourbon County from yesterday.

I wonder what this is like fresh considering how strong the bourbon is three years later. I enjoyed the amount that I drank but the bourbon was getting to be a bit much for me and a full bottle would have probably worn out its welcome. Definitely something to share with friends.

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout 2008

I was sent this 2008 bottle of Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout by a friend of mine. Figured the weekend after Thanksgiving seemed like as good a time as any to open it.

Very still, black as night. Nice bourbon nose, hints of graham cracker, some vanilla. No alcohol heat which was just awesome. Thick as motor oil. Delicious, delicious motor oil. The flavors were so smooth, almost decadent. Chocolate, vanilla, bourbon. Some alcohol burn in the finish but at 13%, not terribly surprising. Hints of dark fruit appeared as I drank more but chocolate and bourbon were the major players.

Man, this was totally awesome and completely lived up to the hype. Absolutely delicious. The new version is coming out soon and I'm hoping to get my hands on some. We'll see. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and drank some good beers. I know I did.

Craft Beer Express 2

I've been meaning to write about this year's Craft Beer Express (aka CBX) for over a week and just haven't had the motivation to get on it. Part of it is my notes are hilariously terrible but it's also that I got remarkably drunk and don't totally remember the end of the night. Or some of the middle. Yeah, it was one of those days. But, whatever, I'll start from the beginning and see how things go. For an explanation for what the Craft Beer Express actually is, see my post for last year's.

Jo and I started at the Kite & Key which had six Ommegang beers flowing. Some of them were their normal lineup so I ordered an Adoration, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, for Jo and a Gnomegang, a Belgian Strong Pale Ale, for me.

The Gnomegang had a sweet Belgian nose. Thicker body than I expected which was nice. Sweet, slightly spicy with a hint of something going on that I couldn't recognize. They used two different yeast strains, one from Ommegang and one from L'Achouffe, so maybe the flavor came from them. Not bad for the style. The Adoration smelled sweet with brown sugar notes. Caramel, toffee, some sweet cherry notes and finishing with a little alcohol burn in the finish. Jo thought it was a bit strong tasting though I didn't notice it as much. I liked it quite a bit but then I'm a sucker for strong, spiced winter beers.

Weyerbacher Rapture

Jo and I opened our first bottle of Weyerbacher Rapture we picked up at the release in September.

Lovely tart and sour nose, nothing harsh and not too acetic. Wow, pretty delicious. Tart up front, some slight vinegar notes, and a sour finish. Even spending a year and a half in the barrel, I didn't get much oak or vanilla although some reviewers claim to find some. No bitterness or harsh tannin notes from the pinot barrels. Some dryness in the finish though not too dry. All around I really enjoyed this one and thought it was quite a good offering from Weyerbacher. I enjoy the Riserva but this is definitely way more balanced than that vinegary monster.

Sharing Beers

It's been a while but I finally met up with my friend Craig at his new house this past Wednesday and we availed ourselves of a few beers. When he lived up the street from me we were doing this a little more often but he lives in New Jersey now so I have to change states and who wants to do that? Okay fine, me, but still it's harder to get there but totally worth it.

We started with one we've talked about opening ever since we met the first time early last year, Big Sky Olde Bluehair, a bourbon barrel barleywine.

Weyerbacher Sierra at the Kite & Key

After the Craft Beer Express this past Saturday (which I'll write about soon), the Kite & Key turned over a few of their taps and put on Weyerbacher Sierra, a milk stout in the Select series. I've been wanting to try this since it was announced so I knew I had to order it.

Clean roasty nose, very smooth. Quite a thick body. First sip was very tasty with a nice creamy roastiness. Some slight hints of the lactose but it affected the body and cut the roast bitterness more than anything. I'm a big fan of most milk stouts and so it was almost inevitable that I'd enjoy this one.

Three Floyds Amon Amarth Ragnarok

I was sent this a while ago by a buddy who lives in Chicago. It's some sort of smoked porter with honey or something.

Mostly grapefruit in the nose although there was something else that neither Jo nor I could clearly identify. It was probably either roastiness or smoke, but the grapefruit was strong enough that it muddled everything else. Started hoppy followed by some slight dark fruit sweetness. Finished with roast and more grapefruit bitterness. Pretty complex with the dark fruit coming and going between the grapefruit, roast and hints of smoke. As I drank more, I felt like I noticed the smoke more but it could have been my mind thinking it should find smoke so it did. All in all, quite tasty and easy to drink. Thanks Matt!

River Horse Hipp-O-Lantern

I still have a few pumpkin beers I haven't written about yet and River Horse Hipp-O-Lantern is one of them.

Not much carbonation in it even with vigorous pouring. Smelled of allspice, brown sugar, and nutmeg. Jo and I couldn't figure out the exact spices but we both couldn't find any cinnamon although it may just be muted compared to the rest. The body was sweet and fruity with apple notes and a brown sugar finish. The spices were mostly present as background flavors as they were overpowered by the sweetness and brown sugar. I quite enjoyed this though I tend to enjoy most imperial pumpkins so I may be biased.

Ithaca White Gold at Kite & Key

The best thing about going to Kite & Key the Tuesday after Savage Sixtel Sunday is that a lot of the sixtels are still available. With this in mind, decisions are made easier on Sunday since I'll have another chance to try the more common beers in the group. This time, I left Ithaca White Gold, a wheat beer with brett, for Tuesday.

Slightly spicy nose, reminded me of a saison. Possibly a result of the yeast. Slight bit of mustiness, bit of earthy brett, bit of wheat. Interesting mix of flavors. Develops into a sort of wheaty earthiness. It's an interesting beer, but nothing really jumped out at me to bring it to the next level. Worth a try just to form your own opinion though.

Another Savage Sixtel Sunday at Kite & Key

It was finally time for another Savage Sixtel Sunday at Kite & Key and of course I had to go. I mentioned a while back that it's named after the bartender on Sunday nights, Jim Savage, and so he was there behind the bar. With all the tvs Kite & Key is definitely a nice place to spend a Sunday night.

I started with a glass of Stillwater Debutante, a saison of sorts.

Two by 8 Wired

Saturday night I decided to open two bottles my wife had picked up a little while ago when she was in Massachusetts. They were from a brewery named 8 Wired located in New Zealand.

The first I opened was their smoked porter, The Big Smoke.

Visiting Perch Pub

I've heard good things about the Perch Pub, located at Broad and Locust, and finally decided to visit last Friday night. The bar was already pretty busy when I got there around 5 as they have a decent happy hour with half off most of their drafts. Right now, they have 14 different draft lines with 2 being reserved for small batch stuff like Hill Farmstead, one-offs, things like that.

I started with a glass of Blue Point No Apologies, a double IPA.

Clean grapefruit nose. Started a little bitter up front, followed by a bit of grapefruit, and then finished with some malty sweetness. Decent enough double IPA although it may be a bit sweet for some people. Nice way to start off the night.

Left Hand Juju Ginger

Left Hand Juju Ginger is classified as a spiced beer and is made with ginger as expected.

Well, the first thing I'll say is it's definitely made with ginger. Mostly ginger in the aroma with some notes from the base beer. Not sure what the base is, possibly something wheat. Who knows. A little tangy up front followed by some sweet ginger and finishing with some bitter ginger flavor. I'm guessing the sweetness and bitterness come from the base which is why the ginger appears in both situations. This is a decent enough beer, but definitely slightly odd. If you like ginger, you'd maybe like this. If you hate it, then you'd hate this. Simple as that really although even if you like ginger it's not really something to write home about.

Fegley's Brew Works Space Monkey

The Brew Works Space Monkey is a raspberry saison.

Sweet raspberry nose with a slight hint of fermentation. Sort of a like a musty undertone to the raspberry. Sharp raspberry flavor, a little tanginess, but finished a little weak and empty. The major flavor was raspberry without much else. The first two bottles I had the saison part was more prevalent and added a nice touch of spiciness which complemented the raspberry really well. Without that, this was just another fruit beer. Not bad if you are looking for that but I thought it was better before. It's my fault for not drinking it sooner though. Still it's not like it was bad so I can't fault it too much.

Green Flash Double Stout at Kite & Key

I've been seeing the Double Stout on the upcoming beers list at Kite & Key for a couple weeks now and couldn't wait until it was finally available. The choice was this or Rogue Chocolate Stout on cask and I decided this one may not last as long.

Roasty nose with hints of coffee in it. On first sip, I got chocolate and roast with some more coffee in it. Some bitter notes but otherwise relatively smooth. Very nice stout. As I drank more and it warmed up a bit, I was getting an interesting sweet flavor that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Reminded me almost of maple but it wasn't quite that. Either way, pretty delicious and I'm going to be on the lookout for some bottles to try it again.

Founders Lunch at Jose Pistolas

Just like usual, it's been a while since I've been to Jose Pistolas for lunch so I decided to fix that problem last Friday. I wasn't really planning on it but Adam put together a last minute Founders themed lunch so I figured that was as good a reason as any. I don't remember everything they had, but the main ones were the Wet Hop Harvest and bottles of 2010 KBS. Since I was going during work, I decided KBS was a bit much so went for the Harvest IPA instead. People seem to be excited about it so why not, right?

Voodoo Big Black Voodoo Daddy

I bought this a while ago and decided it was time to open it up. Big Black Voodoo Daddy is an imperial stout coming in at about 12.5%.

Smelled of molasses, chocolate, roast and coffee with a slight hint of dark fruit. Just a huge, complex aroma, pretty crazy. Starts with a lot of coffee and roast but absolutely no bitterness. Some chocolate and a nice mild roast in the finish. While the molasses and dark fruit from the nose didn't follow through in the flavors, the actual beer was still really good and incredibly smooth. I figured the ABV was high, but I couldn't believe it was 12.5%. Even Jo thought it tasted good. Definitely be on the lookout for this if you like stouts though it's a seasonal so you may not find it for a while.

Spaten Optimator

Spaten Optimator is a doppelbock from a famous brewery in Germany.

We stopped by this random German deli in DC and it had three Spaten beers on tap: Oktoberfest, Helles, and Optimator. Since I'm a sucker for doppelbocks, I knew I had to order the Optimator.

Inviting sweet caramel nose. Makes you want to dive right in. Thick body. Started with a caramel sweetness and ended with a caramel sweetness. With the thick body and the maltiness backing it, sort of reminded me of delicious loaf of bread soaked in caramel sauce. Yum. Really great aftertaste too. Just a great, well made doppelbock.

Regional Food & Drink in DC

We were in DC for a wedding and the rehearsal dinner was held at a place called Regional Food & Drink. Since we were in a side room for the event, I didn't see much of the place but it seemed nice enough. During the rehearsal part of it I mostly drank Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald, a porter, which is great so that was cool. After the dinner a bunch of us switched to the main part of the restaurant and got a table in the back. I didn't know what to expect as far as the draft list but it was actually quite god with lots of variety and decent enough prices. I decided to start with the Dogfish Head 120 Minute, an 18% monster IPA, since I wasn't sure if I'd find it on draft anywhere else.

Weyerbacher Romeo

This week at the Kite & Key I ordered a Weyerbacher Romeo, a Belgian Red (although the style may be made up by Weyerbacher), from their Brewer's Select series.

Sweet banana Belgian nose. Started with a slightly bitter spiciness followed by bready caramel malt and bananas. The finish was a little bitter with more banana. Honestly not sure what I felt about this. The banana flavor was just so strong that I felt it overpowered the rest of the beer. I looked at some other reviews and they didn't mention it was as strong as I thought though so maybe I'm just sensitive to it. Who knows. Not bad, but I'm way more excited for the next Brewer's Select Sierra as I love milk stouts.

Heavy Seas Great Pumpkin

My wife and I went to brunch a little while ago at the Belgian Cafe and I thought a pumpkin beer would make a good start.

Sweet, fruity nose with a little cinnamon in it. Definitely on the more heavily spiced side of the pumpkin spectrum. Reminded me quite a bit of apple pie because of the sweetness and fruit in it. The flavor actually had more clove than cinnamon to my taste but it's mostly all the same in the end. I thought it was pretty similar to the Harpoon UFO pumpkin I had the other week although that was a bit more spiced than even this one.

This wasn't bad if you're looking for a more heavily spiced pumpkin though I wouldn't go out of my way for it. Be interested in trying the bourbon barrel aged version considering it seems like the beer would hold up but maybe next year since it's probably gone now.

Chris Dengler Lemongrass something or other

After stopping by to deliver something, a friend of mine gave me two bottles of his homebrew. They were variations of his lemongrass beer, brewed with different yeasts and hops. The first one I opened was hopped with Sorachi Ace but I don't know the type of yeast used.

Smelled like fresh ginger, almost tea like. Incredibly clean flavor with hints of ginger. As it was well balanced and understated, the ginger worked really well. I believe he might have added some actual ginger along with the lemongrass and with the Sorachi Ace flavor everything worked well. Really delicious. Definitely looking forward to trying the gold cap soon and seeing the differences.

Troegs Tap Takeover at the Khyber

While I wasn't actually planning on attending the Troegs night at the Khyber, my wife and decided we needed a night out and, well, happy coincidences. The Khyber had about 16-20 different Troegs beers, some from the regular lineup and a bunch from the scratch series.

It was pretty crowded when we first go there, but lucky for us some people got up from the bar a few minutes later and we got seats. To start with I ordered a glass of Scratch 46, named Naked Elf, because it's the base of their popular Mad Elf beer. I've been interested in trying it since I first heard about it. While Mad Elf is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, this is more considered a Belgian Strong Pale Ale although it wasn't pale at all.

Troegs Java Head on cask at the Kite & Key

I stopped in at the Kite & Key for my usual Tuesday visit and was happy to see that Troegs Java Head was finally on their handpump.

Nice mild coffee nose. Lighter body because of the handpump but very smooth. The first thing I noticed was how well the coffee's harshness was blunted by being on cask. Similar to what happens to hops in IPAs really. Slightly bitter in the finish but it faded quickly. The Java Head was generally good and now I want to try it on a regular draft system just to see the differences.

De Dolle Stille Nacht

I decided to open up something slightly more interesting this past Saturday so I grabbed my bottle of 2010 De Dolle Stille Nacht. This bottle is actually from Belgium directly which is why it has a little bow sticker around the neck. The beer itself is exactly the same as the US version though so I guess they just want you to feel special if you get it from the source. Stille Nacht is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale.

Sweet nose, reminiscent of honey. Flavors follow with a large honey like sweetness being the major component. Very smooth. Sort of a hint of bitterness throughout, just enough to keep the sweetness from being cloying. It doesn't last more than a few moments each time you notice it though. As I drank more, the sweetness faded a bit and a little bit of spiciness from something appeared possibly from the yeast. This was really quite tasty and very smooth. I don't even really like the style a lot but this is too good to pass up.

Great Divide Hoss

That's it for pumpkin week for now. I still have a few more but I needed a change of pace for a few days. To start, I opened a bottle of Great Divide Hoss.

Hoss is a lager brewed with some rye. Sweet bready nose, basically what you'd expect from a good lager. Very clean. Has a nice bready malt flavor with some slight rye spiciness in the finish. The maltiness was really pleasant and the rye added a nice second dimension to the lager. Really clean, well made lager and very enjoyable.

Elysian Night Owl

While it's Monday now, I drank this one Friday night so I'm counting it as continuing pumpkin week. This time it was Elysian Night Owl, a pumpkin brewed with pumpkin seeds along with pumpkin and then fermented spices.

Bready malt nose with a hint of clove and cinnamon. Pretty sweet, almost fruity. Interesting dry pumpkin flavor, possibly a result of the seeds, with very understated spicing. Some malty sweetness comes through similar to the nose. Decent and pretty easy drinking pumpkin as a result of the reasonably tasty base beer. I do wish Elysian distributed their other two pumpkin beers here though since they are both supposed to be quite good and one is a stout. Ah well.

Harpoon UFO Pumpkin Ale

Up next in my week of pumpkins was the Harpoon UFO Pumpkin Ale. UFO stands for Unfiltered Offering if you're curious.

Sharp spiciness on this one. Clove, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg all appear in the nose. Jo thought it smelled like pumpkin bread as it had a certain baked bread quality to it. Taste followed with just a ton of spices and very little beer flavor. Just crazy. Definitely the spiciest pumpkin I've had so far. Cinnamon is the major flavor and I got some nutmeg and allspice along with it. I'll say that while it was too much cinnamon and spice for me, it will definitely appeal to people looking for pie in a glass. So pick it up if you like that style pumpkin ale.

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale

Continuing my week of pumpkin, I opened a bottle of Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale last night.

Nose was clove and cinnamon like usual but a hint of grapefruit hops follow. Intriguing in a pumpkin ale, very different. Flavor started with some mild grapefruit then some spice followed. The finish was slightly bitter but in a pleasant way. I wasn't expecting much from this but it was really quite good and definitely a different pumpkin than most. You don't find many where the hops are actually present so it's a nice change of pace.

Southampton Pumpkin Ale

I finally missed a week of visiting the Kite & Key after like two months, but I had a good excuse in that I was in Dallas. For my return, I decided to continue my week of pumpkins and ordered the Southampton Pumpkin Ale.

Smelled sweet with some hints of clove and cinnamon. Taste basically followed with a lot of sweetness followed by the same clove and cinnamon. Not particularly special or different as it tasted like every other spiced pumpkin ale on the market. Ah well.