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.

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.

Watching Soccer at the Kite & Key

Okay so I've been spending a lot of time at the Kite & Key. So sue me. It's close to our house, the atmosphere is nice, the beer list is pretty great, and they have tvs really well placed around the room. So, yeah, you are probably going to be seeing more posts about it. You'll have to deal with the disappointment.

For this time, Jo and I went because we wanted to watch the Germany vs. Japan Women's World Cup game while having a few beers. We settled down, Evan, the bartender, did us the favor of putting on the game, and I ordered a Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, an IPA made with rye.