Schneider Aventinus 2006

The second interesting bottle I opened for July 4th was a Schneider Aventinus that was brewed in 2006 and cellared at the brewery until released in the US in, I think, 2010. I was interested in opening this one because it's the year anniversary of the trip to Germany with my wife and visiting Schneider. I figured this would be the best time to open the bottle considering it was already five years old. Aventinus is a weizenbock and one of my favorite beers.

Smelled of caramel and plums and deliciousness. First sip had caramel, toffee, and plums with a hint of apple. Most of those flavors continued throughout the glass with the caramel and the plums being in the forefront. From what I remember of fresh Aventinus, this version was more complex with the added hint of apples. Really awesome beer. The only mistake I made was not having a fresh bottle on hand to compare it directly. When drinking older stuff, it's obviously much easier to find differences when you have both versions together but oh well. Still happy with opening this.

Two for Tuesday

Today was the special release of Dogfish Head's new beer Bitches Brew.

This beer commemorates the 40th anniversary of a Miles Davis album, but regardless of the odd circumstances it was absolutely delicious.  Dogfish Head's description is that it is 3 parts Imperial Stout and 1 part Honey and something else.  It was a pretty apt description.  It started out as a really mild Imperial Stout and ended with a sweet aftertaste.  At 9% it was pretty strong, but there wasn't any trace of the alcohol in it.  All in all, it was another great Dogfish Head beer, but the availability of it may be very minimal so you may not be able to find it anywhere.

After that, Jo and I needed some dinner and neither of us felt like cooking tonight.  We realized it was Tuesday which meant Lucky 7s (a local bar) was having Taco Tuesday so we headed over there.  Unfortunately their taps were unexciting, but they did have a bottle of Schneider Aventinus so I was still pretty happy.

I bought my friend Jon a case of this recently so I've had a bottle since Jo and I were in Munich, but tonight brought back a lot of great memories from that trip.  The Schneider brewery is located in Munich and Jo and I went there twice while we were there so it's pretty cool to order their beers here in Philly.  This beer is a dark wheat doppelbock.  It has a nice brown color to it and an absolutely delicious caramel aroma.  The taste reminds me of a Belgian Dubbel but wheaty.  You get hints of banana and caramel and it goes down incredibly smooth for an 8.2% beer.  This is one of my favorite German beers so if you see it around definitely take a try.  The Aventinus Eisbock is also available, at least in Philly, and it's like a super powered version of Aventinus.  If you are at Devil's Den, order a bottle and prepare to be amazed.