Port City Tidings

This is another of the bottles my brother Dan gave me for Hanukkah. Tidings is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale which makes sense.

Smelled like a tripel actually. Sort of a yeasty, slightly peppery nose with some sweetness and clove. Initially sweet with some spice like the clove I got in the nose. Decent amount of sweetness in the finish and sort of reminiscent of Mad Elf though not as powerful, possibly because of the honey. Nice enough winter beer though maybe a little sweet but I liked it.

Weyerbacher Riserva 2011 Release

This past Friday, Weyerbacher released the 2011 version of their powerful raspberry sour, Riserva, along with unveiling their new logo. Yes, I know it's 2012 and I assume so do they but Riserva was bottled in 2011 so it's the 2011 version. It's how dates work in the beer world. Learn to deal with the confusion as it's how everyone does it. Moving past that, unlike some of the other more recent releases like Rapture and Idiot's Drool, there's actually quite a bit of Riserva so it gets distributed around the area. This meant less people showed up to the release so it was a more normal crowd.

When Jo and I arrived, there was a small crowd outside the building and quite a few people inside trying some of the samples of their normal lineup plus the new Riserva.

Chocolate Covered Stout Marshmallows

For the superbowl, Jo and I decided to make these chocolate covered stout marshmallows. While this is the actual recipe, I originally found it here on Pangaea Beer & Food when James posted about it. I figured it wouldn't be too complicated based on the recipe. Plus, how could homemade marshmallows covered in chocolate not be delicious?

So you start with two packets of unflavored gelatin, generally Knox as I don't know of any other brands. It gets mixed with some of the stout and vanilla and then you let it sit until it's ready. Looks sort of like this.

Doesn't look like much, but it'll become something delicious eventually.

Weyerbacher Double Simcoe: 2011 vs 2005

A while ago my buddy gave me three old bottles of Weyerbacher beer from 2005: A Decadence, an Insanity, and a Double Simcoe. Now, I was super excited about the first two as they were both super strong and would easily last through 6+ years of aging. However, an old Double Simcoe wasn't anywhere near as appealing since it is just an 8% double IPA and as I said yesterday, you shouldn't age those. But since I didn't do the aging, I held on to it until I could drink it next to a fresh one just to see what happens to it when it sits for a long time. For science really. Basically like what I did with the Hopslam yesterday just more ridiculous.

After pouring both, the main thing I noticed was they were pretty different in appearance and it was quite easy to tell them apart.

As you can see, the 2005 is the much darker brown one on the right.

Dogfish Head 120 Minute at Kite & Key

I've written about 120 Minute once before but never when I had it at the Kite & Key. I'm going to repeat myself just because and you can't stop me.

Surprisingly I got a bit of hoppiness in the nose, though very weak, and quickly overpowered by sweetness. Very thick body with a very sharp alcohol note up front, most likely a result of the 18% ABV. Luckily, the burn faded after a few sips and lead into some citrus notes and a syrupy sweetness. It never got too cloying but it came pretty close. I enjoy it though not everyone does as it's a reasonably dividing beer. However, not everyone needs to like everything and more people need to realize that.

Bell's Hopslam: 2011 vs 2012

Around last July, I visited DC and stopped in a random bottle shop near my friend's house and found an old bottle of Bell's Hopslam. Rather than drink it at 6 months old, I decided to hold on to it for another six months until I could get a fresh bottle for comparison. Well, the release finally happened and I got four bottles of fresh Hopslam and drank the first one side by side the old bottle.

On the left is the 2011 and the right is the 2012.

Troegs Scratch 55 Double IPA

I drank a few new beers over the weekend including Troegs Scratch 55, a double IPA. I was given two bottles of this when I picked up some Bells Hopslam from someone. After drinking one, I'm super glad he gave them to me as they were quite good.

Lovely nose, very clean. Grapefruit citrus with a nice bit of sugary sweetness. Lots of grapefruit followed, some sweetness from the malt and then a tiny hint of bitterness. It also had a mildly dry finish even with the sweetness. I really enjoyed this, honestly more than I expected. Just really drinkable and tasty.

Southern Tier Oak Aged Pumking

Jo and I stopped in at the newly remodeled Bridgids the other day to check it out. The bar area actually looks the same and we didn't go back into the dining area so, well, can't tell you what changed. Whoops, oh well. We both agreed that the food was quite good now so there's that. She got a Left Hand Milk Stout which was nice and roasty and I got a Southern Tier Oak Aged Pumking which unfortunately was just terrible.

Smelled like flour, marshmallow, coconut, and vanilla. Hugely powerful nose, just crazy strong. The first sip mostly followed the nose with coconut and vanilla being the major points. Not much changed through the whole glass either.

While I managed to drink the whole thing, I'm actually not sure how I manged it considering it made me gag slightly at times. I really thought it was absolutely vile basically tasting like a coconut threw up in a glass of vanilla and then sprinkled some flour on it to cover the mess. To be fair, though, I do know people that actually like this so I don't really think it's flawed or actually bad, I just think it's disgusting to me.

Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock

My brother gave me a few beers for Hanukkah but I've been remiss in actually drinking them and trying to make up for that now. I started with the bottle of Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock.

Light chocolate nose with a hint of fruit. Nice body on it, not too thin. Started with some chocolate, then some slight cherry notes, and finishing with a bit of cocoa. The chocolate flavors grew as I drank more and it was quite enjoyable throughout. I can see some people not liking the way the chocolate presented itself but I liked it.

Williamsburg AleWerks Coffeehouse Stout

I've written about the Williamsburg AleWerks Coffeehouse Stout out of the bottle before but never on draft. They will probably end up being pretty similar though I'd guess. The Coffeehouse Stout is a coffee milk stout.

Very clean coffee nose. It's strong but not overpowering or sharp. Very inviting. Taste followed with a nice coffee flavor and a bit of creaminess smoothing out all of the sharp edges. Incredibly easy to drink and just really good. I wanted to find a bottle of Cafe Royale which is this aged in bourbon barrels but never managed unfortunately. I bet it's really quite good considering how nice the base is.