Some Beers before Christmas

I opened a number of bottles with my family over the holidays, some I took notes and pictures and some I didn't. The latter was sometimes because I didn't feel like it though honestly sometimes I just forgot. I think I drank these two on the same night so lets talk about them together! If I don't I'll never finish writing about everything so lets go.

I had thrown a couple bottles in the beer fridge at random so there was no theme for this day. We started with the white wax version of FiftyFifty Eclipse, an imperial stout aged in 20 year old Elijah Craig bourbon barrels. The thing about the Eclipse series is that the barrel treatment (aka the barrel the beer is aged inside) is only referenced by the color of the wax. You have to look up the beer somewhere and compare the wax color to figure it out. Kind of a funny way to do things, but that's how it is.

He'Brew Jewbelation Sweet 16

The Jewbelation series from He'Brew brewing is an anniversary series they release every year. At least for the last couple of years, each new iteration adds 1 percent to the ABV to match the year, making this year's version 16%. I'm not really sure on a style but it's probably listed as an American Strong Ale. A quick glance at BeerAdvocate shows I'm correct mostly because that's just a catchall category for strong beers that don't really fit anywhere else.

Smelled of chocolate, raisins, and plums. Basically like a quad mixed with a less sweet port. No real hint of the 16% in the nose which was nice. Super thick though with enough carbonation to keep it from being cloying. Tasted of chocolate and burnt plums with a little harsh bitterness in the finish. The alcohol is not as hidden in the body as the nose, but it came and went as I drank more and was never too oppressive. I thought for a 16% monster it was remarkably easy to drink. My brother in law liked it quite a bit too. Definitely an interesting beer and for like $8 it's quite a deal. Also, my parents bought this for me because they liked the bottle which is pretty funny.

Deschutes Chasin' Freshies and 500th post

Well, this isn't nearly as epic as I expected my 500th post to be but whatever, I'll just have to reach 1000 and do something interesting for that. Right? Totally! So Chasin' Freshies is a fresh hop IPA from Deschutes given to me by my brother in law. I'm not sure when it was released, but we drank it the day before the best by date arrived. So I win this round, Deschutes, but just barely.

Bright, juicy nose. Very inviting. The body basically tasted like passion fruit to me with a light bitterness in the finish. Very pleasant even if it was at the tail end of its freshness. I don't know how well this would hold up past its best by date, but it was certainly still good before it. Very interesting flavors in this and quite enjoyable.

Baking during the Holidays

I know it has been a while since my last post but that's the holidays for you. I basically spent the last 10 days eating and drinking almost constantly. Have a lot of different beers to write about at this point as a result. However, it's going to take a couple days to get back into things since I'm a lazy bum so I'm starting with an easy one. Writing about stuff I baked with beer!

I made two things over the holiday, one really easy one and one slightly more complicated. The first thing was just a plain old beer bread. This is as simple as it sounds, just a normal bread made with an entire bottle of beer instead of all water. I have a bunch of Brooklyn Brown Ale in the house so I decided to just use that but you can really use almost anything that has a maltier base. I don't know what something bitter would do to the bread so you may want to avoid IPAs and such but maybe someone with more knowledge would say they're okay too.

Iron Hill Oak Aged Quad

I bought this bottle of Iron Hill Oak Aged Quad nearly two years ago I think. Originally, I bought it because my friends and I were going to do a quad tasting but that never actually happened. Oh well. So, I finally just decided to drink it myself this past weekend.

First, notice there aren't any bubbles at all in that glass. This was nearly completely still even more flat than Kevin's ODD barleywine from the other day. But, I didn't let it deter me! Super complex nose, almost port like. Chocolate, caramel, raisins, and plums. It also smelled thick, probably because it was kind of syrupy looking and pretty sweet. And yes, I said it smelled thick, deal with it even if that makes zero sense.

The first sip still reminded me a lot of port. Big cherry up front followed by tons of caramel, chocolate, molasses, and raisins. The cherry lingered in the aftertaste too. Considering this was 12.5%, I didn't get any alcohol which is just crazy. Don't get me wrong, the beer was boozy, it just didn't have any burn. It may have been flat and syrupy, but I still thought it was really good. A little bit of carbonation would have brought it to another level I expect. Wonder if it had any when it was first bottled. Who knows, I guess.

Also, with the holidays coming up my posts will be sporadic at best for the next two weeks or so. Look for normal posting starting again on January 3rd. I'll probably put up one or two over the holidays but we'll see.

The Bruery Five Golden Rings

Last Friday, Kite & Key had a holiday beer spectacular with a thorough list of christmas beers. I saw they put on The Bruery Five Golden Rings, the newest beer in their 12 days of Christmas, and was happy to see it still available yesterday for my weekly visit.

Got nutmeg or cinnamon in the nose without much else. First sip, the major thing I got was a pineapple sweetness, though more like sugary fruit juice than real pineapple, and then a little spice in the middle. As it warmed up and I got used to the fruit sweetness, I started noticing a little of the Belgian yeast strain used to brew it in the form of a little clove and mild banana. Never got much of the spices though other than in the nose. The beer definitely grows on you but for some the pineapple sweetness would probably be a bit much. My friend Craig thought so at least. I mostly liked it and thought it was at least unique for a Christmas beer even if it won't appeal to everyone.

Kevin Mudrick's Odd Barleywine

I recently saw Kevin at an Allagash event at Tria and he was kind enough to give me four bottles of his homebrew. I've had his stuff once before and it was really good even compared to professional stuff so I was excited to check it out. The first one I decided to open was his Odd, a barleywine. Or at least I think he named it Odd, it's what was on the cap at least!

Complex and boozy nose. Not hot or alcoholic at all, just kind of sweet and well boozy. Also figs, apples, prunes, and raisins. Impressive really. As far as carbonation, he warned me it was "Tomme Arthur" style meaning incredibly low. Honestly it was almost still which didn't put me off even though it made it quite thick. My first sip wasn't quite as impressive as the nose unfortunately. Similar flavors existed up front, but the back end was a little empty for some reason.

This sort of reminded me of a beer that was getting a little old but he said it was only from about six months ago. There was still a lot of caramel, raisin, and brown sugar and they weren't boozy at all, they just didn't last very long in each sip. If those flavors were more prevalent through every sip this would have been quite awesome but even so it was still pretty good. He has a version of this mixed with a flemish red or something that I bet is good. Hopefully the latter fills in the light emptiness from this. Looking forward to trying his oaked imperial stout some time this week!

Update: Kevin has informed me ODD is an acronym and stands for Old Draft Dodger. He may have told me that when he gave me the beer too but I clearly forgot. That makes a lot more sense though I liked the idea of naming the beer Odd.

Another Trip to Tired Hands

This visit to Tired Hands actually occurred way back before Thanksgiving but I half forgot about these notes and half just hadn't gotten around to writing about it. But today I make up for it! I made this visit so soon after the previous one for two reasons: to fill a growler and to try the new Westy 13. Since it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, man was it busy. I got the last seat at the bar and showed up only a few minutes after it opened. Funny but totally great for them.

So since it was new and special, I started with the Westy 13, a quad.

Lagunitas Brown Shugga at Kite & Key

With the ongoing expansion of their brewery last year, Lagunitas wasn't able to brew Brown Shugga. Since it's a 10% barleywine, it just took up too much space in their limited number of fermenters for too long for them to be able to afford it. However, the expansion is finished now so it made its triumphant return this year!

Grapefruit hoppy nose. Body followed, sort of, with the grapefruit hoppiness starting things off. Quickly following was a big brown sugar sweetness and that's where this becomes kind of different than other american barleywines. The finish was sort of a mix of the two with sweetness and bitterness playing next to each other. At first they don't mix well and it was a little odd, but as you drink more and the hops faded into the background, the sweetness came to the front. It's a pretty interesting barleywine, that's for sure, and worth trying. It can be a bit polarizing as some think it's too sweet, but I thought it was pretty tasty.

Boulevard 2011 Saison Brett

Other than a couple of 12oz bottles, the Boulevard Saison Brett is the last beer I brought back from Houston. When I bought it, I had a choice of 2011 or 2012 and decided to go with the year old version. I figured with this style and Boulevard's reputation, it would be a bit more interesting with a year of age on it.

Minty and herbal nose with a light fruitiness. Like tropical fruit almost with a bit of lemon. Thicker body than I expected, actually, but not in a bad way, just different than is usual for the style. Spicy, herbal, minty body but lacking the fruitiness of the nose. Still, very tasty. Lightly bitter in the finish with a little more of the herbal edge in the aftertaste.

This was quite good, very refreshing and clean tasting. Nice with the latkes and some other food we had that night. It's why I'm so frustrated when I have a mediocre Boulevard beer since I know they can make such good ones. Oh well, I'll just have to keep trying them all and hope the quality is high.