Stone Saison du Buff aged in Red Wine Barrels

This was sent to me forever ago by my buddy in San Diego and was a great surprise just for its uniqueness. I've never actually had the original Saison du Buff, which is kind of funny or dumb depending on who you ask considering the distribution but whatever. So this is obviously a saison aged in red wine barrels and this version was brewed by Stone. (There were versions brewed by Stone, Victory, and Dogfish Head which is why I'm specifying the brewery like that.)

Big herbal nose with a little fruitiness in the back. The barrel is really minimal there. First sip was again sharply herbal with a bit of bitterness and then some light apple and cherry fruit flavors. The latter are almost definitely from the aging and the former flavors from the base. I wonder if the saison part was brighter or even more herbal when fresh, but since I've never had it, I dunno. Still, it was tasty enough though I wish the red wine barrel had imparted a bit more flavor. Thanks Eric!

Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout

It's been pretty quiet over here and sorry about that. Had some stuff happen and was away from the house for a bit. But, I'm mostly back now so here's a short one, some simple thoughts on Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout. Think the bottle was around a year old but I don't know for sure.

Super roasty nose with hints of chocolate. Basically what you'd expect from a stout. Surprisingly thick body though. First sip had a mix of bitter, roasty hops and burnt, smoky roast. Basically continued that way with only real change being the bitterness lessening as my palate adjusted to it. Solid offering from Great Divide and a tasty imperial stout. They make four different variations on this, too, which are all pretty good as well.

Mellody Brewing Sour Cherry Patersbier

I was given a few of Sean Mellody's beers as part of what he calls the "Tasting Jawn." Very Philly, I know. The Sour Cherry Patersbier is, predictably enough, his patersbier aged on sour cherries.

Light cherry nose with a bit of bready maltiness in the finish. The beginning and middle had a ton of black cherry tartness which kind of overpowered everything up until the finish. There were hints of the base beer (which I drank earlier in the week but haven't written about yet) in the back but the cherries were by far the strongest flavor throughout. If you like this type of cherry, you'd probably quite like this since it tastes pretty similar. It's also just tart and not crazy funky or weird so this could appeal even to people who don't like sours too. Overall, I can definitely see it being polarizing but that's not surprising with fruit anyway.

Trophy Brewing in Raleigh, NC

After drinking quite a bit at a very good bar, The Busy Bee, for my friend's rehearsal dinner, I decided the mile walk to Trophy brewing would do me some good. Turned out I was right since the walk was easy and it let me sober up a bit before getting there. I wasn't sure what to expect but Trophy looks like a small store front with a bar in the front and probably a large back room for the brewing area.

When I got there, probably around 10:30pm on a Friday, there were a couple of seats at the bar so I sat myself down and ordered a 30 Fathoms, a Baltic Porter. I had been excited to try their Rosemary Gose but it unfortunately had kicked the day before. Oh well.

Fegley's Brew Works Framboise

We met a friend at Philadelphia Bar & Restaurant and when I looked at the draft list I knew I had to try the Brew Works Framboise. I'm a sucker for sours and heard some decent things about this one.

Solid nose on it, smelled of fermenting raspberries and caramel. The raspberry part smelled pretty natural which is always a nice sign in brewing. Fake ingredients can up the flavor but are still fake. Tart raspberry up front, light caramel followed, and a slightly bitter or something finish. The raspberry and tartness was really nice in this and the natural flavor was pretty good. The only negative on this was the slightly odd, kind of bitter flavor in the finish. It didn't ruin the beer or anything, just threw me off a little. This is definitely worth trying if you see it though just to experience it.

Update: Oddly enough, The Brew Works just posted a blog entry about their lambics over here.

Evolution Sprung

When I stopped by the Kite & Key on Monday, I knew I wanted a beer that was pretty Spring-like considering it was the first nice day, in like, forever. Surprisingly, there was the perfect beer on the menu, Evolution Sprung. It's a blonde made with honey, hibiscus, and chamomile. Plus, the name is almost Spring! Perfect right?

Tea like nose almost definitely from the chamomile in it. Definitely interesting. Body started sweet and juicy and ended dry with some notes of bread and slightly herbal. On a warm day, trying to appreciate the spring, this was pretty good. It won't blow you away but it's tasty and that's what is really important. The chamomile and hibiscus make it pretty unique though I imagine some people will think they're too strong. Can't please everyone with unique flavors so whatever.

Split Thy Skull

I'm not sure how long this event has been running, but I believe it has been around 16 years which is crazy. Split Thy Skull is an annual barleywine fest that used to be at Sugar Mom's, but has since moved to Tattooed Mom's since it's bigger (or at least I think that's the reason). Now, thinking about it, I'm amazed they were able to have a barleywine festival  that long ago. I mean, I guess that was near the late 90s so maybe there were plenty of barleywines available actually. Also crazy that 16 years ago was the late 90s. What the heck.

When I arrived, the place wasn't too busy. Took me a few minutes to figure out how things worked with 5 barleywines on the first floor and 5 on the second and no overlap. Since there wasn't any room on the first, I moved upstairs and grabbed a seat at that bar instead. They were already preparing for the rush, which was really smart, and filling a large number of flights with delicious barleywines so I started with one of them.

Wychwood Hobgoblin

I'm still working my way through the gift of beers I was given back in December. I realize that is ridiculously lame but, well, I'm okay with that. I think I have one or two left at this point and I should just drink them but I have so many other things to drink and so little time. Oh well, I'll get to them eventually. This time I chose the Wychwood Hobgoblin, a Dark English Ale according to the bottle.

I didn't know what to expect from Hobgoblin, but honestly I wasn't expected a really solid beer which is what I got. Nutty, malty sweet nose with a bit of toffee. Body was caramel and sweet fruit with a tiny bit of bitterness in the finish. Quite tasty and actually reminded me of Yards Brawler a bit.

Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter

It has been a few weeks since I was able to make it to Kite & Key due to holidays and general laziness. Turns out it's more difficult to go somewhere every week when you don't just walk by it. Who knew. Well, regardless, I made it on Monday and got a glass of Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter.

Solid nose for a porter. Nutty and chocolate with a decent amount of roast in it. Exactly what I want in a porter and I expected good things from it. Body was similar and just as solid with a mix of chocolate and roast with a bit of caramel sweetness. The finish was nice and dry, too, wrapping everything together and keeping you wanting more. Just a real solid porter that's actually distinguishable from a stout which doesn't always happen given the similarities in the styles. Nice stuff.

Maine Beer Company Lil' One

I had a couple bottles of this over the past few weeks but this was the first I drank by myself. Lil' One is listed as an American Strong Ale on BeerAdvocate which actually works well for it. I've mentioned before but this category is more of a catch all for beers that are hoppy and strong but don't fit well in the American Barleywine or Double IPA categories.

This was bottled on 1/31 with a best before date of 90 days from there so like two months old now. The age definitely affected this beer. Malty, earthy nose reminded me quite a bit of Nugget Nectar but with less hop intensity (again possibly because of age). Body followed with a light spiciness, more of the earthy hoppiness, and an almost smoky sweetness. Finished a bit bitter so it at least never got too sweet. Decent beer really though I wonder how much better it is when fresh. Just seemed like it was missing something at this point. Worth trying but not going out of the way to get basically.