Central Waters Peruvian Morning

Central Waters isn't super well known but they are a very high quality brewery. They also do a bunch of barrel aging and are quite good at it especially in making a large enough quantity to satisfy their markets. Last night I drank a bottle of Peruvian Morning, a bourbon barrel coffee stout.

There has been reports of infection in some Peruvian Morning so I was a little worried but luckily this bottle was delicious. Soft bourbon coffee nose though a thin appearance. Started with some light coffee sourness, probably due to the age of the bottle, then followed by bourbon and a strong vanilla finish. The sour coffee flavor faded after a bit and left me with just vanilla, bourbon, and some chocolate from the base stout. The sourness wasn't a sign of infection as far as I know, just the coffee aging poorly in my opinion. Pretty good beer though the body could have used a little work.

Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Barleywine

I'd been drinking mostly IPAs for a few days in order to finish them up before our trip to Belgium and decided I needed a change of pace. So I sort of went to an extreme and opened one of my bottles of Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Barleywine, an 11.5% barleywine aged in bourbon barrels. Which you probably knew from the oh so descriptive name but why not repeat myself.

Wonderful bourbon and vanilla nose with just a hint of fruitiness of the underlying barleywine. Basically sets the tone for what you're about to drink. Thick and powerful first sip. Bourbon first followed by a little alcohol and then vanilla. The base barleywine is basically overpowered by the bourbon and vanilla which is okay in my book. It's not fooling around at all though. If you like bourbon, you'll definitely like this. If you don't it may be too much. I'll say I thought it was pretty delicious and was a perfect choice to change things up.

Trip to Perch Pub

I recently met up with my friend Eric at Perch Pub. Part of the reason I wanted to go to Perch was because I'd finally get to try Cafe Royale from Williamsburg Alewerks. The other part being that their half price happy hour is a really good deal. When we got there around 5:30, the bar was pretty busy but after our first drink two seats opened up in front of us. Pretty convenient. The rest of the place wasn't too crowded, though, so if you're looking for a table instead of chilling at the bar, it's a good choice for happy hour.

I of course started with the Williamsburg Alewerks Cafe Royale, their Coffeehouse stout aged in bourbon barrels.

Second Annual Beer Geek BBQ at the Hulmeville

With Natalie DeChico winning the Philly Beer Geek contest representing the Hulmeville Inn, it meant there was going to be a second BBQ party being held this year. If you remember, the last one had a barrel of bourbon Plead the Fifth (I had forgotten I got a full pint, awesome) so I had high hopes for this year. Luckily, Jeff delivered and then some. The US women's quarterfinal game was on, too, which was great.

I started with a glass of Central Water Bourbon Barrel Barleywine. (Shocking that I started with a barleywine, I know.)

Bella Vista takes over Devil's Den

Ahh, Philly Beer Week finally begins. I put up my schedule the other day and so far I've kept to it pretty well. While this post is going to concentrate on the Devil's Den event, my first beer of beer week was actually at the Kite & Key. It was the Troegs Scratch 42, Razzmadizzle, a chocolate raspberry dubbel as far as I know.