Victory Ranch R at Kite & Key

Stopped in at Kite & Key yesterday and was happy to find quite a few beers from Saturday's Craft Beer Express still available. I wasn't able to go this year so missed out on a few things but there was still tons of Victory left. I settled on the Ranch R, a double IPA, as I've heard good things about it.

Really enjoyable nose. Very clean and bright with tons of orange citrus. The beginning sips had some nice balance with a mix of some caramel sweetness and a little lemony bitterness. As I drank more, it became quite a bit more piney and earthy. Interesting change, that's for sure. Kept that way through the rest of the glass with the citrus basically fading out. Pretty good double IPA.

Victory Dark Intrigue 2010

I've been slowly yet steadily drinking through the bigger bottles in my basement just because I realized I had too many beers down there. Well, actually, my wife realized it and was making fun of me about it. So yeah. I never really planned on making a cellar, it's just that I drink big bottles slowly. Hence, drinking random things regardless of whether I can get them again or not. So, this past weekend I drank my one bottle of 2010 Victory Dark Intrigue, a bourbon barrel version of their stout Storm King.

Bourbon vanilla nose, actually pretty nice though not very strong. Very thin body. Kind of ridiculously thin but unfortunately the base Storm King is like that. Some light bourbon and vanilla started things off, a little earthy hoppiness, and then some bitterness in the finish. Storm King is very hoppy so the hoppiness is actually toned down quite a bit which was nice.

Not too bad, but I didn't think it was that good either. Basically about average. I've had samples of this before during bottle shares and thought it was below average so at least it was better than I expected. I'll admit I like my bourbon stouts huge and chewy, though, so this already had a knock against it immediately starting off. This was Victory's first attempt at barrel aging so hopefully as they experiment more, they'll get better. I've heard the Barrel Aged Otto was decent so maybe it's just a matter of time. We'll see, I guess.

Victory Storm King on the hand pump

Went to Kite & Key like usual yesterday but didn't find anything to order that immediately jumped out at me. So, just to see if I really don't like it, I ordered a Victory Storm King from their hand pump.

Slight roast with a hint of the hops on the nose. Sort of bitter up front, followed by roast, then finished with a mix of bitterness and chocolate. For an imperial stout, it's amazingly hoppy even being poured from the handpump. For me, the flavors just never melded properly and it was just unpleasantly bitter. I don't know if the recipe has changed over the years or what since I swear I used to like it but now it's just bleh to me. Oh well. At least I finally know not to order it again.

Dinner at Kite & Key

In a change from my regular Tuesday at Kite & Key routine, my wife joined me for dinner so I was there a bit longer than usual. Nice to mix things up every once and a while, ya know? I got there a bit before her so I ordered a Deschutes Black Butte Porter to pass the time.

Delicious chocolate roast nose. Starts with flavors of roast and chocolate, finishing with a slight smoky character. The mix of chocolate and roast is really well balanced. Very tasty. So disappointing that it'll be gone soon and not available year round. If only Deschutes distributed to Philly for real. Oh well.

Victory Summer Love

I'm late to the bandwagon as Summer Love, an american blonde ale, is leaving stores at this point, but the distributor was out of the Flying Fish Farmhouse and I decided this would make a decent replacement.

Turns out that Summer Love is pretty different from the Farmhouse but still decent. Citrusy nose. Not like an IPA citrus bomb, more that the hops exist and you notice them unlike some other blondes. Mildly hoppy first sip, slight malt. The mild hops are the main focal point throughout the glass. Decent beer, nothing incredibly special, but probably very tasty on a hot day which, well, is perfect for summer and probably the point.

Victory Old Horizontal 2009

I had Victory Old Horizontal relatively recently at the brewpub and wasn't terribly impressed with it.  I found a ton of astringent alcohol with heavy hopping that I found mildly unpleasant.  However, I figured I'd give it a second chance and ended up with a case from November of 2009 based on Victory's best by dates.  With a little trepidation, I poured the bottle but man was I pleasantly surprised.  Either the aging cleaned it up or it's just better from the bottle, but regardless it turned into a super tasty barleywine.

The aroma was very clean with a lot of fruit notes.  My first thought on my first sip was how smooth it was.  Tasted fruity with a hint of alcohol and hops but no burn and not bitter at all.  As I drank more I got a tiny bit of vanilla in the finish.  It felt really well balanced and really drinkable compared to last time.  I'm betting it's the age that caused the huge step in quality but who knows.  I can't wait to open the other two bottles I have.

Weekend!

After a relaxing Thanksgiving with many great beers, Jo and I made our way back to Philadelphia.  On the way (okay not in any way on the way since it's 45 minutes past our apartment) we stopped at the Victory Brewpub.  Originally, I was going to pick up some bottles of Dark Intrigue, their new Barrel Aged Storm King, but they sold out of 70 cases in about 45 minutes November 24th so that idea was shot.  However, I also wanted to pick up a shirt from them, so we decided to go anyway.  When we arrived the parking lot was super full, but we managed to find some seats at the bar.

I started with a glass of Old Horizontal, their barleywine.

Smelled strongly of alcohol with very little sweetness.  The last few barleywines I've had all smelled very sweet so this was quite a change.  Initially, it tasted like slightly bitter alcohol.  After drinking some more, I realized it was just really heavily hopped.  Similar to Stones Old Guardian, but even hoppier.  The bitterness didn't linger, but every sip I took started with it.  It relaxed a bit as I had more but definitely a different take on the style.

I followed that up with a glass of Yakima Glory, a Black IPA.  At one point this was known as Yakima Twilight but they changed the name probably due to trademark issues but who knows.  If you do know, drop a comment about it.

Very pretty pour as they had it on one of their hand pumps.  It looked slightly darker in person than in the picture but regardless it's still darker than a regular IPA.  Smelled hoppy.  Very creamy.  Some roast followed by a lot of hop flavor but no real bitterness.  The fact that it was on hand pump masks some of the hop bitterness in a similar way as having it on nitro in my opinion.  I find the consistency and mouth feel change pretty dramatically.  I thought this was quite pleasant and would be interested in trying it again out of a normal tap to see the differences.

After that we drove home and worked on cleaning the house to get ready to put up some Christmas decorations.  To relax, I popped the bottle of Stones Imperial Russian Stout I bought from Capone's a few weeks back.

I noticed later that the gargoyle on the bottle is wearing one of those tall, Russian hats which is pretty funny.  Pretty neat bottle in my opinion.  Smelled sweet with some alcohol, mild coffee and some chocolate notes.  Initially, I got bittersweet chocolate flavors with a pleasant warming from the alcohol.  Some roast and even some really mild tart flavors in the background, almost cherryish.  No bitterness at all and really well balanced between the alcohol and the rest of the flavors.  This is probably one of the best Imperial Russian Stouts I've ever had.  Definitely lived up to its reputation.

Devil's Den is having an event December 1st that Jo and I should be going to.  They said they'd have different oaked or aged beers on draft so there should be some good stuff.

Beer Tasting

I had some friends over on Friday night for a beer tasting.  I got 3 bottles for it and everyone else brought 1 or 2 big bottles (except 1 guy who brought 4, 2 commercial and 2 homebrew.)  I thought it would be a fun way for all of us to try things we either don't usually drink or can't drink alone because the bottle is too strong.  I've had a bottle in my fridge for 2+ months because of that issue.  I took some notes and tried to get pictures of all of them but missed 2.

By the end, we finished 12 bottles.  I'll go through the first six and then the last six just to split up the post a bit.

Taco Tuesday

Jo and I went to Lucky 7 on Tuesday since they have a great food deal and their tacos are pretty tasty.  I didn't find anything interesting on draft, so I picked a bottle of Victory V-Twelve.

Not a great picture, but it's a nice bottle.  Pours a middle brownish color with absolutely zero head.  When I poured some more into the glass, there was some foaming but it immediately disappeared.  Pretty normal for the style though.  It smelled fruity with a decent bit of alcohol.  First sip basically tastes the same.  Nice mouth feel, not quite syrupy but close.  Only a slight alcohol burn but it's enough to be pretty noticeable.  Unlike some high alcohol beers, the alcohol taste is consistent throughout the entire beer.  So far, the big alcohol flavor is the only negative to Victory's high octane beers as I had a similar feeling when I had Storm King on Saturday.  Still, I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Probably be really good after a year or two.

As a side note, Jo had a glass of Furthermore Fallen Apple.  It's a cream ale brewed with apple juice and basically tasted like a cider mixed with a beer.  Pretty interesting and Jo enjoyed it.  She said the apple flavor started strong but diminished as she drank it.  Check it out if you see it.

Victory and Yards

Jo and I were going to head out to Lancaster brewing and Spring House brewing, but our plans changed so we instead went to Victory brewing and Yards brewing.  First we drove out to Victory and then we circled back to go to Yards.

The last time we had been to Victory was before they renovated their brew pub and we couldn't believe the difference between now and then.  Before, it was like a creepy school cafeteria and the food was only okay.  Now, the brewpub had really nice atmosphere, the tables looked really comfortable, and the bar was really inviting.

I had read about the renovations to their brewpub but I was not expecting such a significant upgrade.  Now, I'd totally be willing to bring people to the brewery whereas before there is no way I'd suggest it as a place to visit and this is just based on first impressions and has nothing really to do with the beer.

Full Beer Saturday

I had a full day yesterday with going to Capone's, a beer bar in Norristown, for lunch and spending some time at the Hulmeville Inn with my buddy Greg.

The first stop was Capone's in Norristown.  It looks like a normal diner from the outside, but once you get inside and are given a draft list you know this isn't a normal place.  Their draft list was probably 20 beers long with lots of really interesting stuff.  They had Ballast Point's Sculpin, Russian River's Consecration, and a lot of other really great beers.  It was almost entirely limited release beers which is just awesome.