Beers at Sabrina's

Just before Thanksgiving, some friends of mine decided that their cellars were getting too large. To try and start to fix the issue, they asked on twitter if people wanted to go to a BYOB and share some beers and have dinner. I had nothing to do that night and Jo didn't care about eating dinner alone so I figured why not. After some back and forth, we decided on Sabrina's in Fairmount as I figured it wouldn't be too busy as it's mostly a brunch place and it's informal enough that they wouldn't mind us sitting around drinking forever.

After ordering some food and settling in we decided to start with Deschutes The Dissident, the one sour Matt brought along.

Weyerbacher Decadence

Every year, Weyerbacher puts out an anniversary beer. At this point they are up to 17 so with Decadence being number 10 it means it was about 7 years old when I finally drank it last week. My friend actually did most of the aging and gave it to me like two years ago.

Port like nose, caramel with some fruity cherry in it. Some oxidation, though, with hints of cardboard. No, that's not a great flavor on its own but it blends well enough to keep it from overpowering everything else. First sip had some more oxidation, light spices like clove and such, and then a sharp alcohol bite finishing things off. Surprising that the alcohol was as strong as it was but I guess it just never settled down. After seven years, it wasn't 100% anymore that's for sure. Still drinkable and decent, but it was definitely past its prime. Oh well, you win some and you lose some when you age stuff this long. Most beers really aren't made for it anyway.

Weyerbacher Whiskey Barrel Aged

This is the latest in Weyerbacher's Brewers' Select series. If you didn't know, they name each beer in the series after the military alphabet. Once getting to Whiskey, it only made sense to make a barrel aged beer. However, since you apparently can't name a beer after another alcohol according to the TTB, they added Barrel Aged to the name to avoid the issues. Makes the name a mouthful, but, whatever, laws. The beer itself start as a brown ale and spent about 2 months (I think) in whiskey barrels.

Light bourbon, some vanilla, and slight dark fruit in the back of the aroma. Body was thicker than I expected. The flavors began with a mix of bourbon and dark fruit with some vanilla in the finish. Basically the same as the nose. Got a little bit of graham cracker in the finish after a bit, mostly a result of the bourbon. The dark fruit came out a bit more as I got more used to the bourbon and drank more. Pretty good beer from Weyerbacher. Be interesting to see what is up next for X-Ray.

Weyerbacher Sour Black + Beer Blondies

Last Friday Weyerbacher released their newest sour beer, Sour Black. It was a black ale aged in the same wine barrels that previously held Rapture. They were doing a similar release to the past few so Jo and I drove up to Easton to check it out. When we arrived, there were already quite a few people in the brewery and samples were being served by the always friendly Weyerbacher staff. The first thing we tried was the Sour Black and both Jo and I thought it was quite good. Next I tried the Whiskey, the newest Brewer's Select, which was also quite delicious.

After wandering around a bit, talking to Natalie, and offering Beer Blondies (see recipe below) to people we made our way to the front and picked up some Whiskey, Sour Black and some Blasphemy. I totally forgot to take pictures though so you'll just have to use your imagination about how things looked. I do love how Weyerbacher offers samples of what they are selling you though. I realize it's because they have enough beer to actually be able to do so, but it's nice to be able to try things before deciding on how much to buy.

I was really curious if a full bottle of Sour Black would be as good as the small sample we had so Jo suggested we open one while watching the Euro Cup finals on Sunday.

Savage Sixtel Sunday at Kite & Key

This past weekend Kite & Key held another of their Savage Sixtel Sunday events. (See here and here for previous events.) I missed last time because it was on the day of the Superbowl so I was happy to be able to make this one. Even disregarding the generally interesting tap list, there are usually lots of people to talk to at them which is the real reason I enjoy it. With PhillyTapFinder on vacation in Belgium or Paris (he's somewhere over there right now), I didn't actually know what was on draft other than Pliny the Younger and Hopslam, so I was excited to find out.

When I arrived the bar was pretty full though probably not as full as other bars have been when they tap Younger. Surprise tappings will do that I guess. I said hello to one of the owners, Jim, who I last met during a previous Sixtel Sunday and then made my way to the bar to order a beer. Unfortunately, Younger had kicked a few minutes before I arrived so I started with a Bells Hopslam instead, a double IPA brewed with honey.

I've talked about Hopslam quite a few times (here, here, and here) so I'll just say it's definitely starting to fade but is still quite decent. If you have bottles or kegs, drink them sooner rather than later.

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.

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.

Weyerbacher Tango

The Weyerbacher Tango is the newest Brewer's Select beer from Weyerbacher. It's a Belgian Strong Dark Ale brewed with cherries.

Seeing as how this is a Belgian from Weyerbacher, I had certain biases going into it since their Belgians mostly all have the same base flavor. The nose had a strong flavor of bananas without much else. Didn't find any cherry in it. Taste followed with banana then some hints of clove. As I drank more of it, I got some flashes of cherry but nothing really strong or obvious. It was slightly reminiscent of Troegs Mad Elf although not quite as sweet and the Belgian yeast flavors were a bit stronger. Decently enjoyable but I do find the Belgian flavors from Weyerbacher's yeast to be a bit much at times. Probably wouldn't want more than a glass of this as a result.

Weyerbacher Rapture

Jo and I opened our first bottle of Weyerbacher Rapture we picked up at the release in September.

Lovely tart and sour nose, nothing harsh and not too acetic. Wow, pretty delicious. Tart up front, some slight vinegar notes, and a sour finish. Even spending a year and a half in the barrel, I didn't get much oak or vanilla although some reviewers claim to find some. No bitterness or harsh tannin notes from the pinot barrels. Some dryness in the finish though not too dry. All around I really enjoyed this one and thought it was quite a good offering from Weyerbacher. I enjoy the Riserva but this is definitely way more balanced than that vinegary monster.

Weyerbacher Sierra at the Kite & Key

After the Craft Beer Express this past Saturday (which I'll write about soon), the Kite & Key turned over a few of their taps and put on Weyerbacher Sierra, a milk stout in the Select series. I've been wanting to try this since it was announced so I knew I had to order it.

Clean roasty nose, very smooth. Quite a thick body. First sip was very tasty with a nice creamy roastiness. Some slight hints of the lactose but it affected the body and cut the roast bitterness more than anything. I'm a big fan of most milk stouts and so it was almost inevitable that I'd enjoy this one.

Weyerbacher Romeo

This week at the Kite & Key I ordered a Weyerbacher Romeo, a Belgian Red (although the style may be made up by Weyerbacher), from their Brewer's Select series.

Sweet banana Belgian nose. Started with a slightly bitter spiciness followed by bready caramel malt and bananas. The finish was a little bitter with more banana. Honestly not sure what I felt about this. The banana flavor was just so strong that I felt it overpowered the rest of the beer. I looked at some other reviews and they didn't mention it was as strong as I thought though so maybe I'm just sensitive to it. Who knows. Not bad, but I'm way more excited for the next Brewer's Select Sierra as I love milk stouts.

Rapture at Weyerbacher

Well, that title is going to skew some of my search results. This post is about the new sour released by Weyerbacher last Thursday the 22nd at the brewery, not about going to heaven. Sorry crazy people! It was named Rapture because they apparently bottled it back in May the day or day before the rapture was supposed to occur. Whatever works, right? The last release, the one for Riserva, was awesome and I knew I didn't want to miss this one. Jo and I left after work and an hour and a half later made it to the brewery. Unlike last time, there were quite a few more people waiting in line to pick up cases when we arrived.

Weyerbacher Harvest at the Kite & Key

I stopped by the Kite & Key like usual this past Tuesday and decided on the Weyerbacher Harvest Ale, an IPA brewed with fresh hops. If you want to learn a bit more about how the hops were picked, check out the Hops & Circumstances entry about it here.

Pungent grapefruit nose. No real bitterness which is nice. Started with some grapefruit, then some slightly grassy notes. It wasn't too bitter or dry which made the Harvest a nice drinking IPA. Quite enjoyable.

Weyerbacher Crimson at Kite & Key

In the fifth installment of Weyerbacher's IPA project, we have Crimson. I unfortunately don't have any real information about this version other than it's in the west coast style of IPAs.

Big grapefruit nose, pretty appealing and clean. Flavor starts with the same pleasant grapefruit flavor, but was followed by a large amount of bitterness and a very dry finish. The bitterness lingered on and on after each sip. This was a decent enough IPA, but I found the bitterness just a bit too much compared to some others. The grapefruit was spot on though. It was better than the Indian Brown Ale version but I think I liked the first better. There's one more in their project and then they'll decide which they are making their new year-round IPA. It'll be interesting to see which one comes out on top for sure.

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.)

Watching Soccer at the Kite & Key

Okay so I've been spending a lot of time at the Kite & Key. So sue me. It's close to our house, the atmosphere is nice, the beer list is pretty great, and they have tvs really well placed around the room. So, yeah, you are probably going to be seeing more posts about it. You'll have to deal with the disappointment.

For this time, Jo and I went because we wanted to watch the Germany vs. Japan Women's World Cup game while having a few beers. We settled down, Evan, the bartender, did us the favor of putting on the game, and I ordered a Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, an IPA made with rye.

Weyerbacher Papa at the Kite & Key

In what I hope becomes a weekly tradition, I stopped by the Kite & Key for a quick beer. For this Tuesday, I chose Papa, one of Weyerbacher Brewer's Select beers, a scotch ale.

Lovely caramel nose with some hints of bread notes. First sip had caramel, toffee, a little breadiness, and finished with a some dark fruit flavors. The caramel and toffee continued through every sip and were really enjoyable. I love a good scotch ale and this one was pretty great. Great way to start my weekly visits.

Dark Horse at Hawthorne's Plus some Time

Wednesday of Philly Beer Week was pretty busy for me. I needed to fit in a visit to Hawthorne's cafe to drink a bunch of rare Dark Horse beers and then meet my wife for dinner. All without getting wasted since, well, it was Wednesday and I'm not an alcoholic. Tough, I know, but I figured I could manage it.

I arrived at Hawthorne's around 4:30 and it was still basically empty which was nice. I figured it would fill up at some point but all I needed was one seat so success! It was really difficult deciding what beer to order first, but I decided on the one sour on the list, Lambeak Wants Raspberry.

Weyerbacher Blasphemy

On Tuesday of Philly Beer Week, I was planning on taking a night off to recover, but didn't really succeed. I had been wanting to try Weyerbacher Blasphemy, their quad aged in bourbon barrels, since it came out and the With Love Beer Garden gave me that chance. How could I take the day off?

Bourbon sweet nose with some dark fruit notes from the base quad. Thick mouthfeel, really inviting. Tasted of caramel and dark fruit with a sweet bourbon finish. It was pretty sweet and skirted the edge of being cloying, yet never fell over which is an impressive feat. It felt like it should be boozy, not because there were strong alcohol notes (there weren't), but because of the sweet, bourbon flavors and syrupy mouthfeel. Really great bourbon barrel quad and very tasty.

As a side note, I wasn't terribly impressed with the With Love Beer Garden outside the Four Seasons. I understand it was created as a sort of meeting place and headquarters for Philly Beer Week, but it was just unimpressive to me. It was big and open and having different breweries as sponsors each day was a good idea, but there was barely anything there other than that. Maybe I'm missing the point or something, I just wouldn't have felt the need to stop in if it weren't for this beer.

Weyerbacher Riserva 2009

To celebrate closing on our new house, my wife and I cracked open our bottle of 2009 Weyerbacher Riserva.

I've posted about the 2010 before and thought it was incredibly vinegary and sour.  Tasty, but a commitment in taste buds.  The 2009, however, was much more pleasantly sour and not nearly as vinegary.  The nose was still hugely funky with a sour raspberry aroma.  I put it down on the coffee table about 2 feet away and could still smell it.  Flavor wasn't sweet, but was way less in your face and ended more tart than sour.  Nice mix of raspberry flavor then some tartness until the two blend together a bit as you get used to it.  I like the punch you in the face effect of the 2010 but I can see why the more balanced and reasonable 2009 is more to people's liking.  Maybe the couple bottles of 2010 I have left will calm down a bit with some age but who knows and since my wife and I both like it as it is, not such a big deal.