Sierra Nevada Bigfoot

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is an American Barleywine and makes no qualms about it.

Super hoppy aroma with pine, some sweetness in the back, and a tiny bit of caramel.  Mouthfeel is nice, a little syrupy.  Initial flavor is big citrus hops which are followed by a little caramel.  A little bitterness follows as expected but it's not dry.  The rest of the glass is dominated by the hops but the sweetness holds them up and keeps it from being overwhelming.  While it's comparable to a Double IPA, it's much sweeter than most.  I didn't find any fruit notes like I do in English Barleywines either hence the "American" moniker.  Tasty beer for me even with the bitterness.

Brooklyn Monster 2009

Apparently named after a very large cat at the Brooklyn Brewery, Monster is a English barleywine weighing in at around 11%.

I believe this bottle is from 2009 as the bottle says "This Monster Ale was born in 2009."  The case has it being bottled in the latter half of 2009 so I guess I'm correct.  Didn't even mean to buy a year and a half old case.  Ah well, pleasant surprises.

Smells of caramel, toffee and a tiny bit of fruit.  Tiny bit of alcohol presence is found but not much.  Nice mouthfeel.  Flavor was really mild on this one.  Well blended and no alcohol notes (which is good), but mild.  Caramel and toffee again with fruit following.  No alcohol burn at all.  Pretty tasty and I'd drink it again, but not a huge stand out.

A Day (and part of a night) at the Khyber Pass Pub

While Bryan over at The Brew Lounge decided to be responsible, I definitely was not this past Saturday.  What began as spending an afternoon at the Khyber Pass Pub ended up with me being there for around nine hours.  Honestly, it started with the best of intentions.  Jo was out of town, they were having an event called Tsar Power where they put a bunch of imperial stouts on draft, and I was going to go have a couple to pass the time in the afternoon.  Even when a tweet came out from PhillyTapFinder with the list of stouts and it included Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout and 15 other really impressive stouts, I still thought I'd only spend a couple hours.  However, when the time came, I just talked and talked and talked and drank and drank and all of a sudden it was 10pm.  Still, in the end, it was totally worth it even if I was pretty hungover the next day.

Insanity, Weyerbacher Style

I helped a friend of mine fit a new case of beer into his beer closet and since he's beyond generous he gave me bottles of Weyerbacher's Insanity, Decadence (their 10th anniversary beer) and a Double Simcoe all from 2005.  All for like 10 minutes of work.  Andrew's awesome.  Since I had just bought some bottles of 2011 Insanity, I knew it would mean an awesome side by side and here we are.

Dogfish Head Olde School

I opened up my first bottle of Dogfish Head Olde School the other day.  It's a monster of a barleywine weighing in at 15%.  After having Dark Horse's 15% barleywine recently, I was expecting something akin to delicious lighter fluid but Dogfish Head surprised me with something better.

That's the awesome Ommegang chalice we got from our recent trip to Cooperstown.  Olde School smelled fruity (plum and grapes) with caramel and toffee in the back.  I couldn't find any alcohol in the aroma which is just really impressive.  Very fruity on the front end with some sugary sweetness following it.  I found some alcohol when I swallowed as it burned just a little bit, but it was almost pleasant and came and went.  Just crazy good for 15% and dangerously easy to drink.

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.

Bed & Brews at the Inn at Cooperstown - Saturday night

After the bottle share event Friday night comes a great dinner at Brewery Ommegang Saturday night.  The trolley (yes, trolley) doesn't show up until 5pm so you have all day Saturday in which to do whatever around Cooperstown.  We figured we should visit the Baseball Hall of Fame (because really if you drive all the way to Cooperstown, NY, you really should) and so we did.  Spent about two hours wandering around the museum and really enjoyed our time.  There is just so much history in baseball, it's just crazy.  After that we went to Doubleday Cafe for lunch based on a suggestion from someone on BeerAdvocate.  I got a glass of Ommegang Rare Vos because they only had Pepsi and Pepsi stinks.

Bed & Brews at the Inn at Cooperstown - Friday night

My wife and I recently traveled up to Cooperstown, NY to participate in the Bed & Brews weekend at The Inn at Cooperstown.  Besides the two awesome nights which I'll describe in detail later, you also get as part of the package:

• One rare commemorative Ommegang Abbey Ale jeroboam (3L bottle), signed by the Brew master - Limit 1 per reservation
• One Ommegang Abbey Ale Chalis per person
• One Brewery Ommegang sweatshirt or two t-shirts

The jeroboam is a giant 3L bottle of Abbey and the glasses are very nice chalices with an Ommegang logo and a nice gold rim.  On top of that, Friday night is a tasting where all the guests at the Inn share their favorite beers (or homebrew or whatever).  Saturday night is a private tour of Ommegang by one of their brewers plus a very delicious dinner with beer pairings at their new Cafe.  All in all an excellent package.  Check out some pictures on their website under the "Packages" tab.

Kennett

Jo and I recently met up with some friends at a restaurant named Kennett.  It's located on 2nd street just before Carpenter and is pretty easy to get to.  Reasonable amount of parking as well.  Not a big place, but well set up.  Nice looking bar on your left as you walk in with a couple tables across from it leading into a dining room with four or five more tables.  As I said, not big.  Food was really good.  They have a brick oven and their pizza was very tasty and our friend said their veggie burger was good.  Beer list was decent as well and most likely sees a decent variety.

Weyerbacher Heresy

I mentioned during my post about Weyerbacher Old Heathen that I was really interested in trying Heresy because Old Heathen was so good.  So recently I went to London Grill to try it since I knew it was on draft there.  Totally worth the walk as it was pretty great.