Arcadia Cereal Killer

This is part of what Arcadia calls their "Vintage Collection" but I'm not 100% sure why. I guess the case I bought was supposedly brewed in 2010 or something. Cereal Killer is a barleywine.

Smelled of caramel, raisins, and alcohol solvency. The latter isn't quite what you want to smell in a strong beer as it's not a great sign of things to come. And, I was right as it started with a sharp alcohol bite up front followed by some caramel and plum-like sweetness. The finish and aftertaste, though, contained even more alcohol unfortunately. Now, the flavor that wasn't the alcohol wasn't too bad at least, but if you easily notice alcohol in beers, probably best to avoid a full glass of this. I'll say it got a bit smoother near the end of the glass. Something to get a sample of to see if the pros outweigh the cons, but I wasn't too impressed by it.

Avery Uncle Jacob's Stout

A lot of Avery's barrel aged stuff isn't distributed at all, but lately they have been sending out a few of them. I guess their barrel program is growing large enough at this point to spread the love. Uncle Jacob's Stout is a monster of a bourbon stout coming in at 17% and was either the first or second offering to become available. Not sure if Rumpkin was first though it doesn't really matter.

Super thick pour, like motor oil. Really impressive and exactly how I like a stout. Smelled of chocolate, graham cracker, strong bourbon, vanilla, and a mostly complete lack of alcohol. Body followed with chocolate, caramel, plum, raisin, bourbon, and even more chocolate in the finish. Pretty complex obviously. There were some hints of the alcohol in the aftertaste but amazingly smooth for 17%. Like, ridiculously smooth. This maybe should be a weekend beer considering the strength, but who cares about that. Clearly not me. If you like bourbon stouts, this one is right up there.

Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad

I opened this last Friday as a nice change of pace. Been drinking a lot of stouts and ipas and such, so I figured this would be different. The style of Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad is pretty self-explanatory as it's a quad base blended with a portion aged on cherries in a few different types of bourbon barrels. Some people thought it was infected (which can happen with barrel aging) as a result of the cherries, but after trying it those people are crazy. The tartness is very clearly a result of the cherry.

Pleasant nose. Bourbon, vanilla, and a very recognizable cherry note. Medium body that almost felt thicker than it really seemed to be. Not sure why, maybe a good mouthfeel, but it was nice. On first sip, the cherry came first and then bourbon and vanilla appeared with a little caramel from the quad base. Remarkably easy drinking for 11+% abv. Drinking it along with dinner did made some alcohol bite appear at times but as soon as I stopped eating, it faded away again. Enjoyed this a lot with the tartness from the cherry blending really nicely with the bourbon and vanilla. The only surprising part was how little of the quad base seemed to come through for me but it still tasted great so who cares.

Left Hand Oktoberfest

Things are getting back to normal at Kite & Key after last weeks Savage Sixtel Sunday leftovers. At this point, the only thing left was the keg of Nugget Nectar. So, yesterday, I tried a Left Hand Oktoberfest.

Malty biscuit nose, nice. Body followed with a caramel maltiness, breadiness, and a fruity finish. Some hops appeared near the end making it crisper and kept the sweetness from coming on too strong. I'm not much of an expert in oktoberfest beers as I don't drink them very often, but this one seemed pretty decent. It's sweet, but never too sweet as the hops keep it clean. Worth a try.

Yards 4th Annual Smoke 'Em

Last Sunday, Yards held their 4th Annual Smoke 'Em if Yous Got 'Em event. This is a celebration of all things smoked with amateur bbq and quite a few smoked beers. In a change from last year, though, Yards included other styles of beer and reduced the number of smoked ones to around 8-10 from a little over 20. It seems that people thought they were getting smoked out in year 3 and told Yards so in their feedback. Honestly, while I love smoked beers and had no problem drinking a ton last year, it does make more sense to balance the bbq food with non-smoked beers as the similarities in both can make everything taste the same instead of making flavors stand out.

This year the weather was absolutely beautiful and the tents were all set up when I arrived a few minutes before opening.

Deschutes Jubel 2010

I've had this bottle for a few years at this point. Luckily this is one of those Deschutes beers with a "Best After" date so it was built to last. Yes, that's after, not before. It was originally a surprise gift from my sister in law living in San Francisco. I think I asked her to bring me a bottle of Abyss or something and since she's great, she also brought a whole bunch of other stuff.

Unfortunately the bottle didn't have a description on it, but apparently it was aged in Pinot Noir barrels for nearly a year according to the BeerAdvocate entry. That's sort of a rumor without a description on the bottle though.

Awesome nose, very impressive. Caramel, vanilla, plums, kind of port like. Knowing now that it was apparently aged in Pinot barrels, that last point actually makes some sense. Very thick body, limited carbonation as you can see in the picture. Basically a mix of chocolate and caramel with plum and some other dark fruits. Sweet and strong but never astringent or sharp. Just super smooth. Pretty awesome and very complex. Even at over 10% abv, I believe, no hint of alcohol. So glad I had this as it was delicious.

A Couple Beers at Tired Hands

I may start a lot of posts lamenting how long it has been since I visited somewhere, but it's always true! This time it had been nearly a month since I last visited Tired Hands. But, whatever, I'll just have to do better moving forward instead of complaining now. When I arrived the first level bar was actually completely full so I went upstairs for the first time. Man, I had forgotten how nice it was upstairs. Just a huge space, decent number of tables, and another beautiful bar. Not quite as big as the one downstairs but still a decent size.

The first beer I ordered was OoeyGooey, a wine barrel fermented saison made with five different grains.

Bear Republic Tartare at Kite & Key

This past Sunday was the first Savage Sixtel Sunday at Kite & Key since Beer Week in June, but I was still a bit drunk from the Smoke 'Em beer fest at Yards so I didn't make it. However, everything was still pouring yesterday when I stopped in for my normal Monday visit! Huzzah! Specifically, I couldn't wait to try the Bear Republic Tartare, a berliner weiss I've heard a lot of great things about.

Fantastic nose. Definitely a wheat base but a delicious base, lemony and tart. At first, decently sour with a lot of lemon acidity. However, I got used to the sourness pretty quickly and it developed in complexity with the lemon, the wheat, and the tartness blending incredibly well. This totally lived up to my expectations and it is definitely a top two or three berliner weiss. Just awesome.

I also got to meet a guy who works at Akkurat in Sweden. Lots of really interesting information about how they serve beer, importing US craft stuff, and prices. We can complain about beer prices all we want, but man stuff is expensive in Sweden.

Ommegang at Devil's Den

Last week I was given the chance to try a new Ommegang beer at Devil's Den. Pretty neat to get invited to press stuff since I don't really consider myself press (for good reasons, I'd say) but I do get emails sometimes so why not? For this event Devil's Den was doing some new appetizers, some made with Ommegang beers and others just being fancy along with serving the new beer, Scythe & Sickle, a Harvest Ale.

When I got there, the person in charge of the event had a few of us sit at one of the tables. Got to catch up with Steve Hawk and Mat Falco which was nice. A waitress came by and brought us a sampler of the Ommegang beers that were on draft for the night.

Wing & Beer at Capone's

It's been a long time since Jo and I visited Capone's and with 25 cent wings and an early Eagles football game, we knew Sunday would be a good time. After a bunch of terrible traffic on 76 (surprise suprise), we arrived and grabbed seats at the bar. A few people were already there, but there was still plenty of space even just a few minutes before the game. After looking through the draft list, I decided to just get some full glasses instead of my usual flight. I went with the new Neshaminy Creek Leon S'Mores Imperial Stout to start things off.