Along with the Advent calendar, my beer-of-the-month club this month is pretty great: the last six years of Stone's Vertical Epic series. I should probably hang on to these for a while and have a tasting of all of them with friends. We'll see...
Belgian Raspberry Stout
Elysian Brewing, Seattle, WA
22oz bottle, 7.2%abv
Pours black with a lingering tan head.
Aroma is roast malt and light raspberries.
Flavor is balanced -- berries are present but not overpowering. There is a bit of Belgian yeast funk as well, and that's a good thing.
Mouthfeel is dry and clean with balanced bitterness and a mild roasty astringency.
A really, really nice beer.
Block 15 usually sells out of their bottle releases instantly, so it is extra cool to get one! Looking forward to trying this one.
Advent day 1.
Avery Brewing Company, Boulder, Colorado
12 oz bottle, 8.3%abv
Pours dark brown and clear with little head.
Aroma is rich and malty with some yeasty/bready notes.
Flavor is also malty, but with a great spiciness and a nice hop balance.
Mouthfeel is medium-thick with some warmth. A lingering astringency and moderate bitterness balance out the finish.
A darn good way to start the calendar.
Since we were in Vegas, I missed the start of Advent. Here are the first two beers. Tasting notes for these later this week...
The race is over, time for booze! Vegas still offers nothing in the way of real beer, but a Tanqueray martini or three will do in a pinch.
Or rather "a suite" -- after spending a couple nights with friends, we just checked into our 27th floor spa suite at MGM. The newly redesigned rooms are very nice.
Ale with apricots and peppers.
Burnside Brewing, Portland, OR
22oz bottle, 4.9%abv
Pours cloudy with little head. Aroma is light malt and some spice.
And that's as far as we get because it tastes like burning. With a side of flame. And some more burning.
Why people insist on putting peppers in beer, I will never understand. Do. Not. Want.
(Note that I would not have voluntarily purchased a beer like this, it was included in my beer-of-the-month case. Down the drain it goes.)
Imperial stout
Epic Brewing, Salt Lake City, Utah
22oz bottle, 11%abv
This delightfully named strong beer from Mitt "I'm a big stupid shitheaded loser" Romney's state pours black with a lingering tan head.
Aroma is chocolate and roast malt.
Flavor is espresso, dark chocolate and alcohol.
Mouthfeel is surprisingly thin, but almost hot with alcohol in the finish. Some lingering bitterness and astringency shows as well.
Overall a tasty big stout. Or is that a big tasty stout? Regardless, I prefer this one over the Narwhal reviewed recently.
It's that wonderful time of the year, and once again Tracie comes through with the perfect Xmas gift!
Thanks Trace!
The calendar officially starts on Sunday the 2nd, but with only 23 days in advent this year there's a bonus beer in there too. Stay tuned for the usual beer posts soon...
Imperial Stout
Sierra Nevada Brewing, Chico, CA
10.2%abv, 12oz bottle
Pours black and thick with a small amount of brown head that doesn't last long.
Aroma is bitter chocolate with hints of coffee.
Flavor is rich with lots of dark chocolate, coffee and some alcohol warmth.
Mouthfeel is initially creamy and warm with an astringency that comes in later. Finishes clean and dry with a solid lingering bitterness.
Very tasty.
Overall men's masters winner in the 10k. Tracie got second in her age group too! Not a bad start to Thanksgiving.
Marzen
Epic Brewing
Salt Lake City, UT (Hi Mitt!)
22oz bottle, 6.2%abv
Hey, why not drink some Salt Lake alcohol to mock that loser Mormon? This is pretty yummy and quite different than the hoppy stuff I've been drinking. Huge malt presence, earthy nose, rich and very pleasant.
Good job, Epic!
Second place in my age group, 8th overall.
20:53 finishing time, which is a 6:42 per mile pace. Not too shabby for a short old bald guy...
Sky High Brewing.
Consensus is "meh, needs improvement". Hopefully they'll get their shit together, otherwise it's just another mediocre brewery.
Kind of unfortunate. I'll give them another chance in a few months and see if they improve.
My 2012 hop harvest, all 2.5 lbs of it. This year was a bit off for quantity, but the quality seems to be good. We will find out as soon as I brew with them.
IPA
21st Amendment Brewing
12 oz can, 7%abv
Malty, caramel nose with a hint of hops. Not very "northwest" like, but that's ok.
Flavor is likewise malty, but with a more noticeable hop presence.
Finish is a hint sweet and malty, but a lingering bitterness appears at the end.
A pretty tasty beer overall.
Trace signed me up for a custom beer if the month club from our local beer/homebrew shop, and this month's was all cool craft beer in cans.
Thanks Trace!
I love hops, but right about now I'm starting to get sick of them. Thankfully I'm about done for this season.
ESB
Burnside Brewing, Portland.
22oz bottle, 5.8%abv.
I got all three of these Burnside beers from my mother-in-law for my birthday last Friday. They came as part of a great case from various breweries, some of which I'lbe aging for a while. Thanks Jan!
Pours cloudy gold amber with a thick fluffy head. So far two of the three beers has poured ok. Make of that what you will. Like all the others, this one exhibits considerable chill haze.
Aroma is very mild with little to no hops and a hint of fruitiness. There's a bit of weird green apple aroma in there that is somewhat off putting.
Flavor is also mild, with good balance. Unfortunately there is also something off in the flavor too - kind of a combination of vegetables and plastic. It's not overpowering, but it's noticeable.
Finish is clean and crisp, but like the other beers there is a sharp bitterness that comes out strongly and lingers.
Overall I think all of these have been the kinds of beers I'd expect from a halfway decent homebrewer, but they are not up to par for a pro.
That's unfortunate.
Burnside Brewing Co., Portland.
Pale ale with rolled oats
22oz bottle, 5.6%abv
First, I'm happy to report that this beer is actually pourable, unlike their IPA from last night.
Color is golden amber, with some cloudiness from chill haze.
Aroma is mildly hoppy with a hint of maltiness.
Flavor is mild all around but nicely balanced. A nice smoothness and hint of sweetness are probably attributable to the oats, but it could be some crystal malt as well.
Like the IPA though, the finish is a bit overly bitter with a hint of harshness. Not bad -- I do love hops after all -- but seems overpowering for the style.
Nice beer though, and way better than the weird IPA.
Burnside Brewing, Portland.
22oz bottle, 6.6% abv.
Pours ridiculously foamy. That was a gentle pour in the photo.
After the foam settles it's a cloudy gold color.
Aroma is hoppy and floral but not over the top.
Flavor is surprisingly mild, with a nice hop and malt balance, but then a big wallop of hop bitterness comes on strong and lingers forever.
Not sure* what my overall impression is, it is definitely an interesting beer. It's pretty annoying that I can't actually pour a proper pint no matter how gently I try though.
* Update: My overall impression is "meh" -- the foam never got better so it took forever to drink the beer. That meant it warmed up quite a bit, and once that happened some pretty harsh piney notes appeared. I like a hint of piney hops but this became a bit much taking on a floor-cleaner-esque "Pine Sol" aroma. When combined with the strong lingering harsh bitterness and stupid foam just made it not worth the trouble. The one positive is the initially pleasant hop/malt balance -- I like noticeable malt in my IPAs and this made me hopeful, unfortunately the rest of it is just too unbalanced.
Five+ months after Rogue's death, we are finally ready to welcome a new dog into the house.
This is Annie. She's just over two years old, and whoever gave her up to the rescue shelter are complete idiots. She's smart and sweet and adorable and well behaved and is fitting in with her new home perfectly.
Welcome home, Annie!
Black IPA
Rogue brewing, Newport, Oregon
22 oz bottle, abv unspecified
This is a nice sharp cascadian brew with lots of assertive hop presence, a balanced malt profile and a crisp strongly bitter finish.
If you want a dark beer on a warm summer day, this is a good choice.
Thanks Trace!
My nephew made this great video to document the family's experience flying back from Florida yesterday:
Got home safely to a beautiful day in the Willamette valley. Stopped by the visitors center in Bend before we left and got our special commemorative Silipint beer "glasses" to prove we did the whole Ale Trail.
Other than getting sick, this was about the perfect vacation. Damn good times, I'm sorry its almost time to go back to the real world.
Great little tap room with a nice selection of their own beers and great guest taps.
Bingo night here on Thursdays. It's been a long day and we only missed one brewery -- damn good especially considering we walked the whole time. Great fun, and a highly recommended activity next time you visit Bend.
I didn't manage to take a picture at stop seven - 10 Barrel - because it was such a zoo. This place is much mellower, and the beer is tasty too. A bit hard to find, but worth it.
Nice set of tasters of some beers we hadn't seen from these folks at their Corvallis locations.
This should have been stop four, but we hit both the Deschutes locations. Oops. A nice Belgian dubbel and doppelbock here.
Quite a few different beers brewed down here at their original location.
Stopped in Bend for a couple of nights on the way back to Corvallis, and had to drop by one of our favorite running stores: Footzone. Got these sweet new racing flats -- New Balance RC1600. They're a bit flashy looking, but they feel great.
Too bad it's not Halloween, I'd have a head start on a good zombie costume.
I'm very ready for this to go away, it HURTS.
