Year in Beer - v4

1/4/2012 - Dogfish Head Robert Johnson's Hell Hound
Kevin found this beer down in Fullerton at Total Wine. We had it prior to Trios Poules Francias and found that, at the end of the night we wished we had another of these rather than the Trios. This was an odd realization as we both love sours.
This was a double IPA brewed with lemon. The lemon was very subtle but was strong enough that it was noticeable in the flavor of the beer. Final ABV was 10%, and the alcohol was there in the taste but not over powering the delicious malts and hops. I wish we had bought a couple of these, as this was one of the best beers I've had this year.

If anyone finds more of it, please let me know...

Year in Beer - v3

1/4/2012 - The Bruery Trios Poules Francias - 2011
The Bruery makes some very interesting and complex beers, and they tend to be creative with how they name things as well. This is their "Three French Hens", which was originally brewed as part of the twelve year project, the "twelve beers of Christmas". Each year they brew the original beer and then barrel age a portion of it as well for release the following year.
So when they were selling it the week leading up to Christmas, I sent my friend Kevin to get a few bottles for us to age and try. We finally were able to get together and taste the beer together, this week.
The beer was barrel aged in wine barrels and with Central Coast Syrah grapes. This made for a lovely sour beer. It had a very nice malt backbone but the sour was quite strong. I didn't get a lot of wine flavor as the sour was so strong. Some alcohol came through, so I am thrilled to see what it is like after a couple years of aging.

Year in Beer - v2

1/2/2012 - Sierra Nevada's Ruthless Rye IPA
This lovely new Rye based IPA from one of my favorite California breweries is wonderful. As far as I have heard this will be replacing Glissade as their very early "spring" beer and as much as Aaron Carlberg will be disappointed by this, I am ecstatic.
I really enjoy Rye in beer; it adds an earthy aroma and flavor. At the end of the day just smooths out the malts and gives most beers made with it a very nice mouth feel.
In Sierra Nevada form, the beer comes forth with a brilliant fresh earth and flower aroma from the hops, and makes you excited to be having an IPA. It is a nice almost red color and and is gorgeous in the glass.
The taste was very dry due to the hops but still had that smooth mouth feel in the finish. I thought the balance between earthy malts, dryness from the hop bitterness, and smoothness made this a great new beer that I get to look forward to every year. Oh and the artwork is badass.

Year in Beer

I know this has been done, attempted and failed many times by many bloggers, better than myself... but this year I am going to try and taste 365 new beers. This is going to be tough as I have had a lot of beers over the last few years and finding new things in my region can sometimes be difficult.

So, we'll give it the whole Dutch "try".

This blog will include the first of the 6 beers I've had in 2012 thus far.

1/1/2012: Lost Abbey - Angel's Share Bourbon Barrel Aged - 2010 (maybe 2009)
This beer was very dark in color, had a fantastic rasin and brown sugar aroma split pretty nicely between two glasses. The beer was bottled in a Cork and Caged 275mL bottle and opened with very little hiss from carbonation. As the beer was poured it again revealed very little in the way of carbonation but wasn't flat, just not a lot of head.
I had heard rumors of this beer oxidizing and becoming infected and therefore not tasting the way it was expected to taste. This particular bottle was perfectly fine. Nice big, bold, boozy, stout with about 2 years of age on it. The alcohol was still quite prevelant, despite the age, but at a starting point of 12.5% ABV it isn't all that surprising that it still was a major flavor component. The booze was followed by a nice chocolate and coffee flavor and was a fantastic sipping beer. I think I enjoyed it more than Zach (who I shared it with) as he was driven to plow through it and get to a Firestone DBA. I really enjoyed this beer and I think I'll pick up the Brandy Aged 2011 vintage if I can still find it.

Wine and community

What a fantastic night. I had a really nice dinner with my parents and my dad and I evaluated a new Foxen wine. Following that I got to hang out with three very close friends. We studied the word, smoked cigars, had a few pints and enjoyed the company of fellow believers. Not much better than that.

Attached is a picture of the wine that was involved. I can't wait to see what it tastes like in 6 months and even more excited for what it'll do in 5 years. '09 was a great year... It all just takes some time to show its true colors.

Lasagna and wine

Yesterday was a busy day. Had to go to a clients first thing in the morning to sort out a backup issue. This was followed by a re-organizing of my office to become better for wine storage, and cooking lasagna for a dinner party.

I didn't take any pictures of the lasagna but it turned out great. Had a fantastic Roussane from Stolpman and we also had a bottle of Carhartt's Sangiovese. The wine was fantastic and appreciated by some. The lasagna was loved by all.

Here's the new wine storage!

A random test

So a couple nights ago, I hadn't had dinner, it was pretty late and I felt the need to try and idea.

A friend about a week ago told me about a diner doing a hamburger pan fried in ketchup. So I decided to try it.

I looks really peculiar but turned into a decent quick meal.

Also had a nice Ninkasi beer with it. My cream ale is better but theirs is decent.