bears!
last week was barrel-aged week at town hall, and being the poor and/or lazy grad student that i am, took full advantage of that fact this weekend. on friday i ditched ‘work’ early to watch the us hockey game and try the port barrel-aged baltic porter (see above), which was as good as i remember it being, although i’m not sure how much the port flavor really added to it. i tried the barleywine next (which had been aged for a year in a jim beam barrel), and it blew my mind. it was a tad over-sweet maybe, even for a barleywine, but the complexity added by the aging process was incredible. i’ll really fail to do it justice by trying to describe it, but it was everything from butter and honey to the wood-and-bourbon flavors of the cask. easily one of the best beers i’ve ever tasted.
on saturday brian and i went back to sample the imperial stout, which had been aged for 8 months in a bourbon barrel. this was also an incredible beer, especially once it warmed up a bit. easily one of the tastiest stouts i’ve ever sampled. we also tried a wine-aged scotch ale (the only one they still had left from the week), but it was a bit underwhelming after the glorious stout, which was admittedly a tough act to follow. overall it was a good weekend for beer, albeit an expensive one — guess i need to get a real job to support my habits.

