beerweek
maybe it was just a coincidence that carlos miller was born this week, but i’ve been doing more than my casual beer-drinking this week. it began with a beer-tasting on tuesday (the first one i’ve ever been to, i think); i’ve also got an elusive surly brewery tour lined up for tomorrow, to be followed by a large graduation celebration (not mine, of course) on saturday. but i thought i should at least write down the beers i sampled on tuesday along with anything i can remember about them, lest i forget. without further ado:
brau brothers
- rainwater vsod (imp stout)
- elisha’s olde ale
boulevard
- imperial pils
- dark truth stout
great lakes brew co:
- ed fitzgerald porter (?)
- eliot ness lager
pauwel
- kwak (strong pale ale)
urthel
- samaranth (quad)
goose island
- sofie (saison)
grand teton
- bitch creek (esb)
lagunitas
- WTF (strong ale)
southern tier
- 422 ale (pale wheat)
- phin and matts (apa)
- unearthly (imp ipa)
odell
- 90 shilling (amber)
- IPA
sam adams
- old ben ale (old ale)
- barleywine
tyranena
- chipotle smoked imp porter
victory
- yakima (strong ale)
there were also a couple others in there i know i’m forgetting. however, seeing it all laid out like this makes it readily apparent why the bike ride home was such a wobbly adventure =)
i thought that perhaps i would regret not writing down my thoughts as i consumed the beers, but then i realized that i lack the connoisseur vocabulary necessary to really differentiate between the various brews. it’s pretty obvious i gravitate towards certain types, so this becomes more important. instead, i’ve just tried to remember the ones that stood out (or didn’t).
in general i avoided brewers that i’d not been impressed by before, or on the opposite side of the spectrum, couldn’t offer anything i hadn’t enjoyed already (bells, lagunitas, and victory fell into this category). southern tier was probably the biggest clunker, though their imperial ipa is still one of my favorite beers, period. i think the biggest surprises were the brau brothers and great lakes offerings; i’d never had great lakes before and was pleasantly surprised. brau has some really tasty seasonals to complement their rather average normal brews, but these specialty beers were pretty top notch (and packed a punch). might have to grab a few of these before they’re gone.
i had also shunned the sam adams table (even though it’s one of my favorite cheap beers) until i noticed a couple bottles with hand-written labels. these happened to be the barleywine and the old ben, which were both excellent. naturally i had to sample the old ben (an old ale, of course) a couple times. very slowly.
