365 Days of Beer

Again, not being in much of mood to blog anymore than the bare minimum, here is a rundown of the latest beers I've tried.

307) Left Hand Deep Cover Brown Ale - From the Beer of the Month club. Not a good brown ale. Kind of thin and wimpy body.



308) Rogue Shark Tooth Ale - This is otherwise known as the Rogue Oregon Golden Ale. I found this to be hoppy and fabulous. Crisp and refreshing, I will go back to this one in the summer.



309) De Koninck - Weaker than most Belgian ales, I didn't really like this. Lacks the depth of flavor and complexity of its peers.



310) Hair of the Dog Adam - A traditional ale brewed in a style originating in Dortmunder, Germany. This was rich and malty, with many coffee like flavors.



310 down and only 55 to go. Coming up next is another Belgian, a couple abbey tripels, and a couple of hefeweizens. Stay tuned.

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend this year's Brewtopia, held at the Javits Center.

Though the prices were higher this year, the event space was much bigger and more spread out. The tasting session was very relaxed and never once did I even bump into another person accidentally.

Some of the downsides were some of the advertised breweries did not show up, and the food was terrible, though that is the fault of the Javits center.

This year the guidebook was really well done, and the tasting glasses were plastic, so you didn't have to walk on any broken glass.

Here's a rundown of the beers I was able to sample... Of course, none of these will count toward my goal of the 365 for the year, but I will put them on my overall list.

These are in no particular order.

* Rodenbach Grand Cru - A Flemish sour, which is not a style I really like yet.
* Southampton Saison - A very good version of the style. Southampton rarely disappoints.
* Southampton Pumpkin Ale - Pretty much the best pumpkin ale. Ever. Think liquid pumpkin pie.
* Victory Moonglow Weizenbock - An old favorite, I had to have a sip of this.
* North Coast Brother Thelonious - Good version of a Belgian ale. I need to try more from this brewery... I'm looking in your direction Sammy.
* Lagunitas India Pale Ale - The main reason I'm not counting these is because at a certain point in the tasting, my taste buds just got overwhelmed and died.
* Olde Burnside Ten Penny Ale - A scottish ale. Good but not my favorite style.
* Lagunitas Sirius Ale - A hoppy cream ale, definitely something I want to try again.
* Smuttynose Old Brown Dog - Another older one I wanted to try again.
* Great Lakes Holy Moses White Ale - Tried this one on the way out.. will have to look for it again.
* Erdinger Weissbier Dunkel - A dark wheat beer. I prefer the classic style.
* Brooklyn Oktoberfest - Haven't had this all autumn, so I needed to get down.
* Paper City Blonde Hop Monster- This was all out of whack. Wayyy too hoppy and no malt backbone to balance it out.
* Avery Karma Ale - A Belgian ale. I think this was the very last beer I tried, and by then... I couldn't tell anything apart.
* Jacobsen Saaz Blonde - A Belgian ale brewed by Carlsberg, but not yet available in the states.
* Ithaca Finger Lakes Apricot Wheat - I think I had this at last year's festival too. Decent fruit beer. I think apricot is one of the better fruits to use in beer.

Man... I can't remember any of the others I had and the list is not with me at the moment. I'll update again if I forgot any.

If you missed Brewtopia, definitely get down with it next year.

Now, here are the latest 5 beers that count toward my goal:

301) Victory Whirlwind Witbier - Victory can do no wrong. This is a good witbier with orange flavors and some spice. Speaking of Victory, they are bringing some good stuff in tonight at Collins Bar.



302) Hair of the Dog Ruth - An excellent golden and hoppy ale.



303) Lagunitas Censored - Malty strong ale with a nice copper color to it. But it was not anything special. I was a little disappointed.



304) Hop Back Entire Stout - A rich stout with some bitterness. Not something I'd rush to have again but not entirely bad.



305) Dogfish Head World Wide Stout - A 2003 bottle. Simply amazing. Alcohol is hidden pretty well and this is like drinking port wine. Is it the best beer I have ever had? I have to say no, but for a moment it did challenge my existing favorite.



The other Brewtopia beers I forgot to list above are as follows:

* Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA - Still a top 10 beer.
* Allagash White - Always a treat to have this witbier.
* Saranac Pumpkin Ale - Not bad but nowhere in the same league as the Southampton.
* Singha - Don't know why I had it. I was just standing at their booth. I took a sticker from them, so I felt I should have a sip of their beer. Usually I only have this with Thai food.
* Cerveza Aguila - Standard lager from Columbia. Tastes like corn.
* Stone India Pale Ale - Ate some nachos at the food court, which was horrendous. I got a couple glasses of this to go with my meal.
* Ayinger Brau Weisse - A Hef I always have love for.
* Lemongrass Wheat - From the homebrewer's guild. I don't know who made it but give yourself a pat on the back.

Just got back from the Victory event at Collins so let me throw this one up.

306) Victory Dr. Decibels Brown Ale - No pic... sorry. This was available on cask. I have to say for the first time I was a little disappointed in Victory. This felt thin and there was a lack of complexity. Come on Victory, you can do better than this!

306 for the year leaves just 59 to go! Having 33 new bottles waiting in the fridge, I think I just need to buy 18 more bottles, assuming the Beer of the Month club doesn't send me anything I've already had in the final 2 months of the year.

My plan for the rest of the year is to write up an entry about every 5 beers. Because of events in my life, I really don't have the time to post every day, so expect 1 post a week, 2 at most.

296) Wolavers Brown Ale - Got this from Whole Foods the other day. Not a bad brown ale, but nothing special. Kind of light bodied, perhaps because it is organic?



297) Wolavers Wit Bier - Another one picked up from Whole Foods. This is also organic, and has aromas of orange peel, but I didn't get much spice.



298) Hitachino Nest Real Ginger Ale - This was just strange. I couldn't take it. Maybe for someone who doesn't eat a lot of Asian food, it will be ok, but because I eat tons of Asian food the first thing I thought was that I was drinking some soy sauce with ginger.



299) Weyerbacher Merry Monks Ale - A Belgian tripel. Lots of candy like aromas and flavors. 9.3% alc. but you can hardly tell.



300) North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout - Had this earmarked as #300 a while ago, so this bottle has had some time to rest. Probably a top 10 beer for me. This is probably my favorite style of beer. An excellent beer to have as a nightcap.



With that, I have hit the 300 plateau for the year. Only 65 to go. In my next update, look for another witbier, some stouts, and a review of BREWTOPIA!!!

First off... condolences to the family of Cory Lidle. What a shock...

Now... yet again I'm not really in the mood to blog too much. Half of my life is completely messed up, the other half is unbelievably great.

291) Samuel Smiths Nut Brown Ale - Good brown ale... has some notes of hazelnuts in it. I think that's the key to a good brown ale... some kind of nuttiness.



292) Baltika 6 Porter - Baltic porter... not bad at all. Still such a rare style that I wish was more readily available around here.



293) Herold Cerny Lezák (Bohemian Black Lager) 13° - This is a schwarzbier... and it was fantastic. Great roasted malt flavors abound.



294) Maredsous 10 - A very good abbey tripel. Foamy head... spicy with many subtle flavors.



295) Westmalle Tripel - Even better than the Maredsous. Spicy, powerful flavors. Just a spectacular beer.



295 down and only 70 to go. I'm thinking for the time being I will stick with updating every 5 beers.

I replenished my supply of bottles via Whole Foods tonight. Stay tuned.

And I should mention, don't forget your tickets for Brewtopia. I will attend the Sat. afternoon session.

And although the beers I try at Brewtopia will count towards my overall list... they will not count to this year's total.

The Mets just beat the Dodgers behind strong pitching by Tom Glavine. Up 2-0, they just need to win 1 more of the next 3 games to get to the NLCS. I think Trachsel will get them there.

Here are the latest two beers!

289) Wychwood Hobgoblin - An ESB from England. I don't know if I was just not in the mood for something malty or if this just wasn't good. Hmm... I think this wasn't so great.



290) Goose Island Imperial IPA - For #290, I decided to have something I had been saving for a while. AWESOME! This thing has hops exploding out of it. Great aroma and bitterness. A serious contender for the best in the style!



290 down and only 75 to go!!!!

Due to some personal issues, I've not been in the mood to blog lately nor write much about each beer.

But anyways, here is the latest update, with brief comments on each...

283) Penn Pilsner - From the Beer of the Month club. This is actually a Vienna. Not bad but not anywhere close to the depth or complexity of a Brooklyn Lager.



284) Otter Creek Oktoberfest - Also from the club. Not one of the better Oktoberfests I have had.. but this is one of my favorite styles, so its hard to say anything bad about this.



285) Stoudts Fat Dog Stout - An Imperial Stout that is stronger than the original version of this beer. Good stuff... very enjoyable. I had the bottle for several months and it seemed to benefit.



286) Blue Tongue Traditional Pilsener - From Australia. Decent and crisp... Sorry no pic.

287) Boags Premium Lager - Another Australian beer that I had at the Outback. A very good lager... If you can track it down or you go eat at Outback, give it a try. Again, sorry no pic.

288) Herold Granat - We begin and end this post with a Vienna. This was better than the Penn but still not as good as the Brooklyn.



That's 288 down and 77 left to go. Expect some English ales to appear on the list next.