Rugged One

Today, I tried something new from Derek's favorite brewery. That's right, Southern Tier! The Jah*Va Imperial Coffee Stout. This was really, really, good. Lot's of coffee up front but then as it warmed, more and more traits of a good imperial stout came out, like sweet chocolate and fruits This helped somewhat balance out it's big 12% abv. Just a really nice imperial stout, with coffee to boot! The Jah*Va Imperial Coffee Stout. Wow, this was really good. Especially for Southern Tier!

Nothing says Christmas like getting up at 9 am, putting Elf on the TV, and breaking out the 12th Beer of Christmas... And all I can say is SANTA'S BUTT TASTES AWESOME! OK, actually it wasn't very good but how often do you get to say that? Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Hoppy Heathfaces everyone! The 12th and final Beer of Christmas. The Ridgeway Santa's Butt winter porter. Unfortunately, being too watery and lacking much taste, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

After being out of drinking commission for a few days last week thanks to a little bit of pnuemonia, Derek got me back on track with our trip yesterday. Let's finally start to finish this thing off with the 11th Beer of Christmas: The Pere Noel, a rather nicely spiced and mildly hoppy Belgium Christmas Ale.

Yep, definitely Peter Cullen. He just sounds 20 years older.

The trailer itself looks pretty good. Lot's of good action money shots and they did a nice job of showing just enough of the robots to keep fans intrigued. I agree with Rich, if you grew up with the toys and were a fan in the 80s, it's a must see no matter who directs it. I happen to actually be a fan of Bay's films so it's a no brainer for me. If he wasn't going to be in Spain at the time, I know I'd be sitting with Derek in the front row on opening night.

As we start heading towards the finale of the 12 Beers of Christmas, it's time to start profiling some of those most excellent of the Belgium XMas kind. The 10th Beer of Christmas: The Corsendonk Christmas Ale. This was a nice one. Nice and sweet with lots of fruit accents. Nicely balanced with some slight hops at the end. Good stuff!

Cool, I didn't realize that Anderson Valley was up that way as well. I think that will definitley have to be on the agenda now.

Mmmm, this past weekend's awesome surprise of a bottle of Pizza Port Wipeout from Jimbo got me in the mood to knock down some more West Coast IPA. The Green Flash IPA. Great example of the style. Reminded me a lot of the Stone IPA. Still can't touch the Pizza Port though.

After sharing the 7th and 8th beers of Christmas with Derek this weekend, it's time to start taking this thing home for the final week. The Anchor Christmas Ale, 2006 style. Loaded with tons of cherry flavor and a little spice, I was expecting a little more this year. Oh well, it's still better than most.

Nice pics Wally. We're hopefully going to make a go at getting there on next years Nor Cal trip. About how far north of you guys is it?

Kim and I had some business to take care of up in Harrisburg this afternoon. With Selinsgrove Brewing celebrating it's 10th Anniversary on Thursday, we decided to make the hour drive north to pay a visit and do a little early celebrating with this most excellent of brewpubs. Although the actual Anniversary is Thursday, they are doing stuff throughout the week to celebrate. I may be back on Thursday to try the Solstice Dubbel X. We'll have to see. And it was very good. Done in a Scotch style, it was very malty and sweet. I finish up our visit with some of the 05 St. Fillin's Barleywine, straight off the handpump. Have I mentioned how awesome the food is here? I tried their special fish soup of the day. Excellent! Kim's goes for the absolutely awesome Razz Merry raspberry ale. Trust us, it tasted as good as it sounds! I'm all cheary because they have their Olde Frosty IPA on tap. This was an extremely well done IPA with some spiciness that gave it a little winter warmer quality. One of the main reasons we wanted to come up, was because they had a few of their Christmas/Winter seasonal selections on tap. Back at our favorite PA brewpub. Selinsgrove Brewing!

After missing last month's DuClaw release because of some horrible weather, Kim and I were back to business as usual in Fell's Point last night. Until next month....or maybe tomorrow. I'm always Jacked Up for this one. Quite a tasty little RIS. All right! Time to double down on some Black Jack! The release video was really good, showing how to win in Vegas with clips courtesy of The Simpsons. Next month the New Year starts off with a bang with the early return of the Dereksl... I mean the Serum Double IPA. ...and even Six Degrees of Jack Black! ...Black Jack vocabulary... ...Russian Imperial Stouts... Trivia time! This month's had little nuggets of info about famous Russians... I get a little more serious with October's release, the Mad Bishop. Had to skip the Devil's Milk this trip but it will be sampled this weekend. ...while Kim keeps things healthy with a grilled chicken salad. For dinner, I went with the release special, the Norton Shitake Prime Rib Sandwich... Had to hit some Venom right off the bat. Aaaaaaahhh, it had been way too long! ....for this months' release. The Black Jack Russian Imperial Stout! Welcome to a foggy and very cold (although it had been like 20 degrees warmer in PA 2 hours earlier) Fell's Point in downtown Baltimore...

The Sixth Beer of Christmas and part deux of Ridgeway Brewing Elf trilogy, the Seriously Bad Elf, a English Strong Ale. This wasn't what I was expecting, very light, more like a pale ale. Very strange taste, with malt first and then some fruitiness (perhaps juniper?), and finally hops. Not really my cup of tea. This Elf was up to no good with my palette. Seriously.

Tonight, I figured that I needed to work on more of this Stone 10th that I have laying around, lest I age out all that fresh hop character. Still holding up, so far...

The Fifth Beer of Christmas. Yet another of the infamous Ridgeway Brewing offerings. The Warm Welcome English Strong Ale/Nut Brown, complete with "Santa getting his buns toasted" label. Not bad. A little too watery but had some decent taste to it. Fairly sweet and malty with a hint of nuttiness at the end.

^^ Nicole, those wings were better than they looked but they were no Anchor wings. Screw bringing us sauce, we'll come up there and go back to the Anchor Bar with ya! ^ Nice, to see that Brett enjoyed the Harvest Ales. These Drafting Room growlers are going to get us in a lot of trouble, aren't they? Polished off my growler of Harvest Ale today while watching the Eagles hang on against the Deadskins. Of course it left no room for the Fifth Beer of Christmas so look for that tomorrow night.

Yesterday, after taking care of some business in the area, Kim and I stopped at a place that I've been wanting to try for awhile. The Market Cross Pub and Brewery in Carlisle, PA. I've often heard it refer to itself as the best place to have a beer in Central PA (possibley now that KClingers is closed) and we were both pleasantly surprised. It patterns itself after a old world style English pub and has a decent (but by no means spectacular) lineup of beers on draft and in bottles. Most importantly, they do brew a few styles in the back, most notatably a red ale, porter, imperial stout, and an IPA (of which they were out). We found the place to be very homey and charming, with a great pub atmosphere and food, and a good selection of brews to wash them down with. Next time we're heading by on I-81, we'll most definitely stop back. Final shot, their "To Go" cooler, with a decent selection of stuff. We really liked Market Cross and look forward to coming back. Pint glasses line parts of the ceiling. I hope to one day get a Kona Brewing glass right from the source. A showing of the many winter seasonals they have to offer. We only got some appetizers when we were there (like these delicious wings) but the rest of the menu looked very good. Kim didnt' seem to mind it at all. ...from which was poured their house imperial stout, The Excalibur! It was OK. Dry and bitter, with some hints of chocolate and a little alcohol in the finish. They also have a hand pump... Plenty of other things on tap too, like Troegs Mad Elf, Lindemans Frambois, and their own house taps. ...like the Rogue Brutal Bitter. I really like this one. Nice dry hoppy finish but it never really seems to live up to it's name. Lots of the basics on tap here, including "pub beers" like Bass, Smithwicks, and Boddingtons. Plus one that doesn't really fit... Market Cross has a great pub atmosphere, including what every great pub has. Dartboards! The Market Cross Pub and Brewery in downtown Carlisle, PA.

The Fourth Beer of Christmas. The always wonderful Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. 2006! Great as always. Love the aroma of this one. Pine and citrus. And that always wonderful dry hoppy finish. Definitely a reason to celebrate!

Ah, this Third Beer of Christmas is the first of of the many infamous Christmas brews from Ridgeway Brewing in the U.K. These were recently banned in the state of New York (but I think it was recently overturned) and now Maine because they "supposedly targeted underage drinkers with their cute Holiday labels". Whatever. Controversial? Yes!:: But most importantly, are the beers themselves any good? Let's find out! We'll start out with the Very Bad Elf, an English Strong Ale. Typical of an English Ale, pretty malty and sweet. This one was very fruity and a little too sweet maybe. Luckily this Very Bad Elf was anything but. I liked it!

Remember when I said I was done with the Fall beers? Well that was before I went to my beer place the other day and they had something new on the shelf. More and more breweries now are making hop harvest ales but very few are bottling them. Luckily Great Divide is one of them. The Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale Ale. Hot damn, this is some good stuff! Very similar to the Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale. Nice grassy hops in the aroma and taste that linger with you for awhile. I might have to go back for more of this.

^ Dave, if you still want a sixer of the Mad Elf, just head down 45 to Hunt Valley and hit up Shawan Liquors. They still had it when we were there Saturday morning. Here's their website: http://www.shawanliquors.com By the way, it was really cool finally getting to meet you. We're looking forward to some future beer meetups with ya down in B-More! Tonight, the Second Beer of Christmas... The Avery Old Jubilation Ale. Nice dark fruity, malty taste going on with this. Slightly hoppy at the end. A very nice (and hefty at 8%) winter warmer from Avery.

Well, it's the beginning of December and the Christmas Holiday Season. Time for this year's edition of the Twelve Beers of Christmas. I'm going to do it a little different than last years. Instead of banging them out over about a week, I'm going to start tonight and profile a few a week up until Christmas Eve on Dec. 24th. I'm also going to try to stick to beers with a "Holiday Theme" of some kind but I'm sure I'll mix in the some of the usual holiday ales/winter warmers throughout the month as well. With that I bring you the First Beer of Christmas.. We'll start things out with the Rogue Santa's Private Reserve, a nicely hopped and spicey amber ale. I really liked this one last season and it didn't disappoint this year either. A nice start!

^ Heh man, it's Otter Creek, not Sea Otter Creek! Being the last day of November, means the last day of Fall as far as I'm concerned. Although with near 70 degree weather today, it's makes me wonder. Anyway, I decided to say goodbye tonight with my last Fall beer. The Weyerbacher Autumn Fest Ale. Starting tomorrow night. The Twelve Beers of Christmas. My final Oktoberfest and it's not a bad one. A little watery but still nice and sweet and malty. A good way to end the season.

Started checking out some of the Wild Goose beers (brewed not too far away in Frederick, MD) from a mix case that myself and my fellow BACTers split. Tonight, it's their Oatmeal Stout. Yum, this was a really well done sweet stout! Roasty chocolate and coffee accents to this one, with the chocolate especially standing out.

^ I'm glad to see that we picked up a winner this weekend. Started to get into some of the Southern Tier stuff this week that Derek had passed on to me. I don't believe he thought too much of them but let's see what I think. First up, Phin and Matt's Extraordinary Ale, a pale ale. This one was pretty, meh. Slightly hoppy. Pretty light and watery. The finish just kinda peters out. Gonna have to give this one a thumb in the middle.