DerekRx Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 ^Thanks go out to you and "D" for saving me the hassle of time and gas in order to check out State College. If a "top beer bar" can't even keep their HopDevil from getting defaced, it ain't worth my time. Now I remember one reason why I chose University of Florida over a full scholarship to Penn State. Just hanging at home tonight, watching the last of the new episodes of TV for the year, enjoying some good brews. Holy moley! This thing was weird; at first it tasted like soy sauce as it was too cold, but after it warmed up, cherries, smoke, chocolate, coffee, and alcohol were abundant. Well, it's a Duck-Rabbit, and in this particular case it's a Rabid Duck Russian Imperial Stout or is it a rabbit? Next up, is it a duck? Yup, good stuff. Definitely different from other harvest ales in that it's a different kind of flavor, but it sure beats Southern Tier's attempt! Starting off with some Founder's Harvest Ale, while it's still fresh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Palooza Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 ^^That looked like a great time Heath. I wish I would have known about Otto's when we drove by Penn State. That would have made the trip a little more bearable. Maybe there's another Pennsylvania trip in our future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugged One Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 We got our first substantial snowfall of the year yesterday (Boo!) so I figured it was time to break out some weather appropriate Stouts. I think for the most part he's still going strong. Still some big notes of chocolate, coffee, dark fruit, and still a good bit of alcohol. The body was starting to slip a little, as the finish seemed a little flat. Next up is a bottle of Left Hand Imperial Stout. This guy's been sitting around for awhile, having been bottled in April of 2005. And it really doesn't get much better than this! Just tons and tons coffee and chocolate in this guy. Just one of those beers that's a pleasure to drink. The #14 best beer in the world. Founder's Breakfast Stout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 ^ I have two bottles of Founder's Breakfast Stout myself. Typically, we can't get it here (I know, big surprise), but the beer buyer saved me two bottles when he got a "special" shipment in a few weeks ago. In other news, I may be headed to Philly for some training in the next few months......mmmm, beer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIP Psyclone Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Just sitting down with a 6 pack of all to myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba83 Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Well it sure has been a while since I've posted. I've been sorta running low on money and beer as a result. I finished up the last of my BevMo run yesterday, and I will post those pictures. I am going back to BevMo tomorrow with my new paycheck! Just wanted to send a thanks out to Rick for taking me to the Sharks game! I am going to see another Sharks game with my mom on the 11th! One pissed off beer for sure. It's hard to imagine with a beer this hoppy that you can still taste an overwhelming malt presence. It's all there and in your face the whole way through. This is a fine example of the BIG beers you can find out here on the west coast. My uncle poured this round of Undercover Investigation Shutdown Ale... He likes it nice and pillowy, can you tell? The best example of grapefruit flavor from hops of any IPA i've had. Anderson Valley's Hop Ottin' IPA with the Fire in the back. Boy was that fire necessary on that night! It had certainly been a while since I had first had this. I was really happy revisiting it because I loved it this time around. A really overlooked red with tons of interesting flavors. The color never comes out with the flash, but Red Rocket Ale is a nice deep red ruby. Beautiful pour. It's quite good of course, Deschutes makes it afterall... Some more obsidian stout... Thanksgiving at our house... The flavor is changing a bit for sure... Not as floral nowadays... Picture this times three. It was quite nice. Not overwhelmingly sweet like Old Foghorn, but just nice and smooth and mellow with some awesome caramel/cherry flavors. Definitely not very hoppy... Young's Old Nick Barleywine. Only 7.2% ABV, pretty low for a Barleywine. Nice dark mahogoney pour with an excellent head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugged One Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 ^Yeah, the SN Harvest changed around this time last year too. Gotta drink it fresh! So last night was the night that I officially transitioned from the last of the fall beers into the holiday stuff. No 12 beers of Christmas this year but I've still got a few up my sleeve. Fantastic as always! It's like a big ole' glass of alcohol that's flavored with cherries and honey and it all works oh so perfectly. Cheers! So we'll kick off the holiday drinking season off the only way I know how. With a bottle of this years Mad Elf from Troegs. Blech! What was I thinking? It's got some nice spices but a super weak body and and an almost sour pumpkin taste to it. The last fall beer in my fridge. The Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale. Brewed just north of Charlotte. I remember drinking this guy a lot back when I was still down in Carolinas and wasn't quite into the beer scene yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugged One Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 Drinking something local tonight. Yum, lots of citrus and light hoppy notes. And being from State College, it's chock full of bitterness and jealousy too! Awesome! Fresh from last weeks trip to Otto's in State College, it's one of their newly available 22oz bombers of Mt. Nittany Pale Ale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIP Psyclone Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 Just got one of these last night and finished it off this morning, after my morning coffee. 5 liters or 1.33 gallons of nice, cold Heineken! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba83 Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 Just looking at that gives me a headache Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkTrips Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Believe it or not, I still drink beer! I've just been slow with the camera.. well, today I fixed my tv and was able to stay at home, watch some football and drink some beer... PS - Terrapin's Wake n Bake is coming out soon, and there is still lots of Big Hoppy Monster to go around. Anyone want some of the 2 best beers in the south? Despite the loss of half the bottle, I was still very content. The beer was good, reminding me of an offering from Rochefort. The 12th best beer from Belgium (according to BA)? I dunno, I'll figure that out over time However, as you can see, I am sad. I lost about half the bottle when opening, the bottle must have been dropped at some point in time. It was really weird to me since this bottle has sat in my fridge for probably 4 months. Oh well, the remaining sample would be fine Next up was the Triple Imperiale from Brasserie Des Rocs, a 10% heavy dark ale from Belgium and hooray for football! I haven't been able to watch a football game on my tv all season I must say this was a very yummy ale! The hops weren't overpowering and the malts were strong. A great brew! First was the Great Divide winter release, Hibernation Ale, thanks to Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exit english Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Just got one of these last night and finished it off this morning, after my morning coffee. 5 liters or 1.33 gallons of nice, cold Heineken! You know, I really want to snag one of those, because the idea of a tiny keg is really awesome. It's too bad I can only find them filled with skunk water, I mean Heineken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugged One Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Something I picked up from our visit to Vermont last July. Eh, I'm not too sure about this one. Just extreme flavors of sweet malt and citrus hoppiness that scream for some kind of balance. It seems like it's trying to be an Imperial IPA but just isn't as drinkable as it should be. The Magnumus Ete Tomahawkus ESB³. An ESB squared? How's that going to work out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba83 Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 ^ actually, it appears that was an ESB cubed! Also, man it was heartbreaking to see that Akers FG get rejected by the right post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugged One Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 ^In that case. It sucked! Cubed! With the weather getting colder outside. That can only mean one thing... Time to drink some Bell's Stouts! Mmmmm. I really like this one. Tons of sweet chocolate and mellow roastiness with a silky smooth body. Yum! The Bell's Special Double Cream Stout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba83 Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Hooray I'm going to the Sharks game tonight. Hopefully they won't lose 7-1 like they did against the Sabres saturday... Why do they play so much better on the road??? Onto the beers from my latest BevMo trip... I found a lot of good stuff I didn't expect to find at all. Hooray Mountain View BevMo, boo Sunnyvale BevMo Woo, this is a winner. Some awesome hops up front bring balance to a very sweet caramel and brown sugar backbone. Also, I could session this stuff, where's the 9.9%??? Lagunitas Brown Shugga' A winter release from Lagunitas at 9.9% ABV. It's an American Strong Ale that has fed its cultured brewery yeast some brown sugar! And holy crap it's a good batch! The other batches seemed kind of diluted or something, and a little bit of twangy flavors got in it. This batch is just pure pine, which is why I love it in the first place. After a weird six pack and bomber of Racer 5 a little while ago, and being a little dissapointed in those, it's back! It was okay. Not much special about it really. It also kinda reminded me a little of the amber I had from Full Sail that I didn't like. Full Sail's Wassail. A Winter Seasonal with 7.0% ABV. Yeah, starting to get pretty bitter without the floral hoppy flavors, so it has gone downhill a ways. Sierra Nevada Hop Harvest Ale. Perhaps my last bottle of the season? Wowza, smells really hoppy! Okay so basically it's a hop monster. Awesome rich hop flavor. I think the hops used are different than the ones I am used to for hop monsters, but that wasn't a bad thing. This baby was good, my Uncle agreed. So I had seen this one around for a while and held off on getting it because I didn't think it would have much flavor since it's an imperial "pilsner" Heath convinced me otherwise though, so I had to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugged One Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Ah, never underestimate Sam Adams Bubba. Never! Time for another Christmas tradition tonight. And it's as good as always. Nice pungent hoppiness with a spicy malt backbone. I think I even picked up a little mint in the aroma as it warmed! Ah, it wouldn't be the Christmas season without a bottle of this years Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Bubba, try the Brown Sugga without eating for about six hours. It will hit you, and hit you good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Palooza Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 ^^^At least the Sharks won for you Bubba! I haven't seen them win at home yet. ^^Heath, I love Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. I had a draft last week and I need to go to the store to buy some 6-packs. Celebration and Winter Bock are my 2 favorite winter beers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkTrips Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 This morning I went to Green's Discount Beverages in downtown Atlanta since I was already in the area and it was open. The primary purpose was to look for Terrapin products, but its really hard for me to go to this place without stepping in the Belgian cellar. Well, its also hard for me to do that without dropping at least a hundred bucks, so with a bunch of new beers I really needed to make room in the fridge. So, I decided to start with some of the older stuff... You know, Porters tend to scare me a bit, but both of the ones Ive had from Troegs have been very good. This wasn't quite as good as the Dead Reckoning which I loved, but still very drinkable #2 from the Troegs Scratch Beer series, a porter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba83 Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 ^ I want Troegs :{{{ ^^ Yeah they played really well last night Rick, I was rooting for a shutout but Ehrhoff totally missed that one timer pass to his man. Still Nabokov should have had at least the 2nd star of the game, don't know what they were thinking there. ^^^ Funny you should mention that, last night I had a Brown Shugga at 1am, and then followed it up with the Imperial Hefe you see below. It was the drunkest I have been in quite a while. Pretty awesome! I love hefe's that aren't flavored with lemon. This has some nice subtle hop characterists up front and then brings some serious wheat. The yeasty flavor is definitely there as well. The alcohol comes through a lot though, maybe too much... But overall it was still really good. Pyramid's Imperial Hefeweizen. Mountain View BevMo had this and I've been wanting to try it for a while. 7.5% ABV and a beautiful pour, as you see here. It was quite good, but honestly I had a lot of trouble finding it any different from Anchor Porter. I got a little bit of spice/coriander perhaps but it really was hard to notice. Anchor's Special Christmas Ale 2007. Every year they do something a little different apparently. 5.5% ABV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugged One Posted December 14, 2007 Share Posted December 14, 2007 After about 6 straight months of missing them, we're finally starting to get back to some of these monthly DuClaw beer releases. We can thank the new reopened Bel Air location for that! Cheers! And thanks for reading. And I think that the whole crew agreed that it was still pretty good anyway. Good times! ...and wow, it's vastly different than the previous years! This years had a real smoky and leathery feel to it. Very different. All right, let's try this years batch... ...and the best one....Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction. When told that he'll have to be paid in beer he replies "Sh*t Negro, that's all you had to say!" Freaking funny! Mr. T... Their questions were naturally intercut with scenes from the movies of famous black actors like Bernie Mac... The release video was one of the funniest that I've ever seen. As you can see, the DuClaw folks are auditioning for the official Black Jack Stout spokesperson. It's the return of the Serum Double IPA next month. How wonder how this one will be different than previous years? We'll cut straight to the trivia. If you want to see more, look back at last years release. ...for one of my favorites. The Black Jack Imperial Stout. This is actually the third straight release where we've gone to a different location for each one. I guess it's off to Bowie next December! Back again for another release at the Bel Air DuClaw... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugged One Posted December 14, 2007 Share Posted December 14, 2007 One of my favorite Holiday beers from last year. Very nice. Notes of dark malts, fruits, spices, bread, and warmth. Perfect for sipping by the fire. The Gouden Carolus Noel. A Belgian Strong Dark Ale brewed for the Holidays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugged One Posted December 15, 2007 Share Posted December 15, 2007 Well it's mid December and that means that it's time for another run down to Sly Fox for their annual Project IPA. On this trip, we had myself Deuane and fellow BAs Andy and Jeff. They had a much bigger crowd than last years and it never really seemed to let up, even though we were there almost 5 hours during the afternoon. It was well worth it though, with another record setting number of IPAs to be had. ...and then we all finished up with our favorite of the 11 varietals. And with that another successful Sly Fox IPA Project is in the books! They would do regular fills of anything they had on, so I checked out a full glass of the 2007 Odyssey on cask... They had a special IPA chile on the menu for the day. It was very spicy and maybe even a little hoppy... Andy and Deuane get ready to rip into their flights. This year's version of Odyssey. It was very nice! This was Jeff's first time at the Project and he didn't know what to do with all these IPAs. Better double fist them! And there they are in 3 different flights of 5 each. 11 different hop varietals, 2007 Odyssey Double IPA draft, both 2006 & 2007 Odyssey on cask and then finally their Rt. 113 IPA on cask as well. Holy hop overload! Welcome back to Sly Fox and this years edition of their annual IPA Project. This years was the biggest one yet and they broke their own record with an amazing 15 different offerings of their own IPAs on at one time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkTrips Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Just a single brew this morning.. though I'm feeling like there may be more coming... The beer was ok. Good, drinkable, smooth and nothing "bad", however, nothing terribly special either. Typical lager to me. Today's brew, my first offering from Great Lakes, the Eliot Ness Amber Lager - a euro-style lager Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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