What Was the Last Beer You Drank?

[Rugged One]

Time for some West Coast holiday goodness.

As for the beer, it was just as tasty as last years. Lots of burned coffee, chocolate sweetness, cherry tartness, and tons of alcohol heat. Truly a beer worthy of Black Santa.

Nah, it's just Pizza Port bowing down to those that don't believe that you can show Santa enjoying a cold brew. Although we all know that he does! Here's last years label for proof.

Something seems weird about this year's label. OMG! Has Santa Claus been taken over by a alien symbiote costume that can drastically increase his speed, strength, and ability to deliver Christmas gifts on time to the world's children?

This year's edition of Santa's Little Helper. An holiday Imperial Stout from Port Brewing.

[Rugged One]

Tried a couple of beers from this years Sam Adams Winter Classics 12 pack that's currently in stores.

Next up is the Old Fezziwig Winter Warmer. It wasn't bad. Sweet and very spicy. It was nice to try once but I don't think it's one that I would go back to anytime soon.

This was very good. Nice notes of roasted malt, chocolate, and caramel. A fine sipping holiday Porter!

First up, the Sam Adams Holiday Porter.

[65skylark]

Picked up a nice local winter brew from Bridgeport Brewing today.

Pretty decent. Very smooth and malty with just enough hops to blance it out some. Not bad at all.

Ebenezer Ale. I had never tried this one before but I have never been let down by Bridgeport yet.

[Coaster Palooza]

Nothing interesting here. Just a winter beer and an old classic!

All ready....

Next beer was a heffie with a lemon off my tree.

I'm using my Steelers' bottle opener.

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

[65skylark]

^ Well at least the Steelers can get the job done when it comes to opening bottles

[DerekRx]

The other day I got a very special package all the way from Oregon. Time to enjoy some early Christmas cheer from across country, thanks to Justin.

Good stuff. Very bready with good hints of cherries, raisins, coffee, and a hop count to balance it all out. Thanks a bundle for the opportunity, Justin!

Deschutes Jubelale 2007, a Winter Warmer, certainly something that'll come in handy right now here in PA

[Rugged One]

Time for some Midwestern Christmas beer goodness...

And wow, it does taste like Christmas! Sweetness, spices, easy drinkibility. No wonder their going nuts for this stuff out in Ohio.

Great Lakes Christmas Ale. A handcrafted ale brewed with honey and spices.

[Rugged One]

And time for some Southern Christmas beer goodness too...

I liked the side of the bottle. Peace, love, and suds everyone!

This wasn't bad. A kind of muddled mess of flavors with chocolate, cherries, spice, and nuttiness, but somehow it all worked in the end.

2007 Sweetwater Festive Ale.

[mcjaco]

^ Thus far, Great Lakes' Christmas Ale is my favorite. I'm going to make a run for the border this afternoon with my brother in law. Perhaps I'll take the camera along.......yeah right!

[DerekRx]

Some goodness in this week leading up to Christmas, starting off with a trip to the King of Prussia Mall. Am we insane? No, we just want to get to the tapping of Rock Bottom's newest brew.

I went with the Olde Frosty IPA, a darker IPA than usual, somewhat like Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale, and Nicole went with the RazzMerry, an awesome Raspberry infused brown ale just loaded with sweet and tart tastes.

The night before they celebrated their 11th anniversary, and had a big party. Lots of stuff was out, but the two things we wanted most were still on, and free cake!

Saturday it was off to Selinsgrove to see what Christmas goodness was on

Next year is looking like it's starting off good as well. Time to schedule a return trip in late January

and so cask St Nick's is what I went with. Nice piney notes from the centennial hops.

Rock Bottom's newest brew, the St. Nicks IPA was tapped tonight. Sadly, no special release party like DuClaw, but I did have the chance to get it on cask

[RIP Psyclone]

Samuel Adams Winter Lager

Because 2 is better than 1!

[Bubba83]

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been so out of touch as late, I have been quite busy indeed. Infact, I just got back last night from Las Vegas for my best college buddy's wedding. I was there for 4 nights which was pretty awesome, and I did really well playing poker! (I am an avid poker player if you guys didn't already know that about me, HI WALLY)

 

Anyway, I want to wish everyone a Merry X-Mas on this fine eve. My pictures start from about oh ten days back or so with some beers I had at home and some I took to my uncles.

 

By the way, that roasted red pepper and goat cheese lasagne at Selin's Grove sounds AMAZING... On to the pictures though...

But no it's definitely a ruby red hopped up amber ale. The hop flavor reminds me a lot of Sierra Nevada Celebration, which is also brewed with Centennial... The malt backbone adds some nice character that brings more complexity to the table than Celebration does... Very enjoyable as well... I'm all caught up, and I just realized how many pictures that was, pretty epic I guess!

Rogue's Santa's Private Reserve Ale at my uncle's tonight on Christmas Eve. Surprising pour as I was expecting a stout for some reason or another...

The last beer consumed by Ray and I in Vegas... To be honest, it tasted a heck of a lot like DFH's 90 minute IPA... Strong malt backbone and not as hoppy as wipeout...

Missing in between this time period were both Ridgeway Brewing's Bad Elf (From the UK) and Dogfish Head's 90 minute IPA. Bad Elf was a decent bitter UK golden ale, and 90 minute IPA was kind of like a less hoppy version of Wipeout... Pictured is of course AleSmith's IPA.

Dear lord baby jesus, how is this not considered a Double IPA??? Pungeant west coast hops give way to a very solid malty backbone, one of the better IPAs I have had...

Ahh, this picture came out better, another San Diego favorite the BevMo's carry in Arizona... Port Brewing's Wipeout IPA.

Honestly, I was expecting a little more out of it... I liked Stone's Russian Imperial Stout better, and thought it really didn't have much on Ol' Rasputin or Victory's Storm King either... With that said, it was still quite good, I just wish I had shared it with someone...

So much for getting a picture of this that wasn't blurry! Oh well, we all recognize the bottle right??? The current #9 beer in the world, Alesmith's Speedway Stout.

As you can see by his facial expression it was an utter dissapointment, as it tasted a lot like other fizzy yellow lagers.

My friend Ray brought himself and I some brews from his recent BevMo run for us to enjoy when we were in Vegas... He brings himself a Rogue Kell's Irish Style Lager...

Pretty insanely flavorful all around... I'd have to say I get a little more Arrogant Bastard flavor than Ruination, but that's just fine! And yes, I did have a hangover the next day...

And now for something I have been looking forward to for a while, the double bastard from Stone! Ewww, there's my neighbor's Bud Light can in the background, it's all he drinks :[

Their top rated variety according to BA and I'd have to agree. Excellent balance of pine/grapefruit hops with a nice malt backbone that makes it quite well rounded. My uncle liked it a lot as well.

Part of my birthday gift to my uncle, his favorite craft brew company's new seasonal... Mendocino's Imperial IPA. Not many companies have Imperial IPAs as their winter seasonal!

Holy smokes this was really nice!!! My uncle was tentative at first because he's not big on the whole beer brewed with anything besides malt/hops/water/yeast thing... But he loves coffee and really liked this as well... It doesn't even really taste that much more pronounced, it just helps accentuate the normal coffee tones that come from some stouts.

Hey look it's the Lagunitas I was always jealous about seeing Derek and Heath enjoy! The cappucino stout.

My uncle agrees it tastes almost identical to the porter... oh and GO EAGLES!!!

Now over at my uncle's that weekend, we'd each enjoy a bottle of Anchor Christmas...

I'm going to be honest about this, I had it ten days ago and I can't remember as much as I'd like. It was very complex, and all the flavors came together in a rather glorious balance. It was one damn fine belgian style beer.

Deschutes' own 19th anniversary ale. Also marks the first time they've ever bottled a belgian style of theirs.

[Rugged One]

^ Nice pics Bubba. If you think that the Wipeout tastes like a Double IPA, wait until you try one of their actual Double IPAs. I'm glad to see that you had a good time in Vegas.

 

Time again for another crazy trip. Around this time every year, Portsmouth Brewing, in Portsmouth, NH releases their very highly touted (BA Magazine recently listed it as the top North American beer) Russian Imperial Stout called Kate the Great. The only place you can naturally get it at is at the brewery and they do some limited to go bottles out of their retail store. Naturally a top beer and limited availability equals a huge demand.

 

Kim and I are always of the notion that if it's good and within 8 hours of us than have car, will travel. We left Friday morning at 2:30 am and got back Saturday night. Quite the whirlwind trip but it was so worth it. Plus we got to visit some cool places on the way up and back.

 

Enjoy the pics and Merry Christmas everyone!

After some shopping, we stop back at the brewpub for one more growler of Kate to go. Quite the whirlwind trip but definitely fun. Portsmouth is a great beer town and we look forward to getting back soon. Thanks for reading.

Back in downtown Portsmouth and how do we know that we're in NH? Because we get to witness Hillary Clinton do a campaign stop.

I finish up with a Nitro Porter. This was definitely a pretty cool place and we look forward to stopping back sometime in the future.

What's cool too is that since we are at the brewery, they will occasionally have on small batch stuff like their own Barleywine called Treblehook. They sell 4-packs of this just around Southern NH so I picked one up. Look for a review sometime soon.

...like this years Winter Hook. I've had this in the past and always enjoy it.

Plus a couple of extra Red Hook brews..

Decent selection of Red Hook (and now) Widmer on tap.

This place actually had a pretty cool atmosphere. Kind of a corporate brewpub. I like the hooks hanging from the ceiling.

The brewing facility is home to it's very own Red Hook Chataqua Public House.

From a regional craft brewery to a national one, Portsmouth is also home to the East Coast Red Hook brewing facility. I'm sure some of you may have heard of this brand. It's everywhere! I guess much like Sam Adams, you could call it a Macro-Micro as it started out small and blew up on a national level.

And I couldn't leave without a shot of Smutty1 parked along side us in the parking lot.

A great brewery with great beers and run by some really great people. I know that I'll continue to support their product and Make Mine a Smutty!

They told us though that they are pretty maxed out on space and will have to relocate in the next couple of years at the rate they are growing. Sounds like a good type of problem to have.

They did a pretty fun but fairly brief tour. They did 18,000 bbl this year and I was surprised at how they crammed everything into the space that they have.

...as well as free samples! Here I try a Smuttynose IPA while Kim tried their Winter Ale.

They've even got a fooseball table and dart board to keep you occupied...

Pretty laid back tasting room. There were only a few of us that were there to take the tour.

Once we saw the basketball rim attached to the grain silo, we knew that this was going to a fun place.

Done with Portsmouth Brewing (for now) we decide to check out some of the other beer happenings around town. First, it's a stop at one of the larger regional breweries on the East Coast. Smuttynose Brewing.

And here it is, the infamous To Go cooler at Portsmouth Brewing. One of the most coveted bottled beers in the world is dispensed 12 at a time (they only hand bottle 2 cases at a time) for a few weeks at $10 a pop. Quite the crazy situation as it's a total crap shoot as to if you can actually score some. Now that we know what the deal is, we'll be better prepared for next year!

Kim waves from the attached gift shop. Unknownst to us, it opened an hour before the brewpub did and cost us our shot at a few bottles of Kate to go.

It's always nice to see a place like this get involved with the community.

We may have been denied bottles but luckily they will do growlers here so naturally some Kate went home with us.

And because we drove the whole way up here, I get another Kate on draft. Why not!

Kim tried a glass of their Winter Rye. It was also great. Fairly light and drinkable with some fantastic rye notes.

This was a good time of the year to be at the brewpub as they also had on their Imperial IPA, which was very good, and IMO probably gets way overshadowed by Kate at this place.

The food here was very good as well. Here I had a cup of their New England Clam Chowder and a gigantic roast beef sandwich, called appropriately enough, The Beast!

They had plenty of great things that Kim liked too. Like their recently tapped Winter Weizen.

And there she is! A #1 beer in the world? Honestly, I don't know but she was definitely very, very good. Much sweeter (and less burnt and bitter) and more drinkable than many of the other top RIS that I've had.

Here's what's on tap. It's funny, that nowhere at the brewpub (not on the board, tap handle, from the servers) does anyone call this beer Kate the Great. It's always referred to as just Russian Imperial Stout.

A look at the bar from where we were sitting. It's rather on the small side.

Here's a shot of the main area of the brewpub from the back looking towards the front door. Definitely a nice place and good atmosphere.

And here it is, the home to her Royal Majesty, Portsmouth Brewing.

We're finally in downtown Portsmouth, NH. It had just snowed a good bit the day before but no worries, they know how to clear roads up here. This was quite the quaint little town with a really cute downtown shopping area. We came back later in the evening to poke around.

I just wanted to throw in a quick shot of one of their state liquor stores (liquor is state run in NH while you can get beer at anyplace you can buy a morning paper). Quite impressive and this one even had it's own exit ramp.

I think this pic pretty much sums up the place. Just an outstanding hit list of great breweries from around the country. They also have a tremendous selection of local New England brews and don't even get me started on their Belgian selection. We actually stopped here again on the way back down through.

Our first stop on our way through Mass was the much ballyhooed Julio's in Westborough, MA.

[DerekRx]

It's Christmas, what a perfect time to enjoy some of this year's beers made just for the occasion.

and no better time than Christmas Day to crack open 2007's Christmas Ale from Sly Fox. Lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, and even some pine notes. Merry Christmas!!

A nice sweet brown ale with some holiday spices

First up, on Christmas Eve I'll have a Goose Island Christmas Ale, a Christmas gift from Heath

[mcjaco]

I finally cracked open some special stuff for Christmas. We stay home by ourselves, and watch old movies, but this year Abra decided we should take a short walk around the neighborhood and look at the lights.

 

What better way then to take a road cola, especially as one as tasty as Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout, and for the wife, Founder's Breakfast Stout. We then proceeded onto Mickey Finn's (one of the local brew pubs) Santa's Magic, and ended the night with New Glarus' Raspberry Tart. Basically, I couldn't feel my legs by 10PM.

This is the last pic I have from the night. Mickey Finn's Santa's Magic.

Abra went with Founder's Breakfast Stout

Pour into traveling mug, and look at lights. Win/win.

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout. This is the most fantastic stout hands down. I don't think anyone can beat it.

[LiquidForce]

bud deisel baby!

[DerekRx]

This week's brews, many of which were a Christmas present, thanks Heath!

But WOW this was actually shockingly good. LOADED with chocolate flavors from all angles with some coffee and hops mixed in a bit, but mainly chocolate: baking chocolate powder, chocolate syrup, and fudge. I'm impressed with Southern Tier for a change!

Finally, after a stop at Union Jacks yesterday for lunch and some Breakfast Stout, I walked away with Southern Tier's latest attempts, like this Choklat Imperial Stout. Of course we all know how I feel about Southern Tier, so I'm not expecting much even after all the hype

another good attempt by them, this one had lots of grapefruit and grassy hop flavors mixed with some caramel sweetness

Mendocino's latest winter special, the Imperial IPA

Very much like Arrogant Bastard, only with more grapefruity hop kick

Time to enjoy some Nosferatu from Great Lakes, a strong ale

Wow, this one was definitely hopped out, just like the label warned

First up, Sam Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner

[ParkTrips]

This thread is dead! Oh well here are a few crappy cell phone pics from lunch at Taco Mac today...

2nd up, Sweetwater Donkey Punch of draft, a barley wine at a heavy 10%. Wow! I liked it but I didn't love it, if you know what I mean. I'm glad I got to try it before its gone.

First up, Wittekerke, a belgian wheat ale that was on par with Hoegaarden. Not bad, a bit better than average for a wit, but not spectacular. I'm just not a fan of the wits

[Rugged One]

Something to help me warm me up on a cold and bitter evening last night.

Very strange. Lots of the typical Imperial Stout notes like chocolate, coffe, and burnt flavors but this also had an extreme taste of fresh citrus blended in with it. Nice!

The Nogne 0 Imperial Stout. A product of Sweden!

[ParkTrips]

Heath I think the bottle says product of Norway

 

Anyways, lunch from yesterday...

Lasagne, cornbread and Terrapin Rye Pale Ale - an odd combo, but a good one!

[Bubba83]

Catchin on up from some of the Holidays still...

 

I see it has been a bit slow in the beer thread lately, but Heath sure is giving it his all!

 

Let's keep it goin guys!

I had never seen anything from these guys before, so I was interested to see how it was, but I wasn't expecting much. It impressed me a great deal, it's just a really solid doppelbock that I'd have to put up above Salvator, but not quite as good as Celebrator.

Altenmunster's Winterbier Doppelbock. Ringing in at 7.2% ABV from Kempten, Germany.

Very impressive. Nice spices up front with all kinds of fruity flavors and a bit of a hefeweizen yeastyness to it as well.

Affligem's Noel, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale brewed up for the winter season. 9% ABV hailing from Opwijk, Belgium

[DerekRx]

^Well, if more people contributed to this thread, maybe some of us would be more inclined to share. We're not a freaking circus providing free shows for everyone, you know!

 

But fine, you want awesome beerness, we're here to deliver. Calling out BACT to assault The Drafting Room for the Official Release of Victory's Baltic Thunder as well as saying a final hello and goodbye to Heavyweight and some of their most fantastic brews during their event "One Final Victory For Heavyweight".

 

Brief synopsis: Heavyweight was an awesome brewery in New Jersey, but NJ has weird laws when it comes to microbreweries, you're either a brewpub (meaning you can sell beers on premises along with food and such) or you're a brewery (meaning you can bottle your beer and sell to people for consumption at home), but you can't be both. The owners of Heavyweight got tired of just brewing for people at home, but since they were in Jersey, they had to change. Thus they closed up shop, sold one of their most awesome beer recipes (Perkuno's Hammer Imperial Porter) to Victory Brewing in PA, and are now looking at opening up their own brewpub in the suburbs of Philadelphia (with a new name and all). But in the meantime, here's the last of Heavyweight's goods, as well as the release of Victory's take on Perkuno's Hammer, called Baltic Thunder. Appropriate that The Drafting Room hosts the event, as they were the ones to host the going away party for Heavyweight back in 2006.

and as we part ways, major props to Kim, as we have some bottles of Baltic Thunder to enjoy at a later date thanks to her driving to Victory to pick us up some bottles while we enjoyed the event at The Drafting Room. And there you have another update from BACT, bringing in the new year with gusto!

Not nearly as good as each of its parts separate, but definitely unique and tolerable.

But first, they broke out some really rare Symposium Ale from 2005, consisting of lots of different beers from around our region that we just had to try

Tis getting slightly cramped in this place, soon time to head on out

Whoa! This one was loaded with ginger, which really came out as the beer warmed up. Sushi would go well with this, and maybe we'll try that next month, since we nabbed another bottle on the way out.

Next up, we went back to the bottles of Heavyweight, which we were planning on purchasing and saving for future consumption, but apparently others had the same idea, as they were out of the ones we were most anticipating. Sadly, no Black Ocean for any of us, which we were really hoping to try. Thanks to "D" though, we were able to snag a bottle of Jakeldricka, a really funky fruit/spiced beer, which we all shared.

But Perkuno's Hammer was fantastic. Maybe because of the black eyed peas added to it, maybe the 2 years of extra fermentation, but this was definitely a beer drinkers beer, with everything Baltic Thunder had and some sour notes as well.

Baltic Thunder was very drinkable and went well with dinner, with some alcohol taste and coffee and chocolate flavors, definitely an awesome Baltic Porter

Seeing how busy it was becoming, we quickly grabbed our vertical tastings of Baltic Thunder vs Perkuno's Hammer to go along with our Slice of Bread.

Thanks to our early arrival, we got a table. Shortly after 12, people were left with standing room only. HAHA!

A new year, time to get the team back together; and we all loved this beer, even if it's been aging for almost 2 years. Sour notes and some rye punch left as well. Wish we could get more of this one!

Before jumping into the drafts, we decided to start out with some rare Heavyweight bottles, like Slice of Bread, a rye ale. And thanks to the Drafting Room, we were able to enjoy all beers in 10 oz instead of pints, helps with the weight gain and stuff we're trying to lower this early in 2008

When the event kicks off, we're off in an epic battle to enjoy some of the very last known bottles of Heavyweight beers, as well as a most rarest chance to enjoy a vertical tasting of draft Heavyweight Perkuno's Hammer Imperial Porter and Victory's Baltic Thunder Imperial Porter, brewed from the same recipe with slight alterations.

Newly distributed in PA but nothing more than an old acquaintance to me, we'll start out with Racer 5 IPA from Bear Republic

The draft list, and getting there a bit before "kickoff" thanks to the coaster enthusiast mentality, I had to choose something else to start out with

It was supposed to go off without a hitch back in October, but there was a hitch (bottling), so it finally happened today

[ParkTrips]

Just one beer for me tonight..

What a find beer! Samaranth surprised me as I had never heard of it until I picked it up downtown a few weeks ago. The aroma was to die for and the taste was very close to that of a Rochefort offering, and that is certainly a compliment from me. The big robust flavors from the malts his the 11% alcohol quite well, though it still made its presence known after not having eaten anything all day.. whoops, haha

75 cl's of Urthel Samaranth, a quadrupel hailing from Holland, brewed by the same folks who make the fine La Trappe beers as well as the Bavaria pils shit. Lots of foamy head no matter how carefully I tried to pour, almost Duvel-like.

[ParkTrips]

as I continue to blow through my Belgian stash acquired a month ago, my last Christmas beer...

ah.. um... yeah. I didn't care for this one. The weakest Belgian beer I have had to date. I just didn't care for the spices, and this isn't the first "winter" beer which I have encountered with the same problem. Oh well.

The Corsendonk Christmas ale.

[Meteornotes]

^That may be the best "this beer is not good" face ever.

 

I haven't had beer in quite some time, due to my surgery. I must change this...

 

dt