What Was the Last Beer You Drank?

[mcjaco]

Well, I've got to clear the memory card off for some brew stops this weekend.

 

Here we go!

I'll leave you with a picture of last nights dinner.

Not with this one however. No real hop, no fruity notes. Just blah. I think the name through me. I kept think IPA, but it wasn't. Jokes on me.

Finally, Southern Tier's Hop Sun. I'm determined to get my tongue to appreciate IPAs. Except this is a wheat ale. What the heck is with the name?

Meh. It's what I remember. A non-rememberable Porter with a touch of honey.

Speaking of Sam Adam's here's their Honey Porter. I hadn't had this one in a few years so I grabbed a single.

Give me this Triple IPA anyday. Love the grapefruit notes. Just awesome.

I snagged the last bottle of Devil Dancer in the Lake County area. Some shop employee was hording them. Tsk, tsk.

I actually found this to not have any wheat caracteristics at all. So much so, that I couldn't really stomach it.

Next up is Southern Tier's UberSun. It's a wheat ale.

Delish! Nice roast, chocolate taste.

What better way to start than with Founder's Breakfast Stout.

[Mr Pete]

Yes we did make it to Kennywood and Cedar Point. There was no internet access there so we could not get on any sooner.

 

It was nice to meet you both, and hope we can all meet you again at some point.

 

Here is another pic from Appalchian.

Nicole looked his time!

[DerekRx]

Just a couple brews to enjoy this week before heading out on a trip.

a very sessionable IPA with not a blowout of hops, also packs a nice maltiness to mix it up a little between all the various hoppy flavors it contains

continuing our way out West, next up is New Holland's Mad Hatter IPA from Michigan

Another great RIS with lots of chocolate and coffee flavors, with a touch of citrus and good oatiness to boot

First up, BORIS the Crusher a Bodacious Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout from Hoppin' Frog out in Akron, Ohio

[DerekRx]

You remember that trip I spoke of, well here's today's segment of that...at least the beers of it.

and I'll agree with him. Wow is the Bitter Brewer packing in the dry hopped pine flavors or what!

Matt can't think of a better way to end the evening than with some Bitter Brewer

Still got 2 other Surly taps to dive into while enjoying some excellent food, so let's get Furious! A great IPA with lots of earthy hops and a good maltiness as well

Matt agrees, this stuff is awesome, and easy to drink. It should remind him a little of Oberon, but he hasn't had that in a while

seeing how it was just put on tap that day, may as well start off as fresh as possible with some CynicAle, a Farmhouse style Saison

It's owned by the brewer of Surly and his wife, what's what. Meaning this place is guaranteed to have Surly stuff on tap, and nothing else!

Home of Cafe Twenty Eight. What's so special about this place?

After a fun couple of hours at the Mall of America, we're off to the Linden Hills area of Minneapolis

Arriving in Minneapolis I'm greeted by another Rock Bottom right by my gate. Too bad I don't have time right now for beer, I need to get to MOA for some coaster credits with Matt

And since I inquired about it, the bartender hooked me up with a sample of the Czar's Nightmare, an Imperial Stout on Nitro. I'll definitely be heading back for a pint of this soon!

and that's what I started with. Lots of grapefruit flavors in this year's batch

Good stuff on tap, including the newly released American Dream IPA

Time before the flight, may as well have lunch at Rock Bottom

[Bubba83]

^ Awesomesauce

 

Here are some pics from last weekend.

 

A little surprise Photo TR will be posted after this weekend. Then again if you're my friend on BA, it might not be that much of a surprise, *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*

 

Joe/Matt, do you guys have a BA account? If so, what are your usernames?

And there's the face of pure jubilation. It's like drinking a fine dessert.

Better wash that down with one of our local favorites, Ryan O' Sullivans Imperial Stout.

Should have taken the picture after a taste, and frowned. It started to grow on me a little by the end but for the most part it was just dull bitterness with none of the nice hop flavors. Fairly weak attempt.

Santa Cruz Aleworks has their stuff in BevMo now. Haven't tried any of it yet, so we'll start with their IPA.

This picture amuses me greatly. Had no idea the camera was about to go off as I thought it was out of battery. The beer was lovely as always.

Saturday we began with more Black Butte Porter.

Bittersweet Lenny's RIPA strikes again, laying the smack down on our palates.

Oh no the popcorn is all gone! Too bad too cause it would have been nice while watching Lenny Bruce perform.

And by golly, it seems quite fresh. So we bought the last two bottles our local liquor store had.

Time for some more speed racer, just been loving it again as of late.

Seems like it has spices like cinnamon in it. Pretty good stuff actually, almost more like cider than beer though.

Time for a first time taste of Coopers Vintage Ale. Looks like mud.

It's a-okay. Not much special here but pretty solid anyway.

Mad River Brewing's Steelhead Extra Pale Ale. First time for my uncle and I.

[brilinjo]

Yay Coopers, brewed 1 kilometre from where I work.

[HAYASHI]

michelob ultra. 95 calories! =]

[DerekRx]

Today it was off to get some more Minnesota brews in the Twin Cities.

mmmmm, butter burger, cheese curds, and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup malt, perfect dinner of death!

final stop, dinner at Culver's!

only downside to this place is that almost all the beer was constantly refrigerated

nope, just to Blue Max, another impressive liquor store

uh, I hope we're not going to camp

Nice selection in here

next stop, to buy some stuff for drinking at home in the future

to end our visit, I went with the 1800 English IPA, a newly released seasonal, and pretty good, but no Masala

and Matt loved his gyro

went great with my Mango Chicken sandwich

The Black H2O Oatmeal stout was fairly good

Matt enjoyed both the Masala Mama and the Milk Porter

and I don't think anything could be better than Masala Mama on cask, one of the top beers in the world

but we're here mainly for the Town Hall brews

a nice selection of guest beers too

mostly the usual stuff on tap, with a few seasonals

pretty nice looking place with a good sized bar, tables, and a beautiful ceiling

time for more beer (and food), off to Town Hall Brewing, one of the top places to have a beer in the US

I believe these tables are for Friday tours, which fill up pretty quickly

but we did manage to grab some gear

only opened for growlers and merch purchases, so we didn't stay too long

hello Surly!

back across Minneapolis to our next destination

and we both ended our time at Summit with some Oatmeal Stout on nitro

Matt went with the Great Northern Porter, roasty with good chocolate and coffee flavors

next up, the HefeWeizen, another solid brew

time for a break in the merch shop

Matt went with the Scandia, a summer Belgian White ale

as for the samples, I started with the India Pale Ale, pretty solid

the bottling line looked pretty cool

pretty large facility, much bigger than we expected

and our volunteer, Phil, is ready to pour

and they give you tokens for free samples afterwards, which makes Matt happy

pretty organized tour that a first timer would appreciate

First stop, Summit Brewing in St. Paul for a tour

[DerekRx]

Our final day in Minneapolis, just some more time to enjoy the city's brewpubs...after a visit to Valleyfair, of course!

and getting back to the hotel, Scoopie knows how to party, with some Furious and Culver's Banana's Foster ice cream. Conclusion: Minneapolis is ok in my book, can't wait to come back

We learned the Bright Spot was taken off tap and replaced with a Dortmunder, which Matt got to accompany his burger

to end our time, I went with the Masala Mama on cask again to accompany my gyro, a meal doesn't get much better than this

Matt was annoyed at missing out on some Blueberry tasting beer, guess he'll just have to come back next month

their upcoming seasonals for July

Matt either does a Bubba Face or his Picasso impression while enjoying the West Bank on Nitro, a British pale ale that tasted a lot of grapenuts

next for me, some Milk Porter, pretty good and creamy with some nice roasty notes

again, there comes a time when we're the only ones at the bar, as everyone is too happy to have nice weather for a change and goes outside to eat and drink

look at that lacing!

first up, some regular Masala Mama, good as they come

the taplist hasn't changed much in the last 24 hours

next, we found ourselves back at Town Hall for some more excellent beers and dinner

say hello to the Metrodome as we pass by, the Twins were getting their butts kicked in Chicago at the time

our lite snack was some huge calamari, but it didn't last long

Matt enthusiastically chose the El Jefe Hefeweizen, another tasty brew

beerwise, I went with the Itasca Extra Pale Ale on cask, pretty good stuff

a look at the taplist

Lots of space in this one, but the bar isn't nearly as big as KOPs

We found ourselves completely done with Valleyfair before 2pm, so may as well have a lite snack and beer at Rock Bottom, where Surly's brewer got his start.

[Bubba83]

^ Sweet action guys, I am way jealous at the Masala Mama among other things.

 

Hopefully I'll get my pictures up tomorrow, I had a great time this weekend!

[mcjaco]

Even I liked Masala Mamma, which is tough since IPA's are not my favorite. It was awesome, as was Surly's stuff. I can't wait to get back there!

 

I have a few pictures, but I let Derek pretty much cover it, since I knew he'd take more, and have them posted quicker!

 

As for BA, I'm Mr. Taco. But I hardly ever go to the site. I know, for shame!

[DerekRx]

Not much exciting stuff happening this week, too hot around here to enjoy much of anything, except maybe for these:

tastes like apricot, and wheat. No surprises here. Light and refreshing, easy to drink.

another hot day, another good time for an Apricot Wheat, this time from Ithaca

Really refreshing and packing in the apricot flavors, but other flavors as well, like honey, grass, and lemon

Middle Ages's Apricot Ale was something I picked up over Memorial Day

lots of nice tart green apple flavors in this one!

Up first, Beatification by Russian River, another one of their wonderful wild ales

[ParkTrips]

I haven't posted in a really long time. I haven't been using the camera enough Anyways.. lots of recent beers

I know we all loved it, its an awesome beer! IMO, its not far and above the best quad, thought it is still amazingly good. Very complex with the sweets, caramel, dark fruits, toasted malt, and light dash of toffee. For what its worth, I think its a better beer than St Bernardus Abt 12 but I'd rather have one of those than to have to trade a bunch for this or go to the abbey. Still try it if you can

What I do remember is that we finished the night off sharing one of these in the hotel room, in the authentic glass I bought off ebay just for the occasion

Last night I went downtown with Corey and Scott, and we ended up at the Brick Store Pub. We drank a lot yesterday but didn't take many pics =( We started downtown where I had a Magic Hat #9 for the first time, Corey had a 420 and Scott had Terrapin Rye. We moved on to a Taco Mac in Decatur where I tried Shiner Bock on tap, Corey had a pale ale from Flying Dog and I'm not sure what Scott had. We left there and moved on to the BSP where we all started with des Rocs Triple Imperiale on tap, and I moved onto the Eggenberg Doppelbock Dunkel pictured above (it was ok) and I finished off with a saison from upstairs. Scott added in some scotch and a glass of Allagash Curieux on draught upstairs, and Corey also had an Ayinger Celebrator.

This one felt great, and was pretty sweet. Bits of spice and yeast make it a very good tripel.

Trappist #2 was Chimay Cinq Cents yesterday, the tripel from the largest of the trappists

A little malty, a little hoppy and a little bit of tartness, Orval had a lot going on but it didn't really wow me like other trappists

The other day, I decided to start a run of beers from all six Belgian trappist breweries. I started off with Orval

It was awesome! Just imagine a typical hefe with a big hop backbone to add to the yeast to create a vibrant, multi-faceted beer that really stands out. I couldn't really pick a winner in this round between the Hopfen-weisse and the Krystalweizen, both were delicious!

Finally, the third weizen of the day, the Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse, a collaboration between the two breweries. A standard weissebier with a bunch of hops. The Schneider version is brewed with German hallertau hops

And this smile is legit! Very easy to drink, light on the palate, a lot of yeast and citrus, this one was great for 90+ degree heat!

second was the Tucher Krystal Weizen, I haven't had a Krystalweizen since last summer when I had several on the Mini Euro trip.. it gave one of the biggest head's I have ever seen

The smile is deceiving as it wasn't all that good once I got through a bit of it.. especially with what else I drank

I held my third Hefelympics this week, and started off with the Pinkus Hefe Weizen

It was really good - spicy, hoppy and with some tasty grapefruit flavor in there. Still a bit different overall than the American IPAs

I finally tired Piraat, a Belgian IPA I purchased a while back.

Oerbier is sinfully good. Very strong, sweet and dynamic

I also revisited Oerbier recently, and the bottle was a real gusher. The little dude is the inspiration for my BA avatar

My last Sam Adams DB of the season, its not quite as good with a few months on it, yet still quite tasty

Nothing new but something great: La Trappe's quad, the best from the Dutch trappist brewery!

[DarkStitch626]

I have had 3 types this week that were pretty darn good. Derek do you have any opinions on these 3 listed?

 

Sea dog- Wild blueberry wheat Ale.

Woodchuck Cider brew. Granny smith apple.

Lion "legendary" Lager imported.

 

I got these at a store called "The World Market" they have many international products. The only thing missing were the Double Decker bars seriously, they had Violet Crunch and Lion bars but NO!! Double Deckers.

[ParkTrips]

tonight's Trappist comes from Westmalle

The head is beautiful, the smell is yeasty with some orange, and the taste is heavy in very smooth malts with a teeny bit of hops. Its rounded off well, nothing too strong nor offenseive despite a pretty heavy abv. The taste sticks in the mouth with a sweet finish, a very good beer. Not my favorite tripel, but an ultra drinkable example!

Westmalle Tripel, one of the highest rated tripels, and the best regarded from the trappist breweries

[DerekRx]

Been drinking a lot of the same stuff while it's fresh since it's almost Summertime, and the other day we met up with Heath and Kim at Iron Hill to enjoy some awesome Kryptonite Double IPA but didn't take pictures, but tonight I decided I needed to share the latest, something I picked up out in Minn.

awesome stuff. loads of coffee, chocolate, and bourbon flavors mixed with roasted oat, vanilla, and licorice. No idea what the alcohol on this is, but I'm sure it's pretty high, but worth it!

stick devil sure is cute

The latest, Wisconsin's own Tyranena Brewing's Devil Over a Barrel- a Bourbon barrel aged Imperial Oatmeal Porter. Just released this year and at #25 on the best brews of the world list, and still rising!

[Bubba83]

For Joe's Birthday I have finally decided to post my pictures from the Santa Rosa Beerfest.

 

Happy Birthday Joe, sorry I couldn't get a Salvation to you!

 

Went to SFDK on the way home from the Beerfest too...

 

If you're interested in some pictures from there, you can visit my flickr photostream at:

 

And to end this Photo TR, a picture of Flavor Bistro, which has around six Moonlight brews on tap at all times. Will have to eat lunch here next time or something. Just a short walk from RRBC.

[haydawg149]

Bud Light.... Times, 6...

 

And a little Barton's. Last night.

[ParkTrips]

^ Banned.

 

ADMIT EDIT: One simple rule about this thread:

"If you are posting about drinking and you are underage, your account will be banned."

[Bubba83]

^ Joe, what happened to all of my glorious pictures? They showed up fine yesterday

 

Edit: Kinda weird all of them are gone now but one.

 

Am I going to need to edit the post and re-up them?

[ParkTrips]

^ I don't know, I actually never saw them, only the last pic showed up for me. I figured it was a bug on my end. Bummer!

 

I need to get my recent pics up, but I left my camera over at my mom's place

 

Hitting the bars this evening though! Looking forward to my first brett beer!

[mcjaco]

^ I don't know, I actually never saw them, only the last pic showed up for me. I figured it was a bug on my end. Bummer!

 

Same here, Bubba.

[SLUSHIE]

Oh what... I can post here now!

 

Nothing special, but I did have a Red Stripe last night.

[Bubba83]

Weird, they showed up for me for like a day, maybe they were just cached on my cpu or something though. I will edit the post and put them back up.

 

Edit: Now I'm getting an error when I hit Upload New Version.

 

Unable to update the Attachment.

 

DEBUG MODE

 

SQL Error : 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 's house. Here\''s St. Peter\''s Old Style Porter.', extension

 

UPDATE forum_attachments_desc SET physical_filename = 'p6060001_204.jpg', real_filename = 'P6060001.JPG', comment = 'But first I have some pictures from the friday before I went, over at the Uncle\''s house. Here\''s St. Peter\''s Old Style Porter.', extension = 'jpg', mimetype = 'image/pjpeg', filesize = 102494, filetime = 1213908210, thumbnail = 0 WHERE attach_id = 194216

 

Line : 633

File : posting_attachments.php

 

Looks like someone forgot to escape apostrophes in the SQL string somewhere.

 

[Bubba83]

Alright, I have pretty much had it with the picture attachment on this forum, it always seems to screw up when I do my huge posts too that take me over an hour to do.

 

I'm going to repost the Santa Rosa Beerfest pics from flickr into here, and I'll probably keep the same format for future long posts.

 

Description: First I have some pictures from the friday before I went, over at the Uncle's house. Here's St. Peter's Old Style Porter.

Description: Very weird stuff indeed. They mix two different beers to make it. You get the hop bill of a pilsener, and the malt bill of a normal porter, basically. It's interesting and pretty good, though the mouthfeel is a bit thin.

Description: Haven't had this in a while, and I've never shared it with my uncle until now!

Description: Hooray, buckets of awesomeness! Pretty alcoholic tasting stuff that has a nice big beefy malt backbone and of course, a TON of hops.

Description: Racer 5 was our third and final beer that night.

Description: Amazing that this beer can hold up to Hopsickle, and taste almost hoppier even? Hard to describe how great Racer 5 is.

Description: I see golden arches, where's all the fog today???

Description: Crossing the Golden Gate is actually the quickest way to Santa Rosa from where I live. Traffic wasn't so bad on a saturday either.

Description: Now at the fest, deciding which booth to hit first wasn't too hard.

Description: Say hello to the elusive Bear Republic Black Mamba. It's a belgian dark ale weighing in at 5.3%. Very complex flavors, caramel, roastyness, and some dark fruits all in here, a nice beer from Bear Republic!

Description: This fest was very crowded. Hard to take the kind of pictures you want to take in such conditions. Here's North Coast's booth. Unfortunately they didn't have anything uncommon. (Rasputin, Red Seal, Thelonious, Old No. 38 Stout, and Pranqster)

Description: But wait, Old Rasputin was on nitro! Yay!!! It was quite awesome on nitro too, wow, probably a tie for best in fest...

Description: One of the best parts about this fest is that there are just as many food booths as beer booths. It promotes beer and food pairing, and helps to keep people from getting too drunk. The fest only lasts 4 hours which is also a plus. You pay $35 and get a taster glass and unlimited beer and food. The food samples weren't small by any means either. Here's the fruit and veggie booth, awesome local produce here!

Description: A lot of local breweries turned up that I hadn't even heard of before, like Stumptown Brewing in Guerneville.

Description: Their Rat Bastard Pale Ale was quite nice. I like trying places like this, but couldn't try every little guy booth at the fest in the short amount of time.

Description: Well, I guess you could also consider this a little guy based on their very limited keg distribution and no bottles, but I think most people know who Moonlight is by now, an amazingly creative cutting edge brewer.

Description: And who's serving the beer today? None other than Brian Hunt himself. On tap from left to right was: Working For Tips, Death and Taxes, Out To Lunch, and of course, Reality Czeck.

Description: Had to start off with the Reality Czeck. The #52 beer in the world and the highest rated pilsener. It was damn good for sure, actually a little more delicate than Trumer Pils but the subtleties were more complex and overall delicious.

Description: Since I had already had a sip of Heath's Death and Taxes last September, I skipped that and had some Working For Tips. Appropriately named, this is a gruit, spiced with Rewood Tips, no hops. The malt backbone is somewhere between a brown and a red. Very good stuff!

Description: On to another one of the most exciting booths, Russian River of course. They had Pliny the Elder, Bling Pig IPA, and Fleurette. Natalie was there, pretty cool to meet her, but too bad no Vinnie appearance!

Description: I am very lucky to be trying Fleurette, as only one batch was brewed when Agostino Arioli was visiting Vinnie from Italy. This beer used edible flowers like rose petals, smelled great, and was quite delicious as well.

Description: I also tried Blind Pig IPA from Russian River, which tasted a lot like Pliny... However, Hop Stoopid on tap blew it out of the water. This was my other favorite of the fest.

Description: And I'd enjoy some of that while meeting Jay Brooks, the blogger that runs www.brookstonbeerbulletin.com, which is my favorite local beer blog. He lives up in the north bay so this fest is practically in his backyard.

Description: And there's my attempt at an overview shot. Pretty big location with tons of parking lot space that they didn't utilize, I really don't understand why they didn't spread out the booths. It was really really crowded, but the lines weren't bad at all, and the food makes for a good fest. I enjoyed it.

Description: After the fest that night, Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa for dinner!

Description: The board. It's really too bad they don't have their wild ales on tap very often. Maybe that will change with their new production brewery?

Description: Here's the wall of shirts. I'd take home a pliny the elder one.

Description: I ordered the sampler, which covers pretty much everything. A few standouts for sure, excellent sampler all around.

Description: One such standout would have to be Perdition, a Biere De Garde. Excellent example of the style, the only one that could rival this on the sampler was Salvation, which I have had before.

Description: And the deliciousness that was our pizza. Wow, awesome pizza here folks, awesome!

Description: A picture of the bar area, to the left in the window you can see some barrels of beer aging. Bye Russian River, I'll miss you!

Description: And to end this Photo TR, a picture of Flavor Bistro, which has around six Moonlight brews on tap at all times. Will have to eat lunch here next time or something. Just a short walk from RRBC.

 

Wow, that ended up taking a lot longer than I expected because flickr has no organized sequential naming convention, and doesn't leave the pics with their filenames. Oh well, hope you guys will now finally be able to enjoy it!