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  • Here's what I have to say about Christmas music - Bah Humbug, which is the name of the beer I'm having tonight.

    Bah Humbug from the Wychwood Brewery - 5.0% ABV

    It's got a beautiful amber color, with no head when poured. No nose that I can detect.

    Taste: well I do like it. It's hard to describe, though. It is fairly easy to drink. I wish I could describe it to you, but I do recommend it. 6.5 out of 10.
    "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

    Comment


    • Sam Adams Chocolate Bock

      Pitch black, with little head. Holy chocolate for the nose.

      Taste: holy chocolate for the taste, with a good dose of cherry. really a good combination. Sam Adams Lager stinks, but their other beers are usually pretty damn good, as is this one. 7 out of 10.
      "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

      Comment


      • This will, probably, be a bad idea.

        Stone Enjoy By 12.26.14 IPA - 9.4% ABV.

        Nice murky golden color when poured, and a little bit of head. The nose is very hoppy. Ooooooo, I love the nose.

        Taste : oooooooooo. So good. Everything good about IPAs is in this beer. It's a very fresh and crisp tasting beer. I really like this one shot beer, and if you like IPA beers, get it, and drink it by December 26th as I've done (all 1pt 6oz of it).

        7 out of 10.

        Also, I almost spent $40 on a beer. I almost bought Guiness The 1759 Amber Ale. It was very tempting.
        Last edited by Victory Sabre; 12-11-2014, 03:24 AM.
        "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

        Comment


        • I typed this up the other night, but never got around to posting it:

          So one Friday night, at the meeting of my Friday Night Drinking Club with my friend Meep, after a couple of drinks, we decided that we'd each have one more and then head off to a movie. Dopey me, I didn't bother to look at the ABV of the bottle of mead that I had ordered. After the bottle came to me, and it was opened and partly poured, as I was taking my notes, I looked on the label to find the ABV.

          16.8%? Holy shit!

          Deciding I wanted to actually see the movie, and not doze through it, I poured the mead back into the bottle, firmly recorked it, put it in my backpack, and ordered a less debilitating beverage. Eventually, I drank it at home and took notes. Here they are, along with a couple of others.....

          From Moonlight Meadery, Kurt's Apple Pie, which is a honey Apple wine with spices added, according to the label. Deep golden in color, with a sweet, smooth, honey apple nose, though not overbearingly so. Very sweet to the taste, with definite honey and muted apple flavors. Don't get much of the spices, but it is a lovely taste, with the heavy sweetness being appropriate rather than cloying. A solid 7.0.


          And now for something completely different....from Japan. A place we expect to get good sake from, but not good beer. But as I've commented here before, every now and then a Japanese beer is worth drinking, even to beer snobs like me. (Hello, Coedo wheat beer.) And, in this case, we get both the unexpected and the expected. More exactly, we get beer matured in sake casks. I don't know how you can get much more japanese than that, short of brewing beer with nori, uni, inari, and tamago.

          Hitachino Nest XH (8.0% ABV): very hazy in appearance, and a murky reddish brown color, which is actually a bit more appetizing than I just made sound. The nose is smooth and a bit rich, with hints of something exotic, perhaps a foreign wine? (Sake, maybe? Nah, couldn't be....)

          This is....definitely unusual. I've had beer before aged in wine casks, with varying results. Some I hated. This is both serious and playful, somehow. A rich and rewarding beer with definitive notes of a pleasant and assertive sake, but without being odd and off-putting. It is definitely not for everyone, nor every beer snob, but somehow it works for me. It is actually one of the few beers I find myself unable to describe at all adequately, let alone well. The best adjective I can come up with is unique. You'll either really like this beer, or you'll hate it.

          I don't hate it. 7.5.


          And finally, as anyone who talks to me about beer for even a short amount of time knows, I am not a big IPA fan. Mellow IPAs, sure, but the really hoppy ones....no way, Jose. As anyone who talks to me about beer for even a short amount of time also knows, I am a huge fan of the innis & Gunn brewery out of Scotland. So, this review should be interesting.

          Innis & Gunn Toasted Oak IPA (5.6% ABV): The color is a dark golden amber, with a frothy white head. The nose is surprisingly nondescript, giving me almost nothing but a vague smell of, well, beer.

          The taste is anything but nondescript. Sweet, flavorful, delicious, welcoming, friendly, happy....I could go on. This is clearly not an IPA as Americans know them, but closer to the original British idea. Heck, it may not even be that. As we all know, IPAs are hoppy. Well, I&G have just taken that notion and turned it on its head. Or they don't know what an IPA is supposed to be. Either way, I'm very happy with this brew. It is utterly delicious, and unlike what anyone thinks of as an IPA. I expected this to be my least favorite Innis & Gunn (which is still better than many other breweries' best beers), surpassing their Cherry Cask beer for that distinction. Sorry, Cherry, but you are still at the bottom of my I&G ladder. This OTIPA is simply stunning.

          Score: 8.0. Possibly my highest rated IPA ever.

          Edited to add: this beer is so good that I am currently doing something one would not normally do with an IPA: having dessert with it. But, this being no ordinary IPA, I am having a very non-ordinary dessert with it: a slice of salted honey pie. What is salted honey pie? Hell if I know, as I did not make it, and had never heard of it before last week. But it is made by a local dessert maven down here, and it is sinfully delicious. Ironically, the hop bite I could not detect in the OTIPA is readily apparent when paired with the indulgently sweet salted honey pie. Still delicious, but just another layer of it exposed.

          Life is good......

          "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
          Still A Customer."

          Comment


          • It's time to admit it. I have a problem. It involves beer.

            I'm a beer hoarder.

            It never fails. I'll be on the mainland at my favorite liquor store, or a Total Wine, or here in town at the Beer Monger's, and while I intend to just buy a few beers, I buy way more than I'd intended to. In Miami, for example, I have never walked out of my favorite liquor store with less than a full liquor box worth of individual bottles of craft and imported beer. My lowest bill there ever was $85.

            It's no better down here. Two weeks ago, I was at the Beer Monger's for an upscale farmers market (the Beer Monger's is not a liquor store, but another kind of store that happens to have a craft beer section), and I made the mistake of wandering by the beer. There on the shelf I spied a beer I have searched high and low for, the best brown I've ever had, which I had only once, and have not been able to find since (Cigar City Bolita). They had eight bombers of it. I bought five. Would have bought them all, but there were other goodies to be had (Southern Tier Pumpking, Old Crafty Hen, the perviously reviewed Hitachino Nest XH). Some of the beers I left behind broke my beer heart. But even leaving stuff behind, my bill was stupid. Then today, I was there for a yard sale of sorts, and spent a mere $10.50 on forks, pint glasses, and other sundries....and then dropped $93 in the beer section (much of it on the heartbreakers I'd left behind previously). Bad timing for me to have had such a busy and lucrative shift yesterday, I guess.

            The problem continues at home. See, I often drink out. Which means I am not home. Which means the beer sits here. Since there is so much of it, and I share my apartment and thus my fridge with others, I do not have room in the fridge for all of it. (Honestly, if I lived alone, I would not have room in the fridge for all my beer, even if I didn't bother with food. First world problems, I know.) My pantry is stocked heavily with these beers. As if THAT'S not bad enough, I also have a couple of cases of assorted beers hidden out of sight under the corner table in the living room.

            The problem with this is, of course, that I have to decide what to put in the fridge long before I actually drink it. More first world problems, but other beer hoarders would understand, I'm sure. And I am loathe to part with some of the better, rarer ones, as I don't know when I'll find them again. This is true sometimes even with beer I know I can find again, and easily....it's a weird cycle.

            Today, trying to loosen the bonds of this problem, I stocked the beer area of my fridge with a bunch of old favorites and new possibilities, knowing I'd be coming home and not be going out tonight after work, since I'll be out tomorrow for football and Monday night for my 1,000th different beer at WoB, for which much festivities are planned, as I'll be the first Key West WoB regular to do so. (Yay me.)

            Of course, I stayed at work for dinner and a couple cold ones (Blue Point Toasted Lager), so didn't get home till 9:30ish, and then had to sort and start some laundry. Which brings me to cracking my first beer at home tonight at around 10:30, which I've been drinking while typing this up. My next few posts will chronicle said beers. But I had to first come clean with hall and admit that, yes, I have a problem with hoarding beer. I'm admitting it, to myself and to you. They say that is the first step. I'm know there are other steps after that, but I'll be too emptying my hoarded beer into myself to actually bother with those.


            "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
            Still A Customer."

            Comment


            • Same here, my friend. I went out Friday on my way to work and got 2 more bottles of beer, and my fridge is packed with beer.

              Though, being on a fishing trip, I did take some beers on the trip. The Xingu was extremely popular.
              "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

              Comment


              • Did I send you the Xingu, or did you find that on your own? Had one just the other night, incidentally.....been too long.

                "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
                Still A Customer."

                Comment


                • The Night of Beer.

                  First up, one of my favorites, Due South Caramel Cream Ale, from Miami. Love. This. Beer. If you can find it, get it, drink it, love it. Pretty sure I've reviewed it in more depth here, so I'll leave it at that. And as I spent most of my time drinking it writing the previous post, I'll be starting another before heading off to DVR Land.

                  Next up: a new one! From Bell's Brewery in Michigan, its's Third Coast Old Ale. And at 10.2% ABV, it should pack a wallop. I didn't notice that when I opened it (a new trend, it seems), but as I'm home, it's all good. First off, it pours like motor oil. Always a plus in my book. A bit thin motor oil, this, but still definitely in the Prestone family. Dark brown, with virtually no head. The nose is very deep and rather malty. And rich. Definitely rich. Beer gods have mercy! This is delicious. Rich and malty without being of the top in either, but still with a bit of lightness of body that makes it very drinkable. Which is rather dangerous, considering its potency. I'm giving this a solid 8.0. Third Coast indeed! This will go well with my attempts to catch up on Hell's Kitchen. Wheeeee!

                  From Day of the Dead Beer (if you're not familiar with them, you really need to check out their label art, not to mention their beer), it's Pay the Ferryman Porter (5.0%). More motor oil. Yay! The color is either black or really dark brown. The nose is a light maltiness with a touch of brown sugar....as porters should be. To the taste, this is a bit too light for a porter. It's tasty, and there's some maltiness and some brown sugar, but the carbonation seems to high and the flavor seems too low. Day of the Dead has seen better days. 6.0, because it's still decent.

                  ...and sadly, that's as far as I got last night. That's what happens when you get started late when you're already tired. But there will be more. Oh yes, there will be more. Stay tuned....

                  "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
                  Still A Customer."

                  Comment


                  • Quoth Jester View Post
                    Did I send you the Xingu, or did you find that on your own? Had one just the other night, incidentally.....been too long.
                    I found it here, finally.
                    "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

                    Comment


                    • Long, crazy day at work, so beer time.

                      Bat$h!t Crazy from Mob Craft Brewing - 5.6 ABV

                      Perfect name for a beer if you ask me, now we'll see how perfect it is.

                      Thick head when poured, and very dark brown in color. Smells like coffee, considering it's a coffee stout, that would make sense.

                      Taste: Yes, it is very coffeeee. There's hints of the nut brown ale as well, but the coffee is very powerful. Not a bad beer, but not an extreme fan of coffee ales. I'll give it a 5.5 out of 10.
                      "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

                      Comment


                      • Also, bad news, the liquor store was out of the Weihenstephaner Korbinian. I was annoyed, to say the least. Hopefully they get more.
                        "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

                        Comment


                        • I won't review the beer I got for Christmas. Why you ask? It's home made.

                          My friend Heather, and I did a booze exchange today. I was able to find her absolute favorite vodka, Bison Grass, which she had before only been able to find when she visited relatives in the UK (it's a Polish vodka), and she gave me 2 bottles of home made beer - a dark, and a saison (hope I am spelling it right). I am enjoying the saison right now and it's really good.

                          the only problem is she needs the bottles back fairly soon, like by Christmas, so down the hatch.

                          Edit: the dark was also amazing.
                          Last edited by Victory Sabre; 12-24-2014, 02:23 AM.
                          "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

                          Comment


                          • Taking a break from wrapping presents for the niece and nephew, so time for a beer.

                            Shiner Holiday Cheer

                            Nice brown color to the beer, with a decent head, that disappeared quickly.

                            Taste : interesting. Different. Do I taste peach? Yes I do, and the bottle confirms it. Not a big peach fan in general, but this isn't too bad, but not too good, either.

                            5 out of 10
                            "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

                            Comment


                            • I think I was naughty this year, because I got a lump of coal.

                              Lump Of Coal Dark Holiday Stout. 8.0% ABV.

                              Pitch black, and pours like motor oil. There is a little head that is slow to dissipate.

                              Taste: If I got this becaue I was bad, I never want to be good. I love the rich flavor of the beer. With the 8% ABV I will feel warm on this cold evening.... well, not so cold evening here in Minnesota. This is a good beer to savor, and enjoy.

                              8 out of 10.

                              Can I be bad again next year?
                              "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

                              Comment


                              • Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale (cross out the Gr in grail).

                                Nice amber colored, with a minimal head. No nose to it.


                                Taste: it's ok, but nothing special. Somewhat bland. Really nothing to offer beyond the name, really. 4 out of 10.
                                "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

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