1001 Beers

Beer No: 91
Page No: 301
Category: Amber

Hello Day 13 of the World Cup.  What an absolutely amazing day.  First, in the morning games, the United States once again got robbed on a goal where the player was called offsides and clearly wasn't, but despite being eliminated with a tie, the United States pushed on, and in the first minute of extra time, finally scored a goal.  So both the United States and England advance on the back of 0-1 wins.  My prediction was 100% correct from a couple days ago.

However, even though my logic doesn't really make sense when I go back and read my predictions from Group D, I did say that Germany and Ghana would advance, like they did.  I really wasn't expecting Australia to play the way they did though.  They beat Serbia, 2-1, and, had a 2-0 lead at one point and was just one goal away from advancing.  Unfortunately, they couldn't push it to 3-0 and Germany couldn't score a second goal to help out Australia, so in the end, we'll see United States vs. Ghana and England vs. Germany this weekend.  I can't wait.  My two favorite teams are still in it, and now they're on opposite sides of the bracket, so here's hoping for a United States / Germany final.

As you can see, I switched up the layout for the 1001 Beers blog.  They introduced some new features, including "Pages" so now I have set pages for "About 1001 Beers.net" and "All Beer Reviews by Date."  I think the new layout is also easier to read and a bit easier on the eyes without the yellow.  There's another layout I really liked, but I'm probably going to stick with this layout for a while now.

Back to the beer though.  Generally, I'm not the biggest fan of Samuel Smith breweries in England, but there's just something about this Yorkshire Stingo that I enjoyed.  It wasn't really the explosion of malts as I'm not the biggest fan of malty beers, but I think the complexity gained from aging the beer in oak ale casks really enhances all the flavors and makes this 8% beer really enjoyable and flavorful.  The aroma is very strong with fruits, raisins, and malts while the taste balances the fruity sweetness with nice malts and a subtle oak flavor.  It's really a great, interesting beer you should try and track down.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

Had from 550ml bottle from BevMo. Pours hazy amber with thick two-finger head and ample lacing. Aroma is lots of sweet fruits, raisins, toffee, and malts. Taste is complex with the alcohol just coming out at the end of a complicated sip of malty sugars, raisins, prunes, subtle oak flavors, and caramel. I was very surprised by this beer and really enjoyed it. A rare exceptional offering from Samuel Smith.

Beer No: 75
Page No: 358
Category: Blond

There really is no better way to follow up two drain pours than with a Delirium Tremens.  A complex blend of spices, fruits, and malts, this golden strong ale is always a consistent, tasty beer.  You just always know what you're going to get.  At 8.5%, the beer once banned in the United States and parts of Canada because of it's name is one of many "eclectic" beers from Brouwerij Huyghe in Belgium.  1001 Beers notes that they make a "Mongozo Coconut beer, served in a glass styled after a half coconut shell, of course, and the Floris line of fruit beers, which includes one flavored with cactus and another with chocolate."  Now, those are a couple of beers I need to find.  I've had their Floris Apple, and well, if you're looking for an apple beer, this is probably it.

I just wish I could get my hands on more Huyghe beers - they may be off-the-wall, they may be gimmicky, but Delirium is a damn fine beer, so they can't all be bad.  Even Floris Apple is good if you really want a sour apple beer...

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Delirium Tremens by Brouwerij Huyghe

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

Had from 11.2oz. bottle from BevMo. Pours golden yellow with good, fizzy head that dissipates to a thin white film with slight lacing. Aroma is spicy, with fruits, cloves, alcohol, and yeast. Taste is complex with lovely spices, cloves, sweetness, fruits, and hay. Finishes slighty dry, very tasty. A quality brew.

Photo courtesy The Gordons

Beer No: 58
Page No: 101
Category: Amber

Today was my first visit to the Blind Lady Ale House down in San Diego.  As American Craft Beer Week concludes, I felt it would be a shame to not visit at least one new "landmark" on the craft beer scene.  So down to Normal Heights I traveled, struggled to find parking (the lot behind Blind Lady is not for customers), and then waited to find a seat in the packed house.  Luckily, while waiting to find a seat, there are MANY amazing beers to try on tap.  I started with a Russian River Supplication which was more sour than I remembered it, but still pretty much sour beer perfection from the masters of sours.  And after finally finding a seat and ordering a pizza that was downright extraordinary, I went back to try the cask - a keg conditioned Firestone Walker DBA.  It was very good.  Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from Firestone Walker.  I am a huge fan of theirs (excepting their Solace wheat beer) and this keg conditioned DBA did not disappoint.

As for Blind Lady Ale House (or BLAH as they call it), I did not take pictures, so I am using a nice picture from Flickr in today's post.  I promise to be better about my beer picture takings, but I had gone to BLAH to just enjoy the beer and pizza and not really to get through another beer in my 1001.  But, as it turns out, both Supplication and DBA are in the book, but I'm going to save the Russian River offerings for another time and see if I can do all their sours back to back to back (I already reviewed Pliny the Elder).  Oh yeah, back to BLAH.  I absolutely loved this place.  The atmosphere is fun and inviting, the other customers all seemed to be having a great time, and the beers on tap were awesome.  The only problem I had with the place was the loud music they were playing.  With a full house, you almost have to yell over the crowd anyways, and the music just added more noise pollution and was completely unnecessary.  Due to the loudness of the room, we couldn't even make out what was playing and it just forced everyone to talk louder, and then everyone else around them needs to talk louder, and it was just a loud scene.  But other than that, I found it to be perfection.  It's pretty much exactly what I would want for my own place.  Awesome, pseudo-gourmet thin crust (maybe wood fired?) pizzas with ingredients that really stand out and a tap list that cannot be rivaled.  I most definitely will be going back to BLAH and wished I had something close to me that was nearly as cool.  But...maybe that's for me to open.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale from Firestone Walker Brewing Co.

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 16/20

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

Had on tap at Blind Lady Ale House - on cask - keg conditioned. Poured a deep brown / amber color with good head, got to love the Blind Lady perfect pours. Aroma is both hops and malts, with the hops dominating a little bit. Flavor is the same, a perfect balance of malty sweetness and hoppy citrus flavors. The keg conditioning seemed to bring out the hops a bit more and provided an extra layer of complexity and the perfect carbonation. Thank you American Craft Beer Week.

Beer No: 51
Page No: 617
Category: Dark

A few weeks ago, a good friend celebrated her 30th birthday, and for the occasion, David opened a magnum he had been saving for years from Hair of the Dog - their Fred of the Wood.  It was a rare treat as back when he received the bottle, they didn't bottle Fred from the Wood (apparently they do these days).  The bottle had very little carbonation, but the beer still tasted amazing (and I'm not the biggest fan of barley wines as it is).  Fast forward to today and I've got a Hair of the Dog Adam - a "heavy old world ale."  And boy is it heavy.  It's just 10%, but feels like much more.  The alcohol wasn't hidden very well within the finish of the beer and the fruit flavors almost overwhelmed the smoke and wood subtleties that I experienced back when I first rated this beer in 2003.  I'm certain I'll revisit this one as I'm a fan of Hair of the Dog's brews.  But for now, I wouldn't recommend Batch 75.  If you can find an older, aged batch though, go for it!

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Hair of the Dog Adam from Hair of the Dog Brewing Company

Rating on May 14th, 2010:

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 6/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 14/20

Rating: 3.4 / 5.0

Had from 12oz. bottle from Hi Time Wines (Batch 75). Pours dark brown / black with thick tan head that takes a few minutes to subside. Lacing is good and slight head lasts until the end. Aroma is sweet and fruity with malts and raisins. Taste is rich with chocolate, alcohol, fruits, malty. I wish I remembered my original tasting of this beer, but I didn’t much care for this batch. Alcohol is much too strong in the finish and the smoky flavors that I previously detected are missing. It’s tough to go from a 3.9 to a 3.4, but I will revisit this as I usually love Hair of the Dog’s brews. This batch just missed the mark.

Rating on April 18, 2003:

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

Wow. We bought a nice large bottle to share amongst the table and I was pleasantly surprised. You can definitely smell the aroma of hops and smoke. The appearance is also quite nice - absolutely no head with a garnet coloring. The beer has a very strong flavor with a strong, smoky aftertaste. Very heavy, but very good - a beer, similar to a porter - that would just be good next to the fire on a cold night.

Beer No: 46/1001
Page No: 347
Category: Blond

Happy Mother's Day all.

For Mother's Day, I of course headed over to my parents house where my brother, my dad, and I cooked up crab legs and steak and enjoyed them with a nice salad, some bread, and some good beer.  And before someone says something, yes, I know you shouldn't serve Chimay in a PINT glass.  But, my parents are wine drinkers and don't have any Belgian beer glasses.  I probably should have used a wine glass like I did for tomorrow's beer, but for the Chimay, it tasted just fine out of a Stone pint glass.

The Chimay was not paired with my dinner, but instead had with the appetizers that I provided - one was cream cheese with an apricot chili pepper jam which was sinfully good and the other was a hunk of Chimay cheese.  I didn't know Chimay had their hands in cheese making, but I saw two bricks at Whole Foods last week when prepping for my Spotted Pig burger, so I picked up the cheese that had beer added and it was very good too.  We ate most of it on Cinco de Mayo and I was going to break out the Chimay then, but stuck to the Mexican beers and wisely saved the Chimay for me to drink all by myself today.

Paired with the steak and crab legs, I figured a darker beer would work well and the 10 Commandments from Lost Abbey worked wonders.  The raisins and spice paired perfectly with the lighter crab legs and blended with the steak as well.  Just like red wine goes with red meats, this darker 10 Commandments really complemented the steak well.  We finished the night with a brownie-crusted cheesecake I made last night which would have paired perfectly with the Bourbon County stout I gave to my mom in her Mother's Day basket, but she wanted to save it for another time, so I settled for some water while everyone else enjoyed coffee with the cheesecake (I don't drink coffee or caffeine).

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Chimay Triple / Blanche (White) from Chimay

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 9/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

Had from bottle. Pours orange-yellow with slight haze, good carbonation, and small to medium head. Aromas of citrus, spice, malts, banana, and caramel. Taste is complex mixing the caramel malts with a good hop citrus and nice spiciness to balance it all out. Very well done, easy to drink triple. Those monks know what they’re doing.

Beer No: 32/1001
Page No: 529
Category: Blond

Today, Scott and I bottled the second of our two pale ale iterations.  This "American Pale Ale" was brewed using a California Pale yeast strain and it is pretty darn tasty without any carbonation.  Unfortunately, while bottling we found out that our capping machine isn't working as it should.  We got it as a part of an introductory home brew kit a long time ago and we really didn't use it much as we preferred to use 750 ml champagne bottles.  But when we started opening our English Pale Ales and found the caps weren't giving us good seals, I though I just was making mistakes while capping.  But this time, with Scott on the capping machine, it was confirmed, the little hand held machine is broken.  I think I'll probably end up with one of these - since the larger version is used for capping and corking and we already have a floor-standing corking machine.  It'll just have to wait until our next grain order...

So while we bottled our own, I enjoyed this Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA.  All in all, it's a pretty tasty IPA.  It's quite refreshing with a good amount of hops and a nice, crisp finish.  Brewed in beautiful Central California, Firestone Walker has won their fair share of awards, including a gold medal in the World Beer Cup in San Diego, a gold medal at the European Beer Star Awards in Germany, and a gold medal in the Great American Beer Festival in Denver...all within the first year of release.  1001 Beers notes that "brewmaster Matt Brynildson and his crew spent the best part of a year developing the beer."  And it really shows.  A very refreshing and well balanced beer, the hops are definitely in the forefront, but the malts make a nice appearance in the body and it all comes together very well.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA from Firestone Walker Brewing Co.

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 16/20

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

Had from bottle from Total Wine. Pours golden orange with slight head and heavy lacing. Aromas of hops, pine, grapefruit, and citrus. Flavor of tons of hops, nicely balanced with malts. Nice crisp finish with hoppy aftertaste. A new must-have addition for my beer fridge.

Beer No: 24/1001
Page No: 911
Category: Specialty

As I mentioned previously with my recipe for pizza, I had planned on having a few slices of homemade pizza with a Hop 15 from Port Brewing, however, I knew something was wrong when I took the cap off.  The cork underneath was soaked through...I gingerly removed the cork and miraculously didn't get pieces of it in the beer, however, one whiff and I could tell it was bad.  I poured some into a pint glass and took a few sips, but it was just not to be.  Off flavors abounded and I knew this poor ale had gone from bad to worse.  I guess cellaring this beer for 8 years just wasn't the best idea.  Also, over the years, I know it wasn't always cellared properly, but still, it's a bottle I'll keep as it is hand-numbered and a wonderful souvenir from the best pizza place in SoCal.  And at least the pizza turned out pretty well.  I'll probably go back to the pan method since trying to get it onto the pizza stone was a chore.

So I went out to the fridge searching for something else that would go well with my pizza.  I pulled out this Geuze, not even knowing that it was in the book and enjoyed it immensely.  Tart beers like this are hit or miss and this Oud Beersel really hits the mark.  It's got a great story as well.  1001 Beers notes that brewing was halted in 2002.  Gert Christiaens and his father Joe purchased the brewery in 2005 and contracted out to have Brouwerij Boon brew their wort.  It's then transported to the brewery where they age it, combine it, and make this wonderful geuze.  Wonderfully tart with hints of citrus, hops, and yeast, I really enjoyed this beer and need to get a few more...I just can't remember how much it cost, but it probably wasn't cheap.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Oud Beersel Oude Geuze from Brouwerij Oud Beersel

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 9/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

Pours cloudy yellow with good sized head which sticks around for a while. Aroma of citrus and sourness. A very refreshing taste with a nice sour finish. Hints of citrus, apples, hops, and yeast. Carbonation is lively and adds to this very tasty beer.

Beer No: 7/1001
Page No: 207
Category: Amber

Throughout the day at the Belgian Beer Festival last weekend, I reckon I tasted at least 50 different beers - from a sip of some to the full 4 oz. taste of others.  Given the fact that you start with 8 tickets for tastings, and I bought 28 more, that's about 20 beers of so that I had the full 4 oz. taste of (some beers were 2-3 tickets in cost, depending on rarity).  So while I was starting to feel a slight buzz at times through the day, the helpful addition of beer buddies at 10am, a pepperoni and garlic pizza at noon, and another pepperoni and garlic pizza at 2pm kept me grounded.  In addition, whenever I went up to get another beer from the wonderful helpers, I rinsed my glass out with water, and instead of just pouring it out, I drank it.  So I kept hydrated that way too.  So what does it matter?  Well, I had both of the De Dolle beers late in the day, but I don't feel that my tastings were impacted by the massive amounts of beer I imbibed.

This beer, like the Iris I had at the festival, I have rated in the past.  Back in August of 2003, I had a bottle of this and proclaimed it a "great beer to drink on a cold night."  And I don't think my review changed that much.  The Oerbier is a malty son of a bitch with lots of sugars and a high 9% ABV.  1001 Beers mentions that the brewery recommends aging the brew for a couple of years before drinking, and I'm not quite sure what vintage this Oerbier was, but chances are it was a 2009.  The book goes on to state that the original Oerbier carried a best-by date of just 100 days.  My how things change.

Note, the Oerbier is the beer on the right in the picture above.  On the left is the Still Nacht, also from De Dolle, and tomorrow's featured beer.  The maltiness is quite evident in the coloring of the beer as the beer is brewed with four different malts and dark candy sugar.  The De Dolle brewery has come quite a long way from when the Herteleer brothers brewed in their mother's bathtub.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

De Dolle Oerbier from De Dolle Brouwers

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 3/5
Flavor: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 16/20

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

What a head on this beer - poured maybe a 1/5th of a pint and it overflowed on me...once the head subsided, there was slight lacing with a nice brownish/orange coloring. The beer itself has a quite interesting flavor - very spicy, very malty, very high on the alcohol meter. The aftertaste is quite good - especially with the initial alcohol flavor you get when drinking. Aroma is yeasty with a bit of citrus. An enjoyable beer - a very good amount of alcohol and a great beer to drink on a cold night.