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:64
Page No: 905
Category: Specialty

There really isn't much to talk about with this beer.  I love their IPA, but unfortunately, their coffee porter didn't make the trip across the pond all that well.  Tasted mostly of stale coffee grounds and just all around not goodness (yes, not goodness).  It really is a shame - this could be an amazing beer if you get it fresh, but it just doesn't translate well to a trip from the UK over here to the US.

So, since there isn't much else to say, I was going to list the breweries that made it into 1001 Beers.  So here's the #'s and A's - Brewery Name (Country) [Number of Beers Rated / Number of Beers in Book]

• 3 Ravens Brewery (Australia) [0/1]
• 21st Amendment Brewery (Northern California, USA) [0/1]
• 32 Via dei Birrai (Italy) [0/1]
• A. Le Coq (Estonia) [0/1]
• AB Gubernija (Lithuania) [0/1]
• A/S Thisted Bryghus (Denmark) [0/1]
• Abita Brewing (Louisiana, USA) [1/1]
• Acorn Brewery (England) [0/1]
• Adnams (England) [0/2]
• Al Ahram Beverages Company (Egypt) [0/1]
• Alaskan Brewing (Alaska, USA) [0/3]
• Aldaris (Latvia) [0/1]
• AleSmith Brewing (Southern California, USA) [1/3]
• Allagash Brewery (Maine, USA) [2/2]
• Alley Kat Brewing (Alberta, Canada) [0/1]
• Almond'22 (Italy) [0/2]
• Alpine Beer Company (Southern California, USA) [1/1]
• Amager Bryghus (Denmark) [0/1]
• Anchor Brewing Company (Northern California, USA) [1/5]
• Anderson Valley Brewing Company (Northern California, USA) [1/1]
• Anheuser-Busch (Missouri, USA) [0/2]
• Antigua Brewery (St. John's, Antigua & Bermuda) [0/1]
• Aotearoa Breweries (New Zealand) [0/1]
• Arkell's Brewery (England) [0/1]
• Arthur Guinness & Son (Nigeria) [0/1]
• Asahi Breweries (Japan) [1/1]
• Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore) [0/2]
• Augenbrauerei Biel (Switzerland) [0/1]
• August Schell Brewing Company (Minnesota, USA) [0/2]
• Augustiner-Brau Wagner (Germany) [0/2]
• Avery Brewing Company (Colorado, USA) [4/4]

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Meantime Coffee Porter from Meantime

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

Rating: 2.2 / 5.0

Had from bottle from Hi-Time Wines. Pours dark black with good foaming head that settles down pretty quickly. Aroma is of stale coffee grounds, hints of hops and maybe some vanilla in there, but stale coffee overwhelms. Taste is the same, just can’t get past the taste of coffee grounds, it just isn’t good. Finishes dry and bitter. Most likely an older bottle that somehow didn’t make the trip from England all that well. I like the IPA, but the coffee porter is just not good.