Our Tastes-- Victory's Saison du BUFF

An interesting plot to make the same recipe at 3 different breweries a part of a collaboration. DFH, Victory and Stone all make the same beer. Oddly enough, I picked up the first batches of the original 2010 releases at GABF. I was real hesitant to open the bottles but they have kept great. The nose wafts of yeast but the taste is a masterpiece of complexity. When looking at the cloudy straw colored bevvy, one wouldn't think that a sip would have a lemon zest, rosemary, thyme and on the exhale, I swear there's a hint of chamomile or lavender. It reminds me ever so gently when I breath in through my nose while drinking of an herbal cough drop. That's how intertwined the palate and nose are on this one. I like it but a single is enough. 6.8%abv makes is a smooth slide into the sheets.

Our Tastes-- Belgian Session

I find it more and more difficult to keep up with the new array of beers constantly being offered by Sam Adams. Belgian Session is just another example. I thought DFH Sam was bad about throwing stuff together and calling it off-centered but Jim is all abut testing the waters of marketing and following the palates of micro-brewerians. It pours a very clear medium straw with obvious suspension of small particulate. A light nose of Noble hop perhaps. It proves to be as labeled, a session beer of high quality. A light, crisp, gently citrused quaffable low alcohol imbiber. As a departure from lawnmower lagers, this beer offers the same quenching factor with no lime needed through the neck. Yeah, I've guzzled a few of those, know how to get the lime back out the easiest with no mess? It's a great Belgian pale ale session made from 2-row and Gambrinus honey malt. Throw in some Hersbrucker Noble hops, Ahtanum, and Strisselspalt and you've got a 4.3%abv lip smacker.

Brew Batch #49 Smashed Pumpkin

A little behind the season but I wasn't going to let another fall go by without me trying my hand at this one if I could help it. It sampled out a phenomenal dark marmalade with a heavy pumpkin nose. This is what the brew dudes and I have been talking about is the difference in "pumpkin" beers. Some are more pumpkin PIE and others are more PUMPKIN ale. This is showing to be more of a PUMPKIN ale. I'm really looking forward to this one getting down in temp and then me trying not only the 4 bombers I put up tonight but the other 4.5C of kegged that I can divvy out to the TnDC/Beat-12 fans of the world. FG 1.008+ 0.001@ 70F to yield a healthy 7%. If I do it again, there'll be a crown from bottlemark.com involved!

Our Tastes-- Swamp Ape

Picked this one up at Kwiker Liquor,  a great place down near Sea Grove during Labor Day vacay. It's the last of the 6er. It's a knuckle draggin' hairy chest beaten double IPA. 10%abv,  a nice round number,  with the standard cloudy dark golden hue and light creamy off white head. Oddly enough the nose doesn't seem very hoppy but the taste absolutely chews of BIG C hop additions. There's a bitterness that settles onto the tongue like concrete setting up. At first there's a little sweetness then an over whelming bitter fire that races across your palate and burps shortly thereafter. Swamp Ape is made with Europ, 2-row and Smoked Cherry Wood malts and hopped with Tettnang, Chinook, Cascade, Amarillo and Centennial.

Our Tastes-- Chocolate Bock 12oz

Still trying out part of the Harvest Sampler, Chocolate Bock is in the mix. This is a 12oz offering of the 750ml annual that was crazed about initially in February of it's debut year and then offered more often after that in multiple batches. I know, I sold them on Ebay! I will say this about the 12oz size. It to me tastes more altered than the 750s I have sampled from. The longneck has the same opaque brown color and nose of nearly no hop and touch of sweetness. But the taste is more forward cocoa nib sweetness and vanilla than I remember, that's what struck me the most about this brew. Cocoa nibs from Ghana, Ecuador, and Madagascar make up the chocolate spine on this one and Hallertau Mittelfrueh Nobles make up the hop addition. I like it but it's a full bodied brew with 5.8%abv, have 2 desserts and be out tummy-wise.

Our Tastes-- Mikeller Black Tie

Promised Junk I'd save this one for him and FINALLY we sip on Mikkeller Black Tie. Great wafts of vanilla oak and honey. Absolutely opaque. Deep brown tight froth. The hint of peat smokiness is light and an awesome complexity. Alcohol is undeniable at 11.5%. Currently rips a 99 at ratebeer.com. From what I can gather stouts are Mikkeller's "go-to". And the brewing with honey is not only somewhat cheaper and more easily managed than grain on the small scale, but enticing to replicate over and over again utilizing subtle changes in aging or recipe to create "one offs". From what I read this may or may not be retired. I'd spot $20 to have it again, but for now it has become an Avogadro's constant of me.

Giving Props

I've learned that beer drinking/brewing sometimes go hand-in-hand and when you do it, you need a good T-shirt to do it in. The following are some shirts that I've gathered lately and man/lady, you just have to share it with others when it's good.

Picked most of these up at shirtpunch.com or my fav driving T for long trips, which is, "Looking for Love in Alderaan Places.." But then again a good google search will do the same. However, Alan Ashcraft was the original designer on my favorite T. Other notables in the side bar.