Our Tastes-- Montgomery BrewPub Double Barrel Stout

Well I attended a wedding yesterday afternoon in part to see an old friend wed and meet a girl. After the wedding, most of us went to the Montgomery BrewPub where Jamie Ray, the same brewer for Olde Auburn AleHouse works. Well the guy behind the bar told me Jamie had a special brew on tap that you had to ask for which was his double barrel stout aged in Jack Daniels barrels. This is one awesome seasonal. There is only one seasonal tap for Jamie to mess with at The BrewPub (it's not like the AleHouse). The double barrel stout was as dark as night but had a great blend of roasted malt that didn't give it that overly coffee flavor. It had little to no head and had to be pushing the 6% mark. By the end of the night I had 6 pints of this stuff and managed to get the girl I met to at least try it even though she is a self proclaimed non-beer drinker which in itself was sexy (her trying the beer). The night was marked with several other comical happenings including me silencing the WHOLE bar with the ole "raise you hand in the lunchroom to be quiet" maneuver. I swear the things you have to do to get a bridesmaid to go out with you!! Hopefully it will be worth it, but the beer sure was good.

A True Story I Had To Share

DUI - NORTH CAROLINA STYLE

Only a person in North Carolina could think of this. From the
County where drunk driving is considered a sport comes this true story.


Recently a routine police patrol parked outside a bar in Kinston,
North Carolina. After last call the officer noticed a man leaving the
Bar so apparently intoxicated that he could barely walk.
The man stumbled around the parking lot for a few minutes, with
the officer quietly observing. After what seemed an eternity in which
He tried his keys on five different vehicles, the man managed to find his car and fall into it.
He sat there for a few minutes as a number of other patrons left
The bar and drove off. Finally he started the car, switched the wipers on and off-- it was a fine, dry summer night -- flicked the blinkers on
And off a couple of times, honked the horn and then switched on the lights.
He moved the vehicle forward a few inches, reversed a little and then
remained still for a few more minutes as some more of the other patrons' vehicles left.
At last, when his was the only car left in the parking lot, he
Pulled out and drove slowly down the road.
The police officer, having waited patiently all this time, now
started up his patrol car, put on the flashing lights, promptly pulled the man over and administered a breathalyzer test.
To his amazement, the breathalyzer indicated no evidence that the
Man had consumed any alcohol at all!
Dumbfounded, the officer said, "I'll have to ask you to accompany
me to the police station. This breathalyzer equipment must be broken."
"I doubt it," said the truly proud Redneck. "Tonight I'm the
Designated decoy."

Our Tastes-- 2005 Samuel Adams Utopias

This was a taster fully a year in the making and well worth it. Sam Adams Utopias 2003 is officially listed as the strongest beer in the world in the Guinness Book of World Records at 25.6%abv. BugMan1109 scored a bottle at a descent price last year when the 2005 series came out and we were able to actually have some on both an empty palate and after a mouth-watering slab of moo cow. I could go off on a mind numbing rant about what this beer was like ending up in a tangential plane off in time where my small snifter never runs empty and still not convey what this experience was truly like. NO carbonation in the 2 ounces I had. It had sugar legs like a wine when rolled around the glass. The aroma was strong alcohol on a soft bed of maple sweetness. A great taste of extreme malt, vanilla and oak barrel hits the side of your tongue. Utopias are bottled in a ceramic decanter with copper finish using 11 year old casks to blend it much like scotch. Three types of noble hops are used: spalt spalter, hallertau mittlefruh and tettnang tettnanger. A monkey ton of malts: crystal, moravian and bamberg smoked and a variety of yeast including a strain normally reserved for champagne. This particular batch has 25.4%abv and the bottle was 2740/8000.

The End of Another Era

Tonight BugMan and I downed the last of brew batch #3, sweet NBA (Nut Brown Ale) after a pumpkin ale taster. It was nice to finally send this batch on its way. For now all of the bottles are empty and I can do another batch just like it for spring. This batch was brewed way back on 6/26/04 and still had it. It was also my first batch away from the Marietta HomeBrewing Company (probably the best move I have ever made). I remember Keith helping me empty those bottles during a summer of kayaking on the Coosa. Salud.

Cotton Bowl Win!!

Well if winning over the Nebraska Cornhuskers wasn't enough, I got to drink some beer...a lot of it ...FOR FREE!!!!! Matt, Big D and I went to the Cotton Bowl and afterwards as Donna had been with the boys all day we all piled in 2 cars and headed to a place called Randy White's BBQ (this guy used to be with the Dallas Cowboys) which happens to have some pretty good BBQ, a little sweet for my taste but the hot and hotter sauce will fix you up just dandy. Matt told me that this place originally didn't have their liquor license so they were just giving away 3 types of draft Miller, Bud Lite and the Texas's own Shiner Bock. Well low and behold when they asked what I would like to drink, I said a draft beer and they poured up the iciest tall goblet of Shiner I had ever seen. Lauren kept them coming, Donna downed 3 respectable pints in no time and asked for a lap dance on my behalf:) So the sunburn and 40F weather was worth it. Thank goodness I was drunk when OU lost in overtime.

Our Tastes-- Samuel Adams James Madison Dark Wheat Ale

Now he's getting the hang of it. Next in the Brewer Patriot Collection is the James Madison Wheat Ale, batch #3. This mahogany beer has a great slightly sweet aroma, foamy head and foam legs like a beer on a catwalk! I love the label with the single horse pulling 7 barrels for the beer man. They used malted rye to balance out the hand-smoked roasted malted barley (red and white oak from Orange Co, VA from land once owned by Madison) in this one and it is really nice. Madison apparently thought about a proposal for a national brewery. I would have too if I made beer this good. No abv given on the website but it has to be around 5.2% and pairs with anything grilled. OK Jim 1-2, buddy. Whether you agree with his politics at the time the 4th POTUS could brew with the best of them.

Our Tastes-- Samuel Adams Geroge Washington Porter

Finally getting around to trying George Washington Porter. Apparently GW had a favorite beer and this style was it. Washington felt so strongly that there should be an American porter that he adopted and encouraged a policy of buying only American-brewed beer, rather than imported British beer. The notes of licorice and molasses are full and forward. In the colonial days these were standard flavors in porters and may have been exactly what Georgie enjoyed about the style, as opposed to the sweet and or hopped porters we enjoy now. The pound of East Kent Goldings hops per barrel is easily offset by the toasted malt bill and sweetness. Pouring a deep walnut and wafting with a head of toffee/coffee, matched with 5.7%abv and 171cal per long neck this ones the most profound keeper of the bunch.