The Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast is good, but it is no KBS. I was far more impressed by the Mikkeller Black Hole aged in Red Wine Barrels. I wish I could get my hands on as many variations of that beer as I did the IPA and Yeast series beers.
I went to a tapping party for the Duchesss for De Bourgogne Flanders Red Ale from Verhaeghe Brewery and had a John John Juniper Ale on tap as well.

Back from Surly Darkness Day with 12 bottles of Darkness, 1 Smoke and 8 cans of Wet. Yay!

A little too sour cherry for me, but an interesting beer.

Oh man, I have some catching up to do.


Fisherman's - Pumpkin Stout

Continuing the pumpkin beer exploitation, this from just north of here in Gloucester (say it "Glosster"). These are never amazing beers from these guys but I have to say that stouts and pumkins seem to go well together. It's in Sixpack Territory for sure - this is not a keeper - but it's respectable and hits the spot when the wood burning stove is kickin'. Harmless diversion. Solid B.


Sierra - Estate Homegrown Ale

Seeing Bloor's writeup made me want to go find this. He was right - it's very fresh tasting, a little sharper and more complex than their normal IPA fare, but not radically different. Also that wax is some fuckall bullshit to deal with. I had to use the serrated blade on a wine opener to saw it free to the point that a bottle opener could grip it and get purchase. Stop doing that, Sierra. B+


Narragansett - Fest Lager

Gansett is a wierd brewery. Their main beer is fucking awful. Their canned Porter is surprisingly good. This Fest Lager is ok, nothing special, and a little too close to the shitty main beer for my liking. These are appropriate for Saturday at 11am when you're starting to wrench on bicycles in the yard and need a pace beer. Ie, when you are focused on something else, and not the beer itself. C


Pretty Things - Babayaga Sylvan Stout

Local sweethearts from the western part of the state continue to deliver. This was a medium bodied stout with a lot of good malt complexity. Not a puts-hair-on-your-chest grade stout, and not intended to be. I don't think I'd mail this one to people, it's not quite that memorable, but it's a solid, interesting beer all the same. First dark beer I think I've seen them make? Go guys go. A-


Heavy Seas - Loose Cannon IPA

So after our last discussion about this brewery (I dismissed them for the names and artwork, heard they were good) I picked this one to try out. I like to get 3 or 4 sixpacks over the course of a week, and leave 2 or 3 from each in the back of the fridge, until I have 1 left of as many different types as possible. I say this because I'm glad now that I do it - I completely changed my mind on this beer. At first I didn't get it - it had a wierd raisiny flavor and the hops were big but nothing special. I scoffed. I wrote them off. Then a week went by, and I had numbers 5 and 6, and was humbled to admit that I had it completely wrong. This is a very good strong IPA. It goes incredibly well with some dark chocolate (I never say shit like that but in this case it's absolutely true, try that icelandic 70% shit they have at whole foods it comes in a double bar and it's fucking great). Somehow I changed. It's good. Now I'm curious about the rest. It's not better than Two Hearted or 60 Minute, of course, but it's good. A-


Wolaver's - Pumpkin Ale

So far this is maybe the best pumpkin sixpack I've had, I'll have to go back and look at older pics, but of what I had this past week or two it was the best. Good amber malty body, interesting beer without the extras, much fresher and real tasting than some of the others. B+


Uinta - Punk'n

Cute name, good simple label scheme, boring as fuck beer. It has a very thin, ricey body, and then there's this ... pumpkin flavor... just floating on top of it. I had high hopes and they were dashed. Not recommended. C-


Founders - Backwoods Bastard

man, this brewery... So if you enjoy wood ageing flavors at all - and I know some of you don't - then seek this out. It tastes like a double version of a scotch ale, just gigantic and chewy and sweet with a quick hop slap at the end, but then the whole thing is washed in that vanilla oak booze flavor from the barrels... Admittedly this trick almost always works on me so filter the advice accordingly, but one of these from the 4 pack got added to The Stash (currently just a Goose Island Buorbon Co Stout 22, a KBS 12 oz, and a Sprecher Scotch Style 25 oz) for a rainy day. And I may go get more and hoard it. I see no compelling reason that KBS should be something worth clawing other peoples eyes out, and yet this is just sitting on the shelf at Shaw's, waiting for any shmuck with ten bucks to buy it. It's just aritifical scarcity, in my humble, that makes people covet the KBS to that degree and let this equally amazing beer sit there on a shelf. This is a bargain. Go get it. Drink half and save the other half for awhile. A+

Forgot two from a party friday night. Cellphone pics.

Saranac - Caramel Porter

I see Saranac around, usually in a mixed 12 pack. I always costs 2 or 4 bucks more than everyone else's, but from what I vaguely remember from undergrad their beers aren't amazing, so I always pass. The mixer 12 was in the fridge at this party, and I thought WTF Why Not A Caramel Porter. Because it tastes like shit, that's why. Man, this was cartoonishly sweet, unbalanced, and wretched. This is a beer for people (coughGirlscough) who don't actually like beer. This is a beer for people who would very much like to drink candy and get a buzz but don't want the stigma of being the kind of person who would whip out a Zima in public. It's a testament to my dedication to getting a buzz before bicycling home that I finished it. I'm not proud. D-


? - Session Fest Lager

I had never seen it before, I think it was from Portland? This is what Killian's red should taste like. You can have 14 of them, but they're not boring. Solid, decent, not exactly exciting but I can imagine buying cases of it if it were my local. B

Kyle, you should try Founders Harvest Ale. I had one last night and it's incredibly hoppy.

I've been meaning to throw up a review for this one myself; I think you pretty well nail the flavor profile but I come in at just a tad less enthusiastic about it overall. I think. Not because I don't like it, but because I feel like I've had it or something similar before. To wit, it tastes like an earthy, woody 10%'er from Founders. (I think I did, it was called Old Curmudgeon) Like you, I stashed a couple for later--I'm hoping some of the bite mellows out.

On the other hand, Founder's Breakfast Stout lives up to the hype and then some. Just malty, coffee-y, chocolate-y goodness. Fucking A, this shit is world class.

Also, the almost-a-year-old Ten Fidy turned out to be fantastic. It's motor oil with no head, but also zero alcohol burn. Danger Will Robinson.

I snagged two bombers of Founder's CBS but have not had occasion to sample. Report forthcoming.

Hey Derris, what was that delicious Pumkin-y beer we split the other night? Shit was really good.

ha!

Hell yeah. I may go back and get some more of that. I think Craig at Hop City he had one last shipment of it.

It was Hoppin Frog's Double Pumpkin. Spice spice spice. Nutmeg, Cloves, cinnamon, pumpkin all over the place. Seemed almost like an apple cider or something. Felt like I should be riding on a hayride while drinking it. Great fall beer.

Also had Sweetwater's Festive Ale that just came back out for the season. I dig that as well. Not burnt like a big stout but definitely a winter beer and drinkable. It's not listed on the bottle but it's got 8.6%!

No wonder I had to shake off the cobwebs when my folks showed up at 8:30am the next morning.

Yeah, the variety of clearly defined spices in that bastard was amazing.

Did you mean the KBS?

Wow! You don't know how lucky you are. I drove to Grand Rapids for the release because I knew I wouldn't have any luck finding bottles around town. Two bottles is perfect so you can drink one fresh and age the other. I have found with this beer, fresh is way, way better than aged. Maple fades fast so if you like syrup, definitely crack one open soon.

This years batch is awesome. Drink up though... as with all wet hopped beers, they fall off real fast.

No, I meant the Breakfast Stout like I said:

It's funny, I was having a conversation with the woman at my local store about the scarcity of certain beers (She said the only thing crazier than the Founders people are the people wanting Pappy Van Winkle's bourbon). Then I walked over to the beer section and there were two CBS sitting on the shelf. I literally said "I can't believe you're letting me walk out of here with both of these"

I hooked up my homies at Back Forty with the folks that age Willett, Michtners and a few other small batch bourbons and ryes. So hopefully we'll be barrel aging some shee here in the future.

Didn't know there was hype over that.

Remember how I got 4 KBS's? Same deal - sweet-talked the beer guy in back of the store, then when he handed me a four pack he got guff from a lower employee "You're not supposed to sell more than 2 to one person" or something like that. "I'm the beer manager, I make the decisions, I say this guy can buy four." Shit is, like, controversial.


Oh and this



Is awesome. Good fucking work!

Someone give me your top five stouts. It's been colder here and I'm in the mood to try a few new ones.

Where do you live, billy? We can tailor responses better knowing distro in your area.

Also, the Black Tuesday online release went... OK. I got an extra 3 bottles. Just hope it's more like the '09 release and not the '10.

L.A. so unfortunately I don't think I can find KBS or Goose Island's Stout (although I can get Matilda)

I basically acted as if the wax wasn't there and pried off the cap like normal with a bottle opener (pretty standard opener, too). Not too tough for me. Beer was pretty good as well. I'd probably give it an A-. Definitely a fresher tasting beer.


Friday night I got a sixer of Anderson Valley Winter Solstice Ale cans. Really good. I've enjoyed both this and the Boont Amber Ale from Anderson Valley. Nice winter ale, and enjoyed having some outside on the patio of the house where the birthday party for a friend was. I'd give it an A-.

It's possible you can get Goose's Bourbon County... it's distro'd in San Diego so I would assume LA wouldn't be a stretch. It goes very, very fast.

California isn't a hotbed for stouts but Stone's IRS isn't bad, especially with some age on it. You may get Oskar Blues' Ten FIDY down there as well. Let's see... Nectar Ales Black Xantus is good. Do you get Deschutes? If so, lookout for Abyss in the next month or so. You should also be able to find Great Divide's Yeti variations as well. Port Brewing's Older Viscosity is awesome albeit pricey. Old Viscosity and Lost Abbey's Serpent Stout are good bangs for the buck... as is Santa's Little Helper.

Green Flash is releasing their barrel aged Silva Stout shortly... but it may be brewery-only. It's worth the drive for a few 4-packs.

Thanks...like I said, I can get Matilda so I know Goose distributes here. I've never seen the Bourbon County though. Ten Fidy is easy to find. I can get Deschutes. I'm a big fan of Yeti which I can also get. I have a bottle of AleSmith's Speedway Stout which is supposed to be good but I haven't tried it yet.

I've seen Santa's Little Helper and Nectar Ales Black Xantus but they were $15.99 for a 22oz bottle. Are they worth that?

Yeh, Bourbon County flies off the shelf 2 blocks from the damn brewery. Last year started that trend. Shit, you could still find '07 and '08 on the shelves with regularity just a year and a half ago and then the craft beer explosion took hold. Sucks.

How could I forget Speedway?! Love that beer. It's most similar to the Founders Breakfast Stout Bloor referenced above.

Santa's should be cheaper than $16. I think it's $8 in Chicago... shop around on that one. Xantus is pricey but I really like it. Heavy on the coffee but also heavy on the char.