Shared a Jolly Pumpkin Madrugada Obscura Dark Dawn Stout, a "sour stout" last night. Bottled 2-15-12 so it had plenty of age and mellowness. Tremendous balance between the stout and sour characteristics. 8.1% but not boozy in the least. In short, a pretty terrific beer: These guys are doing some good stuff

I'm going to a tapping party for the North Coast/Deschutes collaboration Class of '88 Barleywine tonight before I cover a local rock show featuring a brewer from a local brewery for Nebraska Beer Blog.
I'm looking forward to this 10% ABV beer, and I really do enjoy Barleywine as a style.

Barlywine... I have some ageing now that was 100% Maris Otter and East Kent Goldings, nothing else. 10% abv I think, aged it in one of the tiny barrels. Hope it gets rid of the green apple phenolics before Christmas. Could be good.

Had my first Fantome Saison last week. Femdisco and I both drank a glass. The yeast is so peculiar. I've definitely never tasted anything like it. I probably won't drink it again as it was simply too intense of a "farmhouse" taste to it. Having said that, it was one of those beers that has a "world class" reputation like it does because nothing else really comes close to it as far as resembling what this style of beer probably originally tasted like. You could sense the quality and care that went into it's brewing.

I've been drinking this Hardywood Capital Trail Pale Ale (made as part of a fund raiser for our local bike path)

I popped into a local small beer and wine store and happened to find a couple of Heady Toppers in the cooler. they had more but at $6 a can that's about all I could manage at the time.

Shut the front door

About 5 of those are available here. The rest I haven't even had.

Also, the writing on that was TERRIBLE. Fuck.

A short article on making Beer cocktails:

http://thirstyinla.com/2013/05/06/malt- ... -elements/

A lot of them were shitty picks too. Narragansett, 3 Beans, Lower De Boom, Abita, Anderson Valley. I could think of a few other beers that were more deserving than those.

Yeah. The sixer of Anderson Valley Summer I bought at the brewery last year was Not Good. Tasted like fucking caramel candy, and one of the goddam cans was half empty!

Tried a couple of things new to me last night:

Boulevard's Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale

I love Farmhouse Ales and it was nearly the perfect thing to drink with our 90+ degree weather this week. This is a pretty good one but I'm spoiled by Logsdon Farmhouse Ales being so easy to find out here. Those are the best, but this was pretty good too and a bit cheaper.

&

Dogfish Head's 61

This is the 60 minute IPA with grape must from a California Syrah added. It was interesting enough judged on it's own merits but I'm not really sure when I'd really want this type of wine/beer hybrid. I think I'd rather have a sour if I really wanted something in between a wine and a "normal" beer or just a glass of wine or a more "normal" beer.

Tank 7... high praise indeed coming from BG. Glad it hit the spot. Still one of my all-time favorites.

bought a sixer of Lagunitas Censored last weekend and have one left for tonight. Really digging it

I broke down yesterday and rented some space at temperature and humidity controlled wine storage facility. You can see into everyone's lockers and I was surprised by how much beer people were storing there, some of which I don't think is either that good or expensive. I try to sit on the more expensive, darker, higher abv, barrel-aged beers and some sours for awhile before drinking them but haven't really intentionally tried to age anything I've bought for more than a year or two or cared about storage beyond conditions beyond keeping it out of the sunlight. I'm curious now though about trying to do more of that. Does anyone here give any of their beers serious age before drinking? If so, what do you age (obviously not low abv ones, or ones drank fresh like ipas) and how long?

Also, does anyone use cellarhq to track their collection. I use something similar for wine but never bothered for beer.

the coolest thing I ever aged was a 120 min IPA for 2 years. tasted like supreme bitterness going in and cake frosting coming out.

I cellar stouts, old ales, quads, sours and barleywines with my oldest beer being a 2003 Westy 12; most are in the 2-5 year range. I have them all in cupboards and boxes in the closet.

I wouldn't exceed the 2-5 year range on any beer that isn't some sort of sour, a strong Belgian beer or a Barleywine, unless you are really trying to collect a certain brand of beer for a vertical tasting. I have consumed very few beers that have not reached their peak by year three or four, and plenty of beers that were left in the cellar for a bit too long.

I always try to buy multiple bottles to open at different times... it's fun to compare the changes over time. That said, the 10 year old Westy's are incredible right now.

Barrel aged beers are not designed to be cellared since they've already been aged to the point to where the brewer feels the beer is ready. I opt to hold on to some a little longer to reduce any booziness if it seems too strong out of the barrel.

I grabbed a mix and match six pack last night after a belated Mother's Day dinner with the rest of my family. I didn't consume anything particularly good yet, but this is what I tried last night.

Goose Island 25th Anniversary ESB: I didn't think it was overly hoppy like some of beer nerds on rate beer, but it was reminiscent of Honkers Ale and did seem to be a little out of balance. It wasn't a bad beer, but not the sort of finished product you'd expect for an anniversary ale from a brewery like Goose Island.

Paddy Pale Ale from Wild Onion Brewing Co: I enjoyed this one a little more than I would have if I had consumed a nice White IPA or a really citrusy IPA beforehand, but it was a sessionable IPA or hoppy APA. It was a tad watery and a bit too effervescent, but the citrus tang on the tongue was quite refreshing on a warm evening.

Samuel Adams Longshot Beer Flower Wheat: I was probably the most disappointed in this beer, but I am usually more surprised when breweries actually release a terrific homebrew contest winning beer than when this sort of thing happens. There was far too much caramel malt taste for a wheat beer, and I want the hibiscus to stand out. I have had way better hibiscus ales made by local homebrewers and lesser known commercial breweries. I tend to believe that you need to use a belgian yeast strain with hibiscus to make it work, and that a hibiscus wit is a better idea than a hibiscus American Wheat ale.

I consumed two more after bottling a batch of homebrew last night. Still nothing spectacular and nothing I would choose to purchase again

Shiner Wild Hare Pale Ale: It is suppose to be a classic APA. And while I have no issue with its mostly noble hop character and malt profile, it clearly isn't an APA with only 28 IBU's. It is at best a Ordinary/Premium Bitter or an American Amber. It isn't a bad beer, and fairly well made for Shiner's first Ale, but it is clearly going to be a downer for those expecting a Pale Ale.

Summer Wit from Wild Onion Brewing Co.: It was pretty bland and watery. It wasn't terrible by any means, but it is clearly a lawn mower/session beer at a 4.2%ABV. I'd definitely go with a Hoegaarden before I'd consume one of these again.

I made a different version of my Pale last time, adding all the hops at -5 mins... nothing until then. It's got to sit a week more, but I'm nervous that I didn't get enough bitterness and will need to up the ounces next time.

i finally got my hands on some Heady Topper last weekend. it was good. damn good. but i'd still take a Pliny over it any day. the fact that it came to me via a shipment out to California followed by a drive back to Colorado certainly could have affected its "freshness".

all in all it was a great beer night though. along with the Heady, i was able to sample some good Cali beers unavailable to me here: Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA and Mission Brewery Shipwrecked DIPA were both solid. and ending the night with a Bourbon County Stout was top notch.

That sounds like a good way to spend a day. Shit.