Do you guys have the link for that Pliny homebrewing pack? I can't find it through a search and was thinking of getting it for my BiL.

Bump for Bloor

Thanks Beeg. I see now why my search paid no dividends.

If my BiL is half the nerd I think he is, he'll brew up some good hooch.

Just cracked one of these and you are correct, Odds: It's really good. Fresh, fruity, piney, hoppy as hell, etc. Like a spruced up Lag IPA (which, not for nothing, for my money, IMHO and several other cliches, is one of the best out there)

Well than I will have to find some. That tears it.

Yeah, I bought a sixer of it this weekend and had one last night. I thought it was really good too. It was very piney and had lots of fruit on both the palate and nose but it was very well-balanced.

I also had a Bia Hoi Vietnamese style beer that Eagle Rock Brewing Company brews especially for a Vietnamese restaurant here. Pretty tasty but very light.

Finally, I had a 2008 Harvey & Son Ltd. "A. Le Coq's" Imperial Extra Double Stout last night. It supposedly adheres to the original recipe that Belgian brewer Albert Le Coq when he made the first Russian Imperial Stout back in 1912. I guess it's an interesting novelty product but it was extremely bitter and I didn't care much for it.

Great Divide - Hibernation Ale

I've been digging the hell out of these lately. Billed as an "Old Ale", it's the best thing I've had from Great Divide outside of the Yeti stuff (and I'll put this above the regular Yeti stout).

Super rich and chewy. It's got a big malty flavor that's gonna be even better when it really gets cold.

The only knock I have on it is that the booziness peeks through a bit too much as it warms (it's 8.7%) but that's a minor beef.

One of these before dinner and one after dinner and I'm ready for bed. In a good, relaxed way.

High Five, Derris ^^ I just got a sixer of that too and it's the tits.


Recents


High & Mighty Beer Co - Fumata Bianca

Ie, "white smoke." This was billed as a smoked rye beer, after the bavarian style. I didn't notice that it was from H&M, who've disappointed me before. They're local, and yet I skipped them in both mail shipments I sent out... it's not ever bad beer, but it's never great either. This was similar. I could taste no smoked malt whatsoever. It might've been there very faintly, I guess, and maybe something I ate first blocked it out, but it was subtle at best. Otherwise it was a clean, light, rye-spicey beer that was in no way deserving of being in a high-priced 22oz bottle. Meh. B-


Peak Organic - Winter Session

One of the more enjoyable Winter's I've had yet. This is, as it says, a sessionable beer, when most in the Winter genre aren't really. It tasted very strongly of Maris Otter malt - that creamy, bready, almost sweet malt flavor I like a lot. Otherwise it was nutty, toasty, and very even... not too loud, no whorish makeup or garish Christmas Cosby sweater here. These guys suffer from Bad Label Syndrome, and maybe as a result they over-achieve every damned time. Mark my words, they make solid and enjoyable beer in the B+ And Up category, at reasonable prices. No "Experience" beers, but some goddam loveable sixpackery with a deep bench. B+


Rock Art - Midnight Madness

From the brewers of the excellent DIPA known as The Vermonster, comes a mixed 12 pack that I only got to dabble in... more on that later. Found the 12er in VT last weekend on vacation. These guys take chances, and turn the flavors up kinda loud, so when they hit the mark it can be a memorable experience. And this fits the bill, it was as it says - smoked, and yet a classic if strong Porter. I fucking loved it, but then I allllllways love porters, it seems like. A-

Rock Art - American Red

Part of that mixed 12'er... No surprises here, just solidly executed standard work. B+


Victory - Hop Wallop

Went to see our good friends the Porters in VT last weekend. He had bought this beer thinking to celebrate the Dawgs' victory over LSU, which sadly was not to be. So he broke it out Saturday night after a full day of working the ski slopes, 5am - 9pm. No sooner did we polish this 22 off than his wife went into labor, 3 weeks early. They drove over an hour away and had the damned ol baby that night, 2:34 am. Come to think of it, my wife went into labor after I had a 22 of Hoptimus Prime way back when... something about Squirrgle and double IPA's must drive women into labor. Anywho this was a great beer, and apparently a powerful one. A


Harpoon - Leviathon Triticus
A strong, dark, wheat beer with 11.5%, sold in 4 packs for less than $10? SOLD! And hell, they're really good too. Thick, chewy, wheat spice, and a rich / complex malt character, all with a big healthy slap of hop finish. Hard to go wrong here. A

Brooklyn - Black Chocolate Stout
I shared these with some guests, and even they dug them (they weren't really beer people). And yet I would categorize these as Borderline-Experience beers. They are really very, very damned good for something you can just, you know, go buy in a 4 pack without much fanfare. Someone did their malt homework and got the right mixture here, because there's SO much going on, it feels more like a midwestern effort than a NY one. Not in contention to knock KBC or Burb Co off the top at all, but then again it's a 4 pack beer. Seek these out if your nuts are all clenched up in a ball this winter. Good for what ails you. A

Cisco - Winter Shredder

This is one of my go-to breweries out here, they make the excellent Whale's Tail Pale Ale I sent to Loog, among other delightfully unique offerings. Thus, it was with great shock and sadness that I almost puke-burped upon first sipping their anticipated Winter beer. This is the most agrily bitter, off-balance beer I've ever had. It is all early hops, with the green oily goodness throughly boiled off into oblivion, leaving nothing but raw alpha acids to tear away at your mouth lining. I can only assume that the nutmeg / christmas cookie seasoning has been tossed in for seasonality's sake, and as a "sorry bout that" handshake to apologize for the oral raping you just received from the industrial-strength Fuggles Battery Acid® hop barrage. As a testament to my dire, dire need for a beer when I get home every day, I finished the sixpack. But I wasn't happy about it. Something happened here, this was a mistake. D-

I've been consuming this beer regularly as well. It is a seasonal beer for Great Divide and gets high marks on rate beer. I'd like to find a bomber of it and age it until next year.

Yeah those Winter Shredders were gross. Glad I had someone to pawn them off on.

I can get behind your assessment; What's weird is that they made SO MUCH of this beer that I'm literally seeing cases and cases of it lining my local beer emporiums. Are we sure Brooklyn isn't making a move to be a semi-major? Also, as I think I mentioned before, this is selling for $6.99 at Total Wine: Nice bang for the buck.

On a less positive note, Bell's Christmas Ale was sort of a stinker to me. Too much of a malt-flavor-that-I-don't-really-like thing going on cold transitioning into "gross" as it warms up. My wife solved this problem by banging back four of them Sunday afternoon leaving only one for me to try and getter gauge on but I'm not expecting much--I was seriously fucking disappointed and borderline mad at myself for buying this beer. That's two in a row Bell's, time for Hopslam I guess, to restore my faith.

It's hard to dislike Bell's, at least the ones I've had in the last few years. But I trust your judgement. I can't get any of them anyway, so it's al window shopping for me... TIL NEXT WEEK, BITCHES. We drive a rental car to Madison for a week, and it's on like donkey kong. Jebus help me.

I tried Allies win the war, a collaborative beer between 21st amendment and Ninkasi brewery. It is an English Strong Ale made with Dates.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/735/74904

I received a hard bound copy of The Oxford Companion to Beer written by Garrett Oliver for Christmas. It might not be actual craft beer, but it can teach me nearly everything I would need or want to know about the brewing process and the beer I am drinking.

Yeah I received no less than FOUR books on beer from my family and FemDerris' family. Various approaches to the subject but still, I think they got the memo.

Also tried these guys for the first time last night:



Nogne O - Pale Ale

First foray into their stuff and thought it was interesting. Pretty light but tasty. I gather these guy are from Norway? It's their take on an American Pale Ale but to me, it was more in the IPA arena. It tasted much like many of the Belgium takes on a Pale Ale I've tried. It's just left of what I'm normally used to when drinking an American version. It's just got that funky Beligum-esque aroma every time I stick my nose in it. That's not good or bad, just different. Low enough alcohol (6%) to really enjoy though. Solid B. Might raise that up in warm weather.

Certainly good enough to investigate their stuff further.

Yeah, Nogne O is from Norway. They make a delicious Imperial Brown Ale and one of the best versions of sahti I have ever consumed.

I also received some cash for my trip to Lawrence, KS with the Lincoln Lagers Home Brew club, since I recently paid for my membership and bus ticket. We'll be visiting Free State Brewing Company. It opened in 1989 and was the first legal brewery to open up in a century in the state of Kansas.

I tried Noel de Silenrieux tonight on tap. It is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale with a 9% ABV. It got much higher marks from Beer Advocate than it did Rate Beer. I was slightly more impressed with it than I was with the most recent version of Oak Age Yeti on tap.

On Christmas Eve, I was out running some errands when the wife called and asked me to pick up a bottle of wine. I swung into the store on that side of town (small but usually has a good selection), got the wine and picked up a bomber of Uinta Detour DIPA (more on that later) for myself. The beer guy walked up and while he was congratulating me on my choice, I noticed they had a bottle of CBA sitting on the rack.

Me: Whoa, CBA. What do you guys have a stash of these you're rolling out one at a time.
Him: Something like that. I think we've got two left.
Me: Welp, Merry Christmas to me. *grabs bottle"

So I get up to the counter and it rings up TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS. My reaction was "thanks but no thanks" and the chick in charge came up and said "i mean, this can go for $100 a bottle on the internet"...

If I hadn't bought two before @ $14/ (which was borderline to me) I probably would have done it, it being Christmas and all.

I'm assuming you mean Founders CBS? $25 isn't actually that bad since there are stores in Chicago selling it for $75! Founders actively asks consumers to report stores that are price gouging on their beers... though I don't think this one qualifies. The line about it selling for $100 on the internet is shady as fuck though.

Yeah I saw a 22 of Brooklyn Black Ops last night but it was $26. I'm sure it's good and all but I got a bottle of Redemption Temptation Bourbon for $4 less.

Black Ops is nowhere near the price tag, IMO. Thin, unbalanced and boring.

I did mean CBS.

In other Founders news, Derris and I had our long awaited Stout Fest '11: KBS vs. CBS. Pics and reviews forthcoming.

This was my NYE Beer list:

Nogne O Sunturnbrew, a smoked Barleywine with 11% ABV
Ichtegem's Grand Cru Flemish Red Aged in Oak barrels
Aecht Schlenkerla Helles Lager
Dieu De Ciel Rosee De Habiscus
Gouden Carolus Ambrio
L'Affriolante Spiced Beer from Le Bilboquet.

Glad I didn't buy it.

Have you had that Dogfish/Bruery collab or that new Dogfish brewed with Egyptian hops?