Sweet.

The IPA gets a 91 on BA which is good enough to at least get me to bite on a 6. I can't remember what the other selection was (also canned).

Pretty interesting interview about Firestone Walker's Wild Ale project:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2013 ... walker.php

I tried the White Thai ale in a can (may have even commented here?). Not bad but it's almost a carbon copy of an Allagash White. At least what I thought. I also tried the Vanilla Bean Dubbel which I thought was quite nice.

Thanks for linking. Very cool.

I had two good new ones last night at band practice:

Pretty Things "1855 East India Porter" - One of those historical beers they do, and it was excellent. Very subtle and complex, toasty and bready, plenty of toffee and caramel to the malt, a really good porter and a cool story, as always.

Maine Beer Company's "Mean Old Tom" - This was a very silky vanilla stout. The head was VERY dense and chocolatey brown, the vanilla was subtle not not imaginary, the body was clean and not overbearing, and the coffee / burnt toast / chocolate malt flavors were all nice and present without being crushingly thick. The head color sorta lies to you - it looks like it will taste liquified burnt black toast, but it is smoother and silier than that. MBC continues to impress.

The Westvleteren 8... opened both bottles during the Analog / Belgian Beer party we had at the house saturday. Lots of cool old cameras, records, a tape deck with two cassingles (Sir Mix-A-Lot and Young MC), slides, and an 8mm film I stole from the house behind me before they knocked it down... film had the owner in it lounging by his house and pool, which was surreal to watch, having been in them in their state of advanced decay just days before the wrecking ball. Great party, I thought. Anywho, the beer:



So it's very very good, but I wouldn't put it above Orval. Well made and very trappist-tasting, subtle and malty and friendly without some of the dryness the others get from all the sugar-derived alcohol. Things I know we had (help me here Shiv):

- Orval (at least 4 small bottles went around)
- St Bernardus Abt 12 (several bottles, stood out in the crowd)
- Westmalle Tripel (several people commented that it was their favorite)
- Chimay Red (confirmed that I think Chimays are too dry)
- The Perfect Crime - Hollowpoint (something Shiv found,see pic below, wish I'd had it early in the evening)
- Multiple Unibroues
- Something called Flor - I didn't get to try it, which sucks. It was actually belgian, too.
- La Chouffe
- McChouffe
- La Chouffe IPA (2 bottles)
- A growler of Night Shift's Trifecta (a good belgian)
- A Growler of Idle Hands stout
- A sixpack of Peak Organic Simcoe Spring
- A 4 pack of Boulevard Tank 7

And there was more, I just can't remember it. My recycling looks like a specialty distributor truck crash.

Mystic Brewing Day Of Doom

Yes.

Somewhat surprisingly, I only wound up with 5 full 22oz bottles remaining after the party. Thought for sure there would be more leftover but people put in a good strong effort.

A friend of mine just started this to sell flight paddles and glasses to bars and restaurants. I might get a set, I always have a glassware problem when I have a special beer I want to share with a few people:

http://www.beerflight.com/

kind of annoying that they don't sell the paddle and glasses as a set.

speaking of glasses, i just bought a pair of these. no idea if it'll make any difference but they look kind of cool.

I thought the same thing shiv, but I'm guessing a quick email to the guy (his name is Brendan) would probably solve that.

I had the most poorly matched rag-tag conglomerate of glassware for that belgian party... pretty much cleaned out that top Beer Glass shelf looking for anything less than pint size. 2 different Killington Brew Fest sample glasses, some old Bitburger stuff from Germany, lots of smallish glasses I haven't seen much or used in years.

We were aunable to get any of this for the party, by the way. They have been selling out really quickly, though I heard they just released another batch. Shit appears to have gone and gotten all popular.

That's too bad. Fantastic beer.

I hope you're ready for a Hopslam or two in a couple of weeks.

I'm hoping to get one of those IPA glasses when I attend the Spiegelau glassware demonstration at the homebrew contest in KC next weekend. I wouldn't drop $25 on a pair, since I already own way too many beer glasses, but I'd like to have at least one for the collection.

Was thinking about checking my bag just so I could smuggle down a few bottles of things for you.

I wanna talk about homebrew recipes, but I don't want just the more limited audience of the Hombrew thread to respond. Beer folks, what sounds like a delicious early spring beer to brew? I was thinking about a pale/brown ale hybrid (more malty / nutty body, copper color, but west coast Pale-level hops) or a slightly darker / more interesting wheat beer.

Thoughts?

What do you wish someone would brew for you?

A Dunkelweizen!

A sour...There simply aren't enough around.

This is an interesting read

Speaking of Russian River, got this from Busty last night. He's in SF:

I can get sour malt, but some of those bacteria strains are not gonna be too accessible locally. And I can't culture from one of his bottles because I can't get one. Also, like he says, once you start playing with sours you need TWO of everything, and I don't have two sets of gear.

Oh and nothing's showing up for me in your second post...

was in SF last week for work and i had the luxury of dining here -> http://www.slanteddoor.com/
with an awesome view of the bay bridge and i drank a couple of these


I can't read this label but what I recall it was an organic Belgian pale flavored/bittered with sweet gale instead of hops.
Not my pic, I think my bottle had english writing on it, so I don't quite remember.

I absolutely loved it. I'm thinking of mail ordering some sweet gale to mess up the next fake pilsner I make for shewilleatyou. I won't litter this thread with that sort of talk though.