dont know but love the oskar blues 10-50

Just got back from the Union Jack's Hop Fest.
My drinking order is as follows:

Russian River Pliny the Elder 8%
Very smooth, with full hop flavor

Bells Hopslam 10%
Very strong, and really sweet...reminded me of sipping southern comfort

Otto's Double IPA 9.6%
Very pale tasting ipa, yet smooth

Moylan's Hopsicle 9.2%
Very dry, with minimal flavor

Green Flash Imperial IPA 9.4%
Tasted like somebody decided to brew beer with grass clippings, after a cat pissed on it

Port Mongo Double IPA 8.5%
Very smooth, and delightfully flavorful

Founder's Double Trouble 9.4%
Very bold flavor, smooth, and just all in all absolutely delicious

That's all I had. I finished my friends glass of Young's Double Chocolate stoudt cause he was being a skirt. He drank a Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stoudt before that and hated it. The dude worships Guinness, but has no taste of other beers that are way better. He goes to a Hop Fest and ends up drinking Windsor and Coke.

Anyone tried the new Guinness Foreign Extra since they started importing it to the U.S.? I had it at St.James Gate and quite liked it.

Bader, I've seen that before. They also make one called End of History. Its 55% and comes in a dead sqirrel instead of a paper bag.

Ding... Ding... We have a winner.

It's from Brew Dog. We're looking at getting a bottle of "Sink the Bismark" which sits between "Tactical Penguin" and "End of History". Bismark is about $130 a bottle. I've not priced, much less found, a bottle of History.

Penguin was (is) a sippin' beer. Great cherry, oak and malt smell and taste with smokey, earthy overtones.

Now to get my hands on a bottle of Utopia...

- L

Something I have never thought to try until today... Stella Artois. Actually quite a tasty beer. Very smooth and good flavor. Should be for $11 for a 6 pack.

I'm a simple man.

How is the new Arcade Fire album?

Stella from a keg is a vast improvement over the stupid green bottles.

Meanwhile back at the ranch....

Last week I picked up a growler of a local brewpub's oak barrel wee heavy. Man that's a tasty beer.

Ever tried their Old Chub scotch ale? Good stuff. Chris Swearengen kindly brought me a case when he came down this way for nationals a couple years ago. I am down to my last can. (Hint, hint.)

I think I had the old chub but I can't be sure. I love all of the other oskar blues beers, particularly the ten fiddy (bourbon barrel aged one time on draft even!) and mama's little yella pils.

my first experience with dale's pale ale was in an intertube on the shenandoah river at harper's ferry. cans are win.

Tonight's beer is Sam Adam's Summer Ale from the kegerator. I've got a bottle of their New World Tripel I've been waiting to try, but it's one of those giant bottles of 10.5% beer so I need somebody to drink it with me.

Thanks to Hustler and a beer trade at the track, I had a bottle of this last night.

http://www.averybrewing.com/images/s..._bottle150.png

Normally I do not ales that are this hoppy since I am not a hop head, but more of a dark Belgian style guy, like Aventinus, Optimator, Trois Pistoles, La Terrible, etc, or hefeweisens. But this one has great complexity and sweetness that cuts through the hops and gives it a great overall flavor. It is really good. I travel to Boulder from time to time and am going to make a serious effort the next time I am there to go to the brewery and have some on tap. Thanks Hustler :makeout:

Today I had lunch at Freetail, a microbrewery/restaurant located in NW San Antonio.
http://www.freetailbrewing.com/
I sampled a few of the beers and ended up with a glass of the Rye Wit. They did not have Live Oak Hefeweisen on tap (the best Hefe on the planet). Damn it, I wanted to get a growler.

Someone I know at work gave me a couple of homebrews to try. I think I'll break at least one of them open tonight. It could be interesting.

Avery makes good shit. I recently had an Avery Majarajah. Delicious.

Agreed on the Avery status... I really like their limited series barrel aged stuff. All of the Wilds/Sours I have had have been solid. Still a few more I'm trying to get my hands on though...

Since I haven't posted any of my tasting here in AWHILE I will add a few from some of my more recent tastings... All of these reviews were copied from my review at BeerAdvocate.com. Link to my profile if you want to see more: http://beeradvocate.com/user/profile/thagr81us

Mad River Brewing 21st Anniversary Barrel Aged Rorschach II Double Brown Ale: A- (4.03/5)
"Had as part of Hobo Cookout #1! Massive thanks to mikesgroove for sharing his 2010 Vintage Speical 2011 for mikesgroove hand bottle edition with me. Bottle #2 of 3 (no seriously, it had '2/3' written on the bottle)! Served from bottle into a Stone nonic. Poured a deep chocolate brown with a half finger off-white head that subsided to a minimal amount quickly. Maintained decent lacing throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, dark chocolate, roasted malt, and wood. The flavor was of sweet malt, slight roasted malt, caramel, dark chocolate, and wood. It had a medium feel on the palate with mild carbonation. Overall this was an excellent brew in all aspects. Went down very smooth and was quite enjoyable. While not the most complex beer I have ever had, this one really worked nice for the style that it is in. It dared us to tick it, so we did just that... Really glad Mike shared this one with me!"

New Belgium Lips of Faith: La Folie: A (4.4/5)
"2009 Vintage! Served from bottle into a Bell's tulip. Poured a deep reddish brown with a three finger off white head with a light tan hue that subsided to a minimal amount slowly. Maintained excellent lacing throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, sour, dark fruit, and dark chocolate. The flavor was of sweet malt, dark fruit, sour, tart, and dark chocolate. It had a medium feel on the palate with high carbonation. Overall this was a great brew as it always has been. Excellent aroma and flavor coming off from this brew. First time I have ever gotten dark chocolate off of this brew, but it works with the other flavors present adding a slight hint of bitter to it. Have had this multiple times from multiple sources and will definitely continue to do so. If you have not had this beer before you need to do so now! Still want to try a C&C version (hint hint traders!)."

New Belgium Lips of Faith: Le Terroir: A (4.47/5)
"Served from bottle into a Bell's tulip. Poured a slightly hazy red-orange with a three finger white head that subsided to a minimal amount very slowly. Maintained phenomenal lacing throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, sour, citrus, and citrus hop. The flavor was of sweet malt, sour, tart, citrus, and citrus hop. It had a medium feel on the palate with high carbonation. Overall this was a great brew. The hop character on this one really makes its presence known. Really adds a very nice additional character to the sour and tart backbone going on in this one. A definite must try without a doubt!"

Smuttynose Baltic Porter (Utopias Barrel Aged): A (4.38/5)
"Review #800!!! Had as a supplement during a recent Goose Island Bourbon County Tasting in Charlotte with marine1975, boodingo, CarolinaKevin, HopDiggityDawg, and GehenHerzog at Mike Brawley's house with Budweiser sign blazing! Massive thanks goes out to Brawley for bringing this tape labeled bottle out for all of us! Served from bottle into a Duck Rabbit snifter. Poured pitch black with a half finger light brown head that subsided to a minimal amount quickly. There was no lacing evident throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, caramel, dark chocolate, and wood. The flavor was of sweet malt, dark chocolate, wood, caramel, subtle dark fruit, and sweet alcohol. It had a heavy feel on the palate (almost syrupy) with mild carbonation. Overall this was an excellent brew. It was a really nice way to end the night of having all kinds of great beers with a bunch of great BAs. The aroma on this one was quite nice and inviting. However you would have never guessed that it had been barrel aged by the aroma alone. Once you take your first sip you know what this beer has been through with a sweet alcohol flavor combined with the wood character of the barrels shining through. This is a really well done brew... For the second Smuttynose -bal aged rarity that I have had, this one seems to be on-point as well. Really hope I get the chance to try more -bal aged offerings from Smuttynose in the future as I have thoroughly enjoyed all the ones I've had so far!"

I was driving to work today and I got to a red light. I had my foot on the brake pedal and then it popped and went straight to the floor. F me in the A. I drove the truck home anyway, and I found a ruptured hardline. In fact, they all look rusty, so I guess I'm staying home from work and getting paid to fix my truck today.
Before I decided to get in wrenchhead mode, I took the miata to the local beer distributor and purchased a Fort Collins Lunchbox Variety Pack. It contained 2 each of Major Tom’s Pomegranate Wheat, Rocky Mountain IPA, Kidd Lager, Z Lager, Retro Red and Chocolate Stout. I drank the Kidd Lager and the Z Lager. They almost taste similar, but the Kidd Lager is darker almost like a porter. The Z lager is like a porter as well, but more of a smoked porter and not as dark.
Ever notice how certain breweries have a signature taste that haunts every one of their brews? Fort collins leaves that signature, as does anything I have ever drank from Lagunitas.

Last Weekend's Tasting
 

A little late in posting this, butit's been a busy week.

Here's the line up from last week's tasting. Our focus was "Summer Beers"...

Bonus...
 

I bought a box at HEB (the local grocery chain) yesterday.

Contents of the box:

(1 of 40 in the State of Texas...)

And I thought La Terrible was expensive! Wow...