Ten Fiddy is great off the tap at the brewery! Got my case of Hardywood Gingerbread stout for the year, so much happiness.

Excited for the Mother Earth Silent Night release party next week.

Good2go- I'm jealous of you being able to find KBS in stores. Here it's a "wait in line for 1 bottle from the 3 cases delivered" type of rarity.

EO2K- you can get barrels from Farmhouse Bew Supply. My 5g rum barrel made some great aged moonshine, oh and a 12% RumShine aged Stout

 

Oops, DP

 

The first barrel-aged beer I can recall having was some sherry-casked Oskar Blues Old Chub which had just gotten done winning all the things at the GABF several years ago. A small pub in downtown Denver had the last dregs of it on tap, and after deeming me worthy, the bartender pulled me a few ounces of it gratis.

That beer changed my life.

Barrel all the things, I say. The purists can have their Reinheitsgebot-compliant bottle conditioned pilsners. I'll take the oaky stuff.

 

Oak has a place, but its not in a pilsner or lager. Again, just my opinion.

I believe my first was the oaked version of Arrogant Bastard.

 

I can agree to that.

One of my favorite oaked non-stouts is Hardywood's Rum Barrel Farmhouse Pumpkin. It adds a great dimension to an already terrific beer (probably the only "pumpkin" beer that I will consistently drink.

 

Has anyone tried Sam Adams Honey Queen? It's a braggot which mixes both fermented honey and grains. I like mead already so I'm curious whether it's good or not. Going to stop by Whole Foods after work and see if they have it.

 

I have, its tasty. I'd drink it again.

Its got a little honey and floral in the nose but its not cloyingly sweet like other things "with honey." I was surprised that it had such a crisp bitterness for such a light beer. But its a clean bitterness not a heavy hoppy bitterness, if that makes any sense. Body is light and it has a lingering flavor. Also lower carbonation than I expected. Surprisingly enough, you get the honey in the aftertaste rather than as part of body, even more so at lower temperatures. Let it warm up a bit and the flavors/aromatics start to change.

I think keep saying "clean" because every time I get something with honey its never allowed to ferment out and the product ends up being a sweet, disgusting mess. That's the exact opposite of how I'd describe Honey Queen. It's also not rocket fuel, another problem with honey things.

Its very different, but then I like trying different things.

 

Thanks! Sounds like something I'd enjoy.

 

Went to a friend's bottle shop last night. This is my main beer buying season, apparently.
Came home with 3 Big Bad Baptists, 4 Backwoods Bastards, 2 Bells 30th Anniv Stouts, a Lindley Park, and a Black Angel. Going to keep warm this winter.

IMG_20151112_220356 by Tony Driver, on Flickr

 

I know you like your beer and all, and imma let you finish...but Backwoods Bastard is the greatest beer of all time...OF ALL TIME!

 

So that covers this weekend, what's on the menu for the next?

 

Hopefully next month, I'll be holding a vertical tasting of Unibroue's Trader Joes Anniversary Ales (2010-2015). Gonna need some assistance with it, as many of my friends don't care for Belgian Dark Strongs. Luckily the bottle shop owner from the store above has a few extra bottles, and a few friends who wouldn't mind joining in.

 

Mah man!

This is hilarious because I was just talking about this 3 days ago with my wife. I've got 2-3 bottles of the TJs 2011-2015 in the closet, and we were considering doing a vertical.

 

I'm with Joe. Barrel all the things. I like aromatic lingerings and added smoothness.

 

Yuengling IPL. That's right. India Pale Lager. Find it, buy it, thank me.

 

I gotta love the buyer down at the local Whole Foods store. His tastes clearly follow my own. Tonight's score (not my pics):

another humdinger from Prairie:
(why is everything from these guys so damn good?)



and another one for the cellar:

 

I'd love to get my hands on a bottle of velvet merkin. We dont get much FW here in NC. I have driven to VA for Wookie Jack.

 

If you seriously want one bad enough, and you're willing to pay for it, I could probably make it happen for you. They are not going to last long on the shelves here though.

 

Although I feel that barrel aging is the new IPA (ie, an overdone fad) in brewing, that actually looks really tasty.

BTW, in homebrewing news, I found that if you dry hop cider, it tastes awesome. Literally just 5 gallons of apple juice (on sale for 3.99 a jug at wally world), leftover yeast from my previous beer and 2 ounces of Citra thrown in a week later.