Beer Advocate bottle share/tasting at Beer Revolution

Last night a bunch of Beer Advocate members met up at Beer Revolution in Oakland to share beers from our cellars.  Each person was supposed to bring two 22oz bottles, or the equivalent, in rare or out-of-region beer, and then we opened everything and tasted away.

The Lumberjack & I brought Cigar City Big Sound Scotch Ale (Scotch Ale, 8.5% ABV) and Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan (Brown Ale, 4.5% ABV), as well as two other bottles that we received as extras in past trades, and whose names have escaped me.  It was a little nerve-wracking to pull out the beers, since I wanted desperately to impress people, and of course everyone else didn't even really notice what I brought.  Anyway.

There ended up being around 20 people there in our group, which means I tried probably 35-40 beers last night.  You wanted notes on all of them?  Ha.  No.  I do remember rambling at the Lumberjack as we wandered home (but stopping for a hotdog first outside the Uptown) about a few, though, so that's what you'll get.

Kern River Citra DIPA (Double IPA, 8% ABV).  This was the first beer I tried, which might explain why I remember it so well.  But also, it was delicious.  It was pretty foggy, sort of honey-coloured.  It was poured from a growler, but the carbonation held up quite well.  Smells delicious, fruity and citrusy.  It was very smooth, not bitter at all.  It had a little bit of piney hops flavour, but not too much - there was enough of the citrus hops to balance things and make me like it.  I might have gone back for a few more tastings, once I realized everyone had tried it and there was still extra.  This DIPA is delicious and very drinkable, even for IPA-hating newbies.

chuck's on the left, and the right is troy?
trevor? either way, he's very nice.

Lost Abbey Veritas (Sour Ale, 8% ABV).  That is one damn sour beer.  Don't drink it unless you want your mouth to pucker up uncontrollably.  One of my new friends (I can't remember anyone's name, of course, especially since they were almost all one-syllable dude names like Chris and Chad and Dan) just laughed and said "there's no way to NOT pucker while drinking this."  Very true.  I can't remember much of the flavour or specifics, just that I found it very enjoyable, even as it felt like I was losing all moisture from my tongue.  Definitely worth trying out, although if you don't like sours you'll probably not enjoy it.  And since it's from Lost Abbey, be prepared to shell out a bunch of $$$ for the pleasure.

blending the stout with the red

...something that was too smokey, a nice but forgettable IPA, a blackberry lambic that was super tasty, BELGIAN RED! BELGIAN RED!, something-something-Duchess which I loved, and was then told by the Lumberjack that I tasted and hated it last year, a couple of porters and stouts that were pretty tasty...

Oh!  A few people tried out beer mixing, which was fun.  I poured half a taster of BELGIAN RED! and added Smuttynose Stout on top, and it was a tasty blend - kind of like chocolate-covered cherries.

thanks, dude.

I had a dorky beer moment when I realized that someone had brought Black Tuesday (Imperial Stout, 19% ABV - yes - NINETEEN PERCENT HOLY CRAP), which is somewhat of a celebrity in the beer world, I am learning.  I remember this guy was one of the Chrises (Chriss?  Chris?  Chris's?  names that end in S confuse me), and he was very nice.  Getting a Black Tuesday is apparently near-impossible, so having a chance to taste it and see what it's all about was pretty exciting.

And?  Wow.  That beer really is worth all the hubbub.  It was super boozy, as one might expect from being NINETEEN PERCENT ALCOHOL, and that definitely smacked me in the nose when I took a sip, but the flavour was awesome.  Very smooth, very delicious.  It was quite oily and thick, which would make it hard to drink a lot, but nice to have a small sample.  I can't imagine anyone drinks much of this anyway, seeing as how it's NINETEEN PERCENT.  This seemed like a perfect beer to share.  As you can see, we were pretty psyched.

In the end, I stumbled home a little bit drunk but very happy.  Of course I had to be up bright & early to give a work presentation this morning, which was a little rough.  But the other presenter and I talked beer for a bit, I gave my speech and got the whole room laughing about health insurance, and was approached afterward by a woman who says I was the best presenter she's seen, so I guess everything turned out okay.  But my head still hurts a bit.

boyfriend and glassware

We try to always use correct glassware with our beers.  We are slowly purchasing all the different styles so that we can always use the right glass with the right beer.  This really does make the beer taste better...but also it's just fun for my little Virgo brain.

However.  Sometimes it's good to break the rules.  Yesterday, the Lumberjack surprised me after work with an impromptu picnic, complete with New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red (Fruit Beer, 5.1% ABV) which many of you may recall is impossible to buy in California (or anywhere outside Wisconsin).  Served in paper cups.

After a couple of difficult, stress/anxiety-inducing days, drinking Impossible to Find but So Delicious beer out of a paper coffee cup, while looking at the the Bay, with my Lumberjack: totally perfect.

And holy SHIT that beer is good.

Great American Beer Festival - Denver, September 2009

My first beer festival! Totally started my beer existence with a bang. Huge conference center, more beer than I could ever handle. To give us a sense of order, the night before the event we went through the list of breweries and marked the ones we were especially excited to visit. I say "we" to make it sound like I had any sort of opinion on this. In reality, I knew nothing about which breweries developed which beers (all I knew at that point was "dark beer = good!"), so the Lumberjack got to lead the way.

(I, however, am the virgo in this duo, so I happily marked up the map in the GABF brochure. I created a very thoughtful and linear excursion through the whole event so that we could hit up all the places we wanted, and skip, say, the Budweiser tent. ew.)

Prior to GABF, my favourite beer was Mikkeller's Beer Geek Breakfast (Stout, 7.5% ABV), with Mikkeller's Santa's Little Helper 2008 (Belgian Strong Dark Ale, 11.00% ABV) a close second. However, at GABF I met my new boyfriend (sorry, Lumberjack), named Great Divide's Yeti (Imperial Stout, 9.5% ABV). Holy CRAP (I believe those were my exact words). I drank it, gave the Lumberjack my "good god that's a good beer" eyes, then went back for seconds. I was a bit tipsy at this point, so I believe I gushed to the pourer that this was my new favourite beer, and he smiled and gave me a very genuine "thanks!"

Other beers I can remember from GABF:

New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red (Fruit Beer, 5.1% ABV): an awesome sour/cherry beer. SO AMAZING. The Lumberjack got my "hello what is THIS?!" face, at which point he reminded me that it's not available anywhere near the Bay Area. I can't decide if I would rather have never known it existed, so I wouldn't long for it so, or if it was better to have loved and lost, etc etc etc. End result, though - holy shit that beer is good.

Some horribly disgusting beer that was brewed with peppercorn. PEPPERCORN. It was revolting. The Lumberjack happily drank my sample then went back for more. We don't always like the same beer.