Last night had a couple pints of Ballast Point Bourbon Barrel Aged Piper Down, Scottish Ale.
Gold Medal winner at 2010 World Beer Cup (Wood & Barrel Aged Category)
Great taste with bourbon characteristics; vanilla, caramel, oak. Heavy on the vanilla.
had it with blackened mahi mahi tacos and Maui Coconut Porter wings. Delicious.
My wife had BP Reef Rye Brown Ale and BP Sextant (Oatmeal) Stout. All three were fantastic.
BP Tap Takeover at Urge Gastropub.

last nights drinks

Having some more of the Winter Warlock and its hitting the spot.

I'm jonesin to try the BORIS Oatmeal Imperial Stout but waiting until Thursday for it when all my shit I need to get done is finally done.

While not much of a hop head I do like some DPA, which I am currently enjoying. This and Stone's Pale Ale is probably as far as I go with my hops though.

I did try the Maharaja at Falling Rock and liked it. That's a double IPA right? Maybe that was a fluke?

A couple of these tonight

I'm guessing it was a fluke.
That thing has 120 IBUs. Tons of malt too, but it's definitely hoppy.

That's what I figured.

I was thinking of trying that new Odell DIPA due to so many rave reviews, thinking since I liked the Maharaja I might also like that, but will stay away from it now.

Double Trouble is a pretty good beer.

Went to a couple brewpubs in California over the weekend:

21st Amendment in SF-food was good, beer was ok, not great. Bartender was a pretty cool guy.
Lagunitas-fantastic place, great food and beer. Bartenders were cool, place was very laid back. A great vibe, one of my favorite brewpubs.
Russian River-Finally got to try the Pliny the Elder. Didn't live up to the hype, but how could it? It's good, tastes very similar to Columbus Brewing Company's IPA. Brewpub was cool, bartenders were attentive, didn't try the food.
Stone Brewing-Ultra glossy and fake inside. Complete opposite of Lagunitas. Food was OK, very expensive. But their Ruination is a great beer, despite all the bullshit surrounding it. Place was packed on a sunday evening, lots of families. Outside was all little ponds, firepits, sculpted bushes, and recorded frog sounds. But Ruination is a great beer.
Coronado Brewing Co-Island off San Diego, considering the people that can afford to live or stay on Coronado, the beer itself wasn't too bad.

Lagunitas was the winner hands down. Anyone in the area should make the effort to check 'em out, can't imagine you'd be disappointed. And their beers are awfully good too.

No beer for me for a week or so, just had wisdom teeth out and the back of my mouth is a ragged mess :-(

Sedatives were nice though heheh still drooling a bit

This is gonna be a long TL;DR blog beer post. Had a big couple of weeks.
Finally got onto a couple of US IPA's.


Firstly, this stuff is hugely expensive out here. A 6 of each ended up costing me 65 bucks! Fuckin' hell!
The dogfishhead 60 minute is very nice! Citrussy and herbaceous, hoppy but not over the top, probably comprable to some of the local IPA's in terms of IBU's but with more citrus than the Jame's Squire's offering which uses Fuggles Hops. I like it.

The Stone Ruination is pretty stupid. I can drink it, because that is what I'm into, but everyone I offered a taster to turned their noses up at it after a sip. I guess it's like chiles. You get into the idea of going hotter and hotter and it just becomes a machismo thing. I've since found out I have a mate who lives around the corner from the brewery in Escondido and knows the Brewmaster, so I'm hoping to do some beer trading soon, probably swap some hi-po Aussie rum for some Double Bastard.

The night after, we had dinner here: http://josiebones.wordpress.com/
You just know you're gonna have a great night when the door handles are bronze pig trotters!


Their beer list goes to something like 40 pages and initially me and my Bro went in for a drink at about 4pm while our partners were off doing girly things, like shopping, and apparently scofing wine at some pub!


Initially we got stuck into more IPA's

Jamieson Beast (Aus, Victoria)
Red Duck Bengal (Aus, Victoria)
Rogue Yellow Snow (USA)

All very similar, all about 70 IBU. Not ridiculous, none terribly memorable apart from the Jamison Beast, which has changed since I last had it about a year ago, and is now hoppy enough to be balanced. All were good!

With Dinner;

Renaissance Paradox Blonde (NZ)
Tall Poppy India Red Ale
Weihenstephaner Korbinian Doppelbock (Germany)
Holgate "The Empress" Porter (Aus, Victoria)
Mikkeller Nogne 0 Tyttebaer (Norway)

I can't remember much about the matchings, but I did have presence of mind to make notes on the beer!

The Renaissance Paradox featured the NZ hop variety "Riwaka" This is similar to the Nelson Sauvin, but possibly less intensely citrus/passionfruity. I found it a bit underhopped, but that is probably because of the IPA's I'd been drinking beforehand. Good summer arvo session beer.

The TP India Red Ale seems to be an American style IPA brewed with some sort of Crystal Malt. By this stage I was IPA's out and a little bored by this, which is probably underselling it.

I won't say much about the Doppelbock, other than the waiter described it as a light porter, and forced a taster of it on our girlfriends who had joined us by this stage. They said they liked it, but wouldn't order more!

Holgate's Empress. Limited release brewed with Vanilla Bean and Chocolate. Fucking fantastic. A perfect match with the chocolate deserts. The girls also liked this a lot. Only offered in 110ml tasters because they could only get a single keg of it.

Mikkeller Nogne 0 Tyttebaer. A Sour Lambic brewed with Lingon berries. Good match with the fruit desert. Again fucking fantastic. I'm not a massive fan of sours and fruit beers, but this shit has made me want to explore more. I actually had a dream about this beer the other night, it ws that good!

Thanks for reading that crap (if you did) and if you ever get to Melbourne, check out Josie Bones! My best night out at a restaurant in literally years.

Tonight it's gone from:

Saison Dupont


to Rogue's Irish-style Lager


to a big can of Sapporo (one of the ol' standbys):


The Saison is probably my favorite beer in the world to date. Delicious like nothing else, and perfect for today since it's pretty much the first day here in Jersey that's been warm without even a thought of underlying cold. Crisp, burpy (that's a stock image; I drink it right from the bottle), just right.

The Rogue I got on a whim. I don't usually go for that kind of stuff (why buy an Irish-style lager when the real thing is right next door?) and this didn't change my mind. Tasty enough, but watery, and ultimately too light. I'll stick to Zywiec for lager and Smitchwick's for my drinkable Irish fix. A Guinness with lunch, maybe. What the hell.

The Sapporo in a can is a sentimental choice. Not the best beer ever, but I like it and I especially like it in the 22oz. can. It's good on draft, of course, but I think I prefer the can to the bottles. That's not often the case.

Night isn't over yet.

I've never liked any Saisons I've tried. But I'm not a fan of the farmhouse or Belgium styles either.

Started tonight with Pliny the Elder, switched to Huma-Lupa-Licious, finished with Maximus IPA.

Cheers tonight. I'm drinking it, you guys are talking about it.

Adam,
Did you ever get a chance to try this?
Just curious. Always looking for good stouts to try.
Also curious if you are buying bottles in Denver? or is it on tap somewhere?
Heading to the beer stores today to buy some bottles of California distributed stuff for trades back east.
No B.O.R.I.S. available here.

No, I haven't gotten around to trying this one out just yet. I bought a bomber of this, bombers were the only medium I found this in, and I am just waiting for the right time to drink it. I need a night when I can sit back, relax, and enjoy it without rushing. Thursday
would have been perfect but I ended up going out instead. I was thinking maybe tonight if I get home early enough but if not than I will have to wait until next week as I head out to AZ tomorrow.

When I do finally get around to trying it, I will let you know if the wait was worth it. Man would it suck if it doesn't.

Just got back from work and it's later than I hoped. Decided to crack open a Stone's Pale Ale instead of the BORIS. 12 oz at lower ABV seemed the better option at this point. I'll let you know my thoughts on the Boris when I do get to it next week.

Just picked up this Phillips IPA mixer

Had a Maharajah from Avery tonight, as well as a 7 Seas from Dry Dock and a Gouden Carolus Easter, which I liked a lot more than I expected.

Finally tried Westmalle Triple when I was down in AZ and liked it very much.

Got out of work early tonight and checked out the BORIS Oatmeal Imperial Stout. I liked it; probably the most drinkable Imperial Stout I have tried. I did taste the alcohol a bit more than I cared for but I loved the flavors of it otherwise.

Nice Strong Belgian Ale

Yep, that's a damn tasty beer.


Picked up:
BORIS Oatmeal Imp Stout aged on Oak.
Boulevard Imp Stout, partially aged on whiskey barrels.
maui coconut porter
maui ipa
leffe blonde
mix six of Santa Fe DIPA and russian imp stout
Lost Abbey Red Poppy
Petrus aged pale
Dry Dock 7 Seas

Oh, forgot we tried a bunch of sours and others...

Had some:
Odell Friek - very good, but could stand some aging/development
Lost Abbey - Red Poppy...best of the bunch. Great, complex sour.
Ithaca Brewing Blueberry Sour - very, very oaky. Touch of dry blueberry on top of the tongue.
Cascade Red Sour (it had a different name that I can't remember): ...something Rouge...anyway, lots of aromatics...sherry/port/cherries/apricot/caramelized green apple...the disappointing thing was the aroma did not match the flavor at all. Aroma and flavor were wonderful, but disappointing that they did not connect.

Post-Ommegeddon...Belgian-style Brett ale
Ommegang Brewery
bottle 26 of 100
6.8%
17 IBUs, though it drinks like it's 55IBUs. Weird.

100% Celeia hops

this is from an experimental batch. I greatly appreciate that they are doing this, but from reading the description I would've expected more funky notes. It tasted like a slightly sweeter Duvel. While being a very nice beer, it wasn't the funkmaster I was expecting. Keep pushing guys.

I'm finding it hard to satisfy my craving for different beers in Sydney. I can't seem to find a bottleshop that carries enough of a variety. Melbourne's different, one bottle-o down there has 600+ beers, and even my brother's local in a shitty suburb has 200+ I've pretty much worked my way through everything my local carries that's actually worth drinking.

This weekend's selection


Pick of the bunch was the Scribbly Gum Lager. Weird cloudy lager brewed with smoked malts, Mountain pepperberry and Pride of Ringwood Hops. Which I loathe. Not very hop driven, not like a rauchbier and really quite odd in a good way. Quite smoky and fruity at the same time. Not really a sessioner, but would be nice with some strongly flavoured sausages, or smoked meats.

The Murray's Nirvana Pale Ale was a goodexample of the style and came a close second, but would be my pick if I was thirsty!

Went well with this: