Late Night Beer Advocate: Friday!

Sup beer aficionados! It is beer rerate night. haven't had these in over a year.

Fantastic. So complex and unique; and very smooth. The oddities of this beer really work. Really robust.


Blowing my mind man. Unibroue is THE shit. My fucking Belgian Palate has transformed, and I can clearly say that Unibroue is an easy pick regardless of (imperial) style. INCREDIBLE


A top 5 album of 2000's Decade. This album still blows my mind after 5 years. This is the shit. Their latest albums have been good, but nothing from them will ever top this album.

 

Onto another New Glarus brew; Moon Man. Just gotta say, we sure know how to make a pale ale here in the midwest like nobody's business.

 

Just started with at Torpedo after a mega 4 hour nap! No pic, still peeling my eyes open…guess I'll be partying with the west coasters tonight! Cheers BAs ~

 

Had a Wachusett Summer while out at the Pawtucket Red Sox. 13 innings. Daniel Bard started, beaned two batters and gave up a 3-run homer. He was not on the mound at the start of the second inning.

 

perhaps i should pick up a bottle and open it with my wife since when i opened melange 3 she took a taste and LOVED it. she still asks me to open another any time she wants a beer. i have 3 and i tell her that i can't really get more so we should space them out, so if she digs this, perhaps i can stock up and keep her at bay. hard to deal with when the wife like "the strong beers." i dug melange 3 more than BT 11, and probably BT 10 even although i THOROUGHLY enjoyed 10, never had 09.

as far as imagine v super nebula...IMAGINE!!! not even a question. i have to say though...super nebula had some sort of pixie dust in the mouthfeel. it was the smoothest most amazing silky feel of all time. a bit moonshine boozy at first...but after i got over that, i got some of the barrel, but not a bourbon barrel aged beer in the sense that we've come to know where you actually pick up the bourbon and wood with the stout. the stout base is fairly cocoa nibs and the balance is nice, but again, nothing like the big boys you know from the style. a bit of a let down...seems to suffer from limited syndrome in the reviews (bear in mind that i review on the high side in general) and i am lower than the average. imagine, however, was a masterpiece, in the sense of them little 12oz MONSTERS. if someone gave me the choice in trade i would go with imagine without blinking my eyes...and i would definitely not share it...or if i did, it would be with a special BA who i wanted to share something i really appreciate with.

granted tastes are different from person to person, but these opinions are pretty solid from me whereas many things are grey to me, these are all black and white. if you are to seek out any block 15, imagine is the one to go after. i haven't cracked my figgy yet, but even pappy dark didn't hold a candle to imagine. kind of like comparing BBVD to black magic but times 1,000,000.

 

thoughts on the 1 year difference? i've done a few year span and the older blew the younger away, curious about a smaller gap.

 

Appalachian Brewing Hoppy Trails IPA this afternoon at their new Lititz, PA brewpub. Later tonight, SN Pale Ale, SH Torpedo, followed by Troegs Perpetual IPA.

 

'11 got REALLY funky. I could drink the fresh stuff all day long. I'm going to send them an email to see if I can find out which strain of Brett they use for this...

???? DOES ANYONE KNOW WHICH STRAIN OF BRETTANOMYCES THAT BOULEVARD USES FOR SAISON-BRETT ????

 

I thought Flora and Arthur stood out from the set. Lots of complexity, funky wet barn, and juicy fruitiness, all nicely balanced. mdillon86 thought Arthur was a touch better than Flora, though I was the other way around. Nitpicking at its finest. Biere de Norma was good, but one dimensional imho. We both thought Damon was tasty, lots of sweet barrel presence, and a nice lush mouthfeel; we both went back for a second glass. Despite this, I think their hoppy/saison offerings are better.

We headed to another HF event, and had Everett, Abner, Society & Solitude #2, #3, Florence. (not pictured)

Later at dinner...



A long, but ridiculously fun night. Cheers, all.

 

lots of tasty stuff tonight during philly beer week. highlights:

maine lunch
5050 rittenhouse eclipse
HF what is enlightenment?

 

founders centennial
odells myrcenary
surly furious

gotta drink through some ipa's while they're fresh
then onto

 

Little bit of a midnight snack after a long day at work:

Flying Dog is finally putting out some good stuff...

And listening to some relaxing metal to wind down:

 

I hear you...had a similar night....good times!

 

+9999 points to you for the best The Ocean album!

 

They're planning on making it a year-round, no? (Ecstatic.)

 

Not sure if this had much to do with carbonation but they used different corks this year. When I un-caged the 2011 I watched the cork ease its way out then got stuck, I'm guessing, due to the shape of the cork. So, the carbonation and mouthfeel were totally different as you can see in the original picture. Besides the major funk change and the carbonation I would say that the beer aged terrifically, although, I prefer the fresher version. I put some bottles downstairs to walk down the same path in one years time.


Left- 2011 Right- 2012

 

Love that logo,love that glass!
Cheers

 

thank you for sharing the great insight. would love your overall rankings on the HF series that you tasted being that you had so much side-by-side. i tasted damon in one of them mega tastings that spanned styles and it was definitely one of the low-lights of the evening (and agreed upon essentially across the board - granted we drank some amazing beers that night) but always good to hear other opinions since something can be amazing on it's own, but a disaster when in certain company.