What beer are you drinking now? #1892

On the first day of Christmas...

 

Nice! mine Thirsty Dog 12 Dogs of Christmas

 

Good morning BA, Merry Christmas! Hope everyone has a great holiday today. Should be some great food and family time for sure! (and of course beer). Last year we did a prime rib, but this time is the turkey once again. We got a nice solid layer of snow just in time for this morning, hopefully the roads are not too terrible. Family should be coming over by early afternoon.

Amazing IPA! Aromas and flavors of huge tangerine, peach, pear, apricot, pineapple, passion fruit, papaya, mango, melon, guava, berry, grapefruit, lemon/orange zest, and light pepper/pine hops; with balanced wheat, cracker, biscuit malts; and herbal, floral, grassy earthiness. Light pine, citrus peel, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation/body; balanced creamy/bready/grainy malts and sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Slight resins, lightly increasing bitter dryness, no hop astringency. Super drinkable from the mellowly bitter finish. Pretty refreshing, actually. Absolutely love this stuff, grabbed a full 4 pack yesterday after my recent review. Perfectly balanced dank, juicy, and vibrant hop complexity; nice sized bready malt backbone, with no residual sweetness. Definitely NEIPA on style with this one. Love the hop bill. Galaxy, Citra, Simcoe, and Falconers Flight. An instant new favorite.


2015 is tasting insane as usual. Flavors of caramel, raisin, cherry, fig, date, apricot, apple, toffee, brown sugar, brown bread, bourbon, and toasted oak; with some lighter notes of molasses, vanilla, and coconut. Light balancing bourbon/oak spiciness on the finish against the sweetness. Minimal warming ABV or barrel booziness. Very smooth sipping; with a very creamy, silky, velvety, and slightly slick/syrupy full body mouthfeel that is amazing. Touch of drying bourbon/oak tannins. Love this the most after at least 1 year of age to smooth out the boozy barrel notes. Perfectly balanced. Grabbed 2 more packs of 2015 off the shelf earlier in the year. Glad that this just sits on the shelf, one of my favorite cellar beers ever. I finally had Cinnsanity recently, and I think it is just as impressive. This one just keeps getting better every time I have it. I will be grabbing some 2016 off the shelf really soon, they are past the 1 year mark now.


Fantastic DIPA. Flavors of big grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, peach, mango, lemon zest, orange peel, and pine hops; with moderate honey, vanilla, toffee, bourbon, and toasted oak sweetness; and floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine/rind bitterness and bourbon/oak tannin spiciness on the finish. Medium-full bodied; balanced bready/grainy creaminess, sticky hops, and oak tannins in the mouthfeel. Slight resins and increasing bitter/tannin dryness. No astringency. Minimal warming 12.4%. Very smooth sipper. Perfectly balanced between DIPA and barrels. Never overly sweet or heavy. They really nailed it with this one. Glad I bought 2-3 4 packs. This has been neat to see develop over time as a BA DIPA. The vanilla/toffee barrel notes and honeyed malt sweetness are quite intensified now after 7-8 months, but not overwhelming. Still plenty of bitter hop and oak tannin dryness.


Cellar grab January 2014. This is fantastic! Great head retention and lacing for the ABV. Flavors of huge dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, molasses, brown sugar, caramel, toffee, raisin, prune, fig, date, cherry, licorice, toasted dark bread, and light smoke/char. Light roast/char balanced bittersweet finish. Full bodied creamy/silky and lightly slick/syrupy/chalky mouthfeel. Lightly increasing bitter roast/char dryness, no acrid/astringent roast flavors. Insanely smooth, mildly warming 18%, zero booze. This was my 2600th review in Sept 2014 with a 2010 vintage, so now with a 2014 it is just as impressive. Definitely one of the most dark fruity stouts I've had, but it is still incredibly well balanced. Very rich and complex. This was the last of the 2014's I had, still have a couple of 2017. Should have gotten more to cellar. At least I got a solid amount of the Vanilla Oak Aged. Still need to review that one.


Cheers

 

Very early post from me. Several reasons for that.
1 It's Christmas Day.
2 I don't have to work because of that fact.
3 I did my family stuff yesterday.
4 I don't have to go anywhere.
5 I don't want to go anywhere because it's cold outside (-4).

Morning coffee is in order.

 

Merry Christmas all!

at the risk of being that guy going against the grain, normally i wouldn't bounce back to the same beer after a few days. i'm no expert but my impression after the first bottle was there doesn't seem like there's a lot of reason to sit on these a prolonged period. 2nd bottle isn't changing my mind so far either. not a knock at the beer or effort, it's pretty solid now & i managed to get a few so there's going to be some aging but it will probably be a lot less intentional or deliberate.

Cheers!

 

I was hoping you'd do this again!

 

Drinking Celebration Ale

 

Excellent beer choices but....
Prime rib over turkey every day.
Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas, everybody. Hope you have a great day filled with family and beer.

First up a 2015 of the best Christmas beer ever brewed, IMO. Tons of dark fruit, plums, and caramel notes. Amazing beer.

 

Merry Christmas BA's!!

 

Prairie • Christmas Bomb

 

Merry Xmas !! We woke up to the white Christmas we're supposed to dream about....
( I see shoveling and the fixing of my mailbox that the plows always seem to damage)

this seems to be a popular choice this morning...

last night I made a surf and turf dinner - (my wife wouldn't let me serve it the way I prepared it...)

 

Merry Christmas BA's. Drinking this one at home this morning, 3 Beans next.

 

Goose Island - Bourbon County Brand Northwoods Stout

This is an awesome variant full of marzipan and with just the right amount of fresh blueberry acidity to complement the intense bourbon flavors.

 

Merry Christmas, Advocates. I could be at mass with Jr and the Mrs, but we let the little girl sleep in today. No reason to have a tired and cranky four year old around for the festivities later. 2016 was great yesterday, the fresh ones are just as good.

 

Merry Christmas virtual bar patrons! Its a cold crisp morning along the southern shore with a few *********s gently falling as the woodpeckers tap away. I'm stealing a quiet moment with a Christmas Bomb amongst the trees before round two begins here later. Have yourselves a Merry and Bright one!

 

A Happy Holiday to every BA!



Cheers!

 

Or how about Beef Wellington over Prime Rib? lol