What beer are you drinking now? #1102

Congrats on the job shift! I'm in the midst of doing the same. Which brewery?

 

Damn I even forgot the bonus kitty pic for a minute. Somebody was not pleased!

 

Finishers:

Finally got a full 6 pack again, been a year since I last did! Been drinking too much Centennial lol. Anyways, always awesome and really fresh. Juicy hops of grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, lemon/orange peel, and pine; with light honey/bready malts and floral/grassy hop earthiness. Nice medium bitter finish; with a smooth, crisp, and moderately sticky mouthfeel; with a nice robust and flavorful hop profile with balanced pale maltiness for the ABV. With all the recent new session ales, it just kind of got left by the wayside I guess.


One of my go-to Black IPA favorites, with Short's Bludgeon being the main one(when it's around). Juicy tangerine, peach, pineapple, lemon zest, orange peel, and pine hops; balanced by chocolate, cocoa, toast, and light charred malts. Good amount of pine/roast bitterness on the finish; with a smooth and moderately sticky mouthfeel with light creaminess. Super smooth and great balance.


Really delicious spiced Belgian brown! Big flavors of apple, plum, caramel, brown sugar, toasted bread, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, pepper, and light banana/chocolate; with balanced herbal bitterness and yeast spiciness after the finish. Very smooth with some moderate creaminess and light spice stickiness in the mouthfeel. I am really glad I bought the full 6 pack for sure. A unique change of pace for a fall beer, but it is done so well. Roak is probably my favorite new brewery of 2015.


The new recipe is excellent! Big flavors of lemon, pear, apple, coriander, pepper, clove, light banana/bubblegum, cracker, biscuit, and herbal/floral/grassy hop earthiness. Good sized spicy yeast/earthy hop bitter finish; with a good amount of dryness, and very smooth with minimal warming ABV. Fairly similar flavor-wise to the old one, but it is much dryer/spicier on yeast and a bit more bitter on earthy hop flavors. I will definitely be buying this more often now, extremely well done for the style!


Cheers!

 

On the way to the grocery store after work I stopped off at Bennedito's Brewpub and had myself a sandwich with their Brown Ale (a hoppy one at 32 IBUs) and a Fresh Hop IPA from Whistle Punk, a newish brewery from Newman Lake, WA.

While at Bennedito's I heard Iron Goat still had some of their Spo-Hop Fresh Hop IPA on - it's their "community hop ale," brewed with a buttload of random hops donated from friends and acquiantances of the brewers that grow their own hops. I stopped by, grabbed a pint, liked it and got a grunt filled (which I'm drinking now).

On my way home from the grocery store (yep, I remembered where I was going), I stopped by Jones Radiator and had a pint of Lodgson's Seizoen.

Oh, and did I mention that Spo-Hop grunt? It's drinking well.

 

Uh oh! You're in trouble now!!!

 

@jhartley this is Breakfast Stout is for Travis.

 

Congratulations, can I get a job there? So I can come drink awesome beers in the Illinois market with you and @5EKF....lol

 

Now THAT would be almost TOO much fun!! Almost...

 

Just cracked open a Prairie Vanilla Noir - amazing!

 

The dog just wandered in. on the front porch in the house, time for another beer & a soak in the hot tub. Deschutes Fresh Squeezed next. Doing some beer hunting in Arkansas & SW Mizzou tomorrow, so it may be my last...

 

I am Looking forward to Vanilla Noir showing up. Prairie Noir is my favorite Prairie beer so far. Although all their stouts and browns kick ass.

 

Bruery 6 Geese a Layin' and earlier Billionaire from Clown Shoes. A strong ale kinda night.

 

You've had Bomb!, right?

 

Okie and Bomb from Prairie are pretty fantastic if you haven't tried them yet.

 

I hope the cat knows what he/she is doing. One rollover could destroy some good beer!

 

Don't worry. She understands the importance of craft beer. She is very good about moving around my bottles

 

Annularity. I guess they're still making this stiff at Fifty-Fifty, but this is a bottle from 2012, the day of the Annular Eclipse over Truckee. It has aged extremely well.


I've got one more of these, will probably hang onto it until the total eclipse of 2017.

​

 

Evening, BA's! No pics tonight - attended the HyVee Holiday Extravaganza at UNI's McLeod Center, which featured a variety of foods from their catering department as well as an array of wine and beer samples. I got there late and made it only a little over halfway around the concourse. So much great stuff to sample! I tried to steer away from beers and wines I had already tried (except that one of the reps had brought Dragon's Milk - how could I resist?). Several Iowa breweries were represented, including:

Exile (Des Moines, IA) - Beatnik Sour, Gigi
Backpocket (Coralville, IA) - Flower Eater (on tap), Old Bufflehead
Peace Tree (Knoxville, IA) - Blonde Fatale and Saison Blanche

It was great to see some fine representations of the Belgian styles being produced here. I thought the Saison Blanche and Flower Eater were both outstanding, and the Blonde Fatale was solid as well. You can't get much aroma out of the little plastic sample cups, but the flavors were certainly there. The Beatnik Sour is a delicious wild sour, one I'll be looking for as soon as it hits the stores here.

Some of the "regional" brews I sampled were:

Summit Unchained #20: Sticke Alt
Tallgrass - Big RICC, BB Buffalo Sweat, and Ethos IPA
Surly - Overrated and Hell

Sticke Alt hasn't shown up in the stores here yet, but I am told that it will be available soon. I also haven't seen Big RICC and BB Buffalo Sweat, so I was anxious to see what all the hype was about. Well, now I know. They are both outstanding, as are the Surly offerings listed here.

Finally, a few from Germany and Belgium:

Spaten Optimator
Franziskaner Weissbier
Brasserie Du Bocq - Saison 1858 and Blanche De Namur

First samplings from these breweries, really impressed with the Brasserie Du Bocq offerings. I had been wanting to try Lindemans Faro Lambic, which was listed on the lineup; however, the guy told me he had decided not to bring it, in deference to the more popular Lindemans brews. Oh, well. At least I was able to grab some assorted swag, including logo keychain bottle openers and a crapload of coasters.

Prost!