What beer are you drinking now? #1898

Good morning BA, hope everyone has a great Sunday and New Years Eve! Yet another bitter cold day over here today with wind chill advisories. Looking forward to seeing the usual specialty bottle selections everyone will be drinking. Hopefully driving conditions are not too difficult.

Morning selections:

Fantastic pale ale! Glad this is back in season. Flavors of big grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, peach, lemon zest, orange peel, and pine hops; with moderate caramel, brown sugar, and toasted biscuit malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Very smooth medium body; balanced hop stickiness and bready Munich malt creaminess in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing bitter dryness, no hop astringency. Absolutely love the balance and the juiciness of the Cascade/Centennial hops in combination with the bready malt bill. Deschutes rarely disappoints. One of my many favorites from them. Would love to have this year round.


Tasting insane as usual, 3 weeks old. Flavors of big grapefruit, tangerine, peach, mango, pineapple, passion fruit, lemon/orange peel, citrus rind, light pepper, and pine hops; with some light caramel/biscuity malt balance; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Moderate pine, citrus rind, grassy, spicy bitterness on finish. Medium bodied; sticky/resinous mouthfeel with a fair amount of balancing bready/grainy malt creaminess. Increasing resin dryness, never astringent. Super bright and dank on hops, extremely drinkable. Will always be a top favorite Ohio IPA, along with Columbus and White Rajah. Market Garden Citramax is a new favorite also. Need to get more Bodhi.


This is insane this year! Officially the easiest year to find distributed Black Note of all time. I got twice as many bottles this year than I have gotten in the last 4 years combined. Flavors of huge milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, caramel, vanilla, cream, toffee, molasses, bourbon, coconut, toasted oak, and dark/brown bread; with lighter notes of coffee, licorice, raisin, plum, fig, and dates. Very mild roast/char bitterness and bourbon/oak tannin spiciness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and very full body; with a very creamy, silky, velvety, and rich mouthfeel that is amazing. Slight chalky roast, oak tannins, and dryness. No acrid/astringent roast or barrel flavors. Insanely smooth, minimal warming 11.2%, zero barrel booze. Bell's has the BBA game on point as usual. While I still prefer well aged Expedition and the BBA version more, this is still definitely better than I remember when I reviewed it initially. Richer and silkier mouthfeel. Perfect barrel integration and complexity. Wow!


This is still tasting insane! Flavors of lightly tart blueberries, milk chocolate, cocoa, caramel, toffee, fudge, vanilla, toasted coconut, bourbon, oak, and dark bread; with lighter notes of molasses, licorice, and raisins. Light roasted bitterness and fruit tartness on the finish. Full bodied with an amazing creamy, silky, velvety, and rich mouthfeel. Some light roast malt chalkiness and fruit acidity; touch of dryness from both. Never cloyingly sweet, but definitely a dessert beer. Amazingly smooth, minimally warming 10.5%. A near perfect balance of berries, cocoa/vanilla, malt, and barrel character. Tons of flavor complexity, and it all comes together extremely well. I've always been a big fan of fruit stouts, so I'm not surprised how much I loved this one. Seems pretty polarizing to most people, but this is one of my favorites from last year. This is the 9th bomber I've had, and I have a few more in the cellar. I keep grabbing these randomly every time I see them. Well worth the price. One of my regular stores still has a couple cases.


Cheers