New Beer Sunday (week 487)

There were some signfiicant moments of "beervana" - Curieux was the first. I've had plenty of bourbon barrel aged stouts and such, but Curieux was my first "non dark" BBA beer. Just amazing - it has just enough of everything it has with nothing in excess. Then the Interlude - maybe it isn't up there with the real "big boy" sours, but it was a fantastic brew with a lot of flavor without being overwhelming. The sour contrasted nicely and it was not as jumbled as Confluence - that one semmed more conflicted than married, and by what the Allagash guys said the difference is in the fermentation technique and how the Brettanomyces is used. For all it has going on, very clean. And the Odyssey - I love my coffee stouts and porters, but I think I would choose Odyssey over quite a few of them. To my taste buds, it has the coffee flavor without the heaviness - almost like an iced coffee.

What amazed me the most was seeing how expertly the beers were paired with the food. To do this right obviously takes time, skill, and some level of gut instincts. To understand how the flavors can complement and play off one another was very educational. It wasn't a cheap date by any stretch of the imagination, but once or twice a year done this way? I'd be down with that. And having eight different beer styles - seemed like it would all combine into a muddle, but because of the food pairings it definitely did not.

Probably the most significant comment of the evening was my daughter. OK...drinking beer with my daughter was a little weird in the first place. She's not a beer drinker, but will have one. Her comment after the third tasting was "why does anybody drink Bud Lite - there's so much more to beer". Dad was proud...little tear in the corner of my eye...<sniff>...