Religious exBEERiences!

You don't have to be Catholic to enjoy a beer and a burger.

 

I had some LSD last week. It was quite the exBEERience. Not lysergic acid diethylamide - LSD. The LSD I had was Liquid Spiritual Delight by Second Shift.

 

How did that Dodger fan get in there? I would've yelled for security.

 

The first time I tried an actual "craft" beer was a pretty big thing at the time -- a bomber of Wild Wolf Brewing's Blonde Hunny that I randomly picked up on the logic "it says Belgian-style and mentions wheat on the label, and I know Blue Moon is Belgian-style and made with wheat, so I should like this too"... drank by myself, back when I'd never had a near-7%-ABV beer even in twelve-ounce form let alone 22-ounce! Really enjoyed the beer (finally went back and had more of it lately, in six-pack-of-cans form, and found that I still really like it even though it's not up there with my absolute favorites anymore now that I've had 150+ beers more experience added on XD), and also discovered that there was a level of drunkenness that was actually pleasant for me (beyond just a slight buzz, but not quite to the "wobbly and sleepy" stage that I'm not too fond of... my best description for it is "warm and fuzzy." Slight wobbliness acceptable but not required.)

First time visiting a brewery (...or two) with a good friend and first (and so far only... though that will change in August when my sister cracks her bottle open for her birthday and shares some!) time trying Bourbon County Stout are also up there.

 

At a time when I was still very new to craft beer, I had probably only ever tried about 20 different beers, and the highest ABV beer I had ever had was around 9%. So, being the newbie that I was, I wanted to get a good head start by trying the most incredibly awesome beer that I could possibly find.

Inevitably, I ended up scouring through various "best beer" threads on BA and remember seeing Rochefort 10 listed as the very first one on the Best Widely Available beers? thread. It had exceptionally high ratings and an enticingly high ABV of 11.3%, which to me was just mind-blowing; I had never heard of something so extreme.

So, when I saw it on the shelf one day, I was blown away by how expensive it was — the $8 price tag per bottle was astoundingly high for me at the time — but something about it was so irresistibly sexy and charming. It had such a simple yet elegant appearance and looked so goddamn perfect just sitting there next to its two mysterious brethren, each one beautifully color-coded according to a number (green for 6, red for 8, and 10 for blue); it was like beer **** for the OCD mind.

Anyhow, I impulsively bought one without really knowing anything about it, meaning I had no clue what style it was or what country it was from, and in fact I didn't even know what "Trappist beer" was. All I knew was that it looked fancy, it was expensive, it had a really high ABV, and it was rated extremely well... so I had to try it.

The beer glass that I used was an imperial pint glass that had been around for years (it was all I had at the time) and so there were numerous "micro-scratches" all over it, and as we all know, scratches in a beer glass yield a larger head. As a result, it took me about five minutes to pour it because of how fucking massive the head was, but it was still so satisfying to watch.

Normally, I like to take my time and it usually takes me about 1-2 hours just to drink one beer, but this was the exception. It was so incredibly delicious and smooth that I just couldn't resist the urge to keep drinking more of it, and of course it snuck up on me. But it was the best drunk feeling I had ever had: steady and calm and mellow, yet still very intense and in no way sickening or overwhelming; the whole experience was amazing. This made me realize just how much I love beer, and I felt as if I truly understood how good it was capable of being.

 

On beer cation with my wife to Denver area and having a tweek on draft at Avery. What a night!

 

Peche Mortel. I went to stout heaven.

 

Appropriately enough, my first DeuS - Brut des Flandres was a true life changing event for me, opening up for me the way to Belgian beers, and malt-driven beers in general. Before that, Belgians weren't a thing for me as I didn't like the yeast that was in the few I'd tried. Deus, with its extremely low yeast profile, flipped a switch.

 

I have a few,
Sixpoint BengalI tiger (before they dropped the tiger)- first ipa I drank that got me absolutly hooked on them.

Chimay blue- first beer I had that really got me thinking about brewing and what you can do with 4 ingredients. Probablly the beer that made me become a brewer

Kbs- I discovered what barrel aging was all about

 

First left hand milk stout. It was the first time I enjoyed dark beer of any kind and really changed the way I drink.

 

Back in the good ol' days of Goose Island, having a bottle of King Henry.

 

I gave up bottled, canned and keg beers for Lent. Made no difference

 

The best exBEERience I ever had was sharing a 750ml of 2015 Fou Foune with my wife on New Years Day. It was my very first Cantillon. After having that beer I had a look stuck on my face similar to when Kel from Good Burger would have a sip of his Orange Soda.

 

There's Brew Club at Cal ST. G in NYC http://www.calvarystgeorges.org/default.aspx?p=87594&evtid=416241:6/28/2015

It should be in action again soon.

 

My first draft Tripel Karmeliet at Aux Brasseurs in Brussels.... followed bygetting to drink one each of the Westvleteren lineup with dinner and dessert at An Der Vrede, the 8 with the salad, the 10 with the entree and the 12 with a warm apple tart in cream

 

bummer

 

I would proffer that Shane (@Sixpoint ) had a Religious exBEERience here:

 

Trying Brandy-Barrel Hunahpu for the first time was a religious experience for me.

http://youtu.be/VC5qkiREfIo

 

I don't know that I've ever had that epiphany type experience, but I've had some amazing beers over the last 30+ years. Even after all that, I still have new beers than make me sit back, smile, and think what a wonderful world we live in.

The most recent was a local beer from Big Grove Brewery called Trident.. The first time I had it I involuntarily said "Holy Crap". It was spectacular. BGB has been cranking out fantastic beers for quite awhile, but my beef with them is they just keep cranking out small batches of fabulous stuff and then you never see it again. They're mainstays are very good, but the special ones are frequently "one and done", which is both exciting (new ones) and sad (can't get the old ones).

 

August of last year, at the Biergarten in the LA Farmers market. I did not have many beers under my belt and the only craft beer I had was the Kona Longboard, my favorite beer at the time was the Dos Equis Amber. This just blew my mind, the Original Premium <3