What beer are you drinking now? #165

Hoplar!

 

Decided to go with a couple more since I'm not quite where I thought I would be yet.




The Hoplar actually inspired me enough to write my first ever review on the site. What an amazing beer! I've drank most everything from Hardywood and this was my favorite so far> Cheers!

 

You beat me to it by just a touch. Great beer! Cheers!

 

Nice. I can get down with that. GLBC's prices are always beyond reasonable too, I think, so I'll keep an eye out.

 

Watching the Tigers/Twins game and enjoying this great brew.

 

SN Narwhal

 

Great minds think alike! This is my first of the season. Pretty good so far...

 

Thanks Shamrock, for noting this on BA. I've noted this too. I think it is a wrong move, for IPA's at least. My bottle store has a mix of Nov-Dec and then undated specimens. The present, freshest bottles, are undated and have no printing on the cap...these seem freshest to me. Good luck telling what is fresh in six months! Still, I love this brew and would like the date to be brought back; truthfully I've seen older dates on Siren (not my favorite style generally), and that might have caused some inventory problems for them, resulting in the current change. That said, I think it's only fair for IPA's to have a date....I'm more likely to buy 'em when I know they're within two month (preferably younger).

And yes you are correct, this is a very, very good IPA....get this very fresh and it's crazy good!

 

Chimay..................... the Blue one!

 

Round 2 doesn't disappoint either. Can't wait to go back to VT.

 

A bourbon barrel aged porter aged in solera bourbon barrels from Hill Rock distillery in Ancram, NY.

 

De Struise flight featuring 2011 Pannepot Reserva, St. Amatus, Single Black Damnation, and Double Black Damnation. Sorry for the lack of a pic.

 

Working my way through these.



I've already made my blind taste verdict, though. Marked the bottles and glasses, removed the bottles, did a little shell game shuffle, then came back to the table without looking at the glasses and tasted all of them with my eyes closed.

If you've never done a blind tasting, you really should. Amazing how much your own personal biases and past experiences come into play. Pretty enlightening and something I try to remember when buying/drinking beers. Last time I did this with very hoppy IPAs/IIPAs and was surprised with the results. Was a little surprised this time, but not a whole lot to surprise me with just three beers.

 

Cheers!

 

I've had great examples of this, and so so examples too! Maybe Shamrock is on to something here......seems to be a freshness or batch variation thing going on here. It can be very, very good. It can be also, you know....

 

What were the results? FBS, Java Stout, NG Coffee?

 

Always awesome!