What beer are you drinking now? #2258

2016 is tasting amazing as usual. Flavors of big caramel, raisin, cherry, fig, date, apricot, apple, toffee, brown sugar, brown bread, bourbon, and toasted oak; with lighter notes of molasses, vanilla, coconut, leather, tobacco, and herbal/grassy hops. Light herbal/grassy bitterness and bourbon/oak spiciness on the finish against the sweetness. Light-medium carbonation and medium-full body; with a very creamy, silky, velvety, and lightly slick/syrupy mouthfeel. Lightly drying sticky hops and bourbon/oak tannins, no cloying. Minimal warming ABV or barrel booziness. Love this the most after at least 1 year of age to smooth out the boozy barrel notes. Perfectly balanced. Glad that this just sits on the shelf all year, one of my favorite cellar beers ever. English barleywines are my favorite style, and this is my go-to for the style basically. Price and availability are hard to beat. Still more 2016 4 packs on the shelf some places.


Cheers

 

Cantillon: Kriek (2015)

 

On the second day of Christmas...





Ambrogio Borgognone, 1500

 

Amazing APA. Less than a month old pack picked up this week. Aromas and flavors of big grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, melon, citrus peel/rind, light pepper, and pine hops; with moderate toasted bread, light caramel malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation/body, and fairly crisp/clean finishing. Balanced bready/grainy malts and sticky/resinous/rindy hops in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing resin dryness, no hop astringency. Very refreshing for a pale ale, not overly aggressive. Amazingly juicy, vibrant, dank, and earthy balanced Citra hop complexity; nice bready malt backbone, with no residual sweetness from lingering bitter dryness. Revisited the review recently. One of the best in the style I've had, even though my rating dropped by a large margin.


Cheers

 

Good morning BAs! Glad to see some of you (at least) survived the holiday - hope everything went well for you. Today's New Breakfast Beer is courtesy of @zid - a new brew and a new brewery as well:



An excellent brew, although I think I'm in the "Black IPA" camp on this one.

 

Tasting insane as usual. Aromas and flavors of huge milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, pecan, fudge, marshmallow, biscuit, toasted dark bread, caramel, toffee, molasses, vanilla, cream, and light smoke/charcoal. Light roast/char and herbal hop bitterness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and very full body; with a very smooth, creamy, silky, velvety, and rich mouthfeel that is amazing. Light slickness, chalky roast, and sticky hops. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering hop/char bitterness; never acrid/astringent. Super smooth, minimal warming 11%. Glad these are in cans now, this meets and even surpasses what I remember when I reviewed it in 2016. Pretty much identical to the one brewed in Europe at the time, but this one is a bit less bitter on the roast. Phenomenal. Completely worth the $20 price.


Cheers

 

Happy Boxing Day to you Brits out there.....

Doing a little post holiday tidying up around the Boathouse and enjoying this - surprised so few drink pumpkin brews after Halloween - this is so good, I could drink it anytime!

 

Samuel Smith’s: Extra Stout

 

Recycled pic, but the very last of my 2015 BCBS, shared with my wife, over morning pumpkin pie breakfast. Seriously winning. Happy boxing day!

 

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, enjoying Helles Other People, cheers!

 

A Hunter Vanilla milk stout and cookies for breakfast on a cloudy cold morning. I learned the hard way a few years ago about cellaring some of the Hunter variants and I feared opening this expecting an undrinkable mess. I'm happy to report this bottle that's at least 3 or 4 years old is tasting creamy smooth and decadent. Not much planned today, perhaps a lot of mindless TV viewing? Happy second day of Christmas, Boxing Day and the beginning of Kwanzaa.

 

Time for a beer!



Cheers!

 

Trying to finish up this barrel of The Agent from Kettlehead.

 

Release the hounds....





Cheers!

 

While watching paw patrol with the youngsta

 

Hello Ba ... Enjoying a barrel aged Bison from Homestead Brewing Co. located in Heath Ohio. I had this offering a couple years back and was simply amazed by its flavors. Haven't seen it around anywhere until last week so I just had to grab a bottle. Cheers !

 

Round Guys - Dunkel Lager

 

Setting out with the grandsons. Trampolines, then movies.



Heavy rain overnight, snow in the mountains.

 

Heavy Seas - 23 Anniversary Triple IPA (16oz can).. cheers!