BEER!
ENOUGH OF THIS EARNEST ACTIVISM -- LET'S TALK ABOUT BEER!
Because I belong to a couple of beer snob sites and lists and etc. I was invited to a tasting of 4 limited edition hotsy-totsy beers at the Sam Adams brewery. One was a Chocolate Chili Bock called "The Vixen" at 8.5% Alcohol by volume and 80 International Bitterness Units. One was an oaked blonde barleywine called "Griffin's Bow" at 11.5 ABV and 45 IBU. Third was "Tasmin Red" IPA, 6.75 ABV and 50 IBU, and fourth was "Third Voyage" Double IPA at 8 ABV and 85 IBU.
I know and you know that I expected to love the IPAs, be intrigued by the barleywine and terrified by the chocolate chili concoction. IT WAS TOTALLY THE OTHER WAY AROUND.
A beer snob tastes the way a wine snob tastes, from the lightest flavor to the fullest, so you taste by the IBUs. (The best thing about beer vs wine tasting is no spitting!) So I started with the barleywine, which was surprisingly smooth and light, like a rounder chardonnay without the crispy bits. It also had the nice straw color of a good chardonnay. There was fruit and honey in the taste but no citrus at all, and you still managed to get the barley in your back palate which kept it from being mead-like. The alcohol creep was insidious because it has about the same ABV as most wines rather than beers, and also like wine the carbonation was very low and there was almost no head whatsoever (go on, make "head" jokes, everyone does!). There were hors d'ouevres pairings with all the beers -- one savory and one sweet; this was a veggie quesadilla. All the sweets were minicupcakes by one of those trendy shops. The cupcake for this one had ginger and malt and grapefruit... not to my taste. The quesadilla was just the usual and it didn't seem to have anything to do with the beer. What I would have this beer with is Thanksgiving dinner!
Oh, and I forgot to tell you the best part of the tasting was Boy was with me and he doesn't drink beer and was my designated driver and I got to drink all his tastings too! DOUBLE BEER GOODIES. Oh, and they served SEVEN OUNCE POURS! Which is why I ended up rather drinky. :D Boy ate his own munchies.
Next I did the IPAs because I was afraid of the chocolate chili bock (and also it was the heaviest taste). So I went to the Tasmin Red and it was simply boring. Boring. I'm not fond of red ales in the first place because, boring. (The only red ale I'll drink is Sam Adams Brick Red, which is a special ale you only get on draft in some Boston pubs; finding it is like a treasure hunt. ) This one called itself a "red IPA" because it was supposed to be hoppy. Had a creamy head (YES I KNOW) and a really nice deep ruby-russet color, both more like a red ale than an IPA. Still, it tasted boring, so thumbs down. The best part about this beer was it was paired with mac n cheese! Boy's mac n cheese is better, but MAC N CHEESE. The cupcake had walnuts and butterscotch chips, which was also better than the beer.
Then the Third Voyage Double IPA. Typical "pale ale" color, typical lacy head. Then it slammed my palate with so much hops that I couldn't taste anything else. :P The handout crowed about the Cascade hops, but didn't mention any other types. This is obviously the brewery's entry in the Pacific Northwest style superhopped IPA pissing contest. Sorry boys, you're behind times; that's so last year! However, it was paired with an aged sheep's milk cheese that was absolutely perfect; the best pairing of the night. It had a strong taste that was still smooth enough to cut the hops insanity. Boy doesn't like strong cheeses, so I got his as well! All the cupcakes were gone.
Then the Vixen bock. I APPROACHED THIS WITH TREPIDATION but then I took one taste and OMG MAGNIFICENT. I tend not to be fond of strong dark bocks and stouts because to me a lot of them taste like used coffee grounds and cigarette ash. So I approached this one like, chocolate and chili? Give me a break; all it needed was sea salt to be the trend of the moment. But seriously, holy shit! A color like black coffee, and a huge amazing head (YEAH YEAH) like Guinness, where you could almost eat it with a spoon, like pudding. And then the taste: it's like a good perfume with top, middle and bottom notes. It doesn't taste like chocolate at all except in the smooth deep richness at the front of your palate -- well, maybe there is a touch of chocolate in there, but it doesn't say HA HA CHOCOLATE BEER. Then in the middle you get malty caramel toasty flavors, and then at the end, at the back of your palate almost after you swallow, there's just a teensy tingle like from a smoky chile that's nothing at all like tabasco, you know? It's like that gum from Willy Wonka's factory, a meal in a single swallow, but it doesn't turn you into a blueberry like that horrid girl. Again, the cupcakes were long gone; they paired it with a chicken mole that was so ridiculously redundant that I didn't try it. I drank it with the rest of my cheese, and it was great. And then I realized: just like the barleywine is for Thanksgiving dinner, the bock is for the leftover sandwich the next day when you pile the turkey and the stuffing and the cranberry all together. The meal in a sandwich paired with the meal in the beer!
And then I was drunk and we went home. The end.
This entry was originally posted at http://spiderine.dreamwidth.org/507995.html. There are
comments over there. I've disabled LJ's Facebook and Twitter cross-posting idiocy as much as I can, but if you're especially concerned, feel free to comment there.
Because I belong to a couple of beer snob sites and lists and etc. I was invited to a tasting of 4 limited edition hotsy-totsy beers at the Sam Adams brewery. One was a Chocolate Chili Bock called "The Vixen" at 8.5% Alcohol by volume and 80 International Bitterness Units. One was an oaked blonde barleywine called "Griffin's Bow" at 11.5 ABV and 45 IBU. Third was "Tasmin Red" IPA, 6.75 ABV and 50 IBU, and fourth was "Third Voyage" Double IPA at 8 ABV and 85 IBU.
I know and you know that I expected to love the IPAs, be intrigued by the barleywine and terrified by the chocolate chili concoction. IT WAS TOTALLY THE OTHER WAY AROUND.
A beer snob tastes the way a wine snob tastes, from the lightest flavor to the fullest, so you taste by the IBUs. (The best thing about beer vs wine tasting is no spitting!) So I started with the barleywine, which was surprisingly smooth and light, like a rounder chardonnay without the crispy bits. It also had the nice straw color of a good chardonnay. There was fruit and honey in the taste but no citrus at all, and you still managed to get the barley in your back palate which kept it from being mead-like. The alcohol creep was insidious because it has about the same ABV as most wines rather than beers, and also like wine the carbonation was very low and there was almost no head whatsoever (go on, make "head" jokes, everyone does!). There were hors d'ouevres pairings with all the beers -- one savory and one sweet; this was a veggie quesadilla. All the sweets were minicupcakes by one of those trendy shops. The cupcake for this one had ginger and malt and grapefruit... not to my taste. The quesadilla was just the usual and it didn't seem to have anything to do with the beer. What I would have this beer with is Thanksgiving dinner!
Oh, and I forgot to tell you the best part of the tasting was Boy was with me and he doesn't drink beer and was my designated driver and I got to drink all his tastings too! DOUBLE BEER GOODIES. Oh, and they served SEVEN OUNCE POURS! Which is why I ended up rather drinky. :D Boy ate his own munchies.
Next I did the IPAs because I was afraid of the chocolate chili bock (and also it was the heaviest taste). So I went to the Tasmin Red and it was simply boring. Boring. I'm not fond of red ales in the first place because, boring. (The only red ale I'll drink is Sam Adams Brick Red, which is a special ale you only get on draft in some Boston pubs; finding it is like a treasure hunt. ) This one called itself a "red IPA" because it was supposed to be hoppy. Had a creamy head (YES I KNOW) and a really nice deep ruby-russet color, both more like a red ale than an IPA. Still, it tasted boring, so thumbs down. The best part about this beer was it was paired with mac n cheese! Boy's mac n cheese is better, but MAC N CHEESE. The cupcake had walnuts and butterscotch chips, which was also better than the beer.
Then the Third Voyage Double IPA. Typical "pale ale" color, typical lacy head. Then it slammed my palate with so much hops that I couldn't taste anything else. :P The handout crowed about the Cascade hops, but didn't mention any other types. This is obviously the brewery's entry in the Pacific Northwest style superhopped IPA pissing contest. Sorry boys, you're behind times; that's so last year! However, it was paired with an aged sheep's milk cheese that was absolutely perfect; the best pairing of the night. It had a strong taste that was still smooth enough to cut the hops insanity. Boy doesn't like strong cheeses, so I got his as well! All the cupcakes were gone.
Then the Vixen bock. I APPROACHED THIS WITH TREPIDATION but then I took one taste and OMG MAGNIFICENT. I tend not to be fond of strong dark bocks and stouts because to me a lot of them taste like used coffee grounds and cigarette ash. So I approached this one like, chocolate and chili? Give me a break; all it needed was sea salt to be the trend of the moment. But seriously, holy shit! A color like black coffee, and a huge amazing head (YEAH YEAH) like Guinness, where you could almost eat it with a spoon, like pudding. And then the taste: it's like a good perfume with top, middle and bottom notes. It doesn't taste like chocolate at all except in the smooth deep richness at the front of your palate -- well, maybe there is a touch of chocolate in there, but it doesn't say HA HA CHOCOLATE BEER. Then in the middle you get malty caramel toasty flavors, and then at the end, at the back of your palate almost after you swallow, there's just a teensy tingle like from a smoky chile that's nothing at all like tabasco, you know? It's like that gum from Willy Wonka's factory, a meal in a single swallow, but it doesn't turn you into a blueberry like that horrid girl. Again, the cupcakes were long gone; they paired it with a chicken mole that was so ridiculously redundant that I didn't try it. I drank it with the rest of my cheese, and it was great. And then I realized: just like the barleywine is for Thanksgiving dinner, the bock is for the leftover sandwich the next day when you pile the turkey and the stuffing and the cranberry all together. The meal in a sandwich paired with the meal in the beer!
And then I was drunk and we went home. The end.
This entry was originally posted at http://spiderine.dreamwidth.org/507995.html. There are
comments over there. I've disabled LJ's Facebook and Twitter cross-posting idiocy as much as I can, but if you're especially concerned, feel free to comment there.