A local group of friends gather about once aver two months to do a bottle share. Many people in the group are either in the craft beer industry or part of beer trading groups and seek out a lot of differing beers and breweries and it’s great. Other people in the group get to try beers from regions or styles they otherwise might not have a chance to. (a little intro as it’s my first bottle share post)
Our last nights bottle share was smaller than some in the past featuring only (only!) 16 beers. We’ve learned a few things along the way and one of them was many people have to work the next day when sampling on a Thursday night! Because there are so many beers, I’m doing a very quick summary of my impressions so as not to bore folks too much. So here it goes:
Boulevard Tell Tale Tart: This one was most likely well over a year old, maybe more. Had turned to nail polish/acetone.
Toppling Goliath Fire, Skulls, and Money: Ohhhh so juicy and fresh. Great, as usual.
Bank Brewing Smoke Bomb: As I remembered it, way too smokey and unbalanced. And damn, I LIKE smoke/rauchbeirs!
The Bruery 9 Ladies Dancing: Another that must have been an old, old bottle. The coffee notes had oxidized into a green/jalapeño pepper favor that was not pleasant.
Drekker Ectogasm: I know I’m likely to get crucified for this but this is simply a good, straight forward IPA. Didn’t come off as anything too special. Juicy, pineapple and mango.
Drekker People Eater: An interesting mix of blueberry sour and basil. Fun to pick this one apart. Basil was a bit tough to find though.
Drekker Brain Freeze: – Cherry/Lime Smoothy Sour: This was one of three “holy cow!” beers of the night. Smells of candy (think Jolly ranchers or Haribo gummy bears) and taste like a cherry and lime freeze pop with a touch of lactic sourness. Fun, tasty, and something I’d love to feed people who tell me “oh, all beer tastes the same — like beer!” Definitely not the usual, though some commented it’s like a “girlie” beer. Don’t care, I’ll take as much of this as I can get!
Drekker Broken Rudder: A pretty straight forward, dryish red ale with a bit of lactose. Not sure the lactose helped or competed with the dry component. Meh.
Odell Bull Proof: Wasn’t much of a fan of this one. Lot of alcohol heat and not much in the way of malt, or bourbon, or barrel. Kind of surprising considering who it’s from. Again, meh.
Goose Island Bourbon Country Brand Northwoods Stout: I can almost guarantee this will be my beer of the week. I’ve not thought, nor heard, of a beer using marina before. Initially I would consider it to be incredibly sweet and cloying. Secondly, we were expecting this to be something akin to the Lizard of Koz (another blueberry imperial stout), which was oppressively sweet and obnoxious with the blueberries. Thankfully this was not. Over and over again, we kept going back to how this reminds us all of the holidays and almond cookies, but in the most pleasant way. Wish we didn’t have to “share” this one.
Clown Shoes Breakfast Beast: A solid Russian Imperial coffee stout. Well balanced Imperial stout with bourbon and coffee with a touch of alcohol warming leaves you flush. Though I think this could be made better by adding some maple to it.
Toppling Goliath Light Speed: Not sure if this was an old bottle (again) or what, but this one smelled of cat pee and skunkiness. Don’t remember it being like this the last few times I’ve had it. Pretty straight forward pale ale otherwise.
Roets Jordan Brewing Sour: (not shown, was a growler) The third beer that made us all go “WTF!?”. This beer changed it’s profile dramatically as it warmed up starting with a candy like aroma and sweet tart like favor with habanero heat that was pretty awesome to behold. As the night went on the candy flavors disappeared leaving a strong fruity pineapple, grapefruit, and mango like citrus sweetness. The habanero didn’t let up but a huge punch of saltiness came through later. Strange to experience this in a beer.
Founders Solid Gold: Bud, or Miller, or Keystone. Frat beer made by a craft brewery. Not Impressed as the flavors were as bland and un-noteworthy as the compared examples. I can see what/where they were trying to go with this but in the end, it’s almost a slap in the face of “craft” beer fans.
Well, that’s it for this bottleshare. Can’t wait to see what shows up at the next one, maybe it’ll be warm enough to have it outside at Club D.O.A. Hole’s patio.
Cheers!
