Grass Roots Brewing - Artic Sasion

So I came across this nifty Ale as part of the beer of the month club.

It's nose is light and lemon grassy, it's a cloudy blonde in color with a loose head that is explained by the Bret that it;s brewed with. There is not much malt flavor, but the hops do stand up to funkiness. It's actually not too funky, it has a pleasant mouth forward flavor and mouth feel, but it's actually pretty clean straight forward ale.

It's also apparently fermented in oak, but that is mercifully subtle as well. 

This is worth posting

So yeah....

I've been pretty bad about posting lately... Been busy. Got married, and the wife is pregnant.

BUT I am still out there sampling and enjoying....

And I enjoyed this... a lot.

I'll be back, though I think the focus might change a bit.

Samuel Adams - 2011 Infinium Ale

Wandering through my local packy this weekend I stumbled upon a new (to me) offering from Sam Adams.

Apparently a bunch of their brewers spent the last two years working with the worlds oldest brewery, Weihenstephan, to create a new category of beer. According to their packaging they have created a "Champagne-like beer with fine bubbles and a fruity, spicy aroma. It's light malt character is balance by the Noble hops that impart a soft citrus and floral flavor."

So what should you expect?

Ron Zacapa Sistema Solera 23

So generally speaking I don't like rum.

I probably had one too many "capt'n and cokes" in college or something and I'm not giving rum a fair shake; but when I think rum, I think, "daiquir", I think "punch", I think "sweet monstrosity", and mostly I think "headache".

On the recommendation of Geoff I'm working my way through a bottle of Pusser's rum and it's Okay. This summer Sioux and I went on a caprihina jag fueled by a bottle of Beleza de Minas Cachaça,but frankly that's in a whole other category. Mostly, I just don't like rum.

That was of course until I was introduced to Ron Zacapa.

White Birch Brewing - Quad

In an earlier post I mentioned that Wally Liquors is carrying White Birch Beer. You didn't think that I just noticed that and failed to pick some up, did you?

This time around I grabbed their Quad. It's a Belgian Ale, but not in the intensely sour way that some Belgian beers are. This is well balanced, with a bit of the Belgian funk, but more hop and caramel character than anything. Sioux's entire review of it was "It's good. . . A little malty at the end, but still good" and if you knew how much Sioux dis-likes malt you would know that this speaks volumes.

The Quad is malty. It's also hoppy. Mostly it's flavorful. Flavorful, and strong. In fact another testament to it's flavor (and the power there of) is that you don't really notice the 11% abv until the very end of a sip, and then the alcohol burn is mistaken for a clean almost minty flavor. ( or perhaps I swallow too much mouth wash . . .)

This is a meat beer. Rich flavorful steaks. With steak sauce, and garlic mash potatoes. and a cigar. I'm going to have this again and pair it with a cigar . . . but now I'm going to go to bed. This is one bomber (22oz bottle) that will get you bombed.

I'm going to rate this a 4.7, and recommend that you try some soon. They only made 900 bottles of this batch . . . and I can confirm that there are not more than 899 left.

CAO Black - one of my top 5

So the Epicurean and I were sitting on the back porch at work - gotta love small companies - when we both decided that a glass of Ardmore Highland Single Malt, (non-chill filtered, peated, 46% alcohol by volume) and a cigar would be a good thing. Now the Ardmore is an unusual combination of sweet in the nose and front of the tongue, fire from the alcohol, and smoke from the peat. Not as smoky as one of my beloved Islay malts, but very enjoyable nonetheless.

I reached into my copious coolerdor and fished out a couple of 5" CAO Black cigars (apparently named "Storm") with their cedar sleeves still intact . CAO Blacks are a top-5 for me for three reasons: a tremendous consistency from cigar to cigar, medium bodied smoke with hints of cedar and leather, and an ability to stay smokeable down to the nub. It features a Connecticut-seed Ecuador-grown wrapper, with habano filler from Nicaragua and Mexico. It's got good solid flavor throughout.

But this cigar won't destroy a newcomer to cigars. In fact, it would be a lovely way to descend into this particular vice. When smoked slowly, it is very mild. The Epicurean thought it was a decent smoke too, perhaps a bit light for him, although he shredded the wrapper pretty fast on this one. At least he didn't eat it.

For me, a must-have in the humidor. 4.5 out of 5!

The Great Divide Mix Pack

Normally Sioux and I don't keep a lot of bottled beer in the fridge. It's generally whatever is left over from the last event. We have beer in the kegerator, and some 22oz bombers of specialty beers that we want to try. (We actually go through the beer in the kegerator slower than we do beer in bottles... we're too lazy to make sure we get a full pour.)

This weekend was different. We were going to the first ever "Jay Lane Summer Games"--a cook out with bracketed tournaments for the three B's (badminton, bocce and bean bag toss) and as such we were going to need more portable beverage choices.