On Monday evening I obtained 2 bottles of Dogfish Head's "Chateau Jiahu," made from a 9,000-year-old recipe (yes, like, Neolithic).
Can't wait to try it!
How was it?
Haven't opened it yet -- been too tired after work this week. I'll submit a full report, have no fears!
As promised:
Chateau Jiahu is midway between a mead, a wine, and a beer. It's got a musty, fermented honey taste, but not too sweet, and in the aftertaste you can really taste the hawthorn fruit. It's very fizzy, and leaves a nice Belgian lace in the glass. And it packs a serious whallop, alcohol-wise (10% bv). They seriously knew what they were doing back in the Neolithic (~7,000 BC). I'm now thankful that ancient China developed pottery simultaneously with music and agriculture.
In fact, I was impressed enough that I splurged on a case of Dogfish Head's "Midas Touch," another Ancient Ale based on a recipe from the tomb of King Midas of Phrygia (ca. 8th century BC). It tastes like a very straightforward mead-beer hybrid; the ingredients are listed as "barley, honey, Muscat grapes, and saffron." It's also something like 9% alcohol bv. The good news with this one is that it's available in 12-oz. bottles, so I can easily give some away to friends; the Jiahu is only sold in 750-mL bottles.
Cool!
I picked up a home made apple pie flavored "malt beverage" with 14% abv at a gas station upstate. What could go wrong?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I picked up a home made apple pie flavored "malt beverage" with 14% abv at a gas station upstate. What could go wrong?
Everything.
|
Burping quietly away next to me is the porter I put down this weekend. In a few weeks it will be time to add the American oak medium toast cubes soaked in Eagle Rare bourbon. This baby is probably about 6 months from the table but when its ready its divine.
I love the way you work, good sir! When the zombiepocalypse happens, we'll eat you last.
|
You have made a lot of promises to a lot of people about eating them last sir. I am beginning to think you are not being truthful.
KONA Beer : Golden Wave reminds me of the beer LightShip which I liked a lot, was the Sam Adams light beer originally not available any more.
It is a lighter beer so I enjoy it more in the summer warm times.
OKell's Aile (?), a porter from the Isle of Man, which is an odd place, should you ever visit it. Anyway, quite nice - very smoky-tasting - and I'm drinking it out of a deity-blasted pewter tankard, too, in true folk singer style.
KONA Beer : Golden Wave reminds me of the beer LightShip which I liked a lot, was the Sam Adams light beer originally not available any more.
It is a lighter beer so I enjoy it more in the summer warm times.
For me, I really enjoy the citrus-like taste of hops, but I'm not a fan of bitter beer. Golden Wave was very hoppy in flavor without being bitter, so I really enjoyed it. I agree, a great summer beer.
|
For me, I really enjoy the citrus-like taste of hops, but I'm not a fan of bitter beer. Golden Wave was very hoppy in flavor without being bitter, so I really enjoyed it. I agree, a great summer beer.KONA Beer : Golden Wave reminds me of the beer LightShip which I liked a lot, was the Sam Adams light beer originally not available any more.
It is a lighter beer so I enjoy it more in the summer warm times.
Last year I made an IPA from hops that came from New Zealand. Sounds like its right up your alley. Called the Northern brewer kiwi express. If we ever get game going ill bring some if I have any.
Just tried Chatoe Rogue for the first time; had their Dirtoir Black Lager. I never drank their stuff before because it looked like George Clooney on the labels. Anyway this one is a black lager and it was pretty good as these things go, though a little weak in my opinion. Still I just really like slap you in the face dark beers. Anyone know how to figure ABV though on Rogue's beers? All I know for certain about this brew is that it has 35 IBU and goes well with fish. This of course does me no good as I paired it with pizza and wings (I'm going to hell).
Jack's Abbey has been treating me well lately. I'm not sure what their distribution is like, but they're based in Framingham MA
Was very surprised by the Mayflower Golden Ale -- I love their porter too, but I transitioned to six packs of golden ale after trying them in the mix pack.
Notch, Notch, and more Notch.
Bourbon Barrel stout homebrew is almost gone. Four 16 ounce bottles remain. It keeps getting better, but I keep drinking it. :(
For the record "Great american apple pie" was the weird thing in a mason jar.
It had a weird beery taste, then an apple pie taste, then a burning alchohol taste. Never ate anything that had that much delay and distinct flavors with so much time in between them.
For my bday, I had Clown Shoe's "Ride the Lion." The label depicts a woman, dressed up like she's in Braveheart riding the lion. It's brewed in bourbon barrels and well...it tasted like whiskey. And at almost 12%, it's pretty potent.
Everyone keeps telling me about Shiner Bock so I bought a 12 pack of that when I finally saw it at the local grocery store. Pretty good, but rather expensive. I am enjoying that my usual weekly grocery store is carrying some German beers finally and cheaper than the store I usually have to go to find them.
Everyone keeps telling me about Shiner Bock
Shiner Bock is, to me, the Texas equivalent of Pennsylvania's Yeungling -- it's not all that great, but it's at least drinkable, and it's readily available in its home area in all kinds of places that otherwise would be serving only Bud Lite, so you're always incredibly grateful that it exists. I don't keep Yeungling in the house now, and I never kept Shiner on hand when in lived in Texas, but I've had more pints of both of them than I can easily count, and was glad every time that I wasn't reduced to a choice between American-Style Piss and no beer at all.
I'm enjoying 2 different Summit offerings tonight. One is their Oktoberfest which I have to say I didn't care for as it was a bit heavy and their Bohemian Style Pilsner. I'm really liking the pils but I think it's a perfect storm of situational modifiers.
Up here in MN right now it's 50 degrees and windy - PERFECT weather for me but my wife is under the weather with a cold. As a result all the windows are sealed and the heat is CRANKED! Plus I just took some fresh-ish salmon out of the oven. Hot forced air, baked fish and steamed rice and veggies - the crisp, clean pilsner is like liquid fresh air at this point. I think maybe I sit out on the deck, crack another one and get my chill on before settling in.
@ Pan: no I haven't. I've tried other Shells but haven't been wowed. I'll have to try these 2 though and give them another shot. I LOVE this thread!
Everyone keeps telling me about Shiner BockShiner Bock is, to me, the Texas equivalent of Pennsylvania's Yeungling -- it's not all that great, but it's at least drinkable, and it's readily available in its home area in all kinds of places that otherwise would be serving only Bud Lite, so you're always incredibly grateful that it exists. I don't keep Yeungling in the house now, and I never kept Shiner on hand when in lived in Texas, but I've had more pints of both of them than I can easily count, and was glad every time that I wasn't reduced to a choice between American-Style Piss and no beer at all.
Ha! I know exactly what you are saying. I had a business trip in Leesburg, VA and it was literally the choice between Bud and its equivalents or Yeungling. I feel the same way- it's drinkable but not my first choice. My relatives in MA get all excited over it like the other people I know get excited for Shiner Bock (which at $17.50 for a 12 pack isn't going to be on my list any time soon).
|
|
I always like a nice, light beer whilst grilling. Since I got my new grill, it's been Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager. Sadly, I ran out of that, so I opened up the 12 pack of Miller Lite I keep in the beer fridge in case of visitors who might not like the craft brews I usually drink. I'd forgotten how simple and pleasant Miller can be.
Abita? Are you from the Louisiana area?
My parents brought us back a bunch of Abita stuff back when they were doing disaster relief. I found it has an unusual flavor... not good or bad, just different.
|
|
I'm originally from Louisiana. When I was a much younger man is when Abita was first making it big. But I wasn't introduced to the Strawberry Harvest Lager until after I moved to Philly and came home for an early summer visit. It's one of their once a year beers - limited availability.
After that, I would get a few cases every year during the less than a month timeframe it was available in Philly. Most of the other staple Abita beers were always available (Turbo Dog, Amber).
Now I live it Texas. The Abita specials have a longer availability time.
I used to really like Dixie Blackened Voodoo. It was fun looking for the word "S A T A N" in the trees on the label.
Love Abida's Turbo Dog, and the amber isn't bad. Andygator and purple haze were a little disappointing after that. I was pleasantly surprised to find their Mardi Gras Bock (very nice) and Christmas Ale (OK) up here in PA.
Girth does Dixie Blackened Voodoo no longer exist? Or do you just not like it any more?
I haven't seen it in years. The brewery was destroyed during Katrina, but apparently another brewery, Heiner Brau, was given the recipe and licensed to produce it. Article here.
Looking forward to this weekend; I hope to do an Oktoberfest beer taste-test with the offerings from Spaten, Paulaner, Samuel Adams, Penn Brewery, and possibly the local Rivetowne Pour House. I looked for Hacker-Pschorr and Ayinger as well, but alas, my local distributor went overboard with pumpkin beers and neglected the Oktoberfest ones.
Somehow I strongly suspect that Paulaner will be the clear winner, but I am quite willing to be convinced otherwise.
I've got a bottle of Sam Smith's which I'll be sampling shortly too - it's the chocolate stout, though. Not overly fond of having my beer taste like pudding, but Sam Smith's is normally pretty reliable (there's a pub in Bradford that serves it on draught... Sigh of longing...)
I saw J.Roddy Walston and the biz in a small club here in Minneapolis on Monday. Shockingly expensive taps! 12oz 7 dollars I only had one then retreated after the show to a pub down the street. Summit oatmeal stout on tap 16oz for 3 bucks. Oh club jagger what a life saver.
Y'know what Pan? You're fired. You brag about seeing such an awesome show and hitting a nice bar afterwards and don't even have the decency to throw out a PM invite or nothin? I'm not sayin I'm just sayin; I wasn't doin anything Thursday night...
Honestly though I'm just jealous. Glad you had fun and found a decent tap. Most places, even in the burbs are insane for tap beer. A pub near my house in Plymouth: $5 for 2 Surly Hell for happy hour, but then it shoots up to $6 a mug! Seriously?
Funnel cake brew I don't know how I feel about that yet, but I'm gonna try it. Fair opens next weekend. I'll let y'all know.
Had an Oktoberfest tasting yesterday afternoon, with two German ones (Paulaner and Spaten) and two American ones (Penn Brewery and Samuel Adams). I rated Paulaner #1, but my trusty drinking companion preferred the Penn Brewery, as it lacked the "skunky"/slighty-metallic aftertaste common to German and Dutch beers. Sam Adams was okay but not great; third place. I normally like Spaten's regular lager, but their Oktoberfest we both thought was substandard; it came in last.
|
My brother has been working for a couple of hours getting the cellar organized, this is about 1/3 of the collection (we think, last count was about 400 bottles between us, he collects singles, I collect cases).
We drank a lot of Crooked Stave Surette yesterday, that I think was the highlight of the week for us. Evil Twin Imperial Doughnut Break was a not so close second.
|
|
I saw J.Roddy Walston and the biz in a small club here in Minneapolis on Monday. Shockingly expensive taps! 12oz 7 dollars I only had one then retreated after the show to a pub down the street. Summit oatmeal stout on tap 16oz for 3 bucks. Oh club jagger what a life saver.Y'know what Pan? You're fired. You brag about seeing such an awesome show and hitting a nice bar afterwards and don't even have the decency to throw out a PM invite or nothin? I'm not sayin I'm just sayin; I wasn't doin anything Thursday night...
Honestly though I'm just jealous. Glad you had fun and found a decent tap. Most places, even in the burbs are insane for tap beer. A pub near my house in Plymouth: $5 for 2 Surly Hell for happy hour, but then it shoots up to $6 a mug! Seriously?
All Grumpys locations have 2 buck micro-brew pints on Monday nights!
Sarna's on university has 3 dollar Guiness on Thursdays.
When the bank is really busted La Casita Wednesdays has 3 buck dos equis tallboys, bogo tequila shots, and buck tacos.
Just got out of the BWCA (6 days of wilderness) and enjoying a Bent Paddle Black Ale. A very dark porter, almost but not quite to stout smoothness territory. Its no Silver City Panther Lake, but its pretty good.
As long as it isn't an IPA, my favorite is whatever Kirth was serving on game day.
You would accuse me of serving IPA?! Them's fightin' words.