Straffe Hendrik Quadruple pre-parties Daman's 21st birthday

Because we're gearing up for a big night, David brings out one of the big dogs, albeit in a small bottle. Straffe Hendrick makes a fantastic Tripel, and the Quadruple below is his stronger and darker brother.

Balcony beeeer

I wasn't initially impressed with this fellow probably until I realized my expectations were exceptionally high, ruined by one of the worlds greatest and another quadruple, Rochefort 10 (Rochefort 10 is Transcendent). I came in expecting a certain complexity and richness, and it simply wasn't there. It is however, a sublimely subtle and sweet quadruple that despite its 10% alcohol, isn't full bodied or tastes alcoholic. It's smooth and surprisingly easy to drink. It's a very well crafted beer and deserves THE ROCK rating.

So tonight, David's intern Daman is turning 21, and their company decided to reward their hardest working unpaid intern with a party bus and a night on the town for 24 friends. Today we picked up enough handles of liquor to satiate 24 twenty-one year olds, which was enough to require us each three trips to unload from the car. I was expecting a pretty ridiculous night and the evening didn't let me down.

I'm 28 and I haven't partied with 21 year olds since I was in college. Anyone want to guess how much liquor them kids drank? We picked the birthday boy up at 10pm and he already had 11 notches on his forearm, one for every shot he'd taken. By 11:30 it was up to 17. Daman is apparently a cross between Frank the Tank and The Little Engine That Could because in a feat of superhuman strength, he didn't get sick and lasted the entire night.

So besides the overeager 21 year olds, a coworker's wife brought members of her rotary club to the bar (a business club). One guy was described to me over the phone as a Diamond Dealer with a Napolean complex and he was hell bent on buying the entire group group shots. There was a silver haired man who introduced himself to me with a 5 step handshake that I thought only a 16 year old stoner could design. They were stoked to be there and it was glorious. The whole experience was wild and surreal. There's this really weird mix of people my parents age doing shots with people my age who were mixing it up with kids who were born in the 90's and didn't grow up watching Saved By The Bell reruns. Such a trip. David and I ended up going to bed at dawn, which as I type this Monday, was probably several hours later than I should have. David's hilarious facebook status at 5:30am Sunday morning was, "Computer Blue." Shutdown

Well, go big or go home. Or go big and then go home, and keep going big. I think that's what the kids are saying these days...