Beer 400 will be remembered as the 2011 Old Stock Ale that knocked my socks off

The final day of a beer every day is upon me. Here it is, the nice big number and beer I wanted to it end with. I chose a beer that would age well so I could revisit a year from today. And it's glorious, a 11.9% old ale from North Coast called the 2011 Old Stock.

I had the 2009 whiskey barrel aged at a Whole Foods tasting with Karl and it was so incredible I bought an additional one to age. It was beyond superb. The 2011 isn't aged in whiskey barrels but still is incredibly smooth, leaving no trace of the orbital alcohol level, and there's a great aroma of butterscotch and tobacco too.

In terms of smoothness and richness, this one is up there with a Trappist quadruple, like a Rochefort or Le Trappe. The flavor profile has chocolate, caramel and brown sugar notes. I could drink something like this for the rest of my days. I love old ales for their unique complexity and this only strengthens my bond with them. Wow. Such a fantastic way to end the year. BAD BOYS rating.

Tonight I leave for a bachelor party in Vegas and will spend the weekend with my brother and college friends. For the first time I won't need to seek out new beers, which is a very odd feeling. It's hard to describe, I've dedicated myself to a daily ritual and now the ritual is gone. I can't say I'm not a little saddened. What's next? Life without a daily beer? Yikes. Like I'm going to let that happen. If my liver had arms he/she/it would be punching me in the face for saying that.

Tuesday I leave for Sydney, Australia, where I'm semi excited to try their beers, which I hear are incredibly malty. It'll be a big change from the hoptastic beers of Southern California. Thank you for following me this year! The beer year may be over, but I'm really excited to continue my exploration in the future.

Stone Levitation arises to the occasion

Last night my brother Warren asked me to be his best man! We've come a long way since this picture, which is my favorite from our childhood. I'll be giving the best man speech in front of nearly 500 people, yikes! I'm for sure going to need some Levitation for that.

This is also the 20th Stone beer of the year and the 2nd to last consecutive beer of the year, 399. It's also my first day of unemployment. My final day in the entertainment industry was yesterday and in a couple weeks I'll be moving to San Francisco and beginning Advertising school! After soaking this in, I realize it's a pretty big day here. Good thing I have a quality Stone with me.

The Levitation is a flavorful 4.4% brown/amber style ale with with a hint of coffee. It has a malty aroma and finishes slightly bitter. I'm not fans of the style but this rises way above. Don't mess with stone and grab a sixer of this for a lazy weekend. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Lost Abbey Carnevale is ready for a summer party

Big news in the Walker household today. And by household I mean me and my beer, because David is in NYC. I changed phone providers and am now the proud owner of an iPhone 4. I have a first generation iPhone in my desk somewhere and I'm excited to rejoin all them cool kids with their fancy phones. Keeping in with the celebration, I'm popping a Carvevale Ale from Lost Abbey! Here's to acquiring as many free applications as I can possibly stomach.

Carnevale is a 6.5% saison/farmhouse ale that pours an enormous head several fingers thick. It smells musty and earthy and once I sloth through the foam I'm tasting one spicy dish. Herb and pepper notes dance around the barn with citrus flavors. What stands out is how much is going on, yet, the beer stays light and refreshing. My palate personally enjoys saisons much more when they're not very tart or fruity, and this has several flavors familiar to a belgian blonde, which I enjoy. It's incredibly drinkable and although they say it's a winter beverage (Carnevale is in February), this would be more suitable for a Mid Summer Night's Dream performance in the park. THE ROCK rating.

Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale can't beat The Art Of Flight

Recovering after the long wedding weekend back home, I'm synergistic my beer with the what we're watching...You love that word, don't even try to hate right now. So David works at Red Bull and is heavily involved with their biggest movie to date, the snowboarding film THE ART OF FLIGHT. The talk is that it will be known as the greatest snowboarding film possibly ever. He's flying to NYC tomorrow for the premiere. I don't snowboard and in fact strongly dislike snowboarders because I ski, but this film looks amazing. Here's the trailer here. The quality of the shots is mind blowing:

I'm also hoping to catch some air with Bear Republic's 6.8% Red Rocket Ale. I love Bear's Racer 5 IPA and I can't believe it's taken me this long to try out its ginger brother.

Who flies a helicopter like that? Crazy people I tell you

Bear is calling this a "Bastardized scottish red ale" and true to form it is more of an amber than a red. The beer is heavy and a little too sweet. There's a very rich caramel and toffee flavor that hits your hard and mixes it up with the hops. The brew contains a similar hop profile as Racer 5 but not as intense. I'm enjoying but it's really all up in my grill, like powder blowing up in the face of these insane snowboarders. This is is not for everyone (David didn't like), but for me I enjoyed. However, for a day drinking hoppy red ale, I'd consider a Drake's Denogganizer first. TRANSFORMERS rating

Iron Fist Uprising inspires peasants to rise up and...drink more Uprising

What happens when we travel down to San Diego for a wedding but there's terrible traffic and I'm late to pick up my tux? Well before anyone gets married we have to stop at a brewery, duh. 

I love it when dad's bring their kids to breweries. It inspires future Walker

Iron Fist is a favorite of David and I's and yours truly especially wants to fill up our growler with their potent Oatmeal Stout, Velvet Glove. Our college friend Gordon is with us and this is his first time to any SoCal breweries.

Iron Fist has a new blend that's cold off the fermenter, a big bad, belgian triple/ipa called UPRISING. This has motherloving 12% alcohol packed into a 10oz snifter. With the clock reading 4pm, I am only now getting over the atomic hangover I incurred last night, and this thing might send me right back to the stone age.

The Uprising has a Paul Bunyon body, big and bold. A sweet yeasty and grainy aroma is followed by a sweet caramel and sharply bittered body. Initially the alcohol doesn't seem very present, merely peeking around the corner, but as the beer warms the glass becomes the perfect storm of sweetness, bitterness and alcohol that threatens to implode my mouth. It's an impressive beer that gets a little ahead of itself.

"Please," the Groom said, "Growler me."

I'm enjoying this but it's a tenacious beer, an 'in your face supporter' of all things intense. David is driving and this put him back on his heels a bit. For me, one glass is all it takes to slay the Goliath...of my hangovers. Back to the water bottle. Still, worth the experience. TRANSFORMERS rating

Nogne O Imperial Stout bottles my Oatmeal Stout

As the Labor Day weekend begins with a half-day at work, I head directly to my temple for my style of Friday Shabbat service at Beverage Warehouse.

This store has been our go-to beer supplier for the year and as you can tell, it is fantastically stocked. These two pictures only represent bottles in the bomber size, there's an entire wall of 4 and six pack options two long to photograph. This will probably be my final time here, as I'm moving to San Francisco shortly after a vacay in Australia, so I'm nostalgically taking pictures and taking the time to wistfully stroke my chin whiskers as I choose my final selections.

I pick out the beer of the day as well as my final, beer 400 beer in 400 days. I chose a beer that has fantastic potential for not only as a symbolic end to my experience, but also to revisit. I chose a 2011 North Coast Old Stock Ale. I plan to drink one next Friday, the 2nd in 6 months, and then the third a year from now. The final beer I will save for David's consumption. Revisiting a single beer as it ages will hopefully have the effect of purposing me to continue drinking and revisiting beers. Stay tuned a week from now to see how the first one does.

Afterward, I head home and bottle my 7th home brew and third partial mash, an Oatmeal Stout, with the help of Lindsey, who's unemployed butt makes itself useful as a bottle cleaner and capper. As always, I was worried about high temperatures, but this one tastes solid. It's a bit watery but the roast comes through nicely. I bottle it a happy homebrewer.

Classy glass for a classy beer

I celebrate with a newly acquired Imperial Stout from Nogne O, a Norwegian brewery. I've heard really great things and I'm excited to make it beer 393, on the day, of my first stout's bottling...

75 IBU's and 9% alcohol, these Norgie brewers don't back down. My first sips reveal an incredibly smooth and balanced product...like, fantastically so. Dark chocolate flavors with a slightly little roast and coffee and brown sugar flavor thrown in for good measure. I'm really enjoying how the hops balance out the malt. Rich but easy to drink -- this is motor oil light. The alcohol is so well hidden it's sneaking up on my brain as I finish the bomber. Half-day Fridays are off to a glorious start! This is strong, subtle and smooth. Absolutely worth the 8 bucks I spent on the bomber. BAD BOYS

Stone 15th Anniversary Imperial Black IPA is back in black

Another day in Hollywood winds down and I'm languishing in the office waiting for an 8:30 dinner. Wednesday next week, which the Milk is for Babies readers will come to know as "Beer/Day #398," will also be my final day working in the entertainment industry. 2 years at talent agencies, 1.5 year as a director's assistant and 1.5 as a producer's assistant and I'm calling it donzos. Advertising Grad school here I come! I'm alone in the office and feeling a bit wistful, wondering if I'll miss reading scripts and actors and directors. And the answer right now is, not really. But at least I'll still have a ton of fun stories...until I forget them.

 

Will I ever look at a script and see not a story but a dead tree? Jeez, that's morbid. Maybe it's the imperial (que John Williams Imperial March theme) black IPA from Stone Brewing. Their 15th anniversary beer is balls to the wall; 10.8% alcohol, bold hops and a beer style that is unusual but quickly gaining popularity, the black IPA.

 

This fella is rich and robust with earthy chocolate flavors and a one-two bitterness punch from the dark roast and hops. The alcohol is well blended with the bitterness. It’s full bodied and a little syrupy, like a very imperial stout, like the Velvet Glove from Iron Fist. Or it could just be that the beer is not very cold. The freezers suck here...

Well, at least mine don't want me to be the Keymaster. None of the beer's elements, as in your face as the dark roast and west coast hops can be, are overwhelming. It is intense though, so people who can't handle big beers, stand clear of the road. However, if you know Stone, you know that they're unapologetic in this regard. If you love the brashness and boldness of Stone Ruination, Arrogant Bastard (and especially Double Bastard), you will want to jump on the highway and say "HIT ME" with this one. It's unique, finely crafted and something to behold. BAD BOYS rating.

There’s a new wave of black IPA’s out there, I’ve tasted several just in the last couple of months, and once last year from Deschutes which was excellent (post). I don't think all IPA lovers will enjoy them, evidenced by David's unwelcoming embrace, but I really enjoy them. The style is tough to pull off but if done correctly, there is such a unique complexity from the roast and hops. I highly recommend trying the next one you see.

Btw, do you think as a father I'll be that weird dad who sings "400 beers on the wall, take one down pass it around, 399 beers on the wall. It was an imperial ipa and the rating was..." to help them sleep? The answer is no, because my future wife or ex-wife, depending on how the cookie crumbles, would kill me. I'll just have to make him read my blog when he's 11.