David and Walker are drinking a different beer each day* for an entire year, 365 beers in all, starting August 5th, 2010. We're writing about our daily regime to share the experiences and delicious discoveries with our friends and mild acquaintances to inspire YOU to bring previously unknown beers to your lips. (*limit one new beer per day consumed before midnight, no catch up days allowed)
The Bruery's Snicklefritz is named after a minor but beloved line from PINEAPPLE EXPRESS by James Franco's character to Seth Rogan's.
He ain't getting any
of that Pineapple Express.(snidely)
Chris is getting Snicklefritz.
It's just a hilarious name, right? Say it out loud and languish over the words and if you don't giggle, then go enjoy a crossjoint and then repeat it. Will work every time. Here's my favorite scene from the movie, which is the opening. Bill Hader puts me in stitches every time, especially his musical interlude at :30.
The beer itself won second place in The Bruery's home brew Batch#50 contest several years ago (I recently had their last home brew winner, Batch 300, last week). It's a Belgian-Style Strong Pale ale spiced with cardamom, ginger, juniper berries and coriander, along with a long line of zests including lemon, orange and grapefruit. We tasted it at The Bruery last Saturday and I'm eager to give it a thorough once over.
Three characteristics in particular jump out at me; the aroma, the fullness of body and its complexity. The beer pours a dark golden color with a finger of head. The aroma has robust spice notes including cinnamon, as well as a slight yeasty smell. I'm not used to full bodied beers from the Bruery and this is a welcome change. Accordingly, the Snicklefritz's complexity quickly captures my attention. The spices compliment a sweet, slightly caramel body and a mild apple flavor. This is a distinctly Belgian style brew ha ha, that adds in enough spice to embarrass any Winter Warmer. I'm dually impressed they were able to achieve this complexity without overwhelming your palate or ruin the delicious Belgian body.
This is something to enjoy wrapped up in a blanket and sipped on while listening to good music, so you can spend time sifting through the library of spice and flavor. THE ROCK rating.
David's been saving this AleSmith since December 2010 and we're hoping to compare it to a newer Horny Devil soon. The room is filling with great irony as Warren, David and I are watching Louie C.K.'s latest episode, which is entirely focused upon the topic of masturbation. This season of LOUIE has been outrageously funny. This is the opening sequence from tonight's episode:
Louie is awesome, but the Fox News reporter gets a few jabs in as well, "Shakespeare definitely masturbated" being my favorite. Onto the beer! And Louie's "O" Face...oh oh oh
This is an 11% belgian golden strong brewed with coriander. The spice is deftly utilized with a soft touch. There's a light yeast aroma and the flavor is smooth and slightly sweet, not a lot of caramel going on but a very balanced sweetness. The alcohol is skillfuly hidden as well. This is a nectar of the gods. Did Michelangelo brew this ale? I'm very excited to see what an un-aged 2011 Horny Devil is like. BAD BOYS rating.
Every once in a while, a bad apple comes along - a 'corked' wine bottle, a lemon car, the latest carnation of the Hawaii 5-0 televisions show. The beer world is not immune to failure and in pouring Iron Fist's Golden Age, David and I realized that at some point, this beer had crossed over from being a delicious and refreshing treat to something that needed to be poured out.
It's 9.5% alcohol but the only defining characteristic is an overwhelming yeasty flavor. David looked up other reviews and confirmed our suspicion that it was a bad bottle, because this brew had solid reviews and fail to mention yeast. Bad batches happen from time to time. This was especially hard to drink entirely because the yeast flavor Dominated. Yuck. TRANSFORMERS 2 rating.
But I'm not letting a bad beer get in the way of a good time, because David, Karl and Laura are all going to The Hollywood Bowl to watch Hall & Oates belt out their smooth and easy sounds. Take me away Daryl!
If there is one thing Karl and Laura know how to do, it is picnic the Hollywood Bowl. They brought 5 different kinds of cheese, 4 different kinds of deli meat, baguettes and 2 types of crackers. Combined we had 4 bottles of wine, a bottle of Bruery Mischief and a bottle of port. We picnic'd the hell out of that place.
Here is Maneater, which was the best quality video I took. The saxophone player just kills it and women who loved saxophone players who look like Meatloaf with a pony tail were SWOONING:
Afterward, the Hollywood Orchestra, led by their hilarious conductor, closed the show down playing patriotic tunes with choreographed fireworks. Ahhhmazing. Probably one of the best nights of my year! Lovin it
It's the day before my berfday and I got lots going on. I'm gonna kill a lobster using a butcher's knife (I can't believe this is the humane way) and then I'm going to make my first partial-mash home brew. I've been eying this day for a while because brewing partial mash is a completely new process compared to extract brewing and it requires some science and solid execution. Good thing I'm going sharpen my execution skills with these pound and a half crustaceans first!
Sara names her lobbie William, David's is Garth and mine is Newton. We read on a website after we bought and named them, that whatever you do don't name them! Because then you get attached. Well, I suppose I've had friends for shorter time periods but I've never put a knife through their brain. Time to knock that off my bucket list.
David likes to get really close to his subjects before execution. It makes doing business personal.
Newton is gonna be delicious
Because I knew this would hilarious, I took video of each of us wielding the killing stroke. David is the pioneer, Sara is hilarious, and mine is 'efficient' (I suppose). I'm very proud of these videos, not just because I went hand-held Paul Greengrass style, but really because David and Sara are energetic participants in them. It was weird to end a lobster like this, but it is much more humane than throwing them in a boiling pot and letting them die a slow, agonizing death.
*Please know the videos are slightly graphic - we are killing animals. If you have a problem watching Shark Week or 'When Hungry, Hungry Hippos Attack' on the Nat Geo channel, this is not for you. Otherwise, I think you'll be entertained. I was a little squeamish at first, but it turned out to be (too much) fun and is one of those experiences I can cross off my life list.
Do note, that when they are moving afterwords, they're dead but their nerves are still going. It's creepy and crazy. The same thing happens when you kill a snake. The videos are short, between 1 minute and 1:30. Below is what happens when brain meets knife.
David
Sara
Walker
This was quickly becoming an incredibly fun day. After slicing and dicing them, David and Sara stuffed the lobsters with crab whilst I prepared my brewing equipment.
The champagne below (I will post a video tomorrow with more detail) was a gift from my dad for my 21st birthday. It's a pretty nice bottle so at the time I planned to have it on a 'Special Occasion.' And I could never decide when that occasion was, so it's been on my desk, under my bed and in my wine cooler for the past 7 years. It's not like champagne ages, would it still bubble?
To my delight, the bubbly and food was amazing. The champers was surprisingly complex. Champagne with crab stuffed lobsters, wow, a pretty high-class meal. Thanks to Sara and David, who made my last day as a 27 year-old an awesome day.
So instead of celebrating the birthday weekend by paintballing today, I decided to grill seafood and make my first partial mash beer. Homebrewing with extract is how I made my previous 4 beers, but by learning partial mash, I gain an understanding of All-Grain brewing (the third and final tier of homebrewing) and hopefully create more complex beers. It's more complex though and I had to outfit two 5 gallon coolers with special equipment.
I won't describe the process in depth here because it's detailed online, but it simply involves 'cooking' the grains (I have 5.5 lbs) in 152 degrees for an hour (mashing the grains), and then sparging the grains (washing them with 180 degree water) again, to create the wort. The hard part is getting the right water temperature and then maintaining it and figuring out how much water to use. Overall, it took me 4.5 hours to mash the grains and cook the wort. Usually it takes me 2, 2.5 hours.
I'll post the recipe below, but first let me review the beer of the day. I'm making a Belgian Blonde so I picked one of the few Belgian Blondes I saw in Beverage Warehouse today and it was fantastic. It has a strong yeast smell and great color. The pop when I uncorked it was stronger than my champagne pop, and it has great carbonation and sexy Belgian lace. There is a smooth and balanced pilsner malt base and has a subtle spicy flavor that adds a delicious twist. Moinette blonde is a flat out fantastic for the style. BAD BOYS rating.
Here's the two-tier system in action
Untitled Belgian Blonde
Here is a link to the recipe that is reprinted below: Summer Belgian Blonde. I built this recipe from scratch.
Malt Extract: Pale 3 lbs
Dry Pilsner Extract 1lb
Sugar: Light Belgian Candy Sugar 1 lb
Grain Bill: Belgian Pilsner 3 lb 4oz
Vieanna Malt 1 lb
Caramel Crystal Malt 10L 12 oz
Cara-Puls 8 oz
Hop Schedule: Hallertau (3.0%) 1.5 oz at 60 mins
Hallertau (3.0%) 1oz at 30 mins
Cascade (4.0%) 1oz at 15 mins
Yeast: Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes (made a yeast starter Friday night at 3:30am after partying, HA).
IBU is 22.5 (style is typically between 15 and 30)
Potential Alcohol 6.7%
SRM (color) is 5
The gravity was a little lower than I expected coming out of the Mash-Tun, so I added a cup of dry pilsner extract to the boil. The OG reading at the boil's end malfunctioned and said my beer is 10%+ which is not possible. Overall, I hit the temperatures I wanted but had trouble maintaining the 150 degree plus temp while Mashing. The process kept me busy but wasn't as stressful as I thought. It was fun though, I'm already looking forward to creating another recipe!
I have 10 minutes to run into the Surly Goat before grinding my way through Hollywood traffic for a free screening of HOP (not a documentary on my favorite beer component, Hops, but rather that Easter Bunny movie starring Russell Brand). It's hard to say NO to anything with FREE in the subject line, even after college.
9 minutes and counting, the quarterback is going with a hot route and looking for some Devotion from the Featured Beer board.
I see many Lost Abbey beers but have never really tried them. The Devotion is a Belgian Pale Ale with 6.25% alcohol. 7 minutes and counting. It has a hefty belgian body and it's kinda how I expect the movie to go - mellow and relatively smooth, pleasing with your standard doughy notes.
3 minutes. Towards the end, I'm realizing how sweet it is and I'm picking up some great spice. The spice saves this beer and makes it different from other Belgian Pales. I'm glad I slowed down and was able to taste it. I like this brew, it's worth taking a glass on it. TRANSFORMERS rating.
(I was totally on time for the flick but wasn't a fan of it. Guess I finally grew up and I'm not a Toy-R-Us kid anymore)
I'm back from an evening Krav Maga class (martial arts) where I spent the last hour bear hugging people and learning how to defend against it. I need a drink and a shower badly (in that order). Karl is here to kill some zombies on Call of Duty and there's a big tasty brew in the fridge from a local brewery we love to visit (3 times and counting). The shower can wait.
Let me talk about this picture for a second: I mean, yeah, I'm sure girls find this cute and all...but really, WTF? Also, don't lions eat their young? Realize this magazine exists solely to sell statues for your garden. I want to meet the person whose flowerbed has a statue that depicts elements of a Serengeti wildlife refuge. Right now!
Anywho, this brew is quite pleasing. It's a Belgian Strong Pale ale by style but it's also very sweet and doughy. Duvel is a Belgian Strong Pale, but this falls more into the category of a North Coast Pranqster, which is the same style but a very different looking and tasting beer (also one of our favorites). It's a little cloudy and with the thick bread characteristics, it's reminiscent of a German Hefe. And thank you for the 8.5% alcohol (heyohh). I like it. It's very drinkable and fairly unique. A (high) TRANSFORMERS rating.
You can pick it up in SoCal at your local Whole Foods. Can't wait to get back to the Bootleggers brewery!
Karl's here and he loves Cheeeeeese, in case you were wondering. Instead of Karl Thursday Night beer, we're doing it tonight, Tuesday. Karl is going to Europe in May and laying out the details to the recently finalized, which includes a wine festival in the Ron Burgundy area, known for their wine and blueberry colored suits, and then cavorting through Germany with more festivals. He also plans to visit a Belgian Abbey at some point. I hate Karl.
Just kidding, how can I hate a face like that?
The last of Karl's New York brothers Ommegang package, he originally purchased it believing it was the Double Belgian Ale (DBA), rather than the Belgian Pale Ale (BPA). Who said Dyslexia wasn't a real condition?
Ommegang is mixing styles here and the result is just as advertised. The BPA is super carbonated with a bready and malty taste that is also light and sweet, like a pale ale. The unfamiliar style mix took me by surprise initially, but I really enjoyed it after a few sips. David hates his beer, but Karl and I like it. TRANSFORMERS rating. This beer is similar to a 'diet' drink, which promises the same taste without the calories or sugar. This beer tastes like a Belgian but is as light and smooth as an American Pale Ale.
Karl's take on the beer is, "BPA is a pale that's not real wimpy. It has a Belgian Golden taste but it's softer on the palette." He is always more eloquent than me. I really hate Karl.
Karl is here for his weekly Thursday brew and for the next couple weeks we'll be drinking beers from a brewery in his native state of New York - Ommegang.
Hail New York State!
Karl let us know that this style of beer started during WW2 when Scottish troops were stationed in Belgium and local bars began catering to the soldiers' tastes. I find it amusing to learn that several styles of beers, including IPA's, evolved out of military personnel's experience abroad. I wonder if that's still the case now.
Kyndness is a Belgian Style Scotch Ale full of toasty malts and it's an odd mix of styles. It's interesting but I won't drink it again; it's just not my cup o' tee.
Karl says it best: "Thank you for exposing me to Belgian/Scotch Ale, but kindly sir, give me a Belgian Golden (post-haste!)." Word Big Bird. ARMAGEDDON rating.
It's beer pong night with Linds, Karl and David (who was a rock star in his former life). For the record, Karl is a Master Jedi at beer pong and I hate playing against someone so skillful. Remember how the German invasion of Poland in WW2 turned out? It was a rout. Karl may be Polish, but he's a Nazi at beer pong.
Karl came straight from an L.L. Bean catalog shoot.
Dick's Silk Lady refers to the Geisha that Dick keeps chained in his basement. Okay, that's not true. It actually refers to his favorite kitty, who's a mean ol' cooter.
So the beer is from Centralia, Washington, a town that I didn't know existed before tonight. Silk Lady is a Belgian Style ale with a depressing 4.4% alcohol. It tastes like a incredibly like home brew; really, we could make this. The flavor is somewhere between a light Belgian and a heavy hefeweizen and the clarity and the sweetness reflect this style as well. THE ISLAND rating.
Also, Esquire released the beers they're excited for in 2011, and it's a surprisingly interesting list. The first one is news to me, but it makes me salvitate: Esquire's Best Beers of 2011.
First day of skiing today, met up with old college friend Jamie R and her family for some great powder runs. The high today was 15 and the high tomorrow is 3 degrees. Good thing there'll be a hot tub and beer awaiting me, jebus. Anywho, here is the Monkshine Belgian Style Pale Ale from "Four +" Brewing Company in Salt Lake City. Also, this shirt is my favorite.
I couldn't resist showing off my favorite Christmas gift...pec implants
This Belgian style has a golden malt that brings a sweet, citrus flavor with a hint of bubblegum. It's a good looking and taste'n belgian pale. It is good and not great, but I'm most inclined to drink every last one of these before others discover them. However....
Because I write some 'beer blog', I'm the designated beer chooser with the families I go skiing with when they liquor shop. So I have a carte blanche to pick as many six packs as I want to fuel 10 people with alcohol for several days. So I went to town. And by town, I mean Park City. And then I bought an elephant's worth of beer. The four beers on the left, I have tasted before. Everything else on the right, including the Wasatch 'Big Chubby,' I've never tasted. Count'm, 8 beers. Died and gone to Utah beer heaven, I have. Damn the temperature, I'll have these waiting for me. How great will this weekend be? Party on Wayne
Monkshine Belgian Style Pale Ale receives a TRANSFORMERS rating.
Goose Island has been good to me, so I picked the Demolition to keep my company as I siphoned my first home brew (code named King Moonracer's Revenge) into my 2nd fermentation tub.
Now the waiting begins...
That big glass tub is now sitting in my room with a towel wrapped around it and for the next two weeks my patio door will not be opened (to keep the temperature in the room steady) and the curtains drawn (young beer doesn't interact with sunlight well). Crossing my fingers for the best and I plan to bottle in about 9 days.
I bought this beer at Bristol Farms grocery store and it was quite good. It's a Belgian style ale with a doughy scent and a sweet full body that tastes of banana with a hint of spice. This would be an especially great beer to enjoy during a nippy December night. THE ROCK rating
3rd brew in the 12 beers of Christmas (just like Stone's Vertical epic, one different beer released every year) this can be aged for up to 9 years to drink with the final brew, 12 Drummers Drumming. Very cool.
2 Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tee, duh
3 French Hens does what The Bruery does best - make awesome Belgian Style Beers. They decided to go with the Southpaw for this inning and made a 75% Belgian style Dark Ale. Interestingly enough, there was malty smell that wasn't prevalent in the taste. But as advertised, this tastes like a sweet dark ale that is wonderfully well-rounded. There is definitely a smooth butteryness, similar to what you'll taste in a good Chardonnay, derived from the French Oak barrels it was aged in. Another excellent beer (especially for Winter) from one of my favorite breuries. I will have this again soon, hopefully right before Christmas break! Find it and buy it soon as it's a limited seasonal release. THE ROCK rating.
Oh and I bowled a 204tonight in my league, with two double turkey's. HOLLA! I'm really proud of myself. In fact, I high fived myself the entire way home. Big Ernie McCracken would also be proud, I basically did this when I finished (skip to 1:20):Big Ern Celebrates in Kingpin
So Saturday night in NYC was fan-freaking-tastic, we saw the sweet (& ridiculous) 80's coverband RUBIX CUBE at the Canal Club -
Keytar --> Rocked my face off.
Sunday morning greeted me with Patsy's Pizza and a trip to Sidebar for NFL games. With an hour before my flight, I picked up something local: Brooklyn Local 1.
Numero Uno is a Belgian style beer that tastes of light spice and banana. This is damn good and in the vein of Pranqster. I'm quite happy that my Milk Is For Babies has brought me to your golden goodness, I love this style of beer especially from American brewers.
Thank you Brooklyn Brewery and New York city for being good to me. Next time I will be in town more than 36 hours and will enjoy even more of your beer and crazy people. THE ROCK rating.
We celebrated Lindsey's triumphant return to LA (for the weekend) at The Daily Pint, which also gave me the chance to ketchup with Nick G whom I haven't seen in 5 weeks and taste a really great limited quantity beer, the Stone Vertical Epic 10.10.10. Why so Vertically Epic you ask?
This is a legitimately awesome concept. Each year starting 01.01.2001 until 12.12.2012, the Stone Brewery makes a unique brew each with its own "twist & turn" in the plotline. Each batch is released one year, one month and one day from the previous year's edition. The bottle-conditioned ales are specifically designed to be aged until sometime after December 12th, 2012 to create an Epic 'Vertical' tasting of all the years at once, or it can be enjoyed singularly each year like we did Thursday on tap at the Pint. http://www.stonebrew.com/epic/
It's reel good. A Belgian style Strong Ale with lots of smooth milky malts and a tinge of sweetness. There was a mystery ingredient besides the malt and sweet Belgian yeast but we couldn't identify. My investigation lead me to discover that Stone added a juice blend of Muscat, Gewurztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc. Look at that. I just got grape'd and never saw it coming. Touche Stoney, touche.
Speaking of (film) reel, we also hung out for a bit with Dileep Rao and his friend from New Jersey. Dileep is the Middle Eastern fellow in Avatar and Inception. He was pretty amused at seeing his cartoon self in the South Park parody which aired the night before. The irony in this is that Nick and I who both work in the entertainment industry didn't recognize him, but David and another friend immediately ID'd him. Pfff, whatever. Nerds.
David picked this up and coming back from bowling -- I BOWLED A 188 with 4 strikes in a row! GANGSTA (I'm quite pleased with myself in case you couldn't tell) -- David had this poured and waiting for me as I walked in the door at 11:56 pm. It's a Belgian Strong ale (same family as Duvel) and clocks in at 8.85% alcohol and 72 IBU's. It's different than I expected for some reason. Maybe its the label which set me up with different expectations. I dunno. Whatever the case, Little Sumpin' WILD proved my theory that 'assumption is the mother of all evils' true because I really liked this beer.
Two lovely ladies from a different decade
As referenced by the 72 IBU's, it's IPA hoppy but not as sweet as a many Belgians. There are some floral scents with some malted wheat thrown in for good measure. Eureka! Light Bulb. Suddenly this beer makes sense. Little Sumpin' WILD was just released in September...It's a Harvest Moon beer; marking the end of Summer and the beginning of Fall, mixing a Summer IPA with Fall flavors via the malted wheat. Hop Stoopid was the first Lagunitas beer I had and between the title and taste I felt pretty insulted, but with this fellow Color Me Impressed. Another bottle please. THE ROCK rating.
Chicago is the shit. I flew in Friday to visit LaLa and loved the city immediately. City and people have a lot of character, as does Matilda. Goose Island is a local brewery that brews Matilda and another well known brewski, the 312, a hefeweizen with great drinkablility (I had at least 8 over the weekend).
I drank all of your brother and sisters 312. Sorry, but not sorry.
I can't speak enough about Chicago...So I will instead type about it (rimshot? eh). Had a bunch of great beers Saturday before discovering Matilda, many of them with Tim and Sarah; who are the shit, the bees knees, the cats pajamas, and even better than Antoine Dodson saying "Hide ya kids hide ya wife" from the Bed Intruder song. Matilda is a belgian style ale and reminds me of a monestary beer. First sip took me back to Europa.
Everyone wants a piece of Matilda, whose feminine beauty turns average lesbians into super lesbians
Pours an opaque light orange glow and tastes of light fruit (banana and apricots?) and spices. The flavors are subtle but very well rounded. A stronger spice finish wouldn't hurt this lady. Matilda has a twin cousin who is slightly bolder but bears a striking resemblance - PRANQSTER from North Coast. I would love to have them side-by-side and compare specifics. Matilda is a sipping beer which I bet is perfect during the freezing Chicago winters.
If I was going to rate Chicago according to my critically acclaimed Michael Bay rating system (*citation needed), it'd be one of the BAD BOYS. It's official; I have a mistress and her name is Chicago. I'm looking forward to my next love affair with the city and its inhabitants - specifically Tim and Sarah and Lindsey. I'm thinking a beer fueled tryst in a public square near a school bus of children? Just sayin...As for Matilda, I'm bequeathing you the same title as your twin, Pranqster. Welcome to THE ROCK. I'm not going to get into the whole Daniel Day-Lewis scene from LAST OF THE MOHICANS, but I will find you and drink you up. Soon.
PRANQSTER. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ahhm. From North Coast Brewing comes a Belgian Style Golden Ale that compels you suavely say, 'Hello beautiful. Shhh, no words. I'm just gonna drink you."
Hello GoldBeer, seems we meet again
Saturday night I took a detour from a pub crawl on Main St. to drink this on tap (!) at the Library Alehouse. I was joined by Melissa R, Jessica W, Blake L and Nick G (who all loved sipping on Allagash White). Back to Pranqster, it's an unfiltered smooth golden ale. Look at that body! The taste is rich and substantial but also subtle. It's a nearly perfect beer. Nearly. It lacks a little spice, a distinctive kick that makes you say, 'that's the one.'
Some people may disagree with me on this, but here's my take. A home cooked meal usually lacks the polish of a professional chef, however, it can still be terrifically delicious. I will always order Pranqster at the Library Alehouse, as it makes me a happy camper. That being said, in my hearts of hearts and liver of livers, I don't feel this beer deserves the penultimate honor. But please, enjoy your stay at THE ROCK.
Like a kid in a candy store, I become super excited whenever I see beer from The Bruery. David, Nick G and I discovered this Orange County brewery last year at the LA Beer Fest and particularly loved their seasonal Saison de Lente, which sells out quickly. Mischief, I've never seen before but has a very handsome label. Dark and brooding. Nothing like the beer but it does compliment the name.
Mischief is a Belgian-Style Golden Strong Ale with a dash of hops. After two busts in a row, we needed a win and The Bruery delivered. If this is at a bar, I will drink it. Welcome to THE ROCK.
As David mentioned, Sunday was a great evening spent with delicious food and wonderful company, Blake and Lock, whom we both haven't seen in a while. Here's a picture commemorating the excellent chowder and bbq ribs which we will be eating for the next week.
David and I bought a three pack of Belgian style beers Saturday at the Toys R' Us of alcohol, Beverage Warehouse in Marina del Rey. Beers came with a free glass (always a sucker for novelty glassware).
David warned me that Three Philosophers was not his favorite of beers. I always liked the label and for whatever reason, doubted him. He warned me...
A Picture Says A Thousand Words
Online, everyone loves this beer. A, A-, B+. It's like a nerd's report card (nerds always get B+ in gym class, duh). We brought it over to a nearby party with all sorts of fun people and were 'generous' enough to let the group taste. 1 out of 6 girls liked the beer. Wow. I bequeathed the rest to the sole fan, Taylor. Biggest issue? It has a pervasive Cherry flavor. Three Philosophers is a "blend of Belgian dark strong ale and Lindeman's Kriek (a classic cherry lambic directly from Belgium." I just really didn't enjoy this and I wrote some inappropriate notes which I won't share but I will say this - your nice label and free smallish beer glass fooled me like a true sucker. You are my first but not last PEARL HARBOR rating
