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)
This brew is part of Stone's “Odd Beers for Odd Years" program, where during n odd numbered years they release new variations on Stone Old
Guardian Barley Wine and Stone Imperial Russian Stout in place of the
classic version. The Belgo Old Guardian Barleywine was interesting but very overwhelming.
The regular Russian Imperial Stout is one of my favorite stouts and I'm interested to taste what the anise will do. Anise, which is used in absinthe and black licorice, will probably add a unique fingerprint and make this either an incredible beer or a really bizarre beer. I wonder what it'll be...
We're dog sitting the incredible Kamari, who I had to include in the picture. The best dog ever.
The licorice is there from the start and adds a nice flavor and does make this a unique stout. That being said, as I continue drinking it becomes harder for me to finish the glass. The anise wore on me and overwhelmed my palate and drinking became a chore.
I really enjoy Stone making this series of beers and I love the idea of making proven recipes using odd ingredients. It's bold and creative. However, these Belgo beers are experiments that I won't be drinking again. They created a monster of a beer and it's just too much. ARMAGEDDON rating.
The day has come! Hoorayyy! Belgian Red, my first real experimental beer, is ready to drink. This was me when I woke up. David was Paul Pierce, the guy just running around after sinking a game winning shot:
So here is the Belgian Red Recipe. I have to say, it pours beautifully. Many home brews don't have great carbonation, but look at how much head it pours with! Awesomeness.
David says that you could have told him that this was the Belgian IPA we brewed and he would believe it. The IBU's are only at 50, opposed to the 80+ we have in our Belgian, but it's still quite hoppy. David also said, and I have to quote him because I'm proud, that the beer's "good quality exhibits my experience." Happy to report I'm getting better and not worse with age. Score.
Tell you what, it's different than I expected but I'm still very happy with it and it tastes delicious. The color pours beautifully but the flavor doesn't scream red ale, rather, the beer exhibits some light caramel flavors and the sweetness of a Belgian strong ale. There is considerably less caramel flavor than a Belgian Dubbel but there's definitely considerably more caramel than a Belgian Golden. I was hoping for a more "red" flavor profile, but this was the first recipe and I'll add more caramel notes next time. Otherwise, I'm VERY excited to share this with people in the coming weeks. It's tasty.
After sampling, we went onto "sample" more beer with Christine who is up from Newport and with Sara. It's time for a little Sunday Funday.
We checked out a bier garden on the Venice boardwalk. It's been a while since I've strolled the chaos that is Venice beach and I forgot how entertaining it is - that and how many dogs there are int he world. David brought Kamari (under the table in the picture above) and we settled in for a pitcher of Erdinger Dunkel, German puffed pasta and mozzarella sticks ordered by yours truly (not very German of me).
Sunday Funday continued with Sangria at Primitivo Wine Bistro. Guess what else is on Abbott Kenney? The Other Room. The beer of the day is now 3 out of 4 days from this bar. Starting to run out of options...Psych! Their menu is Laaarge.
Even though I know nothing about apricots (I have no idea what they smell or look like), I welcome any beer that can incorporate unusual elements in to make a balanced brew. Sam Caligione is the king of this, so I'm very excited to taste this.
I'm trusting Christine and Sara to help me out with the aroma. They say the Aprihop smells like a bag of dried apricots and weed. HA, silly girls - that's Dogfish Heads signature HOPS. But to be fair, hops are a distant cousin of the green cheeva that is so prevalent in this area. I blame it on the hippies. The fruit in this beer is very well balanced with the hops. I'm not a fan of fruit beers but I love this because the fruit and hops are so subtle. It's simply a well made beer. THE ROCK rating.
David announced that his next beer will be an Imperial Red, like Drake's Denoggenizer. I'm going to use my tax refund money like Ninkasi (the Sumerian goddess of fermentation) would want me too and invest in equipment to brew my first partial-mash beer. Time to step up home brewing a notch and get serious about this!
This is more of a social post than beer post, but sometimes that's what happens. Saturday I headed over to Aaron B's to meet David and co, I pickup some Hop Juice because this is what awaits me:
Yeah, that happened. Aaron has a deep fryer I didn't know about and they cooked up fried pickles, fried duck, and some amazing fried catfish, which was David's handiwork.
Everyone was on the couch moaning about how the fried food took a toll on them but I paid them no heed. Turned out to be the wrong call and my stomach hated me later, but you only live once. Guess which food was on deck? Twinkies? No, we're still hungry - so why wait?
Fried Snickers!
Snickers give you wings..?
Pretty gnarly right? Pretty weird that the Snickers grew little mutant fried stumps. Those are fried Blintzes on the right. Both were really gooey and delicious. At the end of the evening though, I felt like there was a brick in my stomach
Anywho, beer time. Hop Juice is a solid DIPA. Alcohol clocks in at 9.9% alcohol and you can definitely taste it. As far as the hops go, it has a big bite which social IPA drinkers may not enjoy, but the hop enthused will dig. ARMAGEDDON rating. Between the alcohol and the hops, it's just the big beer I needed for all this fried nonsense.
David went to a Clippers game so I got to take Kamari for a stroll on Abbott Kenney, the best walkin street in Venice. I love dog-sitting that dog. I had more beer at The Other Room later, including Maredsous 8 and Arrogant Bastardo.
Fried meat, fried dessert, good dog and good beer. Awesomeness prevails.
After crepes at the Farmers Market, I wished the parents well after a successful weekend and charged over to Charlie and Patti's for their house warming/Super Bowl party.
Charlie's advice to new home owners: Don't throw a Super Bowl party right after you move in. HA, I can imagine...
The Bootleggers Hopinator Hefe is version 2.0 of their 'Old World Hefeweizen' recipe. They took their standard hefeweizen, added vanilla beans and ran it through a 'hop rocket.' This is my first encounter with the device and I only just read about it last week. It's literally a 'hop infuser' and why do I 'keep having to' use freaking 'air quotes' to indicate 'specific words?' Goddammit.
Anyway, looking at the picture above, imagine running newly made beer through a hose into one side and out the other and thus, literally infusing hops into the beer. It's an interesting concept whose specific purpose I don't fully understand, but heyyyy more hops!
Unfortunately the Bootleggers growler went flat, but that isn't stopping me from drinking three cups of it. I like hops and vanilla beans a great deal, so adding them to their already solid hefeweizen produces a tasty treat. Because the vanilla and hops are added post-brewing, the flavors aren't as well rounded and come off stronger than you want, but this simply makes the Hopinator Hefe more of a novelty or specialty beer. TRANSFORMES rating.
I'm rooting for outstanding play by Aaron Rodgers and a defeat for Ben Rapistberger, although as an athlete I would like to acknowledge how good he is - however, his lumberjack beard doesn't help his reputation as a nefarious scallywag. Also, I just devoured lamb balls and the best beef sliders I've ever had - including Kogi beef sliders. Next, more Bruery beer of the Loakal Red and Mischief type. No matter who wins, it looks to be an excellent day.
I'm talking about the mythology of Star Wars with David while watching Avatar. We're pretty balls deep in nerdness right now.
Speaking of balls deep, I was picked up from the airport Sunday and was greeted with more than David's ugly mug. David ordered me a replacement kangaroo scrotum for Christmas after the Great Scroatacular of 2009, in when David dog sat Kamari. Kamwow decided that my cherished captain kangaroo balls looked like a delicious snack. So she ate them and then threw them backup onto David's bed hours later. My life hasn't been the same without my scrotum. Thanks David!
Oh yeah, beer. The Bruery creates a few brews on the side that are small production and purposed to only be bought at their Provisions store > Bruery Provisions. This is a belgian golden ale aged in bourbon barrels and boy can you smell the bourbon! Like you were in a barrel factory. It ours a beauitful golden pale but the taste, whoa nelly. The bourbon is overwhelming. I enjoy bourbon too much, but not like this. They went a little crazy with this and in a sense, it's a novelty beer because you wouldn't actually drink a lots of this.
Their golden ale is so strong that it's still a decent beer, but not worth your time. TRANSFORMERS rating.
Kamari, my adopted dog child for the weekend, and I waited for Walker right up until 1150, almost had to go it alone. I was excited to try this double IPA because it's one of my favorite styles. Hoptopia is a good variation, there's a mellow sweetness that settles in after the typical bitter taste of a strong IPA. Walker has decided he doesn't like this beer, but he's probably just jealous that Kamari likes me more than him.
This beer is Jack Nickolson in as Good As It Gets. A (double) bitter curmudgeon that is actually kinda nice once you get to know the guy.
