1000 New Tastes: tastes

Showing posts with label tastes. Show all posts

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Wrap up post #2 for 2014

This will be a wrap up of the wines we've tried over most of the year as I've been a slacker and haven't gotten any wines recorded since February...

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Wrap up post #1 for 2014

It's been a long busy year and I have not kept up the blog even remotely as well as I should be. I'll have a couple wrap up posts, starting with beer.

New Belgium - Tour de Fall
Sierra Nevada/Asheville Brewers Alliance - Tater Ridge
Chimay - White (Cinq Cents)
Boulder Beer - Shake Chocolate Porter - This is awesomely good. I need to try a suggestion of blending this with a Founders Rubaeus (raspberry wheat) to make a raspberry chocolate shake.
Lexington Brewing - Kentucky Pumpkin Barrel Ale
Shipyard Brewing - Pumpkinhead Ale
Epic Brewing/DC Brau - Fermentation Without Representation
LoverBeer - BeerBara - Sour beer made with Barbera grapes; this is really nice and very interesting.
Allagash Brewing - Saison
The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery - Märzen
Brooklyn Brewery - Oktoberfest
Anderson Valley Brewing - Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout
Rogue Brewing - Mocha Porter
Sierra Nevada - Bigfoot
Hacker-Pschorr - Oktoberfest Märzen
Saint Louis Brewery - Schalfly Oktoberfest
Left Hand Brewing - Oktoberfest
Nebraska Brewing Company - EOS Hefeweizen
Long Trail Brewery - Long Trail Ale
Three Brothers Brewing - Fairgrounds Fall Ale
R.J. Rockers Brewing- Bell Ringer Ale
Soaring Ridge Craft Brewers - Tinker Creek Kölsch
Soaring Ridge Craft Brewers - White Top White Ale
Soaring Ridge Craft Brewers - Oktoberfest
Soaring Ridge Craft Brewers - Saison
Soaring Ridge Craft Brewers - Virginia Creeper Pale Ale
Soaring Ridge Craft Brewers - Switchback IPA
Soaring Ridge Craft Brewers - Trailhead Nut Brown Ale
Soaring Ridge Craft Brewers - Twisted Stump Porter
Highland Brewing - Clawhammer Oktoberfest
The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery - Brown Ale
The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery - Hoppy Bunny ABA
The Bruery - Oude Tart
Avery Brewing - Rumpkin - This is a completely awesome pumpkin ale. It's my new favorite, but be wary as it's 17%!
Old Bust Head Brewing - Chukker Pilsner
Old Bust Head Brewing - English Pale Ale
New Belgium Hop Kitchen #7 - Hop The Pond
Lancaster Brewing - Milk Stout
Apocalypse Ale Works/Devils Backbone - Devil’s Secret
Founders Brewing - Harvest Ale
Avery Brewing - The Reverend
New Belgium/Perennial Artisan Ales - Lips of Faith - Salted Belgian Chocolate Stout
Left Hand Brewing - Wake Up Dead Imperial Stout
Cigar City Brewing - Apricot Grove - If you like apricots and sour ales, this is one you need to try, unfortunately as far as I can tell it's only available on tap at the brewery.
Cigar City Brewing - Papandos Moscas - Sour mango ale, good but not as the next one on the list!
Cigar City Brewing/New Belgium - Jamaican Mango - In short, wow! Another one that' sonly available at the brewery as far as I can tell.
Cigar City Brewing - Maduro Brown Ale - Really nice brown - this is available in cans, but doesn't seem to be available in Virginia.
Cigar City Brewing - Minaret ESB
Cigar City Brewing/Playalinda Brewing - Whirlpool Session Pale Ale - Not your typical pale ale. Hop profile is almost all tropical fruit and this beer went incredibly well with the korean meatball slider from the food truck outside the brewery! Another beer I would have loved to bring home, but it was only available at the brewery (no growlers on this or the sours).
Cigar City Brewing - José Martí American Porter
Cigar City Brewing - Sun Spear
Cigar City Brewing - Strawberry Shortcake - Tasted almost exactly like strawberry shortcake in a glass.
Cigar City Brewing - Stiftung Berliner Weisse - A great example of a berliner weisse!
Inlet Brewing - Monk IPA
Southern Tier Brewing - 2XMAS
Boston Brewing - Samuel Adams (Barrel Room Collection) - Tetravis
Sierra Nevada/Victory Brewing - Alt Route
Avery Brewing - Pump[KY]n - Good, but not as good as the Rumpkin.
Avery Brewing - Old Jubilation Ale
Sierra Nevada/Cigar City - Beer Camp -Yonder Bock
Lagunitas Brewing - A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale
Oskar Blues - Mama's Little Yella Pils
Samuel Smith - Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale
Sierra Nevada - Celebration Ale
Brasserie d’Achouffe - N'Ice Chouffe
Schlossberg Eggenberg - Samichlaus Classic
Bell's Brewery - Winter White Ale
Great Divide Brewing - Hibernation Ale
Firestone Walker - Opal
Strangeways Brewing - Soledad (Bourbon Barrel Aged)
Bear Republic Brewing - Racer 5 IPA
Elgood's - Coolship Lambic - This is an awesome British (!!!) lambic. Had on tap at Capital Ale House in Richmond.

That's the last of the beers from 2014. Final post will be a rather large gigantic wine update.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Beer Camp - Ninkasi Brewing Double Latte

This year Sierra Nevada worked with 12 different breweries across the country in a program called Beer Camp to brew collaboration brews. They then released a limited number of 12 packs and we managed to get one of the very few to come to our area. Because these are special and so limited, we are going to post individual reviews to each brew.

The first one we tried is the collaboration with Ninkasi Brewing - Double Latte.

Sierra Nevada / Ninkasi Brewing - Double Latte - This pours a dark color with light khaki head (2-3 fingers). Head is fairly resilient, but does fade some, leaving lots of lacing. Aroma smells like a latte - lots of rich espresso notes with creamy undertones and a touch of milk chocolate. Tastes follow the aromas to a tee. Really rich, creamy mouthfeel. Long finish, but it is subtle and nice. It has been nice and cool here in the evening and this is going very nice with a chocolate chip cookie bar.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Catch up beer post and a couple of food tastes

This is the catch-up beer post. There's a lot of stuff on this list obviously so we'll keep comments moderately short.

Founders - Nitro Oatmeal Stout
Birra del Borgo - ArcheoBirra Etrusca - Anfora - This beer is also made by Dogfish Head and Baladin, but this is aged in clay amphora whereas the other two are aged in stainless or wood. This is pleasantly sour and delicious - neither of the other two are as sour apparently (we have these in the cellar but haven't had them yet), but it will be interesting to compare them. This was absolutely amazing!
Avery Brewing - New World Porter
Saucony Creek Brewing - Chocolate Cherry Schnickelfritz
Devils Backbone Brewing - 16 Point Imperial IPA - This is their double IPA as compared to their regularly brewed 8 Point IPA.
Boulevard Smokestack Series - Bourbon Barrel Quad - This is an absolutely awesome quad.
Breckenridge Brewery - 72 Imperial Chocolate Cream Stout
Oskar Blues Brewery - G’Knight Imperial Red
Terrapin Beer Company - Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout
Stone Brewing - Ruination IPA
Shmaltz Brewing - Reunion - A Beer For Hope 2013
Birrificio del Ducato - My Blueberry Nightmare - We've tried a number of beers with peppers in them lately, but this was great. Megan didn't like this much, but Brett bought the remainder in the store.
Bells Brewery - Smitten Golden Rye Ale
Sierra Nevada Brewing - Ovila Golden - This is an excellent Belgian strong ale.
Brouwerij Rodenbach - Grand Cru - A nice readily available sour brown. Their non-grand cru version is also nice.
Boulevard Smokestack Series - Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale
Shooting Creek Farm Brewery - Rebel Ale - All of the Shooting Creek beers are now brewed by Blue Mountain.
DC Brau Brewing - El Hefe Speaks
Shmaltz Brewing - HeBrew Rejewvenator 2013
Anderson Valley Brewing - Bahl Hornin’ Spring India Pale Ale
Tröegs Brewing Company - Nugget Nectar Ale
Sierra Nevada - Ovila Quad
DuClaw Brewing - Hell on Wood - This part of Virginia is no longer going to be getting DuClaw due to distributor changes... sigh
Goose Island - Bourbon County Barleywine - This is an amazing barley wine. Yes, Goose Island is owned by AB-InBev, but it's still darn darn good.
St. George Brewing - Pilsner
Tröegs Brewing - Cultivator
Terrapin - Side Project Pineapple Express Smoked Pineapple Helles - Weird, but not very much pineapple flavor.
Avery Brewing - Collaboration Not Litigation
Dogfish Head Brewery - Indian Brown Ale
Woodchuck Cellar Series - Chocolate - This is terrible - it taste like powered-chocolate in cheap cider unfortunately.
Old Dominion Brewing Company - Winter Brew (Baltic Porter)
Abita Brewing - Spring IPA
Brewery Ommegang - Abbey Ale
Dogfish Head Brewery - Sixty-One
Florida Brewing Company - John J Kelly’s Irish Raspberry Hard Cider - This is pretty terrible. Just skip right over this.
Brewery Ommegang - Glimmerglass Saison
Rogue Ales - Irish Style Lager
The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery - Porter
Allagash Brewing Company - Tripel Reserve
Brewery Ommegang - Hop House
Sierra Blanca Brewing - Roswell Alien Amber Ale
Great Divide Brewing - Orabelle
Dogfish Head Brewery - Piercing Pils
Selkirk Abbey Brewing - Infidel
DuClaw Brewing - Misery
Rogue Ales - New Crustacean Barleywineish Imperial IPA Sorta
Evil Twin - Even More Jesus - An imperial stout that even Megan (sort of) liked! Really nice!
Maine Beer Company - Red Wheelbarrow
BFM - √225 Saison Apricot - This is the first of 3 beers Brett had while in DC for a meeting at Pizza Paradiso. Excellent pizza, huge beer selection, and 3 locations - try one of them if you're in the area.
Jopen / The Monarchy - Vereinigte Historische Bierfanatiker Grätzer - This was an interesting gose - went well with the pizza!
Hanssens Artisinal - Experimental Raspberry (Frambozenlambik) - Tired of your sour beers not being sour enough? Try this! This is possibly the sourest beer Brett has ever had. He loves sour and yet this might be almost, it isn't, but almost too sour. Note - this is almost one dimensional because of the dominant sour notes. If you don't like sour, don't bother trying this - this is not your sweet Lindeman's Framboise!
Southern Tier Brewing - Blackwater Series: Choklat
Uinta Brewing - Bristlecone Brown Ale
Bells Brewery - Hopslam
Brewery Ommegang - Chocolate Indulgence
Damascus Brewery - Backbone Bock
Parkway Brewing - Magella Belgian Dark Abbey Ale
Great Lakes Brewing - Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
Abita Brewing - Andygator
Kona Brewing - Fire Rock Pale Ale
Dark Horse Brewing - Tres Blueberry Stout
Verhaeghe - Barbe Ruby
Off Color Brewing - Scurry - Unusual and very good. Pairs great with food or enjoy on its own!
Great Shoals Winery - Bosc & Bartlett Hard Pear (Perry) - Perry is pear cider.
Great Shoals Winery - Blazing Star Hard Peach
Stone Brewing - Spröcket Bier
Maui Brewing - Lahaina Town Brown
Flying Dog Imperial IPA - Amarillo Single Hop - Ugh, don't like just amarillo hops in a beer... Also this tasted a bit like burned Corn-Nuts - strange strange strange.
Otter Creek Brewing - Fresh Slice
Stone Brewing - Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout
Left Hand Brewing - 400 Pound Monkey
Odell Brewing - India Pale Ale (IPA)
Hellenic Breweries of Atalanti - Blue Island - Yes, beer from Greece. It's as "amazing" as you might expect. It was literally $10 a case, but we bought a 6 pack for post-lawn mowing or boiling brats or something.
Long Trail Brewery - Ramble
Bavik-De Brabandere - Petrus Oud Bruin
Fort Collins Brewery - Chocolate Stout
R.J. Rockers Brewing - Son of a Peach Wheat Ale
Allagash Brewing - Curieux - What an excellent aged triple - super complex!
Natty Greene's - Salute American Stout
Natty Greene's - Summit IPA
Natty Greene's - Springfest Pilsener
Natty Greene's - Wildflower Witbier
Natty Greene's - Ordinary Bitter
Natty Greene's - Elm Street IPA
Blue Dog Mead Company - Green Collar Mead
Tröegs Brewing - Troegenator Doublebock
Evil Twin Brewing - Hipster Ale
Breckenridge Brewing - SummerBright Ale
Founders Brewing - All Day IPA
Mikkeller - Better Half
New Belgium Brewing - Lips of Faith: Le Terroir - It's a giant pity that we can't get this regularly out here. We found this only because a distributor had made a mistake and we managed to grab a bottle. If you can get a hold of this, enjoy!
Chaos Mountain - Cheeky Monkey Belgian Blonde - A new brewery popped up about 1.5 hours away from us, but conveniently right near The Harvester where we went to see Toad the Wet Sprocket!

Chaos Mountain - Mad Hopper IPA
Chaos Mountain - Squatch Scotch Ale
Chaos Mountain - 4 Mad Chefs Quadrupel - Brought a growler of this home! Not quite the thick mouthfeel expected from the style, but the taste profile was dead on.
Chaos Mountain - Agents of Chaos Belgian Special Dark
Chaos Mountain - Cocoborealis Triple Chocolate Stout - Again, this was a bit thin feeling compared to the expected mouthfeel for the style and the coffee flavor was more dominant than chocolate for us.
Chaos Mountain - Edge Of The Sun Lager
Chaos Mountain - Toulouse to Trek - Probably Brett's favorite - this is a saison and very nice, but Megan doesn't really like saisons so growler fill was the quad!

We ate at Blue 5 before the Johnnyswim concert (they're awesome - give them a listen!) for our anniversary night out.

Moonshine chicken sandwich - Megan had this and it was good. The fries were really crispy!
Blackened cajun catfish - Brett had this - very nicely cooked blackened catfish with lump crab on top and some excellent red beans and rice as a side.
Brownie cheesecake with vanilla ice cream - Megan's dessert
Bread pudding with vanilla ice cream - Brett's dessert; nicely spiced and it almost tasted like there were pieces of apple in it