Extreme Beer Fest 2009

Last Saturday I went to the Extreme Beer Fest put on by BA in Boston with some friends. We tried a ton of different beers, from the extremely hoppy to sours, to dark chocolaty stouts and beyond. My palate is definitely much more refined from the last time I went(3 years ago I think)

And this time I managed to not only mark up which beers I liked and didn't like... but also brought said sheet back home(last summer I did the same but it got lost on the T)

I had been looking forward to trying a lot of these beers.... some I liked, some I didn't. A lot of the strong IPAs tended to all taste the same by midway through though. The overall best in my book were the Dogfish Head world wide stout, and Founders Canadian BreakfastStout. Have I mentioned that Im not usually a stout fan...

Rating System

+ I liked
= meh
- didnt like


Alagash
+ Bi-Curieux (Curieux tripel aged in barrels with hops for 1.5 years... nice balance of sweet belgian tripel with bitterness from extra hops)

Bells
+ Bells Hop Slam

Berkshire Brewing
- Nitro Coffee Porter (too strong coffee flavor)
+ Raspberry Barley Wine (used 1 lb of rasberries for every 2 gallons)
= Scotch Ale

Sam Adams
+ Imperial White
= Triple Double(just tasted weird)

Dark Horse Brewing
= Double Crooked Tree IPA
+ Hibiscus Tea (tea and beer together how could this be bad!)
- Kumquat something (way too much like kumquat)

Dogfish Head
= 120 minute IPA (wow was really interesting, unlike any IPA Ive had before)
+ Red & White (amazing belgian wit)
+ world wide stout (absolutly delicious for 18%)

FlyingDog
= Double Dog(meh just tasted like an IPA.. which I had already had a lot of by then)
- whiskey aged Gonzo (too much whiskey flavor)

Founders
+ Backwoods Bastard(bourbon barrel aged scotch)
+ Canadian Breakfast Stout(aged in maple barrels.... absolutly amazing, all my friends agreed)
= Curmudgeon (ok... my friend Nick liked it a lot)
+ Kentucky Breakfast Stout (also good but not quite as good as the Canadian)

Harpoon
= Chile Wheat(weird but not horrible)
+ Baltic Porter

Haverhill
= Tangaweizen(spicy weisse.. meh)

Rogue
= Chipotle Ale (similar but slightly better then Chile Wheat... felt like I was eating)
= Morimoto Soba Ale

Smaltz
= Freaktoberfest(only octoberfest I saw there... was decent)

Sixpoint Craft Ale
+ Belgian Chocolate Dubbel

Smuttynose
= G bock
= Gravitation(belgian quad with tons of raisin puree... nice balance to the quad)
= Oak Aged Hanami

Southern Tier
+ Oat

Stone
= Dry-hopped Double Bastard

Three Floyds
= Behemoth

Troegs
+ Mad Elf
+ Nugget Nectar
- Scratch
= Troegnator

Victory lager

I got this in honor of my company's website launch last week... which I have been working on the past 18 months.

First Impressions: yellow and clear like a standard Munich helles(slightly darker then the PBR) Smells sweet like honey

Taste: smooth and a little sweet.

overall: ok/poor I like the Munich Helles style, and unfortunately this is a poor replica. Its a bit too sweet and just lacks the delicious taste of a quality Munich Helles beer. Its better then a bud for example.... but as a representation of the style it fails

PBR

Yesterday I watched Gran Torino with my friends Ben and Liz after attending the Extreme Beer Fest in Boston... both of which were amazing. Clint Eastwood's character drinks PBR throughout the movie, so in honor of that...

First Impressions: much more Yellow and clear then most beers I drink. Smells of slight citrus

Taste: Not a whole lot of flavor as expected, slight bite at first which mellows off into nothing... not much malt.

Overall: ok PBR is known as the goto beer when there is nothing better around, and I can understand why. Its definitely more flavorful then Bud, coors etc and it is refreshing just not that interesting

Old Chub Scottish Ale

This is a beer which has been sitting in my fridge for I dunno how long, I think it came with a party that some of my roommates had back in July. While cleaning out the fridge yesterday I re-found it and decided to give one a try. Ive always overlooked it in the past cause its in a can....

First Impressions: Dark and thick, Smells of dark malts

Taste: Real smooth, almost no hop character at all, Similar to a porter of stout, slight bitter chocolate alcohol flavor. Sweet ending. As it warms up It seems a bit like a Belgian quad at times.

Overall: good I'm impressed This is a robust canned beer, lots of interesting flavors, definitively a beer you have to sip to enjoy. I cant believe this has been sitting in my fridge for 8+ months untouched. Looking it up on BA its rated an A-(which is very good) and probably the highest rated canned beer there

Weihenstephaner Festbier

I have been looking for this for a while(downtown liquers in davis sq has most weihenstephaners except this) After going into work on saturday for an hour(yes only an hour) I stopped by the savemor on the way back home on a whim.... and walked out with 30 dollars of 4 beers. with this being one of them.

I also figured this was a decent chance to use the half liter hacker Pshorr glasses my friend Elliot gave me(6 months ago) I had been keeping them away from my roommates.... who have a tendency to break my glassware, which also meant that I didn't actually use them.

First Impressions: full of particles, like the St Bernardus tripel, which make it a bit cloud, lighter in color then the Hacker Pshorr. Smells of malt

Taste: Incredible. Possibly on of the most drinkable beers Ive had. Starts off with a mellow bite.. smooth malty middle then a zing on the tongue near the end, with a slightly sour finish

overall: great. This may beat out Hacker Pshorr as my fav octoberfest(which is ironic since I'm having it in a Hacker Pshorr glass). Its not as heavily malty as most, but it just tastes amazing. I can see myself having liters of this in a german beer hall

Anchor Steam Beer

less then 2 days to launch of the new web site. Still not sure how it is going to go.


First Impressions Nice dark amber colored, solid milky white head, smells pretty standard for a beer

Taste: solid bite at first, similar to a pale ale then turns a balanced malty, ending is a bit bitter

overall: good Nothing wrong with this beer, its a unique style though doesn't taste all that unique. Its definitely worth having though imo I prefer anchor liberty ale to the steam beer

Anchor Brewing Liberty Ale

another Sunday at work, will be having this beer while watching chuck in 3D .... on my computer since my roommate decided to delete it from tivo after I let her know I wanted to watch it.. grr at least I have a new 24 inch monitor which it looks fine on :)

About the beer.... Hear good reviews of it on BA

First Impressions: not too dark not to light colored, smells like a pale ale(ever so slightly floral but not like an IPA)

Taste: interesting. bit of a bit of a bite at first, but then slightly sour middle, with a ever so slight bitter finish

overall: good/great I'd say this is on par with SNPA as a classic pale ale. It is crisp and very drinkable

St Bernardus Abt 12

Another 14 hour day at work. This time due to a spammer attack on our current website at about 6 PM which caused a quick change to code that hasn't been touched in over a year(which then partly didn't work due to library differences and thus had to be backed out 5 hours later)

So I thought this was a good time to break out my final St Bernardus, the quad which is the highest ranked on BA that I have reviewed so far. It is a quad though, and I have yet to try a quad which I enjoy...

10% abv

First Impressions: Dark, very dark opaque. smells slightly sweet

Taste: no real bite at first, complex with some hints of dark cherry and a warming feeling, little alcohol flavor but not overpowering, very smooth feel. bit of a weird aftertaste... cant name it though

overall good/great This is definitely the best quad Ive had. Very smooth and interesting. Way better then the Three Philosophers and the weyerbacker quad. I'm still not a huge fan of the style though along with tripels

Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA

Picked this up after running low on beer, and learning that I have another week of work to do on the project(launch is postponed to next Wednesday

First Impressions: nice clear amber colored, floral smelling but not the same as a west coast IPA. Long lasting head

Taste: weird. Its hoppy , but definitely not cascades. Also has a weird malty flavor. Finishes crisp, no lingering aftertaste.

overall: good I have to say, I expected to really like this, and well I didn't. Its an decent beer, and definitely unique, but its not great. I cant accurately describe the weird taste I'm getting, its slightly sweet but also... I dunno different.

OPA-OPA IPA

2 days before launching the new website(which I have been working on for the last 18 months) Time for a little beer and Battlestar

I first had this IPA over at my friend, and coworker zach's place on new years day.

First Impressions: light colored for an IPA, floral smelling.

Taste: definitely a hoppy bite, which stays through out the taste, it doesn't get watery after the first bitter blast like some IPAs. Slight bitter aftertaste

overall: good/great this is a quite good IPA, though I wouldn't quite put it in the same class as SNCA or stone IPA. Its quite drinkable and well bodied