Just a little Trip

Today I am drinking the Taylor Shellfish Farms Oyster Stout,a collaboration between New Belgium Brewing and Elysian Brewing.  A member of their Trip series of small batch beers.

The oyster stout is a fairly rare style but I have managed to try a few and really enjoy the beer.  As soon as I saw this beer at Belmont station I picked one up.  For me in an oyster stout the brine is the key.  I would say number one flaw I have found in some of the beer I have tried is, while labeled an oyster stout, it was in distinguishable from any other stout.  I am looking for a nice ‘sea’ brine, a bit different than a Gose, that mixes effortlessly with the dark malt and a softened the mouthfeel and finish.  Even before tasting, I a a bit concerned, at 7.7% ABV this beer is much bigger than any other oyster stout I have tried.  I hope the extra malt doesn’t lend a bit of sweetness that interferes with the flavors I am looking for.

This beer looks wonderful poured into a glass.  The beer is very dark but not total black and topped with a head of soft, tiny bubbles.  It is almost as if it was poured from a nitro tap, very nice for a bottled beer.

I will admit I am getting over a fairly nasty cold.  Trying to give anyone a reasonable description of the  aroma would be an exercise in futility, so I am just going to jump in as taste this beer.

This is a good oyster stout.  It has a nice brine, although I could ask for a bit more, and rich dark malts start to its nice smooth finish.  What keeps this from being a great beer is the size, confirming my original hesitation.  I believe an oyster stout is much better served by a smaller, say <5% ABV, drier beer.

If you have never had an oyster stout this is not be beer to start your adventure with the rarer beer styles, but for the few enthusiasts out there pick up a bottle and give it a try.  I would love to here your opinions.  Hell, while your at it, let me know your favor oyster stout

The Legend

My first beer club beverage…and it’s a legend already.

So I’m a member of a beer club now.  My mother got it for me as a gift for my birthday.  Not a bad gift, as gifts go…although the GIANT bone-in cured ham carried a bit more weight with my daughter.  She wanted to eat the whole thing in one sitting, but it will likely take me a year to finish it.  Good thing I can just leave it hanging in the garage.  But cured, bone-in hams aside, I went ahead and poured my first beer from my first month’s shipment.  Seemed like a good time to drink a brown ale from Legend Brewing, what with all the rain and wind.

Prepare for Chaos

So I’m sitting at an Irish pub at the Dallas airport. Unfortunately I cannot report on drinking an amazing brew, let alone a local beer. I was hoping for a Lone Star at least but alas, none to be found. So I’m just sipping on a Smithwicks and a Guinness as I kill this three hour layover. But y’all know what those taste like and they are not earth shattering, so nothing to report, but they are good enough with my fish n chips.

Snowpocalypse 2014

What do you do when you are snowed in? Drink of course…

Where to start?  If you live here, you get why this is so weird/frustrating.  Freezing rain and snow for 3 days in February?  Not very common around these parts.  The city basically shuts down and you find yourself homebound for days.  The city doesn’t salt the roads and only has 50 or so snowplows.  The side streets become quite the adventure during these events.  The bottom line: I have never wanted to take my kids to daycare so badly before!  The only way to stay sane is to drink.  Take it from me.

An Imperial IPA sounds about right.  Worthy Brewing has been garnering some good press lately, so this seemed worth a try.  It has a lovely color…sort of burnt orange/gold.  The smell is piney and a bit sticky with just a hint of the dank, which portends of good times ahead.  They claim that they “dry hop the bejeesuz” out of this beer, but I can’t verify that with my nose.  A bejeesuz seems like it would floor you.  This didn’t do that.  The taste starts sweet and immediately turns to mango, pineapple, and lemons.  It’s a nice tropical hop flavor.  Well done.  The beer isn’t as big as I would think for an imperial and a bit thinner than I would have expected.  8.5% is nothing to sneeze at, but there is something missing in the body for the style.  Although I must admit, the thinner nature of this beer plays well with the hop flavors.  This was fun to try.  Not sure I’m going to stock up or look for it at the pub, but worth a taste if you see it in the store.

Stay safe if you are in Portland and freaking out about the ice and snow.  If you aren’t from here, try not to judge the west-coasters too harshly.  Just relax and have a beer.

Christmas 2013, Beer #2: Flat Tail Brewing

Of the six beer Brian gave us for Christmas, the second one I selected was Flat Tail Brewing‘s Little Green Dry Hop Saison.  I selected this beer strictly because the sooner one can drink a dry hopped beer the better, before those delicate hop aromas fade fast.