Yes, I've had the oaked Yeti. It's one of my oldest reviews ITT. I loved it, and I thought it was a touch better than the original. I haven't had it in forever, though. I don't know the price of the Expedition. Still, if I want an imperial stout on the cheap, I'll buy a case of the Brooklyn BCS every time. That stuff is damn cheap.

Just gonna butt in here and suggest an entire brewery rather than a beer itself. I am from upstate New York (currently at school in Sacramento) and we have a nice little brewery here called Ommegang. Its possible this has been discussed here before, however I really think that these guys can do no wrong when it comes to making beer.

They offer a variety of selections, but in terms of sheer greatness, Three Philosophers is by far in the front of the pack. If you like a flavorful dark beer, then I highly suggest you seek one of these out. The color is a dark brown, and the taste is highlighted heavily with a thick cherry flavor. I know what your thinking, but this is not a "fruity" beer by any means.

Anyways, long story short, If you have a Beverages and More store nearby, or purchase a 4 pack from their website, I assure you, you will not be disappointed.

Ommegang is pretty awesome in general. They always seem to show up for the Autumn Beer Review here in MN. Three Philosophers is def. v. good.

Yeah, their Three Philosophers, Hennepen, Rare Vos, and namesake dubbel are all great. They've introduced some new brews lately, many based on brettanomyces yeast that I haven't liked and have been too pricey, but their standard brands are delicious and very competitively priced.

If you ever get a chance to visit the brewery, they offer free tours and tasting, and often have very good events and musical guests, especially in the summer months. I have been to several mini music festivals there, and they have kegs of all of their brews, for about 4 dollars a pint.

Ommegang Abbey Ale is awesome.

i think i replied way earlier in this thread. but my current favorites-

Schneider Aventinus Ale - a wheat double bock from bavaria. 8.5% ABV and one of the most flavorful beers i've ever found.

Scaldis - a belgian quad. 12% ABV and sorta maybe like Chimay Blue but with more of a caramel flavor.

anyone ever tried Westvleteren? i've been looking for months but since the monks at that particular belgian monastery don't export the beer it's rather tricky to find it here in NY.

i think the Oaked Yeti is pretty good.

ever try the Left Hand imperial stout? that one stands out to me as being especially flavorful. and very drinkable despite being freakin thick and dark as all hell.

Drunkern Weihenstephan tasting TR:

Ah, tonight was a good night. In addition to being drunk on Weihenstephaner beer, I had a good night out with K, her folks, and my friends.

The beer:

We tried six beers from Weihenstephan. Sadly, it was not their brewmaster who was there introducing them to us. Instead, it was their importer. He wasn't bad. He was still informative, but he pronounced Weihenstephan with a W instead of a V. Oh well.

First up, their pale lager. I'm not a big pale lager drinker, but this was the best non-hop-bomb pale lager I've ever had. I mean, Brooklyn and Great Lakes both make great hoppy pale lagers, but this was lightly hopped and tasted of apples and other deliciousness. On an absolute scale, this might not rate all that highly, but considering it's a pale lager and that I was impressed, I'll give it a hefty and a half rating

Second, the Kristalweisse. This is essentially the hefeweisse, but they filtered the yeast out. This gives it a coarser mouthfeel in addition to removing the yeasty flavor. This might have been the big loser of the night. K and K's stepmom both preferred the pale lager, and K's dad and I both preferred the hefeweisse we had next. It's still about a beer, but it's not up to par given the other excellent beers from Weihenstephan.

Third, the hefe. I've reviewed this before, and it remains a beer. It also remains the best hefe in the world, imo. It's excellent, and everyone should try it.

Fourth, the dunkel weisse. One thing I learned tonight is that dunkels were apparently the original style of hefe, not the lighter ones. It was still delicious, but not quite as good as the lighter. and a half

Fifth was a surprise for me. They gave us their Vitus weizenbock. Now, I've had a weizenbock from Weihenstephaner before, but it was dark: earthy and rich. This was instead a stronger version of their hefeweissbier. Much like Sierra Nevada's surprisingly light weizenbock, it was light in color. It was wonderful, and my favorite of the night. I'll even give it a solid and a half rating. The other thing I learned about this beer is that Weihenstephan didn't even start brewing this until 2006. I'd assumed that they didn't make anything that didn't exist before recorded history given how old they are, but their brew master woke up one morning a few years ago, had an idea for a new beer, and started making it in a 5 gallon bucket. It's spectacular, and any beer lover who gets an opportunity to try this should not pass it up.

Finally, we tried their Korbinian doppelbock, named after the monk who allegedly brought beer to the Weihenstephaner brewery and to Germany in general in the 9th century. This is also the best doppelbock I've had to date. It tastes of coffee, fig, raisin, maple and cherry, and those of us that liked non-light beer loved it. It's also a beer. It's not as sweet and cloying as many doppelbocks. We got the last portion of an extra pitcher, and that's why I'm drunk.

Eh, maybe not entirely. I also had an extra pint of the weizenbock and a half pint of Arcadia's double IPA, which is also excellent. They use a good dose of floral and citrusy hops on top of a surprisingly dark malt for a double IPA, and it works very well. It's also a beer.

Unfortunately this was the last place we crossed off our list on last year's brewery tour. It was just way too out of the way to justify on a 3 day trip to Delaware (DFH) and back (from Chicago). Also Southern Tier had really weird hours iirc, so it was like a double "out of the way."

I was inspired by the good words of this thread to have another Three Philosophers tonight while out. I only remembered good things about it. It did not disappoint, but was a bit more sweet than I remembered.

Also had a Chambly Noire, which I really do enjoy, even if it's not everybody's favorite Unibroue beer. I really really wanted to take their Unibroue glass too, but that wouldn't be right. They charge me .50 cents for a side of bbq sauce, so it would've been somewhat justified.

Also had a belgian amber ale that was tasty, can't recall the name off hand now and the website doesn't list it. I'll have to think about that one.

One more thing I forgot to brag about from last night:

After the tasting, the importer guy went around and gave everyone there one of Weihenstephan's namesake weiss beer glasses:



K's folks gave theirs to us, so we each got a pair. They're fantastic glasses, and getting a pair basically covered the cost of admission to the tasting.

Wookie, sounds awesome. I've only had their hefe and dunkel and obv. they are both delicious. You went to a beer tasting w/ K's parents? Pretty cool that they were all interested but whenever I go to beer tastings I usually make sure the group is all people I don't mind looking like an idiot in front of!

Been lurking and figured I would do a review. Our local beer shop very recently got a shipment of some newly distributed (to our area) beers.
The Dieu du Ceil brewery is in quebec and Mikkeller is in Denmark.


(crappy cell phone pic)
Dieu du Ciel Corne du Diable
Dieu du Ciel Derniere Volonte
Dieu du Ciel Peche Mortel
Mikkeller -It's Alive-


I tried the Peche Mortel first, it is somewhat hyped and is in the rate beer top 50. It is an Imperial Coffee Stout at 9.5% abv.
The pour was quite black with a thin tan head. Smells of coffee and some chocolate aroma, maybe even some molasses. The taste was great, a thick viscous mouth feel and as expected, a definite roasted coffee flavor, with some obvious bitterness. Very drinkable though and I did not notice the higher abv at all.
Highly recommended.

Hope to try the others soon.

Heh. I also know pretty well how much beer I'll be drinking and about how drunk I'd get (not all that drunk). I might get loosened up a bit, but I wasn't worried about looking like any more of an idiot than I'd look sober. Instead, K's folks thought this outing was the best thing ever, and I scored some major points for proposing it and inviting them along.

where do you live such that you get dieu du ciel?

I can get it. I've stared at it a few times, but every time I see >$5 for a single 11.5 (not even 12) oz bottle and I think, "nah."

mont,

How does this stack up against other imperial stouts you've tried?

I live in the Virginia Beach area. We have a great little beer shop (grape&gourmet) and they do a good job of getting in some harder to find beers.
Well, the last two imperial stouts I have had that stand out were the Bell's Expedition and the Old Rasputin.
I liked your review of the Bell's, and I did like it, but for me, it was just a little too much. I would summarize the Old Rasputin as a bit smoother overall and also very good.
The Peche Mortel was a bit more one dimesional than a lot of other stouts due to the strong coffee presence. I liked it better than the other two mentioned, but I might be kind of biased as I am a big fan of coffee also.

I think Rare Vos is one of my favorite beers out of the tap.

I also really enjoyed the original ale from Weihen, thought it was one of the best session beers I've had. The Hefe is undoubtedly awesome as well. I like dunkel-weisse beers as well, and that was also solid. All around a great brewery.

Alright, time to put my palette and the integrity of my reviews to the test. Tonight, I'm hosting another in my double-blind taste test series with my friends. The subject tonight is tripels. We'll see how well my ratings correspond to how I rank them when I don't know what I'm drinking and I get to try them all side by side.

Wow, can't wait for the results of that one, Wookie. I brewed my first homebrew tripel last weekend and it's currently chugging away.

A couple quick reviews from me: Russian River's Pliny the Elder is every bit as good as you've heard. What I was most surprised by was how balanced it was (for a DIPA). Just incredible hop aroma, flavor, and bitterness, but nice malt upfront to ready the palette. I really regretted not bringing back more than one bottle. RR's Blind Pig IPA was also very solid, but drinking it the next night all I could think of was the Pliny.

Firestone Walker's IPA was also really good, classic citruisy West Coast IPA. I like that and RR's IPAs more than 21st Amendment's. 21A's IPA is ok, but that's it. Nothing to write home about. Of course, since it comes in a can it's really easy to bring home a sixer of that in the same space one or two bottles of something else takes up in your luggage.

Lagunitas' Undercover Investigation Shutdown Ale is really interesting. It's a beast at somewhere near 9% ABV (the bottle label gives one listing, the six pack carrier a different one; I'm sure CA's alcohol control people would like to see that). It starts with a really intense caramel malt sweetness, almost like a Scotch ale. That gives way to firm hop bitterness and it all ends fairly dry and drinkable. Not really any more than just a hint of alcohol warmth, so it's a sneaky bastard, as well.

I loved Pliny but had to split the bottle 6 ways. Hopefully will get some more at the end of August on this year's west coast brewery trip.

21st Amendment's IPA comes in a can RDH? I believe I had that as well but I don't remember anything about it.

Double-Blind Tripel Taste Test Results!

After having done vodka, pinot noir, and tequila, it was time for my little club to do beer. Not all of them really like beer so what beer do you do for people who may not be big beer drinkers? Well, tripels could very well deliver, and they're one of my favorite styles. Perfect. Only one of the people who came last night had ever had a tripel before, even the beer lovers, so this would be good exposure for everyone. And finally, this forum will get to see if I can pick my favorites out of the line up and how I rank them when I taste them side by side.

The contestants:

Contestant #1


Unibroue's La Fin Du Monde
Country of Origin: QC, Canada
ABV: 9%
Price: $7.50 for a 750 mL bottle
Wookie's Prior Rating:

My current favorite tripel. I was definitely going to ensure it was represented here.

Contestant #2



Unibroue's Don De Dieu
Country of Origin: QC, Canada
ABV: 9%
Price: $7.50 for a 750 mL bottle
Wookie's prior rating:

This one is a little off beat. It's a tripel made with wheat. I got this one because my mom, who drinks beer but doesn't really love it, really enjoyed this and not so much the LFDM. I'm curious what others thought.

Contestant #3:



Westmalle Trapist Tripel
Country of Origin: Belgium
ABV: 9.5%
Price: $10 for a 750 mL bottle
Wookie's past rating: None

Never tried this one, but I certainly had heard of it. I was glad someone brought it.

Contestant #4:



Green Flash's Trippel [sic]
Country of Origin: CA, USA
ABV: 9.7%
Price: $8 for a 22 oz bottle
Wookie's Past Rating:

I wasn't that big a fan when I tried it, but we'll see how it fares. They changed the label since this picture. It looks more like their Le Freak now.

Contestant #5:



Gouden Carolus Tripel
Country of Origin: Belgium
ABV: 9%
Price: $15 for a 750 mL bottle
Wookie's Past Rating: none

I'd never even heard of this one before a friend showed up with it. It's quite pricey.

Contestant #6



Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Tripel
Country of Origin: Belgium
ABV: 9%
Price: $9.50 for a 750 mL bottle
Wookie's past rating:

A friend brought this as an extra beer that he just was curious about. I was a little nervous this might not go over so well with some drinkers, and I wasn't an especially big fan to begin with.

Contestant #7:



Kasteel Triple
Country of Origin: Belgium
ABV: 11%
Price: $8 for a 750 mL bottle
Wookie's past rating:

This was among my least favorite tripels based on the reviews of mine I looked over, and certainly my least favorite of the ones from last night that I'd had before.

Contestant #8



Tripel Karmeliet
Country of Origin: Belgium
ABV: 8.4%
Price: $10 for a 750 mL bottle
Wookie's past rating:

It was likely I got a bad bottle when I did my review. Hopefully this one would be better.

Results!

Coming in first, the grand winner of the night:



We found this beer to be very citrusy and spicy. It had a dry grapefruit-like hopping reminiscent of Arrogant Bastard, albeit milder, along with a little of the characteristically European grassiness. But it was also had hints of jasmine and coriander. Everyone loved this...but me. I really enjoyed it, but I ranked it fourth. That's not really a knock against it, but I preferred other styles.

Coming in second:



This was definitely a better bottle. It was cloudy and properly carbonated, unlike the first one I'd had. When I first tried this, I thought it might have been the Don De Dieu, but I realized I was wrong when we actually had the Don De Dieu later. It did have a lighter flavor of pineapple, pear, apricot and clove that was reminiscent of the Don De Dieu, but it wasn't as sweet and wasn't as malty. A couple people didn't care for the sweetness, but the rest of us loved it.

In third place:



As I mentioned, I was able to pick this out of the line up by taste even though we were trying them blind. I love the Unibroue beers. Those that didn't thought they were too sweet.

And just narrowly behind it in fourth by one point:



I was also able to identify this one correctly by its taste alone, and I still ranked it first. It is sweet, and that was the major complaint of those that didn't go for it. I thought the apple, orange, pear, apricot, malt, and yeasty flavors were the strongest in this. I didn't mind the sweetness because there was so much else there. The Unibroue beers are the obvious value picks of this test, as they cost half the price of the winner.

In fifth place, again just one point behind:



This was a "love it or hate it" beer. Two ranked it second. The rest had it near the bottom, including me. I don't mind the hoppiness, but there isn't enough tripel there, and even the hops are not the style I prefer. But, the people most off-put by the sweeter beers loved this one.

And then, just one point behind that, in sixth:



This one I was not able to pick out of the line up. Based on the strong grassy hopping that was almost on the level of the Chouffe, I assumed it was Belgian. It had a nice flavor of apple, apricot, and clove to it in addition to the hops. The people who liked the drier beers also liked this one.

And finally, we had a tie for last place. There was a big drop off in scores after the above block. By process of elimination, they were:



Of the two, I favored the Westmalle. It was unusually sour, not like a proper sour ale, but it was sour for a tripel, tasting of lemon and pear in addition to a light hopping. However, many didn't like this sourness, so to the bottom it fell.

The Kasteel was the one I thought was Green Flash. It was the least cloudy and the least carbonated of any of the beers, so I guess there's a chance it was a bad bottle, but it was that way in my earlier review of it. It wasn't very spicy, and it was just syrupy and sweet. A couple people liked the mild flavor and the sweetness, but even though I liked the LFDM, this didn't do it for me at all, and of course the people who preferred the less sweet beers didn't go for it, either.

Ultimately, I'm pretty proud of how my palette fared. I identified most of the beers I knew, and I scored them appropriately in my opinion. However, I'm not surprised that this crowd disagreed with me, as our tastes vary widely. The Gouden Carolus is definitely one to try, though. It was unlike any other tripel I've had, and it played well with just about everyone.

Tonight's review is another from Ry's shipment. This time, the Tres Blueberry Stout from Dark Horse. I'm a little skeptical about blueberry working in stout, but Dark Horse has been good to me so far. Looks like this is a fairly low 4.5% ABV.



Man, based on the pour, I almost don't trust Beer Advocate's stated ABV. It's very dark and thick and has a head dark enough for this to be an imperial.



The smell is distinctly blueberry, along with a little coffee. The flavor is the opposite. First it hits you with the coffee, roasted malt, and a touch of bitterness, and then it finishes with blueberry and a touch of sourness. It's not as thick as it looked when pouring. It's definitely not as strong as an Imperial stout, it's just as dark as one. This is a hard beer for me to evaluate. The blueberry flavor is better than any blueberry wheat I've had, and that's definitely to its credit, and really, the malt is much more flavorful than the usual watery crap that accompanies many fruit beers. On the other hand, I don't know if I'd ever feel myself craving something like this again. If I wanted a beer this dark, I'd probably go for, say, Rogue's Shakespeare Stout or Elysian's Dragonstooth over this every time save occasionally feeling like a novelty. Maybe the blueberry is something that really gets some people's blood pumping, but I feel more like it's an interesting addition to a decent beer. As for about how much pleasure it brings me, I'll give it and a half . However, in the world of non-Belgian fruit beers, it's one of the best I've had, and if you really enjoy that style and if you love blueberries, this may be the best thing you've ever had.

Wookie, I'm with you, LFDM is my favorite Triple. My last and only bottle of Westmalle Triple left much to be desired, kind of a funny taste to it...hopefully I just had a bad bottle.