I definitely didn't see the justification in the pricing premium compared to their other offerings. It definitely fell significantly short of spectacular.

Not had this one, but the DuganA is excellent.

I realize that I am late to the party on this one but I tried Duvel Belgian Ale for the first time yesterday.

The first thing that I noticed as I poured it into the glass was the wispy cloudlike nature of the head. My girlfriend remarked that it looked like bubble bath.

Compared to many beers that I have been drinking lately the color was a much lighter but slightly cloudy yellow. The aroma was moderately sweet and gave no indication as to what I would experience upon tasting. This beer's flavor appeared in three different stages with each sip. Initially I tasted a light textured sweet flavor followed immediately by a hoppy, yeasty accent in the second stage. The third stage finished with a slightly peppery, refreshingly bitter flavor.

This was an interesting beer that kept my attention throughout. I would not drink more than one at a time but would definitely drink again.

Try Duvel Green then.

One of the guys at work brought in Hoppin' Frog's Hoppin' to Heaven IPA. It poured the usual IPA golden color, maybe a bit on the darker side for the style. The nose was pretty fruity, west-coast hoppy, but with another smell in there I couldn't quite identify. When I tasted it I knew right away what it was: soap. Very, very soapy hop flavor, enough that it was a turn off. It finished on the dry side but a lot of that may have been that soapy hop character.

$10 for a bomber, sadly I wouldn't pick it up again.

On the bright side, I just mashed in for a barleywine! 26.5lbs of grain to end up with 5 gallons of beer. I'm hoping it comes out to around 12.5% ABV, but when homebrewing this big of a beer things can kind of go haywire.

Sounds tasty. Are you going for English style or American style?

American. I plan on brewing this same recipe every year around the same time so I can start stockpiling vintages.

Can we make a trade down the line when this is ready RDH?

I don't have any homebrew right now besides a basic stout recipe brewed for some friends, so if you want to trade a bottle or two of ABW for something in Chicago that you can't get by you, PM me.

Also, I found this pretty funny: http://ironhillbrewery.com/blog/mapl...ation-brewing/

there are health benefits to beer I found out...

Hot. Let me know how it turns out.

i got a magic hat variety 12 pack last night


i had a dark beer and it was surprisingly good since i'm not really a fan of the dark stuff

And for Superbowl XLIV we will be serving:



Special thanks to Montman for the Hopslam.

I have the 90 Minute & Palo Santo Marron along with the India Brown Ale and 60 Minute IPA. The PSM will be first followed by the 90. The last two will comprise the bulk of the remaining evening.

Haven't totally decided yet, but I think I'm going to go Hopslam, 90 Minute, Palo Santo, then finish things off with the Chimay and N'ice Chouffe. It stands to reason that I'll be quite drunk by then. Yeah, Sunday!

I'm doing the Chimay Blue and Innis & Gunn.

The Chimay Red was on sale for $7.99 at Whole Foods. When you spend $14.99 on a 4 pack (Palo Santo) you gotta save some money somewhere

How is the Palo Santo? I've been meaning to try it.

My Superbowl drink lineup for the big game yesterday:
Speakeasy's Big Daddy IPA, New Beligum's Ranger IPA, Lags HopStoopid Ale, BR Racer 5 IPA.

I just did a promo night with Ron from Lagunitas last Wednesday. He sent kegs of HopStoopid & GnarlyWine out for it, neither of which have been available on draft in this market before. We had a good time and very solid turnout. I slow-cooked some pork roasts on the grill for the event and I felt it matched up very well with the above-mentioned brews, as well as their IPA and Dogtown Pale Ale, which I was pouring too.

Sunday, I picked up these guys:

• Lagunitas Lucky 13 (I was "lucky" to find what had to be the last bottle in Tampa Bay...)
• Hoppin' Frog Belgian-Style Double IPA (better than the Stone Cali-Belgique imo)
• and I finally brought home a few Abita Restoration Ales I had sitting in the cooler at work for a couple of weeks. They're solid, everyday drinkin' beers for my house.

In other news, we delivered seven kegs of my beer to the bar for that recent anniversary party. I put the fourth one on Saturday night, leaving three half-barrels behind. At a bar with 40 lines, selling that much of any one beer is quite a feat, so I think this could be considered a success. Hopefully this will lead to a more widely available Spring release.

There's a hotel right behind this bar and Spring Break is coming up. Smell what I'm steppin' in?

It's a fantastic albeit somewhat challenging beer. It pours really dark, almost black, with little head, and drinks more like a spirit. It's aged in special Paraguayan wood barrels that give it a malted/oak flavor with hints of caramel/vanilla -- that's what it says on the label and it's pretty much right on. I'd reserve this beer for special occasions, like the end of a really good meal (particularly if the food is spicy). It's sweet and unique and really made an impression on me. I look forward to my next glass.

Ryan, did you find that this beer had a quick finish? By that I mean the taste was mostly front loaded and it didn't linger at all except for a bit of 12% ABV heat.

From an aroma perspective this was one of the more interesting beers that I have had recently. In addition to what Ryan said I also found roasty coffee flavors as well as darker fruits comparable to what one would find in a Cabernet.

Yes, it was unexpectedly crisp in that way, but not dry. Also to clarify, while I could taste and "feel" the 12%, it wasn't overpowering or unpleasant in any way.

Darker fruits, coffee, a Cabernet is a pretty good comparison, imo.

There's a syndicated TV show called "Daytime" which, according to their site "airs on the following stations across the southeast:"

They did a little feature on the St. Somewhere Brewery the day we kegged up my beer and it will air this Thursday, Feb. 11th. Set your TiVo's!

i don't see it on my directv, but i'm out west... if they show it via their webpage or something or maybe hulu, link it here for us.

Not on the TiVO list for Nashville, either.