I understand what youre saying wrt to the trouble you have to go through to get the beer weighing on your review. Fortunately RR ships some of their beers to Philly so I can get a bottle of any of their barrel aged beers fairly easily, nothing hoppy as Vinnie is strick about those beers being drunk young.

I think the brown ale youre talking about is Janet's Brown Ale, which is Mike "Tasty" McDole's recipe. They had McDole come to the brewery and brew the beer with them, not sure how many batches of it were made but Vinnie talked about it a bit on the Brewing Network Sunday Session a while back.

My buddy that I don't see much is coming into town this week. We've been trading and collecting for awhile and we've got this list of beers to taste:

Westvleteren 12
Westvleteren 8
Firestone Walker Abacus
Deschutes Abyss (2011)
Three Floyds Dark Lord (2011)
Big Sky Ivan the Terrible
Bruery Melange 3
Cigar City Hunaphu
Cigar City Imperial Milk Porter - Stranahan Whiskey barrel
Speedway Stout

This is too much to have at one time so we're likely going to do a few a night. Any suggestions on an order? I'll post results on our favorites and maybe a review or two.

Westvleteren 12 first imo, how did you get it?

A guy on beeradvocate.com lives in Belgium and occasionally gets cases then ships them at cost + shipping. It's not my favorite style but I had to try it.

In terms of the tasting, I'm thinking the Westys and Abacus one night because they're not stouts. Then barrel aged stouts on night, then non-barrel aged and see how they all compare.

Hopslam on tap. Life is good.

I recently had this on draft in a small Lisbon restaurant, and really enjoyed it. But over the next couple of days I could never duplicate the experience. The other restaurants served it in the bottle -- does draft vs bottle really make that big of a difference with this Super Bock? It was never as good as it was that first time...

Wow you are seriously lucky wasn't it released today? How is it? I'm hoping I can get a bottle when it hits Florida.

PtE, I'm already allocated a 6 pack when it comes in. I can trade up to 3 bottles if you (or anyone) is interested

local houston microbrew. All of the beers have a similar crisp and light taste while being flavorful. Would recommend but im sure they don't sell it much outside of TX.

they had this in the cask area at a beer fest i was at last winter and it was my favorite of the day. Cant wait to try it again in a few weeks.

Is anyone in the Indianapolis area going to Winterfest on 1/28?

It was delicious. Fiancée works at a bar with some pretty good crafts, got a heads up they were getting it in and releasing it before most other bars. Very lucky!!

Website doesn't give much in the way of details. What does the price of admission get me? Is it unlimited sampling, or do they pass out X number of tickets, kinda like Ribfest? I have my daughter that weekend, but for a 4 hour event my wife would watch her. So I guess the answer is that I'm undecided ATM.....do you have better info than website Bode?

For the price of like $9.99 or so a 6 pack "The Poet" from New Holland is a really good Oatmeal Stout:

Its definitely worth it. Unlimited samples (last year at least) and there are a ton of craft breweries there. I was trying to find my map from last year but I must have lost it. I would guess upwards of 100 booths?

$50 vip ticket is worth it because you get in an hour earlier and can hit all the must hit breweries first.

Anchorage Brewing Whiteout Wit (with Brett)

Pale straw color, thin fluffy 1 finger white head. Completely opaque,
almost still, no visible carbonation.

Brett on the nose, barnyard followed by lemon and citrus. Smells a bit dry. I smell a bit of banana, not much clove but there is some coriander, lemon peel and black pepper notes.

Funk upfront leading to a soft yeasty wit taste. This beer is
very very soft, the carbonation is a nice level makin it very very
palatable. There is a ton of lemon flavor making this almost tart which I enjoyed.

Loved this beer definitely grab it if you see it.

Other reviews Ive read is that it is highly carbonated but not this bottle, it was from a friends cellar maybe 8 months old.

A-

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24903/70194

one of my buddies I went with last year is supposed to be scanning and emailing the vendor map sometime soon so i will post it. He also said the brewers guild of Ind. website was supposed to post more info closer to the event.

Thanks Bode, I'd like to see that vendor map. If I can get free for the afternoon I'll PM you.

Just cracked open my first Hop Slam of the year. Delicious as always.

Drinking Hoptimus Prime right now from Ruckus Brewing Co. Pretty ****ing good.

I bought the grains for the Special Bitter today. They were out of C120L, so I got Bairds 130L instead.

i finished off the 3 from my split 6 pack. I enjoyed it, but I also had a surly abrasive right before it and the surly put the hopslam to shame

My LHBS didn't have special roast so I got victory. IDK how close that is to special roast though

I'm all set to brew the Bitter tomorrow.

I grabbed everything yesterday but ran into similar out of stock issues. I got victory instead of special roast as well, I'm not worried about it.

I got there just as the guy was unpacking g their latest shipment and hes like omg no 001 or 002 or 007??? Pretty big omission in a yeast order.

So after sitting and having a few beers with him I decided to try Burton Ale yeast. So I might have a much differs beer then some folks.

In case any of you are thinking of building a home brew system I helped my friend build a single tier system this w/e. He has posted some details on his blog. Ask questions on his discussion link on the blog. I have access to it and will do my best to answer any you may have.

http://davesnovicebeerblog.blogspot.com/

Doughed in the BCS Bitter 15 mins ago, hit 152 instead of 151 on the mash. No big deal IMO.