Alright, TR time:

First, every person that says it is not like anything you have ever had is 100% correct. I have had my fair share of fine wines, liquors, and beers, and I can safely say that you have never experienced anything like it. I will try to break it down but I am sure I will never hit all the subtle notes in this beer, but here we go:

Color can best be described as an aged rum. Appleton 12yr, but maybe closer to the 20yr. (this is always my go to description for rum as I grew up in Jamaica and have more than my fair share of the varieties)

As far as an actual beer that it would be somewhat close to (the actual difference is really between Mercury and Neptune in our solar system but I couldnt think of anything else right away with the same heat), if you took samichlaus 14%abv, reduced the burn to a somewhat 30yr scotch level without the peaty taste or distinctive scotch notes, then threw in mounds berries, raisins, and caramel, then more caramel, then let it sit for 10 years in, what tasted like rum, barrels. You would be close.

It is a SIPPING beer, attempt to rush it and it will punish you quickly. I tried several times to take a small sip and breathe out through my mouth without getting a slight shortness of breath, only to fail with each attempt. It has the same warmth and body of a fine brandy.

Legs, holy **** does it have legs. When the first bottle was done I held it upside down over my glass for a minute and was able to get close to a quarter ounce more out of the bottle, however, I had to repeat the same process to get the beer from the glass to my mouth. It left a very distinct layering of liquid around the glass.

As far as taste, I touched on it breifly and would never be able to get everything in there, but, caramel is the backbone to which all the other flavors ride. Not sure if it due to the amount of fruit in the beer reacting with the rum barrels, but it is amazing. From there I get a very distinctive raisiny taste and mouth-feel, followed by a sweet finish of berries, maybe black berrries or currants. Followed by a mellow but core warming heat which actually seemed to amplify the caramel.

Now the big question: Was it worth it? If you were to take one sip, no. You would never be able to appreciate the absolute uniqueness of it. But, with at least an ounce to your name, it is well worth it. Just for the shear fact htat there is nothing else out there like it adn it seems to take you beyond what I thought a beer could ever do. Would I buy it again next release in 2013? Yes, quite possibly even two bottles again.

Scale of 1-10, 10. I tried to be as unbiased as possible coming into it, but i'm sure there was a little to do with the fact I waited almost a year to try it.

Cost of one bottle? And what is the bottle made of? Ceramic covered in copper?

The bottles I bought were roughly $200 each before tax. I did reserve them the day that they were announced from two seperate stores, and these represented 2/3 of the bottles that came to my town.

Precisely, ceramic coated in copper.

I was at the bar tonight around 1:00am this guy orders a Bells Hopslam. I'm not sure if he was drinking many before that or whatever but he took one or two sips of the beer, left it on the counter and never came back in the bar.. Talk about disgraceful that is the one of the Top 5 beers I've ever drank in my life.

Just got into craft beer recently, and also found this thread. I bought a six pack of different stouts this evening (I like my stouts!) and am learning the nomenclature as well as how to enjoy a beer rather than just slamming it back.

Right now I'm drinking a Sam Adams Cream Stout after having a steak for dinner. I'd say my palette isn't very refined and combined with a cold it's hard for me to taste anything at all but this is the first beer that I can actually taste different flavors in. It's dark, fairly carbonated, more sweet than anything else but there's a tinge of bitterness on the caramel-infused finish. If I didn't have a cold I'd be able to detail the finish a little better since it seems to linger (a pleasant lingering, I might add). I'm not sure what occasion I'd drink this on, probably after dinner

Up next will be Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast which sounds like the perfect compliment to a nice cigar (or a blunt) but at over $9 per bottle I'll wait until my cold is gone before pouring it.

If you thought SA Cream Stout was flavorful, you'll be in for a treat with Beer Geek Breakfast. I haven't personally had it but from what I've read it's supposed to be excellent.

Beer geek breakfast is excellent.

Guest tap list for Hunaphu day. There is still more coming supposedly, not to mention Cigar City's own beers. I can't even contain my excitement.

Do some mixing. 3 parts Brewdog Punk IPA to one part Brewdog Hardcore IPA is pretty darn close to Torpedo. I've squeaked it to closer to 2 parts Punk to 1 Hardcore.

Thank me later.

This list is pretty ridiculous. I actually might think I'm going to stay away from the Three Floyds stuff because I think they're going to draw the biggest lines. I'm looking forward to the Johnathan Wakefield Berliners, Funky Last Snow and 7venth Sun Berliner. I might save most of my beers for Cigar City's stuff.

Btw, I understand why they had to drop the bottle limit from 3 to 2 but I always wish I had more bottles of the stuff.

Got a shipment from RDH tonight. Trying his tripel first, ldo.



Nice pale color, fairly fizzy, although the head doesn't last long. It bears some resemblance to a hard cider. Completely clear, not much sediment in the bottle. Very malty nose, with some apple. It has a crisp flavor, and a lot of that apple. It's not as sweet as I was expecting, and it's a bit more acidic than expected as well. The hops don't take over, but they're a nice accent. There's no way that I'd know this was a 9% beer. The alcohol is completely masked. Definitely a tasty beer, I'd give it 4 s

I don't post in here too frequently but I will be at Hunahpu Day also, mainly to babysit PlinytheElder and make sure he doesnt get lost after the event.

Hah sounds good. I think ill try the dark lord since ill probably not get a chance to for a while. I know CC is going to have smokabaga which is a smoky version of their tocabaga on tap so ill definitely want to try that as well. I wish they would give 2oz pours so I could try a ton of stuff. Im assuming theyll have some vintage and/or one off hunaphu that I want to try, not to mention all the homebrew I intend on drinking. Good thing my wife doesnt like beer so someone can drive us home.

All of my homebrews were bottled off of kegs so there shouldn't really be much sediment in any of them.

Do you add corn sugar at all when you keg or just force carbonate? I've been getting mixed results lately when I force carb so idk if I have something wrong or not -_-

I force carb my kegs exclusively with great results. I feel I have much better control over the carb level then I do the natural method.

Force carb, counter pressure fill, the best way to go imo.

No priming or krausening or anything when kegging. Unless I really need a beer ready ASAP I just set the regulator and forget about it. That part is pure science: X pounds on the regulator at Y temperature gets Z volumes of CO2 in the beer.

If you're having trouble with pours off of your kegerator, I'd recommend largely ignoring any online "balance" calculators. I could not get a good pour off of mine using anything close to what online calculators gave me. If you've got money to throw around, I'd double the length of bev line a calculator gives you and start there. If its too slow, you can cut back easily; if its still ****ty, then time to look into things like temp. differential, poor faucets, etc.

And obviously the crank regulator/shake keg is unreliable. But if you've had a keg in there for a couple weeks with a set pressure and temperature, and still can't get good pours, there's only a couple of variables to check.

Alright cool. I've been using the method where I set it at 30psi let it sit for 36 hrs, release psi, set to 12psi and pour. I'll start using the more effective methods.

Don't get me wrong, that can be effective in the sense that it'll put CO2 in your beer more quickly than a lower psi, but its hard to know just how much you're putting in. I'm almost never in a rush to carb a beer, so I don't mind putting it on at serving pressure and letting it take a week to carb up.

I do the method set it high for 24hrs and then back to serving pressure sometimes and I dont think it gets me that big a head start. I end up waiting 2 weeks to tap it anyway so whats the point? So im with RDH, brew more often and just do the ste and forget method.

Also, WTF!! How did I miss that the NHC is in Philly next year!!! I almost peed my pants.

Probably the same way last years' Phils didn't really understand the importance of what was going on.

Signed,

Lifetime Cardinals Fan

As I read your post i am currently halfway done your Yorkshire Square Bitter, I was going to post a glowing review but all of a sudden I taste cardboard, DMS, acetaldehyde etc.

For those who dont know, a few of us in the thread got together and brewed the same base recipe ESB for trade. The only liberties we took were with the yeast. My first tasting is the ESB brewed by RDH, this one used Yorkshire Square special release yeast. Here it is in the glass.



Appearance: bronze in color with orange hues. Thin 1 finger tan head that fades to a minimal coating that lasts throughout leaving decent lacing. Moderate clarity, with a few bubbles running up the glass.

Aroma: fruity aroma, apples on the nose with a touch of cinnamon and malt. it's very welcoming the more and more I smell it.

Taste; medium carbonation with a slight carb bite on the tongue. The fruity notes are parternered with a nice malt balance present then fades to a soft bitterness on the end. Very easy drinking and enjoyable.

Overall: it's amazing the difference between my Burton ale version and this Yorkshire Sq version, they are clearly beers of the same style but end up significantly different. I really enjoyed this beer, very clean flavors that compliment eachother fantastically. A very well made beer.

4/5

https://dl.dropbox.com/0/view/cnw6vil0mi5lotq/Camera%20Uploads/2012-03-10%2010.32.32.jpg

Im ready!!!