major beer tasting night

Last night I went to a beer tasting with Dan, held at a friend's house. We went through a ton of stuff, so while the memory is still fresh I wanted to say a few things about each of the beers we had.

We started off with a bottle each of Bell's Hopslam, a beer I've had a few times before and really enjoyed. It's a big IIPA with tons of hop character and a decent amount of bitterness. Later in the night I had this in a blind tasting with 3 other hoppy beers, and it didn't rank as well for me as I thought it would, but copious amounts of alcohol may have played a factor in that.

Next we divided up a can of Surly Abrasive Ale. This is another IIPA, and one that I had not had before. This one had citrus character in the extreme, and was quite tasty. I would definitely try it again.

We followed up Abrasive with a bottle of Hopus from Brasserie Lefebvre SA. I'm not sure how you are supposed to pronounce that "bvre" part, but sufficed to say it's from Belgium. In fact this is a Belgian IPA, a kind of odd style in which they put their own Belgian spin on the definitive American style. I thought this one was a bit sweet, without very much hop character at all. However I'm fairly sure this bottle was not fresh, so I won't judge it too harshly.

We moved on to a bottle of Russian River Redemption, a Belgian Pale Ale. This was a good lighter beer to break up the night a bit. It had a decent lemon and grassy flavor with just a bit of tartness.

We went the polar opposite direction at this point, opening a bomber of Victory Dark Intrigue. This is a bourbon-barrel aged version of Storm King, so it tastes about like you would expect. A very good stout base with the normal bourbon-barrel qualities.

We had a Terrapin Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout next. This was an excellent coffee stout with huge roast flavor. I think the bottle we had was from 2009, but it held up extremely well.

Following the Terrapin was BrewDog's Paradox Islay Batch 9 - Ardberg. Supposedly an American Double/Imperial Stout, we got lots of smoky flavors along with a medicinal smell and taste that none of us found at all appealing. We ended up dumping it because it was so bad, I'm assuming there had to have been an infection or something because there's no way anyone would enjoy drinking that.

We got the taste out of our mouths with Oude Boon Geuze. Despite its age and relatively low ABV, because of all the bugs in the beer it turned out well. Nice tart flavors, and explosive carbonation. The carbonation was a little much for me, but that was my only complaint.

Next up we had a Troegs Scratch #39. This is one of I believe 4 IPAs that Troegs is coming out with in the Scratch series. Each one uses a different hop profile in an attempt to refine a recipe that meets popular demand. I mentioned when drinking it that it must have been Simcoe in the beer because it smelled kind of "catty" (to put it politely), which it turns out is correct. It definitely wasn't my favorite hop profile, so I hope they don't settle on that recipe.

We had Hair of the Dog Fred after that, a Barleywine with big malty character and a good hop balance. I'm having trouble remembering the flavors in this one, but I do remember that it was good.

Our host broke out a bottle of Surly Coffee Bender next, a coffee brown ale. This is a spin that I hadn't had before, as normally coffee tends to be added to stouts. I really enjoyed it though, and with a relatively low ABV it would be a regular drinker if I could get my hands on it.

We then had our blind tasting of 4 IPAs. Our host gave us each 4 numbered glasses in order, and we tasted each and ranked them based on how we liked them. When the beers were revealed it turns out that I had ranked Founders Centennial IPA as the top beer, followed by Troegs Nugget Nectar, then Bell's Hopslam, and finally New England's Gandhi-Bot. I would like to try each of them again, but at the time I think I based my decision on how smooth the hop character in the beer was, and how bitter each was. I thought the Hopslam was more bitter than I liked at the time, and felt the Gandhi-Bot was even more bitter and lacking other hop character. Of course, this result again should be tempered by the amount of beer consumed at this point.

We cleansed our pallets a bit with a bottle of Sam Adams Infinium. I had not heard great things about this beer, but was still curious to try it for myself. It was dry, highly carbonated, and fruity. None of us really enjoyed the flavors, and ended up dumping it.

Dan and I finished off the night with a bottle of Portsmouth "BC Stout". I thought it stood for Black Chocolate, but apparently it's Black Cat. This beer was extremely good, with roasty and chocolate flavors in abundance. I would love to have this again some time.

- Adam