Beer Roundup

So I thought I would do a quick roundup to catch up on the backlog of shit I drink.

Here is the lineup that I drank on New Year's Eve:

All very good beers.  I could drink Winter Cheers all year round and Longboard is one of my go-to lagers.  I'm glad Kona Brewing Company improved its east coast distribution last year.

My wife brought home La Chouffe on a lark because she like Belgian Ales.  This was very good.  Why haven't we heard of this before?

The Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen is pretty good and I would grab it again if it was available.  The grapefruit version is disgusting.

My (now former) coworker Doug recommended Clown Shoes to me so when I saw this as a single I bought one.  I prefer my wheat beers without a citrus additive but this white ales was pretty good.

I seem to be in a minority as I seem to be the only person not overly impressed with the Southern Tier porter.  At first sip it tastes like a very good porter but within seconds it seems to go thin and flat.  What gives?  Maybe I'll try it again  but I have my doubts.

Great label, I love stouts, what could go wrong?  Sadly it wasn't that impressive for a stout.  A bit thinner than I prefer and it wasn't very flavorful.  A redeeming quality is that the espresso flavor wasn't overdone, but maybe that is a bad thing here.  Would it have been better if it tasted of nothing except espresso?  Probably not.

I keep seeing the love for this amber ale so I bought a single from my local beer store.  After being severely disappointed in Long Trail's Mostly Cloudy, I was not going to buy a 6 pack of this.  I was pleasantly surprised.  This is a good beer that I would drink again.  It's not spectacular but good enough.

And last but not least, Victory's Summer Love.  Victory's Prima Pils is my new favorite pilsner.  I always try to have some stocked in the beer fridge.  Their IPAs are well made and would appeal to IPA fans, except I'm not.  I can appreciate the quality though.  So when I saw this in the store I grabbed it.  This is an excellent summer ale.

German Wheats

Here are my favorite beers.

Two different, but excellent hefeweizens.  I can drink either non-stop.  While the Schneider Weisse is darker (closer to a dunkel), the Weihenstephaner is lighter in style one would expect with a hefeweizen.  Finally, clove is more predominant on the nose for Schneider Weisse while banana dominates the Weinhenstephaner.

If I had to choose one and only one beer, I wouldn't even have to think about it.

Vieux Télégraphe & Calera

On Friday night we opened a bottle of 1998 Vieux Télégraphe "La Crau" Châteauneuf du Pape.

A perfectly aged bottle.  The tannins resolved.  Dirty nose with an aged-fruit profile and subdued pepper form the syrah coming in at the end.  The bottle still has plenty of legs.  Me & the other half loved it.

On Saturday we had a 2007 Calera Mt. Harlan Cuvée.

The cuvée is a blend of 75% Jensen, 15% Ryan, 10% Mills.  The Mt. Harlan Cuvée was a steal.  Insanely cheap for the quality of wine, especially compared to the single vineyards.  I really wished they still bottled a cuvée.

That said, this was an awesome bottle.  Nicely aged with the secondary characteristics predominate but still showing some youth.  Sadly this was our last bottle.  We both savored this bottle.

Intro

This is nothing except pictures of shit I'm drinking.  Beer, wine, whatever. Don't expect deep insightful professional reviews.  I'll ramble some comments & opinions and then post a picture.  If you're looking for something deep you're going to have to go elsewhere.