Friday, December 16, 2016

A whaley good time - Holiday Share Roundup & Ranking

A couple weeks ago, my friends and I started planning a "holiday" beer share, a time where we could share a few (okay a lot) of really good beers and chat before we all went our separate ways for the holidays. The list started to get obscene and all in all, it was a really great time with some killer beers.

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With more than 28 beers sampled that night (over six hours and there were eight of us, don't worry Mom) I'll do a top 20 of what I most enjoyed.

 Just missed:

 Woodfour Brewing - Quercus Reserve Pyrus

Yuck! This was really disappointing. Quercus Reserve Peche was a delightful peach sour, this tasted like apple cider with no carb.

 Arrogant Brewing - Bastard's Midnight Brunch

Night Shift Brewing - Picasso

 The Bruery - Bourbon Barrel Aged 7 Swans-A-Swimming

Deschutes Brewing - Jubel (2015)

 Night Shift Brewing - Darkling (2016)


 Barely missed: 
22. AleSmith Brewing - Speedway Stout Mokasida Coffee

Like all Speedway Stout variants, it's good. It was just a little thin for my liking with a lot of coffee.

21. Monkish Brewing - Spock It

This beer has no place beloning on a "just missed" list. It's an all-galaxy hopped bomb from Monkish. Unfortunately we had a lot of good beers that night...
So without further ado the top twenty, right after I drink some Pedialite...
20. OEC Brewing - Zymatore Maledetta Urwaga Project

While it's the lowest on the top twenty, this brew wins for story of the night. This beer is produced (is that even the right word?) by OEC, master blenders hailing from Connecticut. The base beer is Birra del Borgo's Maldetta which is aged for two years in a Zinfandel wine barrel and matured underground in a fermantation pit known as Urwaga, a Kenyan tradition. It created for some interesting aromas and flavor. While it's nice to try for the story, it was probably the worst OEC beer I've had (which is a high bar).
Well, it definitely "looks" like it's been aged underground!

 19. Tired Hands Brewing - Punge

Punge is a Tired Hands original that I first had way back in April. It's brewed with a lot of oats in typical Tired Hands fashion, and hopped with New Zealand favorites Motueka and Nelson Sauvin. It's great, but compared to the other IPAs we had that evening it seemed average.



18. Wicked Weed Brewing - White Angel

Wait, I thought the angel series was supposed to be superb? Is this just NC-traders hyping up it's value? This barrel-aged sour ale aged with "wild" grapes is good, but it didn't blow me away. It's a bit funky, some grape must in there, but I've had way better grape-d wild ales from other breweries to think that this stands out.



 17. Firestone Walker Brewing - SLOambic (Batch #2)

Maybe it's because I had this right after Jester King's wild ale, Nocturn Chrysalis. Maybe it's because I think Bretta Rose is really damn good. Really funky, just a touch of tart, not as much berry as I'd like. Still really solid and worth seeking out as are all things from Firestone's barrel program.



 16. Trillium Brewing - Blueberry Soak

Another relative disappointment, given how much I've heard about Trillium's Soak series. It's quite good, not funky but also not too acidic. I think blueberry is just a soft fruit my palate can't appreciate.



 15. de Garde Brewing - Imperial Cherry Bu

"But Eric, you love de Garde!" Is what everyone said when they saw my rating and my face after trying this. I do love my de Gardes and I will praise them every second I get, I think they make the best wild ales in the country. However, I'm not a kriek/cherry guy, and while this was tart & funky, it's got a little earthiness from cherry pits that I just can't get over. Cherry, a fantastic fruit, but I like my wilds to be soaked in tart berries or stone fruits.



14. Cycle Brewing - 3rd Anniversary BA Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

My first Cycle stout! Better than Mokasida, but also thin. I need to try more from these guys. It was good, but I've had better coffee stouts.


13. Monkish Brewing / Veil Brewing - Haazee Guizz

Ah the first IPA to make an appearance! I was super disappointed by my last Monkish/Veil collab, so I was really hesitant with this guy (sorry *guizz). Hopped with mosaic, nelson and galaxy (and no fruit added!) this was quite good.


12. Schramm's Mead - Ginger

Woo boy. I don't even like ginger. You know those little ginger strips you get with sushi (gari)? I don't eat those, not my favorite. This was really good though and an excellent nightcap. I need more Schramm's in my life.

Black Agnes > Raspberry > Ginger. But this is still incredible.

11. Tree House Brewing - Curiosity Twenty Eight

I haven't had a beer from Tree House's curiosity series since a small sip of C26, and I was looking forward to this one. While I really wanted to try C27 (heard it was fantastic and loaded with Amarillo) this was a nice substitute and had a seasonally-appropriate label.



10. Cycle Brewing - 3rd Anniversary BA Jamaica Blue Mountain (Mavis Bank Estate)

My second Cycle stout ever! And it was better than the first! Really great mouthfeel and coffee in this one.



 9. Monkish Brewing - Bomb Atomically

Probably the best beer I've had from Monkish. This was bomb, enough said.

Hey Scott!

8. Tree House Brewing - Julius

Y'all know enough about this one already.



 7. Jester King Brewing - Nocturn Chrysalis (Blend 3)

I've loved every single Jester King fruited sour I've had (Atrial, Fen Tao, Colour Five, Aurelian Lure, Cerveza de Tempranillo). My first foray into blackberry sours was Tilquin's Oude Mure. Unfortunately, Nocturn didn't live up the the hype of the Tilquin lambic, but it was really great. A sour red ale refermented on blackberries, Nocturn isn't too tart and has some nice fruit in it. While it's not as good as Atrial, and I wasn't expecting it to be, it's really nice. I wonder how good the (really hyped) gin barrel-aged version of this is (particularly because I don't like gin). I need more blackberry beers in my life.



 6. Toppling Goliath / Cycle Brewing - BA Chain Smoker

On a night of many firsts, here's my first ever dark beer from TG. Since I'll probably never even get a whiff of Morning Delight, Assassin or KBBS, I was really looking forward to this. This is a collaboration with equally-hyped Florida kings of stout Cycle, unfortunately, they didn't make a stout. Instead, the brewers opted for something different, a smoked porter aged in bourbon barrels. I was expected a lot more smoke than I got, instead I got subtle smoke, lots of chocolate and molasses and a ton of barrel character. Since it's a porter, I thought the mouthfeel was a little thin for my liking, which made the bourbon stand out. It was really well balanced and layered.



 5. Jackie O's Brewery - Bourbon Barrel Aged Champion Ground

This was the third best stout of the night and probably the best pure coffee stout which is saying a lot considering some of the breweries it was up against. My second beer ever from Jackie O's, this Ohio brewery seems to be killing the stout game. Champion Ground was damn good, thick mouthfeel, nice bourbon character, great coffee without being too thin or roasty.



4. Bottle Logic Brewing - Ground State (2016)

My first Bottle Logic stout! My buddy just landed an FO, so while we wait to crack that we decided to open Ground State, a stout brewed with chocolate and cocoa nibs and aged in bourbon barrels with vanilla and coffee beans. I was blown away by how thick and flavorful this was.



 3. Brasserie Cantillon - Fou Foune (2016)

I went a few years thinking I would never have Fou. I've now had it twice in the last couple months. I reviewed this one back in my birthday roundup post. Check it out there. 
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2. Goose Island - Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout Rare (2015)

You know, I wanted to hate this beer because how Goose Island sold out and the debacle that was the 2015 BCBS release. I wanted to hate this beer because it sells for $100+ in NYC.



But damn, this is a fine stout. Probably the best barrel character I've ever had in a beer. The Heaven Hill barrels really go along nice with the base BCBS (2013 since this aged for two years before 2015). It was a little hot still, but not boozy. Great mouthfeel and flavor. In fact, it made me want to buy one to age for a couple more years since I know it's probably the last pre-buyout BCBS you can find on the market. I might go do that now...

1. Schramm's Mead - Black Agnes (Batch 6)

It's so good to have friends from Michigan, my friend visiting home picked this up over Thanksgiving. At $32 per 375mL bottle, this ain't cheap. It's worth it though.

I was throughly impressed with Schramm's Raspberry I had just two weeks prior to this. Sure, it was a little sweet, but it was unlike anything I ever tasted. While I couldn't point out to you what a currant is, all I know is that adding it to fermented honey is an excellent idea and it tastes amazing. Not sweet, not tart, just really pleasant mead. I need more Schramm's.



Happy Holidays all! Will get back to you around Christmas when I go home for a share with DC-area friends.
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Drink local - A day in the Hudson Valley


With a plethora of local craft beer options in the city, it's sometimes easy to forget what the rest of New York State has to offer. I've been meaning to explore the lower Hudson Valley for a while and finally got the chance to the week of November 16th. I was blown away by the solid craft beer options throughout the area and the scenery in general was incredible. 

It was a crisp autumn Wednesday, and after a few hours at Storm King, my friend and I were thirsty and eager to check out the local scene. Despite knowing that since Dia:Beacon was closed, we drove towards the sleepy town of Beacon, knowing it would be a bit less crowded and our options would be limited. 

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are like weekends in Beacon, several local places are closed knowing there won't be as much foot traffic visiting the small town. We were bummed to find out renowned bar Draught Industries and 2 Way Brewing were closed Wednesdays, but were happy to find Stock Up, a small deli/restaurant/beer shop located on a residential corner. I was really impressed with what Stock Up had in their beer fridges, a lot of beers that fly off the shelves in the city including a couple Grimm options. To pair with my "Big Bird" fried chicken sandwich, I ordered an Equilibrium Brewing Mmm...Osa, a pale ale that came highly recommended to me by my friend who visited Beacon with his wife the weekend before. Equilibrium is a new brewery opening up in Middletown, NY early next year and has been making hop heads around New York giddy, whenever someone brings them up you hear "Tree House this, or Tree House that." I haven't tried the renowned MC^2 just yet, but Mmm...Osa was a really nice, light and citrusy pale ale. 

Equilibrium's Mmm...Osa on the left and Suarez Family's Squeaker
 on the right on Stock Up's back porch. 
Sitting on Stock Up's back porch and not ready to leave, I ordered a Suarez Family Brewing Squeaker Pale Ale next. Suarez Family Brewery is a new "mom and pop" operation that just opened in Livingston, NY, about an hour north of Beacon. Suarez is a brewery I've been following the progress of for a little under a year every since I heard about Dan's story (here's a really nice recent publication in Good Beer Hunting about Suarez Family). I really wanted to drive up to Suarez for a visit and get a couple growlers, but they were a bit too far and only opened at 5PM on Wednesday, meaning we wouldn't get back to the city until 9PM or so at the earliest and that wasn't an option with our rental car situation. 

Anyway, Suarez Family Brewing makes really nice beers. Ever since I had Hecto Pale Ale on tap in the city, I knew I should seek out their beers. A brewery focusing on "crispy little beers" is exactly what New York needed, we don't need to be sipping on 12% imperial stouts or 8+% IPAs all the time. Squeaker was just what I was looking for, a refreshing, light pale (~4%). 

After a bit of walking around Beacon (and upset that The Hop closed down), I showed my friend the site for the upcoming Hudson Valley Brewery which will soon be right on East Main Street in the heart of Beacon, next to this lovely creek. 


Hudson Valley Brewery is a major construction project and will hopefully open sometime in 2017. They have been brewing and barreling beer and recently distributed their first to bars across New York - Amulet is a sour farmhouse ale aged in oak wine barrels with blueberries, hibiscus and rose hips and then dry-hopped with Citra and Mosaic. If it's anything like Make Believe, a sour farmhouse ale aged in oak wine barrels and also dry-hopped with Citra and Galaxy which I enjoyed very much back in May, then it's worth seeking out. Half Serious, HVB's collaboration with Threes Brewing was a slightly tart, light Berliner Weisse and also a sign of good things to come. This past summer, HVB also won best beer during the Hudson Valley Craft Beer Week's annual event. 

The guys behind Hudson Valley Brewery were formerly at Brewery at Bacchus in New Paltz, which used to be one of the best kept secrets in the NY beer scene. As stated in a nice feature in Hudson Valley Magazine, HVB has been operating on a 30-barrel system and crafting blended sour ales and complex beers. 

Since Sloop Brewing was also closed on Wednesday, and Newburgh Brewery didn't open until 4PM, my friend and I decided to head south to Peekskill to check out Peekskill Brewery. A large spot right off the Metro North station with a big selection of beers, Peekskill was a decent place to hang out, but I can't say I wasn't disappointed with the fact that the only beer they had to go was a 2+ month old Pale Ale, and their brewery taproom was fully stocked with liquor and felt like a sports bar (a personal pet peeve - witnessing people order vodka sodas at a brewery is nauseating). 

Leaving a bit disappointed with Peekskill, my friend and I hurried to Industrial Arts Brewing, a new brewery that opened just a few weeks before in the Garnerville Arts and Industrial Center in Rockland, NY. We were blown away by the space and the beers at Industrial Arts. 



With just a few locals in the taproom, we spoke with the bartenders who explained that the brewery was a huge project by Jeff O'Neil, former brewmaster at Peekskill. The building was massive, built in a pre-Civil War industrial complex (smoke stack and all) it was nicely refurbished with one of the most unique bar setups I've seen in a brewery.


I was really impressed with Power Tools, an IPA (and essentially a double version of their flagship pale Tools of the Trade) that was crisp, clean and dialed-in. After that, I tried both of the IPAs in their State of the Art series, 32 & 40. 32 was running low and definitely the better version, wish I could identify the hop bill on it. As a night cap in anticipation of the drive back to the city, I chugged a Pantry coffee porter, light and thin but it had a nice roast character.

State of the Art 32 and Power Tools from Industrial Arts Brewing
The Hudson Valley will soon be on the map as a craft beer destination in the United States, up there with Portland (Maine) and San Diego. With so many new and exciting breweries all within several miles of each other, the area truly has a blossoming beer scene, supported both by locals who value craft products and a huge craft beer scene to sell to in the city. New York State was home to just 75 craft breweries in 2011, four years later, that number is pushing 210 and growing by the month. If you're looking for a day trip away from the city and to enjoy some great beer, don't feel like you need to drive the 3+ hours to Tree House for 6-12 cans. Support a NY brewery and enjoy the Hudson Valley.



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Thursday, December 15, 2016

Looking back on 2016 - Celebrating craft beer in New York State

I think it's safe to say most of us are ready for 2016 to be over, it's been a tumultuous year to say the least. One great thing about 2016, however, was the exponential growth of the craft beer scene in the state of New York.

New, exciting breweries opened in Brooklyn such as Interboro Spirits & Ales, Kings County Brewers Collective (KCBC) and Strong Rope Brewery (okay technically opened late December 2015). The highly acclaimed Sand City opened in Northport on Long Island, and the upper Hudson Valley  saw several new breweries open such as Suarez Family Brewery, Industrial Arts, and Hudson Valley Brewery.

Both new and established breweries (Threes, Greenpoint Beer & Ale, Interboro, KCBC, LIC Beer Project, Singlecut, Gun Hill, Peekskill, Sand City, Barrier, to name a "few"...) joined the canning craze hitting the US craft beer world

Even though there are a couple weeks left in the year, I've decided to go ahead and name my top beers from New York now. These beers are in no particular order (mostly because they were so hard to rank) but they're the ones that stood out to me this year. I've broken it down by brewery and hope this inspired you to #drinklocal in 2017.


Equilibrium Brewing - Mmm...Osa

Slated to open their brewery in Middletown, NY in 2017, Equilibrium is making hop heads around New York giddy. I never got to try MC^2 but I was super impressed with Mmm...Osa, a pale ale conditioned on freshly zested oranges. Really nice, citrusy and light.

Finback Brewery - Oscillation 004

004 was the best Oscillation release of the year for me. Paired with the BQExC bottle release, these cans were incredible and could go head to head with any of the big Northeastern IPAs. Finback did great things in 2016 and I'm looking forward to what they brew in 2017. Unfortunately, they're a bit far out of the way (heading there tonight for my BQE Box Set and dreading the trip) but that should deter NYS folk from popping in and visiting their lovely taproom.

 Finback Brewery - Smooth Beats Miami

A controversial beer with mixed opinons, this collaboration with J. Wakefield Brewing was pure coconut in a can.

Finback Brewery - BQExC

A great coffee stout. A little thin, and was more impressed with the 2015 BA BQE I had on tap at the release, but Finback's stout game is still strong.

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Greenpoint Beer & Ale - Instant Credibility

I was very hyped when I learned this one was going to be hitting cans. Super aromatic, galaxy-filled double IPA.



 Grimm Artisanal Ales - Lumen

Grimm really stepped up their game in 2016 and released a lot beer this year. I thought the first batch and cans of Lumen was their best release of the year.

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Grimm Artisanal Ales - Tesseract (first batch)

Grimm Artisanal Ales - Lambo Door (first batch)

 Grimm Artisanal Ales - Magnetic Compass

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Grimm Artisanal Ales - Super Spruce (the first batch of this gose was really fantastic fresh, a lot of the spruce came through. Haven't opened the second batch bottle just yet but looking forward to it).

Hudson Valley Brewery - Make Believe

HVB is a new brewery opening in Beacon, NY sometime in 2017 (hopefully). These guys were previously at Brewery at Bacchus and make some fantastic beers. You can follow their progress on their website. Make Believe is a sour farmhouse ale aged in oak wine barrels and dry-hopped with Citra and Galaxy. I very much enjoyed it.

Interboro Spirits & Ales - Premiere IPA

Only ~15 minutes from my apartment, Interboro opened up in September and impressed immediately with this first can release. I prefer Premiere to the new, hyped Mad Fat Fluid, but I have a couple more cans of MFF calling my name before the end of 2016.



 Interboro Spirits & Ales - Mad Fat! Fluid

Industrial Arts Brewing - Power Tools

Industrial Arts Brewing - State of the Art Series (tried 32 & 40 at the brewery, both really solid IPAs in this rotating series)



 LIC Beer Project - Gal Friday (Raspberry)

LIC did a lot of great things this year, unfortunately I missed out on a lot of them. Many regarded their first IPA release, Pile of Crowns, to be the NYC beer of the year (I never got to try it). Backjump was pretty good, Higher Burnin' on tap was excellent (cans reportedly hit or miss). This beer though blew me away. Great fruit, touch of funk, really nice sour. Looking forward to cracking my Breathe (Apricot and Blackberry/Raspberry) bottles and my Dulcinea (spontaneously fermented) bottle.

Now for the train of Other Half....

 Other Half Brewing - Fully Frothed

A collaboration with Half Acre, I skipped this release due to work & generally was not too hyped considering I didn't love these guys' previous collab, Rainbow Never Ends. I was dead wrong and wish I had more cans of this. Super soft at 8%, I could only describe this beer as fluffy.



 Other Half Brewing - City Slickers

A collaboration with Arizona Wilderness, the first batch of this was another OH standout. Insane color that literally couldn't be replicated with the second batch, really nice different flavor.

I miss you City Slickers..

Other Half Brewing - No Layups (A collaboration with The Answer)

Other Half Brewing - Double Dry-Hopped Double Mosaic Dream

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Other Half Brewing - Oat Overdose (A collaboration with Tired Hands, forget this was in 2016!)



 Other Half Brewing - Citra



 Other Half Brewing - Galaxy

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Other Half Brewing - All Citra Everything & Double Dry-Hopped All Citra Everything



 Other Half Brewing - Blowin' Up the Spot (A collaboration with Monkish Brewing)

Plan Bee Farm Brewery - BouQuet



 Plan Bee Farm Brewery - BarTlett

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Threes Brewing - Eternal Return: Chardonnay

Threes first-ever bottle release might be the NYC-release of the year. This beer was really funky and nice as it warmed up. Lots of grape must. Has had me coming back to Threes for each iteration of the Eternal Return series since.



 Threes Brewing - Nothing is Forever

The best stout from NYC this year? Probably. Aged in bourbon & rye barrels, this stout had the most barrel character of any local stout and was really, really awesome. Need this in bottles.

Threes Brewing - Day of the Dead

12 oz cans FTW. Threes first can release was excellent.

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Sand City Brewing - Second Wave

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Sand City Brewing - Mofosaic

Sloop Brewing - Confliction

Suarez Family Brewery - Hecto


Anything I miss? Disagree with anything? Let me know! Cheers to 2016 and onward to 2017.
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Monday, November 14, 2016

Birthday Week Roundup

This is going to be a longer post than usual given my absence over the past few weeks. I've had (more than) a few beers over the last week+ that I'll rank according to my opinion. Given that I turned 25 last Wednesday, let's do a top 25 (also, welcome back college basketball).


The best beers I had this week, shortly after I nurse this collective hangover...

25. Interboro Spirits & Ales Halftime

 Interboro is doing some great things just 15 minutes away from my apartment. I visited last Friday night with some friends to try some of their newer beers. This was the best of the night for me, a sessionable galaxy-forward IPA. 

24. Other Half Brewing Mosaic + Waimea

 Fresh cans were quite good, but a big green with a bitter back-end. Looking forward to having this towards the end of the week for the usual OH "sweet spot" ~2 weeks after canning. 

23. New England Brewing Co. BBA Imperial Stout (2014)

Bottle #1294 of only 1500 produced. Nice smooth bourbon character. Bonus protein glob! I think this is better than the 2016 version I had a couple months earlier. 

22. Threes Brewing There You Are (Galaxy & Hallertau Blanc) 

One of my favorite brews from Threes, this variant highlights two great hops. Soft, very clean and crisp, a bit of bitterness and tropical citrus notes.

21. The Bruery Black Tuesday 

 First time having one of the "weekday" beers from The Bruery. It's good, but it's too much. Definitely a sipper, needed to share my 5oz pour with a friend. You can definitely taste the 20% ABV (okay, sorry 19.9%...) and it got boozier as it warmed. 

20. Jackie O's Dark Apparition 

 First time having a Jackie O's beer. This Russian Imperial Stout was great, smooth motor oil. Usually I'm hesitant about RIS because I can get a lot of soy sauce from them (looking at you Marshal Zhukov) but this was just a really nice malty stout with a lot of molasses notes.



19. Other Half / Trillium Like Whoa

 Over hyped. It's good. Not the best OH beer I've ever had, not the best Trillium beer I've ever had. Street Green was much, much better.

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18. Two Roads Kriek (2015)

 The first barrel-aged beer I've had from Two Roads, and I was genuinely really looking forward to it given the brewer's previous reputation with Southampton, This Kriek was fantastic, tart cherries, bit of funk. I wish I was a bigger fan of the kriek lambic in general, but it was a great representation of the style. Bottle #187 (note: my buddy believed the fruit had faded a bit compared to when he had it back in 2015).

17. Hill Farmstead / Grassroots Legitimacy

Thought I'd had this beer before last Sunday but I guess I have not - really, really soft and sessionable. A nice beer enjoyed between a couple lambics. I guess I like Simcoe more than I believed!

16. Tree House Brewing Single Shot

This is the first non-pale ale I've had from Tree House. I wasn't blown away, I thought the BBA Plead the 5th was much, much better. But it was just a nice, semi-sweet milk stout. I'm sure the vanilla variant or Double Shot are better.


15. Other Half Brewing DDH All Citra Everything 

Other Half has been very, very consistent lately. Finally tagging onto the DDH scene so famously coined/marketed by Trillium, the citra lupulin powder makes a difference. This is one of OH's best beers to date. Better or worse than DDH Double Mosaic Dream? Not sure.


14. LIC Beer Project Gal Friday (Raspberry)

 LIC's table sour beer, Gal Friday, was good in it's own right. Finally a local brewery killing the wild ale game. Then they went ahead and refermented it on raspberries.The result is probably one of the best NYC-produced fruited wild ales ever. Utterly fantastic.  

13. Dark Horse Brewing BBA Plead the 5th (2015)

 Non-BBA Plead the 5th is good. This is fantastic. Huge bourbon barrel character, balanced with a full roasted body. Very smooth and balanced. Eventually had a mini-cuvee of this with the Single Shot pictured - made for a nice combination.



12. Monkish Brewing Knowledge & Peace

 I'm not too into rice saisons, they're usually a bit too dry and bland. This one was fantastic. Aged in oak foudres, it was perfectly tart, crisp and finished dry. 

11. Libertine Brewing Framboise

 A few months ago, I had this beer and was utterly blown away. I exclaimed it was the best framboise I ever had and quickly traded for a second bottle to save for my birthday. The second time around, I was naturally underwhelmed. The fruit had faded a bit and it wasn't as tart as I remember. It was still a great wild ale and I'm glad I now know about Libertine. 

10. Hill Farmstead Twilight of The Idols (2015)

 Hill Farmstead's winter porter brewed with coffee and cinnamon with vanilla beans. Quite light and thin, didn't get too much of the adjuncts (maybe age was a factor). However, it was really nice and roasty, surprised it's only 7.2%. 

9. Monkish Brewing Foggier Window

 I've only had the opportunity to try a select few Monkish IPAs (Really Real, Sticky Green and Bad Traffic, Spock It), but I know they're all the rage on the west coast right now. I can see why with Foggier Window; turbid, citrusy and juicy. 

8. Trillium / Veil Brewing IwanttoBU

I expected this to be good giving the quality of the two collaborting breweries (despite each having underwhelming collab releases recently - Never & Again, Joooseee Boizzz and Topical Depression). It was quite good. 0 IBUs is still a bit weird, but crazy amount of dry-hopping makes this just a super solid NE-style IPA. 

7. de Garde Brewing Saison Premiere

 A simple farmhouse ale aged in oak wine barrels. Funky and dry, this tart ale was fantastic for one of dG's "simpler" beers (aka not a "The" or "Bu").



6. Tree House Bright W/ Simcoe & Amarillo

We all know TH makes fantastic IPAs. We've been blown away by Green, Julius, etc. I did not expect this to be so good. It's not your prototypical "hazy" NE IPA, but something about this hop combination just worked for me (and I'm not usually one that digs Amarillo all that much). I may be in the minority of thinking that this was one of TH's better beers, though.

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5. de Garde Brewing Nectarine Premiere

 Thought process from our tasting group: "Wait, this is beer?.....Wait, this is 7%?!?!"

Utterly fantastic, turbid wild ale. Loads of jammy fruit (can't tell you the last time I ate a nectarine, though). While it's pretty one-dimensional (just straight-forward nectarine juice), the fact that it's so aromatic and tasty means I can't knock it down for being simple and not complex like de Garde's other offerings.


 4. de Garde Brewing Imperial Stone Bu

Among the four people at bottle share this past weekend, two preferred Imperial Stone Bu while the other two preferred Nectarine Premiere. Fact of the matter is, both are utterly fantastic. If you like something a little more tart with traces of stone fruit and funk, you'll probably prefer Imperial Stone Bu (like me). This Berliner Weisse style ale is acidic and dry with tons of fruit. Stone fruit sours > everything.



3. Cantillon Lou Pepe Framboise (2013)

I only got a taste or this bottle pour at The Well's Second Anniversary. The nose explodes with fresh raspberry, the most aromatic beer I've had in a long time. Aged for three years and barely any fade to the fruit. 

2. Cantillon Fou' Foune (2016) 

After over a year of trying to hunt one of these down, I finally got to try Cantillon's apricot lambic at The Well's Second Anniversary Party. Underwhelmed I could only get a 5 oz pour of the '16 ('15 was also pouring), my anger dissipated quickly once I got to try it. Pouring a pale orange-gold, the lightly tart and funky lambic explodes with apricot juice. Crisp and light, it's the best fruited lambic I've ever had. Not overly tart or 'sour' or funky, and not just straight peach juice, it's a complex, layered masterpiece. 

1. Holy Mountain Midnight Still (Coffee/Vanilla)

I've been saving this one for a few months in anticipation of drinking it on my birthday and it exceeded all expectations. Holy Mountain is a Seattle based brewing company that focuses on oak-aged and inspired beers. I've been lucky enough to try some of their other calling cards - mostly barrel aged saisons, farmhouse ales and grisettes (Misere Au Borinage, a fantastic foudre aged grisette). City of Light, a wine-barrel aged saison was the best I'd had and I didn't think it could get better than that from Holy Mountain given their passion for that particular style.

Well, certainly Midnight Still surpassed City of Light. This variant of Midnight Still (their bourbon barrel aged imperial stout) was infused with Madagascar vanilla beans and Nine Swans blend coffee from Seattle's own Elm Coffee Roasters.

I won't claim to be the world's foremost expert on vanilla stouts (having never tried VR, FO or any of the other heavy hitters ) but this has to be up there with the best of them. About 11 months after blending, smooth vanilla and espresso dominate to combine a marshmallow-dominated body of the beer. Fantastic barrel character, with a syrupy mouth-feel and dark chocolate undertones, the bourbon isn't overwhelming or boozy.


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