It's Fucking Epic

Poor Gigazaur, you're dead because of me.

So somehow, last year, I managed to put away a bottle of Founder's Backwood's Bastard so that this year I could crack it open and compare to its "fresh" counterpart. It helps when I buy a massive purchase of beer so I can lose a beer in the mix. 2012 Backwoods was that beer. After that it was just waiting for the right moment.
Then I decided to play some King of Tokyo with two friends who love beer, and it seemed like a good time to bust out some aged deliciousness. (For the record, I've played 10 games of King of Tokyo and am an impressive 0-10, just saying.) We poured the fresh Bastard first, and the alcohol heat shined through along with excellent notes of sweet bread, vanilla and all those traditional other oak notes with a nice bitterness in the finish.
Similarly, the 2012 version was much less intense, with a more candy sweetness from the malt and no booze heat. The wood and vanilla was up front and the hops were faded away. This was an amazing smooth treat, blissfully sweet with lovely bourbon notes.
Taste preferences are amazing. Mike loved the fresh bastard, saying that while he hates bourbon, he loves the bourbon flavoring that the barrel adds this already pretty great scotch ale. Patrick and I enjoyed the aged version, enjoying the smooth malty sweetness and subdued oak that balances perfectly with the beer. All I really figured out is that one year of Backwood's Bastard fresh, or aged, is still just a delicious beer, and now if I could take Gigazaur to his rightful place as King of Tokyo I'd be happy.

The Bruery: Bryeian

My god this season is fucking busy. Between the massive amounts of work, time spent shopping, and spending time with family, sitting down for a nice beer seems like a chore. Usually I just end up crashing on the couch and popping open a Hoponius Union or something. So last night, after the smoke cleared and I was home from Christmas with the family, I decided to open a bottle of beer sent to me via my Reddit Secret Santa. The Bruery's Batch #1000 home brew contest winner, Bryeian, is a Cascadian Rye Ale originally brewed by Bryan Keas and Brian Pramov of Denver based Rock Hoppers Home Brew Club. And as it happens, the lady bought me a glass from Crate and Barrel that said it's specifically for a rye beer, so it worked out perfectly.
Bryeian pours as black as you'd expect a Schwarzbier to pour, with a big erupting head. The hops really smell delightful on the top of this beer, with some citrusy grassy notes shining though. The taste though is much more about the malt profile here, with an unexpectedly smooth opening taste bursting with chocolate and coffee sweetness and what I can only guess is the rye malt bill giving a little aztec chocolate spiciness in the finish. The hops don't present themselves much in the body of this beer but the bitterness left on the tongue leaves a nice finish. It took about four or five sips before I could even figure out what was going on in this guy, with it warming up and some of the flavors brightening, it really evolved quickly, and delightfully. It's really too bad I only have one, and probably won't see another one either. If, for any strange reason, you get a chance to get one, I'd highly recommend it for a nice quite evening of pure stress relief.

Goose Island: Lolita

As one of the harder to find Sisters in Goose Island's Belgian beer series, I was pumped when my salesman pulled up to the back door and carried a case in over his right shoulder, telling me it was hard to get this case for us but here it was, in the cardboard, Lolita. Lolita is a Belgian Wild Ale with Raspberry added and aged in used wine barrels. Immediately I bought up a bottle and took it home with me, opening it up with a nice braised short rib sandwich. The smell is a nice tart fruitiness with some wine sour notes everywhere, and a hint of alcohol. The first sip is a nice punch of tart, but then comes the sweetness. But the money is in the finish with some wine tartness, somewhat less punching than the first blast. Complex is definitely the descriptor of this wild lady, with some fruity raspberry and that pucker of wild Belgian yeast strain, then you get distinct wine barrel notes that almost suck the sweet right of your mouth. Every sip feels unique, with a range of flavors that make drinking this beer worth sitting back and sipping on it the entire way. I think I'll buy a few more bottles and age them to try vertically against a fresh bottle the next year, unless I drink them first.

Sixpoint: Global Warmer

I'm a total sucker for Sixpoint. I love canned beer, and any brewery that exclusively cans just adds to that love. That brings us to Global Warmer, their newest seasonal offering. The biggest issue I have with Sixpoint is they don't tell you anything about the beer you're about to drink. What is Global Warmer? Is it spiced like a winter beer? Is it alcoholic Red Bull? Even their website, which has a nice mock expert tone, doesn't exactly tell you what style of beer this is... it might be an IPA, or an imperial amber. I'm still not sure, I've been calling in an Imperial Amber because it reminds me of one of my favorite beers in the world, Nugget Nectar but even that might not be correct. The only thing for sure is it's dam delicious. 

As soon as you crack the can the hops just leek out and immediately I become like a 50's cartoon character following scent lines to a pie on a windowsill. Pouring hard into a glass unleashes even more lovely hops into the nose. The beer is immediately floral and citrus with a dry backbone to carry the hops and a nice bitter finish. This is a beer that just tastes fresh, and it tastes very consistent with the hop tastes present the entire time. From first sip I was in love with this beer, with hop notes being first and last and everywhere in between. It also pairs very well with the scallops I made for dinner, with the citrusy hops balancing the briny seafood very well. This beer is a truly excellent hoppy beer in an already saturated hop market. Luckily there's always room for one more. 

DuClaw: Sweet Baby Jesus

The best part of having friends living in Virginia is every once in a while they come up to visit family and bring me a mixed case of beer with them. The best part of that is getting a beer that I probably once saw while reading various beer news sites and then suddenly remembering that I wanted it, and then it's right in front of me. That beer today is DuClaw Brewing Sweet Baby Jesus! a chocolate peanut butter porter. I had to wait for the right occasion to drink this guy, and the fourth time my truck broke down in about two weeks seemed just about right.
The peanut butter smell is immediately present as soon as carbon dioxide gets cracked from bottle. The nose is all peanut butter. The first sip is basically like drinking a deliciously smooth reese's  cup. Big tastes of chocolate malt with a hint of smoke and coffee and immense peanut butter. The finish has very little bitterness from the english hops. This is defiantly a dessert beer and an excellent one at that. Next time you end up in Virginia I strongly recommend bringing back a feel bottles to end your Thanksgiving dinner with.

Trillium Brewing: Part 1 of a (Probably) Never Ending Series

I was excited to hear about Trillium Brewing opening in Boston proper early this year. As a resident of Boston, getting a brewery right down the pike from me was awesome. I was cautiously optimistic when I was able to order a Trillium beer from The Publick House, Beaver Hat, a Pale Ale that might've been the best Pale I've ever had by a Massachusetts brewery. Being able to easily get drafts from The Publick House meant I was a little lazy about going to the seaport district but I finally put on some pants and got a couple growlers. Immediately I regretted not going earlier, because walking into the tiny little shop to get growlers had that beautiful smell of cooked cereal malts that reminds me of some of the best breweries I've been too. Anyways, waxing poetically is boring, let's get to the beer.
Grass Hopper is a pale ale made with locally sourced malts and Massachusetts hops. It lives up to it's name with delicious citrusy hops that give it a very earthy grassy taste, and reminds me of freshly cut grass in a middle of a nice hot summer day. Unbelievably fresh tasting with minimal bitterness in the finish. If Trillium can bottle this and sell it for 10 bucks a 6 pack they'll be the best selling Ale brewery in the state.
Valley Buckwheat is another locally sourced malt saison brewed with, obviously, buckwheat. First sip is very different. It's incredibly musty, like smelling an old attic or something. The second sip is less musty, and much more blending of what reminds me of a German pilsner and a Belgian Saison. Every sip, as it warms up, gets better and better. The last sip is a blissful mix of cloves and pepper and earthy malt sweetness. Amazingly drinkable.
This was my first set of growler fills from Trillium but it will hardly be the last. I have friends coming up from Virginia that are all about hops, and I'm sick of hearing about how Bell's Two Hearted Ale is better than anything they can get here. I think Trillium will change their opinion.

Narragansett Private Stock: Imperial Black Steam

Narragansett Brewing has been trying very hard lately to up their game from being just a brewery that makes cheap adjunct lager, to a brewery that makes both easily accessible beers and rich full flavored beers that are both drinkable and complex. For the winter from their Private Stock collection comes an Imperial Black Steam beer. Steam beer is one of the few styles of beer that is indigenous to the United States, being traced back to somewhere around 1860 as a beer made with lager yeast but fermented at higher temperatures.
Narragansett's version is the strongest steam beer I've had before, and is definitely the only black version. The smell is wonderful roasted coffee, with some chocolate and a bit of anise star in the background. First sip is an excellent mix of smoke and chocolate and some burnt dark bread. The mouthfeel though is somewhat lighter than I expected despite it's color. At 9% alcohol I expected some burn but it actually finishes very smooth. While I've been a fan of Narragansett beers, this is their most complex beer I've had from them and will be great again on a cold winter night.