Beer Evangelists

I’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Christmas season beers, especially the Anchor Christmas. Since I have yet to see it in stores here in Columbia, I decided to pop open a Summit Brewing Winter Ale from last year that I had been storing.

This beer pours a very dark brown/carmel color with a thick tan head. The beer has a sweet nose, and tastes a bit like a porter. It is tart, and there is a definite burnt characteristic to it. On first taste I wasn’t sure what to think, but the more I drink of it, the better I like it.

I’m not sure that this beer was intented to be aged, but it aged pretty well in my opinion.

Monday was another great night of tasting. While Belgians aren’t my favorite beers, I was once again struck by how diverse the beers in a particular style can be. Some had that overpowering Belgian funky sweetness, while others were sour. Some were highly carbonated, others were not. I can’t say that I had a distinct favorite last night (I left before the Beast was passed around) but if I had to choose from the ones I tried it would be the Vapeur Cochonne. As always a good time was had by all.

The next tasting is scheduled for Monday, December 15th. Styles will be stouts and Christmas beers.

Don’t forget the next meeting of the Columbia Beer Enthusiasts at Sycamore on November 10th at 9PM. Details at the Columbia Beer Enthusiasts site.

Just a reminder that Sycamore will be hosting another beer dinner on October 27th, one week from today. Here are the details: http://www.sycamorerestaurant.com/events.htm. This dinner looks a bit different, in that no single brewer is featured. A bit more like a tasting that the traditional beer dinner at Sycamore. I’m really looking forward to it!

My first ever bottle of Pliny the Elder. This is a year round offering from Russian River. It came in a 500mL bottle allowing me to use an imperial pint glass and not feel cheated. I’ve been wanting to try this DIPA for quite a while. Thanks to Jason and Jeremy for picking me up a bottle while they were in Denver at GABF. Now if I could have just convinced them to blog GABF I would have been happy. Maybe next year…

Pliny pours golden yellow with a thick, firm head that has some retention. The head also leaves lots of lacing on the glass. Lots of citrusy sweetness on the nose, and bitter pine in the mouth. While bitter, the beer doesn’t have a heavy or overly bitter finish, and is quite drinkable. The finish actually reminds me of peeling and eating a fresh grapefruit.

It is 8% ABV so I don’t know how many I would want in a row, but it is really tasty. And actually, that 8% is hidden well, so I could see this beer sneaking up on me (like Jamie’s Centennial IPA). I will definitely have this one again. Maybe someday we’ll be able to get Russian River here in Columbia, but I don’t expect it anytime soon. Outside of California, Russian River only distributes to Oregon, Colorado, and Pennsylvania.

The Tribune had a nice article about our group in the Wednesday food section. Be sure to check it out.

Another beer dinner is coming up at Sycamore. The tentative beer list looks pretty good. Check the Sycamore events page for more details.

I picked this up in Chicago at the beginning of August. I enjoy Three Floyds beers, but this is the first time I’ve had Pride & Joy. It is called a mild ale by Three Floyds, but all the beers I’ve had from Three Floyds have been anything but mild, so I was curious how this would taste.

The beer pours a light orange amber color. It has a sweet malty nose with a hint of citrus from the hops. The beer doesn’t pour with a lot of head, but it does leave some lacing on the glass. The beer has lots of malty flavor and a mild bitter hoppy finish. All in all a well balanced beer.

It is labeled a session beer, and I can certainly see that. The beer reminds me of Alpha King, without being quite so over-the-top. I’ll definitely picking more of this up next time I make it across the Mississippi River to Illinois.

For those of you that don’t check Beeradvocate.com, Sanford posted this today:

Double Dead Guy is tapped

If you are interested, we tapped a keg of Rogue Double Dead Guy tonight here at Sycamore

cheers, Sanford

Now I just have to figure out when I can get down there to try it!

I’ve been holding on to this bottle since May when Myra and I visited San Jose, CA and finally decided to try it tonight while watching the debate (and that is all I’m going to say about politics).

This beer pours cloudy and is a yellowish orange color. It has loads of thick, creamy head with lots of retention. It has a citrusy nose with just a hint of grain. It starts bitter and is not terribly carbonated. It feels light, and has a bitter aftertaste as well. Pretty good, and is a nice IPA. It weighs in at 6.5% ABV.