Beer Evangelists

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.

We had another great tasting at Sycamore. I must like brown ales more than I realized, since I liked every beer we tried. I’m not sure what my favorite was this time, maybe the Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar or the Big Sky Moose Drool. Of the homebrews, Jamie’s Maple Amber Ale was my favorite. It would be excellent with some nice thick bacon and a couple of pancakes.

I was at Sycamore today for lunch and was pleasantly surprised to see Bear Republic Racer 5 on tap. Oh, happy day! I bet that keg doesn’t last long.

If you haven’t had it, Racer 5 is an excellent example of the west coast IPA. Very hoppy. Lots of citrus on the nose. Bitter finish. Very drinkable. I’m really excited to have Bear Republic in Missouri.

I started to post this last night on the way back to the hotel, but we got caught in that crazy storm in Chicago. By the time we finally got back to the hotel, we were all ready to go to bed. So here is the review I started last night.

We just had a great dinner at Goose Island. They still have one of the best buffalo chicken sandwiches around. I tried both the Summer Bitter and the Ellie’s Celebration Red. The Summer Bitter had a great malty sweetness and was good. My favorite was the Ellie’s Red. It had a very similar malt characteristic to the bitter, but had a nice cascade hops nose and taste. It was excellent. The food was all good, as was the service. I’ll update this later with the address.

Edit: This review is of the 1800 North Clybourn, Chicago, IL Goose Island Brewpub.

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My wife and I are having a wonderful dinner at Sycamore.
I started off with a Bell’s Two Hearted, had a Le Fluer Misseur with the halibut (which was excellent), and am finishing with Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout.
This is an very good dessert beer. The nose is heavy with coffee, vanilla and caramel. It is sweet, with a bit of bitterness. I really like it for what it is, an extreme dessert beer.
The food was excellent, as was the the service. This is still my favorite place to dine in Columbia, MO.

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I’ve had this bottle of Breckenridge 471 IPA waiting in the fridge since May and it sounded good tonight. I have tried this beer it once before when we had a beer tasting at my house. But quite honestly, I don’t really remember much about the beers we had that night. We started off with the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA and that pretty much toasted me for the evening.

I don’t know if this beer meets the requirements of an imperial or double IPA, but it does come in at 9.2% ABV. The nose is much like other big IPA’s: a hint of citrus, some pine, almost sweet smelling. The head is tan and lingers quite a while, eventually diminishing to a thin layer of foam and lots of lacing on the glass.

The beer tastes great. Nice and hoppy, with a bite that mellows as it lingers. For a beer that is 9.2%, I’m not getting a strong alcohol taste at all, which I like. I do feel just a bit of warming as it goes down.

I really like this beer. The only thing that would keep this from being a session beer in my mind is the alcohol content.

I’m having a Summit Brewing Extra Pale Ale tonight. It is not a bad beer, but I’m not all that excited about it. Maybe I’ve just been having too many IPA’s and APA’s lately.

The beer pours an almost orange amber color with a quickly dissipating head and light lacing. A little malt on the nose with a balanced taste of malt and hops. The finish is smooth, with maybe a little bitterness.

Not bad as a pale ale session beer and would work well as a lawnmower beer.