Archive for February, 2008
St. Bernardus! February Recap
Thursday, February 28th, 2008 | Tasting Reviews | 2 Comments
Impressive linup of beers for February Tasting
What a night of beer tasting! Originally I announced we had no less than 4 beers from the Top 100 list! But I blew it and was completely wrong. I missed that Ayinger Celebrator is ranked #32 and Duvel ranks #80 on the list making it 6 beers in the Top 100!!! And several others that had to be pretty close. We also tasted the two beers in the Sam Adams LongShot pack — beers that won the Sam Adams homebrew contest. But to top everything off, Joe outdid everybody by bringing in Budweiser! OK, it wasn’t Budweiser, but he did get ridiculed for bringing in an Anheuser Busch product — prompting us to immediately adopt a new rule in our MVP contest hereby known as the Joe Barter Rule: Automatic 2 point deduction for bringing anything made by Anheuser Busch.
Attendees
- Andrew S. (host) — Duvel, St. Bernardus Tripel and Abt 12
- Steve B — Great Lakes Blackout Stout
- Jay — Full Sail Pale Ale
- Mike — Sam Adams Longshot
- Luke — Celebrator
- Dave S - Lion Stout
- Steve V. - Heavy Seas Holy Sheet
- Zombie - Goose Island Kilgubbin Red Ale
- Joe — Budweiser (technically Shock Top Belgium White)
- Chuck — Bells HopSlam
The 6 beers tasted from the top 100 were St. Bernardus Abt 12 (18th), Bells HopSlam (30th), Great Lakes Blackout Stout (76), Duvel (80) and St. Bernardus Tripel (99th). I still think that this is amazing. Somebody took the time to put together a list of the top 100 beers in the entire world and we had 6 of them in one night! And all 6 lived up to their billing in my opinion. Celebrator has a rich malty flavor to it and is one of my favorites. The HopSlam had a wonderful citrusy aroma with much grapefruit and citrus flavors in the taste. The Blackout Stout was dark, rich and complex — with a roasted malt flavor. Duvel poured with a thick creamy head and had a yeasty flavor to it. St. Bernardus Tripel had a spicy Belgium yeast flavor with hint of citrusy fruit. And the St. Bernardus 12 was very smooth and drinkable for it’s high alcohol content. All of them were very good and worth having again — even if they were no “Shock Top Belgium White”).
Aside from the top 6, we had a few others than get honorable mention. Lion Stout, Full Sail Pale Ale and Seven Seas were all very good. I’m not a big fan of Irish style ale’s, but I did like the Goose Island and thought it was very smooth and drinkable. I did not care for the Sam Adams Longshot winners, a Weizenbock and Grape Pale Ale. The Weizenbock had too much clove flavor for my taste and the Grape Pale Ale had too little hop flavor. But I enjoyed tasting them and thankful to Mike for bringing them.
Joe’s Shock Top Belgium White drew rave comparison’s with previous Dayton Beertasting Classics such as the Sorghum Beer and Cherry Wheat. (The Sorghum brought back reminiscings of Andy, who Luke tells us is doing quite well in North Carolina these days). In Joe’s defense, Shock top wasn’t nearly as bad as these beers — although it was a little bland and flavorless for the style. I think Luke summed it up best when he described “It looks like pee.”
Other notable conversation topics included the Oscars (in which we all agreed we didn’t see any of the nominated movies), midget wrestling on YouTube, and the downfall of the Dayton Flyers basketball team (which apparently was the dramatic come from behind win against Miami, OH. On a sad note, Chuck mourned the loss of Myron Cope, the creator the Terrible Towel. Todd made a brief visit via a cell phone call from Joe, in which he declared, “I am going home and getting sick”. Zombie announced that he would be hosting a Stone Vertical tasting in December 1212 with all but the 01-01-01 beer, and Chuck volunteered to pay for barmaids. And the line of the night goes to Jay, who answered Steve’s question regarding arrangements for next month with “I think it will be March”.
Here’s the beer lineup with current ratings and links to the Beer Advocate and Ratebeer sites. I was a little late so not sure about the order of the fist couple…
- Full Sail Pale Ale BA B+ RB 72
- Ayinger Celebrator Dopplebock BA A RB 100
- Shock Top Belgium White BA B- RB 26
- Longshot Grape Pale Ale BA B RB 32
- Longshot Weizenbock BA B RB 93
- Bells Hopslam BA A RB 100
- Goose Island Kilgubbin Red Ale BA B RB 54
- Heavy Seas Holy Sheet BA A RB 59
- Great Lakes Blackout Stout BA A RB 98
- Lion Stout BA A- RB 97
- Duvel BA A RB 97
- St. Bernardus Tripel BA A RB 96
- St. Bernardus Abt 12 BA A RB 100
MVP POINTS TOTAL
With 6 Top 100 beers, lots of bonus points to dole out. I briefly considered docking Andrew for a lack of snacks, but I am glad I reconsidered. Although lacking in variety, the food we did have I thought was excellent and plentiful. In particular, I loved the cubes of the Dorothy Lane bread he cut up, and the chips and salsa was quite good. And kudos to him for having several vegetarian selections as well — I came without dinner and did not leave hungry. Andrew and Luke get double bonus points for both bringing 2 beers in the top 100. Chuck and Steve also had the other top 100 beers and Joe gets docked for bringing Anheuser Busch to beertasting. Steve also gets a bonus point for adding a comment to the blog, and I gave Mike some extra points since he brought 2 different beers in 1 six pack.
Feb Score Previous Total New Total
- Andrew S. 31!!! 8 39
- Steve B 9 21 30
- Mike 5 13 18
- Luke 16 0 16
- Chuck 8 3 11
- Jay 3 6 9
- Dave S 3 3 6
- Steve V. 3 3 6
- Zombie 3 3 6
- Todd 0 6 6
- Pete 0 6 6
- Dave H 0 3 3
- Joe 1 0 1
MVP Award
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 | Announcements | 1 Comment
Beertasting.org MVP award to given out in December
I’ve decided to start the First Annual “Dayton BeerTasting Association MVP Award”. First place will be something out of my personal beer collection, and the award will be completely objective based on the following points system (which I preserve the right to change or modify during the contest as seems fit). Although I am eligible for the award, I am not eligible for the prize and it shall go to whoever has the highest point total at the end of the year excluding myself.
Points are awarded as follows…
- Hosting with acceptable snacks (15 points)
- Hosting with minimal snacks (5 points)
- Hosting with no snacks (-1 point) (Unless the host volunteered with less than 48 hrs notice)
- Bringing beer that adheres to the monthly theme — 3 points
- Bringing beer that does not adhere to monthly theme — 1 point
- Bringing bonus beer (regardless of the theme) — 3 points
- Bringing beer in Beer Advocate’s Top 100 Beers — 5 bonus points
- Bringing Extremely Rare and/or Expensive Beer — Up to 10 bonus points, depending on rarity or expense
- Not showing up to event after positive RSVP — -2 points
- Deduction for bringing duplicate beer tasted since Nov -07 tasting — -1 point
- Deduction for bringing Anheuser Busch product (Joe Barter Rule) — -2 points
- Adding meaningful content to the website by posting to blog — 1 point per entry
So after January, here’s the point total (please feel free to correct me for any mistakes. I think we had at least 2 more bonus beers from January, plus someone gets 5 points for bringing Bells Expedition Stout, #55 on top 100)
Steve — 21 (Hosting + Bonus beer)
Mike — 13 (Utopia )
Andrew S. 8 (Top 100)
Todd — 6 (Bonus beer)
Jay - 6 (Bonus Beer)
Pete - 6 (Bonus Beer)
Zombie 3
Chuck 3
Dave H. 3
Dave S. 3
Steve V 3
February Tasting: Preview
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 | Events, Funny | No Comments
New beer cups for next tasting
Per Todd,
“The new cups for beer tasting have been identified. Thanks to Dave Sferrella for finding the cups (Dave is in front, the green outfit talking to the Rastafarian). “
February tasting is at Andrew Smith’s house. The theme is in honor of it being February in a leap year, you can either bring a beer with an extra ingredient (Todd’s idea), or a beer that has no extra ingredients and conforms to the German purity laws (Chuck’s idea).
Here’s who I have coming and beers planned…
Steve B. “I’m bringing Great Lakes Blackout (Imperial) Stout named after the infamous “Blackout of 2003″ that left the northeastern United States in complete darkness.” (#76 in top 100 list)
Joe B. “I will be bringing Shock Top Belgian White.”
Mike M. “I’m bringing the Sam Adams Longshot pack.”
Zombie “I have Goose Island Kilgubbin Red Ale. Beer selection at Culinary Co in Cross Point is still very impressive.”
Chuck will be late due to daughters school play, but plans to bring Bell’s Hopslam (#30 on Top 100 list)
Other indicating they are attendending… Dave S., Jay and Luke
Utopia!
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 | Tasting Reviews | 2 Comments
Sam Adams Utopia was the hit of January Tasting
The January theme was beers from Presidential candidates home states, so we had a wide variety of beers and styles to choose from. And although there were some great selections, the overall winner was Mike, who brought us Samual Adams Utopias. This beer retailed at The Party Source (if you can find it) for $153.95 for 1 24 oz bottle and is 25% ABV. Very much a sipping beer, it had a warm, sweet, rich flavor.
Steve hosted this event and didn’t an excellent job with a variety of food choices. And congratulations for Todd, Jay and Mike for coming up with the answer to this month’s trivia question, “What 4 college/universities have produced both a US President and Super Bowl Quarterback (answer below).
Attendees (Sorry, I don’t have records of who brought what)
- Steve (Host) (Left Hand Imperial Stout & Mendocino White Hawk IPA)
- Mike (Utopias)
- Chuck (Southern Tier Porter)
- Dave H. (Shiner Hefeweizen)
- Dave S.(Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale)
- Zombie (Wooden Shoe Lager)
- Jay (Buckeye Brewing Hippie IPA & DAI Label)
- Todd (Brooklyn Chocolate Stout & Shorts Woodmaster)
- Andrew S. (Bells Expedition stout)
- Steve V. (Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale)
- Pete M (Stoudts American Pale Ale & Flying Dog Gonzo)
Our complete lineup for the night included. I’ve included rating from Beer Advocate and Rate Beer Websites (for the complete review, click on the rating). Not a bad night given the ratings, with no less than 6 beers with a score of 90 or better plus 1 89.
- Shiner Hefeweizen BA - B-, RB - 27
- Buckeye Brewing Hippie IPA BA - B+, RB - 89
- Mendocino White Hawk India Pale Ale BA - B-, RB - 63
- Stoudts American Pale Ale BA - B, RB - 80
- Wooden Shoe Lager Beer BA - B, RB - 52
- Oktoberfest 2007 (brewed for the Dayton Art Institute Oktoberfest) — N/A
- Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale BA - A-, RB - 93
- Southern Tier Porter BA - B , RB - 78
- Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter BA - A-, RB - 98
- Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout BA - A-, RB - 99
- Bells Expedition Stout BA - A, RB - 100
- Left Hand Imperial Stout BA - B+, RB - 94
- Short’s The Woodmaster BA - B+, RB - NR
- Samual Adams Utopias BA - A, RB - 98
Beside Utopias, I particularly enjoyed the Bell’s Expedition Stout, and was somewhat disappointed in Southern Tier’s Porter (it seemed a bit “thin”). I also didn’t particularly care for the Brooklyn, and was very surprised by it’s high rating.
Oh yes, and the answer to the trivia question….
- University of Michigan - Tom Brady (Patriots) and Gerald Ford
- Stanford University - John Elway (Broncos) & Jim Plunkett (Raiders) and Herbert Hoover
- United States Naval Academy — Roger Staubach (Cowboys) and Jimmy Carter
- Miami University of Ohio — Ben Roethlisberger (Steelers) and Benjamin Harrison