July
Hot Summer Nights
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 | Tasting Reviews | No Comments
July Tastings was held outside on Joe's Patio
We had a full house for our July beertasting in addition to some great summer beers, fine company including some new faces, a few raindrops and an excellent job from our host. My only criticism is that as our tastings get bigger, the quantity of beer being tasted in someways prohibit us from fully enjoying some of the great beers that we had on hand. But a good quantity and quality of beer selections is a great problem to have for our tastings.
Here’s the lineup of what I had we tasted according to my notes. I think 21 different beers sets a new record for us…
- Joe B. (host) – Honey Ale & Rock Candy Saison (Homebrews), Blue Moon Belgium Wheat, St. Feuillien
- Jay — Hoegarden White Ale
- Steve B — Victory Whilrwind Witbeir, Alesmith IPA
- Dave S — New Hollland Zoomer Wheat
- Zombie — Bell’s Oberon
- Mike — Goose Island Summertime Kolsch
- Todd — Avery White Rascal Wheat Ale
- Luke — New Glarus Spotted Cow & Fat Squirrel Ale, Kwok
- Pete — Paulaner Hefeweizen
- Mark — Horse Piss Beer, Souther Tier Hop Sun
- Chris — Great Lakes Eliot Ness Lager
- Phil — Hacker-Pschorr Weisse
- Steve V (not present, but still sent beer) — Flying Dog Garde Dog
- Chuck — Jackie O’s Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Betty (from Athen’s Ohio)
Some tastings notes…
The Victory Whirlwind had a distinct and unique peppery flavor to it — not sure if this is good, but it was very different.
Joe impressed me with his two home brew offerings. The honey ale was very smooth and drinkable. The Saison had some orange and coriander flavors going for it — very interesting.
The Hacker-Pschorr Weisse had a nice banana flavor that you would expect from a German Wheat beer. On the other hand, I thought the Paulaner Hefeweizen had a sweet honey finish to it.
I’ve never had the St. Feuillen before — I think Joe said his family got it from Belgium and that’s it’s aged a few years. Very Belgium like, I will definitely be on the look out for it in the future.
The Horse Piss beer was appropriately named. The Blue Moon Belgium tasted neither like a Belgium or wheat beer.
The Kwok had a very sweet malty flavor. Nice contrast to the summer beers we tasted.
I think Pete summarized the Bourbon Aged Black Betty — “Dessert in a glass!”.
Here was our lineup, along with their ratings from Beer Advocate and Rate Beer
Beer Advocate RateBeer
- Hoegaarden White Ale B+ 88
- Victory Whirlwind Witbier B 74
- Joe’s Honey Ale N/A
- New Holland Zoomer Wheat Ale B- 46
- Bell’s Oberon Ale B+ 82
- Paulaner Hefewiezen B+ 90
- Bluegrass Brewing Horse Piss Beer C- 4
- Goose Island Summertime Kolsch B 54
- Avery White Rascal B 64
- Coor’s Blue Moon Belgium B- 46
- Joe’s Rock Candy Saison N/A
- New Glarus Spotted Cow Ale B 43
- Southern Tier Hop Sun B+ 75
- Flying Dog Garde Dog B- 27
- Great Lakes Eliot Ness A- 90
- Hacker Pschorr Weiss A- 87
- New Glarus Fat Squirrel Nut Brown Ale B+ 84
- St. Feuillien Blonde B+ 79
- AleSmith IPA A 99
- Pauwel Kwak B+ 86
- Jackie O’s Bourbon Barrel Black Betty N/A N/A
MVP Points Totals
For the first month this year, we have no top 100 beers on our list. The AleSmith IPA is on the list, but technically we tasted that last month and Steve was kind enough to share another bottle as a few didn’t get a taste in June. However, I’m awarding bonus points to Chuck for bringing back beer from the Athens Beer Festival, Luke for bringing back New Glarus which is only available in Wisconsin, and Joe for sharing his homebrew’s and aged Belgium beers. Joe gets docked 1 point however for bringing a Coor’s product, which is almost as bad as bringing Anheiser Busch. Steve V. gets bonus points for bringing beer even though he couldn’t attend personally. Steve gets 5 points for his blog postings, which is enough to put him and Todd in a dead heat for first place.
Prev Total July Score New Total
- Todd 82 3 85
- Steve B 77 8 85
- Mike 45 3 48
- Steve V. 43 5 48
- Joe 18 28 46
- Andrew S. 45 0 45
- Chuck 35 6 41
- Andrew W 38 0 38
- Luke 22 12 34
- Jay 30 3 33
- Zombie 29 3 32
- Dave S 28 3 31
- Pete 18 3 21
- Dave H 3 0 3