Went to a friendly tasting last night that turned into "LET'S GET WEIRD!" I love it when that happens...
CosmicEvan and SpeedwayJim had pages and pages of notes. Although I remember Evan's notebook not being in very good shape about half way through the Lost Abbey Box Set. For me, the Dave, M Loerik and Cable Car Kriek were the top bottles.
Had a last minute tasting put together at my place a few nights ago. Thanks to BdubleEdubleRUN, ehammond1, JealousChalice and Gborobeer for contributing! From left to right: Cantillon Lou Pepe Gueuze 2008 Fantome La Pietrain Blonde Troegs Splinter Gold Troegs Splinter Blue Duck Duck Gooze Barrel-Aged Speedway Consecration Batch 002 Caldera Mogli (black wax) Jackie O's Cherry Wood Ya Honey Jackie O's Evelyn Upright Blend Love Sole Composition Upland Persimmon Lambic Fantome Extra Sour Stift Engelszell Gregorius Not pictured: De Dolle Stille Nacht Reserva 2010
yeah, my notebook got sketchy during the lost abbey box set. loose pages, covered in whale blood...and fairly hard to tell what was being written. apparently since i couldn't keep up with the writing towards the end, i started recording what our thoughts were. talk about drunken random ramblings of a bunch of fools...but i digress. here's what i've got from yesterday: unbelievable thanks goes out to GrumpyOldTroll, AgentZero, dtmets84, jbuddle, Sean9689, SpeedwayJim. the beers consumed were only topped by the company. cheers!!! Hair of the Dog - Dave Russian River - Happy Hops Growler Cantillon - Loerik Midnight Sun - M Cantillon - Don Quijote De Struise - Dirty HOrse (90/10 Blend) Sam Adams - Millenium De Dolle - Stille Nacht 2000 De Dolle - Stille Nacht 2010 Lost Abbey - Cable Car Kreik Russian River - T20 Russian River - T25 Russian River - Depuration Goose Island - Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout Growler Cantillon - Fou Foune cantillon - 50n 4e Cantillon - Jean Chris Nomad Drie Fonteinen - Malvasia Rosso De Dolle - Speciaal Brouwsel 20 Gasthaus-Brauerei Braustelle - Eszett Geuze Lost Abbey - Veritas 003 Drie Fonteinen - Oude Geuze Vintage (2002) DC Brau - On the Wings of Armageddon Bell's - BA Batch 9k Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #1 - Runnin’ With The Devil Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #2 - Stairway To Heaven Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #3 - Hell's Bells Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #4 - Sympathy For The Devil Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #5 - Shout At The Devil Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #6 - Highway To Hell Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #7 - The Devil Inside Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #8 - Number Of The Beast Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #9 - Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #10 - Bat Out Of Hell Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #11 - The Devil Went Down To Georgia Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #12 - Heaven & Hell Lost Abbey - Box Set Track #13 - Message In A Bottle Mama Mia - Pizza Beer
...part 2... reviews to follow soon (i'll put these at the top of the backlog - although i wouldn't be surprised if jim got his thoughts in already). highlights: - sam adams millenium was my favorite of the entire night. - dave was surprisingly drinkable and actually tasty. - M was simply mmmmmm...i've heard that there is a lot of bottle variation and many at the tasting had it prior and said this bottle was one of the better ones. truly an amazing beer. - of the cantillon stuff, JCN blew me away...UNREAL beer (although loerik also knocked my socks off and DQ was amazing) - cable car kreik was far and away the best kreik i've ever had - eszette geuze was pretty incredible as well and destined to be on every want list - lost abbey box set start to finish was extremely impressive...some of the beers were absolute masterpieces, but there was not a bad apple in the batch - chicago makes some cool beer beer geeks, really great to put faces behind names and get to share in this crazy experience. - i did not get lost for 5 hours wandering around NJ and only broke one glass and one bottle on my way home.
MY EYES!!! That is the most EPIC tasting I have ever...that is the most beautiful...I can't believe.. That made my day just looking at it, I can't imagine how it must be for you to have been there! Amazing!! Thank You for the pics! I am looking forward to reading the reviews! Pics of this tasting should be in BeerAdvocate magazine!
I think a lot of us agreed that Sam Adams Millennium was the best beer of the night (my reviews reflect that). Dave was surprisingly drinkable. It was one of those feelings where 2 oz. was more than enough but after I had finished it, I wanted more (because it tasted good, not because it was Dave). Loerik is the best Gueuze I've ever had. Cable Car Kriek was the best Wild Ale I've ever had. M was as good as ever. A tad oxidized but still as solid as I remember from over 2 years ago. SNR2000 was far superior to SNR2010 IMO. The latter was near undrinkable for me.
Pretty much agree to all that...I also thought Cable Car Kriek was better then Dirty Horse (both Krieks) this time around. Also, the box set was really excellent from 1-13...no real bad beers in the entire set with tracks 3, 5, 7, and 10 being the best.
My friend Jason was very generous this past Saturday! He is going to go travel around Europe for a year so he decided to share a ton of great ones with everyone! <img src="http://i.imgur.com/3XLZ1.png" alt="Uploaded with Imgupr" />
I don't know how the heck you remembered all of them. All I recall was that the double Framboise, Double Red poppy one was amazing as well as that stout that had huge coconut and coffee notes.
I can honestly say that Dirty Horse, which I've lucked into having 4 times now, has really fallen off, at least the 90/10 blend (and I'm assuming the 100% 1983 as well). I'm guessing the 100% 2005 is easily drinking the best, and still a damn fine beer.
It was my first Dirty Horse and I was very underwhelmed. The CC Kriek really blew it out of the water, eh? SA Millenium was the highlight for me but it was close. CC Kriek, Don Q, and Loerik are such spectacular beers. The LA Box Set was also a tasting in and of itself, and a seriously well done one at that. Dave was really fantastic. It developed some very interesting things as it sat out and opened up. I remember smelling some mint and grass after a few hours which somehow worked? Sitting there with a glass of Dave, M, and SA Millenium at the same time was pretty special
It was very smokey and had an odd, peat-y tart character. I'm sure some will like it. It just really wasn't my cup of tea.
Yeah, wouldn't say undrinkable...just...different. I've had the SNR 2000 a few times and it's always been my favorite when compared to the 2005 and 2008. The 2010 had some smoke notes to it...very odd...it was okay just not outstanding.
Cable Car Kriek DQ and SA Millennium were my top three for the day. Having Dave and M in my snifter for 4+ hours just made it more awesome. Blowing through the LA Box set with the pizza beer chaser mixed in really ended an epic day
undrinkable is pretty harsh, but those 2 were some lowlights of the day...that being said, it was really due to present company. when we were drinking them, i remember us talking about how at any other tasting those probably would have been highlights.
Damn. I would have traded you 3 King Henry's for a hand bottled 12oz of your first morning after piss.
So where does one go from here? The only thing you guys didn't have was a 99 boos, and a cloudberry Lambic. Other than that, I guess you guys are done?
Cracked these all open a few days ago after years of waiting patiently. I was really impressed by the overall quality, especially of the older iterations. The 02.02.02 in particular - which I was dreading after reading the recent reviews - was in very good shape. It was mellow and clean with a pleasant coconut finish. I also enjoyed the 03.03.03, the 04.04.04, the 09.09.09, and the 11.11.11 quite a lot myself. One of my buddies brought a red-wine barrel 11.11.11 along to try side by side with the regular version, and it was a really interesting comparison. All in all it was a great tasting and everyone in attendance was pleasantly surprised at how well the beers had held up. I attribute it to a mixture of blind luck and careful storage in a genuine root cellar.
