Thanksgiving Eve, the start of a Mini-Beer-A-Thon

If it's not a recognized holiday it should be. It marks the start of a 4 day vacation for me. That of course means we can get to heavy beer drinking, which sounds fun since I haven't touched a beer in about a week.

I started off the night at home with a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale that I purchased earlier in the day. This would be about the 3rd vintage of this stuff I've ever had and it's always one of the most beautiful beers I pour. Plus, if the label art of this beer doesn't get you in the mood I don't know what will. Of course, there are not that many holiday IPA's out there (I can only think of Winter Yulesmith), but just seeing the clear orange it pours with a big fluffy and rocky head makes my mouth water in the Winter. As far as this years' version goes, you know from the aroma you're gonna get a lot of pine, but it smells like sweet pine. It comes across the palate as pretty sweet with nice and fresh piny hops also. After that the bitterness really coats the mouth and you get quite a piny experience the rest of the way. Off the top of my head I'm going to say I liked last year's better, but this is pretty tasty anyway and I wont have any trouble finishing off the rest of the 6-pack.

A bit later a few of us guys then went out to the new TAPS Fish House & Brewery that opened up in Corona (there has been one in Brea for a long time). TAPS makes some great beers, and has won numerous medals. Most recently they came home from the GABF with a silver and bronze for their Russian Imperial Stout and Cream Ale, respectively. Unfortunately, they usually only have 5-8 beers of theirs on tap, and last night in Corona they only had their Pale Ale, Cream Ale, Porter, Irish Red, and Hefe, and nothing on cask like they normally do. None of these beers really got me excited (I really wanted to try their Pumpkin Ale which I hear people rave about), but I had a Hefeweizen anyway. It's a Bavarian style hefeweizen which was ok (maybe it's really good, it's just not my favorite style). LOTS of wheat taste to it and quite a bit of cloves too, with just a touch of banana. After that my beer night was over, we went to a casino and everyone won money except me.