A Little Beer Tasting

Tonight the beers we sampled were:

1. Krait Prestige Champagne Lager
2. Mammoth Floating Rock Hefeweizen
3. Mammoth Double Brown
4. Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter
5. Alpine Captain Stout
6. Bayhawk Chocolate Stout
7. Stone Imperial Russian Stout '05

The Best: I would have to say the Alpine Captain Stout (as expected) along with the Mammoth Double Brown and Mammoth Hefeweizen (a Bavarian-style Hefeweizen).

The Pretty Good: Krait Prestige was effervescent, and although a lager, was fruity enough to remind me somewhat of Duvel. Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter was also pretty good though there was nothing about it that would stand out to me. But by itself it was a pretty drinkable porter.

The HUGE disappointment: Stone IRS '05. I made a whole day down in San Diego basically to get a growler fill of this beer last Saturday. It tasted WAY off. It reminded me of the same taste that made me dump the '07 Dark Lord that I tried this last Christmas. It is a very sad state of affairs. One person exclaimed "it smells like soy sauce," and I agree. It had a twang that was way different than the Stone IRS's I've had in the past. And I've had the '05 vintage on tap at Stone as recent as late November last year and it was the best IRS I've ever tasted (the '04 and '06 I've also had were damned good). Something was wrong here and I don't know what.... bad keg? Bad Growler? I've never had growler problems before.... who knows what's up with this.

Overall: It was a fun night. People loved the Alpine slogan on the growler- "Drink Alpine Or Go To Bed." Mammoth really got a boost as far as my ratings go. I bought a bottle of their IPA over a year ago and hated it, though I then realized I bought a very old bottle. Their Double Brown and Hefeweizen were excellent. I've had enough of the porters and stouts for now. I have a real hop-tongue. Right now I need hops. Once spring break starts in a week I'm going to overload myself with Nugget Nectar, Hopslam, etc.