Wednesday, December 16, 2009

JTH's Birthday Bash


Barrel Aged Alesmith Speedway Stout
This beer was absolutely phenomenal. Probably one of the 3 best imperial stouts I've ever drank (Black OPS and Black Tuesday might be the other two). The normal big coffee flavor of regular Speedway goes into hiding with the barrel aging, but what is left is smooth, chocolatey, bourbony, and mellow roasty perfection. Nobody disagreed that this was an amazing beer.


Lost Abbey Veritas 04
JTH was determined to consume his Veritas 04 so we headed back for an outdoor garage session. Veritas was deemed very similar to Cable Car. It probably had the sourest, quenching smell of any sour I've had. Just a faint whiff stimulated my saliva reflex immediately. The flavor was like that super sour lemon bubblicious (the one who's flavor disappears in like 10 chews).


Captain Lawrence Nor' Easter
This NY-brewed beer was the first I've had from Captain Lawrence. It's a Belgian dark ale brewed with Elderberry and aged in bourbon barrels. The elderberries give of a grape or plum type character. I use to have to take this Sambucol elderberry extract when I was sick and that flavor was easily detected here in the beer. There is a slight hotness to it, not unexpectedly, being 11% and aged on the bourbon. Interesting and good brew.


The Bruery Two Turtle Doves
Two turtle doves is a Belgian dark ale brewed with cocoa nibs and pecans. How delicious does that sound? This was a really interesting beer which we probably drank too cold. I was trying to find out where the pecans factored in and I'm not sure I was able to figure it out. There did seem to be a big flavor of unsweetened chocolate. At 12% ABV the alcohol was hidden really well. I'll have to revisit this soon.


Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
This was probably not the best idea at this point in the night.

4 comments:

J.Rhode said...

Made for a long day at work today! The first pours of -bal aged Speedway (not in the Delirium glass) were probably 14oz and $6. Thank you Toronado.

Drink the Dregs said...

Two Turtle Doves, very right it gets a lot of help from warming up. Also not sure where in the night you tried it, but it's definitely pecan central with a fresh palate and the right temp. Revisit for sure!

Steve said...

Yeah I had to pop a Tylenol at lunch... minor headache would not go away. God bless the ToronadoSD for supplying us with such a rare and renowned beer at such a great price!

As for Two Turtle Doves... it was definitely consumed too cold. Tried like hell to warm up my glass but my hands were about to freeze off. I love pecans but I just could not figure out what flavor they were adding here. I attribute that to my mediocre palate. Looking forward to trying it again if I can snatch up a couple bottles.

Vicki said...

Oh i used cockspur in the cupcake, but since it bakes away i figured it would be ok. Not in the frosting tho :(