Friday Night Tasting

This past Friday, we went out of our norm and did a little tasting. Usually our tastings are on Tuesdays, but several repeat tasters couldn't do it during the week. So, we moved it to Friday and we also didn't do it at Wine World. And might I add that we haven't given Wine World enough thanks for allowing us to come and use their facility. I think everyone should go by there and buy something, just because they are nice and not to mention they have the best selection in the area. By the way, they just got a couple of Cigar City kegs in and they should have them on tap any day now, give them a buzz. Anyway, we didn't do the tasting there because they are really busy these days and we didn't want to get in their way.

This tasting had a lot of great beers lined up including one I have been itching to drink for a while. I have had a bottle of Firestone Walker 13 in my cellar for a couple of months and I could not wait to try it. This one is supposed to be a great aging beer, but I like to try beers fresh and aged beers and compare notes. I only have one of these, but I am on the lookout for another to age. But if you are not familiar with this beer check out the link. The link is full of information about this beer. The 13 is basically a their Anniversary Ale that is blended differently every year. This year they used seven different barrel aged beers and they were blended by some of California's greatest wine makers. I have to say is was one of the highlights of the night.

Another great beer we tasted was from Florida's own Cigar City Brewing. If you have not been following CCB progression then let me catch you up. They are now considered one of the best breweries in the world. Let's just say they now have three beers on Rate Beer's Top 10. We tasted their Hunahpu's Imperial Stout, which is a stout made with cacao nibs, ancho and pasilla chiles, cinnamon and vanilla beans. Quite a combo huh? This beer smells fantastic and tastes very interesting. You could nearly pick out all of those ingredients, if you looked for them. Also, Amy cooked up some Buddha's Temptation for us to munch on. They rocked!
A couple of other intresting beers we had were DogFish Head Pangaea and BrewDog Dogma. Both of these beers seemed really strange to me and I am scared of strange beers and strange ingredients. Let me clarify. The Dogfish Head beer is made with one ingredient from every continent including crystallized ginger. The BrewDog beer is an ale made with honey, kola nut, poppy seed and guarana. Sound strange? But both of these beers were very good and great drinking beers. I totally suggest picking them up. And you can find them both at Wine World.

I know it is not fun reading about all the beers we taste at these little tastings. So, maybe this will give you a little incentive to join us next time. You never know what we will be tasting or who will show up. You might even see our buddy Dave.

That's right Dave finally came to a tasting and I tried to get a picture of him, but I couldn't ever get a good angle on him. Maybe next time, right? Well, I will say that by the time he left, he was as happy as an ostrich.

I promise.