Beer Tasting

Monday night Elliot (the owner of the pub) hosted a beer tasting for some of the new beers McNellies recently added to the menu. We sampled 18 beers in 45 minutes, some of them with alcohol content as high as 9.5%. I was diligently trying to take notes, which started out very detailed, but after the first few my notes became less and less informative. I tried to record other people's reactions, as well as my own, and I gave most of them some kind of star rating. As incomplete and fragmented my notes may be, I though they were at least worth sharing:

1. Queleque Chose: a Belgian style beer, brewed in Quebec. 8% alcohol. Cherry flavor. Not much carbonation; tastes flat. Resembles cough syrup or a watered down Lindeman's Kriek. 1.5 stars.

2. Bridgeport Ebenezer: brewed in Portland, Oregon. Seasonal Christmas beer. Looks darker and tastes somewhat better than last year's brew. Tastes like charcoal or a fireplace. Strange bitter aftertaste. Not well balanced; needs more malt. 2 stars.

3. Taj Mahal: Indian Lager. 4.5% alcohol. Nothing too extreme. Was a big seller when we carried it in the past. 1.5 stars

4. Sneider Organic Edelweisse: A certified organic weisse beer. Doesn't taste like any of the organic beers I've had. Tastes like Chinese food. 6.2% alcohol. 2.5 stars

5. Choc Waving Wheat: I didn't think this would be a good one, based on the other beers from this brewery. It's better than regular Choc. Belgian style wheat beer. Not much substance, better than expected. Three stars.

6. Beirdegarde: Another beer from the Choc brewery. Seems weird an Oklahoma beer would have this name; it's like they're trying to hide the fact that it's a Choc beer. There's a hops flavor, but not too strong. Reminds me of same style as Chimay, but not nearly as good. Three stars.

7. Petrus Dubbel Bruin: Belgian Abbey style beer. Abbey beers are similar to Trappist beers, but not brewed by monks. Dark beer, pruny taste. Not sure if I like it or not.

8. Reverand Quad Avery: high in alcohol content, pretty flavorful. Three stars.

9. Avery Barley Wine Hog Heaven. 9.2% alcohol. 100 IBUs. Bitter, hoppy, floral. Extreme. Yuck, I don't like it. Half a star.

10. Avery's Ellie Brown Ale: Good, easy to drink on any occasion. Medium body, nice finish. Comparable to Newcastle, but a lot better. Slightly nutty. 3.5 stars.

11. Avery's White Rascal: Belgian style wheat ale. Like a Blue Moon. Brewed with spices, has peppery taste. Good. 3.5 stars.

12. Breckenridge Christmas: mixed reviews. some people said it was horrible, some really liked it. It's sour, not terribly offensive. Tastes like a brown ale.

13. Sam Adams Honey Porter: We dubbed this one the "bee shit" beer, because it's dark and tastes like honey

14. Sam Adams Brown Ale: ? (I didn't write anything on this one - either because it was not worthy or because we were going too fast. Probably a combination of both.)

15. Great Divide Wild Raspberry: 5.6% alcohol. Not good. Tastes like a crappy wine cooler

16. Great Divide Titan IPA: 6.8% alcohol. Ugh. Gross.

17. Great Divide DPA: Denver Pale Ale. Bitter, not so good.

18. Great Divide Samari: Rice flavor grain and malted beer. Tastes like a wheaty beer. Good. 3.5 stars.

After sampling so many beers, they tend to start to run together. I wouldn't really take much of this to heart, considering we went through them so quickly, and only drank an ounce or so of each brew. I'll probably try most of them again on another occasion and give them a more thorough evaluation.