Just wanted to thank Kevin for providing a sweet place to hold the tasting and for the great hospitality! Also, I would like to thank all the guys for bringing some sweet treats!
We started the evening with Cigar City's Humidor Jai Alai. This is their IPA aged on cedar. Kevi
n brought this one back from his trip to Florida. The aroma on this beer was fantastic. Lots of cedar with a big fruit aroma. This was one of the most unique ipas I have tasted. Think of drinking an ipa in a sauna. It was great getting to try something so unique. The cedar took away from some of the fresh hop prof
ile, but added a new layer of complexity.Next we had the Bruery's Oude Tart. I had this on tap at the Bruery while visiting California and was a little disappointed with it since it wasn't very sour. After just a few months of aging in the bottle, however, it has started to develop some sour characteristics. I think that it still needs some more time, but it could turn into something great. This is a beer that I would like to be able to get easily. Very drinkable.
Up next we decided to do a side by side of Hoppin Frog's BORIS and BA BORIS. Everyone at the table agreed that the regular BORIS was a very dull RIS (oatmeal ris for that matter). It lacked flavor and didn't bring the flavors that a good ris can bring to the table. None of us wanted to finish the bottle. The BA BORIS was much better. The barrel aging really added a ton of flavors to this beer. I was able to come up with many more flavors in the barrel aged version. I was able to find flavors of licorice, dried cherries, and of course the barrel flavors. Don't waste your time with the regular, stick to the barrel aged edition of this beer.
Next we took a dinner break and ate some grilled goods and drank some Union Jack IPA. We all agreed that this was a solid ipa and something we wish he had more of (in Peter's case, at least a case of it). It was an easy drinking ipa with tons of citrus fruit and something I thought was comparable to Ballast Point's Sculpin (a top rated IPA and a personal favorite for the style).
Back to the tasting, we did a side by side of Footill's Sexual Chocolate and a collaboration brew: Olde Rabbit's Foot. The ORF is a blended collaboration beer from Foothills, Duck Rabbit, and Olde Hickory brewing companies. They each took their RIS and blended them toge
ther and aged them in 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle barrels. The SC was a little bit of a let down. It was a ton of chocolate and cocoa, but nothing much else that stood out. To me, it was a very 1 dimensional ris. It was good, but nothing earth shattering. The ORF on the other had was a tad better. The aroma brought a lot of spices to the table and the taste kicked in with a huge bourbon profile. Having had the SC right next to the ORF, I was unable to taste the SC in the ORF. There just wasn't that huge chocolate level, but instead more of a bourbon layer. They claimed to have brewed it with honey and I found it in the nose, but the barrel aging took over that flavor in the taste a lot. I was expecting more of a sweet taste from the said honey. Thanks Brad for bringing the ORF and Kevin for driving all the way to Carolina for the SC!
Next was another offering from the Bruery: White Oak. This is a beer that is 50% ale and 50% ale aged in bourbon barrels. It is classified as a Belgian strong pale at @ 11% abv, you could have fooled me! The taste in this beer is great! It has huge oak flavors, with vanilla, coconut, and a nice level of bourbon. The aging of only half the beer in barrels was a great choice for the style. This beer was extremely drinkable at 11% and could catch you off guard easily. This one may be harder to acquire since they only sell it at the Bruery, but if you get a chance, don't pass it up.
I will have the rest of the line up posted tomorrow night (hopefully), so check back. There are a few goodies that we had the pleasure to enjoy!
Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
Ben
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