March 2010 Tasting - Part 2

Thanks for stopping back to check out the second part of the tasting. No need for an introduction as you already know whats up ;)

Next we opened Bell's Eccentric Ale 2008. This was a 12 ounce bottle, so it went pretty quick. This beer was just a massive amount of unique spices. Juniper berries, honey, maple, molasses, and syrup. Very unique and tasty, but a small pour was enough for me. Very unique. I wonder what the cellar would do to this one.

The next beer was a beer that I have been wanting to try for a long time: Ithaca LeBleu. Brad knew I really wanted to try this one and brought one to share! This beer was one of my favorites from the night. It is an American wild ale with blueberries and champagne yeast. This beer is brewed with brett. Everyone agreed that this was a unique sour in the sense that it had a massive amount of carbonation from the champagne yeast. It was crazy how much carbonation this beer produced. I really think it worked for this beer. A lot of sours are good with a lower amount of carbonation, so this was a complete 180 from many of the other sours I have had. The brett and oak flavors were very subtle, but I have a feeling with some age in the cellar this beer could change a lot.

I think it was before or after the LeBleu that we had the white whale of the night. Brad had traded for this beer and was itching to open it. It happens to be one of my favorite sours and something I would never pass down. Brad popped open the cork of an Isabelle Proximus! This is a beer that the other guys were very excited to try and I was stoked to get to have it again. This is a sour that was bottled at Lost Abbey, but is a collaboration between 5 brewmasters. They include Adam Avery, Tomme Arthur, Vinnie Cilirzo, Rob Todd, and Sam Calagione. These guys toured Belgium's finest gueze producers in 2006 and then came back to the states and brewed Izzy. I had this a few months back and noticed that it was more sour. Not a lot, but noticeable. The fruit flavors were taken over a bit by the sharp sour notes, but still very present. If I had another bottle, I wouldn't cellar it much longer as I think it is peaking (I really wish I had it fresh so I could better judge it). This is an awesome beer and I am so glad that Brad shared it with us all! (yes I had to get a picture with Izzy)

Somewhere in this spree of sours, we cracked a Supplication as well. This was from the recent 4th batch. I have had batch 3 with some age on it and loved it. Fresh batch 4, however, doesn't stand up to the Russian River standards that I know of. It just wasn't sour enough compared to what age can do to this beer. It has some sour cherries and a dominate oak flavor, but nothing mouth puckering. This beer will get much better with time, but it was great getting to try it fresh; it really makes a guy appreciate what a cellar can do to a wild ale!

Next we switched it up from the wild ales to a porter. A very solid porter for that matter! We opened up a Captain Lawrence Smoke from the Oak: Rum Barrel Aged. As you can probably guess, this is a smoked porter aged in wine barrels. What I really enjoyed about this smoked porter is that the smoke flavors were dulled down a lot and the oak and rum flavors were able to stick out more. I am not the biggest smoke flavor guy, but some beers benefit with a hint of smoke in them and I think this one did. It was surprisingly a beer that stood out in the tasting. A very basic style, but thrown in barrels really adds some layers to this beer.

Finally, we cracked open Cigar City's Barrel Aged 110K + OT Batch 2. This beer had rich whiskey flavors with a nice amount of chocolate going on. It has some vanilla flavors which rounded out the roasted malt profile a lot. The vanilla and oak went together well. It was also fairly hoppy. I noticed there was a big earthy hop flavor with this RIS. One thing that I really enjoyed about this beer was that it wasn't taken over by the barrels. It had the right amount of barrel aged notes to let you know it was barrel aged, but not something that tasted like straight whiskey. Another great beer at the tasting and something I wouldn't mind drinking again.

Well, that is all for our March tasting. I will be sure to get more pictures (and of better quality) for the next tasting. Hopefully we all throw down some treats again!

As always, thanks for reading! My next post will be on Firkin Fest 2010!

Cheers,
Ben