I love getting together to drink beer with other beer crazed maniacs, um.... I mean, ahh, friends that is. A few weeks ago a small social gathering led to this THIS. Some crazy stuff in there, two different but similar Southampton Biere de Garde's. A vertical of De Dolle Oerbier Reserve (02, 04, 05), a crazy ass Ice Cider (that's right a cider made using frozen apples. Guess where its made, Canadia of all places. A blissful beverage, silkiness of ice wine, smoothness of cider, and a nice strength to boot. This sort of get togethers are usually the most fun, this way you get to share the really really cool beers you have got and get some in return, its really a win/win situation.

Now on to some homebrew news. My spiced Irish Red is ready, worked out as well as I could have expected. A bit stronger on the cinnamon and clove but overall very nice. I got some good carbonation, will stick to dextrose (corn sugar) from now on. Got the red color I wanted, was afraid I might not.

I promise more posting soon, lots to say.

I got a beer package today, yup a whole box of beer. Luckily enough there are people all over this fine country that love, enjoy, and most importantly want to share the fine beer that they can acquire. So once in a while I am able to do a trade with someone, I send beer they want and in return get beer I want. Today, after a long wait (damn UPS likes to slow things down) I got a box of 12 beers. Some nice gems from Colorado, a crazy 10% smoked doppelbock and a hand bottled, barrel aged, and wild yeast beer, La Folie.

The great thing about trading is often people throw in extras and I was hooked up nicely. I'll be spending the next few weeks enjoying these goodies and some will get put away for a while as well.

Today I am the Daily Devotee (or DD as it has been shortened to [no it doesnt mean dumb as dogshit]) on ratebeer.com. I wonder if this will attract mre people to this blog?

Last night I did a little 5 year vertical of a beer. Each year the Anchor Brewing Company releases a holiday beer, Our Special Ale. Its a spiced beer and ever year the recipe is slightly altered. I had a 5 year vertical 2002-2006. One of the fun things to do with beer is these kind of verticals. See how the beer changes and evolves. If you are interested the 2005 was my favorite.

Have you ever drank warm beer? How about hot beer? Well, tonight I did. A few beers out there are made to be mulled or heated up. These beers are usually either cherry heavy or very spiced up. So for the holiday season I thought I would experiment a little bit. Tonight I warmed up THIS in a mug and a microwave. It was a little weird to try to consume beer this way. In the end it was ok, check out a full RATING. I have another big bottle of beer to mull tomorrow. After that I doubt I will try it again.


On Thursday I bottled my holiday beer, its an Irish ale with spices in it, dont worry not enough to make it mull-worthy. It should carbonate in 4 weeks (hopefully) we could see whats up with it then.