Dictionary.com defines nip as "a small bit or quantity of anything." So in the beer world nips are small bottles of beer usually 7 ounces or less, a not too common occurrence in craft beer. Only a handful of breweries make any more nips. The most famous nip would probably be the Anchor Old Foghorn. One of the first American-style Barleywines produced was always sold only in 7 oz nips until 2004 (now boring old 12 oz bottles). Nips are usually saved for very strong beers, allowing the drinker to enjoy a high alcohol beer in moderation, not to mention save the cost of producing these beers. Possibly, the most sought after nip nowadays is the Raspberry Eisbock, produced by Kuhnhenn Brewing, a small family operation in Warren Michigan. One of the hardest to come by nips is made in Southampton, NY, the Double Icebock packs a punch at around 18%. The Southampton Publick House (Publick.com) produced less than 100 nips a year (and rumors are this year it wont even be released). Drakes Brewing Company in San Leandro, CA probably produces the most nips of any craft brewery (that does not mean a lot). These are their high octane beers that all weight in double digit abv (i.e. 15th Anniversary Bourbon Barrel Aged Lager). Not to be fooled, not all nips are created equal. Lakefront Brewery produced their own Barleywine in a nip, unfortunately some may consider that a waste of space (even if its just a nip of space).

I love nips for a few reasons:

A) Usually these are special beers that are hard to come by, so when I do I really appreciate it.

B) Sometimes you drink a big beer for the kick and sometimes you really just want to enjoy it and I am always forced to just enjoy these brews.

C) My enormous love for craft beer is offset by my small living space, a dichotomy I think is well represented in a nip (that's enough for humor).

D) I would have no where to store dishes if I saved all the cool bottles of beer that I have come across but nips are easy to save and display in a small area.

Some noteworthy nip-esque bottles:

A) Sam Adams Triple Bock is a beautiful dark cobalt blue, corked with rubber cover 8.45 ounce bottle containing an 18% beer. The beer is borderline nip for me, some say yes and some say no.

B) Thomas Hardy's, a British staple Barleywine come in 33cl (or 8.5 oz) bottles. Another big beer in a small bottle.

C) Rogue XS series was a lineup of 3 beers (Barleywine, Imperial Stout, and Scotch Ale) that at one time were sold in nips. They no longer are, the Barleywine and Imperial Stout are now produced in 750ml ceramic swing top bottles and the weakest of the series, the Scotch Ale, is no longer brewed.

So I reached a monumental rating on the beer site by rating my 500th beer. Its a cool achievement for a beer geek like myself, but more importantly I wanted to do something special for the rating. I drank a Westvleteren 8, a beer that is rather difficult to come by. Why you ask, well let me give a little background:

The Westvleteren beers are brewed by the Abbey of Saint Sixtus in the Westvleteren region of Belgium. The Abbey makes Trappist beers or those made by Trappist monks. Of the world's 171 Trappist monasteries, seven produce beer (six in Belgium and one in The Netherlands). These seven breweries are authorized to label their beers with the Authentic Trappist Product logo that indicates a compliance to various rules edicted by the International Trappist Association (mainly that the beer be brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastry and the profits go toward assistance and not economic gain).

Of all the Trappist breweries, St. Sixtus produces the smallest amount and also produces by some to be the worldest best beers. These beers are not supposed to be sold outside of the Abbey, but I obviuosly did not travel to Belgium to pick up this bottle. I came across this bottle through some fun beer hunting.

Now back to the point, this bottle, with which I celebrated my 500th rating was about 5.5 years old. As expected it aged wonderfully, but if you want to see exactly what I thought you are going to have to go read the rating.

I think this is a good time to discuss Samuel Adams, not the patriot but the beer company (actually its the Boston Beer Company that makes the Samuel Adams line of beers, as well as a few other labels). Nice little story of the brewery, started by Jim Koch (pronounced Cook, don't know why, damn crazy New Englanders). The story goes that in 1984 Jim Koch brewed the first Samuel Adams Boston Lager in his kitchen using his grandfathers recipe and to sell it bar to bar. Just some cynicism here, first of the beer is a lager meaning that it uses bottom fermenting yeast, which almost always requires cold fermention. It also means this type of beer almost always needs to be cold conditioned. Basically, this means that to make a beer like the Sam Adams Boston Lager would require more time and resources than most small start up breweries can afford. But whatever, its just a story now, similar to the Clydesdales of Budweiser, a bit of truth mixed with a lot of commercialism. But in general the Boston Beer Company produces different styles of beer, promotes beer knowledge, and supports the beer movement. While most of their product is underwhelming, they have produced some very interesting and innovative beers that no other company of their size can boast. For example, they have made the one of the strongest beers in the world, Utopias, an uncarbonated, 25% alcohol beast that runs well over $100 a bottle. I compared it to cheap cognac but it is still a very nice accomplishment. Outside of that, they recently held a nationwide homebrew competition of which the winners' recipes were reproduced by Sam Adams and released in special six packs. Two national winner and one comanpy winner each made a beer. This really is a cool thing for a company to do. So if you want to see my opinion on the beers, you got to check out my ratings.

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.