A couple few years ago I began fancy-ing myself a bit of a beer snob and began accumulating decent craft beers from around the country Mostly Imperial Stouts and Barley Wines. Now that I look back it was just as much out of a desire to “posses them” that it was to drink them. lately I have been going over my modest inventory and thinking…this Stone 6th aniv (2004) Porter is definitely NOT getting any better. So I pulled several items and put them in the fridge and invited a couple friends over to help me cull the herd, as it were.
One attendee is a fairly experienced beer geek and the other, not so much. But to the credit of the latter, he was open to trying new things, and I expect when he got the call to come over, he knew it would be something fairly interesting.
Started off with something fairly light and of a style that I knew would be new for the rookie. New Belgium’s Eric’s Ale is a sour ale that is brewed with peaches. It is dry and tart, but as far as the style goes, pretty mild. It was a hit. that was just an introductory to the La Folie that I brought out immediately after. More consistent with the traditional style of a “Sour” it was still pretty popular.
A couple of my own home-brews were next, an Eisbock I made about 2 years ago that turned out quite nice, if I do say so myself, and was the favorite of the evening to our newcomer. A raspberry wheat that was one of the few left over from a late last summer wedding that I made it for.
Lastly was the 12th anniversary North Coast Old Rasputin. The 500ml corked and caged top was a classy touch and the beer was very nice.
Beatles and Led Zeplin on itunes and good friends and good conversation for a couple hours on a Tuesday nite is really going to help me get through the week.
Good times…
