I have no excuses. I have not given this blog its fair share lately and for that I apologize to all the faithful readers out there. Life has been getting in the way of fun and fun has taken a back seat lately. We've been house hunting, visiting my parents in York PA, and oh yea, my full time job (that has kept me busy the past three days). Have no fear - I have drank my beers; each and every one. Unfortunately, I have little to link them to and even fewer pictures. Which is weird since I thought I've taken pictures of every one of my beers on my phone since the beginning. I'm wondering if a certain little 3 year old may have anything to do with the disappearance of a few of those pictures. So, tonight - I bring you catch up night... no not Heinz Catchup! The procrastinators guide to 365's beer challenge. I'll mention the good the bad and even the ugly to keep with consistency around here. One thing I will not do is judge on quality / taste / mouth feel / color ect. Quite frankly that part of this blog is starting to really bore me! I'm not into that. I feel to pretentious or something. And quite frankly I don't think I'm that good at it. So for a round out of this past weeks beers:
4/4/2012 Long Trail Belgian White - I bought this case a few weeks ago and have been TRYING hard to finish this. I was sort of excited about this but terribly let down. The beer is HIGHLY (EXTREMELY) carbonated. It has a really strong citric bite to it. It is a challenge for me to take each sip. It is almost like a champagne consistency. I still have a few left in my house and they are going down very slow. I have a hard time throwing away any beer... but honestly, I don't know - this is one I consider dumping every day.
4/3/2012 Dogfish Head Brewery Indian Brown Ale - "A clean well hopped brown ale - brewed with caramelized sugar and hopped liberally and often". The pour in the glass was dark brown to black color with low carbonation. It was a bit lighter body then I expected. It was sort of a chocolate taste with a bit of caramel and coffee hints. It also had sort of a heavy roasted almost burnt flavor. I downloaded the BJCP app for my iPhone and was doing some research. I was checking the English Pale Ales. I saw a Southern English Brown Ale that seemed to fit this bill. It didn't totally hit the biscuit flavor. It definitely had a bit of hop characteristics that maybe are not as typical but for a Dogfish didn't surprise. In general, I didn't care for this beer. I knew that Dogfish beers were not always going to be enjoyable for me so this is one of the first I've found that I didn't like. I probably would try this again sometime but definitely will not be rushing out for more anytime soon.
4/2/2012 Southern Teir Douple IPA - This beer was a VERY STRONGLY hopped beer. The head retention was big. There was actually a decent caramel backing to this beer in the malt department. It was balanced well for being a DOUBLE IPA. In general, I really enjoyed this beer on draft. Ordered this from Rockefellar's in Kennedy Township. We don't make it up there enough these days. They usually have a few good beers on draft and the food is pretty good also. Nice local place. I'm slowly coming back into liking a NICE good IPA and this beer sits nicely up there on the Must Drink IPAs. If you make it to Rockefeller's be sure to get the Dry Rub Cajun Wings extra Crispy; one of my favorites.
4/1/2012 Coors Original Banquet - Thank you father in law Bill! We drove a long way from York to Pittsburgh. Bill is always there to have a nice cold one ready for me after a long drive. It was nothing to write about so - I'm not going to!
3/31/2012 Spring House Brewing 7 Gates Pale Ale - This was a nice beer! I've been waiting a long time to get this beer. I recently read an article in Beer Advocate about these guys. I also was a neighbor of one of the guys involved with this company. Great look to a brewery and wonderful concert of doing local legends for their beers. In general this was a great beer. It had a very nice hop character with the malty goodness to back it up and balance it out. I had bought a 6 pack of this in York while out visiting my parents. I do not believe I actually captured a picture of this which is a bit upsetting. Either way, it was nice beer and I think they have a great thing going.
3/30/2012 Flying Dog Snake Bite IPA - Actually, as I recall this beer was good. It was definitely hoppy no doubt. I recall thinking that hop heads abroad would LOVE this beer but to me - its the bad kind of hop beer. It must be the style of hop that is not my flavor. In general, this is the sort of hop style that steered me away from IPAs to begin with. It is crisp and clean but just to hop flavored with out enough malt body to it.
So, I started this 4 days ago - and now I have 4 more beers to catch up on. Obviously, this blogging thing is really catching up with me! Its tough but I am really trying to catch up and really do a better job with. Well, I know I still have people visiting the site and checking out Facebook. If anyone is looking for more, different, something specifically - please request. I recently got a new role in life that I'm TRYING out that I hope is going to work for me. May delay the blogging a bit - but I'm going to attempt to blog at least once a week. Those that are BETTER I'll try to blog better but who knows. Let me know what if anything you'd like different.
4/4/2012 Long Trail Belgian White - I bought this case a few weeks ago and have been TRYING hard to finish this. I was sort of excited about this but terribly let down. The beer is HIGHLY (EXTREMELY) carbonated. It has a really strong citric bite to it. It is a challenge for me to take each sip. It is almost like a champagne consistency. I still have a few left in my house and they are going down very slow. I have a hard time throwing away any beer... but honestly, I don't know - this is one I consider dumping every day.
4/3/2012 Dogfish Head Brewery Indian Brown Ale - "A clean well hopped brown ale - brewed with caramelized sugar and hopped liberally and often". The pour in the glass was dark brown to black color with low carbonation. It was a bit lighter body then I expected. It was sort of a chocolate taste with a bit of caramel and coffee hints. It also had sort of a heavy roasted almost burnt flavor. I downloaded the BJCP app for my iPhone and was doing some research. I was checking the English Pale Ales. I saw a Southern English Brown Ale that seemed to fit this bill. It didn't totally hit the biscuit flavor. It definitely had a bit of hop characteristics that maybe are not as typical but for a Dogfish didn't surprise. In general, I didn't care for this beer. I knew that Dogfish beers were not always going to be enjoyable for me so this is one of the first I've found that I didn't like. I probably would try this again sometime but definitely will not be rushing out for more anytime soon.
4/2/2012 Southern Teir Douple IPA - This beer was a VERY STRONGLY hopped beer. The head retention was big. There was actually a decent caramel backing to this beer in the malt department. It was balanced well for being a DOUBLE IPA. In general, I really enjoyed this beer on draft. Ordered this from Rockefellar's in Kennedy Township. We don't make it up there enough these days. They usually have a few good beers on draft and the food is pretty good also. Nice local place. I'm slowly coming back into liking a NICE good IPA and this beer sits nicely up there on the Must Drink IPAs. If you make it to Rockefeller's be sure to get the Dry Rub Cajun Wings extra Crispy; one of my favorites.
4/1/2012 Coors Original Banquet - Thank you father in law Bill! We drove a long way from York to Pittsburgh. Bill is always there to have a nice cold one ready for me after a long drive. It was nothing to write about so - I'm not going to!
3/31/2012 Spring House Brewing 7 Gates Pale Ale - This was a nice beer! I've been waiting a long time to get this beer. I recently read an article in Beer Advocate about these guys. I also was a neighbor of one of the guys involved with this company. Great look to a brewery and wonderful concert of doing local legends for their beers. In general this was a great beer. It had a very nice hop character with the malty goodness to back it up and balance it out. I had bought a 6 pack of this in York while out visiting my parents. I do not believe I actually captured a picture of this which is a bit upsetting. Either way, it was nice beer and I think they have a great thing going.
3/30/2012 Flying Dog Snake Bite IPA - Actually, as I recall this beer was good. It was definitely hoppy no doubt. I recall thinking that hop heads abroad would LOVE this beer but to me - its the bad kind of hop beer. It must be the style of hop that is not my flavor. In general, this is the sort of hop style that steered me away from IPAs to begin with. It is crisp and clean but just to hop flavored with out enough malt body to it.
So, I started this 4 days ago - and now I have 4 more beers to catch up on. Obviously, this blogging thing is really catching up with me! Its tough but I am really trying to catch up and really do a better job with. Well, I know I still have people visiting the site and checking out Facebook. If anyone is looking for more, different, something specifically - please request. I recently got a new role in life that I'm TRYING out that I hope is going to work for me. May delay the blogging a bit - but I'm going to attempt to blog at least once a week. Those that are BETTER I'll try to blog better but who knows. Let me know what if anything you'd like different.
