May 2014 ~ Monthly Beer Reviews

Another month has come and gone….I do apologize to all two of my faithful readers who actually give a shit about what I have to say for getting this out so late.  In the month of April, 81 beers were reviewed….and by reviews, I mean actual reviews…not jerk off reviews where some asshole goes to a beer festival, has a half ounce of a beer and has it totally figured it out.  Unfortunately, this is also a side effect of too much travelling and not having anything really productive to do on the road.

Anyways…beers, beers, and more beers…..so out of the 81 reviewed last month, here were the tops for May:

Top 5 Beer Reviews for May (yeah, its only 6 this month):

• Cigar City Brewing Double Barrel Aged Hunahpu ~ American Double / Imperial Stout ~ 4.5 /5 Rating
• De Cam Lambiek Special ~Lambic – Fruit ~ 4.4 /5 Rating
• Westbrook Brewing Mexican Cake (Cabernet Barrel) ~ American Double / Imperial Stout ~ 4.3 /5 Rating
• De Garde Brewing Imperial Hop Bu ~ Berliner Weisse ~ 4.2 /5 Rating
• Cigar City Brewing Hopped on the High Seas (Citra) ~ American IPA ~ 4.2 /5 Rating
• Night Shift Brewing Funk’d Citra ~ American Wild Ale ~ 4.2 /5 Rating

 

The 5 Beer Reviews (okay, 7) that shows how everyone is trying to do a Berliner Weisse now (and poorly):

• Old First Ward Crikrat Kolsch ~ Kolsch ~ 3.1 /5 Rating
• Funk Brewing Crimson ~ Farmhouse / Saison Ale ~ 3.1 /5 Rating
• Local Option Bierwerker Blood ov the Kings ~ American Wheat Ale ~ 3.1 /5 Rating
• The Bruery Papier ~ Belgian Strong Ale ~  3.1 /5 Rating
• Strand Brewing Ito Weisse ~ Berliner Weisse  ~ 2.9 /5 Rating
• Ithaca Brewing Cruiser ~ Berliner Weisse ~ 2.8 /5 Rating
• And the beer that just proves not every beer is all that rare was Jester King Brewing Bonnie the Rare ~ Berliner Weisse ~ 2.7 /5 Rating

Feeling Boxed in with more #craftbeer

So this weekend was busier than hell because it was the first nice weekend that we have had since September…so on top of prepping the yard and deck for summer, I also had to contend with my daughter’s dance recital, entertaining my best friend in from Charlotte and prepping for my annual Memorial Day Weekend tasting.

As if I need more beer, boxes came flying in from all the place (making the wife not happy with me)…

The first box was a trade that I had set up with a guy that I had worked with before in one of my Sour BIFs.   The back story is not important and makes me look like a mild dick but basically, my friend Joe left a bottle of Jester King Bonnie the Rare berliner weisse at a friends house.  We happened to be there one night and I pulled it out of the fridge and he realized it was left there from a previous get together…well, he left a little early that night and we cracked the bottle open after he was gone.  Regardless of how bad it was (worst Jester King beer ever), Joe was pissed because we opened his bottle…so I felt compelled to make things right by acquiring another bottle…and this is what came in…

 

Next box was the conclusion of a trade set up in September…I had a guy who I traded with last summer that was looking for several bottles of Bruery Black Tuesday.  When my allotment came in from Reserve Society in October, I had a box packed up and out the door.  After the box arrived, the recipient lost his job

 

Finally was the start of what I hope will be a beautiful relationship with a guy up in the PNW.  In the past couple of years, there has been a bunch of small breweries that have popped up in the Portland Oregon area that have been making some great beers…and I want all of it.  He and I have traded before and he has participated in my Sours BIF previously.  Since my last Sours BIF, he felt that he has been in debt to me since I destroyed him with a huge box of Belgian Lambics.   Revenge is a dish served whale-ish….he destroyed my porch…

Yes…that is 7 bottles of De Garde 🙂 with several bottles of Adam and Cherry Adam 🙂 and several Upright sours 🙂

I had a bad experience lately trying to set up a trade with someone lived in an unrealistic world with their demands….it is stuff like this makes it better.  So much for ‘cutting down’ the cellar when weeks like this happen.

November 2013 ~ Monthly Beer Reviews

Where in the hell does the time go?   It seems like it was just yesterday that I was boarding a plane to Denver for the GABF and it turns about that it was a month and a half ago.  Another thing that I thought was ironic that was my tasting group had a Cantillon Heavy tasting and not a single bottle made it onto my Top 5 for this month, even though some of the bottles we had were new for me.  It just seems like time is flying over the past couple of months and before I know it, my job will soon change and Christmas will have come and gone too.

Anyways, here were the monthly reviews…

Top 5 Beer Reviews for November (yes, I realize that there are 7 again):

• The Ale Apothacary Sahati ~ Sahti ~ 4.5 /5 Rating
• Columbus Brewing Bodhi ~ American Double / Imperial IPA ~ 4.4 /5 Rating
• Green Flash Brewing Imperial IPA ~ American Double / Imperial IPA ~ 4.2/5 Rating
• Russian River Brewing Framboise for a Cure ~ American Wile Ale ~ 4.2/5 Rating
• De Garde Brewing Vin Rougie ~ American Wild Ale ~ 4.2/5 Rating
• Rodenbach Caractere Rouge ~ Flanders Red Ale ~ 4.2 /5 Rating
• Otter Creek/Lawsons Double Dose IPA ~ American Double / Imperial IPA ~ 4.2 /5 Rating
• Pizza Boy Brewing Hop Tart ~ American Wild Ale ~ 4.2 /5 Rating

 

The 5 Beer Reviews that made me question humanity:

• Brooklyn Brewing Brooklyner Weisse Beer ~ Hefeweizen ~ 3.1 /5 Rating
• Corsendonk Apple White ~ Belgian White ~ 3.1 /5 Rating
• Hamburg Brewing White Corner Wheat ~ American Wheat ~ 3.0 /5 Rating
• Great Divide Heydey ~ Belgian White ~ 3.0 /5 Rating
• And the beer that questions why I ever drank yellow fizzy water was Molson Canadian ~ Pale Lager ~ 2.2 /5 Rating

Some other changed that I have experienced, other than my job loss, was that I have removed all of my information from Beer Advocate over to Rate Beer.  It is just getting tiring of all the bullshit antics of the BA overlords and their douchebag minions that made the website boring.  Not to mention the personal attack on my own information by wiping out my entire profile, including my entire trade history as well.  I removed all of my beer and place reviews because they can boot you off of their website and still maintain all of your reviews because once you post it, they consider it “beeradvocate intellectual property”.   There is an oxymoron for you…

Since my job situation has changed too, I have also cut way back on my trading too.  I have several traders that wanted to set up a pipeline, which I am totally fine with.  I continue  sending my random boxes to my buddy Matt in California as always.  Matt and I have been sending blind boxes back and forth for the better part of two years now and has been a great beer friendship.  I have also established a couple of new ones with a guy down in Texas and another trading pipeline with a guy up in the Pacific Northwest too.   Oh, how I do love those sour beers and those two areas have some real up and comers in my favorite styles.