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Post by ID on Mar 9, 2005 21:45:11 GMT -5
Anyway, here are a few new brews in my fridge, that I am waiting to try:
Ommegang's Three Philosophers {yes! I've got it. God bless New York!}
Magic Hat's Number 9 {I'm not too crazy about Magic Hat brews. But this one is supposed to be a good pale ale}
Samuel Adams {Boston Beer Company}'s Triple Bock {I'm going to bring it up to room temperature of course}
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Post by ID on Mar 9, 2005 21:49:40 GMT -5
Actually, i'm just a wee bit worried about the Triple Bock. It's from 1997 {the last time that Jim Koch had it brewed} However, it is supposed to, like scotch, age well. {odd for a brew} It is said to get more complex, and a bit dryer.
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Post by Maalii on Mar 9, 2005 23:04:12 GMT -5
Actually, i'm just a wee bit worried about the Triple Bock. It's from 1997 {the last time that Jim Koch had it brewed} However, it is supposed to, like scotch, age well. {odd for a brew} It is said to get more complex, and a bit dryer. I'm not a big fan of the triple bock especially when young--it tends to be just too syrupy, prune-juicy for my tastes. If yours is from 1997 I'd say it's just beginning to get acceptable (by my tastes). It should be pretty good 7 years old. If you were to wait a few more years you might be even better off. Such beers do tend to dry out some (a good thing) and get winier with time (also a good thing with this type of beer). I had a sip of a TB vintage of similar age at the DIPA fest and it was decent, but I'd take any of those DIPA's over it in a heartbeat.
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Post by ID on Mar 10, 2005 13:15:29 GMT -5
I have just tried Number 9, and it is way too fruity for my tatses. The malt body is actually quite good, but still, it makes itself too sweet. I have grown akin to IPAs, and now I no longer want anything sweet. I haven't popped open the TB yet. Maybe it's because that bottle is so damn pretty. I might wait longer, actually. I am in the process of finishing up the Ommegang. It is quite good.
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Post by MasterCrabby on Mar 11, 2005 21:42:36 GMT -5
ID, I would like your opinion on the Three Philosophers. It is a favorite of mine. Definitely good for sorting out thoughts, in my experience. Some guy bought the whole supply in Chester as I was in line. I am enjoying plain Ommegang tonight. It's a good batch, lately. Perhaps I'll make the trip to Cooperstown this year.
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Post by ID on Mar 12, 2005 21:02:17 GMT -5
ID, I would like your opinion on the Three Philosophers. It is a favorite of mine. Definitely good for sorting out thoughts, in my experience. Some guy bought the whole supply in Chester as I was in line. I am enjoying plain Ommegang tonight. It's a good batch, lately. Perhaps I'll make the trip to Cooperstown this year. The whole supply in Chester, huh? Well, there is nothing wrong with that. People wonder why the Miller, and the Coors, and the Anheuser- Busch shelves are always full. Well, it's because beer drinkers don't drink Miller, or Coors, or any swill put out by A-B. People only pruchase their generic "products" {they don't deserve to be called brews} to give out at parties or meetings. {Believe me. I used to supply keg parties back at my senior year of college. We bought "Milwaukee's Best", because 1} it was cheaper than tap water, and 2} we didn't need ot drink it!}. Ommegang's Three Philosophers, is very complex. It had SO many damn flavors. I detected a bit of a roasted, malty flavor, with some chocolate in the backround. The problem was th elack of a hoppy flavor. I NEED my hops. But I barely tasted it here. I bought it in a wine-like bottle, so I was content. My favorite beer, is definatly Impaled Ale, from Middle Ages brewery in Syracuse. {I took a tour of the brewery, BTW} It's hard to explain, but I consider it the PERFECT IPA. It's so hoppy, yeasty, and toasty. It's brewed with Ringwood yeast, so you know it's perfect.
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Post by ID on Mar 31, 2005 10:46:54 GMT -5
The only true mass-produced brew that I enjoy {besides Guiness} is Killian's Irish Red, which is marketed by Coors. But unlike other Coors products, ti doesn't suck.
A few more good brews:
Victory Hop Devil IPA {not as hoppy as Stone, but it is still great. It's from somewhere in Pennslyvania. I don't feel like researching it. I am a New Yorker. So I have no reason to be familiar with the Pennslyvania country side.}
Victory Golden Monkey { A bit too sweet, but it is still fine overall. Nicely spiced, with a ton of yeast. Has an 11% ABV, which is pretty strong. Tastes somewhat sweet, and lighty spicy. ALso from Victory Brewing}
Samuel Adams Cream Stout {What can I say? Very special dessert}
Samuel Adams Scotch Ale {Truth: I haven't tried it. But I swear that I will find a vintage bottle. I have several bottles of true vintage Scotch, that have been around since my great grand father's time. Never had a Scotch Ale though.
Brooklyn English IPA {excellent flavor. A great gem of New York City. Impossible to find outside of the city, though. Famous for it's perfect foam level, something that is sought after by many brewers}
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Post by MasterCrabby on Mar 31, 2005 21:01:50 GMT -5
Thanks for the insight ID. Wait a minute. Scotch from your Great Grandfather's time? You sure have patience. So did your Great grandpa's other descendents. If I were your Grandpa, You'd have a great collection of vintage empties now!
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Post by ID on Mar 31, 2005 21:33:20 GMT -5
Thanks for the insight ID. Wait a minute. Scotch from your Great Grandfather's time? You sure have patience. So did your Great grandpa's other descendents. If I were your Grandpa, You'd have a great collection of vintage empties now! I understand that it's from around 1910 or so. Who knows? Maybe they just bought it from Wal-Mart, and put a fake date on it?
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Post by Maalii on Apr 1, 2005 1:19:20 GMT -5
The problem was th elack of a hoppy flavor. I NEED my hops. But I barely tasted it here. I bought it in a wine-like bottle Most Belgian ales actually aren't hoppy, the magic of them comes from all that complexity, most of which comes from the rather exotic flavor profiles created by their distinctive yeast strains. That having been said, anyone who says "I NEED my hops" owes themself a trip to the West Coast sometime. We just had a cask ale fest in Berkeley. Now cask conditioned ales are actually more common on the E. Coast than here, but they're beginning to catch on here. The big difference between the cask ales on the West Coast and those in the UK (of which my wife and I have sampled something like 70 different ones in 3 trips) is the absurdly high alcohol content of the offerings at the festival--I consider this a negative, given that I prefer to drink more and enjoy it rather than get rapidly hammered, but there were some very fine brews there. There was a special extra dry hopped SN Pale that was very good, but, for most people (not really me) the show stoppers were the really huge ones such as Russian River's Pliny the Younger (a straw gold 11% double IPA that was screaming hops and a lot more). Of the medium high stuff (yes 7.5% qualified as medium there) my favorite was a cask conditioned and oak aged version of the Arrogant B_stard, which they named the "Oak B_stard". Wow that was some fine complex stuff. Cheers, MM
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Post by Maalii on Apr 1, 2005 21:39:13 GMT -5
ID, Master Crabby,
I just got back from my local specialty liquor store. This was a "consolation" run because I've been having just amazingly horrid problems with my computer system here at home. In any case, to console myself after spending the entire day either talking on the phone to tech support or doing a wild goose chase and taking my machine to the shop (this follows nearly a month and a half of sporadic computer wipe outs), I bought some fine fermented beverages at this store across the Bay from me. I saw the Three Philosophers for the first time at this store and I bought a 750 ml corked bottle which I intend to age and a 12 oz bottle which I consumed soon after I got home. As a veteran drinker and brewer of Belgian style ales (accomplished enough so that one veteran drinker (O.K. he was German, not Belgian, but he was a Belgian beer fanatic who had visited Belgian many times) claimed that one of my Belgian style brews was "the best Belgian ale" he'd ever had) I must say that the Three Philosophers is the finest Belgian brew from a US brewery I've ever tasted. It was very fine indeed. What's more, in reading from what they have on the label, I would expect that it will get even more interesting with time. I would think that it should age well for at least 5 if not 10 years, but I will probably hit my aged bottle about a year from now if I can wait that long. I've tasted Ommegang's previous efforts and was reasonably impressed but not blown away. The Three Philosophers, on the other hand, is top level. I think it is just a tad short of the brew my wife and I considered the best "Belgian holiday brew"--the 2004 Delirium Noel--certainly a very similar concept (what with the cherry lambic blended in). After finishing the 12oz bottle of the Three Philosophers I then wanted my West Coast mega hop fix, so I consumed a 22 oz bottle of the stellar Bear Republic Hop Rod, which just screams West Coast hops all the way down(aroma, flavor and aftertaste, and is 8.3% as well). Yes, as much as mega brewers in the US have besmirched the reputation of our brewing industry abroad, the microbrews (and homebrewers) have made me proud to say I'm part of the US brewing fraternity!
By the way, since this IS a AOW board, I feel the need (when buzzed?) to say something AOW relevant. I'm now up to whatever the episode of YSS that follows the defeat of the Jurchen (with the capture and execution of the Jurchen chief) and I have to say that the action of YSS is compelling, but the overall writing and character development of YSS is not in the same league as AOW in my humble and inebriated opinion. The action sequences and some of the characters I find interesting, but I don't see the depth and complexity I saw on AOW. And whatever Japan's disgraceful history has been with respect to its abuse of its neighbors in Asia (and I read plenty of history, plus I have some oral history in my family, so I KNOW that Japan has been a horrid world citizen), the one dimensional portrayal of Japanese characters is far below AOW standards. I have said on many posts that I consider AOW far beyond Hollywood in terms of its artistry, but even Hollywood has moved past characterization of ALL Germans in WWII as bloodthirsty genocidal maniacs 20 years after WWII ended (ie not every German of that time was a goose stepping Nazi clone). In YSS the portrayal of the Japanese is Hollywood's portrayal of Germans circa 1948. AOW has made me expect far greater things from Korean cinema/television and YSS has delivered on a Lord of the Rings level, but not an AOW level (which I consider well beyond the LOTR level). The LOTR level is certainly enough to make me eagerly await each YSS episode, but I am not wowed to the extent I was with the artistry of AOW. Anyway, that's just my editorial after having consumed some fine brew.
Cheers,
MM/HT
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Post by MasterCrabby on Jun 18, 2005 7:38:50 GMT -5
Howdy. Sorry I take so long to get to these things, but I've been kind of busy, Maali. I agree about the Three Philosophers. It is less swampy than the regular Ommegang, which I have often. The Three Philosophers is my favorite, but I never tried the 12-oz. bottles. I always get the corked bottles. Oddly, I only buy the 12-oz. sixpacks of Affligem, and haven't tried the Corked versions. Hmmm... Lately, I have also been enjoying some Wurzburgers. I can't find their dark, though. The guy said his distributor only carries the regular. Odd. I agree about the YSS vs. AOW. No comparison, really. After the Jurchens, you may want to strum a guitar or something while you watch. Much of the drama is personality conflict stuff, and political jousting. I still watch every week, pretty much.
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Post by Maalii on Jun 20, 2005 14:10:24 GMT -5
Howdy. Sorry I take so long to get to these things, but I've been kind of busy, Maali. I agree about the Three Philosophers. It is less swampy than the regular Ommegang, which I have often. The Three Philosophers is my favorite, but I never tried the 12-oz. bottles. I always get the corked bottles. Oddly, I only buy the 12-oz. sixpacks of Affligem, and haven't tried the Corked versions. Hmmm... Lately, I have also been enjoying some Wurzburgers. I can't find their dark, though. The guy said his distributor only carries the regular. Odd. I agree about the YSS vs. AOW. No comparison, really. After the Jurchens, you may want to strum a guitar or something while you watch. Much of the drama is personality conflict stuff, and political jousting. I still watch every week, pretty much. I was just talking to this local brewer whose knowledge of Belgian beers far surpasses mine. In any case, he mentioned that the first couple of years of Three Philosophers were the best of all and that there has been some change in the brewing procedure since then. Having tried one of the more recent ones and being mighty impressed, I wish I could have a shot at one of those vintage Three Philosphers bottles. Having just moved to Fresno, I noticed that the selection at BevMo is about 70% of what it was in SF Bay area Bev Mos and the Whole Foods selection (in the Bay Area, their Belgian selection was usually better than Bev Mo) is about 10% of the Bay Area equivalent. Oh well, Belgian ales are not for every day slamming, so perhaps I can simply do a supply run every now and then to some of my favorite Bay Area stores (2.5 to 3 hours one way distance). Speaking of the Yay Area, this coming weekend I'll be leading a geologic field trip that combines brewpub visits and rock stops--and features a bus (so nobody has to drive) and a campout. The four breweries featured are Marin, Moylans, Bear Republic and Russian River, all distinguished breweries in the West Coast hyper hoppy style. Regarding YSS, AOW, Yosh_tsune, etc., all of that is now in the past because of my move. No cable, satellite, or any other kind of TV hook up can deliver those shows there. I guess, just as the local brew situation demands that I step up the hombrew production, so too the lack of access to shows like AOW means I just have to turn more efforts to writing my own epics. Cheers, MM
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