Bravo (Firestone Walker Brewing)

Well another year older and deeper in debt. Last Wednesday night, I celebrated my birthday (March 2nd) the way I wanted to, in my garage with a good cigar and a beer. It was a wild day, one that was forecast to have crazy wind and rain storms. I originally was going to Total Wine to audit the store and pick up these supplies. They had lost power due to high winds and were closed, so I went down to Corks and Kegs instead. I was so surprised to see all of the highly limited Capt. Lawrence beer still on the shelf as well as left over boxes of Firestone Walker Bravo and Perennial Sump bottles. These sure are odd times in beer indeed, but in this case it worked out in my favor.

http://www.firestonebeer.com/beers/products/bravo-2017

I am sure that Firestone Walker can weather the storm this year. They saw huge success with the Luponic Distortion series last year and will continue to roll those in 2017. The biggest change so far this year has been the down sizing of the reserve series package size from 22oz to 12oz bottles. You still get that swanky little box tho . . We also get a Va. brand rep fresh off Terrapin Brewing servitude as well as Leo Vs. Ursus, An unfiltered imperial IPA in 4pks 16oz cans. I see lots of Firestone IPA's in my future this year. Even Union Jack pricing has gone down to match Easy Jack.

Bravo is a brilliant way to ease the public into this new format. It is the first beer ever to wear the reserve series stamp, series 001. I know, barrel aged brown ale, who does that? Well Firestone does, and they do it really well. This beer is bright with the barrel character that you have come to love from all the other releases. This beer has the perfect amount of sweetness to pair with a large gage cigar. This is a beer that I sipped on for nearly 2 hours, from right out of the fridge to room temp (garage room) it was so smooth. I'm sure there are probably a few more of these around so pick it up if you see it, 

Reserve Series (Firestone Walker)

Well I sat down to type an entry about a limited beer of a different style I was fortunate to fall into and saw that I had this draft chilling in the Que. Firestone walker celebrated their 18th anniversary this year as well as fellow California breweries stone and Coronado. It must have been a booming era in California beer, and these folks have proven that they have the staying power to get it done.

I got trapped into collecting these beers for a special occasion and settled on breaking them out for my 1000 check in on untapped. Two dear beer friends of mine treat me to the spoils of their aggressive trading hobby, so south I went to share these. 

We had six participants at this particular bottle share and started with velvet merkin, a barrel aged oatmeal stout. This beer has a light flavor profile and is only 8%, most of the others we drank this night are well over 10%. I had to trade to get this beer, a 2013, and had been kind of let down when I got to try the 2014 on draft months ago. It was better out of the bottle.

We had sets of 2013 and 2014, sucaba, parabola, and double DBA. I wanted to end with Parabola, my favorite. I believe the order was Merkin, Double DBA, 17th Anniversary, Sucaba, Stickee Monkey, and last the huge BA stout. Luckily these were pretty cold so we tried to take our time and sip through all the beers to experience each as they warmed up. Anniversary and Sucaba really benefited from this tactic. The sticky monkey was a huge let down for me. It was too cloyingly sweet, and was damn near honey like. 

We blind taste tested all of the verticals, and Parabola was the only one that actually aged the way we expected. Most beers just lost the sharpness in flavor with age, parabola mellowed and gained a deeper complexity with only one year of cellar aging. I hate to do it but this year I have to thin out my hardywood collection. I am afraid that some of their early barrel series beers may have gone to far. I think my attitude about cellaring beers has changed in 2014. I will no longer age any coffee or flavored beers. Most signs say that aging coffee stouts deadens the coffee flavor. I love the coffee flavor!

Batchelors Delight (Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery)

Normally in this crowd, you saw pirate party and we say fuck yes! Well it didn't work out for us to go in a huge group, dressed up as planned. I am still trying to figure out how the schedule to get the baby and life squared away so we can still do things. You know coordinate with other adults and enjoy each others company. Well between feedings, the wife and I ran out to Goochland for the festivities. We each had a beer, and I bought two bottles. If you want to get your hands on one I'm sure we can work out a trade. If you are going to the cabin weekend in October, this will be a part of the barrel aged extravaganza that weekend. 

I have taken the picture below or a very similar picture every time I have a beer at this place that I really enjoy. The third barrel release from Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery, Batchelors Delight, was a delicious rum barrel aged quad. It was another home run, on the heels of despot and the barrel aged tripel. I am so happy for Lickinghole to be getting some beers bottled that people swarm to try and buy. The trading value of these bottles has quickly gone through the roof, good job boys and Lisa. If you have come to town and gone to all of the breweries right around the city limits, please take the time to get out to this beautiful property. I am a little tired of the drive at the moment, but I was prepared to head out there tomorrow to assist in the disc golf course construction. The plans for that have been temporarily put on hold. The county of Goochland or more likely some of the miserable citizens have shut it down.  

I guess a few tasting notes or opinions would be appropriate. It had a suede like mouth feel, that expressed slight heat, or alcohol burn. It was few easy to drink, and the flavor was balanced between the dark fruit of a Belgian quad and the spiced rum. Who ever taste tested this beer while aging nailed it. It was too hot in the field to really drink this all in, but by fall this beer is going to be perfect. Please do this beer and event again.

Barrel Aging (3 Brothers Brewing)

It is with much embarrassment that I have to say that when I often think of the greatest Virginia breweries I forget about these guys. When we launched this brand in Richmond, there was a pin crawl at four bars in the fan area, of which I attended. I met the owners but I have not yet been to the brewery. I sent some Hoptimization to California in a trade a while back, as an example of a powerful east coast IPA. Three brother has also received much acclaim for their barrel aged stout, resolute, which I was late to the party for.

I was excited to see this other barrel aged selection from three brothers available about a month after I got my hands on my first resolute. I picked this beer up in Northern Virginia. It is just easier for me to get these things while at work. This beer was a medal winner at GABF, and although I do not typically have much patience for the Belgian esters, I was sure the rum barrels would dead'n that flavor. The sweetness in the rum paired well with the spice of the dubbel. I would even go as far as to say it highlighted the fruit undertones, and rounded out the flavor. There was very little alcohol heat in my opinion. I would not age this one. I don't think it would add anything. 

Now for this big bastard. I was very excited to finally experience this beer and it didn't disappoint. This has become a style of beer that I have a hard time passing up. Three brothers was not afraid to build this up as a huge offering. After the initial release and chatter about this beer, people gobbled them up quickly. These beers are squirreled away into cellars far and near. It was brought to three brothers attention and they market their barrel aged beers to the fans of collecting and cellaring. So get on over to the website, http://threebrosbrew.com/ or better yet, lets make plans to get out to the brewery. 

I had recently listened to a podcast called the beerist. I rather enjoy the humor and production value of this show, but when the sampled 6 free three brothers beers. I got a little defensive especially when two of the beers were said to be infected. One of the little turds even scored resolute as his least favorite beer, due to the lack of body? You really should do a little research into the brewers intent before you bash a man on his rendition of a style. I have a hard time believing that all of those in the havoc of resolute are wrong in their opinion of this great beer. Due to the 9 months of heat it Texas, pilsner is one of the most popularized styles. Maybe that lack of body leaves a narrow opinion of these darker ales. 

Black Note (Bells Brewing Company)

 Picture me sharing my 2 bottle score then giving
 you one.

Once upon a time in a far away place a small collection of drunks attempted to drink themselves into legendary stout status. Yeah, well I fell apart and did not survive when this beer was drank. Last year when this was released I had spent too much money on other already so I passed. I was getting stout burnt, what an amateur I was. The insanity was calm compared to the shit we went through for founders KBS. What if black note had come out first? I believe the same reaction. This stout is whiskey hot, thin sipper with a dense finish. Love it. 

#caferacer

I had a bunch of stuff to do Friday and would not be home in time to enjoy this per usual. So little Friday it was, with a fresh motorcycle mag I checked in with this heat. It taste like a stout with a whiskey float on top, which I enjoy. The float is so hot, boozy that is takes all the attention away from the thickness of the roasted malt finish. I hate your hopslam bells, but two hearted is a great utility IPA. This brewery from michigan has a very palatable image and only makes a few extreme beers. My mind is divided as to how I feel about these guys. I love me some Michigan breweries, Dark Horse brewing company. OK, Bells does make Kalamazoo stout, Expedition stout, and Espresso stout. I'm not a fan of Oberon, or the best brown (legend has that). Feel free to go check them out at www.bellsbeer.com.