Friday, December 30, 2011

Day 362, Dec 28 / Aecht Schenkerla Marzen Rauchbier

Day 362 / December 28, 2011

Brauerei Heller-Trum / Schlenkerla / Bamberg, Germany

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The Smoking Squirrel

A couple friends were kind enough to take me out Wednesday night to celebrate my almost completed accomplishment of having a different beer every day in 2011. As one of them said,  “Hell, doing anything every day of a year is an accomplishment!”  I guess that’s true, except for the basic life functions – eating, sleeping, breathing, bathroom breaks…

At the beginning of last night, I had just four beers to go!  Actually, if I allowed myself to “drink ahead”, I would have been done last night, because I had 5 different beers last night.  For that matter, I probably would have been done some time in October, because I’m sure there’s at least 50 other unique beers I’ve had this year that I didn’t count as the beer o’ the day.

We met up at Smoke & Barrel, in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington DC. S&B is located on the second floor of a retail rowhouse, long and narrow with tables in the front and the bar in the back.  They specialize in unique beers, barbecue and small batch bourbons, and we had some of each, thank you.

My first beer of the night (which only a four ounce sample size) was Verhaeghe Duchesse de Bourgogne (easy for you to say), a Flanders Red Ale from Belgium.  The bartender told (warned) me that it was a bit sour, and he was right!  There’s a whole bunch of sour beers (on purpose) out there that I now really have no inclination to try.

The official beer of the day was Aecht Schenkerla Marzen, a rauchbier (smoked beer)  from Bamberg, Germany.  And it was smokey!  It did complement the barbecue pretty well, but it was definitely a one and done beer for me.

Other beers for the evening, between Smoke & Barrel and the nearby Black Squirrel Tavern,  included an Oskar Blues Little Yella Pils, Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale and Short’s Brewery Bellaire Brown (first time I’ve seen that around here).

So thanks to my friends for a fun night out, and thanks to all of you have supported my quest this year, either though comments on the site or to me in person, donations of beer, or ribbing me about the 50 pounds!

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