Day 364, Dec 30 / Redbridge

Day 364 / December 30, 2011

Redbridge

Anheuser-Busch / St. Louis, MO

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Give me my gluten!

Well, I wish my penultimate beer on this quest was something better, but I’m afraid it’s not!

We took my in-laws to the Air & Space Museum out by Dulles airport this afternoon, and then we poked around Reston Town Center for a little while.  We popped into Clyde’s for dinner, and surprisingly we got a table for five right away.

The only beer on the menu that I hadn’t yet had this year was A-B’s Redbridge, a gluten-free amber beer made with sorghum instead of barley or wheat.  While I’m glad that those with Celiac Disease have a beer they can drink, I’m sorry that it’s a pretty crappy beer.  To me, the taste was a bit sour and foul.

See you tomorrow (or probably New Year’s Day) for the final beer of the year!

Day 363, Dec 29 / Never Summer Ale

Day 363 / December 29, 2011

Never Summer Ale

Boulder Beer Co. / Boulder, CO

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Happiness is a full cooler. 

I filled a cooler on the patio with beers and ice last Friday, and the ice is still frozen and beers are still cold (but not frozen)

One of the beers that was placed there last Friday by HHH was Boulder’s Never Summer winter seasonal.  This is a good, solid winter seasonal, hearty, dark and moderately hoppy

So, what is the future of 365 Beers and 50 Pounds?  Well, the website is free, so I’ve got no reason to take it down.  I will leave it available for other Googlers of beer.  (There’s a joke in there somewhere… Beer goggles / beer googles…)

If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to fill in your email address in the “Follow by Email” box at the top right of the page. 

My plan is to post here occasionally over the next year – not every day and not every beer.  (That reminds me of lyrics from an old Stray Cats song…”And the girl on my left … (bum bum bum)  is looking better every beer.”)

I may occasionally post on an exceptionally good (or bad) beer.  And you can expect to see a couple Beer Runs in 2012 – ones that I wanted to get to this year, but didn’t have time to this year.

And which page / beer do you think got the most hits this year?  You’d probably expect it to one that I posted near the beginning of the year.  But it was actually a beer that I posted at the beginning of this month.  The Samichlaus Classic Lager on December 6 got 240 page views – I guess a lot of other people got it this Christmas season and wanted to see if others thought it was a bad as they did!

Day 362, Dec 28 / Aecht Schenkerla Marzen Rauchbier

Day 362 / December 28, 2011

Aecht Schenkerla Marzen Rauchbier

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!

Day 361, Dec 27 / Bourbon Barrell Porter

Day 361 / December 27, 2011

Bourbon Barrell Porter

Williamsburg AleWerks / Williamsburg, VA

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Limited Edition, Signed by the Author (or Brewmaster)

Good news, bad news day.

Good news:  I’m sipping on a limited edition Brewmaster’s Reserve Bourbon Barrell Porter from Williamsburg Alewerks.  My friends Kevin and Amy picked this bottle up on a recent visit to the land of Busch Gardens, Thomas Jefferson look-alikes and Pierce’s Pit BBQ.  Plus, the bottle signed by brewmaster Geoff Logan will look awesome in my recycle bin!

As if the beer isn’t strong and rich enough on its own, it is aged for two months in Virginia Gentlemen bourbon barrels.  This is definitely a sipping beer, and is better when allowed to warm up a little bit.

Now the bad news:  The HP laptop that I’ve written 95% of the blog posts on has decided to hibernate on me.  Hopefully, it’s only a temporary condition, but I have tried several resuscitation techniques already. I may have to call in the Geek Squad!

Day 360, Dec 26 / Boatswain H.L.V. Ale

Day 360 / December 26, 2011

Boatswain H.L.V. Ale

Rhinelander Brewing Co. / Monroe, WI

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We’re in the home stretch!

Holy crap, I’m almost done!  Counting today, just six more days to go.  Thank God (and Tim Tebow) that I didn’t get sick or otherwise indisposed this year, and had to miss a day of beer.  I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t live up to the second half of this blog… but in case you hadn’t noticed, check the title of the blog.  I changed it about 40 days ago and nobody noticed!

I want to thank my friends and readers that have supported this indulgence and occasionally donated beers to the cause.  Most of them were good to great.  Cass Beer from Korea… not so much.

For the final days, I will sample a few beers that I received as Christmas gifts, and then there’s a couple surprises and/or special beers to wrap it up.

My friends Jim and Chris brought me a beer on Christmas Eve Eve that I’d never seen before.  The Boatswain H.L.V. (Heavy Lift Vesel) Ale is made by the Rhinelander Brewing Company of Monroe, Wisconsin and appears to be only sold at Trader Joe’s stores.  Rhinelander is a recently resurrected brand, currently contract brewed by Minhas Craft Brewery (the former Joseph Huber Brewery) in Monroe, WI.

The Boatswain series (I'll give a free beer to the first person with the proper phonetic pronunciation of Boatswain) are specialty beers made in small batches.  The H.L.V. Ale is a dark brown ale, brewed with sweet, roasted malts.  It definitely benefits from a warm-up outside the fridge for 15-20 minutes – the flavors come through and the alcohol bite dies down.  Certainly a good sipping beer!

Day 359, Dec 25 / Jenlain Bière De Noël

Day 359 / December 25, 2011

Jenlain Bière De Noël

Brasserie Duyck, Jenlain, France

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Christmas Duyck.

I saved the most festive looking of the 12 Beers of Christmas for last, on Christmas Day.

Brasserie Duyck is a fourth generation family brewery, started by Felix Duyck in 1922 in Jenlain, France.  Most of their beers are distributed primarily in champagne bottles, which of course are readily available in France.  These bottles are the ideal size for sharing – a glass for you, a glass for me, and whoever finishes their glass first (usually me) gets the rest.

The Bière De Noël is actually a slightly heavier version of their Bier de Garde.  It is made with more malt and has a higher alcohol content (6.8%) than their Bier de Garde.  It was quote enjoyable, and a great finish to the 12 Beers of Christmas.

Meet the Duycks.

Day 358, Dec 24 / Old Man Winter Ale

The unfortunate Santa on the left started out as
 a candle, but lost his head as the night
burned on.

Day 358 / December 24, 2011

Old Man Winter Ale

Southern Tier Brewing Company / Lakewood, NY

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Here’s to the Old Man.

On Christmas Eve, I cracked open a Southern Tier Old Man, brought over the previous night by HHH.

The taste opens with huge tangerine citrus hops. Orange & grapefruit are there as well, but stronger than in the nose – as is the rind. Firm bitterness. The great citrus / tangerine hop character is joined by a bit of resin and a touch of pine that really sticks around in the finish with some spicy & earthy notes and some rind. Toasty grain & biscuity pale malt provide a nice base along with a touch of caramel sweetness, hints of bread crust, and dark sugars.

OK, I didn’t write that.  I didn’t even taste that.  I just copied some dude’s review from Beer Advocate.  But I definitely did enjoy it, as a strong, rich winter ale.

Chime in readers (both of you) – do you distinguish this level of tastes in your beers?  Because I don’t, and I don’t think I’d want to.  You’d spend too much time analyzing your beverages and less time enjoying them and the company of your friends.  Not every beer’s gonna be great, hopefully most will be good, and some are just cold, wet and have alcohol.  And yeah, some suck, but I’m sure you know better than to avoid them.  Unless you’re some crazy blogger, out to drink 365 different beers in a year.

And here’s to my old man, who passed away back in 2004.  Merry Christmas Dad, I miss you.