The beer geek in me will try any beer, at least once. As was the case with a bottle of Cave Creek Chili Beer, which is now brewed at Cervecería Mexicana. Unfortunately for this beer, it has a stigma of being one of the worst beers ever made coming in at #14 on Beer Advocate’s “Bottom of the List.” Well, my curiosity got the best of me, let’s see how bad this really is.
Bell’s Hopslam Ale is one of those beers I look forward to its release each year. After getting word a semi-local distributor received cases, I promptly drove 50 minutes one way to acquire one. Bottled on 1/9/2012, these are extremely fresh and hopefully tasting just like I remember last year: hoppy, bitter, citrusy and sweet.
For me, 2011 was a fantastic year in beer. From homebrewing to festivals, bottle shares, brewery release events, pub crawls and just sharing a beer with friends and family, it’s certainly one to remember. After an in-depth look back, I’ve narrowed down from over the 500+ unique beers I’ve recorded tasting to my Top 10 of the year.
Three Floyds, the brewers of the famous Dark Lord Imperial Stout, have another yearly release that gets high marks – their Behemoth “Blonde” Barleywine. Shane and Nick take a look at the white-waxed 2011 vintage. Our curiosity got the best of us, as we venture into the “Blonde” Barleywine – a style neither of us recall having before.
We’ve reviewed a few Evolution beers in the past, all of which are part of their “mainline” offerings. Their Barrel Aged beers, which I’ve had two of so far, are in my opinion in a class above the rest. Courtesy of my friend Matt in Delaware, I have their Fall Migration 2011 which is a Belgian-style Ale aged in Chardonnay barrels with brettanomyces.
