Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Friday night's malty delights!

The Lovely wife and I co-hosted a Beer tasting party with friends in Columbia Heights this past Friday, and I'm thrilled with how well it went. Even if I was a bit overzealous in the breadth of my selections for the evening. The turnout was great, everyone was inquisitive and adventurous, hey free beer and great pizza from Pete's Apizza who's gonna complain right? If I could make corrections for the next time, more of less beer is definitely on the list, though the 26 folks that did show up were well beyond my expectation, 6-8 selections is probably more ideal than thirteen.

The beer mostly came from my closet/cellar of slumbering goodies, all East-coast craft beer from Maryland to Quebec. Several one-off beers, anniversary brews that seemed to come around for a number of brewers over the last couple of years. The lineup featured a dozen some odd beers(some very odd) including Allagash Interlude, Four and Odyssey. Dogfish Head Red & White and Theobroma. Brewer's Art Green Peppercorn Triple, Unibroue Edition 2005, Middle Ages 10th Anniversary IIPA, Weyerbacher Decadence 10th Ann., Southern Tier Unearthly, Southampton Publick Houses' 10th Anniversary Old Ale, and Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence Stout. The defunct Heavyweight brewings' Biere d'art was just that, a touch over the hill, showing a little more oxidation than I would have liked.

Had I remembered to grab my camera, I surely would have posted pictures of all the imbibing, merriment, and jollity, but since I was camera free, you get none of that. All of that was going on though, trust me. What I was pleasantly surprised by was that no clear favorite emerged, some really liked the Uber-hoppy beers like the Southern Tier or Middle Ages. Some the Malt bombs such as the Southampton, and some loved the more complex beers like the Theobroma, or the Interlude. All in all a good beer night.

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