The Beer Thread

[James Ford]

Double Bastard, Lucky Bastard, and Backwoods Bastard all due out Thurs!

[sweetcell]

did any of those bastards kill kenny?!?

[i am gay and i like cats]

stupid, f-ing pictures

[sweetcell]

walkies - your image didn't post, b/c funnyjunk doesn't allow you to direct link pix.  post a link to the page with the image instead (or download, re-upload to an image hosting site, and use that new link.  no, i don't make the rules)

[i am gay and i like cats]

anybody ever had this . . . good lord that it some $$ beer.

[James Ford]

I asked for and received a sip of it and then passed. Way too sweet for my taste.

anybody ever had this . . . good lord that it some $$ beer.

[Yada]

From an amazing co-worker...

[James Ford]

I'm planning on being at the Three Floyds brewpub on 12/23 in what will cap off an amazing beer year for me. Hoping to score some Zombie Dust myself.

[K8teebug]

Has anyone had the flying dog made with old bay?  Holy salt.

[Yada]

Has anyone had the flying dog made with old bay?  Holy salt.

No... but that sounds awful.

[sweetcell]

trader joe's vintage ale is out.  still by Unibroue, the 2012 looks to be identical to the 2011 - same description, all text is virtually the same, ABV hasn't changed, etc.  they changed the color of the main logo (from gold to silver) and changed a few words in the small print on the back.  maybe they didn't sell all of last year's so they simply re-bottled the leftovers.  last year's edition wasn't particularly impressive, despite this i bought 2 bottles of this year's to do side-by-sides.  "hum, this vertical tells me that the 2012 is equally unremarkable as the 2011..."

one difference: the 2011 has a best-before date of 2016, while the 2012 has a best-before of 2015. 

[James Ford]

Thanks for point out the best-before dates. I have 2009, 2010, and 2011 sitting in the cellar. Not that my wife and I can drink enough to do a vertical of three or four of those, and not that they'ye special enough to invite friends over for a tasting.

Checked the best-before dates, and the date for the 2009 is 9/10/2012. Guess we better drink it.

Sitting next to that was the Stoic, an 11.5% Quad from Deschutes. Deschutes normally puts "drink after" dates on their big beers, encouraging you to cellar them. The put "best-before" dates on their smaller beers. When I bought that beer last August, I assumed that the August 2012 date was a "drink after" date given the high ABV of the beer. But I checked yesterday, and it's a "drink before" date for some odd reason (mistake?). Guess we have another one to drink.

trader joe's vintage ale is out.  still by Unibroue, the 2012 looks to be identical to the 2011 - same description, all text is virtually the same, ABV hasn't changed, etc.  they changed the color of the main logo (from gold to silver) and changed a few words in the small print on the back.  maybe they didn't sell all of last year's so they simply re-bottled the leftovers.  last year's edition wasn't particularly impressive, despite this i bought 2 bottles of this year's to do side-by-sides.  "hum, this vertical tells me that the 2012 is equally unremarkable as the 2011..."

one difference: the 2011 has a best-before date of 2016, while the 2012 has a best-before of 2015. 

[Darth Ed]

I'd bought a bottle of Ommegang's Art of Darkness Limited Edition beer a month or so ago and saved it for a Halloween party I attended this weekend. Good stuff! 98 on ratebeer.com is way too high, but 88 on beeradvocate.com is too low. The truth is somewhere in between, but I definitely recommend checking it out. I think it's one of the best Ommegang varieties I've tasted.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/ommegang-art-of-darkness/168440/
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/42/78394

[sweetcell]

on saturday night the missus and i did a side-by-side of the 2011 & 2012.  nothing too ground-breaking: 2011 had more caramel, smoother, and fruitier yet weaker aroma.  2012 had a root beer-like taste, slight hot alcohol burn, and a nuttier aroma.  interestingly, the taste of the 2012 lingered longer on the tongue.  it's clearly the exact same beer.

Thanks for point out the best-before dates. I have 2009, 2010, and 2011 sitting in the cellar. Not that my wife and I can drink enough to do a vertical of three or four of those, and not that they'ye special enough to invite friends over for a tasting.

having it as part of a vertical made the beer much more interesting, so i wouldn't discount breaking it out if you have friends over (i wouldn't make it the center-piece of the evening, either).  alternately you could look into trading some of your bottles, especially the older ones, for something you are interested in.

2011 & 2012 are the same beer, but weren't 2010 & prior years brewed by someone other than Unibroue?  wasn't the recipe/style different?  if so, a vertical wouldn't really be possible.

in other news: sharing two bombers of 9% beer after having pre-gamed with a few homebrews will get you weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[sweetcell]

Don't Vote: Free Beer on Election Day Now Canceled in D.C.

As we feared yesterday, it turns out there will be no free beer at either of Capitol City Brewing Company's locations on Election Day. Citing "strict alcohol laws in the D.C. metro area," the brewpub chain announced that it's D.C. location won't be offering complimentary pints to customers who walk in sporting "I Voted" stickers on November 6.

The restaurant previously cut back the promotion for its Arlington location citing Virginia's severe alcohol regulations that prohibit free-drink specials and online promotion of the term "happy hour," but what most likely did in the stunt was federal law. Both bars will still be running happy-hour specials all day, but you'll have to pay up front.

The Federal Election Commission bars rewarding voting with material goods. The Arlington Young Democrats had this problem in 2010 when the organization offered free brews to voters, and in 2008, Ben & Jerry's attempted to give anyone sporting evidence of their civic participation a free scoop. But after a legal blogger took note of that promotion, the ice-cream chain wound up expanding the promotion to all visitors, turning Election Day into a Free Cone Day.

Still, no free beer is no free beer, and that's a bummer. But it turns out you can't give out free stuff on Election Day to voters, even if your promotion is wholeheartedly non-partisan.

So, because we at DCist assume that every reader is also an active voter, don't expect any free news come November 6. That day?and that day only?we will be erecting a paywall. Election Day coverage shall cost $500. Because democracy, that's why. Please send your cash to Martin and Ben.

But there might be a catch! If Capitol City Brewing Company were to drop the voting requirement, it could give away all the free beer it pleases. Though the restaurant called the D.C. region's alcohol laws strict, we are dealing with multiple jurisdictions here. Virginia might be run by a bunch of prudes, but in D.C., there is nothing stopping a bar from giving a sober person a free beer.

"There is no prohibition in the District?s ABC laws and regulations against an establishment giving away a free beer provided the person is 21 years of age or older and not intoxicated," a spokesman for D.C.'s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration tells DCist in an email.

http://dcist.com/2012/10/no_free_beer_anywhere_on_election_d.php