On Wednesday, 16 Feb, a couple of friends and I attended a Strong Ale tasting event hosted by Bob Tupper at RFD in Washington, DC (Chinatown).  He used to host these sessions at the Brickskeller but moved it here when the ownership of the Brickskeller changed (the Brickskeller is now Bier Baron).

As should be expected, we showed up a little early and had a mini-tasting of our own before we started the Strong-Ale Tasting!

We ordered ourselves a sample from the extensive draft list at RFD.  We had (in order of tasting):

Port City Essential Pale Ale, Mad Fox Diabolik Belgian Strong Ale, Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Dominion Millennium English Style Barleywine, and the Starr Hill Cryptical Imperial Stout.  I tried to order beers someone from Colorado wouldn’t normally have available.  Port City, the new brewery, is doing a very nice job.  I really enjoyed all of these beers.  The Starr Hill was good, but didn’t seem to match its style claim.  The Edmund Fitzgerald was wonderful.

Now, on to the tasting.  You can see the list here (with a couple of photos of Bob Tupper).

I will put up another post with my tasting notes on all 10 of these beers.  I do want to say that the 11-year old J.W. Lee Harvest Ale (provided by the brewer from Sweetwater Tavern) was amazing!  It is so nice to have these opportunities.  Here are the accompanying pictures–like I said, I will put together another post with my tasting notes.

Of course, when you’ve had a few strong ales, you always seem to have more fun wherever you are! <smile>

Beer Mentor