A couple of days ago I had a couple of friends over and we went for a long Mountain Bike ride … that ride set us up nicely for a “beer tasting” evening in Stumblingpiper’s Pub. You may ask, where is this Pub?  That’s easy … it’s in my house! <smile>

My lovely bride made us a huge pot of Chocolate Beer Chili (with Bison) and cornbread!  Yes! (Let me know if you’d like the recipe).  We decided to bring out the big beers for this one.

Yep … in order of tastings.

1) Mike’s ESB Homebrew (two bottles in the back).  This is an award-winning brew from a Colorado Springs homebrewer — one of the Brew Bros!  What a nice ESB–an excellent appetizer.

2) Southern Tier Iniquity.  I’ve had this beer before, but my friends had not.  I really like this style of Black IPAs.  It has a great balance — the darker malts definitely do not overcome this beer … it was the right start for the chili!

3) Brooklyn Brewery Black Ops.  This beer surprised all of us.  I originally thought it was another Black IPA … but upon further review, we realized it was bourbon-barrel-aged Stout.  I think I should have aged it a little longer — the bourbon was really in your face with this beer … so much so that it distracted from the Stout flavor.  Interesting that it was re-fermented with Champagne yeast … 2 of the 3 of us finished ours (and then had to finish the other guy’s too … he just couldn’t get past the Bourbon-flavor).

4) Samuel Adams-Weihenstephan Infinium (2010).  This was our second surprise beer.  Seeing that it was a US/German collaboration, we had no idea it would be a Belgian-style Ale (Guess we should read these things before opening and drinking!) <smile>  After the initial surprise wore off, both Mike and I had a big smile on our face … I really liked the balance of this beer … a sour ale finished with Champagne yeast.  Again, with this one, 2 of the 3 of us finished this one off.

5) Fegley Brew works Hop’solutely Triple IPA.  We finished off with the Triple IPA.  I had purchased this beer on a trip to Jim Thorpe, PA last year.  It has sat in my basement for about 7-8 months … it really helped (from the other reviews I’ve seen).  This was an excellent example of a high ABV /IPA … good balance of hops/alcohol/malt.  Of course, as with most in this style, it had a slight, cloying sweetness … but I thought that was well-balanced by the hops.  A nice, final dessert beer!

It was a great evening of tastings with friends at the Stumblingpiper Pub!

Beer Mentor