Thursday, December 31, 2009

Top 10 Beers of 2009

Ok, so my wife Cherie and I set out this year with a goal to try 365 beers. Well..... we hit that number before the beginning of November. Yikes. We went WAY past it. But, in this year of beer, I have found many an interesting brew. So here is my list of my top 10 beers in no particular order:

Gulden Draak - This was the beer that got me into Belgians... and I mean REALLY into them. What a great beer all around. Fantastic in all respects.

Brooklyn Manhattan Project - Oh I love me a good manhattan on the rocks once in a while. Garrett Oliver put together just that with this beer. It was soooooo good. Rye beer with cherry flavors and spices. Just great.

Brooklyn Cuvee de Cardoz - Surprised the hell out of me when I had this beer. Oh man, it was amazing. Only had a couple, but they were good. Spicy, flavorful, and didn't taste too heavy at all.

Harppon 100 Barrel Glacier Harvest 09 Wet Hop Ale - I am not a fan of hops for the most part, but this was a great beer with plenty of hops, flavor, alcohol, and enough malt to balance it out nicely. Good job to Harppon on this one.

Clipper City Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning Uber Pils - I tried SO HARD to find a pilsner I really liked this year. Not many really worked out for me. This was by far the best and one of my current favorites. Oh, just an amazing beer all around. So much flavor, much more than almost any other pils I had this year.

Dogfish head / 3 Floyds Popskull - Had this at Pizzeria Paradiso in DC just last week. Oh man..... how do I describe it? Picture a really tasty brown ale .... on crack!!! Awesome!

Founders Backwoods B@stard - You saw above that I like manhattans. Well, I like bourbon in my manhattans (not the right way I know). So, since I liked bourbon I thought I would like this beer. Well, in fact, I LOVED it. Drool. That is all I can say.

Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noire - I am not generally a huge fan of Saisons, but this dark one was just great. It had so much flavor with all of the spice of a good farmhouse ale.

Rogue Hazlnut Brown Nectar - Sweetly luxurious. Just so smooth, flavorful, and fantastic. Not for everyone and not for any time, but for when you are in the mood for the sweet flavor, this is a great one to have.

Victory Golden Monkey - A belgian style tripel from the east coast. Just a good beer. Has that great Belgian bite and that good kick of alcohol behind it.


Honorable mentions - Any of the Harpoon Leviathans, Rodenbach Flemish Sour, Chimay Blue, Kona Longboard Lager (I just enjoy drinking it), Orkney Skullsplitter, Clipper City Yule Tide.

Inspired to start this here blog

Inspired to start this here blog

Ok, I was inspired to start this blog today from talk to Josh from Lost in the beer aisle. So here it is. I am looking to talk about a lot of things on here, not the least of which is baseball and beer. Hence the title right up top.

Just for reference, Right now, I (and the rest of RSN) am still trying to figure out what the Sox are doing this year. Lackey and Cameron just signed earlier this week in a RIDICULOUS Monday (Halladay/Lee deal, Cameron, Lackey .... yeah, that works as ridiculous). The more I look at it the more I like it. Should be interesting. Not sold on Lackey as a top of the rotation guy, but does that matter with this team? He is a #3! Maybe a bit of an overpayment (in years more than dollars), but it was still a good deal. I think this should end up being a very good team all in all even if they don't make any more moves. Gonzalez now though? We'll see. I'll believe it when I see it.

Enough Red Sox for now.

Alright, I just got an INCREDIBLE sampler from one of my vendors in Cleveland. Since we discovered we each have a love for beer, Dave (my guy there) and I have been trading beers back and forth. So, he sent this great sampler that has Great Lakes Christmas Ale (among others). A bunch of Christmas Ales in there actually and I am looking forward to trying them. PLUS, Cherie (my wife) gave me an early Christmas present yesterday with the dark and light 4-packs from Unibroue (wow, spelled it right on my first shot!). I have wanted to have these for a while but kept holding off. Now I don't have to.

This weekend should be a big beer weekend for me. Going to have some real good ones everyday. I am really looking forward to it. No VT games on as I have to wait for the Chick-Fil-A Bowl for that. And did I mention that Chick-Fil-A is AWESOME! Wish they had more than like TWO in New England. Going to go have some of that in Maryland when I am down to see the family next week for Christmas.

Ok, so that is all for now. This should be good. I hope so.