Weekly Report 11/10 - 11/16

I've been fighting of a cold for a few days now, so I haven't been as interested or able to enjoy the brews as much as I would have liked to, but I had a few anyway.

Wednesday brought em over to a friends for a small tasting. Here's how it went:

Port Brewing Panzer Imperial Pilsner - 9.5% Dusty straw colored brew that was crisp and clean in a Lager sense, but a little underwhelming for something I expected to be comparable to a Sam Adams Imperial Pilsner ( probably the only SA beer you'll see mentioned in this blog), that was almost Imperial / Double IPAish in it's hop character.

New Belgium 2-Below - 6.6% Medium Ruby Winter Seasonal. (Probably another brewery that won't be mentioned often here). This one does surprise me, as it has a nice fresh hop-bale character that blends well with the slighty sweet bready malt. I will drink this again soon!

North Coast Old Stock 2006, 1st Edition - 13.25% Dark Garnet Old Ale. No surprise here, that this continues to age like the Port wine for the beerset. The malts have developed into a semi-sweet, rich, almost velvety with hints of dark fruits and cigar tobaaco. There is just a hint of hop essence and finishing bitterness that reminds you that the hops are there! Looking forward to this again 6-mos down the road.

Friday night at home I selected a couple of beers to sit down with during movie night. First I had the very underwhelming Grand Teton Sweetwater IPA, which had some flavor, but standard IPA's like this, with few exceptions, usually ahve a hard time reaching my palate. Upon recommendation my next pour was a 2007 Mad River John Barleycorn Barleywine. This is aging very well and may be up in that higher tier of bw's that includes Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws 2006, Stone 10th, Harmon Rajah's 2007, and Stone Double Bastard 2003. It is nicely nuanced with some up front hop, but a smooth malt that is not to heavy or syrupy, but still a little sticky and sweet. Next time I have it I will provide a more in-depth profile of it. Also I plan on stocking up on this years version for the years to come!!

After taking Saturday of from the sauce, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a tempting text with nothing but a picture of a lonely beer on a Sunday afternoon. If that's not a red herring I don't know what is! This lead me to the King of all Tacoma beers hangouts: The Parkway Tavern! Here's what I had:

Full Sail Prodigal Sun IPA- 6.5% Dark Amber underwhelming IPA. The bottled version I had during the summer was in my opinion, pretty hoppy and bitter. This was just mediocre, probably because it was brewed during the summer and is just past it's prime.

Boundary Bay IPA - 6.6% Light Amber fresh tasting hoppy IPA! This rarely fails to provide a nice hit of hops! This batch was no different, rendering the Full Sail helpless in a side-by-side! What more needs to be said!

Boundary Bay Imperial Oatmeal Stout - 8.5% Black, smooth stout. This was very pleasant. If I hadn't needed to drive home as soon as I did I would have had more! Next time J, insist that I get this first! I don't remeber the specific characters of this, but I do recall fully enjoying it, and even getting a pour of part of someone else's so I didn't have to order more!

It was a pretty fair week in my beer drinkin' world! Soon I'll give a short synopsis of Ramone's visit from SoCal and the many rare and delicious beers that were consumed!