Beer 285: St. Peter's Old Style Porter, Doubt and Confusion

Let me give you a little insight into what's been happening in my head for the past 48 hours. I've been freaking out about an event I'm planning in early October. I'm building a freaking party venue in the middle of a very large, grass field. I now know a nice restroom trailer will cost $3,600. A fancy tent upwards of $30,000. I'm helping plan electric hook ups and substations. Huh? I'm terrified I'll have to drive the garden cart. I know my building like the back of my hand. I am going to be so very far away from my building that night...
Then my friend Amanda tweets this message this morning...perfectly summing up my head space: Currently floating in that unnamed place between brief flickers of confidence, overwhelming inadequacy + all consuming self-doubt.
My brief flickers of confidence included a strong desire for someone to buy me this Oscar de la Renta dress...




...because I would rock that dress. And I promise I'll smile when I wear it!
Tonight's beer is the Old Style Porter from St. Peter's Brewery. I admit I was first attracted to it because of the cool bottle.




It's that yellow green glass that I usually associate with wine bottles. That paired with the fact that it was a porter pretty much guaranteed that it was coming home with me. It poured almost black with only the faintest bit of light infiltrating at the edges where a deep brown cola color was revealed. Its head was very thick and dense and tan. It's brewed in Suffolk, England at a site that dates back to 1280!
It smells of chocolate cream, licorice and toast. The taste is anise, vanilla and has a slight hop bite. At 5.1% ABV, it was very easy and enjoyable to drink. This is a very good beer.
Cheers!

Beer 265: Central Waters Peruvian Morning

It's football eve! How awesome is that??? And the weather forecast is not going to give me heatstroke so I may actually have fun at the first game of the season for a change! Nice.

Today I'm drinking the Peruvian Morning from Central Waters Brewing Company. Interestingly after checking out their website today, I've learned that they issued a voluntary recall for this beer. It seems that some of the bottles have turned and are revealing an off-taste. Lucky for me, my bottle was just fine.


Brewed in Amherst, Wisconsin, the Peruvian Morning is a bourbon barrel aged imperial stout. I didn't notice the barrel aged part and managed to pour out all the sediment. It was opaque black with a cocoa color head. It smells of bourbon and roasted things...not necessarily coffee or malt, just roasted organic stuff.

The flavor is rich and chocolate and cola. I'm not necessarily finding the bourbon in the taste but there is definitely a boozy warmth. This is a good beer.

The label states that it's made with freshly roasted Emy J's coffee and has flavors of vanilla, tannins, and coffee that meld together to create a flavor as deep as the ravines of the Peruvian Andes. I would agree with that statement wholeheartedly.

Cheers!

Beer 233: Mean Old Tom

I love the label on this bottle of Mean Old Tom from the Maine Beer Company. . It is simple and incredibly appealing. You know what's also appealing?

This beer.


It is amazing. Mean Old Tom is a stout aged on natural vanilla beans. It pours a deep, dark chocolate brown with a thick cocoa color head. The smell lightly roasted coffee and malt. The flavor is full despite a nice thinness to the mouthfeel. It is roasted malt, a touch of coffee and a vanilla soda like taste. Every few sips I also get a bit of cola flavor as well. Complex but refreshing. Exactly what I need after a long day of staring at budgets.

Just because I like knowing this about the brewers I enjoy...Maine Beer Company is dedicated to the environment. They use renewable energy, spent grain is donated to a local farm, everything but the kitchen sink is reused or recycled and 1% of all sales are given to environmental nonprofits. This is the kind of business I can get behind. Cheers!

Beer 32: Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout or Kill Me Now, My Life is Complete

I equate Southern Tier with super hoppy beers that Gary will love and I will hate.  And then about two or three weeks ago, I read an article that mentions Southern Tier's Creme Brulee Stout.  Creme brulee is my favorite dessert.  I love chocolate, but a good creme brulee beats the best chocolate dessert any day in my book.  If you're not familiar, it is a rich custard that is most often flavored with vanilla and topped with a thin layer of hardened caramel.  It should be served cold but not ice cold.  The hardened caramel should be thin and not burnt.  At its best preparation, it is heavenly.

Southern Tier's homage to creme brulee is served in a brandy snifter and is black as night.  You can smell the vanilla and sweetness at ten paces.  After a sip, Gary stated, "It's not bad for a stout."  A ringing endorsement if you know his distaste for stout.  I declared it to be sex in my mouth -- probably a bit too loudly given I was in public.  It was that good.  Seriously.

It pours with a thin head and light carbonation.  It's creamy and smooth.  The smell and taste of vanilla and caramel rang true throughout the entire serving.  It does have a slight bite at the end and definitely gives you that warm and fuzzy alcohol feeling, which is appropriate for a beer coming in at 9.8% ABV.

I have a few other milk stouts hanging around in the fridge and I think they'll be reviewed throughout the remainder of this week.  I know this one is a ripe candidate for Top 25.  I wonder if any of the others will be?

***

Quote Highlight of the Day:  "Avocados should not have that kind of control over our lives."  Why do avocados exert such power over us?  I'll tell you.  You never know what you're getting when you buy an avocado.  They're expensive and you only find out if you wasted your money on a poor quality avocado after you've cut into it.  And by that point, you are already geared up for whatever tasty avocado dish for which you bought that darn avocado and the disappointment is staggering.  We've all been there or at least my goofy co-workers and I have been there.  Avocados.  So delicious.  So powerful.