Eating and Drinking Through Asheville, NC: Part 1

"So where shall we go for this year's trip?" My wife asked.  Not wanting to take an international trip, she and I discussed options of a road trip.  High on the list of destinations was Asheville, North Carolina--often called Beer City USA.  Having never been to the state, much less this city bursting with breweries, I was quite in favor of this ultimate goal.  What follows is a long winded travelogue about how to eat and drink your way through the city, with some random other stuff thrown in for interest.  We drove from Minnesota down through Champaign/Urbana Illinois, to stay with my dad for 2 nights.  There we had the best barbecue of the trip at Black Dog, and I got to reconnect with an old friend.  Yes we visited two breweries while there, but I've written them up in the past, so I won't go into them this time.

A quick word about Asheville before we begin.  The town began in the 1700's as a trading outpost, and really hit it's stride in the 1880's after the railroad arrived.  George Vanderbilt also arrived around that time and built a huge (castle) home that took over 6 years to complete.  The city has kept much of it's turn-of-the-century appearance, and retains a very eclectic and unique feel.  The area has drawn a large number of artists (bohemians and hippies) and has grown to be a huge tourist destination for those drawn to art, craft brews, and great food.  Most of the stores and restaurants in the downtown area are locally owned and not the usual chain stores you find everywhere else.  Don't worry, you can find your favorite big box stores outside of town.  Overall this place is an interesting mix of the old and the new, a progressive gem nestled in the otherwise conservative South.

I like the juxtaposition of old and new in this shot--I think it really shows what Asheville is...

Day 1

We arrived in Asheville fairly late in the evening on a Friday.  After checking into the quirky and pleasant Hotel Indigo, we foraged out for our first taste of the scene.  Most of the "action" in Downtown Asheville is within an easy 5 to 15 minute walk from the hotel, so we rarely had to drive anywhere during our stay.  I figure we burned off at least a few beers worth of excess by walking a lot during our trip.  Being Friday night, the town was hopping!  There were crowds of tourists walking the streets.  Musicians, jugglers and artists busking on nearly every other street corner gave the evening a chaotic and almost overwhelming aspect.  Passing the central square we came upon a huge crowd gathered to watch and listen to a huge drum circle.  With echoes of drums still drifting on the wind along with honking horns, and snatches of guitars, we continued our trek across town.

We arrived at our destination of Wicked Weed Brewing for a very late dinner (9PM) and found them to be packed to the gills.  This brewery has a very large seating area and long bar, with high ceilings and a huge mural of Henry the 8th on one wall.  We ordered a beer at the bar while we waited outside for our seating, taking the time to watch the crowds wander past.  One raucous group of guys was seated in the chilly outdoor patio and at one point the bouncer needed to move them along.  It got much quieter after that.  We eventually got seated and had some wonderful food and wonderful beers.  I had a crispy-on-the-outside bison meatloaf with greens and a spicy mustard sauce that was heavenly.  Even drinking 8 oz pours of beers we couldn't even try a third of the huge tap selection.  Beers ranged from IPA, to a great hoppy red ale, to a strange but tasty beer loosely based on a mint julep.

Sj and Henry 8 at Wicked Weed

We ended up coming back to Wicked Weed on our final day in Asheville and continued to work on the list of beers.  It wasn't until the second trip that we noticed a stairway at the far edge of the bar leading to a second basement tasting room and patio featuring even more beers to try!  Wicked Weed is right next to The Orange Peel (a famous music venue) and while there saw someone try to climb up from the patio to the line into the music hall.  Once again a bouncer magically arrived, made him settle up a bar tab and vacate.  I really loved the ambiance (despite being crazy crowded and loud), food, and beers at Wicked Weed!  These guys are in the very top of the Asheville beer scene for me and are really doing things right.

Day 2

Day two we slept in a bit to recover from our previous day's drive and late dinner.  The cheerful staff at the Hotel Indigo served me some great local coffee and sent us on our way with ideas of great places to find beer.

We headed first to Early Girl Eatery, a farm to table local restaurant known for southern comfort food and great breakfasts.  We arrived shortly before they opened and joined the long line waiting to get in.  Yup, it is that kind of place!  The tables are covered in brown paper and one wall has samples of some really impressive artwork from folks who have dined at the restaurant in the past.  Did I mention that Asheville has a lot of artists?  I had a wonderful southern breakfast featuring grits and biscuits smothered in bacon gravy.  Yum!  We were excited to discover that the ceramic sugar containers at each table were made by one of Sj's old friends from Alabama, Patty Bilbro.

Next we walked a ways past the local bus station and into the "brewery district" for a visit to one of the city's oldest (1998) craft breweries--Asheville Brewing Company.  The bar itself was small and a bit over-hot already at noon on this fine spring day, so we settled outside in the large covered patio.  Service was a little spotty out there, but the servers were pleasant when they actually came to the table.  They had a lot of beers of varying styles, but most were just mediocre.  The best of the lot for me were the Bronson Oat Brown and the Holy Ninja Oyster Porter.  A big deal was made about their recently released double IPA, but I didn't love it.  The brewery is known for pizza, pub food, and being kid friendly.  They can some their beers and I found them in restaurants and bars all over town.  Worth a spin by, but not the best place we found in town.

We had planned on stopping by another brewery with our fairly slow service, we ran out of time and headed to our pre-arranged Eating Asheville High Roller tour.  We had planned this in advance based on some good reviews I had seen in print and on-line.  We met at a used bookstore/wine bar for the first leg of the tour and then moved to several great venues across the downtown area for snacks and drinks.  At Cuchina24 we had a sample of the singular best bolognese pasta I've ever had, served directly to us by the executive chef.  Based on that dish alone we set up reservations for a late dinner there later in the evening for more of that and vegetarian pasta featuring fresh local ramps.  The tour was a lot of fun, with stops at places I wouldn't have discovered on my own. I highly recommend the tour and it was great to get this done early in the trip.

After the tour we wandered around the city and checked out some local shops and art galleries.  One of my favorites was an old Woolworth's that had been converted into a large art gallery, complete with 50's era soda fountain!

I got the Funk

Our last stop of the day (other than dinner at Cucina24) was the Wicked Weed Funkatorium.  Not content to rest on their laurels as a great local brewery, Wicked Weed has been developing a name for sour beers over the past several years.  Within the last 6 months or so, they opened the Funkatorium: a large barrel aging facility for their sour program, featuring a ton of their sours on tap and a small snack menu.  With it being so new, many locals we talked to hadn't even been to it yet.  Since this was a Saturday, they only offered a set sampler of 4 beers, but on slower days will do custom samplers.  We shared this and really enjoyed all of the beers we tried.  I really loved this small, dark tasting room with it's enormous barrel filled back room, filled to bursting with silently souring beers!  We would end up back here several times over our trip, mainly for repeat glasses of the epic raspberry flavored Red Angel.  That was probably my favorite beer of the whole trip.

Sampler at Funkatorium...

Not a bad way to start a trip.  Keep up with this here blog over the coming week for more details so you can start planning your own Asheville beer and food trip!

A Whale A Week: AleSmith Vietnamese Coffee Speedway Stout

A Whale A Week is my attempt to both share some rare beers with good friends and empty my overflowing beer cellar.  Over the entire course of this year I will drink and blog about one "Whale" beer every week!  I've been on an epic road trip to Asheville, NC with tons of beer stops on the way, so I am running behind on these posts!  Two weeks ago we covered the 2012 KBS, and this week we move to another famous coffee beer...

AleSmith Vietnamese Coffee Speedway Stout 2014

For this tasting I had over one of my friends: Andrew Gieseke.  Known for his snarky attitude and love of sour beers, he chose this little gem from my stash.  

AleSmith Brewing Company is a craft brewery out of  San Diego, California, opening in 1995.  They are currently expanding into a new and larger brewhouse and tasting room just a few blocks from their current digs.  It looks like Mikkeller is moving into the soon-to-be-vacated current brewhouse, but I don't have many details of that deal.  

Speedway Stout:  I've been a huge fan of this beer since I first tried it about 2 years ago.  Earlier this  year I wrote up a blog entry on coffee beers that included the special Jamaican Blue Mountain version of the beer. You can review it HERE, if you like.  That beer was amazing, so I was very excited about trying another version.  I also have a Barrel Aged version I'm holding back for a future Whale A Week tasting...

Vietnamese Coffee in a stout?  This special limited release version of Speedway Stout features Vietnamese coffee.  For this batch AleSmith traditionally brews Vietnamese coffee, with a phin style filter that gently percolates water through ground coffee.  The filter is a small metal "hat" that sits on top of the coffee mug.  Vietnamese coffee usually comes from multiple sources and is blended for the right character, making it different (and some purists would say inferior) than the 100% Arabica beans found in most upper end coffees.  Typically the roast is dark, similar to French Roast, but is roasted longer and at lower temperature to get a more even character and less burnt flavors (Charbucks I'm talking to you...)  Traditionally the beans are roasted with a little oil to help with even roasting and may even use a hint of sugar, vanilla, and cocoa.  As a coffee fan, I'm already intrigued!  I'm trying to figure out where AleSmith found a big enough phin filter to do this for a whole commercial batch...

Beer Advocate rates this one at a solid 100, as does RateBeer, and this batch is seriously traded for!  

For our tasting we cracked this bottle at about 45 degrees F and served it into snifter glasses, so we could cup it in the hand to warm it up to closer to proper 50-55 degree tasting temperature.  My wife, Sj tasted along.  Here are our tasting notes. 

Aroma:

Eric: Cinnamon, vanilla, iced coffee all very strong.  I get semi-sweet chocolate sweetness as swirled.  This has a powerful malted milk sweetness that reminds me of the malted milk I used to drink as a child.  Coffee gelato aromas.  No hops.  Mild alcohol warming on the nose.

Andrew: Bitter black chocolate poured over coffee.  Medium roast with nutty overtones and some vanilla marshmallows.  A bit of graham cracker crust.  Swirl wafts more bitter dark chocolate and espresso bean.  Wood/oak tannins.

Appearance:

Combined: Inky black.  Carbonation meteors appear from the foam ridge of the glass, wispy strings hang around.  Thick body with legs at glass edge.  Deep tan to full brown head--one of the darkest I've seen.  

Flavor:

Eric: Sweet and malty brew up front, coating the tongue with creamy and viscous mouthfeel.  Vanilla and marshmallow is strong. Cocoa and expensive dark chocolate flavors with some bitterness toward the middle and end.  Roast malt and dark coffee flavors actually hit a bit late after the chocolate, making a lingering mildly astringent finish.  Coffee flavor is more subtle than in the aroma, but is very present and mellow--melding well with the creamy mouthfeel and the roasted malts.  Some alcohol warming, but not overly boozy.  As it warms I get some earthy character.  No hop flavors, but certainly some bitterness here--still balanced to the malty side.  I get some tannin and what seems like bourbon/oak character.

Andrew: Strong vanilla-marshmallow and woody/oak.  Chocolate covered espresso bean.  Medium roast and some boozy heat.  That woody, nutty pop like when you bite into an espresso bean.  Rounded over with vanilla.  Not too thick and sticky, but a bit creamy.  Dry from booze and tannins whether that be coffee or roast malt.

Overall: 

Eric: Seriously--this isn't bourbon barrel aged????  The complexity, combined with vanilla, booze and tannin makes this taste incredibly similar to a bourbon barrel aged beer.  The beer uses coffee in the best possible way--strong, but not overwhelming--a great supporting actor for the base Imperial stout that is the star of the show.  The overall impression is that of high end dark chocolate, coming across as sweet and rich without being cloying.  Deep, dark and decadent.  I give it a 5.

Andrew: Love the blends of coffee and then the big vanilla bomb hits!  Touch on the boozy/acrid side but the dryness makes it easier to drink, especially for a 12%.  Well blended.  The complexity of this is incredible. 4.5

Sarajo: Tastes like barrel. 4.5

This was a great beer!  I wanted to make a couple of points before moving on.  First off, this beer was bottled 7/14.  Age will often cause coffee to fade, and sometimes move to an earthy vegetal flavor (see previous 2012 KBS review for more on that).  Personally, I have found that coffee more than a few months old in a beer often strikes me as cinnamon, and I certainly picked this up today.  We were all shocked by how much this beer tasted like it was aged in a barrel.  There apparently is a version where that is done--and I can only imagine what that tastes like!  I was happy to get to share this special beer before it lost its mojo.  

A Whale A Week: KBS 2012

A Whale A Week is my attempt to taste a rare beer every week over all of 2015, while sharing the judging and tasting with a variety of beer loving friends. This week we go with another famed Imperial: Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout!

Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout 2012

When I first started thinking about doing this series of reviews, one of the big beers in my cellar that I kept thinking about was this one.  I inherited my bottle in a cellar buy-out so at least I didn't have to wait in lines or scour liquor stores during the one day they release the beer.  I have been happy that Minnesota has been getting a small portion of this beer for the past few years, so at least we have a chance to find this rare beer here.

The very first coffee beer I ever tried was Founders Breakfast Stout.  I can remember the place and time with some clarity: sitting at a table with my family in Champaign, Illinois at the restaurant Radio Maria.  Having never heard of Founders at the time, I ordered this 8.3% ABV Russian Imperial stout brewed with coffee and chocolate to pair with my coffee encrusted filet of beef.  Angels sang for me on that day.  So when I discovered that there was a stronger (11.2%) similar beer aged in bourbon barrels, I felt my heart pick up a little.  Over the past few years I have tried this near-mythical beer a few times at bottle shares, and once almost by accident, on tap at The Nomad.  I did get a chance to visit Founders during NHC last year in Grand Rapids, and that place is amazing!  No Kentucky Breakfast Stout on tap for us then though...

So KBS, as this beer is affectionately called by in-the-know beer geeks, is quite hard to find and sought-after.  On the day of this testing, I had a couple of friends over to practice their BJCP tasting skills for an upcoming test they were both taking.  With the beers blinded, we went through a terribly oxidized beer from 1998, to a Surly Abrasive, and then I sprung the KBS on them telling them only the style of beer.  Now barrel aged beers are never on the real BJCP tasting exam, I thought this would be a way for them to stretch their tasting and description skills, while also getting a good review of a rare beer without the hype associated with that beer.  Like being punked--but in a good way!  I have posted these using the 50 point BJCP scoring since that was our method.  So Tyrone (already a Recognized beer judge) and Annette Babione (trying to keep up with or surpass her husband) helped me out with this review, and I was pretty impressed with how they did...

Aroma:
Eric: Very sweet maltiness.  Cinnamon, light roast coffee.  Some zing from alcohol on the nose.  Roasted malt and baker's chocolate as swirled.  Hint of cream?  Oaky tannic aroma, possibly some oxidation as it warms up. 10/12
Tyrone: Vanilla leaps out of the glass, immediately followed by dark roasted coffee.  Pervasive alcohol warmth intermingles between these two flavors.  Prune aroma finishes the bouquet.  No hop aromatics.  No other fruity esters.  Slightly sharp grain alcohol emerges after warming.  Roasted malts emerge after opening up.  Slighty toasted coconut.  9/12
Annette: Roasted, almost burnt malt character.  Hint of soy sauce.  No hops detected.  Almost solventy in the nose.  Smells like burnt toast trying to be covered with coffee or a bitter chocolate.  Slight sherry. 6/12

Appearance:
Combined: Black and nearly opaque.  Tan head almost non-existent, with fine bubbles. 2/3

Flavor:
Eric: Semi-sweet dark chocolate is the dominant flavor to my palate.  Some vanilla and cinamon as the taste lingers on the tongue.  Finish is mildly astringent with a burnt coffee edge to it.  Balance slightly to the bitter side.  Lots of roasted dark malts in this.  I get some vegetal flavor as it warms up that detract from the overall enjoyment.  No hop flavors.  No real esters.  16/20
Tyrone: Chocolate is predominant flavor.  Medium-high bitterness.  No hop flavor.  Moderately high oak/wood stiffens the malt backbone to contrast the bitterness.  Evenly balanced with a slight edge to the malt in the finish--although the bitterness persists and builds on the back of the tongue with a dry aftertaste.  Clean fermentation.  Malt flavor is primarily dark roast mixed with a coffee roast. 17/20
Annette: Heavy roast flavor that sticks to the roof of your mouth.  No hop flavor detected.  Light hop bitterness.  Light notes of chocolate and coffee.  Balance is toward the malt with a warm finish and chocolate aftertaste.  Almost like a chocolate soda. 14/20

Mouthfeel:
Eric: Body is medium to thick.  Slightly creamy at the start of the sip.  End is a bit bitter and astringent.  Carbonation is a bit low.  Some warming in throat from alcohol. 4/5
Tyrone: Medium-low carbonation.  Moderate alcohol warming, bordering on boozy.  A mild creaminess with no astringency.  Moderately heavy weight body with medium viscosity.  No other palate sensations. 5/5
Annette: Full body with lower carbonation.  Warmth from alcohol detected.  Hint of creamy.  Light astringency detected. 4/5

Overall:
Eric: Complex and interesting.  I keep trying it for new flavors over time.  Improves as it warms up.  Coffee is very subtle and comes off more burnt than fresh.  Booze present but well integrated into beer than when fresh. 7/10
Tyrone:  Although the alcohol borders on hot, it avoids crossing over that line and maintains a wonderful alcohol warmth, while providing excellent bitterness to cleanse the palate--preventing the malt, wood, and coffee flavors from becoming overpowering.  Great example of the style, although malt profile could benefit from more complexity to avoid muddy flavoring. 8/10
Annette:  Overall this was a decent example.  The roast hinted toward the acrid or burnt, but the alcohol didn't burn or become hot.  The barrel melded the flavors well, but it was a little too acrid for personal taste.  However, coffee and chocolate notes had high redeeming qualities... 7/10

Total scores were:
Eric: 39/50
Tyrone: 42/50
Annette: 33/50

Wrap-up:
Overall I think we all picked up on the same aromas and flavors, but our personal tastes factored into it.  It was interesting experiment to give a rare and highly publicized beer to blinded judges and get an honest review of it.  Tyrone liked it the most, Annette the least.  I fell in the middle, even knowing what beer we were dealing with--partly because I have had this fresh or one year old and loved it more that this sample.  I felt that the coffee flavor had faded a lot and turned to a more burnt and acrid flavor than when fresher.  Upshot is to not age this beer longer than 2 years if you can help it!  Still a great beer, but less than it used to be.

Now that I have climbed the mountain and tried this whale, where can I go now?  Oh, wait, Founders makes a beer called Canadian Breakfast Stout?  Aged in bourbon barrels and maple syrup barrels?  What?  Good, now I have something even more rare and precious to stalk...

Photo Challenge #20: Spring Into Action!

This is my weekly self-imposed challenge to improve my budding photography and photo editing skills over the coming year.  I just started shooting with a "real" Canon digital rebel camera a year ago, after upgrading from iPhone only shots.  I've been enjoying experimenting with the hobby and also using some of the skills I'm learning to improve my beer photography for the rest of this blog as well.  Hopefully folks are enjoying taking this journey with me!  As always feel free to add your own link at the bottom of the page if you want to play along…

Last week I tried out silk screen or cut-out effects.  This week I left it a little more open for pictures of Spring!  I spent some time in the past 2 weeks at the Arboretum and saw some tiny signs of life among the dead leaves and browns of Fall.  There wasn't much greenery to be caught on the larger lens, so I switched over to my macro lens for a closer look.  At the time I'm posting this, there is much more greenery abounding, but I thought these few spots of color were more striking...

Wild raspberry cane ready for action!

These were tiny!

The framing isn't perfect in this one, but I liked the contrast between the brown branch and the burst of blue from the flower.

I have no idea what type of flowers these are, but I found them thrusting up from the forest floor in a few spots.

And last but not least, I found this lone battered looking butterfly clinging to this sapling in a high wind!

So there you go, a taste of Spring in Minnesota!  For the next two weeks the assignment is Travel Photography!

30 Words: Hanging On

30 Word Thursday is a collaborative project started by Erin at her Treasures Found Blog.  The idea is simple: take a photo (preferably your own) and put it to exactly 30 words.  I've been playing along more sporadically this year, mainly due to time doing my own self-imposed photo challenge, but now that the weather is getting nicer and I have more opportunity to take pictures, I'll be doing more.  Check out the rest of the entries at Erin's blog. Oh, and comment!  We want to hear what folks think!

Twisted and twined, 

One around the other.

Hanging on,

Supporting each other.

Through the long cold season,

And the return of warmth.

Tied closely together,

Never truly alone,

Entwined forever.

I took this picture on a recent walk through the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  I was just starting to see some flowers and greenery, but the majority of the forest I was walking through was barren and brown.  I saw this wild grape vine twisted around its partner and wanted to get a macro view of it.  While I was changing lenses, two deer sprang past me and into the underbrush.  Typical!  Only after I got this picture in the editing suite did I notice the small spider in there.  In case you missed it, the sentiment to this one relates to my wonderful and supportive wife!

A Whale A Week: East End Gratitude 2007

A Whale A Week is my attempt to share a rare beer with friends every week for the whole year of 2015, often accompanied by funky photo tricks.  This helps me get through my dragon's hoard of cellared beers as well as practice with beer photography.  This week we move to a barleywine...

East End Brewing's Gratitude 2007 Vintage

This beer honestly came as somewhat of a surprise to me.  I got this in a large cellar buy and had no idea what I had received until my friend Andrew Gieseke saw it hiding behind some other barleywines in my cellar.  I could hear his audible gasp and consequent evil chuckle, and knew I had found something that sparked his fancy.  Andrew is one of the guys who got me into cellaring beer, so when he gets excited about a beer, I pay attention!  Being a sour-head, I had expected him to zero in on those guys from my stash, but we ended up with barleywine...

East End Brewing Co. is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  I actually visited the city earlier this year and discovered several fine newer breweries, but this one totally slipped my radar.  Open since 2004, these guys were one of the earlier craft breweries in the area, and only in the 2014 have opened a tasting room.  I'm pretty sure the area had a recent law change (like the Surly Bill here in Minnesota) to allow for tap rooms. East End is primarily a draft brewery with very few bottles of their beer making it to market, which may account for their mainly local following.  Per their website, they put out over 35 different beers during most years.

Gratitude Barleywine was really East End's first "hit" among the serious beer geeks, being made in very small quantities.  The bottles are wrapped in paper and wax dipped, along with hand-created bottle art of birds.  Each year features a different colored bird, corresponding to the spectrum of light. The very first batch was only 500 bottles and featured a crow on the label.  2006 increased a bit to 1300 bottles and featured an orange chickadee on the label.  The bottle I dug out of the depths of my cellar was from the 2007 vintage!  Tightly wrapped in brown paper, this bottle is also dipped in yellow wax.  Mine is number 628/1500 and hand signed.  The bottle art features a monochromatic yellow and black goldfinch feeding her baby by mouth.  Honestly, this is some of the best packaging I've seen and one can tell they put a lot of labor into it.  Continuing the Gratitude story, it looks like the first 2008 batch had a burnt taste that was less than lovely, so they sold it at a cheaper price and re-brewed a smaller batch of it later that year. They continued to put out yearly versions, but the 2011 and 2012 versions did not carbonate in the bottle and were named "Flatitude" and not officially labeled or released.  Interestingly it looks like at each Gratitude release day they would allow people to buy older vintages that they still had on hand.  They have now completed the ROY G. BIV color spectrum and in 2014 released a barrel aged version of the beer, without the fancy paper wrapping.  I'm unsure if they plan to do a 2015 release or if they are going to leave off brewing Gratitude on that note.

No arty photo magic this week.  I was going to make Sarajo feed the beer to Andrew like in the label but they refused to cooperate...

Honestly, now knowing the complex history of this beer, I was a lot more interested in trying it!  However, I was concerned about its age.  This beer is 7.5-8 years old, and most beers don't age that well.  With an ABV of 11.5% and wax dipped cap, I had hopes.  Always ready for a challenge, I threw this in the fridge and we cracked it open a short time later.  We poured these into Steel Toe snifter glasses.

Aroma:
Eric: Strong oxidation, but more pleasant sherry than cardboard.  Sweet sugar and malt with a caramel or toffee character.  A hint of tartness.  No hop aromas.  Some light fruit esters.  I pick up some mint as it warms in the glass.
Andrew: Maple syrup, sherry, caramel/toffee.  The sweet dough from a cinnamon bun (bakery shop) but without the actual cinnamon.  Raisin, dried apricot.  Some papery notes--a touch of mint--candied pear and almond.  A bit of booze.  Some brown sugar.

Appearance: 
Both: Brilliant clarity and a fine copper to ruby color.  Large cream colored head with fine and persistent bubbles.

Flavor:
Eric: Sweet up front, but not cloying.  Caramel, toffee, toasted coconut flavors.  Strong sherry cask flavors with a lingering papery or woody finish.  Warming alcohol present, but not overwhelming.  As it warms I get vanilla and brown sugar flavors popping out.  No hop flavors noted.  Balance is to the sweet side, but bitterness is present.  The higher carbonation and oxidation/tannin make this seem dryer that expected and evens out the sweet flavors to some degree.  I get some raspberry tannin and tartness the longer I hold this.
Andrew: Sherry.  Sticky sweet dried apricot and brown sugar.  Some maple syrup, a bit of booze, and even some hop bitterness.  Dates.  Just a hint of cardboard/paper on the edge.  Aged vintage port or sherry.  Dry, not overly sweet or cloying.  Pitted cherry and that mint from the aroma.  Some pear notes as well.

Overall: 
Eric: Very well aged but still a vibrant and lively beer for all that: the Silver Fox of the barleywine world.  Strong oxidation, but it really works to add interest to this beer with a crazy sherry character.  4.5
Andrew: Very drinkable due to the dryness.  Would be delicious with curried lamb. 4.5
Sarajo:  4.5

This was a great beer, and even better for having a cool story.  This was like finding a buried treasure!  Considering I had no preconceived notions or hype to influence my tasting, I think this turned out pretty wonderful.  I will also mention here that I am especially sensitive to oxidation as an off flavor, and expected this beer to take a huge hit from that.  However, this had the "good oxidation" rather than the bad and tasted entirely pleasing.  I'm guessing we would have given this a 5 if we had tried it a few years ago...

Anyone out there that has tried this beer, or any of the other vintages?  If so, what did you think?  Also does anyone know what they plan to do for 2015?

Photo Challenge #19: Silky!

This is my weekly self-imposed challenge to improve my budding photography and photo editing skills over the coming year.  I just started shooting with a "real" Canon digital rebel camera a year ago, after upgrading from iPhone only shots.  I've been enjoying experimenting with the hobby and also using some of the skills I'm learning to improve my beer photography for the rest of this blog as well.  Hopefully folks are enjoying taking this journey with me!  As always feel free to add your own link at the bottom of the page if you want to play along…

Last week I tested out my new telephoto lens for the challenge.  This week I'm experimenting with replicating the look of the old silk screen technique that my mom used to used when I was growing up.  The idea when using digital editing is to basically cut out some of the gradations of color, limiting it to 3-8 main colors, and then alter the lines/borders of those colors to be less defined.  I mostly used the Photoshop Elements Cutout filter for these.  I'd be glad to hear if anyone else has other ideas for doing this type of effect!

I didn't love this picture on it's own, but the effect makes this stand out a bit more.

This picture was from Kerkom Brewery in Belgium.  I loved the rustic look of old wagon wheels casually leaned up against the peeling wall.  

I like the visual of this background a lot, while the already well defined Monarch stays pretty clear.

This last one was taken in Maastrict, Netherlands.  I used the Cutout filter and then added back a bit of detail with the Posterization filter to add more lines.

So there you go, fun with a new filter effect!  Sometimes cutting out detail can be as striking as super defined and clear photos.  Feel free to link your page/blog below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Next week I'm going to be posting pictures of Spring!  So get out there with your camera and take some pictures of the changing season.