We started off featuring rye, with Great Divide's Hoss Rye Lager. Rye malts in beer can give a clean, dry finish, with a pervading tartness (not the right descriptor, but while I can recognize rye beers right away, I find it hard to describe them). I wanted to feature Viking Brewing's Blonde, which is classified as a Rye Pilsner. Unfortunately Viking had to sell their name to some Icelanders in October, so they're not around right now, and who knows what they'll be returning as.
Next up was Schell's Schmaltz' Alt, one of my personal favorites from the historic MN brewery. I wanted to have their Firebrick, as Schell's knows their Vienna and Munich malts best. Their Alt however, did an excellent job of showing what just the right amount of dark crystal malts can do in a beer, with its rich, rasiny character.
The Nut Brown Ale from Samuel Smith in Tadcaster, England was up third. The English malt Maris Otter is the base for this one (it could be the only malt used, we weren't quite sure on that one). It showcases it quite well, in fact. I would say it is my favorite brown ale, hands down. Not even close to my second. I don't always pay attention to BeerAdvocate reviews, but Sam Smith's Nut Brown places solidly in 1st for its category, with an A- average review. The nuttiness in "nut" brown ales doesn't come from any nuts added during the brewing process, it is a characteristic of the Maris Otter malt.
Aventinus is a top fermented wheaty impersonation of a doppelbock. Its not lagered, as the yeasty nose indicates some ~70 degree fermentation temperatures. Its been a while since I've had this beer, and we all seemed to decide that it has a little bit too much going on, and it can't decide which kind of beer it wants to be. If you've never had it before, though, I recommend trying it, as it is likely different most anything out there. The same beer is also used to make a "Weizen-Eisbock;" the concept pretty much blows my mind, and the flavor does too.
Skullsplitter is a Scottish Wee-Heavy from the isle of Orkney. I was shooting for an excellent beer to feature Golden Promise. Golden Promise is a Scottish spring barley, used extensively in Scottish beers and whisky. Unfortunately I picked an excellent beer, but I think I could have showcased the malt a bit more with something like an 80 shilling scottish ale, instead of a Wee Heavy. One of my favorites, though, I used this beer in a steak and beer tasting a few years back.
The Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche is Schlenkerla's normal rauchbier recipe, but instead of using their in-house beechwood smoked malt, they kilned the malts over oak instead. It gives a nice, well rounded vanilla flavor (I'm tempted to write flavour instead). You can't go wrong with finishing off the night with a smoked beer.
Where we went wrong (or maybe where we went right) was with following that up with a bottle of 2009 Darkness from local Surly. This year has seemed to age well since its release 15 months ago. I havent had the 2010, but compared to the 2008, it seemed to have less coffee-like chocolatey notes, and more of a chocolate dipped raspberry taste.
Also, I don't mean to mention food last, but I left that more up to Megan, and she performed admirably. She paired with a 3 mushroom gruyere quiche (Swiss Gruyere from Surdyks) that she used her own crust recipe for. Also, we had Fontina, Camambert, and an abbey cheese to pair with. The food and cheese was all quite excellent, and I don't mean to understate it at all, but pairing is not within my purview.
All in all, it was an excellent evening, thanks to those that provided good company and cheer.
I like the blog, especially the brewing experiences. Keep it up!
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