TLDR Beer Club

[JPinAZ]

Also check out the Beerfly travel guide from Beer Advocate. There's also Pub Crawler but it can be flakey sometimes.

[dogsballs]

Since someoene else is doing most of the rest of the states, I can do a forthcoming short report from here in Hawaii. Very short - we literally live a stones throw from the Maui Brewing Company...don't even need to drive there . [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

They have a rotisserie too - so it's red meat and beer night.

Their Big Swell IPA is excellent; much better than Sierra Nevada (which is my household standard beer btw). They also make Coconut Porter - yes, coconuts. It's won some awards or other and it really does taste of coconut!

Anyway, the babysitter's bi-weekly evening stint is tonight, so we can get some of this:

[dogsballs]

It's 5pm now, so the baby sitter better hurry up. I had a Sierra Nevada to centre my palate; then another to keep it going...

[MrWookie]

Is that another canned brew that's actually good? If so, I must say that with this and the Old Chubb, good canned beer is a pretty surprising development in the beer world.

[dogsballs]

[ QUOTE ]
Is that another canned brew that's actually good? If so, I must say that with this and the Old Chubb, good canned beer is a pretty surprising development in the beer world.

[/ QUOTE ]

They only started canning a few of their ales this month. I can't vouch for the canned version, since I had it on tap at the place itself. I should grab a can or two and a pint and compare them one day.

So we went down to the Maui Brewing Co. and commandeered a section of the bar. Since I'd already had a couple of SN's at the house, I ordered a sampler of the 9 ales they had on tap to get tasting - 3 or 4oz of each - and started off with the lighter ones, progressing to darker. For reference I'd prolly give SN pale ale a 3.5/5.

Bikini Blonde. 1/5. Their lager. Yuck. Smells very yeasty; like a batch of homebrew, but I'da thrown it away if I'd made it. Tasted very yeasty, but in a bad way, like rotten fermented fruit taste.

Double Overhead. 3.5/5. A pale ale with tons of hops. Very hoppy, smooth creamy texture and almost a whisky flavour to it. Great flavours but so much hops it'll pucker your cheeks.

Maui Pale ale. 2.5/5. Lost my notes for it, but I remember it being a bit overly hoppy & bitter finish; skip it and order Big Swell.

Big Swell IPA. 4/5. A smooth pale ale. Slightly on the lightweight side for IPA, but that lends itself to standing up well to volume drinking, if ya know whadda mean... Full flavour to begin with leading to just the right amount of bitterness in the finish.

Red C ock Dopel-Bock. 4.5/5. A big hit. This was sweet with malty, caramel flavours and a nutty lingering finish. Perfect level of hops and bitterness. The wife loved this one and had a pint with her ribs afterwards.

Belgian Abbey Ale. 4/5. Distictly denser than the pale ales. More complex, malty and rich, with a hefeweizen nose and taste to it. A little on the sweet side for me but great flavours and probably fits with the style of belgian abbey beer it's meant to be.

Penguin Stout. 3.5/5. Very guiness-like, w less creaminess but slightly sweeter. Same level of bitterness. Would be good with smoked dishes (I have scribbled down; I was feeling the effects by now).

Coconut Porter . 3/5. Fun flavour that might go well with somethign a bit spicy to eat, like a beef stir fry. The extra edge of bitterness cf Penguin, and heavy mouth feel would make it tough to drink more than one, I think.

Black Pearl ale. 0.5/5. Whoooweee. Lucky I was halfway drunk by the time I got to this one. Skanky; tastes like a skunks ass. Quick, give me a pint of pale ale to wash this away with...! Just horrible, imo.


Summary/cliff notes. Hits & misses. Not shy with the hops and a couple of great flavourful & distinctive ales in their selection.

PS: My prime rib with Belgian Abbey ale went down a treat.

[MrWookie]

Nice report. I'm def. curious about the can/tap/bottle comparison if you do it.

[JPinAZ]

This isn't a proper review, as I'm just a bit buzzed ATM. In any case, if you happen to have the chance to get a bottle of Vicroy 12, be sure to buy it. It's a very tasty Belgian quad style ale. And at 12%/vol, if you're going to finish the bottle yourslef be sure you don't drink anything else or you have a DD. SWMBO will complain about me snoring tonight for sure.

Edit: Just checked Beer Advocate & it appears that V-12 has been bottle as recently as last August. The bottle I had was bottled in April 2004.

[steelcmg]

[ QUOTE ]
This isn't a proper review, as I'm just a bit buzzed ATM. In any case, if you happen to have the chance to get a bottle of Vicroy 12, be sure to buy it. It's a very tasty Belgian quad style ale. And at 12%/vol, if you're going to finish the bottle yourslef be sure you don't drink anything else or you have a DD. SWMBO will complain about me snoring tonight for sure.

Edit: Just checked Beer Advocate & it appears that V-12 has been bottle as recently as last August. The bottle I had was bottled in April 2004.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a awesome beer... But it is very rich and will take a good while to finish the 750 ml bottle. I goto victory 3-4 times a month and usually get a bottle to bring home. It runs about 7$ for the bottle and they have a 2 beer max while drinking at the brewery.

If you happen to get a hold of another bottle of this try and let it get about room temp it will taste much better this way.

[MrWookie]

These are the same guys who put out the Weizen Bock and the Storm King? Dang. They're in NY along w/ me, and I don't think I've seen this one in BotW, in spite of them having a lot of the rest of their beer available. I'll look next time I'm there, though.

[ScottieK]

Interesting article my gf sent me.

http://men.msn.com/articlemh.aspx?cp...767&page=1

32 things to do with beer. I'm also anticipating the arrival of my Mr. Beer home brew kit any day now. Trip report will come of course.

ScottieK