New beers I had in 2013

Below are my recent additions to the QRG page of some of the new beers I tried in 2013 -- 2014 update coming soon (sad, right?!): 

Allagash Bourbon Barrel Black - 9.20%: B
Allagash Curieux (Bourbon Barrel-Aged Tripel) - 11.00%: A-
Allagash White - 5.00%: C+
Alesmith Evil Dead Red - 6.66%: B+
Ballast Point Fathom India Pale Lager - 6.80%: B
Bear Republic Cafe Racer 15 - 9.75%: B+
Big Elm 413 Farmhouse Ale - 6.00%: C+
Big Elm Gerry Dog Stout - 6.50%: C+
Big Elm IPA - 7.00%: C+
Blue Point Summer Ale - 4.40%: C
Boulevard / Sierra Nevada Terra Incognita - 8.00%: B-
Brash Smoglifter - 10.00%: B+
Brauerei Aying Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock - 6.70%: B+
The Bruery Bois - 15.00%: A-
The Bruery Five Golden Rings - 11.50%: B
Brouwerij Duvel Duvel - 8.50%: B
Cigar City Florida Cracker Belgian-style White Ale - 5.00%: B- 
Cigar City Good Gourd Imperial Pumpkin Ale - 8.50%: C
Cigar City Hotter Than Helles Lager - 5.00%: B-
Cigar City Hunahpu's Imperial Stout - 11.00%: A-
Cigar City Patio Pils - 5.50%: B+
Cigar City Tocobaga Red Ale - 7.40%: B+
Cisco Island Reserve: Rumple Drumkin - 6.00%: D
Clown Shoes Porcine Unidragon - 12.50%: B+
Clown Shoes Very Angry Beast - 11.50%: B
Coors Third Shift Amber Lager - 5.30%: C
Cricket Hill American Ale - 5.00%: C
Cricket Hill East Coast Lager - 4.00%: C+
Dark Horse Artic Dekoorc Eert - 6.50%: A-
Dark Horse Edacsac Dekoorc Eert - 6.50%: B
Dark Horse FF Dekoorc Eert - 6.50%: B-
Deschutes Black Butte XXIV - 11.00%: B+
Elysian Dragonstooth Oatmeal Stout - 7.50%: B
Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break Bourbon Barrel Aged - 11.50%: A-
Evil Twin Yang - 10.00%: B
Evil Twin Yin - 10.00%: B+
FiftyFifty Imperial Eclipse Stout - Heaven Hill Rittenhouse Rye - 9.50%: B+
Firestone Walker Firestone 17 - 13.30%: A+
Firestone Walker Velvet Merkin - 8.50%: B+
Florida Beer Co Swamp Ape IPA - 10.00%: C+
Flying Fish HopFish IPA - 6.20%: B-
Flying Fish Farmhouse Summer Ale - 4.60%: C+
Foolproof Backyahd India Pale Ale - 6.00%: C+
Founders Mango Magnifico - 10.00%: C+
Founders Rubaeus - 5.70%: C+
Founders Sweet Repute - 12.60%: A-
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Barleywine - 12.10%: A
Goose Island Gillian - 9.50%: B+
Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti - 9.50%: A-
Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA - 7.50%: B+
Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter - 5.80%: B+
Heavy Seas Bourbon Barrel Aged Below Decks - 10.00%: B+
Hill Farmstead Everett Porter - 7.50%: A-
Hill Farmstead Susan - 6.20%: A
Hoppin' Frog B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal-Imperial Stout - 9.40%: B+
Ithaca Flower Power IPA - 7.50%: B
Jack's Abby 2nd Anniversary Lager - 8.00%: A
Jack's Abby Baby Maker - 14.00%: B+
Jack's Abby Framinghammer - 10.00%: A-
Jack's Abby Framinghammer Coffee - 10.00%: A-
Jack's Abby Framinghammer Vanilla - 10.00%: A-
Jack's Abby Mass Rising - 8.00%: A-
Jack's Abby Pro-Am Pilsner - 5.50%: B-
Jack's Abby / Lawson's Smoked Maple Lager - 6.00%: B
Lexington Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Stout - 8.00%: D
Long Trail Limbo - 7.50%: B
Lost Coast 8 Ball Stout - 6.30%: B
Maine Beer Co 2013 - 5.50%: B+
Maine Beer Co Another One - 7.00%: B+
Maine Beer Co Red Wheelbarrow - 7.00%: B+
Maine Beer Co Weez - 7.20%: B+
Maine Beer Co / Nogne O Collaboration Time III - 5.60%: B-
New Holland Oak Aged Mad Hatter IPA - 7.12%: B-
New Holland The Poet - 5.20%: B-
Newburyport Green Head IPA - 7.20%: B+
Newburyport Pale Ale - 5.50%: B-
Omnipollo Agamemnon - 12.50%: B+
Otter Creek / Lawson's Double Dose IPA - 8.50%: B+
Pretty Things Barbapapa Imperial Russian Stout - 12.00%: B+
Rogue Chocolate Stout - 6.00%: C+
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine-Whiskey Barrel-Aged - 12.20%: A-
Sierra Nevada DevESTATEtion - 6.70%: B+
Sierra Nevada Flipside Red IPA - 6.20%: B-
Sierra Nevada Northern Hemisphere Harvest Wet Hop Ale - 6.70%: B+
Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA - 7.20%: B
Speakeasy Prohibition Ale - 6.10%: B
Spencer Trappist Ale - 6.50%: B-
Stone 17th Anniversary Gotterdammerung IPA - 9.50%: B
Stone Crime - 9.60%: D
Stone Go To IPA - 4.50%: B+
Stone Saison Du BUFF - 7.70%: C+
Stone Spotlight Series: Sprocketbier Black Rye Kolsch - 5.40%: B
Stone Stochasticity Project Grapefruit Slam IPA - 8.20%: A-
Stone / 10 Barrel / Blue Jacket Suede Imperial Porter - 9.60%: B
Stone / Farking / Wheaton W00tstout - 13.00%: C+
Stone / Green Flash / Pizza Port Highway 78 Scotch Ale - 8.80%: B 
Stone / Robert & Ryan / Rip Current R&R Coconut IPA - 7.70%: B 
Terrapin Hop Karma - 6.00%: C+
Terrapin Hopsecutioner - 7.30%: B-
Terrapin Hopzilla - 10.70%: B
Terrapin Oaked Big Hoppy Monster - 10.30%: C+
Unibroue Maudite - 8.00%: B+
Victory DirtWolf - 8.70%: B
Victory White Monkey - 9.50%: B+

Recent sips of greatness

Below are my recent additions to the QRG page of some new beers I've tried over the last few months:

21st Amendment Lower De Boom - 11.50%: B
Allagash FV 13 - 8.90%: A-
Boulevard Grainstorm Black Rye IPA - 7.70%: B+
Brooklyn Silver Anniversary Lager - 9.00%: B- 
Dark Horse Thirsty Trout Porter - 7.00%: B 
Dogfish Head/Sierra Nevada Rhizing Bines - 8.00%: B- 
Evil Twin Even More Jesus - 12.00%: A-
Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break - 11.50%: A-  
Firestone Walker 16 - 13.00%: A+
Firestone Walker Pale 31 - 4.80%: B- 
Founders All Day IPA - 4.70%: B+
Founders Doom (Bourbon Barrel Aged) - 10.00%: A 
Jack's Abby The ABCS - 7.50%: B+ 
Jack's Abby Framinghammer Bourbon Barrel Aged Baltic Porter - 10.00: A+
Magic Hat Pistil - 4.50%: C
Mikkeller Invasion Farmhouse IPA - 8.00%: B-  
Mystic Lord Falconer - 5.40%: B
Night Shift Snow - 4.50%: C+
North Coast/Descutes/Rogue Class of 88' - 10.00%: B     
North Coast Old Rasputin XV (aged in Bourbon Barrels) - 11.90%: A
Ommegang Iron Throne - 6.50%: B- 
Otter Creek Russian Imperial Stout - 10.00%: B 
Smuttynose Noonan Black IPA - 5.70%: B
Stone/Aleman/Two Brothers Dayman Coffee IPA - 8.70%: B 
Stone Espresso Imperial Russian Stout - 11.00%: A   

Cheers!

Whale Hunting

The Hunt...

I've been thinking about this subject for a while and think I've finally figured out what drives me to search for rare and interesting beers...baseball cards.

This brings me back to when I was a kid hunting for baseball cards.  As a young Jersey boy, my favorite player was Gary Carter of the NY Mets.  Here's the thing though, I wasn't satisfied with having just the Gary Carter baseball cards I found in packs - I needed more, I had to have more.  I hunted down over 100 Gary Carter cards, pins, postcards, promotional inserts...you name it, I wanted it if it had good 'ole Carter on it. The whole process of finding a card I didn't have and couldn't just happen upon was a huge rush for me.  Over the years, this manifested in different ways - baseball cards as kid, CDs as a teen, and then rare beers as an adult.

In an age of having everything at your fingertips, there is something deeply satisfying for me in the hunt for a whale of a beer.  It's super easy to walk into a decent beer store and find good beer to drink, typically even something I haven't had before.  But, for me, the big payoff is in the hunt.  I've walked into many a good bottle shop and saw many unknown beers I'd never tried...but then left empty handed.  Why?  Because what I was looking for was more rare...something really special.

For me, finding and then enjoying a hard to find beer is simply awesome.  I still have my Gary Carter cards and I hope to build a great collection of rare beers - not too big though, what's the point of finding a beer and not drinking it?  I love the look on friends faces when I pop open something they've never heard of or even better, have heard of and know how tough it was to find!

So to all of you wondering why beer geeks like me try so hard to hook a whale, maybe they're like me and just can't help it!

Cheers & happy fishing :)

Top Beers of 2012

Happy New Year and Cheers to you all!  I've had a very eventful last few weeks as my first child was born on Christmas day. Max is wonderful but has flipped my world upside down.   I will do all I can to post on a more frequent basis now that he's arrived.  Also, I hope to get my Beer of the Week back up & running soon. 

Here is a quick rundown of the most memorable beers I had for the first time in 2012 (alphabetical order):

Alchemist Heady Topper
Avery Uncle Jacob’s Stout
Avery Hog Heaven 
Bootlegger’s Knuckle Sandwich 
Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad 
The Bruery Fruet  
The Bruery Melange No 3
Cigar City Marshal Zhukov's Imperial Stout
Dark Horse Plead the 5th Imperial Stout
Firestone Walker Double Jack
Firestone Walker Sucaba
Founders Bolt Cutter
Great Divide Barrel Aged Yeti
Hair of the Dog Blue Dot
Hair of the Dog Fred 
Hoppin Frog Barrel Aged Naked Evil
La Trappe Quad
Les Trois Mosquettaires Grande Cuvee Porter     
Mayflower Imperial Stout
Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel
North Coast Old Rasputin XII
Port Older Viscosity
Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Fritz & Ken's Ale
Stone Enjoy by 12.21.12
Smuttynose Ry(e)an
Three Floyds Arctic Panzer Wolf
Westvleteren 12
 
Cheers and I look forward to some great new beers in 2013!

New material coming soon..

Just to let my loyal followers know, new material will be coming soon.  I've had lots of good beer lately and will be sure to share some of my thoughts on them.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Cheers & I leave you with a quick shot of my beer haul from our recent California trip: