New Year and New Beers!

New Year and New Beers!

Ahhh, where to begin after over a year of not blogging my adventures in the beer aisles.  

Over the past year I have not stopped drinking, that's for sure, and I have not stopped searching for the next amazing beer.  In fact, I started brewing more complex beers, improved my specialty martini making, and cooked some kick ass meals for my family.  

Even with all the brewing, cooking, and drinking I still felt like I was missing something.  Then it hit me like a 12% beer, well maybe two 12% beers.  I am a seasoned drinker ya know.  I needed to blog!! I needed to blog NOW damn it!  But what beer should I start with?  I have had countless beers in the past year!  I decided to give you not one review but two reviews.  Oh, and not just an 

'Hey check this beer out this week" review.  I decided to review my most memorable beers of 2014 which happened to be in one crazy night! 

 Avery Brewing - Pump(KY)n - 16.54% ABV

Evil Twin Brewing - I Love You With All My Stout - 12% ABV

When I first opened Pump(KY)n the aroma

drifting out of the bottle was that of bourbon and spices.  Both of which I expected and welcomed.  It poured a dreamy mahogany color with a minimal head that quickly dissipated back into the glass.

Pump(KY)n was very boozy, but not like OMG I just burned a hole in my throat boozy, but a dang that was boozy and I am going to be a hot mess soon.  Once I got past the initial burn, I was able to taste a few of the usual suspects in a bourbon barrel aged pumpkin porter.  The cinnamon, allspice, and bourbon were up front and well balanced.  Pump(KY)n finished with a smooth vanilla sweetness. 

Before I get into my review of I Love You With All My Stout I want to give you a little background info on the beer.  First of all this is brewed by an incredible gypsy brewer from Denmark named Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergso.  He brews his beers under the name of Evil Twin Brewing in 10 of the best breweries in the world.  Yes, you read that right folks!  Jeepe is a gypsy brewer that travels the globe to make the best and funkiest beers around.    

These are just a few of the beers I have had over the years.  

You can see all his beers online at eviltwin.dk.  

If you were lucky enough to have ANY of these gems you would appreciate the effort I took in photographing them so I could look back and sigh.  Sigh...

I Love You With All My Stout was brewed with the same recipe as Even More Jesus (totally lives up to it's name) so I just had to give this a try.  Besides we could always use a little more Love and Jesus in our life right?

The smell wafting from the glass did resemble EMJ but I think this had a little more of a sweeter cherry like aroma to it, which showed up in the flavor.  It was not an overwhelming cherry taste, in fact it was just in the back end of the sip.  Along with the cherry flavor I picked up some vanilla, coffee, and sweet malts.  I Love You rang up at a 12% ABV but did not show up on my palate.  It was smooth with absolutely no burn or overwhelming boozy taste. 

I highly recommend you contacting your local beer enabler to see if this beer is available in your area.  I am not lucky enough to live in an area that sells Evil Twin but I am lucky to have a brother that shares his prized bounties with me.  

Happy Beer Hunting my friends!

Cheers!

Kathleen