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

Eat, Pour, Love

I am sure you all have many questions as to where the hell have I been.  Maybe you are concerned that I am in a 12 step program or maybe you lost yet another friend to the cult called Pinterest!  Damn you crockpot meals and cakepops! 

Instead I was on my own quest to find the perfect beer.  It took me months to find the beer truly worthy of my blog post.  The one that blew my mind and made me want to pray to the beer gods at Wine Works to order me more.  It was almost my version of the movie where Julia Roberts travels all over the gods green earth to find the meaning of her life.  Pfffttt, the furthest I had to travel was the shit shoot called the Schuylkill to find my true meaning of beer. 

Here are just a few of the beer quests I conquered...

Harpoon Brewery

Harpoon Winter Warmer- 5.5% ABV

  One of my go to winter beers. Extremely smooth and it is a beer you can drink all day long.  We loved it so much that we went through 3 sixtels at home!  True story.

Dogfish Head Brewery

Burton Baton- 10% ABV

 This beer had an IBU of 75...I almost tore out my tongue in a feverish attempt to stop the hops from destroying all of my precious taste buds. God I hate hops. I have nothing else to say about this abomination.

Flying Dog Brewery

The Fear - Imperial Pumpkin Ale- 9% ABV

 Not a bad fall/winter brew.  The copper colored ale had a faint aroma of brown sugar and spices.  I served this in a tulip glass rimmed with cinnamon and sugar.  I believe it just made the beer complete.

Clown Shoes 

Blaecorn Unidragon - 12.5% ABV

Holy!!!!  If you can find this sex in a bottle...BUY IT!!! Jet black and sweet smell of chocolate, licorice, and malts rising to up past the dreamy caramel head. Sweet Jesus this was amazing!

Left Hand Brewery

Milk Stout Nitro - 6% ABV

Growing up one of the first rules you learn about carbonated drinks is you do not shake them before opening, unless you want to be a dick and give someone else to open.  Now forget that rule when you buy this brew. You are suppose to give it a good shake, or a heavy pour to get the perfect cascading.  Sweet smells of brown sugar, vanilla, and a hint of coffee rolls over your tongue. Nice stuff.

Mikkeller Brewery

Beer Geek Breakfast - 7.5% ABV

Ryan had this brew chilled and waiting for me on one of our visits.  What a well balanced beer.  It had the bitterness of coffee and the sweetness of vanilla.  

Goose Island Brewery

Bourbon County Stout - 15% ABV (yeah you read that right!)

Oh...My...God.  You definitely have to share this someone unless you want to flop on the floor.  Maybe that is what you want to achieve, but reaching for another beer from the floor does pose a bit of a challenge. Just sayin'.

Now...for my final review, which was another pick by Ryan. 

This is the beer that completed my soul searching. 

Hold onto your pints my friends because this beer will knock you into next Thursday!  

Westbrook Brewing Company & Evil Twin Brewery

Mini Growler - 12% ABV

I had never heard of Westbrook Brewing Company but if Evil Twin is part of the collaboration it has to be good.  Evil Twin by far is probably one of the few breweries that consistently releases a great beer. 

Just the picture should be enough...dark and dreamy!  Once poured it produced an inviting mocha colored head with excellent lacing. I could not pick up one aroma but I did get a mix of coffee, chocolate , and some toffee. What a flavor and texture.  It was not overly carbonated and  even with the high alcohol it was not harsh or boozy.  A perfect collaboration...a perfectly balanced beer...and a perfect ending to my journey.

Cheers!

~K~