It’s Saint Patrick’s Day weekend! And, for the next three nights, my wife and I will be tasting four different beers! We’re on Day 2!
So, please, go get your favorite beverage, sit down, kick back and enjoy as we do our tasting!
Our first beer is…
BEER: Smooth Ride (Foreign Extra Stout)
BREWERY: Del Cielo Brewing Company – Martinez, CA
ABV: 7%
MATT: 4/5
DANIELLE: 4/5
LOOK: Dark like mud
SCENT: Coffee, chocolate, soda bread, yeast
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Slightly thick mouthfeel, dark chocolate, coffee, and toasted malts
FINAL REFLECTIONS: This is a great lead-off to Day 2 of the tasting with dark chocolate and coffee goodness with a hint of sweetness on the end. Toasted malts compliment it very well. This is the complex beer Guinness should have been.
BEER: Calf-eine Coffee Milk Stout
BREWERY: Half Moon Bay Brewing Company – Half Moon Bay, CA
ABV: 7.3%
MATT: 3.75/5
DANIELLE: 3.75/5
LOOK: Dark like mud
SCENT: Coffee, chocolate, burnt toast
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Slightly thick mouthfeel, lactose, cream, coffee/latte
FINAL REFLECTIONS: This is like drinking a carbonated latte without any sort of vanilla or sweet cream attached to it. Nice slightly dark coffee flavor on it — but it lacks the overall complexity Smooth Ride had.
BEER: ¡Viva La Beaver! (Mexican Chocolate-Peanut Butter Stout
BREWERY: Belching Beaver Brewery – Oceanside, CA
ABV: 7.5%
MATT: 4/5
DANIELLE: 4.25/5
LOOK: Dark like mud
SCENT: Peanuts, soda, yeast slight hint of coffee
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Thick mouthfeel. Chocolate with a slight hint of peanut butter
FINAL REFLECTIONS: Interesting taste. Like drinking a dark chocolate Reese’s cup. The beer is thick, almost chewy, just like peanut butter. The only thing I don’t understand is that Mexican Chocolate is supposed to have some sort of chili pepper kick on the end of it and I am not getting that at all, so calling it “Mexican Chocolate” is a bit of a misnomer. Still, this is a tasty stout and very unique.
BEER: The Ale of Two Tun Imperial Stout
BREWERY: Hermitage Brewing Company – San Jose, CA
ABV: 9%
MATT: 3/5
DANIELLE: 2.75/5
LOOK: Dark like mud
SCENT: Coffee/chocolate
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Slightly thick mouthfeel. Coffee and dark chocolate but that’s about it.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: This just has a coffee/chocolate flavor profile like the others and, compared to the others, it lacks the overall complexity of the other beers in this tasting. Hermitage, by the way, closed in January of this year. So long, Hermitage. We hardly knew ye.
FINAL THOUGHTS: A slightly better tasting than last night with a great lead-off beer and a fun one in the Mexican Chocolate/Peanut Butter beer…and tomorrow’s flavors are gonna hit us harder.
HEAR OUR FINAL THOUGHTS:
TOMORROW: The conclusion of our Saint Patrick’s Day beer tasting where we start with a 9% ABV and end with a 14%. Should be insane. Join us!