Beer Diary - Mike

Before considering the first review, readers should be aware that I was recently bit by a (possibly) rabid dog and now have (possibly) heightened animal senses.

31 March 08 Location: Home



Victory Storm King Imperial Stout - Purchased at a liquor store in Fairview Heights, Illinois (thanks, STLHops). This one is a ratebeer 100 - surely a beer not to be missed, right? I've written about dark beers before, but I don't think I've ever come across one this dark. A black as paint body supports a thin moon surface of a head. Nose of sweet chocolate milk with just a tiny hint of alcohol. There's not so much a front to this beer as a full on flavor assault - a little bitter on the front of the tongue, but mainly a roasty whole-mouth chocolate flavor. There's a little bit of a tight alcohol and lingering hop bite on the back end. This is a very good beer, but not the sort of flavor enigma that are many highly ranked stouts. Unlike Matt, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy this again.

1 March 08 Location: Home

Kasteel Rouge - A "Belgian Ale with Cherries and Cherry Juice Added". Cream soda body with a cherry Tootsie Pop flavor - complete with hints of that Tootsie Pop center. My notes say "give this to kids, they'll love it." That's a joke.

Lindeman's Kreik Lambic - When drinking cherry beer with children, why not have a comparison? We called over the neighborhood delinquents and got them trashed on this stuff. A finger of head on the light red body - a hint of that lambic funkiness, and light on the tongue. We really didn't get any kids drunk. Cats? I plead the fifth.

25 February 08 Location: Home



Aventinus Weizen Eisbock - Eisbocks are a high alcohol version of the weizenbock style - beers frozen to remove that pesky water from the beer, leaving more alcohol and flavor per volume.

A huge fizzy head sits on a sweet tea body - lots of floaties (leftover yeast) in this bubbly and active bodied brew. A belgian-like sweet bubblegum nose, with just a hint of nailpolish lead to a sweet carmelly body. You may have noticed that this beer was sweet - perhaps the sweetest I've ever had. Definitely worth revisiting - this is a beer we need to roundtable.