Strong Ale Tasting

Instead of hosting the Strong Ale Tasting two days in a row they smartened up this year and scheduled them a week apart. I was out of the country last week of course but made the second tasting last night. I heard last week was only half full but tonight was oversold I think.  They had to bust out new tables. The first Strong Ale Tasting I went to topped off with the Dogfish Head 120 IPA at something north of 18% alcohol. I swear we had one or two others way up there as well. It was a high alcohol night and I walked out very unsober from just the 10 tastings. The beers last night ranged from just 6% - 13%. It was nonetheless a good lineup. And a sign of the progression of the craft beer industry when you are complaining about the alcohol being at “just 6% - 13%”.  

Brewery	Beer	Percentage
Capitol City Capitol Hill	Biere de Garde (on cask)	7.5% - 8%
Bavarian Barbarian	First Snow Ale	7.5% - 7.6%
Rock Bottom Brewery Bethesda	Atom Smasher (barleywine)	9.2%
Vintage 50	Devil’s Dew (Belgium strong golden ale)	9%
Starr Hill	Northern Lights IPA	6%
St. George Brewing Company	India Pale Ale batch no. 11	?
Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Brewing Company	Deep Pockets	8.5%
Johanssons	Alfa Bomb (double IPA)	8%
Devil’s Backbone	Wood Aged Dead Bear Imperial Stout	8.5%
District Chop House	Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine	13%

They attempted to order the beers on hoppiness and/or alcohol content. Bob Tupper hosted as is usual at the Brickskeller events.  

The first sample, Capitol City’s Biere de Garde, was a farmhouse style that they served from a keg at the tasting last week. Some folks at my table seemed to like this cask version better.  

Mike Hiller got tired of working for the man and decided to open his own brewery in Williamsport PA called the Bavarian Barbarian. He said they have only been open 14 months and the First Snow Ale was his first spiced beer.  

The locally celebrated Geoff Lively from Rock Bottom in Bethesda brought his barleywine: the Atom Smasher. It was a bit young from being tapped many months earlier than usual but was still rather balanced and should come out well in the end.  

The fourth sample was from Bill Madden who is working at Vintage 50. He brought out a Belgium style strong golden ale called Devil’s Dew. You could taste the alcohol at 9% but it wasn’t overly strong. He is going to open (reopen?) his brewery, Mad Fox Brewing, in Falls Church in the not near future.  

Mark Thompson of Starr Hill gave his usual sermon and dropped quite a few F bombs. He had the lowest alcohol content of them all and tried to talk up the other BIG aspects of his Northern Lights IPA. Apparently it was called “Stinky” during some earlier versions but the feds didn’t seem to appreciate that much.

Another young brewer from St. George Brewing and Old Richmond Beer Company in Hampton VA brought up his India Pale Ale batch no. 11. He said he does one every couple years and one day each year they tap 2 or 3 of them (or more as they brew more) from different vintages to compare. He had a batch no. 9 but Magic Hat didn’t take too kindly to that and so they just turned their labels (expensive items for a small brewery) upside down and called it batch no. 6.

The host, Bob Tupper, is well known locally for his Hop Pocket Ale. When Old Dominion was purchased he lost his agreement with the brewery and it ceased to exist. At the tasting they announced that a new partnership was just finalized (that evening) with St. George Brewing and Hop Pocket Ale (and Pilsner?) will be brewed in the near future. Meanwhile Bob and his wife teamed up with Jason Oliver at Devil’s Backbone to brew an extreme version of Hop Pocket Ale they called Deep Pockets. Bob mentioned a new beer name he would like to use: Mother Tupper. He figures if he puts a picture of his mother on the label the feds can’t really argue with him.

The guy from Johanssons brought a double IPA called Alfa Bomb. He attempted to match his previous performance when he told the story of running between the toilet and the brewing kettles while making the beer for the last tasting but his jokes got more hisses than laughs.

Jason Oliver stepped back up and talked about his Wood Aged Dead Bear Imperial Stout brewed at the new Devil’s Backbone out in the hills of VA. This was very well balanced. He said he aged half of it in applewood and half in oak. They couldn’t decide which one they liked better so he blended them. It was tasty.

The last beer had the highest alcohol content at 13%. It was the Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine from the District Chop House. I’m not a fan of the bourbon barrel aged beers being that I don’t like bourbon but this was quite good. It could have been the fact that I drank 9 high-alcohol beers in the preceding two hours and my taste buds were not as picky. This beer was brewed in March of 2007 and put in the barrel after four months. I thought it aged quite nicely. I think they said the beer has won an award or two but their restaurant patrons don’t seem to like it so they have many kegs stashed away. It is an unfortunate dynamic that I’m sure most brewers at brewpubs have to deal with.

It was a good night of beer after drinking bland watered down rice beers in Colombia for two weeks. Dave from the Brickskeller announced a few events leading up to SAVOR that should be fun. Looking forward to a year of good swill.