Smuttynose tasting

Rustico in Ballston had a Smuttynose event with beers previously unavailable in the area and the brewer in attendance. Five minutes before 5:00 I escaped from the office and ran home so I could get a decent seat for this lineup. After a bike ride home and a refreshing shower I was able to get a seat at the bar not much after 5:45.

My first round I got a full serving of the Smuttynose A'muttonator '08. It is a dunkles doppelbock at 9.6% ABV. I’m a fan of dunkle beers which is a big reason why I started with this one. Then I noticed a dunkles doppelbock from Duck-Rabbit so I ordered a sample of the Duck-Rabbitor which comes in at 8.5% for a comparison.

For the next round I got three sample size tastings of strong ales. There was the New Holland Beethoven Triple at 9%. And the Epic Brainless on Cherries which is a Belgian strong ale with cherries at 10.8%. And the third one was the Smuttynose Homuculus '11. It is a Belgian strong blonde at 9% and is the debut of this beer in Virginia.

The third round was another mix of samples. First was the Smuttynose Wheat Wine at 12% ABV. It was a great beer, quite mellow; I didn’t taste any alcohol at all. The Smuttynose Gravitation '09 was another good one. There are 200 lbs of raisin puree added to each batch which provided that grape taste. I thought the raisins and aging brought out a very wine like character. The third was the Smuttynose Imperial Stout at 10.1%. It was dry hopped with Cascade pellets then matured with Cascade & Columbus whole flowers. It was very good, hard to say why, maybe because it is a dark beer without the roasted aftertaste?

The last round was an Oskar Blues G'Knight Imperial Red/Double IPA at 8.7% ABV. It was on cask which made it that much better. The Oskar Blues beers are full of favor and I assume they all would taste great from a cask.

Before I left I noticed Tom hanging out at the bar who used to hook me up at my local Whole Foods. I haven’t seen him for awhile and it sounds like he is inbetween jobs. He said if he hooks up the job he is lining up I’ll get 30% off my beer in the future. I’m crossing my figures for him!