beer at Rustico

As I sometimes like to do I hit Rustico in Ballston after work for a pint and some dinner. Of course being a fine beer bar with an excellent selection it is hard to just have one. It is not on the menu anymore but their NY Strip with garlic and mashed potatoes was yummy.

I started out with the Starr Hill Boxcar Pumpkin Porter which is a traditional English-style Brown Porter with pumpkin added to the mash. I liked it because it was a light stout and didn’t have that roasted malt or coffee flavors. The pumpkin came out in the aftertaste. Like many of the preacher man’s beers it is a good one.

I also had one from New Belgium’s Lips of Faith series called Kick. I had this during the New Belgium beer dinner. I think I should let the brewers describe it...

New Belgium and Elysian are together again with Kick, a rich and tart pumpkin cranberry ale blended with wood-aged beer for a uniquely complex harvest season sour. The russet and orange of autumn shimmer through a slight haze like sunlight through the smoke from burning leaves. The taste and texture of pumpkin give way to the refreshing tang of cranberries and critters, satisfying and exciting with each swallow, finishing with an urge for more. 

Kim brought sour from New Belgium; Dick brought pumpkin from Elysian. You’ll get a Kick out of their collaboration. 

When they mention critters it reminds me of how Greg described the Liefmans Goudenband I got awhile ago. This was quite the complex beer. I didn’t taste the cranberry so much or the pumpkin. I wonder if it was served too cold. The sourness of those critters came through the most for me. I’d like to try it again.

They had both the Stone 15th Anniversary Ale and the Stone Sublimely Self Rightous. The latter was originally the 11th Anniversary Ale but it was so popular they made it a year round brew. It is one of my favorite beers. When I’ve shared it with friends I get similar reactions. But now they brewed this Escondidian Imperial Black IPA for their 15th Anniversary Ale. Seems to me to be an imperial version of the Sublimely which is fine by me. This is a wonderful beer. One of my favorites ever. You have to drink it fresh. I’m in to fresh hop beer these days. And this wonderful black IPA is the gift that keeps on giving that Stone’s co-founder often talks about. I’ll have to go back to the Sublimely some day when the 15th Anniversary is gone but I’ll wait awhile so I forget what I’m missing.

The last beer I had was a Weyerbach Fresh Harvest. Did I mention I like fresh hops? It was pretty good. Excellent maybe on some other occasion. Craft beer drinkers are getting spoiled these days and its great. I had a few harvest ales or fresh hop beers this hop harvest season. I’m looking forward to them getting more popular as it becomes possible for more breweries to get their hands on fresh hops. Those yummy sticky dank hop buds.