Father's Day Beer Sampling

Father's day was a few weekends, but we celebrated it the week prior with a small family get-together and BBQ. While the kids were running around in the living room, the "men folk" sneaked into the dining room with 6 different beers for a round of beer shots. Most of them were pleasant, some were different and a couple were just bad.

The Lineup

To be honest, I'm staring at the photo of the bottles and I know which ones I really enjoyed (Colette and Twilight) and which one was the worst (St. Ambroise Vintage), but I find myself having a hard time remembering the Yakima Wheat Ale and Creamy Dark. Note to self, take notes while sampling... So, let's try to do this with what I can remember.

Great Divide's Colette Farmhouse Ale was the big winner of the batch. Being a Farmhouse Ale, it has a great sweetness to it with just the right touch of sour to balance it out. Also had nice hints of wheat. Amazing aroma and beautiful color too. I really like the how different the Farmhouse Ales / Saisons are and find myself enjoying them greatly.

Deschutes Twilight Summer Ale was my second favorite. Very light and mildly fruity. I can't quite place the fruit though, but it added just the right amount of sweetness to it to balance the hops. My first guess was grapefruit, but I'm not so sure now. Anyways, if there is a such thing as a "light" craft beer, this would be it. It's a great beer that I could see myself drinking a couple of; refreshing.

This was the beer we actually saved for last to open, but it's next in my photo so I'll jump to the least liked next. That "honor" went to McAuslan Brewing's St-Ambroise Vintage Ale 2009. We were getting ready to leave Brown Derby and I saw a barrel with clearance beers. This one caught my eye and I picked up the can the bottle was in. It had an original price of $6.99 marked down to $2.99. I can't pass up a deal, so I grabbed it as well. Opened it up and first wiff said booze. First taste said booze. Aftertaste said booze. All I could taste was booze. Blech! To be fair, there was a nice malty taste underneath it all, but I guess I just don't care for the liquor taste to be that strong. Since the beer is 3 years old by this time, I'm sure that number has increased beyond the 9.8% on the bottle too.

Leinenkugel's Creamy Dark is one of the ones I don't remember a lot about. I recall a nice malty flavor, but not much else.

Second from the bottom of the list was Arcadia Ales Cereal Killer Barleywine Ale. Another bottle at 10% abv, the booze was the prominent flavor. Luckily, it wasn't as overpowering as the Vintage nor as bad as the previous Arcadia beer I had. This one had some depth to it; a dark fruitiness. In fact, the glass in the photo has this beer in it. The only reason I put it at the bottom is because of the booze taste. I don't mind a high abv, but I don't want it to taste like it prominently.

And that brings us to the last beer in the selection, Schlafly's Yakima Wheat Ale. I've had several of Schlafley's beers and I have enjoyed them all. Still do. Yakima Wheat Ale is light in color and heavy on flavor. Great wheat and hops taste await under a very thick head. The head just about overflowed the glasses! It was a bit drier than the others but balanced well. Just the right amount of sweetness to it as well.

So now we're caught up with three weeks ago... Still behind! Oh well. I'll keep drinking the good stuff anyways. Until next time, happy drinking!