5) King Wally’s Belgian Quad — A self-serving promotion of my barely competent brewing skeellz. It’s light taste belies the powerful 12% abv it packs. Certainly not as complex as most Belgian style ales, but it cost less than $3 a 22oz bottle.
4) Pike Brewery Monk’s Uncle – To be fair, this beer probably doesn’t make the list except for the circumstances. Time after time, no matter what was going on, the Pike Brewery was our #1 meet up place. And why not – you can have a pretty decent Belgian Tripel for just $5. In these hard economic times, a dollar saved on one beer can then later be applied to the next beer.
3) Jester King’s Wytchmaker Rye IPA – If you like hops and then more hops with an additional helping of hops on top of more hops, this is your beer.
2) Avery’s Depuceleus — Apparently the name refers to a woman that deflowers men. I have no response to that, but to say this is the tastiest beer I may have ever had. When the cicerone at The Meddlesome Moth described it as a Lambic aged in zinfandel casks with cherries, I was expecting something sickeningly sweet like a Framboise. This was a delicately balance sour beer with just the right amount of cheery. Avery made a painfully limited supply of this beer. So if you didn’t get to try it, well, maybe in another life.
1) Love & Squalor Pinot Noir – I’ll just plagiarize my review of the Farm Café – “Although a bit on the sweet side, it was full of great noiry flavor and the aroma was amazing. It may be the one wine I would rather smell than drink but not because it tastes bad. It just smells that good.”
The Summer of Steve
‘Cause how you get there is the worthier part.