Tasting Notes: Beer-Geekin' Out

[old unposted notes from 03/28/09]

There I was, sitting at my desk, wrapping up my day and week (I'm taking a couple days off), and I decided to cap off the day at work by heading downstairs to the Bistro. It's not like I didn't know we were going to have some special beers available for the evening. On Tuesday, I heard about the plan for Stone release five "pilot beers" on Thursday night ( http://blog.stonebrew.com/?p=781 ). I arranged with the family to have a late evening so I could drop by the Bistro and taste them. I had no idea what I was heading into.

I got downstairs before the crowd had rushed in and ordered up a "flight" of "tasters". Here's what the bartender handed over:

• Pilot #1 Stone Imperial Red Ale
• Pilot #2 Imperial Porter (a strong porter)
• Pilot #3 Belgian Porter with Vanilla Bean and Tangerine Peel
• Pilot #4 Peated Scotch Ale
• Pilot #5 Everything but the Kitchen Sink Stout

I took a seat near the brewery windows with some coworkers. I proceded to enjoy what I was thinking was the only beer I would have that night, sharing a few sips here or there with a friend. With the last beer in hand (Pilot #5), I decided to step out to the patio for some fresh air and to see what was going on at the outside bar.

Things got more interesting when I realized that this was the eve of the next big collaboration beer we were brewing. So this was the "Pilot-palooza" and "Collaboraton Eve" that was blogged about earlier in the day. I saw Will Meyers from Cambridge Brewing Co.--we had met briefly near the coffee pot that morning--talking with Mitch Steele (our head brewer). I walked over and said "hi" and listened in on the "shop talk". A short while into the conversation, Dr. Bill came over and handed us all glasses of something that looked rather murky. "The pilot" he said and jumped back behind the bar to get a few more glasses worth as realization dawned on me. This was the pilot for the Juxtaposition Black Lager! Excellent! I took a deep smell. Interesting aromas. The flavor was just as interesting even if the beer looked a bit "milky".

A few guys from Production and Distribution were working out the kinks in a mobile draft system... Will brought along a pair of kegs to share! The keg system was fixed and Will started pulling tasters off the system:

• Cambridge The Wind Cried Mari (a gruit... that is a beer made without hops... simply excellent)
  http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/cambridge-the-wind-cried-mari/30454/
• Cambridge YouEnjoyMyStout Russian Imperial Stout (but he aged this batch in an oak barrel for 4 years so it was equally great and was taking on an interesting "funk")
  http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/cambridge-youenjoymystout-russian-imperial-stout/43129/

What an evening it was turning out to be.

James Watt of BrewDog was also in the crowd, easy to distinguish with his Scottish accent and a collection of the local beer community around him. He too was sharing a few beers he brought along from Scotland... here's what I think he shared:

• Zephyr... er... Zephyr Raspberry? A slightly different version that what they normally do.
  http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/brewdog-zephyr/95790/
• Hardcore IPA with a slightly different hop quantity and variety. James said "this is what we wanted to do originally"
  http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/brewdog-hardcore-ipa/76701/
• Paradox "the I couldn't hear the specific release James Watt mentioned" variation, but it was just pulled from a whiskey barrel before he jumped on a plane in Scotland and made his way to the brewery in Escondido. It was "still" and the very first bottle opened from that barrel... what a treat.
  http://www.ratebeer.com/brewers/brewdog/8534/ (pick your favorite Paradox)
• and finally Old IPA... but not just any old IPA. He said it was based off a 200 year old recipe and then...
  http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/brewdog-old-ipa/98459/
  

The event and beers were awesome... simply freakin' awesome. It was an incredible evening.

Oh, and there was a video shot during the two days surrounding the brew:

In case you don't know:

• A "pilot beer" is a small batch of beer brewed up by professional brewers to test out a recipe.
• A "flight" is a series of beers to be tasted, sometimes lined up in a particular order
• A "taster" is about 4oz or less served in an equally small glass... not to be confused with...
• A "sampler" which can be as much as 8oz per serving
(

but these are my observations... your mileage may vary.)