Vermont Beer for You!

usa-welcome-signs-vermontIn a week’s time, I’ll be leaving my loving and understanding wife and child at home for the mountains of Vermont with my partners in beer for a Viking-level beer pillaging (I promise the villages and woman will remain pillage free, probably). Over the course of 4 days and 16 hours of driving, we’ll be hitting many of the 40+ breweries that make it the great state of IPAs. The residents of Burlington, Waterbury, Montpelier and many locations in between (looking at you Hill Farmstead) may notice a significant dip in their beer reserves. I plan on documenting the beer, locations, and people we meet on the way, but how does this benefit you?

Well, in an effort to pay it all forward to readers of my blog, I’ll be sharing the wealth of my travels. As I don’t know what and how much I’ll actually be able to acquire, that will remain as a TBA. But, the idea is to bundle one each of several different beers (say, Heady Topper, Second Fiddle, and Sip o’ Sunshine) and trade them to beer enthusiasts in a 1:1 ratio. I’m not being precious here, so I’m willing to trade for just about anything as long as I haven’t had it and you think it’s good (for the full list, check my Untappd – DrewsBrewsReviews). The goal is to try some new beers and to help out fellow beer lovers with a couple high profile brews fresh from the source.

Woodstock-VermontThis is open to anyone that follows my blog (twitter, facebook, whatever). I’ll provide further details once I’m back with my full haul. If this appeals to you, get in touch so I can gauge the level of interest and figure out where to spend my money. Prost!

Drinking an 18-Year-Old Barleywine, or (The Effects of Aging Beer)

Anyone that is into properly aged beer, whether they dabbled with a 6-month-old stout or curate a beer cellar going back decades, can tell you the exact beer that started it all for them. For me, it was a 2009 Avery Mephistopheles I drank in 2012. The velvety mouth feel, mellowed booze, smoothed out bitterness, and heightened caramel made it a near perfect experience.

Since then, I’ve cultivated a small, but hand-picked, group of beers that I look forward to diving into soon, because really what’s the point of aging beer if they’re just going to be unearthed in the year 2145 by the roving hordes of Lord Humongous and converted to fuel. I intend to enjoy them while civilization and I still stand.

With that in mind, I delve deeper into my hobby of not drinking beer and secluding it in the dark like Paul Dano in Prisoners, and turn to the studies of smarter men than me to determine just what is going on inside that bottle. To apply this knowledge, I also drink an 18-year-old Barleywine to taste nearly two decades worth of science. Here’s what I found.

Continue reading “Drinking an 18-Year-Old Barleywine, or (The Effects of Aging Beer)”