Thanks to whole flower, dry hopping during the brewing process, the Mountain Standard Reserve is top 5 caliber. I've posted quite a few of these lately, so for the record it goes as follows.
1. THE Odell IPA
2. Stone's Ruination IPA
3. New Belgium's Mighty Arrow
4. Avery DuganA IPA
5. New Belgium's Fat Tire - IN A CAN.
Explanations:
1. The Odell IPA is the paradigm of all IPA's. It is what an IPA should be. Go try it, get passed the bitter and enjoy the citrusy, flowery and almost sweet characteristic it has. It's like biting an orange peel, without the intense tart, and orange peels CLEARLY cannot get you drunk.
2. Stone's Ruination IPA is a palate conditioner. It's so bitter that if you drink it, then try ANY other beer. Whatever follows it will be amazing. "Bitter Beer" is not always bad beer. It just means it was brewed properly, without adulteration. The Stone Ruination IPA is why every brewmaster out around that tries to use a darker malt with an IPA should be flogged ruthlessly.
3. So ya have a Mighty Arrow. And another... and another... and another... and you still taste yummy Mighty Arrow, with a lick of honey. The honey isn't so dominant that it becomes a "Flavored beer" but it's enough that it keeps the Mighty Arrow the light beer with flavor. It's taste doesn't diminish much over the course of multiple beers, and it's not a heavy beer that leaves you feeling "water logged."
4. Avery makes mostly crappy beers. The DuganA IPA is an exception. It's nothing amazing, nothing special, but that's the point. It's a generically good IPA. Good citrus and hop presence without the dumbing down you find in IPA's brewed with darker malts. It's on here, A. Because it's the reason why a good IPA is a good IPA, and B. because it wasn't homogenized via some kind of dark malt.
5. Fat Tire in a can is the beer snob's MGD.
For whatever reason (I'm pretty sure it's psychosomatic) multiple beers can be had without feeling full, despite being a relatively heavy amber. Plus, there's an image to maintain. If we were caught drinking PBR, or Bud Light... how would we be perceived? (For those that don't infer sarcasm, THIS IS A JOKE.)
"So where does the Mountain Standard Reserve fall in if it's "Top 5 Caliber?""
Answer: Limited release beers don't go on the top 5, because there's a separate list. It's pointless to say "OMG the Stone Vertical Epic 07/07/07 was the best beer EVAR" when you can't even find it anymore.
(Psst, Here's how to make it.: http://www.stonebrew.com/epic/Wca61656df3afa.htm )
Now, despite the fact that the Stone Vertical Epic 07/07/07 may be fighting for the "Best Beer of All Time" title, those tastes are highly subjective. Could we call it the best of a particular TYPE of beer? Sure. But "best beer of all time" is really a bogus idea.
So, here's the next "top 5", of what's currently available. This list encompasses limited release specials available only in bombers, and is specifically excluding regularly available beers.
1. Odell India Barleywine (Barleywine, in effect)
2. Stone Vertical Epic 09/09/09 (Stout)
3. Odell Mountain Standard Reserve (Dark Pale Ale)
4. New Belgium Le Fleur, Misseur? (??? It's light, but hard to classify. It may actually be a Hefeweisen.)
5. Golden City Brewing Clear Creek Gold Pale Ale
1. It's an IPA brewed like a barley wine. The sweetness of the aging process involved in creating a barley wine combined with the dry, whole flowering hopping we've come to know Odell for, creates a beer that's more like orange soda with a spike. What makes it amazing is that it's clearly beer, has flavors that remind you of such, with a sweet citrus character that make you think of soda.
2. Ever have one of those Chocolate Oranges? Bottle that, and add a little bit of a vanilla taste, and you have the Stone Vertical Epic 090909. Stouts, in my eyes, are typically one in the same, with some mild variation in how much Coffee, Chocolate, or Vanilla tastes you get along with your excess of malt. To me, almost any good stout is one that explicitly denies the norm.
3. Here it is!
The Mountain Standard Reserve is an over-hopped (as expected from Odell) almost porter colored beer... without the heavy or the porter. The beer provides a bit of a piney character you'd expect from an IPA (particularly one brewed with Colorado's own Chinook Hops) and carries with it a great deal of the bitter, but the malt (well done, Doug) causes the beer to finish like a spiced ale. The combination of Pine and Spice doesn't really create the "christmas" feel you'd think it to, but it fits the bill of what you'd expect to enjoy on the western slope, where the hops originate.
I will say this for the first time here, but it's not the first time it's happened.
This is an almost-IPA brewed with dark malts, and it's DONE RIGHT. See, I'll accept a dark malted IPA, if it's done well. 95% of the time, it's not. The dark malt COMPLIMENTS the hop, instead of trying to mask it. The other situation this worked in, was a limited availability pilot beer available ONLY at the Odell Tap Room, called "Hop-Secret." - Hop Secret drove me nuts for weeks, if only because it was one of the few beers that was better closer to room temperature than it was cold.
4. Le Fleur... A. They wont' let you take it home in a bomber. B. I'm not sure what to call the beer. It has a flowery nose to it, with mild hints of pineapple, honey and lemongrass. - It's an anomaly, which is why it shows up here.
5. GCB's Clear Creek Pale Ale... is everything you want a wheat beer to be... except it's not a wheat beer. I theorize it's made with Rye, as it really embodies that wheat flavor, but it is a VERY pale, Pale ale. (Most are darker.) Downside is - It's hard to find... ANYWHERE. If you're in CO, you can probably get it at the brewery, and at Union Liquors. Technically this beer is not limited release, but it's on this list, because you probably can't find it.
So there's the beerupdate.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
The first post.
After some "strong encouragement" to set up a blog, here it is. This isn't going to be fancy as it doesn't need to be, but I will say a few things along with the disclaimer.
I intend to post what's going through my mind on this page. It will not be "Politically Correct." It will not be sensitive to social norms, or written to convey a facade about me. It will just be my happiness, my frustration, my joy and my sadness.
I've discovered recently that who I am, and who I want to be, should not be two different things. In my desire to become who I want to be, I've had to cross a number of old bridges. Some of which were burned by me, some of which were burned by the people standing on the other end. Some were never burned by anyone, others were reinforced as I crossed them. These are the bridges I aim to keep.
On this page, you'll likely find posts about beer, my car, political issues and more.
The song of the week is a song called "Life is Beautiful" which I found thanks to Janell. She seems to be full of fantastic music.
"When you lose it all... That's when you finally realize that life is beautiful."
The song was written and sang by Nikki Sixx, front man for Motley Crue and now Sixx:A.M. The song is from the album that goes along with his new book titled "The Heroin Diaries."
My association with this is having "lost it all" to some degree, before I found myself, my job, my happiness. I was going no where doing nothing but playing video games and wondering why the world had it out for me. Every last of the few dollars I earned were torn from me through rent, bills, transportation and I felt destroyed, like the world was trying to keep me from my happiness. I thought that the world acted like I owed it something, because the world wouldn't let me just do nothing in an apartment and play videogames without paying anyone or working for it.
What I realized, in part came with my job, and in part came before I even applied when I realized exactly where I was going and what I was doing. I was an "addict" though not to any chemical, but to my emotions, and the way I let the world make me feel. I was too irresponsible to take control of my own life, and I wasn't upset enough to change my situation - I just presumed it was out of my hands. What changed my life, was my attitude - I was tired of being a victim.
Addictions can happen with anything - Emotions, Hobbies, Drugs, Food, Work... the most difficult challenge is whether or not you can recognize it. Whether you do something about it or not is easy once you realize there's a problem.
The second point here is...
There's two ways to be a victim.
1. If you sanction and accept whatever has happened to you, as though you have no control. If you presume you had no control, then you've given any opportunity to do so, over to someone else.
2. If someone points a gun to your head (real, or in effect) and threatens your life or your property.
I intend to post what's going through my mind on this page. It will not be "Politically Correct." It will not be sensitive to social norms, or written to convey a facade about me. It will just be my happiness, my frustration, my joy and my sadness.
I've discovered recently that who I am, and who I want to be, should not be two different things. In my desire to become who I want to be, I've had to cross a number of old bridges. Some of which were burned by me, some of which were burned by the people standing on the other end. Some were never burned by anyone, others were reinforced as I crossed them. These are the bridges I aim to keep.
On this page, you'll likely find posts about beer, my car, political issues and more.
The song of the week is a song called "Life is Beautiful" which I found thanks to Janell. She seems to be full of fantastic music.
"When you lose it all... That's when you finally realize that life is beautiful."
The song was written and sang by Nikki Sixx, front man for Motley Crue and now Sixx:A.M. The song is from the album that goes along with his new book titled "The Heroin Diaries."
My association with this is having "lost it all" to some degree, before I found myself, my job, my happiness. I was going no where doing nothing but playing video games and wondering why the world had it out for me. Every last of the few dollars I earned were torn from me through rent, bills, transportation and I felt destroyed, like the world was trying to keep me from my happiness. I thought that the world acted like I owed it something, because the world wouldn't let me just do nothing in an apartment and play videogames without paying anyone or working for it.
What I realized, in part came with my job, and in part came before I even applied when I realized exactly where I was going and what I was doing. I was an "addict" though not to any chemical, but to my emotions, and the way I let the world make me feel. I was too irresponsible to take control of my own life, and I wasn't upset enough to change my situation - I just presumed it was out of my hands. What changed my life, was my attitude - I was tired of being a victim.
Addictions can happen with anything - Emotions, Hobbies, Drugs, Food, Work... the most difficult challenge is whether or not you can recognize it. Whether you do something about it or not is easy once you realize there's a problem.
The second point here is...
There's two ways to be a victim.
1. If you sanction and accept whatever has happened to you, as though you have no control. If you presume you had no control, then you've given any opportunity to do so, over to someone else.
2. If someone points a gun to your head (real, or in effect) and threatens your life or your property.
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