Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler beer thread

Got back from the beer tasting about an hour ago and it was a blast. True to form, the hosts/brewers/scientists held a blind taste test. There were 10 beers to taste in total, and they served them, in random order, in small numbered plastic cups. We were unable to see the bottles until after the tasting was over. Here's what we had (in more or less the tasting order):

1. Koningshoeven Dubbel
   
2. Karmeliet Tripel
   
3. Green Flash Trippel
   
4. Chimay Grande Reserve
   
5. The home brew
   
6. Corsendonk Bruin
   
7. Allagash Dubbel
   
8. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
   
9. Chimay Premiere
   
10. Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

Believe it or not, a majority of the tasters ranked the home brew higher than most of the other beers, me included. I rated it second to the Dogfish Head. Others rated it second to the Karmeliet, which is a fantastic estery, fruity, and well-carbonated trippel. (I ranked it third.) I brought home a bottle of the home brew to share with my wife -- and my brother who arrives tomorrow for a family vacation.

The turducken was also tasty. All in all a fine night out.

man, i love that karmeliet. nice heads up on that, Tom!

My fav. domestic beer here in Canada is Kokanee Gold.

For imports it prob. is Guinness.

I have yet to drink REAL beer

Okay, sounds like we need a SBAT unit to Paul's house immediately.

Mark

Peter, that's a darn fine flight of beers! Wow! My only concern is that - really - there's very little chance of anybody being able to perceive THOSE 10 beers equitably at the same sitting. I'm not talking about stylistic preferences; I'm talking about palate fatigue. Even if you sequence them well and drink small portions, your perception changes dramatically over the course of that many.

I'm going to speculate that the homebrew was fantastic AND that its freshness played a role in its scoring.

I had an excellent evening, also.

1. Grimbergen Dubbel
2. Very Bad Elf
3. Delirium Noel
4. N'ice Chouffe
5. Scaldis Noel

All enjoyed at Doyle's Pub, a place where they use the "right glassware" and have the English Premier League standings posted on a big board. Christmas in July at Doyle's was held in conjunction with the second-ever meeting of the Tacoma Beer Society

Okay, maybe palate-fatigued Peter doesn't have to be jealous, but the rest of you probably should be. Those were GREAT beers.

Re: palate fatigue.
Tom,
That's what I had at the Rush concert. After drinking those quart bottles of Beck's my palate was definitely fatigued!

Palate fatigue may have come into play, and that reminds me of something I forgot to mention. Many of us were noticing a distinct "smoky" quality to the first few beers that really shouldn't have been there. It wasn't until beer 4 that we realized what was going on: the ink used to mark the cups was influencing our noses.

Well, I tried out one of my Trader Joe's Edition 2006 beers this weekend. If it's not the same as Unibroue 2006, it damn well could be. Really good beer. Pity I only bought two bottles before it went away.

One of the few dark beers I've really enjoyed. Good flavor, but not overwhelming bitterness. Rather fruity. Relatively low alcohol for a Belgian.

I love to try new beers of all styles and nationalities so I have enjoyed this thread except I can hardly find anything mentioned here locally.

Honestly, I have never tried a beer I truly didn't like at all....until now! I won't say the name of the brewer because it is otherwise an extremely fine brewery with many wonderful microbrewery products. But at an event earlier this summer I got to taste a ton of new and imported beers and this particular brewery was showcasing a method of aging beer in oak kegs. Being a big single malt whiskey fan, I enthusiastically gave it a try.

let me just say that aging beer in a whiskey cask is WRONG!

Beer in beer kegs=Good.

Whiskey in casks = Good!

Even taking a recently emptied whiskey cask, filling 1/3 full with water and rotating daily until you have more whiskey-like liquor (Swish) = good (Well kinda good)

Beer in a whiskey cask = an Abomination!

I actually poured out the sample. That's right, you hard me! I poured out a beer and I feel no shame.

Anyone else care to reverse this thread to the worst beer ever? (heh heh, I'm just bitter because I can't find almost any of he recommendations.)