Full Sail - Wreck the Halls

Check it out - Full Sails winter seasonal on tap now at Falconburgh's here in D-town. It reminded me of Avery's Maharaja IPA (also on tap), but it qualified for the $2 special where Avery didn't. I also sampled the Sierra Nevada / Dogfish Head collaboration brew, "Life & Limb". It was a huge beer at 10.2%, and not bad, and though a pint might be overbearing, I would recommend trying it.

The website has this to say about it, "Life & Limb is a 10% ABV strong beer that defies style characteristics—brewed with pure maple syrup from the Calagione family farm in Massachusetts and estate barley grown on the Grossman “farm” at the brewery in Chico. The beer is alive with yeast—a blend of both breweries’ house strains—bottle conditioned for added complexity and shelf life, and naturally carbonated with birch syrup fresh from Alaska; it is the first beer we know of ever to use birch syrup in the brew. If stored under good conditions, this rich, full-bodied beer should age well for years. Life & Limb will be available in 24-oz. bottles and limited draft starting this November."

I also had the chance to sample the 2009 Barleywine on tap over at Carver's. This years batch is strong, and well balanced. I will be grabbing two - one for now, and one for a vertical tasting next winter.

Vinyl Back in a big way!

The New York Times reported today that sales of vinyl records are the highest in 2009 that they have been since 1991. To wit, "Sales of vinyl albums have been climbing steadily for several years, tromping on the notion that the rebound was just a fad. Through late November, more than 2.1 million vinyl records had been sold in 2009, an increase of more than 35 percent in a year". And Amen to that. The weakly written and confused article seems baffled by this resurgance of the greatest mass-marketable recording media of all time. Simply put, the sound from high quality vinyl on decent equipment is unequaled. Mp3 and iPods are great, but for a true listening experience, dim the lights, pour a glass of red, set the needle on the platter, and loose yourself in the sound.

Coors Winterfest - Like Extra Gold, but in a bottle

"Choice Hops" - That's the pitch on the bottle. To fully release the "Choice Hops" from the beer, the label recommends pouring into a glass with at least a 2 inch head. I drank the first one out of the bottle, and half way through, I was hoping that pouring this piss into a glass might help. I poured and drank the second bottle in this manner. Let's just say that the "Choice Hops", now being fully released from the beer, did not help much. Coors Winterfest, a shitty seasonal from your friends in Golden, CO. Ho Ho!