Yesterday, I started my day by heading over to New Seasons, where I picked up some corned beef brisket and other ingredients to throw together a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner to celebrate St. Patrick's day. Along with the meat and produce, I swung down the beer isle to find that they were carrying cascade apricot at $16 a bottle, so I grabbed another one of those, along with a hopworks secession, and an oakshire o' dark:30. While prepping the meal and killing time before I headed over to Belmont Station for their Stout Patrick's day anniversary event, I enjoyed the oakshire bomber. To be honest, like any good wanna-be irishmen, I had far too many beers yesterday to accurately recall exactly what this one was like, but I seem to remember it being a bit sweeter, and with more roasted porter-like flavor than my my go-to CDA, the secession.
Once the beef was in like the slow cooker, I rode my bike over to Belmont Station and ordered my first glass. To start, I went with the Barley Brown's Ooga Nooga chocolate stout. It was my first time trying this one out, and I recall really enjoying it, and appreciating that the chocolate flavors were more restrained than the description suggested. Although I really like the Southern Tier Choklat for what it is, I usually still want my beer to taste like a beer, and this one did. After the Ooga nooga, I went for the mikeller beer geek breakfast. Again, this was a first for me, having only previously sampled the beer geek brunch weasel at PIB last year. This was probably my favorite of the day, but to be fair, all following beers suffered in my memory due to their place in line. After Beer Geek, I moved on to bear republic barrel aged baba yaga. I remember really enjoying this one at the Holiday Ale Fest, but not recognizing it as a stout at the time. In fact, I thought it tasted more like it was in the old ale realm. Anyway, this time was no different. Although I enjoyed this one again, I couldn't help but think it tasted a bit like acetone. I don't know if my mind was playing tricks on me, and that I perceived the heat from the booze, combined with some of the wood flavors and other layers of the beer to create this flavor, or if was due to a fault. I previously asked this question, and samurai artist gave me some good insight to flaws that could lead to what I perceived. Part of me wants to try it again, as the first beer of my day, to see if I can really pick it apart, but there were better beers on the tap list, that I'd probably prefer to revisit. From the baba yaga, I went with laurelwood moose and squirrel. I thought this one was really good, but I was getting fatigued at this point, so there's not much more to recall. Finally, I had a glass of the Oakshire barrel aged belgian golden, the collaborative evil'r. I thought this tasted a bit funky, but to be honest, who knows.
After returning to the house, I checked on the corned beef, which was looking and smelling delicious, and I added red potatoes and chopped carrots to the pot. When they were soft, I finally added the cabbage for the last 15 minutes to warm it up and soften it a bit before serving.
The food was delicious, and exactly what I needed after all those beers at belmont. Rallying, I split two more bottles to finish off the day. First, I went with a lost abbey cuvee de tomme; yet another first for me. I really enjoyed this one. I've read how it has kind of morphed from a belgian strong dark ale into a wild ale over time (at least in style designation on beeradvocate.com). Presumably from having this one so late in it's maturation, it was very difficult to believe it was ever classified as the former. This was sour, a bit bitter, tannic, and probably the closest a beer has ever tasted to red wine to me. It was very enjoyable, and I'm glad I have another bottle to enjoy again sometime in the future, but every time I try another hyped up sour beer from another brewery for the first time, it always makes me appreciate Cascade that much more.
To finish off the night, I enjoyed a glass of la folie, which was a nice contrast to the cuvee de tomme, and great note to end things on.
I was in bed shortly after.
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