Two Weekends of Fun

Next weekend, we're planning a beer tasting for some of our new found friends in CO.  We have a few beer snobs attending, as well as a home brewer, and a couple of beer novices.  It's been a blast choosing beers and coming up with pairings, "handouts," etc.  The weather will be nice, so we're looking forward to a fun weekend.

But this past weekend was fun, too...because we went shopping for all the beers we plan to offer at the tasting.

We met up with beer guy Jeremy at the Argonaut (our go-to beer store) and shared our ideas with him.  He was very helpful and made a few recommendations.  (I also learned from him that Founders is making it's entrance into CO sometime this year, and that he has five bottles of Saint Arnold's Pumpkinator 2013 in his fridge...I sense a bottle trade in the near future.)

So here's what we bought:

IPAs

India Pale Ale – Samuel Smith, India Ale

American Pale Ale – Oskar Blues, Dale’s Pale Ale

American IPA – Boulevard, Double Wide

Double IPA –O’Dell, Myrcenary; Upslope, Double IPA; Bear Republic, Racer X; Avery, Maharaja

Black IPA – O’Dell, Mountain Standard Double Black IPA; Firestone Walker, Wookey Jack

(Joe just couldn't decide what he wanted to offer in the DIPA and Black categories.)

Belgians

Dubbel – Ommegang, Abbey Ale

Tripel – Unibroue, La Fin du Monde

Quad – Allagash, Four

Porters/Stouts

American Porter – Deschutes, Black Butte Porter

English Porter – Fuller’s London Porter

Milk/Sweet Stout – Left Hand, Milk Stout

Oatmeal Stout – Breckenridge, Oatmeal Stout

Russian Imperial Stout – Great Divide, Oak-Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

Misc.

Barleywine – Avery, Hog Heaven

Chili – Twisted Pine, Ghost Face Killah

Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy – Moylan’s, Kilt Lifter

Flanders Red Ale/American Wild Ale (Sours) – Brouwerij Verhaeghe, Duchesse De Bourgogne

Fruit – Dry Dock, Apricot Blonde (not really a fruit beer in the technical sense, but so fruit forward!)

For this tasting, we skipped over lagers completely.  We also passed over wheats/wits, browns, ambers, pilsners, and a number of other styles…there are just too many to squeeze into a single tasting.

I'll report back after the tasting with a full accounting of pairings and hopefully some great pics!