I was going to go out and grab a half-growler of some local small brewery's stout today, but things just got too busy at work and I decided to just head home after. I do, after all, have beers at home.
I was able to earn the 2012 untappd Stout Day badge tonight with my world-famous Stouticus American Stout.
The batch of Stouticus that I have "in stock" was brewed September of last year and bottled on 10/16/2011. It is interesting that I have been able to hold on to so many beers over a year. I remember thinking early on that I would never be patient enough to keep beer around that long.
And Stouticus is still wonderful. I don't think it is better than it was young, but it certainly is not an old ruined beer. The malt comes through more and the hops have faded quite a bit, but it is still wonderfully stout-like. It is still a great beer. It has a nice balanced stout roastiness with substantial mouth-feel and beautiful head retention.
Just for the fun of it, I tried some of my Wetta Berry blended with my Rocktoberfest. I am not a fan. Rocktoberfest is much better by itself than the blend. The blend is better than Wetta Berry.
I did finish off the Rocktoberfest keg which means I can put Eric the Awful in the keggerator. I am very much looking forward to drinking that beer. Hoppy and Red. Yummy. Eric the Awful has been waiting in the keg since October 18th. It will be interesting to see how much of the dry hop flavor and aroma is still there.
And speaking of old beers, since it was #StoutDay, I decided to try a bottle of my Tweedle Beetle Imperial Stout. Tweedle Beetle has been in the bottle since 01/28/2010, making it the second oldest beer in my home-brew collection (leave a comment below if you have a guess to what my oldest home-brew currently is).
Tweedle Beetle is still (if I say so myself) Tweedleicious to the max.
It is still has an intense roast flavor and I think is still extremely well balanced. It is a bit low ABV for an imperial stout at 8.5%, but right where I like it. To be honest, I do not know of an imperial stout that I prefer to this one.
It looks like I only have 3 more bottles of this beer left. I should certainly think about brewing this again.
Yum.
So, there you go. That was my #StoutDay. Heavy on the home-brew. No commercial beer. Love it.
How was your #StoutDay?
My Stout Day rocked. My wife, in-laws, and I visited the Dogfish Head brewery in Milton, DE, and I sampled four different stouts: Chicory, Bitches Brew, Palo Santo Marron, and a vertical tasting of World Wide Stout starting in 2011 and going back to 2010, 2009, and finally 2008. Happy.
ReplyDeleteWow, that does sound awesome, Justin. You really took #StoutDay seriously. Very nice.
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