Daily Archive for April 5th, 2008

My New Cellar/Tasting Notes Spreadsheet

Published on April 5, 2008 in Beer and Cellaring/Aging. Closed

I decided to totally geek out today (both beer and computer) and made a spreadsheet (using Google Docs) of the beers currently in my cellar with a sheet that has past beers with some tasting notes.

You can view the spreadsheet here. It’s publicly available for viewing. Here’s a few notes on it. The bottled, best by, and purchased dates are all subject to my memory (in the case of purchased date, though they’re pretty accurate, at least to the month) and what’s written on the bottle. The drink before and drink after dates are all arbitrarily chosen by yours truly. In some cases the bottles only have a year. In others, they have a full date. For those that only give a year and a month, I assumed the first of the month (and in the case of the Moinette, it looks like it says 2.06 on the cork). Still others have some crazy code. BA score is the score on Beer Advocate (rAvg is what I used, easier to sort by that than their letter scores).

I’m open to comments on things I should add, subtract, change, etc. I’m also looking for anyone who knows the following:

  • La Trappe/Koningshoeven bottling/date stamp code.
  • Kasteel bottled on code (the one I have says 070712, took it to mean YYDDMM, because in Europe they put the day before the month).
  • Meaning of the hourglasses on the Russian River label.

Update: I added what I have in my fridge as well. Anything in my fridge is open season, preferably oldest first. I’ll be attempting to update the “Past” sheet as I drink beers (which will only be beers I drink at home). I’ll continue to write posts about each beer as well. Finally, I could also use the Kulmbacher bottle code if anyone knows that.

Smuttynose Baltic Porter

Published on April 5, 2008 in Ale, Beer and Review. 2 Comments

Last night, Susan and I split our bottle of Smuttynose Baltic Porter.  I have to say that this is one absolutely fabulous beer!  It pours a thick black/ruby color with a small tan head that hangs around.  It smells of roasted malts and sweet dark fruits.  The flavor is complex with a mix of roasted malts, a hint of smoke, and some dark fruits and raisins.  I didn’t know what to expect, but this is another winner from Smuttynose and my favorite of the 3 Baltic Porters I’ve had this year (other 2 are here).  This is easy drinking, but beware… the 8.7% ABV will sneak up on you.  If you can still find it (it seems after reading the BA forums, it’s hard to find now), buy it.  It’s worth every penny and then some!

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale

Published on April 5, 2008 in Ale, Beer and Review. Closed

I had Brooklyn’s East India Pale Ale a few nights ago.  I have to say that I was very impressed.  I’m not normally big on English style IPAs, but this one was a good one.  It was mildly hoppy and perfectly balanced.  It poured a pale amber color with a moderate white head.  Smelled of hops and sweet malts.  It tasted mostly of the hops, but they weren’t “in your face” hops.  It was like they were there for added flavor and not to knock your socks off.  There was also some sweet malt flavor to it.  It was very easy drinking.  Brooklyn is like the Harpoon of NY.  They do everything pretty solidly, but keep it accessible.