Daily Archive for April 17th, 2008

Crunch Berries and Mead

Published on April 17, 2008 in Beer. 2 Comments

I went to Nikki’s tasting tonight, which was mead, something I’ve never had before and will likely never try again.  I always try everything at least once and this was that once.  Mead is basically honey wine.  It’s high in alcohol (the lowest of the night was 12.5%) and on the sweet side.  They had some different ones.  The first was very sweet and not too bad.  The middle were all high in alcohol (19-20%) and you could taste it.  I am not a liquor drinker and hate the flavor of alcohol (also doesn’t help that I don’t really like honey either).  They weren’t for me.  Then he poured one made with chili peppers.  Holy heat, Batman!  It actually was spicy hot like a chili pepper.  That wasn’t bad because the pepper took over the flavor.  The last one was an herbal mead that tasted almost like a tea.

Now, I know you’re wondering what the hell the crunch berries were describing.  Well, I almost bought a bottle of Thirsty Dog’s Raspberry Ale.  Luckily, Mike pulled on out to try.  It tasted like the Crunch Berries of Cap’n Crunch fame.  I kid you not.  Susan agreed, as did the cashier, and Mike (though he had never had the cereal, but understood what we meant).  I happily put that bottle back on the shelf and grabbed something else.

Killer Penguin

Published on April 17, 2008 in Ale, Beer and Review. Closed

Last night I cracked open my bottle of Boulder’s Killer Penguin, vintage 2007.  I had this once before at a tasting and enjoyed it.  Last night, I wasn’t quite as impressed.  It poured a deep amber with nice red hues.  Smelled of fruit, malt, and some alcohol.  The taste was quite fruity and sweet with a hint of hops and a nice alcohol warmness, but it left no lingering flavors in the mouth.  It seemed a bit on the thin side (though it was still a medium bodied beer) for a barleywine.  All in all, I wasn’t very impressed, considering they put a lot of work into sealing the cap with wax (which was a royal bitch to remove so I could uncap it).  I’ll buy it again, but probably closer to barleywine season (it’s good for a cold winter night).