Beer Tasting and Board Games

Some friends and I had quite an extensive beer tasting last night with some board games toward the end. Here's what we tasted:

1) Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Namaste - not the first time I've had this tasty witbier, super balanced and subtle spices make this an excellent brew for all seasons. 4.8% ABV. More here.
2) Black Isle Brewery Organic Oatmeal Stout - Straight from Scotland, this is filled with cocoa notes, bitter roastiness and earthy dark molasses, medium bodied, it has a milky sweetness and malts of oats and cereal with good legs. 7% ABV. More here (this beer is not listed but you can check out their brewery site).
3) Cider Creek Hard Cider Saison Reserve - From NY, sweet but semi-dry with apple peel, pear, applesauce, cinnamon and champagny yeast notes, med body and very drinkable, the alcohol is not apparent at all. 6.9% ABV. More here.
4) Abita Brewing Company & Birrifico Del Ducato Two Boots (Saison/Farmhouse Ale) - a collaboration between Abita and Birrifico Del Ducato from Italy, it has an anise/root beer nose, with clove, over ripe banana, black pepper notes, tart, oily, dry, touch hazy straw colored, almost salty, has a nice white head with a full mouthfeel, overall an interested brew.6.2% ABV. More here.
5) Brouwerij Huyghe Delerium Tremens - a Belgian Strong Light Ale or Belgian Golden/Blonde Ale, probably the former because of the ABV, it has bubble gum, mushy banana, pudding, salt, nose of armpit sweat if you wiff it right, a medium full body with an excellent white head, complex and tastes like a tripel but is slightly tart. 8.5% ABV. More here.
6) Guinness Blonde American Lager - had a brief taste of this before so it was interesting to get a better draught, it has an astringent bitterness, tropical hop nose from the mosaic, earthy, grainy and corn with a golden color. 5% ABV. More here.
7) Troegs Brewing Company DreamWeaver Wheat - nose is really nice, bubble gummy, peppery, tad clove that's quite burnt, sweet banana, red fruit of some sort, it tastes tart and grainy wheat, a tad bitter, pours golden. Says it's unfiltered but it's fairly clear. 4.8% ABV. More here.
8) Breckenridge Brewery Oatmeal Stout - lots of coffee and roastiness, dark and bitter, very dark cocoa notes hidden away with oats underlying. 4.95% ABV. More here.
9) Anderson Valley Brewing Company Brother David's Triple Abby Style Ale - dry, musty, citrus of peach or apricot, earthy hops, white wine, honey, slightly tart/saltiness, pours crystal clear golden/yellow with decent slow dripping legs. 10% ABV. More here.

Board Games:
My friend Sean and I played two games, first Railroad Tycoon (I have the original, not Railways of the World) and Takenoko. Railroad Tycoon started out with me on the east coast and Sean gathering track around Chicago. I managed to grab the early lead and an 8 point gain from laying track from Richmond to Atlanta helped. I decided to go for the long run from New York to Kansas City to get 20 points but just missed it by running out of turns. Sean quickly closed the gap toward the end of the game and it looked like he was going to take honors because of his railroad baron secret objective card (plus I didn't achieve mine) but I managed to eek out a victory by a 4 point margin.
Next, Takenoko, Sean started out grabbing points from objective cards pretty easily. I managed to sort of keep up because I hit some big numbered cards and even came close to getting my ninth objective card and winning the Emperor 2 point bonus but Sean ended the game. My last turn I needed a good weather die roll and got it and ended up getting a 7 point gain on my last turn with the only card I had in hand I could possibly achieve and that was enough to win me the game by 3 points again!

Overall my favorite beer of the night was: Cider Creek Hard CIder Saison Reserve, super drinkable I would quaff that one again anytime.

Sean and Me, Last Train to Wensleydale and a Beer Tasting

My good buddy Sean, who lives in Alaska currently, spent the evening tasting some brews we picked up from AJ's Beer Warehouse the other week. We also enjoyed a game of Martin Wallace's Last Train to Wensleydale. I have the First Train to Nuremberg version, which is two games in one, back to back maps, but we decided to play the original.

The game moved along fairly evenly, with perhaps a slight lead by me but Sean kept on my heels and even 1 turn before the last tied me up. The final turn was the deciding, and it looked like Sean had me, by gaining more victory points with his final train delivery. Unfortunately for him, his profit/loss ended up being to his detriment and I ended up winning by 1 point. An extremely tight finish and a game I always enjoy playing.

On the tasting side, here's what we tried:

1) Evil Twin Brewing Low Life - a pilsner that is floral, with light citrus notes, medium light bodied, tastes of green tea, honey, grass/hay, is a tad bitter with sparse white legs and a straw color. 5.5% ABV.
2) Left Hand Sawtooth Nitro - an extra special/bitter with walnut, macadamia/beech nut, black tea, caramel, spice, nutmeg notes, really smooth but understandably (to an American who is not used to nitro) a little flat, sessionable, super earthy, with a light brown color and frothy head. 5.3% ABV. More here.
3) Robinsons Brewing Company Trooper - a true English bitter from over the pond kept fresh I assume by the can that really grew on me, notes of lemon meringue, tad metallic/copper/brass kettle or something, dank but with bright flavor, floral, a full mouthfeel, sessionable, tall off-white head and semi-dry. 4.7% ABV. More here.
4) Allagash Dubbel - for this not being my favorite style this was quite good, complex and malty with intense burnt clove, banana, raisin, chocolate, dark sugars, molasses, tobacco, leather, woodsy with slow droopy legs. 7% ABV. More here.
5) Finch's Beer Company Secret Stache Stout - a black colored milk stout with lactose and vanilla added, notes of bacon, maple/vanilla, coffee, milk chocolate, hazelnut, mocha, roasty and rich with a better taste than nose that slowly improves as the brew warms. 5.3% ABV. More here.
6) Atlantic Brewing Company Mount Desert Island Ginger - an unfiltered wheat ale with notes of exotic ginger, lavender, passion fruit, berries, pumpkin spice, apple crisp, a tad tart, crisp, spicy, refreshing, particulate with a white head. 5.7% ABV. More here.

Some great brews, but only one can win, my favorite of the night was the Atlantic Brewing Co. Mount Desert Island Ginger. My wife and I first discovered this beer in Maine on our honeymoon at the brewery itself and have never stopped singing Atlantic's praises. Having found this little beauty in Vermont up in Burlington just a couple days ago and wondered if it was fresh (the bottles were quite dusty) but were happy enough to give it a go anyway. Seems like it was alright after all.

Group Beer Tasting #2...And Some Board Games

This month my group lost a member (to Alaska) and gained another. So, we had six people and six beers. After tasting we also played some games, so this is sort of a double post.

This is what we tasted and below are some notes:
1) BSG (Kit) Homebrewed Porter - I gave some notes about this in my previous post, so I'll redirect you here. More about the kit here.
2) Otter Creek Copper Ale (Altbier style) - Malty, sweet, off-white head, orangish amber hue, grapefruit bitterness that lingers, orange notes, hops are not strong but they are bitter, malt aroma and semi-light in the mouth, 5% ABV. More here.
3) Bell's Amber Ale - Nice head, beer is a little hazy, pineapple notes leading to grapefruit, refreshing, delicate but tasteful, sweet to bitter in the mouth, this was a beer that grew on me! 5.8% ABV. More here.
4) Rhinelander Brewing Company Boatswain Chocolate Stout - Found this at Trader Joe's, it's a small batch brew of roasted chocolate, coffee notes, smoky, smooth, a tiny bit of vanilla sweetness, deep brown color, sweet to roasted to chocolate bitterness flavor progression and light in the mouth. It also hides 66 IBU really well. This one had me confused that I loved it and then wasn't super impressed and back and forth. I guess that's a good complexity, 5.4% ABV. Not any information on the company's website, but I've read that it goes by other names in different places, like Chocolate Bunny Stout.
5) Sierra Nevada Flipside Red IPA - A serious grapefruit aroma, some pine, citrus, peach even, an amber brown color, nice legs, crisp, I really wondered if there is some rye in this because of a spiciness, but overall it was a brew on the sweet side that I started liking less and less as I drank more, 6.2 ABV. More here.

Really cool bottle art!

6) The Alchemist Heady Topper - My brother finally had his first taste of this. This time it struck me as pineapple, grapefruit, herbal, tropical fruit, citrus, super fresh, almost white foam, hazy light gold color, and simply delicious at 8% ABV. More here.

Favorite on the night: the best brew in class clearly goes to Head Topper, but I was so impressed with Bell's Amber Ale, I've gotta give that the gold this time around.

For games this time, we played Bang! The new attendee, Joey, ended up winning as the Renegade. Next we threw down with Small World, and I ended up taking the cake with a nice combination of Trolls with their lairs (harder to conquer), Spirit Leperchauns (so I could have 2 decline races) and their pots of gold and Mercenary Barbarians.

Board Games and Beer

What's better than board games and beer?
Maybe this is a subjective rhetorical question.
Last night was my friends last day in town before shipping off to a dry community in Alaska to teach. He and I have been enjoying a number of beers lately and went to Beers of the World about a month ago to stock up. We didn't quite get through everything we bought, but were able to try a number of great beers and play the grand-daddy of all board games: Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition. My favorite game of all time.
My wife, Brynn, joined us, the more the merrier, and we played from about 7-8 p.m. to 4-5 a.m. the next day when they all gave in to my 9-7 lead (game is normally played to 10 VP). To most people this would be a night from hell, but to me it was epic glory.

Here's all the beers we tasted along the way:

This time I managed to order them left to right in the order we tried them, so it will make this a little easier.
(1) Heavy Seas Holy Sheet,  a Belgian style ale aged in brandy barrells. I wasn't the biggest fan, but I would be interested in trying this in a snifter instead of a pint glass and seeing if I like it more. Anyway, it was a little on the sweet side and lacked complexity as a result. The oak didn't shine and the sucre on top of the brandy must made it too one note, sweet. See more info here.
(2) Fuller's London Pride, an English bitter that for its 4.7% ABV is quite tasty and would be a good session beer choice, malty in character with caramel notes. Also slightly flat because that is what a good English brew is about. See more here.
(3) Breckenridge SummerBright Ale, a competitor of Shock Top in that the flavor profile is similar, perhaps less wheat and cleaner. Despite being a step up from the fore mentioned, not my group's favorite, as it contained a somewhat burnt, rotten or heated fruit flavor, owing to the orange and lemon peels. More here.
4) Shiner White Wing, brewed at the Spoetzl brewery in Shiner, TX, this had a nice coriander addition with a tinge of citrus peel in the aroma that again we were not fond of but in this case it wasn't as bad. Overall, the witbier base was scrumptious. More here.
5) Weyerbacher White Sun Wit. We were on a belgian witbier kick and it was fun to compare similar beers. This had added complexity because it had anise, just a tad, but did not show off the coriander as well. Sharing between three glasses the pour left two of us with a haze that swirled and then clouded our beer, while the third's was perfectly clear. Must have been the pour as it is a proclaimed cloudy Belgian. It is worth noting that this beer used to be called Blanche and was changed in 2012 while the beer remains identical. More here.
(6) Mendocino Talon Extra Select Double Smoked Porter, living up to its long winded name, complex, as smoky as I've ever had, with chocolate, coffee, creamy notes, it lingers and warms. It actually reminded me of kalua or Irish cream in a way. Great info here.
(7) Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, one of my favorites, a super complex, rich, robust brown ale aged in Palo Santo wood barrels with vanilla and caramel. An aroma like you've never smelled before, this is a heavyweight coming in at 12% ABV! More here.

No surprise here, my favorite was the Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron. I've had that beer quite a few times in the past 5 years or so since I've gotten into craft beer and it will probably always be one of my favorites for its complexity and uniqueness.