Day 64, 3.5.11., Meantime - I.P.A.

Across the straits of Carquinez, from my home town of Benicia here in Solano County, is the tiny village of Port Costa.  It's home to about 245 people, as well as one of the coolest old biker/dive/honky-tonk kinda bars around: The Warehouse café.  There's a juke box, a pool table, tons of crap on the walls and ceiling and a taxidermied polar bear in a glass case.  Oh, also they have a pretty awesome beer list.
This trip out to the Warehouse, I tried a beer from England called Meantime IPA.  I've tried the coffee porter from Meantime before and found it pretty terrific, so i was excited to give the IPA a try.
It's a Gold cloudy ale with a decent head. (although, The Warehouse offered only a mason jar to drink in out of, so the appearance of the beer may have been compromised)
The dry hop character definitely manifests itself in the bitterness, but the hop character is rather reserved in aroma and flavor.  And the bitterness is well integrated. 
Compared to my usual Pacific Coast IPAs, this one is extremely reserved.  It's a delicious bitter ale, and is a terrific easy drinker.  Nice.
8 out of 10

Day 44, 2.13.11., St. Peter's - Old-Style Porter

Here's a line of beer's that always looks interesting on the store shelves; St. Peter's.  It's a brewery up and running in Suffolk England since 1996.   It comes in a cute little squat bottle with an oval label.  From what I understand, they produce lots of classic styles including stouts, porters, and bitters and then some fruit beers and even a gluten free.  Today I'm giving the Old-Style Porter a try.

Now I will say this, porter is not one of my favorite styles, so it's not one I have a lot of experience with, and therefore don't know a whole lot about.  I consulted Beer Advocate to find that porter is one of the first beers that was 'engineered' to suit the public's taste.  In the late 1700's brewers made a dark, strong ale by blending three beers, including one old stale ale.  Also, dark malts were added to hide imperfections and cloudiness in the beer.
So the results are a dark brown beer, light-ish in body and a solid acid character from the old stale beer.  And based on these quick notes, St. Peter's seems to be right on target.
The Old-Style Porter is deep amber brown with quite a thin bubbly head.  (seems appropriate considering it's 1/3 flat beer)  It's nice and roasty, but easy to drink and medium bodied.  The palate has lots of that roasty character, along with plenty of nice hoppieness, with strong bitter and acidic finish.  A nice little beer. 7 out of 10.

Day 43, 2.12.11, Harvey & Son - Imperial Double Extra Stout - 2003

I was very excited about this beer.  Harvey & Son's  Imperial Double Extra Stout.  I mean it's a four word name containing three descriptors.  It sounded awesome.
It was not awesome.  I only realized just after pulling the cork that this was a 2003 vintage beer, questionable even for a 13% barley wine, but here we have a 9% ABV stout.  It's 8 years old, and just past its prime.
This beer poured inky black, a good start!  But when I saw almost zero head, I was suspicious.  On the nose, dried purple fruit and balsamic vinegar...
I tentatively sipped and was met with aggressive sour cherry character, more vinegar and sherry.  The sherry notes were actually not bad, but they were way to strong, and with everything else going on, it was just undrinkable.  And I tried, I choked down about a third of it before it was pitched in the kitchen sink.
I like where they were headed with this beer, but it was just too far gone.  I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for a 2008+ vintage.  So for being absolutely awful and still making me want to try another one, I award 2 out of 10.

Day 35, 2.4.11., Wells - Banana Bread Beer

As you know, I really like beer.  As you may not know, I also really like banana bread.  My mom makes killer banana bread.
When I saw this beer on the shelf, I thought 'hmm, I don't want to drink that'.  But of course I bought a bottle to try since I had never tried it before.   I've certainly tried some hefeweizens that have a distinct banana-esc flavor.  Other than that, I don't really think the two (bananas and beer) have any business hanging out.  I fully expected this beer to be bad to the point of undrinkability...

Wells banana bread beer is a crisp, clear Amber ale.  As expected, the nose is fairly fake banana, like Laffy Taffy.  Banana flavor is less prevelant on the palate, where it's there but quite subtle.  It's accompanied by a fair amount of nice spicy hops character.
In addition to the banana and hop flavors, the beer is actually kind of nice and fruity, not specifically banana flavor only, just general fruitieness.  There's some slight malt sweetness, but it serves to keep the hop bite in check. 
Responsible use of banana flavor makes this a decent beer.  It's actually quite a bit  better than I thought it would be. 5 out of 10.