A Weyerbacher of a Beer Night 10/28/2009

Eitan: We had some really good beers. We Finally got around to drink some of the Weyerbacher beers that we got at the brewery. I had the Simcoe Double IPA at home the night before. All I have to say is "WOW!" this beer was so hoppy, they definitely were not kidding about the powerful hoppy taste of this beer. I poured from a 12 0z bottle in to one of the glasses I got at Weyerbacher. It had a nice dark amber color. Fast fading head, but leaves some traces on the glass. This beer was very carbonated. It had a sweet fruit smell. It starts of a tad sweet but then you get hit with the hops. It is definitely not a beer for anyone who does not enjoy hops (Greg, I'm looking at you). I like my hoppy beers, but I think I should have some more of the Simcoe to get more out of the extreme hoppy flavor, instead of my taste buds being shocked.

So the first beer of the night was a Southern Tier. I really enjoy their beers so I was eager to try the Southern Tier Imperial Cherry Saison. It poured a really nice dark golden color. UnfortunatelyI do not remember what sort of head retention it had. It had a unique smell for a saison. Mostly because it had hints of sweet cherry smell. Best described as a cherry laffy taffy. At first it definitely has a spice and yeast flavor to it. However, it leaves a slight cherry after taste. The slight cherry flavor was more pronounced after the beer had a chance to open up in the glass. I am glad that it tasted like a saison with slight cherry flavor and not a water downed beer with artificial cherry syrup flavor.

And then came the Weyerbacher beers. First up was the Autumn Fest. I was excited to start drinking the beers from real glasses and not plastic sample cups. This is such a great beer for the fall, hence the name. It was very light, very easy to drink and a nice subtle sweet flavor. It had a nice amber color and an pretty decent amount of head. This beer is very similar to a nice bready tasting German Oktoberfest beer only slightly sweeter. A perfect light bodied and good tasting beer for this time of the year. (Hey, that last part rhymed, I should be a writer or a poet or something.)

The second Weyerbacher beer was the Heresy. Greg got a larger bottle of this beer for beer night. I believe that they brew this beer some time after January, so this bottle was definitely a bottle from early 2009 and has had some extra time to age. The Heresy is a Russian Imperial Stout (and if you read the article that Marina posted then you'd know that the RIS is apparently not actually a stout). Anyway, it was poured from a bottle in to one of Stan's Brooklyn snifters. A very dark color, I was not expecting anything less than pitch black color. As with most RIS it had a nice hints of coffee, chocolate and some booze (whiskey) aromas. It was slightly bitter, like tasting some unsweetened coffee. But it did have a slight oak taste. The taste from it being oak barrel aged did not over power the taste of the RIS itself. Not the first time I've had this beer, and it wont be the last. I can not wait until the winter so that we can get some bottles direct from Weyerbacher. Until then I can always find some Old Heathen.