7 day beer challenge day #2

(You may want to check out day one before getting in to this one.)

I'm a firm believer that if something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing. So while the challenge is to try a single new beer every day for seven days, on day two I went to a bottle share and the nine of us did this:

Yes, we all survived. I took a Lyft there and back to be safe.

Here's a revese-chronological listing of our selections from the evening:

• Oil of Gladness from Dark Horse and 3 Floyds - 4/5
• Sea Witch from Martin House Brewing Company - 1/5
• Trappist Westvleteren 12 from Brouwerij De Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren - 4.5/5
• The Abyss Brandy (2016) - ?/5
• Juicy Bits by WeldWerks Brewing - 3.5/5
• Heavy Hands by SpindleTap Brewery - 3.5/5
• Transboro Tripel by Interboro Spirits & Ales - 3.5/5
• Mad Tom IPA by Muskoka Brewery - 4/5
• Whisk(e)y Barrel Noir - 2.5/5
• Mr. Nice by Brew Gentlemen - 3/5
• Steambarrel 3.0 by WeldWerks Brewing Co - ?/5
• Stone Tea by The Collective Brewing Project - 3/5
• Eclipse - Grand Cru (2017) by FiftyFifty Brewing Co - 4.5/5
• Eclipse - Vanilla (2017) by FiftyFifty Brewing Co - 4/5
• Eclipse - Coffee (2017) by FiftyFifty Brewing Co - 3/5
• Eclipse - Rye Cuvee (2017) by FiftyFifty Brewing Co - 4.5/5
• Stickeen by Cinderlands Beer Co - 4.75/5
• Eclipse - Java Coffee (2014) by FiftyFifty Brewing Co - 3.5/5
• Eclipse - High West Rye (2015) by FiftyFifty Brewing Co - 4.5/5
• Eclipse - Apple Brandy (2017) by FiftyFifty Brewing Co - 4.5/5
• Eclipse - Apple Brandy (2016) by FiftyFifty Brewing Co - 4.5/5
• Eclipse - Woodford Reserver (2016) - 4.5/5
• Eclipse - High West Rye (2014) - 4/5

Clearly, a large portion of the day was devoted to the Eclipse line from FiftyFifty Brewing. They brew a stout with honey, and then put it into different barrels for aging before bottling and putting different color waxes. In the olden days, the wax color was the only way to differentiate between them and figure out what kind of barrel it was. For those of use that don't think about colors very much, it left us having conversations about whether a color was purple or lavender, yellow or gold. Recent vintages have them actually writing on the bottle a code.

First, a bit about my ratings. A beer is simultaneously compared with beers in its particular style (and how well it fits) as well as my opinion of that style (a smoked beer will probably never get higher than a 3). So while I clearly prefer stouts and IPAs, a stout that is sub-three is not good from my perspective. Anything three or above I would gladly drink again. The big domestics (Bud, Coors, Miller) are all pegged at one so that I have room to say a beer is worse that than. Beers that are 4.5 I consider perfect.

Despite there being some really good beers on that list, like the whale of beer whales (Westvleteren 12) and many of the Eclipse selections, Stickeen was the only one that I gave a perfect 4.75/5. It probably seems weird that I consider less than five to be perfect, but that's because 5/5 rating of mine is for the only beer I consider perfect: Firestone Walker's PNC - Tequila Barrel-Aged Imperial Buckwheat Stout (2013). I also try to never give ratings that aren't divisible my .5 mostly because I'm an old-school Untappd user and didn't like them adding the .25 ratings.

Anyway, I broke .25 rule so that Stickeen could stand above all of the great beers that I've given 4.5 to. It was that new hazy style IPA, very juicy and citrusy, while holding the balance. I want more of that. And more importantly I want more of that where I haven't already drank a bunch of beer.

I did tag all of the beer nerds in attendance on one of my first checkins of the evening.

I'm tagging Ben Edmunds 'cause he needs some variety in his blog and he lives really far away from me.

Since this is a contest, there must be rules.

1. You have to try a new beer every day, for 7 days.
2. The beer must be something you have never tasted before.
3. You must put a photo of the beer and write a few words about it.
4. Nominate someone every day.
5. If you are a social outcast with no friends to invite you just join the fun. You have every excuse to drink!
6. Use the tag "#sevendaybeerchallenge" as one of your five tags.
7. Tag @trumpman to give him recognition for his contest.