Tried a couple new brews this weekend

Jeremy had an awesome idea with posting about new brews you've tried and liked/not-liked...The aren't really "seasonal" brews, but they were new to me, so I thought I'd mention them :-) The first beer I picked for two reasons: The first and foremost was that Courtney and I were doing a fondue and the cheese recipe called for a "light beer"...I decided some artistic license was required and, instead, opted for a "light-colored beer." I mean seriously...If I wanted to drink that crap I'd have bought a bottle of Mountain Dew and left it outside with no lid for a week. Anywho, I randomly selected this guy:



I gotta say, for a cheese fondue, this was AWESOME! It was just a touch more "fruity" than I've been used to (don't know if this is normal or not...but it was new to me). The best way I can describe it was being pretty "sharp." It wasn't as full bodied as a stout...which is normal since it's an IPA, but it definitely had a stronger aroma and flavor. All in all I'd recommend it. I'm still a stout kind of guy, but this was a very fun experiment.

The next one I tried was admittedly selected because 1) it was sort of a "stout" and 2) it was dirt cheap. I wasn't really interested in it for it's good qualities, but rather because I was looking to calibrate how much bourbon to add to my vanilla bourbon stout :-)



I poured exactly 12 ounces, added a teaspoon of Jack Daniels, took a sip, added another teaspoon, took another sip, etc, and then just scaled up to my 5-gallon batch. For THAT purpose, it was pretty good. I have to say, though, for a stand-alone beer, the only word I can think to describe it is "meh." It was dark, alcoholic, and somewhat drinkable (I guess) but pretty earthy and not really one of those that made me thing "dang, I gotta get this again!" Sadly, I didn't even make it though the whole thing. It wasn't that it was "bad" per se...it just wasn't that great. I suppose this is one of those cases where price reflected quality. I know that's not always true (sometimes the opposite), but in this case it was.

So that was that. I can't WAIT until my own batch is done :-D