Last night at Galbraiths with Steph & Jonny & friends:
The obligatory Pint o'Bobs on arrival. Not on as stellar form as it has been, but still an awesome drop. Felt a bit weird drinking it out of the dimpled mugs.
Yeastie Boys Return To Magenta. Now there's lovely. Nice aroma but a lovely balanced palate. Fruitiness from the yeast balanced out by grippy hopps. Could have drunk more than the 2 I had but the keg ran out. Not sure if that was the first or last keg either.
Grafton Porter. Been a while since I had any and for some reason it didn't fire off anything amazing in my memory. Nice beer, nothing awesome. Must go back and spend some more time evaluating,
Bitter & Twisted. Again felt odd drinking it out of a dimpled mug. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Beer was as good as always, lovely orange marmalade character.
Great to catch up with folks again. Good beer, good times.
Last night:
A barrel aged Epic Armageddon at the Malthouse. Fabulous beer. The extra age and the wood smooth it out tons and really make it a different beer. On sampling mine a friend commented that if he hadn't known he wouldn't have recognized it as Armageddon. The usual huge hop aroma was there, but now it was a second layer underneath the soft, oaky, vanilla-y front.
Yeastie Boys Return to Magenta. I'm normally not a fan of Belgian yeast, but this one has it just right. The hops balance out and cut the fruitiness of the yeast so that there's just enough for me to enjoy it. Long, lingering bitterness. Another great beer.
Today:
My own Beast of Burden robust porter batch #3. About five weeks in the bottle now I reckon it's nearing its best. 60IBU with lots of Citrussy aroma and big roasty flavours from a complex malt bill.
The first bottle of my Snooty Llama Imperial IPA. Wonderful. Not quite as much hop aroma as I'd been aiming for but beyond that it's darn near perfect. Can't believe a beer this big (9.5%ABV) tastes so good 4.5 weeks after brewing.