The Kick Box - On Hip!

i went to the beer store after work yesterday for a 6 pack of the dogfish head punkin ale but i HAD to get one of my night owls as well. ill prolly only drink 1-2 of them a month just to keep it fresh

 

Just picked up some Night Owl for this weekend. I am working tonight but look forward to trying it sometime over the course of the next two nights. It will be interesting to see how it stands up to my favorite pumpkin seasonal.

 

drink it at work

 

I used to be able to pull that off when i worked nights in a grocery store. Cant do that shit when dealing with heavy machinery that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars though. And also if i lost the food store job there is 10 others in driving distance.

 

Be ready to have a new favorite.
So far, Night Owl is by far and away the bestest of them all.

THE. BESTEST!

 

got an old Rasputin and everyone here knows how good it is so I will just do a very brief review.
funny thing is, the best Russian imperial stout I ever had was.....Saranac's. that just seems strange. all the highly rated ones always have an alcohol taste but saranacs (from what I remember, it was over a year ago and havnt seen it since) is 9% with no alcohol taste and a good chocolate taste mixed in there. on top of that it was (not surprisingly) the cheapest RIS I had ever had.
anyway on to the Rasputin.
I can sip these all day if it wasn't for the head spinning thing. mmmm beer, the adult equivalent of spinning around in an open field as a child. its kind of reminding me of the Saranac with the low alcohol taste but this has more of a traditional Russian imperial taste. more bitter. but still with those sweet notes with the smoothness that reminds me almost of a Guinness. so in conclusion go drink all those other beers so you get all the references I am throwing out here.

 

I have found that drinking imperial stouts too cold brings out the alcohol flavor while killing many of the more subtle aspects of the beer. Imperial stouts should never be consumed cold, but rather closer to room temperature. The same holds true for Belgian dark ales, doppelbocks, barleywines, and many of the other strong, dark beers. Drink them cold and you might as well just piss your money away because it kills the flavor while bringing out the more fusal alcohol notes that should be in the background.

 

I have one Rasputin left so I shall test your theory. I did drink this one a bit cold and I did wonder why there was a lack of strong flavors. anyway on to the next beer....well after these last 4 oz of O.R.

 

next up is new belgiums portage. looks as dark as Rasputin with a big head...I will wait for it to go down.

ok its down and drinkable now, strong chocolate smell as I lift the glass up to my lips. coffee notes too. the taste is just like the smell but not as strong. I hate when the smell is stronger than the taste. and while this one is cool it has been sitting at room temp for an hour so it isn't that its cold. despite the surprising lack of flavor (don't get me wrong it has flavor just I would think it would be stronger going by the smell) I could finish a 6er with no problem in a session of xbox or a twin billing movie night. very smooth and drinkable. aka it goes down quick. half way through this one and I am only 5 or 6 sentences in. this here is pretty much the reason I prefer dark beers to light ones.

 

Yeah, I have had a lot of people tell me they don't like Imperial/Russian stouts, then come to find out they're drinking it ice cold like it's Bud or Corona. People new to beer have a hard time wrapping their minds around the fact that some beers are best consumed at room temperature or only slightly chilled. Lagers, pale ales, and even many IPA's can be consumed on the colder side. Anything with a fuller body, especially darker beers, should be consumed only once they've been sitting out of the refrigerator for a while. The higher ABV dark beers should be consumed almost warm (or at room temperature). A barleywine, for instance, I would drink almost completely warm. Even a standard stout like Guinness isn't supposed to be served really cold.

 

onto somersault by New Belgium its a summer seasonal. tastes like flowers. its light of course 5.2 abv so all is a typical light craft beer. but damn that floral taste is pretty strong there is a hint of a sweet malty flavor but it dosnt balance out the dandelions. funny that there is stronger tastes in this than there was in that imperial stout, and this one was warmer so maybe the rat is on to something. if only I known before then I would have kept this one cold so I don't have to feel like I am drinking a smoothy made from an old ladies garden.

 

I like the beers that tell you the temp and the glass to best enjoy the beer...and look at that the somersault I just drank had it right on the bottle and I missed it because I was busy doing the Rasputin review and paid no attention to the bottle. I know all about the different temps change the beer but still for the most part ignore it because I am drinking and don't want to think about 7* Celsius and what it will take to get there. when I start doing serious reviews again I will try to keep that in mind though. I have more of a hot medium cold approach though. lagers I chill medium I fridge and hot ones I fridge and then let sit or if its winter time I store it in the back of the house. its a bit of work to adjust the fridge by the beer I am drinking.

in other news one time I had one of those sam barrel aged beers and they recommend a snifter so I decided to test if the glass makes a difference, it didn't make a big difference but it was definitely a difference and the one in the snifter was very slightly better than the pint glass. who am I to argue with results.

 

I am a stickler for using proper glassware. I mean, it doesn't have to be the EXACT glass for that particular beer, but I would never drink Chimay Blue out of a pub glass. I also cringe when I see the cash people spend on premium beer, only to drink it straight from the bottle, which some people do.

 

I am very embarrassed to say I have done it on occasion. I am a bit of a hypocrite that way because I will usually call someone out on it if I notice them drinking from the wrong glass. don't get me wrong I almost always use proper glassware I just cant say I do it every single time.
the part that irks me is when you go out to a bar and they give you chimay in a mug. it is your whole fucking job to provide the proper glassware and you cant even do that right.

ok so anyway I am drinking that Rasputin at room temp, a bit cool today because of the storm but its about what I think it should be drank at...drunken at...consumed at.
damn it rat where were you when I had my first one out of the 4 pack. it is so damn good, so much better at room temp. like it went from (if I was rating them) a 7.5 to a 9.0 just by drinking it at the right temperature. this is bigger than the time I noticed beer is better in the right glass, well I mean it is a bigger difference at least. I probly wont change my hot medium cold formula for $10 six packs but I will definitely start going for the right temp on my more premium beers.

 

the next one on the list is flying dogs numero uno. this one is more like numero whatever the number is for 365 but that is being generous. its bad. this shit is real bad. literally it tastes like spoiled dirt. i am not exaggerating that is the taste i am getting. it was on sale so i got a 6er. now i see why it was on sale, now if i can only figure out why it wasn't cheaper. on my second one. the first i had in a glass and i am not falling for that again. i need to mask the smell the best i can. this is the closest i have come to a drain pour since that chelada shit from bud. i am just going to guzzle this shit when i am looking to keep a buzz and try to forget it ever happened except when i pass it in the beer isle.
no seriously this shit is worse than....ok it is as bad as......ummm hurricane or earthquake. at least that shit is high alcohol. this garbage is,...garbage.

 

I think maybe I need to slink away and not show my face for awhile.
See, cause, like... I pretty much always drink straight from the bottle.
Unless it's a beer that came in a large (bigger than 12oz) bottle, then I use a pint glass.

I don't have a good selection of glasses.
I should probably fix that, eh?

 

damn you hipforums and your shitty lack of quote button all of a sudden....

yeah it would be in your best interest to at least have one glass from every style or at least every similar style.

 

Lots of great reviews and advice in here, thanks to y'all!

I'm convinced that I should make sure to let the darker brews de-chillify before drinking them.
Also, as I just mentioned above, I should get a couple glasses that are more appropriate.


Oh yeah!
I finished that strawberry moonshine last ni... er, early this morning.
I also ate a few of the strawberries that were in the jar.
And today I paid the price... nursed a hangover until the late afternoon.

I won't be doing that again.
(Well, not any time soon anyway.)

I think the next drinkin night will be fueled by beer again.
YAY!

 

What lack of a Quote button?
I'm seeing them just fine...

: /

 

what did I quote that you saw?