Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Pork'n out on beer


Most Wednesday nights you'll find hubby and I at Porky's Cafe in Shelton, CT for our weekly hump day excursion for hot wings and cold brew.  The rotating tap and seasonal beer offerings continue to impress me.  

A lot of these are from two of my favorite breweries . . . Dogfish Head and Lagunitas . . . but there are others such as Brooklyn, Founders and Sebago.  Of course, if there's something new available you know I'm going to try it.  

I've recently gotten the opportunity to try three outstanding beers.  Any of these I would recommend . . . especially to the hophead and the craft brew lover . . . they were all drool worthy!

Lagunitas Daytime Fractional IPA - Hops, hops and more hops . . . oh my, IPA heaven.  Lots of citrus and hops in the nose . . . and the flavors to back up that wonderful aroma.  It's big on taste but fairly light otherwise.  The 4.6% ABV and a goes-down-easy mouthfeel makes this very tasty IPA a great session beer for the hop lover.  Yum!

Lagunitas Brown Shugga - I ordered this without realizing it was a barleywine . . . not that I wouldn't have ordered it anyway.  Brown shugga . . . er . . . sugar, yeah it's got that.  And honey, too!  All that sweet stuff is offset by lots of grapefruity bitterness.  Sweet, tart and mouthwatering good.  An awesome balance of flavors with a bit of an alcohol burn.  Brown Shugga weighs in at a hefty 9.9% ABV.  Mmm, mmm, good!

Dogfish Head Olde School - I'm not big lover of barleywine but I'll give anything from Dogfish Head a whirl.  This brew has an amazing smell . . . tart and sweet and hoppy all at the same time.  The first sip . . . holy cow WOW!  Every sip there after . . . wow.  The bartender served this beer up in a shaker pint glass . . . surprising since there were three beers in that glass if you consider the massive 15% ABV.  And you can feel all that alcohol . . . it tingles the gums and tongue.  It's interesting in that you don't overly taste all that alcohol.  It's got a dark fruit taste and loads of caramel and something else I can't quite put my finger on.  It's sweet, all right, but there hoppy bitterness in there, too.  Olde School is truly something special . . . I am impressed.   Thumbs up all over the place for this brew!

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