Brews 26-35

And so once again we are putting our livers on the line to bring you guys the skinny on Michael Jackson's "500 Best Brews" and with this batch, I gotta tell you, he may have something here. We did 10 freakin beers in a night, and some of them were absolutely amazing. We almost had our first 5 which was quite exciting. But with out further delay...

Theakston Old Peculiar:
Rather peculiar indeed... To the nose: strong wine odor... to the tongue: smooth with no wine taste what-so ever. All joking aside, this was an amazing beer upon tasting it Retha declared it to be the best beer thus far. I personally can't remember too many taste factors, but I do remember being very happy with it as a first choice for the night. We highly suggest picking up a 6 of this and enjoying it with some good friends.. a 4.5 out of 5 steins.

Paulaner Original Munich:
From the scent of this beer, I would have thought it to be lambic. In fact I kept asking if it was... A strong berry scent, which Wes describes as, "Fresh Tortilla Chips (right out of the fryer) with fruit salsa." I don't know if I'd go that far, but yes... it did smell fruity. Perhaps the greatest quote about this beer came while we were trying to figure out a way to describe it. Wes declared, "It was good" with a mouth full of lemon mirange pie. We give this beer a lovingly 3.5 steins out of 5.

Paulaner Hefe-Weizen:
"A smelly smell that smells" (Retha). Yeah, that describes it. The scent on this beer was quite disturbing. However the taste was rather interesting. Instantly I tasted that beef jerky taste I have been getting from some beers. Then Wes mentioned the banana undertones. Upon my next sip I was there with him. I'd call its jerked bananas. But as for the type of beer, it was very good. We're granting this one 3.5 bananas out of 5... Oh! uh... I mean steins... We grant steins here...

Scneider Weisse:
We purposely put all of the weisse and weizen in the middle so that we could have a delicious beginning and ending (we aren't huge fans of these types). I believe my exact words were "disgusting." That was all I needed to say about this beer. The smell was terrible, the taste... terrible even for a weisse. But in order to stay objective, we're giving this one a 2.5 steins out of 5, simply because for the type of beer... its was... kind of shitty. But only kind of...

Paulaner Salvator: If you haven't guessed by now, we're trying to take down all of the Paulaner's tonight. I absolutely loved this beer. An incredible smell, sweet and smooth taste, and just amazing. However every silver lining has a cloud (yeah I reversed that). This beer lacked a real hops taste. If this beer had a strong hop taste to it, I would have fully given this a 5 (and I believe the other agree). But due to the lack of stronger hops, 4.5 steins out of 5.

Schneider Aventinas: At this point in the night our friend Timm and his lovely fiancé Jen joined us. And I am terribly sorry to say their night started with a terrible beer. "I really really hate it" said Retha. I feel as though it is a wheat beer brand trying to be a bock. Timm thought, "It smells good, but it just tastes bad." Before we all gave up on this one Wes chimed in with, "As it warms it tastes better." Now I rather enjoy wheat beer, and I am fine with drinking bocks. But this hybrid frankenstein-esque beer does not deserve to be on the face of this earth. A pitiful 2 out of 5 steins.

Saison Dupont: Wes has been eagerly waiting the tasting of this Dupont. We talked alot about having it, and finally decided it was time. The pour left a strong foamy head at the top, with a rather skunkish odor. Our good friend Timm said it was good but he wouldn't drink it every day.Wes believed it to be an average summery ale. I personally thought it was a decent beer and I would suggest it to a person who enjoys summer ales. But it is an expensive beer which deterred us a little. 3 steins out of 5.

Grozet Gooseberry & Wheat Ale: What the hell is a gooseberry? I don't know. But I liked it. This beer was both sweet and hoppy (which I rather liked). Timm liked it so much that he would drink it on a regular basis. This beer had a hoppy flavor complimented by the sweet fruitiness of the gooseberries. What was incredible was that the smell was a little spicy, yet the taste was devoid of all spice. The after taste of the beer was surprisingly more hop driven than fruit. As we all enjoyed this one, 3.75 our of 5 steins.

Franziskaner Dunkel Hefe-Weissbier: Quite a mouthful to order, but worth every word. This was almost like candy beer. This beer had a lot of various flavors to it, toffee, coffee, chocolate, and hops. Which was not at all indicated by the smell of the beer. It was very dark and indescript. Now depending on your taste buds you will have a different experience. I very strongly tasted the chocolate with a coffee underlie, whereas Retha tasted more coffee with chocolate undertones. Timm? well Timm just thought this beer was "sooooo good... it's just sweet goodness." Goodness indeed, 4.5 goodness steins out of 5.

Christoffel Robertus: If you guys are regular readers of this blog, you'd know that I had a bad experience with the last Christoffel... That's right, the beer exploded in my face. Now I felt as though it was necessary for me to open this one and redeem myself. That I did... and so did the brand. This beer was great. It had an interesting watermelon taste to it. The amber color was quite misleading, as it contained more hops than expected. This beer completely changed how I feel about the Christoffel line of beers. An easily granted 4.25 out of 5 steins.