Beer Review: Avery Out of Bounds Stout

August 30th, 2010

Maybe if I drink enough of these I can pretend I'm skiing.

Avery Brewing Company in Boulder, CO

The hardest thing I have to live without on the East Coast is skiing. Though it’s been at least four years since I last found myself on a mountain, I really miss those early Saturday mornings filled with McDonald’s breakfast and a cramped red truck chugging its way toward the top of the local ski area as the temps outside dipped as low as -20. Those were great days, especially when you found great powder or a day when you skied a trail perfectly or tried a new trick you’d never accomplished before. Those days were a little bit before my drinking days, and definitely before my days of stout love, but seeing a bottle like Avery’s Out of Bounds Stout, with the skier on the front and the ski dictionary name-dropping in the title just makes a man want to fly out to Boulder right now and wait for the first major snow dump of the year. And the skiing might not even be the best part. The best part would be knowing that you could find Out of Bounds Stout on tap all over Boulder no matter the time of year. That would be quite enjoyable. But with a place like the Brickskeller, there really isn’t any reason to leave the bottled beer mecca of the US.

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Beer Review: New World Porter

August 12th, 2010

Avery Brewing Company in Boulder, CO

One of the greatest additions to the D.C. beer scene in the past few months has been the introduction of the Meridian Pint to Columbia Heights. Aside from being a bar just a few minutes from my apartment, the bar really does have that neighborhood feel that is missing from many of the bars I’ve come across in D.C. It’s super bright inside, and it’s a place where you can pop in and surely strike up a conversation at the bar with a stranger or run into some of your neighbors or work associates. Needless to say, I’m finding myself there quite often, especially with the expertise of beer director Sam Fitz. He’s a really nice guy and super knowledgeable when it comes to beer. Plus, the bar is specializing in just American microbrews, so you don’t have to worry about dropping in and finding half the taps filled with Belgian beers. So stopping in on Saturdays just seems too easy these days, and with no real beer in mind, I picked from the row of taps a great beer from Avery Brewing in Colorado, the New World Porter.

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Wine Enthusiast Top 25 Beer Selections 2009

December 1st, 2009

beer medalsWine Enthusiast has handed out its picks for the best 25 beers of 2009. This is a tremendous undertaking, and I think it would be awfully tough to rank beers on any scale, but I have to hand it to Lauren Buzzeo for giving the top 25 a go and coming up with quite a fair list. Turns out, only one beer we’ve reviewed, Deschutes Jubelale, shows up here. Guess we have some work to do.

I obviously have some qualms with the selections (Eliot Ness shouldn’t be anywhere near the top ten; any beer I’ve had from Southern Tier has been a little overblown in my opinion; Sierra Nevada Summerfest?!?), but I do agree with a number of the picks (Sam Adams’s Boston Lager has always been an incredibly underrated beer for what it is, and tastes marvelous out of a tap; love seeing the Jolly Pumpkin folks, and a fellow Michigan graduate, getting some respect) and I also love the diversity in brews selected. But really, what would a list be without a little debate? Be sure to check out Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s December issue for the full list, and also check out its Beer Buying Guide which ran back in June. Both are great reads.

I challenge everyone to make their own list of favorite brews before New Years. We’d love to have your take on the best beers in your eyes, er, tongues.

Wine Enthusiast Top 25 Beer Selections 2009:

25.  Victory Festbier (Marzen/Oktoberfest; Victory Brewing Company, PA; 5.6% ABV)

24.  Nuova Mattina (Saison/Farmhouse Ale; Birrificio Del Ducato, Italy; 5.8% ABV)

1peche23.  Dogfish Head Festina Peche (Berliner Weissbier; Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Inc., DE; 4.5% ABV)

22.  Left Hand Oktoberfest Marzen Lager (Marzen/Oktoberfest; Left Hand Brewing Company, CO; 6.0% ABV)

21.  Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale (Pumpkin Ale; Smuttynose Brewing Co., NH; 6.0% ABV)

20.  Sierra Nevada Summerfest (Czech Pilsener, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., CA; 5.0% ABV)

19.  Nostradamus (Belgian Dark Strong Ale; Brasserie Caracole, Belgium; 9.0% ABV)

18.  Samuel Adams Boston Lager (Vienna Lager; The Boston Beer Co., MA; 4.7% ABV)

17.  Bam Biere Farmhouse Ale (Saison/Farmhouse Ale; Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, MI; 4.5%)1bambiere-tile

16.  Allagash White (Witbier; Allagash Brewing Company, ME; 5.2% ABV)

15.  Stone Vertical Epic 09.09.09 (Belgian Dark Strong Ale; Stone Brewing Co., CA; 8.9% ABV)

14.  Deschutes Jubelale (Winter Warmer; Deschutes Brewery, OR; 6.7% ABV)

13.  St. Bernardus Wit (Witbier, Brouwerij St. Bernardus, Belgium; 5.5%)

12.  The Lost Abbery Duck-Duck-Gooze Ale (American Wild Ale; The Lost Abbey, CA; 7.0% ABV)

11.  La Moneuse Saison (Saison/Farmhouse Ale; Brasserie de Blaugies, Belgium; 8.0% ABV)

Check below the jump for Wine Enthusiast’s top ten beers of 2009.

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