An impy stout matured in Speyside whisky casks. nuff said. BTW if you are quick enough: Veneto has North Coast 8 ball imperial stout on tap. Well worth the crazy parking!

Paradox Speyside (Brew Dog) = 9/10
Ratebeer 3.79 99th percentile
Beer Advocate 91%

The aroma gave only a faint warning of what was to come. Calm vanilla, sherry, peat and wood can't be too dangerous right? Wrong! BAM. A full-on glycerin slick sip burns the throat. Oddly easy drinking for 10%ABV. Name the cask flavour and it was there: bittersweet chocolate, vanilla, sherry, chewy coffee and port. The port and coffee didn't hang around for the linger.
I realize that this description is not long enough to full detail the awesomeness of this beer. Fatigue plays a major factor in brevity. 

Taste +5
Aftertaste +1
Alcohol Content +1 10%
Value +1
Appearance +1

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Mikkeller Black Hole

Another beer from the EPIC Beer dinner #2. Actually it was the main attraction. Thanks to Dave for picking this up; I don't want to know how much he paid for it.

Sink the Bismark = 10/10

Ratebeer 3.38 87th percentile
Beer Advocate B

This thing smells corrosive, yet inviting. To say massive is an understatement; so much pine/pitch, alcohol, fruits and corn syrup. Even before the liquid touches your lips, the alcohol vapours burn your mouth. The flavours of licorice, roasted hops, caramel wrap your tongue in a warm blanket. It reminds me of a good Scotch. More like a mix of Scotch, IPA and Drambuie. It is quite sweet and surprisingly drinkable. My glass still smelled of pine-sol two weeks later.

Taste +5
Aftertaste +2
Alcohol Content +1 41% not a typo
Value +1
Appearance +1 (brown bag FTW)

Brew Dog Hardcore IPA

Ratebeer 3.36 79th percentile
Beer Advocate B-

Taste +4

Wow, the nose was more than expected. It was big on everything: caramel malts, sweet, spicy, piny and citrus hops. With a big hoppy nose, the taste was oddly sweet with the caramel malts. But still, the hops overrode everything. I believe this is what they call hop soup. You could taste sweet grapefruit, pine, spices and tangerines. The mouthfeel was full with faint carbonation and a pleasant astringency.

Aftertaste +2

The mouth coating of sweet grapefruit lasted forever.

Alcohol Content +1 9%

It was an very drinkable beer despite the high ABV.

Value +1

File this beer under "must try" for any hophead.

Ingame Enhancement +1

It was a different sort of game today. I had this brew when I got home from the Canada vs. Sweden Olympic Women's hockey game. In case you were wondering, no they did not serve this beer at Thunderbird Stadium. I was also not going to pay $7 for a can of Molson Canadian.

Overall 9/10

This was a big, beautiful, hoppy IPA. I thought it was a little sweet, but the big hop-soup flavours were palate shattering.

Thunderhead IPA and raising funds
Pliny the Elder
Philips Crazy 8's

Twitter can be a wonderful thing. After I came into possession of the TNP, a quick tweet went out to see if others in Victoria wanted to try this much sought after beer. Jeff from Vancouver Island Brewery picked up the message and helped me set things up. Nine Victoria beer geeks gathered to enjoy good beers and beer inspired food.

But first the food. Wives are awesome, she created an impressive spread of food:
- Guinness soaked deviled eggs.
- Puff pastry pizzas with portobello mushrooms, shallots, pesto and goat brie. The mushrooms and shallots were sauteed in Southern Tier Unearthly IPA.
- Vegan chocolate brownies made with Brooklyn chocolate stout.
- Herman's boozy balls made with Hermannator ice bock.
- Hummus with Brooklyn chocolate stout.
- Basil beer bread made with Paulaner Salvator.
You can always tell the quality of food by the amount of leftovers you have to take home. There were none.



The beer selection was quite impressive. Oddly the beer that stole the show was not the Brewdog; it was a beer much lighter in colour. So how was the Penguin?


Taste +4

This was not a taste for the casual beer drinker. It delivered a harsh and burning alcohol tongue slap. No one in the group could mistake the wood/whiskey flavours. You could also pick up vanilla, caramel, sherry and peat. The Penguin was very boozy and burning. I quite liked the flavour, but I also like a good single malt whiskey. Giving your true opinion of this beer might be similar to telling the Emperor about his new clothes. No one in their right mind is going to say that this beer sucks, since someone shelled out 35 euros for a bottle. At least not while they are still in the same room.

Aftertaste +2

The afterbite is tremendous. Alcohol and a dry astringency lingering, along with the peat and smoke.

Alcohol Content +1 35%

It can be argued that this is not really a beer, but a distilled spirit. There is no hiding the boozy bite. I might retaste this beer diluted down with a bit of water.

Value 0

Yes zero. It was fun once, but I really could find a better use for $35 euros.

Ingame Enhancement +1

This beer did bring together nine strangers for a great party.

Overall 8/10

If you want a radically unique beer tasting experience, then look no further. This big brew offers you something completely different. There are bold tastes of peat, caramel, smoke, wood and alcohol. This brew was a three ring circus for the palate. It was not the big top with the flying trapeze and trained tigers. It felt this beer was more like the bearded lady and the sword swallower.

I am sure other tasters in the room would have scored this beer much, much lower. Especially if they do not like the taste of Scotch.

I love science; it is even better when paired with binge drinking. Perhaps I should explain.. This study caught my eye the other day, "Acute alcohol tolerance on subjective intoxication and simulated driving performance in binge drinkers". It sounds like an ARC drinking and driving party (aka. PS3 and beers). In the June 2009 issue of Psychology or Addictive Behaviors, researchers gave college kids enough ethanol to mimic binge drinking and tested their performance on a simulated drive game. You can guess the results, they did poorly. Big shocker. But this was the shocking finding, regular binge drinkers felt less intoxicated and reported a greater willingness to drive than social drinkers. This is something the researchers labeled as acute alcohol tolerance. Here is how it works; when you drink your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) rises. This makes you feel intoxicated. When you stop drinking your BAC declines. Binge drinkers felt less intoxicated when their BAC was declining, even though their actual BAC was identical to a point when their BAC was increasing. In other words, they felt less drunk when they were sobering up even though they still had the same amount of alcohol floating through their veins. This is the kicker, binge drinkers drove worse when their BAC were declining compared to when it was increasing.
This is one the reasons why more binge drinkers tend to drive home. They perceived themselves to be OK to drive, but in fact their BAC may be above the legal limit. BTW each subject got $75 as compensation for getting loaded for free.

Rip Tide Stout - BrewDog

Ratebeer 3.59 91st percentile
Beer Advocate B

Taste +4

For such a strong stout, the nose was oddly faint with roasted coffee and alcohol. But the taste made up for it; the brew was think and oily. A big moughtfeel revealed a bittersweet stout with burnt toast, roasted coffee and cocoa nibs. Upfront there was a slight taste of dark cherries.
Aftertaste +2

The long oily coating left burnt (not roasted) cocoa everywhere.

Alcohol Content +1 8%

It only left a little warmth.
Value +1

If you like a big stout, as I do, this will make your taste buds happy.
Ingame Enhancement +1

Death Aboard v7.0 is now available for L4D. It is the first map to challenge a player, without frustrating due to missing textures or unfinished parts. This is now the current map on Nightware4Dead.

Overall 9/10

This is one great Imperial Stout. It is big, thick and oily with burnt sweetness all around.

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