BA Barleywine Meet-up

For the second straight month, Tim at The 5th Earl Market organized a Beer Advocate gathering for another tasting. The theme this month: barleywines! No better way to pass a late summer day in Atlanta.

The list:

Rogue Old Crustacean 2004

Alaskan Barleywine 2007

Bridgeport Old Knucklehead

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2004

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #6

Green Flash Barleywine

Smuttynose Barleywine 2005

Smuttynose Wheat Wine

Clipper City Below Decks

Dogwood Excellent Adventure Barleywine

Stone Old Guardian Vertical 2002 through 2007

Anchor Old Foghorn 2007

There may have been a couple others...

Some highlights: KP was quite generous to bring the Old Guardian vertical as well as extra cups for everyone so we could try all 6 vintages side by side. (My opinion was that the 2003 vintage was the best.) Few would be so generous but few have assembled a beer cellar as impressive as KP's.

Another treat was brought by Jordan Fleetwood, current brewer at Twain's Billiards and Tap in Decatur and former brewer at the defunct Dogwood Brewing Company. The Excellent Adventure Barleywine was one of the last (if not the last) beers brewed at Dogwood and to the best of my knowledge was not commercially released. It may have been the best beer of the night.

There wasn't a bad beer in the bunch. Thanks again to Tim for organizing and everybody for bringing the beer! Hopefully, this will continue to be a regular event.

The 5th Earl Market

BA Imperial Stout Meet-Up

This past Saturday, several Atlanta area BA's (Beer Advocates) met up in Decatur for an Imperial Stout tasting. Tim works at The 5th Earl Market so he provided the venue and organized the event.

The full list of beers (as far as I can remember) is as follows:

Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti
Southern Tier Oat
Southern Tier Jahva
Peche Mortel
Mikkeller Black
O'Dell's Imperial Stout
Brewdog Paradox (not sure which release...)
Eel River Raven's Eye
Lagunitas Imperial Stout
Great Lakes Blackout Stout
Weyerbacher Old Heathen
Weyerbacher XIII
Weyerbacher Heresey
Bell's Expedition
Samuel Smith's Imperial stout
Smuttynose Imperial Stout
Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout
Duck Rabbit Rabid Duck
Left Hand Imperial stout
Fish Tale Poseidon's Imperial Stout

Personal highlights included the Smuttynose Imperial Stout, Weyerbacher Heresey, Southern Tier Jahva and Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout. Samuel Smith's was quite a surprise as it held its own against this crew of American heavyweights. Mikkeller Black was the most unique tasting (this Danish stout clocks in at 17.5%) but probably need a couple years aging (at least) to reach its potential.

As far as food, one of group ordered the Newcastle Mussels which smelled amazing (I did not have any). Others were kind enough to share some blue cheese and crackers with the group and I discovered that drizzling a little honey on the blue chees is a fantastic combination.

A good time to be sure. Met some new people and reconnected with some old acquaintances. Drank some great beer.

(On a side note, I arrived early and had one of the bar's draft offerings, Allagash Hugh Malone. Very good stuff.)

Thanks to Tim and The 5th Earl Market for hosting the event. A few snapshots are below.





BA Imperial Stout Gathering