The Brew Basement

Here’s the latest updates to my tasting notes. For this round, I’ve updated the notes on nine different cellared brews, encompassing a pretty wide range of styles. Here’s the links - starting with the first four that held up the best.
Unibroue 15th Anniversary Ale - Big fruity flavors showing no signs of slowing down, fantastic!
North [...]

Name: Alaskan Barleywine Ale
Brewer: Alaskan Brewing Company
Style: Barleywine
Vintage: 2007
Cellared On: February 1st, 2008
Original Tasting: February 8th, 2008
Talk about a beer that has a lot going for it! Just consider the following.
Take a brewery renowned for it’s quality. Add in its multiple-award winning barleywine. Be sure to consider the fact that this is the very first [...]

Name: 10th Anniversary Old Ale
Brewer: Southampton
Style: Old Ale
Vintage: 2006
Cellared On: November 30th, 2007
Original Tasting: January 13th, 2008
Since I was going over to my friend Darren’s (a beer fanatic) place to watch the NY Giants playoff game yesterday, I knew I just had to bring an interesting beer for us to try. Since the Giants are [...]

Name: Victor

Brewer: Allagash
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Vintage: 2007
Cellared On: November 23rd, 2007
Original Tasting: January 5th, 2008
I’ve been wanting to give this brew a taste ever since Victor won an award in the “Best Experimental Beer Category” at last year’s Great American Beer Festival. This beer gets its uniqueness from Allagash adding a large amount of red [...]

Name: Xtra Gold
Brewer: Captain Lawrence
Style: Tripel
Vintage: 2006
Cellared On: November 30th, 2007
Original Tasting: December 29th, 2007
This past weekend I found myself facing my common problem of trying to select a beer from my ever-growing stash. I wanted one that would not only be great at kicking off a fun evening with friends, but would provide a [...]

Name: Ommegeddon
Brewer: Ommegang
Style:American Wild Ale / Belgian Saison
Vintage: 2007
Cellared On: November 3rd, 2007
Original Tasting: December 12th, 2007
Released back in June, Ommegeddon is brewery Ommegang’s first foray into the world of beers conditioned with Brettanomyces yeast. As I mentioned back in my series on Brett yeast in beer, the flavors associated with Brett yeast can take [...]

Name: Celebration Ale
Brewer: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Style: IPA/Holiday Brew
Vintage: 2007
Cellared On: November 17th, 2007
Original Tasting: December 6th, 2007
I already wrote all about this beer last week when it won the head-to-head Christmas beer tasting.  If you haven’t read that article yet, this brew narrowly beat out my vintage 2004 Celebration Ale in a taste test cage match. Just to [...]

Name: Our Special Ale (Christmas Ale)
Brewer: Anchor Brewing
Style: Not sure - a porter perhaps?
Vintage: 2007
Cellared On: November 3rd, 2007
Original Tasting: November 10th, 2007
Beer geeks everywhere know the holiday season is upon us when Anchor’s Our Special Ale starts showing up on the shelves. The recipe for this brew remains a closely guarded secret, and [...]

Name: Double Bastard Ale
Brewer: Stone Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Vintage: 2007
Cellared On: November 17th, 2007
Original Tasting: December 2nd, 2007
Stone’s Double Bastard beer starts out innocently enough. It’s a beautiful ruby red in the glass, topped by an average-sized creamy head. Nothing in the aroma of this beer will give you any real indication of [...]

Name: La Fin Du Monde
Brewer: Unibroue
Style: Belgian-Style Tripel
Vintage: 2007
Cellared On: November 8th, 2007
Original Tasting: November 23rd, 2007
La Fin Du Monde (The End of The World) is my second tasting from the Quebec brewery Unibroue. The first was their 15th Anniversary Ale, which I enjoyed back in August.
LFDM poured a murky dark yellow, shading a bit [...]