The Brew Basement

Name: Vintage Ale
Brewer: Fuller’s
Style: Old Ale
Vintage: 2007
Cellared On: September 1st, 2008
Original Tasting: October 10th, 2008
Wow, it’s a beer in that comes in a cool red box! Caaatchy. I remember my first thought after seeing this was that you better be making a pretty damn good brew if you’re packaging the thing like that.
Fortunately for Fuller’s, [...]

Name: Double Dead Guy
Brewer: Rogue
Style: Strong Ale
Vintage: 2008
Cellared On: October 6th, 2008
Original Tasting: October 13th, 2008
It was awhile since I’ve had a new brew from Rogue Ales on here. I swear I stare at them every time I walk into one of my local beverage centers, but I’ve just been walking by them lately. I [...]

Name: Adam
Brewer: Hair of the Dog
Style: Old Ale
Vintage: 2008

Cellared On: November 23rd, 2008
Original Tasting: November 24th, 2008
I’ve been waiting to get some Hair of the Dog brew in my cellar for some time now. You just know that it’s going to get my attention for sure when a brewer makes a point of saying [...]

Name: The Vermonster
Brewer: Rock Art Brewing
Style: Barleywine (Double IPA?)
Vintage: 2008
Cellared On: September 1st, 2008
Original Tasting: September 8th, 2008
Hi folks. I’m still struggling to work through my backlog of reviews here. I know, I know, what a tough hobby I have! Drinking is hard work!
This was my first beer from Rock Art Brewing [...]

Name: Druid Fluid
Brewer: Middle Ages Brewing Company
Style: Barleywine
Vintage: 2008
Cellared On: March 1st, 2008
Original Tasting: March 21st, 2008 (or June 11th, take your pick)
Sometime back in March I started my first review notebook. If you looked at it now here in June, it’s page after page of beer tasting, all very neatly organized. Of course, I [...]

Name: Palo Santo Marron
Brewer: Dogfish Head
Style: Strong Brown Ale
Vintage: 2008
Bottled On: April 16th, 2008
Cellared On: June 6th, 2008
Original Tasting: June 9th, 2008
I was VERY excited to find this brew in my local beverage store - I was beginning to think I wouldn’t see it all here in the Albany NY area. For those of you [...]

Name: Barleywine (No fancy names here!)
Brewer: Green Flash
Style: Barleywine (Bet you couldn’t figure that one out!)
Vintage: 2007
Cellared On: April 9th, 2008
Original Tasting: April 21st, 2008
Green Flash’s barleywine poured a clear dark amber with a very light brown head. There were some sweet caramel and toffee malt notes in the smell, but they were totally [...]

OK, so they look the same, but how do they taste?
The minute I saw the 2008 vintage of North Coast’s Old Stock Ale on the shelves earlier this spring, I knew this article was coming soon. I just couldn’t wait to pour one of my 2007’s to see how it was matching up with this [...]

Name: Old Stock Ale
Brewer: North Coast Brewery
Style: Old Ale
Vintage: 2008
Cellared On: March 30th, 2008
Original Tasting: May 2nd, 2008
Much like the 2007 version - okay, more like exactly like the 2007 vintage; North Coast’s Old Stock Ale pours a dark mahogany brown with streaks of red shooting through the beer. It was very cool looking.
Extremely [...]

Name: Insanity
Brewer: Weyerbacher
Style: Barleywine
Vintage: 2007
Bottled On: December 8th, 2007 (Date printed on case)
Cellared On: March 21st, 2008
Original Tasting: April 26th, 2008
Every year, Weyerbacher takes a portion of their Blithering Idiot Barleywine and age it oak bourbon barrels before bottling. And since I’ve enjoyed aging Weyerbacher’s Blithering Idiot Barelywine it was only natural that I’d [...]