The Brew Basement

Hi everyone. For my latest round of updates I have six beers cellaring well, and only a single one going downhill. I had fun with these tastings, as you can imagine!
Unibroue La Fin Du Monde - Reduced carbonation is really allowing the fruit flavors and sugar-cookie like sweetness to come through.
Stone Double Bastard Ale - [...]

Hi everyone! I’m back from vacation and ready for more beer! Of course I had a blast drinking my share of brews down in North Carolina too! As always, thanks for reading!

Name: La Merle
Brewer: North Coast Brewing
Style: Saison
Vintage: 2008
Cellared On: April 11th, 2008
Original Tasting: May 19th, 2008
It was a gorgeous spring day. It wasn’t [...]

Name: The Abyss
Brewer: Deschutes
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
Vintage: 2007
Bottled On: December 2007
Cellared On: January 23rd, 2008
Original Tasting: May 8th, 2008
OK, so I admit that this wasn’t the original tasting for this brew. The first tasting I did was actually back in January when I first received my case. I was so looking forward to trying [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Name: Trippel
Brewer: Green Flash
Style: Tripel
Vintage: 2008
Cellared On: April 9th, 2008
Original Tasting: April 20th, 2008
Brews from Green Flash Brewing in San Diego are a brand new addition to the beer scene here in Upstate NY this spring. The guys over at Oliver’s Beverage tell me they’re all selling like crazy, and I can believe it. [...]

Name: Old Guardian
Brewer: Stone
Style: Barleywine
Vintage: 2008
Cellared On: March 7th, 2008
Original Tasting: March 29th, 2008
I wasn’t sure if this brew would make to Upstate NY or not. Not every Stone offering seems to make it this far (no sign of the Russian Imperial Stout yet), so I was pretty happy to see this in my [...]

Name: Baltic Thunder
Brewer: Victory
Style: Baltic Porter
Vintage: 2008
Cellared On: March 3rd, 2008
Original Tasting: April 13th, 2008
This is one brew with a history - that’s not something you can usually say with a new brewing!
In this case, Baltic Thunder is Victory Brewing’s take on a well known brew by the now-closed Heavyweight brewing. The beer was called [...]

Name: Jah Va
Brewer: Southern Tier
Style: Imperial Stout
Vintage: 2007
Cellared On: March 3rd, 2008
Original Tasting: April 4th, 2008
The very first stout I tasted for this website was Dogfish Head’s Chicory Stout. Despite being a very tasty coffee-flavor brew, it just hasn’t been holding up well in the cellar. I have a bit more confidence in Southern [...]