Tag Archives: anderson valley

Boont Extra Special Beer

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Beer-a-Day #281Boont Extra Special Beer

The abundant hopping in this four-time gold medal winner, creates arousing aromatics, accompanied by a pleasantly bitter bite. Boont Extra Special Beer is deep gold in color, with a spicy hop aroma. Starts with a big, malty backbone and finishes with a refreshingly bitter bite. Boont Extra Special Beer is excellent alone or as an accompaniment to your favorite well-seasoned meals (such as Mexican, Korean, Chinese, Indian, or Thai, cuisine).

(Formerly Belk’s ESB)

Medium amber with an ivory head and haze. Floral and spice in the aroma. Medium body with a nice full hop flavor. (Ron, you’d like this too.) This is my kind of beer. 6.8% ABV is a bit high for me to make it my usual though.

» Anderson Valley Brewing Company – Boont Extra Special Beer

Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout

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Beer-a-Day #269Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout

With its deep, dark brown-black color, thick, full-bodied, velvety-smooth mouth feel, mocha character, and, strong yet subtle hop bite, Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout is one of the thickest, richest, and most complex stouts on the market today. In 1990, it became our first gold medal winner, at the Great American Beer Festival. Barney Flats was judged so superior to the other stouts that no other medals were even awarded in its category. Try it and see why Stewart Kallen described it as, “Slippery, creamy, dark, and sweet as a Pacific May morning,” in his book, The 50 Greatest Beers In The World.

Thick and dark. Smells of chocolate. Creamy and delicious. That’s good stuff.

Anderson Valley Brewing Company – Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout

Poleeko Gold Pale Ale

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Beer-a-Day #264Poleeko Gold Pale Ale

When the phrase “California Style Ale” is used, Poleeko Gold Pale Ale is the one that comes to mind. The golden color and generous use of Pacific Northwest hops establish a distinct style, separate from any domestic or European beers. Our honey-gold pale ale is crisp and clear, with an unusual lightness and dryness for such a full-flavored ale. The arousing abundance of hops adds both a floral bouquet and a lively, citrusy finish. It is excellent alone, or with full-flavored meals and spicy dishes.

Orange-y with some haze. Lots of citrus from the hops. Medium body with a very pleasant hop bite. I like it.

Anderson Valley Brewing Company – Poleeko Gold Pale Ale


IPA Bake Off

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Back in October we tried an Octoberfest bake off (a taste test) and it wasn’t that successful. Nice.. not thrillin’, but nice. So when a different group of my friends suggested a blind IPA taste testing, I wasn’t very optimistic; but of course I was game anyway.

Surprise! Not only was it a great evening, the winners and losers made it all that much more interesting. We scored them differently than I had done previously, not just on an overall impression like the unofficial Hop-Talk rating system is built upon, but rather a much more detailed method using a standard beer judging sheet. It is based on an overall score of 50 points made up of several categories.

scoring chart

Here are the results. I rounded the averages of the four of us playing judge…

ipa-taste-test
My comments after the tasting go like this…
Rogue - Yes, it stood alone at the top.
Stone – One of my favorite IPA’s. My score for it probably would have been higher but I hadn’t just taken a break in tasting for a slice of Buffalo Pizza… probably not the best idea and probably affected the overall result.
Butternut – We were all surprised by this one, but me most of all as I really don’t like Butternut’s other brews. I’m going to have to go back for this one.
Middle Ages – While we all know and love this IPA, none of us expected it to rate so high. Glad to see it up there.
Sam Smith – I nailed the import.

I had a great time doing this… I don’t know if the flavors varied that much greater than the octoberfest styles, or if the method in judging was what made it so much better. In any case, the casual nature and long evening in which we took to do it was one for the books.

Special thanks to our servers, Ellie & Katie, and their scientific strategy to organization assuring accurate test results. (We will excuse the Yuengling Porter incident.)

Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout Review

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Oatmeal Stout… it is one of favorite styles. I jumped all over this Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout, by Anderson Valley Brewing Company when I saw it. My first sampling came late at night, the kids were asleep, and my wife and I sat on the porch to read our books and listen to the ocean.

The beer poured very nice and thick with a very small, brown head. It smelled wonderfully roasty, with hops hidden very, very, far in the background. My first sip took me back a bit. It was strong all around, but the roasted malt aroma carried through to the taste too strong for my tastes and was less carmel/chocolate like and more French roasted coffee like. It was thick and creamy, like an oatmeal should be.

barneyflatsbig.jpgOverall, I liked this beer a lot, but not until after I changed my mindset. You see, I was expecting (or maybe just hoping) for an oatmeal stout like the one I used to be able to get from my local brew pub before the brew master left with the recipe. Though they tried, the pub was never able to duplicate it. That Oatmeal Stout was also thick and smooth, but so well rounded and wet it immediately became one of my all time favorite beers.

The Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout was a little too sharp for my tastes. Again, I came around to liking it more for what is really was, instead of what I was hoping it to be. It is a fantastic night cap beer and actually was perfect in the current atmosphere I was in. It could compliment a dessert, but more likely it IS the dessert. Come to think of it, it might also make a good breakfast. As a matter of fact, as they say, “It’s not just shy sluggin gorms neemer.” (I’ll leave that up to you to figure out – post a comment if you do)

Hats off to Anderson Valley Brewing Company for making a great beer in a style that not many try to attempt. I look forward to trying the rest of their collection.