Spring Cleaning Continues

I'm getting closer every night to having an empty beer fridge, not counting all my big beers of course. Last night it was Lagunitas Sirius Ale, a "double" cream ale of sorts, weighing in at 7.6% ABV. I really have no idea how old this was. The Lagunitas website says it is released in May of every year and I'm pretty sure I bought this back in the fall, so I'm thinking it's at least a year old. Wow.

I wasn't looking forward to this. In fact, I was almost dreading it to the point where I almost just poured it down the drain instead of transferring it from the warm case to the cold fridge. I had two left from the six pack and my first experience with them wasn't very good. I didn't take notes, but I remember it being harsh and hot from the increased alcohol. Cream ales are supposed to be smooth and easy to drink; this particular cream ale failed in that capacity. I remember having trouble finishing both bottles that I personally drank and even my BIL, who will drink anything, didn't seem to like it when I pawned them off on him.

I didn't want to abuse the beer more than I already had by leaving it in a warm case for a year though, so I tried to gain a little good karma and cracked one open. I was pleasantly surprised. The alcohol had cooled off admirably. It was much smoother with the slightest bit of hoppy bitterness. It was much more drinkable and I actually enjoyed it. So much so that I look forward to drinking the second one.

This was definitely one of the better surprises this undertaking has produced. An aged cream ale, who would've thunk it?

Spring Cleaning

Well, it's not actually spring, but I am in the midst of a massive effort to clean out my beer supply. I have a bad habit of buying new beer before I finish old beer (this is apart from any conscious "cellaring" efforts). When I go to my beer fridge to pick something out, the new stuff always looks tastier than the old stuff. After 6-8 months, all of a sudden I'm running out of room with old random beer completely taking over. I realized I had a full case of various and sundry beer products sitting just outside my beer fridge, quite a few offerings in the fridge, and about 1/2 a case of my last two homebrews (the last time I brewed was 6 months ago, which shows how old these are getting). It's now my goal to eliminate all the "regular" beer before buying more new stuff. I'll willingly break this goal when we have company. I'm defining "regular" beer as something I'd drink on a regular basis, so I can keep barleywines, belgians, imperial stouts, etc...as they won't deteriorate and, quite frankly, it's too monumental to drink all of those...especially in this heat. I expect to have a few drain pours in the mix as some of the beers that were sitting in the case out of the fridge have been sitting there for a long time and some of them are beers that I wouldn't really want to drink on a good day (Corona and Becks jump to mind). I'm slowly getting there, but I'm hoping to get some help on Thursday when we're having some people over for a cookout. Last night was some Magic Hat Hi.P.A, age unknown. It was very tasty but had clearly lost some of its hop bite and flavor. Previously, it was my last homebrew (an IPA), which was still pretty tasty, but again, some of its bite and flavor had noticeably diminished.

It's a dirty job, this, but somebody's gotta do it.