CBN Con

It has taken me a long time to post anything from the day that will forever be known as CBNcon, but I wanted to share a little bit. Though, they say what happens at CBNcon stays at CBNcon, so I will just show you some highlights and make brief comments about some 1001 Beers I had while I was there.



The Table The Morning After The Bottle Share minus the growlers and homebrew bottles.



One Of The Many Selections I Had Out On The Town



Epic 1001 Flights I Brought



Side By Side 2013 Sexual Chocolate



Lobster Reuben During The Tart Of Darkness Party several others beers consumed as well



I Love Pumpkins



Speedway Stout Off The List

quite a bit more happened and I guess I didn't give full reviews on these 1001's but I have had most of them before and I am sure I will have them again. Especially the Hair Of The Dog Beers. It has been a while and I remember impressions but I did not take notes. I know I was looking forward to the review of the 5 but, yup.

Adam, I liked this one quite a bit. Fred, not so much. The Dissident, kind of medicinal, not the sour I was hoping for. The Stoic, not very quad-like but full at the same time. The Collage/Conflux No 1 - I did not think it was as good as it was when it was fresh, but it was after the best after date now. It was still fantastic though!

Speedway Stout, pretty damn fantastic. So much beer to talk about from that weekend, but I really can't haha some great stuff came out and I brought some great stuff home.

So I guess that gets me down to 890 Bottles of Beer To go! I may revisit these like I said before just to "redeem" the post about them. But you know, Cheers!

Conflux No 1: Collage

So one thing I find hilarious about this collaboration, which no one else in the world will find funny, is that the first time I have been to both of these breweries was on the same day. Check it out.

But Anyway, Here we Go...

Collage is actually the first beer in the Conflux series, but it was the second to be released. Back when Number 2 came out I thought I had missed the first one and I was bummed as all hell, but figured oh well. When I heard about the beer dinners for the release I tried to figure out everything so bad in order to make it but my flights would not make it in time. I have 3 of the 4 beers used and I am hoping that the 4th is released anywhere I can get it.





I love how this is one of the first times I was able to appropriately use my glass with a beer. It was oh, so refreshing. Collage DEFINITELY smelled like a Hair of the Dog Beer. This kind of surprised me being I thought it would be more of a Deschutes ale. The two companies came together and, if I understand this right, blended their Dissident, The Stoic (which I have a bottle of in the cellar), Fred, and Adam in several casks. I do not know how they did it but wow... I cannot believe this beer exist.

In the nose I cannot describe what I am smelling, exactly. If you have ever been to Hair Of The Dog, you know the scent I am talking about and I also get a tingly sweetness of a barrel. The mouthfeel was incredibly thick and in the taste, dark fruits are predominately what I experienced. Maybe like a black raspberry. Boozy and warming but it is not overpowering. Very well done... Bravely Done. Overall I found this to be a pretty good beer... but I messed it up, big time.





I failed to realize that they put a BEST AFTER date on the bottle... 4/30/13. Wow, I had to run up to 99 Bottles to grab another. I am glad that it just came out and is kind of easy to get a hold of. I would have hated myself for a while about this one haha! I have no idea when I am going to open this beer again, but I am for sure looking forward to it. Great once, even greater then. If I can find The Dissident... even if I can't, I have plans for the day I open this one up. Wait and see...

Cheers!

Chimay White

I wonder if I did something wrong to this bottle. When I first went to unwrap the metal clamp holding the cork into the bottle it shot out of my hand and the cork went flying up to the ceiling. The bottle then began to slowly foam up...

I transported this bottle to Seattle with me but I did not do anything that I think would have hurt the bottle. I kept it within the proper temperature range and everything for the just about the whole trip minus the initial 7 hour drive, and then the last of the drive... I do not know what happened. None of the other bottles in which I opened from the cellar had this effect (I plan to open Chimay Blue tonight as well) so the only thing I can think of is infection, but I am sure I would have heard about that somewhere... and I purchased all three bottles at the same time and from the same location. I mean sure, they may not have transported together or were brewed at the same time, or stored in the same or best conditions, but this is just really weird for a beer...

Anyway...

As I did not have the proper Chalice for this beer, I drank it out of my Hair Of The Dog Tulip. I love this glass, it is probably one of my favorite glass types. I am so sad that my The Bruery glass is in storage. I will miss that thing ~tear~ I was very much looking forward to this beer because I love Triples... or at least all of the ones that I have had... well most...

Appearance: It is a hazy copper color and poured a huge white head. I am assuming this is a side effect to what ever is wrong with the bottle because as soon as it became, what I would call normal, the head was small, white, and beady. Very similar to what I experienced with The Red that I reviewed Here.

Nose: I get some yeast character. It is somewhat spicy but does not burn the nose and a little fruity... That of bananas? and cloves probably bring the spice I am referring to.

Taste: At first it tasted a little metallic. Which did not make much sense to me. It faded away after drinking a bit of this and then it became quite smooth, spicy, and somewhat citrusy. Alcohol lingers in the finish, but seems to be quite dry.

Mouthfeel: It has a high level of carbonation but it does not detract from the beer. I tend to like very little carbonation, but it all depends on the style. It feels right for this beer, but the beer seems a little thin underneath the carbonation. I guess that is where the flavors live and I did not notice it at all until I started trying to pick it out.

Overall I liked this beer. It is a good Tripel, but I would want to taste a fresh bottle or something because I do not believe that mine was in perfect condition. It behaved strangely but still tasted good so i guess I cannot complain too much. A very nice beer to have with only seven days left to go.

Deschutes & Hair Of The Dog

I wish I could have made it to Bend and check out the brewery there but I did not really want to make the 5/6 hour drive vs the 2 hour drive. Parking was ridiculous but who cares at this point. I had another Beergasm as we drove by the place.



It was really hard picking out what I wanted to drink. I ordered 2 taster trays since they did not have a preset taster menu and each came with 6 beers. They had about 20 on tap at the time. What made it really hard is I wanted to taste all of my favorites at the source, but they had so many limited and special brews that are only available at the brewpub too... I don't even think I looked at the food menu. I just ordered the special that my server told me about.

He was a really funny guy and was confused as hell when it took me about 15-20 minutes to decide on 12 beers. I decided to break it down by Malty and Hoppy Brews... sort of.





They had a weird beer with lemonade in it and I was not a fan HAHA! but I am so happy that I finally got to try Conflux 2. I wish I could have had one but 2 was great. It was very mellow and flavorful without being overpowering for an IPA. I loved it, again.

I really hate Deschutes for releasing Black Butte XXIII. I am sure all the previous years were amazing as well, but this was the first one I had. It totally ruined Black Butte for me. Not saying Black Butte is not good, it is actually one of my favorite Porters but after having XXIII, it is just not the same. The flavor profile seems out of this world. I wish it was a year round release but I understand why it is not.

Again, I ran into another brewery that did not have any growlers :( this made me very sad because I was so looking forward to getting one from here. You know, being it is one of my all time favorite breweries. I will make it out to the Bend Pub one day though and do the tour and get a Growler! To make up for my misfortune though, I bought a Bottle of Black Butte XXIII and the pint glass :D It will suffice for now...

My next stop was Full Sail Brewing. I have never had any of their beers but decided why not go there. There are so many breweries in the area and I could have gone to anywhere and I did not do enough research to just move on. Not that I thought Full Sail would have been a bad choice.

We got to the location and guess what I found out... I WAS AT THE RIGHT PLACE!!! but they do not have a tasting room at their MAIN brewery... sucks... I am so glad I did not pay for parking even though I drove around for like 10 minutes trying to find a spot... Since we were just in Portland for the day I figured that we would just head home (and later that night I found out that people were heading into town for BBC11... Beer Bloggers Conference... ugh, if I knew that I would have planned this trip so differently. Oh, well... there is always next year right?

Traffic was out of control so instead of staying on the Highway, we got off and headed to Hair of The Dog because it was right off of the exit. I recognized their labels but have never had any of their beer. I ordered their whole collection of Beers, aka Walk The Dog and The Little Dogs Too.



I heard some great stories about their beers and their brewing schedule, (5 brews in one day to fill the fermenter) but the beers did not really stand out to me. Some of them had this taste that I had before in the Hermitage Brewing Beers that I cannot stand. They were a lot more minor in these brews. I have to figure out what it is... I have not had it often though.

I paired the beers with their Chuck Norris Duck Wings. I was told they were supposed to be really hot but meh, they were nothing really. They had some good flavor though. I think the description said something about kicking me in the mouth and punching my throat.

I thought these small samples were very doable but I do not think I could have a whole pint of any of these beers... that being said... I asked for a Growler :p they were out of glass as well, but I did take home one of their glasses. Again, another trophy for my collection.