mr. sheeps

It has been 16 months and 500 beers since I first uploaded my list, and the differences between the first and the current list are huge.  In terms of breweries, I only had 1 Weyerbacher and 6 Dogfish Head brews at first, but now have 16 and 37, respectively.  Depending on one’s definition of macro, 50-80 of the brews on v2.97 were macro, but that number has likely only increased to 60-100, meaning overall macro representation has fallen from around 20% to around 10%.  A year from now, it should be around 5%. I like this.

The basic idea behind this list is to remember what I’ve had - that’s about it.  When I first started making the list, I remembered around 225 beers well enough to add them, but probably already had 350-400 unique beers by that point.  So my list started with around 60% of the beers I have had, but is likely above 90% by this point (based on the logic that 1. every subsequent beer gets added and increases percentage and 2. beers that did not make the list at first often do so in the future).  A year from now, it should be around 95%.  I like this.

With a pre-party VT beer run and much QC awesomeness over the weekend, I figured I’d cap it all off with a MA beer run.   After perusing BeerAdvocate’s Western MA Beer Guide, I decided to check out Nejaime’s Wine Cellars and ended up making u-turn after u-turn before deciding to try a wine store named Spirited, quite suspiciously in the same plaza Google maps was pointing me to.  (The name change is likely fairly recent, as their website still reflects the old name.)

I knew I’d be able to grab some stuff from Pretty Things, but the Allagash was a pleasant surprise - having Allagash readily available was one hell of a perk to living in Maine, after all.  Grabs (all bombers):

• Allagash Victor
• Allagash Victoria
• Boulevard Long Strange Tripel
• Bruery Fruet
• Bruery White Oak
• Cambridge Tripel Threat
• Pretty Things Field Mouse’s Farewell
• Pretty Things Fluffy White Rabbits
• Pretty Things Saint Botolph’s Town
• Weyerbacher Blasphemy

Just got home from best friend’s bachelor party, and it was beer-tastic indeed.  There were many non-beer details, of course, but they will be left out of this post.  Everybody but me was traveling from north Jersey to Montreal, so we had a pre-party-pit-stop in Troy on Friday.  We split a few bombers at my place, got Dino BBQ, split some more, then finished the night at The Ruck.  Two of the four beer geeks (including me) favor Belgian-style beers, one also likes Belgians but is more mixed, and, last but not least, the bachelor prefers IPAs.

Shared brews:

• Allagash Black
• Allagash Odyssey (my favorite of the night)
• Brooklyn Summer (bachelor’s choice of pitcher at Dino)
• Dogfish 75 Minute IPA
• Ommegang Aphrodite

IPAs specifically for the bachelor:

• Alchemist Heady Topper
• Founders Red’s Rye PA
• Oskar Blues Deviant Dale’s

I stocked my fridge with only American beers, already well aware of the Canadian onslaught about to happen.  Our first stop of the afternoon was Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel, and while getting there and back was the biggest pain of the day, it was well worth it.  The four beer geeks ordered a total of seven unique brews, not even getting to half of their impressively diverse selection:

• Aphrodisiaque
• Blanche Van De Plateau
• Helium
• Morality (collaboration with The Alchemist, not L’alchimiste as Untappd claims - very clearly credited Waterbury, VT on board)
• Paienne
• Rosée D’hibiscus (my favorite of the session)
• Solstice D’été Aux Framboises

The rest of the night was not impressive in terms of craft beer, but suffice it to say that I would take the average Canadian macro over the average American macro any day, especially when you include Alexander Keith’s, Rickard’s, etc etc (aka stuff not good enough to warrant distributing here, but a step above your more common Molson offerings).

I wanted to hit a beer store on the way out as a clever way of dumping whatever Canadian money I had left as well as grabbing a few beers not available or harder to find my side of the border.  My hazy memory of my semester in Montreal led me to believe that the SAQ at Marché Atwater was the best place to buy beer… wrong.  We found a single half-row of beer, with mostly European imports readily available to us already, and went a bit emo.  (According to this review of a different SAQ, “It’s likely political policy in Quebec to not take business away from Quebec local breweries.”)  Thankfully I asked a cashier for advice on the way out and was directed to La Fromagerie Du Marché Atwater, just across the outdoor market directly behind the store.  It was a total gem of a find by word-of-mouth on the way home while completely ready to accept the duty-free shop as the second-place prize.  A small room of 70-100 or so beers, almost all of which were from Quebec microbreweries, but that was exactly what we were looking for.

One beer geek in tow enjoyed Aprodisiaque so much that he got two six-packs to bring back, along with four Unibroue bombers.  I couldn’t remember whether the “24-per” rule was by car or by person, so I limited myself to seven brews.  In hindsight, knowing we absolutely breezed through the border, I wish I had gotten more, but here were my grabs:

• Charlevoix Dominus Vobiscum Triple (new-to-me-brewery)
• Charlevoix Vache Folle Milk Stout (thought Vache Folle was the brewery, oh well)
• Dieu du Ciel Rescousse (obviously not new-to-me, but seemed like a good grab)
• Naufrageur La Léonne (new-to-me-brewery)
• Trois Mousquetiares Weizenbock Grande Cuvée (new-to-me-brewery)
• Unibroue Blonde de Chambly (one of two “non-U” beers not distributed by Unibroue in the US, though a fellow beer geek swore he had had it before)
• Unibroue Raftman (second of the two not distributed, though I swear I had this at The Ruck before, which is only a testament to the awesomeness of the place)

Updated post re: updated beer list

Worst first!

• 3rd - Linesman interfering with Volchenkov halfway to the goal line.  If you don’t understand the magnitude of the previous line, especially with where it happened, don’t even bother with the rest of this post.
• 2nd - Two non-calls on same play as major against.  I wish I did not have to forever question why Stoll did not get penalized before Bernier (which may have entirely negated the call), nor why Penner did not get penalized thereafter (as it would off-set up to 40% of a power-play that scored three goals, only less if the Devils were to score within first two minutes), but… I guess I have to.
• 1st - Losing the first three games.  With the last point made, make no mistake about it, the Devils lost the series by losing the first three games.  Overcoming a 0-3 deficit may not be impossible, but it is nearly impossible for many, many, many reasons.  Had they managed to win one of the first three and everything else went the same, they could use their game six misfortune as motivation for game seven.  Bottom line?  They did not earn the opportunity.

Best for last!

• 3rd - Parise might actually re-sign.  He’s already guaranteed he won’t sign with the Rangers, and that in and of itself is a huge plus.  The TSN poll shows 55% think he won’t, 45% think he will.  If he doesn’t, my personal guess is he will end up out west, most likely somewhere closer to home.
• 2nd - A playoff run that includes knocking out the Flyers as well as the Rangers *in the ECF.*  Some of my first memories of being a Devils fan involve hating the Rangers, including listening to a game via radio on a Walkman outside my sister’s viola recital in 1994.  Over-turning “Matteau!  Matteau!” was phenomenal.
• 1st - …you realize the Devils missed the playoffs entirely *just last year*, right?  If you were to tell me that the Devils would make it to the Stanley Cup Finals next season, on 4/2/2011 (the date that the Devils were formally eliminated last year), even I would have doubts.  The journey they have made, in one year, is nothing short of absolutely, completely, incredibly, insert-adjective-here-ly amazing.

Yes, an update already.  Decided to take a friend’s advice and use half-point increments.  It was a pain in the ass, took three passes through the list, and unfortunately somewhat relies on old, potentially cloudy memories… but I like it better already.  It’s still simple, but the distinction between how much I like each beer is much clearer.  3 is still the most common rating with 209 of the 740 beers.  The average rating went down from 3.08ish to 3 (almost exactly).

Despite a massively disappointing and heartbreaking conclusion, the Devils’ 24 playoff games over the past two months played a huge role in adding nearly a hundred new beers to my list, so I’d have to say I enjoyed the ride.  Two small changes:

• collaboration beers are more accurately labeled with every participating brewery included
• Canadian provinces are now credited in a way similar to states (though the effect of this is currently negligible)