Weird Beer Night The First...

was a huge success. It was a tradition that was started back in college when a few buddies of mine and I got together and decided that we wanted to try new things. We all liked good beer and decided that we wanted to expand our horizons and try a few new kinds. But what do you do on a students salary or more importantly what do you do when you buy beer and you hate it. Just throw away the other five? No you gather up your friends and get them to try the crappy beer and see if they may like it. Everyone has different tastes some like the hops, some the maltier the better, others like it as light as water. The taste is the key, beer is to be enjoyed like a fine wine. So that is what we did. The rules are simple, actually THE rule is simple. Everyone brings a beer that they have never tried before. This can be hard normally especially since I have been "of age" for seven years now and have tried most domestics. I haven't had a weird beer night since I graduated college.

The signing of "Gourmet Beer Bill" in May 2009 thanks to the Free the Hops campaign opened up a whole new world of beers to Alabama. The increased alcohol content is not the exciting part, it is the doors that it opens. Many breweries will not ship any of their beers to Alabama if they can't send all of them. This means more microbrews, more foreign beers and just generally more of everything. There is still some ways to go as you can see by the site but this enhancement in our beer choices gave me an idea. Weird beer night in Montgomery!

A month or so ago I got together five of my buddies who were good beer lovers like myself and we inaugurated this new bill with a beer tasting of sorts. Eight different beers were brought to the house and I had two others that didn't enter the "competition".
-Gaelic Ale from Highland's brewing company
-Delirium Tremens from Huyghe Brewery in Melle, Belgium

 

The other eight were rated very partially by the judges and finished as follows, one being the highest rated by average and eight being the lowest but still good beer.

1. Fat Tire from New Belgium Brewing 
2. Butt Head Bock from Tommyknocker Brewery
   
3. St. Bernardus Tripel from Belgian Family Brewing
   
4. Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale from Anheuser-Busch Company
   
5. Hoptober also from New Belgium Brewing
   
6. He'brew The Chosen Beer Messiah Bold from the Shmaltz Brewing Company
   
7. Rogue American Amber Ale from Rogue Ales
   
8. Jack Whacker Wheat Ale also from Tommyknocker Brewery
   

It was absolutely awesome. Hopefully soon we will be able to do it again and we can use my certified best gift of Christmas 2009, my new Sam Adams glasses.

Designed for the perfect pint of beer. Check it out here. My sister and brother-in-law got me a set of four and I am so excited. I will update with another list next time we get together to sample the mead.