Another lapse ended and more beers consumed.

Yet again I allowed a week or so of no updates, but this time I had a pretty good reason. I was super busy last weekend, then Sun-Tuesday late night I was in Chicago. What was he doing in the windy city you may ask? Well, I was attending the Park Tool Tech Summit, a two day conference of sorts where factory tech people teach bike mechanics the ins and outs of their brands' mechanical bits. I learned quite a bit of stuff, and had a pretty good time. Half the fun of these events is comparing notes with other bike industry people from other parts of the country. Of course, much of this happens after the last class of the day, in the hotel bar, with plenty of beers to lubricate brains and tongues. Speaking of beers, I had some friends over Friday and we shared fancy beers from our stashes, as sharing a prized bottle and/or showing off a favorite beer is a great thing. Here's most of what I've been drinking. I'm sure I've missed a few here and there, and I generally don't photograph or review beers I've had or written about before, so yeah. Here goes nothing:

Big Sky's Ivan The Terrible Imperial Stout

One of my contributions to the beer snobbery/beer sharing party. It's a monster Imperial Stout and is aged in bourbon barrels. From the same series as that barley wine I had at new years, and every bit as good. The boozy flavor is there, but not super strong and it goes really well with the rest of the stout. General consensus was, "finish whatever beer you'd got and have some of this. right. now." Every one of us loved it. The bottle said limited, and there's supposedly only 3000 of these around, so if you come across it, buy it. I'm gonna make sure I grab more the next time I'm at a place that has it.

Duvel Tripel Hop

Contributed by Markk to our gathering, this is a fantastic beer. Smooth, wonderful, clearly Duvel, but with more hops. Including Amarillo hops (an American variety) is a bold step for such a traditional brewery and adding a fair amount of hops to a distinct and classic beer is a bit daring, but it totally works. Thanks, other Mark!

Ommegang Tripel Perfection

My counter to Markk's Duvel. Basically a classic tripel with a very slight spice addition. Subtle, excellent, Belgian in everything but birthplace, as Ommegang is in New York. The Duvel is clearly the better beer, but this is not without its own distinct charm.

Leine's Big Eddy

Markk's answer to my imperial stout. Pretty good. Obviously not a crazy big barrel aged creation, but it isn't pretending to be either. Solid big flavored stout with plenty of malty flavors mingling in a black as night sea of awesome.

That's definitely the highlights from the tasting. We had plenty of other beers, Rogue's Double Dead Guy, Boulevard's Harvest Dance Wheat Wine, Red Hook Eisbock, just to name a few. Now on to the things I drank in Chi-town.

3 Floyd's Alpha King

An excellent fruity, piney IPA. One of my favorites when I can get my hands on it, which isn't often because 3 Folyd's doesn't seem to have any inclination to expansion. So I can only get it when I'm closer to their Indiana home.

Arcadia's Hop Mouth

Pretty good double IPA from a brewery I haven't heard of. Nothing mind blowing, but a solid offering that's nearly as good as Sierra Nevada's Torpedo. This thing is dense with multiple hop aromas and flavors with a strong malt body supporting the bitterness of the hops.

Founder's Dirty Bastard

Scottish Ale. Good example of the style, mostly bready/biscuit malt flavors with some slight smokey touch and a hop profile that's there, but not a focal point.

Not a beer at all.

In addition to a surprisingly good micro/craft brew selection, the Westin has a pretty solid whisk(e)y list, of which I sampled Glenkinchie, a lowlands Scotch. Turns out it's really good. Smooth, floral without being fruity, earthy, with only a whisper of peat smoke.
Sure I had plenty of other drinks in Chicago, but again, these are the highlights. Upon my return I had a few beers to get over a terrible 6 hour drive in a crummy rental car.

Sam Adam's Chocolate Bock.

Not entirely sure what to make of this beer, it's not dark enough to be a chocolate stout, and it's not chocolatey enough to be a serious dessert type beer, ala Reindeer fuel. It's a lightly chocolate beer, that doesn't have a ton else going for it. It's a chocolate beer your mom might like. I wouldn't turn it down if somehow handed me a bottle, but it'd be far from my first choice if I had one.

Great Lakes' Eliot Ness

Prohibition enforcer turned into a solid amber ale. I like it. First thing I can remember having from Great Lakes and i enjoyed it quite a bit.

Well, that's what I've been up to and drinking for roughly the past week. Gonna try to post more often, but no promises.