Drake's Brewing Company, San Leandro, CA

All around very good beer.  I really liked this IPA from Drake's Brewery Company from the label design on the bottle to the description of the modest, industrial neighborhood brewery located in San Leandro.  This beer had a strong hoppy flavor with slight citrus undertones and a mild bitterness that had a great after taste.  They've been brewing for over 20 years and this is Drake’s flagship beer, an India Pale Ale. The brewer description notes: "Copper-colored from additions of light Crystal malt, and body-building Caramalt, carry the malt weight of this hop bomb. The hoppy aromas of pine and grapefruit are delivered from the abundant Columbus and Cascade hops." Very worth while and I hope that I can visit the brewery sometime soon until then I will open another bottle.

Dogfish Head, Milton, DE

This winter seasonal is fantastic.  Dogfish Head's Chicory Stout is delicious with a big roasty character.  I typically don't go for the coffee infused beers but this one worked for me.  I thought it was all that it claimed to be except for it notes a "bone white head" although it had a nice head and cascade is was a chocolate color.  I enjoyed this brew with a chicken pot pie and thought I was in heaven.

Flying Dog Brewery, MD

 "Good people drink good beer." - Hunter S. Thompson
Flying Dog Brewery

Hale's Ales, Seattle, WA

Late night at the Zoo bar in Seattle I enjoyed the Kolsch German Style Ale from Hale's Ales, with an old friend and his lovely fiancee was behind the tap handles so this one's on the house.  Hale's is a great brew-pub and restaurant in Seattle they serve up some mean European style food and brew, I always go for he Corned-beef hash and potatoes and this Kolsch was bright in color, easy to drink and cold.  I hope a European vacation is on the horizon but this particular evening had all the finest flavors while staying on a shoe string budget.

Maritime Pacific Brewing Co., Seattle WA

I had a couple quick trips to Seattle in late January and early February and the weather sucked but the beers made up for this small set back.  During my stay I visited one of my favorite brewery tap rooms, Maritime Pacific Brewing Co's "The Jolly Rodger" in the Ballard neighborhood and enjoyed the Flagship Red Alt Ale along with a pile of clams and mussels.  This is the first beer brewed at Maritime Pacific and remains one of its best.  Becky and I enjoyed the privilege of polishing off a pony keg of this nectar a few years ago. Red amber in color, smooth and malty you'll never grow tired of this session brew.
-Kbaer

Grand Ivey Brewery's Kimosabe Ale

So, this was my first homebrew of the season, and it was a bit of a mashup between a Belgian Dubbel and an American Pale Ale. It came from two one gallon kits that my brother-in-law got me for xmas and I was a lazy man and didn't want to spend the time to make them separately for 1 gallon each, so I mixed em and made up my own hop schedule. Brew day was full of flaws with mash temperature and the barley was probably pretty old since it came ground in the bag. Whenever this type of thing happens I always try to relax and remember that whatever comes out of this will still be beer. But enough of the beer nerd-dome.
Results: An amber-orange colored ale which has some really strange fruit taste going on and almost no bitterness. I gave a bottle to my BIL and he said it tasted like juice to him. So, this one goes down as a fail. But hey, it's still beer!
- taster Be
P.S. What do you all think of making a chart of number of beers we've tasted by style? It might encourage some branching out of our comfort zones.

Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA, Flying Dog Brewery; Frederick, MD

"We were in Bethesda, somewhere on the edge of the beltway, when the drugs began to take hold..."

 So I really like this brewery called Flying Dog.  Besides the fact that they make great beer, they use artwork from one of my all-time favorites, Ralph Steadman.  The deal with Steadman is that he was a normal British political cartoonist when, at some point in the 70's (late 60's maybe?), he flew out to Aspen, Colorado to illustrate for a young Rolling Stone journalist named Hunter Thompson.  As one can imagine, hanging out with Thompson can have its effects, and Steadman's artwork became more and more, shall we say, influenced?

Anyway, I was really surprised to find out that this brewery is nearly in my backyard (Frederick, MD).  I would have figured a more likely location to be one of Thompson's old haunts like Aspen, or Los Angeles, or Barstow (on the edge of the desert...).  Especially considering they use Thompson quotes like crazy and even have an imperial porter named for the guy.  But I guess Frederick is as good a place as any.

Raging Bitch is one of the newer Belgian-American hybrids, and a really nice example.  The Belgian yeast gives the brew that distinctive banana-y (is that even a word?) scent from the loads of esters and amides (I think, anyway).  It has a super malty body.  So malty, in fact, that the 60 IBUs barely make a dent.  Really nice flavor, and the 8.3% ABV is sneakily hidden.  Great brew, although I think Stone's Cali-Belgique still has the crown in the hybrid category.

-ty

Speakeasy Ales and Laggers, San Francisco, CA

This IPA called Big Daddy IPA from Speakeasy was pretty damn good but maybe not as big as it claims to be. I enjoyed this beer quite a bit but found it to have a clean, almost light taste, not the biggest hop flavor that I've ever tasted. I found myself throwing them back like water, cloudy, foamy, sweet and and old school gangster style water that is.

Get in the game, folks.

It's really disappointing to come home, crack a cold one, and log onto your favorite beer blog - only to find that no one else is drinking.  Kent and Becky post this image 'cause we're hard core.  Cheers!