From DFH comes this Belgian dubbel which includes ingredients from five continents: wattle seed, amaranth, rooibos, myrica gale and honey. This is also the beer known as the Google collaboration beer because the honey comes from bees owned and cared for by Google. The rooibos is from Africa, the wattleseed from Australia, the amaranth from South America and myrica gale is from Europe. Why was Asia left out? They could have used snow from Antartica for the water too, but that would have probably been really expensive.

From Sierra Nevada comes this Belgian style quad, a collaboration with the Abbey of New Clairvaux. The abbey is located in California, as is Sierra Nevada, and it actually is responsible for the brewing of this beer. SN bottles and distributes. The bottle is one of those big 75 cl ones with the champagne cork.

Pours a dark opaque brown, slight reddish tint, two plus inch tan head dissipates pretty slowly. Retains as a film. Smells slightly toasty with some brown sugar malts and fig like fruitiness.

April 20th 2012 marked the beginning of Pittsburgh craft beer week. Through (I think) the 28th, there will be many beer events every day. These include limited run beers on taps, tastings, special happy hour deals, and everything else in between. The locations participating are all across the city and into the surrounding suburbs in every direction. As of this writing, we're three days in and I've sampled a few different events.

From Seattle Washington comes this 6.5% abv IPA which is brewed with jasmine. This is my first Seattle beer as far as I can remember, and maybe my first Washington beer as well. Pours a slightly hazy honey golden color. Half inch white head dissipates to a lacing and retains there.

Smells of mild floral hops and noticeable jasmine. Taste follows, some mild floral hops and a bit of citrus and mild malt all wrapped up in a coating of jasmine, flowery at first and bitter like tea at the end. Medium to full body with soft expansive carbonation.

From the Pittsburgh area comes Full Pint's White Lighting Wit, not to be confused with another Pittsburgh local beer, Rivertown's White Lightning. This beer is (obviously) a witbier at 5.5% abv. Pours a slightly cloudy lemony yellow color, white head is small and retains as a bit of lacing.

Smells of lemongrass, coriander, citrus and mild citrus zest. Some wheaty malts come through. Tastes of light grassy wheaty malts, followed by notable citrus tartness and sweetness and hints of coriander. There is the tiniest hint of zest bitterness.

This is one of those "I gotta know" beers. From Porterhouse Brewing Company in Ireland, this is Oyster Stout. It's not just a silly name; this beer is an Irish Dry Stout made with REAL OYSTERS. Yeah. I went out of my way to avoid any advance reviews or feedback on this beer. I want to go in completely blind making my own opinions. So this could be either really good or really bad. Or anything in between.

“Roasty”, “chocolate”, “coffee-like”, “dark”, “intense”, “cocoa”, “expresso”, “buscuity”, “vanilla”, “mocha”, “dark fruit”, “sweet”, “dry”, “creamy”, and “like an ash tray”. All of these are terms that were used by BJCP judges to describe my entries into the 2012 Three Rivers Alliance of Serious Homebrewers (aka TRASH 22) competition. As one might imagine, only one of these terms kept repeating over and over and over in my head... “like an ash tray”. What the fuck.

So I did a review of the 75 once already, but it was off the tap at the Chantilly DFH pub and it was as far as I could tell a mix of the 60 and 90. Well I stumbled across this 75 cl bottle the other day and picked it up; it's the real 75 minute IPA, brewed with maple syrupy added.

Pours a slightly orange gold with two inches of white sudsy head, dissipates very very slowly and leaves clingy suds down the side of the glass.

Sam Adams has a new series of craft type brews out in Pint+6oz bottles and one of is this puppy, Griffin's Bow, which is an American Style OAKED Barleywine weighing in at 10% abv.

Pours an amber golden color, eggshell head at close to two inches retains well. Smells of strong pine hops and maybe a bit of apple sweetness.

Tastes of hoppy pine resin but very barely bitter, just a slight hint of woodiness, and some caramel malts. Feels full and syrupy with some tingles of carbonation on the tongue and booze warmth going down.

From San Diego's well known Stone brewery comes Vertical Epic 11.11.11 edition, weighing in at 9.4% abv. I picked this puppy up at Giantest Eagle, Robinson TWP, and learned that it is one in a long running series of Stone Vertical Epic beers, basically the same beer brewed slightly differently year after year and meant for cellaring. I'll explain the backstory a bit: