Mikkeller/Brewdog

I decided to take the excerpt from the Brew Dog Blog to give a background for this beer.  Hope they don’t mind.

“Question: What do you get if you blend Hardcore IPA and I Beat You together and then add even more dry hops?

Answer: I Hardcore You. Introducing a new type of collaboration. Coming Soon from Mikkeller and BrewDog. Oh and a completely new type of collaboration too!

I Hardcore You is a 9.5% Imperial India Pale Ale, an international collaborative effort between 2 of Europe’s most rock ‘n roll brewers. This beer is a blend of BrewDog’s Hardcore IPA and Mikkeller’s I Beat You (2 of my favourite beers). After the blending, the beer was then dry hopped a further twice. Making I Hardcore You a beer which has been dry hopped four times, or maybe even six times. We kinda lost count.”

If you enjoy hoppy IPA’s this beer is beyond good.  The pour is deep copper with a big tan fluffy head that slowly dissipates with a ton of lacing.  The nose is hop crazy with pineapple, mango, orange, caramel, and apricot.  The taste has the pine coming through.  You can pick up the citrus if you let the beer sit on your tongue.

If you see it get it.  There’s probably not too much to be had and it’s well worth it.

Cheers

Washington D.C.’s Beer Bar

Recently my wife and I were in Washington D.C. and being a beer geek in a big city I felt like i needed to go to what I would consider an actual beer bar.  With some help from the guys down at The Charleston Beer Exchange and the internet.  I narrowed my options down to two places, The Brickskeller and ChurchKey.  Both really good places to grab a beer but the deciding point was how easily we could get there from a metro station.  We chose to go to The Brickskeller which in perusing through Barnes and Nobles magazine section I stumbled upon an article in Beer Traveler.  The article is 150 perfect places to have a beer and The Brickskeller was number 28.  With no reference on beer bars I can’t say whether I agree with it or not.  What I can tell you is about our experience.  First the place is just inside Georgetown and around the corner from a fairly busy street with restaurants and shops.  The bar area is in the basement, i do have to say the door to the bar is pretty cool though.  Didn’t get a picture of it so you’ll have to check it out for yourselves.  The ambience is well…..  A basement.  Musty, dusty, dark and well a good place to have a beer.  When our server was able to pull himself away from sitting in the corner and reading the paper we were able to order.  I first ordered a BrewDog but due to our server being hung over he brought me a Broughton which for some reason I accepted.  But hey you have to try new things right?

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This is Broughton Ales Black Douglas, a 5.2% Scottish Ale.  In the nose I picked up dark cherry, caramel, toffee, some bread and I don’t know why but I got some wood.  In the taste department I got the same I got in the nose.  Dark Cherry, caramel and a lot of malty grains.  If you like malt this one should be on your list.  Now for the one I ordered in the beginning.

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BrewDog’s Bashah a 8.6% collaboration between BrewDog and Stone.  Now the bottle calls it a Black Belgian style Double IPA, but Beer Advocate calls it an American Strong Ale.  To be honest at this point I was exhausted and from the mustiness my nose was shot.  So all I was getting were the flavors and sells of a barley wine.  But i’ll leave you with the like to Beer Advocates page on it.

Well this turned out to be a very long post.  And in The Brickskeller’s defense the food was good and beer list was very extensive.  Despite our servers short comings he was personable, and overall we did have an enjoyable time.

Happy Drinking

Cheers