Favorite Beers of the year

For my final entry of 2010, I thought I'd look back over the year at a few beers that I tried and really enjoyed.  Overall, I reviewed 43 beers this year, not bad considering there are 52 weeks in a year.  However, unless you're like me and keep an excel spreadsheet list of what you've been drinking, it can be pretty hard to keep track of them.  Unfortunately, many of the double porters and imperial stouts I tried were one offs and limited editions at bars and festivals, so I neither smart enough nor sober enough to write down reviews.  But here's a brief stroll my favorites that I was lucky enough to have a bottle of and review this year.

Snake River, Zonker Stout

HUB, Organic IPA

Brasserie d'Orval, Orval

Mikkeller, It's Alive!

Stone/Brew Dog, Bashah

Port Brewing, Hot Rocks Lager

Allagash, 2009 Fluxus

Mikkeller, Nelson-Sauvin Single Hop IPA

Rogue, John John Ale

Sierra Nevada, 30th Anniversary Charlie, Fred, and Ken's Bock

And that's it.  Not a bad list all things considered.  All these beers are four stars and above with the exception of the Fluxus, which I believe I was a little harsh on with three and a half.  The John John should get a special mention just for the creativity of using Gin barrels to age the beer, very unique and a great ale.  Of these, I'd have to say that Mikkeller's Nelson-Sauvin is my pick of the year.  This was just such an awesome beer and worked perfectly with his single hop series.  It's the only beer I gave five stars to all year.

That's it for this year of Brews Clues, hopefully you've enjoyed my thoughts, info, and reviews.  Have a great New Years party, drink lots of good beer, and look for more posts in 2011!

cheers,
Dave

Port Brewing Hot Rocks Lager

A lager from Port Brewing is certainly a surprise, given their predilection for high powered, high octane ales; as they state themselves on the bottle, it's not often they make a beer that requires mind over matter.

This was a collaboration between Port and Tonya Cornett of Bend Brewing.  They made this in the traditional Stein manner by dropping glowing rocks, heated by fire, directly into the wort.  This creates all sorts of smoke, steam, and rolling boils because of the extreme heat of the rocks, not to mention is a bit of a time machine back to some of the earliest days of brewing.

Port's decision to use Black Granite was obviously a good one, because as Lagers go, this one isn't bad at all.  Typical lack of aroma lager with a very dark amber color and fairly rich body.  The lager starts off as you would expect, as though sitting in a beer garden in Munich.  But as the taste develops, the Lager is heightened by what I can only imagine is the effects of the hot rocks, and the brilliance of the Port brewers.

An infusion of dark coffee notes that are indistinguishable in their roasted quality from the caramel malts finish with  a subtle hop bitterness; there's a nutty flavor mixed in there somewhere that I can't quite discern.  It's tempting to say the nut flavor comes from the addition of hazlenut because of the coffee and caramel, but I can't really be sure since it is very subtle.

This is a complex and delicious creation from Port.  As can be the case with Lagers, there's a slight lingering yeast flavor that comes through both in the aroma and the aftertaste, but certainly not enough to make you dislike this beer.  If you just picked up the glass without knowing the story, you'd probably think it was just a quality German Dunkel, but there's just enough creative additions in here to make it something more.

Hot Rocks Lager: ****