February 8, 2014 Show

This week we take a look at beers that are great for Valentine's Day (and any day for that matter).  We were down a man this week with Freddie doing some work in NY around the Beatles anniversary, but we were lucky to have producer extraordinaire K-Mak in the studio with us and even joining us with the drinking!  We also had a special in studio guest Donny from the indie/rock band The Sunset Villains.

We started off with Petrus- Aged Red.  This is a very approachable sour styled beer that has a strong cherry punch up front but without the strong astringency that can accompany others in this style.  A perfect entry level beer for this style that any craft beer lover or newbie could easily enjoy!

Well's- Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale- This was a new beer for all of us as it was only recently added to the market.  The perfect English brown ale base gives the beer a wonderfully smooth mouthfeel and perfect base for the sweet caramel flavors that explode from this beer.  This truly is sticky toffee pudding in a glass and is sweet but not cloying, a very enjoyable beer for all!

Dogfish Head Brewery- Theobroma- The biggest beer of the day coming in at 9% ABV.  The recipe for this beer is based upon a chemical analysis that was done on pottery found in Honduras that reveled the earliest known chocolate alcoholic beverage.  This was a fairly complex beer that balanced between spicy chili's and sweet chocolate.  Very smooth and easy drinking with no hint of the 9% ABV at all.

Stone Brewing Co.- Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla- Smoked beers can be very off putting to some who are not familiar with the style, but once you grow accustomed the woody smoke from the malt can add an extra dimension of sweetness to the beer.  This beer is the perfect example to that but is very approachable.  The strong taste of vanilla bean is front and center in booth aroma and taste and really smooths out the smokiness of the beer and makes it a subtle background note.  A wonderful dessert beer!

This weeks special beer for our in studio guests is the very limited stout from Yard's Brewing Company.

Yard's Brewing Company- Chocolate Love Stout-  Those who are familiar with Yard's Love Stout know how wonderfully smooth and highly drinkable the stout is, now imagine that but enhanced with smooth chocolate and vanilla, drooling yet?  This was a highly favorable beer that all in the studio enjoyed.  The chocolate and vanilla swirled together perfectly and the smooth creamy base of the stout made this a beer that could and should be savored!