Brightest Young Things

Sal, our only male intern ever, turned 21 years of age a couple of weeks a go and shortly thereafter his girlfriend left to go home for a couple of weeks over summer break, so he has time to kill, he is (FINALLY!) legal and he claims he loves beer. So-we sent him around town to cover DC Beer Week events. We hope he survives-ED.

Note: Each of these posts is written on the night of said event.  Please forgive all typos and lack of intelligent vocabulary.  I think the reasons for the lacking are self-explanatory.

ALL PHOTOS BY: Dakota Fine (from the Birreria Paradiso event)

I have chosen one or two items to cover each day.  Today was rather disappointing.

It's the beginning of beer week and I figured "well this isn't really that big I'm sure I can get into anywhere I want to go today."  I was very wrong.  Beer Week was wayyy bigger and more popular than I could ever have expected.  Luckily, I believe I went to the best possible event beer week had to offer.  So today's schedule was Birreria Paradiso then supposed to be Brasserie Beck for Dogfish Head then Big Hunt for Sausage, Cheese, and Beer.  Well, here's the rundown.  I made it to Birreria Paradiso for the Chimay tasting at exactly 5. I was ready.  21 ID in hand I ordered the draft of the day, the Chimay White or Cinq Cents.  Also on special was a Chimay Chese pizza with endives which paired amazingly with the beer.  The Chimay Cinq had a sweet aroma and was light and slightly hoppy.  It was a great pair with the pizza because the almost citrusy flavor cut the nutty cheese and made for probably the best pizza I've ever eaten.  And I'm Italian.

The highlight of the event was the Gran Reserve (Chimay Blue) which was aged 2 years and served at room temperature from a 6 LITER BOTTLE.  It was huge. There were only 25 bottles produced in the world and this bottle was 25 of 25, which is momentous in itself, but it was also the only bottle opened in America.  As I was used to with the Chimay Blue, it was Dark and Rich with notes of Chocolate.  The slightly sweet flavor was a great end of the event drink.

I was relatively intoxicated at this point (2 Chimay White's, a Witkap-Pater Bottle, and Chimay Gran Reserve Glass in about 45 minutes usually does it) especially when each beer is approx 9% alcohol] and I decided I was going to head home.  I was told at the bar to check out the Black Squirrel for this Hop Madness tasting but like most of the other beer week events that have a cover, it was sold out. (Same with the Big Hunt Event)  I took and nap and by the time I woke up Brasserie Beck's event was over.  I purchased a bottle of the Theobroma earlier in the day so I tasted that instead of actually going to the bar and it was good.  Chocolatey and delicious as advertised and definitely worth the purchase if you can find it.

Thanks to Jeff Wells and James Williams both great guys I met today who are the brainchildren behind this whole event.

So for Day 2 I decided to head up to the Reef for the Rouge Oyster and Ale festival.  When I said yesterday was the best day, I was so wrong.  I probably had the best beer of my entire life at this event. To start, I got there right at 5 with my friend Rob who decided to join me for the tasting and ordered a half dozen of the Malpeque Oysters with the Captain Sigs Northwestern Deadliest Ale.  The Captain Sigs was hoppy and dark with a hint of sweetness but a continuing hoppy aftertaste.   It paired superbly with the Oysters because the fishy taste of the oysters was cut by the Captain Sigs.  The Captain Sigs was the only one on draft so we decided to go to bottles.  The offer this evening was $6 pints and $3 half pints.  We also ordered another half dozen of the Blue Point oysters and paired that with the Imperial Red.  The Imperial Red was the second best beer I had that evening.  It was very hoppy but sweeter and lighter on the palate but also had a great flavor. There were hints of vanilla and sugar which gave a great smell and taste to the beer.

We decided to go up to the rooftop to check out the scene up there and finish the tasting. The next beer we tried was the Shakespere Stout.  It had a mocha/coffee flavor and was fully bodied and dark.  After trying the heaviest and darkest beers we moved to some of the lighter ones.  The Imperial Red was supposed to be the most alcoholic but yet tasted the lightest out of all of them.  Rouge is great about having the looks be deceiving, one beer looks heavy and dark but yet is sweet and light and another looks boring and plain but yet is absolutely delicious.  The Hazelnut Brown Nectar is a perfect example of this.  The beer has a hazelnut, milk chocolate, and caramel flavor and has a dark look but it very light and delightful.  Imagine a Cadbury Creme Egg in a beer.  It was far different than any other Brown Ale I've ever had.  It was smooth and sweet and was by far the best beer of the tasting.  As my friend Rob said, "Girls who don't like dark beer would love this beer."

The last beer of the night was the unfortunately plain Kells Irish Lager.  To put it in perspective, if I had not had another beer that night the Kells would have been amazing but after tasting these great beers, the Kells was plain.  It had earthy almost stable or hay smells and had a similar taste.  The aftertaste was a sweet caramel and was very smooth going down.  The beer was great because it was very light and soft on the palate and was a great beer to end the event on.