The Stable

Here is a little sample from the site of our upcoming beer tasting.

check out www.amalgamatedbrewing.com/stable

Last night my wonderful wife and i ate a carbanara pizza and i had my
usual sampler platter of 6 different 3 oz beers.

here was my list:

Bell's Hopslam
Bell's Double Cream Stout
Anderson Valley Booneville Hop Ottin'
Bear Republic Racer 5
Boulevard Single Wide
Bell's Two-Hearted Ale

YES! 5 ipa's and a stout and i am loving St. Louis!

In reverse of my usual steps, i drank the double cream stout first. We were disappointed to find that one of our favorites; the left hand milk stout, is no longer there. Ashley tried the double cream and chose not to order one. I finished her sample and then mine.
It is a good stout, cream yes, but only for a moment. I would have liked it to linger a bit longer, but still enjoyed it thoroughly. I can't comment on the head since it was very small, but it isn't terribly dark like some other stouts.

Hopslam: Knowing that i was going to end with the two-hearted, and because i love Bell's and had never had this one, i was excited. I thought, surely hopslam will be even bigger than that fish laden bottled bliss known as the two-hearted. I was wrong.
This does not mean that it wasn't good, but it just wasn't that big. this beer had so much fruitiness and citris notes. I was delighted. The hops are not overbearing and you actually can taste the beer and can ignore the hops just to enjoy the rest. Again, i took this in after a cream stout and still the hops didn't slap me.

Hop Ottin': Now i know what you guys were talking about. This is a beauty. Very hoppy, but i could have a couple and not hate myself. I can taste some caramel and maybe some nut in the aftertaste and it ends sweeter than most other ipa's. I will have this again.

Racer 5: One of the mellower ipa's i had. It had one thing going though and that is smoothness and balance. It wasn't rough and it stayed consistent. It was low key which for someone trying to ease into the big ipa's would do well to try. But, for loves of monster ipa's, this little bear did not scare me.

Boulevard single wide: I was perplexed at this guy. VERY strong grapefruit taste at the end. more fruit than i've had in some fruity wheats. It also had the hops though. It seemed like the hops slapped the fruit from behind and then the fruit chased the hops down and kicked them in the balls. The hops cried and couldn't move and so the fruit won. I would have been very impressed if the hops had come back at the end and shot a spitball or something to get one last zinger but alas, brewing has not yet achieved this back and forth yet, at least not by Boulevard.

Bells' Two Hearted: While the little hops and fruit were playing grab-ass, Grandpa trout and his twin--the other Grandpa trout just looked at each other and laughed a really dirty old man wheez laugh in unison. They remember when they used to eat fruit and crap out hops bigger than both of them and still had time for love. This beer is liquid love.