Tasting Isn’t Always Easy

Here we are at Green Dragon, awaiting the arrival of Fiona Garlich. We have ordered a Eel River IPA and a Salmon Creek Dubbel.
J: Stop drinking that. [removes Dubbel from reach] We have to drink this one first.
18/1000: Eel River IPA
J: My first drink of it really caught my attention, but I think it’s partly because of the way we’re thinking about beer now. I thought it was citrusy and bitter.
M: I think this sausage killed my palate. Here, have a bite of this.
J: No, I had sausage at home. I don’t want any more sausage.
M: I really should have tried it before I bit into that sausage. I think it’s sort of bright?
J: It is bright. But it’s an IPA. I would expect it to be.
M: Would you get a keg?
J: It’d be hard to make it my only beer for a while. But I’m a big fan of this beer. I would order it again in a second. It’s not good with your sausage.
M: No, it gets destroyed.
J: It’s good with these fries. It would work with things with a bit less flavor. Beans.
19/1000: Ayinger Weisse
J: This cloudy brew —
M: I like cloudy. These have such a specific smell, you know what to expect when you taste it. I don’t like the smell, but it tastes good. It’s pretty smooth, and it’s kind of creamy. It has small bubbles. These are the descriptive words I have at my disposal.
J: It seems pretty typical for this style of beer. Sweet smell, mildly sweet flavor, kind of musty.
M: I wouldn’t think I’d like this, but I really do. Maybe it’s because of the sausage.
J: You think the sausage set you up to like this?
M: It cools the fire of my spicy sausage.
J: There certainly is something refreshing about this kind of beer. Do we want to say anything else about it?
M: I don’t think it was as confusing or as complex as some… I don’t want our brevity to be an indication that we didn’t like it. But I feel that maybe there’s more to talk about in a beer that we don’t like.
J: In short, recommended. Ideal in its style of beer.
20/1000: Salmon Creek Dubbel

J: This is better now, after working through a couple others, and letting it warm it up. I’m more prepared for it.
M: The guy intimidated me into getting the full-size beer when I was just trying to order eight ounces. His voice is so gravely. And he’s physically intimidating. He wanted me to get more beer than I wanted, and so I agreed with him. He should sell cars.
J: It’s a good problem for us to have.
M&J: Fiona!
F: Whoa, that’s a big fancy beer! [She tastes.] It’s a sweeter beer. It’s got a soft flavor to it. Not sharp and hopsy.
M: Remember the one that we said had a dark cherry aspect? This is like that, without the cherry.
J: That was the Anchor Bock that had the cherry. So maybe this is the one you pair with dried cherry.
M: Cause it’s not as strong?
J: Yeah, you don’t want to pile on.
F: I’m going to order another beer. I was never into IPAs, but I got into a local one in Minnesota, Summit 21.
21/1000: Laughing Dog Pale Ale, of Idaho
J: How’s the taste, Fiona?
F: My first thought was sharp.
M: Does it get you back here, in the back of your cheeks?
J: Mike, you and your cheeks.
F: More the back of the tongue and roof of the mouth. This tastes like a giant hop.
J: It smells really hoppy.
M: It smells like vinegar. It tastes like fries with the malt vinegar.
F: So you think it tastes malty.
M: Vinegary.
F: I’m not really that into this beer.
M: I’m not a fan of this, either. Do you like it?
J: I like it, but I haven’t failed to like many of the beers we’ve drunk. And I don’t have any problem with IPAs.
M: My not liking this beer is my problem, not the beer’s problem.
F: That’s a very gray line you’re walking.
M: It’s like when people don’t like coffee, or like cream in their coffee… They’re being babies.
F: But how do you know when you should dislike a beer?
M: When it’s a bad beer.
F: So this is a good beer, that you don’t like the taste of.
22/1000: Catillon Gueze
J: Mike, you ordered an open-fermented sour ass beer.
F: Open-fermented?
M: The yeast comes in from wherever. Sometimes they’ll put it under a tree and let shit fall in.
F: Don’t you need an anaerobic environment for fermentation?
J: Maybe they leave it open to gather the yeast and then they close it up for fermentation.
F: It’s very sour. I can’t help but draw the urine comparison. Which I hate to do. But there it is.
M: These are hard to drink but I like them. They’re very interesting, and bright…
F: Bright, I agree with that. Like someone waking you up by pissing on your face. Good morning!
J: I’m surprised that you like them, Mike.
M: I was shocked I liked the other sour beers when we were at that tasting at Belmont Station. The lambics. I sometimes get a pine flavor, a tangy sharpness. I like the pine. These sort of remind me of Pine-Sol.
J: This is giving me insight into what you drank as a kid. So are we done with the beer yet?
M: What did you think of it?
J: This the not the kind of beer I’m a fan of. I don’t like drinking it. And I don’t think it’s a “me” thing.
M: But they’re made, and there’s a lot of them… Clearly it’s a style that people enjoy. I think maybe the people who make them are the only ones who like them.
F: Is it like, a concept beer? They’re doing it “because you can.”
M: But I like this more than I like an IPA.
F: Are you just saying that to be a crazy person?
M: I thought so, at first. But when we tried lambics at Belmont Station, I ended up drinking a whole tall glass of it. I think I really like it.
23/1000: Golden Valley Red Thistle Ale

F: It’s really mellow. It doesn’t have a strong flavor either way. Unfortunately, I think that’s why I like it.
J: You might find it more strongly flavored if you didn’t have it after the Catillion.
F: If I didn’t have it after the piss beer?
M: I like the color. I hate to bring up the beer nerds who always “rate” the color, but this beer has a pretty color. Color can be remarkable, but not rated.
J: So this beer is hard to say anything about.
M: It’s a good session beer.
J: This is our fallback description for beers that we like that don’t have many distinctive properties.
F: It’s full, it’s tasty, but there’s not much to say.
M: Again, it’s easier to talk about a beer you don’t like.
F: I could say, “earthy.”
J: I’d agree.
M: What’s the deal with a red ale? I think I generally like them.
J: I don’t know how they’re defined.
24/1000: Deschutes Green Lakes Organic Pale Ale
J: This beer is available January 1, 2008 through April 1, 2008. That’s it, folks.
M: Smells vinegary, again.
F: Smells like less pesticides.
M: It’s spicy in an interesting way.
J: Ahhh… I’m not excited about this beer. It might be because it’s our seventh, and I don’t have my critical faculties available to me. I may be a bit beer-fatigued.
F: Is this a fair place to rate this beer from?
J: I don’t think it’s a beer place.
At this point we admitted that our tasting ability was shot. There was some discussion concerning if we count the Deschutes Green Lakes Organic Pale Ale as number 24 or if we need to retry it. In the end we chose to include it, but we may have to visit it again for completeness sake.
976 to go!