New Year = New Beer!
This year I’m on the hunt for new and exciting beers to try as well as my quest for my 2,000th unique beer. As for what makes up my t0-try list for this year so far — It’s starting as a short list that will get longer as the year progresses.
Here’s what I’ll be hunting:
In December I had the chance to get a privately guided tour of a local favorite – Flying Dog Brewing. Based in Frederick MD since 2006, Flying Dog has been making great beer since 1990 and was previously based in Colorado. After brewing there for years Flying Dog quickly realized that they were sending a lot of beer to the east coast and moved over here to be closer to the fan base and clientele. It took them 2 years to get everything transitioned to the East Coast and full production began in 2008.
I’ve often stated that one of the reasons I love craft beer is that the variety of flavors that can be blended in with yeast, hops, malt and water are almost infinite. When my wine drinking friends say they don’t like beer, because all they know is the yellow watery tasting variety of their youth, I will wax poetically about chocolate, fruit and coffee flavors.
However, I think that my love affair is about to come to an end. Not with beer of course, I will always love beer. But, I have recently discovered that the problem with the ability to add infinite flavors to beer is that eventually you will start to end up with anything and everything being added to beer – like beef hearts, bulls testicles, remnants of animal waste, and all variety of shellfish.
To the adventurous among us, this may sound extremely tantalizing. Unfortunately to someone like myself, a pescaterian, this all sounds terrifying. Until now, I was pretty sure there was not going to be any meat in my beer, aside from the occasional bacon concoctions. But, bulls balls? Really? Have we gone too far? Jumped the shark? Or is this only the beginning? Who knows, maybe shark beer will be the new jumping the shark, next year.
To you brave souls who decide to try any of these beers, please report back, so that we may live vicariously through you. But, as for me, I will be happy to stick with my traditional love of chocolate, coffee and the occasional fruit flavors.
Beer for the Brave:
Burke in a Bottle – Sam Adams (contains grilled beef hearts)
Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout – Wynkoop (contains bulls testicles)
Beer Geek Brunch – Mikkeller (contains coffee beans from animal droppings)
Black Lobstah – Red Hook (contains lobster)
Pearl Necklace – Flying Dog (contains oysters)
Stouts and Stilettos 