Another Big Beer and Wine Party

Rich and Mike were in town this weekend so we got a bunch of friends together for a casual beer and wine tasting that lasted in typical fashion to 4am. This is what it looked like last time we all got together, this time we had a couple of more people, about 25 people, and tried even more new things that I had never had before; special thanks again to Rich and M for bringing some pretty awesome stuff! My favorite beer was the Bootlegger's Brewery's Black Phoenix Chipotle Coffee Stout, followed by the Nogne O Imperial IPA. As for wines, my favorite was the Rivers-Marie Willow Creek Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir followed very closely by the two Cabernet Sauvignons.

The wine line up, in order consumed

The beer line up

The Pinot flight, different vintages and places: 2009 County Line Sonoma Coast Pinot 2008 Belle Pente WillametteValley Pinot, 2007 Hardesty Humboldt County Pinot Noir (all natural), 2007 Rivers-Marie Willow Creek Vineyard Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

The big wines flight: 2006 Domaine Charvin Chateauneuf du Pape, 2008 Rudius Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008 Rivers-Marie Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

The bubbly flight, for some reason at the end of the night around 2am, we decided we felt like some bubbly, after the heavy wine we'd been drinking all night, so we opened two bottles that were already chilled: Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc, and a Chandon

The Pale Ales: Nogne O Imperial India Pale Ale (from Norway! Very balanced and drinkable) and Dogfish Head Pale Ale

A lager, barley wine and some rich ales: Great Lakes Brewing Co's Eliot Ness, Firestone's Abacus, Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, Lost Abbey's Deliverance Ale and Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale

My favorites of the night: Deschutes' Once in a Decade 2010 Ale, Bootlegger Brewery's Black Phoenix (love this one, a chipotle coffee stout), Middle Ages Brewing Co's Dragonslayer Imperial Stout (from K's hometown, Syracuse!), Kuhnhenn Brewing Co's 2010 Solar Eclipse Imperial Stout

Some of the fruity sweet and sour stuff: Brouwerij Fonteinen's Oude Kriek, Russian River Brewing Co's Supplication (sour), Kasteel Rouge (my favorite cherry soda beer) and a home brewed mead (love the painter tape label and I liked the honey flavor)