Beer Tasting Night Round 3

Last night we had some of the college friends over for some relaxed beer drinking.  We asked everyone to birng a 22 oz bottle of beer to share and then we tried them all.  We ended up with 7 different kinds of beer.  Here they are listed in order: Blue Moon, Crystal Wheat by Sierra Nevada, Orange Shush by Ale Industries, Doppel Weizen by Sierra Nevada, Rye'd Piper by Ale Industries, Ovila Dubbel by Sierra Nevada and the Abbey of New Clairvaux, and the Sheaf Stout.

I've already reviewed some of them before so I'm just going to stick to the new ones. 

 The Crystal Wheat by Sierra Nevada has an ABV of 5%.  Mark and I have had this one in Chico when we went to the Sierra Nevada brewery but I haven't reviewed it here yet.  It's a nice, light beer and one I would order if I saw it out at a bar.  It's very light on the hops and has a citrus flavor that many wheats do.  Overall, I like this one. 

 This is the Ovila Dubbel.  It's a Belgain style collaboration between the Abbey of New Clairvaux and Sierra Nevada with an ABV of 7.5%.  It is very carbonated and has one of the champagne style cork tops.  The color is dark and carmely.  I was expecting a very sweet, malty, and strong Belgain but these flavors were much more mild than I was expecting.  This made Mark like it a lot more than he probably would have otherwise!  The reviews on this one were positive. 

We finished with the Sheaf Stout from Australia.  A nice dark color with the standard creamy head of a stout.  The smell was tradtional for a stout as well with a roasted scent and hints of chocolate.  The taste started off strong with the roasted flavors that I like but then turned into a bitter finish.  The bitter finish caused me to not enjoy this beer as much as I would otherwise. 

Well, that's that!  A few old favorites and a few new beers. I enjoy beer tasting nights.  It's nice to just sit and chat and since each bottle is shared so many different ways, you get to try many more types than you would otherwise.  It was a good night!  Even better is that even though it was Sunday night, it felt like a Saturday as today is Martin Luther King Day so a day off work.  Sweet!