Saturday Night Beer-Geeks

Since it was a nasty, rainy Saturday night, I decided we would stay in, catch up on some new eps of Drinking Made Easy, do an early screening of some Super Bowl commercials and sample a few nice beers. First up was Goose Island's Vintage Series Pepe Nero...

Pepe was bottled on 2/25/11 and was yet another from the stash built during my December trip to Louisville Beer Store. This poured very dark with a thick, creamy head...good amount of carbonation. This was most certainly a Belgian...very sweet and many fruity notes (raisin, banana), but subtly spicy with a slight coffee and cocoa flavors that linger. Lots of reviews described Pepe's aroma as that of a saison; however, this was not our experience at all...the aroma was more of a fruity sweetness mixed with cocoa. There was a complete lack of bitterness and the beer drank very smoothly...
Of the Vintage Series beers I have tried, this one isn't at the top of the list; nor, is it at the bottom...a very well-rounded beer produced by a good brewery...

otheguilt Ba score = 4.0 out of 5.0

The we moved on to some others...

Brasserie Des Franches-Montagnes (BFM) is pretty out there as far as using unique ingredients and brewing different stuff...this is not a bad thing. We started by splitting the Cuvee du 7eme (pronounced: Q-V Du Set-E-M)..this recipe was from BFM's 7th anniversary in 2006. I have no idea if the bottle is really that old as there was no bottle date. Initial smell was that of a sour..not a huge hit, but certainly noticeable....
7eme was actually mild for a sour...probably because if it truly is as old as it might have been, it had likely transformed in the bottle over all that time. Basically zero carbonation and a ton of sediment...still not sure what to think about this one, and I have been pondering it for several hours. The style is listed as biere de garde, but other reviews are all over the place...I guess the best I can say is that 7eme is a sour with fruity and boozy notes. No Ba score for this one, as I don't want to skew the stats without trying it again.

Cuvee du 8eme (Q-V Du Wheat-E-M) was up next. like the above, the recipe was from BFM's 8th anniversary in 2007...this bottle was actually labeled as "2007," so I assume that it was actually bottled then. Huge departure from 7eme...8eme was incredible! Described as a Belgian Strong Pale, the 8eme seems to have held up much better than the 7eme. The beer poured with light carbonation and almost completely translucent amber color...appears very refined, and taste is very complex. Sour/bitterness with fruity flavor upfront and hints of cocoa on the finish...these two tend to balance each other out very well and make this into a delicious easy drinker.

ohtheguilt Ba score = 4.5 out of 5.0