Good weather sparked up the Thursday tradition of beers on Isaac's front porch. It was brief, good conversation over a couple of Yuenglings. March in Nashville is so temperate, and with uncomfortable, humid days on the horizon, nights like that cannot be wasted on paperwork.
What really sent the night off the rails was the second call of the night. One of the employees at my favorite beer store, Grand Cru, wanted me to know the shop received a number of samples for new beers it planned to stock.
They invited me to come in run through the lineup. I couldn't refuse.
Chief among them -or god of them, if you will - was Deus, a Bieres Brut from Flanders. Made with a champagne yeast and pouring like one, the 11.5 percent brew was pretty close to divine. I worry that my $40 bottle of Melville Pinot Noir started a trend I cannot afford, since I must have a bottle of Deus for a special occasion - what occasion, I don't know yet.
Of note were the Harviestoun Brewery's cask-aged series - they mature the ales in scotch whiskey casks. They simple number them 12, 16 and 30 to indicate the number of years the casks were used to mature whiskey. The two from younger casks were OK, but the 30-year casks really whipped up the flavor on the last one. It was a mammoth, complex ale.
The other names were mostly familiar - to me at least: Kwak, Urthel, St. Feuillen. Meantime's Scotch Ale was a mighty brew reminiscent of whiskey in its complexity. So many ales, so little time.
No beer/wineseller has ever extended me such a courtesy before. I knew stopping in a few times a week would pay dividends.
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