A Pint Half Full

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday.  For dinner, I made a pork loin roast, corn bread stuffing, miso codfish, wintermelon soup, and my sister made garlic mashed pototoes.  Everything turned out well for the most part.  My pork was dry, though.  That's ok, I had enough beverages to wash it all down.

Other fun activities was going to sing karaoke, seeing Chanticleer - an all male acapella group - sing unnaturally high (falsetto or castrati?!), and spending the rest of the time giving my sister a hard time.  Just like the old days.

Back to the food and drink: on the table this weekend was the Southern Tier Harvest Ale, the Stone Double Bastard, and some Otter Creek Pale Ale that I got earlier last week.  For you wine drinkers, we also got some wine on my sister's recommendation - a 2006 Masciarelli Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, a red wine from Italy.  Impressions after the jump.


Southern Tier Harvest Ale - This was the main beer that I drank while cooking and eating Thanksgiving dinner.  It's not too heavy and pretty refreshing.  It's got lots of citrusy apricot hop flavor which remind me of Magic Hat No 9 but more mild and crisp, finishing with a slight sweetness.  Very drinkable and solid.


Otter Creek Pale Ale - More of a standard pale ale with a nice balance of malt and hops with more emphasis on the hops.  At first, this just tastes like water but then you get some tang complexity which finishes sweet malty.  Another lighter beer that is very approachable and drinkable.


Stone Double Bastard - This one kicked my butt.  We were watching a movie and I cracked open the bottle.  It was packed with hops almost to the point of ludicrousness.  Some apple flavor there but then it is just wiped out by malt flavors proportional to the hop bitterness.  It is actually pretty drinkable in spite of its 10.5% ABV and I didn't really taste too much of the alcohol.  However, at the end of the whole bottle, I was pretty much out of it.

Masciarelli Montepulciano d'Abruzzo - I'm not crazy about wine but this was really good!  Somewhat fruity but also robust in body and flavor, surprisingly complex for $8 a bottle.  I'd recommend it.