A Century Milestone - Beer #700

Unlike my others century mark beers (here and here) where I have invited tons of people to join me, last night was a bit different. I was more interested in a low-key evening for my 700th species of beer. With that, I met a good friend at the Fort Street Brewery for dinner and drinks. This week, they are celebrating their 5th birthday. I thought their special birthday beers would be a great way to have a milestone drink.

Now, you would think that I would be all prepared for such an event. How about the camera to take a pic of the milestone brew? Nope. I forgot it at home. (the picture below was taken with my iPhone). How about my flashdrive for my netbook that has my PortableApps software and beer database? Nope. That was at home next to the camera. So what, right? All fluff, right? Its all in the beer, the food, and the company. All where excellent. I wont mention the hockey game. Not so excellent.

While the beer was superb, I can't describe it! The name was Viesen Vine (think of it with that Germanic sort of twist to the pronunciation). Doug, the brewer, describes it as an ale that was brewed with two different kinds of yeasts. Ultimately, it had the banana and spice twist that you would expect with a hefeweizen, but it had it origins with the Opus Amor, his wheat wine (not to be confused with a barley wine). The body had a wonderful creamy texture with balance and pizazz and all sorts of other good things. Certainly sweet, too. If you don't like sweet beers, stay away from this one. You won't like it.

So, if you are a bit puzzled about what I am trying to say about this beer, I understand. All in all, I am not sure what he did! I do know this - it was a very good beer. If you like barley wines, you would have loved this beer. Unbelievable. 5 out of 5.

On to #800!