#900 - The New Year's Century Beer

New Year's Eve.  What can you say about New Year's Eve?  

It is a basically the same thing it always is only in a different year.  Let's see.  Drunk people in Time Square wearing stupid glasses.  "Musicians" lip-synching their hit single on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve". Non-rock groups booked for said program (La Roux? Really? They rock?).  The host, the embalmed corpse of Dick Clark himself,  struggling to count backwards from ten.  Yup.  That is how we ring in the next 365 days...

This year, I did something different. It isn't every year that you get to toast with friends while enjoying your 900th beer!

With a fridge full of newbies awaiting my critical eye, I thought I would go with something special beyond the fact it was a super-milestone beer.  

You may recall a special pack of beer I bought while in Massachusetts?  The beer on-call for the festive night, to be consumed seconds after the Ball dropped,  was the Stony Brook Red.  

This beer was superb from start to finish.  On the pour, the slight reddish cast was as obvious as Dick Clark's plastic surgery. With a slight hint of tartness (or perhaps vinegar?), a cherry aspect was present, too.  On the tongue, everything fell in place.  A slight bit of tartness and puckering was present but that was basically expected given the aroma; it did not impact the beer in a negative way at all.   Carbonation. Malt.  Hops. All perfectly balanced.  Smooth stuff. Well done.  5 out of 5.

 With such a large bottle, it was nice to "share the wealth" as the saying goes.  While many present brought their own beer...oh wait, Coors is not beer.... it was nice to show them what a true brewer is capable of.  Once again, the Boston Beer Company scored a winner. 

900 beers down.  Untold thousands more to go........