Mike Loves Beer

It’s no secret that Coffee District is one of my favorite local places to get a good beer.  So it’s pretty obvious that I’m going to mention that tonight they are celebrating their 4th Anniversary.  To mark the occasion they will have live music along with some special and rare kegs hitting the taps.  Here is what to expect.

• Cigar City Marshal Zhukov’s Imperial Stout
• Sierra Nevada/Dogfish Head Life & Limb 2
• De Dolle Boskeun
• Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA
• Dogfish Head Burton Baton
• Tequesta Hop Scotch
• Southern Tier Creme Brulee
• And much more!

Things get started at 7 pm and will probably be going pretty late.  I myself will be out there so I hope to see a number of my regular readers and maybe some new faces.

Coffee District
325 NE 2nd Avenue #104
Delray Beach, FL 33444

Name – Life & Limb 2
Country – United States
Type – American Strong Ale

A couple years ago two big name craft breweries got together to make a collaboration that sent a buzz all over the community.  To make a long story short those breweries were Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head.  The beer was Life & Limb.  I don’t know about the rest of the country but South Florida got a very small amount of these bottles.  So small in fact that I never saw a single bottle on a shelf.  Yup they were gone before I even had a chance to look.

But go back a couple months ago and the breweries announced that they were going to do it again.  Life & Limb 2, but this time in a bigger batch and in corked and caged 750 ml bottles.  Well to be honest I completely forgot about this beer coming out again until I was on a day trip a bit north with Casey and at the Total Wine in Stuart I spotted bottles of this.  Knowing that we didn’t have it down south yet I grabbed a bottle.  Also not taking a risk that we didn’t get a whole lot and again I would be left out.

So I popped the cork on this and poured it into my Dogfish Head snifter.  It pours a very dark brown color.  From distance it looks black but getting right up and looking at it you can see it’s brown.  There are a few red highlights along the edge of the glass and it’s topped off by a big full beige head.

The nose is sweet smelling with hints of maple syrup, cocoa, caramel and brown sugar.  You get some spices in there as well but they are definitely in the back.

The taste is again pretty sweet with the same tastes as mentioned in the nose.  The alcohol can be picked up with a warming feeling.  It becomes even more intense as the beer warms up.

After not having the first edition and then being disappointed by the barrel aged version I had a GABF last year I must say I was pleasantly surprised by this.  It has a lot of qualities of a brown ale that is kicked up a few notches.  Maybe not all the way to 11 but probably a 9 at least.  I sat and sipped on this one for a couple hours and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’m glad I got a chance to get a hold of one of these bottles this time around.  If you missed it before or you had it before and liked it be sure to head out and grab a bottle.  They even recommend you can lay this down for a few years if you so please.

Grade - B+

Name – Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Our Brewers Reserve Grand Cru
Country – United States
Type – American Strong Ale

I’m in the blend kind of mood aren’t I?  Yesterday we had Lukcy Basasrtd from Stone that is a blend of their Bastard beers.  Today we have the final beer in the 30th Anniversary series from Sierra Nevada.

This blend contains three of the most popular brews from Sierra Nevada.  It has a bourbon oak barrel aged version of Bigfoot along with Celebration and their famous Pale Ale.  Then once they are all blended together the beer is dry hopped for an extra hoppy bite.

So how will this one fair against what I think is a pretty damn good series from Sierra Nevada?  Let us see.

It pours into my Cigar City snifter a mostly clear red color with a nice sandy colored head.

The nose has a lot of citrus hop aromas too it with a underlying scent of caramel.  I’m struggling to pick up any of the barrel in the nose.

The taste unleashes more hop character at you with some mild roasted and caramel malt flavors.  I start to get some taste of the barrel here and it has a bit of an alcohol bite to it.  It becomes even more so as it warms up.

I will say that I had this on tap at the Funky Buddha recently and was floored by it.  But out of bottle it didn’t seem the same.  The bottled brew seemed hoppier than sweet from the malts.  I don’t really know what would cause such a difference in a beer that is probably the same age but just in different containers.

Either way it is still a good beer but I liked it much more on draft.  I will still probably get another bottle to sit on for some special occasion as the label mentions, and as I’m doing with the Jack and Ken’s Ale that I thought was incredible.  If you see this beer on tap you absolutely must try it though.  I say get a bottle as well but draft is a can’t miss.

Grade - B+