Mike Loves Beer

And so today officially ends my 10 day vacation.  In a couple hours I will be back to the grind at my job.  This vacation was well needed.  And to say it was a good time and relaxing would be an understatement.

I visited a number of breweries (Yards Brewing, Dogfish Head, Weyerbacher Brewing and River Horse Brewing) as well as some brew pubs (Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats and Iron Hill – Maple Shade) on my trip to Pennsylvania.  I went to my always favorite bars out in the burbs of Philly (Hulmeville Inn and Blue Dog – Chalfont).  And last but certainly not least I got to spend time with my awesome family.

During the entire trip I decided not to take notes on any of the beers I drank in order to do reviews.  I just wanted to relax and enjoy.  I did however make a list of what I had and will gladly share those with you. [...]

Yes I took another weekend off from doing a video review.  But unfortunately I was not off in general as I did work this past weekend.  I have to do it once a month and it sucks for sure.  Ten days in a row of working is no fun.  But the typical payoff is 4 days in a row off after that.  But for me it’s a little different.

I’m taking my vacation Thursday.  That’s right, ten days of work followed by ten days off.  And I am heading back to the motherland (Pennsylvania) to spend some quality time with family, friends and my ever good friend beer.

Plans already include trips to Dogfish Head, Weyerbacher, Yards and Iron Hill.  I also have a number of bars and stores in mind to visit.  And I can’t forget about getting a real cheesesteak.

And as I close down my days of work and start getting ready my mom sends me a picture that is a bit of a blast from the past.

Yup that is me.  I didn’t always have a beard and shaggy hair.  But it seems that even at a young age I was attracted to the suds.  Maybe this is my destiny.  The beer world was calling me.

And let’s nevermind that it is a Heineken in my hands.  We all started off with the commercial things right?

Well I guess only time will tell.

But as you have come to know I am not always an active blogger when I am on vacation.  It will most likely be the same again.  But I will try my best to get some content up here.  I guess it is better to tell you all I will do nothing and surprise you with something rather than promise something and give nothing.  Am I right?

Name – Insanity
Country – United States
Type – English Barleywine

Appearance – Poured a reddish brown color with a nice sized white head that did leave some good lacing.

Smell – Quite malty with hints of caramel and dark fruit.  You get a bit of oak and a slight alcohol burn in the nose as well.

Taste – Malty nirvana.  So very sweet but in a malty sense.  You get some oak in the taste and the alcohol is present and just gets bigger as it warms up.

I had this one before and really enjoyed it but I didn’t get to review.  So I had to get another bottle so that I could review it.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this is my favorite barleywine out there right now.  I’m much more a fan of the English style with less emphasis on the hops than the American style so this is right up my alley.  And I imagine if I drank enough of this it would make me clinically insane.

Overall Grade – A