Taco Night

Photo shamelessly stolen
from BA's twitter feed.

Just got home from attending my first ever BeerAdvocate event, Todd's Taco Night at Green Street in Central Square. This was not your mother's taco night. This taco night paired a tamarind braised pork belly taco with pickled jalapenos and carrots with Founders Nemesis 2009 for just $3.99. It doesn't get any better than that. The taco was tasty enough but the beer was really interesting. It's a 12% wheat wine (my first beer in this style) aged in oak bourbon barrels that had previously been used in making maple syrup. The end result is as you might expect: big, sweet and boozy. It was a sipper and I was happy to stop at just one (although I may have worked up the nerve to talk to the BeerAdvocate guys if I hadn't).

Working backwards, yesterday I drank an Anderson Valley Poleeko Gold Pale Ale, a very solid and drinkable ale with just enough hop character to hold its own against the gigantic bowl of extra spicy pho that was my dinner.

Dead Guy!

The week was kicked off Monday at Grendel's Den in Harvard Square, which automatically became my new favorite place by virtue of offering half-off all food from 5-7:30pm every day. I ordered a Great Divide Titan IPA, took my first sip and tasted... apricot? Definitely apricot. This was unmistakably Magic Hat #9 making a surprise appearance as the 24th beer on my list. I drank it, partly because I'm painfully non confrontational and partly because I actually don't hate this beer, even though I know I should.

Not really wanting another surprise, I stuck to the bottle list for my next pick, and went with a Rogue Dead Guy Ale. This was one of the first beers I ever ordered, mostly because I liked the name, and it's still a favorite (plus I still like the name).

We moseyed across the square to Finale for dessert, where I ordered a glass of port and realized I was drinking my first non-beer alcoholic beverage of the year. It was tasty. Maybe I should take some good advice and blog about discovering wine next year.

Beers Down: 27
Beers To Go: 338

By the way, I'm currently on pace for 518 1/2 beers this year. I could be done with this thing by September...