A word on reviews…

The idea for hosting a tournament of stouts was something my old roommate David and I came up with (he had the first spark) a few months back.  We knew immediately that it was a pure genius idea – why bother debating back and forth which of our dozen favorite microbrews was the best when we could have a quasi-objective test that determined exactly that?  It was a fantastic idea that we had sometime in February or March.


Now that we’re well into April and the tournament is actually going to happen, I realized a flaw in our plan.  Stouts are great, but they are often thought of as winter beers.  I happen to think that’s pure crap – I could drink a fine stout any day of the year – but sadly many of the best stouts are brewed seasonally.  And if you start gathering up all your beer in March, then schedule the tournament for May, then get a few more people than you initially anticipated as judges… well… there’s a great big FAIL hiding in there: winter seasonal beers are running out.  This hit me square in the forehead the first time I made my way over to Total Wine and noticed that they were all out of Ten FIDY and Founders Breakfast Stout.  I asked the manager when they’d be getting more in, and he told me that they wouldn’t be getting any more FIDY till October or so, and he doubted he’d be getting any FBS either. 


Now, I was able to stock up on FIDY at the Perfect Pour in Maryland, and as it turns out some other Total Wine stores in the Raleigh area have plenty of FBS, but still, that one set my nerves on pure panic, and I quickly started counting up the beers that I had.  Right now we have 13 judges, and if a beer goes all the way it will be tasted four times per judge (once per round).  At 1.5 oz per taste, that puts us at 4 * 13 * 1.5 = 78 oz of each beer needed for a tournament.  And wouldn’t you know it, I have almost exactly that amount of many of the beers in our fair tourney. 


As I’ve said in other posts, I’m trying to give a fair review of all of the beers in this year’s tournament, but I’m limited in some cases by supply.  For instance, I’ve had both Schafly’s Reserve and Southern Tier Choklat before and very much enjoyed them both.  I have about 75 oz of Schafly’s and 88 oz of Choklat – the Choklat is in 22oz bottles.  I’ll already be skimping on pours (more accurately, my wife and designated Beer Goddess Ashley will be skimping on pours) should Schafly make it to the final, and while I’m fine on Choklat, I have exactly as many bottles as I need (4), and I can’t get any more in Raleigh and won’t be going to Marlyand again before the tournament.  The big problem here is for reviews.  I have consumed both of these beers – but not in several months.  I can’t accurately contrast Choklatt with Brooklyn Black and other chocolate stouts, nor Schafly’s with other imperials, without a fresh taste.  I will still post something about them, but it won’t include my own personal opinion about the beers.  Perhaps I’ll do a post-tourney review.


Incidentally, I’m particularly sorry about not being able to do a proper post on Southern Tier Choklat, as Nathan at Southern Tier actually got back to me by phone on the very day that I sent out emails to a bunch of breweries (and gave me some cool promotional graphics for them). 


So – I might not be able to give the best reviews of all of the beers, but review them I shall.  The tourney approaches!


Duff Out.