It’s here! It’s here! The day has come! Also – Introductions.

Today (edit – yesterday; took me too long to post this) is the day.  No holding back; leave it all out on the floor and let the hops fall where they may. 

I sincerely wanted to review all of the beers before the tournament started, but circumstances (and time, to an extent) prevented me from doing so.  Specifically, I couldn’t get enough of the following beers to taste one prior to the tourney and still have enough in case they made it all the way through.  I do plan to review them afterwards (Never fear, my fine readers.  The blog will go on.)

Southern Tier Choklat: (Thanks to Nathan at Southern Tier for the graphics)

This is a damn good beer.  The only problem is that I haven’t had any in a few months and I don’t have enough spares to drink one to review it.  It clocks in at a nice, heavy 9.5% ABV, so this is one of many that’s going to give the judges a wonderful time this evening. Both from the BeerAdvocate reviews and my own personal recollection, I think this beer is entirely capable of pulling off a string of victories and winning the whole thing.    It all depends on the tastes of today’s judges.  You should definitely check out Southern Tier’s stuff – they make what is regarded by many as the best Pumpkin beer every fall, Pumking Imperial Pumpkin Ale, and they have a whole lot of others that I’m a fan of, such as the Heavy Weizen Imperial Unfiltered Wheat and the Krampus Imperial Helles Lager.

Also, Nathan gave me another cool Choklat graphic.

The draw for Choklat is tough – they’re in something of a World Cup group of death.  I think they’ll handle Young’s Double Chocolate in round 1, but then they have the misfortune of facing the winner of Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout and BORIS the Crusher, both of which could win it all.  Choklat is fully capable of making it out of that grouping to the final four; time will tell.

Speaking of BORIS the Crusher:

Thanks to Fred at Hoppin Frog Brewery for giving me permission to use graphics from their site.

BORIS (Bodacious Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout) is a killer, killer stout.  It’s decently pricey (clocking in at $0.50 per ounce) but worth it.  I’ve had this plenty of times, just not since about February and I felt odd reviewing it without a fresh sample.  It’s good, fully capable of winning it all, and sitting down there in that group of death with BBCS and Choklat.  For my money, the best matchup of round 1 is the 2 v 15 match between BORIS and BBCS.

Also not reviewed was Weyerbacher Heresy Imperial Stout. 

I know I’ve had this one, and I know I liked it.  As with the two above, it’s been a little while.  Weyerbacher has a lot of fantastic brews, and this one is no exception.  They’ve been around since 1995 and are located in Easton, PA.

I’m going to skip the predictions hereafter because (commence dirty secret) the tournament occurred before I was done writing it, and I know exactly how Weyerbacher did.

Just a few more:

Schlafly Reserve, whom I’ve been dreadfully misspelling for this entire blog.  Somehow, every time I saw the beer, I read it without the first L and made it into “Schafly.”  Schlafly Beer is a small craft brewer in the St. Louis area.  Note – they are in no way responsible for the humongous abomination of a beer-like substance maker also located in St. Louis.  They opened in 1991 and have a fine selection of nice looking beers.  I must confess I’m not too terribly familiar with the brand, though I look forward to picking a few more up.  Their tournament entry, Schlafly Reserve Imperial Stout, is the 2008 version of that barrel-aged beer.

It comes in a sweet box with a nice explanation on the back about the origins of barrel-aging strongly flavored, high proof beers, which actually makes for a good read and gets extra points for using the first sentence to beautifully dump on the T&A beers of our day.

Last of our too-close-to-press-time to review beers is Hitachino Espresso Stout.  I’m particularly excited to have this in the tournament as it expands the reach of our tourney across the Pacific: Hitachino is in Japan (warning – website uses a ton of Flash).  The brewery’s roots go all the way back to 1823, when they were established under the name “Kiuchi Brewery,” in Kounosu village.  The rebranded Hitachino Nest Beer was created in 1996, and has made quite a bit of noise on the international brewing scene.  Most Japanese beers that I’ve come across have been light pilsners.  Hitachino has a range of styles and flavors; I’m not a fan of all of them, but the Espresso Stout in particular left me very impressed.

They also have a sweet owl logo.  I like this beer, and I think it has a fighting chance in the tourney.  The first round matchup with Founders Breakfast Stout, though, isn’t going to help.

Lots more to post in the coming couple of days, including results!

Duff Out.