Merry Christmas everyone! Hopefully you all have a pleasant and enjoyable holiday season; I know I could use it. This post just isn’t about well wishes though, I’m going to see how many different tags we can get on this post by talking about unrelated things. Actually, the other two things I’m going to cover are about Christmas presents I got from people… so I guess they are related.
First up, a present from Mike. My recent droning on about beer (at least partially) led to him visiting his local Total Wine store the other day. He saw an Allagash I haven’t talked about before, so he called me up to see if I wanted it. At $20 for 750ml, the price was steep but I figured even if I hated it, I could say I had it. In the end, he didn’t make me pay for it but said I had to get him something in return. I guess that’s a fair deal. First and foremost, I need to say that no beer is worth $20 (for this amount) and Allagash Interlude is no exception. I honestly like the beer, but I can’t justify the cost when I can get a bottle of Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Old Tawny for the same price at Costco. (Which I always have open on the counter – those more observant will recognize it from an Italian wedding soup pic.) So you’re thinking, enough rambling… what’s the beer actually taste like? It smells of cherries or apricot and at first taste, it’s very heavy on copper penny. Continue drinking and/or give it some air and the copper eventually vanishes to reveal the closest thing I’ve had to red wine in a beer. A portion of the beer is aged in French Merlot and Sirah oak barrels , which you can most definitely taste. The finish is fairly dry and were it not for the yeast and carbonation, you might actually forget you’re drinking a beer by the time you finish. All in all, it’s a complex beer that’s really unlike anything I’ve ever tasted. I’d definitely drink it again, I just don’t want to buy it.
Up next is what my dad got me for Christmas. As I mentioned previously, we met up last weekend for our holiday dinner and it was then we exchanged gifts. I was surprised to find that not only did he have my race helmet airbrushed, but did so with an understanding of the things I’m in to. For a baseline, this is the man who bought his 10 year old son Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. I probably shouldn’t even describe it but rather make with the pictures. The basic gist is a gaijin slaying a dragon with my name in katakana on the front (A+ is my blood type – for emergency workers if I’m unconscious). Anyone who knows me, knows I’m nerdy for that kinda stuff. Rock on.