WRITE OFF: What's in the Fridge?
Dec 03 '00
Thanks to PALWALRUS for arranging this write-off, contributed to by great beer reviewers:
Teykaerts, fuche_bu, bruguru, sleestakk, PeterLRuden, 4-1-1, palwalrus, beerlover, and andaryl
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Hi there! Welcome! Have a seat why don’t you, and let me grab you a beer! What would you like? What’s that you ask, what do I have? Well hang on, let me take a look and I’ll tell you what’s in the fridges! While I’m rifling through these bottles, allow me to tell you the story of my beer fridges. I’ve always been a big fan of the wonderful diversity in the beer world. My beer drinking habits are a little odd, in that I won’t usually drink the same beer twice in a night. I like my variety, and because of this I always have a lot of beer in the house, usually at least six cases. I like to keep my beer cold, but doing that usually meant sacrificing space for food in the full size refrigerator.
About 10 years ago, I got the bright idea to go out and buy a dorm-sized refrigerator just for beer! I thought it was a nifty idea, and between it and the kitchen fridge, I was doing ok. For a while anyway. I kept buying beer, and eventually I decided that little cube fridge had to go for a bigger one with the twice the capacity, though still much smaller than a conventional refrigerator. That worked so well, I eventually bought a second one, and of course filled that one too.
So anyway, let’s see what we have here. It’s Christmas time, so of course I have plenty of Holiday brews. Two Wild Goose Snow Goose, a Sierra Nevada Celebration, a couple Post Road Pumpkin Ales, and some Geary’s Hampshire Ale, a bottle from this year and two from last. I have a habit of aging strong beers like Hampshire or Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, of which I have five from this year and five that are celebrating their first birthday. I also have two Samuel Adams Old Fezziwig, a Cranberry lambic, and four of Sam’s Winter Lager. There’s a couple Harpoon Winter Warmers too, plus five Wachusett Winter Ales, five Anchor Our Special Ales, six Shipyard Preludes, six Tremont Winter Ales, a Pete’s Wicked Winter, two New England Holiday ales, and a partridge in a pear tree. Ok, I’m kidding about the bird, but I do have a half liter bottle of Young’s Winter Warmer here.
Haven’t made up your mind yet? I do have some nice Oktoberfest and fall beers left too. There’s two Spaten Oktoberfest, a Tremont Festival Ale, a couple of Sam Adams Oktoberfest, a 750ml bottle of Gritty McDuff’s Boo Halloween Ale, three Brooklyn Oktoberfests, and a pair of Harpoon Oktoberfests.
I like to travel, and when I do I always buy local beer that comes back with me and ends up in the fridges. I was just up to Maine and New Hampshire not long ago; I have some great beer from there. There’s a Tuckerman Pale Ale, a Carrabasset Kolsch, two Gritty McDuff’s Best Bitter and one of their Brown Ales, two Smuttynose Robust Porters, a Lucknow Blonde and a Lucknow Porter.
I went to Georgia over the summer, and I still have some beer I brought back from that trip. I stopped at Old Dominion in Virginia, and have a Tupper’s Hop Pocket Ale and Dominion Ale from there. I have a couple of Sweetwater IPAs and 420 Pale Ales I picked up in Atlanta, plus two Dogwood Breakdown IPAs from Georgia too.
My dad lives in Philly, and every time I go to see him I end up bringing home great beers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Some of the ones I have now are a Flying Fish Porter, two of their Belgian Style Dubbels, three Victory Old Horizontals that are a few years old, six of their Whirlwind Wit, one of their Moonglow Weizenbocks, and six Penn Hefeweizens.
Of course, sometimes rather than me going to the beer, the beer comes to me. I might order it through the mail, receive it in a beer club shipment, or barter for it with a friend across country. Some beers I have in the fridge I got this way are a SLO Cole Porter, two Greenshields Nut Brown Ales and one of their Ambers, a Schild Brau Amber, an Arkansas Ale, and a Bell’s Homegrown Ale.
Say have you seen all those wonderful 12 pack assortments that breweries put out these days? Those are a great way to have a good variety of beers in your fridge at any time. I bought a Saranac 12 pack not long ago, and from it I still have one each of their stout, amber, IPA, black and tan, Pilsner, and pale ale. From the Sam Adams sampler I have two pale ales, two Boston Ales and a Boston lager. Wild Goose has a nice one too; I have two bottles each of their porter and IPA, plus an amber.
So you still haven’t made up your mind? Well how about an import? I love imported beer, it’s a taste of the world in a bottle, and I have some good ones here! Hmm let’s see 750s of Chimay Red and Gold, Corsendonk Pale and Brown, Affligem Tripel, Unibroue Maudite and Don de Dieu, and an Ommegang. In smaller bottles, I have Spaten Optimator, Einbecker Ur-Bock, Lobko Bohemian Lager, Hoegaarden White, Julius Echter Hefeweizen, Cooper’s Stout, three Hacker Pschorr Weissbocks, Tucher Dunkles Hefeweizen, a couple of Warsteiner Dunkels, two Okocim Porters, a Duinen Dubbel andTripel, a McEwan’s Scotch Ale, and a Radeberger Pils.
I have some stuff I picked up locally too. I’m pretty lucky, living in Rhode Island I can shop for beer here or in Massachusetts or Connecticut with no more than a 30 minute drive. I have some really good beers I’ve bought locally. There’s a bottle of Anchor Steam, a Brooklyn Lager, a Black Widow Bock, a Harpoon IPA, two Otter Creek Copper ales, two Portland Brewing Thunderhead Cream Stouts, a Tunbridge IPA and Telemark, two Brooklyn Browns, a Red Hook Nut Brown, a Sam Adams Cream Stout, a Shipyard Blue Fin Stout, a Pete’s Summer Brew, a Michelob Hefeweizen, a Catamount 8 Lives and Pale Ale, a Magic Hat Fat Angel, a couple each of Red Tail Ale and Red Hook Blackhook, and a 750ml bottle each of Smuttynose Maibock, Barleywine, and Octoberfest.
You still don’t know what you want? Well I have a few more here, but these are beers that are off limits. Sorry. I have a Dock Street Illuminator Double Bock, the finest Amercian example of the style I’ve ever tasted. It was brewed at Ortlieb’s Brewery in Philadelphia, which is now closed. I have a Poor Henry’s Awesome Ale that was also brewed there. You can’t have that either. Hey, here’s another gem. A Kulmbacher Reichelbrau Eisbock, brewed in 1996. They don’t make this anymore either. I’ve got a four year old Samichlaus that’s off limits too, a Catamount Amber, and a bottle each of Thomas Hardy’s Ale from years 1994 to 1998.
Well that’s what’s in my fridges right now. The contents change as I drink beers and but new ones, but I always have a good variety to choose from. What’s that you say? You’ll have a Coke? Oh God, I need a beer.
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