Night number three and beerpusher shows up in force. Mallen, Jozey and Jon were all onhand to sample the amazing bounty of brew.  This was a night we were looking forward to.

When I arrived, Jozey was sitting mellow on the leather couch talking to some folks from Oregon. He was holding a glass and there was something dark in there. Hmm. I wandered over to the bar and ordered up a Whiskey Ten Fidy from Oscar Blues Brewery. If you’re not familiar with Oscar Blue, you should be. Famous for their Dale’s Pale Ale, and unique in the fact that they don’t bottle - they only distribute their beer in cans, Oscar Blue is in a world all their own.

The Ten Fidy is usually available in a canned 4-pack for about $12. It’s an Imperial Stout of monumental proportions, so when they announced that they had some that had been aged in Colorado Stranahan whiskey casks, I knew I had to try one out. It was wonderful. The combination was a match made in heaven. Thick and chunky, this one stuck to my ribs all night.

Next, Jozey ordered up a Whiskey Dick, which is the Dale’s Pale Ale aged in the Whiskey Cask. We were a bit disappointed with this one. The combination of hops and whiskey aging, didn’t seem to work very well. The Whiskey flavor pretty much cancelled out the hop taste and what was left resembled a watered down Pale Ale. But, that’s the beauty of this week at the Taphouse, you get to try a lot of experimental brew.

I ordered the Green Flash Le Freak next, which is sort of a Belgian IPA. It was delicious. I usually feel that this style fails due to the hops and belgian yeast competing rather than complimenting each other. But this one maintained the hoppy character and was quite satisfying. Meanwhile, Jozey ordered up the Lost Abbey Witches Wit - typical of Lost Abbey is was full of carbonation with a strong belgian yeast backbone. I only got a sip, but it seemed a bit of a stretch to call this a Wit - not to say it wasn’t delicious.

We then found out from a guy waiting in line at the bathroom that they did indeed have Great Divide’s Titan IPA on cask! So, of course we jumped at the opportunity. The joy of cask beer never grows old. And an IPA of this caliber is a perfect match. It was room temperature, hoppy as hell and wonderful. Everything a cask beer should be. Something about the cask really brings out hidden flavors in the beer. After blasting our taste buds with IPAs the night before, this was a much mellower, flavorful beer that we gobbled up quick.

It was time for a break, so we headed out to Illegal Pete’s for some burritos. Though we had plenty of time, we both were rushing about so as not to miss the 9pm unveiling of Avery’s finest.

Back at the Taphouse, it was finally time. The moment we had waited for. 5 experimental Avery beers there for the taking. So we ordered them up, sat down at a table and meticulously examined our bounty. First up was Bad Sally Batch #2 was first up. This thing had a major Brettanomyces flavor, due to the secondary fermentation, but it also had a smooth bitter hop balance. Someone noted a slightly rotten hop aftertaste, and said it was good.

The second Avery was the Reverend Rare - which is their Reverend aged in an Eagle Rare Barrel. This was one of the favorites. It had a strong caramel body, with a sour malty finish. Stronger than the first, this one just had more to it.

Third, we had the Platypus. Not much was known about this one, someone somewhere heard it was a blend of three or four beers. Overall, our least favorite. Jozey blurted out “wet peaty horse blanket” but for me the words gnarly caramel came to mind. We were anxious to try the fourth.

Oooh boy, we saved the best for last, well at least it was my last. How about The Beast aged in a whiskey cask? Talk about an amazing beer. This thing would turn away probably 95% of beer drinkers out there due to its overwhelming malt and high alcohol content. It’s a lot more like drinking bourbon then it is beer. I would describe the flavor as ultra heavy malt, whiskey vanilla, and tart oak with molasses graham cracker and a dried fruit nose. Sound complex. Yes it was. And in the end this was the best, though I couldn’t drink more than about 4oz.

At that point I headed out, but rumor has it that shortly after my departure, they came on the loudspeaker again and announced the beer I had been most psyched for - the Uberschwein. Oh well, there’s always next year.