First MBWG Meeting of 2009: Aged Beer Dinner

The first quarterly meeting of 2009 — we moved to quarterly meetings after monthly meetings proved just too problematic — of the Maine Beer Writers Guild was held this past Friday evening at the condo of Jan (of BeerBloggers.com) and his wife Sally here in Portland. The theme of the evening was aged beers and the lineup was one which I don’t think will ever be matched again.

I really should have taken notes on the specific ages of many of the bottles (since, needless to say, my mind got to be a little cloudy towards the end of the evening) but, as you might be able to tell from the photo (click on it for a larger version), we enjoyed three years (1990, 1994 and 2005, I think) of Chimay Blue; some Samiclause, a few years of Rochefort 10, a twelve or thirteen year old Westvleteren 8 and Westvleteren 12; three Thomas Hardy Ales, one from 1994(ish), one from 2005 and one from 1979 (yes, my first time trying a beer which was older than I am. It was delicious!); a 2008 bottle of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot (and a 2009 to compare it to); two bottles of Anchor Christmas Ale from the early 90s; all three years of the Sam Adams Triple Bock (including the Millennium from 1997); and a few others I’m sure I’m forgetting. I was, however, able to sneak the remainder of the bottle of Millennium — one of my favorite beers of the evening (the other 2 years of the Triple Bock were closer to soy sauce than beer and very unappealing, but the Millennium was incredible) — home with me to take further tasting notes.

A million thank-yous go out to our hosts Jan and Sally for the amazing spread of beer and dinner they provided us; it really was a once-in-a-lifetime event! Not that it (or any future event) will ever top this, but keep your eyes on MaineBeerWriters.org for the announcment of our second quarter meeting soon. Cheers.