Thanksgiving Beer Depletion Party

Every since I started blogging about beer, Sammy and I have been collecting bottles of beer wherever we go. Many times, we just hit up our local BevMo and bottle shops. Some bottle we enjoy right away, other bottles we squirrel away for another day. Most of the time, my intent is to save these bottles so that I can review them for the blog but as things currently are with us, we’re just too busy and it would take us forever to get to them.

So we decided to invite a bunch of our friends over and have a Beer Depletion Party. I’d like to say that this was an original idea but it’s not, I picked up the idea from Pete Slosberg. The idea is pretty simple: I have a big blue tub of ice and beer in the backyard. We’d each take turns going to the back, pulling out a bottle, reading the label to everyone and then pouring out enough for everyone to get a taste. It’s a great way for everyone to sample some beer and the portions are small enough where if you don’t like it, you don’t have to waste and entire bottle.

I tweeted the event “live” last night and took photos of people and the beers they picked as we went along. I thought it would’ve been a little too difficult to write detailed notes as we went along so if you want descriptions, you just might have to dig through my lists of tweets. Here are the beers we had along with what I remember about them:

• Oskar Blues, Old Chub, 8% ABV
• Brasserie Dubuisson, Scaldis Belgian Ale, 12% ABV
• Fantôme Brewery, Brise-BonBons, 8% ABV
• Jolly Pumpkin, La Roja (Blend 11, 2008), 7.2% ABV
• Jolly Pumpkin, Biere de Mars (Batch 346/348), 7% ABV
• Jolly Pumpkin, Calabaza Blanca (Batch 323), 4.8% ABV
• O’Dells Brewing, Bourbon Barrel Stout, 10.5% ABV
• Abbey Affligem, Dubbel, 7% ABV
• Deschutes Brewery, Black Butte XXI, 11% ABV
• Lagunitas Brewing, Lucky 13, 8.3% ABV
• Tied House Brewing Company, Menage a Singe (Black IPA), 8.8% ABV
• Dogfish Head Brewing Company, Theobroma, 9% ABV
• Boulevard Brewing Company, Saison-Brett (05680), 8.5% ABV
• Lagunitas Brewing Company, Ruben & the Jets, 8.6% ABV
• Brouwerij van Steenberge, Cherish Raspberry Lambic, 5% ABV
• New Belgium Brewing Company, Transatlantique Kriek, 8.0% ABV
• Brouwerij Giardin, Gueuze Girardin 1882, 5% ABV
• Russian River Brewing Company, Pliny the Elder, 8% ABV
• Avery Brewing Company, Sui Generis, 10.2% ABV
• Russian River Brewing Company, Blind Pig, 6.1% ABV
• BetterBeerBlog, Russian Imperial Stout
• Brasserie Dieu du Ciel, Rigor Mortis (Abbey style brown ale), 10.5% ABV
• BetterBeerBlog, Harvest Pale Ale, 6.56% ABV
• BetterBeerBlog, Harvest Rye IPA, 7.09% ABV

As you can see, we had quite the list of beers. Chances are good that we’ll be having another beer depletion party as we didn’t even finish the bottles I had set out.

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