Poker Night Roundup #1: For a Bin Full of Bottles

Saturday night poker. Behold the aftermath:

A bin full of empty bottles and cans, fallen soldiers in the war of chips, chairs and jumbo playing cards. And when I say chips, I mean both the poker chips and the tortilla chips that were used to scoop up large amounts of a delicious seven layer dip My Indian Companion made, not to mention the most awesome guacamole brought by a friend of ours. And I'm seriously not mentioning it. 'Cuz homeboy took me out of the game and won the entire tourney.

But maybe I will mention it, 'cuz homeboy brought some seriously delicious beer. Namely, the Black Butte XXIV Imperial Porter from Deschutes Brewery. Now, I've said I'm not a porter guy, but this porter is a monster. In the best possible way. The Black Butte XXIV is the 24th edition of an anniversary brew that Deschutes does every year in tribute to their Black Butte Porter's debut. Which happened to be 24 years ago. I can do math.

The Black Butte XXIV is one of the most complex and flavorful beers I've ever tasted. It's made with artisanal dark chocolate nibs, deglet dates and mission figs. I really couldn't point to one of those ingredients over the other for contributing most to this beer's flavor, probably because I'm not sure I've ever had figs. Or dates. But dark chocolate nibs? Oh, hell yeah. The most interesting thing about this beer's flavor, however, is how I was immediately able to determine it's brewery. It tastes like a Deschutes beer. If you handed this to me in an unlabeled glass, I'm almost certain I'd still know where it came from. While it might be tempted to point to it's inspiration, the Black Butte Porter, I really can't remember the last time I've had it. So it's not that.

It's probably confirmation bias. Yeah. Let's go with that.

Anyway, the Black Butte XXIV is seriously one of the best beers I've had. And it's a perfect gateway into aging for me. On the side of the label, it reads: "Best After 07/23/13." Nearly a year from now. There's another bottle in my fridge (thanks Luke!) that I don't intend on opening before that date.

Another highlight of poker night was the Wookey Jack from Firestone Walker. A black IPA, or, as the label says, a black rye IPA, this bad boy puts some class in the category. But I don't mean the suit and tie kind of class. More like the fedora and tommy gun kind. The Wookey Jack is about as dark as they come, but at 60 IBU's, it still packs the brightness, punch and drinkability of a top notch IPA. Coming in at 8.5% ABV, this beer about epitomizes the idea of easy big drinking.

Or is that big, easy drinking? Eh. It's probably both. We went through three bottles of it over the course of the evening, so maybe it went from one to the other. I guess that makes the Wookey Jack the bell of the ball.

I can just imagine Chewbacca with a tiara and a sash. It would be about time that he got some recognition, that he got his due. Can you believe they didn't give him a medal at the end of A New Hope? Does that make George Lucas a speciesist?

Oh. Wait. Sorry. That's wookie. Not wookey. Wouldn't want that litigious Lucas to sue now, would we. Move along. Move along.

Lastly (for this post at least. It certainly wasn't the last beer of the evening. Not even close. Maybe in the middle somewhere. I think. It's all kind of a blur at this point), we come to the Maelstrom Blood Orange Ale from Elysian Brewing. It's the eighth beer in their 12 beers of the apocalypse series, which is a series of extremely interesting beers that have, since January 21st, been put out on the 21st of each month leading up to Dec. 21st. The so-called apocalypse, according to that mayan calendar mumbo jumbo. Each beer is a limited edition, only available until it's not. While there are some earlier editions still available around town, you'd be extremely hard pressed to find the first few. I've had all eight so far, and I've enjoyed most of them. Some more than others. But this one is the one I've been looking forward to the most. The one I thought was going to be mind-blowingly delicious. I love the taste of blood orange, so there was absolutely no way this beer could disappoint.

So it probably comes as no surprise that I was disappointed.

Not at first, however. Well, at second, rather. The first sip left a lot to be desired. Blood orange can be such a strong and distinct flavor, that when the first sip barely had any at all, I grew concerned. But then the flavors developed on the palate, growing and deepening. Then boom. Blood orange. All up in my grill. It was delicious. About everything you could imagine from a beer called a blood orange ale.

The disappointment came in half way through the glass. The blood orange flavor seemed to disappear. It turned into a somewhat above average ale with some minor hints and tones of blood orange. And that was disappointing.

This was the first beer of the apocalypse I've had solely from bottle, however, and not from the tap. Perhaps that might make the difference. Hopefully I can track down a local place that still has it on tap before it goes away forever.

You know. For research. This is science, after all.

As for the poker, well, we can't win every time, now can we. Congratulations go to Luke Byrnes, good friend and great bartender. You can find him at the Manito Tap House, and he will treat you well. Tell him the Spokane Beer Blog sent you. And that I will have my revenge next poker night.

Until then, you know what to do.

Good lord, it pains me so much to say it. Oh, here goes.

Tap that glass.

Phew. That wasn't so hard, now was it. Now I've just got to own it, because it's pretty clear I'm not going to change it.

I'll work on that.