Tonight I'm sampling my friend smoga's Dubbel.  This beer won Best Belgian Ale Novembeer fest here in the Puget Sound.  Thanks for the bottle.

Steve's Dubbel pours with medium carbonation producing a nice off white head of foam.  Head stays as lacing throughout.  Beer is bright with a handsome medium copper coloring.  First aroma is of subtle spice, develops to light phenols.  There is plum in the nose as well as some light ripe banana or bubblegum, but spice seems more present.  Also some faint toasty malt.  The palate has plum character, some light acidity and yeasty bready tones, and some grainy and toasted malt character.  It all seems to lead to a balanced, pleasant finish with light bitterness and lingering malt.  Some alcohol warmth also emerges, but this bier isn't boozy at all.   Over all, a well balanced, subtle and somewhat complex example of the style.  A great sipper.  This subtle quality is present in all it's parts and makes it a winner.  I only want a tad bit more carbonation and, of course, a few more bottles of it...

Tonight I'm tasting my friend Zach W.'s 2 year old Imperial Stout.

Pours bright.  Deep garnet.  Doesn't look too heavy or viscous.  Some heading with some lacing.  Nice medium, medium low carbonation with some creamyness.   Great rich aroma.  Aroma has some bittersweet chocolate, plenty of tobacco, and something that reminds me of black cherry.  Also some creaminess in the nose.  Body is medium.  A little leaner than I was expecting, but not light.  Palette has some bittersweet chocolate.  It's tangy, somewhat light bodied.  Some acidity.  Some hop bitterness that marries well with dark malts.  Developing warming from alcohol.  What keeps me coming back is the lingering darker chocolate bitterness staying on the back of my tongue and marrying with the alcoholic warmth.  Nice Work Z!

No story here, really.  ...just content.  So, I got the growler of Rogue Dead Guy for under $10.  I figure, sure, I'll get it for the growler, the beer is just secondary.  When I opened it I smelled hangover.  Actually, first I smelled hop, then hangover.  Looked great, smelled great, but biers like this have always just been hangover beers.  I only drank half the growler (drank 2 pints), but show'nuff... HANGOVER!  It's the melanoidins!  Really, I can smell'em a mile away.  Tis the melanoidins in the Munich Malt.  But, it is actually a 6.6% abv bier.

I drank some Belgian Pale today. We finished the keg with the 1214 strain. It was good. Estery and more earthy than the one we have now. Currently on draft is the Belgian Pale fermented with the 3944 Belgian Wit strain. It's very different. The emphasis seems to be more so on the malt and hops. At least in this case. I can get the Styrians in the aroma. It has phenols, but I think those have become more background to malt and hops. It's balanced, dryish, slightly malt emphisized. Biscuity from Castle Biscuit and grainy from the GW 2-row. The aftertaste is fully grainy 2-row. I thought that I liked the 1214 half more, but now I'm not sure. They were both good. I should have them next time side by side.

My next task is to buy a bag of Gambinus Pale malt and compare it with GW 2-row.