ZamaMan's Rare Beer Night 2013

Hey guys,

I decided to get together a bunch of beers and host an annual rare beer tasting for my close friends. I know that these beers are probably not as rare as what some people consider rare but rare enough for us I was so happy with how the day turned out and I figured you guys would love to see some pictures of the night.


The Final beer list ended up being in order of serving.
Hill Farmstead Citra APA
Alchemist Heady Topper DIPA
50/50 Eclipse Black Wax Evan Williams RIS
The Bruery Fruet
Cigar City Hunahpu
Cascade Barrel Blueberry Sour
Cascade Barrel Apricot Sour

Here is the Table set up

Here is the first Round the Citra APA from HF. This beer has an amazing aroma. I mean it smells better than any APA ive ever smelled. Wonder tropical and citrus notes. Smells sweet and freshly hopped. Unfortunately thats were the amazing qualities of this beer unded for most of us personally. Well the flavor was very refreshing and light it taste like essentially only base malt. The malt profile had a massive grain like flavor and tasted kinda like unfermented wort.

Overall the beer was refreshing and I would love to smell it all day since it had such a fresh smell. This beer unfortunately ended up being my lowest rated beer of the night. It was nice to try HF and cant wait to try my Harlen this weekend.

Round 2

Second beer did not disappoint and is one of the greatest beers I have ever had. Heady Topper had some of the freshest hop aroma Ive ever smelled. The mix of massive dankness blended perfectly with major tropical fruits is amazing to smell. For the first few oz the IPA being so malty was a different from me since I am used to much paler IPAs but after a few OZ wow I completely fell in love. The yeast plays such an amazing part creating a fruity background to the beer. I had to say as a huge Pliny fan this is a better IPA and at this point the best IPA i have ever had.

Sounds like a great lineup!

Round 3 was far from a disappointment. I was nervous since I have never had eclipse and ended up on impulse buying a case of futures for next year but man this beer was amazing. The oak played a massive role in the flavor of this beer. Amazing oak and bourbon notes, almost a bit of flowery nose as well, along with all the usual stout qualities. Man was this thing was good. a bit boozy but in a good way. Ultimately most of us ranked this beer second best of the night.

Round 4 was the Bruery's anniversary Fruet.

This was a fantastic beer. It was the distinct aroma of the bruerys high abv beers like melange #3. Smells like creme brule with a brandy sauce. Nice sweet raisin notes. great barrel flavors. awesome beer

Dont know if I have photo of this one but we were getting buzzed by now haha

Cigar City Hunahpu

Wow this was an interesting beer. It definitely a mind blowing experience. I couldnt say this is my favorite stout ever given the massive mix of flavors since i prefer more of the classic stouts like parabola but Im not sure that this flavor profile could have been done any better. Just the right about of chillies to complement the massive amounts of chocolate and coffee. I mean this thing has an enormous amount of chocolate and pours out slower and thicker than any beer I have ever seen in my life. Amazing Mouth feel. This beer is really something special and I hope to drink it again sometimes. This beer will blow your mind trust me.

Round 6
Cascade Barrel house Blueberry Sour

This beer really is awesome. I do prefer my sours with more sourness but the strong blueberry flavors of this beer are awesome with its moderate sourness and understated oak flavors. It is a great beer to introduce sours to non sour drinkers. I ranked this beer the number 6 slot of the 7 beers of the night though.

Last round and my 4th favorite beer of the night was the Cascade Barrel House Apricot ale.

Fantastic aroma with major sourness on the nose. tons of vinegar and apricots. Flavors follows suit. One of my all time favorite sours but not for people who don't like a very sour beer.

Ultimately probably the best night of beer drinking i have ever had but it was made even better by being able to share such amazing brews with my close friends and family. Till next years Rare beer night 2014!!!!!

Lastly thanks to those that generously helped me aquire/trade for these beers.

Ok, I gotta know, what lens did you use? At wide open aperture, that makes for a real narrow focal length and looks fantastic!

looneybomber said:

Ok, I gotta know, what lens did you use? At wide open aperture, that makes for a real narrow focal length and looks fantastic!

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Thanks man I took a few of the pictures but since I was playing host (the guy in the gingham shirt) I had to have my brother take a lot of the shots so I could pour and talk. I was using his 50mm fixed 1.4. We probably had it wide open on 1.4 the whole time since it was kinda dim in the room a lot of the time. It took great shots though I have yet to make it go heads up against my value $100 50mm 1.8 so I don't know how much better his is but it seemed to create great bokah in the back ground.

Have you tried the the $100ish Nikon fixed 50mm 1.8? Its cheap and amazing. Its extremely rare for me to ever have a lenses that zooms on my camera since the cheaper fixed alternates are so so much better IMO.

Thanks for appreciating the pictures. I tried to only use the key ones so as not to make this thread crazy long. =)

I'm a Canon guy, and have looked at the "nifty fifty" (50mm 1.8L) for quite some time, but really want the 50mm 1.4L. I just can't justify the cost of the lens when sometimes I go 2-3mo without taking a picture.

looneybomber said:

I'm a Canon guy, and have looked at the "nifty fifty" (50mm 1.8L) for quite some time, but really want the 50mm 1.4L. I just can't justify the cost of the lens when sometimes I go 2-3mo without taking a picture.

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I'd definetly spring for the 1.8 especially if you dont use it all the time. Consumers like us would have a really hard time telling the difference or being able use any difference.