I finally got hoem to North Carolina two weeks ago and finally got to open the box my friend had been cellaring in his basement. I was tickled to find the bottles happened to be upright as boxed. Woot!!
I drove the two RIS's up to Alaska with me, I will cellar them for a couple months more after eight days in the car at a velocity I don't need to announce on the internet.
Bottle #1 was labeled "RA" on the cap. I vaguely remembered a rye ale with some coriander in the recipe floating around. It was Saturday, May 22 in Wrightsville Beach, NC. We started cleaning my budy's boat with long handled brushes about 10AM and knocked off around noon. Thankfully I ws slathered in SPF15 already when I opened the RA. After a year in Alaska the humidity was really taking the wind out of my sails, and I wasn't crewing, and it was the weekend laddy.
I pulled a glass glass out of the galley and poured that thing at noon sharp. Good hiss, excellent carbonation, I got about 3/4" of really good head in the pint glass. A tiny bit of chill haze, just a tiny hint of hop aroma. Nice.
I was hooked on the first swallow, this is why I homebrew right here in this glass. I don't see pairing that recipe with very spicy food, but having a beer for lunch, this hit the spot, it went down real nice.
I slept on the foredeck for about 90 minutes...
Clearly Evets hashis process nailed down. This beer aged a year in excellent cellar conditions with flying colors. All around outstanding. I detected some rye and I detected coriander and I liked it. It isn't probably a recipe I would make five gallons ~ I have no idea where it was a year ago ~ but that was a motivational pint right then right there.
If I had had a score sheet in my hand it would be a 35+ easy, the only "flaw" was a tiny bit of haze, but a one year old ale, come on, that's a picayune point.
Kudos.