Last night I enjoyed my very first Buffalo Good Beer Club meeting, held monthly at Mr. Goodbar (quite possibly the best beer bar in the city). For the month of March, we delved into the world of stouts… 11 of them, to be exact.

Pete (KegWorks model and draft beer guru) and I got there 30 minutes early since the Sabres were playing and we wanted to make sure we had a table. Since I was about to enjoy quite a few stouts, I decided my first beer of the evening would be Ommegang Abbey Ale. If you’ve never had it on tap, you’ve never really understood the delicious complexity that is Abbey Ale. Do yourself a favor and get some. Now.

Enough about the pre-gaming… onto our "St. Patty’s Day Feast and Stout Tasting." Featured brews for the evening were:

• Murphy’s Irish Stout
• Lost Coast 8 Ball Stout
• Rogue Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout
• Goose Island Oatmeal Stout
• Fort Collins Chocolate Stout
• Left Hand Milk Stout
• Coopers Best Extra Stout
• Lagunitas Espresso Stout
• Arcadia Imperial Stout
• Oscar Blues Ten Fidy
• Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti

There was some incredible food after the tastings as well; Irish soda bread with currants, potato leek soup and corned beef with cabbage. All freshly prepared and a perfect end to some yummy stouts. It was great to see Mike of BuffaloBeerBlog.com, too. He’s heavily affiliated with Good Beer Club and helping to promote great brews to Buffalonians in general.

I dug most of the beers I tasted last night but the one that really stood out to me was the Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti. This Russian Imperial Stout weighed in at 9.5% ABV and poured deep black, just as an imperial stout should. Its aroma was of sweet, roasty malts, bitter coffee and chocolate. It was superbly full-bodied and extremely well balanced; sweet when I first sipped and then slightly bitter in the finish. I was very pleased when the boys pouring the brews completely filled up my tasting glass with the Oak Aged Yeti. Very pleased, indeed.

I can hardly wait for Good Beer Club next month. I’ll be sure to have a full report!

TAGS [ BEER CLUB | STOUT TASTING | IRISH FARE ]