Mas

Wednesday night Meg and I went for drinks with a friend in Arlington, on our way back we stopped at Westover Market. I had heard that this place a had a great beer selection, but wasn't convinced based upon the exterior. So we decided to investigate ourselves. The above photo was taken from their website. They have as termed on their website the "Great Wall of Beer" which is pretty true to form. Meg and I were very impressed with their selection of beers, they had all of our favorites (Victory, Stone, Avery, Troegs, etc.) and lots of stuff we weren't familiar with. the only criticism I had of the place is that its unorganized. You've literally got beer piling up all over the place, but that's not such a bad problem to have. We got to talking with the owner and he informed us that every first Friday of the month and every second Saturday, they have beer and wine tastings with live music. It all sounded very cool and in the spirit of promoting quality beer. Check out their website for more information: http://www.westovermarket.com/index.html

So as of last post we had picked up a bottle of Hopsinjoor and Merry Monks. We also picked up a bottle of "Ale to the Chief" from Westover on Wednesday. Finally, we hit up Norm's lat night for the usual routine. Here is a quick once over on some of these beers:

Gouden Hopsinjoor: I can't get enough of these Belgian IPAs. Lots of fruit, pepper, and spice on the tongue. Starts off with a citrusy lemon zest and morphs into a piney hop explosion. The malt backbone is barely noticeable leaving only a little sweetness and body. Overall: B+

Weyerbacher Merry Monks: First, this bottle was impossible to open, Meg and I literally had to use wine cork remover to get this thing open. I believe this is considered a tripel, but it pours an orange color which is somewhat unusual for a tripel (rules be damned!). It had a nice balance of flavors with lightly toasted malts up front and a heavy dose of syrupy fruit flavors (largely apricots). It finished with a subtle hop bite on the back side. The alcohol remains well hidden. This is as it should be an exploration of malt and fruit flavors with just a touch of hops. Overall: B+

Avery Ale to the Chief: Now I usually don't like to post much in the way of negativity, but I just couldn't get behind this one. I think the most upsetting thing is that Meg and I are big Avery fans and perhaps we had high expectations (this beer scores well on beeradvocate). For a double IPA the hops were unremarkable. The alcohol taste is very present. Sharp and harsh bitterness in the finish. Meg and I didn't even finish the 22oz. bottle. Overall: D



-HolzBrew