Beer collection, plus scotch

I've been lax on posting up the new (to me) beers that I've tried recently.

I had a Roxy Rolles from Magic Hat. There was a picture of it, but it magically (har har) disappeared from my phone. I may have taken it from my wife's phone, but she deleted it, not knowing the significance of having research photos. I've got to say, this was fabulous. It was a wintery style of beer in the base, but it was far hoppier than you would expect in a winter beer. Almost an IPA amount of hops. This was my favorite beer from Magic Hat (even better than #9 on draft). A splendid beer.

I also had Winter Warmer from Harpoon. This was a very spicy winter ale. The first one I had, I was so-so on it, but it really grows on you. Certainly, not hoppy, but a good mix of spices. They claim it has a pumpkin pie flavor, but I'll beg to differ on that. You can certainly sense the cinnamon, though. I bet it would be good on draft.

I also went to Outback the other night (first time in a couple of years!) and had two beers from Coopers Brewery. First up was the Premium Lager. Not a bad beer. A little malty compared to what I was expecting, but tolerable. I think I prefer Foster's, though. Well, no. I know I prefer it.

The second Coopers beer I had was the Sparkling Ale. This had a lot of sediment in the beer (which I do like). The taste.. well.. not so good. This was a definite "glad I had it once, but that's about it for me" beer. Can't put my finger on it, why I didn't care for it too much.

Lastly, for the scotch lovers among you, I finally got around to trying Laphroaig scotch. (Pronounced: "La-froyg"). I had the basic 10 year old single malt, and it was amazing. I think I liked it better than the Lagavulin I previously tried. (The problem with trying these things 6 months apart is it's so damn hard to really compare). The Laphroaig was very smokey, and gentle going down. Not as smooth as the Oban I had tried, but it certainly didn't burn or feel rough at all. This is a great scotch if you like the smokey Islay style.

That's all for now.. Saturday is the winter beer tasting festival up in Syracuse, so I'll be hitting that, weather permitting. So, hopefully more tasting notes to come..