Whiskey Hot at 10.5%

Thursday night, Alpine Trout and I went to a cask night featuring Hale's Ales at the Beveridge Place Pub in West Seattle. I concur with Trout that the malty Wee Heavy is one of the finest beers in existance. So good in fact, that I had two. The second being just as extraordinary as the first.

But earlier in the evening, before the succulent Heavies, something happened that I'd never experienced before.

When I arrived at the Bev, I ordered myself a Piraat Triple IPA. Not knowing a thing about it, I sat down and began sipping. Hoppy (which is not my favorite), but just strange enough to keep my attention. In anticipation of ales being rolled out, I drank the Piraat at a fair clip over increasingly livelier conversation with AT. As nature allows, I excused myself to use the lady's. In the loo I realized I was rather drunk. Gauging by my inner tipsy-o-meter I'd say I was about 3 [quickly drunk] beers into the evening. I wonder what the person in the stall next to me thought when they heard a hushed voice saying to herself, "Oh god, I'm fucked up."

The next day google found this tidbit for me on A Good Beer Blog: (Excellent blog, by the way. Gus, being the wordsmith that you are, I'm thinkin' you'll dig the use of terms like "mousse" and phrases such as "a snow white souffle of a head explodes from the bottle".)

Piraat: Whisky hot at 10.5%. The pour leaves a fine white light foam head. The colour is medium straw and cloudy what with the swirl of real yeast at the bottom of the bottle. The taste is sugary mousse with a fine pale malt seam running through the middle, empire biscuit faintness of cherry. Quite juicy despite the sugar levels. The hops are subdued but spicy, with perhaps a bit of corriander, their aroma sitting below the smell of cotton candy.

10 and a half per cent! Jesus! No wonder.