Location: The Owl House (Rochester)
The Story? For the first night on the road with Mouth To Mouth To Mouth (after a tremendous kick-off in Ithaca the night before) I met up with my parents for a pre-show meal at one of my favorite restaurants in Rochester - The Owl House. One of my favorite semi-recent Rochester memories is when a group of friends and I spent about 5 hours in the upstairs, brunch to dinner, just hanging out, running through their entire tapline, and pretty much owning the place.
With a quick scan of their latest draught offerings, I realized I'd only had two of the thirteen brews on the list. Luckily, I found out that you can make a custom flight, though picking five our of 11 was still a tough call, but I was very please with the results...
The Beer?
Three Heads Brewing: Country Shwheat (Imperial Wheat Ale) | 7.6% ABV | 46 IBUs
Pretty sure this is my first Imperial Wheat. Not a many beers in this style on regular rotation. I've always enjoyed 3HB and this was no different.
Refreshingly hoppy. Prickly carbonation with a nice citrus throughout. Great flight starter.
Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck N.V.: Bacchus (Flanders Oud Bruin) | 4.5% ABV
Wonderful cherry tartness and very smooth. Beautiful, root beer/mahogany color. Subtle, delectably sweet finish. A quality Flanders.
Ballast Point: Victory At Sea (Imperial Porter) | 10.0% ABV
Wow!! Huge amount chocolate up front with a dry finish. Big, staying head. Tons of vanilla. Roasted coffee notes too. Wet up front with a lingering finish. Sweet and dry at the same time. An excellent, thick mouthfull meal of a beer. Picking this one up in bottles soon. We'll deserving of Beer Advocat Bros 100 rating.
Southern Tier: Inner Loop (Saison) | 5.0% ABV
Mmm... very interesting. Brewed exclusively for Rochester brew week and listed as a "Maple Saison" - this peaked my interest. Wet and a little tart. The maple is very mild. Mellow sweet and mild hop finish. Great session, summer, festival beer aimed at a broad audience. I ended up grabbing one of these at Bug Jar post-performance too.
Stone Brewing Co.: RuinTen (Double IPA) | 10.8% ABV
This one has been on the wishlist for a while...
BIG, balanced hops. Citrus and lemon way up front. Very nice malt too. A bit of floral hints peaking through the piney nature of this brew. Further through it gets boozy and drier.
I've since had this in bottles since and have to say it is a bit different, so be sure and try both if you get the chance!
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Overall, another wonderful Owl House experience. The Ballast Point Victory at Sea and Stone RuinTen took the best of the batch easily (both are really next-level beers to be honest), but a quality run that I would easily choose again.
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