Start Off 2014 on a Good Note

I have a childhood friend that runs a local foundation here in Munhall and the foundation always seems to have interesting events going on. He recently had a massive flea market of assorted and donated items. It was at this flea market that I picked up two plain shaker pint glasses (something I haven't been able to find anywhere) and two small brandy snifters I now use as tasters.

I'm almost positive his events benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Western Pa. With that said, I've come across another beer-related event (even moreso than just buying beer glassware) that's coming up early next year.

The event is Pour For A Cure at the Pittsburgh Opera Center. There will be numerous brews to sample as well as cheeses and hors d'oeuvres to pair alongside the drink of your choice.

The event begins at 6 p.m. on January 30 and ends at 9 p.m. You can begin your journey of getting some tickets by clicking right here. There is also an option to buy tickets for designated drivers for the events. That's a great idea as I don't recall too many of these events having such a ticket, but I could always be wrong. The designated driver tickets are $25 per-driver.

Robust

You know when you have one of those moments when it comes to drink or food? Those moments when you feel like you're having a party in your mouth. Ones where life just pauses for a moment and nothing else in the world matters.

I had one of those moments at a beer tasting/pairing last night. I wrote about my visit to my family's restaurant on Route 30 in which there was a wine pairing. Last night was the pairing with Full Pint Brewing Company. If there's anyone that cares about what exactly was served you probably already know due to my posting of the menu I got my hands on after the wine tasting.

I must say the two highlights were the almond crusted chicken paired with the Chinookie IPA and the dessert with the Perc E Bust Porter. The chicken breast was served with a lemon cream sauce and an orange juice reduction. This complimented the grapefruit flavors of the IPA amazingly. You'd like this pairing even if you don't particularly care for IPA's.

The dessert was awesome. It was sweet, but the slight bitterness and strength of the coffee in the porter cut it perfectly. A spoonful of that ice cream and chocolate sauce, with some of the porter already in it, and a quick swig of the porter left me in some sort of a food coma for about 30 seconds. I've always said that if you haven't experienced this you haven't lived!

Big Pour Pre-Tasting at Blue Dust

Just as I said, I did make it down to Blue Dust on Friday evening to partake in the second night of the bar's Big Pour Pre-Tasting event. Craft breweries that were featured on Friday included Troegs, Victory and Dogfish Head.

The night was lead-off by the tapping of a Flying Mouflan firkin while it was on the bar. That was an exciting way to begin the event, even though I'm not the world's biggest fan of barley wines. It wouldn't have mattered to me what was in that firkin.

I decided to go with the Victory Flight since I have been wanting to try its Golden Monkey for a while now. The flight also included its new Festbier and I'm always up for trying a new Oktoberfest. The third brew that was aside the other two was Hop Wallop.

I was slightly disappointed with what I tried. The Golden Monkey I had seemed watered-down, the Festbier didn't taste anywhere close to an Oktoberfest and if any beer has "hop" in its name the odds are I won't like it.

I was also confused as to the true identities of both the Festbier and Hop Wallop. They both were hoppy as all hell. In my opinion, one thing that can screw up the tasting potential of a decent Oktoberfest is way too much hops. To be frank, I couldn't tell which I was drinking because of the intense hop presence. Look for more details on these brews when I actually get a chance do review them individually.