Greetings

Dallas has few diversions other than eating, drinking and shopping.....and shopping does not interest us.
So we spend our time hopping from restaurant to restaurant and to every pub that we can find in search of the perfect meal and the perfect beer.

We randomly review restaurants and bars, dishes and beers at whim and give our brutally honest opinions of our findings. And while we concentrate on Dallas, we travel far and wide to sample cuisine from all regions of the country and beyond.



Monday, April 25, 2011

Beer Review - Highway 78 Scotch Ale

Stone Brewing Company Highway 78 Scotch Ale - 8.8% ABV

Stop.  Stop reading.  Stop whatever you are doing and get on the phone.  Call every liquor store in the book and ask for this ale.  Go and buy it.  Now.  Finsh reading this after you have returned. 


You're back?  Did you find any?  Damn, me neither, but I am going to keep looking.  Let me describe for you what you have missed.

Stone Brewing Company brews some potent beers that are so in your face that they are mostly undrinkable for 95% of us beer slobs...er... a.... sorry, I mean snobs.  I went to a beer and food pairing recently at the Moth that featured Stone brews paired with food selections prepared by the chef, Chad Kelly.  Poor guy, he never stood a chance because every beer that Stone produces is a palate killer.  However, the first beer offered was quite a surprise because it was very unstonelike  (new word, go with it) simply because it is not totally a Stone brew.  This one time only collaboration with Green Flash Brewing Company and the Pizza Port Brewery is a truly magnificent offering to the patron saint of beer, St. Arnold (now you know where the St. Arnold Brewery got it's name, consider yourself enlightened). 

Don't get me wrong, the beer is still very 'in your face', but much more balanced than any other Stone beer that I have tasted.  The beer pours a lovely mahogany red that reminds you a bit of wine in color and texture.  The creamy head is modest but persists and leaves delicate lacing and has a strong nose with malts, dark fruits and molasses coming through.  The flavor is tremendously complex, brown sugar, plum and perhaps a touch of smoke along with the alcohol burn gives your taste buds quite a workout.  Damned.  Fine.  Ale.

Stone Brewing Company
1999 Citracado Parkway
Escondido, CA 92029
http://www.stonebrew.com/

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