Great 15 minutes @ Amsterdam yesterday.

JeffPorter · Post by **JeffPorter** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 9:13 am

I know there was a lot of great stuff that happened during the week, but this by far had to be the best.

Amsterdam tapped a cask every day @ five o'clock, and were giving it away for free (awesome in itself) and yesterday was the Jack Daniels aged Tempest. There was only about 30 people or so in the store at the beginning and Blake who's pouring the beer says essentially, "Oh, if you want to buy a bomber of this, they're behind the counter. We only have 40. Oh, and we also have some bombers of this golden ale aged in Pinot Noir barrels from Flat Rock."

Okaay...

It was just great - I had been getting over a cold and thought I wouldn't be able to taste it properly, but, boy, was I wrong. No subtle barrel aging here.

They even let us keep the little 5 oz Amsterdam glasses.

This event was totally free plus if you were lucky, you could buy a couple of really rare bottles.

I had been feeling crappy all day (even though I made the bellwoods sale) about being sick and not getting out to any events this week, and my wife (bless her!) convinced me just to go in as we were leaving town at 5 as it might perk me up. Um, it did.

Amsterdam does a lot of little "free" gestures like this, including the free bottles of last year's tempest when you bought this year's - I think that kind of sets them apart and I hope they don't stop doing "the little things" like that. They didn't limit samples and you could sit there and drink a whole pint of the stuff if you were so inclined.

Anyways - my kind of event. Small space. Free. Not too crowded. Early in the day. Rare bottle purchasing. Plus I could get in and out and back on the road in the amount of time it took my wife to nurse our baby.

boney · Post by **boney** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 11:30 am

Man, there were a ton of BT'ers at this event! We no doubt walked right by each other.

Amsterdam are class guys all around. With reference to the cask...."keep filling 'em up, we gotta get rid of this today!". A few of us stuck around quite a while after the crowd cleared out. I must indeed have had close to a pint of the cask. Great stuff.

I knew the BA Tempest was limited and sold out fast, but I had no idea that there were only 40 bottles. I feel lucky to have gotten one.

They were also selling very limited quantities of the un-BA version of this years Tempest. I don't think a lot of people knew about that, even at the time.

Well done Amsterdam!

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 11:45 am

Good to know there were only forty bottles, I got there at 5:20 and it was all gone. But I'm happy to have tried a few glasses and chatted with some folks. We need name tags. I wish I knew about the glassware, I would have kept mine, great tasting glasses.

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 12:48 pm

Amsterdam does a lot of little "free" gestures like this... I think that kind of sets them apart and I hope they don't stop doing "the little things" like that. They didn't limit samples and you could sit there and drink a whole pint of the stuff if you were so inclined.

- More so if you don't alert the provincial sniffers just like the whole Lagunitas travesty!
I'd keep these nano-sized events low-key.

Glad it made your day though!

JeffPorter · Post by **JeffPorter** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 3:59 pm

phirleh wrote: We need name tags.

Yeah - I had the same feeling in the Bellwoods line-up yesteday that there were a ton of you guys there.

Cass - maybe sometime you can make up some buttons that say something like "I'm a BTer", that we can wear to events.

JerCraigs · Post by **JerCraigs** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 8:17 pm

JeffPorter wrote: Yeah - I had the same feeling in the Bellwoods line-up yesteday that there were a ton of you guys there.

Yup, I was there!

cmadd · Post by **cmadd** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 10:36 pm

I was at both – ran into boney, phirleh, and icemachine.

icemachine · Post by **icemachine** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 8:55 am

I didn't make the Bellwoods release, but I did get to Amsterdam just in time to see the last bottle of BA Tempest go to the 2nd guy ahead of me, fortunately I snagged a pair of the Goedenavond and two of the new release of Tempest. Combined with about 5 samples of of the Cask of BA Tempest it was a very worthwhile stop before the GTA's.

I guess the Calm Before the Storm was the 2nd runnings from the new batch of Tempest released that day. Nice meeting Boney in person for the first time, and seeing cmadd and phirleh again.

Not sure how many people heard it, but it was announced they would be bottling and selling more BA Tempest at some point later this week

JerCraigs · Post by **JerCraigs** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:11 am

What is the Goedenavond anyway?

icemachine · Post by **icemachine** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:15 am

JerCraigs wrote:What is the Goedenavond anyway?

Belgian Golden Ale aged in Pinot Noir barrels - maybe a second runnings of the the 7th Ave tripel that was at Funk Night???

JerCraigs · Post by **JerCraigs** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 3:23 pm

Sounds delicious!

JeffPorter · Post by **JeffPorter** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:20 pm

icemachine wrote:
JerCraigs wrote:What is the Goedenavond anyway?
Belgian Golden Ale aged in Pinot Noir barrels - maybe a second runnings of the the 7th Ave tripel that was at Funk Night???

Had one the other night and be interested in knowing what others think...The carbonation is very low (it's a little jarring at first, I think as beer drinkers, we sometimes get anxious when there isn't a big fluffy head) and it is very winey, but it tasted great an was very drinkable. Fruity, but somewhat mild with the yeast, and some nice mellow oakiness. The hops are really laid back and that wine characteristics are the star, which is just fine with me. It actually did taste a bit like a great pinot noir.

Got one bottle left, and I think I'll grab a bottle of Flat Rock's Pinot Noir and compare the two...or maybe if there's some sort of Toronto meet-up that'd be cool.

One other thing...I probably drank this way too cool...Serve it like you would a good red wine, with just a slight chill on the bottle.

Be interested in knowing what others think...

Edit: Sorry to Greg and Cass if this needs to be in the review section...

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:21 pm

JeffPorter wrote:
icemachine wrote:
JerCraigs wrote:What is the Goedenavond anyway?
Belgian Golden Ale aged in Pinot Noir barrels - maybe a second runnings of the the 7th Ave tripel that was at Funk Night???
Had one the other night and be interested in knowing what others think...The carbonation is very low (it's a little jarring at first, I think as beer drinkers, we sometimes get anxious when there isn't a big fluffy head) and it is very winey, but it tasted great an was very drinkable. Fruity, but somewhat mild with the yeast, and some nice mellow oakiness. The hops are really laid back and that wine characteristics are the star, which is just fine with me. It actually did taste a bit like a great pinot noir.

Got one bottle left, and I think I'll grab a bottle of Flat Rock's Pinot Noir and compare the two...or maybe if there's some sort of Toronto meet-up that'd be cool.

One other thing...I probably drank this way too cool...Serve it like you would a good red wine, with just a slight chill on the bottle.

Be interested in knowing what others think...

Edit: Sorry to Greg and Cass if this needs to be in the review section...

Hey Jeff, Is it dark? I got a bottle from Boney and haven't busted it open, it looks really dark in the bottle. Cale and I were praying for a mislabelled BA Tempest

boney · Post by **boney** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:45 pm

phirleh wrote:Hey Jeff, Is it dark? I got a bottle from Boney and haven't busted it open, it looks really dark in the bottle. Cale and I were praying for a mislabelled BA Tempest

Wieeeerd. Haven't opened my bottle, but it defintiely looks like a Golden Ale. My father-in-law grabbed a couple bottles that same day. He said the first one he opened was indeed a Golden Ale, but poured super black and stout-like.....from the pinot noir barrels, he thought. I'll have to ask what his other bottles look like.

Within batch variability or amazing mislabelling karma?

JeffPorter · Post by **JeffPorter** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:45 pm

phirleh wrote:
JeffPorter wrote:
icemachine wrote: Belgian Golden Ale aged in Pinot Noir barrels - maybe a second runnings of the the 7th Ave tripel that was at Funk Night???
Had one the other night and be interested in knowing what others think...The carbonation is very low (it's a little jarring at first, I think as beer drinkers, we sometimes get anxious when there isn't a big fluffy head) and it is very winey, but it tasted great an was very drinkable. Fruity, but somewhat mild with the yeast, and some nice mellow oakiness. The hops are really laid back and that wine characteristics are the star, which is just fine with me. It actually did taste a bit like a great pinot noir.

Got one bottle left, and I think I'll grab a bottle of Flat Rock's Pinot Noir and compare the two...or maybe if there's some sort of Toronto meet-up that'd be cool.

One other thing...I probably drank this way too cool...Serve it like you would a good red wine, with just a slight chill on the bottle.

Be interested in knowing what others think...

Edit: Sorry to Greg and Cass if this needs to be in the review section...
Hey Jeff, Is it dark? I got a bottle from Boney and haven't busted it open, it looks really dark in the bottle. Cale and I were praying for a mislabelled BA Tempest

It's pretty golden from my memory - although with a hint of amber in, so a little darker than say a duvel.

The Bar Towel

Great 15 minutes @ Amsterdam yesterday.

Great 15 minutes @ Amsterdam yesterday.

Amsterdam rocks (only if you follow twitter though)