As far as I'm concerned, Ivies started Monday. This being my last Ivies, I've decided to share some of the most school spirited beers I found with old alumni brews, as well as celebrate or try to forget that the end is coming in less than a month.
Chamberlain Pale Ale
Method of Serving: Bottle
Our first alumni ale is very easy to find and very easy to drink. The flavors of this brew by Shipyard are not too complicated or overbearing, and the taste is somewhat watered down. The flavor is great—a sort of biscuit like taste—but subdued and hiding in the background. The thin tang of the beer makes it very drinkable, perfect for a social gathering or a barbeque, or drinking in a hurry.
Longfellow Winter Ale
Method of Serving: Sustainable Ivies Cup
The next alumnus to be made into a beer by Shipyard is a winter ale and thus much harder to come by. It is like a combination of a Scottish Ale and a Porter, with some barley overtones throughout. It pours a dark mahogany into my green plastic cup, with an aroma of smoky molasses or chocolate. Like Chamberlain, Longfellow is very drinkable, with nothing too complicated to be attributed to spices or extraneous flavors. This is a solid porter that is made well, and it is a shame that it is only distributed in the winter.
La Fin Du Monde
Method of Serving: Chalice
Yet another Unibroue beer calling for the end of the world. It is a nine percent Belgian, and is accomplished reasonably well. It has a taste of both fruitiness like banana or apple and a doughy or yeasty taste. The deliciousness of the beer does hide its high alcohol content, as with most of the beers from this brewery reviewed this year. It is reasonably easy to find and reasonably cheap, making this an excellent beer for having around during the day (but not necessarily one you'd want to shotgun). It pairs very well with sushi, but even by itself, it is very drinkable and highly recommended.
Delirium Tremens
Method of Serving: Mug
In old cartoons, before they were edited to become politically correct, when characters got to a certain point of drunkenness they saw little pink elephants running around. These guys are called delirium tremens, a real-life alcohol-induced hallucination. I wondered how much and how long I'd have to drink to see them during an Ivies celebration, but apparently it's three straight months and almost always is followed by death.
The beer Delirium Tremens is not nearly as extreme. It is an extreme beer, yes, also with a nine percent alcohol content, which makes it a bit pricier, a bit dangerous for Ivies, and delicious. This beer is 20 years old, recognized 10 years ago as the "best beer in the world." Rightly so, this is a Belgian beer made with an excellence that other Belgians should aspire to. It has a banana foretaste with vanilla and mild spices, paired with an intense bubbliness and the taste of hops coming through in the end.
Colt 45
Method of Serving: Duct-Taped to Hand
I think in other, normal situations, I wouldn't like this beer. But it appears to be duct-taped to my hand, and I don't really care at this point anyway. It's really hard to function with this thing, so the only logical thing to do is to drink it as quickly as possible. This beer comes from Pabst brewing, and as such is somehow less appealing than PBR (also good in social situations). It has a yellow color and an aroma of a fraternity floor. It has an alcohol taste that it doesn't even try to hide, and a surprising taste of malt or hops... but I don't think that's true. It is very drinkable, which is good, because this 40 is annoying.