Copper Mine 12 x 12

     So in my mini-bio section of this site I mentioned that I completed the Andy's Corner Bar 100 Beer Club in 2007.  The premise of the club is drink 100 different beers over the course of the year and get your name on a plaque and some free swag.  It was more difficult than it sounds because Andy's only had 8 taps(10 if both beer engines are in use).  There were alot of bottles though so it helped.  In the past year I started the Copper Mine 12 x 12 Beer Club.  In order to succeed here you have to drink 12 different beers over the course of a month for 12 months.  The thing that helps with this challenge is that every month its basically a reset.  If you like a beer you can have it count towards your goal again as long as its in a different month.  So in theory you could drink 144 different beers(there's 20+ taps here so it's slightly easier) or you could drink the same 12 different beers each month for 12 months(just hypothetical because there's only 1 or 2 beers that Vito keeps in stock year round).  So I began my quest in March 2010 and as of today I'm 1 beer short of my 7th month.  The months don't have to be consecutive.  In this post I'm going to list the first month of my quest and each beer will be hyper-linked to its BeerAdvocate description.  I'll try to post a month each night.  And as I complete a new month I will also post that(I'm at 11 for January so I'll easily finish that at the Smuttynose event on 1/27.  Make sure you attend that).  And please comment on the site and on facebook.  I see the hit counter go up but I want to know who's actually reading. 

Copper Mine Pub 12x12 Beer Club
Month 1 - March 2010
1) Flying Fish Exit 16 Wild Rice Double IPA
2) River Horse Hop-a-lot-amus
3) Boulder Hazed & Infused
4) Smuttynose Old Brown Dog
5) Troegs Nugget Nectar
6) Avery/Russian River Collaboration Not Litigation Ale
7) Defiant Muddy Creek Lager
8) Ithaca Cascazilla
9) Ithaca White Gold
10) Ithaca Ground Break
11) Victory Prima Pils
12) Stone IPA

13 Beers of Festivus Day 4: Flying Fish Exit 13 Imperial Chocolate Stout

Exit 13 Chocolate Stout

Flying Fish Brewing Co., Cherry Hill, NJ

Foreign Stout

7.5% ABV

BA: A-

RB: NR

Consumed at friend's house in snifter, available at Beekman's Wine for $9.11

     First I'll apologize for not taking a picture while I was drinking this beer.  If I have another one at some point I'll edit the post and add a picture.  The beer poured out the darkest black I've ever seen from a beer.  It was also thick like syrup and as I consumed the beer, it left a film on the glass like chocolate syrup.  There was a large fluffy, foamy head that barely dissipated as I drank this.  It really had a light chocolate smell and even lighter chocolate taste.  As it warmed up slightly more chocolate came through but it was mostly in the aftertaste.  I tasted more of the roasted malt and caramel flavors that are usually associated with a stout but I was left disappointed with the lack of real chocolate flavor.  I'm happy I tasted this before I taste any of the renowned chocolate beers, such as Southern Tier Choklat.  Reviews of those beers have praised the overall chocolatey flavor and therefore I'm glad I didn't have those first, otherwise this beer might get a 1 pint rating.  

    Overall I found the beer very drinkable for 7.5% ABV.  Had I not been a collector of the bottles, I probably would not have bough this beer.  The previous exits have been fairly good, but this one leaves me with the same feeling I have when I drive down the Turnpike on a summer weekend, anticipation and frustration.  If you're with a friend who has a bottle then by all means drink up, but its not worth the $9-10 if you're just curious.  I will remind you that taste is a personal thing and everyone's taste buds are different.  The Exit Series is a fun little novelty that gained the brewery a nice little bit of press when it started, but this one just isn't worth the hype.  I'm going to have to give this 2.5 pints out of 5 with a possibly half point boost only because I wasn't the one that paid for this and my friend let me keep the empty for my collection.