Izzy stopped in yesterday and then Izzy left and then I went into my locker to make a deposit and saw sitting there a bottle of Trader Joe's Vintage Ale, 2008, and thought - oh, right, Izzy the Generous gave me this more than a month ago with the direction that I needed to open it within a month because it was on its way out. So, as not to upset the Izzy, it accompanied me upstairs last night.
I think we are all in the know by now that I never eat the right food for the occasion, and of course last night was no exception. However, while I was in Whole Foods getting chicken, I did partake in an impulse buy and bought a Dolphin Chocolate, which, now that I type that out, sound like a bad name for a chocolate, especially a "natural" chocolate, which these are - no sugar or dairy, very kumbaya. Also, to clarify, no dolphins.
Okay, so I have salad and chicken and beer for dinner, not a great combo to be sure, but let us plow through this.
I actually never knew TJ's did this beer each year, and if you click on the picture up there, you can read more about it. The bottle was still well-carbonated. My first, initial taste of it was actually a bit unpleasant, overwhelmingly boozy and acrid, but it calmed down A LOT and was ultimately interesting. It remained a bit boozy, but it came together and had nice chocolate things going on in there.
Chocolate? That's right, I had some of that on hand, so I popped the Dolphin in and then tasted the beer again. Now the fruitier notes were evident, fruity things that hadn't previously registered. How does that do that, I wondered?
