Let's be honest, this wasn't going to make an impression at all after the other two.

Eaugh, maybe it's just its place in the sequence, but this was jarring, sweet, and rubbing alcohol-y. I couldn't finish it.

Tropical-citrus "juicy" hop flavors of the type that are common in Hazy IPAs, however this one was so mild in all of the other aspects of hoppiness (bitterness, resin, sharpness) that it crossed over into highly unusual territory. A "juicy light blonde" is maybe the closest I can come to describing it.

Medium-tart sour ale with a bright, rounded berry flavor. Very light on the funk. I really, really liked this.

Roasty, toasty stout on nitro, bit of a warm, sesame-like overtone. Kind of like a Dragonstooth on nitro. Quite tasty.

An enjoyable witbier. I haven't had a Hitachino Nest recently to compare it to, but I don't think this one grabbed me as much.

Very much in the vein of the Wild Ride Nut Crusher - closer to Peanut Butter Crunch than a Reese's. Slightly below that other beer in overall coherence of flavor, I think, but still super-drinkable. And at least this wasn't nitro.

Good, solid, scotch ale that tastes like a scotch ale. I mean, I guess that doesn't sound particularly compelling? But I like solid scotch ales. Also I'm sad since this might be the last Naked City beer I ever get to drink.

Cloudy brown ale with a savory flavor not unlike saltine crackers or pretzel. Not a common kind of beer, and one which I really like.

Very nice, although you could have told me this was a chili IPA and I would have believed you.

My memory is not good here, but I recall this being a blah, generic IPA.

Definitely a Belgian IPA, has those faint peppery spice notes underneath the expected hops. It's an odd style that somehow always makes me think of rubber tires. Not as good as what I think of as my paragon of the style, Stone's Belgique.

Lots of bourbon sweetness up front, with a bit of prickle from cinnamon but not overt flavor. Not too much to say that I didn't say last time.

Very similar to the Old Schoolhouse, actually. I wouldn't say there's anything especially tropical about this. Finishes less metallic and a bit more... cocoa-like, I guess? Malty, not sweet.

Quite dark for a brown ale; I'd call this a porter. Fairly thick, creamy with a lot of roasted coffee notes in the flavor. Finishes a bit metallic, but enjoyably so.

A light, pleasant dark lager with a bit of chocolate, a bit of roast, and a bit of coffee. Creamy and clean.

At first glance this is really good; a piney, hoppy IPA with a funky/cereal finish. After a while the resin builds up in pungency and it gets a little less great, but it's still a strong offering from Fremont.

Whiskey, sweet, a little but of nutty coffee, but avoids being too heavy or syrupy. Not at the very pinnacle of this style, but maybe close to it. Yes I realize this picture makes the burger look enormous, it wasn't really that big.

Nicely round oak and caramel to open. More than a little piney hop but clean and balanced pretty well. Tastes less boozy than you'd expect at 11%+ ABV.

Only had a sip of this, but my impression is that the oaky-sweet caramel works well to cut what would have otherwise been a bit of a musty, dry cider.

Belgian saison that trends more toward the Belgian pale end of the flavor spectrum. Subtle white pepper and clove with a kind of juicy effervescence. Not sour, not funky.

A smooth, creamy nitro milk stout with an immediate hit of strong chili spice. It evens out the bland-sweetness you normally get form nitro. No hint of unpleasant soapiness. Pretty good, though that spice sticks with you.

At first this is a medium-resin hoppy IPA with a bit of toasty, spicy cereal flavor. Very pleasant. However, the bitterness builds up rapidly and by the end of a 12 oz schooner I was finding it almost undrinkable. So a real mixed bag.

A bubbly pale ale with piney fragrant hops, a little bit guava, a little bit grape. Pretty clean and fairly delightful. Not sure I'd always be in the mood for this, but it hit the spot tonight.

Smooth and inoffensive. On the bright side, it didn't have the poky hoppiness that most of the dark beers here have; on the other hand, it wasn't particularly memorable.

Funky cherry flavor; mild sourness followed by a bit of caramel and salt on the lips. More yeast bitterness than I expected, probably since this is still relatively young. Anyway, this didn’t fare as well as previous tastings of more aged vintages.

Thin, dark stout with mellow, buttery coconut. Not too sweet, not too roasty, kind of a bittersweet chocolate character. Goes down very smooth, with just a hint of metallic bitterness at the very end (maybe from the can?). A very pleasant surprise.

Dank, dank resin and not a few skunky vegetal overtones. One of the very few beers I just couldn't bring myself to finish.

A clean, funkless sour with more than a little bit of hop flavor. The tartness is puckering but not overwhelming. Someone said that it resembled white kimchi juice a little, and that’s hard to let go of because it’s not wholly inaccurate. But I did like this otherwise.

A very dark amber with a lightly roasted, deep caramel flavor. Finishes with a tiny bit of hop fruitiness. Pleasant and light, but not especially memorable.

Syrupy and yuck.

Possibly the spiciest beer I’ve ver had. Slightly skunky on the smell and flavor, but mostly strong pepper rind bitterness and heat. Seems like there’s plenty of hops but they take a back seat to the Carolina Reaper. Heat isn’t unbearable but it is strong and lingers. Can’t see myself drinking a lot of this, but it wouldn’t be crazy, either.

This bottle was over three years old at this point. Smooth, almost vaporous, with a very complex wild sourness left over. Not very accessible, but I liked it very much.

Seved super-cold as they do here at Prime, so that there were actual ice crystals in the beer. Worked surprisingly well with this beer, bringing out the mellow chocolate notes.

Noticeably smoothed out after a year of aging, this was more of a creamy-sweet-but-not-at-all-cloying coconut candy beer. If you’re going to do a coconut beer, there is a way to do it dark, and a way to do it sweet. This is the apotheosis of the latter.

An odd beer of two experiences. Smells bright and exactly like ginger ale, but drinks a bit musty-sour, with some diacetyl buttery flavors. It’s easy to get used to the flavor, but that dissonance with the fragrance never really resolves.

Watery and bland. A bit of an interesting edge on this, a toasty, grains of paradise-like exotic flavor, but it's not enough to rescue the beer.

The Blood Runs Cold was described as an East Coast IPA but this was the real hazy beer. Good but generic in its juiciness.

Canned-juice character. Reminiscent of the Raspberry Crush, almost still tasted like raspberries. Not my favorite.

Best of the flight. A clean citrus flavor mixed with fragrant hop-forward character. Finishes bitter but cleanly.

A little sad that they didn’t have this on nitro anymore, but this was remarkable nonetheless. Boozy, bourbony, sweet and delicious. Tiny bit raw around the edges from being young.

Berliner weisse-like sharp, sour opening. Clean finish. This was far too late in the lunch to remember clearly.

Chalky, inky, umami flavor. Slightly tart finish, a bit like Worcestershire sauce, which matches my previous experience with Ola Dubh. Woody but not actually very peaty.

Cherry-bourbon notes, very fizzy. Caramel, clean, sweet, but not syrupy. Delicious.

This beer is the closest to a chocolate milkshake I’ve ever had. Nutty, boozy, but smoothed out significantly by nitro, leaving a light sweetness.

“This is a porter, not a stout.” Refreshingly uncomplicated, but also not profound.

Good stout. Vegetal tequila notes dominate.

Like a coconut candy bar in mood, but actually not too sweet. An “Almond Joy” in a beer. Undeniably boozy.

Smells strongly of rum. Mellows out quickly, with lime and ginger subtly mixing to create a harmonious, possibly healing concoction. Yum!

Pours thick and profoundly dark, with a dark tan head. Amazing, smooth, very thick stout. Dark plummy finish. A “refined berserker,” it dissipates cleanly to finish. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

A little too sweet, I think.

I have my rating but no notes on this one.

Biscuity Belgian ale, light yeast character. Pretty noticeable alcohol flavor. A few years ago I had one of these that I thought was undrinkable, but this was different; perfectly pleasant if a bit strong, but not especially remarkable.

Jammy blueberry sour, with a little more of a musty finish than I like.

Hilariously, when I ordered a Festivus they brought out another Splinters, and honestly I was too far gone to realize it, other than thinking they'd really improved the Festivus. When they corrected their mistake, yeah. Pretty perfumey.

Still excellent.

Light lager, very pleasant.

Also tastes young. Blending this with the Midnight Orange makes an orange cream stout that is probably better than either component beer. This is interesting because I first got to know Goose Island through their excellent orange cream sodas in the ‘90s.

Strong orange. Almost perfumey, but just avoids that mortal sin by a hair. Tastes very young.

This was in no way a Scotch ale. It was much more like an Oud Bruin, sour, maybe a hint of caramel. Definitely weird for what I was expecting, and I wasn’t alone in this opinion.

Unexpectedly dominant guava juice flavor in this hazy IPA. Could be that my palate was a bit burnt by the KBS, but this worked really well.

Roast coffee, not too sweet, light but present bourbon. Did not seem nearly as punchy as 12% ABV would predict. Pleasantly surprised by how understated this felt after the strong sweetness of CBS.

Described as a stout with banana, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla, and it basically meets all of the above. Sweet and desserty, syrupy but not cloying, it tastes exactly like a fudge banana split. I don't love super sweet beers, but this was surprisingly enjoyable.

Lightly roasty porter with some faint coffee notes and a round lactic smoothness. Pretty tasty, although the finish is a little sour/tacky on the back of the throat.

Resinous hop opening, pretty dry, although some sweet cereal comes in near the end to mellow things out. Fizzy enough that it stands out.

Fairly bitter, somewhat rooty. Served at typically warmer cask temperature with also-typical flatness; lots of hop oil collecting on top. Yeah, nah, not so much.

Medium roast, coffee-centric. Smooth from the nitro but characterful enough. Again, the barrel character was almost nonexistent. This wasn't going to win any contest against the Splinters, but it was a nice, lighter followup.

Smooth, buttery caramel and strong bourbon. Goes down disturbingly easily. This seems like two years in a row where the Splinters take has been very good.

This was good. I only rated at the time, didn't write notes, so I can't say more than that, except that I remember thinking this was as expected for Firestone Walker.

Sweet but light nitro stout. Bit of a cereal milk quality. Very pleasant, if not distinctive.

A forward, sharp tartness, some followup chocolate, and a whole lot of authentic blackcurrant flavor. This was very good. I don't quite remember what the original Tart tasted like, but I have the strong feeling that this was better.

This was really good, although all told it was more red wine than beer. The stout was pretty hard to detect through all of the dry grape and brett funk. Rounded, only slightly bitter, with a lingering grapey fizz. This split opinion, but I liked it.

A bit raw in its hit of whiskey but otherwise a pretty good barrel-aged scotch ale. If it's reminiscent of anything it's Goose Island's Cooper Project Scotch.

A hazy, fruity IPA but with a sweet, slightly buttery cereal finish that really mellows out this beer. Still pretty bitter but I think it was my favorite of the night.

Very bitter, hoppy dark lager. This year's version is a lager for the first time in a long time, and I'm not sure I like it.

Dry, pleasant IPA with a bit of resin tang right at front. Nothing screams "fresh hop" about this beer, but it is tasty.

A mild, tropical IPA that has is smoothed out by the unusual step of added vanilla. The vanilla doesn't necessarily taste very fancy, but it still works, I think.

Such strong. Many booze.

Medium sweet medium thick chocolatey stout, slight cherry, more hop dankness than I’d like.

Tart, intensely peachy, pie spice. Interesting overtone of wood smoke.

Surprisingly good despite a clover character I don’t usually enjoy. A little rooty, a little nutty, toffee/caramel. Like a candy brittle.

Sweet citrusy pale, mango syrup finish, somewhat insipid finish.

I... don't remember anything about this, sorry. It's been too long. I rated it then, so I trust that, but also there was no way this was going to win out vs the banana coconut Dragon's Milk for a full pour.

I thought this was fantastic, maybe my favorite of the Reserve series so far. You'd think this would be too sweet, but the banana is a very nice, rich, banana cream pie kind of flavor and the coconut smooths it and melds it nicely with the base stout. So yummy!

Mild banana, funky malt, Brett driness. Cherry is very light and gives more of a wine+pastry impression. Not revelatory, but complex enough to be intriguing, and pleasant besides.

Slightly sweet cream coffee Porter. Mild roast, light caramel, the slight sour mineral finish actually helps this one nicely

Slightly spiced Belgian pale like, banana bread. Some of that same mineral dry finish

Good bready mild bit of a soapy mineral finish dries mouth

Yeah, this was a super good coconut chocolate stout. Not nearly as over-sweet as Skookum's strong stouts tend to be, this was perfectly balanced. Seems they've bottled this as well!

Started out nice, roasty, thick, creamy, but not sweet. Built up in that bitter, burnt Stone way though. This variant did highlight its hop content. Seems to be a thing with their stouts.

Mellow, caramel barleywine with a good underpinning of whiskey. There's some vegetal, cider-like tartness, from the pumpkin? that just balances everything out nicely. This is a bit more simplistic than some other standouts in this category (Rumking anyone?) but it was very, very tasty.

Simple and sweet. Pretty good, as usual.

A more standard IPA with some rindy bitterness. Not as good as the fresh hop.

Quite tasty.

Everything I've tried at BBC with the word "orange" in the name has had a weird, perfumey fake orange flavor about it. This ... was pretty much in the same vein. Better than the other ones; the rest of the IPA minimizes the perfume effect, but I didn't love it.

Starts with a hit of fragrant hops but transitions weirdly into like a cherry dessert bar. Oats and sweet cherry and a hint of cinnamon. It's a nice flavor but it really feels like two separate drinks smashed together.

I don't have the non-fresh hop version to compare this with, but this seems more bitter and less fruity than I remember. Touch of dry resin. After some food this did taste smoother though.

I mean, this tasted like exactly what you'd expect. Take the standard bourbon barrel aged salted caramel stout, which is already excellent, and add hazelnut into the mix. Nuttiness is mild, and the caramel is mellow and sweet.

Good flavor, dry, fragrant. Doesn't necessarily taste like the strong fruit of a typical hazy ale, and definitely a little more bitter than I like.

Sweet coffee, light and caramel. Fairly bourbon-y.

Round bright raspberry flavor followed by a very mellow almost candy finish. Just a touch of wood. Clean and delicious.

Nice sour but with caramel darkness making it a bit unusual. Almost gritty?

Extremely bitter and a lot more resin than I expect in a fresh hop IPA. I guess there's more than one way of doing this and this is the way I don't like.

Bracingly tart, but clean; emphasis on dank pineapple flavors with some sweet wheat funk right at the end.

Surprise offering at Boardwalk. Very smooth, caramel, slightly fruity. Got boozier as the glass went on and by the end I was pretty wrecked. Felt it all night too.

Quite a bit more bitter than I expected. This place makes good beer, but they do like the bitter.

This was really, really good. Not bitter at all, dry, grapey flavor very like a brut IPA but with a much more intense fragrance. Different from most wet hop beers I've tried, and really fantastic.

Very pleasant, mild, fragrant fresh hop IPA. About exactly what you'd expect from a prime example of this genre.

The orange in this beer is just slightly over the edge into perfumey, though not nearly to the extent that similar beers from Bellevue Brewing go. Otherwise there's a very orange soda quality to the flavor. Finishes like a good kolsch/cream ale, but oy, that opening.

"Wow, this tastes so fresh, and complex, and... green. What is that flavor? It's right on the tip of my *burp* Oh. Cucumber. It's totally cucumber."

Is this a diabeetus joke? Bad taste aside, this is not nearly as sweet as you'd expect given the description, though it is fairly sweet. Balanced pretty well with a bit of dark chocolate bitterness. Medium-thick. I didn't love it, but it was still decent.

Thick texture, somewhat thin flavor, but sickly sweet. Smells odd, though not quite pizza in my mind. I don't know how different this is from before, but this time it was just really gross.

Smells nice, like a complex saison. That first sip, though, it's like an herb salad that kind of overpowers every other flavor that might be involved. Just a little too weird to get over.

This was really delicious, a sour hazy IPA! Combination I've never seen before. Grapefruit opening, a dry sour close, dissipating into an immaculate, clean finish. Loved it.

Light pumpkin spice, caramel amber. Thin body but quite pleasant.

Unusually hazy/yeasty for an Oktoberfest. Flavors are decent, but muddy. Suffers greatly in direct comparison to the Black Raven from last night.