And it's the second week of the year

Thankfully, my beer sampling slowed down a little in the week after New Year's.

I was pleased to discover four bottles of Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA lurking among my wife's cider. I love this beer. It's a great example of the super-hoppy IPAs, and it doesn't do soapy like some of them do.

Thursday, I stopped by our local good beer store -- Minogue's on Route 234 in Queensbury, NY, to see their new growler-fill line. As an aside, it's excellent. They have some terrific beers up.
When you see one of your favorite styles made by one of you just have to pick it up.
Such was the case while at was at Minogue's and saw the Harpoon Chocolate Stout.

As I would have expected, the folks at Harpoon nailed it. Very chocolaty, though I would say it got better as it warmed up.
Today was a farmer's market run to Saratoga Springs, which of course meant a stop at EBI.

I am not a huge fan of Brown ale. I prefer beers on the extremes of the scale -- high-end IPAs and big porters and stouts.

But when I saw that Bear Republic from California had a Brown out, I figured it was worth a try, and I was right. Very full taste where you get the molasses and the malt. It was quite satisfying and easy to drink.