Stone Smoked Porter

Lots of great sports recently. Roddick and Federer are tied at 12 games apiece in the fifth set, great match and the longest in Wimbledon championship history. I hope Roddick can take this one. One of my favorite sports encounters happened with a basketball player on a golf course. When I was in college, I lived with my grandmother during the summers and worked in southern New Jersey. She lived in a community near a golf course and every year there was an LPGA Pro-Am tournament there which we had a handful of free passes to attend. One year, knowing he'd be participating in the amateur event, I grabbed an old Sports Illustrated with him on the cover. I am talking about Dr. J, Julius Erving. Between finishing up one hole and teeing off on the next, he stopped to sign some autographs including my SI issue. He was super tall and cool, and it is a great memory for me. I also got Nancy Lopez and Ray Knight's autographs the same day, but nothing was better than seeing a hero of mine shanking that next tee shot into the woods, my autographed magazine in hand.

I'm opening up a Stone Smoked Porter brewed by Stone Brewing Company in Escondido, California. I'm a big fan of this brewery and have had many of their beers over the past year. As usual, the bottle talks gargoyle, which I always find amusing. But my favorite part of this label is that they published their recipe for a PB&J sandwich, which is one of their recommended food pairings for this beer.

Roasted, caramel and dark fruit aroma make a nice opening. The first things I taste are lots of burnt and roasted flavors combined with some chocolate and light coffee. There is also some spiciness and a hint of dark cherries. This is a complex beer and after those initial flavors, the advertised smokiness really takes over. A hint of black licorice in the background as well. Good carbonation and a long-lasting smokey and burnt flavor is left on your palate as you finish. I really liked it, but the smokey flavors did start to be slightly annoying by the end of this big 22. Check it out and I'm sure you'll be impressed!

BTW, Shit! Federer just won. He's a very good guy and great sport, though, so congratulations! Also, he needs to share his secret on not sweating. Seriously, this guy ran his ass off for 4 or 5 hours and his hair isn't even messed up. I cut the grass for 45 minutes and I am a disaster.

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