UFC 94 Beering: Hawai'i vs Quebec

Last night I invited a few of the boys over to watch the UFC 94 pay per view, and I figured, why not try some beers from the home state/province of the two main event fighters: BJ Penn from Hawaii and Georges St.-Pierre from Quebec.



I started the night with a stein of my homebrewed Belgian White Ale. My wife turned up the temperature on my kegerator from 38F to 42F. She said the beer was too cold. I figured I would let it slide and see if anything changed with the beer. My Belgian tasted a LOT better at the slightly warmer. I got more of the orange peel and coriander out of it. It was not just a yeast tea, which is what it seemed like before.



Let's start the show

Beer Log: January 31, 2009

State: A little pissed that none of the boys showed up yet as I cleaned up the house, but otherwise waiting for the show

Maudite

From the boys at Unibrou in Quebec. I started with this one as it had only 8% alcohol while the Unibrou I had had 9%. I had this one in a mix with Guinness back at Downing Street pub sometime ago, but never by itself. I first smell the apples before I notice the color. Deep cloudy orange with a strong offwhite head in my wine goblet. A little more focus smelling of the beer yields fruit (mainly apples) , banana, and some of that bret/sourness you get in most Belgians. Taste is kinda brown sugar and plum like. High carbonation with moderate drinkability. Ah, there are those Belgian yeast notes, with that fruitiness and sourness. It nice but I've had some better Belgians. That carbonation is not getting it for me. I know they bottle conditions their beers, so that's probably where it comes from. It sours and tarts up a bit as it warms. 3 Stars.



Let's stick with the Canadians

Trois Pistoles

Another Unibrou selection. I'm feeling slightly tipsy at this point, so why not have a 9% Alcohol by volume beer. Dark mahogany color with a quickly dissipating tan head. I want you to take my review of Maudite, subtract the apple smell and increase the brown sugar flavor. 3 Stars.


And now for Hawaian beer

Kona Pipeline
This coffee porter was recommended by our main man Larry at the Specs in Northwest Houston. A very interesting beer as one would think the beers from Hawaii would be lighter beers, like the ones in Mexico. Pours smooth. It has a strong coffee smell, kind of like a bitter coffee bean smell. It's deep dark opaque brown, with a strong tan head. The first draught, WOW!! It has a monster bitter coffee bean flavor. This one would be good for tastings, as it could throw the swill drinkers for a loop. I'm not getting the backbone I was hoping for, basically a medium body. It's lowly hopped, and kind of is a basic say porter with coffee in it. 3 Star.

Well Georges St.-Pierre beat up on BJ Penn and Penn could not answer the bell for the 5th round. A decent PPV. And in my opinion the Canadian beer beat the Hawaiian beer, at least tonight. None of the crew showed up, chumps. At least I got the house cleaned up. I think I'll give this UFC Beer Tasting another go in the future. Very cool.