A couple of beer reviews.

As I mentioned, while in Asheville, we stopped at the Thirsty Monk.

The first beer I had there was a St. Bernardus Abt. 12 60th Anniversary.

The beer was served in St. Bernardus glasses, and on St. Bernardus coasters, so the whole look and feel "thing" was appropriate. The Thirsty Monk is very dark, so the picture isn't very bright. This is also a problem if you are trying to look closely into your beer. There are a couple of lights around the wall, so you can hold the glass up to a light to check it out.

The beer was caramel in color with a hint of amber, the head didn't stick around for a long time, but had a good cling. It smelled of raisins or grapes (same thing?) with a little bit of wine to it. It was thin to medium on the tongue, with the feel of small bubbles.

It tasted of bread, muffins, possibly with raisins in it. Delicious beer.

It clung to the tongue, leaving a pleasant aftertaste. After drinking, it almost had a syrupy feeling.

As I was drinking, I tried to think what food would be good, and I think the best food, that I'd like with this would be Billy Barooz (in Champaign) Cajun Creole Pasta. Yeah, that stuff totally rips up my insides, but I love it, and this beer would be GREAT with that. I'm going to have to ask the manager or owner, if I could bring it in sometime to try. Granted, it wouldn't be the 60th anniversary, but just the "regular" St. Bernardus Abt. 12.

The second beer we had was the La Chouffe McChouffe Scottish Ale.

This one poured reddish to brown, and had very little head, even with a very aggressive pour. The head didn't linger, and didn't leave much lace. (Scottish lace? well, scots wear kilts, right? and they don't wear any undies, so no scottish lace, right?)

Kriddy said it smelled of grape, I couldn't place it exactly, but thought it fruity smelling. It was very thin on the tongue.

It tasted like a brown ale, (I know that's generic, but that's what I thought) it tasted like BROWN. There was some caramel, with the taste of white bread that had been lightly toasted, not enough that the bread darkens, but just enough to harden the bread. There was no distinct hops flavor at all in the beer. There was also no aftertaste. It completely cleaned off the palate (which I thought odd).

Both beers were good, but the St. Bernardus was my favorite beer that night.