Ohhh... My Head... - The Winter Sessions 2003

During the first cold months of 2003 we had a huge influx of great beers from good friends all over the world. We were really lucky that you let us ample all these rare beers, of which some are sheer world class as most of these beers we would never be able to pick up ourselves.

The prestigous gold medal goes to Three Floyds Alpha Klaus, a rare sesaonal porter all the way from the outter Chicago suburbs. It claims the gold medal much thanks to it's outsanding soft malt character and balance. Also the silver medallist is from the US, this time it's the dry but heavy Bear Republic Big Bear Black Stout, which earns this medal due to the fact that it, despite it's size and richness is very drinkable. Belgium comes away with the bronze medal, as the classy, luxurious 3 year old Urthel Hibernus Quentum Unicum Collectie 2000 ound it's way to the hearts of the group.

However the competition for the medals were extremely tough. left out were incredible beers such as the tremendously hoppy Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imperial IPA, the ultra tart Cantillon Vigneronne, and the beatifully crafted Kulmbacher Festbier, all these from well recognized world class brewers.

If we look to the more unknown brewers that scored well we'll find for instance Pipkin Porter from a sadly defunct Kentucky Brewery, and a bundle of good, very intersting beers from the tiny Swiss microbrewery Faiseur de Bière. Even more unkonown is of cours the homebrewers of Saint Louis Brewhouse, but their Lambic tastes as authentic as it can get.

A more famous beer we finbally sampled was Farsons Lacto Traditional Stout Beer, a maltese milk stout once known as the worlds darkest beer. And once I'm on the topic of unusual beer countries I can just as well welcome to new to our listing: Senegal and Uzbekistan. The quality of these brews might be questionable, but their origin makes them very valuable to us.

So, thank you everyone of you who has contributed to this list of beers!!