Stone Enjoy After 12-26-15
or
Out with the old. Goodbye Tanguay, we will miss you.
You will like if:
the word "brettanomyces" gives you a warm fuzzy
The descriptors "musty" and "farm barrel cobweb" sound delicious
You like keeping things from your past, but also like setting them free
You will not like if:
Hops taste like soap to you (what is wrong with you why are you even reading this?)
Barrel mildew sounds like a disgusting way to describe beer
You can't wait for your beer, it must be enjoyed right now
So last year, at the trade deadline, I cracked open a Stone Enjoy After and saved a second bottle to see how it had aged. Which is weird for me, as beer usually doesn't last long in my house. But I keep my "cellar" in the cabinet above my fridge, which is exceedingly difficult to get to without effort. So I tucked it away.
Last year, the team traded for Caron from the Bruins. I was optimistic, because he seemed like a player who enjoyed getting the garbage goals from the dirty areas in front of the net.
Ha! Boy was I wrong. He literally lasted like a dozen games and I have no idea where he is now. I won't even google it.
Fast forward to today, a new season and a new beer. Let's see what I wrote a year ago: The beer itself is fairly tame. The hops aren't overpowering, and it has a mellow finish with a slight spice.
Interesting.
The aged beer has exploded in a festival of bitter hops and funkiness. I was admiring the cork, what with the Stone gargoyle imprinted on the top, as I opened it. But I'm glad I wasn't inspecting too intently, as the cork shot off the bottle with such force I very nearly lost an eye. Which would've meant I'd have to wear an eyepatch, which is awesome and piratey, but would ruin any chance of me becoming a master marksman archer.
I poured the beer. Or tried to, at least. As you can hopefully see from the picture, it was ferocious. I had to let it sit for about twenty minutes before I could even pour enough to try.
And oh my goodness what a year has done for this beer. A year ago I described it as a fairly tame, weak IPA with a hint of funk. Now the bitter is nearly overwhelming, and it smells like it has been sitting in a cobwebbed barrel in the back of a barn directly beneath a leaky roof in the rain.
 |
| Radical Funktastic |
Let's get back to hockey. It actually wasn't bad. Gelinas in. Look, I know he's not great defensively. Which is weird to say about a defenseman. But we have Beauchemin, Johnson. Zadorov and Bigras in a year or two to hang back and play defense. We got brought in Gelinas because of this:
The kid has an absolute rocket laser from the point. Barrie can pass and has a wicked wrister, but dang. Look at that shot. I'm okay with that.
Trade two saw us give up Bleakley (hurts, but he was only ever going to play 3rd line, which we have in spades), Wood (a solid prospect, huge but still raw with lots of potential) and sadly Tanguay. In return we got Boedker.
Look, it hurts losing Tanguay. Bleakley and Wood, yeah losing prospects always hurts and is a gamble. But Tangs, man, that man is a Colorado legend. Still, he was playing like a shell of his former self. Boedker is young, he's fast, and he likes to shoot. Three things Tangs was not. Boedker will fit in nicely with both Duchene and Mackinnon, and will actually be able to keep up with them. I'm actually ecstatic about this trade, and I hope we can re-sign him in the offseason.
So there it is. New beer, old beer changing, new players, old players changing.
This season has been a disaster for Colorado, and I firmly believe we will never be legit contenders with Roy leading the bench. I hope I'm wrong, but that's what I see. But the roster looks fantastic in a few years.
Rantanen - Duchene - Boedker
Landeskog - Mackinnon - Grigorenko
Matthias - Soderberg - Iginla
McLeod - Mitchell - Skille
Johnson - Beauchemin
Barrie - Bigras
Gelinas - Zadorov
Not bad. Paper rosters don't mean much, but I mean, that's a solid lineup.
We'll see. Good luck Tanguay.
