Last night Rich O's was very crowded, probably because they were closed on Christmas.
Anyway, I broke my new rule right off the bat by having a Cone Smoker. It's still style #2, but it may be turning a little. I'll probably know tomorrow night.
Next I tried a Rogue Santa's Private Reserve, one of the Christmas beers currently being featured at Rich O's. I've never been a huge fan of any of the Rogue beers, with the exception of their rauchbier, and one again, Rogue proved to me to be a little too much frosting and too little cake. I tasted malt, malt, and more malt. It wasn't particularly bad, it just wasn't particularly good either.
Next, on MisunderstoodGirl's recommendation, I had a Mahr's Christmas Bock (Reviewer's Site).
I've never been a big fan of bock beers. I'm still not.
I spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with a way to describe this beer. MisunderstoodGirl was no help at all. I detected coffee, chocolate, malt, and hops, all in miniscule amounts. There were no citrus components to the taste and for that I was grateful.
All in all, it was an enjoyable evening. MisunderstoodGirl, TrainGirl, and Bubbles proved to be pretty good company, though I usually prefer more one-to-one interaction than the group interactions we had.