Beer Club

Six Row Brewery

2010-12-17T18:22:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I had the pleasure of sipping on Six Row's Double IPA. What a wonderful beer. If I were to rate it using the trademarked J.K.'s Beer Scale I would give it a 4. It's a good beer, I love Double IPAs, and I would definitely buy it again but I need to try it from a bottle before I can give it a 5.

Sincerely,

Churchkey

p.s. why is $4.00 the starting price for a microbrew/craftbeer?

method of hoperation...

2010-07-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

Modus Hoperandi - I just had one for the first time thanks to hopregister or prescription - whatever he goes by now.

one word - BIGAWESOMENESSOFCITRUSHOPFLAVOR!

see Hamster's review from September 2009 for more and better details...

BEERS I RECOMMEND: HOP OTTIN IPA by ANDERSON VALLEY BREWING

2010-06-18T19:13:00.000-07:00

in fact, i'm sipping an Anderson Valley Hop Ottin IPA (7% ABV, 80 IBUs) right now. lifting this glass towards oklahoma, toasting my old friend, mr. andrew botsford, who helped me cut my beer teeth on plenty of red stripe and rogue dead guy back in south kansas city. here's to the beauty of ya, sir. them were good and overdue chats tonight.

* * *

these scratches about Hop Ottin in my little pocket ledger make no sense. i'll type them out exactly as i sketched them a few nights ago:

in this bottle, the aroma is hidden. with persistence, i smell the color red. funny, because the ale pours a dark orange with heavy white lacing. there maybe an aroma of hearty homemade bread. first sip: magically balanced. loads of "hard working hops" and a backbone of stiff malts. i'm thinking of anti-pesto on bruschetta the way this ale puts the floral and citrus forward, held on a firm bed of brown-crusted malts. this beer is a flipping side item! loads of bread! almost a rye flavor due to spiky hop flavors.

i'm not sure what half that jibberish means, but, as i'm sipping it again, i agree with myself about the heavy bread balance of malty heart and hyper hoppage. reminds me of what Jesus said about building your house on the rock: that joker'll stand. and this IPA stands on a multitude of tree-trunkish legs.

prepare for slow sipping on the Hop Ottin. due to the concreteness of flavor and the high alcohol, i would not recommend Hop Ottin for gushing refreshment or backporch lounging. Hop Ottin would pair really well with a good medium rare sirloin and a baked tater. maybe with a serious game of backgammon or a Robert Rodriguez film. i'd like to take it on a roadtrip: not to sip at the end, but along the way. there's longevity in this bottle.

ps. i listened to tracks from Metallica's . . . AND JUSTICE FOR ALL while writing this review.

SUMMER IN A BOTTLE, MILES IN MY LEGS, CHICKENS IN PEPE'S BACKYARD

2010-06-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

yesterday morning i jogged 2.5 miles. woke up at 6:30 (on a saturday, no less), left the house at 7:20 (had to work a few things out first), and jogged over to marky-mark pepe-guzman's house. pepe keeps chickens. has a brood of them in this fancy little 5 star hen resort on the side of his house. i told pepe i'd let the chickens out of their roost in the mornings. that's why i jogged over there yesterday, to let the chickens out. they chattered their hen-pecked gratefulness in little circles around my feet.

i'm making a big deal about this jogging thing because it's the first time i've done anything of the sort in nearly 2 years. so 2.5 miles, straight out of the coop, made me feel pretty good. what did not make me feel pretty good was the 150% humidity levels at 7:50 AM. i sweated two gallons of hamsterian salt-waters before breakfast. i don't fancy mornings that feel like afternoons or sunrises that blister with the same needle-flecked boiling dusk breeze as sunset. and, Lord knows, south texas produces summers as infamously brow-melting as those in north mexico.

go figure.

so praise Christ for cold beer! and praise Christ for this blessed season of light, crisp summer ales hitting shelves just in time for my sweat-soaked post-jog breakfast!

and, as an extra praise Christ, i think i have just found this year's #1 summer beer: Widmer Brothers Sunburn Summer Brew.

there are several things i like about this beer. hazy bright orangish-yellow sunlight bends through a constant ascension of halo-lacing hallelujah bubbles. the aroma is soft and haylike, reminiscent of a german kolsch, though with a bit less grass and a bit more blonde ale citrus. the citrus forwardness of the aroma ebbs on the tongue, revealing a malty sweetness that never drags thick in the mouthfeel or the aftertaste, keeping a crisp focus on hops and a subtle off-stage, alcove present fruitness. also, a low ABV (4.3%) means that sunburn is a safe kicker-backer lawnchair ale comparable with real ale's fireman's #4 blonde ale, one of my top three favorite texas beers.

Widmer Brothers Sunburn Summer Brew is a great blonde-ish ale for all us outdoor athletes on these blazing summer days, especially when you want a wee more flavor than Pabst or Miller Lite have to offer. not to mention, finding Widmer's Sunburn was rather redeeming after the tragedy of their Deadlift Imperial IPA. let a brother know what you think.

ps. i wore homemade jorts and listened to Queens of the Stone Age while writing this review.

THE ONLY BEER I'VE EVER DRIVEN AWAY FROM: WIDMER BROTHER'S DEADLIFT IMPERIAL IPA

2010-06-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

here's a true indicator of a beer's worth. watch this, it's right here:

you're driving home from a long day at work. it's not been the best day, but not the worst either. you started out the morning at the dentist office, your jaw unhinged for two straight hours like a freshly fileted salmon. then class didn't go well, and probably because you weren't going well. repeatedly, for three full hours in class, you check and re-check and re-check the clock, thinking about driving home, about kicking your shoes off, about watching an ellen page film, about pouring a nice tall glass of beer. but then, suddenly, you remember what beer you have at home in your fridge, your countenance drops, so you turn around, drive to the store, and get another kind of beer.

yessir, i just lived this scenario. and the beer i drove away from this afternoon, that i chanced to repeat with something finer, was this here widmer brothers deadlift imperial ipa. honestly, to this day, i don't know if i've ever driven away from a beer. i might need to jot this event into the diary i one day hope to hand off to somebody kids, maybe mine -

June 9, 2010

Shit day. Turned the X-Terra around and drove away from shit beer. Gas costs $2.45/gallon. Community college girls wear rainboots when the sun's out and flip-flops when it rains. Whitesnake is still on the radio. Something ain't right about any of this.

before slamming this deadlift imperial ipa, i'd just like to say that widmer brothers is a great brewery. established by two beer guzzling brothers back in '84, this portland brewery produces one fine hit after another. i've even counted their broken halo ipa and their hefeweizen as two of my new favorites. also, word from sharif riad said that the widmer brothers prickly pear is so bizarre that the uniqueness alone makes it a beer to hunt and devour. widmer is one of those rare names in beer that you can fully trust to deliver big, full-bodied beers worth revisiting many times over.

until this one.

first off, the bottle says that this deadlift imperial ipa is an imperial ipa - meaning big ABV, big IBUs, big hops, big flavor, big BIG. however, the charts on this thing read 8.6% ABV and 70 IBUS. that's pretty weak for an imperial ipa. not to mention, all those low numbers show up in the flavor and the mouthfeel of the beer. this is a thin beer, barely registering on the palette as a ipa, let alone an imperial ipa. the only thing doubled in this beer is the miles i drove out of my way to find another beer to drink this afternoon.

again, if the label says widmer brothers, pick it up. take it to a friend's house. impress your corona drinking neighbors with these fine oregonian ales. but if the label reads deadlift imperial ipa, back the truck up and grab a sixer of PBR. then record your beer-ific virtues in a ledger for future generations.

(ps. i listened to Flatt & Scruggs with Doc Watson - STRICTLY INSTRUMENTAL - during the typing of this here review. get on it!)

NOW YOU'VE GOT SOMETHING TO DIE FOR: OSKAR BLUE'S TEN FIDY IMPERIAL STOUT

2010-05-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

i'm not sure i can express in words the blackness of oskar blue's ten fidy imperial stout. it's like way black. imagine crypticus' times 10.50. ten fidy is so black that it's unsettling to watch as it pours into the glass. it looks like oil. black gold. texas tea. the crap that got the clampetts loaded.

and this stuff will get YOU loaded easily.

i'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but the 98 IBUS, 10.5% ABV are not readily evident in the flavor of ten fidy. the aroma, smoky and raisin heavy, smells a bit sweet. the initial flavor feels a bit off-putting, considering the enormity of the beer, but mellows out to something also smoky-sweet. the alcohol heat is there, though not pervasive. and while all the reviews i've read mention overwhelming flavors of coffee and chocolate, i only taste dark-chocolate covered raisins, with raisins as the primary flavor profile. perhaps ten-fidy should be labeled a "raisin stout." i'd still buy it.

i'm convinced, hands down, that ten fidy is the BEST imperial stout i've ever tasted. sadly, oskar blues is also convinced. they're so convinced they charge $15 for four-cans of the stuff. but one taste will show you where your money went.

this review has been written to the tune of my last ten fidy can and lamb of god. sorry i didn't go with jay-z. after watching POULTRYGEIST: NIGHT OF THE CHICKEN DEAD, i needed a different sort of black.

New Business

2010-05-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks Hamster for your recent posts.
I just want to take some time to share with the members and followers of this blog how our club is doing financially. Since we started this blog over a year ago we have made $8.56. When we make $100.00 we get a check from google. We're meeting all the outcomes in our strategic plan and I KNOW for a fact that if we keep at it we'll get our beer money.
Thanks EVERYONE for all your hard work

Cheers,
Churchkey

LEFFE: GOING BLONDE (pt. 1)

2010-05-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

i'm writing this review while my students are taking their final exam. as a teacher, i love this time of year. all the major work is behind me, all the major stretches of summer lay before me. and summer time in texas definitely calls for lighter beers. and this summer, i'm addicted to blondes.

blonde ales are closely related to the german kolsch style ale, but blonde ales do not feature the sharper, grassier flavors of the kolsch. from what i understand, blondes are a relatively light version of typical belgium ales: malty, but bright; fruity, featuring a bit of banana, but not overly sweet, still tinged in caramel; golden, airy, light and (hopefully) balanced delicately between complex and refreshing.

one thing i do know is that i've fallen in love with blonde ales this past year. and for some reason we have a growing list of the belgium style blondes popping up all over america:

- Real Ale's Fireman's 4

- Shiner Blonde Ale

- Southern Star's Bombshell Blonde

- Rahr Blonde Lager

- Ska Brewing Company's True Blonde Ale

- New Belgium's Skinny Dip

- Boulder Beer's Buffalo Gold

- Bridgeport Brewing's Haymaker Golden Ale

- O'Fallon's O'Fallon Gold

these are the blonde ales i've tried. and these are all beers i would gladly lay down the price of admission to take home, pour in glass, and behold over a backgammon board or a maud casey book on the back porch. i do enjoy this style of beer because blondes, when done well, have an odd way of putting the palette through plenty of calisthenics while still turning the day's volume down to a fine line of nada.

and then this here Leffe (6.6% ABV), from way over there in belgium, shows up all over town. i like this beer. in fact, this might be my favorite of the blondes, which probably makes sense since Leffe is the ideal Blonde Ale. these other blondes, the ones listed above, are working to match an ale similar to Leffe. Leffe is to blonde ales what lovecraft is to weird tales, what romero is to zombie films, what the ramones are to punk, what marmaduke is to great danes.

over the next couple of weeks, i'll try to feature a few more blonde ales, particularly those from the texas region. although i've mentioned them briefly before, this is a new season. and i'm always stoked to try old favorites again.

MICHELOB-ULTRA WITH LIME CACTUS: THE PERFECT AFTER-DIRTY-DEEDS BEER

2010-05-07T15:58:00.000-07:00

(i listened to blink-182 while sipping this beer and writing this review. so here's your built in reading soundtrack)

for some reason i drink a lot of michelob ultra. and, for some other reason, i don't seem to mind. several men in my community simply love the michelob ultra, and, nine times out of ten, when i'm offered a beer at a friend's house, the beer that lands in my hand is a michelob ultra. fine. i've got no problem with that. there may have been a time when i talked bull-honkus on the michelob ultra, but i don't anymore.

the truth of the matter is that michelob ultra is not a bad tasting light beer. it's simple. refreshing. bubbly as the BFG's frobscottle. and you can easily kick back several ultras and never think anything about it the next morning. the alcohol is low. the flavor is smooth. and the belch factor is so unladylike.

i like to think of michelob ultras as sparkling water with a little beer flavor hinted in the background. i would never personally buy michelob ultra, but i welcome a bottle (or four) when offered.

but this here beer is no normal michelob ultra. this beer here has lime cactus in it. and this lime cactus is lovely. simply lovely.

just when i thought that michelob ultra was refreshing, this michelob ultra with lime cactus is ultra refreshment times enormity. no joke: i would stock my fridge with this stuff. this is the perfect ultra hot day, sweaty t-shirt, post yard labor or tiger sex kinda beer. down this after any number of demanding deeds, and you'll love your body more than you did before you opened the bottle.

there's not much else to say about michelob ultra with lime cactus. i can't imagine it pairing well with food or backgammon or a zombie flick, but i'd drink it if i was hot. hell, i'd drink three of these if i was hot. this beer is a good reason to mow somebody's lawn.

A HOPEFUL RETURN TO SIMPLICITY AND A SIP OF SIERRA NEVADA TORPEDO EXTRA IPA

2010-05-05T16:47:00.000-07:00

yesterday marked exactly four months since my last post on this website, though it surely does not mark the last bottle of beer that i consumed, enjoyed, or loquaciously reflected with a friend. the truth is that i sometimes fear writing about beer. i fear it because i want to say so much about beer. i want to talk about the brewery, the style, the ingredients, the moment in which i enjoyed the beer. there's so much to say about beer that sometimes i'm left dumbfounded and speechless. sometimes for four months on end.

i hope this post will put the words back into my fingertips.

i've thought about this site a great deal lately. i've thought about why this site was brewed in the first place, and i've thought about the gentlemen behind these beer posts that i've loved so greatly over the years. and all this thought has led me to a conclusion about my writing on this website, and that conclusion is this: i write for these men.

in the future, my reviews will be written to the men on this site and who subscribe to this site (jason scott and clint newlan and ben langford, that includes you) as the opening lines of dialogue about beer. forget the fanciness and the smartness and the pitch perfect wonderment of language. on this beer site, we're on the porch. we're hovering over the backgammon board. willie's on the dial and there's a story to be told tonight.

welcome to the conversation.

tonight i'm sipping a sierra nevada torpedo extra ipa. this beer is a beast. it's huge. and this is the last bottle in the six pack. one went to ian c. nelson; the rest went down the hamsterian hatch. i've chatted this beer up with several friends, all to great fanfare, and the unanimous word proclaims torpedo a beautiful ale. and it is. enormous citrus hop flavors nearly burn the tongue in the initial mouthfeel, followed by resinous copper flavors in the aftertaste. i'm not even sure if i know what i'm talking about, but multiple six packs and five ales over fives days tell me i'm not too far from my own palette's version of truth.

the one caution i do feel towards torpedo is that, by the last bottle, i grow nearly offended by the enormity of this beer. in the future, i'll probably purchase a sixer of torpedo alongside a sixer of something more subtle, like a blonde or a pilsner or some God-lovely PBR. perhaps an alternating sip of this one night alongside a good mellow chocolatey porter the next would save my sensibilities. all i know is that i love this beer, but by the end of a sixer, if this is all i'm sipping, i feel nearly nauseous at the sight of the sierra nevada label.

by the way, i showed my class the film HENRY POOLE IS HERE today. (long story). at one point the camera pans back to show a wide angle of henry poole's (luke wilson) kitchen. on the bottom shelf of an open faced pantry, the observant viewer might notice a six pack of sierra nevada pale ale. i wanted to call it out to the class, to say "that's the beer that taught me to love hops!", but i said nothing. and neither did anyone else. surely, american education is doomed.

so here's to happy returns. to more words. to more reviews. to letting go of perfection in trade for conversations. and here's to stocking the fridge strategically. God knows i've only got the one tongue.

President's Day, a good day to post.

2010-02-15T15:29:00.001-08:00

This is Baker here. Behind me is The Prescription and Church Key. Tim will be along soon. I am here to discuss our current situation. I am three beers deep into our mini-keg of the Two Hearted Ale. This beast is so much different than our of the bottles. It is sweeter and creamier and much smoother. Still great, of course, but actually better than i've ever had it. And yes, i thought that even after the first beer.

In the fridge we also have Schlafly's Extra Irish stout ( we are in St. Louis), Moose drool, and New Belgium's new Ranger IPA boasting 70 IBU's. It is very good also, and seems like they were trying to mimic Boulevard's Single and double wide ipa's. Last and least, is Church Key and my new Pale Ale--the first of hopefully many.

In typical style, we opted for a Mr. Beer kit first, but now that we understand the process, we can do the real thing. I think we may go for a Imperial Stout next from a friend's recipe. Nate is currently dancing with The Prescription's 15 month old son. He was invited to the festivities.
Church Key will be having a new son soon, and The Baker will be in DC soon and have many new beers to post about. Praise be to new beers!

A SET OF PLANS, A SET OF TRAVELS, AND A SET OF BEER

2010-01-04T11:22:00.000-08:00

inspired by our own only prescription hop guru, i will soon set myself about the task of listing every beer i have ever tasted. this will take the better part of the spring, so i plan to launch "the still's exhaustive concordance of beers" by may.

in the meantime, i just returned from a two weeks venture through saint louis and kansas city sipping and tasting beers with some of my favorite beer connoisseurs. i thought i'd begin my exhaustive life-long list by jotting down all the beers i tasted on this trip.

NOTE: PLEASE REMEMBER!!! the following list does not indicate entire bottles or pints consumed. 75% of these are shared bottles or 2-3 ounce tasters given, purchased, or stolen off the head of a friend's glass. no, my liver is not as advanced as this list may sound.

this list is chronological, and each beer is rated with a 1-5 rating: 1 being horse-urine; 5 being Zeus' urine. also, i've highlighted in bold and italics all the 5 ratings. here we go.

SAINT LOUIS TASTINGS:

Big Sky Moose Drool Brown Ale (3)

Schlafly Oatmeal Stout (2)

Schlafly Pale Ale (3)

Schlafly APA (3)

Founder's Red's Rye (5)

Southern Tier Mokah (3)

Rogue Yellow Snow IPA (5)

Avery Maharja (3)

Lagunitas Cappucino Stout (2)

Caldera IPA (3)

Schlafly Winter ESB (2)

Tin Mill Lager (1)

Lagunita's Brown Shugga (-2)

Founder's Porter (5)

Xingu Black Beer (3)

Bell's Porter (4)

Boulevard Bully Porter (3)

Southern Tier Porter (2)

Southern Tier Cuvee 2 (1)

O'Dell IPA (5)

New Belgium Wild Fall Ale (4)

Founder's Breakfast Stout (5)

Founder's Centennial IPA (2)

Arcadia Hop Rocket (1)

Lemp St. Louis (2)

O'Fallon 5 Day IPA (4)

O'Fallon Chocolate Cherry (-3)

KANSAS CITY TASTINGS:

Boulevard Nutcracker (1)

Boulevard Pale Ale (4)

Boulevard Pilsner (4)

Boulevard Single Wide IPA (5)

St. Peter's Golden Ale (1)

Abita Christmas (1)

Anchor Christmas 2008 (3)

Anchor Christmas 2009 (5)

Bell's Best Brown (2)

Big Sky Trout Slayer (3)

Shipyard Prelude (3)

Harpoon Winter Warmer (4)

Stone Ruination IPA (5)

Avery Old Jubilation (3)

Breckinridge Lucky U IPA (3)

Avery Czar Imperial Stout (5)

Grand Teton Au Naturale Organic Blonde Ale (4)

Boulder Mojo IPA (5)

Boulder Hazed and Infused (4)

Big Sky IPA (4)

Lost Coast Downtown Brown (2)

Lost Coast Great White (4)

Great Divide Hades Belgian Style Ale (3)

Avery Out Of Bounds Stout (4.5)

Founder's Double Trouble Imperial IPA (4.5)

Bell's Rye Stout (5)

O'Malley's Dropkick Ale (3)

Sam Adams Imperial Stout (4.5)

DALLAS TASTINGS:

Jesse Robertson's New Year's Pale Ale (3)

Rogue Chocolate Stout (4)

Miller Lite (5)

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (3)

i realize that there are several beers rated at a 5, which brings my palate's discriminatory tastes into question. i have two defenses for this: A) with such a limited time on the road, i tried to choose my beers wisely; B) i was sipping beers with the likes of only prescription, the baker, clint newlan, jason scott, and nathan jones. these men know beer dang near biblically. so when they say "drink this" i drink that. and most of the time i agree with them on what is good.

to top off this list, i will revisit all the beers i rated as 5 to list my top three finds on this trip. in no particular order:

1. Founder's Porter

2. Founder's Breakfast Stout

3. Rogue Yellow Snow IPA

these were each new beers to me, and each of these three beers defined, in some capacity, what i believe the perfect porter, the perfect oatmeal stout, and a really great IPA should taste like. these are top shelf beers, in my opinion, and i wish they held constant place in my ice box. unfortunately, distribution laws deter me from Founder's, but i'm stoked to find and distribute this Rogue Yellow Snow all over my quaint texas town.

by the way, i sipped my last Bell's Rye Stout while writing this post.

Home Brewin

2009-12-19T11:44:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago, The Baker and I visited the St. Louis Brews, a home brewing club. It was awesome.
There were about 80 men there, 12 guests. We each paid $3 and were able to sample 10 different home brews (about a 3 oz. sample of each) and eat plenty of delicious snacks from Costco. Everybody sampled the same batch at the same time, made comments, and then heard from the brewer. THIS is beer club. These guys knew their stuff, the styles, what to look for, smell for, and taste. They could predict how long the brewer did this or at what temperature he did that. Amazing. All the announcements were about beer, brewing competitions, beer parties. They had raffles with brewing supplies as the prize.
And because I love and appreciate the art of beer, I have decided to start brewing my own beer, too. The Baker has already purchased a Mr. Beer kit (kind of a weenie way to start but at least he's got a start). I'm still shopping around (aka, waiting on the thumbs up from the wife).
Wish me luck

Rockin with Sam Smith

2009-11-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

I recently went to a Guitar Hero/Rock Band party. It was a lot of fun, never had played the games before. Knowing that a little fermented courage would boost my overall performance (vocals, guitar, bass, and drums) I stopped by Bob's Liquor Store - Bob wasn't there.

As I was leaving the house the little woman, looking out for me I guess, asked how many I would drink this night and what time I would be home. "Two and not too late". Walking around the store it hit me, I didn't say how many OUNCES I would drink. So I started looking at the tall boys. I stopped at Samuel Smith's India Ale and the Porter. I went for it.

At the party, I rocked. I was on a mission, I had to deliver. I had to jam on every instrument, drink the two beers, and still be home at a decent time.

What I remember:
Both beers were good. I'll get another India Ale before the Porter. I drank them too fast.
I was good at the bass, ok at the lead guitar, struggled with the drums, and just nasty on the microphone.
The rest of the party people seemed to be enjoying themselves...I couldn't tell, I was too busy rockin

Wild Game in a Bottle

2009-10-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

Is it a Duck or is it a Rabbit? I guess it depends on what mood you are in, or maybe what you are eating for dinner. I was having neither, but instead layed on a hard bed in a cheap hotel room in Asheville, NC. Duck-Rabbit brewing co. sits comfortably nestled in the Smoky Mountains in Farmville, NC.

I had never had anything from this brewery nor had i heard of them. But, that's the great thing about traveling--getting to try new things. The label is intriguing in its own right with the long standing picture that looks like both a rabbit and a duck, depending on how you look at it. This particular one is a Milk Stout, and the lable boasts that they are the dark beer specialists. Some research revealed that they only brew dark beers...amber ales, brown ales, porters and stouts.

A full glass is coal black and has a very light aroma of cream and sugar. This is a very rich and sweet stout. It is very similar to the Left Hand Milk Stout, but is a bit heavier and the flavor lasts longer. This beer tastes like blended up roasted nuts, malt, and chocolate. If it could be a solid, it would be a batch of brownies.

I enjoyed this enough to grab a sixer to take home. I am finishing the last of them right now. I consider it my afternoon snack which puts it into a particular category of beers for me. Just yesterday i had a Founder's Porter which i would consider in the same genereal league.

Is this beer good or very good? I suppose it depends on how you look at it.

Slackin'

2009-10-27T17:46:00.001-07:00

To follow up on the Baker's comment to the previous post...yes, I'm slackin. Maybe we all are. I'm feeling lazy about it all. Right now there's a Schlafly Saison in the big fridge just calling my name. I've ignored it for a week already. What's up with that? I did have a Schlafly Octoberfest. Not bad. It was over dinner (food with chatty wife and kid) so I don't remember much.

Unplugged fridge

2009-10-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

In my basement I have MY fridge, a dorm size fridge for my beers and chilled mugs. The past few months I've noticed that there was not much happening with the fridge -a few Buds, a Sam Adams, and some Schlafly. Now it's just 3 Buds (actually 2, 1 was used for a BBQ marinade last Saturday). In an effort to conserve energy...I unplugged the beer fridge. When spring arrives with all the parties I'll plug her back up. It seemed to be a waste of cool air, all those nice frosty mugs and only 2 beers. I knew I wouldn't be buying more on a regular basis to justify the beer fridge. It was a hard decision.

A BEER AS RED AS PISSY WASPS AND THE CRAZIEST CONVERSATION I'VE EVER HAD ABOUT A PEACOCK TATTOO

2009-09-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

i tried a pint of this mothertrucker at the flying saucer in austin last night. earlier in the day, i checked the bar menu on the saucer's homepage and found them serving the kaiser - one of avery's bomber bottle exclusives - on tap. i sketched a note in my pocketsize moleskin and fantasized all day about getting my mouth on the kaiser.

when i finally made it to the saucer, i could not find a seat in the place. no tables. no barstools. the patio was filthy with yuppies hauling puppies on leashes. so i copped my squat

near a bloke on a sofa. he said it was cool. i believed him. my waitress introduced herself as marcy. very sweet kid. her right bicep plumed with bold aqua-blue peacock feathers. great tattoo work. the words beneath the feathers looked like "MAD COUNTY," scrawled out in a fancy script. later i asked her if she had a crush on flannery o'connor. she seemed to think that was hilarious because she laughed with her head back and her hand over her mouth. i thought the whole display a bit exaggerated, but i had already paid the bill. after she recovered from her laughter, she said she had never heard of flannery o'connor. i told her i was sorry to hear that. then she said showed me that the words said, "MAD BEAUTY." she then said, "i think that peacocks are the perfect balance of pure beauty and zero aggression, kinda like me."

go head, girl, go head get down.

back to the kaiser: holy smokes, a full day's longing was ne'er spent in vain. this stuff came out in a brandy sniffer blazing as orangey-red as a glass full of pissed off wasps. the kaiser is no joke, nor is it any old octoberfest: this bastard is an IMPERIAL octoberfest. who ever head of such a thing? well, avery brewing company heard the void and created a gnarly glass full of pissed off wasps.

at 9.3% ABV, this beer is a solid 10 german war helmets out of 10. huge malts. huge spices. red and orange and swirling leaves. wasps and piss and vinegar go into this beer. it felt like sipping Rage Against the Machine's debut album. angry and f-bombs and still kinda beautiful at the same time. the perfect balance of pure beauty and hella lotta aggression.

go head, girl, go head get down.

HEARD ANY GOOD BLONDE JOKES LATELY?

2009-09-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

one of the many sins we've committed on this site (besides not writing much) has been the avoidance to chatting up beer styles. for that, and as the rodent of the group, i would like to apologize. to kick things off the category department, i would like to start with a style of ale that is fairly new to me: the american blonde ale.

when i've mentioned blonde ales around my midwest beer-fiendly friends, i'm usually met with blank stares and shrugged shoulders. when i mention blonde ales around my friends from the republic, they immediately begin naming any number of native texas varieties. the geographical difference makes sense only when one takes into account that texas has a long history of german settlement and influence. combine this with the fact that blondes are reminiscent of traditional german kolsch lagers and pilsners, then one has to wonder how the damn shiner bock got so famous. it's sad to realize that we could have been drinking blondes instead of bocks this whole time.

as mentioned, american blonde ales are nearly synonymous with traditional german kolsches and pilsners; however, where the kolsch and pilsners might have a stronger dry-grass like flavor, blondes will more often swell around the hips with sweet notes dangling a citrus fruitiness. consider the difference between a dry white wine, such as a riesling, to something a bit fuller and fruitier, perhaps a muscato. tinged with noble style hops, the american blonde ale washes with pure maltiness, offering a mellow, lager like refreshment. bubbling with flavors as light as its appearance, the blonde is a perfect beer for sweltering texas summers (and springs and falls and even some days of winter). plus, weighing in with ABV levels in between 4 - 5%, it's easy to kick back several of these puppies guilt free.

with all that said, i'd like to give a run down of five very promising american blonde ales, in no particular order except that i shall boldly state my favorite at the bottom of the list.

5.) TRUE BLONDE ALE (5.3% ABV) from SKA BREWING CO. (Durango, CO) - made with a dash of honey, i actually found this beer a bit too sweet. markymark pepe-guzman guzzled it like a german bear, but this is a man who will take malts over hops anyday of the week. a good ale, but not my personal favorite.

4.) SKINNY DIP (4.2% ABV) from NEW BELGIUM BREWING CO. (Fort Collins, CO) - i go chatting up blondes as a texas favorite and then lead off the list with two colorado brews. ironically, most midwest and mountainous beer nerds would probably refer to skinny dip as a wheat. but, no sir, skinny dip is no wheat. we have ourselves here a fine citrusy, golden pot treasure pour of sleek goodness, enough so to douse the nudities and brag about it on facebook. excellent bottled, better on tap . . . . . there's no reason to say anymore about this.

3.) BOMBSHELL BOMB (5.2% ABV) from SOUTHERN STAR BREWING CO. (Conroe, TX) - the republic is starting to earn a name for its beer, and with small shot breweries like southern star sprouting up, it's no wonder. this is a great beer. sold only in cans for now, i try to push this beer on every shiner fan i can find.

4.) SHINER BLONDE (4.4% ABV) from SPOETZL BREWING CO. (Shiner, TX) - hands down, this is my most favorite beer from shiner. it's great. very light. very crisp. just enough sweetness to refresh, but just enough dry to keep you sipping for a long time.

5.) FIREMAN'S #4 (5.1% ABV) from REAL ALE BREWING CO. (Blanco, TX) - in my opinion, this is the best beer brewed in texas. i really like this stuff. any chance i find to chug this stuff on tap, i grab it. had it a few days ago from the tap in a frosted mug with ice chips hunkering down under the tiny white cap. splendid. had another just for bragging purposes. i can't talk this beer up enough. sailors into the region: this is what i'll serve on your next visit.

A BRIEF CATCH-UP AND SOME SKA BREWING IPA

2009-08-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

okay. so i've been lax in my beer reviewing. which is a damn shame because i've been tasting some great beers and also having some fantastic drinking experiences. allow me to mention the names of a few beers i've failed to review, along with a quick numeric rating out of top level 10 to quantify each ale. please feel free to ask for more detailed notes on any of these ales. i'm always up for writing or retasting beers.

- Great Divide Chocolate Imperial Stout (10/10)

- Stone 13th Anniversary Ale (7/10)

- Stone Russian Imperial Stout (9/10)

- Otter Creek Imperial Stout (5/10 - needs at least a year cellaring)

- Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter (7/10)

- Allagash White Ale (10/10)

- Delirium Tremens (10/10)

- Avery The Reverend (8/10)

- Avery Salvation (8/10)

- Avery Maharaja (10/10)

- Leffe Blonde (8/10)

- Shiner Smokehaus Series (6/10 - unique, but barely drinkable)

- Bristol Brewing Company Laughing Lab Scottish Ale (9/10 - best scottish ale i've had yet)

- Flying Dog Imperial Porter (10/10)

- Flying Dog Double Dog Double Pale Ale (8/10)

- Flying Dog Horn Dog Barleywine Style Ale (8/10)

- Flying Dog Kerberos Tripel (9/10)

- Dogfish Head 120 Minute (4/10 - not drinkable, i don't care how "delicate" or "rare" it is)

- UFO Hefeweizen (3/10)

- UFO White (4/10)

- LeftHand Polestar Pilsener (2/10)

- Full Sail Session Lager (8/10 - this is a very good lager and totally worth the money)

- not to mention, ben and i had a side-by-side tasting of Boulder's Mojo IPA and O'Dell's IPA. amazing. the tasting deserves a full review. we nearly lost ourselves on the front porch.

but i'm not drinking those beers tonight. tonight i'm sipping some Modus Hoperandi India Pale Ale (from a bottle) by Ska Brewing Company (Durango, CO). i feel like i should be listening to the Supertones, but i do not own any. instead, i have access to this.

Modus Hoperandi IPA weighs in a 6.8% ABV and 65 IBUs. tons of pine grove. a nice wash of grapefruit. i taste more citrus than anything. overall, Ska Brewing's Modus Hoperandi is big. i've had three, and i'm losing words. the hops are larger than life - great for a tasting, not so much for longevity drinking. after the several here, i'm relying on the "delete" key to revise nearly every sentence.

also, i drank these Modus Hoperandi while writing a review of A PERFECT GETAWAY.

find some Modus Hoperandi. buy it. consume it with zero regard.

and bless your brass section.

Modus Hoperandi is surprisingly good. very citrusy. big, big, big grapefruit hop flavors over a light biscuit lay. i finished the third bottle with an intense desire for Dos XX Amber or Miller Lite. somethings, like japanese instrumental rock, are too big for words.

Something New

2009-08-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

I was recently delivered a sampler pack from a brewery called New Glarus out of Wisconsin. I know next to nothing about them. I have 4 different beers to test; two wheats and two ales.

I will be posting soon my thoughts on all four.

Also, give it up for The Church Key turning 45 yesterday.

Baker

Crocodile Dundee 1 and 2

2009-08-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

I actually have nothing to say about the Crocodile Dundee movies. I DO have something to say about Dundee Pale Ale.
One afternoon on my way home from work, the wife calls and asks if I can go pay for a dollhouse that she just bought from a lady on Craigslist. "Asks" is not the right word, more like "...I need you to..."
Anywho, the dollhouse is $18 and I have to pay in exact change. The wife suggests going to a gas station to buy a pack of gum and get cash back, then break the 20. On my way to a gas station I see a Dirt Cheap Liquor store. This sounds better to me than a gas station. I look around the store, most of the brew I've had before or know of a guy who had tried it before, or I could guess by the name and packaging exactly what it would taste like. I saw Dundee Pale Ale, never tried that. Nervously I picked it up. Unfortunately the store didn't do the ole cash back game but I still bought the beer.
Later that night when things had calmed down I read some reviews on BeerAdvocate about this Pale Ale. The highest rating was B-. Ouch. Most reviews pointed out that though the package says "Be Hoppy", the hops were quite minimal.
I took a deep breath and cracked one open. It's a Pale Ale. What more can I say. It wasn't horrible. I've had worse but it wasn't THE BEST BEER EVER! But what is?
$5.73 (w/tax) for a 6er of Pale Ale, I like it. When I'm feeling like drinking more than a PBR or Bud but don't want to pay $10 for O'Dells, Dundee will be an option.

I did eventually get the $18 to buy the dollhouse, in case you were wondering.

A SPOT OF COFFEE AFTER ALL MY COFFEE AND A QUEST FOR WORLD DOMINATION

2009-07-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

it is sunday morning here in austin. the house is quiet. my dad and debi and aunt doris just left for a pool party. latonya is upstairs laughing on the phone with her cousin. butch, the still family chihuahua, pecks his little toenails on the tile around my feet. it's quiet here, and the sun has remained mostly shy this morning. as for me, i'm drowning in classwork, overwhelmed with another week of planning and delivering a decently coherent lesson plan that covers transition phrases and organizational patterns of expository texts. i've had four small cups of coffee this morning. it Is time for a porter.

otter creek brewing company, straight from the green mountains of vermont, is new to the texas beer market. i'm usually a bit reluctant to jump both feet into a new england brewery because, go figure, so many new england beers are british in nature. i don't like the english beers. never have. and i'm shocked anytime i do find an english style ale that i actually enjoy. however, vermont is a filthy with the french, and i know nothing about how the french drink their biere. so, with all this ethno-cautious baggage stifling my beer shopping, i was relieved to find a single 12 ounce bottle of otter creek's stovepipe porter on a local liquor shelf. one itty-bitty bottle is so much less daunting - and expensive - than six.

my only other exposure to otter creek was their imperial stout. too big. too bold. too much hop and heat to waddle down smoothly. probably a fantastic stout after a year or two in the cellar, but who has that kind of discipline and patience anymore? it's 2009. i'm pissed that my computer doesn't type my thoughts for me automatically. this whole thing needs to move way faster to meet my busy lifestyle.

with that said, i am pleasantly surprised by the accessibility of this porter. weighing in at 30 IBUs with a 5.4% ABV, this is good medium range porter: perfect for baby bear and goldilocks all at the same time. the bright hop background does not blaze out the deeper coffee and cocoa notes, although i would prefer for more of the latter two. the overly carbonated mouthfeel distracts from the weight of the porter. porters should be thicker, creamier, anchored in minor keys and flavor notes. but this is nice. this is good early morning porter. this is good pre-lunch on a lazy sunday sipping. when the palate wants something bigger and gnarlier and nastier, there is always the flying dog gonzo imperial porter; however, when we just need a hint of desperation on our tongues, otter creek's stovepipe porter ranks right up there alongside great divide's saint bridget's porter and boulder's planet porter. heck, i think clint newlan and i even agree that boulevard's bully porter ain't all that bad, even if it ain't all that good. in the grand scheme, it seems that otter creek saddles up right nicely beside other american porters: washing down more like a soft-drink than the revolutionary pint of damnation it was designed to become.

perhaps in the world of pale ales and IPAs, america carries the trumping flags of permanent settlement, but in the parishes of fine porters, there's a good chance that england holds ultimate nobility. it's a theory worth testing and a survey worth conducting. any takers are welcome to join me in the venture. i like a good porter, but a good porter is hard to find. i'll be revisiting this otter creek stovepipe a single bottle at a time. a six pack is a huge commitment for something that's barely stretching the tent pegs of world domination.

THE REASON THEY MAKE THE STUFF

2009-07-16T16:46:00.000-07:00

listen,

later tonight ben's gonna call me and i'm gonna ride with him to return some machine that he had to rent to get some work done. he's had a long day of manual labor, doing things i don't know how to do. i've had a long day of mental labor, teaching folks he just plain don't know. so we're gonna ride on down there and get that machine returned so ben don't have to look at it no more. and then we're gonna stop at that beverage place and pick up a couple-three bottles of whatever they got for cheap. we'll make some conversation with the selling people and then head on back to the house. that's where we'll pour the suds and commence to the conversating. it'll get magical about right there, what with suds and conversating and long days behind us. and we'll have some time there together that would look completely inconsequential to passerbys and bystanders, but we'll know that them moments are meant to be taken to the grave and beyond. and that's why we do it.

let's try to get that going on together soon, alright?

DRIVING PAST CATTLE IN A STEAM ENGINE LAGER

2009-07-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

today was my second day teaching at a junior college three towns away. i will be teaching a 3 hour reading class every afternoon for the next month. three towns away. a 45 minute drive through texas farm and cattle land.

a phenomenal amount of activity happens in this small stretch of texas highway. down around a bend near bryan, texas the US department of agriculture houses a pecan regeneration station. then down around another bend, independence, texas curates the texas baptist history museum. and then, once more, down on around that other bend the antique rose emporium sells a particular strand of roses whose roots thrive in clay. a bit further towards the school, there's a patch of gravel that's been recently rolled back like stained carpet, leaving a pitch of dusty air and utility trucks that guide drivers back and forth over soot-like grey dirt. this construction adds nearly ten minutes to my drive towards class. the construction workers are cleaned up and drinking lagers by the time i head back home over 45 minutes of livestock and mutant roses and baptist heritage and military pecans.

drinking lagers. that's nearly all i think about driving home. oh look, there's a grey cow mounting a brown cow. (drink a lager.) oh look, a fat man in a blue and red plaid shirt is buying roses. (drink a lager.) oh why the hell won't the cd player eject? (drink a lager.) should i flunk the one kid in the skull cap on principle alone? (drink a lager.)

tonight i'm drinking a lager i purchased from a liquor store four blocks away from my house. i stop by nearly every afternoon to purchase a single bottle of whatever is on the $0.99 rack. it's my way of trying new beers and building relationships with the townsfolks. who are the people in your neighborhood? cody sells me the beers, he studies algebra. the other dude in the glasses, who i refuse to ask his name because sometimes a little mystery makes everyone more beautiful, is the movie buff who runs the joint. and i think about these fellars on the drive back into town. and i speak swell things over them and their endeavors and their parents and cody's algebra. and then i show up and buy my lager: the punctuation point to the long and arduous day driving past cattle to drive more cattle.

perhaps i should tip a hat towards the lager: the reason we are all here in the first place.

this here is the steam engine lager by steamworks brewing company. they have two locations: durango, california and bayfield, colorado. seems a bit like cheating, like a bivocational minister who still takes personal funds from the church offering. but steamworks made this lager fancy and good. these malts stretch out a thick caramel underlay that props up a vibrantly flickering hop marquee. bright. bubbling with pop and flare. flashy on the side bars of the tongue. i like this beer. one time i drank an entire six pack of this stuff. started at noon. lost my tastebuds about three. finished it off in the evening. that was a long time ago. i've already confessed that to the necessary brethren, so now it's just bragging. point is: i like this lager better than i didn't remember.

that's all i want to say for now.

Independence Day

2009-07-04T07:10:00.000-07:00

In addition to visiting with family and grilling some meat I think I will drink some Sam Adams. Seems like a patriotic brew doesn't it?

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
—Samuel Adams

What does Branson/Ruby Tuesday know about beer?

2009-06-29T18:41:00.000-07:00

I still cannot believe it...
I was in Branson this past weekend (not to see a show but to buy several pair of GAP no stress pants)

After buying the pants I took the fam to Ruby Tuesday.

- little factoid, the guy who founded Ruby Tuesday worked in the same restaurant (Regas) at the same time as Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's. Regas is in Knoxville, TN.

Just out of curiosity I flipped to the beer section of the menu. I still can't believe this.
From the craft menu was DOGFISH HEAD 60 min IPA! Are you freakin kidding me? RUBY TUESDAY? It doesn't stop there. No. Underneath was YUENGLING! YUENGLING! America's oldest brewery. I thought you could only get that sh*t in the East. What the flip is going on at Ruby Tuesday in Branson, MO?

Branson? Ruby Tuesday? I still can't believe it. Did Dogfish Head drop a couple cool points or did Ruby Tuesday just turn it up to 11?

The Wilderness makes a Saison

2009-06-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago I had the privilege of tasting another home brew by The Wilderness. The Wilderness tried his hand at a Saison. Interesting. I don't know if I would have tried my hand at a Saison so early on in my home brewing journey but The Wilderness did and he did a great job.
Though I don't like this style of beer, I have to applaud the The Wilderness. It had a very professional taste - I can see people paying for this.

My tongue was going crazy from the overload of herbs, spices, fruits, and hops. I was impressed that this complex chaotic yet united and balanced beer came from a rookie home brewer.

Hats off

Dogfish Head vs. Flying Fish

2009-06-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight I had a friend help me officiate a friendly competition between Delaware's Dogfish Head (60 min IPA) and New Jersey's Flying Fish (HopFish IPA). My friend doesn't mind IPAs. He'll drink anything and the only comment you'll get out of him is "wow". No one knows how to measure the "wow".

Is it "wow":

-this is really shit*y?

-this is perfect?

-this is totally average?

no tellin.

We drank Flying Fish first. My friend made no comment. I REALLY enjoyed the Flying Fish. It was one of my favorites that I tried in Baltimore a few weeks ago. I was really looking forward to drinking this one again. Loved it. So well balanced.

We ate a few more chips and dip, finished a brat, had a little macaroni salad, told the kids to shut it, then had Dogfish Head. "Wow", said my friend. He began talking about how he liked trying different craft brews and how superior they were to Bud, etc. (I let him ramble, sometimes it's best to, don't want to start an argument). I'm guessing this was a good "wow".

The Dogfish Head, though it is a good beer, is way off balance on MY palate. It needs to be polished up a bit; it's quite raw. When I drink Dogfish Head, I want to take a buffer to the beer for about 15min to smooth it out.

In it's current raw state, it's like one of those bad tasting delicacies that everyone eats because everyone else is and it's a "delicacy" and they don't want everyone to know they don't like it even though everyone else hates it too so they eat it and tell everyone how much they love it because everyone else is.

So I say Flying Fish wins...I don't have a friggin-glue what my friend's opinion is. He went home already so I can't ask him.

Comps:

Flying Fish HopFish IPA: 6.2% ABV; IBU not given

DogFish Head 60 min: 6% ABV; IBU not given

Let me throw this down before I have to wash the dishes...

2009-06-11T18:08:00.000-07:00

Magic Hat's Lucky Kat (Irresistible Pale Ale they say). Brewed in South Burlington, VT. Magic Hat Brewery reminds me of 3 Floyd's in that they have the same type of wacky marketing approach.
Anywho, this is one of the brews I brought from the MO-PA-NC Beer Club convention. It is a silly beer as you can see in the picture. Under the cap it has silly sayings like "Hiding a fart is an age old art" or "Happy Beer-Thirty". I appreciate the silliness. I also understand it's all part of the business plan to build a strong cult base. Nothing wrong with that. I'm a fan.

I didn't know what to expect with Lucky Kat. I was afraid that it was going to be an artsy-fartsy impression of an IPA tasting like hay and horse piss. I was wrong.

Lucky Kat filled me up in one course. It was smooth too. While drinking I kept thinking to myself, 'is this an IPA?' It had the grapefruit taste but not as prevalent as other IPAs. It didn't make me beg for water like the Two Hearted or the O'Dells IPA. I could not make up my mind. I did like it though. I have one more in the beer fridge that I'm saving for Friday.

Comps:
Lucky Kat: ABV 5.8% Bitterness: 58
Alpha King: ABV 6% Bitterness: 66
Single Wide: ABV 5.7% Bitterness: 59
2 Hearted: ABV 7% Bitterness: unknown
O'Dells IPA: ABV 7% Bitterness: 60

IN THE MOMENT

2009-06-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

seriously, this pabst right here, straight out of the can and answering to the activities that finally stretched my back and salted my brow, tastes better than anticipated. here's to more moments like this.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - The Beer Choice of Innovative Musicians

2009-06-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday i had an experience that i will not soon forget. I was at The Pageant in St. Louis. I was 8 feet below and about 20 feet back from the edge of the stage. Blind Pilot came up and played. I was happy to find another band from Portland that i can explore later. It was a combination of bluegrass and indie rock. The lead singer wore a pearl snap short-sleeved western shirt, there was an electric xylophone player, and a girl who plunked on a banjo and danced a little.

The lights died. Out came 6 people to take their positions in front of a meager yet depth enhancing backdrop. The people around me screamed and so did i. The Decemberists have been a band i appreciated for some time now but this was my first time to see them. Colin Meloy made his way out in a full suit and he wasn't half-assing the tie either, he had the top button in place. He nonchalantly placed his beer on a back speaker and as he moved forward, a ray of light like a God's golden ray spot-lighted the bottle. Sierra Nevada if you please.

I don't know why he chose it. Maybe the selection is poor. St. Louis has some good brews, but usually you feel like someone is trying to cram Bud down your throat. Maybe it's the beer that fit best with the music we would hear; i'd like to think Meloy is that intentional with all that he does. If the other members are the Pinky, Meloy is the Brain.

If you haven't heard their newest album, The Hazards of Love, then you've been sittin' on an Ozarkian hill thinking you are somebody with Everest looming behind you ass! I have listened to the album straight through countless times and i believe without any fear of rebuke that it is the best album i have heard in at least 5 years, probably more. From genius lyrics, to creative storytelling, to a 17 song composition with no stops, to perfectly placed musical transitions paralleling and enhancing the emotions of the characters, who by the way, are also sung by Meloy and 2 new women (1 from My Brightest Diamond, and 1 from Lavender Diamond) whose voices beautifully express the intended character personalities, to some fucking awesome rock which i have never heard from this band until now, to 20 + instrument changes during the set by Meloy alone, to..........................................the list goes on.

The Decemberists walked out and played the album from start to finish. They did not say a word. An hour went by and they were done with it. They took a 15 minute break and then came back to play for another hour and a half of old stuff as well as a fantastic cover of "Crazy on You" by Heart. The female vocalists as new additions gave me goosy bumps in places i'd rather not mention.

I went home with my mind made up to buy Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to celebrate the victory which i had no part of creating but fantasized taking part in for over 2 hours. When i arrived at the store, however, Boulevard's Single-wide IPA was cheaper and i bought it and it was good. I'm drinking one right now.

I hope Colin and the crew can forgive me. Maybe if i drink more SN Pale Ale i can write and play and sing like him. Maybe he is trying to take over the world one Baker at a time. But, the Brain never did really get anywhere. Eventually he was cancelled. it's a shame.

TOTAL STRANGERS GOT THEIR HOMEBREW EATING INTO MY BUDGET

2009-05-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

here goes my hamsterian take on the three 2008 SAM ADAMS' LONGSHOT WINNERS:

CRANBERRY WIT

first off, i don't mean to be sexist, but isn't it a bit cool when the ladies win the sam adams' homebrew competition? i'm not sure why that's so exciting to me. maybe it's because, other than ashley brock and e sue young and faith scott, i have not met many female beer geeks. so when carissa sweigart wins with a cranberry wit, of all things, i feel my power - my woman-power - bristle on the edges.

okay, enough politics: let's get to the beer. this cranberry wit pours unfiltered and cloudy. very light with deep pink hues enlivened by a constant and steady stream of carbonation bubbles, looking like prom night on speed. a thin, fully laid white cap covers the top of the glass, through which no significant aromas pass. i'm sniffing for fruit, tartness, some spices, but i get nothing. the first sip is pure wit beer: light and spiced on the edges. the bottle declares "cinnamon, orange peel, coriander and grains of paradise," all before a "touch of cranberry." the first sip only reveals cinnamon in the background, like a box of red hots accidentally fell into the mash. after a little bottle-swirling, in an effort to agitate all those spices and yeasts in the bottom, the beer looks like a glass of grapefruit juice: dark pink fleshy-juice and thick cloudy yeast haze. more complex flavors shine through now. orange peels and coriander are mostly prevalent. little sign of cranberry, even tartness. however, some small wash of brightness does flow along the sides of the tongue, mellowing out the overt spiciness and making this wit extremely light and more drinkable than most beers in this genre. although i would never buy a sixer of this, i like having these two bottles for the trial.

NOTE: my second bottle was much better. this is a very exciting beer, an amusement park of spices and fruits all crammed and roller coastering around in one glass. i told my dear friend, sir jason scott, that this beer is like a good m. night shabalabahonda film: too much to take in the first time. bright, spicy, refreshing, cloudy and full-bodied - yes, ma'am, i would definitely buy this beer in sixers and serve it at dinner parties.

DOUBLE IPA

so mike from california says he tossed in "over six pounds of hops per barrel" in his double-IPA (9% ABV). i'm not sure if that's a lot or not, but the aroma is as hairy as liquid sasquatch. smells like a walk in the northern woods: lots of pine, lots of earthy pitch, lots of tree-sap and bursting green. this is a transcendental aroma in a beer that wants to jump out of the glass and live as deliberately as thoreau. first sip: whitman whiskers! this thing is mowing me down. thick, thick biscuit bottom under a spicy, piney hopped top. this is a great double IPA: not too much, but definitely earning its 9% alcohol ranking. i would buy sixers and twelvers of this. hound it and hide it in my little cellar closet down here on the first floor. my hat is off to mike in california - this beer is lovely.

TRADITIONAL BOCK

unfortunately, i've had my fill of german beers around these parts. and, equally unfortunate for alex drobshoff from california, texas has depleted its ideal cool evenings where such a thick and heavy beer stakes claim. still, i will come with open olfactories and taste buds. pours dark leather brown. very little head or carbonation: nothing's alive on the inside. plus, i'm not getting any aroma here. even sniffed the coffee in the kitchen to double check my sniffer, and it works, but i can't smell anything on this beer. (same as shiner bock). the first sip of drobshoff's traditional bock (6.8% ABV) weighs in syrup heavy. also, it's sweet, sweet, sweet and more sweet. lots of malt, with small gushes of cherry. why anyone would brew (or drink) a bock is beyond me. they are heavy, sticky, chewy beers. the beverage equivalent of creamed corn, without all the lumps. i'll be giving the extra bottle of this to marky-mark pepe-guzman who just loves-loves-loves him some bock. he be german, i suppose.

ALL YE WHO ENTER VERMONT ABANDON HOPE: THEY DITCHED CIDERS FOR A DANTE WORTHY DESCENT INTO THE NINTH LEVEL OF RUSSIAN IMPERIAL HELL-A-STOUT

2009-05-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

so my friends ryan and kelly urban came over tonight and we're being really cool and saying stuff that regular people wish they could say on a totally awesome day but they can't but we totally just mouth-off like it's nothing cause we're awesome even on mediocre days and stuff like that and whatever, man, yo.

then we decide to have dessert. so ryan and i drive over to the mart and talk about the UNDERWORLD films which are awesome if you love them. and then at the store all the blue bell pints, which are usually $3 a piece are $1 a piece, and me and ryan totally flip. so we buy four of them. i can't remember all the ones we bought cause we were so jazzed at the time that my memory was blitzed.

then we got home and busted open some ice cream. then i popped the top on some otter creek russian imperial stout (10.6% ABV / 65 IBUs). the bottle boasts that otter creek brews their russian imperial with "double the malt and four times the hops of regular stouts, this ale offers a robust and intense flavor experience." all crafts breweries love to throw junk like that on their bottles: whether it lives up to the hype is another matter of tastes altogether. to find out, i poured myself and ryan a (room-temperature) draught in wine glasses, and then we started sniffing.

the otter creek russian imperial stout pours oily black, darker than big-rig engine drool. the stuff allows zero light, a liquified spelunking expedition top-side and glass-tamed. it also pours thick, more like plasma than liquid. the head holds the darkest brown cap i have ever seen on a stout, more kin to a fudge brownie than most of the frothy-cappuccino tan heads i have normally seen. this beer screams the absence of hope.

ryan swears, right off the bat, that the stuff smells like olives - and green olives at that. oddly enough, his wife confirmed the aroma. i never noticed a single olive whiff in the whole batch. after a few more sniffs, ryan declared a significant molasses aroma, cooked and maybe smoky. in the meantime, i immediately smelled raisins and anise - and tons of both. this thing smelled like a licorice bomb with a burning fuse. there may have been hearty rummagings of fig and prune notes wolloshing about in there, as well. we both agreed that this aroma was huge and somewhat threatening.

the first sip, for both of us, was overwhelming and ash-trayish. all the possible complexities and enjoyment were burned out by an intense throat-bottomed alcohol burn. ryan suggested flavors of smoked gouda lingering in the aftertaste. i agreed, but maybe more out of concentration than actual taste-budderings.

my overall verdict for otter creek russian imperial stout is that this may be a fantastic cellar beer. those uber-hops, as declared by the label, may need 3 or 4 years to mellow out. i'm sure that in time, seasoned in dark and discipline in someone's basement, this beer could eventually emerge as a beautifully enjoyable celebration stout. however, until then, this bottle is not worth the required $7. it did not even pair well or simmer its offensiveness next to cookies-n-cream ice cream. as a result, ryan and i both agreed that this beer tasted more like a punishment than a treat. otter creek russian imperial stout lived up to its bottle-printed claims (more than i could have expected) and left me feigning for a bright and fizzy pale ale: something on the lighter side, for heaven's sake.

in the meantime, i'm chomping at the bits to break into the 2008 sam adam's longshot sixer, newly released in these parts. that review will come very soon.

MY SHINER (NOT BOCK) STORY INVOLVING TIM AND MARK AND SOME RACIST GHOSTS HUNG FROM THEIR RACIST NECKS

2009-05-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

i'm doing some research on texas breweries for a friend of mine. spent some time reading about shiner beers today. there's a feature on the shiner website where viewers can post stories about themselves drinking shiner beer, kinda like what we do here at beer club only it's all texans and they all think shiner bock is the way into God's Kingdom. (i got tough news for them). anywho, i took a moment here just now, sipping on this PBR and feeling fine, to write up my shiner story. here's a copy of it. it ain't good and all, but it's true. and it needs more umph eventually.

ps. do NOT drink a shiner bock while reading this.

*****

my friend mark said sometime early last summer, right around the time that we were all standing on the concrete of his bryan, texas driverway, that he'd like to celebrate his birthday by driving on down to shiner, texas and seeing that spoetzl brewery first-hand. i liked that kinda notion. as a beer-nerd, i kinda wondered if he might be trying to celebrate my birthday as well. he said no to that, but i still felt rather important coming on down to shiner in the middle of wednesday in july.

to be honest, i am not a fan of that bock that shiner sells. tastes like sweet tea with a touch of vodka in it, if you asked me. never been a bock fan. never might be a bock fan. my tasters don't lean towards the malts as much as to the hops. still, i fancy a shiner hefeweizen, when it's poured right, and i can't stop at just two shiner blondes when the sun goes to boasting even through the trees. not to mention, shiner black pours a nice glass of late night, book-reading beer when the hour ain't rightly fit to a pot of coffee but the pages need some grease to keep turning.

so, back to my buddy's birthday: we loaded up tim's car, the three of us - mark and tim and me - and we headed to gonzalez first. them boys i was with thought it might be novel to climb around in the gonzalez old-timey jail there. and we did. climbed on up the ladder and touched the noose dangling from the ceiling. i didn't like the feel in that place. felt a bit like racist ghosts were walking shouting "COME AND TAKE IT" all over the place. i think the klan might live heavy in gonzalez. not to mention, i never seen a town with so many churches. that many churches seem a sign of trying to cover a multitude of sins, like racism and running off other races and hating people who ain't white. i mean, that's just what i felt in gonzalez, particularly in that jail and when i looked at the flag they got. not good. my hair was standing up, and i was ready to get on to the beer, which i know for a fact ain't racist beer, nor is it brewed for racists. unless people in gonzalez drink shiner beer, in which case it weren't brewed for them.

drove over to shiner and found the brewery. biggest building in that part of the state. sat right over there in the corner pocket like it'd been there a hundred years or more. guess it has. and we walked in and got a nice tour. you know, the land out there in shiner is conducive to wind, and wind is conducive to dust, and dust it conducive to making things dirty. and while i may have toured half a dozen beer breweries in half a dozen states, that shiner brewery was the cleanest, most sterile beer place i ever forgot to wipe my shoes off for. felt a bit like a hospital in there. but the factory they got going, i mean, that's really impressive. my friend mark was standing there looking down into the factory, all those bottles rolling circles around the place. i said, "happy birthday, bro." he said, "i suppose so."

then they let us drink the beer. gave us three tokens each. some tall drink of scotch walks up and says, "i don't even drink beer. don't know why i'm here." and he hands me six tokens. i drank a lot of beer that day. never once touched the bock tap handle.

all in all, it was a good day. met some ghosts, saw beer get made in the cleanest facility i ever seen, and then drank half a tank of shiner black label straight off the factory tap. it was good. and i hope to on back that way soon enough.

"Will shovel dirt for beer"

2009-05-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

...towards the end of the huge dirt pile it looked like I had ordered too much dirt. A neighbor drove by and I asked if he needed some, "sure" he replied. I talked with his wife to determine where the dirt should be dumped. Baker and I hauled 5 wheelbarrow loads to their backyard.
The wife insisted that she compensate us for the hard work and the dirt. Eventually I gave in and allowed her to pay us $20 and a 6 pack of beer.

A few days later while I was mowing the lawn, my neighbor walked over with a 6er of Schlafly's Pilsner. Interesting.

I have never had their Pilsner but given the circumstances-free beer, hot outside, sweaty brow-I couldn't wait.

I enjoyed it. It tasted like a slightly better version of a Budweiser. BUT, even though there are more hops present, it has a crisper taste, and overall better flavor I think I will still stick to the Bud after a long day working in the sun. Why? $

I would rather use the money spent on a Schlafly Pilsner towards an O'Dells IPA any day.

More current news... I'm heading to Baltimore tomorrow for a wedding. While there I'll be connecting with several other beer club representatives for a taste of East Coast brews. I can't wait to post.

new poll

2009-05-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the best beer is Budweiser - or Miller Lite if your a Hamster

2009-05-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

The past few days I have been breaking my back under the hot sun shoveling dirt and stacking bricks. I'm working on some landscaping. When I moved into my house a few years ago, the front yard was a blank canvas. I could do anything I wanted...from scratch. This year I'm doing something. I'm building a retaining wall that will remain level despite the slope of the earth. So one end is two blocks high, the other end is 7 blocks high. Follow me. I unloaded a 126 blocks (with help) from a truck to my garage. I had a truck load of dirt dumped in the middle of my street. I shoveled and lugged 9 cu. yards of garden mix dirt from my street to the final destination. I had too much dirt. So I found other places for the dirt (prior to having the dirt delivered I removed the top layer of earth and used the sod to build up the slop in the back of my house). Then I started to build the wall. Today I got 1/4 of the wall built.

After I unloaded the bricks, Baker and I had Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It was great. Hit the spot. Wonderful flavor.
Today after working on the wall, I had a Bud. Even better.

If I'm working in the sun doing some good ol' manual labor, I need a Bud. If I'm looking for something to drink after a long day at the office I need an IPA.

Sorry, this was rushed. The wife was telling me that it was her turn to get on the computer.
It made sense in my head. I had it all planned out until she came along.
I'll do better next time.

Do you agree? Bud in the sun?

GUEST POST: NATHAN JONES - KANSAN GONE TEXAN, GONE KANSAN ONCE AGAIN - REVIEWS LOST COAST'S 8 BALL STOUT

2009-05-10T18:54:00.000-07:00

holy midwestern tap handles, batman! i got a load of reviews to report from this recent trip my smokin' hot wife and i made to kansas city. after tossing back some cold ones with mike redmond, i hit the tap handles and sixers with nathan and emily jones, kelly jackson, and thom and tracy fox. then i capped off the week's bottle by back porching, home brewing, and chihuahua sunbathing alongside sir jason scott. it was a grand few days, full of many beers, little sleep, and bookoos of trees taller than one story buildings. (texans know what i mean).

while i recover from the travels, i'll lean on the words of the good and lovely nathan jones to review one of the beers we collected but did not sip together. lost coast's 8 ball stout (5.9% ABV) received a collected review of B+ on beeradvocate, while the ratebeer crowd (of which i'm an active member) awarded it 97/100. that's a drastic difference in populace opinion, making this stout a controversial little number, giving me one more reason to regret not sharing this brew with my friend.

honestly, i've steered away from the lost coast line after tasting their alleycat amber, downtown brown, and great white ???????. none of these beers did anything for me except spit remorse into my pocketbook. however, beer is an odd concoction, and breweries can boil up some strange worts from time to time. also, nathan jones is a good man with a trusted palate. you'd like him. and he has great tastes in film. send him some love back on his first beerclub review when you get the chance.

(the following letter was edited by the publisher. y'all ain't gots to know all we gots to say. damn.)

* * *

Kevin -

I drank the Eight Ball Stout made by Lost Coast Brewery out of Eureka, CA. I will say that I am now very disappointed that we did not get to share it. It was not like a traditional stout. The first taste was not the 'stout' coffee flavor that you normally get from a beer like that. As I went through it, it just got better. The beer was extremely smooth and flavorful. I will say that if someone is on the fence about liking a stout, this is the one to drink to get on the wagon about loving a stout. It was a stout with training wheels. Anyways, I recommend you try this one and tell me what you think.

- Nathan Jones

I SHOT A WHALE WITH THIS BEER: edited for mixed gender viewing

2009-05-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

if you need me, i'll be at mike's house. upstairs. at the dining table with latonya and sarah. mike is already in bed. he has to open the coffeeshop tomorrow morning. he will need to put the key in the door by 4:54 a.m. so that he can dim the alarm by 4:57 and hit "store open" on the computer by 4:59. that's his job. that's how he gets the dough to run me to the price chopper in liberty, missouri, allowing me to purchase a sixer of sierra nevada torpedo extra pale ale. and then we sip the sixer, talking about bigfoot and werewolves and God and oscar wilde and my own take on politics as evolved since the last time we discussed my take on politics.

i told mike i voted this past year. he was surprised. rightfully so.

shit. this sierra nevada torpedo extra pale ale (7.2% ABV / 70 IBUs) is good. really good. sierra nevada has never made a bad beer. seriously, i cut my hopped-up mandibular bilateral tori on sierra nevada pale ale, and i will love this company forever for that fact alone. sierra nevada, unfortunately, makes very few over-the-top beers to write about on websites late at night on vacation. their bigfoot barleywine comes to mind as kingish and kongish, as well as their harvest ale something-something style ale (the latter was hoppy as fruit rind, but i can't remember the full profile), but that's about it for big beers. sierra nevada saddles up next to several good american craft breweries with a consistency of okay beers and the occasional gleam of and excellent beer.

"Utilizing the 'Hop Torpedo,' our unique method of dry-hopping, we harness precious oils and resins to showcase the complex citrus, pine and herbal flavor and aromas that hops have to offer." - as quoted from the barn-door ends of the Sierra Nevada Torpedo sixer package

did you guys know that i work at the writing center in a local community college? yes'r, i do. and there is an english teacher there that hates the word "utilize." she says, "come off it, and just say 'uses'." honestly, i can see her point. why say, as a fiction writer, "bill said emphatically . . . " when you could just say, "bill said . . . . " and then write better dialogue? it's a good question. one to consider. so it makes one wonder, when a craft brewery uses words like "utilizes," are they trying to compensate for something lacking in the magnitude of their torpedo?

personally, i do not see that sierra nevada's torpedo lacks anything in girth of flavor. this is a big flavor beer, flushed with gushes rustic pine and citrus rinds. i like the grapefruittiness. i like the bitterness. i like the mouthfeel and the exclamation of outer-fruit cores surrounding the edges of every sip - heavy in the front, loaded in the back.

my dear and beautiful friend, sir jason scott, made my ear sweat with his description of this ale. i liked it from that conversation on. however, we do not get the biz down in bryan-f'bombing, tejas. tonight, finally, i got my taste of sierra nevada torpedo, and it was well worth the wait. i'm sad that mike is passed out for the night, and the ladies are unapplying their days make-up and hair together: this is a beer to share, a book to tote in a small nylon bag, a story to hold out extended to friends and say, "no, really, devour this, as if your life depended on it, even though you have the luxury of it not."

i would like to sip this beer all night long, even in my sleep, and then, if i were lucky, instead of waking up with dream-dragon-poo on my tongue, like my morning breath usually lays on me, i'd wake up with this beer, solidified and blanketed across my palate, like firmly baked cheese, and i would taste this beer, naturally, in my own mouth, all f'n' day long. such an extravagance would feel like my birthday come early.

i think i will go watch DANCE OF THE DEAD now.

BE T'ANKFUL FOR THE PINTS OF THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING

2009-04-30T19:22:00.001-07:00

CONFESSION: i'm not a big guinness fan. well, i'm not a fan of their regular irish stout, particularly the kind that sells on tap at every dedgum bar and grill from here to timbuktu. i don't like the stuff. guinness on tap tastes like a good stout that got watered down. i am, however, quite a big fan of the guinness extra stout, the one that sells without the little nitrogen widget, but that's a different post.

so the story goes that tonight i'm waltzing around the liquor store with two smokin' black women - my wife and our dear friend leida, in from saint louis for latonya's birfday - and all the white dudes in the store are craning their necks and saying, "damn! what kinda karma is that dude pulling to be with them?" and leida's buying lambic. and latonya's buying sweet tea flavored vodka. and i found sixers of new belgium's mighty arrow on for $5 so i nearly pee myself.

then i found a bottle of this guinness 250th anniversary stout. poured in a small taster glass, i'm seeing a stout that is phenomenally darker in appearance than the regular guinness. with carbonation decreased (by the lack of a widget), the blackness sits heavy in the glass, allowing a small purplish cola-tinted ring of light at the bottom and near the top of the glass. the aroma tells of deeply roasted malts with small hints of coffee. nothing sweet rears in the aroma - no anise or caramel, no cocoa or even raisin: just small coffee notes and a heavy malt burn. smells more like bread than beverage. the aroma does not rightly prepare the palate for the depth of flavor. again, nothing spectacular or specific stands out in the palate or the mouthfeel, just the roast of dark barley and slightly smokey grains. that's all. this is a good stout if you like the flavor of ashes. honestly, after developing a passion for the russian imperial stout, what with all her complexities of warring sweets and stringencies, this guinness 250th anniversary pales in comparison to the new possibilities i know of stouts.

overall verdict: guinness 250, while way better than guinness draught, doesn't hold a candle to guinness extra stout or, especially, american craft stouts. the typical argument goes that, since the irish invented stouts, guinness is the consummate stout. well, fine then. drink all the guinness you want, me lad. but, as for the me and my palate, i will bask in the dark and sinister russky imperial stouts of america

and also dreamy black women.

STONE IN ANY HOPPAGE / STRAIGHT TO THE GUT / PUNCHES ME IN THE PALATE / KNOCKS ME ON MY BUTT - sandi patti

2009-04-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

i am here to talk about stone brewing company because i have a paper that i am procrastinating and also because i love talking about stone beers. moreso, i love drinking them. in fact, ooooh, what's this? i am drinking a stone beer as i type! yes'r! YES'R! i am a prince! i am bulletproof for the rest of today!

honestly, i have never sipped a stone beer that was not grand. some craft breweries (new belgium, boulevard, sierra nevada, bridgeport, bear republic) set their par at good and occasionally beat their own odds with something extraordinary. other breweries (stone, bells, pabst brewing company) set the par at great and seldom deviate. yes'r, stone is just such a brewery, and everything is write-homeable.

however, there is an odd conundrum that i've discovered with stone. and it is this: stone's pale ale is a finer, more solid, more drinkably hoppy ale than their regular IPA. schyea, i know: that's crazy talk. that's why breweries build pale ales and IPAs, to build a hoppy medium in the pale and then imperialize it in the IPA. but stone seems to be an exception to this rule. (i've also found a similar phenomena with the laguintas brewing company between their new dogtown pale ale and their regular IPA. but that's a different post).

first and foremost, when chatting up stone and hops, the place to begin is the STONE RUINATION IPA. this is stone's imperial IPA, and it's the muthaload. weighing it at a pithy 7.7% ABV, this sucka boasts over 100 IBUs felt on every inch of the tongue. huge citrus. huge bristling fruit peels. huge mouthfeel and blistering burn. i love this beer. and i'm not shooting for anything eloquent here, i'm just bragging that i've had one and maybe you haven't. if you can only taste one more beer before getting slammed by a bus, make it the RUINATION. this is a beer to prolong martyrdom for, if even just once. after a ruination, everything else tastes like a shiner.

secondly, STONE IPA, for all purposes, is a great ipa. again, this company does not make a paltry beer. running up close behind the ruination, stone ipa bubbles with a 6.9% ABV and boasts over 70 IBUs. not a small ale by any means. still, this is not an ipa that i run to. there is something overly floral and perfumey in the stone ipa, something not quiet balanced. i find myself half way through a pint of stone ipa always thinking, "shite, i wish i liked this more, even half as much as the pale or a quarter as much as the ruination." that's right: i think in fractions. i taught beginning math at sylvan learning center for over three years. the numbers get into you like those little ear wig thingies in STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN. anyway. so, yes, this is a good ipa, but i can think of half a dozen ipas that i would put above the stone ipa. don't ask me what they are right now.

thirdly, STONE PALE ALE takes the gold for, hands down, the best pale ale i have ever tasted. bringing up the rear with a 5.4% ABV and a mere 41 IBUs, stone's pale ale, by the numbers, is stone's weakest hop optional ale; however, that is not the case on my palate whatsoever. i love this beer. and, upon several occasions recently, i reached for stone pale ale over stone ipa at the liquor store and pint shop. this is a good beer. big and burly. balanced on all sides, but still aggressively hopped in all the right places. i find this beer a frustrating single-bottle-beer: i want several of these right in row. the first sets up for the second, sets up for a third and reason to confess to my brothers in the community. i've not experienced such a thing with a pale ale before. usually, i turn to pales when IPAs are not available. not in the stone case. it's just good. damn good. cuss words and soapy candy good.

this has been my stone brewing company hoppy beer run down. thank you.

PS. on the STONE RUINATION and STONE IPA, look down the ratebeer page for "hamsterglory." that's me. i left those reviews. haven't gotten around to STONE PALE. will do. just pimping my old reviews.

Is it really worth it?

2009-04-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

I'll make it quick...went to a Cardinals game today, awesome game. 7-1 Cards over Cubbies - is it September already?

So many plastic beer bottles floating around, all AB products.
I love beer. When I'm at a game I want to drink a beer. But is it really worth $7.50 for ONE Bud Select? People will down several in a game!

I will sacrifice 3 hours of no beer during a game to have $22.50 for good beer after the game.

THE BEST NIGHT OF MY ENTIRE LIFE LAST WEEK

2009-04-25T06:20:00.000-07:00

ONE

last night i sat on a friend's porch, littered in white people, and i watched a bottle of sam adams cherry wheat orbit a small caucasian solar system on this side of the porch. the bottle had accidentally fallen into blake and josh's sixer of sam adams honey porter. at first, when blake pulled the cherry wheat out of the sixer of honey porter, he glowed, holding it up triumphantly like a child's grand toy from the bottom of an adult cereal box. "look, a general lee was in the box of mom's fruit and fiber!" blake had that kind of excitement. and then blake opened the bottle. and then he sipped the cherry wheat. and then all the orange faded off the hood of his general lee, and blake suddenly tasted the fiber on the other side of the fruit.

one saturday night live skit that often runs loops in my head is the one where this family feels overly compelled to share in one another's misfortunes. at first it's rather simple: one person tastes their fish and declares, "ooooo, it's rotten!" and then all the others say, "let me try!" and they all groan together. then they pass around curdled milk, all exclaiming it's rancidness, but all tasting for themselves. finally, the skit ends with one person running down the basement stairs and falling through a broken board half way down. another person at the top of stairs says, "oh my gosh, that board is broken!" and then they all take turns running and plummeting through the stairs into the basement. skit ends. pure genius.

i thought of that skit last night as this bottle of putrid sam adams cherry wheat touched the lips of every caucasian on this side of the porch. blake declared it's badness, then david said, "let me try." he scrunched his face, saying, "that's really terrible." then faith held out her hand for the bottle. she never said anything, just shook her head at the flavor like running into an unexpected mask of cobwebs. eventually the bottle came to me, but i just held up my hand. i know what cough syrup tastes like. my mother poured the shit down me as a bucking little bronco. i didn't need the reminder.

TWO

faith recently scored a gift card to world market. i'm not sure if you've seen this place, but it's somewhat boss. not totally boss, but like associate-to-the-boss kinda boss. i remember once, during a fairly dark period of my life, world market had the largest beer selection for burgeoning beer nerds in south kansas city. my buddy andrew botsford and i would drive over to world market, half tanked on red stripe (we were young), and we'd shimmy through all the candle buyers and rug dealers and giraffe statuaries, finally finding the beer aisle where we'd buy up schlafly no. 15 and bridgeport ipa. those were good days, followed by better days when the lukas liquor superstore moved in closer to the house.

so yeah, faith scored this world market gift card and wisely spent it on a build-your-own sixer as opposed to some lame audrey hepburn poster or wine bottle painting. the sixer she built consisted of

- abita purple haze

- sierra nevada pale ale

- new castle brown ale

- new belgium sunshine wheat

- new belgium fat tire

- woodchuck granny smith cider

when i saw this sixer, built by faith, i instantaneously thought three separate thoughts all at once: 1) how can i score that sunshine wheat; 2) thank God, no shiners; 3) other than the woodchuck granny smith, this is a damn near perfect sixer for a Beer 101 class. personally, i'd replace the cider with a sam adams boston lager, for beginners and for the hops, but that's if i were teaching the course. admittedly, i struggled to restrain my beer geek from wolfing out on the porch there. the educational opportunities alone made me near spastic.

faith opened the sunshine wheat. she liked it. i mentioned to her that i like the sunshine. "it's a good wheat," i believe i said. "you want it?" she said. "i ain't taking your beer," i said. "you said the purple haze was nice. maybe i'll sip that and you can have this," she said. so i scored the sunshine wheat. and i held it with two hands.

faith then opened the purple haze and passed it around the porch. abita received much higher praise than sam adams for fruitty wheatness. david said, "it tastes like candy." felix said, "it's alright." josh said, "i like that." the enthusiasm was overwhelming.

THREE

andrew came home with a 24 pack of lone star cars, inspiring this poem:

my texas sized lawn chair held me cradled like a beach

beauty in sun worship bikini spread, though

it was night and our state is landlocked and porch

lights do not brazen me quite like the tiki tan

salon. the sunshine wheat tasted good, tasted

like a supermodel tan on the insides of my

taster buds and gullet and belching bullhorns.

then kilzer arrived, bellowing out of a large car,

an SUV screw the earth (i drive one, too). my

sunshine wheat had two sips left. i felt myself

leaning towards a zeigenbock, then i saw kilzer's

hand - his left hand, dominant or not, couldn't tell,

he weren't working calligraphy or chop sticks or

the golden scraper award from dental hygiene school,

so i can't be sure if were his dominant hand - holding

a suitcase labeled LONE STAR BEER. 24 separate

drinking experiences canned like aunt faye's preserves

boxed up and bumping against kilzer's thigh - his

dominant thigh, the better looking of the two - and then,

right there in one fail swoop, i felt my taste buds reach

for the lone star, while my entire bodied being

seceded from the republic of the beach chair

and followed andrew through the front door.

- the hamster / april 26, 2009

*** me and all these white folks were at the house andrew shares with this guy's: ian c. nelson. please listen.

It's almost here...

2009-04-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

Do you have what it takes?

Here's a checklist to see:

-money

-a crew

-a good liquor store

See you in May!

Say it like an excited old man with a shrill voice that doesn't quite crack

2009-04-19T18:55:00.000-07:00

Honker's ALE !!!

Not Shaken, Not Stirred

2009-04-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

I picked up Quantum of Solace this weekend because i like Bond movies. I like Bond movies even though i am usually disappointed, or have been with the last few i have seen. Anyways, my wife and i have very different tastes in films; she wanting drama or something foriegn and I wanting action or cheesy comedy. This causes troubles, but luckily this time i put up a slight protest to Seven Pounds or Changeling which were Ashley's choices. She wasn't particularly intersted in pushing it so she gave me the go-aheah, and this was mostly because i let her get what she wants nearly every time and reserve ones i want for when she is gone babysitting or out of town for something school-related.

Before going home we went to Whole Foods to use a gift card. As i stood in front of the beer, which sat tempting me, i had to ask myself a question: What do i want to drink while watching Bond? I prefer IPA's as a general rule, but also find them a bit intense in comparison to other types. I initially wanted to get something easygoing. This was determined because i would be digesting action packed suspense and needed to wash it down with something light. But, then i see ODell's IPA, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, and Boulevard Single Wide IPA.

Crap, i say to myself. How can i be ok with passing one of these up for a light ale or lager? Then it catches my eye....Bell's Oberon. Ok, i like this stuff. I look at the IPA's and then at the Oberon, then back at the Elephant kicking on the ODell's box, then at that friendly and cheery sun with bright contrast over a beautiful blue.

I thought about what my friends would think as i drove home with a cool 6er of Oberon and Daniel Craig looking back at me with a gun and a nasty semi grin.

The movie had action, sure. Bond did a girl or two, and that was to be expected. Did he crash cars? yes. Did he disregard other people and throw a friend's dead body into a trash can explaining to an attractive brunette "he wouldn't care." Oh, yes. Did i feel in the least bit bad about it? Hells no, because i didn't have to look down and say, "Shit, why didn't i get something less punchy and a bit more mellow?"

I was as happy as a baby, a little princess baby. And that Odell Elephant can kick up a storm if she wants to but I felt the sun of Oberon on my face and warmth in my belly.

http://www.danielcraigisnotbond.com/

Beer + Pole = Beer Poll

2009-04-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

PS: The pole has moved up north and east. That means it is underneath the values section now.

PSS:

You guys are kicking ass on here. Keep up the great stuff. I am more and more impressed with what i am seeing.

The Baker

WHEN ART AND LIFE TOTALLY COLLIDE ON YOUR PALATE AND IT MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE A GOLDEN GOD DRINKING GOLDEN GOD WATER

2009-04-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

the wife and i watched ALMOST FAMOUS last night. i like that film. it moves the ol' hamster here in the ticker-box and the tear-ducts. it makes me simultaneously want to jump off rooftops and land in the past, while also being very grateful that i survived pubescence the first time around. (i did have cancer during pubescence, so, you know, that wasn't a totally dramatic statement there.) so, yeah, fun film that ALMOST FAMOUS. i highly recommend it.

so what does this film have to do with beer? nothing really, except that during a few of the party scenes i realized that the actors in the film were sipping bottles of schlitz while i was, at that very moment in real life, sipping cans of schlitz in my living room scene. it was, like, whoa-man! i mean, i was totally drinking a schiltz and all these dudes in the film were totally drinking schlitz, and right then and there, i like knew: we could totally party. me and stillwater - we could party with some schlitz!

seriously, i love me some two-hearted ale as much as the baker and more than prescription, but how often do you sip two-hearted and see the actors in the film you are watching grab up some two-hearted AT THE EXACT SAME MOMENT? especially a film set in 1973? seriously, i'm thinking about becoming a rock-n-roll god. get your tickets early, people. i feel good things on this hamsterian horizon.

see you on tour, piz-unks!

A 16-IPA SHOOTOUT IN KANSAS CITY: PRESENTED BY SIR SCOTT

2009-04-07T18:11:00.000-07:00

We needed to do a proper IPA shootout. Not a “tasting”, but an actual shootout. How is that done?

Step 1: Gather some hopefully worthy brews. Check. We even managed to sneak in an elusive (for Kansas, anyway) Three Floyds Alpha King.

Step 2: Gather some beer nerds to taste and subjectively judge. The beer nerds part is easy. The four nerds for this shootout are all avid homebrewers… a combined 35 years of brewing experience, and a collective 5 trips to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. The “subjectively judge” part would be the hard part. For this shootout, we’ve rated in a very unorthodox manner, and it exposes some of our personal biases. We’re familiar with the traditional beer rating system, where you take things such as nose, mouthfeel, and appearance into consideration. That’s all fine and dandy. But for me (and the friends in this shootout), there’s really only ONE thing that matters most in the end… DID WE LIKE THIS BEER? A really nasty beer could have a GREAT mouthfeel or appearance. But why rate it high on those fronts if I think it sucks and I have no intention of buying it? With that in mind, we decided on an arbitrary scale of 1 – 100. 100 is the best beer the world could ever produce (there were none given), and 1 is an undrinkable beer. 50 is the “utterly average” mark. It’s that beer that just makes you wonder why they even bothered brewing it. So typical, so average, it just doesn’t move you, but at least isn’t BAD. Anything below the 50 mark gets on the verge of nasty, and anything above 50 is where you start to consider buying the stuff.

Perhaps the most important part of this scale is that helps us get a handle on the overall “greatness” of the beer. For instance, if a beer comes in 3^rd place, that doesn’t tell us much. Was it a distant third, or was it a photo finish, where you can’t go wrong with ANY of the top-3? Our system helps quantify that.

The 16 beers were blindly poured, so during the tasting, we only knew a beer by number, not name. This removed any possible chance of bias for (or against) a brand name. There are very valid concerns that a lot of hops kill the taste buds. We also tried to combat this by having each of the four judges start with a different set of four beers. This way, if later tastings tended to judge a beer more harshly (or favorably), it would all average out in the end. Furthermore, we had water and crackers to help cleanse the palette between tastings. Finally, this wasn’t a “run through once and rate” type of thing. After the initial tasting, we went back to re-taste similarly scored beers to further hone the scores. In the end, every one of us had ratings that were very accurate. I then averaged all of the numbers to come up with the final results. Some might surprise you. Averaged scores are in parenthesis. Here goes:

16^th Place: Southampton IPA (45) – Unanimously voted the worst of the whole bunch, and by a pretty good margin. I think it was the only beer in the tasting where every person either coughed, gasped, or had some type of negative comment about it. All malt and devoid of any hop character. I wouldn’t buy this for $1/6-pack, simply because I wouldn’t enjoy drinking ANY of it.

15^th Place: Three Floyds Alpha King (57.5) – This was a shocker, and I hope it doesn’t offend some of the Three Floyds faithful here. Again, this was a totally blind taste test done by some knowledgeable beer nerds. Overall, this one just didn’t have what it takes. Some specific comments from the tasting… “Is this even an IPA? Tastes like a British Pale.” “All malt, no hops.” “No hop smell, too dark, too malty.” DISCLAIMER – This beer was 8 months old. In my opinion, NOT old enough to noticeably detract from the flavor profile, but if anyone wants to mail me a fresh one, I’ll gladly taste it.

14^th Place: Bear Republic Extra Pale Ale (61.25) – Granted, it’s not even fair to throw a pale in with a bunch of IPAs and expect it to do well. I think this one must have been on sale for it to make this group. Regardless, the fact that this mere pale beat out two other IPA’s says something about how weak the last 2 places really were.

13^th Place: Pyramid Thunderhead IPA (66.25) – Not much to say about it. Nothing offensive, but nothing that stood out as overly memorable.

12^th Place: Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA (66.75) – Comes in at the lower end of our scale, but it’s worth noting that ONE judge ranked this as his #1 beer (giving it a 94). Think about what a 94 does to the average of this beer. By the other three judges, this one was given a score of 45, 60, and 68. It was not well-received. Why the division? The taster who gave it a 94 admitted that he loved the nutty, malty taste. To which everyone else responded something to the effect of, “We aren’t rating nut brown ales here!!!” In the end, he admitted that as an IPA, this one was WAY off the mark, but as a tasty brown ale, pretty darn good. Just don’t go into this one expecting hops.

11^th Place: Mojo IPA (67) – We’ve rated this one in the past, and our opinion hasn’t shifted too much. Just doesn’t carry enough hop “BAM” for our tastes.

10^th Place: Mongoose IPA (67.5) – We had LOW hopes for this one, mainly because a bomber of it was only $2.99, but overall, it wasn’t a bad IPA. “Crisp start, bad finish”. “A solid, if average, IPA.”

9^th Place: O’Fallon 5-Day IPA (70) – Here’s where we really start getting to some of the solid IPAs. This one didn’t have many noteworthy comments, but all judged it fairly well.

8^th Place: Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye (72.75) – Noted as having a “peppery” taste, perhaps due to the rye?

6^th Place (tie): Anderson Valley Hop Ottin IPA (73.75) “Great smell, excellent hop bitterness at the end.” “Clean color, crisp taste backs it up.”

6^th Place (tie): Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA (73.75) – I’ll admit that I’ve always been biased AGAINST this company because I think the pencil-scratched labels make it look cheap. However, they actually backed it up with a solid beer that I’d gladly buy again.

5^th Place: Bridgeport IPA (74.5) – This was, for me, the gold standard of IPAs at one time. I still think it’s a fantastic IPA. It’s just been eclipsed in recent years by some real hop bombs. Crisp, citrusy, drinkable.

4^th Place: Boulevard Singlewide IPA (78.5) – This was my personal second-favorite of the shootout. Stunning when I consider the fact that I’ve had this beer before, and was underwhelmed at the time. But when blindly put side-by-side with some of the kings of IPA’s, this fared VERY well. Universally liked.

3^rd Place: Bell’s 2-Hearted Ale (83) – It’s all been said before on this one. “Best smell of all beers here.” “Well balanced malt and hops.”

2^nd Place: Sierra Nevada Torpedo (85.75) – One taster’s hands-down favorite, while ranking 3^rd – 5^th by others. Not a citrus bomb like the 2-Hearted Ale, but a DEFINITE hop bitterness that stands out as unique in this crowd… not an easy task when you look at the sheer number of competitors.

1^st Place: O’Dell IPA (90.25) - Shocker here. It won our last IPA shootout with only 3 other competitors. Apparently, adding 12 more competitors can’t de-throne this king. I realized on this tasting that I’ve mistakenly called the hops “grapefruity” in the past. It’s not grapefruit. It’s pine. All pine. One taster couldn’t keep his comments to himself when he stumbled upon this one… “Smelled like I’ve walked into a Nordic pine forest!” “Most unique beer of the day… tastes like a pine tree.” “Good color, aroma.” “A unique standout in this crowd.”

What I actually find great about these overall results is that the O’Dell IPA and the Sierra Nevada Torpedo couldn’t be more different. This isn’t a “citrus hop” bias coming out, or anything like that. These two beers simply manage to stand out dramatically from a lot of the others, and it’s becoming more and more difficult to do that in the crowded IPA field. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves, berate us as judges, condemn our scoring system, or do anything else that helps you feel better about a beer that you wanted to score higher. Most importantly, cheers to whatever beer you personally love.

KISSING HOPS WITH OPEN MOUTH

2009-04-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

for the record: i fumbled my way through a 12-pack of schlitz, with the help of felix landry, this past weekend. and it was good. and it made me feel as classy and upper-crust as the schmoe in that pic up there. and i do not regret giving my tastebuds to schlitz or for asking the kiss-of-the-hops into my gullet. if you like corn, you'll like schlitz. if you like smooching slight hints of hops, you'll like schlitz. if you like purchasing 12 beers for the price of 6, you'll like schlitz. if the current economic depression is depressing you but you'd rather stop eating food than drinking lagers, then ask schlitz into your gullet as well. you will thank me and milwaukee.

New Poll

2009-04-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

www.rickmoranis.com

LATONYA STILL - CERTIFIED BEER SNOB - GIVES HER WORD ON CITRUSY IPAS AND RUSSIAN IMPERIAL STOUTS

2009-03-31T15:39:00.000-07:00

this is my wife. that woman up there in the photo, yeah, she married me. she hasn't figured it out yet, so don't tell her. i've kept her fooled for this long. ooooowwww!

i've known latonya for 11 years. 10 of those years we've been good friends. 4.5 of those years we've been spouses. and, in all this time, my wife and i have viciously disagreed on a few things: neil young, long camping trips, guns, jason vorhees, and beer. i'm sure there are other things we have disagreed on as well, but these few pop into my mind immediately.

actually, we went on a 24 hour camping trip with our homechurch last year at easter, and now latonya's talking about cabins in the woods and building fires. also, for valentine's day, she took me to see the new FRIDAY THE 13th in the theater, on friday the 13th. it was magical. she only watched about 20 minutes of the film, but she claimed to have good time hearing me have a good time. she's hot.

nearly three years ago, the wife and i toured boulder brewing company in boulder, colorado. standing as friends of sir jason scott, who built the boulder beer website, we walked through the underbelly of my favorite brewery, dodging frozen and boiling pipes, holding handfuls of dry hops, served a table full of pitchers filled to the rim with free boulder beer. dan, the bigwig at boulder, left eight people and eight pitchers at the table saying, "whatever beer you leave gets poured down the drain." my wife single-handedly downed over half a pitcher of mojo IPA, announcing to everyone at high volumes by the third glass that the grapefruity flavor in the mojo was "freaking good, y'all." we split several six packs of mojo in our remaining kansas city days.

last year, at a flogging molly concert, the wife and i met this really sweet couple near the pit who bought us cans of shiner bock. latonya drank her entire can. i tried to take the can from her, thinking she wouldn't like it. she held it strong, drank the whole thing down. later she said, "it was okay, kinda like drinking iced tea." even though it was shiner bock, i thought it was kinda hot.

two weeks ago my friend josh rolled in from san diego with a growler of stone russian imperial stout. amazing stuff. creamy, mild, sweet where imperial stouts are usually bitter but still concrete where it needed to stand. the coffee and anise simmered into the background enough for a mellow dark chocolate sensation, and the 9.4% alcohol remained deeply secretive. josh and i realized the hidden message later, but only after the second glass.

the growler sat on the table when latonya rolled into town from kansas city two days later. she asked what it was. i told her it was stone russian imperial stout. she said, "would i like it?" i thought about her love for chocolate, for coffee, for root beer that rings of anise, and i said, "actually, you might." she drank two full pints.

then she asked if they sell this stuff around here. i said no. she asked if they sell anything like it. i poured her a glass of north coast old rasputin russian imperial stout. she sipped it, scrunched her face and said, "i like it, but the alcohol is a bit heavy." i kinda thrilled when she said that. just the night before, josh marion, felix landry and myself did a side-by-side tasting of stone russian imperial and north coast old rasputin, and we all labeled the stone drastically more mellow, and drinkable, primarily due to more chocolate and less alcohol burn. i still enjoy old rasputin, but it decidedly pales in comparison to stone. this was the opinion of me, josh, felix, and my wife - latonya: the sudden beer snob.

the same day she did a side-by-side tasting of boulder's mojo IPA and o'dells IPA. she said that, for her, mojo was the superior IPA because the grapefruit overpowered the alcohol and floral flavors. in her opinion, the o'dells taste like some odd concoction of botanical flowers, mulched and fused into a therapeutic iced tea. also, she said she could taste the alcohol in the o'dells, which, obviously, is a turn off for this lady. so hot.

two days ago we hit up a flying saucer in austin. i asked the waitress to bring her a sample of left hand milk stout. she loved it. she bought a bottle tonight. she's sipping it right now out of a wine glass. i mean, this gal went from white wine to IPAs and imperial stouts, pole vaulting over lagers, pilsners, wheats, wittes, hefes, pale ales, porters, stouts, and bocks along the way. and she was able to say why. seriously, my wife is cooler than most of the dude's in this quaint texas town, including myself. keep your paltry shiner bocks, bros, i'll be sipping imperial stouts and grapefruity IPAs with my lady. with my lady. after the valentine's vorhees' ticket, the week in the woods, and all these beer tastings, we might be sipping cheap domestics at neil young's parting show.

or not.

Mattingly Brewing Co.: Beer served by rough looking characters

2009-03-29T17:09:00.001-07:00

Something Irish Red
BrightSide Belgian White
Black Dawn Coffee Porter
Homeward Brown
Black Sky Stout Porter
HOPtimal APA

This was the line-up for my first time visiting this establishment which is still in it's infancy. Before i say anything else, i must say this: The price was fantastic. I had six 5 oz. samplers and i paid $7.00 total. I couldn't believe it! When Hamster was here last, we went to the Stable and had six 3 oz. samplers and paid $12!

Brightside Belgian was laid down closest to my mouth, so of course, this is what i reached for to begin. I still can't place the taste but i am confident that i have tasted something nearly identical to this in the past. I don't know what the White refers to, but it was not sweet like a traditional Belgian. It was very low key and had a chipper bite to it towards the end. I did not taste malt or sugar at all. It would be a pleasure to drink this in the summer. Not the best by far, but it wasn't bad to start with either.

The Irish Red somethingorother was next and was a disappointment. I was thinking of Killian's the whole time and i have to say that if you were to take a bottle of Killian's and dump it into a plastic container and then filled the rest up with water and stirred it (like making orange juice from concentrate) then you would have the taste of this beer. Completely watered down. If i were any part Irish, i would have burned the place down. Luckily for me i am German and English, so i sat and complianed while musing over the destructiveness of my ancestors.

Homeward Brown was up next and i was more pleased. Quite nutty and fuller bodied. It was a lighter brown and looked more like a washed out amber ale. The flavor was much more distinct and hinted of toasted almonds and butter. Actually, that sounds even better than it tasted, i'll admit. It was decent but not one i will want to go back and get.

I took one sip of the APA and thought, nope better not. Then i slid it to the end for reasons i'll explain shortly. (This was strongly urged by Church Key, ...good advice.)

Ok, i kept getting confused about which of the dark beers were which. They were written on the board over the bar, but i had nothing written down by me so i had to know by memory. Then i smelled them and the coffee porter was a dead giveaway.

Black Sky Stout Porter: Porters have never done it for me. Sorry to any out there that crave porters. I was intrigued by the name but his thing tasted watered down again. It roused memories of a beer i had ingested only minutes before and only reinforced my reasons for not caring for porters. I can't even tell you a flavor profile on this. The aroma was faint and confusing. It smelled sort of like a stout, but also like honey. It was a bit sweet and the malt might have been overbearing if only it had more flavor.

Black Dawn Coffee Porter. Wow! Hell yea! This tasted amazing. For those who know me, you know my stance on coffee. Can't stand the stuff. It is oppressive to the point of torture to my tongue and would, i'm sure, destroy my bowels if given a chance. More importantly is that coffee tastes like liquified tractor tire to me. With that said, i am rating this bastard high, not because it tasted particularly amazing to me, but because it tasted so strongly of black coffee and so little like alcohol, that i have to imagine anyone else would be captivated by this beer. This kicks the asses of all the coffee stouts i have tasted and makes the Schlafly coffee stout tasting like an accidental swig from a muddy lake. The only thing i can think of is that they brewed several pots of coffee, brewed some beer, and then dumped it all together.

Hoptimal APA: I was impressed with this sucker too! All in all i'd say they are doing well to have 2 fantastic beers, 2 so-so beers, and then two beers i'll have if you buy it for me. The APA was impressively well-balanced and smooth. It at no time felt harsh, yet the hops were very present and even up front. This beer had a nice fruity element that came through simultaneously, like a grapefruit and a hop were holding hands and skipping on a grassy ravine--niether one in a hurry--both refusing to walk in front of the other. I like it when the elements mesh, and it is even more impressive in strong pale ales because i am wanting a dominant hop presence.

All in all, i was distinctly joyful after leaving this place. My friend's Ryan and the Church Key himself sampled some food; a burger, fries and fish n chips. Neither one raved about the eats, but we agreed that it was worth coming back to.

Oh, i forgot to mention i saved the APA because i knew it was gonna be good after one sip.

Also, the waiting staff was very punky and rough looking. It looked like they recruited the "skater" clique from my high school to run the joint. Fun times.

Baker.

A BITTER MARCH DELIGHT

2009-03-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

my buddy josh marion brought me some treasures back from his recent trip to san diego. one was a bomber of this here stone bitter chocolate oatmeal stout (9.2% abv). ummm, this beer is amazing. over the top but still manageable, like grandma listening to lamb of god unplugged. somethings need to be simmered down just a bit; however, stone does not simmer anything down: they simply make a few things more manageable for the frailty of human experience. i swear to buddha, if these boys made a mexican lager, the thing would flamenco dance around your chair and burn your bottom lip with its charry hot footwork. i'm just saying.

also, i like the bottle.

here's the review josh and i posted on ratebeer.com. we'll just leave it at this. please know that words were hard to find. for three reasons: the beer is too good, the night is too late, the alcohol is too high. adios, amigo.

this beer is stupid good. there’s no way around it. blacker than life before Jesus, with a cleveland browns ballcap to boot for a head. this thing smells like whoa. then it tastes like whoa. and then, when you go in again, more whoa. huge chocolate aroma and flavors. very dark, nearly burnt chocolate. my first impression was charred liquid fudge, but in a good way. the alcohol burn hit the back of the throat fairly hard in the first few sips, mellowed in the middle, then rears its hothead in any serious pause. yes, the alcohol bites here. but that’s okay. coffee and bleeding heart juice round out the edges making this as much of an afternoon treat as a midnight sleeping pill. i like it. my buddy here, in the flannel shirt, he likes it. we agree that, at times, the flavor is almost overpowering. while punching where it should punch and smoothing where it should smooth, sometimes it throws in a kick and belts me just below the tongue-belt. whoa. and wow. i said to my buddy josh here, just now and meaning it, "this is one of the more intense drinking experiences i’ve had." and it was. and it is. for about two more sips.

CLINT MAKES HIS BEER CLUB DEBUT WITH SOME SAM ADAMS LOVE AND THE BEST USE OF FRENCH FRIES THIS RODENT HAS YET TO ENCOUNTER

2009-03-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

I had two of Sam Adams' Imperial Series beers last night while kegging 10 gallons of a nice pale ale with cascade and saaz hops. The firstbeer we had was the Imperial White which came off tasting more as alightly colored dubbel. It was over the top sweet, with a slight"witte" taste. I was hoping for something drier, more complex and...better. I know Sam Adams is commercial, but they have put out some big beers that are not commercial i.e. triple bock, imperial pilsner, and those beers do not disappoint; however, this one did. It is 10.3%, so I understand having some sweetness, but this was sickening; we didn't even finish the bottle.

Second, we had the Imperial Stout which brought back over into the SA big beer believer side. The aroma is bitter with chocolate undertones, like 80% cacao chocolate. The first taste complements these claims,but also adds a bit more milk and finishes with a nice heat in the back of your throat. The extremely thick mouth feel almost makes you want to grab a spoon or some Wendy's fries and dip them in. This was a good, solid Imperial Stout, with dark chocolate, hops, and heat notes which translates into a decently complex beer with a bitter smoothness that finishes with a little kick in the old punching bag thingy in your throat...okay, it's not that hot, but I like the analogy.

Needless to say, this tasting goes right along with my overall view of Sam Adams, some of their beers I am embarrassed to have tried whereothers rank among some of the best that I've had. Combine that with their support for the industry and for homebrewers and I call myself a fan, for better or for worst.

GUEST POST-MASTER, SIR JASON SCOTT, WITH A BLIND IPA TASTE-TEST AND SOME FLAVOR FROM THE FARM

2009-03-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

I've attached a picture of the contenders for this one, along with the pours of each so that color can be compared. (You'll note a lonely bottle of Tallgrass IPA in the background of this... though not officially a part of the tasting, I'll comment on this later).

So obviously, on the far right, we have the two double IPAs... Mojo Risin' and Boulevard Doublewide. We considered it fair and prudent to pitch these against one another AFTER completing the tasting of the other four (5, including Tallgrass). Even though OUR review saved the doubles for last, I'll begin with them, because it's a pretty darn easy one, with unanimous results among the four tasters in the room. The winner? Mojo Risin'. The loser? None. They're both remarkable. But they're HUGE beers. Beers this large and this malty are actually difficult to infuse with enough hop to overcome the malt, and in this respect, Boulder has outclassed Boulevard with ease. A much more pronounced hop character, which makes it easier to drink than the Boulevard (though neither is what I would call an "easy drinker").

That's it for the doubles. We loved them both, but Mojo Risin' takes the crown due to better hops.Now for the not-so-easy to judge.

This was a true blind test. Beers were poured by a non-participant, then photographed as attached. The beer bottles were then moved to another room, and tasting began. A few of the more noteworthy comments from the tasting (and I will attribute the comment numbers to the rightful owner in the review:

1) Smells like grapefruit juice... not a bad thing at all.

2) This is a meaty mess (a bad thing)

3) This tastes like horse dick

And now the results. I hope it's not a cop-out to have a tie for first place. We went through the line-up 3 times, trying to judge a clear winner. It simply didn't happen. There are two beers that were so neck-and-neck... so amazingly and deliciously equal, yet with different characteristics.

Third place was a VERY close third place (one of our testers ranked it #1, actually), and fourth place was condemnable. Dead last and easily pushed to the back of the table with authority by every tester. The final results stunned me.

FIRST (and second) PLACE: O'Dell IPA and Bell's Two Hearted Ale. These beers both pull off an amazing balancing act. They pack a nice 7-ish percent alcohol level, but remain drinkable and, dare I say, refreshing. They are the two happy hop monsters, but they have a different hop profile. O'Dell garnered comment #1 above. If you like a grapefruity/Amarillo hop, this is your beer. If your preference leans toward a more generic or lime-like citrus, Two Hearted Ale is for you. In the end, we decided that the better beer simply depends on your mood. In fact, I know from a recent 2-hour phone call with the hamster that in a similar side-by-side comparison, I declared O'Dell the victor over Bell's. In this blind test, my notes gave the nod to Bell's over O'Dell. You simply can't go wrong this these. There is ONE factor that could make the O'Dell a clear-cut winner for me... price. At the liquor store I went to, the Two Hearted Ale was $10.99 a six-pack. Ouch. Very ouch. O'Dell was a comparable bargain at $8.99.

THIRD PLACE: Sierra Nevada Torpedo. One taster's favorite, hands-down. It's drinkable. It's not too heavy. It oozes hop presence from every CO2 bubble that escapes the surface. For all but one of us, we found the hop character to be a bit more like "hop concentrate" than actual hops. That is, you get a concentrated whallop of hop BITTERNESS, but not necessarily the nose that you might expect. Kind of like a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on steroids. A universally-liked beer, but with the citrus hop-heads in our taster panel, this one didn't have a chance.

LAST PLACE: This pains me. Boulder Beer's Mojo IPA. I smell a conspiracy. For a couple of years, the hamster and I have wondered if the bean counters at Boulder Beer are handcuffing brewmaster David Zuckerman's hands. Hazed and Infused just hasn't tasted the same as it did when it first came out. After this IPA shootout, I seriously wonder if Mojo has fallen victim to the bean counter. It's no secret that hops are pricey. The temptation to cut back on these vine-ripened cones of perfection has to be powerful for the accounting dept. This beer was the unfortunate recipient of comments 2 & 3. It should be added that the taster who proclaimed comment #3 grew up on a farm, so I suspect he knows what he's talking about. This beer was the third one that each of us tasted. We would taste the first beer, then leave the glass in place. Taste the second beer, and either move it slightly forward or rearward of the first, thereby indicating its relative rank against the previous beer. When every one of us got to the Mojo, it was slid with forceful disgust to the back of the table. Now let me qualify these comments. It's not that Mojo is a bad IPA. It is not. We all agreed that it is not a bad IPA. But this test was supposed to be one of our "best of the best" shootouts. We had a lot higher hopes against the other competitors.

So where did it fail? Hops. Or the lack thereof. The thing tasted of malt, and almost exclusively malt. In the company of the other three beers we were tasting, you would have had a hard time convincing me that the Mojo was actually in IPA. We really tried to give this one a fair shot. We even mixed them up and tried the whole thing again, and with the same result. Mojo was simply out-classed and out-hopped at every blind sip we took. The irony of the taste test is that I've always considered Mojo to be a grapefruity hop king. They pile the Amarillo hops into this thing (supposedly). As I took this blind taste test, I got to the O'Dell IPA and, upon smelling the fragrant grapefruit, already proclaimed it to be Mojo. Which made me really scratch my head at what that awful #3 beer had to be. So when the curtain was lifted and Mojo turned out to be the dog, I was a bit crushed. Further irony came from a drunken e-mail that I sent Hamster one night saying that I would defend Boulder Beer to the death and beyond, since they are like family to me. After this tasting, I can no longer do that. Will someone please tell me that I got a bad 6-pack of Mojo? Will someone repeat a similar tasting and tell me if your panel is as unanimously turned off by the lack of hops in Mojo?

DISHONORABLE MENTION: Tallgrass IPA. This one was thrown in as a joke. As a proud product of Lawrence, Kansas, I've come to learn that the very best thing to ever come from Manhattan, KS is mediocrity. Unfortunately, Tallgrass couldn't even achieve mediocrity with their "IPA". Let's not try to kid anyone though... this is not an IPA. Or at least it's not an India Pale Ale. It could quite certainly be an Interestingly Pungent Amber. Perhaps an Insulting Pale Ale. But if hops supposedly kept IPAs fresh on the long ship voyage to India, I predict this beer would have gone sour about 2 miles from the English shore. This is about as hoppy as a Mai Bock. I don't know how a brewer could ever produce something like this and have the gumption to call it a Pale Ale, much less one fit for a trip to India. Laughably horrendous, this has to go down as one of the worst IPAs I've ever tasted.

So, there you have it. Our results of a blind, 4-way taste test. Your results may vary, and I'll look forward to what you think. Take care, sirs.

The Smoothest Pale Ale to Date...

2009-03-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

I never wondered why I became unusually interested in beer when I was living in Springfield. I mean, Missouri State was filled with beer drinking constituents. Sure, I had my fill of corn brewed beer, overly sudsy keg beer, and anything that was on clearance...but, I discovered, tonight, what it was that sparked my curiosity with hop water: Mueller Pale Ale brewed at Springfield Brewing Company. The first time I stepped foot in Springfield Brewing Company, I had been a beer drinker for only a couple of months. This was my first experience with craft brewed beer. I ordered a Pale Ale, drank it down like a good college boy, and asked for another. I didn't realize that many other Pale Ales were not so tasty and smooth...I had never tried any other Pale Ales.

So, today, I was in Springtown, and I stopped by the brewery. I usually do any chance I get, and I sample as much as I can while still being able to walk out the door. I always buy a glass, because they have these great pilsner glasses

with tiny mouths, that make you smell the aroma of the beer even more than usual...but they are made from thin glass and break often...so, I have to buy one or two every time. Anyway...I also purchased a 6 pack of Pale Ale, drove back to St. Louis, put one in the freezer, poured the liquid copper into a glass, and expected to simply reminisce...however, after sampling numerous IPA's, Pale Ales, and all sorts of other tasty micro-brews in the past few years, this Pale Ale from Springtown found itself parked in the front row (maybe even in the handicap spot) of my favorite brews. Yeah, it might be the history that we share, but I feel this was an unbiased sipping experience...in the familiarity of my living room, on a random Tuesday, I rekindled the old flame. It is "uncommonly smooth" (as the bottle says) and is "in the Pale Ale tradition of the Pacific Northwest, using a generous amount of Cascade hops." I would not typically steal quotes from the bottle, but they are truth! A tinge of caramel is there, but the citrusy Cascade hops win out in flavor...this beer reminds me of Bridgeport IPA...but better. Maybe it is the answer to Hamster's quandary of what happened to the Bridgeport IPA over the past couple of years...Springfield Brewing Company stole the recipe, and the Bridgeport folks were left to try and recreate the goodness. That's just a theory of how the smoothest pale ale I've ever ingested came to pass.

I have 5 more...slim chance I'll share...the closest replacements are 3 hours away...I will let you smell the empty bottles...

New Pole

2009-03-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

Props

2009-03-24T16:40:00.000-07:00

I would like to give some props to "the wilderness". I recently sampled an IPA and a stout that he brewed at home...excellent beers for your first time my friend.

The "Paranoid IPA" competes with Dogfish Head's 60 min IPA...seriously (but I don't think the club really cared too much for the 60 min). The flavor was pow-were-ful. Aroma was men-knee-mull.

The "St. Francis Stout" is equivalent to Schlafly's Irish Extra Stout. Viscous.

I'm proud of you man. Keep 'em coming.

I give you 8 Kevin Stills out of 10.

DEDICATED TO SIR SCOTT'S STORY OF SUMMIT'S SAMARITAN EFFORTS

2009-03-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

that up there is a picture of my good friend, the sir scott of jason. in this picture he sports a memento from his evening with the brewers of summit brewing company (see comment by zoesjourneyhome). he says they are fine people. samaritans perhaps. for this, i bless them. and for this, because i love my friend and his bride, i would wear that hat gladly, but i may not purchase much of their beer, even for a good story. however, in honor of jason's story, i purchased one more little bottle of summit extra pale ale (5.3% abv) just for the trying.

at first sniff and sip i realize, this is an english pale ale: lots of yeasty bread and biscuits. ironically, i spoke out against summit IPA's need for a little more bread and biscuit, just something malty to hold up the drooping hop vines burnt and sagged into my glass, and now i'm drinking the crummy outer edges of a frickin' dagwood sandwich. from one extreme to the other here, people. however, beneath all that super yeasty loaf action rests a nice sliver of coppery hops. i prefer a crisp floral hop, a la two-hearted or boulder's mojo, but when the malts are this large even melted pennies weigh in good for balance.

this ale reminds me of a poem i penned just the other day. my brother from another mother, myles werntz, sent out a line by the hipster of spinsters, dan quayle: "We have a firm commitment to NATO. We are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe." i don't know what he's all on about there, but i penned the following verse in response.

I am no bit committed to Europe,

as to what they brew and bottle.

Though the Queen's men invented IPA,

US ale rules o'er this wattle.

with that said, i would not award summit's extra (english) pale ale any medals anytime soon; although, they deserve something fine and dandy in the humanitarian department. Lord, knows i could have used some of that sobering treatment back when i . . . .

Slummin It At the Tin Can

2009-03-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

Sounds like Kevin and Myles felt our spirit of hanging out with the beers from the wrong side of the track on St. Pat's Day. I will share the happenings of the most recent BEER CLUB meeting through my feeble eyes. We started the night off at the Tin Can. This bar is unique...but the waitress made it unforgettable. Our good friend Matt Brock asked the common question you hear floating around watering holes, "What is the Schlafly Seasonal that you have on tap?" The waitress peered back at Brock perplexed. "It's a beer from Schlafly called 'Seasonal'." Matt kindly tried to lead the waitress toward the realization, "I THINK that they call it 'Seasonal' because they change to a different beer with the seasons." The waitress was not convinced, and proceeded to say, "Well, it's always been called 'Seasonal' since I've been here." BEER CLUB has graced two bars with it's presence, and found no female waitress that knows the difference between piss and pale ale. Dissapointing! Well, since Matt and the server had to agree to disagree, we proceeded to get $4.50 buckets of Milwaukee hop water. First Brock ordered 6 PBR's for the price I paid for one Mighty Arrow. Then, Nate decided to buy a bucket of 6 different brews from the 75 cent menu. Here were his choices: Steel 211, Natural Light, Colt 45, Olympia...and the other two Nate will have to tell you. Point is, we decided to look at the address on the side of the can of each of the Milwaukee brewskies (Natural Light excluded of course) and we realized that the addresses matched perfectly. So, if you brew beer, then put it in a bunch of different types of cans, you can sell it cheap because you will sell a lot (or maybe they are still searching for the one that will win another Blue Ribbon). They all had the distinct sweetness of corn, and made us smile (because of the thrifty price, not the nifty flavor).

Then, we scooted on down the street to Schlafly's Tap Room. Here we were bombarded with unique, tasty brews...and, can you believe it, a knowledgeable server (I'm sure they actually are required to be there). Well, the Pierce City Eagle sat between the Monett Cubs and reminisced about old acquintances. The bartender even stopped to hear one of my stories, and then walked away unsatisfied, with his head down. I'm not that interesting sober, but my stories get even more lame as the alcohol hits the brain. Most times people laugh...cause they are toasted too.

Ahh, BEER CLUB is good.

LEPRECHAUN PEE

2009-03-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

my good friend of a decade and plus, myles werntz, rolled into BCS from waco yesterday. we ran a few good laps around the old backgammon board and sipped some natty lights out on the front stoop. to be honest, even though i sported my dropkick murphys shamrock t-shirt, which i picked up at hipster heaven - hot topic - on the clearance rack, i had forgotten it was saint patrick's day. plum forgot. and i'm irish. the german werntz had to remind me.

we set out for half priced burgers and some cold pints on the backporch of ozona bar and grill later in the afternoon. a sign near the front door claimed "green beer" all day long. in 31 years of abiding this lowly planet, i have never seen or tasted a green beer. i kinda always thought it was a joke, an urban legend, like the leprachaun stuck inside of mobile. but sure enough, when i ordered a pint of miller lite, a glowing green beer came to the table.

brightly fused toxic glimmered sunlight shimmers fizzled with bubbles that stacked firm lager head like mint-tinted shaving foam. this beer was not slightly green, it was a blazening booger from the jolly green giant himself. the brightness of the green lager reminded me of the teenage mutant ninja turtles with the part 8 death of jason vorhees sizzled by green manhattan subway goo. this thing in this glass was not a beverage: it was a relic to good cartoons and bad slasher flicks. the aroma still becried my faithful miller lite. wrapped up in all that domesticity roared backyard fires at the scott-castle, wedding bells at the robertson union, the early days of learning to home church it at marky-mark douglass's kansas city casa. this green beer offered no aromatic hint of shepherd's pie and mournful dirges. the first sip took me to all those familiar places, but, wait, what's that, there on the edges? not ireland. this doesn't taste like ireland. it tastes like goo and garbage pail kids, like food coloring and easter eggs sans vinegar. this trendy little st. patty's day trick watered down my beer. here we are celebrating a saint - a good and worthy saint - and i'm growing bitter enough to upturn tables and uproot somebody's lucky clover. whose idea was this green beer anyway? it's trite. it's like putting eye shadow and rouge on a metal head, turning badasses into twisted sisters. i do not like this beer. i do not like polluting something grand and beautiful, like a tried and true miller lite, just so some bartender has a chance to get boobie-flashed by the end of the night. no, sir. get cable if you need a boobie flash, but leave my beer alone.

until next saint patrick's day, my friends:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

and say no to colored beer.

DEDICATED TO PRESCRIPTION - AN IPA REVIEW AND A PICTURE OF SOME RANDOM WHITE GIRL'S FOOT I FOUND ON GOOGLE IMAGES

2009-03-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

our dearly own and beloved prescription took on quite the IPA tasting task recently and then reported his findings in a humdinger of a beerclub post. to celebrate prescription's accomplishments, i waited to read his post until i could do so while simultaneously tasting a brand new IPA. i chose SUMMIT BREWING COMPANY'S INDIA PALE ALE (6.4% abv) because it was available for purchase in a single bottle. i chose the picture above because it has some random white girl's foot in it, and i thought that was a little awkward.

so, without further adieu, here's to prescription:

summit IPA pours a coppery caramel color. by looks alone, i'm expecting a very metallic flavor. small bubbles rise in the middle of the glass, showing a bit of air and teasing my palate. the aroma screams heavy, heavy hops. something also smells a bit burned, like the hop farmer raked up fallen hop blossoms off the ground, burned them on a leaf pile, and then dry-hopped the ale through the ashes. i cannot imagine why this ale smells burned. a thin white scrim lays across the surface of the ale while small white bubbles shift the covering like hundreds of tiny crabs moving the ground level of the sandy beach. i like the looks. i do not like the smell. and the first sip is atrocious. who told the brewing company it was okay to ask people money for this shite? i feel like i'm watching the american idol audition and some tacky girl is wailing and she sucks and then she says, "well, my grand-mammy believes in me!" that's how i feel about this beer: somebody's grand-mammy said they make precious beverages and now they can charge me money for it. the second sip makes me hate the grand-mammy. this is hop overload. there is no balance. their is not biscuit or barley or malt or bread here. and the hop flavor is not even very good. the website boasts four different hops in this one ale: northern brewer, east kent golding, warrior, U.S. golding, and then it's dry-hopped through east kent golding again for the ashy burn. listen, summit, do you know there is a hop shortage in america? do you know that people who use their hops responsibly cannot buy their hops at wholesale prices because you are setting them on fire and abusing them? this ale is silly. let's back the truck up here and see what summit might be able to do with only two hop varieties. the big four is just too much. i sip a little more, and i lose my faith in all grand-mammies. i do not like this beer. i am glad i only have one. still, i am not dumb enough to not finish this beer. bad beer is better than no beer.

prescription, i am sorry that this tasting did not work out well. i meant of this to be a celebration of you. tonight, i will raise a glass of something finer in honor of you and your sweet grand-mammies.

confession: that is actually my foot. sometimes i paint my toes. don't tell anyone.

AN OPEN LETTER TO SAMUEL ADAMS - MAKER OF THINGS THAT ARE FINER THAN OTHER THINGS

2009-03-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

my dear sam -

let's have a chat, you and i. let's talk about beer. specifically, let's talk about the beauty of beer, for there exists such a thing, and, you my friend, have tapped into it.

i live in the republic of texas. it never rains here. in 2008 the skies tinkled rain once for about 15 minutes, but that was all. still, because we are the republic and God's chosen people, our crops continue to flourish and our cattle remain as strong as the leather we wrap around our waists and boots and wife's torsos when they let us. life is good in the republic. and today, the skies have tinkled rain in a solid stream since yesterday. something good our way comes, yeah buddy.

and in here, sweet inside and dry and warm in a bodacious red cardigan, i sit and sensually observe something good: this new blackberry witbier you have made. sam, this is amazing. this is darling. this is prettier than the foot wide tail pipes on my cousin's dooley truck. i like this.

sam, i like how this beer is slightly hazy, like our glimpse into the heaven's according to paul. and i like how, in that haze, there are all these little bubbles ascending from the pint glass floor like prayers on the baptist bench altar. and i like how the beer, when you drink it, makes snowflake patterns along the edge of the glass, like angel wings. i can keep on with the religious imagery if it's doing anything for you.

and i like the flavor: a little sweet with the wit and a little tart with the blackberry. i like that my mouth feels tempted to pucker from the heavy berry aroma alone, but i do not pucker because the berries are not that tart in the flavor. but the they almost are. so i pucker anyway, just for fun. for shits and giggles, as my friend jim yates would say.

this is a good beer, sam. probably not the best beer i've had, but good enough, today, to elicit a little melodrama. the rain helps with that, too. so, i officially give this blackberry witbier 3 pucker-sunches out of 5. you're on your way, sir. i'd be interested to see what you could make of a lager. especially, a lager straight outta the heart of boston.

sincerely, a true fan, even though i haven't bought anything by you in nearly a year,

- the hamster

ps. soon i will write back with my comparison of SAM ADAMS BLACK LAGER and NEW BELGUIM 1554. two beers so similar, and, yet, two beers so almost alike.

It Is Finished.

2009-03-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

I know that many of the readers of this drunken blog are devout IPA drinkers. I have been downing various versions of this brew (a dozen to be exact) over the past few weeks. My mission, to drink a bunch of IPA's, and judge them based on my own personal preferences...so some of you may disagree, but I will share my thoughts. I am going to rate the beers on a scale of $0-$5. This will represent how much I would gladly ("gladly" is the key word, i want them all to cost $0.50, but real life...) pay for a pint of each of these hop waters at a drinking hole. I will also put them in order from last place to first place. Let's start with the major dissapointment:

12. BUTTE CREEK ORGANIC IPA: Basic hop flavor--subtle caramel malt--no stand out bite. Maybe an isolated incident, but this thing was way too sudsy! I poured most of it down the drain...which is rare. $0.50

11. ARCADIA IPA: Caramel and nut flavors are more prevalent than the hops--no citrus taste at all--$2.00

10. DOGFISH HEAD 60 MINUTE IPA: Forgettable, but definetly an IPA--good hop flavor, but a little turbulent on the tongue--not enough citrus flavor to smooth it out. It says it's been voted the best beer in America, but it's not even the best IPA in my fridge--$3.00

9. BELL'S 2 HEARTED ALE: Obvious hops--then malty and grainy--too grainy at the end--i need water (with lemon) to quench my thirst and add some citrus flavor that it is missing--$3.25

8. FT. COLLINS ROCKY MOUNTAIN IPA: Smooth--smells like caramel--hops are too subtle--like a brown ale trying to be as cool as an IPA--tasty beer, just not the IPA i am looking for--$3.50

7. LEFT HAND WARRIOR IPA: Caramel and hops mixed nicely--very little citrus flavor-smooth and easy to drink--$3.52

6. MENDOCINO IMPERIAL IPA (Winter Seasonal): A lot of hop bite!--just a little caramel flavor--mostly hops--strong, but smooth--you could even describe it as creamy--$4.00

5. SIERRA NEVADA TORPEDO IPA: Balanced--not too much of anything, but just enough of everything--hops, citrus, a little malt--give me another...now! thanks baker $4.25

4. BRIDGEPORT IPA: Not much of a smell--what you can't smell is more than compensated for in the taste!--awesome flavor--perfect balance--smooth hops flavor with an aftertaste of citrus--much smoother than other IPA's and even some Pale Ales...just a tad watery--CLEAN--could down a 6er without a sip of water--thanks hamster! $4.50

_____________________________________________________

3. O'FALLON 5 DAY IPA: Flowery aroma--very hoppy--great burn of flavor--minimal caramel flavor--citrus aftertaste--clean--thanks o'fallon--$4.75

2. ANDERSON VALLEY HOP OTTIN' IPA: great smell--hops and citrus--tiny bit of caramel malt flavor--the hops bite and my mouth likes it--i might need some h2o after a pint of Hop Ottin', but if it means I'm ready for a second pint, i'll do what is needed--great balance of hops and citrus--very similar to the best of the dozen--$4.99

1. BOULEVARD DOUBLE WIDE IPA: yep! hops to start, citrus at the end! lemon, maybe orange, and even some milder citrus--the burp halfway through was better than a whole bottle of Butte Creek--i don't want to drink or eat and ruin the aftertaste--$5.00

Some of these I had sampled before, but to have them in the mix of a bunch of other IPA's gave me a good scale to measure all of these by. I'll do this again with a bunch of other IPA's...anybody interested in joining me from the comfort of your home? even the hamster could join in a bit of distance learning. i'll plan it, if you'll drink it.

Poste Neuf (New Post)

2009-03-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

Time to head south, i guess.

FROM BROOKLYN TO BRITAIN AND BACK TO NEW BELGUIM - A GOOD TASTEBUD SHAGGING IS HARD TO FIND

2009-03-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

last night i spanked a midterm exam. bent that thing right over my left knee and gave it a new name. turning it in, i walked straight up the teacher, stapled the pages, and said, "you're welcome." shazam!

okay, i didn't really say, "you're welcome." i think i said, "i hope this works out." she said, "i'm sure you did fine." and i said, "thanks for the vote of confidence." i always sound way better in what i should have said than what i actually say.

still, to celebrate the victory of the test, i stopped by the local debauch depot and picked up a single bottle of this here brooklyn brewery's lager. that's all they call it: "lager." i mean, i'm not sure what else you could call it, but that's the simple and sweet of it.

here's my story. i bought this beer to celebrate my midterm. and i bought this beer because i had neVer tasted it, making it a fine addition to the beer club menu here. however, like a big giant hippo in a glass knicker-knocker shop, i tipped that bottle plum over on the counter top and lost half the beer under my tea-bag box. son of a bitch! i did say that. i always say exactly what i shouldn't say.

i had just enough of my wasted celebration beer to decide i was glad to not have the whole thing. this beer did not move me to kool and the gang sing-a-longs. brooklyn brewery's lager is woefully british, and not in the ways i'm learning to love the british ale. it was yeasty and twangy, crying out more for turkey and mayo than pretzels and mustard. the malts also tasted inappropriately heavy, allowing the hops to peep up glimmer a peering brow over the edge but never making a full appearance. i did not like this. i would not drink it with the queen, i would drinking it from her spleen.

luckily, my friend josh gave me a bottle of mighty arrow later in the evening. it was delish. and i celebrated mighty arrow shagging my taste buds as much i had hoped brooklyn brewery to celebrate my spanking of the midterm. beer drinking can be so naughty. at least, drinking the right beer can be.

The Cheaps - PBR vs. Dirt Cheap (not copying the Hamster)

2009-03-06T19:36:00.000-08:00

A little insight, Dirt Cheap is a beer sold at Dirt Cheap stores which also sell cheap tobacco and liquor products.

Price: Dirt Cheap runs $2.99 a sixer - PBR runs $5. 79 for a 12 point (2.89 a sixer - BOOM bitch!)

I participated in a blind taste test with the Baker, the goal was determine the better beer, between the D.C. and PBR.

I left the room while Baker poured the samples and vice versa.

Our impressions were as follows:

Baker:
Ok folks, Brew #1 boasted a cheery light yellow hue with a non-substantial froth of popping bubble delight. This beer smelled like a Bud. Slightly sour with a stong scent of alcohol infused liquid. Crisp and light. tasted very grainy, is it barley? Not sweet but had slightly bitter notes but not like an IPA,..much softer. I liked it. It was definitely worth the price.

#2: Much sweeter smell. It in fact was far sweeter than the first, richer with a bigger flavor profile. It was up front and noticable wheras the first made taste several times before writing. I was impressed with the larger and more pronounced flavor surge for such a cheap beer. I was not a fan of the sweetness, however. It reminded me of a Samiclaus but diluted and much less intense overall. I did not like this beer as much as the first.

I guessed that the first was PBR, and the second was Dirt Cheap. I was right. I was happy about this. It meant PBR was raised a bit in my opinion. Cheap...yes. Pretty good..surprisingly, yes.

Church Key: (in fewer words)
A - heavy carbonation. Mellow taste. Not clean. Made me think Multi-Grain. Burned my mouth a bit. A little sprinkle of hops, maybe a pinch or a dash. Original brewers maybe were afraid of hops and used it as a seasoner. I liked it though. It reminded me of a Bud or Busch.

B - SWEET. It brought back horrible memories of Samichlaus and Dogfish Head Worldwide Stout. Malty. Diluted. I liked A better.

I guessed A was PBR and B was Dirt Cheap. I was right. Ding Ding Ding.
How awesome, $2.89 for a sixer of Good bad beer. In a pinch I will always choose PBR. I mean it's distinguished flavor is the name. Pabst beer received a Blue Ribbon in 18(74?) for best lager and again in 2006.
I know that at a certain Bluegrass and BBQ joint in Knoxville TN PBR is the only beer served. On tap, not too shabby.

BROWN VS. BLUE - THE BATTLE OF THE NOT-SO-GOODS

2009-03-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

i did a little cat-sitting for some friends this past weekend. good people, that ryan and kelly. good cats, that winston and abigail. my primary cat-sitting duties included keeping the cats off the countertops and spraying them from a bottle water if they did. cush job. i could easily make a living hanging about other people's houses, watching their flat screens and drinking their sweet tea. sign me up. you don't even have to ask me to pay taxes; i'll just do it tax free, i liked it so much.

alright, not to gossip, people, but ryan has a pretty sweet liquor cabinet. top shelf whiskeys, scotches, rums and cognacs. (after that night in austin when i gave three waitresses and a waiter my mother's home phone number, mistaking it for my own, i don't even look at tequila anymore.) to curb my thirst for the harder stuff, i drank ryan's beer. he had two kinds: blue moon and dundee's honey brown. these are two beers i would not normally choose on my own, so i was happy to have this FREE chance to taste the two side by side.

after the testing, i decided that, no, i would not financially prefer either beer over, say, a schiltz; however, i will never turn down a bottle of blue moon or dundee's honey brown if the price is right. like, free. what follows are the reviews i posted quite some time ago on ratebeer for each of the aforementioned brews. the battle of the not-so-goods did indeed claim a winner.

IN THE BROWN CORNER

after years of bagging this beer, i’m here to say that dundee’s honey brown is quite refreshing and, even, nice. this is good backyard beer. hot weather beer. introduce-your-keystone-light-buddies-to-craft-beer kinda beer. though normally a hophead and imperial stoutist, i still dip my fancies in the always trustworthy and thirst-quenching american lager. and this honey brown lager may be one of the finest craft versions on the capitalist market. question: have the dundees changed the recipe in the past some-odd years? this feels lighter, less syrupy, or am i smoking something illegal? brightly toasted-golden fermented juice illuminates bubbles sweltering a constant ascension of pearly white bubbles. the aroma speaks of baked honey cakes, cinnamon rolls sans cinnamon loaded with honey, honey and more honey. a second look at the glass reveals a liquid honey comb, melted and translucently ravishing backporch sunlight. slightly burnt malt flavors curl on the edges with a heightened sweetness - like the corner-pan pieces of fresh honey drenched poundcake. a great "starter-to-the-night" beer. a fine lager. i also like the new label design: the marching band worker bee banging a bass drum and touting a mug of lager. not a beer i will return to often, but it’s nice. grandma will love this.

aroma - 3/10

appearance - 5/5

flavor - 6/10

palate 4/5

overall - 13/20

rating - 3.1

IN THE BLUE CORNER

not great. i’m so sorry that this beer is like EVERYWHERE. worse than that, i’m sorry that everyone thinks this is fabulouser than miller lite or pabst, as if blue moon were the next logical progression up from domestic lagers. seriously, it’s not good.

aroma - 4/10

appearance - 4/5

flavor - 4/10

palate - 2/5

overall - 7/20

rating - 2.1

the winner in the battle of the not-so-goods: dundee's honey brown. although maybe not worth pissing into a king's golden spittoon, i would gladly flush many a bottle of dundee down the railing in my own backyard. don't believe me? just bring a sixer of dundee's over and sit a spell. the railing awaits you.

BUT, MOM, THE PRESIDENT DRINKS BEER!

2009-03-05T14:15:00.000-08:00

(five bucks says it's an import.)

New Pole

2009-03-04T13:13:00.000-08:00

head due south.

Beer Fashion 2

2009-03-02T18:22:00.001-08:00

It never fails. I dream up something that could change the world only to discover that it's already out there on the internet.

This is the grill master something or other. It comes with tongs, flipper, holster for the beer, and extra pockets if you want to add other utensils, beers, or ninja stars.

...so beautiful

Tonight I've seen aprons with insulated beer pockets and retractable bottle openers, beer belts that hold 6 beers, leather beer holsters (which you can personalize), and bottle opener belt buckles.

We live in a beautiful world

Beer Fashion

2009-03-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

For quite some time now I have dreamed of having a grilling apron (more of a tool belt) that could holster my beer. The ultimate would be to have a bottle opener on the hip.

One day...one day

2009-02-27T11:51:00.000-08:00

Finish Your Beer

100 YEARS OF AGGRESSIVE BREWING NEAR THE MEANEST LITTLE TOWN IN THE REPUBLIC

2009-02-25T20:49:00.000-08:00

let's get one thing straight here: i am no fan of the shiner brewing company. they make fine beers. okay beers. run-of-the-mill beers. shiner beers serve like turkey franks at a german sausage oktoberfest: third-tier at best. if shiner brews anything worth a fancy goshdarn, in my opinion, it's the HEFEWEIZEN. the gratuitous amount of lemon rind river-bottom sediment, curled on the bottom of the bottle like crusty sands of pure citrus onslaught, are irresistible in the late republic summer. i do like a shiner hefe; in fact, it might be my favorite hefe on the mainstream market. therefore, i might be a shiner fan of the most sour degrees.

i toured the shiner brewery back in june with my dear friends timothy and marcus douglass. they are brothers. it was mark's birthday. ask the man what he wants to celebrate 32 years of living, he says a trip to shiner, texas and a tour of the brewery. great trip. overly impressive brewery. the town of shiner, texas probably holds 27 residents, 1 gas station, 1 baptist church, and a billion angry ghosts. on the edge of town they have the busiest brewery i have ever seen with my own nearsighted eyeballs. they crank enough beer in that one tiny brewery, in that one tiny town, to get the whole state of connecticut buzzing for an entire afternoon. the set up is wicked cool, even if you're not a beer geek.

plus, they give you nearly all the beer you can drink for free. i can toss my preferences aside for a price like that, especially in these times of a great depression.

mark and i worked our way through a sixer of SHINER 100 tonight, chatting up old christian metal bands, the glory of guns-n-roses' hey-day, and the violent acquisition of God's Kingdom. for those of you who do not know, because you are not from the republic, shiner releases a new anniversary ale every year to commemorate their reign. 2009 marks the 100 year anniversary of this small town brewery. thus, we here in the republic jointly toast the shiner centennial by trying the new celebration ale.

browned to a deep purple, this ale looks every bit as dark and dry as a classic nutbrown ale; however, the aroma indicates smooth sugary-sweet malts. the first sip screams belhaven scottish ale. settling flavors reveal something five notches less sophisticated than belhaven, something more republic and less scottish, something more testicles-on-a-pick-up-truck-trailer-hitch than secure-in-a-kilt-and-rolling-green-bagpipes. as i drink more SHINER 100, i like it more. mark takes to it naturally. (he lived in gonzales, tejas for several years, what can you expect?) for me, the sweetness mellowed out over time, showcasing a fine nutty malt sensation. the bottle claims that the 100 commemorator "is brewed in the robust classic German 'stark' style." i don't know what the hell that means, but it tastes very much like an attempt at a low alcohol old english style ale rounded out by the likes of a scottish ale wannabe, or something. this 1oo commemorator has identity issues: is it german or texan, english or gonzales, scottish or shittish? who knows? by the end of the night i found myself liking it somewhat. mark took a bottle home. i took a bottle to bed. that says something.

i give SHINER 100 COMMEMORATOR 6 "come and take it" flags out of 10. this is finer than shiner bock, but still not worth the seven bones they demand of me.

New Poll

2009-02-25T10:49:00.000-08:00

check it.

HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF NEW BELGIUM? NO, NOT THE FAT TIRE GUYS, THE MIGHTY ARROW GUYS. YESSIR, THEY'VE BEEN REDEEMED.

2009-02-24T20:09:00.000-08:00

dude, here's my gig with new belgium brewing company. thus far, in all my experience with new belgium, they have never made a bad beer. everything they make is good on some level. this means that new belgium is a "safe brewery": your money and your tongue are always safe in their hands. however, new belgium has never made a beer that knocked me over. sure, the 2 BELOW fits like warm caramel mittens in the deep nights of winter. sure, MOTHERSHIP WIT explodes with bananas and coriander and lemon drops and orange peels a la bottle swirl. and, sure, while we're at it, a 1554 tucks in neatly with cardigan sweaters and long brainy reads. still, none of these beers bowl me over in a post-orgasmic afterglow. new belgium is a safe brewery. they make good beer. yet, their products remain second tier at best. new belgium beers are like rice krispy treats served at a southern banquet of yellow bodied rum cake and coconut creme pies: they're what you go to when every other tray is empty.

until now.

i found MIGHTY ARROW at the one grocery store in bryan, texas with the nappiest beer selection in town. the HEB in bryan might run more boulevard products than anyone else, but you can't get a single bomber of stone or miller high life to save your life. that stinks. and then, suddenly, they have this MIGHTY ARROW. i saw it last week. purchased it on sunday. it was all gone in my fridge by monday afternoon. i simply could not keep this stuff off my gullet.

MIGHTY ARROW is a pale ale, you see. not an IPA. it does not claim to be an IPA, nor does it function like an IPA. instead, MIGHTY ARROW redefines the goals and purposes of the pale ale. MIGHTY ARROW is the new mission statement for pale ales, the revived potency in the neutered tom cat.

at first glance, the beer looks solid. shards of blazing yellow light fracture through the ale's brightly rusted orange hue, allowing a small illuminated white cap to simmer on top of the glass. the aroma speaks citrus fruit, bitter and tart, perhaps a tinge of copper but not too much. this is a fruity beer. a puckering beer. a kiss the boys and make them cry beer. (i'm not gay. not that there's anything wrong with that.) the initial sip screamed copper, roasted pennies and thick biscuity breadlike aftertaste; however, second and third sips flushed out the fruit, the citrus, the floral patterns in the front of the beer, washed on the edges and back of the tongue by the coppery acidic slip. this ale might be a bit more british than some folks (sir scott) would prefer. there was that dull accent of heavy yeast weighing down the back half of the flavors here, but my palate has changed in the past few years: i might be taking quite fondly to the british ales from time to time. not too much - all things in moderation, particularly malts and yeast. the one thing i most fancied in this beer was the way the flavor heightened with subsequent draws, which is precisely why i went through three on sunday and three on monday and tuesday left me pining. bullocks.

new belgium has completely outdone themselves with MIGHTY ARROW. this is an ale to savor, to enjoy, to sip slowly and repeatedly and to not regret when the pack is empty. such a sign means only one thing: buy more!

overall: 9 pinball wizards out of 10.

ITAP, or I-CRAP

2009-02-24T13:31:00.000-08:00

I think all of us were in agreement here. ITAP was a bad choice. They do not have what they advertise, the place has no character, it is one half of a bar and the other half a cooler from Liquor World. The beer was too expensive, the waitresses were unknowledgable, unapologetic, and seemed to be annoyed that we were talking about the beer we were drinking.

Here's what i had:

Southern Tier Hoppe
Chimay Trippel
Trois Pistoles
O'Fallon Cocoa Cream Stout
O'Fallon 5-day IPA
New Belgium Mighty Arrow

I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. Southern Tier Hoppe, Chimay Trippel, and Trois Pistoles were the trois deboires. (three disappointments)

New Belgium Mighty Arrow:
I really liked this guy. It tasted light and like it was filtered through rice krispy treats. I will enjoy drinking this outside as the weather begins to warm up. I can't wait for that.

O'Fallon IPA: I think Church key said about all of it, this thing is good. It is well balanced and is just what i want in an ipa.

Cocoa Cream Stout: I agree with Hops Prescription. this was not very creamy but very good. it was very rich, and we were both happy that we saved it for last.

FYI:
there is going to be an 80's dance party at my place on friday. There will be approximately 20 female grad students and 5 guys. I am looking forward to what is left in my fridge. Last time it was 15 michelob ultra and 3 bacardi silver's.

i'm hoping something better is left this time.

Growler's

2009-02-24T09:15:00.000-08:00

Beer Club's new headquarters?

Hey Club,
Last night I visited Growler's on S. Lindbergh. It was my first time. I felt at home. It was beautiful. Nothing fancy. A great respect for beer at that establishment. Great selection on draught (at least 30) and in bottle (# unknown). Any draught can be served in a taster, regular, large, and growler. 6 tasters for $9.50 (all tasters individually are $2). Monday-Friday Large draughts are $1.00 off (until 7p). Buy One Get One free appetizers. The food was good.

I joined Growler's Royal Taster's Club. Along the way of tasting all 131 beers, I get a t-shirt, hat, gift cards, name on the wall, and personalized mug that Growler's will fill for a reduced cost.

While eating my turkey medallions, taking in the atmosphere, reading the antique beer signs, it hit me. My head entered a fog. I could see the wife talking but heard only silence. A tear slowly traveled down my cheek. I have a job to do. It's going to take a lot of work.

I WILL CLIMB TO THE TOP. I WILL GET MY NAME ON THE WALL. I WILL GET $15 OF MY $650 BACK (130 beers x approx. $5 a beer = $650; Growlers gives $15 in gift cards after so many beers). GROWLERS WILL KNOW MY NAME! and MY MUG!

I need your support as I embark on my vision quest.

I had the O'Fallon 5 day IPA. A great beer. I'm proud of this beer. From now on when people ask "What's great about St. Louis?" I'll respond, "The O'Fallon 5 day IPA".

Beer Club Meeting Minutes

2009-02-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

BOULEVARD SINGLE-WIDE IPA

Not bad. Not awesome.

This was the first beer of the night at Beer Club. One of the few IPAs served at iTAP that night.

Not much to say other than it was a decent IPA. A mild IPA. A standard, decent, mild IPA. Nothing special. Nothing bad. I would equate this to a softer version of Founders Centennial IPA.

Anyone care to comment on this or the Double-Wide IPA?

2009-02-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

SAMICHLAUS - or Santa Claus, pronounced Sommy-Claus

An old beer. One of the worlds strongest lagers at 14% ABV. Guiness book of world records flat out says, strongest lagers in the world.

There's a lot of history to this beer. Sought after by beer lovers from across the globe. I have respect for it NOW. After researching for this post.

I had this at iTAP. I had no idea what I was ordering. I wish I knew then what I know now. I wish I had read Michael Jackson's beer hunter review of this. I wish someone at iTAP could have given me a little more info about the beer. Maybe a heads up that it was going to cost me $9!

It's been around since the 1600s, great. I respect beer. All beer. Beer is great. BUT regardless of the culture that surrounds Samichlaus I hated the beer. Hated it. I thought I was drinking a glass of real cheap sweet wine. This was my second beer of the night at Beer Clubs last meeting. I don't know how long it took me to finish this but the Baker and Dr. Hops were working on their sample paddle enjoying themselves while I was working hard to get the job done. Some say this beer is smooth and warm - a great beer for the cold temps or getting away from the fam at Christmas. SO! Smooth is not always a good thing. Yeah it was smooth but so is SH*T sometimes. And getting away from the fam? If the former situation is hell, why slave to get away to another hell? Maybe I'm being a little to hard here. The bottom line is that I really didn't like the beer. Sweet beer is not my bag.

Beer Club visits iTAP

2009-02-21T10:05:00.000-08:00

The Beer Club held its February meeting at the International Tap House (iTAP). Prior to the meeting I had hyped this place up big time thinking that with 40 nectars on tap, 500+ in bottles, no AB products, 20 different countries this would be a dream come true. I checked out the menu online before heading to iTAP. I knew exactly what I wanted, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Ft. Collins IPA, and I can't remember the 3rd. Baker and Rx of Hops already had a list in mind too.

Walking up, I felt our club owned the place. Walking in, I sensed trouble in the air.
Very few IPAs on tap. 40 beers were not ready to be served. Those that I wanted to try were gone. The online menu was not in sync with what was posted on the menu board. iTAPs store menu/description page was not accurate with what was on tap.

The price of beer varied, there was not a flat draft rate. Minimum of $5.25 a draft. I found this out the hard way, one beer cost $5.25, the other $9. The cheapest bottled beer was $4. C'mon, seriously? Really? $4 for a bottle of Guinness?

No food. nuff said

ATMOSPHERE - what atmosphere? There was no anchor. What is iTAP going for? A cool place to hang out or a place for beer geeks to gather for beertalk?
Plus, the place was like 40 min from my house. No thanks.

The barmaids at a place like this should be knowledgeable about what BEER is first off. Second they should know what they are serving. Third they should be able to give descriptions and make recommendations.

That's my review of iTAP. Next I'll review the beers I had at iTAP.

A few reviews...

2009-02-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

Here's my take on some beers that The Baker reviewed a while back

In no particular order...

Steelhead Extra Stout
Mad River Brewing Co

I smelled molasses. Super black (omitting jokes...you know, "how I like my women..."). Very viscous - it really coated the glass. Smokey flavor at first but in the end, just burnt. Not as sweet as I thought it would be.
Ok taste, I would probably enjoy it at a bar but it wouldn't last to round 2. Not memorable.

Tsjeeses
W-vleteren at DeStruise Brouwers

A while back I commented that I didn't like holiday beers...I do like this one. I was scared - yes scared of what this nooky would bring. Heaps of nutmeg and cinnamon maybe? How I hate beers with all spice.

What I found: in between a wheat & amber ale...a blonde amber
Whiskey was present and guiding the ship. A little spice but it was coated over in the mid-taste.

I wish I had the bottle to myself - damn Baker.

Dogfish Head 90 min Imperial IPA

10 x smoother than the 60min IPA - well, 1.5 x smoother (60x1.5=90)
good hops and flowers
caramel/rich/thick
Cleaner than 60 min, Clean in appearance, Very Clean...CLEAN
but not as clean as Alpha King
I really liked it. I'm wondering where Best Beer in America came from - I don't know if I would say THE best but it would make my list of best beerSZ-uh

3 Floyds Pride & Joy Mild Ale
an intimidating aroma from the get go- MILD? I thought. But once I tasted this philly, the brain was firing and misfiring until I could figure it out...Alpha King. That's all it is...Alpha King. One of the Floyds must have messed up the brew and tried to salvage the lot. Heck, why not, it's a good business decision. AB does it all the time.
I did notice a stronger wheat presence here in the Pride & Joy. Not a fan.
Not my Pride & Joy

Great Divide Hibernation Ale
Smells like Fireside Nut Brown Ale (see earlier review)
Tastes similar to Fireside Nut Brown Ale
Thick caramel, rich
a little bitter, smokey

As I got further into the beer I became confused. Is it a porter? ale? stout? it's darker than the nut brown ale. Do I taste scotch?

an ok beer. I would drink it again in sub-zero temps.

3 Floyds Robert the Bruce Scottish Style Ale
I do like me some Scottish Style Ale. It filled my glass like a DARK glass of iced tea. Robby Bruce crossed the tongue and was at the back end wielding his big whiskey sword before I noticed. smooth.

Founders Centennial IPA
Tan like my wife's legs...before we were married.
Smell was mild yet still had the fruity/citrusy/floral aroma.
It's aggressive, quick, and clean. Similar to Founders APA but not as clean.
It's a good IPA. Right in the middle.

Belgian?...All I Tasted Was Fruit!

2009-02-19T19:51:00.000-08:00

I like grapes, apples, kiwi, and many other fruits. They provide healthy energy, and plenty of vitamins. I like beer. Good, strong, hoppy beer. Apparently in Belgium, they like to drink beer, but ruin it with their daily dose of fruits. I tried the following beers at the iTap Room on Sunday evening: Lindemans Framboise, Delirium Tremens, La Chouffe, and I think Gouden Carolus Gran Cru...after a while, they all tasted like V8 Splash and beer. They all sound "fruity" and believe me, they were.

Luckily, to save the sample paddle from complete doom, I saved the O'Fallon Cocoa Creme Stout for last. It was tasty! It tasted more like a Coffee Stout than cocoa or creme, so maybe the title is a bit misleading. However, it went down smooth, and gave me reason to love the American micro-brews even more...I have to admit, the Cocoa Creme Stout could be mediocre if tasted on its own, but after the hell my taste buds had trudged through for the previous 20 minutes, it was like Jesus turned water into Cocoa Creme Stout just for me!

BELL'S BE THE BOMB

2009-02-18T15:39:00.001-08:00

i found the following review of bell's oberon in my little pocket notebook today while disposed in the men's room with no other reading material to bide my time. before the review, let me just say that this beer, this ridiculously bright and cheery liquid springtime poetic splash, is one of my favorites by this company. swirl this bottle, pour it slow and watch the sift of a citrusy onslaught gush river-rapid into the sea-bottom of your awaiting pint glass. thank You, Lord, for oberon even out of season.

* * *

October 25, 2008

Seth Haines' porch / Matt Brock officiating / children in exclamation / women awesome

OBERON - bright orange color. slanted fractions of yellows and reds pierce through the beer unexpected and strobelike. sediment heavy bottom - call me "bottom-dweller."citrus and banana aromas. summertime in a glass. pure wispy tall grass and fresh laundry flavor. roadtrip windows down and prolonging the destination aftertaste. big. as always.

hop up and down if you like hops (the long trip to india war)

2009-02-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

i am compiling a group of ipa's to shower my taste buds in. i am choosing ipa's that i have indulged in before, and some that i haven't, but need to try. the plan is to go on a drinking plan of 1 ipa a day, for as many days as i have variations of the hoppy goodness. i am looking for suggestions from my peers to add to my list. so far, this is what i have:

*Fort Collins IPA (i tried this for the first time last week. it is one of my favorite ipa's to date, and i want to see how it stands up to the others).

*Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA (tried this one a couple of weeks ago...if i remember right, it had too much malt flavor and not enough hops flavor...kinda like a regular pale ale)

*Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA (haven't tried this one, but the reviews from Church Key have me interested...so does the "best beer in america" claim on the 4 pack)

*Bell's 2 Hearted Ale (just had one last night...hoppy, yes, but less citrus flavors than Fort Collins...i like the citrus after taste better than the malty after taste)

*O'Fallon 5 Day IPA (another beer with citrus hints...haven't had it in a couple of months, but i have fond memories)

*Goose Island IPA (haven't had this one since last summer. i remember enjoying it. smooth hop flavor, and not a lot of malt flavor...which makes me smile)

*Mendocino IPA (and hopefully the winter imperial ipa...if i can still get it...another one of my favorites, the imperial ipa)

*O'Dells IPA (high alcohol level, very happy...or hoppy...or happy!)

it would be nice to have another sampling of Alpha King to add to the mix, but i can't get it in missouri...maybe my father-in-law can supply me.

i am not skilled in writing reviews of the various unique flavors in the beers i drink. i discussed this with my wife over a nicely cooked filet and green beans last night. the flavors in beer are so unique, that i often cannot equate them to other tastes...and i came to the conclusion that i am fine with my reviews of "it's awesome," "it's good," "it's bad," etc. all i want to do is find the liquids i like the most, and return to them often.

your suggestions...

TODAY'S WORD, KIDS, IS "COMING OUT OF THE CLOSET"

2009-02-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

i'm just not even gonna lie about it: i keep a little miller high life around the fridgedaire as a homework lubricant. high life is light, clean, refreshing, low in alcohol and attention stealing flavor profiles. it's like drinking soda, but without all that sugar and caffeine. or, more precisely, it's like drinking water, but without all that hydration. i love me some miller high life. and at $5 a sixer, grad students can strap a couple to their book bag e'erday the week. here's to getting smarter the funner way. cheers!

A New Round

2009-02-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

Church Key and i sampled some junk recently, i'm not in a terribly clever mood, so here is a little something:

Three Floyds Pride and Joy

A decent Ale. Smells very similar to Alpha King. Strong hints of bitterness and honestly tastes to me like a milder version of Alpha King. It tastes like the same recipe, just cooked for less time. Hops are present but hit first and then fade into citris notes. Not as good as others by this brewery that i have had, but still very good.

Tsjeeses No. 11 X-mas Brew

Creamy soft-white head. Somewhat sweet and sour. It smells sugary and tastes like is has a mild whiskey in it. Scents of honey-suckle. minimal hops. I'd equate to a port but a beer. It would be good for dessert. All in all, not worth the money.

Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

Large hops smell, bitter aroma, and hints of a bear in the bottle. Very rich with caramel and malts. I do think that it is fairly smooth even though the hops taste the strongest at the end. It makes the 60 minute seem so much worse. Not harsh or brutal. Very clean finish and a bready aftertaste. Hops are noticable but it is less of an ipa than i would have anticipated. Like i said, the hops come last and goes from sweet to hop. Full-bodied. It is dry-hopped according to the bottle. Hamster, i couldn't disagree with you any more about this beer. i thought it was amazing. I can't wait to have it on tap. It seems strange to me that it was not consistent for you. hmm.

Mad River Steelhead Extra Stout

Dark Brown head, thick black in the bottle and looks/smells very similar to Old Rasputin. Somewhat smoky. Not terribly sweet but not bitter either. Lack of strong flavor and smells better than it tastes. Not bad, but i won't look for it again. It's just not memorable other than a bit woody tasting. I spent the entire time straining to try to get the flavor.

Great Divide Hibernation Ale

Smells like uncooked brownie mix and it tastes exactly like i anticipated. Very even and singular. Thick and unrelenting. Either you like it or you don't. There is no middle ground with this beer. It is the same all the way through. Needs more of a cream flavor. Viscous. Looks like a dark amber ale--not as dark as a porter and darker than a nut brown ale. this would be nice for winter or fall and the name hints at this. I wouldn't mind holing up and waiting it out with this one. I do want to give it another try though before i am set on my opinion.

Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre

This beer was light brown and smelled very green if that makes sense. Very malty beer and tasted like the malts were overcooked. I almost didn't finish this one. It is my least favorite of the ones i've tried so far and i even rank the 60 minute higher even though that thing had the smoothness of a rusty barbed wire fense.

Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale

This beer tasted more like a stout than an ale. I honestly don't know what the difference is. Anyways, this beer smelled rich and was very good. It was quite malty and the hops were muttled and not the showcase here. I would feel very comfortable recommending this to others. It tastes similar to something else i have had, but i can't figure it out. Sorry.

New Poll

2009-02-11T09:28:00.001-08:00

Check out the new poll at the bottom.

Also, coming today or tomorrow will be more beer reviews from Church Key and The Baker.

CONFESSION

2009-02-09T19:15:00.000-08:00

yesterday i visited my family in austin, texas. there was a six pack of coors light in the fridge. i drank several. and i felt refreshed after each one. i just felt like i should bring this into the light of our brotherhood. secret sins have a way of creeping up and forming nasty habits. thanks for making this a safe place.

sunday, feb. 15th???

2009-02-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

I have a meeting with our Parents as Teachers girl on Monday night at 7:00. What does everyone think about changing our swigging at the ITAP house to Sunday night instead? They are open until midnight on Sunday, so we could stay later, and not have to work the next day. Let me know what you think.

Whatever happens, I know they have Fort Collins IPA on tap...so someone will have to enjoy one of those with me. http://www.fortcollinsbrewery.com/ipa.html

www.ratebeer.com

WHAT HATH ALED THE HAMSTER: A BEERISTIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY - pt. 1

2009-02-06T10:04:00.000-08:00

hello. i am new here. the out of towner. i know most of you, but, still, this is my first time here at beer club. actually, i'm at work right now, sipping coffee and still feeling the burn from a mcdonald's hot and spicy chicken sandwich. my first beer of the day is still a few hours away. anyway, i thought i might get started here by introducing myself. none of that boring who i am and what i do kinda shite. rather, i thought i might begin a batch of small posts talking you guys through my journey with beer. that seems like a good starting place. feel free to put off the reading of these until you have a cold one. i rather wish i had put off the writing until the same.

honestly, i do not count those cans of hot busch light in the workshed behind my childhood home, nor that bottle of night-train wesley and i snuck under my mother's nose, both in the ninth grade, as among my first drinks. and i conveinantly slide right over that bottle of cisco jeremy harrison and i split, that ended up splitting us, that same year as well. instead, i choose to fast-forward much further into my life when considering my first impressions of beer. i like to start in arkadelphia, arkansas smack in the middle of the dry county treeline where i attended a southern baptist university. i had every religious reason in the world not to start drinking. in fact, that's exactly why i did.

i had stopped by neil sullivan's house to chat with his roommate who, i learned, was not home. neil was sitting on the porch when i arrived. brooding. he had recently broken up with a girl. i also had recently broken up with a girl. we had both recently broken up with girls. we were not a good combination for one another. neil said, "kevin, i like you. have you ever drank a beer?" i said, "i've grown up southern baptist." he said, "then i'd like to introduce you to some friends of mine."

that night, i lost my beerginity to a six pack of heineken.

i branched out a little in the following weeks. though i still drank plenty of heineken, i found a small love for the coors light, the budweiser, the MGD, and the miller lite. i fell for a girl not long after that who liked beer. we would sit on evening swings in her backyard, working our way through all manner of embarrasing tales and sixers of long neck budweisers. she never wore shoes. this was the prime of my collegiate adolescence.

that summer at camp barnabas, i snuck a few bottles of coors light into the flamingo building out back. all the men of camp were gone that night, and i knew all those booze had to be sunk before the break ended. on a search for camp dudes, i bumped into chelsea reed robertson coming back from journaling at the laundrymat in downtown monett, missouri. i asked her if she liked beer. she said she was from texas. i said, "i'd like to introduce you to some friends of mine." chelsea and i sat on the backporch of the flamingo and sipped coors light from camp barnabas coffeemugs. we wore open toed sandals and talked about books. it was a highlight of that summer.

I'm callin you out.

2009-02-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

this is a shout to The Wilderness to get his butt on here and tell us about his recent home-brewing experience.

Tell us what you made, about the process, pitfalls, problems, surprises, things you will change, how it ended up, and what you plan to cook up next.

We are waiting.

an idea

2009-02-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

I have an idea for future gatherings. To reduce the workload on our tastebuds, every member could bring one gem of a beer to share with the group. (A bottle for each of us, or share a couple big bottles) Then we can wash it all down with 3 Frosty Mugs of PBR a piece.

www.geostan.ca

Poll

2009-02-03T19:11:00.001-08:00

Don't forget to check out the ongoing polls at the bottom of the page.....

...and I thought I liked beer.

2009-02-03T18:07:00.000-08:00

I'll admit it, after being away from Noah all day, he is the only thing I want to think about when I get home...so I may not be a very devoted contributor. I mostly just love IPA and an occasional stout (winters only). Then I simply bide my time through the other beers waiting for another ale. So, now I will rate the beers we tried in my basement...before we have another sampling session, and I forget.

Three Floyds Alpha King
Mendocino IPA
Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
Schlafly coffee stout

Dog Fish Head 60 minute IPA
Founders Dry hopped Ale
Augusta Brewing Co IPA

Samuel Smith Organic Ale
Goose Island Reserve Matilda
Belhaven Wee Heavy

Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye

As you can see I'm not a huge fan of Rye...

Just had Fort Collins IPA...it's worth a gulp next time we congregate.

www.trueamericanpatriots.com

Upcoming Beer tasting

2009-02-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

Here's what Church Key and i recently picked up at Corral Liquors in Illinois last week.

Mad River Steelhead Extra Stout
Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
Anderson Valley Booneville Pale Ale
Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre
Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale
Three Floyds Pride and Joy Mild Ale
Founders Centennial IPA
Three Floyds Robert The Bruce Irish Ale
Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
Great Divide Hibernation Ale
Avery 14'er ESB
De Stuise Tsjeeses (TSJ No.11 X-mas brew)

I'd love to hear from anyone who has had one or more of these to get a picture of what i can
expect.

Baker

Dogfish Head 60 minute/Founders Dry Hopped Ale/Schlafly Dry Hopped APA

2009-02-02T18:16:00.000-08:00

Dogfish Head 60min
I had another go at the Dogfish Head 60 minute - now it wasn't the full 12 oz., more like a 6 oz. To me what sets this IPA apart from others is its rusty jagged edge. It's rough. Loaded with hops, this guy can make the trip. Aftertaste left me with a grapefruit rind in my mouth.
I do like the Dogfish Head 60 minute. I appreciate the science that went into the creation of this brew. However, I'm probably not going to spend much more time on this one because there are other I/APAs out there that have quality taste and cost less.

Founders Dry Hopped Ale
Another go at this one, I really enjoyed this guy. It must have its own cleaning crew because it finishes cleaner than when it started. Decent head, nice color. Compared to the DFH 60 min, he's a domesticated dog - he can get a little rowdy but most of the time he's tame. It has less of a grapefruit aftertaste.

Schlafly Dry Hopped APA
Lastly, I do like this one the best of the three. For a couple of reasons: 1) price 2)since I live in STL - availability 3) much smoother and more refined without losing the hop sense 4) minimal grapefruit aftertaste.
I had several of these with a friend, pizza, and a great football game.

Club pride

2009-02-01T11:48:00.000-08:00

It was pointed out to me by the Baker that on the St. Louis Hops website (see link at right) our review of Schlafly's Coffee Stout is referenced under "Stuff from around the Web". Yep, that's right. Our little ol club got recognized. Wear it as a badge of honor. The best part is that we've been kickin for not even a month...
There are several clubs and websites from the local STL area and in fact there appears to be a Beer Club St. Louis twitter. WE ARE: Beer Club! Soon everyone will know us from the rest.
But seriously, kudos to the reviewers of Coffee Stout.

Also, the page has a few things in development that could help with the flow of Beer Club meetings. WHAT?? That's all I can say. Well, actually I can say more - after the additions have been made it will be our duty to promote the crap out of this site.

Okay, that's it for now. I have to get ready for the big bowl game. Tonight I'll be drinking Schlafly's Dry Hopped APA.
Later I'll post a review of Dogfish Head 60 min and Founder's Dry Hopped APA...and I might as well as review the Schlafly's D.H. APA while I'm at it.