Moon Man is a fun solid local session beer, and growing pretty rapidly in popularity for them. Cow will likely remain their best seller for a long as they make it... that recipe will put many kids through college and pay off several mortgages.

Definition of a good friend=Terry, without prior knowledge that I had tried it before or the recently referenced IPA shootout, brought back some Jai Alai IPA from a recent trip to Florida and saved one specifically for me. Hell yeah!

(Also, maybe more appropriate for the Homebrew thread, but had four of his recent beers last night and damn, dude is getting gooood, particularly an imperial IPA and a Belgian something or another)

Ok, I need to email him. Fuck that guy - stop being so good at so many things goddammit!

Tried a few new things over the weekend

Jolly Pumpkin - La Roja

Just a really solid Flanders style Red. Right up my alley. I'd buy it again.

Jolly Pumpkin - Madruga Obscura Dark Dawn

A Belgian style Sour Stout. It's a really interesting style. I'm only aware of this one and the Bruery's Tart of Darkness. I'd heard that this was even better than the Bruery's version. I don't think I agree with that but it's not too far behind it.

Craftsman - French Toast

A Belgian Quad from a local LA brewery with strong molasses flavor. Not sure if I've had anything else by them before but it was a good one. The molasses flavors were a nice complement to the waffle burger I was eating (a cheeseburger with bacon topped with a fried egg with belgian waffles in the place of a bun lightly drizzled with maple syrup).

Also picked up a Mikkeller Funky e from my bottle shop.

It's a belgian wild ale aged in a Sauternes cask. I haven't been that impressed with the Mikkellers I've tried to date but I've never heard of anyone aging a beer in a Sauterne cask so I have to try it.

Welp. I pulled the trigger on Friday and will say................................Rome wasn't built in a day?

I know you warned me about this thing and all the problems that you said it had were pretty apparent. There was zero head and poured and looked like sweet tea. It was mostly flat and was neither hoppy or tripel-y.

All that said, there was a nice bubblegum smell to it. You could have had a happy accident in there somewhere because it tasted much more like a Scotch ale than anything but it was just a little too sweet.

Thanks for taking the time to send it. It sounds like you have made major leaps forward already.

Had this over the weekend as well:



Highland Brewing - Imperial Kashmir IPA

Per usual with Highland, this is an okay beer. I think the regular Kashmir is an okay IPA and this is just an okay Imperial version of it. It claims much more dry hoppness and hop explosion but it ultimately only differed slightly than the regular one.

Not bad, but just okay. I just can't help but wish their beers were just a little bit better.

Also, finally found this in town:



Blanche de Namur - witbier

Super light but tasty little Belgian Wit. Had it with some pork tenderloin Saturday night and paired perfectly. No dominant flavors at all but there is enough there to have a good afternoon outside with. FemDerris loved it. Actually wanted me to get some more this week. Just clean, crisp, and easy drinking.

...ugh. Well, it was a nice thought.

I like the french ale on lees beers that I've had as much as their belgian counterparts. Those blanches are just excellent beers.

This past weekend, I had these two:

http://www.bellsbeer.com/brands/42-Golden%20Rye%20Ale


Stu's review:tasting after the initial pour: the hops worked their black magic on my palate and almost kept me from enjoying it. After sitting out for a bit it balanced and became a little less bitter. Femdisco was a fan, but she likes hoppy brew.


http://www.uprightbrewing.com/bottles.html


Stu's review: tasting after the initial pour: it was paired with pizza which, per usual, I added some red pepper flakes to. I think the tomato sauce, sausage, peppadew peppers and red pepper flakes overpowered the taste of the brew as this is a balanced beer with a tad of that pepper spice that rye typically adds. It came highly recommended from the guy working at the store I bought it from in Bowling Green. Unfortunately, it ended up being a tad bland.

Grabbed a half case of this...



Galaxy and Zythos hops weighing in at 6.6%... only $7.99 too. Fantastic stuff and brewed especially for C2E2.

I had this over the weekend as well...that is one bizzarely powerful beer. Soooo much going on. Very, very good. I definitely want to try it again and this time, on its own instead of after ??? hoppy and delicious beers from my buddy's homebrew taps.

I want an electronic cabinet lock with a breathalyzer on it, and I have to blow less than 1 beer's worth to be able to access The Good Stuff.

This is a great idea.

"Hey punkin, can you go blow into that funny box on the cabinet door and get daddy the big brown bottle in the back?"
"WHEE THIS IS FUN! I'M HELPING DADDY!"
-security defeated-

Plus you'd feel like a bad dad the next day after getting your daughter out of bed to blow into it.

I'm trying to finish off my winter beer inventory so I had this last night:



Midnight Sun's TREAT which is an imperial chocolate pumpkin porter. First beer I've had from these guys and it was very good. Probably either the best or 2nd best pumpkin beer I've had. Epic's Fermentation without Representation would be the other contender.

Also had a Russian River Supplication. I was digging through the refrig looking for a 12ozer of something I'd never had but didn't find anything so I decided to have one of those. Life is rough.

you poor thing

Oh my god, am I LOVING this!!!

I made the mistake of attending the University of Nebraska Spring Concert last night, since Icky Blossoms was opening for GROUPLOVE, and I was interested in seeing what sort of reaction a large group of average college students had to the group.
I left early after I had my camera briefly confiscated by UNL police officers and walked back downtown to have a few more beers. I had Dupont Redor Pils and O’Dell Amuste Imperial Porter. I went with a full pint of Redor Pils, but the small taste of Amuste was far more impressive. I need to find a bottle of that beer and sit on it for a while, because the Tempranillo grapes and Oak Wine barrel taste seems to need a little more aging.

femdisco and I each had one the other night. Predictably this has become one of her Top 5 favorite beers. For me: my palate could taste the quality and the craft put into making this brew, but alas at 63 IBU, it's a tad too much on the hoppy side for me.

i actually just brought home a six-pack of that today...it was on sale for $7.00.

i see Colorado now has Clown Shoes. what was the board stance on these guys (apart from terrible name/terrible labels)? anything worth trying?

I think "avoid at all costs" was the consensus.

I think I've only had the Clementine and Tramp Stamp. Can't really remember too much about them though so I guess that pretty much says it all.

The labels remind me of ICP for some reason.

(Clown Shoes) I have studiously avoided because of the labels, but someone brought over a Luchador I think it was... it was a big stout with chocolate and spice, and honestly it was decent. But, fuck those labels.

Just came home with the following:

-6 pk. New Albion Ale (has anyone had this? I've heard great things. Sam Adams remaking one of America's first craft ales)
-6 pk. assorted sours (Monk's, Petrus Our Bruin, Petrus Pale Ale)
-1 Kwak
-1 Flying Horse Royal Lager (India)
1 bottle Eagle Rare Single Barrel bourbon

Edit: So apparently some of us have had the New Albion. Looking forward to it!

a lot of it isn't for me, but I'll be sampling accordingly. My thoughts to come.