On Beer Wars - Part 3: Greg

Stone Brewing has always had a special place in my heart.  Any brewery that names a beer Arrogant Bastard is good in my book.  They also have some really cool bomber designs and they just make good beer.  Not a lot to complain about.  So when I saw that the owner, Greg Koch (I wonder if he's related to Jim?) was one of the stars of Beer Wars, I knew I was in for a treat.  Or something.  This is kind of an awkward opening.  Onwards.

On Beer Wars - Part 2: Jim

Sam Adams has always annoyed me.  Beer that's just not great, seasonals that can be downright atrocious, and ads that make people think they know beer.  Yup, brown bottles are better.  Yup, sunlight is bad for beer.  If you quote that in your argument to me as to why Sam Adams is a superior beer, you might get smacked.  However, after Beer Wars, I've got a new found respect for them.

On Beer Wars - Part 1: Rhonda

It was inevitable that I come across this movie.  I wholly credit my wife, who insisted we watch it one boring evening.  Having seen Beerfest more times than I could count, I assumed it'd be similar, not knowing it was a documentary.  5 minutes in I was hooked.  Maybe it was the plight of the craft beer poster boy Sam Calagione, maybe it was the portrayal of AB as evil (I'll definitely get to both later), but no matter what it was, it had me.

On the demise of Four Loko

I'm embarrassed that it took me this long to write this.  Not because I'm a huge fan of Four Loko or anything, but because I believe they were wrongfully made the scapegoat for some stupid college kids that don't know what they're doing.  If they're in college, odds are they can do math.  12% ABV x 24 oz = 5-6 beers worth of booze.  You better be ready.

On the evolution of taste

I wrote the last post and still had more to say, so here's another.  You'll have to pardon the pondering pontification I partake in periodically as I just enjoy talking beer.  And sometimes pretending to be an english major. 

On beer drinkers

That post last night got me excited again.  I enjoy blogging.  As it's 7:30 in the morning, this is not a beer review (and I'm guessing a good amount of the coming posts won't be), but a review/critique/whatever of the beer drinker him/herself.  Why?  Because beer is an equalizer. 

New Beginnings

I feel it's time for this blog to evolve.  It started with me as a bum (unemployed) drinking a lot of meh beer.  Over the past few months, I have upgraded significantly. 

Hey Look, a new post!

Yep, a mere 7 months later and I'm back!  This will be a short one though.  Picked up a 40 of Bud Light and a can of Four Loko Cranberry Lemonade as my wife is out of town and I'm bored.  The 40 was great.  The Four Loko tastes like Tussin and Vodka.  If you're into that, awesome.  I'm not.  I'm choking the rest down.  That's all :).

Four Loko Fruit Punch - Back to the beginning

If you remember the first drink I had, it was a very girly red punch like substance called Max Vibe that did a good measure on my liver and my sobriety.  If you don't remember it, click over to the next page, it really wasn't long ago.  Anyway, it was, like this one, a member of a growing faction of heavily caffeinated, high ABV, fruit flavored tall boys available in liquor store coolers across the country.  They're obviously aimed at the fairer sex, but who cares, I like fruit punch and it's Friday night, I'll do what I want.  I was hoping to make tonight another two-fer, but I remembered on the drive home that I've already reviewed Mickey's and Bud Light.  Touche universe, you've saved me from making an ass of myself (again) on the internet.  So I'll throw all my efforts at this one, the camo-canned kick in the face called Four Loko Fruit Punch.

Rolling Rock - The Little Can that Could

You know what's damn hard to find?  A picture of a rolling rock can.  Don't believe me?  Go google it, it's tricky.  I'm not even sure this is a can, but for the sake of time, we'll go ahead and say it is.  Back to the task at hand.  There are few beers that successfully transition to cans.  The vast majority are the cheap light beers, i.e. Keystone Light, Bud Light, Miller Light, and so on, that rarely start in bottles.  Still, there are a couple "higher echelon" beers that pull it off.  Take a look at anything by Oskar Blues, a brewery that has successfully pulled it off for seven years, or the two offerings by New Belgium, Fat Tire and Sunshine Wheat.  It can be done, though it's not easy.  So when I stumbled upon a 30 pack of Rolling Rock cans that came in cheaper than even the low brow beers (Keystone Light and Busch Light), I was intrigued enough to bite.  So here goes a 17 dollar gamble.

Coors Winterfest - A Seasonal Delight

I'm kind of a dick.  I started this blog with two cheap non-beers that are more suited in a sorority fridge than the claw of a hardened beer snob.  I followed it up with a super low volume local beer that you'll probably never even see, let alone drink.  Then I moved to Bud Light, the non-beer-drinkers beer.  Finally, I closed out the decade with an exclusive brew that's are already extinct.  I've not yet been a man of the people.  I've avoided the Sam Adams, the Sierra Nevadas, the widely available stuff and gone with things that you just can't find unless they're already gracing the shelves in your fridge.  So to start the new year, I'll do the exact same thing.  I'll tell you what I thought of Coors' Winterfest.

Dark Kriek - Gone, But Not Forgotten

For those of you not familiar with New Belgium's "Lips of Faith" series, I'll enlighten you a bit.  It's a very limited run, often not even enough to keep the Fort Collins residents happy, and there are usually only 2-4 offerings available.  For quite a while, the only place you could get these was the brewery, though they've recently started putting them in bombers available at a few liquor stores around town.  As far as I know, there is only one permanent Lips of Faith, a sour brown ale called La Folie.  We'll discuss that a bit later.  These beers fetch a heavy premium, usually between 9 and 20 dollars a bottle, but more often than not, they're worth it.  Before I ramble too much, we'll get to the task at hand, one of the best Lips of Faith in the series, and one that is likely almost all gone: Dark Kriek.

Bud Light: Why not?

So there's a new Scrubs on (vaguely reminiscent of the failed Saved By The Bell college try) and I've had a long day rescuing my handicapped Jeep from the clutches of the Colorado mountains.  Thus, I need a beer.  Yes, I have one Frambozen left.  Yes, I have a bomber of Dark Kriek (one of the last ten or so in the world I believe, saving it for a special occasion).  Those are just not quite up to par.  A night like this needs substance.  A night like this needs class.  A night like this needs Bud Light.

New Belgium Frambozen: The Secret Seasonal

If you're a beer nut like me, you're well acquainted with New Belgium. You've had enough Fat Tire to know it like your favorite book, you've tried the majority of their other offerings, and you are always delighted to find their new seasonal gracing the shelves of your local liquor store. They have a couple of old timers in their seasonal lineup (Skinny Dip in the summer, 2 Below for winter) and have been playing with the spring and fall seasonals for a while (they are currently Mighty Arrow and Hoptober, though they will likely change again next year). But few outside of Northern Colorado know of this well kept secret. It's a bonus winter seasonal that appears around Thanksgiving and is usually long gone by New Years Eve. It is Frambozen.

A brief aside before we continue

Before I get too deep into this, I think I should give the reader a better idea of my tastes and thoughts for this blog. As I may or may not have mentioned, I recently relocated to Loveland, Colorado. There are three big reasons I love this area: the mountains, the food, and the beer. This is (in my humble opinion) one of the best regions in the world for the educated beer drinker. Two of the worlds biggest breweries, Coors and Anheuser Busch, are less than an hour away, and the area is peppered with craft breweries, including the 3rd largest in the country, New Belgium. For those curious like me, numbers one and two are Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada, respectively. Other notables in the area are Boulder, Breckenridge, O'Dells, and Left Hand, all of which are just a quick jaunt down I-25.

Round 2: The Mickey's Locomotive

As I said less than an hour ago, I purchased a big boy bottle of Mickey's alongside my 24 oz can of Max Vibe. I'm about halfway through the aforementioned copy of "The Blindside" and I'm feeling pretty good. The Max Vibe was tasty, but I'll admit, the Mickey's is more up my alley.

The inaugural drink: Max Vibe

It's not often that I'm compelled to blog, but occasionally I get the urge, and after a quick google of "max vibe" led me to www.thedrunkpirate.com, I decided that this was a good use of my time. Everything that appears here is the direct result of that awesome man and his choice of internet ventures.