Racer 5 IPA: Tipped in Honor of Alan Kulwicki

I still owe you a write up on my visit to the Deschutes Woody Beer Wagon appearance at Whole Foods in Scottsdale but in the meantime, today is a special day to remember a champion.

UNDERDOG

On this date in 1995, Alan Kulwicki, the reigning Winston Cup stock car racing champion was killed in a plane crash en route to a race in Bristol, Tennessee. (Talk about a hideous April Fool's joke.)

Kulwicki will arguably be the last owner/driver in NASCAR’s top series to have meaningful success. (My apologies to fans of Ricky Rudd - of which I am one for sure - who made a decent go of it. My apologies to fans of Robbie Gordon but your deluding yourselves since Robbie is more interested in racing off-road. My apologies to fans of Tony Stewart who, although he is an owner/driver who could still conceivably win a championship, he won’t be held in the same esteem as the likes of Kulwicki who won the 1994 championship with a colossally under funded team. Indeed, Kulwicki was such an underdog, he scratched off the letter “T” in the word Thunderbird on the front of his racecar so that it read “Underbird.” Adding a flourish, he had an image of Mighty Mouse affixed to the front of the car as well. One more somewhat chilling bit of history: when one of Kulwicki’s cars was undergoing restoration several years after his death and after it had been run by another race team, workers found a Saint Christopher medal tucked inside the lining of the driver’s seat. The medal was later confirmed to have been placed there when Kulwicki owned the car.)

So today, I tip a mug of Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA in honor of Alan Kulwicki, a NASCAR champion taken out at the height of his success. In many ways, Alan is like so many craft brewers out there taking a big swing at the pinata for the little guy. God bless all of you.

It might have been more appropriate to tip back some Big Boss Porter in honor of Alan’s Polish heritage, but alas, there was no Big Boss available. We work with what were given here at Beer Rant HQ – just like Alan Kulwicki did.

Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA
Has a distinct piney/citrus smell. It’s bottle conditioned and you can see the sediment in the bottle, though my sample was from a ceramic mug, so I don’t have any information regarding color or clarity. Taste is sweet and candy-like. A decent representation of the IPA style but not sure I’d rush out to find more unless I was doing an IPA-tribute sampling because it only seems to be available in bombers.

Promise: A post on the Deschutes Woody Beer Wagon is in the works but in the meantime, Beer Rant’s mom turns 80 this weekend so you know where I’ll be!

Iron City. Oh hell yeah!

Hmmm. Let’s see. Were I to suddenly stop drinking any beer produced east of the common border of Colorado and Kansas, and I had to sample one last meaningful example of a beer from the eastern United States, what beer would that be? Hmm. Probably not something as common and low as Iron City.

Uh, too late.

Blatantly bland in it’s blandness.

The label touts this stuff as the official beer of the Pittsburgh Nation. I’ve heard of the Republic of Texas (I love their sheet cakes.) but I’m completely in the dark when it comes to this Pittsburgh Nation. I’m pretty sure it’s a football thing and since I’m more a NASCAR fan most of the time, I’ll stay out of that social milieu. (I said “milieu.”)

But enough! This stuff smells grainy and plastic-like, pours with no discernible head (but with very active and lively beading) and tastes vaguely sour and plastic.

On the plus side, it’s probably an eastern/Midwest/rustbelt version of a retro beer much on the order of a Pabst Blue Ribbon or a Schlitz. Another plus: I think the label is cool.

I actually bought this beer because the label states it’s brewed in Latrobe. Now back in the day, I drank me a few gallons of another Latrobe product known as Rolling Rock (or Rolling Boulder in my circle). Sadly, Rolling Rock has evidently moved out of Latrobe, having been swallowed up by the Bud monster. But alas, all is not lost for the good union working folk of Latrobe, because according to this Wickety Whacked Wikipedia Entry, Iron City has moved in to fill the void left by the Rolling Rock. (I wonder if Iron City now springs forth from those glass-lined tanks that used to produce Rolling Rock?) While I’m happy for the folks who might otherwise have been left jobless by the departure of Rolling Rock, this Iron City ain’t no Rolling Rock; a statement that strikes me as funny, since it’s akin to saying that turd there tastes better’n this turd here. (The departure of Iron City from it’s home in a Pittsburgh suburb to Latrobe apparently wasn’t without some rancor, but I’ll let you Google all that on your own if you’re interested in the dirt.)

But in the end, and in keeping with my philosophy about good and bad beers, I would not turn up my nose at a cold bottle of Iron City proffered by an old friend or a potential new friend. I think when I have another Iron City beer, I’ll likely drink it straight from the bottle and I’ll drink it while watching a sporting event in person or on television, and I’ll plan on having lots of greasy food on hand. Setting and circumstance? You bet!

Here’s the Iron City Brewing website. Maybe I should submit a picture of me drinking this beer for their photo contest. (Maybe I should send them a dry cleaning bill as a result of having violently ejected said beer onto my Sunday church clothes.)

Tick, Tick, Tick

I’ve got about 3 more days until I’ll have to decide about acting on the results of the 2009 year end Gimmick Poll. If trends continue, I’ll likely be limiting my beer blogging to beers brewed in the western United States. Meanwhile I think there may be one or two more “eastern” beers hiding in the garage that I should try to get at before time runs out.

By the way, if I elect to honor the results of the 2009 Gimmick Poll, and should my vast readership of roughly two dozen vote that I’ll only blog beers from the United States’ western region, you can rest assured that I’ll still try beers from the eastern U.S. I just won’t be bragging about it here!

Nogne O Winter Ale

I can’t pronounce it, but I can darned sure drink it!

I’ve already mentioned that I haven’t been tearing through the holiday beers as much as I did last year. Could be a number of reasons: (1) we’re more broke this year and I know that some of these holiday offerings will be on the sale rack in a couple weeks (2) I’ve had a houseful of women kinfolk this past week and consequently, I’ve been drinking less in an effort to keep my wits about me. (Men are generally less intelligent than wimmin and it only gets worse when the ladies congregate and a fellow gets a belly full of barley pop – I tend to say the dumbest things about six bottles into the evening!) (3) perhaps I’ve settled on a few seasonals that I know I’ll like and have wisely decided to pick only a couple of rare birds for sampling.

In any event, Mrs. Beer Rant and I stumbled upon a bottle of Nogne O in the seasonal rack at the Arrowhead outlet of Total Wine and More the week before Christmas. The bottle wasn’t pricemarked and some stooge had probably returned it to the wrong shelf but I decided to take a chance, agreeing with the Missus that we’d discard the bottle at the checkout counter if it proved to be too pricey. Well, the beeping scanner put the price at 8 bucks and change. I looked at Mrs. Beer Rant. Mrs. Beer Rant looked at me. I said something like, “I’ve never had a beer from Norway,” and that was that.

Damn. I wish I’d found a second bottle and bought that one too!

At 8.5% abv, this Nordic beauty trips the line between a hardy winter warmer and a sly seasonal session beer. It pours dark brown and opaque with a rich, robust tan head. I sampled it at slightly lower than the label recommended 53 degrees but no matter. Winter Ale smells like a porter, has a medium thick mouth feel and is literally like no beer I’ve ever tried before. It’s almost liquor like in taste but with no alcohol bite whatsoever. There is a hint of chocolate in there and I believe this beer is something like an imperial stout or porter would taste if one could get past what is often an overpowering alcohol bite. Terrific!


To top it off, I enjoyed this single bottle of Nogne O Winter Ale relaxing in the backyard while the grandkids cavorted through piles of freshly raked leaves. I may never know perfect, but I'm up to my eyeballs in good enough. Thank heaven.

Here’s what some better beer bloggers and reviewers have to say:

NY Press (I especially like this one. You think craft brewers in the U.S. have obstacles, read about what goes on in Norway for a real eye-opener!)

If you want a great laugh, if you appreciate obscure references to the band “Sexual Chocolate,” or if you just want to hear two Hawaiian dudes try to pronounce Nogne O, go to the Two Beer Queers review of Winter Ale. If you don’t save their site as a favorite, Norse raiders will pluck your nose hair while you sleep!

For an obscure reference to Bing Crosby, check out this review of Winter Ale at Spokane Food Blog.


Schadenfreude?
Frequent abusers here will know that I’m no fan of Dogfish Head and their recitative attempts at uber-quirkiness. I rarely buy a full six-pack or 4-pack of their product until I’ve assured myself that the contents will be palatable; their Festina Peche is no exception. I thought the bottle I sampled was miserable and evidently the beer drinking masses agree; at least the beer drinking masses that shop at the Sunflower Market just up the road from Beer Rant HQ. If you “hurry” you can buy a 4-pack of Festina Peche for the 75% reduced price of 3 bucks and change! I say “hurry” because this same stack of beer has been in the markdown bin for the last three or four months! (For the record, I love Dogfish Head’s Pumpkin beer and their Chicory Stout.)

Schadenfreude? Perhaps. But I’m gratified to see that my beer tastes are pretty much in line with most of the drinking public, especially when it comes to fermented orange juice concentrate. If I had to make one drunken prediction for 2010, I’d have to say that Dogfish Head will finally come out of the hallway and rejoin a classroom full of well behaved, if somewhat precocious kids. Face it; you can’t continue to fool people into buying 9, 10 and 12 dollar four packs of weird beer forever!

(Fine, I’m a Beer Jerk.)

Still looking for:
More Shiner Holiday Cheer, more Nogne O, and Pyramid Snowcap

In the tank:
Deschutes Obsidian Stout
On the desk:
Nothing but an empty Deschutes bottle.



Vote the poll, people! Vote the poll!

Utah ReCap

"...shot off a flare gun in the basement...religious documents hidden in the walls...no jail time." (Snippets of conversation overheard at a neighboring table.)

I’ll not bore you with much detail regarding our Utah trip except to say we didn’t really do all that much. (Certainly not as much as some folks, judging by what passes for casual conversation in Utah's brew pubs.) The big thing for Mrs. Beer Rant and I was to see our oldest daughter and our granddaughter, who's not even a year old yet! That was the fun! Some will recall from previous posts that a lot of my “vacation” time usually involves U-Haul trucks and bonding moments with my daughters. This Utah trip was no exception and I did manage to hurt my back in the process – just a bit – but as something of a reward, I was allowed to track down six examples of Utah-brewed beers during the trip. I’ll try to “tick” them off in something of a Quick Riff format for the sake of brevity.

Place: RedRock Brewery, Salt Lake City
Beers: Bamberg Rauchbier and Oatmeal Stout
The Bamberg Rauchbier arrived with a weak head but a nice brown orange color. Smells more sweet than smoky – perhaps malty, but the smokiness builds and there is a smoky taste up front when you drink it with a dry finish. A decent example of the style but not the best smoked beer I’ve tried.

The Oatmeal Stout was opaque with a sturdy head; it looked great. It had a thin mouth feel and didn’t strike me as being as distinctive as the Rauchbier.

Place: Desert Edge Brewery, Salt Lake City
Beers: Utah Pale Ale and Happy Valley Hefeweizen
The Utah Pale Ale arrived straight from the tap, a straw-wheat color with a medium head. The smell was of pine and grapefruit for sure. The taste was slightly sweet with a decidedly strong bitter grapefruit taste. Lacing in the glass was heavy and this one was much better than the beer I tried during my quick visit last year (the Latter Day Stout).

The Happy Valley Hefeweizen showed up a cloudy, light straw color with a taste that came across somewhat weak after trying the UPA.

Place: Iggy’s, Centerville
Beers: Uinta Cutthroat Pale Ale and Squatter’s IPA
Both beers arrived in the bottle so I poured them myself. The Cutthroat Pale Ale was sweet, malty smelling with heavy lacing, an orange-bronze color and a fizzy head. The taste was malty but overly light and thin; not as sweet as most pale ales I recall but definitely malty and good.

The Squatters IPA was a dark straw color and did not smell the least bit like I think an IPA should smell (but I’m not the beer expert). Frankly, it didn’t taste that much like an IPA to me either, but the 6% abv is evident as you drink it. A great beer but only a fair example of the style, I think.

If I had to pick winners from the trip, I'd have to say RedRock's Rauchbier, Desert Edge's Utah Pale Ale, and the Uinta Cutthroat Pale Ale.

Politics, Religion and Beer, Oh My!

As an added bonus, I picked up a copy of Beer in the Beehive by Del Vance, a book I’ve been looking for since first seeing it mentioned at UTAH BEER. As a student of history, I like the book a great deal and the illustrations are top notch. However there’s a political/editorial bent to much of the text that I don’t much enjoy so I’ll not go into a detailed review of the book, except to say, if you’re amassing a collection of books related to the history of brewing, Beer in the Beehive is a required addition. If you’re looking for the definitive history of Utah brewing, again, this is the book you must acquire.

Gonzo Imperial Porter: Honoring Doctor Thompson One Bottle at a Time

(Warning: This is a long post and it contains some editorial content. If you're only here for the beer, skip down and read the last three paragraphs, I'll understand.)

I’ll be the first to admit; I know damned little about Hunter S. Thompson. I think I read his Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas while I was in the army, maybe before. I know that I read his Hell’s Angels while I was in the army because I remember that my section sergeant asked to borrow it and my paperback copy is hammered from traveling inside an alice pack during field duty. I’ll also admit that for a time, Doc Thompson was an appealing figure to me. I aspired to be a writer at one point and I believed, mistakenly, that the road to literary success traversed a vast wasteland of drug and alcohol abuse. I bought into the notion that the likes of Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Thompson were great writers because of their addictions. Now, I know they were great writers in spite of their addictions and because of the times in which they lived. Thankfully, I managed to survive my little sabbatical from sanity having sampled nothing stronger than the odd guzzle of Everclear and MD20/20. Unfortunately, I didn’t turn out to be much of a writer either, but it isn’t because I wasn’t drunk enough or high enough; I’m just lazy.

I still have a warm spot in my heart for Thompson and I must confess to being mildly uncomfortable with the close connection between Flying Dog Brewing and Hunter Thompson – mostly because, like Elvis, Hunter Thompson is living somewhere else these days.

How is Flying Dog connected to Thompson, you might ask? Thompson, the alcohol and drug addled “gonzo journalist” evidently introduced “artist” Ralph Steadman to Flying Dog founder George Stranahan in Aspen, Colorado. You can read the details at the Flying Dog website here.

Monumental figures attract hangers-on like “free beer” advertisements attract drunks. Unquestionably a monumental figure, Thompson appears to have attracted his fair share of folks who seemed content to warm themselves in the reflected glow of his notoriety, picking up the odd scrap of fun and profit along the way. In my opinion one such example is Johnny Depp – whose hipster, cynic, doper-expatriate persona will never live up to his royal Gonzo-ness - but I won’t go into further detail regarding that except to say that when the likes of Johnny Depp can serve as a surrogate for a Hunter Thompson, we’re seeing a real dumbing down of coolness, folks.

So, “hanger-on” might be a way I’d describe the whole line of Flying Dog beers, but that would be wrong since most of the folks who are drinking Flying Dog products probably don’t have the foggiest idea who Hunter Thompson was – or is, depending on your propensity to buy into conspiracy theory. (Hell, Thompson is, this very second, partying with Jim Morrison in Africa!) It may be more apt to say that the Flying Dog people have used the Thompson persona as something of an inside joke, pulling back the beaded curtain just enough to let a few of us squares have a peek from time to time and their Gonzo Imperial Porter is perhaps the best example of that little trick.

And, in honor of this day in history, I offer my sampling notes for Gonzo Imperial Porter:
Smells like a stout in the bottle. No alcohol bite in the smell as I’d expected. Pours dark with a thin head and light lacing. Chocolate/sweet tasting with a thick mouth feel at first. Perhaps a hint of licorice in the finish. I expected an off-putting alcohol bite but I’m happily proven wrong. This beer is one I’ll try again.

Why honor this day in history? On February 20th, 2005, Doc Thompson, reportedly bummed because the Super Bowl had come and gone for another season and figuring his best days were behind him, and perhaps contemplating a sink full of dishes, took his life by shooting himself. Like Hemingway, but not like Fitzgerald. Not fade away, as the hipsters are want to say, right?

For something regarding Thompson’s “accidental outlaw” status, check this out. For more stuff on Thompson and the myth of Thompson, do your own search, but don’t futz around with that so much you forget to go out and buy some Gonzo Imperial Porter – perhaps like so many things associated with Hunter Thompson, it comes at a fairly high price but it’s worth it.

Hope to see you 'round, Doc.

Cutting Your Brewing Teeth in the Camps: Bootlegger Brown Ale

I don’t think beers need to have a gimmick to sell – good beers definitely don’t need a gimmick to sell. On the other hand, it’s always nice when a good beer has a story behind it. There’s a story behind Bootlegger Brown Ale and, while I’ve known of the story for a year or more, I’ve been unable until recently to acquire this tasty Texas brew, and that’s a story as well, I guess.

Read the story of Bootlegger Brown Ale at the Independence Brewing website and you’ll discover that the owner’s grandfather learned something of the brewing trade during a stint in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Do a Google search for the Civilian Conservation Corps and you’ll find that it was a 1930s work relief program that ultimately took some 3 million young men and put them to work in our nation’s forests, parks and fields between 1933 and 1942.

Ponder long enough on the notion of 200 young men confined in a work camp and you’ll eventually come to realize that the program wasn’t a summer day camp for sissies. Rest assured the CCC was a huge success and likely the most successful of the Depression-era New Deal programs by far, but boys will be boys and so it seems with the grand patriarch of Independence Brewing.

For those of you who may still be in the dark, Homebrewing 101 was not a course that was taught in the CCC. Odds are the predecessor to Independence Brewing’s current efforts took place in a dark corner of a barracks or mess hall, or perhaps even in an out of the way part of the park, hidden in the bushes and trees. The story of Bootlegger’s CCC past is sufficiently vague to generate curiosity and at the least a passing “that’s cool” from the average beer nut. (Of course the story of alcohol consumption in the CCC camps isn’t always a happy one. A World War I veteran in one camp died as a result of drinking vanilla extract and there are no numbers documenting how many of the thousands of vehicular accidents involving CCC enrollees also involved consumption of booze.)

I’m predisposed to like the story behind Bootlegger Brown Ale. For the record, I’m a big CCC fan. My dad was in it, but got kicked out. My mom’s dad was a U.S. Forest Service foreman and worked in CCC camps almost the entire time it was in operation. But alas, it seemed the vague CCC story connected to Bootlegger Brown Ale was going to be my only brush with the beer since it’s brewed and distributed locally and isn’t shipped out of Texas. Nevertheless, I kept a watch on the shelves of the local Total Wine and BevMo, Trader Joe’s and Sunflower Market, but no luck.
It wasn’t until I began exploring the practice of beer trading that I found someone from that part of the country who would trade me some Bootlegger for some locally brewed beers from my region. We worked the deal and SCORE! I acquired a six-pack of Bootlegger Brown Ale just after the first of the year!

Here are my notes from the initial tasting, done on the very day the package arrived, January 5, 2009:

Hint of chocolate smell and malt in the bottle. Roasted coffee in the glass. Dark brown color, not quite opaque. Nice head but quickly gone. Distinct coffee taste, medium lacing. Tastes a bit like a stout. Slightly sooty finish.

I like Bootlegger Brown Ale enough to hope that I can wrangle another trade from out of state; the likelihood of my actually getting to Texas seems remote at the moment, though there are a ton of great CCC sites scattered around the state. I might kill two birds with one stone, eh? Sample some Bootlegger Brown Ale closer to the source and visit some terrific places where the CCC did great work almost 80 years ago!

If you're lucky enough to live where you can buy it, buy it!

Key Indicators

I’ll confess there won’t be anything of value posted here today. Whew. That’s a load off.

What the heck is it with Germans and keys?

I’ve always been aware that the Beck’s logo sports a nice key symbol. I’ve always associated it, rightly or wrongly, with the logo used by the SS Hitler Youth during World War II. (In fact, I seem to recall that the use of the key symbol by the SSHJ was due to a connection between their outfit and Colonel Sepp Dietrich, whose last name I believe means “key” in German. And, of course if you doubt me, check it out here on a page that gives a translation for the word Dietrich. I don’t remember much, but what I do remember, I remember real good.)

So this somewhat useless bit of knowledge has been sludging round in my brainpan for years and I’ve been content to leave it alone until a couple nights ago when I sampled a bottle of Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier. What the heck do you think was on the label but a happy little monk fellow swilling a stein of beer, with a ring of keys tied to his waist!

I did not encourage this fellow to rub his gut; he was doing that when I ran into him over at the Franziskaner website...go find it yourself.

The Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier, eh, not so great really. Mildly sour smelling in the bottle with a strong wheat smell in the glass. Very frothy head with medium to heavy cloudiness. Just a typical wheat beer in my book and not something I’ll track down again, but I am eager to try their dunkelweizen. Maybe their dunkel is the dietrich!

Birthday Sink Toss and Not So Peachy

I celebrated a birthday last week. I popped open a “vintage” beer in honor of the occasion. I drank a little less than half the contents, then unceremoniously poured the remaining beer down the sink. C’mon Dogfish Head, get your act together!

I purchased a single bottle of Dogfish Head Brewing’s Raison d’ Extra several months ago – for an ungodly sum that I will not divulge here. I’ve coddled and babied that bottle all this time, waiting for the right opportunity and figured the occasion of my birthday ought to be as good a time as any. The bottling date on this thing was September 2006 and despite the fact that I wasn’t wild about their 90 Minute IPA, I hoped for the best.

“Raison Ejecta”

This stuff has a fruity, malty smell in the bottle and an alcohol bite even in the aroma. It pours a dark red color that’s appealing to the eye but the weak head is a disappointment. The taste is completely liquor or wine like and tingles in your mouth like mouthwash or perhaps like alka-seltzer tablets. Maybe a single 12-ounce bottle could be split (along with the price) between 3 or four drinkers for slow sipping. Given that I did not have anyone with me who was willing to help me, I poured a good deal of this down the sink.

“Peachy Cabron!”

A few days later, keeping an open mind, I purchased a single bottle of Dogfish Head’s Festina Peche, a self-described “malt beverage brewed with peach concentrate.” All I can say is that it’s better than the Raison d’Extra, which is to say I didn’t pour it down the sink. Surprisingly, this one has only a slight fruit smell in the bottle and pours with no head and no beading. Looks like fruit juice in the glass and the notes in my beer notebook include “weird,” and “tastes like watered down juice.”

Maybe I’m just not hip or "off-centered," but frankly, I’m beginning to think that quirky advertisements are about all that Dogfish Head has to offer. I’ve sampled three beers produced by Dogfish Head (90 Minute Imperial IPA, Raison D’Extra and Festina Peche). I’ve also sampled one beer that I brewed at home using the Mr. Beer home brewing kit. So far Dogfish Head, I like what I brew better than what you brew.

Beers of the Axis

I suppose it had to happen, what with my tendency toward history and the historic, but before I go off on this somewhat tongue in cheek tangent, I probably need to point out (to the 1 person in 100 who will somehow take this wrong and brand me a hater) the fact that this is good natured beer discussion with an admittedly awkward historical slant. I don’t mean any disrespect to the citizens of Japan, Germany or Italy, nor do I mean any disrespect to nations who might have fought with or against these nations in any wars past, present or future. Finally, having said that, I don’t think this is the last installment of this topic you’ll see here at Beer Rant. Like it or not.

Also, I’m not pretending for a second that the beers sampled for this post were beers that were produced in or by the Axis powers during World War II – I’m too lazy to verify if these beers were produced during the war.

And so, with the disclaimers out of the way, I bring you….

Beers of the Axis

Germany, Italy and Japan; the powerhouse triumvirate of the 1930s and early 1940s. Beating up on weaker or dumber neighbors, mass killing on an unprecedented scale and war crimes – real war crimes, documented the world over by the way. Ahh, the good old days.

In September 1931 Japan invaded Chinese Manchuria and in October 1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia and in March 1938 Germany moved into Austria and into Poland by September 1939, thus finally setting off the spark that started what came to be known as World War II.

I’ve often wondered why historians don’t set the date further back, like with Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia or farther back still, to Japan’s invasion of Manchuria. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s give Japan its long-denied credit for having taken the first steps down the road to all out, worldwide war in 1931. In my book, when it comes to World War II, Japan was the trendsetter so let’s start with a (supposedly) Japanese beer, shall we?

Sapporo Premium Beer will represent the land of the rising sun in this review of Beers of the Axis. It smells of vinegar in the bottle and pours a golden yellow with a weak head. Very little taste; indeed of the three Axis beers in this post, this one rates the lowest for taste and get this: the label states that it’s brewed in Canada! (Well, Canada did help win the war, so it stands to reason.)

If Japan is to be credited for lighting the fuse that lead to the explosion of World War II, then next in line comes Italy, with its invasion of Ethiopia, where Italian tank crews fought valiantly against out-gunned locals. Ah, inspiring, isn’t it? Well, what of their beer?

I selected a bottle of Birra Moretti from a multi pack Beers of the Galaxy box that’s been sitting around Beer Rant HQ. Birra Moretti smells a bit sour in the bottle and pours a golden yellow color, producing little head but active beading. The taste is a bit sweet and gone quickly. Nothing much to this beer, really. It’s probably a good session beer and the figure on the label of a hat-wearing fellow seems pleasant enough; he doesn’t look like someone who would instigate a military conflict with a weaker regional neighbor; just some mustachioed fellow sipping a cold beer while he waits for his pizza.

Finally, an example of German brewing prowess that I’m sure most readers and visitors to Beer Rant have heard of, Spaten Oktoberfest Ur-Marzen. I’ll confess that this one was my favorite of the three – I’m partial to Marzen’s for some reason and have had this one on more than one occasion in the past. It’s confounding that the same nation that brought us the Reinheitsgebot purity law governing the production of beer, also managed to concoct a set of regulations that dehumanized vast segments of the population, leading to the extermination of millions…but I digress.

Spaten Oktoberfest Ur-Marzen has a grainy smell in the bottle and pours a light tea color with a weak head and medium beading in the glass. The taste is vaguely of roasted nuts with a quick caramel finish. While I’m happy and proud that the allies kicked the snot out of a nation of people who allowed the Holocaust to take place I’m also glad the Reinheitsgebot remains in effect; this beer’s a keeper.

There you have it, a thumbnail sketch of three beers representing the Axis powers of World War II. Next time, perhaps, a posting on Beers of the Allies, who knows.

(My posting for The (Late) Session will be in a few days by the way.)

Good Trade

Widmer Brother's Hefeweizen

It was late fall of 1988 and I was passing through the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona, driving back to Arizona after a brief working sabbatical in a tiny mountain town west of Denver (just over the divide from where Hunter S. Thompson ranted and raved in his Woody Creek compound). I’d been out of the army a little more than four months, held a full time job on a highway project on Berthoud Pass, dated a nursing student who got busted for selling cocaine, climbed to the top of Torrey’s Peak, drank boxes and boxes of Rainier beer and spent far too little time actually appreciating my surroundings. The snow began to fall at our job site well before Halloween and then it reached the cabin I was renting in that little mountain town, and I realized things weren’t going to improve weather-wise, so on election day, and in the midst of a snowstorm, I loaded up the pickup truck and pointed it southwest.

I recall it was somewhere outside Kayenta that I spotted a stooped old man trudging along beside the road, a ragged looking dog following close behind. The wind was not so much cold as it was persistent and the mutt seemed to be seeking shelter in his master’s wake.

I pulled over and waited as the old fellow trudged up beside the truck. Leaning across the cab, I opened the passenger side door and offered him a ride. He nodded, not saying a word and stepped back as if to climb into the bed of my truck, already piled high with what few possessions I carried and stacks of Edward Abbey books in Rainier boxes.

I beckoned him join me in the cab and, shrugging slightly, he – and the dog – climbed into the cab with me and I pulled back onto the deserted highway, the persistent wind no longer a burden.

Eager to make conversation I asked, “Where you headed?”
“Flagstaff,” came the brief, blunt reply.
“You have family there?” I asked.
“No,” came the reply.
“What’s your dog’s name?” I asked.
“Doesn’t have a name,” came the reply.
“Pretty cold today, huh?” I asked.
“Yeah,” came the reply.
“Let me know if the heater’s set high enough for you,” I said. “I don’t have the setting’s just right ‘cause I’m not used to this truck. I got it for my girlfriend.” There was no reply and we drove on for a few miles, my companion gazing through the windshield at the onrushing empty highway, thinking.

Finally, he said simply, “Good trade.”

(I’ll leave it to you to decipher what part of the foregoing story is bullshit.)

I worked a deal with Johnny Southside this week wherein I traded him two of my precious Deschutes Cinder Cone Reds for two Widmer Hefeweizens. I have to confess that I regretted making the deal about five seconds after having made it, but having made it, I stood by it and things worked out nicely, I have to say.

Widmer Hefeweizen smells faintly of citrus in the bottle, which is strange because I did not detect a noticeable citrus character in the taste. It pours an attractive opaque golden orange and a quick swirl of the bottle will release the sediment and give you nice finish to the pour. I garnished the glass with a slice of orange, in keeping with the illustration on the label only to learn later that it’s lemon they suggest. (This is the danger of not researching beers before I sample them, but it’s a procedure I must adhere to religiously, no matter the risks.) There is a strong taste of wheat in this one and I imagine the citrus slice need not be a requirement to make this a nice refreshment. I enjoyed my first one after mowing the lawn at 4:30 on a hot afternoon, with the temperature above 100 degrees. I enjoyed the second one, at a more leisurely pace right after the first one.

Visit Widmer Brothers Brewing and check out their nifty Brother’s Day promotion. I’ve got a couple of brothers – maybe I should send them an email on Brother’s Day.

Here’s a feature article on Widmer Hefeweizen on Beer Advocate. Ouch, “training-wheels beer.” That’s harsh. I like it and I don’t much go in for hefeweizen’s so I guess that’s me riding the trike.

Here’s what the Beer Advocate Poll Numbers show for Widmer Hefe. Not high marks.

I hope Johnny Southside is as pleased with the trade as I.

Red Stripe...Hooray!

A Decent Daily Drinker

Gosh. It would be easy to rip into this beer, but I’m finding that’s not really possible, since it isn’t all that bad for an over the counter session beer. Sure, their commercials are vaguely racist and I’ve often thought that the only reason for this beer’s existence is to supply single bottles for those multi-pack “beers of the universe” boxes, but what the heck.

I’ve had Red Stripe before but sat down to contemplate the single from a multi-pack of 10 international beers. Another blogger compares Red Stripe to Pabst Blue Ribbon or Miller High Life (I refer to it as High Life by Miller…I’m old school that way.) and I think I agree with that appraisal. Beyond that, not much else to say. Good beer for a hot day. You can pound a bunch of them under the shade of a friendly tree, pull your Rastafarian beanie down tight and get your nasty groove on (I guess. That’s what the younger folks tell me.).
Smells of cereal with a weak head and medium beading in the glass and little or no lacing with this one. I suspect, as with all beers, this one tastes better when you’re closer to the source, but until such time as I wake up and find myself in Kingston Town, I might grab a six pack of this now and then just for fun!


By the by...Happy Birthday Dane!

Session. Session? What Session?

Great Divide Hibernation Ale

Never one to keep up with what’s trendy, I’ve managed to miss posting a topic-related post for every installment of The Session since I began my beer blog earlier this year. I always have the best of intentions, but then things come up or I begin to feel that my contribution to the discussion will be trifling and not especially useful, and I fail to post a session-related entry month after month.

The most recent installment of “The Session” dealt with drinking beers out of season. More to the point, I suspect the beer masses mean drinking heavier beers during the summer. I missed posting on the appointed day. That’s no excuse to flop down and wail like a wee baby. I’m a dark beer kind of fellow and I like it even in hot weather and even a belated excuse to sample dark, strong beer is reason enough to do so.

With temperatures pushing over the 110-degree mark here, I moved a bottle of Great Divide Brewing’s Hibernation Ale from the bullpen to the refrigerator and come 3 or 4 in the afternoon, with the day’s temperature pushing its maximum, I popped the top and poured it out.

This beer’s very name conjures up images of dark winter. The label depicts a solitary figure in silhouette trudging through a snowy landscape. Brrrr. Certainly there are animals that hibernate in the Sonoran desert come wintertime – toads and snakes mostly, but hereabouts, the animal life really tends to lay low in the summer, trying in every way to avoid the heat of the day. It’s not so much hibernation but simple self-preservation. You cavort out in the sun and heat for too long, you’re a cooked goose. So, Hibernation Ale is appropriate to our lifestyle here in the desert if one considers staying indoors and in the air-conditioning a form of hibernation.

The Tasting
If I could use just one word, three times to describe Hibernation Ale, it would be “coffee, coffee, coffee.” It pours dark but clear with medium beading. If Starbucks made a beer, they would simply be ripping off the taste of this beer and putting it in coffee cups. And not just “coffee” but coffee with creamer and a touch of sweetener, too, along with a mild liquor bite. This one warms you slightly as you drink it and finishes quite dry.

I enjoyed this beer a lot. I suspect its warming properties will be especially nice come December when I can take a seat on the back patio as the sun sets and there contemplate what Santa might have in store for me - I shudder at the thought. In the meantime, Hibernation Ale sampled nicely in the comfy climate controlled environs of my home, with the blinding heat miasma circling about each window like a rabid wolf.

Here’s the Hibernation Ale page at the brewer’s website:
Great Divide Hibernation Ale
Gosh, a “collectible” beer. Makes me almost wish I hadn’t sampled this one quite yet. I never use or throw away anything that might be of value and to know that I popped the top on a beer that might have some value as a collector’s item, well, I’m a bit sad by that notion.

The folks at Beer Advocate chimed in with a grade of A- for Hibernation Ale. No summer school for this beer; and no hibernating either!

Okay, this installment of The (Late) Session is over.

A Deschutes Trifecta

I’ve already stated somewhere that I like everything I’ve tried from Deschutes Brewing out of Bend, Oregon. That’s never happened and I suppose it’s time I actually elaborated on which of their products I have tried and to give some background, right?

Mirror Pond Pale Ale
My first experience with this beer and this brewer was during a history symposium at Grand Canyon National Park a couple months ago. Mirror Pond and Black Butte Porter are available in the cafeteria-style restaurant of the Yavapai Lodge on the South Rim. Nice.

I had a couple of these during our lunch breaks, and found them to be very refreshing and just dark enough to be attractive. (I’ve mentioned already that I have an affinity for darker beers – equating light color with weak taste, rightly or wrongly.) Mirror Pond makes a nice lunchtime accompaniment.

Since that first experience I’ve purchased a couple of six packs of this and it was especially nice to have around when I helped my daughter and her family move into their new home recently. (I stocked their new fridge with three six-packs of beer: Rolling Rock, Mirror Pond and Black Butte. My son-in-law is on a Rolling Rock kick, for which I can’t fault him since I was there once myself. I bought the Deschutes beers thinking that the Porter would be too dark for my son-in-law so he’d leave it alone, and the Pale Ale would be a happy medium that he might be willing to try. I think he tried it, but I’m not going to hold his hand for heaven’s sake, and I’m not going to wait forever before finishing the six-pack!)

Black Butte Porter
This one smells faintly of chocolate and grass in the bottle. It pours as dark as coffee and has an initial faint sweetness to it that builds ever so slightly to caramel. It is mildly warming as you work your way through a glassful and isn’t so heavy that you couldn’t enjoy a few in a sitting. I think if I’m going to convince my son-in-law to step over to the dark side of beers, this will be the beer upon which he takes that first tentative step. (C’mon lad, you can do it.)

Cinder Cone Red
Based on the positive experience with both the Mirror Pond and the Black Butte, I snagged a single bottle of Cinder Cone Red at the local cigar and wine emporium and on tasting it, immediately wished I’d hunted down a six-pack.

In the bottle, the vegetable smell is somewhat off-putting, but this one pours a rich red color (of course) with a handsome cream-colored head. The taste is somewhat sweet with hints of caramel or perhaps licorice.

The bottle sports an attractive, eye-catching label that makes the product stand out on the shelves amongst the other wannabes, which may be why I spotted this amid the myriad other single craft brews on the shelf.

Curious, I skipped on over to Deschutes’ website and found that Cinder Cone is only available April through June. Naturally, I picked up two six-packs of Cinder Cone and stashed them in the closet. (I paid just a tad under 6 bucks each for the six-packs, which makes beer one of the best beverage bargains out there these days, I think.) Then, oh joy, my daughter picked up two more and brought them to me on Independence Day! Now I’ve got those three six packs of Cinder Cone (Yes, “three.” We finished one off on July 4th.) hidden away and I’m hoping I’ll forget about them until say, mid-September, early October.

Add Cinder Cone to your beer wish list and try to find it this year before the stock is gone. Otherwise, pencil it in as something to look for next spring and then in the meantime, go out and get some Black Butte Porter and Mirror Pond Pale Ale!

Links and such…

Here’s the link to the Deschutes website:
Deschutes Brewery

Here’s Deschutes’ Cinder Cone page:
Cinder Cone Red

I’m not a registered member at Beer Advocate (never was much of a “joiner” I guess), but I like to use them as the demographic dipstick by which beers are measured. All three of these Deschutes Brewing beers scored well with the Beer Advocates. Here are the individual reviews:

Beer Advocate on Mirror Pond

Beer Advocate on Black Butte Porter

Beer Advocate on Cinder Cone Red

(And while we’re on the subject of beer review websites, I’d like to give a quick tip of the hat to the guys -and gals? - at Beer Review Online . I am a member of this site and will get around to posting an entry about them in the coming weeks, I hope.)

I don’t know that I’ve ever been able to proclaim a fondness for all the beers produced by a single brewer, and having tried three of their beers, my experience with Deschutes Brewing may not be exactly far-reaching or broad-based. But I know a positive trend when I see one. I try different beers from different brewers and some I like (a lot) and some I don’t care so much about but I always try to stay open minded and sample new beers from a brewer even if they’ve disappointed me in the past. Hey, nowadays when you can buy single bottles of beer to sample, there isn’t any excuse for not keeping an open mind and trying a variety of product. The difficulty comes when you’re pressed for a quick choice and your brain freezes and you can’t recall what beers you really liked. For me, for the moment, I’ll just remember one word: “Deschutes.”

Two Variety Pack Picks

Those 6, 8 and 10 beer variety packs have always been something of a puzzle for me. I see them at places like Cost Plus Imports and wonder if the beers in them aren’t to brewing what Lucky Strikes were to cigarettes. You know the smoker’s legend about Lucky Strikes, right?

Smokers told me that Lucky Strikes were manufactured using all the ground tobacco that fell on the factory floor in the process of making better, more expensive cigarettes. I’m sensible enough to know this is baloney. (We all know it was Kool’s that were made that way and that’s why they added the menthol taste, man!)

Anyhow, I see these variety packs of beers and wonder if their contents are somehow made up of factory rejects and product that’s past its shelf life. I don’t know that I’ve ever purchased one of these variety “theme” packs myself, but my dear bride brings them home to me from time to time and I’ve recently determined that by and large, the contents are usually of good quality and within their reasonable shelf life, based mainly on my having checked a few of the beers that actually have dates on them. With this in mind, I suppose I’ll be more apt to buy these variety packs myself from now on.

The two most recent variety packs to cross the threshold here were the ubiquitous “Beers of the World” which I’ve had numerous times (why does a bottle of Red Stripe always end up in these?) and a variety pack of American Craft beers. Here’s the skinny on a couple from the Craft Beer variety pack.

Pyramid Hefeweizen Ale smells of wheat and grain in the bottle and surprisingly of vinegar or pickles when poured. Presents a dark opaque orange color. The consistency seems a bit thick – I swirled the bottle to agitate the last bit of sediment and found that the sediment was indeed thick. (The label touts it as “refreshingly unfiltered” but the thickness seems to work against some of the beer’s refreshing qualities. Nevertheless, this one had a spicy but light taste that I preferred to the Sam Adams Hefeweizen that I tried more recently, but having said that, I'm not sure I'll seek this one out again.

Here’s the link to the Pyramid Brewing website:
http://www.pyramidbrew.com/beer/beerguide/hefeweizen.php

The posters at Beer Advocate weren’t blown away by this Hefe.:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/403/1237

Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale smells amazingly like pumpkin pie in the bottle and of spices in the glass. Insignificant head may be the result of some shelf life issues but that’s not reflected in the taste. This one is evidently also brewed by Pyramid Breweries, too. It actually has a mild pumpkin and spice taste that rates well for novelty if nothing else; this one claims to be “America’s Original” pumpkin ale, and while it didn’t knock me for a loop, I can see myself looking for this later in the year when the shadows get long and the evenings get cooler and there’s a touch of fall in the air.

Here’s Buffalo Bill’s website:
http://www.buffalobillsbrewery.com/default.asp

It’s a tough crowd at Beer Advocate and they don’t put too much stock in novelty or Halloween for that matter, I guess:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/205/643/

Here’s the Roughneck’s Take on Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale (he’s more eloquent than I).: http://lagerheads.blogspot.com/2006/06/buffalo-bills-pumpkin-ale.html

Small Batch. Big Taste.

Okay. How about a Breckenridge Brewery triple play? Yesterday it was their Avalanche Ale and the Vanilla Porter. I sampled those two beers awhile back and today, I broke into a long-stored bottle of their Small Batch 471 Double Hopped India Pale Ale. (Whew, that’s a mouthful and so’s this beer, man!)

To begin, it’s known that I originally hail from a small mountain county in Colorado, but I want it known that I’m not turning into a shill for a Colorado craft brewer. Honest. (Here is where I confess that I’ve got a Coors Brewing Company sticker on the back of my truck.) As proof, I’ll point to the lukewarm review I gave other Breckenridge products I’ve tried recently. They’re okay, but they just don’t knock my socks off.

Now, for this here “small batch” stuff. Small Batch 471 is something akin to an inside joke, I think. It’s a special recipe, I guess, that the factory hacks allowed the working grunts to run with and if that’s the case, I’m glad they did. I’ve proclaimed my disdain for overly hopped beers in the past – most recently the weird and quirky “Hazed and Infused” from Boulder Brewing (a Colorado brewer…hmmm.), but this Small Batch is a horse of a different color. For starters, it’s an ass-kicker at 9.2% abv. Secondly, it’s a wallet-buster, given that I paid $2.69 for a single at my local cigar and booze emporium. Oh well, I’m a sucker for a painted label bottle and a clever name. I bought it. I own it. I tried it.

The Tasting
Breckenridge Brewing’s Small Batch 471 Double Hopped IPA gives off a fruity, hoppy aroma in the bottle and pours a dark orange that is not the least bit clear. A head of about one finger is produced with a moderately aggressive pour. The initial taste is very hoppy with an alcohol bite and a finish than hints strongly of spiced orange. This stuff is really good but really strong. I believe it might be a nice beer to drink on a dark December evening while one waits for Santa to drop a Beer of the Month certificate in your stocking. I’m going to go out and buy another bottle just for that occasion! Hey, Santa, I’ve been good!

Here’s the link to Breckenridge Brewing’s web page for Small Batch 471. It’s good to know they make it year ‘round. http://www.breckbrew.com/beer/smallbatch.html

Here’s what the RateBeer crowd has to say about 471:
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/breckenridge-471-small-batch-ipa/34157/954/

Here’s the Beer Advocate page for Small Batch 471. I especially like the comment made by one boozer, wherein he/she opined, “Would be a great session beer except for the 9.2.” I love it! (Pot would be great in cigarettes, except for the law.)
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/759/22527

Here’s a nice post at Hops and Barley Blog:
http://www.hopsandbarleyblog.com/2008/02/breckenridge-brewery-small-batch-471.html

Two From The Rockies

I grew up not too far from the town of Breckenridge and while this beer isn’t brewed in the town, I still feel a bit of a connection to the territory. Summer time is the best time in the Rockies; the canyons and valleys are so narrow in some areas that in the winter, the sun barely casts its light on the valley floor before it sets. That makes for a long, brutal winter some years. But in the summer, the temperature hovers in the 70s maybe the 80s and during certain parts of the season, it always clouds up in the afternoon and often as not, it rains. But I digress.

Here’s the dope on Avalanche Amber:

Pours a truly amber color with a thin head and minor beading that’s gone after a few minutes. Smell runs citrus to caramel and the taste is a little bitter. Finishes with hints of coffee then it’s gone. This one didn’t knock my socks off frankly, but I won’t shun it at parties like last weeks prom date. (Where the heck did that come from?)

Here’s the skinny on Avalanche Vanilla Porter:

Pours dark coffee color with a weak head and no lacing of note. Smells vaguely of a vanilla milkshake and tastes of caramel building to a pleasant but vague vanilla finish that’s dry like a wine at the end. Not as delectably delicious as I’d hoped but not a complete letdown and just a cut above the Avalanche Amber.

I enjoyed these beers enough that I’ll seek out other Breckenridge products – and have – in the future. Perhaps if I ever get back to Colorado, I’ll try their product where it’s bound to be even fresher, having traveled a shorter distance. (For a review of their Oatmeal Stout, see the post from May 28, 2008.)

No links today. Do your own darned research!

Sunbru (Dog Days) Kolsch Style Ale

Four Peaks Brewing SunBru Kolsch

Attended a conference at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, Arizona this week. The “Ho” is like right out of a movie from the 1960s. I expected to see the Rat Pack lounging round outside in the shade. And, while 99% of our time was devoted to affairs of the convention – presentations, venders, etc., Johnny Southside and I did manage to spend a few minutes at the bar in Café ZuZu.

What I’d thought was a tap handle for Grolsch turned out to be a tap handle for Four Peaks Sunbru Kolsch. I ordered one and Johnny Southside had a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The Sunbru presented very light in color with a sturdy head of about one finger’s width. Smells like a lager to me with a mild taste of grain and a quick finish. The beer was ice cold and is certainly a nice summer beer, but just too light in color for my tastes. Right or wrong, I’m afraid I equate light color with “weak.” I found myself casting a jealous eye toward the Sierra Nevada that Johnny Southside ordered. (So I ordered one of those for round two.)

The Four Peaks site describes Sunbru thusly: “…a very light golden ale that is malty, sweet, almost honey-like in the nose. This ale has a light to medium body and a very delicate flavor. Easy drinking, it has very low bitterness and a soft dry finish…This style originates from the city of Cologne, Germany where all twenty-eight breweries are dedicated to brewing only Kolsch style ales.”

According to their site, Sunbru was originally called “dog days,” which I prefer to the name “sunbru,” which sounds like a fruit drink or iced tea beverage. I think if all the breweries in Cologne brew this style, it must be a rather boring town as far as beer is concerned.

Beer Advocate’s devotees had this to say:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2171/24288

Here’s a picture of the bar in ZuZu’s. If this place weren’t outside my normal area of operation and removed from my usual social milieu, I might be coaxed back for another beer…heck, I might go back anyway.

Here’s my favorite picture of the Rat Pack (I just wish they hadn’t set the drink on the felt!):

Back to work tomorrow. The Valley Ho will move on without me.

Boulder Brewing: Hazed and Infused

One from the slush pile...

The offerings from this brewer tread the “hippie” side of the fence – not an era that I’m especially enamored of, but hey, it’s beer so I’ll try it.

Smells sour, bitter and acidic. Like a burned out hippie who's just waiting to die or for his 401(k) to finally pay off big.
Poured with a thin head, medium lacing
Oaky taste. Dry, quick finish.

Not great. I’m learning that the overly hoppy beers are not my thing…of course, the 60s aren’t my thing either, that’s when this country forgot how to work and how to fight. Now we watch reality shows about men who work (fishermen, lumberjacks and oilfield workers) and….oh, never mind. (Stick to the beer, stupid.)

Here’s the link to the Boulder Beer Company website. (“Colorado’s first microbrewery” I guess so. Who am I to argue, but hey, didn’t Coors start out as a “microbrewery” at some point?)
http://www.boulderbeer.com/

Here’s what the “free love” crowd at Beer Advocate had to say about Hazed:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/130/6590/

I suspect that if I find my way up to Boulder some day, I’ll try to make time to visit Boulder Brewing’s headquarters. In the meantime, I’ll keep an open mind about their other hippie-oriented beers and try them down the line. However, I probably won’t bother with Hazed and Infused again.

A Tale of Two Stouts

Since I’m going to be away from the computer in a couple of days and not able to post anything, I thought I might double up a bit here and try a pair of oatmeal stouts, one from Nimbus Brewing in Tucson, Arizona and the other from Breckenridge Brewing in Colorado.

First up was the Nimbus Oatmeal Stout. I’ve tried the Nimbus Nut Brown Ale and put it about mid-pack for quality. I still struggle with the whole chimpanzee motif on their labels, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve decided the monkey thing won’t prevent me from trying their other beers. Their Oatmeal Stout has a rich smell in the bottle, smelling of nuts and toffee or maybe caramel. In the glass more of a vegetable scent is evident. Pours very dark as you would expect with a nice tan head. Taste is oaky with a strong hint of burnt grain, which surprisingly isn’t unpleasant. Decidedly better than the Brown Ale.

The second oatmeal stout of the day Breckenridge Brewing’s Oatmeal Stout. This one had an insignificant smell in the bottle and some vegetable smell in the glass. Frankly, the taste seems as insignificant as the smell to me. It’s possible I didn’t cleanse my palate sufficiently between pours, however I believe I did and would have to say that of the two oatmeal stouts, I prefer the Nimbus offering to the Breckenridge oatmeal stout.

Will I try the Nimbus Oatmeal Stout again? Sure. Will I try the Breckenridge Oatmeal Stout again? Probably.

I can't find any hard and fast ratings for the Nimbus Oatmeal Stout. Here’s a link to the Nimbus Site:

http://nimbusbeer.qwestoffice.net/oatmeal-stout.html

So, in fairness, here's the Breckenridge site:

http://www.breckbrew.com/beer/oatmealstout.html

Okay, I've tried a few other beers over the past couple of days and my notebook is filling up even as I neglect to make new postings. Sad part is, I won't be able to make postings for a few days after tomorrow, so maybe tomorrow I'll post an omnibus beer tasting post to catch things up a bit. Hold on to your hat!