This post is pretty anticlimactic after my last post which covered the 1,000th entry in the Brew List. As usual, I have a backlog of brews to add to the list. I was updating list today and reached the end of last year. My list currently stands at a total of 1,006 entries. At the end of 2013 per my post covering the end of that year, the list stood at 756 entries. That number divided up to 148 entries for 2010, 151 for 2011, 150 for 2012, and 307 for 2013. The total for 2014 was 250 brews.
The last beer I consumed last year was a bottle of Blood Ov [sic] The Kings from Local Option. That brewery is located in Chicago, Illinois.
Showing posts with label beer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beer. Show all posts
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Round Numbers and Letters, Part II
This post is a continuous of yesterday's post that covered the first part of my run-up to the 1,000th entry in my Brew List as well as my trip with my mother to Colorado to visit my sister and her family. As a reminder, number 996 was a single-hop pale ale from Left Hand Brewing Company located in Longmont, Colorado.
Following the visit to Left Hand's tap room by my sister April, her husband Christian and myself, we hit a local Indian restaurant for dinner. With dinner, I enjoyed a big bottle of Kingfisher Premium Lager which was the 997th entry on the list. Christian called it the Budweiser of India, and I think that is about right. Kingfisher is a product of United Breweries Limited or the UB Group. I added another Indian beer from UB Group, Flying Horse Royal Lager, to the Brew List last year.
Number 998 was a can out of my sister's refrigerator. The can was Craft Lager from Upslope Brewing Company located in Boulder, Colorado. I spent the whole day playing with my nephew and niece, so I think I rightly deserved that beer.
The runner-up to number one thousand was a bottle from April's fridge. I assume it was from a Rocky Mountain Sampler pack from Breckenridge Brewery. Number 999 was a bottle of Fresh Hop Pale Ale from Breckenridge's Mountain Series. I have had several brews from Breckenridge on previous visits to Colorado.
Now a drum roll, please. Number 1,000 was a bottle of Wolf Picker out of a sampler pack from Odell Brewing. Quoting from the bottle, the beer is an "Experimental Pale Ale," and it is part of their Roots Release series. I enjoyed it on Christmas Eve during a family gathering at my sister's house. Last year, I had two drafts from Odell at the Denver airport while heading back from visiting my sister. I had their IPA and 90 Shilling Ale.
Following the visit to Left Hand's tap room by my sister April, her husband Christian and myself, we hit a local Indian restaurant for dinner. With dinner, I enjoyed a big bottle of Kingfisher Premium Lager which was the 997th entry on the list. Christian called it the Budweiser of India, and I think that is about right. Kingfisher is a product of United Breweries Limited or the UB Group. I added another Indian beer from UB Group, Flying Horse Royal Lager, to the Brew List last year.
Number 998 was a can out of my sister's refrigerator. The can was Craft Lager from Upslope Brewing Company located in Boulder, Colorado. I spent the whole day playing with my nephew and niece, so I think I rightly deserved that beer.
The runner-up to number one thousand was a bottle from April's fridge. I assume it was from a Rocky Mountain Sampler pack from Breckenridge Brewery. Number 999 was a bottle of Fresh Hop Pale Ale from Breckenridge's Mountain Series. I have had several brews from Breckenridge on previous visits to Colorado.
Now a drum roll, please. Number 1,000 was a bottle of Wolf Picker out of a sampler pack from Odell Brewing. Quoting from the bottle, the beer is an "Experimental Pale Ale," and it is part of their Roots Release series. I enjoyed it on Christmas Eve during a family gathering at my sister's house. Last year, I had two drafts from Odell at the Denver airport while heading back from visiting my sister. I had their IPA and 90 Shilling Ale.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Round Numbers and Letters, Part I
This year is nearing its end, and so far, I have managed to publish a measly five posts. I have been cheating you dear imaginary reader. I hope to make it up to you at least a bit by the end of the year. This post will be first of two post that will combine two possibly independent topics. The first possibly separate post would have covered the run-up to the one-thousandth entry in my Brew List. (By the way, I changed the name of the list from "Beer List" to "Brew List" because it contains ciders and meads which are not beers along with the normal ales and lagers. I do not plan to add other fermented beverages to the list although I do enjoy wine, some sake, and the hard liquors.)
However, that particular milestone just happened to occur while I was on a trip with my mother to Colorado to visit my sister and her family. In the past, I have published a post (or several posts) about my now-annual visit to that great beer-loving state. While I did manage to add several new Colorado brews to the list and visit another brewery, this Colorado trip was definitely more about family.
I will start my updates back in North Carolina prior to my trip to Colorado. The last time I updated my list, it stood at 988 entries. Therefore, I knew the big four-digit milestone was quickly approaching. That is why I will start with number 989 which was a draft of Christmas Eve At A New York City Hotel Room (I did not know it was foreshadowing at the time) from Evil Twin Brewing. That brewery made appearances in the posts about both brews #500 and #900. I have discussed quirky Evil Twin in the past, and I just noticed on the "About" page, that they use ten different contract breweries.
Moving on, the 990th entry in the list was Old Chub Nitro from Oskar Blues. Old Chub is a Scotch ale, and the nitrogen gives it a smoother, creamier mouth feel. I had it on draft and not in a can which contains a widget for infusing nitrogen into the beer.
The 991th and 992th entries were both from Short's Brewing Company. Their brews are produced in an industrial park in Elk Rapids, Michigan. A friend of my girlfriend Sara returned from a trip to Michigan with a six-pack of different beers from Short's for her and I to try. The first four bottles were previously consumed and duly cataloged. Number 991 was Wowee Zowee which is (and I quote from the bottle) a "Golden Ale brewed with fresh mint and mango." I remember it being a generally fruity-tasting beer but not tasting overly like mango or mint. Number 992 was Alter Spalter which is (again quoting from the bottle) "A True Old World German Ale."
Now we fast forward a few days. My mom volunteered to babysit my nephew and niece while my sister, brother-in-law and I went out for drinks and dinner. We stopped by the tasting room of Left Hand Brewing Company in Longmont, Colorado. The city of Longmont was greatly affected by the floods that hit Colorado last year. According to my brother-in-law, some roads have only recently been reopened after being closed for repair for over a year. Getting back to less sobering news (pun intended), I enjoyed a four-beer flight of single-hopped pale ales from their Safety Rounds. Therefore, beers numbers 993 through 996 were single-hopped Safety Round beers with Chinook, Comet, Centennial, and Apollo hops, respectively.
I will cover the 997th through 1000th entries to the list in the next post.
However, that particular milestone just happened to occur while I was on a trip with my mother to Colorado to visit my sister and her family. In the past, I have published a post (or several posts) about my now-annual visit to that great beer-loving state. While I did manage to add several new Colorado brews to the list and visit another brewery, this Colorado trip was definitely more about family.
I will start my updates back in North Carolina prior to my trip to Colorado. The last time I updated my list, it stood at 988 entries. Therefore, I knew the big four-digit milestone was quickly approaching. That is why I will start with number 989 which was a draft of Christmas Eve At A New York City Hotel Room (I did not know it was foreshadowing at the time) from Evil Twin Brewing. That brewery made appearances in the posts about both brews #500 and #900. I have discussed quirky Evil Twin in the past, and I just noticed on the "About" page, that they use ten different contract breweries.
Moving on, the 990th entry in the list was Old Chub Nitro from Oskar Blues. Old Chub is a Scotch ale, and the nitrogen gives it a smoother, creamier mouth feel. I had it on draft and not in a can which contains a widget for infusing nitrogen into the beer.
The 991th and 992th entries were both from Short's Brewing Company. Their brews are produced in an industrial park in Elk Rapids, Michigan. A friend of my girlfriend Sara returned from a trip to Michigan with a six-pack of different beers from Short's for her and I to try. The first four bottles were previously consumed and duly cataloged. Number 991 was Wowee Zowee which is (and I quote from the bottle) a "Golden Ale brewed with fresh mint and mango." I remember it being a generally fruity-tasting beer but not tasting overly like mango or mint. Number 992 was Alter Spalter which is (again quoting from the bottle) "A True Old World German Ale."
Now we fast forward a few days. My mom volunteered to babysit my nephew and niece while my sister, brother-in-law and I went out for drinks and dinner. We stopped by the tasting room of Left Hand Brewing Company in Longmont, Colorado. The city of Longmont was greatly affected by the floods that hit Colorado last year. According to my brother-in-law, some roads have only recently been reopened after being closed for repair for over a year. Getting back to less sobering news (pun intended), I enjoyed a four-beer flight of single-hopped pale ales from their Safety Rounds. Therefore, beers numbers 993 through 996 were single-hopped Safety Round beers with Chinook, Comet, Centennial, and Apollo hops, respectively.
I will cover the 997th through 1000th entries to the list in the next post.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Number 900
This is a quick post to chronicle my approach to the 900th beer on my Beer List. Number 898 is Of Love & Regret which is a saison-style ale from Stillwater Artisanal Ales. Stillwater is a located Baltimore, Maryland. I consumed this beer at the Wine Merchant in Cary, North Carolina.
Number 899 on the beer list is Pickup Line Porter from Bombshell Beer Company. Bombshell is a relatively new brewery located in the Raleigh suburb of Holly Springs, North Carolina. Interestingly enough, Bombshell made an appearance in my post on entry number 800. Their Polished Pilsner was number 801.
Cuing the drum roll, the 900th addition to my beer list is from Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck but is not a variety of their more well-known Kasteel line. Number 900 is instead St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition which is a lambic, specifically a geuze. It is a very sour beer. By the way, Van Honsebrouck is located in the city of Ingelmunster, Belgium. This beer was also consumed at the Wine Merchant as were the next two brews on the list.
Number 901 on the beer list is another brew from Stillwater. This one was Why Can't IBU. For my imaginary readers who are not up on their beer jargon, IBU is an abbreviation for International Bitterness Unit. It is a measure of bitterness. Not surprisingly, this beer is quite hoppy.
Finally, number 902 on the beer list is I Love You With My Stout from Evil Twin Brewing. I have previously commented on the vagabond nature of Evil Twin.
Number 899 on the beer list is Pickup Line Porter from Bombshell Beer Company. Bombshell is a relatively new brewery located in the Raleigh suburb of Holly Springs, North Carolina. Interestingly enough, Bombshell made an appearance in my post on entry number 800. Their Polished Pilsner was number 801.
Cuing the drum roll, the 900th addition to my beer list is from Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck but is not a variety of their more well-known Kasteel line. Number 900 is instead St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition which is a lambic, specifically a geuze. It is a very sour beer. By the way, Van Honsebrouck is located in the city of Ingelmunster, Belgium. This beer was also consumed at the Wine Merchant as were the next two brews on the list.
Number 901 on the beer list is another brew from Stillwater. This one was Why Can't IBU. For my imaginary readers who are not up on their beer jargon, IBU is an abbreviation for International Bitterness Unit. It is a measure of bitterness. Not surprisingly, this beer is quite hoppy.
Finally, number 902 on the beer list is I Love You With My Stout from Evil Twin Brewing. I have previously commented on the vagabond nature of Evil Twin.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Deleted Drafts
I just deleted three old draft posts that I never got around to finishing and posting. After I deleted them, I thought I could do a little summery of what each of those posts would have been. Of course, that would have been a much better idea before I deleted the draft.
One of the draft posts was to be the promised follow-up to this post from back in 2011. That post covered a couple of radical realignment proposals for Major League Baseball. The title for the post was to be "Bottom-Heavy Baseball" since it focused on the proposal that put 18 of the 30 teams in three six-team lower-tier divisions. Based on a related spreadsheet, I was going to focus on maintaining traditional rivalries (New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants). I accomplished this by averaging the player salaries of the two rival teams when assigning the teams to either the upper or lower tier.
Another now-deleted draft dealt with the Ten Commandments from the Bible. Basically, a book I was reading at the time had an example that involved how many of the commandants people remembered. I think the example showed that people who were asked a question involving a moral question were more likely to chose the high road if they were first asked to recite the Ten Commandments. However, the number of commandments they could recite (which perhaps reflected how religious they were) did not have any affect on their choices. Basically, it was thinking about the Commandments that made people more moral and not actually knowing the Commandments. I wondered if the Commandments that I remembered said anything about my personality and my moral values. I believe "Ten Strong Recommendations" was the title I was using for that post.
The most recent draft post was going to compare two seemingly unrelated topics. One topic was homosexuality and same-sex marriage, and the other was corporate logos on athletic jerseys. In general, both topics tend to pit more traditional, more conservative, and older segments of the population with younger and more liberal segments. One specific thought I had was that both issues were generally more accepted outside of the United States. I also think it is interesting that homosexuality and same-sex marriage are more accepted in the northeastern and western region of the country which are known to be more liberal while corporate logos are embraced by NASCAR which is popular in the more conservative Southeast and Midwest regions.
One of the draft posts was to be the promised follow-up to this post from back in 2011. That post covered a couple of radical realignment proposals for Major League Baseball. The title for the post was to be "Bottom-Heavy Baseball" since it focused on the proposal that put 18 of the 30 teams in three six-team lower-tier divisions. Based on a related spreadsheet, I was going to focus on maintaining traditional rivalries (New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants). I accomplished this by averaging the player salaries of the two rival teams when assigning the teams to either the upper or lower tier.
Another now-deleted draft dealt with the Ten Commandments from the Bible. Basically, a book I was reading at the time had an example that involved how many of the commandants people remembered. I think the example showed that people who were asked a question involving a moral question were more likely to chose the high road if they were first asked to recite the Ten Commandments. However, the number of commandments they could recite (which perhaps reflected how religious they were) did not have any affect on their choices. Basically, it was thinking about the Commandments that made people more moral and not actually knowing the Commandments. I wondered if the Commandments that I remembered said anything about my personality and my moral values. I believe "Ten Strong Recommendations" was the title I was using for that post.
The most recent draft post was going to compare two seemingly unrelated topics. One topic was homosexuality and same-sex marriage, and the other was corporate logos on athletic jerseys. In general, both topics tend to pit more traditional, more conservative, and older segments of the population with younger and more liberal segments. One specific thought I had was that both issues were generally more accepted outside of the United States. I also think it is interesting that homosexuality and same-sex marriage are more accepted in the northeastern and western region of the country which are known to be more liberal while corporate logos are embraced by NASCAR which is popular in the more conservative Southeast and Midwest regions.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Number 800
I apologize to my faithful imaginary readers for I have recently been forsaking you. I have been posting pictures of beer on my Facebook page instead of posting those photos here. I hope this peace offering will help rectify the situation.This photo is a bottle of Thirsty Dog Brewing Company's
Siberian Night Aged in Bourbon Barrels. Thirsty Dog is located in the world-famous vacation locale known as Akron, Ohio. I was going to go with "tropical paradise" in reference to Akron, but I used that in a previous post where I won a bottle of Thirsty Dog's Bourbon Barrel-Aged Wee Heavy.
I am almost finally caught up on updating my Beer List which now stands at 801 entries. Assuming I can ever figure out which version of Left Hand Brewing's Fade to Black that I had the other day in order to be able to add it to the list, Siberian Night Bourbon Barrel Aged should be number 803.
Working backwards, the 802nd entry on the list will be a draft of Hop On Top from the Lynnwood Brewing. Besides being a stupid name, the Lynnwood Brewing Concern is the relatively new brewery associated with Lynnwood Grill which is a bar in my neck of the woods. I previously mentioned Lynnwood in a very odd post comparing love and bars.
The 801st entry will be a draft of Polished Pilsner from another new local brewery. Bombshell Beer Company is located in Holly Springs. The Raleigh suburb of Holly Springs is also home to Carolina Brewing Company (not to be confused with Carolina Brewery in Chapel Hill but I have covered that particular topic before).
Moving on to a nice round number, Jurata Baltic Porter would be the 800th addition chronologically to the beer list. Jurata is a cross-continental collaboration between Coronado Brewing Company located in Coronado, California and Cigar City Brewing located in Tampa, Florida. (Tampa is nicknamed the "Cigar City.") These types of brewery collaborations continue to increase in popularity. The first collaboration brew that I had was Hopfen-Weisse which was originally a collaboration between Germany's Bräuhaus G. Schneider & Sohn and New York's The Brooklyn Brewery. Reunion Ale, a collaboration between New York's Shmaltz Brewing Company and Georgia's Terrapin Beer Company, is now on its third annual release.
As I stated above, these numbers all depend on getting the bottle of Fade to Black that I consumed added to the list. That beer would be entry number 799.
Siberian Night Aged in Bourbon Barrels. Thirsty Dog is located in the world-famous vacation locale known as Akron, Ohio. I was going to go with "tropical paradise" in reference to Akron, but I used that in a previous post where I won a bottle of Thirsty Dog's Bourbon Barrel-Aged Wee Heavy.
I am almost finally caught up on updating my Beer List which now stands at 801 entries. Assuming I can ever figure out which version of Left Hand Brewing's Fade to Black that I had the other day in order to be able to add it to the list, Siberian Night Bourbon Barrel Aged should be number 803.
Working backwards, the 802nd entry on the list will be a draft of Hop On Top from the Lynnwood Brewing. Besides being a stupid name, the Lynnwood Brewing Concern is the relatively new brewery associated with Lynnwood Grill which is a bar in my neck of the woods. I previously mentioned Lynnwood in a very odd post comparing love and bars.
The 801st entry will be a draft of Polished Pilsner from another new local brewery. Bombshell Beer Company is located in Holly Springs. The Raleigh suburb of Holly Springs is also home to Carolina Brewing Company (not to be confused with Carolina Brewery in Chapel Hill but I have covered that particular topic before).
Moving on to a nice round number, Jurata Baltic Porter would be the 800th addition chronologically to the beer list. Jurata is a cross-continental collaboration between Coronado Brewing Company located in Coronado, California and Cigar City Brewing located in Tampa, Florida. (Tampa is nicknamed the "Cigar City.") These types of brewery collaborations continue to increase in popularity. The first collaboration brew that I had was Hopfen-Weisse which was originally a collaboration between Germany's Bräuhaus G. Schneider & Sohn and New York's The Brooklyn Brewery. Reunion Ale, a collaboration between New York's Shmaltz Brewing Company and Georgia's Terrapin Beer Company, is now on its third annual release.
As I stated above, these numbers all depend on getting the bottle of Fade to Black that I consumed added to the list. That beer would be entry number 799.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Beer List 2013
As I continue to catch up on my backlog of entries to my Beer List, I have finally made it to the end of 2013. Obviously, the calendar year ends on New Year's Eve, and I was at a New Year's Eve party on December 31, 2013. An interesting thing about using Twitter to track the beers that I consume is that I know exactly which beer was my last for 2013 and which was first for 2014. My last beer of 2013 was a bottle of Old Engine Oil which is a porter from Harviestoun Brewery located in Alva, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. The first of 2014 was a bottle of Newcastle Cabbie which is a limited-edition black ale (as opposed to their famous brown ale).
Returning to the Beer List, I drank 148 different beers in 2010. I found a missing beer in my Twitter feed from 2011, so the number of different beers for 2011 has risen from 150 to 151. In my post on the Beer List for 2012, I figured that I had consumed 150 different brews which would bring the total to 449 after correcting for the missing beer in 2011. I have gone back through the beer list and added dates where I could (which is how I found the missing beer from 2011). Unfortunately, I do not have a standalone list for 2012 and not everything had a post on Twitter, so I know there are several entries from 2012 that are now mislabeled as 2013. Up to the end of 2013, the Beer List stands at 756 entries which means I drank 307 different brews in 2013. That probably helps account for all those extra pounds I have accumulated.
Returning to the Beer List, I drank 148 different beers in 2010. I found a missing beer in my Twitter feed from 2011, so the number of different beers for 2011 has risen from 150 to 151. In my post on the Beer List for 2012, I figured that I had consumed 150 different brews which would bring the total to 449 after correcting for the missing beer in 2011. I have gone back through the beer list and added dates where I could (which is how I found the missing beer from 2011). Unfortunately, I do not have a standalone list for 2012 and not everything had a post on Twitter, so I know there are several entries from 2012 that are now mislabeled as 2013. Up to the end of 2013, the Beer List stands at 756 entries which means I drank 307 different brews in 2013. That probably helps account for all those extra pounds I have accumulated.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Son of the Palmetto State
It has been almost four months since I last published a post. I am also months behind on updating my Beer List. I recently started working to add all the backlogged brews to the list. The list is currently up to 725 entries, and I have worked my way up to November 14. On that Thursday, I attended a college football game. My sister April was in town. We grew up in South Carolina, and April went to college at Clemson University. The Clemson Tigers had been recovering nicely from a disappointing blowout loss three weeks earlier to rival and eventual national champion Florida State. April and I drove down to Clemson to watch the Tigers continue that recovery with a blowout win over Georgia Tech. The game was broadcast nationally on ESPN. Clemson would go on to finish their 2013 season with a 11-2 record, ending the regular season with loss to their intrastate rivalry game with the South Carolina Gamecocks, and then a win in the Orange Bowl against Big Ten powerhouse Ohio State.
However, this post is about cleaning up the backlog of Beer List additions. The 726th entry will be a draft of Son Of A Peach from RJ Rockers Brewing Company located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. While Georgia is the Peach State, South Carolina is actually second in the United States for peach production, ranked behind California and ahead of Georgia. Therefore, it is not too surprising that a South Carolina brewery has a peach-flavored brew. The interesting thing about this beer is that it will be the first from a South Carolina-based brewery to be included to my list. I currently live in North Carolina, and as a point of comparison between the two states, of the 725 brews currently on the list, 145 are from the northern neighbor. Represented on the list are 26 separate breweries located in North Carolina: Aviator, Beer Army, Big Boss, Boone (aka Blowing Rock), Carolina Ale House, Carolina Brewery, Carolina Brewing, Deep River, Duck-Rabbit, Foothills (including brews from the former Carolina Beer), French Broad, Front Street, Fullsteam, Gizmo (previously Roth), Green Man, Highland, Lonerider, Mash House, Mother Earth, Natty Greene's, Olde Hickory, Railhouse, Raleigh, Red Oak, Triangle, and White Street (whew!).
Interestingly enough, Son of a Peach is not actually the first beer on the list to originate from the state of South Carolina. As I mentioned in a previous post, Evil Twin Brewing is located in Denmark and/or Brooklyn, New York. However, their beers are brewed by Westbrook Brewing Company which is located in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. The gypsy nature of Evil Twin is addressed in an article from USA Today.
However, this post is about cleaning up the backlog of Beer List additions. The 726th entry will be a draft of Son Of A Peach from RJ Rockers Brewing Company located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. While Georgia is the Peach State, South Carolina is actually second in the United States for peach production, ranked behind California and ahead of Georgia. Therefore, it is not too surprising that a South Carolina brewery has a peach-flavored brew. The interesting thing about this beer is that it will be the first from a South Carolina-based brewery to be included to my list. I currently live in North Carolina, and as a point of comparison between the two states, of the 725 brews currently on the list, 145 are from the northern neighbor. Represented on the list are 26 separate breweries located in North Carolina: Aviator, Beer Army, Big Boss, Boone (aka Blowing Rock), Carolina Ale House, Carolina Brewery, Carolina Brewing, Deep River, Duck-Rabbit, Foothills (including brews from the former Carolina Beer), French Broad, Front Street, Fullsteam, Gizmo (previously Roth), Green Man, Highland, Lonerider, Mash House, Mother Earth, Natty Greene's, Olde Hickory, Railhouse, Raleigh, Red Oak, Triangle, and White Street (whew!).
Interestingly enough, Son of a Peach is not actually the first beer on the list to originate from the state of South Carolina. As I mentioned in a previous post, Evil Twin Brewing is located in Denmark and/or Brooklyn, New York. However, their beers are brewed by Westbrook Brewing Company which is located in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. The gypsy nature of Evil Twin is addressed in an article from USA Today.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Tracking Beer
After taking four posts and almost two months to cover my recent trip to Colorado, I am also almost two months behind on updating my Beer List. Granted, I did squeeze in a post about a beer tasting at the Wine Merchant in Cary, but now it is time to bring the list up-to-date. I have previously lamented about not doing the Beer List chronologically. In fact, I actually used the exact words "previously lamented" in a previous post. Unfortunately, the Beer List started as a Blogger gadget at the bottom of the page, and I did not think to include dates when I first started.
While I like the idea of tracking beers consumption like at the Flying Saucer downtown, I never really thought I would get up to the one hundred beers required to get a plate on their wall. Now, my Beer List is approaching 700 entries which is another nice round number. I am confident that I will be exceeding that number with my backlog of pending entries. However, I really do not know if I will be able to tell exactly which beer reaches that magic number. In addition to my normal tweets, I have two empty variety pack boxes from previously mentioned Blue Moon's fall seasonal pack and the Samuel Adams Harvest Collection Variety Pack, as well as also a list of brews from another recent beer tasting at the Wine Merchant.
Number 691 on the list will be a draft of Sour In The Rye from the Bruery located in Placentia, California. Number 692 will be a pint of Hell Yes Ma'am, a Belgian-style golden ale from Raleigh Brewing Company which is located right here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Next will be a draft of Double Don Golden Lager which is ... ummm... well... watermelon-infused. It is from Deep River Brewing Company which is located in nearby Clayton, NC. Number 694 will be a bottle of Out of Your Gourd Pumpkin Porter from Redhook Ale Brewery located in Seattle in the state of Washington.
It is at this point that I remember that I have already added the brews from the previous beer tasting at the Wine Merchant to the Beer List. That event actually occurred after I consumed the beers listed in the paragraph above. To resolve that issue, we can just subtract five or so from the numbers above and probably also the next couple. It is also possible that one of the brews from that tasting was actually the 700th beer which would make this whole post a moot point. However, I am not going to worry about that technicality.
Number 695 will be a draft of Reverb Imperial Pilsner from Boulevard Brewing Company which is located in Kansas City, Missouri. Numbers 696 and 697 will both be from Ballast Point Brewing Company located in San Diego, CA. Their Tongue Buckler is an imperial red ale. I also had seemed to be a version of their Black Marlin Porter brewed with cocoa and chipotle peppers.
After some additional research, I have discovered that the brews from the beer tasting at the Wine Merchant fit right here chronologically. The numbering should be correct from here, so now we can stop doing all that subtracting in our heads.
Number 698 will be a draft of 4042 Stout from previously mentioned Deep River Brewing Company. Number 699 will be a pint of Crazy Pils from Aviator Brewing Company. I enjoyed that pint while touring their brewery over in the oddly-named town Fuquay-Varina. That bring us to entry number 700 on the beer list which I am pretty confident is a draft I had of Coronado Brewing Company's 17th Anniversary Ale. Coronado Brewing is, not surprisingly, located Coronado, California.
I have made it to 700 beers on my list. Of course, I still have a month's worth of backlogged entries including the two seasonal variety packs and the more recent beer tasting. I need to get cracking.
While I like the idea of tracking beers consumption like at the Flying Saucer downtown, I never really thought I would get up to the one hundred beers required to get a plate on their wall. Now, my Beer List is approaching 700 entries which is another nice round number. I am confident that I will be exceeding that number with my backlog of pending entries. However, I really do not know if I will be able to tell exactly which beer reaches that magic number. In addition to my normal tweets, I have two empty variety pack boxes from previously mentioned Blue Moon's fall seasonal pack and the Samuel Adams Harvest Collection Variety Pack, as well as also a list of brews from another recent beer tasting at the Wine Merchant.
Number 691 on the list will be a draft of Sour In The Rye from the Bruery located in Placentia, California. Number 692 will be a pint of Hell Yes Ma'am, a Belgian-style golden ale from Raleigh Brewing Company which is located right here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Next will be a draft of Double Don Golden Lager which is ... ummm... well... watermelon-infused. It is from Deep River Brewing Company which is located in nearby Clayton, NC. Number 694 will be a bottle of Out of Your Gourd Pumpkin Porter from Redhook Ale Brewery located in Seattle in the state of Washington.
It is at this point that I remember that I have already added the brews from the previous beer tasting at the Wine Merchant to the Beer List. That event actually occurred after I consumed the beers listed in the paragraph above. To resolve that issue, we can just subtract five or so from the numbers above and probably also the next couple. It is also possible that one of the brews from that tasting was actually the 700th beer which would make this whole post a moot point. However, I am not going to worry about that technicality.
Number 695 will be a draft of Reverb Imperial Pilsner from Boulevard Brewing Company which is located in Kansas City, Missouri. Numbers 696 and 697 will both be from Ballast Point Brewing Company located in San Diego, CA. Their Tongue Buckler is an imperial red ale. I also had seemed to be a version of their Black Marlin Porter brewed with cocoa and chipotle peppers.
After some additional research, I have discovered that the brews from the beer tasting at the Wine Merchant fit right here chronologically. The numbering should be correct from here, so now we can stop doing all that subtracting in our heads.
Number 698 will be a draft of 4042 Stout from previously mentioned Deep River Brewing Company. Number 699 will be a pint of Crazy Pils from Aviator Brewing Company. I enjoyed that pint while touring their brewery over in the oddly-named town Fuquay-Varina. That bring us to entry number 700 on the beer list which I am pretty confident is a draft I had of Coronado Brewing Company's 17th Anniversary Ale. Coronado Brewing is, not surprisingly, located Coronado, California.
I have made it to 700 beers on my list. Of course, I still have a month's worth of backlogged entries including the two seasonal variety packs and the more recent beer tasting. I need to get cracking.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Colorado Trip 2013: Days Six and Seven
This post will be my fourth and final entry covering my trip with my girlfriend Sara to Colorado. In the first post, I discussed our first and second days visiting with my sister, nephew and niece. My second post on this topic covered days three and four which saw us journeying up to a cabin in the Rockies Mountains. The third post discussed the fifth day. On that fifth day, we drove back from the Rockies.
Sara and I had the sixth day of our visit mostly to ourselves. We decided to borrow my sister's car and drive into downtown Boulder. The main drag in downtown Boulder is Pearl Street. We found a place to park the car on the street in a residential area a few blocks from Pearl Street and walked the rest of the way. We walked up and down Pearl including stretch known as the Pearl Street Mall which is closed off to traffic. We stopped by several of the eclectic shops along the way and picked up gifts for April and her family. Sara also bought gifts for friends who were watching her cat while she was away.
Eventually, it was past lunchtime, and we were past hungry. We were looking for a place to eat that had a local flavor, but we did not find anything that excited us. Instead, we ended up at West Flanders Brewing Company which is located at the western end of the Pearl Street Mall. The location was familiar to me because I had visited during my trip back in 2011. The location was previously home to a BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse. I found out that the BJ's had since moved to a new location a couple of miles down the road, and in 2012, West Flanders took over their previous location on Pearl Street.
With her lunch, Sara ordered a pint of Tree Hugger Organic Amber from Asher Brewing Company. I helped her with it enough to feel comfortable adding it to my Beer List. I had promised myself that for lunch I would not have another buffalo burger along with another beer sampler, but that is exactly what I had. I believe West Flanders tries to focus on Belgian-style ales as their name would indicate. I had four of their tasters, the Trippel Lutz, Third Kingdom IPA, Canniption Pale Ale, and Angry Monk. The Trippel Lutz is obviously a Trippel. The Canniption and Third Kingdom are an American-style pale ale and an American-style IPA respectively. The Angry Monk is a Belgian-style pale ale, but the brewery's webpage has a humorous story about how their Angry Monk was originally called a "Trappist-style Ale."
Day seven was getaway day for Sara and me. Our flight back to Raleigh was delayed for a bit, so we had time to grab a snack and, of course, a beer or two. At Timberline Steaks and Grille in the Denver International Airport, she and I grabbed a couple of seats at the bar. I enjoyed a couple of brews from Odell Brewing Company located in Fort Collins, Colorado. I had the Odell IPA and the Odell 90 Shilling Ale. Then we boarded a plane and flew home.
Sara and I had the sixth day of our visit mostly to ourselves. We decided to borrow my sister's car and drive into downtown Boulder. The main drag in downtown Boulder is Pearl Street. We found a place to park the car on the street in a residential area a few blocks from Pearl Street and walked the rest of the way. We walked up and down Pearl including stretch known as the Pearl Street Mall which is closed off to traffic. We stopped by several of the eclectic shops along the way and picked up gifts for April and her family. Sara also bought gifts for friends who were watching her cat while she was away.
Eventually, it was past lunchtime, and we were past hungry. We were looking for a place to eat that had a local flavor, but we did not find anything that excited us. Instead, we ended up at West Flanders Brewing Company which is located at the western end of the Pearl Street Mall. The location was familiar to me because I had visited during my trip back in 2011. The location was previously home to a BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse. I found out that the BJ's had since moved to a new location a couple of miles down the road, and in 2012, West Flanders took over their previous location on Pearl Street.
With her lunch, Sara ordered a pint of Tree Hugger Organic Amber from Asher Brewing Company. I helped her with it enough to feel comfortable adding it to my Beer List. I had promised myself that for lunch I would not have another buffalo burger along with another beer sampler, but that is exactly what I had. I believe West Flanders tries to focus on Belgian-style ales as their name would indicate. I had four of their tasters, the Trippel Lutz, Third Kingdom IPA, Canniption Pale Ale, and Angry Monk. The Trippel Lutz is obviously a Trippel. The Canniption and Third Kingdom are an American-style pale ale and an American-style IPA respectively. The Angry Monk is a Belgian-style pale ale, but the brewery's webpage has a humorous story about how their Angry Monk was originally called a "Trappist-style Ale."
Day seven was getaway day for Sara and me. Our flight back to Raleigh was delayed for a bit, so we had time to grab a snack and, of course, a beer or two. At Timberline Steaks and Grille in the Denver International Airport, she and I grabbed a couple of seats at the bar. I enjoyed a couple of brews from Odell Brewing Company located in Fort Collins, Colorado. I had the Odell IPA and the Odell 90 Shilling Ale. Then we boarded a plane and flew home.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Colorado Trip 2013: Day Five
I am continuing my chronicle of Sara's and my recent trip to visit my sister and her family in Colorado. This will be the third post. The first two posts are available here and here.
On the fifth day of the trip and our third day staying in the Rockies Mountains, we all made a visit to Breckenridge, Colorado. We stopped by the town's Riverwalk area. There happened to be a marathon and half-marathon being held in Breckenridge that weekend, so we stopped and watched some runner finish their runs. Then we walked up and down the main street of town and hit a few of the tourist-trap shops.
We made it down the street to Breckenridge Brewery in time for lunch. I previously discussed Breckenridge Brewery in my post about my visit to Colorado in 2011 to see my sister. During that trip, she picked up a 12-bottle sampler pack that contained four of their brews. For lunch on this day, I once again ordered a tasting sampler. This sampler included three of the four beers from the sampler pack of bottles. Therefore, I had already tried their Agave Wheat, Vanilla Porter, and flagship Avalanche Ale. I seemed to have liked them from the bottle back then, and I enjoyed them as well on this occasion as drafts.
Their fifth main line brew, Oatmeal Stout, was also on the taster sampler as was the 471 Double IPA from their small batch collection. The other three brews on the tasting list seem less widely available. The menu says their Trademark Pale Ale is a local favorite. The menu also tells me that Zwickel Bier (or zwickelbier) is an unfiltered German-style lager. Then there was the Roasted Habanero IPA. Even with three of us taking sips, it took awhile for us to finish that one.
After lunch, we took the gondola up to the ski resort at the top of the mountain. Unfortunately, the gondola closed for a bit due to some weather, so we ended up taking a bus back down to the town of Breckenridge. Of course, by the time we got back down, the gondola was running once more.
On the fifth day of the trip and our third day staying in the Rockies Mountains, we all made a visit to Breckenridge, Colorado. We stopped by the town's Riverwalk area. There happened to be a marathon and half-marathon being held in Breckenridge that weekend, so we stopped and watched some runner finish their runs. Then we walked up and down the main street of town and hit a few of the tourist-trap shops.
We made it down the street to Breckenridge Brewery in time for lunch. I previously discussed Breckenridge Brewery in my post about my visit to Colorado in 2011 to see my sister. During that trip, she picked up a 12-bottle sampler pack that contained four of their brews. For lunch on this day, I once again ordered a tasting sampler. This sampler included three of the four beers from the sampler pack of bottles. Therefore, I had already tried their Agave Wheat, Vanilla Porter, and flagship Avalanche Ale. I seemed to have liked them from the bottle back then, and I enjoyed them as well on this occasion as drafts.
Their fifth main line brew, Oatmeal Stout, was also on the taster sampler as was the 471 Double IPA from their small batch collection. The other three brews on the tasting list seem less widely available. The menu says their Trademark Pale Ale is a local favorite. The menu also tells me that Zwickel Bier (or zwickelbier) is an unfiltered German-style lager. Then there was the Roasted Habanero IPA. Even with three of us taking sips, it took awhile for us to finish that one.
After lunch, we took the gondola up to the ski resort at the top of the mountain. Unfortunately, the gondola closed for a bit due to some weather, so we ended up taking a bus back down to the town of Breckenridge. Of course, by the time we got back down, the gondola was running once more.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Colorado Trip 2013: Days Three and Four
After a hiatus to discuss more recent beer consumption, this post is a continuation of the chronicle of Sara's and my trip to visit my sister and her family in Colorado. My first post on this subject covered the first two days of our stay. In this post, I will cover the next two days.
My sister's in-laws have a cabin in the Rocky Mountains near the tiny town of Alma, Colorado. On the third day of our visit, we drove up to the mountains. We stopped on the way for lunch at an restaurant in Fairplay, Colorado. I enjoyed a nice draft beer with my meal. Not unexpectedly, my cellphone got spotty coverage while I was in the Rockies. My texts to Twitter were randomly sent and posted whenever there was some decent coverage. I believe the beer I had at that restaurant was First Cast IPA from Elevation Beer Company which is located in Poncha Springs, Colorado. Honestly, I do not remember it being anything particularly special.
When we got to the cabin, I found that there was leftover beer in the refrigerator. I discovered a bottle of Caramel Apple Spiced Ale from Blue Moon which was probably from one of their Brewmaster's Seasonal Sample Packs for fall. I later purchased that sampler myself back in North Carolina, and I am drinking a bottle as I type this. The taste is sweet like caramel and has autumnal spices including, I would say, nutmeg.
On day four, we all got up early, climbed into my sister's Subaru Outback, and ventured into the Pike National Forest. Due to recent rain, some of the mountain roads were impassible for the Outback, but we eventually found our way to Kite Lake. The views were absolutely beautiful, but after awhile, we were ready from some lunch (and perhaps some beer).
We traveled down the mountain to Buena Vista, Colorado. We decided to have some lunch at Eddyline Restaurant & Brewery. Of course, I also decided to have their beer sample. It was not my first beer sampler of the trip, and it would not be the last. There is a photo of me on Facebook with a wooden paddle holding eight tasting glass. However, I only have the six brews shown in the accompanying photo plus one seasonal offering, their Innerglow Red Chile Porter. I do not know what the eighth glass would have been.
My sister's in-laws have a cabin in the Rocky Mountains near the tiny town of Alma, Colorado. On the third day of our visit, we drove up to the mountains. We stopped on the way for lunch at an restaurant in Fairplay, Colorado. I enjoyed a nice draft beer with my meal. Not unexpectedly, my cellphone got spotty coverage while I was in the Rockies. My texts to Twitter were randomly sent and posted whenever there was some decent coverage. I believe the beer I had at that restaurant was First Cast IPA from Elevation Beer Company which is located in Poncha Springs, Colorado. Honestly, I do not remember it being anything particularly special.
When we got to the cabin, I found that there was leftover beer in the refrigerator. I discovered a bottle of Caramel Apple Spiced Ale from Blue Moon which was probably from one of their Brewmaster's Seasonal Sample Packs for fall. I later purchased that sampler myself back in North Carolina, and I am drinking a bottle as I type this. The taste is sweet like caramel and has autumnal spices including, I would say, nutmeg.
On day four, we all got up early, climbed into my sister's Subaru Outback, and ventured into the Pike National Forest. Due to recent rain, some of the mountain roads were impassible for the Outback, but we eventually found our way to Kite Lake. The views were absolutely beautiful, but after awhile, we were ready from some lunch (and perhaps some beer).
We traveled down the mountain to Buena Vista, Colorado. We decided to have some lunch at Eddyline Restaurant & Brewery. Of course, I also decided to have their beer sample. It was not my first beer sampler of the trip, and it would not be the last. There is a photo of me on Facebook with a wooden paddle holding eight tasting glass. However, I only have the six brews shown in the accompanying photo plus one seasonal offering, their Innerglow Red Chile Porter. I do not know what the eighth glass would have been.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Keg Tapping
I am skipping the continuation of my most recent trip to Colorado to cover another beer tasting event at the Wine Merchant in Cary, NC. I previously discussed a beer event at the shop back in March when I won a bag full of beer. Sara and I have since enjoyed another event which focused on various types of IPA brews. This "Tap Takeover" event focused exclusively on beers from Olde Hickory Brewery which, not surprisingly, is located in Hickory, NC. This tasting featured five brews from Olde Hickory, and while I have currently have two of their brews on the Beer List (the Imperial Stout and Table Rock Pale Ale), all five of these offerings were new to me. Unfortunately, this tasting occurred over two weeks ago, so as with my previous post, I will be depending heavily on the tasting sheet so graciously made available for the tasting.
The first brew that we sampled from Olde Hickory was the Single Hop Comet Pale Ale. As stated in the name, this brew features a single hop which is the rare Comet hop. Wikipedia tells me the Comet hop is American-grown and was "originally bred for its bittering characteristics". The group with whom Sara and I enjoyed the tasting mostly thought this beer had an herbal smell and first taste that led into a bitter finish and aftertaste. The tasting sheet tells me that this is the first in a serial of single-hop ales from the brewery. It also tells me this brew is 7.0% ABV.
Our second sampling was Olde Hickory's fall seasonal offering, Oktoberfest. This brew is a Märzen which is a pale lager. The tasting sheet notes that seven different malts were used in this brew while Olde Hickory's website tells me Noble hops were used to balance the malts. This drinkable brew is only 6.0% ABV.
The third beer to be sampled was their Death by Hops which I have previously managed to avoid. As expected, this Double IPA is a super-hoppy brew. The tasting sheets informs me that five different hops originating from the West Coast are used in this beer. Those five are Chinook, Columbus, Simcoe, Centennial, and the popular Cascade. Did I mention this one was hoppy? Their webpage does mention that two types of barley, Carapils and Crisp Crystal, were also used in the brewing process. This one is another that is at 7.0% ABV.
Next was even more hops with the Redeemer which is one of the brewery's limited releases. This brew is an Imperial IPA and weighs in at a hefty 10.0% ABV. It also counts five West Coast hops (Columbus, Centennial, Amarillo, Cascade, and Zythos) among its ingredients list. Not only did I have to work my way through my portion, I had to drink most of Sara's since she decided to go ahead and move on to the next and final offering.
Rounding out the five taps was David The Bat which is a Scotch ale. The tasting sheet tells me this brew was the winner of a homebrewing competition hosted by Olde Hickory. This one is 8.0% ABV.
This was another fun and interesting beer tasting, and I am ready for the next beer event at the shop later this month.
The first brew that we sampled from Olde Hickory was the Single Hop Comet Pale Ale. As stated in the name, this brew features a single hop which is the rare Comet hop. Wikipedia tells me the Comet hop is American-grown and was "originally bred for its bittering characteristics". The group with whom Sara and I enjoyed the tasting mostly thought this beer had an herbal smell and first taste that led into a bitter finish and aftertaste. The tasting sheet tells me that this is the first in a serial of single-hop ales from the brewery. It also tells me this brew is 7.0% ABV.
Our second sampling was Olde Hickory's fall seasonal offering, Oktoberfest. This brew is a Märzen which is a pale lager. The tasting sheet notes that seven different malts were used in this brew while Olde Hickory's website tells me Noble hops were used to balance the malts. This drinkable brew is only 6.0% ABV.
The third beer to be sampled was their Death by Hops which I have previously managed to avoid. As expected, this Double IPA is a super-hoppy brew. The tasting sheets informs me that five different hops originating from the West Coast are used in this beer. Those five are Chinook, Columbus, Simcoe, Centennial, and the popular Cascade. Did I mention this one was hoppy? Their webpage does mention that two types of barley, Carapils and Crisp Crystal, were also used in the brewing process. This one is another that is at 7.0% ABV.
Next was even more hops with the Redeemer which is one of the brewery's limited releases. This brew is an Imperial IPA and weighs in at a hefty 10.0% ABV. It also counts five West Coast hops (Columbus, Centennial, Amarillo, Cascade, and Zythos) among its ingredients list. Not only did I have to work my way through my portion, I had to drink most of Sara's since she decided to go ahead and move on to the next and final offering.
Rounding out the five taps was David The Bat which is a Scotch ale. The tasting sheet tells me this brew was the winner of a homebrewing competition hosted by Olde Hickory. This one is 8.0% ABV.
This was another fun and interesting beer tasting, and I am ready for the next beer event at the shop later this month.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Colorado Trip 2013: Days One and Two
Near the end of last month, my girlfriend Sara and I flew to Colorado for my now annual visit with my sister April and her family. I previously posted about my trips around Labor Day last year and back in April of 2011. Colorado is well known as one of the best states for beer. My previous two Colorado-related posts were heavy on beer consumption, but this trip topped both of those in that regard. So much so in fact, that I am going to break up this trip into several more-easily-digestible posts.
On the first day, I was happy to discover that my sister has a sample pack in her refrigerator from Left Hand Brewing Company. I tried a bottle of the Stranger American Pale Ale which was new to me and a bottle of their flagship Sawtooth Ale which was already on my Beer List. Left Hand's brewery is located in Longmont, Colorado.
On the afternoon of the second day of our visit, Sara, April and I had ourselves a little outing. We started at Avery Brewing Company's tap room in Boulder. I decided to have four IPA tasters. Their standard IPA is on the Beer List in almost every imaginable form. The other three samples, Simcoe/Chinook IPA, Summer’s Day IPA, and duganA IPA were all specials of the tap room. It was interesting to taste the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between the four flavors of IPA.
The next stop on our second day beer outing was Twelve Degree Brewing (or 12° Brewing per their logo) in Louisville, Colorado. They seemed to be a relatively new microbrewery. They focus almost exclusively on Belgian-style beers which I appreciate. The three of us sampled six of their own brews plus two from guest taps. The six of their beers that we tried were the Soleil Saison which is a Belgian farmhouse ale, Walter's White which is a which is a Belgian-style white ale, Brabant Tripel, Foxx Rougge, Sorach which was another farmhouse ale, and Sorach L'Orange which was brewed with oranges. The two guest brews were Powder Daze Pale (now Powder Run Pale) from Echo Brewing in Frederick, Colorado and Hop Savant from the Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project out of Denver.
Our next stop before getting some ice cream was Lucky Pie Pizza & Taphouse which is also in Lewisville. In addition to some great food including their hand-made pizzas, I elected to go with their Colorado beer sampler. The sampler included Tivoli Helles Lager. Tivoli Brewing Company is located in Denver. The sampler also included Hoppy Bock Lager from New Belgium Brewing which is located in Fort Collins, Colorado (and soon to be Asheville, North Carolina) and Moirai IPA from FATE Brewing Company in Boulder.
After enjoying some ice cream and before heading back to April's house, we dropped in at Gravity Brewing which was down the street and across the railroad tracks. While there, I had an Ante Meridiem Espresso Stout and a Schwag Session Ale.
I will cover the rest of my Colorado trip in a subsequent post (or posts). However, I did want to mention that Boulder and the surrounding areas were hit hard by devastating flooding a couple of weeks after Sara and I were safely back home in North Carolina. I am happy to report that my sister, her family and their house were all spared any harm from the flooding.
On the first day, I was happy to discover that my sister has a sample pack in her refrigerator from Left Hand Brewing Company. I tried a bottle of the Stranger American Pale Ale which was new to me and a bottle of their flagship Sawtooth Ale which was already on my Beer List. Left Hand's brewery is located in Longmont, Colorado.
On the afternoon of the second day of our visit, Sara, April and I had ourselves a little outing. We started at Avery Brewing Company's tap room in Boulder. I decided to have four IPA tasters. Their standard IPA is on the Beer List in almost every imaginable form. The other three samples, Simcoe/Chinook IPA, Summer’s Day IPA, and duganA IPA were all specials of the tap room. It was interesting to taste the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between the four flavors of IPA.
The next stop on our second day beer outing was Twelve Degree Brewing (or 12° Brewing per their logo) in Louisville, Colorado. They seemed to be a relatively new microbrewery. They focus almost exclusively on Belgian-style beers which I appreciate. The three of us sampled six of their own brews plus two from guest taps. The six of their beers that we tried were the Soleil Saison which is a Belgian farmhouse ale, Walter's White which is a which is a Belgian-style white ale, Brabant Tripel, Foxx Rougge, Sorach which was another farmhouse ale, and Sorach L'Orange which was brewed with oranges. The two guest brews were Powder Daze Pale (now Powder Run Pale) from Echo Brewing in Frederick, Colorado and Hop Savant from the Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project out of Denver.
Our next stop before getting some ice cream was Lucky Pie Pizza & Taphouse which is also in Lewisville. In addition to some great food including their hand-made pizzas, I elected to go with their Colorado beer sampler. The sampler included Tivoli Helles Lager. Tivoli Brewing Company is located in Denver. The sampler also included Hoppy Bock Lager from New Belgium Brewing which is located in Fort Collins, Colorado (and soon to be Asheville, North Carolina) and Moirai IPA from FATE Brewing Company in Boulder.
After enjoying some ice cream and before heading back to April's house, we dropped in at Gravity Brewing which was down the street and across the railroad tracks. While there, I had an Ante Meridiem Espresso Stout and a Schwag Session Ale.
I will cover the rest of my Colorado trip in a subsequent post (or posts). However, I did want to mention that Boulder and the surrounding areas were hit hard by devastating flooding a couple of weeks after Sara and I were safely back home in North Carolina. I am happy to report that my sister, her family and their house were all spared any harm from the flooding.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
The Big Winner
My descriptions of the five beers borrows heavily from the tasting sheet that was given out at the beginning. The first beer was Hoppy Daze IPA which is a 9% ABV Belgian-style IPA from Coronado Brewing Company. From the tasting sheet, this West Coast "unfiltered IPA is combined with a unique blend of European grains, a variety of hops, and Belgian yeast to create a lasting and unforgettable taste to its very bitter end."
The second beer was Robert Johnson's Hellhound On My Ale from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery which is located in Milton, Delaware. The tasting sheet says that this 10% ABV beer is a tribute to the legendary blues artist Robert Johnson. Again from the tasting sheet, "100% Centennial hops were used to accentuate and magnify the citrusy notes of the centennial hops."
The halfway point of the tasting lineup was Bourbon Barrel-Aged Wee Heavy from Thirsty Dog Brewing Company located in the tropical paradise that is Akron, Ohio. This 9.7% ABV Scotch ale "is a deep red, malt-driven, caramel bomb of a beer that has acquired a gorgeous vanilla oak character from time spent in bourbon barrels." Also from the tasting sheet, this brew is "super smooth and rich with layers of toffee and dark fruit." Considering my general distaste for wood-aged beverages of any type, it is no surprise that this was my least favorite of the five.
Duck-Rabbit Baltic Porter was the next offering. The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery is located in Farmville, North Carolina which is about 70 miles east of Raleigh. The tasting sheet says this 9% ABV beer's "full-blooded roasty character is balanced by complex alcohol notes," and its taste has "lots of chocolate and roasted coffee bean notes come through."
Bringing up rear was B.O.R.I.S. "The Crusher" from Hoppin' Frog which is another brewery from Akron, Ohio. According to the tasting sheet, B.O.R.I.S is short for "Bodacious Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout." This 9.4% ABV oatmeal imperial stout has been described with words like "chocolate, creamy oatmeal, coffee, vanilla, and smoke."
The highlight of the evening for yours truly was the raffle. Everybody was entered to win one of five mystery bags from the shop. I seldom win raffles and drawings, so I actually told Sara to put herself down twice. She declined to do so, and my name was entered. I was surprised to hear my name called as the first "Big Winner." The mystery bag contained a four-pack of mixed beers which included a bottle of Green Flash Grand Cru, a bottle of Moinette Brune from la Brasserie Dupont in Belgium, a bottle of Rodenbach Classic (also from Belgium), and a can of Evil Twin Hipster Ale. I had previously tried the Hipster Ale, so that can happened to end up in a marinate for some tasty steaks.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Number 500
While I was busy, I managed to blow past the nice round number 500 on my Beer List. The list currently stands at 505. I have previously lamented about not including dates on the list. I could have also maintained the list in a nice chronological order instead of alphabetical order by the name of the brewery and then the particular brew. Regardless, I believe I have done a good job of using Twitter to record my beer consumption.
Based on my Twitter account, beer number 505 was Fuller's Black Cab Stout. #504 was Fireside Chat from 21st Amendment Brewery located in San Francisco. Number 503 was Luciernaga (or "The Firefly") from Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales which is located in Dexter, Michigan. I enjoyed #503 at the Wine Merchant of Cary. Number 502 would be a bottle of Oatmeal Porter from Highland Brewing Company which is located in the up-and-coming brewery town of Asheville, North Carolina. Palate Wrecker from Green Flash Brewing Company in San Diego was number 501 on the Beer List.
Finally, number 500 on the list was Blue Law Porter from Epic Brewing Company which is located in the not-so-well-known brewing town of Salt Lake City. According to the brewery's homepage, they are the first brewery in the state of Utah since Prohibition. Not surprisingly, this is the first beer on the list from that particular state. More surprising is that Utah made the list before 21 other states. Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming are still missing from the list.
Random note #1, the single entry on the list for the state of Minnesota is Crispin Cider which is technically not a beer. Random note #2, Rhode Island, the smallest state by area, has one beer on the list, Narragansett Lager from Narragansett Brewing Company located in Providence. Random note #3, South Carolina does not have a beer on the list, but Hipster Ale from Evil Twin Brewing in Denmark is actually brewed by Westbrook Brewing which is located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina which is right outside of Charleston.
Based on my Twitter account, beer number 505 was Fuller's Black Cab Stout. #504 was Fireside Chat from 21st Amendment Brewery located in San Francisco. Number 503 was Luciernaga (or "The Firefly") from Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales which is located in Dexter, Michigan. I enjoyed #503 at the Wine Merchant of Cary. Number 502 would be a bottle of Oatmeal Porter from Highland Brewing Company which is located in the up-and-coming brewery town of Asheville, North Carolina. Palate Wrecker from Green Flash Brewing Company in San Diego was number 501 on the Beer List.
Finally, number 500 on the list was Blue Law Porter from Epic Brewing Company which is located in the not-so-well-known brewing town of Salt Lake City. According to the brewery's homepage, they are the first brewery in the state of Utah since Prohibition. Not surprisingly, this is the first beer on the list from that particular state. More surprising is that Utah made the list before 21 other states. Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming are still missing from the list.
Random note #1, the single entry on the list for the state of Minnesota is Crispin Cider which is technically not a beer. Random note #2, Rhode Island, the smallest state by area, has one beer on the list, Narragansett Lager from Narragansett Brewing Company located in Providence. Random note #3, South Carolina does not have a beer on the list, but Hipster Ale from Evil Twin Brewing in Denmark is actually brewed by Westbrook Brewing which is located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina which is right outside of Charleston.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Tour of Italy
Happy Washington’s Birthday/Presidents’ Day/President’s Day/Presidents Day or whatever this holiday in the middle of February is actually called. For this first time that I remember, the company for which I work has decided to include this day as a corporate holiday. Every year, our company give its employees twelve days off from work to celebrate holidays. Several of those days are fixed. The list of fixed holidays varies from country to country and from year to year. In the United States, the list of fixed holidays always includes Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day. Other fixed days are primarily based on what day of the week holidays fall. In previous years, fixed holidays have included New Year's Day, the days before or after Independence Day and Christmas, and New Year's Eve. The remaining unfixed days out of the twelve are flexible holidays for the employees to use as they want. For some reason unknown to me, it was decided this year that today should be a fixed holiday.
I am using part of this day off from work to do a blog post. I have previously posted on and about holidays. I suppose that is when I have the most free time. In comments to my previous post, I mentioned that while I have not been posting as much as I did back in 2010 and 2011, I am hoping to post more this year than I managed last year. My stated goal was two posts per month which would be a total of 24 for the year. We are more than halfway through February, and I am working on only my second post. I will hopefully be cranking up my production in the following months.
I am titling this post "Tour of Italy" after the sampler dinner from the Olive Garden. I have never been to Italy however. Instead, I was recently on a business trip to Orlando, Florida or at least the Orlando area. The conference was at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort. The conference was in the convention center connected to the Dolphin while I stayed in the Swan. Some of my coworkers enjoyed the local golf courses, but I am not much of a golfer. The conference also hosted a night at Universal's Islands of Adventure, but I passed on that opportunity.
After spending the day standing in a trade show booth, some of my coworkers and I would invariably end up at Il Mulino New York which is one of the restaurants in the Swan. Il Mulino is an Italian restaurant and thus features Italian wines and beer. Their bar menu included five different brews from Italy. I intended to try all five but instead only tried four. Three of the five beers were from Birrificio Ostiense Artigianale which is located in Rome, Italy. ("Birrificio" is Italian for "brewery.") I had two of the three. Pictured to the right is 'na Biretta Chiara which is a pilsner-style lager. As would be expected, I found it tasty. The second was 'na Biretta Rossa which is tasty bock. I did not try the 'na Biretta Kuasapa which is a pale ale.
The second picture on the right is a bottle of Taquamari which is a unique hefeweizen from Birrificio Pausa Cafe. One of the bartenders at Il Mulino told me about the organization that brews the beer helps rehabilitate inmates from local prisons by giving them an occupation. Pause Cafe is a cooperative located in Saluzzo, Italy that produces coffee, chocolate and beer. The beer itself is made from tapioca, quinoa, amaranth, and basmati rice. The bottle has a good bit of sediment at the bottom. I thought the other bartender had erred when she poured the whole bottle including the sediment into my glass. Interestingly enough, the sediment was not yeast (at least not all of it) as I had expected, but tapioca et al.
I also tried a bottle of ViaEmilia which is another pilsner. This one is from Birrificio Del Ducato which is a craft brewery located in Roncole Verdi Di Busseto, Italy. As I have previously stated, pilsners are easy to drink and this one was. Thus concludes my tour of Italian beers from a bar in a hotel located at Walt Disney World.
I am using part of this day off from work to do a blog post. I have previously posted on and about holidays. I suppose that is when I have the most free time. In comments to my previous post, I mentioned that while I have not been posting as much as I did back in 2010 and 2011, I am hoping to post more this year than I managed last year. My stated goal was two posts per month which would be a total of 24 for the year. We are more than halfway through February, and I am working on only my second post. I will hopefully be cranking up my production in the following months.I am titling this post "Tour of Italy" after the sampler dinner from the Olive Garden. I have never been to Italy however. Instead, I was recently on a business trip to Orlando, Florida or at least the Orlando area. The conference was at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort. The conference was in the convention center connected to the Dolphin while I stayed in the Swan. Some of my coworkers enjoyed the local golf courses, but I am not much of a golfer. The conference also hosted a night at Universal's Islands of Adventure, but I passed on that opportunity.
After spending the day standing in a trade show booth, some of my coworkers and I would invariably end up at Il Mulino New York which is one of the restaurants in the Swan. Il Mulino is an Italian restaurant and thus features Italian wines and beer. Their bar menu included five different brews from Italy. I intended to try all five but instead only tried four. Three of the five beers were from Birrificio Ostiense Artigianale which is located in Rome, Italy. ("Birrificio" is Italian for "brewery.") I had two of the three. Pictured to the right is 'na Biretta Chiara which is a pilsner-style lager. As would be expected, I found it tasty. The second was 'na Biretta Rossa which is tasty bock. I did not try the 'na Biretta Kuasapa which is a pale ale.The second picture on the right is a bottle of Taquamari which is a unique hefeweizen from Birrificio Pausa Cafe. One of the bartenders at Il Mulino told me about the organization that brews the beer helps rehabilitate inmates from local prisons by giving them an occupation. Pause Cafe is a cooperative located in Saluzzo, Italy that produces coffee, chocolate and beer. The beer itself is made from tapioca, quinoa, amaranth, and basmati rice. The bottle has a good bit of sediment at the bottom. I thought the other bartender had erred when she poured the whole bottle including the sediment into my glass. Interestingly enough, the sediment was not yeast (at least not all of it) as I had expected, but tapioca et al.
I also tried a bottle of ViaEmilia which is another pilsner. This one is from Birrificio Del Ducato which is a craft brewery located in Roncole Verdi Di Busseto, Italy. As I have previously stated, pilsners are easy to drink and this one was. Thus concludes my tour of Italian beers from a bar in a hotel located at Walt Disney World.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Beer List 2012
This post is ostensibly a summary of my consumption of new beers in 20012, but it is basically an excuse to show some leftover photos of beer bottles that I took during this past year. In 2010, I tried 148 beers. The next year, I added 150 different brews to my beer list. As I mentioned at the beginning of 2012, instead of having a separate list of beers for 2012, I created a new page that combined the lists from 2010 and 2011. Then I started adding new beers to the combined list. At the end of 2012, Jim's Beer List had grown to a total of 448. Subtracting the 148 from 2010 and 150 from 2011 results in another 150 new brews that I consumed in 2012.The 448th beer is the top photo on the right. The bottle shown is Mokah which is from Southern Tier Brewing Company. Southern Tier was founded in Lakewood, New York. I did not find an explanation on their webpage as to where the name Southern Tier originated, but I did noticed on Wikipedia that the Village of Lakewood is located in the southwestern corner of the State of New York. The company's webpage for Mokah explains that it is from their Blackwater Series of imperial stouts and is actually a combination of their Jahva and Choklat brews. Since I really enjoyed this smooth and flavorful beer, I think I should add its two component beers to my currently non-existent "Beers To Drink" list.
To digress for a bit, one problem with my beer list that I originally decided to organize the list alphabetically by the name of the brewery. With many breweries combining (for the largest examples, see Anheuser-Busch InBev, SABMiller, and Molson Coors), the brewery included on the list can seem a bit arbitrary. When I first created the 2010 list, I wanted to have a sortable table. Those are familiar to people who frequent wiki-based websites such as Wikipedia. Needless to say, I never figured out how to do that with Blogger.Another problem that I have discovered with the beer list is that I have neglected to include when I first drank each of the beers. I do not think this is a major oversight, but in hindsight, it would be nice information to know. In some cases where I took photos with my cellphone, the date can be found from the file properties of the photos. For instance, I can tell that I took the middle photo on November 9, 2012. I took the photo of this bottle of Singha Beer while I was having lunch with my manager and some coworkers at a Thai restaurant near our office. Singha is brewed by Boon Rawd Brewery which is headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. I guess that made it appropriate for our Thai lunch.
Unfortunately, that solution does not work when I did not take a picture of the beer or when I take a picute of a bottle of beer but do not drink it until later. That gets us back to Southern Tier. I took the picture of the Mokah bottle on December 20, but I did not drink it until New Year's Eve. An even more dramatic example is their Crème Brûlée Stout. I took the bottom photo on August 19, but I did not get around to drinking the bottle until much later. I do not remember exactly when, but I know it was before I bought and took the photo of the Mokah. By the way, I actually liked the Crème Brûlée better than the Mokah.Of course, another solution to the date problem would be to check my Twitter page for when I posted about the beer. Unfortunately, I never posted when I actually drank the bottle of Crème Brûlée. Oh well.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Numbers 400 and 401
Jim's Beer List recently passed a round-number milestone. The 400th addition to my Beer List was a bottle of Blowing Rock IPA from Boone Brewing Company. Not surprisingly, the company is headquartered in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. The town is in the western part of the state and in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The IPA was a mystery beer that I enjoyed with a plate of chicken wings at my local watering hole. I thought the brew was a respectable example of the style.
More notable than the 400th beer on my list was the next one to make the list which was also a mystery beer from my local neighborhood bar. Number 401 on the list was a bottle of Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss from Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company which is located in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. To put it simply, this was quite possibly the worst beer that I have ever drank. It was completely horrible. A few weeks ago, I had another contender for the worst beer which was yet another mystery beer. Elder Betty is Magic Hat's summer seasonal offering, and that bottle tasted like Vicks 44 cough syrup. The Berry Weiss tasted like sour Kool-Aid. It was just not good.
More notable than the 400th beer on my list was the next one to make the list which was also a mystery beer from my local neighborhood bar. Number 401 on the list was a bottle of Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss from Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company which is located in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. To put it simply, this was quite possibly the worst beer that I have ever drank. It was completely horrible. A few weeks ago, I had another contender for the worst beer which was yet another mystery beer. Elder Betty is Magic Hat's summer seasonal offering, and that bottle tasted like Vicks 44 cough syrup. The Berry Weiss tasted like sour Kool-Aid. It was just not good.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Jim's Travels: Colorado
Yesterday, I posted for the first time in over two months. Today, I am going to write the post that I intended to do yesterday before I went off on a tangent about Facebook. About two and a half weeks ago, I flew to Colorado to spend eight days including Labor Day weekend with my sister April and her family. They live in a small town outside of Boulder. As I mentioned yesterday, April has posted about my trip on her site, and we have both posted photos of the trip on Facebook. I have made several previous trips to Colorado to visit April and her family. My last trip was in April 2011, and I posted about that trip. That post primarily focused on beer, and since most of the rest of this trip has already been covered elsewhere, this post will focus on beer as well.
On my first full day in Colorado, April and I took my nephew Jack and niece Grace to the Oskar Blues restaurant location in Longmont, Colorado. April ordered food for the kids off the children's menu. I remember one of them got macaroni and cheese, and I think the other got chicken fingers with french fries (which were tasty). I do not remember what April ordered for herself, but something possessed me to order the special of the day which was fried chicken and a waffle. The chicken was peppery which was good. The waffle was good as well, but I did end up sharing about half of it with the kids.
Oskar Blues Brewery is primarily known for featuring beer in cans, but at their restaurant, I enjoyed two draft beers. The first was One-Nut Brown Ale which is a nutty English-style brown ale of the Newcastle family. The second was Dave's Pale Ale which is not to be confused with their flagship Dale's Pale Ale. The Dave's was a very nice summery brew which reminded me of Oberon Ale from Bell's Brewery.
The next day, we picked up a sample pack from Twisted Pine Brewing Company. The 12-pack contained two bottles each of six different brews. The package shows their complete product line, so I was disappointed that the box did not actually have a bottle of Billy’s Chilies which is a wheat beer brewed with a variety of peppers. Over the next few days, I drank five of the six varieties that we did get. April's husband Christian and I both skipped the Raspberry Wheat, so April must have drank both of those. The first one I had was the Honey Brown Ale which was a good drinkable beer. I followed that with the Cream Style Stout. On Twitter, I noted that it was pretty smooth and tasty. It reminded me of another local beer, Left Hand Milk Stout. The next day, I tried the Blond Ale which was not particularly memorable, and the following day, I had the American Amber Ale which was reminiscent of other amber ales. I saved their flagship brew for last. On Twitter, I stated that their Hoppy Boy IPA was hoppy, as expected by the name, but not insanely so.
Backing up a couple of days in my narrative, April, Christian and I went to the Boulder Brew and Music Festival on the Saturday before Labor Day We attended the first session in the afternoon. I would not attempt to cover all the different beers that I sampled even if I remembered them all. I will mention that I did finally get to try a sample of the Billy’s Chilies brew from Twisted Pine. It was quite spicy, and the one-ounce sample was plenty. I will also mention that I was surprised by all of the fruits that were represented. According to the festival webpage and the scorecard that was provided, there were 21 breweries with booths. Three of those 21, Angry Orchard, Colorado Cider, and Crispin, were cider brewer. There was also Twisted Tea which has a Raspberry Hard Ice Tea. Plus several of the traditional breweries were offering fruit-flavored beers.
On Sunday, April and I traveled up to the Rocky Mountains with the kids. First, we rode the Estes Park Aerial Tramway up and down Prospect Mountain. We then had lunch at the Estes Park Brewery. The food was standard bar food. I believe April and I split some sliders and a plate of nachos that wase much larger than we anticipated. I had two drafts, the Trail Ridge Red and the Staggering Elk Lager. Both were drinkable although neither were particularly memorable.
I have one final beer to mention in relation to this Colorado trip. April dropped me off at the Denver airport on the Wednesday after Labor Day. I had a connecting flight to Chicago which was delayed about an hour and a half. I stopped into one of the airport bars and ordered a beer. I picked the Singletrack Copper Ale from Boulder Beer Company. Singletrack is an American pale ale, and it was very helpful while I was trying to down the spicy soup that I ordered.
On my first full day in Colorado, April and I took my nephew Jack and niece Grace to the Oskar Blues restaurant location in Longmont, Colorado. April ordered food for the kids off the children's menu. I remember one of them got macaroni and cheese, and I think the other got chicken fingers with french fries (which were tasty). I do not remember what April ordered for herself, but something possessed me to order the special of the day which was fried chicken and a waffle. The chicken was peppery which was good. The waffle was good as well, but I did end up sharing about half of it with the kids.
Oskar Blues Brewery is primarily known for featuring beer in cans, but at their restaurant, I enjoyed two draft beers. The first was One-Nut Brown Ale which is a nutty English-style brown ale of the Newcastle family. The second was Dave's Pale Ale which is not to be confused with their flagship Dale's Pale Ale. The Dave's was a very nice summery brew which reminded me of Oberon Ale from Bell's Brewery.
The next day, we picked up a sample pack from Twisted Pine Brewing Company. The 12-pack contained two bottles each of six different brews. The package shows their complete product line, so I was disappointed that the box did not actually have a bottle of Billy’s Chilies which is a wheat beer brewed with a variety of peppers. Over the next few days, I drank five of the six varieties that we did get. April's husband Christian and I both skipped the Raspberry Wheat, so April must have drank both of those. The first one I had was the Honey Brown Ale which was a good drinkable beer. I followed that with the Cream Style Stout. On Twitter, I noted that it was pretty smooth and tasty. It reminded me of another local beer, Left Hand Milk Stout. The next day, I tried the Blond Ale which was not particularly memorable, and the following day, I had the American Amber Ale which was reminiscent of other amber ales. I saved their flagship brew for last. On Twitter, I stated that their Hoppy Boy IPA was hoppy, as expected by the name, but not insanely so.
Backing up a couple of days in my narrative, April, Christian and I went to the Boulder Brew and Music Festival on the Saturday before Labor Day We attended the first session in the afternoon. I would not attempt to cover all the different beers that I sampled even if I remembered them all. I will mention that I did finally get to try a sample of the Billy’s Chilies brew from Twisted Pine. It was quite spicy, and the one-ounce sample was plenty. I will also mention that I was surprised by all of the fruits that were represented. According to the festival webpage and the scorecard that was provided, there were 21 breweries with booths. Three of those 21, Angry Orchard, Colorado Cider, and Crispin, were cider brewer. There was also Twisted Tea which has a Raspberry Hard Ice Tea. Plus several of the traditional breweries were offering fruit-flavored beers.
On Sunday, April and I traveled up to the Rocky Mountains with the kids. First, we rode the Estes Park Aerial Tramway up and down Prospect Mountain. We then had lunch at the Estes Park Brewery. The food was standard bar food. I believe April and I split some sliders and a plate of nachos that wase much larger than we anticipated. I had two drafts, the Trail Ridge Red and the Staggering Elk Lager. Both were drinkable although neither were particularly memorable.I have one final beer to mention in relation to this Colorado trip. April dropped me off at the Denver airport on the Wednesday after Labor Day. I had a connecting flight to Chicago which was delayed about an hour and a half. I stopped into one of the airport bars and ordered a beer. I picked the Singletrack Copper Ale from Boulder Beer Company. Singletrack is an American pale ale, and it was very helpful while I was trying to down the spicy soup that I ordered.
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