Celebrating Rebels and Rogues

As with some other of my posts recently, this post is just an excuse to post the picture to the right which itself is just an excuse to drink the beer contained in this interesting pink bottle. That works out well since although today is a Wednesday, I have no particular plans. Today is July 4 which is of course Independence Day here in the United States of America. This year, the anniversary of our country's independence from the British Empire falls on a Wednesday which makes it an awkwardly occurring holiday.

The other day, some of my coworkers and I were explaining to another coworker of ours from China that we would have the today off of work due to the holiday. She wondered why the government just did not move the holiday to a Monday or Friday. We did not have a good answer, although the answer was probably that the idea actually made too much sense.

The other two major holidays of the summer season are always celebrated on Mondays. Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday of May and marks the unofficial start of summer. Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday of September and marks the unofficial end of summer. Of the other holidays, Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday with most people also getting the following Friday off. Christmas and New Year's do not fall on fixed days of the week, but together they make up the extended winter holiday period, so the actual days of the week are less relevant. It would make sense to me to always celebrate Independence Day on the first Monday in July. This would be similar to how George Washington's birthday (which is now considered Presidents' Day) falls on the third Monday in February and never on Washington's actual birthday which is February 22. But again, this idea is probably too intelligent to actually be seriously considered.

Anyway, let us get back to the interesting beer in the large pink bottle. As can be read from the printing on the bottle, this is Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale from Rogue Brewery. Rogue is headquartered in Newport, Oregon. On one of my trips to Portland to visit my friend Alan, I had the opportunity to tour the Rogue Distillery that is located in Portland. This bottle of their beer made the trip from Oregon via Las Vegas. Back in April, I was in Vegas for a conference. Alan made the trip down from Portland to visit and brought me this bottle. The picture above was actually taken on the bed in my hotel room. I brought the bottle back with me, and it has lived in my refrigerator up until now.

I have been happily sipping on this beer since I first started typing this post. For those of my imaginary (and not-so-imaginary) readers who are not familiar with the Portland area, Voodoo Doughnut is a well-known doughnut shop in the city. Their most famous doughnut is probably the Voodoo Doll which is stabbed in the heart with a pretzel stick. They also have a Bacon Maple Bar which is the inspiration for this brew. The beer has a lovely sweet and malty smell and a pleasantly sweet and smoky taste as would be expected since the ingredients list on the bottle includes applewood-smoked bacon and pure maple flavoring. This is an interesting beer, but not a beer of which somebody would want to drink more one at a sitting.