XIII

Weyerbacher XIII. From the a.b.v. and alcohol punch in the nads this entails, I'm guessing I may be the only one here that digs this, so if you're looking to unload any of your stash Duane, I'm your huckleberry.

Super boozy, this is a sobriety checkpoint on its own, in the vein of something with a nuclear yellow bottlecap from Dogfish. A little smoother, and with a little bit of a strangly out of place Belgian quality, this is a beefy stout. Picture a World Wide with some candi sugar and a little hint of sourness. It took me a few sips, but I love it. This is one of those beers that I don't think you'd get the full feel for with just a taste ... you need enough to let it start hammering you to really appreciate it. Consider it appreciated. A/A-

Bitter choc

Had a bitter chocolate Stone 13 last night. Not as good as I'd remembered. :(

Inspired!

Here's some hopped up shit I brewed today.

I can hear you Miller Light heads saying "I've heard of triple hops brewed, but quaternary hops brewed? Is he crazy? Yes. Yes he is.

NIGHTSTALKER

Nightstalker is finally on tap at Dexter's. Duane rode his bike from our house to Dexter's in the dark just for a glass. I enjoyed a New Holland Red Tulip which is slightly fruity and slightly hoppy. Not much depth to the taste, but a good beer for a hot day.

Canned IPA's are cool

Modus Hoperandi. I am pissed I didn't think of the name. It's bitter and piney with a mellow citrus background and the faintest malt backbone. Poundin' time.

Enjoyed after our first baseball win of the season.

B+

Tuesday night, vball suckage.

So we had a double header in vball and lost all 6 games. Trivia also included some suckage SO I consoled myself with O'So Picnic Ants at the Malthouse. Fruity, juicy & O'So tasty.

Yum beer!

Here is Duane enjoying a Sticky Mcdoogle at Dexter's. He is preparing for this weekend by getting pre-drunk tonight!

Hey Barry ...

A day of practice and preparation

Just finished up a round of 57 on the links. Unfortunately, that was 1-over, not 15-under, but still not too shabby. Early reports of my increased distance seem to be a bit overstated when things translate to the actual course, but I think I was still hitting it a half to three quarters of a club further, and was all over the pin all day, which was nice. It is about 90 degrees out and 90% humidity...I'm pretty worn out, even from walking a 4500 yd course. I think I'll be getting a cart this weekend, although the forecast as of this moment is looking pretty good - high 70's and sunny both days for a 9/10 golf index on weather.com. Take that with a grain of salt though, because yesterday they were predicting a 2/10.

Next on the agenda is to pound a Dark Lord or two and I should be all set for a weekend of no-goodery.

Range and putting green tonight

Hit up the range again tonight ... I'm determined to play better this time than when last we played. I think I'm hitting the ball well, but also think I'm going to have some atrocious pulls. I'm still aiming for the fade, but hitting it straight which is going to be an issue. Also, I have no idea what my distances are. I like the new swing though - I think I have a higher ceiling of being good again, but will probably be less consistent for awhile. Also, you may see the retirement of the ThunderHeat driver. I was hitting the Bertha much more consistently, so I think that's getting the call up for the weekend.

The ol' Gene Sarazen was strokin it on the putting green though. I made my first 8 putts, all over 10 ft long. I was going to re-do the hockey tape/ace bandage combo grip, but I was hitting it too well. The raggedy grip must stay on at least one club I guess.

Tomorrow I'm stepping it up to the par 3 course, weather permitting. (by the way, it rained all day here but the ground was still really hard tonight, so I think even if it does rain a bit this weekend, it may still be playable once it stops)

Vball night!

Vball night included losing all 3 games (and Duane pushed me down in the sand, bad Duane!) but we won trivia! The first win for our trivia team. Tonight we had pitchers of Lake Louie Milk Stout (yummy), Scurvy IPA (not for me), and New Holland Dragon's Milk Stout (which I think put Duane under). We then hit up the Malthouse (1 year anniversary) for some cheap (1/2 price) N'ice Chouffe and a '04 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot (maybe that put Duane under). I have a couple of pictures I will post (including Duane tonguing a glass) tomorrow. Haven't mastered the posted directly from my phone with pictures yet.

Thar she blows!!!!

Anyone had this? I'm drinking one right now. It just appeared here today - I got a 4 pack and will save the other 3. I'm not sure I'm a big fan, but it's ok. It's definitely an east coast IIPA ... very chewy and malty without much pine or citrus. My kingdom for a grapefruity IPA!!! Someone please bring one.

This is in the neighborhood of a 90 min or a double dog, but I don't think I like it as much as either of those. I'll give it a B.

Further evidence WI > IN

Map of Beer Medals by state : MAP

*Note, by the looks of things, West Virginia is ripe for a nice craft brewery if we ever want to open one up there

Golf times

Got some tee times for Sunday and Monday... the weather is looking iffy, but hopefully it will improve as it gets closer. Our weathermen are not very good more than 24 hours out.

There were lots of morning outings all over the place, and Cascades had a tournament going on, so I ended up with 1:20 on sunday and 12:08 monday, which could actually be in our favor if some of us (I'm looking in the mirror) are a bit hungover in the mornings.

The courses are the IU course sunday, and this one on Monday which has sweet 1/2 price bargain rates that day ($25 w/ cart):
Eagle Pointe

Oh Rogue, I want you to be good but instead you suck.

This is the Rogue Mom Hefeweizen. See the bottle is cool with a cute picture of an old lady drinking a beer. This had a one note taste, citrus, and finished rather dirty. Not a repeat, at all. Volleyball tomorrow night and hopefully some better beer!

Chicago and a White Whale

Carey and I went to Chicago last weekend to see the Steepwater Band at Metro (without Chris, gasp!) The beer at Metro was awful.

Carey and I both had a $7 Sam Adams Summer Ale...a beer who's disgustingness knows no bounds.

It was bad enough that I had rail gin and tonics and carey had rail vodka cranberries the rest of the night.

After that, we head to the Piece Brewery and Pizzeria. The pie was great...the beers were ok. My Disfunctionale IPA was good. There Hefeweizen was ok and I had another one that was not memorable.

In the afternoon on the next day, we headed to the South Loop Binny's where a White Whale was spotted.

Surly 16 Grit DIPA - This was a very tasty grapefruity DIPA. I don't think I like it as much as Furious, but it was great nonetheless and I'm glad I finally got to try it.

Then we headed to the Local Option, where I had another 16 Grit on tap and Half Acre Daisy Cutter APA, which was good and a Liefsman Goudenband, which was decent, but not sour enough for me. All in all a great weekend

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"Remarkable" Vanilla Porter

Here we have Breckenridge Brewery's Remarkable Vanilla Porter. Actually, this blogger finds it less than remarkable, let alone very good. I'd say good. To me it's a gimmick beer. It's not bad.

Tastes like Dr. Brown's Cream Soda.

Rather flat.

Unsettling aftertaste.

Grade: C+

Barryborth Pale

Barryborth Pale Ale

Terrific beer. It's been a week since I had the Barryborth, but I remember it being an awful lot like I remember this, uh, particular beer. A solid pale ale. Also reminds me of the Phoenix Pale Ale, which I think is by Sly Fox, but am too lazy to look up.

Bottling Day

Spent the last couple hours bottling three batches: this one, this one and this one. The Stout is looking good my friends, looking good. A little calculation tells me that the Stout's ABV is around 10.3%.

The sample in the picture tasted pretty good already even without carbonation. Hopefully I won't screw that up and it will be ready for next weekend.

The Golden Promise 3 is not in the picture but it tasted pretty good too. (This is what I'm calling some of the Golden Promise 2 which has been sitting in another carboy for the past three months.)

It seems that I have ten (maybe more) different homebrews for the beer fest. I'll bring some random PA beer too.

A toast to me! (and Katie) ... homeowners*

(* = pending the inspection)

Bet you wish you could be enjoying a delicious ice cold 22oz draft Surly Furious like this one... oh wait, all you have to do is come visit us!