Now this one is pretty obvious....

Saturday night, at the Malthouse. The Malthouse has been giving away a pair of tickets to the Great Taste each Friday and Saturday. One of Duane's friends from Epic decided that he would like his girlfriend to go to the Great Taste (if possible). We agreed to attempt to win tickets for him, as he was driving furiously to Canada to bring her back to Madison. We didn't win.

Guess where?

This evening at the Malt House

Duane was crabby after a couple of Ambergeddons at Madison's (it was a work thing, normally we wouldn't set foot in there) and we walked out of Restaurant Muramoto (the waitress made fun of Duane's Charlie Daniels t-shirt) SO we ended up at the Malthouse. They still have Dancing Man Wheat on top, which Duane loves. I find it to be a little boozy for a wheat, which is probably why Duane likes it. I had the Ayinger Brau Weiss, still a summer fav for me. Luckily one of our favorite pizza places delivers to the Malthouse, so we had some awesome cheesebread and pizza for dinner. Duane had another fav, Ale Asylum Big Slick Stout while I tried out the Petrus Dubble. The Petrus is not quite as good as the Atomium, but still pretty tasty. I really need to start going to the gym.

Oak > No Oak

This was a happy surprise at Sahara Mart today when I went in to beg for some more empty boxes for packing. Great Divide 15th Anniv Wood Aged DIPA. A pimped out Denver Pale supposedly, this is pretty amazing. It has the vanilla smell and taste initially that makes me think I'm about to have a stout, and then, BAM, it's an IPA. Even ignoring the oak-ness, it has a nice malt/hop balance and is both smooth and biting at the same time. Pretty cool. I like this a lot. Nice job GD.

A+

Sposborth Surprise

Sposborth R 9/15 (whatever that is) is amazing. This is my favorite Sposborth yet. It has a tiny hint of Red (I'm guessing that's what the R is?) but is also REALLY sweet like a Dubbel. I'm going to 'dub' it Sposborth Red dub edition. If I start homebrewing, this is a recipe I'd want. Nice job Peter. Too bad you're eating weird noodles and unmentionable animals with chopsticks at the moment and may never receive these accolades.

Lucky 13

Stone 13: Pretty killer. It starts with a thick maltiness kind of like an Arrogant Bastard or Double Bastard, then finishes with a hop attack like a Runination. Has that thick, redish look like an American Strong Ale...still not sure what style this is supposed to be...Imperial Red maybe? I think I'd call it an Indian Strong Pale Ale. Best of both worlds perhaps?
Solid A

Imperial Hatter

Two words: MALT BOMB

This is pretty good, but is one of the maltiest things I've ever tasted in an IPA. Are there hops in here? I suppose there must be somewhere, but that's more logic than taste buds. This may have something to do with the Dreadnought that it's following on my tongue, but I'd like to think that even without that I'd have a similar opinion. Think Dogfish 90 min + 25% more malt.

A-

Cink Stinks

Hipster?

On a non-beer related note, is reading, referencing, talking about, or having knowledge of McSweeney's a possible sign of being a hipster? I'm still trying to figure them out (hipsters, not McSweeney's. Although I'm slightly baffled by that, too). From some article or another: "The ideal McSweeney’s reader (or writer) lives in Brooklyn, wears interesting T-shirts, has a blog he works on in coffee shops, and knows it’s cool to oppose globalisation but uncool to go on too much about it." Is that a hipster?

PDX haul

Here's what I'm bringing back:

The challenge is to name as many beers as you can, based on my grainy ass cell phone photo :)

Afternoon Delight

New, fresh Barryborth IPA.

Boo-yah

Pissed in Portland

Thank God I learned the bus route to the appropriate bars in Portland. It is Puckerfest at Belmont Station this week, so straight off the plane, I have:

Cascade Nightfall Blackberry Ale
Cascade Gold Yeller
New Belgium La Terroir

Then to the Horse Brass for:
Stone XIII

Then to Bailey's Taproom for:
Firestone Walker Double Jack

Tits!

Grumpy Troll....meh

Ok, so we have given the Grumpy Troll 3 tries and it has outright sucked or been just ok all 3 times. The food is terrible and not worth trying. This time I had their Wit, which was drinkable but barely. Duane had an IPA that was a winner of a homebrew contest and a stout which he said were both good. I think it was a great brewpub when brewpubs were few and far between, if you are in Mt. Horeb stop by but don't make a special trip.

New Glarus Brewery

New Bottle, worse taste

Well, they've ruined my favorite beer. This is a yeasty saison now, just slightly better than that Stone from yesterday... gone is the candi sugar, caramelocity of the old version. I'm nearly in tears. Damn you, whoever you are!

Stone-ed

Meh. A little too yeasty for me, and surprisingly UN-hoppy for a Stone. I guess I just like my Belgians belgian, my IPA's hoppy and my homosexuals fa-laming. C-

Edit: This is getting even grosser as it warms up. It's become a drain pour. Yuck.

On a related hop note, has anyone had the new stone Anniversary? It's supposedly "the hoppiest beer they've ever made" but I passed it up today because it was a red. Maybe next time.

More from Bovine U

I got one of these today hoping to add lots of witty analysis. Instead, I just realized I wrote, almost word for word, the exact same review as Barry, and have now deleted it. Read his instead, I agree with every word. I liked this a lot, it's a great beer. A/A-

Chocolate Oatmeal Coffee

In the house

Jillikers

I've said Jiminy Jillikers so many times the words have lost all meaning.

Golden Promise 2

Observation 1: Leon Black is one of my favorite TV characters of all time.

Observation 2: If Lance Nix could run the bases as well as a first year coach-pitch player, the Reds would have scored at least one more run in the 4th, and probably would have won tonight. Booo-urns.

Observation 3: Although Golden Promise has a disturbing name that evokes something distilled from the troughs at Wrigley Field, it is a surprisingly nice brew.
My ranking from tonight: Furious > GP2 > 6 month old Hopslam > fresh Leviathan
And honestly, the flavor is right there to compete with all of those (except maybe Furious). Nice carbonation, nice head, nice everything. Very hoppy and biting, but with some sweetness too. Nice job Mr. Spaeth.

Thursday night at the Malthouse

I had the Ayinger Brauweiβ and it was really tasty. A great hefeweizen. Duane had the Red Eye Thrust IPA which he thought was really solid.

Dark Horse Boffo Brown at Roman's Pub in Milwaukee

So we headed to Milwaukee to see Shinedown at Summerfest, making a pit stop at a Lowe's on the way in. We had to have a beer beforehand, of course, and stopped at Roman's Pub. It was a nice place, with all the beers listed on a giant dry erase board hung from the ceiling. They do sell cigars and do allow smoking inside, there is also a nice patio outside as well. We love just about everything from the Dark Horse brewery and this is no exception. Unfortunately the beer stop resulted in having little time to find parking and we eventually gave up. It gave us a great opportunity to stop by the Sugar Maple (a fav) and the other bar owned by same people, the Palm. The Palm is smaller and more intimate with a Belgian tap list while the Sugar Maple has 60 American beers on tap. I need to take notes because I can't remember what we had to drink, just that it was tasty. (side note - this picture is taken in sepia tone since there wasn't a lot of light and I hate when the flash bounces off the glass)

Double Dragonfly

A trip to Upland for dinner tonight yielded a new DIPA: Double Dragonfly. I'd give it about a B-. It's WAAYYYYYY better than their last attempt (Bad Penny) but still isn't anything great. I'll be glad to put this brewery behind me soon enough I think

Bovine University

With Butch Harmon helping me me re-create my golf swing, a solid round of golf was promptly followed by my enrollment in the aforementioned institution of higher learning.

As usual, Three Floyd's offers a beer that takes a bit to wrap your old pud around. Apocalypse Cow pours to a pale orange and smells absolutely scrumptious; one of the better smelling beers in recent memory, a sort of non-descript, but fresh citric blast.

Mouthfeel is very odd and the milk sugar creates a light but full (oxymoronic, but true) tingling sensation. Again, there is an accesible, somewhat muted dance between Apha King and Dreadnaught, where there's an opportunity for over-sweetness, but a bit of warming helps to stay off that line. Sugary half and half fruit finish is slightly confounding. Drinks well for a double.

Hard to describe, difficult to fully understand, enjoyable to drink. I think I dig it.

A -

Fuck yeah. Full Term Stout!

I am happy. The full term stout is all that I want.

It does a number on the glass when you take a drink. Smells faintly of chocolate and not much else. The carbonation is there finally. If you have one, drink it. Or let it sit, I am sure it will improve.

It's oily, dark, bitter, stouty and awesome in one sip. From my record this particular brew clocks in at 10% ABV. I wish it was this good during brewfest, but we must sometimes wait for good homebrew. Someone else drink one, I am excited and want a second opinion. This is about eight months old in the making. I have four more bombers that will age.

In my opinion, A+.

AVery Hoppy Beer

Post? i got your post right here. avery maharaja @ zenos

It was yeasty and gross. They gave me a good one later and it was fine. This was my first beer since beerfest and I am buzzing.

It was fine. Very hoppy. Didn't taste particularly strong, but then again.... did I mention the buzzing?

Where Have All the Bloggers Gone?