I'm Castor Troy

Face/Off - Central Waters Style

In this corner, Peruvian Morning: soft on the nose with increasing notes of vanilla as it warms. Coffee up front, bourbon in the rear smacks of cola. Lighter in body, though highly carbonated, and redder in color.

The opponent, Bourbon Barrel Stout 10': smells stronger, darker in color, more bourbon forward with quite a bit of raisin and sweet cake batter. Bourbon here is quite cola-y as well and the body is thicker but this beer is also highly carbonated.

The verdict: depends on your bag. Both are solid, but the carbonation detracts. While both good bourbon beers, neither has the bourbon quality I prefer.

Road trip this Saturday!

Central Waters is having an anniversary party on Saturday.  Doors open at 3pm, live music at 7pm, and special tappings all day long.  We are going, but I don't know when exactly.  Barry and Kathleen, you are welcome to join us if you are free!  It is 2 hours from Madison, (Chris, 2 hours 45 minutes from Eau Claire but you go through Wausau so you could always stop at Red Eye!).  There is this Italian restaurant in Plover that has this great appetizer.  Think Little Ceasar's crazy bread covered in mozzarella!!

Dreadnaught '010

Got a new-batch Dreadnaught this week. It tastes just as good as last year. Grapefruit-tacular. I would drink this at every meal I think if it wasn't so expensive. $13 for a 22 vs. $13.99 for a 6pack of Hopslam at the grocery store last night. I think I'd rather have the 5.75 Hopslams (which by-the-by, I've had nearly a case of this year already I think)

Coming soon...

Who wants me to make a run for the border?

Southdowns ... no, "Northdowns," Beer fest 2010?

Is it too early to start thinking about our festival plans for this year? Peter S., when will you be giving up on this whole wrong-hemisphere experiment and moving back to the proper side of the international date line? Do we want to do this in Wisconsin or some sort of destination? Thoughts?

Also, Darklord thoughts? I'm in if anyone else is.

Anybody had this yet?

Sounds pretty good...

Brew Free or Die? The latter is preferable

12 oz can into my Tyranena British pint glass

Hazy yellow pour with billowy carbonation

Faint mild pear and grass on the sniffer, sadly lacking for an IPA

Taste follows nose with watery pear and lime and a trail of bitterness. Everything about this beer is understated

Watery for sure. Extremely hard to believe this beer clocks in at 7%

Easy to drink with a high degree of sessionability. Ahh, the tag of session beer...

C+

LiZard lager!

Toronado tap room

Hop 15 Double IPA. Best beer I had in SF.

Toronado Tap Room

Thinking about it a little more this morning, I really liked the Toronade. The beer selection is solid, but I am pretty sure that there are places in Madison which top it. The beers are cheap. Four dollars a pint. The neighborhood reminds me of the East Village. Plus it was easy to get there - the 6, 7 and 71 buses stop right outside the front door. (It helped having a local with me.)

Smallish place. Bar along the right hand side when you walk in, second room to the left, which is like a rec room. They have several more cask conditioned beers in a closet behind the bar. I was with my friend Julie and we sat in a corner table with two other women. Pretty girls, good beer. Can't complain.

No food, but there is a pizza place next door and a sausage place on the other side the entrance and you can carry in. We had pizza.

Now to the beers: For me it was mainly a Russian River night: Pliny the Elder, Consecration and Damnation. I also had a Casey Jones IPA. Can't remember the brewery.

Consecration was terrific.

Hey, Hey, Hey.....

It's Black Albert

Belgian dubbelishness meets big boy stout

Maraschino cherry and almond on the nose

Bitter grip up front and on the tongue is pimp slapped by intense sweetness on the back end

Highly carbonated and pillowy softness makes for a nice mouthfeel

I drink more to get a grip on the style than to battle 13% of the Albert

A -

Pliny the elder

San Francisco Bay News

Just checked into my hotel in SF. I am smack downtown. The 4th street bar and grille just outside the lobby advertises countless beers. It opens at 4. The conference starts tomorrow at 8 am. You can do the math.

Who needs a hug?

Half Acre Big Hugs is an easy-drinking 9.5% coffee imperial stout, although it tastes more like an imperial porter to me. It is pretty solid as has most of the Half Acre stuff I've had when visiting Chicago. A

Love this picture

This is how I picture Barry daydreaming about his homebrew projects ... some sort of "Hop-burglar" type vigilante character.

Shaq Diesel Playoff Stout

Brooklyn's Black Chocolate Stout is really nice: smells fantastic, tastes of diesel stoutiness and deep dark chocolates. It would be pretty lame to see the Bengals lose and Cowboys win on the same day.

A

Probability Question: Which is more likely: A Bengals Win or a response from Chris?

What I drank last night

2 Schell Snowstorm Ales and a Summit Unchained 02 90/ - Scottish Style Ale. Yummy.

You?

Michigan Brewery Tour Update

They weren't able to get enough people for the Michigan Brewery Tour to make it happen at the end of January (pretty short notice and all), so they have changed the dates to March 6th-8th. Come and celebrate Duane's birthday by drinking lots of beer!