Who's the Man Now, Leroy?

Beer #273 Nostradamus / Brasserie Caracole, Falmignoul, Belgium

Well, that didn't go according to plan.  You see, that's the thing about sports - it's a zero sum game.  For every hero, there is a goat.  For every winner, a loser.  For everyone who becomes Mr. Popular in the blink of an eye, there's someone who may want to sleep with one eye open for a few nights.  There's a kid in Penn State's locker room who as of today very clearly won't go down in history.  Well, let me take that back, he'll go down in history, just not the right kind of history.  What everyone will conveniently ignore is that team sports are played by teams, and anyone who stepped on the field could have made one more play to change the game.  But they didn't, and here we are.  Losing sucks under all circumstances, and I refuse to accept it.

Today's beer is the Nostradamus, a strong dark ale from Brasserie Caracole.  In the glass, this beer has a dark chestnut color, and a huge tan head.  It looks more like a root beer float than a beer, in fact.  The aroma is filled with stone fruit, figs, and leather, and the taste has notes of cocoa, leather, figs, raisins, malt, and plums.  A big beer at 9% ABV, Nostradamus has a thin mouth feel, and would be the perfect beer for a cool, autumn evening.

Luscious

Caracole is brewed in a town near the French border, and is housed in a building dating back to the 18th century.  However, the link on their website to learn more about the history of the brewery is broken.  Sorry, Charlie.

Thing to Think About Today:
It's obvious that Penn State needs more confidence, more enthusiasm, more... (dare I say) swagger.  We were watching a re-run of How I Met Your Mother last night, and after being proven correct when people thought he was wrong, Barney dropped a great quote, "Who's the man now, Leroy?"  What most everyone in the world doesn't know, is that he was channeling one of the most confident, cocky, um.....swagger-y characters in the history of film: Sho'nuff, the Shogun of Harlem.

Sho'nuff!

Sho'nuff was the charismatic and violent villlian in The Last Dragon, a martial arts film about a clean cut young man named Leroy who must ascend to the "final level" in order to get the "glow", which is sort of like The Force from Star Wars.  In his path, is the ruthless and super cool Sho'nuff.  I'll go ahead and spoil the film for you - Leroy finally gets the glow, but it's Sho'nuff who steals the movie with his self-promoting style, mind-boggling confidence, and rather unique fashion sense.  Here's to Penn State either getting the glow or just kicking some ass along the way.  Either one works for me at this point.  I'll leave you with some classic Sho'nuff and Leroy to close out the evening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylCvCwn9OG8

"Am I the baddest Mo Fo low down around this town?  SHO'NUFF!"

Beer 267: Three Things Including Caracole Nostradamus

I'm thinking about three things this gloomy Sunday.

1. There is a whole lot of you who read the blog and seemed genuinely interested in it. That is a pretty awesome feeling. Although best comment of the day goes to someone who doesn't read it. "I see that you write that blog. I don't read it. But I notice that you write it." I'm paraphrasing wildly but have to share because it cracked me up. I love brutal honesty.

2. Penn State football. Going into yesterday's game, there were times that I thought, of course, we're going to beat Ohio University. Who doesn't beat the Ohio University Bobcats? There were moments that I was convinced there was just too much pressure on a young team and we'd choke and spend the afternoon embarrassing ourselves.

The result was pretty overwhelmingly the latter but there were a lot of glimmers of hope. Those moments of clarity where things clicked and all was not lost. But the team couldn't string enough of those moments together and those darn Bobcats won the day. It is going to be a long season. It is going to be a roller coaster of a season. And I am going to love every moment of it.

3. Beer. Although for the past eight or so months, it's challenging to pinpoint a time when I'm not thinking about beer.

Today's beer: Caracole Nostradamus - a Belgian strong dark ale brewed in Belgium that weighs in at 9% ABV.


It poured an almost black brown color with a very thick, dense tan head. Based on the beer's smell, I knew I was going to love it. I may even have declared that I needed a spoon so I could eat the head like ice cream! It was creamy and tart sweet.

The smell was toasty bourbon with caramel and some spice. It drank with a medium mouthfeel that was lightened by the carbonation. The flavor had anise, roasted malt, caramel and molasses. As it warmed up a bit, hints of lemon and raisin came through. This is an excellent beer.

Cheers!