Thank You

Beer #719 Blind Pig IPA / Russian River Brewing Company, Santa Rosa, CA
Previously from this brewery: some of the best beers on earth

An abbreviated list of things I'm thankful for:
1. A wonderful family - who cooks me Thanksgiving dinner :)
2. The understanding that while my life is far from perfect, there are many others out there who have things so, so much worse.
3. That you actually take time to read this silly blog.  I'm always floored when someone mentions a post they read, even though this site gets hundreds of visitors a day.
4. My new Rainbow Loom bracelet; I felt like the last kid at school to have one.
4. That I am loved.

Tonight's review is a pint of Blind Pig IPA from my all time favorite brewery, Russian River.  This beer has a golden amber color with a lingering thin white head.  Your nose picks up pleasing aromas of grapefruit and lemon, and your taste buds are greeted by ample resinous pine and grapefruit flavors, with a fantastic dry and bitter finish.  Is this one as good as fellow Russian River offerings Pliny the Elder, and the uber-white whale Pliny the Younger?  No, but this is still a world class beer that you should order whenever you spot it on tap.  And, unless you live on the West Coast, Colorado, or Philadelphia, that won't be happening.  Sorry.

Blindingly good

Thing to Think About Today:
Facebook will be loaded today with people saying, "thanks", so allow me to instead say, "Please."  Pass the mashed potatoes, U2.  I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxG2UWhvXJI

"So you never knew that the heaven you keep, you stole"

Old and Cold

Day #713 Old Rasputin / North Coast Brewing Company, Fort Bragg, CA
Previously from this brewery:

Hustle day, as tomorrow is the last home game in the 2013 Penn State football season.  Hard to believe that we're closing out another season of football and tailgating; feels like it just started.  This season has definitely not gone according to plan, but I guess that's about par for the course.  I do hope the stadium is somewhat filled, and the seniors go out with a win.  They deserve it.  We all deserve a win.

Keeping up with the trend of old beers that spent a good, long time in the fridge and equally old reviews, today's offering is a bottle of Old Rasputin from North Coast.  Black hue with a fluffy tan head, aromas of roasted malt and coffee, and flavors of malt, chocolate, cola, and tons of roasted malt.  Smooth and silky texture, too.  Little too much coffee for me to be a fan, but I can appreciate that this is a well made beer.

From Russia, with suds

Thing to Think About Today:
Old Rasputin gets you the Four Tops, and Same Old Song.  Because nothing says "indestructible Russian mystic" like some smooth Motown.  Just enjoy and don't think about it too much.  Have a good Friday, all....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS2nWLz-AbE

Sigh.

Beer #708 PranQster / North Coast Brewing Company, Fort Bragg, CA
Previously from this brewery:  yes, indeed

Today started early and is ending later than I wanted, with a free tow truck ride in the middle (thanks, car!). Let's just pretend today didn't entirely happen and just talk about beer, okay?

Thanks.

Tonight's pour is a bottle of PranQster, a Belgian pale ale from North Coast Brewing.  You see a dark gold color with next to no head, and you pick up aromas of banana and clove.  When you take a sip, you get fruit esters, banana, some light clove, and mild peppery spice on the finish.  Really enjoyable beer, and well worth your effort if you see it on a shelf or tap handle near you.

No pranks

Thing to Think About Today:
Short and sweet.  Tom Petty, Breakdown, in honor of my car and its ever so finicky transmission.  Fitting. See you soon.... although hopefully I see my car again sooner.

Day 698: North Coast Pranqster

That is the North Coast Pranqster, a Belgian style golden ale. It pours a nice, bright gold color with very little to no head. It smells of bread dough but not much else. (Not sure if that's the beer's fault. I'm suffering some major allergies right now.) The flavor is grassy with a fizzy, yeasty tang. It has a big, round mouthfeel. There's also a good amount of pepper with hints of lemon. I wish there was another one waiting for me in the fridge tonight.

Beer stats

Style: Belgian style golden ale

ABV: 7.56%

IBUs: 20

Rating: Great

Previously reviewed from North Coast

Brother Thelonius (abbey ale)

More Brother Thelonius

Scrimshaw review from me and a Scrimshaw from the Mr. 

Harvest Time

Day #687 Northern Hemisphere Harvest Wet Hop Ale / Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Chico, CA
Previously from this brewery: Southern Hemisphere and Summerfest

Another Sunday of realizing that Penn State football isn't very good.  They aren't supposed to be, and they don't need to be, but still.... losing sucks always and forever.

Beer review for the day is a Northern Hemisphere from Sierra Nevada.  It has a clear light amber color, with a lingering white head.  There's ample bitterness, but not as much citrus as I was expecting.  Good bit of piney, earthy flavors.  In all, a solid beer, but there are others with more welcoming balances of flavors out there.  Worth a try, though.  The interesting story about this beer is that the hops used go from the fields to the brew kettles in less than 24 hours.

I have no picture, as this one is lost in my phone somewhere, and that's just the way it goes some days.

Thing to Think About Today:
On a fall day with Northern Harvest beer, I give you Neil Young and Harvest Moon.  Good day, folks....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2MtEsrcTTs

"When we were strangers, I watched you from afar / When we were lovers, I loved you with all my heart."

Day 683: Speakeasy Betrayal

I've been jones-ing for a good book to read for a few weeks now. I'm not quite sure when I'm going to read this "good book", but I'm starting to feel desperate. Then I came across this on my friend Arielle's tumblr and it stopped me dead in my tracks.

I don't follow the Night Vale podcasts (maybe I should?), but I can't stop revisiting this statement. Does anyone else feel this way at the end of a good book? There's nothing worse than finishing a book and not caring about it or the characters.

Also you all should check our Arielle's tumblr page. She's brilliant and funny and really good at yoga. I kind of want to be like her when I grow up!

Now for the beer.

This is the Speakeasy Ales & Lagers' Betrayal--an imperial red ale. Sidebar: Speakeasy's website notes, "With a love for the sinister and the underground, Speakeasy operates out of a corner of this city once known as Butchertown." This city is San Francisco. I'm pretty sure I'm not going anywhere once or currently known as Butchertown. I imagine clowns aplenty lurking under sewer grates in the streets patiently waiting to cause chaos and terror. So there's that.

Good thing the beer wasn't terrifying. It poured a dark mahogany color with a thick cream color head. The smell and flavor went hand-in-hand. Black tea, hops with a nice bitterness, caramel malt, a little bit of grass.

Beer stats
Style: Imperial red ale
ABV: 8.2%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Great

Previously reviewed from Speakeasy
I totally thought this was going to be first out the limo, but Mr. Blog Named Brew beat me to it with his review of the Big Daddy IPA

Day 676: He Said,He Said

Scene: Me and some friends enjoying beers out on the town in State College for Penn State's homecoming. I'm sitting at the bar right in front of a set of taps. Bartender is switching out one of the tap handles and I launch into full Chatty Cathy let's-talk-beer-mode. 

They just tapped a collaboration brew from 21st Amendment and Elysian. The tap handle states (or at least it was close to this as I didn't have the mind to take a photo): 

     Baltic porter

     Lager brewed with pumpkin 

I've had some strange collaborations before, but a porter-lager...with pumpkin? To the Googles! Here's what I learned from the 21st Amendment He Said site:

He Said let’s brew a dark beer with pumpkin and spices and put it in a light colored can. He Said let’s brew a light beer with pumpkin and spices and put it in a dark colored can. So they did both and produced a pumpkin beer collaboration like no other: two black pumpkin beers and two white pumpkin beers, together in one box.

Who are the hes in question? Dick Cantwell, the pumpkin king at Elysian Brewing and Shaun O'Sullivan, the 21st Amendment brewmaster who brought me one of my favorite beers Hell or High Watermelon Wheat.

Evidently the tap handle covers both beers and is a great conversation starter! I lucked out with the light version of He Said. It's a Belgian-style tripel and it poured a hazy medium gold color with an off-white head. It was full of Belgian candid sugar aroma and some malt. The flavor is tons of caramel and pie spice. Not overtly pumpkin-y, but delicious nonetheless.

Beer stats
Style: Tripel
ABV: 8.2%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Excellent

Previously reviewed from 21st Amendment
Hell or High Watermelon, Bitter American, more Hell or High Watermelon, Fireside Chat

Previously reviewed from Elysian
Split Shot (espresso milk stout) and I rap Sir-Mix-Alot lyrics, drop a Faygo reference and sing the praises of TJ's Bar
Prometheus (IPA)

Case of the Mondays

Beer #674  Sour in the Rye / The Bruery, Placentia, CA
Previously from this brewery:  Others, which are here.

Mondays are always long, but today was longer than usual.  In my youth, I could miss sleep, pull all-nighters, run myself into the ground and then with just a tiny bit of rest get back in the saddle and keep going at full speed. Not any more, as I spent most of the day Sunday trying in vain to catch up on sleep, and spent most of today with a headache and a desperate desire to go to bed shortly after lunch.  An early bedtime tonight, and I'm back on track tomorrow.  I hope.  I think.

With what little brain power left for the day, you get today's review.  Actually, this is a beer I had a while ago, but had hiding in my email: Sour in the Rye, from The Bruery.  It pours with an amber color and a thin, persistent white head.  There's a tart aroma of citrus with a good bit of vinegar, and drinking back a sip gives you flavors of earthy oak, grapes, cherry, and vinegar, with ample tartness throughout.  I freely admit I don't quickly pick up the rye used in brewing this beer, but that doesn't mean  it's not there or didn't help make this beer delicious.  In fact, this beer finds a home in my Top 25 (which actually has way more than 25 beers at this point; it's more of a symbolic thing).

Sour Patch, Kid

An increasing number of American breweries have been producing sour beers, and if The Bruery isn't the best around, there sure as hell aren't too many better.  Maybe Cascade Brewing Barrel House, maybe Jolly Pumpkin, maybe Russian River.  Can't go wrong with sours from any of those four breweries, really.

Thing to Think About Today:
If I'm trying to shake off the cobwebs and get the brain moving again, perhaps Florence + the Machine can help me out with Shake it Out, a great song with great lyrics.  Hope you like it too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtnxsIBVm5s

"I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope"

Day 653: The Bruery Sour in the Rye

I really need to start giving myself more to work with than the following helpful hints:
post goes here (JD Salinger)

After mulling it over, I think I may have wanted to draw a parallel between Sour in the Rye and Catcher in the Rye, but at this point...who the hell knows.

Dear brain,
     Write better notes for the blog.
                                  Love, Me

Tonight's beer is The Bruery's Sour in the Rye, which is a sour rye ale aged in oak. It pours a warm, chestnut color with a medium, quick to disappear ivory head. The smell has a wonderful sourness with sweet fruity esters. There's also lots of rye in the nose.

The flavor is dry and mouth-puckeringly sour. I wrote bracing in my notes, which isn't a word I often use but in this case, it was absolutely perfect. I can easily taste the oak. There's a good lemony sourness. Then I found this in my notes:  nTextP � n e ��} � T /p>

Aliens are trying to communicate with me through my draft posts. That's the only obvious answer, right?

Beer stats

Style: Sour ale
AGV: 7.8%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Excellent

Previously reviewed from The Bruery
Five Golden Rings, Oude Tart, Tart of Darkness, Hottenroth

Day 640: North Coast Brother Thelonious

I would really like to ask the people involved in the three separate accidents I saw on a quarter mile stretch of my commute what happened. The accidents appeared to be completely unrelated to each other. The weather was perfectly fine. Did someone forget how to drive? Were they caused by one of the dicks I encounter on a pretty regular basis who can't be bothered with speed limits, turn signals, ability to read traffic signs and common courtesy? I suppose I'll never know.

Instead of ruminating on how it took me 90 minutes to travel 17 miles, let's talk beer.

This is North Coast Brewing Company's Brother Thelonious Belgian style abbey ale from the American Artisan Series. For every bottle sold, North Coast makes a donation to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in support of jazz education. I'm drinking beer. I'm doing good. My day is totally turned around!

It poured a ruby-tinged deep brown ale with a medium tan head. It smells of molasses and roasted, dark fruit. The flavor is interesting...cinnamon, plums, bitter chocolate. Every few sips the dark plummy part tasted a bit more on the unripe side. There's lots of complexity to this beer. And despite all that flavor, it had a thin mouthfeel and was easy to drink.

Beer Stats
Style: Belgian style abbey ale
ABV: 9.4%
IBUs: 32
Rating: Good

Previously from North Coast
Scrimshaw review from me, a Scrimshaw from the Mr. and his take on Brother Thelonious

Day 635: Russian River Consecration

One of the things that I love about living within a clear evening's earshot of a high school is those magical moments when I can hear the marching band practicing. This experience is mostly reserved for late August evenings or the rare Friday night that I'm not on my very own football sojourn to Penn  State. There's something inherently small town about it. It's calming. It makes me feel part of something real. And, man, do I need that right now.

Tonight's beer is Russian River's Consecration ale--a sour ale aged in cabernet barrels. It pours a warm, hazy brown color with a thin off-white head. It smells of dark fruits, very ripe cherries and fruity esters. The flavor is woody and chocolate with sour cherries and dark currants floating in it. There's lots of red wine tannins in there as well. Consecration is just the right level of tart and drinks with a great smoothness ending with a solid sour bite. 

Beer stats
Style: Sour ale
ABV: 10%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Excellent.

Previously reviewed from Russian River
Prepare yourself, it's a long list!
My sampler review; horizontal tasting of Supplication
Mr. Blog's sampler review, Consecration and Damnation; followed by a Captain Ahab-esque search for Pliny the Younger but not Pliny the Elder

Day 622: Russian River Damnation

I read an interesting article in The Press Democrat this morning. It coincides nicely with the beer I planned to review tonight so I recommend that you give it a read. If you're not into reading or if you prefer to have your news spoon fed in tasty little nuggets, here's what I learned. Russian River Brewing Company maxed out capacity and the news seems to have broken in a most dramatic way...they ran out of bottled beer at their Santa Rosa restaurant on a recent, particularly busy weekend.

Russian River started out in 2004 with a brewpub in Santa Rosa and not even ten years later is among the most coveted American beer brands in the United States (my interpretation of the facts). With Russian River only being available in California, Colorado, Oregon and at select bars in Philadelphia, I fear they are going the way of The Alchemist and that's going to severely impact my ability to get my hands on their product. That day is going to be a very sad day indeed.

Until then I'll be stockpiling Russian River beer like it's the end of days. 

Tonight's beer selection if Russian River's Damnation--a bottle aged golden ale. It pours a bright golden color with a loose white head. The flavor full and round with a good balance between malts and hops. There are fruit undertones with banana standing out. Russian River writes that this beer is inspired by Duvel. Having just spent some time in Belgium drinking Duvel (and many other beers) like it was my job, I can assure you that the tribute is spot on!

Beer stats
Style: Golden ale
ABV: 7.75%
IBUs:  Unknown
Rating: Excellent

Previously reviewed from Russian River
My review of the sampler during a visit to Russian River in Santa Rosa with some fantastic vacation pics!
Mr. Blog Named Brew's review of the sampler, Consecration and Damnation
My horizontal tasting of Supplication
Mr. goes all Captain Ahab on Pliny the Younger but not Pliny the Elder

Damn (Dang?)

Day #587  / Russian River Brewing Company, Santa Rosa, CA
Previously from this brewery: All sorts of Russian River goodness from my favorite brewery on earth

Can you believe Friday is here already?  I am seriously glad that I have a Saturday and Sunday in front of me to relax, unwind, and get back to a normal groove.  I'm jumping right into a beer review, because seriously: it's a Friday, and you're too busy having fun to read this.  Not too much fun, though.  There's a whole weekend ahead of you!

Tonight is a bottle of Damnation from Russian River, another bottle that was in a birthday gift from a friend. This golden ale pours with a clear, bright gold and thin head.  There are tons of bready aromas of yeast, with an almost nutty quality as well.  The taste has more of a biscuit quality, with fruity notes of apple and some faint banana in there as well.  There's an earthy vibe, too.  This beer is fantastic - definitely not their best work ever, but considering that their best work is absolutely the best beers in the world, even their more "average" work is still pretty damn good.

Damn, yo.

Thing to Think About Today:
Damnation sounds a bit more depressing than I care to think about (even if I don't believe in the afterlife versions of heaven and hell that everyone seems to cling to), but I can appreciate the word 'damn.'  Who doesn't love a well placed yet mild curse word?  Let's go back to 1992 and let Sophie B. Hawkins close things out with her always awesome and sex mix-ready Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover.  Enjoy your night, friends....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt6r-k9Bk6o

"You're the only shoe that fits / I can't imagine I'll grow out of it"

What Can Brown Do for You?

Day #585 Brekle's Brown / Anchor Brewing Company, San Francisco, CA
Previously from this brewery: Anchor Steam (a Top 25 beer) and Liberty Ale

Keeping things moving today, and getting right down to business with another beer review.  Hopefully your day is treating you well!  Today your beer review is a bottle of Brekle's Brown from Anchor Brewing, in San Francisco.  This brown ale pours with a light brown color and just a hint of head around the edge.  There are aromas of sweet malt, and when you take a sip you get flavors of toffee and citrus, with big doses of malt which give a nice sweetness and touch of roasted flavor to the beer.  There's a touch of chocolate at the finish, too which gives it a nice, rich finish.  Good beer, but I wouldn't expect anything else from a legendary American brewery. Curious about the name of the beer?  It's a homage to the original brewer who opened the brewery... keep reading to learn more.

Soooo handsome

About that name.... from their website: "Anchor Brewing’s roots date back to the early 1850s and the California gold rush, when pioneer brewer Gottlieb Brekle arrived in San Francisco from Germany. In 1871, he purchased an old beer-and-billiards saloon near Russian Hill and transformed it into the little brewery that—twenty-five years later—would be renamed Anchor."

Thing to Think About Today:
You know that a brown ale is likely to bring some Bobby Brown!  Let's all get down to some Every Little Step to close things out here.  What's not to love about spandex shorts and suspenders?  I totally need to bring that look back, along with the blazer with shoulder pads but no shirt.  Fashion, yo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0FKzPfsxA4

"A girl like you is like a dream come true / a real life fantasy"

Russian Roulette

Beer #581 Consecration / Russian River Brewing Company, Santa Rosa, CA
Previously from this brewery: Look at a sampler, another sampler (and a reminder, this is THE greatest sampler of all time), some ultra-white whale & Top 25 Pliny the Younger, a Pliny the Elder, and a vertical tasting of Supplication

Today's review is a bottle of Consecration from Russian River, which came as part of a birthday gift from a friend a few months back.  This sour ale has a reddish mahogany color, and your nose quickly finds a tart aroma of stone fruit and vinegar.  You pick up flavors of barely there hints of leather, cherries, and grapes, with an oak dryness on the finish.  But mostly you notice the lovely sour quality from the yeasts.  At 10% ABV, this is one of the strongest beers Russian River produces, but you barely notice the alcohol.  Just delicious, this beer would pair well with cheese.  Although, most everything pairs well with cheese, really.

Don't let the knife scare you.

A friendly reminder that Russian River won my Brewery of the Year Award during the initial year of this blog.  High praise, indeed, as I'm kind of a big deal.

Thing to Think About Today:
If the supreme song of the summer is Blurred Lines, then this is the song that you'll hear 1,000 times and eventually wonder why it was popular to begin with.  But you WILL hear it at least 1,000 more times this summer.  So therefore I give you Icona Pop and their one-hit wonder, I Love It.  Please note: crashing your car into a bridge is NOT a good idea, regardless of how much fun this song makes it sound.

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

Down By the Sea

Day #568 Boardwalk Black Rye IPA / Karl Strauss Brewing Company, San Diego, CA
Previously from this brewery: a sampler review, Boardwalk Black Rye IPA, Big Barrel Double IPA, more Big Barrel Double IPA, Red Trolley Ale

It's another early morning post, because there's no better way to start your day than by thinking about beer. Well, I guess I can think of other ways, but beer is definitely a good way.  So, we kick off a (hopefully) relaxing Sunday with a review of Boardwalk Black Rye IPA from Karl Strauss. This bottle was a gift from a friend who made a road trip out to San Diego, and when you pour it in the glass you see a dark black color with an off white head.  Your nose is greeted by aromas of malt, rye, and spice, and when you drink it down you find a malt heavy beer, with a fair bit of toasting.  There's bitterness throughout, with good amounts of pine and lemon, and prominent rye spiciness.  I can sometimes not be a fan of the black IPA trend, as some breweries tend to overdo the toasting/roasting, but Karl Strauss definitely gets this one right.

Sunshine and beer

Karl Strauss has a brewpub outpost in La Jolla, CA that is across the street from a Brooks Brothers store. That's pretty much my dream neighborhood right there.  Sunshine + brewery + Brooks Brothers = AWESOME

Thing to Think About Today:
Curious... yesterday we were thinking about the beach, and now today's beer gets us thinking about the boardwalk.  The obvious thing to close out this post with is Under the Boardwalk by The Drifters.  I'm sure that was a romantic place in the 1950s, although now I'm fairly certain if you went under the boardwalk, you'd find actual drifters (not the band) or people selling meth.  I'd actually really avoid going there, if I were you.... be safe people.  Enjoy your Sunday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjD0Ne3CuaY

"On a blanket with my baby is where I'll be"

Jazzy

Day #561 Brother Thelonious / North Coast Brewing Company, Fort Bragg, CA
Previously from this brewery: Scrimshaw, and more Scrimshaw

Wrapping up the weekend and my brain has nothing to say today.  Guess I used up all of my thoughts in trying to figure out Marion Barry vs. marionberry in yesterday's post.

Closing things out this weekend with a bottle of Brother Thelonious from North Coast Brewing.  This Belgian strong dark ale pours with a bright mahogany hue and a wispy white head.  Your nose finds aromas of malt and plums, and when you take a sip you get flavors of plum, apple, bread, and candi sugar.  Very interesting flavor, almost verging towards a barley wine sort of vibe.  Maybe not the best way to quench your thirst on a warm summer day, but certainly worth a try.

Jazz hands!

From their website: "North Coast Brewing Co. is proud to partner with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in support of Jazz education. The Brewery makes a donation to the Institute for every bottle of Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale sold."  See?  Buying beer is good for society!

Thing to Think About Today:
A beer that supports jazz music education obviously warrants some jazz in this space, but in an effort to continually keep you on your toes, I'm going to use a mashup of legendary jazz pianist Count Basie...... and non-jazz legend Busta Rhymes.  Trust me, it works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Z524p2Pbs

"Wooo hah!"

Day 559: Karl Strauss Boardwalk Black Rye IPA

If I had any words left today, this is where they would go. But I don't. So now there are words here but they really aren't a good post at all. Maybe a very tasty beer from Karl Strauss will make up for that.

Tonight's Karl Strauss beer is the Boardwalk Black Rye IPA. It pours an almost black color ale with a tan head. It smells of roasted malt, dark bread and lightly of chocolate. The flavor is toasty, roasted coffee with just the hint of burnt coffee. There's undertones of a big bold IPA--lots of hoppiness hiding out beneath all that rich, roasted flavor. It finishes big with lots of hop bite. I noticed a little nuttiness coming out as it warmed a bit. And even though it had a nice, thin mouthfeel, I felt like it was definitely a sipping beer.

In the link below to my review of the Karl Strauss sampler, I reviewed a bonus pour that I got of Boardwalk Black Rye IPA. They had it on cask that day and threw it in with my sampler for free! I love a good deal! I noted that it had a creamy, almost lactic consistency which surprised me at the time. After having it bottled, it's now dawned on me that the cask pour itself lends the creamy texture. So now I know.

Beer stats

Style: Double IPA
ABV: 8&
IBUs: 80
Rating: Good

Previously reviewed from Karl Strauss
My review of a Karl Strauss sampler from a trip to San Diego last summer
His review of Big Barrel Double IPA, Red Trolley ale

W(a)HOO!

Day #550 Wahoo Wheat / Ballast Point Brewing Company, San Diego, CA
Previously from this brewery: Wahoo, a sampler, and a sampler highlighted by Sculpin IPA

Today was a busy day, and I'm too tired to even get in the details.  It was a good busy, though.  Not a bad busy.  Don't want you to think I'm complaining, just letting you know why you aren't getting a five-star, black label, platinum level post tonight.  Hey, no one said my blog posts were going to be 1000% awesome every day.  You, dear reader, just assume that because they more or less always are.

Tonight's beer is a Wahoo Wheat from Ballast Point, that I had a post-work outing to TJ's a while back. In the glass, you find a light straw color with a thin, persistent white head.  There's an aroma of crackers and light citrus, and when you take a sip you're greeted by a light and fresh flavor, with orange, wheat, and bready malt.  There's some hints of banana, but nothing too surprising or overpowering.  Super easy drinking at 4% ABV, so you can put these back without care (relatively speaking) on a warm, summer day.

Wheaty.

A good bit of San Diego beers seem to be finding their way to taps in Pennsylvania these days.  A status I completely support, by the way.

Thing to Think About Today:
If it's a wheat beer I'm drinking, then it's Wheatus you're listening to.  What, you don't remember (relatively speaking) one-hit wonder Wheatus?  Maybe you'll remember their (relatively speaking) smash hit Teenage Dirtbag.  And because it was 2000, this video features Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari.  Why?  Why not!  Enjoy your night people.  I had a good day, and hope you did too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC3y9llDXuM

"How does she know who I am / And why does she give a damn about me?"

Get Stung

Day #547 Stingray Point IPA / Coronado Brewing Company, San Diego, CA

Previously from this brewery: Orange Avenue Wit, Golden, BadaBing, Islander IPA

I'm wide awake on a quiet Sunday morning, so I figure I'll spend some time blogging.  Might as well be productive instead of just watching videos of cats playing the piano, right?  I'm sure there's a million other things I could do around the house that need to be done, but..... it's either cats playing the piano or blogging.  So here we go.

Play him off, Keyboard Cat!

Oh, right.... I said I was blogging.  My bad.  Your beer for the day is a Stingray Point IPA from Coronado Brewing.  You see an bright gold hue, with a thin but persistent white head.  The aroma is more sweet than I'd expect from an IPA.  The taste has traditional IPA elements like grapefruit, lemon, and pine, with a dry, bitter finish.  However there's more of that sweetness tucked inside, with notes of honey coming through.  Not a bad beer, if you're looking for an IPA that doesn't punch you in the face with hops.

Shazam.

This beer doesn't show up on Coronado's website, but from some quick internet research it looks like this was a one-off beer which was named for a secret bayside point only locals seem to know about.  Seeing how my beer didn't come with a map, I'm guessing this place might still be a secret to tourists.

Thing to Think About Today:
I guess Stingray Point gets you..... Sting?  Well, Sting and the rest of The Police, anyway.  Why not kick off your Sunday with something fun, such as this fun live version of So Lonely from 1979.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwnMG5yGJls