365 different beers from 365 different breweries in 365 days with random musings on beer, food, music, sports, dogs and anything else interesting along the way
Today's beer comes from Wild Onion Brewing Company, which is based in Barrington, Illinois. The selection is the Jack Stout -- described on the label as a full bodied and luscious stout brewed with five kinds of malts giving it a rich mouthfeel and nuances of chocolate and espresso. It has a 6% ABV.
It poured pitch black with deep cocoa color head. The head is quite dense but bubbled away and left a thin film behind. The aroma is rich chocolate with some fireplace. It drinks thin with a lactic sensibility. The flavor nicely melds chocolate, coffee and roasted malts. There is just the tiny bit of cola bite at the end. This is a very good beer.
Cheers! I'm off to TJ's in Paoli to watch the PSU Virginia game. This could be my last visit there depending on how the game goes!
Beer #241 Paddy Pale Ale / Wild Onion Brewing Company, Barrington, IL
Interesting phenomenon happened today - the arrival of the autumn beers to Wegman's. I get that fall (and thankfully, football season) is right around the corner. However, as of today, it was 90 degrees with ample humidity, and with global warming autumn isn't likely to arrive until mid-October. I'm still in the market for summer ales, kolsch beers, shandies, and so forth. Anything involving pumpkin or nutmeg or whatever makes a beer an autumn brew can sit quietly and wait in the corner. I guess this is craft beer's version of the mall putting out Christmas decorations in early October?
Today's non-autumnal beer is the Paddy Pale Ale, an American pale ale from Wild Onion Brewing. Paddy's, you say?
Flip, flip, Flipdelphia!
Yeah, definitely not related to Paddy's Pub from Always Sunny. This one has a orange amber color, with a thin white lingering head. The aroma is light, with some pine and citrus, and the taste brings a light flavor as well, with citrus and a fair balance of malt and hops. Probably needs more of one or the other, though, as the taste was a little too mild for me. Definitely a session beer, and one that won't weigh you down or beat up your taste buds.
Paddy, no relation.
This brewery can be found about 45 minutes outside of Chicago, and they started brewing in 1996 and opened a brewpub in 2003.
Thing to Think About Today:
We don't strictly celebrate American heroes here - there's plenty of room in this space for the only person to pull off a unique distance running Olympic triple double: gold medals in the 5,000m, 10,000m, and the marathon. That's roughly three miles, six miles, and well, you know. Yes, we're thinking about Czech distance running wunderkind Emil Zátopek, who didn't just sweep the gold medals in the 1952 Helsinki games, he set an Olympic record in each event.
It's impressive enough that he managed to win both of the shorter races, but what really puts Zátopek in another galaxy was the fact he had never even RAN a marathon before in his life, let alone won a race at that distance. In fact, his only strategy was to stick close to Jim Peters, a record holder and medal favorite. During the race, Zátopek asked Peters if the pace was too slow. Figuring he could con Zátopek into pushing too hard and dropping out, Peters agreed, and so Zátopek sped up. Bad move, as Peters couldn't keep up and the "Czech Locomotive" cruised home in record pace. Not a bad first outing, without a doubt.
