Beer #19: Klokke Roeland or Proof I Have Freakishly Small Hands

When I wrote this, there were approximately five hours separating me from another four day weekend.  It's nice being able to kill one of those hours by spending lunch writing instead of stressing about work. 

Since I have dinner plans this evening, I'm tapping (ha!) into one of my reserve reviews from a recent visit to Teresa's Next Door in Wayne, Pennsylvania.  If you happen to follow me on Twitter, you know you can find me there entirely too often!  For the past two weeks or so, they've been pouring from Brouwerij van Steenberge (Belgium).  This is awesome because you can only get this one at a very limited number of bars in the U.S.  Gary sampled one of the other options and wrote about here.

Klokke Roeland is a whopper coming in at 11% ABV.  It's served in an oversized snifter that I needed two hands to grasp since the stem of the glass was made for Andre the Giant.  This beer is worth pursuing if you are a fan of Belgian strong dark ales.  It has a mighty head and beautiful darkened amber liquid.  It tastes of caramel and Belgian beer sugar.  It was warming but not overly sweet.  I noticed undertones of fruit but it was not at all fruity.  Good stuff.

Beer #17: Howl Black Lager

The day of reckoning has arrived.  It's my last day of vacation.  You may wonder what joyous and relaxing ways I spent the day and I'll tell you.  I tidied up for the cleaning ladies who are coming tomorrow.  I also did some work.  I am just a barrel of fun, aren't I?

I also played Angry Birds like it was my job and started journaling again.  So there.  Part of the problem is that it is raining like it's the end of days and I felt more like nesting at home than venturing out in this monsoon.  I did manage to not crack a beer until 4pm.  I probably could have made it longer but I really wanted some cookies and needed something to drink with them.  Instead of eventually drinking a beer on a belly full of milk, I opted for cookies and beer.

Today's selection comes from Magic Hat Brewing Company.  I picked Howl Black Lager for a number of disparate reasons.  The label is fantastically creepy.  See photo for evidence.  There's something about the dark side that I find intriguing and if my beer can feed that need, then so be it.

My love/admiration/fascination with James Franco also played into today's selection.  Non sequitur, you say!  Not at all, I say.  James Franco starred in Howl, which is an experimental film about Allen Ginsberg's life and work.  If you're brave enough to screen this flick, don't come back and ask me if I do drugs.  I don't.  I'm just a fan of unique characters and the odd movie now and again.  Ok  more odd movies way more often than the average person.  Sue me.

I could write about my fixation with James Franco for long enough that I'd bore all eight of this blog's followers into abandoning me so instead I'll move onto my review of Howl.

Howl is a black lager.  It's one of Magic Hat's seasonal offerings.  It tastes of roasted, slightly smokey malt with a hop-induced bitterness at the end.  The bitterness doesn't linger.  I'm also noticing a more pronounced carbonation than I'm accustomed to for such a dark beer.

Despite rocking Rebecca Black's Friday on the iPod right now, I'm off to maintain my cultural integrity by reading the text of Howl and finishing this beer.

And if you have time, go try some of Magic Hat's other beers.  Among my favorites are #9 (easy to find in a bar), Circus Boy, and Vinyl.