Burn Down Burn Down the Hot Topic

Yesterday my wife woke up at 7, checked her e-mail and saw that the NYC public schools had a snow day and went back to bed. "Great!" I thought. "Surely,* if NYC has shut down the public schools, then my humble law school will be closed!" I went back to sleep, woke up at 9 just to make sure. Checked my e-mail. Vice-dean saying school is still in session. Faaaaantastic. So now I have to schlep to Manhattan in what one can only describe as the worst weather in the history of the universe, all for a two hour trademark class where about 1/5 of the people showed up. Anyways, that seriously cut into my "sit on the couch, drink, and watch the snow fall" game plan that I had set in place.

So while we had a snowpocalypse, I didn't exactly have the same merriment as the last one. I stopped by Whole Foods on the way home from school to pick up dinner and thought I could use at least one solid winter beer for my evening. I was tempted to pick up another Ommegang Three Philosophers, but I figured I would mix it up this snowfall. I chose a Brooklyn Local 2. It's a bottle fermented Belgian ale in one of those big 25 oz bottles. It's, as you can imagine, pretty great. Super malty and super alcoholy (9.0 ABV), the two things you want out of a winter beer. Also, it doesn't hurt that it was four bucks less than the Chimay I almost bought. This will come as a surprise to you, but I'm not the biggest Chimay fan in the world. Don't get me wrong, it's a really good beer, but when I'm looking for a Belgian ale, it's never really going to top my list.** This reminds me of something I want to write about later, about how Germans hate Belgian brews and how the German purity laws are the dumbest things on earth. For what it's worth, America really is the greatest beer country on earth. I'm not even being jingoistic (I'm using that word correctly, right?), it's a fact. I'll write about that later. Someone remind me.

I did have a perfectly pleasant evening of watching Inglorious Basterds and drinking a Brooklyn Local 2, American Ale, Sam Adams Old Fezzy Wig and Cranberry Lambic. The Sam Adams in gone and the Brooklyn is low, so seriously, we'll have some new beers up in this joint as soon as the snow melts. I'm going out to some fun beer bars tonight so we'll have some fun updates here tomorrow.

Total Beers: 176

Where I Should Be: 156.164

*Don't call me Surely. This joke is complements of my wife.

**I know I'm talking about all three Chimays like they are one distinct beer, and I know they are all different, but I have the same sentiment about all three of them. Although, for those who care about these things, the triple is my favorite.