Friday, April 16, 2010

Coming to America



See that? That's going to blow the lid right off this blog. I won't say much about it now, as there will be a lengthy post (some of it is already written!) but a few weeks ago My 1000 Beer Year went to Korea. Today, Africa came to My 1000 Beer Year. One of those beers isn't even on ratebeer.com, a rarity, I can assure you. My only dilemma is whether to wait till the wife gets back in town on Sunday to drink these or drink to them tomorrow. Ok, I'll shut up about this now, as you'll be getting an earful (eyeful?) later, but for now I will thank my benevolent Uncle Chris for hooking me up.

Yesterday Liz and I went to Washington Commons, a pretty sweet beer bar by our apartment. The place gets a weird (read young, faux-rich, and douchey, sort of like midtown bars) vibe at night, but they have a phenomenal happy hour and tap selection. At Washington Commons I had a Goose Island Night Stalker Imperial Stout (not to be confused with their Bourbon County Stout) and a Dogfish Head Red and White Ale. The Goose Island was a pretty standard imperial stout. It's weird to call an imperial stout "standard," like they're available everywhere and everyone drinks them. For those of you not familiar with the term "imperial stout," there's a rich history behind the term, which you are free to google. I'll just say that don't be thrown by the term "stout" in there. Think more high alcohol content, full flavor and body, and less Guinness-y creamy, low alcohol/flavor content.

The Dogfish Head Red and White all was pretty crazy. Liz said it smelled really funky-in-a-bad-way, but I couldn't smell it. What I did experience was an awesome, kind of sour, kind of fruity, full-bodied ale. I wasn't exactly sure what the beer's deal was. It was kind of fruity, but in an indiscriminate way, like I wouldn't say it was a cherry or raspberry ale or anything like that. I could say that it was pretty high in the alcohol content, but it masked it well. This isn't to say that alcohol content needs to be masked, but the alcohol wasn't as overwhelming as it was in, say, the Goose Island. I went home and looked this beer up, to see what it was. Turns out it's a Belgian Wit ale (the White) brewed with Pinot Noir juice (the Red). Weird! And delicious!

Liz is a little obsessed with cheap non-macro brew. Not necessarily because money is a giant concern (I mean it is always in the background, and we are pretty thrifty), but because there's something inherently fascinating about a cheap beer not made by a giant, evil macrobrewery. So I had told her that when I went to buy my case of McSorleys, I saw a case of some beer for 10 bucks, three bucks for a six pack. Well, Liz being Liz, had to go get it. So after Washington Commons, we head to the beer distributor and pick up a six pack of Sierra Dorada Lager made by Black Mount Brewing Company in Cave Creek, Arizona. The only thing I can find out about that brewery is that it makes that gross chili beer you'll sometimes in grocery stores. Here's my review of Sierra Dorada Lager (of which I had one last night on the couch). It tastes like a slightly better, not really gross version of Red Oval, my review of which can be found here. So the moral of that beer is that given that it's the same price, slightly better, from my home state, and can be found closer to my apartment, if I need to drink a bunch of non-macro brew on the cheap, well move over Red Lager, Sierra Dorada Lager is taking your place.

The last beer I drank last night was a Bokrijks Kruikenbier, a belgian golden ale. Liz bought this because it comes in a cool stone bottle with one of those Grolsch-style swing tops. She knows what's important in a beer: cool packaging. Anyways, it was ok. I hate to go to this trope again, but it was essentially your average, generic belgian golden ale. Go to any grocery store that sells non-macro beer. They'll probably have a couple of these types of beers. They tend to be in short, squat bottles with pictures of gnomes or castles or farm houses on them. And they all taste essentially the same. Good, but the same. At best they're a slightly inferior version of Golden Draak. At worst, all you taste is alcohol. This one was closer to the Golden Draak end of the scale, so it was quite drinkable and actually pretty tasty. Plus we have a cool bottle to put....something?....in!

Total Beers: 304
Where I Should Be: 287.671

No comments:

Post a Comment