A 100th Day of Beer Drinking Spectacular

Well gang, I know it's been a few days since I've seen you, but I wanted to keep the Korea posts near the top. Also, those things took kind of a long time to write and I felt I would give my ol' bloggin' skills a few days rest. All right, so Friday night, which is where I believe we left off, I had three PBRs at the apartment while watching the Land of the Lost movie with friends. That movie is awesome. Some might say it's last year's Avatar, both in relation to its plot coherence and visual splendor.

Saturday (my 100th day of beer drinking!) Liz and I had a nice little BoCoCa bar crawl. BoCoCa is called that because it's a mash up of about seven different neighborhoods (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, some other ones I'm forgetting) and no one (me) can really tell where one ends and the other begins. It's sort of like Brooklyn's version of the Phoenix-metro area in that regard. We first went to Bar Great Harry, which I'd been to before and is an all around awesome beer bar. The only thing it lacks, really, is outdoor seating, but you can't be all things to all people I guess. While there I had a Speakeasy Black IPA. Bar Great Harry listed it just as Speakeasy Black IPA, but looking the beer up online, it's actually called Midnight Run India Black Ale (IBA, clever!). It was pretty interesting in a good way. It was, true to its name, super dark colored. What was weird about it was that it was both super hoppy, like an IPA, and also super malty like a porter. I know you're thinking, hey, you just described a Strong Ale, but I guess what I should add is that it is most certainly an IPA, just a pretty malty one. Here's an analogy that no one will get. You know how Sierra Nevada makes a pretty hoppy everything, including a more-hoppy-than-it-should be barley wine? Well imagine a Bizarro World-Sierra Nevada brewery made an IPA. That's what you'd get with this beer.

That's a pretty long description for a beer that wasn't even the main event of Bar Great Harry: Brooklyn's Dark Matter. As you know, I've had this before poured out of a growler when I was sick. Not the best tasting conditions. This was out of a tap and man, let me tell you, it was awesome. Here's how Brooklyn's Brewmaster, Garret Oliver, describes Dark Matter:

"Brooklyn Dark Matter is a robust brown ale aged for four months in bourbon and rye whiskey barrels. Some barrels previously held Black Ops, some hosted The Manhattan Project, others came straight from the distilleries as soon as the whiskey was decanted. We’ve blended these barrels to create a beer full of caramel and chocolate flavors heightened by vanilla-like oak notes and hints of the barrels’ previous tenants. The result is a smooth, rich beer that really loves food, from fried or roasted chicken to char-grilled steak, barbecue, pork chops and even monkfish. "

I'm not sure I could describe it better. All I would do is add "very" and "really" before all of the adjectives Garret uses.* But here's the twist ending, I don't even get to count this beer in my 1000!!!!! Why? Because it was Liz's!!!!!!! I only had a couple of sips. I ordered the Speakeasy because I'm always prone (I at first typed prawn, but I am never prawn) to order something I haven't had. Little did I know that the Brooklyn Dark Matter would essentially be a whole new experience for me. I would call myself a born-again Brooklyn Dark Matter drinker, but that makes about as much sense as this kid at 0:40 calling himself a born-again Christian:

So after Bar Great Harry, we went to Ceol, an "Irish" bar down the street from Bar Great Harry. We went there (and actually Bar Great Harry too) because we had coupons for free beer at both of those bars. Well, Ceols is an ok enough bar, but I think something is fishy with their taps. I asked them what this Winter Bourbon Cask Ale was they had on tap, the bartender gave me a taste and it was super watery. He also couldn't tell me who made the beer. Then I remembered, because I've had it in the past: Michelob. Man I hate Michelob. For being a brewery, you would think they'd at least know what the word "cask" means. Apparently they don't! So after remembering what that beer was, I decided to go with a good ol' Kelso Nut Brown Ale. What makes me think something was wrong with their taps is that this beer was ALSO SUPER WATERY. Sorry to shout there, but lest anyone get the wrong impression, that beer is not generally (ever) watery. I've had it a few times before and it's a solid, robust brown ale. So sorry, Ceols, your tap problems will probably prevent me from heading back to you again. But don't worry Kelso, their tap problems won't keep me away from your sweet, sweet beer, so don't go losing any sleep over it.

Then we went home and I had a 21st Amendment Monk's Blood while watching SNL. When I got to the point where I had one sip left I had a genius idea: add bourbon. Let me tell you, Monk's Blood + Bourbon = wicked delicious. I'd recommend giving that a whirl the first chance you get. Like, with breakfast, if that's the first chance you get.

Also, I should add that I've put up a post on the Facebook fan page. It's going to be exclusively there, at least until I get to the point of running out of things to write here, which could be later this week for all I know. I did this as a means of getting any of you reading this blog that are not already facebook fans to go ahead add yourself there. Just search for My 1000 Beer Year. Come on, you know you want to!

Total Beers: 290 (at 100 days I wanted to be at 300, but I'll take it!)

Where I Should Be: 273.972

*In retrospect, this was an extremely dumb sentence to post. Or at least dumber than my sentences normally are. First, go through and look at all of the adjectives he uses. Go on. I'll give you a second. Now, actually put "very" or "really" before them. Makes no sense. Also, Garret does use "really" once and redundancy is not something I can tolerate. Nor is it something I can put up with.