I mentioned previously that I was "flavoring" some cigars with Bourbon and was going to drink some beers alongside the sticks.  We'll here is my first of numerous reviews to that affect.  This is a beer/cigar beer review, so more bang for the buck is a handy mantra for these thoughts. First, it's been a while since I had this beer and this particular one has matured for about a year and a half.  In fact, it was bottled in April of '07.  Jefferson's Reserve is a quite a good bourbon on its own (especially the small batch stuff), so I was excited to drink this Jefferson's Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout beer.  It is made by Bluegrass Brewing.  Upon the pour, it looked nice and blackwith hints of brown coming through when held up to the light.  There was very little head retention after the beer sat for a second.  A slightly metallic aroma was noticeable on the nose, while Bourbon vanilla, caramel, and nuts were evident.  There were also grain-driven chocolate, sweet malts, and coffee to be noticed.  A charred wood aroma also came through. The charred wood was also slightly smoky in the taste of the beer.  All the above mentioned grain and ...

I'm literally at the airport right now.  Do you know the scene?  Loud and obnoxious people talking on their cell phones right by you instead of removing themselves to the spacious non-people occupied areas.  People that act like being more than five feet away from you would put them in the infamous "dead-zone."  The same people who talk on the phone until the last possible second and turn that puppy right back on the second they land ("we just landed"...etc).  I think you get the picture.  You begin to think, "At least I can find solace in a good beer."  But you might be wrong.   Most of the time you can scrounge up some Guinness, Bass, or possibly Stella Artois (which are good beers), but it is difficult beyond that.  Now if you are in Denver's or Chicago's airport, you are actually not in such desperate straits.  One can readily find some Breckenridge or New Belgium selections in Denver and some Goose Island in Chicago.  I readily admit that this is a soap-box article.  But isn't it singularly odd that in a place where you can buy an ipod from a vending machine, a decent beer is hard to come by?  Think ...

Three Floyd's brewery is in my state of residency (Indiana) and is very well-respected.  In fact, it is purported to have one of the world's best beers. So, when I get a chance to drink some of their beer I'm also excited.  I chose this one because I knew that I could get it and hoped that others might try to pick it up as well.  Here is my review. When I poured this beast, it looked very dark for a Porter; it actually looked more like a Stout.  However, this American version of an English Ale is still true to the style.  It had a deep dark body and a creamy brown head, which was very stable.  The beer smelled hoppier than I'm used to for Porter but was still pleasant.  The hops had a slight citrusy grapefruit quality.  It smelled very roasty with a slight biscuity quality.  It had some serious dark chocolate aromas to round the smells out.  Now for the sip.  The beer was fairly carbonated and dense, which gave it a very nice mouth-feel.  It was very roasty (think coffee) and chocolatey.  Alcohol warmth was present in the brew.  Hop-wise, the grapefruit quality came through and added a nice ...

We have reviewed several other Christmas Ales on this site.  Some of them have been spiced and others not.  Some were good, despite having cinnamon, cloves, or other flavors added.  Corsendok and Bison were examples of two good Christmas Ales. Let me start this review by saying that this Ale was not my style.  Some of you may love it...you can still tell it is well-made, but I don't like some of the flavors.  Additionally, Schlafly does make some very good Ales (like their Bourbon Barrelled beers), so don't think that I'm being militant against the company (at least there is one company in St. Louis making good beers).  The color was a good start on the beer, being that it was a lovely coppery-bronze.  It was very attractive and active in the bottle, which gave it a nice creamy head.  Cloves and orange zest were very apparent in the beer, cloves more than anything else.  There really wasn't too much going on beyond this in the beer. Alcohol warmth was obvious upon drinking the beer.  Bitter orange zest started from the first sip to the very end; orange was certainly the most prominent quality in the beer.  The cloves were also present, which is very ...

You can always count on the wisdom of Cheers to justify your beer indulgances... Says Cilff... 'Well you see, Norm, it's like this . . . A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first.. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers. ' I think we should explore the true scentificly proven health benefits of moderate beer consumption...

A few posts ago I mentioned that we might do a "Drink it with us Everyday" for Christmas.  Well, here we go.  I've selected a series of beers that are mostly from the same brewer.  Hopefully we are all able to find most of these.  Ridgeway brewing, a British company, is the ale maker of choice.  Actually, they produce a full progression of elf beers, which goes from "Bad Elf" to "Insanely Bad Elf."  Each step is correspondingly stronger and higher in alcohol.  I have decided to explore some of these beers in order to see how they change from "Elf" to "Elf."  For the sake of variety, I have decided not to do the full line of "Elf" beers, while including some other Ridgeway beers.  Here is a list of the beers that I hope we can all try together: "Bad Elf" and "Seriously Bad Elf" (we are missing "Very Bad Elf," "Criminally Bad Elf," and "Insanely Bad Elf") for our first couple of beers "Santa's Butt," a winter Porter "Reindeer's Revolt," which is an English Christmas Ale. The very last beer is actually one from Three Floyd's Brewery (Indiana).  This is a bit of wildcard because it is fairly regional.  However, Three Floyd's allegedly has the world's best Imperial Stout, called "Dark Lord" (it can only ...

The real point of this review is to rebut a comment I heard recently.  Don't get me wrong, I'm going to review the beer, but I wanted to address an idea that raising one's beer standards results in poverty...or something like that.  You've heard it before.   Someone states:  "I'd love to drink the 'good stuff,' but it's just too expensive.  I'll have to stick with my Michelob Ultra." True, the old proverb, "you get what you pay for is warranted."  I am sure that Utopias Mike downed the other night tasted better than anything I've ever had, but, as he admitted, it was a rare treat; a luxury.  The point is, you can drink decent beer for pennies more.  Case in point:  my wife went to the grocery store the other night.  It's Christmas time, money is tight and there is no real promise that in the future we'll be bathing in tubs full of gold coins, so she was shopping economically.  At the grocery store, she could have bought a six pack of Budweiser for me for $5.99.  I would have drank it.  I am not that snobby.  But instead she walked out with six pack sampler of Saranac Ales ...

Working at a wealth management firm that deals in securities, I am ever more aware of the sharp slump in the economy.  It gets depressing!  In fact, just the other day I was viewing a chart from Dow Theory Letters that showed the daily advance or retreat that the DOW has taken for the past several years.  Of course there were slumps and peaks on the graph that are typical of any dynamic market...nut then came 2008.  It was unsettling.  The line on the graph (the graph is about 4' X 3') shows the DOW plummeting to suicidal deaths.    I see this, then I hear harrowing tales of unemployment (I myself was in that leaky ship a couple of months ago), I see boarded up houses, I smell the fear of recession in the air, and I find myself craving good news of any variety.  Fortunately, this week it came in the form of beer...and not just from the joy I get from emptying a bottle, but from the industry itself.   Earlier this year we talked about how beer is somewhat recession retardant--maybe resilient--would be a better word.  Well, we seem to be right...so far. First of all there is this gorgeous and ...

Thank you for giving me this beer, Matt.  I really do appreciate trying a new beer, even if I don't like it.  Unfortunately, I have to say this about Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss.  They do have some other beers that I like much better than this one (their Oktoberfest is an example).  Here is a review of the beer. The beer looked hazy like many wheat beers do, but it did have a reddish tint from the berry juices that were added to it.  Head retention was not long but also not absent.  There was little hop aroma, which is also common among wheat beers.  The yeast and grains came through on the nose of the beer, but berry was the overwhelming aroma on this Berry Weiss.  Beyond this there was very little going on.   What I really want to talk about is the tastes of the brew.  I felt that there were very little wheat qualities to the beer because is was drastically overwhelmed by the fruit juices.  The beer has a sweetness and slight tartness because of the berries and (I suppose) honey.  Leinenkugel is to beer what Ludens is to cough drops...it really didn't do anything for me despite its sweetness.  Drinking the beer was like drinking a ...

Doing this review is certainly one of the least Bourgeoisie things I've done.  Imagine paying anywhere from $160-$230 dollars for a 24 ounce bottle of beer, even if it does come in a hand-crafted vessel.  Now it is true that different boys like different toys, so I feel a little better in that respect.  I spend my money on beer...what can I say?  As some of you may know, Sam Adam's makes the strongest and most expensive beer in the world.  Utopias comes in at an amazing 26% abv.  It is an astounding achievement to make a beer that strong.  There is no distilling, nothing but grains, and a whole lot of very robust yeast strains in this beer.  Believe me when I say producing a beer of this strength is already a feat.  Since I sipped on some of this Utopias the other night, I thought I'd offer a review of it.  From the beginning of the pour (1 1/2 to 2 ounces suggested) Utopias does not look like a common beer.  In fact, there is no carbonation, no head, and a thick tracing on the glass.  The beer sits there with a thin clear line of liquid sitting on top of a beautiful whiskey-colored body.  As the ...