Uh-oh, Pt II

Pub across the street?  2-for-1 pints all day every Tuesday.

If that includes Firestone Walker's stuff, Wednesdays could be tough.  

For the rest of the week, there's some Little Sumpin' Sumpin' in the fridge.  Couple that with the NFL Game Rewind pass that I just bought, and I can now lounge in my living room (you read that right) and watch a different Bills game on my big ol' flat screen EVERY NIGHT THAT I'M HERE.

Jealous much?

Uh-oh.

Vegas!
Directly across the parking lot: Hofbrauhaus Vegas.  But am I in danger of going?  No!

Because directly across the street: an English pub (loosely described) with a tap list that includes Arrogant Bastard, one of the DFH IPAs (didn't look closely), Deschutes Black Butte Porter, and...oh, right.  Union and Double Jack.

I'm in trouble.

RARE?!

Had a RARE BEER NIGHT at the Paulsen's last night courtesy of Ed.  Andrew bought the first, it was Rogue's Maple Bacon Doughnut beer in a bright pink bottle.  I've been skeptical of, yet intrigued, by this beer so I was happy we tried it.  Turns out, it's one of the most interesting beers I've ever had and I'm going to try to get a bottle for the WisniewskiLeas beer tasting.  It really is very good, it has a lot of layers of flavor.  I certainly could not drink a 22 by myself, sharing it with four people seemed right to me.

The best beer of the night (AND OF LIFE?!) was Ed's from Cigar City in Tampa, purveyor of my favorite Florida beer, Jai Alai IPA.  Ed stayed in line for hours at a beer fest, skipping myriad delicious tastings, to be one of the few to buy this bottle.  An imperial stout brewed with a plethera of delicious additions including cacao nibs and peppers, it was certainly one of the best beers I've ever had, seriously. It poured super thick (The thing we all look for when pouring an Imperial Stout, right?) and got better from there.  I wish I could drink it all the time.

A MONTH OF BEER

Well, well, well! I have returned from the lazy vacation vortex known as "The Cottage".  Of course, stated cottage includes lots of beer/rocking chairs/lake.  It always has, always will.  We dranks lots o' beers (probably too much), including a tasting.

The tasting was interesting, I MC'd as I usually do at these Lamanna beer tastings.  I threw in a couple wrinkles as we went from (an excess of craft) lagers to ales; the wrinkles were Labatt Blue Light and a Bud Light Platinum interspersed throughout.  This was a blind taste test by the way, and it was really interesting to see how some beers were rated.  For example, for many rounds, Magic Hat's Demo Black IPA was the leader, PBR and Sam Adams  Long Shot Derf's Alt  (9% abv?) were the bottom dwellers (That's right, Blue Light and Platinum weren't there with them).  Anderson Valley Hoppin Ottin IPA is a GREAT IPA (the number 3 bottom dweller) and was the best beer we had.  My brother-in-law and I actually did a side-by-side tasting of Hop Ottin and Union Jack the next day and we both agreed, "RAD DUDE THEY'RE BOTH LIKE AS GOOD AS EACH OTHER YO MAN WOO!".

In the end, Dogfish Head's 75 Minute IPA aged with maple syrup won.  It was delicious.

On the topic of top notch IPAs, Troegs Perpetual IPA is also up there in the Union Jack/Hop Ottin category as well.  I recommend trying those immediately!