Beer!

Drinking a super-weird one tonight.

It's a collaboration between EvilTwin Brewing and WestBrook Brewing called "Imperial Mexican Biscotti Cake Break". It's actually apparently a blending of EvilTwin's "Imperial Biscotti Break" (which I've had) and Westbrook's "Mexican Cake" which I haven't had. The label says "Imperial stout ale with coffee, cinnamon, almonds, cocoa nibs, vanilla and habanero peppers".

To me it tastes pretty much like ET's Biscotti Break but I do get a slight "peppery" taste on the finish. Sort of disappointing because I was expecting more of a potpourri of flavors than what I'm getting from this.

I've decided that more then three flavors doesn't usually work. Xocoveza is an exception but even this years was pretty meh after last years.

Dark Horseman wrote:

I've decided that more then three flavors doesn't usually work. Xocoveza is an exception but even this years was pretty meh after last years.

Are you referring to Stone's Xocoveza? I was very underwhelmed by that offering.

Yeah. Did you have last years? It was better.

I found an article about the 25 worst-tasting beers in America.  All you really need to know is in this paragraph:

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Every beer on this list falls under the umbrella of one of two parent companies: Anheuser-Busch InBev SA and Molson Coors Brewing Company. The two companies have a combined 69% share of the U.S. beer market.

http://247wallst.com/special-report/2017/03/11/25-worst-tasting-beers-in-america/

OK, spoiler alert, Natty Light "wins". Since they culled this list from my favorite beer site Beer Advocate I decided to see what some of the comments about Natty Light are. Let the hilarity begin:

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I'm writing this to let you know this is bad. It tastes like a generic macro lager left out for a few days. The carbonation is so flat, and the mouthfeel so light, that this just feels like slightly worsened dish water.

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Sweet Jesus. I love my light beers but this is gotta be the lowest of the lows. Natty Light is what the dollar store would sell if they opened a bootleg back room distillery maintained by the minions.

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I used to drink this when I was 20, and didn't know any better.

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Wow. My grandmother drinks this. I was out of beer and she offered me one. I poured it into a pilsner glass. The head billows up but then as quickly as it came, it went leaving nothing but, well nothing. There was no lace to be had. The aroma was of corn and metal. Taste was corn and metal with some other chemical that is hard to place. Went down like water because that's what this is, it's water with yellow dye. Went right through me too, I was in the bathroom before long. I don't know how one could drink this beer because it certainly isn't beer, it's one of the last unexplained mysteries of the world. You could drink this all day and not get a buzz.

And this about sums it up:

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well first off, let me start by saying that I'm in a frat that makes me automatically qualified to be an expert on beer. I like to get f*cked up. Period. Ive been drinking since I've been thirteen, and I'm f*cked up right now. good beer

I think the title is wrong for what it's trying to say. Those aren't the worst tasting beers, a lot of them are completely tasteless. Only good for getting drunk.

Worst rated beers is probably more appropriate.

I honestly don't think I could drink enough of most of those to even get drunk. They're just too lightweight and I couldn't handle drinking so many of something with no taste or even worse (like Budweiser) awful taste.

Sadly, those companies have snapped up quite a few craft breweries.

Yep.  I call those "stealth beers".  

AB started it with Shock Top.  Then they took over Goose Island.  Everyone says they only do the distribution for Goose Island but I'm not chancing it.   Then Coors got into it with Blue Moon.  I learned the hard way to always check the fine print when I see a new brewery show up in the grocery store's beer aisle.

AB tried to scarf up local brewer O'Fallon Brewery and O'Fallon told them to stick it. There's a real, hard-core group of craft breweries around here that all stick together and promote each others' products and local craft beer festivals.

I'll be drinking a few Foster's Lager in the huge "oil cans" later today.

The sellout that makes me sad is Elysian as I love some of their beers and they are very affordable.

When did Elysian sell out?

I had several of their pumpkin beers in bombers last October and they were quite tasty. I've also recently had their "Split Shot" espresso/milk stout combo and while it didn't blow me away, it wasn't bad at all.

BTW I made a beer run across the river today to see if my favorite beer store had Boulevard's "Rye On Rye On Rye". The store in town was sold out when I went back to get more than the two bottles I bought originally. I wasn't sure I'd like it and at 14% ABV I thought it might be too boozy for me. Nope. Fortunately this store had some so I bought 7 more.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/423/213487/

http://www.brewbound.com/news/inside-b-inbevs-acquisition-elysian-brewing

The Split Shot is pretty good and I love their Dragonstooth Stout.

That's a fascinating article.  And it mentions a lot of breweries I like = Founders, New Belgium, Southern Tier.  So far I'd say AB must be letting the guys keep brewing their product as they wish because the Elysian beers I've had certainly have nothing in common with AB's mass-market products.  Those pumpkin bombers I had were excellent. 

And I guess that explains why both Blue Point and Elysian started showing up here out of nowhere.

Now I'm getting suspicious because my beer store had shelf space cleared out with signs saying "Dogfishhead Coming Soon".  I was psyched but now I'm wondering if they've been bought out too.

Oh, never heard they had. I did read they were making a push to get more distribution so I hope that's it.

Tonight it's Stone's "Double Bastard In The Rye".

I'm on a rye kick lately and this is a great one.

Rye is hit or miss for me and usually cost a little more so I don't risk it often.

This one is their Double Bastard but aged in rye whiskey barrels. 

Mmmmmmm....


And yeah, this is pricey.  It's supposed to be around 15.99 for a 500ml bottle.  But when I got this one home I realize it somehow scanned as a Stone Double IPA for 8.99.  So now it tastes even better!

Having to buy a new car recently has put a dent in my beer budget so i'm mostly sticking to local.
No Li Big and Juicy with dinner.

I actually have cut back on my beer budget as well.  Tux is up to 12 units of insulin twice a day which means he goes through a vial in about 45 days.  And each vial is around $250.  Fortunately I have an extensive selection of beers stockpiled.  I even have two cases of Founder's Backwoods Bastard and two cases of North Coast's Old Stock aging in the basement.

We get some Founders here but have never seen their Backwoods Bastard.

Oh, poor Tux, that's tough.

Backwoods Bastard is a seasonal beer that comes out in the late fall.  It's their Dirty Bastard scotch ale aged in bourbon barrels for a year.  Like Dragon's Milk, letting it age mellows out the bourbon flavor a lot.  Aging also mellows out the alcohol burn; the stuff has an 11.2% ABV.

Finishing a bottle of Boulevard's Rye On Rye On Rye that I started the other night.  I picked up 7 more 750ml bottles of this limited release last week at the beer store.  I think it's great; a rye ale aged in first use rye whiskey barrels then aged again in a different set of rye whiskey barrels.  Surprisingly it has sort of a "fruity" taste to it.  It's a very interesting flavor profile.  But at around 12% ABV it's definitely a sipper which is why I had half a bottle left in the fridge.