Beer!

KBS is expensive.  I've been paying 19.99 for a four-pack.

Tonight I'm enjoying local brewery 4 Hands "Father Time".  It's an English barleywine and sooooo good.  I stocked up on these back in the Fall and I'm glad I did.

I haven't had a good barleywine in awhile. Need to see if the local shop has that one.

I took some Founders KBS to a trivia night fundraiser last night so while running around today I thought I'd stop by the local beer store to see if they had any left. Holy crap! They had about 3 cases sitting on the floor.

I don't know what it is this year but in years past you had to get on a waiting list and reserve your ONE four-pack of this stuff and suddenly this year it's all over the place. After replenishing what I used last night I'm back to 2 cases in my beer stock.

Makes me wonder if Founders is taking KBS the same route as Backwoods Bastard. BwB used to be a seasonal that was relatively hard to find too (though not as hard as KBS) and then suddenly it became available year round.

Had some of 4 Hands "Father Time" barleywine last night.

So good...

So far the only barleywine I've liked better is Firestone Walker's Sucaba (which I still have 5 bottles of).

Sucaba is great. Hopefully we get sorted out on employment soon so I can buy some of these beers.

Had pear ale today...it was good.

Oh man, that sounds nasty. I typically don't like fruit beer and I'm not particularly fond of pears either.

I don't mind Leinenkugel's Shandy's when it's hot out but that's about it.

I have liked most of the Dragon's Milk variants with fruit. So far I've had banana, coconut, cherry and orange. The orange one was the only one I didn't like. I really expected to hate the cherry one too but it was surprisingly good.

Dark Horseman wrote:

I don't mind Leinenkugel's Shandy's when it's hot out but that's about it.

My daughter loves them and looks forward to this time of year when they become available. Me? I'll pass on them.

It has to be hot, like near 100 and i'm out working.

While we're on the subject of fruit beers, anyone else ever had Dogfishhead's "Fruit-full Fort"?

I knew when I bought it that I'd hate it but I had to try an ale brewed with boysenberries, raspberries, blueberries (and one other one I'm forgetting) and weighs in at 18% ABV. I just gave away my remaining bottles to someone who was on my trivia night team because she loves wine and this crap tastes like some kind of hybrid white/red wine with very little ale taste. It was freakin' awful!

I guess the one positive is that it will get you buzzed if you can manage to finish a 12oz bottle (which I couldn't).

^^^^ It will get you buzzed if you can keep it down.

Dogfishhead brews some really "hefty" brews that you HAVE to sip like their World Wide Stout or their 120 Minute IPA that have the same ABV. But this fruity crap was so disgusting there was no way I could finish it.

Bought something different at my favorite beer store over the weekend.  It's called "Hidden Legend - The King's Mead".  

I've had "mead 'variants'" before but never a pure mead.  This one weighs in at 12.5% ABV (which I've been told is the norm for "real" mead as compared to the 8% or so of the previous versions of mead I've had).

I haven't tried it yet but maybe tonight. I have a feeling mead is something you have to be "in the mood for" because it's sweet.

I've tried a few meads and none made me want to really get into them.

I think I agree. 

I had a glass tonight and while it wasn't terrible and I finished the glass, it didn't knock my socks off either. 

I think "meh" best describes my opinion of my experience with meads so far.

I have started a new job that should give me more downtime (four days on, three days off) which means I won't be so beat up allowing me to drink more often. Trying a new one today:


https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/222/45379/

Pretty good really.

Travelled across the river to my favorite beer store mainly to clean out their remaining supply of Boulevard's "Rye On Rye" since that's the only place I've found it lately.  But while I was there I visited a new display of meads.  I picked up this one:

https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/dansk-mjod-klapojster-mjod/33957/

Holy crap!  21.8% ABV????  I figured now would be a good time to try this since I'm off work Monday.  But good grief, almost 22% ABV???

Well that's a sipper.
Picked up a sixer of Scottish Ale by Lewis and Clark Brewery. I really enjoy Scottish Ales and wish more breweries would get into them.

Got this a while back and I'm finally having it:


https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/48/311155/

Having it in this:



It's like a regular Golden Draak but with hints of... apple brandy obviously.

That should be pretty good. A lot of those dark Belgian ales have sort of an apple-y taste anyway.

Sounds really good. Haven't had a good Belgian in awhile.

Dark Horseman wrote:

Well that's a sipper.
Picked up a sixer of Scottish Ale by Lewis and Clark Brewery. I really enjoy Scottish Ales and wish more breweries would get into them.

I picked up a Scottish style ale over the weekend from Erie Brewing Co. called Railbender Ale. I think it's rather good.

I finally figured out that Mother's Brewing's Materfamilia that is out around here is exactly the same thing as their "MILF" beer that first started showing up about a year and a half ago. 

When MILF started disappearing here I started stocking up on because I love it.  It's an imperial stout aged in bourbon,brandy, rum and rye barrels.  So I bought about 2 cases before it totally disappeared.

Then this other "new" beer from Mother's started showing up.  So last week I had a MILF followed by a Materfamilia and I thought, "Geez, these taste the same.".  Then I read the bottle; same description.  So I googled "Materfamilia".  Sure enough, Mother's posted that they didn't like the "MILF" name once they got wider distribution (they're out of Springfield, MO) so they changed it.  "MILF" supposedly stood for "Molther's Imperial Liquid Fantasy" but we all know what that acronym really means so no wonder they changed it.

OK, they went from an awkwardly, crude name to a really hard to remember one.  Whatever...it's still a great beer.  I'm not sure how far Mother's distributes out of MO since it just showed up here last year but if you ever see "Materfamilia" I'd suggesting picking up a 4 pack or bomber (it comes both ways); it's a great stout.