Beer Archive
Abita
How
much do we love Joe’s OK Bayou in Louisville? This place has real,
authentic Cajun food and it’s cheap! Their Crawfish Etouffe’e and
Cajun Popcorn could bring world peace. They also carry Abita, including
Abita Amber, which is a smooth, drinkable amber beer with a pleasing aftertaste. It’s
perfect with Cajun food! Abita is brewed about 30 miles north of New
Orleans, LA in the town of Abita Springs and the beer itself is fairly
easy to find around the country. And this just in: Abita is now brewing Fleur-de-lis
Restoration Ale!
Help us drink New
Orleans back to its former glory! We picked up a six pack of their new
Fleur-de-lis Restoration Ale at Liquor
Barn, mainly because $1 from every six pack is donated to the Louisiana
Disaster Recovery Foundation. I’m pretty sure that Kenny and I will
have a friggin’ building named after us somewhere on Jackson Square
because we intend to drink this beer often! It’s a smooth,
flavorful golden ale with just a hint of bitterness and nice spice finish.
If you won’t drink this beer for yourself, do it for the people of New
Orleans.
Restaurant
website: www.joesokbayou.com/joesokbayou.html
Beer website: www.abita.com
Restoration Ale website: www.abita.com/party/restoration_ale.html
Alpha King
Alpha King is quickly
becoming one of my new favorites! Brewed by Three Floyds Brewery in
Munster, IN, Alpha King has an amber color and pleasing aroma, almost
floral. It has a delicious, hoppy, rich flavor with a lingering spice.
Perfect for folks who enjoy a great hoppy beer! I was drinking this beer
at Rich O's-- you know, the BREW PUB,
when some high maintenance chick walked into the bar and complained,
"All they have here is beer? I don't like beer!" I was
appalled! I wanted to say to her, "Hey, Peaches. I suggest you try the T.G.I. Fridays down the street
the next time you want substandard drinks and food, you tasteless broad!
" Happily, I was enjoying my Alpha King way too much to
be drawn into a vicious cat fight. Once again, beer saved the day. www.threefloyds.com
Aruba Red
Aruba Red is a refreshing amber beer brewed exclusively for the Bahama Breeze
restaurant chain by the Specialty Brewing Group of Anheuser-Busch. Bahama Breeze,
which has a location in Louisville, has
pretty good food and pretty good libations. Yes, it can be a haven for
people who actually think that the Caribbean resembles suburbia and
that all Jimmy Buffet music MUST be slurred by an unintelligible
guitarist in an unfortunate flowered Polo. All that aside, Aruba Red is good and Bahama
Breeze's appetizer, "Tostones con Pollo," is fabulous. www.bahamabreeze.com
Bell's Brewery
Have you ever been to Galesburg, MI?
Neither have we. But we're Mapquesting
directions even as we speak so we can make a pilgrimage there to visit the
home of great beer, the Bell's Brewery. Every beer we have tried from
Bell's has been delightful. If we MUST choose a few favorites, we like
Bell's Pale Ale, Two Hearted Ale, Amber Ale and the Oberon
Ale, which was
THE BEER that made us into the beer aficionados we are today! Bell's Rye
Stout reminds me of a smooth oatmeal stout made by Samuel Smith.
It doesn't have the strong oatmeal taste at the end, but it leaves a nice
finish. This dark beer has a good smell, pours easy and makes you
happy :) Shannon says it has a hint of chocolate. (By the
way, I was just tricked into trying the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA and I
immediately made Reagan's
vomit from The Exorcist look almost whimsical. Priests are on their way with holy water to
expel the demons from my system-- and I am a Baptist! Check below for the
review of Dog Fish.) Oh, yeah,
back to the Bell's....it's wonderful like always and if there is beer god,
his name is Bell. Many
restaurants like Rich O's and Old
Chicago carry Bell's and Liquor
Barn carries a nice selection as well.
www.bellsbeer.com
Berghoff
Apparently, people love this beer. It’s brewed in Monroe, WI by Huber
Brewery, which is 150 years old. Many of its beers have won awards,
especially the Berghoff Original Lager and the Berghoff Genuine Dark.
We thought it was just so-so. Maybe
we just had a bad batch when we picked it up at Liquor Barn in Louisville.
It’s certainly not an unpleasant family of beers, but award winning? Not
sure about that. We give it a B- at best.
www.huberbrewery.com
Blue Goat Dopplebock
Blue Goat Dopplebock comes to us from the New Holland Brewery in Holland,
Michigan. Similar to most dopplebocks, this beer has a strong and malty
taste, but very smooth. It separates itself from other dopplebocks
by a slightly sweet and nutty finish. It's bold and strong. If this beer
were a song, it would be sung by Luther Vandross. You can find this
beer at Rich O's.
www.newhollandbrew.com
Cantina Cerveza
This
beer is brewed exclusively with backwash and bile. We paid .75 cents for
this beer at Liquor Barn in Louisville and we're suing to get our money
back. If someone serves this
beer to you, that person profoundly hates you and is actively working to
bring about your demise in a dreadful and painful manner. Run far, far away. If you must:
www.latinbrews.com Sometimes their site is down, which you should take
as sign that even their web server thinks this beer sucks.
Carlsberg
"Probably the best beer in the world." This beer could taste like cough
syrup and Drano and we would like it. Carlsberg Beer is the sponsor of
Liverpool FC, which means Carlsberg is a superior ale. Actually, it does
have a nice flavor, balanced and rich. It starts almost sweet, but
finishes well. It took
FOREVER for us to get in Louisville, but they finally found a distributor
here and it was well worth the wait. It can be found here in Louisville at
Liquor Barn. www.carlsberg.com
Carolina Pale Ale
Carolina Pale Ale is a delightful microbrew beer from Carolina Brew
Company in Holly Springs, NC. It's light and hoppy with a slightly
bitter finish. Very refreshing. A well done pale ale. I first tried
this beer at Oh' Mulligans,
which is a fabulous neighborhood pub
in Morrisville, NC. Check it out!
www.carolinabrew.com
Cone
Smoker
We
call Cone Smoker the High Holy Monarch of Beers. Feel free to make fun of the name of this
beer all you like, but this beer is damn good. It’s microbrewed by Rich
O’s Public House. It's smoke aroma and taste is not overwhelming. It has an amber color, a
full flavor and it finishes well. Our favorite smoked beer! www.richos.com
Fat Tire Amber Ale
Excellent little brew. The flavor of this ale is varied and full,
with an almost chocolate aftertaste, without being sweet. It's brewed at the New Belgium Brewery in
Colorado, so we'll be trying more selections from this brewery for sure--
that is, when we're out of town. This beer is pretty hard to find down
South. www.newbelgium.com/beers_ft.php
Great
Lakes Brewing Company
Now we’re talking beer! This is a
stellar brewery out of Cleveland, OH. All of the beers from Great Lakes
are masterfully brewed, but we particularly enjoyed the Eliot Ness Amber
Lager and the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. Both are complex beers that finish
extremely well. The Holy
Moses White Ale also was very good—spicy with a hint of
sweetness and very drinkable. And don't even get me started on
their Christmas Ale because it's so good, it makes me depressed that it's
only a seasonal beer. We purchased this beer at Liquor
Barn because the labels were cool. (Sometimes, that’s all it takes
for us. Oooo, look! Something shiny!) Great family of beers. Highly
recommended.
www.greatlakesbrewing.com
Goose Island
One of our favorites. Goose Island brews damn good beer. Located in Chicago, Goose Island
brews 14 distinctive beers which are original, rich and full of flavor. We
particularly enjoyed the Oktoberfest, the Nut Brown and the India Pale
Ale. Goose Island's "Demolition Ale" wasn’t in season, so we’re looking forward to that
when it’s bottled again! This
beer is pretty easy to find in most major liquor stores. www.gooseisland.com
Hazed
and Infused Dry Hopped Ale
This is almost a good beer. It could have a great hoppy
flavor and pleasing bitter finish, but the fizziness in this beer is so
assaulting it takes away from the enjoyable hoppy taste.
It has won some awards, but it's not for me. Brewed at the Boulder
Beer Company in Colorado, this beer is available at Old
Chicago.
www.boulderbeer.com
Oaken
Barrel Razz Wheat
Oaken Barrel Razz Wheat comes to us from the Oaken Barrel Brewing Company
of Indianapolis. Yeah. It's raspberry-flavored alright. No escaping
that. No matter how much you whimper, plead or otherwise beseech. Oh, and
it's bubblegum pink, too. Hey, kids! Try making this beer at
home! Take
100,000 raspberries, a pint of plain yogurt at least four days past its
expiration date and a warm can of your
favorite domestic light beer and place in a food processor. Mix until frothy and
serve to someone as a joke. We had it at Richo's-- AGAINST
their recommendation. www.oakenbarrel.com
Oak Creek
When is beer worth traveling 1,651 miles for? When it's Oak Creek! If God were a
brewmaster,
God would make this beer. Located in Sedona, AZ,
Oak Creek Brewing Company simply makes our favorite microbrews on this
planet or any other. You can't believe the flavors
in this beer. The award-winning Horseshoe Heifeweisen and the Amber
and Nut Brown ales were our favorites. They were all drinkable, complex
and full of flavor and finished exceptionally well. Unfortunately, you have to travel
all the way to Sedona to get them at this point, but it will be worth the trip. It
is our personal mission to try to get this beer in Louisville. We'll keep
you posted! www.oakcreekbrew.com
Phillips Amber Ale
This is the only beer that has ever made me almost miss a flight! I
tried it at Phillips Seafood
while on a layover in the Baltimore airport and nearly missed my plane
because I was trying to get every last drop! This is a lovely amber ale
with good aroma and a satisfying mouthfeel and finish. It's excellent with
Phillips' spicy Crabmeat Slammers, which are kind of like fried crabmeat
cheese balls. Really good! Phillips Amber Ale is supposedly brewed
in Baltimore by the Clipper City Brewing Company, but I can't find any
information about it on either the brewery website or the Phillips Seafood
website. Here's the website anyway. www.clippercitybeer.com
Poperings Hommel Bier
Poperings Hommel Bier is a
Belgian-style pale ale that is flavorful, rich and refreshing. It comes to
us from Watou, Belgium from Brouwerij van Eeck, which is Belgian for
“Damn, I’m going to need to learn to speak this freakin’ language if
I keep drinking and rating this country’s beer.” Poperings
Hommel Bier is this brewery’s signature product and I can see why. It
has a fruity, spicy taste with a hint of clove, but it is not overdone.
It’s a light, drinkable beer with a pleasant finish. Try it at Rich
O’s! www.brouwerijvaneecke.tk
Red Oak Amber Ale
Not my favorite amber ale in the world. It's a little too fizzy and
doesn't have much depth of flavor. C-. I finished it because I
had been on at a marketing meeting all day and I needed a beer-- ANY
beer. I tried it at Playmakers,
which is not a bad little sports bar in Raleigh, NC. If you're going
to North Carolina and want to try a good local brew, I recommend Carolina
Pale Ale. It's greatly superior. www.redoakbrewery.com
Red Stripe Jamaican Lager
It's Beer! Hooray Beer! Not a bad beer at all. Typical, but not bad. After three or four of these, you'll have an affinity for the
Jamaican National Bobsled Team in a way we can't exactly explain. Easy
to find. www.redstripebeer.com
Rogue
A very fine line of beers brewed by Rogue Brewery in Newport, OR.
You GOTTA love a beer that has limited edition glow-in-the-dark “Dead
Guy Ale” bottles for Halloween! The entire family of beers brewed by
Rogue is first-rate, with St. Rogue Red and Dead Guy Ale among our
favorites. The beer labels
themselves are cool too! This beer is easy to find in major
liquor stores and in some restaurants. www.rogue.com
Shiner Bock
Will someone PLEASE tell me
what dirt the Shiner Bock distributors have on EVERY BAR OWNER in
Louisville to bribe them into putting this beer on tap??? All of a sudden,
this freakin’ beer is EVERYWHERE! I can’t swing a dead rat without
hitting this beer on happy hour somewhere. So what’s the big deal???
NOTHING!!!! This beer is mediocre at best. It comes to us from the Spoetzl
Brewery in Shiner, Texas and it should have stayed there. Oh,
it’s popular and pretty and all, but it’s tasteless and
sub
par, just like Paris Hilton. I mean,
the bottle might look good, but do you
REALLY want it to linger around after you've popped it? I think not. www.shiner.com
And
our friend and Beer Chronicles contributor, Paul, begs to differ with my
assessment of Shiner Bock:
"Shannon, you benighted
lagerhead. If you only you got out of bed before beginning your workday
you would realize the simple, malted flavor of a Shiner Bock is far superior to
the lackluster taste of any other commercially brewed lager (mainly any of the
Bud, Miller, or Coors "family" of beers). Budweiser could not
compete with it here in TX (that is a fact, and a delicious one at that) such
that AB now brews a beer called Ziegenbock http://www.ziegenbock.com/
that purports to be a local TX brew, but is as original as a New Kids on the
Block CD. And by the way, Shannon, why are you swinging dead rats around during
happy hour? (From the movie Happy Gilmore: Shooter McGavin:
"I eat pieces of sh**t like you for breakfast!" Happy
Gilmore (Adam Sandler): "You eat pieces of sh**t for
breakfast?!!")"
Skull Splitter
SkullSplitter is an award winning Scottish ale brewed by Orkney Brewery. I
like a beer with a violent, Viking theme, so I was pleased with this one.
It’s hoppy, has a slight spice and is dark red in color, but clear. It
has complex flavor and prolonged finish. Quite nice.
You can find this beer at major liquor stores and at Rich
O's. www.orkneybrewery.co.uk,
Spaten
Um, I guess we’re qualified to review this beer, even though we really
can’t tell you how it tasted. We simply don’t remember. You see, we
drank one and a half of these things and were absolutely HAMMERED.
Luckily, we were sitting at home at the time, because we were capable of
doing little else after drinking this beer. It
was quite shocking to be that buzzed that quickly for beer veterans such
as we. Hailing from Munich, Germany, Spaten's website is
unintentionally funny. They have a section on
Beer and Your Health, in which they inform you, “Beer Helps You
Relax.” They forgot to add, “And Spaten Helps You Relax into a Coma." You can find this beer at major liquor
stores and at Rich O's. www.spatenusa.com
Taj Majal
Surprisingly, a nice little beer.
I had heard HIDEOUS things about it, but I thought it was fairly
tasty, especially with Non Vegetarian Thali. Brewed by Kingfisher/United
Breweries in Bangalore, India, this beer compliments the spices in Indian
food very well.
It’s a pale lager with a hint of sweetness and delivers a
pleasing finish. I’ve had this beer at Shalimar
and Kashmir
(two FABULOUS Indian restaurants in Louisville) and you can buy it at Liquor
Barn.
The Kingfisher website
doesn’t really advertise it and most people apparently hate it, but I
stand my review. No, I shall not conform. Read how much OTHER people hate
this beer by clicking below.
www.ratebeer.com
Thames Welsh ESB
This beer has the distinct aroma and taste of stale whiskey and urinal
cakes. This beer hails from the Felinfoel Brewery in the little town of
Felinfoel, Wales, but in the interest of public health, it's not
advertised on their site. We tried this beer at the Louisville location of
Old Chicago,
where we licked the bottom of a dirty ashtray at the bar to get the taste
of this beer out of our mouths. Just so you know, "Felinfoel"
means "cat vomit" in Cymraeg.
Unfortunately, the U.S. distributor of this beer, Thames America, does
advertise this beer. (They've obviously never tried it.) F-.
www.thamesamerica.com/esb.html
Wostyntje
Wostyntje
is a mustard ale brewed by Brouwerij De Regenboog (Dutch for “Rainbow
Brewery”) in Belgium. It is vile. Usually, the Belgians know what they’re doing when it
comes to beer, but something went horribly, horribly wrong here. It's way too fizzy and has no discernable
mustard taste. If I were
mustard, I would sue for defamation. The names of the other selections offered
by this brewery began with an apostrophe, so I wasn't sure how to order
them. Not that I really wanted to. I would tell you where to find this
beer, but you seem like a nice person and I wouldn’t want any harm to come
to you. I’m doing this for your own good. I
couldn’t find an official website, so I submit this: www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/322/
Xingu
Black Beer
Xingu is a surprising Brazillian black beer. It is COMPLETELY black and
opaque, which suggests that it would be a heavy tasting beer, but it’s
not. It’s light, crisp, with a very slight sweetness and a pleasing
aftertaste. Highly recommended. We have only ever found this beer at Rich
O's and Preservation
Pub in Knoxville. www.amazonbeer.com
Young’s Double Chocolate Stout
Two words: Yum my. This is an extremely tasty little beverage. It’s very dark and
its chocolate flavor is infused perfectly, making it very drinkable and
not too heavy or too sweet. If this is any indication of the rest of the
beer brewed by the Ram Brewery in London, I am DEFINITELY picking up some
more Young’s brews at the liquor store. You can find this beer pretty
easily in the states. www.youngs.co.uk
Zatte
Brewed by Brouwerij ‘t IJ in the Netherlands, Zatte is one of many beers
brewed by this Amsterdam microbrewery. Zatte is a golden, semi-opaque,
drinkable beer with a smooth texture. It has a rounded taste with a hint
of spice and wheat. Very good.
We've only ever found this beer at Rich
O's. If you speak Dutch, here’s the site: www.brouwerijhetij.nl
