I'm Not Okay (I Promise)

Today's beer is a Chicago brew.
Goose Island Honker's Ale


Next week I promise to pick something out of my ordinary rotation. Because, yes, I know this is another brownish ale. Although technically it's a pale ale. From the Goose Island site:

Named one of the best beers in Chicago, our Honker's Ale combines a spicy hop aroma with a rich malt middle to create an exceptionally balanced American Pale Ale. Craft brewed in small batches with pure filtered water, Midwest malt, the best hops and our own special yeast, Honker's Ale brings fine English-style brew to your mug.

Yummy.

Happy Friday to all. Enjoy your weekend, don't think about work, and good luck on the continuing b-ball brackets.

Beer Run

Since it’s the weekend before St. Pat’s, I’ve decided that there will be a choice of 4 beers here at Beer Girl’s Blog. Yes, I said FOUR! And no, none of them will be green.

Since we did Caffrey's last week, this week I'm offering Guiness, Murphy's, and my local favorite.

Choice #1 (the obvious one) Guinness

I love a good stout as much as the next Irish lass, but sometimes this is a bit heavy for me. I always think of it as a winter beer, which probably isn’t fair. It’s a slow sipping sort of drink, for truly savoring your beer. The website even has some nifty tools, like this downloadable door hanger. Funny stuff. Despite the fact that they have bottles & cans of this stuff, it’s still best from a tap. Maybe I just like it that way so I can watch the settling of the creamy head. I don’t know. Don’t drink this beer ice cold, it should be kept at what Guinness defines as ‘cellar’ temperature.

Choice #2 Murphy's Irish Stout

According to the website, Murphy's is: "Brewed from all natural ingredients, Murphy's Irish Stout is smooth and creamy, with a subtle bitterness. This truly satisfying stout is one to be savoured. Best served chilled between 4-6 degrees Celsius." It also won a Gold Medal in the International Beer Olympics. Good alternative to Guiness, as if you needed one!

Choice #3 Murphy's Irish Red

Described by the site as: "Well balanced and full-bodied, with hints of malt and caramel, this truly refreshing red beer has a unique speciality beer flavour. Best served chilled between 5-7 degrees Celsius. Perfect accompaniment to ethnic foods." Ethnic food, huh? I didn't know that. All I know is that I like it.

Choice #4 (local pick) Boulevard Brewery's Irish Ale

Another Irish Red brew that I adore. (In case you haven't noticed, my favorite beers are brown & reds.) The Boulevard website describes it thusly: "Boulevard Irish Ale, our springtime seasonal beer, is patterned after red ales that have a rich Irish heritage. Our recipe combines five kinds of malt to provide a complex, toasty flavor and reddish hue. Nugget and English Kent Golding hops are added to enhance the beer's complexity and to produce a pleasing balance." It's only available for a few months, so it intensifies my lust for this beer. Enjoy it now, it'll be gone soon!

Pick your poison, and let's roll.

It's Five O'Clock Somewhere

What's the next big holiday for a beer sort of girl? St. Patrick's Day, of course. Not only am I a beer drinker, but I am also Irish. I have the freckles to prove it. So while looking forward to a day of navigating amateur drunks, I will attempt to list fine Irish brews here this month.

Today's special is an old favorite of mine. Caffrey's.
I adore Caffrey's. It is my favorite Irish beer in the world. I found a great little article written on Brian's Beer Belly. I'll post the content in full, but my personal opinion is that Caffrey's is the most wonderful, creamy, light but still substantial beer on the face of the planet. It pours like Guiness, thick & frothy, and you have to let it set a minute before you begin drinking. The horror is that it is no longer available in the USA. (See below for details.) I am immediately starting a campaign to bring it back. I sent an email to Coors today to beg them to bring it back, and I even gave them this blog address. So if you are with me, please comment, so that they could see we care.


Cheers!

Nitro Bitter From Ireland
By Belly Buddy David Lauterbach

I enjoy having a selection of Irish beers to choose from when the St. Patrick's Day parade comes through my town. It is because of this that I stumbled across Caffrey's Irish Ale a few years back while trying to stock the shelves with some variety from Ireland.

Caffrey's comes from Belfast, North Ireland where it is brewed by the Thomas Caffrey Brewing Company. The 14.9 oz cans feature a nitrogen pocket that agitate the beer when you open it giving it that great 'from the tap' quality. Even if you know what the nitro 'widget' is, check out my Guinness review that gets up close and personal with this beer agitator.

Caffrey's is considered a bitter, but this is not overly bitter. It has a dreamy, creamy, toffeeesque taste that is light enough to drink all day. Despite the toffee quality, I wouldn't call this beer sweet. It has really beautiful amber/copper coloring and a thick, rich head. The head will stay with you all the way down to the bottom of the pint too, even if it's a soaped glass. This is a fairly light beer so I can easily drink these all day long, but on St. Paddy's I usually end up moving on to Guinness.

Now, here's the problem with Caffrey's... you can no longer get it in the U.S. As faithful American drinkers of this fine ale may already know, Coors Brewing Company acquired Caffrey's in December, 2001 when they purchased U.K. based Carling Brewers who had the distribution rights. Sometime in 2002, they stopped distributing Caffrey's in the U.S. due to poor sales. It is still available in the U.K.

If you've had Caffrey's and want to see it in the U.S. again, you can call the Coors Helpline at 1-800-642-6116 and let then know, or you can sit back and do nothing about it while poor uneducated souls end up buying and drinking Coors' other acquired (and promoted) Irish-type beer Killian's Red.

But those who have access to it will probably agree- it's a delicious, authentic Irish ale that is sure to please better bitter beer drinkers.

Philosophers' Drinking Song

Immanuel Kant was a real piss-ant
who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
who could think you under the table.

David Hume could out-consume
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
who was just as sloshed as Schlegel.

There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach 'ya
'bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
after half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.

Plato, they say, could stick it away,
half a crate of whiskey every day!
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,
And Hobbes was fond of his Dram.
And René Descartes was a drunken fart:
"I drink, therefore I am."

Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker,
but a bugger when he's pissed.

And that, boys & girls, is the Philosophers' Drinking Song. I am NO philosopher, but I have been thinking too much lately, and have decided that I'd rather drink instead.