Rogue Post, or Don't Cry Over Spilled Beer

I bragged about my pretty bottle of Rogue Imperial Stout that I had waiting for me at home. I came home BEFORE 9 PM! OK, not because I'm balanced, but because someone has to let the dog out, and no one else is in town. But I digress. I was so looking forward to cracking open that Imperial Stout. Seemed like a wonderful thing to do on a cold and lonely Wednesday night. I even took a picture with the crappy camera phone and everything. (Side note, remember how I bitched about needing a new camera? And then I got one? Yeah. guess where it is? With The Husband. Out of town. For biz. Explain to me again why everything becomes "ours" once you are married?) ANY way.

I poured. I drooled. I plugged in my laptop power cord, set my beer on a side table, settled in for a loser's night of excel, powerpoint and tasty beer. But then. THEN. I watched one lonely hyper dog get tangled in said cord and knock over previously mentioned side table, sharing my precious stout with the not-so-appreciative carpet. Nooooooo! Dammit. I didn't even take a SIP, people. This was tragic. I almost cried. But I was too busy cleaning up the floor before my dog got tipsy.

I had about 2/3 of another pint left. I drank it like it was the last water available on earth. Slowly. Carefully. While glaring at the dog. Poor little dude.

I poured this from the ceramic 0.75 litre bottle (2007 Edition) into a pint glass to produce a thick tan head of about 1-1/2". The beer is DARK. And sticky. And has an incredible aroma of chocolate and coffee and caramel. The head had incredible retention. The taste is not as sweet as some of the beers I have been drinking lately, but has a caramel sweetness contrasted with an espresso bite. I wish I had more. But I managed to restrain myself from doing anything disgusting to the carpet, even though that would also result in getting very interesting search traffic. That's the amount of self control I have. Impressed?

Wexford Irish Cream Ale...and Friends!

I have 2 cans of this deliciousness sitting in my fridge, waiting for me tonight. It means I have to share one with The Husband, but since he is actually in town for ONE! MORE! WHOLE! NIGHT! I'll be ok with it. I already drank the first 2. :)

I love creamy ales. I love nitro pours. I love the fact that the thing in the beer can that creates this is called a widget. (I say that word too many times a day at work already. Different context.) I love watching the beer swirl around and generate a giant fluffy white head that reminds me more of a latte than a lager. The Wexford pours a light amber, with a thick, off-white nitro head, that leaves mild lacing along the sides of the glass as I sip. The scent is sweet, mild, and maybe a little malty. The first thing I notice isn't taste as much as the overall feeling this beer has. It is slippery and smooth and creamy and feels like dessert. It tastes very mild, almost buttery. I heart it. It makes me want to eat at O'Dowd's, though. Sigh, I will eat a boxty again soon, I am sure.

Other random items:

It's snowing here again. It's kind of pretty, but it is cold. And getting colder by the minute. Barack Obama is landing in front of my office somewhere around 5 pm. This is the view from my office window. Yes, it is the downtown airport. In the snow.

I have a big bottle of Rogue Imperial Stout, also in my kitchen, pending a review later in the week. That is thanks to my superfly Saturday brunch date that convinced me to eat crepes, get my toes painted in January, and then totally derailed me in Cellar Rat. I have a wonderful friend.

How are you holding up?

Torn from the Times Online:

It’s official: today is the worst day of the year. Hang on – wasn’t that supposed to be last Monday? A psychologist has calculated the most depressing day with a formula that includes “lousy weather, post Christmas debt, failed new year’s resolutions and the desperate need to have something to look forward to”. Incidentally, this is also the most depressing week of 2008. We don’t care any more – we just want to go home.

So I am just checking in on my peeps. You doing ok? Getting enough sleep, not letting the zero degree weather kill your spark, are you? Work isn't TOO overwhelming, is it? We're super busy, but we can see the light. If you need something to look forward to, let me list a few positives coming up here in the middle of the middle of the middle:

1. The projected high for this Saturday is 46 degrees, and that is the same day as the SCION OPEN Snowboarding Tournament over at Snow Creek. You know you want to get out and enjoy a little of this winter weather, just not when it is below 10 degrees! It's going to be awesome, with Miles Bonny spinning, snowboards flying, and a few adult beverages and a snack waiting for you after you finish skiing, boarding or even sitting in a tube, riding down the hill. I'm definitely tubing this year!
2. One last appeal, as if you needed more – the Weston brewery O’Malleys is a hop skip & a jump away from Snow Creek. After an afternoon of skiing/tubing, what could be better than a Weston Brewery Irish Cream Ale. Uh, nothing I can think of! Ha ha ha. I will be there most of the day, so give me a shout if you’re headed out there.
3. AND, it is supposed to be 52 degrees here by Sunday!
4. Boulevard's Irish Ale should be available by now.
5. If you are in advertising in KC, and live in a cave or something, let me remind you that the Addy Awards are on Feb 16th. If you don't know, it's like an awards show & prom all rolled into one event. Hilarity ensues.

Beer snobbery is spreading

I was racing into the office today, running late, as one certainly isn't capable of showing up to work EARLY after a 3 day weekend, when I heard the local radio station DJ say something that actually interested me. Normally I listen to my own music, or surf stations anytime someone starts talking, but I stopped button pushing when I heard the DJ admit that he is a total hop-head. (Listening to Dick Dale on 96.5) And that he is actively organizing a strike team to go capture all of the available Bell's Hopslam 6 packs from the ONE store in this whole city that sells it. (They limit to one 6 pack per person.) What I did NOT get out of this limited conversation snippet I heard during my 12 minute long commute, is WHAT STORE IN KC CARRIES BELL'S HOPSLAM?

Still funny, 12 years later

Lee posted this, and I laughed. Because I was 19 when The Onion first published it. I loved and still love The Onion. And my friends looked like this. Hell, I looked like this. I drank microbrews because that is what my non-greek, art school, flannel wearing, indie music loving, grubby concert attending, coffee barfly, hacky-sack playing, hippie-grunge-wannabe older friends drank. So I had access.

Two thousand and eight?

Happy New Year! Yeah, ok, I am a little late on that. A little late on a lot of things, I am afraid. I still have a Mexico mindset, which apparently means saying "Gracias," to the gas station clerk after receiving my change, and avoiding my endlessly buzzing smart phone by imagining having another something-made-with-tequila and just not worrying about it right now. I had some beer, I did. Sol, Dos Equis, and Tecate. But mostly I stuck to the fruity confections that seemed most appropriate to the locale. See? It looks slightly out of place, doesn't it? Like it should be a giant glass rimmed with salt and a slice of lime festively garnishing the side. Not a lonely little beer can, sweating in the sun.

I am sorry that I missed the beer blogger meet up. Hope you all had a blast. When I saw that you guys left me a voicemail, I was half hoping it would be psuedo-drunken slurring. And then I remembered that we're grown ups, and it is just really really nice to be missed. I can't promise no more trips to Mexico, but I am wishing really hard that I get to meet you all for reals sometime.

Silent Night?

Whew. Tis the season, eh? I am so tired. We've been everywhere and done everything. Almost. Not counting tomorrow, and 2 families on top of cooking a ham. But at this exact moment, I am sitting in my living room with my youngest brother and his girlfriend and my husband, trying to get the darn Wii set up on the wireless network so we can play Mortal Kombat, drinking stouts and holiday ales. A very large group just vacated the living room to attend church.

I feel terrible that I am still unable to meet up with Lee & Margaret, or Chris. I haven't been able to figure out how to gracefully bow out of family holiday commitments to meet up with beer bloggers. Call it a crisis of priorities. :) But I toast you all tonight. Cheers!

Let's do beer

Lee from Austin is going to be in town for the holidaze. We were going to try for a beer meet here in KC. Probably over this weekend. You in? Where should we go? What day/night?

Happy Holidays!

I think that I may be too worn down to beer blog well for now. But here is my holiday card to you all. (Again, on the crappy camera phone. I have asked for a new camera from the Husband, so if he listened, the picture quality will increase over time. ) That is a Four Fingers Stout from Flying Monkey. Flying Monkey is brewed in Olathe, Kansas, in a southwestern suburb of Kansas City, and the smaller brewer in town. Their labels are the best. The stout is dark and sticky and jet black with a dark tan head. This has a tiny bit more of a bite than the blander, Guinness-like stouts of the world. I can't place it. A little nutty, a little roasted, burnt, oatiness, even a little black coffee bite? I am sure someone who reads this can tell me exactly what's in it. But it is tasty, and just what I needed tonight.

Winter warmers

It is beyond cold here, and while I typically enjoy a good winter storm, I am really only looking forward to my post-Christmas trip to Mexico at this point. I usually have an entirely too romantic viewpoint of ice storms (because I got married during the worst one KC has seen in a while) but this week I am over it. This was taken by my camera phone in my front yard this morning. Blerg.
All the cool beer bloggers are covering the holiday/winter special brews. Don't you want to be cool? Sadly, I am too busy to be cool. So I will introduce you to the cool kids.

KC Beer Blog does Schlafly, New Belgium, & Breckenridge
The Cure For What Ales You does Magic Hat
Beer Haiku Daily ponders winter brews in 5-7-5 format
Hail The Ale suffered a bottle mishap

And I bet there are a lot more that I haven't had time to read via my completely chock full RSS reader, that poor, underused receptacle of unread feeds. Have a good beer for me, k?

Grrrrrrr, baby, very grrrrrr

A wonderful beer-friend, Nate, gifted the Husband and I a growler full of Free State Brewery beer last weekend. I didn't crack it open, and was kind of afraid to without being able to finish it, knowing it would go flat before I get through a whole half-gallon. But I opened it this weekend and was super excited to learn that it contained John Brown Ale. Yummy yummy. I love me some browns. It is the mildest dark beer possible, heavy on malts, sweet, and highly drinkable.

Because I left my growler unattended for too long, I didn't realize that it was going flat anyway. John Brown Ale usually generates a creamy head, but my growler didn't quite deliver. The smell is sweet, like malted chocolate. A loverly scent for a freezing winter evening! The taste is a bit more coffee/toffee than chocolate, with a medium bodied mouthfeel, and a slightly dry finish. It just brings to mind roasted, toasted, sweet winter warmth, and I am in love all over again.

History Lesson

Last night I half watched, half dozed thru a show on the History Channel about beer brewing. It came on at midnight, give me a break. But it seemed quite good, and featured Jim Koch from the Boston Beer Company, Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head, and the home brew club the Maltose Falcons. I am bummed that I was too sleepy to see the whole thing. I am sure it will air again, so I am putting my DVR on the case. In the meantime, here's the synopsis of that episode of Modern Marvels from the History Channel's website:

It's one of the world's oldest and most beloved beverages--revered by Pharaohs and brewed by America's Founding Fathers. Today, brewing the bitter elixir is a multi-billion-dollar global industry. Join us for an invigorating look at brewing's history from prehistoric times to today's cutting-edge craft breweries, focusing on its gradually evolving technologies and breakthroughs. We'll find the earliest known traces of brewing, which sprang up independently in such far-flung places as ancient Sumeria, China, and Finland; examine the surprising importance that beer held in the daily and ceremonial life of ancient Egypt; and at Delaware's Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, an adventurous anthropologist and a cutting-edge brewer show us the beer they've concocted based on 2,700-year-old DNA found in drinking vessels from the funerary of the legendary King Midas.

And brown paper packages tied up with strings

Some one in Kansas City should do this for the holidays. I would MOST CERTAINLY attend a beer and chocolate tasting. I'd pay perfectly good money to attend. Maybe a micro-brew beer bar and a desert maker could team up. Maybe a particularly high end chocolatier could team up with a local brewery. Just sayin'....I'd be there!

Beer Counting Technology

Your bartender saying, "This one is on me," may be a thing of the past. New software programs monitor tap lines, and are synced with the register, so any unpaid for pours are noted. Then that info goes to a centralized database, where bar owners can pull reports on beer loss. While I know that this is good for bar owners, who
lose tons behind the bar, and the geek in me does love the accountability of the machine, I can't help but lament the end of an era when people could be trusted more, when drinks weren't measured by the ounce, and when there wasn't a report available to be pulled for EVERYTHING.

Thoughts?

They call you Mr Personality because you're so ugly

I took this beer personality quiz, and this was my real result:

You Are Bud Light

You're not fussy when it comes to beer. If someone hands it to you, you'll drink it. In fact, you don't understand beer snobbery at all. It all tastes the same once you're drunk! You're an enthusiastic drinker, and you can often be found at your neighborhood bar. You're pretty good at holding your liquor too - you've had lots of experience.

What's Your Beer Personality?

But I didn't like that connotation that I must drink a lot, so I tried to snob it out, and I got this:

You Are Heineken

You appreciate a good beer, but you're not a snob about it. You like your beer mild and easy to drink, so you can concentrate on being drunk. Overall, you're a friendly drunk who's likely to buy a whole round for your friends... many times. Sometimes you can be a bit boring when you drink. You may be prone to go on about topics no one cares about.

What's Your Beer Personality?

So I went over the top snobby, and I got this.

You Are Guinness

You know beer well, and you'll only drink the best beers in the world. Watered down beers disgust you, as do the people who drink them. When you drink, you tend to become a bit of a know it all - especially about subjects you don't know well. But your friends tolerate your drunken ways, because you introduce them to the best beers around.

What's Your Beer Personality?

I think this was written by a college student. But amusing on a busy Thursday regardless.

Majority Rules

So this weekend I drank the voting majority of a 6 pack of O'Mally's Irish Cream Ale while watching my Jayhawks stumble. Despite the score, I still lurve the bee. What started as a Caffrey's replacement crush has mushroomed into a stronger like. I still haven't had it on tap yet, but that day must be coming soon, because I need a nitro tap fix. One can only drink so much Guinness. Hey you, Weston Brewing Co friends and fans! Please tell me where I can drink this on tap! I promise to share with the rest of the class. Danke!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk

The trash talking started a few weeks ago. The drama begins in earnest at 7 pm CST tonight. I've been watching the hype of ESPN's GameDay all morning. I'll be watching the actual game from the safety of a suburban living room with a massive screen, drinking lots of beer. So, what beer goes best with Tiger meat?

**edited to add, post game**
Being a real KU football fan is new to me this year. I never bothered with it outside of a passing interest, to keep me busy until basketball season, so I have to say that I am blown away by the combined effort they made this year. I hope this means wonderful things for the future. And to the Mizzou fans - be thankful. Your quarterback rocks, this is your winningest season, I think, ever. Good luck meeting the Sooners.

She could be a FARMER in those clothes

I may not like the early morning lifestyle, but I'd gladly drink like a French-speaking Belgian farmer any day of the week.

I tried the Boulevard Smokestack Series Saison last weekend, and I loved it. Saison means season, so by definition, this is a seasonal beer, supposedly brewed in the winter months for summer consumption. It is golden, and light, and juicy/citrusy, and I can't wait to spring it on my family tomorrow during Thanksgiving dinner. (My sole responsibility is to provide the bread & the booze. Rock.)


The brewers notes on the Smokestack Series site makes the necessity of writing a full review less pressing. They literally spell out the taste, feel, flavor, etc. On the other hand, they are excellent sales tools, cuz when I read 'am, I want 'em!

How to spot a geek

I don't mean the cool kind. Not the, wow-you're-smart-and-know-all-kinds-of-useful-techy-cool-nerdy things. Not that kind. I mean the truly geeky, the embarrassing-to-admit-you-hang-out-with-them kind. I think producing a spreadsheet like below while planning a party might be a clue.

Drive by

Hey! You know what would be awesome? Cram a full 5 day work week into 2.5 days, add one new employee, 2 million additional time-suck projects, a few impossible deadlines, drop long-term planning off the table, and then shake until fully pressurized. Whee! Poppin' the cork on that one tomorrow afternoon, fo' sho'. I think the IPA, the Sixth Glass, and something completely different will be consumed on this upcoming 4 day.

Oh, and? Completely out of character, I was awake at 5 am this morning. FIVE. A. M. Run errands, do stuff, get Starbucks, and STILL get to work a full 30 minutes early. I mean, I know some people get up that early everyday, but those people are not me. Those people are farmers.

Last item. I saw this on the KC Beer Blog. Apparently, after all my not-really-holiday-hints, I actually DO need this item as a gift.