So today while I was cruising through my RSS feeds I ran into this post on Gizmodo. They are showing off some new promotional gear a company called CNK Promotions and the model is a Budweiser USB drive filled with beer. Really? Do I want all my essays to be drunk when I put it in to my computer? Do I want my files drinking Budweiser instead of something good like Sierra Nevada or Drake’s IPA? Well, people have said that beer is a recession-proof business and with this whole economic downturn, our computers and files need drinks too!

Well hello there! It has been too long since my last post. I blame the 18 units I am currently undergoing at CSUS. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I am back in full force. Well it’s Friday, so we all know  what that means! Beer review Friday! Let’s get into it….

Today I have Double Dog from Flying Dog Brewery which is now brewing in Frederick, MD. The bottle says, "Double dog, double down, double agents, double dare, twins, things are just better when they are times two. This double recipe of pale ale has double the hops and double the flavor so your date will look doubly good." Double Dog is a double pale ale so with that comes complex flavors and a high alcohol content. At first poor it is a dark reddish copper with plenty of creamy head. When I stick my nose in the glass however I am reminded of a barleywine more than a double pale. It has a strong grapefruit note with a bit a pine behind it, but the grapefruit scent overpowers it. When it first hits the tongue it has plenty of malt flavor, almost a bit too much. The malt is strong with caramel flavor but also has a roasted flavor to it. I believe they added a bit of chocolate malt in as well as the pale malt. This is where the darker color comes from. After the initial shock of the malt you have a small to medium taste of the hops, not big, but not small. The bitterness from the hops is almost non-existent because of the malt flavor. After the hint of hops, you are hit with the alcohol taste. This is a pretty strong alcohol taste which is somewhat masked by the malt flavor but you definitely get the alcohol aftertaste after it goes down. This guy has a 10.5% ABV so after one bottle you get a pretty good buzz going. There is nice lacing going down the glass as I drink it, always a good sign. To tell you the truth, I was kind of disappointed by the beer. I was expecting something a little different. But don’t let that last statement fool you! I like the beer, but it didn’t seem to follow the tastes I have come accustomed to with other double pale ales. I give it a B+ at 88% because I feel the label kind of deceived me.

Well here we are again….Today I bring to you guys an IPA from Washington State called Fish Tale IPA, brewed by Fish Brewing Company in Olympia, WA. This is another of a line of certified organic beers on the market today. So let’s get to the review.

The beer pours a clear copper color with a decent amount of head. There was a slight hint of piney hops but was very difficult to smell it. This isn’t the most aromatic IPA I have had. At first taste you get the traditional bitterness of an IPA, but the hop flavor was barely there. The sweet malt flavor helped subdue the bitterness, but the taste of the bitterness was missing a bunch of hop flavor. I find this strange because the label says it uses Centennial hops which have a reputation of being very strong in flavor. After the malt subsides the bitterness comes back lighter than before but tastes strange. As the beer goes down the glass there is plenty of lace. The alcohol flavor is prominent, but at 6.5% ABV it should be that strong. I give this beer a C+ at 78%. 

Well it’s Tuesday after the holiday weekend and I have started my first day of my last year in college. While perusing my favorite social news website Digg during a boring class, I came across a story where Mt. Shasta Brewing Company in Weed, CA (yes it’s a real town, named after a logger baron and once CA senator) had the phrase “Legal Weed” on their bottle caps of Weed Ale. Federal authorities didn’t like this too much so they demanded that they take the phrase off the caps. After many months of fighting them and having the Mayor of Weed, the city attorney, and the county supervisor back them up, they won the case as the Feds backed off quietly.

“They acted like Big Brother. They said I was guilty of a thought crime,” Dillmann said of his six-month battle with the authorities. “But it’s over. Weed fought the law, and Weed won!”

Here is the link to the original story from LAtimes.com

Well hello there! Sorry about the lack of a review last week, I was in Capitola with my family and I was traveling by bike and train, so my laptop didn’t make it with me. While I was there I grabbed a local Santa Cruz IPA, but had the craziest thing happen with it. The beer was probably carbonated at least 3x more than a bottle of champagne, seriously. When I poured it, it went straight to foam, and even after letting it settle it burnt my tongue because of all the carbonation. But this week I bring you a beer that it carbonated correctly: Bison IPA from Bison Brewing located in Berkeley, CA. Of course with anything that comes out of Berkeley, it is certified organic. So on to the review!

The beer pours with little head, but what’s there is very creamy. As it goes down the glass a decent amount of lacing occurs. As most IPAs it pours a rich copper color that is mostly transparent. It smells more malty than hoppy, but the hops have a very distinguishable grapefruit flavor. The malt smells like toasted caramel. At first taste you have the bitter hops flavor for a split second then the sweet caramel malt overcomes the bitter flavors and finishes with a great bittersweet aftertaste. This is a great drinking IPA, but for purists this seems to be lacking some major hop flavor and aroma. The beer drinks like a high 5% to low 6% ABV beer, but is actually a 6.8% so it will creep up on you quickly. The other thing about this beer is that is makes me more thirsty after drinking it because of the caramel flavor, might be a good thing, or a bad thing. My overall rating is a solid B at 86%. 

Well that’s it for today kids, next week I will bring out the beer I had in Capitola to replace the over carbonated beer I had. Be safe this Labor Day weekend! Drinking and driving is bad!