Met up with some potential Operation Jess roadtrippers tonight at Sweeney's. I had two glasses of their "beer of the moment," Fatty Boombalatty from Furthermore Beer. It's a Belgian Pale that tastes like orange juice, with hops and alcohol. Yes!

Markie's boyfriend Matt is a bit of a beer snob as I recall, so I offered to pick him up some New Glarus Raspberry Tart when I go to Wisconsin next weekend. In turn, he recommended that I get some Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale if I ever go to Canada, because that beer is very hard to find this side of the border.

At home I needed a beer to eat pizza and watch Be Kind Rewind (it's a comedy), so I cracked open a bottle from my dwindling supply of Big Sky Trout Slayer Ale. There's probably a reason why I'm running out that so fast, when I have plenty of Lakemaid and Summer Honey left. It's good.

Labels: American Pale Wheat Ale, Belgian Pale Ale, Big Sky Brewing, Fatty Boombalatty, Furthermore Beer, Trout Slayer

I had a Trout Slayer this afternoon (after hastily making cheese and crackers so my breakfast wasn't a beer), but the main event was the Jacob's Creek Shiraz I had for my night out with the (former) coworkers: 1/2 price bottles at Sweeney's today. I usually hate red wine, but this was pretty good.

Labels: American Pale Wheat Ale, Big Sky Brewing, Jacob's Creek, Shiraz, Sweeney's, Trout Slayer

Yesterday we had Ben over for a cookout: dinner consisted of very good (if a little overseasoned) steak and porkchops. It was very nice out, so we sat on the deck and had some beers while Matt tended to the meat.

While my beer glasses went through the dishwasher I had a Flying Dog Garde Dog, good as usual. Then: colaweizen.

For the colaweizen, or colaweizens if you're a crazy American, we combined the drinks in a 3/4 beer to 1/4 cola ratio, i.e. one 12 oz. bottle (poured with almost no head) and 1/2 of an 8 oz. pop can (poured aggressively) in each pilsner glass. The beer will darken noticeably as you pour in the coke. Scientists have determined that this is cool to watch.

I tried two American wheat beers, the Sierra Nevada Unfiltered Wheat and the Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat. Both were good (the Flying Dog mix had some leftover Sierra Nevada in it, so I'll forgive for being the worst of the two), but neither could stand up to Ben's colaweizen, which used Paulaner Hefe-Weizen and had a noticeable banana taste. Once I run out of Sierra Nevada, I guess I'll have to get a good German hefe.

It also occurs to me, just now, that I had enough bananas to juice and make bananaweizen (same ratio as a colaweizen). There's a drink I'm curious to revisit...

Labels: American Pale Wheat Ale, Biere de Garde, Colaweizen, Flying Dog Brewery, Garde Dog, Hefeweizen, Paulaner Hefe-Weizen, Paulaner Salvator Thomasbraeu, Sierra Nevada Brewing, Unfiltered Wheat

Yesterday I met up with Nora and Ben at the Pig for Ben's b-day. I can't remember either of the beers he had — the first was extremely weird and the second was a nice fruity hefeweizen — but I had the Rush River Bubblejack IPA and then a ''Golden Axe,'' a.k.a. Small Axe Golden Ale, an American would-be hefeweizen.

The Bubblejack was hoppy and delicious, as always. If Leinie's and Stella are my standby "panic beers" at dives, Bubblejack is my new panic beer at fancy places like the Pig and the Gnome. (Not that there aren't plenty of other beers at those places that I know I like, but they'll always have Bubblejack.)

The Small Axe was disappointing: it was too grassy for me (I know, I know, I think everything is grassy) and didn't have the fruit flavors I was hoping for.

Labels: American IPA, American Pale Wheat Ale, Bubblejack IPA, Rush River Brewing, Small Axe Golden Ale

Tonight I had a Capital Brewery Munich Dark. The beer was light-bodied with notes of caramel and a bit of chocolate. The mouthfeel was a little cloying/dry; otherwise I probably would have finished much faster. It was good, but it was also like finishing a French Silk pie that's just a little too rich for you.

That said, with this weather it was nice to have a dark beer again.

I had another Honey Weiss earlier tonight with some pizza, and that was good too. I've definitely come to appreciate Leinie's. In one way they're like the Premium of Wisconsin — ubiquitous, accessible, and local — but in another way they're like Summit.

My Wisconsin experience was limited to the Green Bay area, but it seems like Leinie's is the entry beer for most Wisconsinites interested in other styles. And they don't do a bad job: their seasonals are excellent and their Big Eddy Imperial Stout (!) is getting good reviews. I'd take Honey Weiss over some MGD nonsense any day.

(Wow, I would love to track a bottle of that Big Eddy down... something to keep an eye out for come November.)

Labels: American Pale Wheat Ale, Capital Brewery, Honey Weiss, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing, Munich Dark, Munich Dunkel Lager

Went to Tavern on the Avenue last night; it's actually a decent place, in the same rough bar genre as Memory Lanes or the V.R. at Lawrence. I started with a Stella Artois that was... not great, for whatever reason. I still had the taste of marrow in my mouth and it's pretty hard for a beer to win in that situation.

Barry and I once again talked about Springboard, though I didn't realize it at the time. (The label has "mountains" and a "glacier")

For the rest of the night I had Leinie's Honey Weiss with a lemon, my basic bar beer. It's not fancy, but it's good stuff.

Labels: American Pale Wheat Ale, Euro Pale Lager, Honey Weiss, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing, Stella Artois, Tavern on the Avenue