Random Party 11.21.09

I went with a new friend to a house party with 20-25 people I'd never met before. I'm really loving walking into new groups of people and shaking things up. Before leaving for that party, I had a pre-beer. I tried this expensive gluten free beer I'd acquired from a Whole Foods, Toleration (English Pale Ale, 4.4% ABV).

I think the people who named it were laughing at the people who were going to drink it. The best you could do is tolerate this wretched tragedy of a beer. Thank the merciful heavens I don't have a gluten allergy. It was the most sour beer I've ever had, with what tasted like spoiled brown sugar. Avoid! Your gluten allergy is all in your mind anyway! F. I thought it deserved a second picture.

At the party I had this Oktoberfest beer. I don't know the company, so I'm not sure much about it. It was very so so, muted spices, just plain stuff. I give it a B-.

Next up was a Left Hand Milk Stout (Milk/Sweet Stout, 5.2% ABV).
Unfortunately, the Toleration beer had left such a sour taste in my mouth about sour beers, that this wasn't a very pleasant experience. And maybe I'm just not a huge fan of milky stouts in general. B- again.

Before switching to generic beer for the evening, I had one last interesting one that night, the Post Road Pumpkin Ale (Pumpkin Ale, 5.0% ABV).

This was better than the Oktoberfest, more flavor, still with all the usual spices you'd expect of course. Not going to be numbered among my favorite pumpkin ales, but not bad, a B.

I was also invited to participate in a threesome, hit on by the guy friend I came with who totally knows I'm a lesbian, and had two different kinds of fast food on the way home.

Monday night I decided to fit a beer into my 1800 calories, so I had a Ruedrich's Red Seal Ale (American Amber/Red Ale, 5.5% ABV, 177 calories). This was a great beer!

Really one of my top 10 beers so far. Sorry about the bad pouring job. I think this beer had a good malty thing going on, I'm really still trying to figure out all these flavors, and I was focusing more on the conversation I was having than on all the flavors and qualities of this, but I enjoyed it immensely. If you want a sure thing, this is one. A-.

Solid Beer Weekend 11.13.09 through 11.15.09

I went to BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse for a couple beers on Friday night. I had the BJ'S P.M. PORTER (American Porter, 5.7% ABV) first. It was yummy yummy. For some reason I felt like it'd be lame of me to take a picture of it at the time :[ Anyway it was black and had a creamy head that lasted a good bit of a while, with good lacing. The chocolate, malty, and molasses flavors were distinct and delicious. It was thick too and had nice creamy mouthfeel. I'd say it's time for me to start a rating system. I'll give this one an A-. I'm surprised to learn it was only 5.7% ABV 'cause a pint of it really got me as far as I needed to go.

After a couple drinks with some girlfriends, I had another beer. It was a Liberty Ale from Anchor Brewing Co. (American Pale Ale, 6.0%). I really liked it! I knew it was going to be distinctly hoppy, and it was nice to be able to isolate that I found the hops refreshing! I give it an A!

It was nice and foggy and had the normal banana, clove, spice flavors, not bitter, medium thickness. It was easy to drink for sure, but not particularly memorable.

Oh the glass on the right was my porter glass, so you can still see a bit of the lacing. I sneaked my camera out while the other two people I was with were away for a minute. I just didn't want to get into an explanation to the middle aged man we were with that I blog about the beers I drink.

Anyway, as always the service at BJ's was ridiculously slow, but at least they didn't mess anything up. Also, the man we were with picked up the bill, so yay!

Saturday night Cami, Yasmin, and a newly(ish) married Mormon couple Jack and Michelle, and I went to our Mellow Mushroom for yummy food and beer. It was dollar off drafts, so we forewent the samplers in favor the special. Cami got the tasty Sleepy Hollow again, and I got the Cigar City Cuban Espresso Beer (American Brown Ale, 5.5% ABV). This may be the Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale-Espresso Aged because the descriptions sound like the beer I had. It was black and had a small creamy head that dissipated quickly. The espresso aroma was distinct, delightful and lasted all the way through. Unlike most coffee beers, the coffee/espresso taste just kept coming. At the very end it had that coffee astringency thing going on, but by that time I was pigging out on a mushroom laden hoagie and cared little. Oh, I almost forgot, the Espresso beer gets an A!

I may have a beer tonight, hard to say, I now have 4 beers in the cupboard. Mmm, :]

Lotsa drinkin', not much beer

This weekend did not see a lot of beer consumption for me since the wedding I attended featured only two beers in it's primarily wine and liquor oriented open bar: Heinekin, and Coors Light. I plan to make up for lost time next weekend. I want to go to Whole Foods to get some good imports...mm...

Halloween Party

Well ABC Liquor was just closing up for the night when I pulled up, so I had to resort to the dismal selection at RaceTrak. I wound up with Stella Artois (Euro Pale Lager; 5.0% ABV). Well I had to get it out of the way sometime. It tasted like a Euro Pale Lager in the most generic way possible.

The Weekend Before Halloween

I had a hankerin' for a beer and some Pizza on Thursday. I really wanted to go to Lazy Moon or try out Mellow Mushroom since I'd never been there, but when my sister got home from work she let me know she'd already told some friends of hers we'd meet them up at Sip, less a down to earth pizza joint than it is a quasi swanky wine-focused bar. Whatev's, I tried two new beers.

It was too dark (stupid swanky people) to get good pictures. My first beer was Orlando Brewing Company's Blonde Ale (American Pale Ale, ?% ABV). The first sip was the best, but it was decent to the bottom, kind of strawish, grassy hop flavors.

The other beer I had was the Orlando Brewing Company's Red Ale (American Amber, ?% ABV). I didn't like it as much, but it was okay. Too much hop, not enough carbonation.

After these, I was tipsy as I have lost my tolerance and had not eaten much, having saved calories for a big yummy slice of pizza. Cami and I determined that the only pizza place still open past midnight on Thursday within a reasonable distance was Broadway Pizza. It was okay, but not great, and that was disappointing. Also, I scorched the top of my mouth.

Friday night I was a loser at home with ice cream, convalescing once again from a damn gym injury.

Saturday night I had a Halloween party to attend, but my costume had not yet arrived in the mail. I still have no car, and Cami had to run out the door as soon as she got home from work. Actually, the rest of this story will appear in my travel blog. Click here if you're interested. At one point I was at Orlando Ale House and had a Shipyard Export (American Pale Ale, 5.0% ABV). This was lackluster, thin, boring, drinkable but not all that enjoyable.

Eventually I wound up in a costume, pre-drinking a Shock top Belgian White (Witbier, 5.2% ABV).




I thought it was all right, certainly drinkable anyway (probably due to being pretty carbonated and really mild).

When I got to the party I had some more of the Yuengling Black and Tans I still had around. They also had a keg, so I had some keg beer whilst losing badly at a game of beer pong. At the end of the night, I finally had the Grolsch Light (Light Lager, 5.0% ABV) I've randomly had in the fridge for a few weeks.

It wasn't offensive, just a milder lager, not so offensively bland and shitty as a Bud Light.

Sunday night another friend wanted to go to Mellow Mushroom, which was awesome except that I'd just secret shopped a fast food restaurant and wasn't really hungry. Needless to say, I still ate a third of a 10" pizza and did a sampler of four 5 oz. beers. Since Cami also did that, I tried 8 beers. Hooray! Too bad some of them aren't getting the proper glass...

1. Clipper City Loose Cannon (American IPA, 7.25% ABV): Sweet at first, then a little bitter

2. Hazed and Infused (American IPA, 4.85% ABV): Smells good, tastes pretty good, bitter/harsh finish

3. Rogue Dead Guy Ale (Helles Bock, 6.5% ABV): Not bad, not delicious, kind of different (pine?)

4. Terrapin India Brown Ale (American Brown Ale, 6.2% ABV): Pretty good, solid all the way through, with brown sugar and earthy flavors

5. Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin Head (Pumpkin Ale, 9.0% ABV): Yummy, good spicyness, better at first

6. Sleepy Hollow (I believe this was another one from Shipyard, a pumpkin stout, ?% ABV): This was my favorite of all of them. Of course I love creamy stouts, and then it had the holiday spices and pumpkin flavors.

7. Sea Dog Wild Blueberry Wheat Ale (Fruit Beer, 4.6% ABV): Boring, just the sugary blueberry flavor.

8. Woodchuck Granny Smith Cider (Cider?,?% ABV): Well, it was cidery, kinda tastes like wine to me.

10/09/09, 10/10/09

On Friday night I joined Cami and her work friends at the Pub again (I should have this situation rectified by this weekend). Anyway, I gave Smithwick's (Irish Red Ale, 4.5% ABV) another chance since they have it on tap there. Well, it must have been better at the more authentic Irish pub where I originally had it because it was pretty meh. I think there's a special Smithwick's Pub Draught that this wasn't. It's too dark to take good pictures at that pub. Moving along...

The next night saw me through a variety of imbibing. I started the evening with an apéritif beer, one of the Yuengling Black and Tans (Black and Tan, 4.7% ABV) I had in the fridge.

This was somewhat tastier than the regular Yuengling lager, probably due to it's being half not a lager, but I'd prefer the dark half of the equation to be thicker. The head dissipated too quickly, it was somewhat smokey and crisp, kind of boring. Too bad I still have 4-5 more of these in the fridge.

After that I wound up having some wine at a Jamaican restaurant and then wound up at The Stardust Cafe, where I had the Lion Stout (Export Stout, 8.0% ABV) they had on tap.



The first sip was the best, nice and creamy, and it subsequently got a bit more bitter. I think my bartender didn't know or care enough to leave me with much head on this, but I got over it.

Unfortunately, from this point on, we went to the club where the situation dictates I must drink Bud Lights as I'd be a douche to try to order any better beers, which probably weren't available anyway, and if I'd had liquor I probably would've had an even worse hangover than the one I ended up having anyway,

Ate too much to have much beer 10/3/09

I had a Staropramen beer the other night. The picture matches the Staropramen light (3.5% ABV) beer on Beeradovate.com, but I'm pretty certain it was actually the regular Staropramen lager (Czech Pilsener, 5.0% ABV) as I have a memory of it saying 5.0% ABV. I wouldn't have knowingly picked up the light version anyway...

It was boring but not horrible, so it must have been the regular.