Beer Buy

While it never takes much prodding to get me to head to the liquor store, yesterday there was a one, two punch encouraging me. First, Lift Bridge (specifically Brad and his lovely wife) was doing a tasting at The Cellars located less than a mile from my house. Second, an email from Jason over there letting me know that among other things, Crème Brulee was back in stock.

After working up the motivation to head out into the hot, steamy out of doors I made my way over there. I had a nice chat with Brad, which included hearing about the previous night’s Brew at the Zoo (it was sold out AND I’m told was a pretty good event). Then I made my way back to see all of the new things that had arrived since my last visit. Mark pointed out a few not to be passed over things and warned me away from a couple he knew would not be to my liking.

I’m not sure how long I was there, but like usual, it was probably a really long time to spend staring so intently at bottles of beer. In the end, I made out with 5 bombers, 1 single and a 6 pack of Lift Bridge Farm Girl.

I need a beer…

…a good beer, and in a very bad way. After only 2 days of our 4 in Mexico, that was my exact thought.

The all inclusive we stayed at served only Dos Equis, both the regular and amber varieties. In all fairness I’ll admit that Dos Equis amber is one of my preferred Mexican beers, along with Negro Modelo. However, when a mediocre lager is the only halfway palatable choice, it gets old fast. Really fast.

So by the time we were boarding the plane home I was so desperate for something resembling the beloved, flavorful, enjoyable craft beers I’ve apparently gotten spoiled on that I almost asked the flight attendant what their beer selection consisted of. Then I thought better of it. Knowing that she would rattle off a list of undesirable macros as my hopes for something worth paying for dwindled was more disappointment than I could bear as I kissed the sun and warmth of the past few days goodbye.

Instead I sat, dreaming of getting home, getting some dinner and picking something from our modestly stocked beer fridge (time for runs to both Cellar’s and WI) to cure my four day forced fast from the beers I love.

Oscura, lovely Oscura (and other goodies)

Thanks to our beer loving (and beer sharing) friends Kat and Scott who came over for some grilling Thursday night I found out that Furthermore’s Oscura has made its way into bottles and into local liquor stores. They were kind enough to share two of their stash but that was really only enough to tease me so I decided yesterday I would have to go get some for myself.

That meant going to my local Cellars where Jason scared me for a minute telling me he thought they only had one six pack left. Thankfully upon checking he found three more, making it possible for me to go home with the two six packs I had intended. I was really tempted to buy all four of them but that seemed a little too greedy, even for me. Even with Oscura being at the top of my coffee beer list right now I know there are others out there that would like to be able to take some home, too.

As always tends to be the case, I couldn’t just leave with what I came for. I stayed for a while, chatted about the new, yummy treats that had come in and then had to make some hard decisions about just how much I really needed. In the end I went with their suggestion of a bomber of Southern Tier’s Imperial Pumking and also picked up a bomber of their Crème Brulee. Having had an excellent Crème Brulee beer recently at the Great Taste in the Real Ale tent I was excited that this might be from the same folks.

As it turns out, when I checked the Great Taste information, the Crème Brulee there was made by Kuhnhenn and is called Crème Brulee Java Stout where Southern Tier’s is called Crème Brulee Imperial Milk Stout. I’m still hopeful because if Southern Tier can even do half as good as Kuhnhenn did, this should still be one darn good beer.

Notes from The Cellars

I stayed away as long as I could but on this warm Friday afternoon I could no longer resist. It was time to see what goodies were waiting for me at The Cellars in Eagan. In addition to goodies, I found out a few things I feel compelled to pass along.

1. There is still some Surly Bitter Brewer to be found although Cellars is down to their last two cases.
2. Dark Horse is pulling out of the local market. This is both good and bad news. Bad because we won't be able to get it any more but good because the reason is the demand for their products is more than they can handle. Let's hope that demand continues so they can expand and return to the Twin Cities in the future. For now, if you see it...buy it.
3. The new Flat Earth labels are cool! (yes, I know, it's been a while since I've been to the store)
4. The Cellars is carrying five of the Southern Tier brews- Cherry Saison (also to be found on tap at Town Hall), Heavy Weizen (Imperial unfiltered wheat), a barleywine, Unearthly (an Imperial IPA) and an Imperial EPA (which I picked up).

Ok, now that I've done my good deed for the day, it's time to start the weekend...with a Bitter Brewer!

Disaster Narrowly Avoided

After grabbing a beer out of the beer fridge earlier this week I noticed that we were dangerously low on beer. Really, there was only 1 bottle left (ok, that doesn’t include the 3 cases Mag picked up for New Year’s Eve but that doesn’t count because I’m not supposed to touch that stash). So on my way home from work I decided I had no choice but to make a quick run to the liquor store. That liquor store being Cellars meant I was setting myself up for some ridicule and I wasn’t disappointed. I missed the beer tasting they hosted last weekend and that wasn’t going to be allowed to slide by. However after some good natured ribbing I got plenty of good input on the many new things they had since I was last there. In the end I picked up Dark Horse One- an oatmeal stout ale that is nothing like the locally famous One from Surly but excellent in it’s own right. I’ve had plenty of oatmeal stouts that often feel light in the stout area. Not so with this one! This is a full bodied stout that rivals the other two of their line up I’ve tried- Crooked Tree IPA and Black Bier. If you see any Dark Horse in a liquor store, pick it up! You won’t be disappointed. The other one I picked up was Sam Adam’s Imperial Pilsner. I’m not generally a pilsner fan but add “imperial” on there and at the least I am intrigued. Sam Adams may no longer be one of the small guys but this is an outstanding beer, regardless of the brewery that produced it. I told the beer gurus over at Cellar’s I might be back tomorrow and after picking up two four-packs of excellent beer there’s a good chance our beer fridge will once again be in the dangerously low category by tomorrow morning.

The Dog Days of Summer- Drink Some Dog

Last weekend, on our way to a night of games with friends, we stopped by our local Cellar’s in Eagan. As always we got some great information from the guys that work there as we were selecting our poison for the night. Mag and I each selected a new one to try, both of which happened to be made by Flying Dog. Mag’s choice was Double Dog Double Pale Ale (only in a 4 pack) and I chose Road Dog, a Scottish Porter. Double Dog is a big beer, coming in at 85 IBUs and 10.5% ABV. Take time and slowly enjoy this big, full beer. Road Dog is more along the lines of your standard beer in alcohol content however the label has a great little slogan “Good Beer No Shit.” Yep, somehow these lucky Dogs slipped “shit” by the label Nazi’s that usually catch things like this. Both are great beers worth picking up next time you need some Dog.

And as a side note- THE GREAT TASTE OF THE MIDWEST IS LESS THAN 3 WEEKS AWAY…YAHOO!

Unemployed Never Tasted So Good

Well, okay, technically I'm not unemployed since I'm still on someone's payroll and won't really have any days where I'm not on someone's payroll before I start my new gig, but it's fun to say I'm unemployed. If I hadn't expanded my waistline to the point where my pants don't fit during our trip to Chicago, I'd probably be more inclined to spend my week off between jobs in a pickled stupor at my local favorites. As it is, it's 5 P.M. on my first day off and I'm only now having my first beer. For shame.

Our local Cellars continues to do a great job in carrying interesting craft beers. The other day I picked up three six packs from a joint I'd never heard of before, nor seen in MN - Barley Island in Noblesville, Indiana. The brews I bought were Dirty Helen Brown, Blind Tiger Pale, and Bar Fly IPA. I had the Helen and the Tiger on Saturday, but frankly I was a bit toasted by then and don't really recall if I enjoyed them. I'll have to rectify that. The IPA is pretty damn good. It's got tons of bitter hop flavor and sufficient aroma to not disappoint. It's a bit on the bitter side in the after taste though (duh, no sh!t sherlock).

And oh yeah, New Belgium is now available in MN once again. Yippie! I don't care much for Fat Tire, but I do enjoy several of their other beers.

Finally, I did try the new Miller product, Chill or Chelada or whatever the hell it's called. It was pretty good. I'd certainly drink one of these green beasts before any other Miller beers. Anyway, it's worth checking out - especially since it isn't being rammed down our throats by Miller's marketing thugs...at least not yet anyway.