It’s not creamy, but I love it!
Wow, has it really been a week? Sorry for the delay in posting something that really needs to be said before I disappear into another unexplained website absence. The time has come to give a nice shout out to Idaho’s own Laughing Dog Brewery, and their Cream Ale.
I bought this stuff on a whim as I filled up the “variety six pack” at New Seasons. “Sounds Nasty” I thought to myself. “This should be fun”. Well, slap me around and call me Susan, if I wasn’t 100% wrong. Laughing Dog Cream Ale is fantastic! Why? Because its not creamy! In fact, its a great light smooth easy drinking ale that was absolutely perfect for the camping trip I just took. Nothing quite says ’sitting around a lake doing nothing’ like this stuff. No weird flavor, smells nice, looks nice and was “Session-y” in the sense that I drank a lot of it in one sitting. (go liver!)
Having had a few, I figure that they got the “creamy” moniker from the fact that the special concoction of ingredients make it so there is no sharp aftertaste, which I rank as a plus. I can’t give them any points for the label, but for the taste, a new spot has been earned in the 4th of July cooler.
(Up next: Captured By Porches Kolsch gets double teamed, and Bridgeport reigns generous supreme!)









I love winter time in beer land. More so than any other season, brewers seem compelled to pull out all their tricks and come up with new and fun beer concoctions. And because its so cold for most of America, they tend to be on the darker side, which of course makes Frosty a happy boy. Ninkasi’s winter brew, Sleigh’r, is no exception. Now, yes, I’ve been hard on Ninkasi in the past, but to be fair all their beer is just so damn hoppy. Imbued with all the narcissism only a guy with a beer review blog can have, I’ll go ahead and claim that they heard my cries, and have decided to make a brew truly worthy of my lofty praise.
Naming a stout after a train can really go wrong: either by implying a certain coal-tar flavor (mmmm…burnt), or with a foreshadow to the effect the stout will have on your head after drinking. Lucky for me, neither apply to North Coast Brewing’s Old #38 Stout. Its more like a smooth ride down a track of air than the smoky clackety rumble its name implies. This stuff is good. Real good. Smooth, and “just right” flavorful, it puts to shame all the stouts that feel the need to brew themselves with some other flavor to mask the funk (Abyss excepted of course).
I wasn’t always a beer snob. In fact, I used to hate beer. But when I think back, I can always point to the one brewery that taught me that beer didn’t have to taste like urine (go keystone!). And that brewery was headed by the jolly, slurring, german guy who would pipe up on the radio, “its the best beer you’ve ever tasted, or my name isn’t Karl Strauss”. Now, its not the best beer I’ve ever tasted, but it is damn good, so I’ll give old Karl the credit and let him keep his name.
scootette 8:04 am on June 25, 2010 Permalink
their label is fantastic!
just found you through Bridgeport’s twitter.
great site!
cheers!
Frosty 8:18 am on July 10, 2010 Permalink
Thanks! I have a special place in my heart for that clasp bottle top style too.