DAMN YOU SEASONAL BEERS!    Normally I don’t care for autumny seasonal ales, they tend to be a bit overly roasted for me.   But when the resident beer mistress (Wife) and I were beer shopping yesterday at Zupans, the Late Harvest Autumn Ale from Red Hook looked good, especially since it was only $6.99/6-pack.    This was the last one on the shelf, so either it had been cheap for a while or it was good.   I decided it was worth the risk and I didn’t feel like paying $8-$10 for a six pack of some other questionable offering.

Last night for dinner we made “Thai Coconut-Chili Clams” for dinner with some local bread we picked up at the Beaverton Farmer’s Market.   I was worried this beer was going to be one of those roasty, harsh, burnt tasting amber-y winter/cold weather beers, so I was sampling with some trepidation.   I was truly surprised with my first sip when it was only slightly roasty, yummily malty, and a tiny bit hoppy in a good way.    It went perfectly with the almost buttery, rich manilla clams.    This is just a good beer!

I couldn’t have been happier.   Even better is that I get to post more than one positive Frosty review in a row.  =)

I say “Damn you Seasonal Beers” because I know this stuff won’t be around long and I hate not being able to re-find stuff I enjoy swilling.    According to the info I could find online, it may already be out of production.   Sigh.   At least I’ve still got five more to swill before they’re all gone.

Cheers and swill on!

After reading about Frosty’s “Stump Tart”, I went on a swilling run to Haggen and raided their beer stash.

I didn’t find any of the fruity Bridgeport swill in stock, but I did stumble across two nice surprises:

Fraoch Heather Ale - I expected horrible things to happen in my mouth when thinking about tasting this, but my love for Celtic culture made me ignore my misgivings.

It turns out that I was correct to not listen to my brain when selecting beers. This stuff is fantastic; even at $4.50 a bottle! It’s very well balanced and easy to drink. You can almost taste a little bit of the heather flowers this stuff is brewed with. So, if Frosty can go fruity, I can go flowery and call it a good day of swillage. The world takes all types, flavors, and colors.

Coopers Brewery Sparkling Ale - The sparkly name on this puppy (paying homage to Frosty’s shiny beer choice recently), and it’s decent single-bottle price tag made it worth a shot to try. Another blast over the outfield fence here.

It’s not quite as “clean” as the Fraoch stuff, but it’s still infinitely drinkable and tasty. It’s got a little bit of yeasty funkiness, but it works well in a beer this clean tasting. It’s Australian even.

My two forays into the world of other-worldly, or other-country-ly, beers was a distinct success and renewed my faith that there are still great, if previously unknown, beers to try on the shelf at your favorite swill emporium. Both worked well with the smoked salmon spread on crackers that the wife and I had for a late-night TV viewing snackfest. Both even tasted good with the apples & caramel dip wehad for dessert.

If you had to choose only one of these two beers as your choice for a dying wish beer, go for the Fraoch Heather Ale! You’ll die with a foamy, Heathery smile on your face, even having never been with Heather Graham before your demise.

This Swill Jockey was glad to have hopped in the beer saddle last night. Two solid 5s here.

Another day, another IPA, eh? At a certain point I am going to have to admit that IPA is my favorite kind of beer. Having had the pleasure of rubbing fresh hops between my hands and savoring the greeny aroma, I guess I like to have the same experience when I sample the product of this glorious feminine Cannabacea.

I was sent down to the store to get some Infant Tylenol for my son this evening. He had his circumcision today and truly deserved it. As I drove to Freddie’s I thought that on such an auspicious evening I should drink a toast of fine brewed beer to my son’s missing foreskin. I bypassed Fred’s and headed down the block to New Seasons, my favorite destination for beer.

I spent a few minutes too long in the First Aid isle looking for children’s Tylenol. It took me a while to figure out that the reason they don’t have infant Tylenol in anything but drops is because infants can’t swallow pills or chew tablets (something about not having teeth). Gimme a break, it has been a while.

My selection tonight was Lagunitas Maximus. Like I said, I love IPA and with me the more IPA the better. Rogue’s Imperial IPA is one of my top 1o. I just realized I haven’t reviewed it. I’ll have to get some and make that happen. Anywhoo, an IPA with the word MAXIMUS emblazoned in big letters across the label certainly caught my eye. Once again, I chose the pint-and-a-half size.

First sniff: The hoppy aroma (cascade hops if I had to guess) was what you’d accept.

First sip: A kind of drier hoppy taste with a turpentine-y finish.

At first I was a little surprised by the finish. I couldn’t place it. Oaky, dry, hmm… it wasn’t like licking fresh varnish or anything. Kind of like a woody flavor. Redwoods to be specific. Yummy! I wonder if I could get my 5-year old self to enjoy it?

In the ongoing frosty-battle between Full Moon and New Belgium, the leader of the pack is constantly changing. But like a presidential primary, based on last nights polling results New Belgium has delivered a mighty smack down with its “Mothership Wit”. It’s light, a touch spicy, and has a clear crisp taste that is very wheat brew-y.

Fellow reviewer skylark (whose wife recently gave birth to a bouncing baby boy), and I were having an argument … er … discussion once about his assertion that New Belgium beers all taste the same. Having now tried all but 1, I have to say that Mothership Wit tastes nothing like 1554, and publicly decry that he’s just bitter that New Belgium doesn’t make IPAs.

I also have to give this beer extra kudos for being organic. Up here in the land of Birkenstocks and hybrid cars, labeling things organic gives you extra points with the “boutique grocery store” crowd. Even the hippies my kids played drums with in the park would approve. Not of showering perhaps, but drinking this beer for sure. Then recycling the bottle to water your “medicinal” herbs, man.

There’s really not much I can say about this other that yum. When SwillJockey and I were cooking up the idea for this site, we stumbled into a beer pusher and bought a large collection of random beer. Tannen Bomb, from McMinnville, Oregon was one of them. I honestly don’t remember much about them apart from a little piece of paper I kept that said “Tannen Bomb - thumbs up”.

And yes it is! I wouldn’t say its a “memorable” beer, but its one of those beers that you drink and go…damn this is good. It’s dark, malty and super smooth going down. And unlike some other beers I’ve had that I though were good, I drink every last sip. And truly, the measure of a good beer is if you want to drink even that lukewarm semi-fuzz that sits at the bottom of the glass.

So there I was at my local beer pusher the other day, when I was approached by the wiley dealer. “Hey wanna try something awesome?” she said with a crazy enthusiasm. Given my general enjoyment of beer experimentation, I ignored the silly little wine glass it was offered in and tasted what has to be the most unique “beer” I’ve ever had.

Brewed by this crazy little brewery in Japan, this “Commemorative Ale 2008″ tastes like no other beer I know. A hallmark of Japanese beer, it goes down real dry, but then has a bit of fruity aftertaste that I can only really say tastes an awful lot like champagne. And not the bottle cap kind either. Real pop the cork and break a window kind of champagne.

How can I rate a beer I can’t even adequately describe to you as beer … a five? Because despite the ludicrous $4.50/bottle price tag…I actually went back to buy more. Crack dealer 101: the first hit is always free.

I do love New Belgium beers, so imagine my horror this morning when I read our dear skylark saying that they all tasted the same! *shock and alarm*. To his defense, Skinny Dip is really just Fat Tire Light, but my dear skylark, you must try 1554! 1554 by New Belgium is this completely awesome dark belgian beer that is absolutely unlike anything else they make. In fact, it is almost unlike anything anyone else makes at all (Standard micro breweries anyway). While most are playing the “we can be more hoppy than you” game, NB dares to make a dark malty beer with kick ass distinction. It’s so good, its actually one of my favorites of all time.

Perhaps its my affinity for beer I can’t see through. But when I read “Belgian Black Ale” I was sold. Someday, if I ever go to Belgium the country, I am going to get so wildly drunk on Belgian beer that I may forget I was ever there. Of course, with the way internationalization goes these days, Belgium is probably full of Budweiser and Coors. Then I’ll just drink milk and wonder why Belgian beer only tastes good in America.

I can now add another in my quest to review all the brews from this generation’s best brewery, New Belgium. This time I had a six pack of something that can only be described as Happiness in a glass. It was like drinking sunshine. Sunshine Wheat to be exact. And very appropriately named. It was light, refreshing, a hint of fruitiness, and if such a thing can be said … it tasted … cold. If you like wheat beers that are light enough to please the pilsner crowd, start guzzling now. As the three recent empties in the picture can attest to, you’ll drink them fast. Too fast, the throbbing in my head might say…

Old Market Pub, is a family-friendly favorite. They brew their beer on-site and have a good selection from Kölsch to Porters. They have great burgers, pasta, and pizza. Along with pool, big screen tv, and shuffle board, all nestled in Garden Home, they got some great beers.

I’ve tried a few of their varied selection, many of which are not always available, but their Hop On Imperial IPA is delicious. A lot of IPAs try to out-hop the competition at the cost of drinkability. Hop On delivers that satisfying hoppiness but with a long, smooth taste. It had an effervescent finish that tickled the nose and made me want to pick the glass up and take another drink right away.

On the beer menu under Hop-O, it says, “Ted Dignan, regular, wife will not allow him to drink on weekdays.” After two, I can see why. Lots of gravity.

I guess I just have a special affection for beers that you can’t see through. While no Blackened Voodoo, it makes a decent substitute. It has that indescribable yummy dark flavor, without a single hint of cheek smash or “lets call it chocolate” twang (yeah you heard me Bison Chocolate Stout). Its good, and I basically have nothing but good to say about how yummy this tastes.

Sadly, since its from Brazil (how the hell do you pronounce that name anyway), you won’t be able to get a six pack for less that 10-12 bucks. Plus, I guess they don’t have good glass in Brazil, since this bottle had the weight and consistency of that sugar glass they use in the movies. If they weren’t so damn pricey, I may have had a few more and drunkily tested to see if it broke over my head. Thank you Market of Choice, for making this too expensive to hurt myself.