I don’t normally like Oatmeal Stout, but Ninkasi did a great job with this one, giving it the distinction of now being the 4th best stout Ive ever tasted. Sorry Abyss.

Humboldt is cool. ANd right next to Humboldt is the Lost Coast Brewery. They make Downtown Brown Ale, and damn if it isn’t the best easy drinking winter beer I’ve had this season. I won’t be wordy, other than to say ignore the goofy wrapper and drink it anyway.

I am posting this review for bookkeeping sake, so it’ll be super short. The Abyss. They only make it once a year. I am okay with that.  4th best stout Ive ever had.

It came with a gimmick. A 3D label with its very own glasses. When a beer feels the need to be so playful, you have to wonder if its hiding a dirty secret. In this case, the 3D glory of a raven pecking at the New Belgium brewers (ok I made that bit up) … had nothing to hide. This porter is awesome.

And with such great offerings as Haymaker, Stumptown Tart and Raven Mad, I officially declare Bridgeport to be the current holder of the coveted Frosty Goodness Awesomenessest Brewery Award. Congratulations to you and all of us who can drink your expert brews.

As for Raven Mad itself: it’s a strong tasty porter. Strong in the way porters can be, but then smooth and warm without any nasty sharp aftertaste. Plus, it’s oppresively dark, too dark to see through (which earns it bonus points for me).

This November 4th, vote Bridgeport. Because all these TV ads are making me ……… (wait for it) …….. Raven Mad.

Sorry for the long gap in posts. You see, when I found out that Stumptown Tart was a limited run, and it was soon to be gone forever, I headed over to Magic Beer Station and cleaned them out. Many drunken nights later, I have finally decided to try something new, keeping up the appearance that we actually do something with this website.

On to Wolaver’s Organic Brown Ale. This review is going to be painfully short. Because really, the beer was good. Not awesome, not bad. Just one of those good beers. Calming and enjoyable. The beer version of smoking a nice cigar on a leather sofa.

Unfortunately, its hot outside, I’m getting that sweaty leg on leather thing, and the AC is on so the cigar smoke is swirling around the house making me cough. In other words, Wolaver’s Organic Brown is great beer, but is here too early. Come back in November dear Wolaver, when I’m ready to lement the loss of Oregon sun by wallowing in Thanksgiving turkey and dark malty beer. August is not for you.

Welcome folks to the first installment of a new series here on Frosty Goodness, the “He brews beer” collection. Quite a few of our fellow drunkards have begun brewing beer of their own, and we would be remiss if we didn’t highlight the ups and downs of their foray into garage speakeasies. So without further ado, lets begin.

This is Doug Boyer. Doug is a great guy, and when not coming up with ways to make our livers swim, is actually in charge of shaping our future as a big wig at a local school. Doug’s submission into the always dangerous hands of Frosty Goodness was a dark and tasty porter that we at the Goodness have officially named “Boyer Bathroom Porter“. (More on the name later)

Many of you no doubt know that I am no real fan of porters. They tend to have this “gristle” taste to them, as if someone just shoved a bunch of junk in a pot and cooked it until it stopped wiggling. I have had in my day, a few good ones. But until I sat on an empty stomach in Doug’s kitchen and drank 20 or so ounces of this beer, it had been really shaky. Kudos to Doug then for curing my fear of the dark yummy roast. BBB as we’ll call it for short, was super drinkable, had a yummy “toasty” flavor, and gave me a wicked buzz that carried all the way up to me putting my swooning head to bed. Luckily for me, if not for my liver, I walked away with “one for the road”.

In revisiting from above, why the name “Boyer Bathroom Porter”? Well, I really hope it had it’s brown color before the fermentation process. Because as it turns out, Doug did his fermenting in the downstairs family bathroom. Which as I told him, is a statement that is really a joke in itself.

As a father of three, one of which arriving in the last 2 weeks, it is odd that I am writing to you completely alone in my usually busy house. With a new baby boy, two pre-teens, and a wife who I love to talk to, it is very odd indeed.

I returned from my indoor soccer game (we won, 10-3… yes!) to find the house empty. The whole fam damily was off visiting Grandma. I stopped at my local New Seasons picked up some meatloaf, some garbanzo bean salad, and the first pint and 1/2 that caught my eye. I love the selection at New Seasons. It makes choosing a beer hard, which is a good thing in my book.

It came down between El Hefe, a hef from Seatle’s Hale’s Ales and Laurelwood’s Vinter Varmer. I was about to buy both but I decided against upon inspection of El Hefe. Being from the home of Widmer Brewing, I expect my Hef to be golden and cloudy. I could see right through the bottle, and like my drinking water, I don’t trust anything I can see through. With that I vowed to try the El Hefe some other time and buy the Vinter Varmer. Also, I have to admit the label had me at the cute little squirrel (he drinkin a pint!). I am a sucker for label designs and this was no exception.

Fresh from my soccer victory I was feeling great as I sat down to enjoy some meatloaf and American Chopper. The Vinter Varmer was a perfect match for the meatloaf. I love meatloaf and it made me yearn for some Raccoon Lodge stout gravy. This stout had a nice carmely finish with rich undertones. Not your typical burnt-chocolatey stout. Very nice.

The pint and a half format is perfect for this kind of beer. Of course, the best way to enjoy this beer would probably be sitting down at the Laurelwood with Frosty and connman with some pub grub but the next best thing has to be this. I couldn’t imagine myself drinking a six-pack of this stuff (I don’t think they even sell it that way) but it is great in a single serving.

I think I might try to make some gravy with some Vinter Varmer but I will probably end up drinking it instead.

Ok, sorry about the posting delay. My liver and I had a heart to heart, and it had asked me kindly to give it some time to recoup from the onslaught of the holiday booze fest to let it return to normal. I relented. For awhile. But with reality creeping back in to remind me of why I drink in the first place, it’s on with the review.

Long a favorite of mine at the local German Pub, Gustav’s, Spaten Optimator is one of those beers that makes you feel like swaying your mug right to left and singing some drunken pub tune. Its got a certain “I’ve never been to Germany but I bet this is what the beer there is like” taste to it that I enjoy. Dark, malty, with a bit of “foreign dark beer kick” which seems to go away the more drunk on it you get. I had 48 ounces one evening with Foobar and by the end it was the smoothest damn beer I’d ever had, and I had solved the problem of world hunger, world peace, and spilled on myself. Good times.

I give this a 4 instead of a 5 however, because as one would expect, the bottled version isn’t nearly as good as the draught you get at Gustav’s. And unless you readers happen to leave in the northwest, the bottled is all you’ll get. It’s still good, but teeters on affirming my old saying: “all beer in green bottles tastes funny”. Yeah, you heard me Heineken.

Before starting this site, this used to be one of my favorite beers. But somewhere, among the 70 or so different varieties of hoorays and hurling, it lost its way. It’s a shame really, because I bought it to help clear out the taste of that particularly bad Brazilian beer, and it failed.

Perhaps nothing short of drano could clear out a swig of Einsenbahn, or maybe my affinity for stouts is waning. I mean I trashed Snow Plow, and short of a Black & Tan at an Irish Pub one night, I haven’t really enjoyed a stout in a long time. I still give this a four however, because its the second best stout I’ve ever had.

Oh the taste? Well, its stout smooth, mellow to no aftertaste, with a hint of a flavor I can assume is “chicory”, an ingredient that a few short seconds of wikipedia surfing reveals to be essentially poor man’s coffee.

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.