Beer . . .

Without making myself sound like a sweet frat brah, I've had the new Miller "Chill" and it's not awful. I couldn't drink more than 3 max, but it's doable.

On that note, I love this time of year because I can't get enough porters and stouts. The closest beer store is an hour away from me but next time I'm in the neighborhood, I'm loading up on Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. That is fantastic.

For the girly/taste factor, a Lambic Framboise mixed with Young's Double Chocolate in a black and tan-type deal is very, very good.

 

Sam Adams brews a special beer once a year or so called Utopias. I believe it was the 2005 version that came in around 26%. Costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 a bottle, if you can even find it. I was fortunate enough to get a small (2oz) sample two summers ago at the Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison. It was like drinking a fine cognac, with a nice alcohol burn at the end.

I've had lots of different beers (usually special one-offs brewed by microbreweries for events or festivals) that either top the 20% mark or at least approach it. Some are outstanding, some just taste like garbage. A well-done high-gravity (alcohol) brew is a great thing....in moderation of course. Old Ales, Barleywines, Wheatwines, Imperial IPAs, Belgian Quadrupels, Russian Imperial Stouts and Doppelbocks/Triplebocks/Eisbocks are the normal culprits above the 15% mark, especially those that are aged an additional amount of time in oak whisky/bourbon barrels, which is a current trend in the industry.

 

WE have a place here that lets you mix-and-match, mostly microbrews or imports. But it's like $2-$2.50 a bottle.

 

A little searching on my own netted this site mentioning a beer with 29 percent alcohol content:

http://www.drinkingbeer.net/BeerAlcoholContent/index.php5

 

Are you talking about the bubbly stuff?

It's great. It's like champagne crack. We get a bottle every weekend for 4.31.

 

Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose? I mean, I like beer and all, but still...

Once upon a time, in my younger and dumber days, I made the mistake of buying a Sam Adams Triple Bock. (The bottle was really bad-ass.) I took one sip and dumped the rest of a $14-or-so beer. Just couldn't hack it. Too much bitterness, too much bouquet, too much everything. (Lest you think I'm kidding, this occurred during the winter of my senior year of college. I added it to my bottle collection. When the time came to move out in the spring, you could still smell a trace of the beer - even though it had been thoroughly washed out.)

Lastly, a postmortem on the Childress: Dry, not buttery, not very complex. I asked my wife if it was worth getting again. She didn't hesitate.

"No."

 

Good god yes.

Have some pride, man.

Hopefully, you're too young to know better. If you're older than 22, there's no hope for you.

 

They have been out for a long time. I lived in Pittsburgh in 99 and we used to get this german beer called (forgive me for my spelling it has been eight years) Kostriker and it came in mini kegs. Labatt started doing it a couple of years ago as well.

 

I had that a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't all that impressed. It came in a weird 18 pack. There were six stella's, six hoegarrden's and six leffe's.

Has anyone ever had a belgian red before? One night after having several imperial pints of Rouge Deadguy, I decided to try the casked Belgian Red. I just remember it being the most disgusting thing I have ever drank. I got so sick. Necer new if it was because of the amount of alch. I had already consumed or if the beer was just rotten. Who knows how long it had been in that cask.

 

Sierra Nevada tonight, Chickie. And isn't it about time Stan and I threw a couple back?

 

Probably. Course Stan's off beer and catnip after the infamous porn-posting incident

 

C'mon, that was just Stan Being Stan.