Life's too short to drink bad beer.

Quick Tasting Notes: Acme California Pale Ale

A light, malty ale from North Coast Brewing Co. Lots of forward caramel and bread notes. Not much of a hop bite. Nice for a summer patio beer (perfect for the Argonaut patio!). And mad props to the folks at the Argonaut. We were so happy to see people out on the patio and upstairs [...]

Quick tasting notes: Meta Beer

At Ethiopic on H st. Waiting at the bar for one of the cool little window tables. I ordered a Meta. Very malty. Reminds me of Tusker. Almost like a malt liquor in flavor. Tons of caramel with a little pilsner bitterness. I hope it goes well with the spicy Wot beef I just ordered.

Quick tasting notes: NOLA Hopitoulas IPA

What a different beer! Definitely a West Coast IPA. Lots of grapefruit and lemon in the nose. A little malt and toast on the palate which is then totally taken over by the crisp hop bite. That fabulous bitterness hangs around for a good two or three minutes after (a beer afterglow?). Many thanks to [...]

Quick tasting notes: NOLA Blonde

I walked to the edge of the Garden District to find The Avenue pub recommended by beer geeks in the area. Sticking local I ordered the blonde from NOLA brewing company, a relatively new brewery in the New Orleans. It’s a very pretty beer: orange amber like the lollipops you got at the bank when [...]

Guest Post: St. Peter’s Sorghum Beer

My Hoppy Place gifted Real Food Fans with a bottle of sorghum beer originally recommended by the Beermudgeon. While selecting the beers for our tasting (the write up is in the queue), we asked the Beermudgeon if he’d ever had any good gluten-free beers and he happily recommended St. Peters Sorghum Beer from the UK. [...]

Bitch Session: Raging Bitch

Here’s the second beer from the Flying Dog Bitch Session at Policy.This followed the Brooklyn Lager and the snifter of Dog Schwartz Tons of floral and citrus notes. Lovely amber color. Belgian flavor comes through on tasting but doesn’t linger long. A nice, hoppy beer that satisfies. At 8.3 percent, maybe not the best choice [...]

Bitter vs Bitter

Sitting in McGinty’s pub. We ordered one Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and one Redhook ESB (extra special bitter). Comparing the two is an interesting exercise. Sierra is crisp with a little sweet, coppery note. The ESB has a great hop bite, almost as bitter as the Sierra, but a totally different character. Sierra has all [...]

Laughing Dog Huckleberry Cream Ale

My sister and I picked this up at a great store in NJ. HUGE selection of really cool beers. They have one aisle of large bottles and six packs. I almost unpacked my bags and moved into that aisle. But on to the beer: Pale, cloudy ale. Sour berry nose. Cidery flavor at the first [...]

Bitch Session: Dog Schwartz

Quick notes from the Flying Dog Bitch Session. They featured three beers: Raging Bitch 4, Garde Dog Bier de Garde, and Dog Schwartz. I wanted to try Dog Schwartz first. The idea of a smoked double lager intrigued me. However, tap issue thwarted my plans. After a Brooklyn lager, the bartender brought over a snifter [...]

Phin & Matt’s Extraordinary Ale

My first reaction to this beer is not “extraordinary.” Unless they meant “extra ordinary.” It was decent but nothing to write home about (though apparently enough to write here about!). The amazing pumpkin & goat cheese filled ravioli served with wild mushrooms in a butter-cream-nutmeg sauce (awesome! I highly recommend the restaurant, Scion, in Dupont [...]