Do What You Want, But...Please Don't Crye

Who can guess what song hatched those lovely lyrics? And yeah, I know "crye" is misspelled. Oooh did I just misspell "misspelled"???

On Friday, Jeff and I went to dinner at Arbor Brewing Company, something that we often do on Fridays. I had dropped him off and then parked the car, so when I got there, he had already gotten us beers. Good, good man! I had a Sacred Cow IPA waiting for me. Jeff slid his drink to me and said, "Try some."

I took a sip and tasted a crisp, light beer with a nice hit of hops. "What is it?" asked I.

"C'rye Baby Rye," said he. "And you'll never guess what its ABV is."

I shrugged a little. "What, about 5, 5.5?"

He showed me the menu where the beer was listed as 7.75%. Dude! I never would have guessed. I could have quaffed down a few of those and only realized the high ABV after I was jumping up and down on the table, singing "Clang Clang Clang Goes the Trolley."

The beer is made with plae and caramel malts with 35% malted rye. It is made with Mt. Hood hops, which accounts for that "hit" of hops I mentioned.

I'm not sure how long this will be on the menu, so get down there and have some. Just don't drink so much that you start singing Judy Garland songs...unless you're into that sort of thing :)

The Wolf of the Farmer's Daughter

This past Tuesday, the Grizzly Peak had its monthly "brewers' night at the Den" and premiered its Saison, called Loup dans la Fille du Fermier. After Jeff and I mangled the name a few times, our waiter told us we could just call it the Farmer's Daughter, cuz that's what it stood for. Actually, I found out later that the name really means the WOLF of the farmer's daughter. WTF????

Anywho! The beer was good. It had a nice finish full of American Liberty Hops goodness...very smooth. I got a slight citrus hit from it after it sat in my mouth for a minute. It also had a "dry" mouth feel, which I sometimes find irritating but I could live with this.

After I finished the TWOTFD, I had an Amarillo Pale. It was perfect, as always...smooth, nice hops--just YUM!

Super Liquor IV

So we FINALLY made it to Super Liquor IV last Friday, en route to our first exposure to whirlyball. For the uninitiated (as we were), whirlyball is much like lacrosse or polo, but played indoors in BUMPER CARS. You play in teams of 5, with very few rules other than "keep your hands inside the cars at all times for fear of dismemberment", and each game lasts 12 minutes. At the end of 12 minutes, the teams adjourn to the waiting area to drink beer. Maybe it's just me, but this seems to be one of those 'athletic endeavors' where people really do play better after a few.

But I digress. Super Liquor IV is between points A and B, so we stopped in to fuel up. I can't begin to describe the squeal I emitted when I saw that they carry Speakeasy beers from San Francisco!!! AND a whole host of Abita beers!!! I didn't have time to check out the entire selection, only the cooler, but next time... oh yes.... time will be spent perusing the aisles. Who knows what I might find? If they carry Dixie or El Toro, M may have to carry me out on a stretcher....

Bizarro Brew

The Ann Arbor Brewers Guild made their second Bizarro Brew, which premiered at the Corner last Wednesday. This beer was made up of stuff that people brought with them, the entire list of which can be found here.

I was anxiously waiting for this beer because it just looked so insane that I knew it was going to be really good or really bad. I mean, Peeps and jerk rub and spruce under the mash screen and rosemary and ginger??? ...the fuck??? But it worked! Oh people my people, it worked!

Cindy, Dede, Jeff and I posse'd up and headed out on Wednesday evening. The Bizarro beer looked like this:



As you can see, the head of the beer is oh so creamy. I dare say it's the creamiest head that I've ever had on a beer...I actually poked my finger in it and licked it off. I just thought of something--maybe the Peeps had something to do with this?

The nose was sprucey. The smell was gentle spruce tree...not like the little Christmas tree air fresheners that the freaky guy in Seven had hanging over his bed, but a real nice and easy smell.

The taste of the first beer that I had had hints of something spicy (maybe the jerk rub?), hops and orange. The second one that I had had less of a cinnamon taste and more of the orange taste. It was a very mild, easy drinking beer. Light on the tongue, smooth going on. I was surprised when I heard it was over 7% alcohol; it was lucky that I learned this information though, as I was the driver that night!

This is a fabulous beer born of creativity, collaboration and community. If there is any left, get yourself some!

I heart NOLA

I love New Orleans, that swampy, dirty, fun-loving, cocktail-swilling, fine eating town. And this article gives me yet another reason to visit again (in addition to hanging with my buddy Dale)! I'm a big Abita fan (TurboDog and Jockamo IPA in particular, and you gotta love Restoration Ale, though I can't get it in Ann Arbor), and love me some Dixie Blackened Voodoo Lager, but have not visited their breweries. Maybe this is the year?? We'll see!

How cool is this?

http://www.tulsaworld.com/lifestyle/article.aspx?subjectid=43&articleid=20090317_43_D3_Baseme252522

Perhaps an Ann Arbor chapter is in the cards??? Anyone interested?

(Thanks, Patti, for the heads up!)

What's red and white and yummy all over?

Dogfish Head's Red & White, that's what! We scored a bottle when Bello Vino folded but just now got around to popping it open. We were a little apprehensive- I mean, the label lists coriander, orange peel and pinor noir juice, for pete's sake! But it sounded like a good match for dinner (Red Pepper & Pork Hash), so we gave it a shot. I'm so happy we did!

The "sediment" that was suspended in my glass was a little weird, but the color, oh the color... a gorgeous burnt orangey blend of a Wit and pinot. Lovely. And the flavor is like nothing I could have dreamed up... I'm drinking in small sips so I can savor it! Who'da thunk to put Wit beer and pinot together? They are like chocolate and peanut butter! Seriously!

If you get a chance to try this, by all means, DO. I'm sure it won't spark everyone's fancy, but I would buy it again in a heartbeat.

BTW... Michigan Winter Beer Festival was last weekend... any reports???