Tis the season

Ah, tis the season for Rogue's Santa's Private Reserve, my favorite seasonal beer. What's NOT to love about a double hopped red? It warms the tummy and gives me that holiday glow. :-)

We visited the beer cave while we were here in Wabash today and picked up a couple other beers to try. I'll write about those tomorrow. In the meantime, ho! ho! ho!

Rogue Chipotle Ale

It's gotten cold around here, and for some reason, wine has been tasting better to me lately. Maybe it's because red wine warms my tummy? Or because we have so much wine in our basement that it's soon going to consume us?

We finally got around to opening the Rogue Chipotle Ale tonight, since we had some leftover "southwestern" food to eat. While it's an interesting concept and was really nice with the food, I can't say I'm a fan of it on its' own. The chipotle is just a little bit much for me, and as anyone can tell you, I don't do fruit (or chiles) in my beer.

Hopefully I will be trying some Indiana beers this weekend, so I'll be sure to issue a report!

Rainy weekend- try more beer!

Last Saturday, the hubby and I had a chance to join TeacherPatti and a crew from CBiM on a bit of a pub crawl! We joined late so only got to drink a couple of beers, and only one that we hadn't tried before: Arbor Brewing's Duggie Style Rye. They don't usually have this one on tap so it was a nice surprise! I REALLY liked it- easy to drink with an opaque kind of golden brown color, it's a big, strong brew. With 35% rye, it's rich and sweet and remarkably 7.5% ABV (it certainly doesn't taste like it!).

Blue Tractor Brewery opened it's doors in Ann Arbor recently with a big grand opening on Thursday night. Their sign says they are a brewery, yet when we walked by (it was too busy to even attempt going in), we didn't see (or smell) anything that made us think "brewery". What's the scoop? Has anyone been?

I picked up a big bottle of Rogue's Chipotle Ale this week. I imagine we'll be popping it open tonight during the Notre Dame v. BC game. I'll let you know how it was...

Beer tasting madness!!

OK, maybe not madness, but we have tried a LOT of different beers in the past week! I can't remember the names of all of them, so I'm gonna start with tonight and work my way backward as best I can... bear with me! Unfortunately I can't write full on reviews for all, as, well, my tastebuds won't let me, but I can at least offer up a few impressions:

Bell's Oktoberfest - an unpasteurized brew with a unique finish!
Lagunitas Sirius - never tasted anything quite like it in a bottle, and apparently they don't want the secret to get too far out... a hi-gravity cream ale. YUM! One of Lagunitas' seasonal beers, I hope we can still find some in stores...
Brooklyn Brown Ale - I don't like all brown ales, as so many of them lean toward the coffee. This one was a pleasant surprise. Reminds me a bit of Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale - tasty!
Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale - wow! I really expected it to be TOO hoppy with a name like that, but was pleasantly surprised.
Rogue Double (yes, DOUBLE) Dead Guy Ale- I couldn't find anything about it on the Rogue website, but others were talking... I've always been a Rogue fan, and this is definitely a fun addition to their list of beers.
Brugge White Ale and Triple de Ripple - some friends from Indy met us at my folks over the weekend, and brought up some treats, including a 750 each of three different Brugge Belgian beers. I only tried the white, which I'd had before, and found it to be a nice, refreshing, lounging by the pool beer. The friend who brought these brews his own, and we all agree, we like HIS Belgians better, though.

The most pleasant and fun surprise of the past few days has to be the Beer Cave at the Northside Carry Out in Wabash, IN. Thanks for the tip, Scott! Having grown up in Wabash, I've long known that if I want a decent beer while I'm there, I'd have to bring it from Indy. No longer! Northside now carries quite an outstanding selection of micros and international beers, both warm and cold, that can be mixed and matched to make your own 6 pack! SWEET! The 4 of us collaborated to come up with 6, though now I can't recall exactly what we bought, of course, except the Loose Cannon and the Rogue. Regardless, props to whoever recognized that niche and stepped up!!

First February Friday = Beer!

Welcome to the first post to Chicks Dig Beer. As mentioned in the "about" section, this was the brainchild of Julie and Amy at a beer festival in San Mateo, California. It took awhile to get going, but at long last, a beer blog for women!

Since the idea was conceived, I've been paying more attention to the beers I've tried, taking notes and even photos sometimes. Unfortunately, I don't have notes on most of the beers I tried on my South American honeymoon, but I *do* have some photos and will post them at some point.

For my first post, I'm going to talk about tonight's "beer du jour": Rogue "Santa's Private Reserve Ale" from Newport, Oregon's Rogue Ales. It's a seasonal (duh) that I didn't get to try initially because my husband DRANK IT ALL! LOL Luckily I found one last bottle on clearance at BevMo, and am enjoying it right now. It's a hoppy, dark brown ale, very smooth... almost TOO smooth! I tend to like my beers with a little more "bite", but I definitely cannot complain.