Category Archives: Beer!

Resolutions v 2.0

I had a chance, on Monday, to try the Goose Island Clybourn Resolutions Stout on cask. As the beer was the subject of my last post, I thought I’d share my impressions with you. We’ll talk about something other than beer in my next post. I promise.

First though, if you’re curious about what “cask” beer means, Wikipedia has a nice article on it. So does All About Beer magazine. Both indicate there’s a possibility that a place advertising “cask-conditioned” beer is misrepresenting themselves. I don’t have the expertise to know for sure by looking at a beer, but I have no reason to doubt GIC or the brewers there.

For this post the most relevant information about cask beers is the fact that cask-conditioned are served warmer than draft beers and with substantially less carbonation.… Continue reading →

Resolutions: Coffee Beer and Coffee in the New Year

One of the best things about being a regular somewhere is getting to know the people at your local haunt. You learn that X bartender or barista is a bit of a nerd or Y server is an actor or Z cashier is also from your home state and would kill for some green chile[1].

Yes, I’ve learned all of those things and more about various people who work at assorted places I am or have been a regular.

One of the other wonderful things about being a regular is that these same people get to know you a bit. They geek out with you over a Neil Gaiman book or swap recipes with you. Or, in the case of the junior brewers at Goose Island Clybourn (GIC), they slip you a sample of a then-soon-to-be-released coffee beer (Resolutions), and send you home with a bag of the coffee they made into that beer for your coffee-nerd husband.… Continue reading →

Goose Island Clybourn’s “Beer Academy”

Just after Black Friday, I wrote a long post with some substantial tasting notes about beer. I enjoyed writing it, but I also thought I came off as a bit of a beer wanker. Interestingly, my friend Jen wrote a comment demanding I go taste more things and write about them. Apparently she liked the commentary. Given her demands, I thought maybe I’d share a bit about how I learned to taste beers and write ’em up like that.

I learned to taste by trying a ton of beers. I learned to talk about taste and understand what I am (was) tasting by trying to hit every single Beer Academy Goose Island Clybourn has put on for the last two years. I have not, in fact, managed to attend all of them.… Continue reading →

You Know You Want It – Homebrew and Home-Cookin’. (Giveaway)

I have this growler of homebrew. It contains a porter, brewed for me by a good friend about a year ago. I have one or two 12 oz bottles of the porter left too, but the growler is what I need to focus on right now.

You see, a growler is a lot of beer. Far more than one person ought to drink in one sitting. (Or, at least, far more than your blogger ought to drink in one sitting.) And once it’s opened, it needs to be consumed. By the next day, the beer will often be flat and/or oxidized.

And I really need to get to consuming it. You see, it turns out homebrewers are relatively possessive about things like their growlers. Especially their gorgeous, special-handled, flip-top growlers.… Continue reading →

The ONLY Thing That Will Cause Me to Leave the House on Black Friday

Because, seriously, Black Friday has never, ever sounded like a good time.

So what tomfoolery was I engaged in, being IN A LINE on Black Friday? In the morning, even!

Beer, of course. Good beer.

Actually? Leaving the house on Black Friday seems so hazardous, it had to be better than “good” beers. “Excellent” beers. “Rare” beers. “That one beer I’ve been trying to get my hands on for a year or more.” These are motivating.

And motivate me, they did. As they have for three years running, now. In 2010, it was Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS) Rare. In 2011, it was King Henry. In 2012? Well, this year was a little different.

Every Black Friday, Goose Island Clybourn[1] throws a shindig. I’m not sure how long it’s been going on, but I’ve been going since 2010.… Continue reading →