Beer Diary - Mike

Before considering the first review, readers should be aware that I was recently bit by a (possibly) rabid dog and now have (possibly) heightened animal senses.

31 March 08 Location: Home



Victory Storm King Imperial Stout - Purchased at a liquor store in Fairview Heights, Illinois (thanks, STLHops). This one is a ratebeer 100 - surely a beer not to be missed, right? I've written about dark beers before, but I don't think I've ever come across one this dark. A black as paint body supports a thin moon surface of a head. Nose of sweet chocolate milk with just a tiny hint of alcohol. There's not so much a front to this beer as a full on flavor assault - a little bitter on the front of the tongue, but mainly a roasty whole-mouth chocolate flavor. There's a little bit of a tight alcohol and lingering hop bite on the back end. This is a very good beer, but not the sort of flavor enigma that are many highly ranked stouts. Unlike Matt, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy this again.

1 March 08 Location: Home

Kasteel Rouge - A "Belgian Ale with Cherries and Cherry Juice Added". Cream soda body with a cherry Tootsie Pop flavor - complete with hints of that Tootsie Pop center. My notes say "give this to kids, they'll love it." That's a joke.

Lindeman's Kreik Lambic - When drinking cherry beer with children, why not have a comparison? We called over the neighborhood delinquents and got them trashed on this stuff. A finger of head on the light red body - a hint of that lambic funkiness, and light on the tongue. We really didn't get any kids drunk. Cats? I plead the fifth.

25 February 08 Location: Home



Aventinus Weizen Eisbock - Eisbocks are a high alcohol version of the weizenbock style - beers frozen to remove that pesky water from the beer, leaving more alcohol and flavor per volume.

A huge fizzy head sits on a sweet tea body - lots of floaties (leftover yeast) in this bubbly and active bodied brew. A belgian-like sweet bubblegum nose, with just a hint of nailpolish lead to a sweet carmelly body. You may have noticed that this beer was sweet - perhaps the sweetest I've ever had. Definitely worth revisiting - this is a beer we need to roundtable.

Beer Diary - Jim | Down on the FARM in Bloomington

Back in January, Jason urged readers to visit FARM Bloomington to enjoy their superlative beer offerings. The Lovely Redhead and I did just that yesterday while we were on a long-awaited weekend retreat to Brown and Monroe Counties.

First, however, a brief word about the food: it was phenomenal. We chose to park at the bar and order from the tapas menu. We shared the Minty Green Pea Guacamole with tortilla chips and "The Big Red" FARMpie (that's a tomato, garlic, pesto, and mozzarella cheese pizza in case you're wondering). The guacamole was light and crisp and worked perfectly with the razor-thin torilla chips. The pizza, topped with garden-fresh ingredients, was head-and-shoulders above many "gourmet" pies we've had here in Naptown.

As for the beer offerings, FARM has seven taps in the main bar and two downstairs in their Root Cellar bar. We didn't venture to the Root Cellar, but we did see that the draft selections in the main bar were well-chosen in their diversity and quality. I'm kicking myself for not writing down these selections (FARM's online menu is now out-of-date), but here are the selections I can recall from the main bar:

Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
Brugge Black
BBC Jefferson's Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout
BBC Nitro Pale Ale (I might have been hallucinating, but I think this is what the menu said)
Upland Wheat
Rogue Dead Guy
Stella Artois

Brugge is getting their word out at FARM because all beers are served with a Brugge Beer coaster, complete with the eye-catching graphics that Brugge has become known for. I had a 90 Minute, which was superb as always. Even the Redhead, who is a malty beer girl when she partakes and is quite hop-shy, found the 90 Minute pleasing. The bottled beer selection appeared to be just as wonderful as the draft beer selection, with craft brews such as Alpha King, Ommegang, and Brooklyner Weisse for sale. And the pint prices were reasonable: $5.00 at the most expensive, with $2.50 pints one night a week (Tuesday nights, I believe).

It's heartening to see another fine dining establishment which recognizes that craft beer is a key element of the menu. Pay FARM a visit the next time you visit the land of Cream and Crimson.

Indy Craft Beer Festival Update and Random Beer News

It wasn't too long after we ran our Indiana Craft Beer Festival notice that I heard a rumor that the event had been cancelled. So I followed up with event organizer and Hot Shotz hot shot Brian Graham to find out what was happening:

[The Craft Beer Festival] has not been canceled, it has been postponed until the fall. The lack of homebrewer participation is the big reason. May 3 is National homebrew day and they will be brewing.

There have also been some concerns from supporting parties of the legality of having a homebrew festival and being able to charge admission.

I am working very hard to make this a reality.

We support Brian on his quest to make this work and look forward to attending his festival in the fall. We'll be sure to keep you updated about dates as further details emerge.

While we're speaking of Hot Shotz, you might like to know that they'll be tapping a firkin of Bell's Porter tomorrow (3/27/08).

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While they're running tap lines, I could use a couple in my kitchen - An Atlanta sports bar now features personal taps at patrons' tables. The article makes no mention of if you can get the Miller Light tap removed from your table.

No more getting drunk while you get your hair did - A chain of Michigan barbershops has been told they'll need a liquor license if they wish to continue to hand out free beer... sounds vaguely familiar.

At 6 a.m., Boston's beer goes the way of the 19th win - Red Sox fans were treated to an opening day without beer in bars throughout the Boston area. The reason? The game (which was played in Japan) started at 6 a.m. Massachusetts law says that beer can't be served before 8 a.m.

And back in Indiana, it's Dig-B with your Wabash beer scoop - Our buddy Chris has the full list of where you can find the latest product out of Brugge Beer's Terre Haute facility. We've got a case (or was it three cases?) of this stuff in the HBG mystery secret beer vault - look for a review sometime soon if we can ever get a beer attack strategy sorted out.