A SET OF PLANS, A SET OF TRAVELS, AND A SET OF BEER

inspired by our own only prescription hop guru, i will soon set myself about the task of listing every beer i have ever tasted. this will take the better part of the spring, so i plan to launch "the still's exhaustive concordance of beers" by may.

in the meantime, i just returned from a two weeks venture through saint louis and kansas city sipping and tasting beers with some of my favorite beer connoisseurs. i thought i'd begin my exhaustive life-long list by jotting down all the beers i tasted on this trip.

NOTE: PLEASE REMEMBER!!! the following list does not indicate entire bottles or pints consumed. 75% of these are shared bottles or 2-3 ounce tasters given, purchased, or stolen off the head of a friend's glass. no, my liver is not as advanced as this list may sound.

this list is chronological, and each beer is rated with a 1-5 rating: 1 being horse-urine; 5 being Zeus' urine. also, i've highlighted in bold and italics all the 5 ratings. here we go.

SAINT LOUIS TASTINGS:

Big Sky Moose Drool Brown Ale (3)

Schlafly Oatmeal Stout (2)

Schlafly Pale Ale (3)

Schlafly APA (3)

Founder's Red's Rye (5)

Southern Tier Mokah (3)

Rogue Yellow Snow IPA (5)

Avery Maharja (3)

Lagunitas Cappucino Stout (2)

Caldera IPA (3)

Schlafly Winter ESB (2)

Tin Mill Lager (1)

Lagunita's Brown Shugga (-2)

Founder's Porter (5)

Xingu Black Beer (3)

Bell's Porter (4)

Boulevard Bully Porter (3)

Southern Tier Porter (2)

Southern Tier Cuvee 2 (1)

O'Dell IPA (5)

New Belgium Wild Fall Ale (4)

Founder's Breakfast Stout (5)

Founder's Centennial IPA (2)

Arcadia Hop Rocket (1)

Lemp St. Louis (2)

O'Fallon 5 Day IPA (4)

O'Fallon Chocolate Cherry (-3)

KANSAS CITY TASTINGS:

Boulevard Nutcracker (1)

Boulevard Pale Ale (4)

Boulevard Pilsner (4)

Boulevard Single Wide IPA (5)

St. Peter's Golden Ale (1)

Abita Christmas (1)

Anchor Christmas 2008 (3)

Anchor Christmas 2009 (5)

Bell's Best Brown (2)

Big Sky Trout Slayer (3)

Shipyard Prelude (3)

Harpoon Winter Warmer (4)

Stone Ruination IPA (5)

Avery Old Jubilation (3)

Breckinridge Lucky U IPA (3)

Avery Czar Imperial Stout (5)

Grand Teton Au Naturale Organic Blonde Ale (4)

Boulder Mojo IPA (5)

Boulder Hazed and Infused (4)

Big Sky IPA (4)

Lost Coast Downtown Brown (2)

Lost Coast Great White (4)

Great Divide Hades Belgian Style Ale (3)

Avery Out Of Bounds Stout (4.5)

Founder's Double Trouble Imperial IPA (4.5)

Bell's Rye Stout (5)

O'Malley's Dropkick Ale (3)

Sam Adams Imperial Stout (4.5)

DALLAS TASTINGS:

Jesse Robertson's New Year's Pale Ale (3)

Rogue Chocolate Stout (4)

Miller Lite (5)

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (3)

i realize that there are several beers rated at a 5, which brings my palate's discriminatory tastes into question. i have two defenses for this: A) with such a limited time on the road, i tried to choose my beers wisely; B) i was sipping beers with the likes of only prescription, the baker, clint newlan, jason scott, and nathan jones. these men know beer dang near biblically. so when they say "drink this" i drink that. and most of the time i agree with them on what is good.

to top off this list, i will revisit all the beers i rated as 5 to list my top three finds on this trip. in no particular order:

1. Founder's Porter

2. Founder's Breakfast Stout

3. Rogue Yellow Snow IPA

these were each new beers to me, and each of these three beers defined, in some capacity, what i believe the perfect porter, the perfect oatmeal stout, and a really great IPA should taste like. these are top shelf beers, in my opinion, and i wish they held constant place in my ice box. unfortunately, distribution laws deter me from Founder's, but i'm stoked to find and distribute this Rogue Yellow Snow all over my quaint texas town.

by the way, i sipped my last Bell's Rye Stout while writing this post.

Home Brewin

A few weeks ago, The Baker and I visited the St. Louis Brews, a home brewing club. It was awesome.
There were about 80 men there, 12 guests. We each paid $3 and were able to sample 10 different home brews (about a 3 oz. sample of each) and eat plenty of delicious snacks from Costco. Everybody sampled the same batch at the same time, made comments, and then heard from the brewer. THIS is beer club. These guys knew their stuff, the styles, what to look for, smell for, and taste. They could predict how long the brewer did this or at what temperature he did that. Amazing. All the announcements were about beer, brewing competitions, beer parties. They had raffles with brewing supplies as the prize.
And because I love and appreciate the art of beer, I have decided to start brewing my own beer, too. The Baker has already purchased a Mr. Beer kit (kind of a weenie way to start but at least he's got a start). I'm still shopping around (aka, waiting on the thumbs up from the wife).
Wish me luck

Rockin with Sam Smith

I recently went to a Guitar Hero/Rock Band party. It was a lot of fun, never had played the games before. Knowing that a little fermented courage would boost my overall performance (vocals, guitar, bass, and drums) I stopped by Bob's Liquor Store - Bob wasn't there.

As I was leaving the house the little woman, looking out for me I guess, asked how many I would drink this night and what time I would be home. "Two and not too late". Walking around the store it hit me, I didn't say how many OUNCES I would drink. So I started looking at the tall boys. I stopped at Samuel Smith's India Ale and the Porter. I went for it.

At the party, I rocked. I was on a mission, I had to deliver. I had to jam on every instrument, drink the two beers, and still be home at a decent time.

What I remember:
Both beers were good. I'll get another India Ale before the Porter. I drank them too fast.
I was good at the bass, ok at the lead guitar, struggled with the drums, and just nasty on the microphone.
The rest of the party people seemed to be enjoying themselves...I couldn't tell, I was too busy rockin

Wild Game in a Bottle

Is it a Duck or is it a Rabbit? I guess it depends on what mood you are in, or maybe what you are eating for dinner. I was having neither, but instead layed on a hard bed in a cheap hotel room in Asheville, NC. Duck-Rabbit brewing co. sits comfortably nestled in the Smoky Mountains in Farmville, NC.

I had never had anything from this brewery nor had i heard of them. But, that's the great thing about traveling--getting to try new things. The label is intriguing in its own right with the long standing picture that looks like both a rabbit and a duck, depending on how you look at it. This particular one is a Milk Stout, and the lable boasts that they are the dark beer specialists. Some research revealed that they only brew dark beers...amber ales, brown ales, porters and stouts.

A full glass is coal black and has a very light aroma of cream and sugar. This is a very rich and sweet stout. It is very similar to the Left Hand Milk Stout, but is a bit heavier and the flavor lasts longer. This beer tastes like blended up roasted nuts, malt, and chocolate. If it could be a solid, it would be a batch of brownies.

I enjoyed this enough to grab a sixer to take home. I am finishing the last of them right now. I consider it my afternoon snack which puts it into a particular category of beers for me. Just yesterday i had a Founder's Porter which i would consider in the same genereal league.

Is this beer good or very good? I suppose it depends on how you look at it.

Slackin'

To follow up on the Baker's comment to the previous post...yes, I'm slackin. Maybe we all are. I'm feeling lazy about it all. Right now there's a Schlafly Saison in the big fridge just calling my name. I've ignored it for a week already. What's up with that? I did have a Schlafly Octoberfest. Not bad. It was over dinner (food with chatty wife and kid) so I don't remember much.